🍒 Cherry Merry Muffin Dolls by Mattel 🍒

There were five dolls produced in 1988 and as their names suggest they were muffin themed. 

They also had an individual scent to their hair which corresponded to their names, in the same way that Strawberry Shortcake Dolls did.

 They each came with a themed pet / friend called "Flavour Friends", a tray of muffins and a muffin shaped hair comb.

Dolls belonging to John Gemmel (Dolls More Dolls, Multiply)

The dolls in the image above belong to a fellow collector and friend of mine, John Gemmel, from the doll group I belong to. 

When he posted the photograph and having never seen these dolls before I was so intrigued by them that I decided to see what I could find out about them, this post constitutes my findings, sadly this post has been waiting in my draft folder for completion for several years now and as I didn't make note here of my sources, I'm unsure where I found my information and photographs; so if they belong to you, please let me know so I can accredit you...
The one on the left is Banancy with her friend / pet called Bitty Banana on the right is Chocolottie with her friend / pet called Chocolate Drop, they are part of the first wave range of these dolls.

When these dolls were originally sold in the 1980's the muffins were also scented.

The original "First Wave" range of  Cherry Merry Muffin dolls.

The image above shows all the dolls in the range,from left to right, they are:

Betty Berry with Flavour Friend Li'l Dip

Cherry Merry Muffin with Flavour Friend Cherry Sweet

Chocolottie with Flavour Friend Chocolate Drop

Banancy with Flavour Friend Bitty Banana

Apple Amy with Flavour Friend Apple Buddy

The dolls stood 6.5 inches high and had the regulation "big hair" of the 80's  which was either curly or wavy, depending on the doll.

They wore dresses with aprons covering them and had little painted-on shoes. They each came with a "Flavour Friend", a Tray of  6 Muffins in a baking tray and a Comb.

The dolls accessories matched the smell according to the doll's name and the colour of her outfit.

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💀 Gluttony - 7 Deadly Sins - Living Dead Dolls Series 7 💀

One of my  2010 Xmas pressies from Aaron !!

Yay ... my boy knows just what I like!

I've been wanting this boy for ages but seeing as he's been retired for a while now it seemed likely he'd just have to be a wish doll... until my son bought him for me for Christmas woohoo!!

He comes with a knife, meat tenderiser, chopping board and Death Certificate & he has the cutest little pot belly and puke stains around his mouth too!

His Death Certificate reads:

"The excessive food and drink that he craved, Sent this butcher to an early grave.
 Now trapped in Hell all he can partake,
Is being force-fed rats, toads and snakes."

As you can tell by now I've got right into checking out how much my little beauties are going for on Amazon, I was quite surprised by how much this little man was going for.


Hugs,

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⚰️ Jezebel - Living Dead Dolls Series 5 ⚰️

I received Jezebel as part of a surprise parcel from my friend Kyle, who lives in Florida. It was totally unexpected and I had no idea when I opened it that it would be such an awesome package of loveliness!

I love the Kewpie and the Halloween "Frankie" Shelly and "Bride of Frankenstein's Monster" Shelly and the living dead Jezebel is perfect right down to her slit wrists!!

Jezebel is a full sized Living Dead Doll, from Series 5, as she didn't come to me with a box or accessories, I don't have a Death Certificate for her and didn't know the contents of her "poem", I have however managed to find these details online so here's her poem: 

"Jezebel was a runaway who lived on the street, Saddened by the sound of her own heartbeat. 

With a razor in hand it was all just to much, 

Her body fell fast, ice cold to the touch."

Her make up reminds me of Frankenfurter from The Rocky Horror Picture Show... As I mentioned she never came to me with a Death certificate but I managed to find one online ...

living dead dolls.com

Name of Deceased: Jezebel
Sex: F
Date and Time of Death: 01/29/99 02:47 AM
Last Known Occupation: Entertainer
Cause of Death: Loss of blood
Note:
Lacerations on forearms are
apparently self-inflicted and
caused severe loss of blood.

 I love to have the information they have in their Death Certificates and make replacements for them if they do not come with them; like my Living Dead Doll Minis - I made each of them a little Death Certificate each, which is rolled up and tucked beside them inside their little coffin boxes.

AS my little Jezebel came to me without a box, I have managed to get one for her. It came without the inner cardboard, tissue paper or the plastic cover. 

 I used another doll's cardboard to make a template and found an image of the insert which I cut out and glued onto a shaped insert I made. I bought red tissue paper to line her coffin with and I have to say I'm quite pleased with the result so far.

Unfortunately, I am at present unable to find a copy of her Death Certificate or the Coroner's Report which she would have originally have come with so it looks like I will have to make my own versions of these too!

