Two More Flavas: Denim & Diamonds Happy D and Sporty Liam

Second post in one month about Mattel's Flavas dolls. Here are my last two boxed Flavas dolls. The others have been removed from their original boxes. 

Close-ups of Flavas Still Boxed

Denim & Diamonds Happy D close up

I love this Happy D's coppery hair, her brown eyes, and her tanned complexion. I will re-body her onto a heavier and taller figure when I open up her box. Her original body might go to one of my Rebelde doll heads. (My Street Happy D with the blond braids now lives on a My Scene Barbie poser body. That Happy D is Delilah; this one is Serena.)

Sporty Liam close up

I consider the Sporty Liam the Hispanic Liam. Something about his eye screening looks Hispanic to me. So his new name is Luis. (Choice Awards Liam kept his original name; Denim & Diamonds Liam has been renamed Luigi.)

Full length Flavas dolls in boxes

Denim & Diamonds Happy D in original box

Sporty Liam in original box

After I sell the deboxed dolls destined to gladden other hearts, I will allow myself to open these boxes. Yes, I am bribing myself to get sales going.

Mattel's Tika of the Flavas Rebodied

Tika of the Flavas

Going through my collection, I came across my Mattel Flavas dolls. I have previously featured the Choice Awards dolls, but I have more Flavas to share. For example, Tika, another Happy D and another Liam. (Yes, I have three Liams: they do have distinct face screenings.)  I am focusing on Tika for this post. I've wondered if she might  have been intended to represent someone with South Asian ancestry. The heavy eyebrows and the long eyes - even though her eyes are blue for this style - suggest so to me. Then again, with her light-brown complexion and textured dark brown hair, she could also be Black American, Hispanic/Latino, or Native American. Her name origin could be Sioux or Hungarian.

P Bo is the tallest of the Flavas girls. Tika is not quite as tall as P Bo who is 11.5 inches - but she is taller Happy D, Kiyoni Brown, and Tawny who are 10 inches tall. I am not sure if Tika has the same face mold as Kiyoni Brown/Tawny. The difference could be that her eyes are painted longer. Her face doesn't have the same smirk as Happy D though. (Happy D's lips curl up on her right side.) Tika's head is not as long as P Bo's.

My biggest problem with the Flavas dolls was not whether they represented "hoodlums" or whether they weren't tough enough to be real thugs. My problem was the huge heads. I transferred my Street Kiyoni Brown head onto a Birthstone Barbie body, my Street Happy D onto a My Scene Vespa Barbie,  and my Party Tika onto a My Scene Vespa Madison body. Why? Because the Barbie Vespa bodies are jointed.

First, I show Tika on her "forever" body - a My Scene Madison Vespa body. Then you can see Tika next to her original body. Improvement, yes? I think so.

Tika Striking Poses

Flavas Waves

Mattel created six waves of the Flavas: Street, Sport, Bike, Denim and Diamonds, Party, and Choice Award. I have these Flavas dolls:

Street Style
Happy D
Kiyoni Brown
P Bo


Sport Style
Happy D  Oops, don't have a Sporty Happy D

Liam
P Bo


Bike
I have no dolls from this wave 


Denim and Diamonds
Happy D
Kiyoni Brown 
Liam


Party
Tika


Choice Award
Liam
Tawny
Tre

Do you collect any of the Flavas dolls? Is your decision to do so - or not to - based on how Mattel marketed the dolls? On media response to them?

Happy Mother's Day

 

Crystal and her adopted son, Tom

It's that day again. All together now: 

Happy Mother's Day!

Whhooooo hoooo!!!! Toot, toot! Yaaaaayyyyy! Mmmmmmuuuuhhhhh!

Okay, cheering and fanfare aside, I hope that all the mothers out there - biological or other - have had a grand day. Most of you deserve it. (Hey, there are bad mothers.) Cheers to you for all that you do every day and night. I should have posted this sooner, but I was with my family celebrating Mother's Day. Still, I wanted to wish you Mothers joy in or out of the bosom of your family. (Sometimes, families aren't so great either.)

Yes, I am tardy this year. However, I will share my favorite and best past Mother's Day post. Some, possibly many of you, may not have read it. Or maybe you won't mind re-visiting it?

Last Mother's Day, I had intended to share a list of playscale doll and action figure mothers. That topic will appear sometime this month. I'll put "Mothers" in the title so you can find it.

My Mom had a happy mother's day. All her kids and her grandson were together. No one fought - whew! And she got some shopping in. Yay, Mom. Thanks for putting up with us, siblings and me. Thanks for being the one immediate family member who has always supported my doll enthusiasm. She doesn't read my blog, but she's the best Mom. 

Happy Mother's Day!

