1984 Peaches 'n Cream Barbie Doll by Mattel (No. 7926)

Finally! Peaches 'n Cream is officially part of my collection.

I did buy one two years ago, but she just wasn't right. The doll I wanted was the one I had as a kid.

My eldest sister, whom was born in 1983, was given Peaches 'n Cream Barbie as a gift from our great aunt. I remember the doll sitting on my sisters shelf in the as a kid in the 90's and somehow my siblings and I managed to get our hands on the poor girl. Our sister was upset when she had found out what had happened to the doll. She would miss that doll for years to come, until I bought her a new one for her 30th birthday. But as that doll was also a part of my childhood too, and not only that she was the first doll I ever knew, I had to get one for myself.

So when I bought the Peaches 'n Cream Barbie back in 2015 I was shocked at how different she was from how I remembered her. After researching I had found that the doll was made in Taiwan but my sister's one was made in the Philippines. You wouldn't think that would make much of a difference, but it did! All the little details add up:

So here we have a comparison of the first Peaches 'n Cream Barbie I had bought compared to my new one. Once I got my new Philippines Peaches 'n Cream I knew instantly that she was the doll my sister owned. The differences are subtle but they make all the difference (to me at least). To begin, The Taiwan doll's hair was much coarser and yellow compared to that of the Philippines doll. The rooting was also different and the hair was styled differently too. Next, the skin tone seemed much lighter on the Taiwan doll, not only that but the Philippines dolls also tend to have a slight colour variance between the head and body. The head also has more texture on the Philippines dolls. Then there is the face paint. The brows are much darker on the Taiwan dolls, the paint on the Philippines dolls is much thinner and tends to allow the skin colour to come through (this is not as noticeable in photographs as it is in person), The positioning of the dots on the eyes is slightly different and the shape of the lips is different too. Lastly, the blush seems to be higher on the Philippines doll than it is on the Taiwan doll.

So now that I had my perfect Peaches 'n Cream Barbie, there was only one thing left to do... de-box her! But first lets discuss the box. My sister recalls that her original doll was bought in Holland and the box featured the following languages on the box: English, French, German, & Italian. But this doll had the standard English text only. But that did not matter so much as I was intending to de-box from the beginning. SO lets see her out of the box!

There she is! Isn't she beautiful? She was everything I had remembered. Even her smell, which was a little too strong upon first taking her out but seems to have worn down, was exactly the same as what I had remembered. So, she came with the standard jewellery, her dress, a belt, a stole, plastic pumps, a spinner with two cards, a date calendar, a brush and comb, 2 barrettes, and 2 hair picks. She did not come with a stand so if you want to display her on a stand you would have to buy one separately.

A few small things I should point out are that the elastic band in her hair had melted into the hair and her dress is very easily snagged on the thumbs and the combs etc. But her hair turned out beautifully after I had scraped out the elastic and washed it and one just has to take care when changing around the stole etc. to make sure that it does not snag.

Despite her few faults, I think this doll is definitely worth adding to one's collection. She is, in my opinion, one of the greatest dolls in Barbie history. Her change around stole gimmick had been used before with Dream Date Barbie and Crystal Barbie, and her face is very much like that of Day-to-Night Barbie. But despite these similarities, I don't think any of those other dolls achieved the same level of glamour and sheer luxury of Peaches 'n Cream Barbie. And on top of all of that, Peaches 'n Cream Barbie is the only Barbie doll that can boast of having been painted by none other than Andy Warhol:

And so there you have it. I understand not everyone would feel as strongly about Peaches 'n Cream Barbie as I do, but one can't deny that she is a pretty important doll in Barbie history. Mattel themselves have described Peaches 'n Cream Barbie as an "especially cherished doll" [1]. If only Mattel were still making dolls that could become as memorable as Peaches 'n Cream Barbie.

Anywho, I leave you all with a video of me de-boxing Peaches 'n Cream Barbie. Thank you for visiting my blog and I hope you enjoyed this post. <3



[1] http://www.thebarbiecollection.com/peaches-n-cream-barbie-doll-r9525

*    All opinions expressed in this article are my own, and I have not been paid or gifted anything to express such opinions.

** All information and media provided in this post are intended for educational purposes only. If you happen to own any of the content used, please let me know and I shall remove it immediately.

My First Licca Castle Dolls, Jenny (2014) and Tom (2011).

My new Licca Castle Dolls. Founder Jenny and Tom!

Despite how hard it is for one who does not know Japanese to find their way around the Licca Castle website, it is a very fun website to browse. There are many dolls, outfits, and accessories to look at. You can even mix and match face paint, hair colours, and hair styles on certain dolls which makes for even more variety. For someone on a budget it can be quite heartbreaking too. I had a list of at least twenty dolls I wanted, but I could only afford these two.

Licca Castle does not ship internationally and therefore anyone living outside of Japan will need to purchase their dolls through a third party. I used the "purchase helping service" offered by Chiemi Takeda of foundinjapan.com* . This is a paid for service but when considering the work and cost that is involved as well as how quick and easy that transaction is, it is most definitely worth it. With fees, taxes, and shipping costs added, the dolls came to around $86.54 each and the outfits came to $55.31 for the Uniform and $31.88 for the Kimono**.

So now that I have my dolls I am going to see whether they lived up to the reviews I had read, as well as my own expectations.

