Vii’s Collection Updates – September 2023

Vii’s Dollection Monthly Recap (September 2023)

 

I’ve decided to start blogging about how my collection is changing every month. I think it will be cool to look back and see what I loved, what I didn’t love, and how I interacted with my collection over time. Because that’s one of my favorite things about doll collecting: interacting with my dolls! If you choose to read along as my collection progresses, thank you! Also, tell me about your highs and lows for the month. 

Collection Additions

• Demi Batista – SH Costume Ball
• Catrine DeMew – MH G1 Scaris
• Snow Bite – MH G1 Scarily Ever After
• Flitta – Magix Mixies Pixlings
• Sophisticated Style – 80’s Barbie Rewind
• Movie Night – 80’s Barbie Rewind
• Eliza McFee – SH Costume Ball
• Amped Up Frankie – MH G3 Monster Ball
• Wynter – Magic Mixies Pixlings
• Scarlet – Disney Star Darlings
• Clawdeen & Draculaura – Sam’s Club Creepover Playset
• Clawdeen – Scare-adise Island
• Cleo – Faboolous Pets
• Frankie Stein – Scare-adise Island
• Draculaura – Bite in the Park

 

Caption: A group picture of my new dolls from September

 

Collection Additions Thoughts

 

Okay, seeing all of the dolls listed out really drives home how easy it is to buy and buy and not stop and realize what you’re acquiring. Many of these dolls were on sale or not too expensive on their own, but added up and yup, that’s a lot! My personal highlights for the month are Demi Batista, Flitta, Scarlet (my first Star Darling!), and Amped Up Frankie. It was hard to even narrow the list down to four dolls, since I’m overwhelmingly happy with most of my pickups.

 

Local Walmarts had a noticeable lack of Flitta, so a good friend hooked me up by grabbing the last one nearby and mailing her over. She hasn’t left my desk since! My nearby Walmarts did 

have the Costume Ball girlies on sale at least, so I finally grabbed Demi. I am floored by how much I love her. Rainbow High doesn’t speak to me too often, but this doll absolutely does. She’s almost perfect. I want to change up her lip color and give her fangs, and then she will be perfect. 

Scarlet came to me by way of Canadian thrift store. A fellow dollector picked her up and sent her to me for the cost of shipping. Scarlet is my favorite of the Disney Star Darlings and I was super happy that she’s my first one! And finally, Amped Up Frankie. Frankie is an amazing doll with a killer style, great concept, and long gorgeous saran hair. Their hair is so easy to play with and super satisfying.

As an honorable mention, I did grab some new clothes for my Signature Toralei. I am IN LOVE with the outfit. I still need some extra pieces and different shoes, but WOW.

Caption: A group picture of my favorite dolls from this month. From right to left: Demi Batista, Scarlet, Flitta, and Amped Up Frankie

Caption: G3 Toralei wearing a black crop-top and red long pants with gold studs.

 

On the other hand…I am experiencing a bit of buyer’s remorse. I got Snow Bite in person at a collectibles show. She was in plastic wrap but appeared to be in really good shape. And she had her earrings, necklace, and shoes! But once I got her home and unwrapped her, I realized a big piece of the outfit was missing, and she just wasn’t in as good shape as I thought. If I don’t connect with her, I’ll let her go and maybe recoup a portion of my spend. Secondly, I regret grabbing Eliza McFee, even with a discount. I absolutely adore fairies and fantasy themes, but something about Eliza is not hitting right with me. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with her to be honest!

Caption: Least-favorite dolls from September 2023. Snow Bite (left) and Eliza McFee (right).

 

Projects

• Sealing Lagoona G3 legs 
  • Status: Gathering materials/researching process
• Demi Batista – Customize with black lips & fangs
  • Status: Not started
• Give G3 Toralei a haircut
  • Status: still a coward (ie, not started)
• Restore/Refresh Ever After High Lot (details below!)
  • Status: 66% through

