Lola's collection of plus sized dolls. She's thrown in a BBBBarbie for comparison. L to R: Rosie body wth substitute head, Tracy Turnblad, BBBBarbie, That's So Raven - Non-Mattel version, Mimi Bobeck and ?. The last one may be Happy Family Mom body with substitue head.
It happened like this.
I was emailing with a doll friend, Lola, and she said, “I personally collect Barbies but since my quest is to own every plus-sized fashion doll, a lot of mine aren’t Barbie brand.”
It was a record-scratch moment.
Every plus-sized fashion doll? There exists such a thing?
Lola laid it out for me: Edna and Tracy Turnblad, Mimi Bobeck, one version of That’s So Raven.
She pretty much gave me the list and I got to work assembling it.
In the meantime, I was inspired by the pictures Lola sent me of her collection. As she tells it, her interest in starting a collection came about like this:
“I never played with barbies as a kid–I loved My Little Ponies,” Lola explained, ” It wasn’t until my 6 year old had her own barbies, and traded some with a neighbor. I realized she had traded one of MY favorites. [That's when] I knew I needed my own:) I traded back for the traded barbie (a portugese princess) and so my little collection started.”
Lola’s collection, and her personal interest in the Plus-sized dolls (and other miscreants) reminded me of the true diversity of adult-barbie enthusiasts.
Lola sent me this picture of her Motley Crew and I knew right then that this was a woman I HAD to be doll friends with.
Lola did not, at that time, have a blog. But she does now, and her blog is a great one to follow.
While some blogs by adult-barbie-enthusiasts operate more as marketing vehicles for etsy shops or “look what I bought” or “look what I made even though I don’t care to share with you how,” Lola’s blog is truly one where a person can learn something.
Information is shared. Tips are given. Tutorials are offered.
Lola performed surgery on a Rosie Body and a Fashionista head. She made this wonderful plus-sized beauty.
And given Lola’s interest of dolls that are outside the Glam/Slutty Mainstream, you can bet her tutorials are too. Lola’s interest in Rosie O’Donnell bodies led her to find a way to replace the head.
This brought a discussion and wider enthusiast interest out into the light. As it turns out, the Rosie O’Donnell doll body is highly appreciated by more people than just Lola and me.
We heard talk of people buying a Rosie, then buying a second Rosie – in hopes of giving Rosie 2 a different head. People either wanted to do this, or attempted to do it and failed. And all the while none of us realized there were others out there that liked Rosie’s body and wanted to do more with it.
Now, thanks to Lola and her blog, if there are people out there wanting to do it but not feeling certain of how to go about it, Lola has a tutorial for it.
So this post is part Resource Link (go check out Lola’s blog), part Player Profile (Lola is an inspiring player), part Love Letter/Shout Out/Thank You (because Lola woke me up to the world of Plus Sized ladies) and part Preview (next up is an in-depth review of the Plus-Sized players I’ve purchased thanks to Lola sharing info with me).
So, with all that said, I hope you are inspired to go buy two Rosies. Keep one as Rosie herself, and maybe give her a Michelle Doll wife.
With the other, replace her Rosie head and make her just one of the gals.
As always – please comment. Kudos, corrections and additional info is always welcome. I see the comments section as an addendum to my post. Any info you can add for other readers only makes the blog more valuable to readers who might stumble across this post in the future. I am never offended when people say, “Yes, but…what about…and did you know….and you forgot to add” – those are my favorite kinds of comments.
Awww…I’m famous:D
I see people copying your Rosie Redux already. I hope this gets you lots of hits.
You deserve it – you’ve got good content.
You know, I completely forgot about one actual attempt at a ‘realistic’ sized doll–remember the “Happy to be me” doll? Unfortunately they were fugly and not even plus-sized.
Have you ever heard of “Ken’s Aunt” dolls ? They are big and beautiful dolls created by a Polish artist. Unfortunately, they were never sold in stores, but you can Google pictures of them.
I never knew there was more then one plus sized doll, and I alwys thought Rosie was it. I kick myself for not buying her when I had seen her, however I had a controlling ex blah bla blah, long story short, That is wow. Defiently will need to check out Lola’s blog as well. I am rediscovering Barbie, barbie like dolls, and now, plus size dolls, I am Thrilled to find this out. I loved Mimi and her character, and oh how realistic she is. maybe one day I’ll find a Rosie at a not so jacked up price on Ebay, but the second hand discoveries is leading me with more questions that I do not have answers to however I have finding those answers on this blog. (I have highschool musical dolls! Too bad the boys were hard to come by) and the dolls with the white underwear painted on drive me nuts! or the bubbly underwear. but wow, Lola has opened my eyes too! I played with both My Little Ponies and Barbie, they never crossed. They had one cross over and mom took it as a Kodak moment lol. Finding out plus size dolls, that’s a gem.
do you know whether you could use a Barbie head on the Tracy Turnblad doll? How about the Emme doll?
Emme doll here:
http://0.tqn.com/d/collectdolls/1/0/u/2/tonemmelong2.jpg
I can’t find anything on the internet about whether they’d be compatible and I don’t want to buy the dolls unless I can put the heads I’ve been working with on them.