PLAYER PROFILE/RESOURCE: Lola The Crazy Barbie Lady

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.

RESOURCE: Tutorial for making Palm Trees

Super cool tutorial for making 1:6 scale palm trees.

This pic is from that tutorial.

RESOURCE: Amazingly Beautiful! Brown Skin and Natural Hair

If you love having a diverse set of dolls then you will want to take a look at what doll artist Ms. Loanne Hizo Ostlie puts out there.

She takes fashion dolls (mostly Mattel Barbie dolls) and re-does their hair in cute curly styles, locks (they aren’t called dreadlocks anymore, just locks), short cuts…you have to see them to believe them.  About a month ago she was profiled on the site NaturalChica – a popular site encouraging women to nurture their hair naturally.

I have exchanged some emails with Ms. Ostlie – hoping to have a Chandra, Steven or Darren and Courtney converted to natural. I may be able to swing it as a surprise for Leah’s 5th birthday.

Mattel sells Collector line dolls for well over $100. These dolls are one of a kind and sell for less than $100. Of course I would specify Ebony Eyes on any dolls I “commission” and that’s the beauty of it – I would pay less than the cost of collector doll and get exactly what I want.

Browse her site’s gallery and dream of what you might be able to order up.

We also have two methods for creating your own Loc’d doll:

• 20 minutes at home with an Iron
• a few hours with a re-rooting tool and some wool

RESOURCE: Van’s Doll Treasures Furniture

Most of the living room furniture Mattel creates is not 1:6 scale. It’s small. I don’t know if they do this to save money or space or both. Maybe they do it so dolls without articulated knees can appear to be sitting comfortably.

This pic is out of focus but note anyway how ridiculously under-sized Mattel couches are.

Because  of this fact, most people who play with barbies a lot or make dioramas like to use non-Mattel couches and other furniture.

Not only do the Mattel couchs look ridiculous but they are hard to use. In setting up the photo for this blog entry I sat the two dolls on the leopard setee with very little extra work. When it came to positioning the other couple, it took five or six attempts. This was due to the size of the couch, the material the couch is made of and the fact that I was using un-articulated dolls.

Dolls with bendable knees sit comfortably on a custom made couch. Dolls with hardened legs are hard to position on a Mattel undersized couch.

I try to find ways to cut down on frustration during play as much as possible so having a few nice custom-made couches around is really nice. They look good, are sturdy and can usually seat more dolls than Mattel couches.

They are also nice if one reason you play with barbies is because you enjoy interior design. Look for custom furniture on ebay and Etsy and you should find something to your liking.

A favorite designer of mine is Vanessa Morrison.  She makes one-of-a-kind barbie furniture and sells it on Etsy.

Vanessa's Furniture for sale on Etsy

RESOURCE: Re-Ment barbie-sized Food and Accessories

Re-ment is a Japanese company that make tiny (1:6, Playscale) little food and other accessories. Their website “explains the name” by expanding it to “Reform the Entertainment.”

A lot of people on eBay call them “the Mattel of Japan” – though there are a lot of reasons that is not true.  For starters, they don’t do dolls. They do doll accessories and sometimes clothes. They don’t do barbie-sized playsets either – they do smaller playsets based on licensing of Disney and Sanrio characters. They also do necklaces and other items based on miniatures.

Their stuff is marked to avoid choking-and-lead-paint-poison lawsuits. “Not A Toy” is stamped on the box.  But the size is perfect for well-monitored barbie play. In other words, make sure your kid doesn’t put this stuff in their mouth and you can have a ton of fun. Since I can’t read the Japanese well enough (at all) to place orders on their website I have purchased most of ours on eBay and we LOVE them.

Type “re-ment” into the search box on eBay and go crazy.

RESOURCE: Free Super Cute Printables

This site is exceptionally cool. People submit tiny graphics that you can print out in order to make little posters, books, money, file folders – you name it. Remember that barbies are in 1:6 scale and use those printables when equipping your barbies with the aforementioned items.

HTPWb loves Jim’s Printable Minis!