About Me

My name is Emily and I live in New Jersey with my husband, six dogs, four cats, one parakeet, and an ever-changing cast of foster animals.  We have two grown-up kids who occasionally stop by.  Up until 2020, I was blogging from my home in rural Maine.

From "Behind the Toy Box."

I love animals and science.  I'm a licensed veterinarian and work part time at a wonderful no-kill shelter.

Two of my beloved dogs: Padawan and Monkeypants.

One of the newer dogs, Bucky!

When I was little, I was more interested in plastic horses than I was in dolls.  I had a huge collection of model horses (mostly from the Breyer company), and those figures still hold a special place in my heart...and make occasional appearances on the blog.

Let's Go Riding Western set by Breyer and a 1:9 Paradise horse and rider.

I did have some dolls when I was a child, though--don't get me wrong.  My sister and I each had a collection of Madame Alexander dolls, but we weren't allowed to play with most of them.

Here is one of my sister's old Madame Alexander dolls, "Poor Cinderella," in her original rag dress (left) and in a gorgeous ball gown (right) that my mother made for her:

Ever since I was a pretty young kid I've had an obsession with redheads (I wanted to be one) and a strong affinity for the Cinderella story (I wanted to be her).  So, given that my sister's old Madame Alexander doll is a redheaded Cinderella (which is rare!) can you imagine how badly I used to wish that she was mine?  I never got to play with her as a child, but my sister eventually surrendered her to me when we both moved away from home.  Better late than never.

The dolls I actually played with were mostly Mattel's Sunshine Family, the Mego Corp Wizard of Oz Glinda and Dorothy, and the plastic Jay and Josie figures by Marx.  Here's a picture I took when I was a kid, showing Mego Glinda (in Dorothy's dress) petting one of my Breyer model horses.  Marx Jay is in the background wrangling a mustang:

Here is the doll family from my childhood as they look now:

Jinny, Daniel, and their "twins"--the Sunshine family baby
and a little vinyl baby from Germany

They're a little worse for wear these days--but they got played with a lot.  The twins have lost some of their clothes over the years, and Jinny has lost a lot of hair.

To me, he was devilishly handsome and she was an unrivaled beauty.

I also had a few Sasha dolls that I bought for myself in Edinburgh, Scotland (where my family lived for a few years).

Sasha doll "Velvet."

My favorite doll, and my close companion, was Madame Alexander's baby Victoria:

Me with Victoria.

I like to think that I inherited my fondness for dolls from my wonderful grandmother.  She had a great appreciation for dolls and would travel to her local toy store once a year to pick out a new addition to her modest collection.  I loved to sit on her bed and gaze at her eclectic assortment of dolls and figures.  She didn't have any brand or style preferences, but cherished any character that reminded her of me or my sister.

I did inherit a few of my grandmother's dolls, including several Hummel figures.  This one is called "Homeward Bound:"

But of course to my grandma, the two little girls were me and my sister.

I also have my grandmother's Effanbee rag doll, who she named "Effie."  Effie had a cute baby sister, "Bea," but she was lost.

Effie represented my older sister, Bea was me.

Around the time my kids were born, I became very interested in baby dolls. I'll never forget the disbelief I felt when I saw Catariena Teunissen's vinyl Zapf twins Lilian and Vivian, or Linda Webb's Ashton Drake prototype for Baby Emily.  I didn't think it was possible to make such incredibly realistic baby dolls.

Webb's "Baby Emily" in silicone by Ashton Drake--redressed.

Zapf "Lilian" by Catariena Teunissen.  Redressed in BabyGap.

I found a few favorite artists and followed their work.  My most beloved baby dolls are older glass-eyed treasures from Gotz, Zapf and Sigikid.  Few modern companies are making baby dolls to this standard anymore.

Below is Didy Jacobsen's big vinyl Gotz baby, "Timo." To Timo's left is a smaller one-of-a-kind original art baby sculpted out of clay by Didy Jacobsen herself.
  