I was researching her and and at the same time I decided to try and find out why she makes me think of The Rocky Horror Picture Show so much and I ended up finding information on a beautiful Burlesque Stripper from the 1940s, who began her career as a Chorus Dancer during the Golden era of Hollywood.

club.ados.fr

Her stage name was Lili St.Cyr and one of her acts was based on the theme of suicide, which explains Jezebel's slit wrists... I knew I had heard her name before but I couldn't work out where so I kept searching...

And then I found it on Wikipedia of all places, and the penny finally dropped, duh!

There is a line in the song "Don't Dream It" from The Rocky Horror Show that goes "God bless Lili St.Cyr" so there was my explanation for the "Rocky Horror Look"!

Another bit of research I did was in Amazon, curiosity again, of course she is not worth as much as these dolls as she doesn't come in her box with her Death Certificate, but again, that doesn't really matter to me as I'm not planning to sell her any time soon.

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🎥 Hollywood - Living Dead Dolls Fashion Victims Series: 2 🎬

Scumdog is a  "Hollywood" doll from Series 2 Fashion Victims, Living Dead Doll, I got her naked in a swap with my Flickr Friend Kyle... when purchased new she looks like this:

The weird thing is, I absolutely hated this doll, until I saw her nude then I fell in love with her big blue eyes and head wound!

Scumbag and ... ahem...friends 

I never know where this girl is half the timebut it seems my search party did pretty well in tracking her down to an alleyway at the back of a nightclub in Swansea ...as usual she was turning tricks ... 

Just after this pic' was taken things got a little shall we say heated and so they waited at a discreet distance around the corner for her to re-emerge and be brought back home ...

Unfortunately it seems the alley had another entrance and she gave them the slip...

If any of you do happen to see her on your travels ... please give her some money, a packet of cigarettes and a bottle of Jack Daniels, bundle her into the back of your car and bring her home to her worried mum!

While on Amazon, I did a quick search for "Hollywood" out of curiosity, and discovered in her original clothing and box she could be worth a few quid... Sadly she doesn't realise her worth and sells herself for cheap alcohol and cigarettes *sigh*

Regardless of her wayward behaviour, I can't help loving this big eyed girl of mine!

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🔪 Michael Myers - Halloween 2 - Limited Edition Living Dead Doll 🔪

Aaron is so awesome...he bought me a Living Dead Doll Mike Myers from the Halloween (2007  Rob zombie movie) with glow in the dark mask, for Christmas 2008, he went on a quest to find one 'cos he knew I've wanted one for ages now! wooooot

Promotional image copyright: Meco Toys

And even better he arrived from America early woot woot ...the bummer thing was poor Aaron got slapped with a £12.80 Customs Charge :( ... our kind Postman Kev' said we didn't have to accept the parcel if we didn't want to pay it... only Aaron wouldn't hear of that and coughed up the extra cash for me to have him!!

As you can see from the above photograph it was a very bad idea letting him out of his box as he got busy straight away worrying my poor chinchilla, Gizmo!

The boxes on the "Horror Film" Living Deads are so awesome...nearly as awesome as the dolls themselves!  

"Little Mikey's" box has images from the film as well as the doll himself on all sides, I made the above collage of it using pictures of each side, the inside of the front (Like Leather Faces box it opens like a book with a preview panel, you access the doll from the top) has an image of "Mike Myers" from the film (second image) then comes the doll and back of box (just as cool!!)

The other cool thing about him is, he glows in the dark!!

 

While I was looking on Amazon for Living Deads the other year I found several for sale and again, I was pretty shocked by the prices being asked for them, not that I plan to sell my little man ever, but it's good to know how much he could be worth.

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🐰 Littlest Pet Shop Hybrid Doll - My Latest Custom 🐰

I finally got around to getting this little girl together, I've had the idea for this little lady for years but it's crazy hard to not only find the right sized Littlest Pet Shop toy to hybrid but also the right kind of cute faced toy to use.

I've done a few of these funny little hybrids in the past, you may recall my dog, monkey, frog, bunny and panda girl minis and my Pingi the Chicken Lady - large bird faced girl on a Liv doll body.

If not, or you'd like to check them out you can find the posts by clicking on the following links...

LPS Hybrid Minis: `https://heresherbie.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/littlest-pet-shop-anthropomorphic.html 

Chicken Lady: https://heresherbie.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/meet-pingie-chicken-lady.html.   

So anyway, I managed to get this large flop eared rabbit Littlest Pet Shop pet, I knew she would be absolutely perfect for what I had in mind - something very kitsch looking obviously!

 I had the idea it would be easy as I could just use another Liv body for her like I did for Chicken Lady but I failed to take into account her long ears which it turned out obstructed her shoulders so much I had to rethink this option. 

