Helen Kish Dolls Fix Everything, Fairies Vomit Slime, and Other Outlandish Things.

 I know. I know. I stink at updating my blog. Trying to explain why, feels like excuses, and is embarrassing, so I’m not going to bother. Since I last posted, I’ve had surgery three times, discovered that I’m allergic to dissolving stitches and waterproof dressings and learnt that Helen Kish dolls cure cancer.

I feel skepticism in the air, so hear me out.

Two times I have had cancer.

Both times I bought Helen Kish dolls.

I don’t have cancer anymore.

Would it hold up to empirical testing? Hell, no.

Is it possible due to the fact that I had very easily operable cancers, that were snipped out with simple surgery? You know, maybe. But I think I’m going to have to periodically buy more Helen Kish dolls, just in case.

Either way I finally got a red haired Piper, and here she is.

Ironically, after waiting years for a red haired Piper, I don’t like her wig and want to replace it. But she is quite lovely.

I also added a cute, little fairy to my doll room.

This is Lily Splash

I don’t think I’ve seen anyone else talk about these. She’s from the Poopsie Rainbow Surprise/Rainbow High universe. She came blind boxed in a “Perfume bottle” that sprayed glitter. She also comes filled with “slime powder”. You’re supposed to feed her water, shake her up, then squeeze her to make her vomit slime. She also comes with little baggies of crap to mix into the slime. Yay. Totally understand why these mightn’t be super popular with parents.

 

 Not being a slime loving, glitter hugging, weirdo, I didn’t use the sprays glitter feature at all. I never opened the bags of junk to mix into the slime and I never made the slime. I deliberately force fed her way too much water and just flushed her out. I find it irritating that the slime powder is IN THE DOLL already when you buy it. A lot of toys have slime features but lots of them are packaged in such a way that you can bypass it if you want to. This girl was shedding blue powder until I flushed her. Having said that, I really like her. I want more but I waited until she was on clearance to buy her and she’s not in stock anymore.

Here’s a size comparison with a Lol Surprise, I didn’t expect her to be this big. Also she came with a bra made from daisies, but I feel she looks less trashy topless.

What else have I bought? Wellll, I have a little habit of going overboard, when I like things. Soooo, I decided to buy one of the Ruby Red Fashion Friends and this happened

 Somehow I ended up with quite a few! 

Incidentally if you are in Australia and like these dolls, Kidstuff carry the basic dolls, except Lila, and they work out cheaper. Especially if they’re on sale. 

So here are my girls

Stella is my favourite. Mine has been renamed Amelia. 

Bella hasn’t been renamed yet. She’s weirdly sallow and slightly greenish and her eyes, which are advertised as green are pretty definitely yellow. 

Sara hasn’t found her new name yet either. She reminds me of the little girl from Mary Poppins.

Maya. I cut the blonde streak out of her hair because she’s not the Bride of Frankenstein. I have renamed her Layla Rose. Layla because I think it suits her. Rose because her hair and outfit remind me of the comedian Rose Matafeo.

Kayla is so new, her hands are behind her back to disguise the fact that they’re still wrapped in plastic. I think I’m going to call her Sadiqah. I like her face a lot more in person than in the promotional photos.

This is the “special” Holiday Stella. Except she’s wearing a Maru and Friends dress because her actual dress looks like something Morgan Fairchild would have worn in a 1980s costume drama or the sort of outfits newly divorced aunts wore in “Glamour” photo shoots when I was a teenager. Her face is the same as the standard Stella. Her hair is a shade or two darker than Sara’s.

This is Hanna. I call her Clara. Her outfit is probably the worst of the lot. Frayed denim shorts over fishnets and a strappy top that does not fit. So far I haven’t been able to get her hair to behave, but I haven’t tried super hard. I think I’ll try some pigtails.

I like these dolls. They have similar faces to the Maru mini dolls, with better articulation. They work with a lot of 18 inch doll furniture, and they fit the shoes that I already have for my Helen Kish dolls. Just to clarify, they don’t fit the Kish doll’s original shoes, but I have a bunch of MSD shoes for them, which do fit these girls. Only caveat is they have to be flats. Since these girls don’t have jointed ankles, they can’t wear the heels. 

Their clothes are weird. I honestly don’t get all the denim. And none of the outfits are particularly matchy matchy but that also kind of means nothing looks worse if you mix and match it with the other dolls. And that kind of makes it more realistic, like a real kid that’s just grabbed whatever out of her wardrobe. 