Are the dolls anything like their promotional picture?

As much as could be realistically expected. I have noticed that the dolls photographed on the Licca Castle website are actually the dolls that are produced and sold, they are not hand painted hyper stylised prototypes. This is a big plus for Licca Castle! Jenny's hair was more curly than expected and therefore looked shorter than I had hoped, but a quick dip in boiled water and comb through and it was much straighter and longer (but still very curly at the tips). Jenny also came in an elasticated swimsuit rather than a night gown as pictured, but I find the swimsuit to be more useful and versatile so it was more of a bonus than it was a let down.

Are they attractive?

Many people have remarked about how cute, sweet, and beautiful these dolls are in appearance and I have to agree. They aren't realistic, they are more like three dimensional cartoons which is really cool. They are much paler than expected, and slightly translucent but I wouldn't say this is a bad thing.

Are they well made?

Licca Castle dolls are manufactured at Licca Castle in Fukushima, Japan which is a museum and factory. The dolls produced at Licca Castle are for sale only in the castle itself, at it's events, and a few select other stores in Japan [2]. Many people have remarked that the hair of the dolls is remarkably smooth, soft, and silky [1, 2]. I have also found the hair to be extremely soft. They have hair similar to that which was used on the very early superstar Barbie dolls. The dolls also have that greasy feel that the original superstar Barbie's had (which I assume is to keep the hair from going static or crazy in the box?). The dolls also have a strong plastic like smell. It is hard to explain but for those of you that had a Dollarmites wallet as a kid, they smell like a Dollarmites wallet! The materials used to make the dolls seem to be of very high quality. The simple clothing they come wearing is not very attractive but it makes de-boxing less of an issue, as one must remove them to dress them in the more attractive clothing.

How are they to de-box?

I see their packaging as another sign of quality. The are packaged much like my vintage play line Takara dolls were, in a simple windowed cardboard box and they are attached to the cardboard liner with two covered elastic straps. This makes de-boxing and re-boxing a breeze. I would suggest that everyone keep and use the box for storing the dolls, but if you do not wish to do so (or do not have the room) all one needs to do is remove the straps and separate the plastic window from the box to recycle.

My final thoughts?

Licca Castle dolls are more expensive than the Licca Playline dolls but they are definitely worth it. They are cute, they are well made, and they are unique. I leave this post with a video of me de-boxing these two dolls. Thank you for visiting my blog and I hope you enjoyed this post. <3

*    All opinions expressed in this article are my own, and I have not been paid or gifted anything to express such opinions.
**    The prices quoted in this article are in Australian dollars (AUD) and have been converted to such from Japanese yen (JPY).

[1] http://hannahsminiatyrer.blogspot.com.au/2014/12/my-first-licca-doll.html
[2] http://jane-cherie.blogspot.com.au/2014/01/licca-castle-dolls.html

Takara's Licca PAPA (1997)

Licca PAPA, the first of many Takara dolls to come.

So recently I became bored with the dolls that I have been collecting for many years (not naming names, "cough" Barbie "cough"). Then one day when, with a sprained ankle, I was watching a show called Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir  when I had remembered the Takara dolls of Dennis Beltran and Orangey34 that I had adored so very much but never considered buying.

So then the researching started and then I came across this fella on eBay.

He is Licca's "PAPA"! He is so cute, and he was only $30.99*! I had seen him on eBay a long time ago and he was still there despite having 14 watchers. It was just too hard to resist him.

He has the cutest glasses, and the hair is set so perfectly and parted so crisply. The articulation of this doll is strange, but doesn't detract from his cuteness. I should also add that he photographs so well that it was impossible to choose what photos to include in this post.

So there's the story and I think I am becoming obsessed. I am going to leave this post with an artsy edited photo of my new PAPA!

*    The prices quoted in this article are in Australian dollars (AUD).
**  All opinions expressed in this article are my own, and I have not been paid or gifted anything to express such opinions.

Kenner's Cool Cuts Kara (1990)

Welcome to my new blog, and my first post. Today I will be looking at Kenner's Cool Cuts Kara. This doll was produced for one year (1990) only. I first saw this doll on Flickr. Not knowing much about her I researched her and after a very short while I found almost everything I could have. So I then decided to buy one for myself. She can be found with pale pink makeup or dark purple makeup. My one here has the lighter pink makeup.

Cool Cuts Kara has large plugs of hair that can be cut and replaced. The hair came in 3 different shades: Romantic Blonde (pink undertone), Golden Blonde (yellow undertone), and Honey Brunette. My doll came with a head of cut, mangled hair in a mixture of romantic and golden blonde. I purchased 3 packages of Honey Brunette hair to replace her blonde hair.

So what do I think of her now that I have one of my own? Well… I think she has a very pretty face and she is very unique. But her plugs of hair aren't very attractive and are very conspicuous. The hair is also very hard to style. She is much larger than other fashion dolls as well, making her harder to incorporate into a streamlined collection like my own. But it is worth noting that she was after all a child's toy and I think this doll would provide a child with many hours of dolly hair fun.

Thank you for visiting my blog. I hope you enjoyed this post. Should you wish to give me feedback or to talk to me and/or others about this doll please feel free to post a comment below. I shall end this post with the original commercial for Cool Cuts Kara:

* All opinions expressed in this article are my own, and I have not been paid or gifted anything to express such opinions.