After trying out several other jointed bodies (I really wanted her to be as posable as possible) I decided the best type of body would be an Azone one, although its much smaller than a Liv doll's body and more childlike in appearance it seemed a much better choice as it would allow me to dress and redress the doll without having to squeeze the clothing past her ears.

To strip the factory paint and repaint her as I envisaged her I decided it would be easier to remove her ears, this also gave me the ability to paint and seal her ears without worrying about the paint getting onto her face or having to find some way to prop her up while the layers were drying.

Once stripped, repainted and sealed, I reattached her ears and attatched her head it's new body, much Milliput, waiting and super glue later, I finally had her finished.  The beauty of the Milliput and glue method I devised - I have no idea how I managed this, actually allows her head to move from side to side, which adds so much to posing and photographing her.

I found her cute little outfit from a seller / doll clothes maker called spider8lesley on Ebay which suited her perfectly. The outfit is very well made and a perfect fit for her Azone body, if you'd like to check out her other items click on her name for a link to her Ebay page.

Just for funs, here's a before and after of my little girl...

I love how she turned out, she makes me smile every time I look at her!

Hugs,

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☠ My Monster High Collection - Boxed Dolls ... Continued ☠

As promised in my one of my previous posts, here's the rest of my boxed Monster High dolls... The playsets, boxed and otherwise will be coming in another post over the next few days / weeks / as life permits as will the loose dolls once I figure out if I should categorise them by series or doll... 

I have several favourites which I own quite a few versions of (different series / custom versions etc) so I'm not sure if I should upload those in a single group or as part of a family - in the case of the wolf dolls, group the male dolls together in one post or post them alongside their "ghoul friends" or which wave they were released in... decisions, decisions.

Anyway, for now I should stop concerning myself with future posts and concentrate on the one at hand, ie... the remainder of the boxed lovelies, so here we go...

I loved the fact that Finnegan Wake comes with a wheelchair - it's not only a cool doll assessory but also a really clever way to display a doll with a fish tail, if unlike Sirena Von Boo, they aren't able to stand alone on a "double tail".

Keeping with the Aquatic theme, I couldn't resist the beautiful face of Kala Mer'ri add to that she has multiple arms, oh how I love multiple armed dolls! But best of all she glows in the dark! I've never gotten over my love of glow in the dark things, so combine all of that in one doll and well we was a got to have!

Peri and Pearl Serpentine not only glow in the dark but they are Siamese twins! How awesome is that?!  Not only that but they have beautiful faces, similar in some ways to the mould used for Spectra but better than Spectra cos you get two of them!

Kijersti Trollson ... Where to start with this girl? She has so many elements that the nerd I am loves that I just couldn't resist her at all! From her "Viking" style woollen hat to her 8-bit inspired skirt, her handbag shaped like a retro games console controller, she's based on a troll and has little pointy ears - there is just so much to love about this girl!!

Isi Dawndancer - pointy ears strike again! I love the elements of Native American in her dress sense, the patterns on her clothing also hint to that origin, but also Scandinavian and Winter.

Mouseus King; She is so cute, one of the small shorter dolls, she has adorable little rodent ears, tiny claws on her finger tips and the cutest little mouse tail.

I love that Gooliope Jellington is so much bigger than most of the other Monster High clan (unfortunately I don't own any of the Frightfully Tall dolls) I love the globules on her legs and the whole theme of her. I really fell for the Freak Du Chic line... I love the carnival combined with burlesque style of the clothing. Gooliope has shoes which are decorated with a carousel horse holding up the heel. The box design really drew me to her too, I love how she is placed in the box in such a way it seems that she is struggling with lack of room. I love the artwork behind her and the detail on the front, the plastic is moulded to look as though she is smashing out the "glass" to escape which appeals so much to my love of 1950s B-Movies in fact her overall size and box design puts me very much in mind of that awesome classic "Attack of the 50 foot Woman"!

I just love the Sweet Screams line, Ghoulia Yelps is by far my favourite, so I was so happy to get my hands on her, not only her but boxed too!  Everything about this doll is beautiful, from the design of her box to the shade of blue used for her hair. I love her "Gummy Bear" bag and the inclusion of her pet Sir Hoots A lot, who is even holding a mini "Gummy Worm" in his beak, it's just too adorable!

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❤ What I've been doing during my long silence... ❤

I know I promised I'd get back into my blog and cataloguing my collections and I really did have every intention in doing so... I still do, but something totally mind blowing happened to me and as it turned out the best thing ever!

As you know, towards the end of 2016, I lost my Dad and for a long time I really didn't have much interest in anything to do with Social Media, socialising and certainly not showing off my dolls.