This little miss is Sydney, one of the Siblies. They’re supposed to be younger siblings for the Ruby Red Fashion Friends. All of the girls have brightly coloured streaks in their hair which is cute, but I wish they didn’t. Sydney’s face seems sort of blurry. There is not as much detail there. I don’t think they make good siblings for the regular dolls. They have the wrong proportions. Smaller children tend to have stockier bodies than older children and proportionately larger heads. The siblies don’t have different proportions, they’re just smaller. They’re ok, particularly given that they’re half the price, and I like Sydney’s delicate little face, but I don’t think I’ll bother buying more.

*This was written, photographed and edited in a rush so it isn’t perfect and that’s ok.

**Helen Kish dolls do NOT actually cure cancer but they may help with a positive outlook, which is good for your health.

*** Don’t take medical advice from me. I am not a doctologist.

Quickfire Christmas Dolls

 So these are the dolls that I bought with my Christmas money.

 

I wanted a couple of Kurhn dolls to play with because I'm not sure I even want to undress the ones I already had. I chose this one because I wanted one that came with extra hands. There are two current series - of seven dolls total; that come with extra hands. At first I was only get those ones but then I realised that all seven of them had identical facial screening! So I just chose my favourite.

And I'm not thrilled by the extra hands. The hands she comes with have Monster High style jointed wrists. Her extra hands don't. They just attach with pegs. I'd rather have the jointed wrists than the extra hands.

 I still want the other three girls from this girls series but not as much as I did before I realised they all had the same face and their extra hands weren't that great.

Another Kurhn. A more basic model because I liked her face. She's got a bunny pillow and a handbag, that's really just a pompom with a pearl "chain" glued on. And a weird sort of stole made out of fake flowers, that is also sleeves.

This girl is from the "Kurhn loves Minnie" series. Yeah, she's terrifying. Her head is huge and wobbly and she's completely out of scale with Kurhn, more like Holala. And that's ok, because I actually bought her as a potential body donor to one of these poor unfortunates

But I have a couple of more bodies coming before I make my final decision on whether creepy Minnie Mouse Kurhn gets decapitated or not.

I also got two Kruselings. They're awesome and I love them. The one on the left, Sofia, is my absolute favourite. I think I like every release of Sofia. This one has a bit of a Wellie Wishers vibe. The one on the right, Chloe, I guess I like her, but not as much as Sofia.

 

Chloe also has something weird going on with one of her eyes.

At first I thought her eyes were misaligned but her right eye socket is slightly bigger but also a tiny bit bulgy,  like maybe her eyeball isn't quite in the right place. And weirdly it's almost unnoticeable from some angles.

The thing that surprised me the most about these two was their size. I knew they were 9 inches tall.  But somehow that never really sunk in, possibly because I've never seen them side by side with other dolls. But they actually fit some Barbie clothes.

This Kurhn dress looks like a first communion dress on Sofia.

So the Kruselings are roughly the size of a Stacie doll, or a vintage Skipper, but they're chunkier because their scale is different.

They're a decent size to be five year olds to sixteen inch dolls. (Brenda is currently wearing scraps to cover her nakedness, rather than an outfit.) They'd look better if Brenda had flat feet or if they had painted eyes though. In fact if these girls had painted eyes, I'd have bought one years ago.

This picture is just to show the size/scale difference between the three types of doll.

And before I go these are Tiny's Christmas dolls

On the right is obviously Kurhn. On the left is an Anko fashion doll. Anko is Kmart Australia's home brand. And given their fashion dolls are all six dollars or less (plus you can get ones with prosthetics and wheelchairs and cochlear implants and blind ones  and so on) I'm actually really impressed by the quality. This one is a fairy and full price she's THREE DOLLARS! It's kind of crazy. Obviously she's not AS good quality as Barbie but she is way better quality than any other cheaper Barbie I've ever seen. I kind of want a bunch of these myself.

So many dolls!

 Ok, so after such a quiet year, I'm still feeling a wee bit wiped out from Christmas. But I'm developing quite a back log of new dolls, that I'm going to show you quickly now, or I'll never find time. But first a little blah blah blah.

 Christmas was good here. We got to spend the day with family, which was awesome. Some of them, we hadn't seen all year. I guess we're lucky here.

On Boxing Day we did what I think will become tradition. We took the kids shopping to spend their Christmas money. As soon as we got to the shopping centre, the Giant Baby announced he wanted to go to the video game shop. Tiny glared at him and said "Big W!" So we split up. The Giant Husband took the Giant Baby to the game shop, and I took Tiny to Big W.

I asked her what she wanted to look at (secretly hoping she was old enough to get excited about dolls) she shook her head when I suggested toys or books or clothes and said she wanted "Dress ups!" Which as far as Tiny is concerned means jewellery and hair accessories, that I was not allowed to touch or carry for her.

She also chose a baby My Little Pony toy and when we met up with her brother again she shouted "Look! A Baby Pinkie Pie horsie! To me!"

