One other thing

Confession time: I did buy a totally frivolous thing today. I had heard that Tuesday Morning sometimes had some rather unusual dolls for sale (specifically, Pullip dolls - a line of "ball jointed," very fancy, very well made dolls).

I don't particularly love the Tuesday Morning here - it's in a sad strip mall that used to house a K-Mart and the store always seems a little dim and grungy. But maybe that's the better to find cool stuff. (I never find any cool yarn there though. I know some people do but maybe we don't get the cool yarn).

Anyway....they had one of the full-sized line of Pullip dolls. I kept taking it off the shelf and putting it back on and couldn't decide....it was a bit over $30 which is cheap for a fancy doll but which is kind of a lot given the fact that I'm still on "short rations" after the summer of low-paid teaching. And I admit, the purchase was partly a sop to my "I couldn't work out the problem at JoAnn's and also there are Too Many People and people are rude and awful" hurt feelings.

In the end I bought it.

It's amazing.

I said on Twitter that Pullip dolls are perhaps the modern equivalent of the old Brus or Jumeaux dolls - very fancy French dolls of the late 1800s that had elaborate outfits. They were porcelain so I doubt little girls actually "played" with them much, other than maybe looking at them or maybe sitting them up or lying them down (so their eyes would close; some had the weighted "sleepy" eyes). They are the dolls many, many "serious" collectors go for. I have, I think, only seen a few "in person" and those only behind the glass of a museum case.

The doll I got is in a skirted sailor outfit (with what look like bloomers under it) so I assumed she was a girl. The doll's given name is Isul. Which I decided (for somewhat obvious reasons) to lengthen to Isolde.

Turns out, Isul is a boy....his card said "Pullip's brother" (the only English on the card) and looking online, yes, he is supposed to be a boy. I don't care. I have already named this doll Isolde and decided she's a girl with short hair so she's going to be Isolde.

some quick and dirty webcam photos:

There are little buttons on the back of her head so you can make her wink, or close her eyes. And there's a lever so they can look right or left - again, a feature seen in some of the really old "fancy" dolls but rarely seen in play dolls in modern times.

It was the little striped stockings and tall boots that really made me fall in love with her. Those little boots are SO perfect. (And you maybe can see why I assumed she was a girl, not knowing any better.

She is jointed at the hips, the knees, the ankles (can't really tell with the boots on but she is) the shoulders, the waist, elbows, and wrists, and the neck. I go crazy over this kind of articulation because when I was a kid, so few of the dolls had much in the way of jointing, the assumption was "rotating joints at the hips and shoulders is all kids need" and maybe that's true for some kids but....


I didn't play with dolls much as a kid. As a VERY small child, I guess I had a couple baby dolls I dragged around but I don't really remember that. When I was older, I preferred stuffed animals (I often preferred animals over people as a kid. Still kind of do....). Part of it, though, was when I was a kid most of the "choice" in dolls was baby dolls or Barbie. Well, baby dolls were uninteresting to me - having had a baby brother I knew that babies didn't really do all that much other than eat and excrete and scream and sleep. And Barbie, I just couldn't relate to her. She cared about clothes. All I cared about as far as clothes were concerned was that I got yelled at when I went and played in the mud in "good" clothes.

Later on, I got interested in the whole history of it. I collected dolls and had (still HAVE, really, but it's all packed away) a sizable collection I acquired. (I keep thinking I need to go through them some time when I'm up at my parents' and select the 10-20% of the collection I REALLY want to keep, bring them down here, and then arrange to have the rest sold off or donated or whatever). I still buy the occasional doll, even though I don't really call myself a collector any more. Though I guess I kind of am.....

(They also had some of the Aurora seated MLPs at Tuesday Morning, they had Twilight and Pinkie and Rainbow Dash and I think there was one Rarity. Before I decided finally to buy Isolde I had thought of getting a Pinkie, but decided against it. But apparently the "Toy Reset" that some people are talking about is happening and some of the unsold stuff from other stores is going to the resellers like Tuesday Morning)