♥♥♥ Exclusive First Edition LAMMILY DOLL ♥♥♥

https://lammily.com/

Since the Crowdfunding and eventual release of Lammily in 2014, I've been fascinated by the idea of these dolls and itching to get my hands on one. 

https://lammily.com/

I had all the information, Crowdfunding pages, and eventually the Lammily Official Website bookmarked for ages and periodically checked back for updates etc...

https://lammily.com/

Well today, I finally decided to take the plunge and have ordered myself one, and a cute little outfit too - I'll get to the spare outfit later in this post though, for now here's a little low down while I wait for my new girl to arrive...

https://lammily.com/

The selling point and reason why they have been the subject of much controversy is their body shape and the fact that the intention is to give children an alternative "more like me" type of doll instead of the "I wanna be just like Barbie" cue bulimia influence that a lot of parents worry about.

I understand their fears, I'm a parent myself after all, not of a girl but I do have five nieces so I can see where they are coming from, but I can't help wondering how parents now feel about the crazy proportions of Monster High Dolls and omg, just look how they've taken off and the amount of small girls doing Monster High make-up tutorials on YouTube etc, 

But that of course is a digression, the point of this post is Lammily Dolls... 

Image taken from Crowd Funding campaign 

I can't help agreeing that these days, parents need all the help they can get in helping their little girls to attain a positive body image, hell boys aren't immune from this issue too.

 I know this from personal experience ( I have a son and three nephews), so I say - why the hell not, it's worth a try anyway ... If it only helps one girl to realise she doesn't need to harm herself to feel good about her body, then it's done it's job and it's well worth the money paid for it...

Apart from the above images, taken from the website the other thing that has caused much controversy is the description of these dolls: 

"The fashion doll with a realistic body shape. The Lammily doll is the first fashion doll made according to typical human body proportions to promote realistic beauty standards and help your child develop a positive body image!"

"Eleven inches tall and ready for action with articulated elbows, hands, knees, and feet. Includes 1 doll with ombre blouse, denim shorts, and white sneakers."

https://lammily.com/

Lammily comes in a beautifully illustrated box, depicting the doll herself carrying her packed suitcase as she's about to embark on her journey to her new home.

https://lammily.com/

Once the box is opened there is another beautiful illustration and the word "Hello" written in 10 languages.

https://lammily.com/

She comes with a leaflet inside, which I suspect details her journey from idea, to Crowdfund to creation - or at least I hope so! 

But I'll know more about this when she arrives, in fact I'll be doing a full review of her once she arrives, so keep checking back to find out more!

https://lammily.com/

I love the images of the inner (doll placement) portion of the box, showing the doll against a beautiful backdrop - so many dolls come with either clip art like images or just plain cardboard inner boxes that this is such a delightful change and really makes the doll stand out.

https://lammily.com/

And here's a close-up of her face, sadly it looks similar to Barbie's but again, I'll know more about this soon, when she arrives.

The listing description states the doll is: "Eleven inches tall and ready for action with articulated elbows, hands, knees, and feet. Includes 1 doll with ombre blouse, denim shorts, and white sneakers.

Only Lammily branded fashions will fit on the doll."

Time to start sewing then I guess!

That said I couldn't resist buying one outfit with her as I'm not 100% sure that I'd really want to keep her in the outfit she comes with, so after looking at the "Lammily Branded Fashions" available on the website these are found under the heading: "Lammily World of Fashion" - which fits in with the idea of this doll being some kind of world traveller, an idea I got from looking at her suitcase.

Also each outfit is listed under a different Country or place: New York, London, Scotland, Denmark, Paris, Rio & Barcelona ...

Anyway, I opted for this cute little number, it's called  "Rocking London".

https://lammily.com/

There are several reasons I couldn't resist this little outfit, one if London is somewhere that is deeply entrenched in my psyche, I grew up in Walthamstow, North East London, and visited the city often, it's somewhere I've always loved, the sights, sounds, smells - even the tourists! 

Even though I now live in Wales, I still have friends and family in that part of the World and endeavour to visit as often as I can (these days that's not often at all), more often than not my visits to London involve a West End Show or an Exhibition at one of the awesome Museums and Galleries I've always enjoyed visiting...

https://lammily.com/

I have to admit, I've never seen anyone in London wearing this type of outfit,  the reasoning behind it according to the product listing is:  

"London is the birthplace of punk and the land of the royals, so why not do as the Londoners do and look spectacular in a mix of both?

 This outfit is regal enough to get you into see the crown jewels and edgy enough for you to fit in with the locals at Camden Market.

Includes: grey heathered and ribbed trimmed turtleneck top, tweed jacket with black buttons and patent belt, tartan plaid pencil skirt, hounds tooth scarf, black leggings and black stiletto heels."

My guess is, that idea / description was invented by someone who doesn't know London or Londoners at all! 

Never mind though, the outfit is pretty cool, ever since seeing Punks in London in the late 1970's and early 1980's I've had a thing about tartan, and I just can't resist dolls in tartan, especially if they have mohawks!

https://lammily.com/

What I loved about his outfit in particular is that you can mix and match it to make four different outfits - five if you count the outfit as they put it together, using every item, and it comes with a pair of black  high heels which are also a very versatile item to have in any doll's wardrobe. 