It was really nice watching her. She knew exactly what she wanted. Exactly where to find it. And she did not give two shits what anyone thought.

My current biggest problem is sunburn. I've always burnt easy. But this year I am burning ridiculously easily and worse than usual. Meanwhile I'm having treatment for a melanoma and the last thing I want  to do is show up at the skin cancer specialists with a sunburn! I may just start putting on sunscreen as I get dressed in the morning just so I can't forget.

This is Quick Doll Show! Because I'm tired and sunburnt and fat from Christmas, but if you want to see more of anything here, leave a comment and I'll try to do something more detailed on whichever doll it is.

First is this cute little Betsy McCall, I got off EBay. She's got a gorgeous Irish dancing dress, pointelle stockings and ghillies.

 

I love that she even has the little embroidered cape thing.

Next is this girl

Brenda Starr by Effanbee, obviously when it was ruled by the Tonner Doll Company. She was an EBay find and came nude. I think she has the Tyler body? To be honest I don't know much about grown up dolls, they usually scare me a little. I don't know what I'll do for clothes for her either. I don't have patterns in her size and I don't know how to make a pattern that accommodates boobs. And I have no idea what to make her anyway. But look at this face!

 She's beautiful. I couldn't not buy her.

Next is my new Kurhn. She arrived Christmas Eve and I have not had the time or energy to open her yet.

The rabbit lantern is supposed to actually work, which is cool. RedQPanda threw in a sheet of Kurhn stickers and a branded plastic bag too, which is cool.

I love the mod vibe of that logo! 

This girl from Aliexpress really needs her own post.

She doesn't have a name yet but she has a lot going on.

Extra faces and shoes and hands and horns and clothes and eyes and EVERYTHING. I need to find time to write something.

Finally this arrived today

I cannot resist a good playset. I wanted the supermarket set as well but Kmart is sold out EVERYWHERE and everywhere else charges twice the price. One day.

So that's  my current new arrivals.

Hopefully more soon.

Not One, Not Two, But Three Kurhns! (Maybe three and a half.)

  

 I’m sorry I didn’t reply to comments on my last post, it has been more chaotic than usual here. We’ve come out of lockdown, but that meant stuff had to be done blah, blah, blah. So much stuff that some normal stuff hasn’t gotten done, then when you think “Yay! All done!”, you realise there is nine thousand loads of washing waiting to be done and everyone wants to be fed all the time. Which means there are always dishes. Ugh. Surprisingly the kids didn’t mind losing their playroom. And Tiny is thrilled to have dancing back. The Giant Baby is constantly overtired and exhausted though, which annoys me a little bit because by the time he adjusts to going to kinder again, it will be time for summer holidays. Ugh.

Anyway, less blah, blah, blah, more dollies! Three Kurhn dolls. Buckle in, this is looking like being a long post.

This first one I got from Red Q Panda. Actually, I got her on Ebay, from a seller named akirakev , which is actually the same person.

She is Hua Mulan. This one is the “Hero Version”, there was a second doll released at the same time, wearing a “suit of armour.” The armour version is pretty, in a cream dress and some gold and silver lame type stuff over the top. And she comes with a bow and arrows! But I prefer this girl, I love the bright red of her outfit. And she has a sword! And it’s made of real life metal! 

The cynic in me wants to point out that it’s probably a cheap letter opener, that’s been repurposed, but I won’t ruin the magic like that.

Her face is lovely, clean and simple. Her outfit is beautiful. Layers and layers of textured fabric. 

But I don’t want to undress her, in case I can’t dress her again.  Those boots are awesome though. But because they're so tall they make bending her knees a bit tricky. Also they're the kind of boot that goes on with a slit up the back. But because they're so tall you get a bit of this

They don't need to gape like that, it's just because Kurhn sadly, can't change the laws of physics.

And since I ended up undressing her, I'll show you her clothes. I'm sorry, I don't know the proper names for things.

This is the innermost layer. It's like a blouse, bloomers, stockings and split skirt in one. The lycra stockings are footless with loops of elastic that hook around the toes. The cuffs are velvety, and stained my dolls arm, which isn't a big deal since I plan on keeping her in this outfit, but I thought it was worth noting. The blouse, pants and skirt all have different patterns embroidered into them.

The next layer is this silky, crepey robe. The last layer fastened with Velcro, this layer ties with baby ribbon.

These are the last pieces. A vinyl belt, huge boots, and a sheer cape that attaches to the shoulders of her robe with press studs.

She has the simplest jointing of my three. She has a twist waist and joints at neck, shoulders, hips, knees and elbows.