OOAK clay baby, "Stephanie," and Gotz vinyl baby, "Timo" (redressed).

I managed to buy Stephanie for under $200 when this style of doll fell out of favor.  To me, she is priceless.

I tried my hand at sculpting my own clay dolls for a while, focusing mostly on goofy, grinning caricatures of my two children.  One of my dolls was reproduced in vinyl for Masterpiece, but the poor thing was ridiculously unpopular.  I requested that the original sculpture be returned to me from Germany so that I could patch him up and keep him:

It was a neat experience to have a doll replicated and mass-produced, and I learned a lot about doll manufacturing and quality control along the way.

I amassed a pretty large collection of vinyl and clay baby dolls.  I suppose this collecting frenzy started as an attempt to hang on to the incredible experience of having real babies.  Dolls aren't even remotely close to being as amazing as real kids, of course, but the more I learned about the art of baby dolls, the more interested I became in dolls for their own sake.

As my kids got older, my interests switched to Annette Himstedt's larger child dolls. I purchased one of Ms. Himstedt's highly articulated club dolls, Fina, because for some reason she reminded me of my sister:

Himstedt "Fina" with her Kleine doll.

Annette Himstedt stopped making vinyl dolls in 2009, which was probably a good thing for me because the dolls were becoming prohibitively expensive.  I feel very fortunate to have a few of these special dolls in my collection.  My favorite is Ntathi:

Himstedt's Ntathi (redressed) from 2005.

When my eldest child was about seven years old, I discovered Tonner's 16-inch fashion dolls.  I bought Glinda from 2005 The Wizard of Oz collection first because she was like a fancy, large version of my old Mego Corp Glinda.  Tonner's Matt O'Neill reminded me of my old Marx Jay doll.

Here is the doll family from my childhood--upgraded to Tonner doll characters (with only one fully-clothed baby):

Jinny, Daniel, and their Ashton Drake baby.

Ashton Drake "Good As Gold."

It was only a few years later that Tonner made his first 16-inch Cinderella doll...and I was hopelessly hooked.

Tonner's "Dreams Come True" Cinderella.

Mr. Tonner even made a few redheaded characters with this beautiful Cinderella face sculpt.  Even though some of the Cinderella-faced dolls were given different names (below is Christine Daae from Phantom of the Opera), to me, they were all Cinderella.

Tonner's Christine Daae holding Basic Patsyette (redressed).

When we first moved to Maine in 2006, I went through a short resin ball jointed doll (BJD) phase.  I love the ethereal faces on some of these dolls, and of course I think their articulation is incredible.  For a while I imagined using BJDs to re-create the characters from The Legend of Zelda video games (a favorite in my house).

Unidoll's Feanor was to be Link, with a My Twinn horse serving as Epona:

And a Limwha half-elf seemed like the perfect Princess Zelda...but my sewing skills never quite rose to the challenge:

BJDs can be fragile, expensive, and tricky to maintain.  I found that collecting them was a little too stressful for me.  I still love looking at pictures of other people's beautiful ball jointed dolls, but I no longer collect them myself.

I never paid much attention to play dolls until 2010 when Spin Master introduced the Liv line. I was amazed by the incredible articulation offered by this inexpensive doll. For $20, I felt like I was getting a lot of the same type of fun and customization potential that the expensive BJDs offered...with none of the stress.

And with horses!

Liv horse Nutmeg.

As an adult, I've had more fun with these dolls than I ever would have thought possible.

Hayden's House playset.

Liv Hayden as a Fin Fun mermaid.

Once I started to notice the play doll aisles of nearby stores, though, my passion for dolls began to expand at a furious rate.  I discovered that dolls don't have to cost hundreds of dollars to be interesting and wonderful.  Now I find that I love learning about almost any kind of doll in any price range.

