We have almost reached the end of another year so we thought that we would take a look back at some of the high points of our blogging year and a look forward to our wishes for next year.

This Year

In March the blog had its fifth anniversary and I’m pleased to say that it’s still growing. Naomi and I get a real kick out of reading your comments and knowing that so many people enjoy what we are doing.

This year we’ve focussed a lot more on action figures as Naomi has added more to her collection.  Several of them have featured in her new series “Bent Out of Shape in a Bendy World.”

Celebrity dolls and action figures have featured this year too with Harry Potter, Star Trek, and Batman characters and of course, we can’t forget Elvis.

Naomi’s “Invasion of the Guys” has introduced some of her male fashion dolls and we’ve had several fun photo sessions with the guys and girls together.

Vanda

I’ve continued to bring home dolls from the Op Shop to clean up and have had everything from Baby Alive to Bratz and Disney Princesses to Monster High in various stages of disrepair.

Earlier this year it looked as if we would no longer be able to buy dolls from Amazon USA so before the cut off date I went on a bit of a spending spree buying another box of my favourite Kaiser doll stands and several Barbies which I was afraid I would not be able to afford from the Australian version of the site. Recently we have been able to buy from a limited number of Amazon USA sellers again but as we now have to pay GST on our purchases it is costing us a bit more than previously.

Doll shopping has been rather disappointing at bricks and mortar stores. Even on our trip to Singapore, I failed to find anything truly exciting. It’s not so much the stores though as that the manufacturers are not making dolls we like very often. Mattel has continued to be disappointing from our point of view. I have bought a few Fashionistas and a couple of Fashionista outfits recently but by and large the playline does not offer a lot that I really like. I did like The Barbie Look series and probably my favourite Barbie from this year has been Gigi Hadid. I see myself buying fewer new Barbie’s next year and probably concentrating more on vintage dolls and fashions.

My favourite new thing this year has to be the reproduction Barbie Dreamhouse that Naomi gave me for my birthday. I think that my favourite new doll this year is the BND Walker that Naomi found for me while she was on holidays in Adelaide. She is a sister to my childhood doll, Christine.

My 2019 Wish List

As I said I see myself concentrating more on vintage dolls next year although I will buy Barbie’s if I see any I really love.

• Vintage fashions for Barbie, Skipper, Sindy, Tressy, and Tammy. I’m getting to the point with some Sindy fashions where I’m looking to find those little accessories to complete outfits.
• A couple of rarer Sindy friends, notably the later “Canterbury Patch” and her little bendy friend Betsy, both of these dolls are harder to find and expensive but one can always hope.
• Tammy’s brother Ted, little brother Pete or boyfriend Bud. I don’t think these are especially attractive dolls but I would rather like to have one of each member of the family.
• A long-standing wish is to buy a 16-inch fashion doll although I haven’t yet decided which one I’d like most. I quite like the Tonner dolls.

Goals

I have two projects for next year; one is to get back to knitting and sewing for my dolls. I have quite a few in need of new clothes who have been waiting far too long. The other is to spend some money on several older dolls who need some repair work. In other words, it’s time to start improving the dolls I have rather than looking for a lot of new ones although of course whenever I say I won’t buy as many dolls I immediately see several that I would love to have.

I also hope that we’ll continue to grow the blog and in particular the reader participation part with our new Readers Gallery page.  The aims of this blog are to inform, entertain, share and most of all have fun.

Finally

As some of you may be aware I’m still in the process of trying to sell my house. Quite a lot of dolls are now packed away to make the doll room appear less cluttered. Naomi and I are looking online at houses hoping that we will find the perfect house for us by the time this one finally sells. We need a very special kind of house with lots of room for us to set up our collections and as we move into retirement over the next few years room to enjoy our hobbies.

Thanks to all our readers for your kind comments and your interest. Best wishes for the New Year. We’ll look forward to catching up with you in 2019.

Naomi

First of all happy new year to one and all. I love the beginning of a new year. It’s a chance to leave past mistakes, bad luck and old baggage behind and start over. Everything is fresh and new and we can start with a clean slate. I hope to be more creative and begin some new projects during the coming year but more on that later.

With this year over it’s time to look back and reflect on it one more time. I think we had a very good year with this blog. We’ve had so much variety throughout the year. I like that we can add all sorts of doll stories. Because Vanda and I are so different in some of our interests we can complement each other with different things. She has an amazing collection of dolls all displayed very nicely. I was looking at some of these over the weekend as I came to be cleaning the doll room carpet as Polly had been naughty in there. Not good if you are selling your home.

Well, I thought about the past year while I have been working both at Vanda’s, home and work. What was special during this last year for me? Well, I finally got my own Triang doll house. I had one already but it wasn’t a 62. I had managed to get a 61 to share with Vanda but I had always wanted a 62. You would have seen plenty of this house as it features in my Bendy stories. They have been a bit of a highlight for me this year. I’ve had the best fun playing with these bendy action figures and then coming up with funny stories about them. I’ve always enjoyed indulging in a bit of fun fiction and stuff that could never happen in a million years. It brightens me up no end after an often dull and boring day at work. The action figures that I started collecting have been a big interest as there is very little to enjoy as far as collecting ken and his clothes go. That has all ground to a bit of a halt. I still like the Kens I have but there are hardly ever any new ones that I would like to buy.

Goals and the Future

Looking to the future gets me very excited as I think about what I would like to achieve with my collections. I hope the move will happen soon as my plans are to set up a workshop area. I would very much like to try my hand at making furniture for both Barbie and Ken and my action figures. I’d like to make my own scenery but to do this properly I need some sort of workshop. We are going to have a studio set up but the workshop will be a separate area in the garage. The studio will be for some jobs and the workshop for others. Once this is achieved I will post photos so readers will get to see what we are doing. I hope to do regular blogs on this in the future if it works out. Fingers crossed. I will go on with my Bendy stories and stories related to my Kens and other action figures. I also hope to find other interesting topics to blog on as well as occasionally co-writing something with Vanda.

Vanda has posted her wish list and it got me thinking about my own. I couldn’t think of any Kens I would like. I managed to buy the ones I did want last year such as the latest Fox Mulder and the Jurassic Park guy that I must dig out and do a post on. So what is on my list?

• The henchmen sets to go with Penguin and Joker
• Eight inch Catwoman action figure
• Sulu and Chekov Bendables if they ever come out. They are supposed to.
• Some Star Trek aliens
• Various movie star paper doll sets. I would love some more paper dolls. A Family Affair is one set I would like to own.

So to conclude I would again like to wish everyone all the best for the coming year. Stay safe and if you are partying have fun. See you all in 2019. I’ll leave you all with a few pics from posts made in 2018.