 I didn't want to go anywhere, see anybody and just cut myself off from the world for a while... Until one day towards the end of January,  I discovered I had a message on Facebook so I checked it out, it was kind of odd as already that month two guys I was friends with in my teens also got in touch.

Les was an old friend's ex boyfriend, I rescued a rat from a girl I knew who wasn't looking after him and got Les to give him a good home,  the other was Lee former guitarist in  Acrimony (I loved that band!) and Lifer he was another old and now ex-friend's ex boyfriend whom I met when she introduced us when I was 12!  

I hadn't seen either of them for around twenty years. Catching up with them both really helped take my mind off the crap time I had been going through and of course as Lee, loves music and is still in a band (Woven Man), he put me onto some very cool bands to listen to which I had no idea existed! 

 I was loving all the new Doom Metal, Thrash bands and Stoner Metal I was discovering and then the most amazing thing happened...

I got a message out of the blue from a guy called Paul, we met in school when I was 16 (he was 14) after being introduced by a mutual friend.

 We both loved Slayer and Acrimony (he was/is friend's with the other guitarist in Acrimony - Stu' O'Hara, who now plays for Sigiriya)... As soon as I saw him I was smitten, by the time lunch break ended we were a couple.

Back in those days there were so many good local Metal bands and we used to go to gigs most weeks, there's never been much to do in "The Valleys" if you aren't old enough to get into one of the Village's 8 pubs.

The cinema (run by a group of volunteers) gets a few films each year, a couple of weeks after they've been shown in Swansea's UCI - not all of the films they show make it this far into the mountains though so unless you want to see the same film repeatedly for 3 weeks or don't like the other two that are going to be shown you're a bit stuck, especially now the swimming pool - open air mind you, pumped full of highly chlorinated river water, and only open during Summer months - has now shut down... there's nothing here for teenagers.

So we'd either hang around in a huge group inside and spilling out of  The Bus Stop listening to Metal on someone's Boom Box or following local bands, which had the added bonus of meaning we could get into local pubs to watch the band and while we were there... get drunk!

Anyway, long story short, I was stupid, I broke it off with Paul and broke both our hearts.

I moved away to college, moved back, got my Degree in Fine Art, had a Son and after years of disastrous relationships decided to give up on the whole idea.

I never did forget about Paul though, or stop regretting letting him go.

 In the mean time he'd done much the same except his Degree is in Electrical Engineering and he doesn't have children.

While we were catching up, I found myself feeling the same way about him as I did all those years ago... I guess it was inevitable that we'd end up on a date, well one date led to another, to another and...

In April 2017, we went to Bristol to see Acid Reign, a band he introduced me to all those years ago.

I met the bassist Pete Dee just before the gig and got his autograph on a poster I managed to snag from the Ladies, after the gig I got the other band member's as well, except for Marc Jackson the drummer 'cos I was drunk and got confused!

Since then we've seen Alice Cooper, Max & Iggor Cavalera, Overkill, Shrapnel, The Mission (UK), Children of The Gravy, and had a holiday in Shropshire.

Last month we went to see Sigiriya, are going to see Saxon and Diamond Head this week, we're booked for Cannibal Corpse in March, the Frost & Fire Festival in May and Iron Maiden and Power Trip in August.

I've been having a blast.

I haven't had much time for dolls, but I have got my hands on a few new BJDs which I'm happy to say Paul has helped me re-string - he doesn't understand the whole "Doll thing" or Doll Customising (He'd never heard of this before I told him) but he says "If it makes you happy it's all good" and as he knows about wires and electrics, he's perfectly happy to help me wire up my dolls houses too- what a guy!!

🌼 Unknown Doll / Disco Diva 🌼

I bought this doll from Ebay UK several years ago, she has weird little plastic loops under her feet so I think she may have once been a display doll which would have sat on the counter and displayed the latest outfits in 1/6 scale.

Other than that I have no ideas about her but would welcome any suggestions anyone has...

She is around Barbie height and came in this disco-esque style outfit, which is why I've taken to calling her "Disco Diva"!

The things on her feet make it impossible for her to wear normal barbie size shoes, but I have found that a pair of MyScene? boots work well, provided you don't attempt to push them too far up her legs.

At some point I'll probably cut them off so I can find her a better pair of boots, which actually match her outfit, but I'm loathe to do so until I find out why she has them and what type of doll she actually is.                                             

Here's a bad photo of her weird foot thingies, hopefully one of you has an idea what they're about please let me know!

They appear to have been made as part of the doll's skeleton - look under an older Barbie or Sindy doll's foot and you'll see a small slit with a bit of white hard plastic inside, hopefully, you get what I mean - when I was small I used to think these were the doll's leg bones!