Secondhand Fixups

• Working through my EAH backlog
  • Signature Lizzie Hearts
  • Signature Kitty Cheshire
  • Getting Fairest Apple White
  • Signature Blondie Locks
  • Legacy Day Cerise Hood
  • Signature Bunny Blanc
  • Signature Blondie Lockes
  • Thronecoming Apple White
    • Holy crap, this one was difficult
  • Signature Apple White
  • Signature Cedar Wood
  • Signature Alistair Wonderland
  • Signature Hunter Huntsman
  • Signature Dexter Charming
  • Signature Cerise Hood
    • So. Much. Glue. (destained her hood!)
    • Might have lost too much hair de-gluing
      • Ordered a backup head
  • Getting Fairest Briar Beauty
  • Hat-tastic Party Cerise
    • Lost an earring
  • Legacy Day Raven Queen
  • Signature Maddie Hatter
  • Spring Unsprung Holly O’Hair
  • Signature Faybelle Thorn
  • Signature Ashlynn Ella
• Scaris Catrine DeMew
• Scarily Ever After Snow Bite (Draculaura)

 

Project Commentary

I’ll skip through the projects I don’t have anything to report on. I mostly focused this month on refreshing and restoring my big second-hand Ever After High lot. I purchased over 30 EAH dolls from a friend’s spouse. They are in mostly complete shape, but had been stored in a garage for a long time so they all at minimum need a clean and wash, and some needed lots of treatment to remove markings, remove clothing stains, or taming hair.

I have learned so much from this lot. Deluxe dolls with more bells and whistles like Thronecoming Apple White gave me a lot more trouble than I bargained for! She had face staining, tons of layers of clothes, and a more-complicated-than-it-looked hairstyle. The terrible triad. The thing about face staining is that my stain removing product will also remove paint (this makes sense, if it can take stains off of course it can take paint off), so I had to be extra cautious about applying it JUST to the stain. And then cross my fingers and hope nothing bad happens. Luckily, she came out looking beautiful, but that was more stressful than I bargained for!

 

As terrible as Apple White wanted to be, no doll was more wiley than…Cerise Hood. The first thing I noticed about Signature Cerise was the massive glue stain on her hood. Ick. I was able to get the stain out fairly easily. However, the stain told me her glue seepage was so bad I should do a full de-glueing treatment and re-glue her hair with anti-seepage fabric glue. Easy, right?

 

No, of course not. I am not the most experienced at this but I have managed to de-glue a few dolls without totally maiming them so why would this be any different? Well. I may have gone a little overboard on removing her glue. After letting her dry out I realized I yoinked out some hair plugs in the process! Oops. Maybe it would look fine after re-glueing and some styling. Fast-forward some days later after the new glue has dried and so has her hair: it’s a disaster. Her bangs are unsalvageable. I have royally messed up! The worst part? This isn’t even the extent of Cerise’s shenanigans.

 

Enter: Hat-tastic Cerise. This should have been a slam dunk. Only surface glue removal, a wash/condition, then back to the doll room. Bing bang boom. Easy, right?

 

No, of course not. While rinsing off Cerise’s accessories I made the horrifying discovery that my drain cover had shifted out of the way. Oh god, did I catch it in time? No, why would I! I realize I’ve lost one Hat-tastic earring to the bowels of my sink. Considering it is absolutely foul down there in the pipes, I make the difficult decision to bid that earring adieu and cut my loss.

 

As for signature Cerise, I got her a new head on Mercari for $5, so she’ll have a happy ending anyways.

Caption: All of the Ever After High dolls I refreshed/restored this month (listed above)

 

Looking Forward To In The Next Month (October 2023)

October is going to be a stacked month for us Monster High fans. I am dying to sink my fangs into Vampire Heart Draculaura. I know that most of my budget is going straight to her, but that’s okay. She may be my favorite design coming out this year.

Scare-adise Draculaura is also supposed to ship sometime in the middle of the month. She is my favorite of the Scare-adise lineup and I’ve already been impressed by the Clawdeen and Frankie I got my claws on. Skulltimate Secrets 3 (Neon Frights) should also be hitting shelves in earnest this month, but I’ll be tempering myself for at least October and try to stretch those pickups into November/December. They’re playline, so they’ll be around for awhile.

To wrap this up, I’ll also be adding the Disney ily 4ever Holiday 3-pack to my collection thanks to a friend who will pick one up for me using her passholder discount! I am super grateful and really excited to bring them home.

 

Final Thoughts

 

September was an incredibly dense month of doll collecting for me. I got a lot of new additions, as well as working through my huge Ever After high doll lot. My collection room isn’t looking too great right now due to some ongoing home construction. Once that’s done my big project will be resetting my display and incorporating all of these new dolls! I can also get back to doll photography. Can’t wait to see what October brings! Until next time, dollectors!