The 180: Celebrity Dolls Part One

Naomi has got a small collection of celebrity dolls. She has Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Tayler NRFB and several others who have come along over the years. I know there is a Michael Jackson, and as you know we’ve featured several boy band dolls on the blog. The majority of these dolls are currently packed but several celebrity dolls turned up amongst The 180.

Today we will meet the following celebrity dolls who are based on actual people or characters from TV shows.

Hasbro Sabrina The Teenage Witch
Galoob Toys Geri Halliwell aka Ginger Spice c1997-99
Dual Ent. Ashley Olsen c2002
LJN Toys Ltd. Brooke Shields 1982

Sabrina The Teenage Witch

This doll which I featured recently on Fashion Doll Friday was made by Hasbro and represents the character from the popular TV show of the same name. I don’t believe she is meant to resemble the actress who played Sabrina. Her face is very similar to the earlier Kenner Bionic Woman dolls. Kenner became a division of Tonka after a buyout and they in turn were bought by Hasbro in 1991 according to Wikipedia. So, Hasbro ended up with the rights to use the Kenner face sculpts. Sabrina’s “magic twirling hand” was operated by turning a wheel on her back.

Ginger Spice aka Geri Halliwell

British pop group The Spice Girls were a huge hit in the 1990s. Favourites of the British Royals they are rumoured to be reforming for the Coronation of King Charles in May. I used to have a Scary Spice years ago but I moved her on because I really didn’t like her all that much. I had plans at one time to have a display of music related dolls but gave up the idea as I had nowhere to put it. I sold most of the dolls and only kept Barbie and the Rockers Dee Dee and Beyond Pink Christie; but I digress.

In the first two photos you can see the state Geri was in when she arrived. She needed a really good clean.

Here she is after having had a bath, hair wash and conditioning. I’m not sure if her hair has been cut or not. It seems a bit short. As I didn’t have her original dress I thought I’d put her in red, white and blue. I was feeling too lazy to go downstairs and look for shoes when I found this pair of boots in the box of shoes I had in the bathroom (where the crates of rescue dolls live at present). It was only afterwards when I looked at a photo of the doll that I found online that I realised that Ginger Spice actually did have red boots, although not like these. I was quite surprised to find that these dolls were made by Galoob. I only associated them with Babyface.

Ashley Olsen

I have an Ashley Olsen doll that I rescued from the Op Shop a couple of years ago. This doll was not in such bad shape, just a bit grubby. Having looked at a photo of my doll (she’s packed) and this one I think this one is Ashley as well. I think Mary-Kate normally has an open-mouthed smile. I would have kept her if she was Mary-Kate as I don’t have one. For those of you too young to remember Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen who are twins played the role of Michelle Tanner in the TV series “Full House”.

Ashley did not need much work, just a quick wash, shampoo and conditioning. I even liked her dress and shoes.

Brooke Shields

Naomi has a Brooke Shields doll who we have featured in the past. She’s an easy doll to recognise due to her unusual face sculpt and thick eyebrows. LJN was the company that made Brooke and they issued lots of fashions for her as well.

This poor Brooke is a sad case though. She looked fine when I picked her up. Just a clean, I thought. But then I took her dress off and saw that she had masking tape wrapped around her hips. It appears that her legs are detached. I’m not sure what can be done about this. It will need some further investigation. I would not want to sell or donate a broken doll unless someone wanted her for her head which is fine. I could keep her and see if there is a way to fix the legs or there is always superglue and a permanent gig as a display doll. We’ll see.

For these photos I just put some rubber bands around Brooke’s legs to hold them in place. I didn’t touch her hair as it had been done very elaborately. I didn’t like her dress though so I changed her into something I thought suited her better.