If you add items from her original outfit with them, you get another three or four outfits, with a choice of either casual or heeled shoes for each - Not bad for an extra $20.00!

 Also, that box with the iconic images of  Westminster and a red Post Box - it's just too much for me to resist!

Another thing they offer for sale on the Lammily Website is a pack of something called "Lammily Marks" - I totally get the idea behind this but is it really necessary?!

Basically, what this amounts to, is a packet of so-called imperfections in the form of stickers which you can stick onto your doll!

 Honestly, I'm not making this up, they look like this:

https://lammily.com/

These cost $7.00 a pack, the description states: "Now your dolls can have freckles, acne, cellulite, the occasional booboo, and more!

These clear vinyl stickers can be repositioned and reapplied to customize your doll.

38 reusable stickers on a sticker sheet.

Includes:
Cellulite, Stretch marks, Freckles, Acne, Glasses, Blushing, Adhesive bandages, Moles, Temporary Tattoo, Stitches, Scrapes & Scratches, Bruises, Cast, Scars, Mosquito Bites, Grass and Dirt Stains"

Firstly, I'd like to ask anyone who knows these things, what the heck a "booboo" is? 

But anyway, so these "marks", imperfections, call them what you will are apparently supposed to give your doll an even more realistic vibe - that idea, I understand, but...

Personally I can really only see these items being used once before they get stuck to the carpet, lose their stick or end up glue side covered in fluff and hair - and then only for the novelty factor...

I think it would have been much better to make the doll with these "marks" actually in the plastic.

Also, I like the idea of stretch marks - what stripy bellied Mother wouldn't?

To my way of thinking  it would have been great if Midge's post baby belly had stretch marks!

But seriously, Moles? Imperfection? - throughout the ages they have been known as Beauty Spots, please don't tell me Marilyn Monroe's face wasn't perfect just because she had a mole on it?!

Or are we supposed to buy back into the "Marks of the Devil" vibe and start burning moley dolls at the stake again - sorry if I seem a bit well angry about this, but for someone who is covered in moles and also a Wiccan, I really cannot condone these perceptions.

https://lammily.com/

I thought the point was to promote positive body image?

Seeing as Lammily is supposed to be based on the average body size of a 19 year old (American?) woman, surely she'd most likely have many of these marks too?

https://lammily.com/

I know I did, only the very luckiest of teenagers do not have acne at some point, also having been a chubby in early childhood and losing my "Puppy Fat" (as my Nan called it) as I got further into my teens, I had stretch marks in the areas in which I'd lost that weight...

 I was 19 when I gave birth my Son, I now love my stretch marks I have to say - they're a good reminder... sometimes I look at "my boy" and realise he's actually a grown man with a full beard and I think "How can that be?"

One look at my beautiful stretch marks and I know!

https://lammily.com/

I must be missing the point, maybe the point of the marks are so children with moles, stitches, broken limbs in plaster casts and everything else can add these to their doll and in doing so make them even more like them, but if so....

Why not call them something else, why not promote them as "Life Marks" or "Distinguishing Features" instead?

https://lammily.com/

Ok. rant over, another thing I found pretty cool is once you have decided on a name for your doll, you can go to https://lammily.com/passport/ and make her a "Passport" well it's more like an open passport, but still it's a pretty cool little thing.

https://lammily.com/

 The resulting Passport can be downloaded as a PDF and printed off or saved. 

I don't normally name my dolls prior to meeting them but something about writing this post, probably triggered by childhood memories that came to me while I was writing about the outfit I bought with her and the fact she's a traveller, got me thinking of this girl as a Romany, one of my friends when I was growing up was a Romany and she seemed to have such a magical way of life to me...

And so, the idea was formed my girl is a Romany Gypsy now I just needed a name, then it came to me I had a look at the word list on http://romanygenes.com/ and fell in love with the word "Aranya" meaning "Lady" which also has a very Hungarian sound to it, although the site lits the Hungarian Romani word spelling as "Araunya"  but I like the first spelling better so "Aranya" it is!

And here's her passport ready to be printed and waiting for her.
I could have changed the date of issue from the American to the English, but I figured seeing as she's travelling from America, it makes sense that her "Passport" would be issued in America, therefore the date should remain in American too!

https://lammily.com/

I like the fact they also included this picture of the doll sitting down so you can see the knee articulation, although I would have liked them to have included a underwear or naked image of her in the listing, showing how much her body differs to a Barbie's, after all - that is the selling point of this doll right?

I've recently discovered that they are now showing up on Ebay but with a hiked up price...

 The cheapest you can buy them for is $29.99 (approximately £20.10) with $17.51 (approximately £11.73) Shipping cost - making the total cost $47.50 (£31.77) but if you buy directly from Lammily.com the doll cost is $25.00 (£16.83) and shipping to the UK is $13.95 (£9.39)  - making the total cost $38.98 (£26.07)!

Ok so it's only a $8.52 (£5.70) saving, but why pay extra to an unofficial seller when you can get the same item almost £6.00 cheaper direct from the maker and therefore, have an easier time when contacting them if  anything is amiss with your doll and you need to get in touch? 

Full review (with nakie pictures) will be posted as soon as she arrives!

Hugs,