These are the bookmarks that came with her. According to Google translate, the one's with pictures of dolls say "Hua Mulan". And the middle one says 

"Tian Mai Ying Tian Shun Shi "According to the order of Hai Ming, there are killers today." Repeated violations of our borders | Special orders for various military and civilian households to receive food and the whole country to guard the territory and the same enemy. "To protect the country from foreign aggression."

Which I guess is supposed to read as a military message from the Mulan story.

The other two I got from the Kurhn Official Store on AliExpress.

First is Sweet Lolita Fantasy Kurhn. There are two Sweet Lolita Fantasy Kurhn dolls. This version, or one with yellow hair and a black and white outfit that was a little meh. 

This girl has a different sculpt to my other two, and a cheeky side glancing expression and freckles. She’s a lot of fun. Her face paint is weird. The other girls look almost hand painted, but this girl looks printed, it’s a completely different effect. I like it but it looks cheaper.

The pink is only in the top layer of her hair, which has an actual hair clip of fake flowers and bells on a little alligator clip. She has ombré eyebrows and goldy eyes. Her dress is a frothy confection of fake flowers and her shoes are sweet, mint green, rubbery shoes that fit fairly badly but actually do up with tiny buttons!

 She’s not wearing any knickers but she comes with a little woven basket that’s pretty shabby and a white, lace, bra and knickers that might be just a tiny bit cheap looking.

This girl has the most elaborate jointing. The same joints as Mulan but also jointed wrists and ankles and her knees are double jointed, with rotation just above the knee.

I love this illustration on the back of Sweet Lolita's box. I wish one of them looked just like this drawing.

This, once translated gives a little insight into Kurhn. So thanks to the magic of the Google translate app 

The line about hobbies didn't want to translate. The first word was always reading , the last word was nearly always dancing, but the middle word kept changing and was variously "west", "beauty", "face", "picture", and "painting". I'm guessing it's supposed to be painting.

Also thirteen years old?! I don't know about that. That's like when Mattel used to claim Barbie was sixteen. Gosh, I hope they've stopped that nonsense.

My last girl is one of the two fifteenth anniversary Kurhn dolls. They’re both Moon Festival themed. I’ll tell you about the girl I don’t have (yet) in a minute. My girl has an elaborate hairstyle and a beautiful, wistful face.

There's also a little red design hidden by her fringe.

 Her dress is gauzy layers and bells over plain, white knickers, that are nicely made but not very interesting. Frankly as long as they’re not moulded or painted on, I’m not that fussed about how nice a dolls underpants are. (That is as long as they meet my minimum standard of better than what my Shibajuku doll came with.) Her boots are odd, which I love.

 She comes with Tanghulu, which is a traditional snack made of Chinese Hawthorn Berries on a stick, coated in hardened sugar syrup. Like teeny, tiny, toffee apples. It seems that while it’s traditionally made with Chinese hawthorn, nowadays it’s more likely to be made of other fruit. Strawberries, mandarin slices, blueberries, banana, grapes. Basically any fruit. Which makes me wonder how yummy the hawthorn berries are!

This girl has better jointing than Mulan, but not as good as Lolita. She has jointed wrists, but not ankles, and her knees are only single jointed.

She also comes with some little bookmarks. If you're wondering the text reads "Fancy Lantern" on the girl with the fancy lantern, and "Candied Haws" on the doll with the candied haws. 

The other doll pictured is the other 15th anniversary doll. That one comes with a rabbit shaped lantern on a stick, that actually lights up! I'm definitely getting her. I couldn't find anyone selling her yet but RedQPanda are expecting her to arrive at some point in December.

I find it interesting to note the differences between these three girls since they're all 2020 releases.

They all came with different stands. The clear one belongs to Lolita and frankly sucks. It is almost impossible to use. I can't remember which of the other two dolls came with which other stand but Tanghulu currently has the flat stand because she's my favourite doll and it's my favourite stand.

Their hands are all different. Mulan has basic Barbieish hands. Tanghulu's hands are a little more three dimensional, delicate and graceful. By contrast Lolita's hands are clumsy and disappointing. I had plans to order one of the dolls that come with extra hands, just for the hands, but now I don't want to in case the extra hands are like Lolita's ogre hands.

Their feet are different too but not very interesting. Tanghulu, Lolita and Mulan.

Their bodies are surprisingly different.

Tanghulu's underbust joint mostly gives forward and backward and side to side movement. And not a lot of twist.

Lolita has an underbust twist only joint.

Mulan has a waist level twist joint.

Looking at that picture, I think maybe Tanghulu and Mulan have different knees. I'm not sure and I don't want to take all of Mulan's clothes off again.

I have no idea how to end this post.

I really like Kurhn. My kids like Kurhn. I've actually ordered one for each of them and plan on getting more for me.