Certain trends in my doll preferences persist from childhood, though...like my love for redheads:

A Girl For All Time's Clementine.

Bratzillaz Meygana Broomstix.

Ever After High's Holly and Poppy O'Hair.

My fondness for Cinderella:

Cinderella and the Prince from the Disney Store.

My obsession with horses:

Monster High's Avea Trotter and a Paradise horse for 18-inch dolls.

And even a bit of biology teaching and science every now-and-again:

Rubens Barn Moss doll.

Project Mc2 McKeyla and her lava light.

One thing that has bothered me throughout all of my years as a doll collector is that it's difficult to find detailed, honest reviews of dolls--no matter the price range.

There are a lot of compensated endorsements for play dolls and a lot of passion for specific brands or styles of doll on various forums, but these reviews seldom offer the information I'm hoping to find. Whether I'm buying a $20 play doll or an $800 art doll, I want to know what I'm getting.

My doll collecting years are riddled with disappointments--some minor and some pretty huge.

The angry-faced Beatrix Girls Lark.

Vi and Va's elephant-footed Viviana doll.

A badly-stained Puppy Surprise pup.

The faded eyes on an 18-inch My Twinn doll.

In 2012, I decided that I would contribute to the online review situation by offering up pictures, details and thoughts about as many dolls as I could.  I'm very opinionated, but my intent here is not to force my opinions on anyone.  I simply want to provide information and analysis that might be helpful in navigating the wide array of doll options on the market.

The more reviews I write, though, the more I realize that dolls are an incredible and unique form of art.  Not only are they sometimes breathtakingly beautiful, realistic or unique...

Dianna Effner's Little Darling painted by Geri Uribe.

Superdoll's Sybarite Swallow.

Phicen's Super Flexible Seamless 1:6 Figure.

Zwergnase Junior Ivanca.

...but they also speak about us as individuals and as a society.

They provide fuel for our imaginations, and give us a way to continue our favorite stories from movies and television shows.

Periwinkle from The Secret of the Wings.

Characters from Doc McStuffins.

 Lonnie from Disney's Descendants movie.

They give rise to favorite childhood games...and then offer an everlasting reminder of those times and those games.

A Horsman Baby Dimples doll with my old friend Victoria.

A Mego Dorothy doll from eBay

Blueberry Muffin dolls.

They give us an outlet for nurturing, and help us understand other people and other cultures.

A My Salon Doll with washable hair.

American Girl mini doll Kaya and a Panamanian doll in a pollera dress.

My Twinn Annie with Extra Special Grace.

They can calm our insecurities and fears...

McFarlane's Daryl Dixon takes on Once Upon a Zombie's Snow White.

...or maybe fuel some of those fears!

Once Upon a Zombie Belle.

Dolls can make us laugh...

Fab Faces Kennedy.

Sing...

Singing Elsa from the Disney Store.

Think, and argue.

My Lammily doll, Mia.

They might remind us of the wonderful people and relationships in our lives...

Wildflower Dolls Kate and Tara.

...and can also offer their own form of companionship and loyalty.

Savannah by Maru and Friends.

Trio of American Girl dolls:
(My American Girl #29, mini Kit and Happy Meal Isabelle)

My dolls have been my companions at the beach (many times),

Our Generation mini Kendra.

Double Dutch Dolls' Kaila.

In the woods,

23-inch My Twinn doll, Hazel.

Under the sea,

Lala-Oopsie Sea Horse.

And overseas.

My Makie doll Effie on the train in Edinburgh, Scotland.

I am overwhelmed by the incredible diversity of dolls in the world, and can't wait to see what comes along next.

Cutie Pops dolls.

Dolls fill my house, my memories, my imagination...and this blog.  I hope you enjoy being here and exploring the vast and fascinating world of dolls with me.

Ever After High's Cupid and Tonner Doll's Ahoy Patience.

Pinkie Cooper's Jet Set Pet, Li'l Pinkie.