Inspired by Muff's Spring Cleaning? More on Doll Collection Organizing

After reading Muff's post showing her Spring-cleaned doll collection, you may be gazing dreamily into the horizon. The mix of storage and display is a visual treat. Do you wonder what that would be like for your collection? Where to begin to make a dent in the piles of dolls, clothes, accessories, etc.? Then again, where does not matter. What matters is starting. Starting someplace and continuing until the collection is manageable and "right-sized." The reward will be in rediscovering your collection, in the tidy space, and in introducing new things. 

(Because collecting is active and cyclical. Stuff leaves; stuff enters. And so on and so on ....)

Anyway, I did some checking for more inspiration. 

(That checking might seem like an excuse to not work on my stuff now. Truly, it was not an excuse. Not only did I get additional ideas for organizing, I found stuff for my readers as well. See. Bet you forgot how generous I can be. LOL Riiiight.)

Ahem. Back to additional inspiration. Let's see, there is Andrea's post about maintaining balance in collecting. Longtime enthusiasts of playscale dolls and action figures may remember Andrea from the MenWithDolls board. Then SuperCoolDollHouse shares tips on reducing by removing the "not fabulous." And I even moved onto an interior decorating site, Apartment Therapy, that I noticed SuperCoolDollHouse had mentioned before. 

My favorite posts on that site are

Doll Collection Display - the comments may leave you laughing and retorting "My home, my castle"

Toys in the Home - see how others display their collections

Organizing How To - 10 ways to organize your collection

and there are many more relevant articles on that site. However, you - like I - we should not spend too much time ogling those photos. Noooo. Some of us still have some purging and selling to do. Wagging a reproachful finger at myself. (Never came across a "reproachful finger" - lucky you, ha ha.) 

Maybe I will start at the computer desk? Sigh. Bye bye.

DID Corporation 1:6 Martin Luther King Doll

While investigating Asian dolls and action figures available from Hobby Search, I came across a new-to-me action figure - the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in PLAYSCALE! DiD Corporation produces him. (You may remember me mentioning DiD aka Hong Kong based Dragon in Dream Corporation as the producers of other action figures.) Eeek! 

Okay, vented that excitement. Now a closer look and follow-up response. Well, the likeness is a little off, but kitbashers could probably tweak his face to perfection. I am not sure where they just missed the likeness. I mean, perfection of the likeness. The doll does resemble the late Dr. King. (And a current American Black actor whose name eludes me.) The figure has multiple hands to swap. Oh and a beautiful mini Bible with red-edged pages. A podium with multiple mics is also included. All for the modest sum of $178.29 USD - before postage from Japan.

The only problem is ... he's sold out at Hobby Search. So you'll have to find him someplace else. Still ... if you ever had a dream to own the man who had a dream in playscale, know that he exists. I wish you luck finding him.

Philadelphia's Franklin Flea Market Anyone?

I have not been to a flea market in years. But I was curious about them when I saw this sign posted in Center City. The sign announces the Spring 2014 Saturday openings of the Franklin Flea Market located at 8th and Market Streets in the Strawbridge & Clothier store. Dates are April 19th until May 24th from 10 am til 5 pm. They mention COLLECTIBLES so I wondered if that meant - oh, playscale fashion dolls and/or action figures? Alas, none of the reviews I have read online - Yelp, Uwishunu, and Racked - Philly - mention dolls and/or action figures.

So here I go. Has anyone - local or visiting - been to this place? How would you rate it?

May Month: Bikes, Pets, and Heritage Celebrations

May first and such a lovely day. Here is a short list of some topics I might cover this month:

• National Bike Month
• South Asian American Heritage Month
• Haitian American Heritage Month
• [East] Asian Pacific American Heritage Month
• National Pet Month
• Jewish American Heritage Month

There are four ethnic groups to be featured this month: South Asian American, Haitian American, [East] Asian Pacific American, and Jewish American. What that means here is that I find dolls or action figures that I have that match those groups. Why? Because it's fun to see how extensive my collection is. And I get to see where I have gaps. And I get to do a search online to find the missing ethnic figures in playscale. Why again? Because ... because I can. Grin. I can do this for a long time. 

Moving on, this is also our national Bike month AND our national PET month. So I get to pull out my doll and action figure bikes and playscale pets. I have single bikes and one bicycle-for-two, but alas no unicycles. And I might not have any tricycles for the kiddies. Might not ... I have more stuff for the kiddies than I realize.

For a preview, I have photos of two Integrity Toys fashion dolls:

2001 InStyle Jade  #53250 30036 and

2002 Fashion Forward: Subtle Elegance Israeli Candi  #90024 

Integrity Toys' Jade

Integrity Toys' Candi