Shipping Container Rescue Dolls: Part One

I haven’t yet had a chance to show you the Op Shop dolls I bought a couple of months ago and now I have some new “fixer uppers”. These dolls came from Naomi’s friend Annie. This lady recently moved into a smaller house and has a shipping container full of stuff to unpack and sort. As she was somewhat overwhelmed by the enormity of the task, she asked Naomi if she could help. So, Naomi has been going over to help her once a week. Annie has given Naomi some things that she doesn’t want to keep and this week Naomi came home with half a dozen fashion dolls which may have belonged to her daughter and granddaughter.

The first thing I did was to start trying to ID the dolls. See if you agree with my research.

A Mermaid’s Tale 2 Teresa
Jewel Secrets Whitney 1986-7
Snow White 1998
Funtastic Hi Five Charli or possibly Kellie 2000*
Simba Disney Prince from Snow White
Fashion Fever Fall Wave Teresa 2008*

*I’m not 100% sure about Teresa or the Hi Five doll but those are my best guesses. Hi Five is an Australian kids show and while I do remember the dolls coming out I couldn’t find a good enough photo to ID this doll properly. I’m hoping that Jenjoy or one of our other Aussie readers can help me out with this one.

https://socialoutside.blogspot.com/2018/05/hi-5-australian-tv-series.html

Snow White

I quickly fixed Snow White so I could use her for Fashion Doll Friday. She was just a bit grubby. I cleaned the marks from her face and legs and washed and conditioned her hair. She has lost her ring and one of her earrings. I’ll find replacements later. An easy fix.

Jewel Secrets Whitney

Here is a link to a post about Jewel Secrets Whitney which shows her original outfit.

Jewel Secrets Whitney 1986

I did an eBay search to see how hard it would be to get Whitney’s original outfit and I found out that NRFB and dressed Whitney dolls are quite expensive. Even the clothing alone is not cheap. Although Whitney was sold in Australia most of the ones I saw were in the USA with the usual exorbitant shipping. I’ll find Whitney another era appropriate outfit or maybe I’ll knit her a dress in teal crochet cotton as that colour does look very nice on her. I think one of the Stickatill patterns would work.

Whitney just needed a light clean and her hair tidied up. I washed and conditioned it and it came up quite well. I spent some time deciding how to style it. Her original style was a thick braid but it does look nice loose as well. Whitney’s legs are a bit sticky but don’t seem to have those light-coloured marks you sometimes see on dolls from this era.

I found a very good YouTube review of Jewel Secrets Whitney which I have included a link to at the end. The reviewer says that as far as he knows she was only made in the Philippines but this one is marked Taiwan.

Naomi says that she thinks Whitney is rather an ugly doll and she nearly didn’t bring her home at all. She’s not one that I would have bought myself because I find such long hair unrealistic. However, she is quite collectible so I’m going to keep her and put her on display with my other 80s Barbie’s.

I took a few more photos of Whitney, and will post these later in the week but here is one to be going on with.

A Mermaid’s Tale 2 Teresa 2009

Here is a link to a photo of this doll. I think I guessed it right. https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/cXUAAOSw3e9gFUNt/s-l300.jpg

She has a belly button body and straight arms and legs with big feet. I remember when these beach type dolls came out. I quite liked them but not their enormous feet. Where will I find shoes for her, I wonder?

Teresa was in pretty good shape and just needed some attention to her hair.