Chrysalis Dolls by Helen Kish

With the release of the new Barbie Basics sets and all of Lena's wedding plans, I feel like this blog has been taken over by Mattel products lately.  That's not necessarily a bad thing, but I have no affiliation with Mattel and I like to try and keep a decent amount of diversity on the blog.  So, for today's review, I decided to look at a group of dolls who have very little in common with Barbie, and nothing whatsoever to do with Mattel.

The girls in today's review are designed by Helen Kish, a renowned doll artist whose work was popular back in the early 2000s.  This is around the same time that Robert Tonner was releasing the16-inch Cinderellas that I love so much, and Ellowyne Wilde was making a name for herself.

I've mentioned Ms. Kish's adorable 7-inch Riley's World dolls a few times in passing on the blog, but today I'm going to be focused on her Chrysalis collections.  With sizes in 8, 12 and 14 inches, the Chrysalis dolls are larger than Riley, and most of them have plastic bodies with great articulation.  Between 2008 and 2013, I eagerly anticipated each Chrysalis release, and poured over all of the beautiful promotional photos.  But back in those days I didn't have the budget to buy any of my favorites.  In the last few years I've made up for that fact by searching out a few select Chrysalis dolls, mostly on the secondary market, and finally bringing them home:

My First Heels Lark by Helen Kish, 2008.  From the Chrysalis collection.

1:6 Scale Wedding Dresses for Barbie, Part Three

Whew!  It took me a lot longer to get this review pulled together than I thought it would.  The biggest obstacle was that there was a huge delay with one of the Etsy dresses that I bought.  I placed my order way back in early April, thinking that would be more than enough time, but the dress still hasn't arrived.  I don't think it ever will, actually.  Once I realized I couldn't count on that dress, I took the time to learn a bit more about it, found a (better) replacement, and, well, found a few other "replacements" too.  Because of course I did.  Overkill is my middle name.

So, what was originally the shortest review in this series has suddenly morphed into the longest.  By a lot.  There are nearly twenty dresses for Lena to look at today!  We should probably get started.

Lena wearing a handmade dress from Etsy.

1:6 Scale Wedding Dresses for Barbie, Part Two

Are you ready to look at more wedding dresses?  I hope so, because I have a bunch to share with you today.  Lena and I have been enjoying your comments from Part One of this series, learning which dresses you like best so far, and seeing some of those dresses differently based on your insights.  For example, thanks to Alison, now we know about "bouncy" seams, and are a bit less enamored with the overly-shiny fabrics.  I also feel like we might have missed a great opportunity by not considering a custom dress--especially now that some of Lena's preferences are becoming clear.

So far I've learned that she likes a bit of drama, especially in the back of the dress.  She also likes off-white, as it compliments her complexion, and lace seems to make her happy.  She doesn't like flowers or bows very much, and certainly won't be wearing a short dress to her wedding.  And we might have to reconsider the idea of an up-do for her hair.  I've enjoyed seeing how pretty and natural she looks with her hair down.

On the other hand, some wedding up-dos are spectacular, and make me reconsider.  For example, check out the hair (and tiara!) on Reem Acra's beautiful Barbie bride:

We'll be stealing that dress.

1:6 Scale Wedding Dresses for Barbie, Part One

Spring is definitely in full swing here in New Jersey, which means a lot of flowers...and a lot of kittens.  I've been having a fun time with both recently: my husband and I spent the last two weekends re-planting large areas of our garden that didn't survive the winter, while taking breaks to watch our foster cat raise her new litter of five kittens.  It's all been pretty magical.

Springtime also means that Lena's wedding is right around the corner!  That's magical, too, but she hasn't picked a dress yet, which is stressing me out.  So, during the month of May, I'll try to help her make a decision by showcasing a variety of dresses in several different styles and ranging in price from $6.89 to $242.

My plan right now is to do three wedding dress posts.  The first two will feature gowns made by Mattel specifically for Barbie dolls.  The third post will focus on off-brand or handmade dresses that I found on eBay, Amazon, and Etsy.  This won't even come close to being a comprehensive look at all currently available Barbie wedding attire, but that doesn't mean we won't be looking at a lot of dresses over the next few weeks.  In the end, I think Lena will have nearly thirty gowns to choose from.  That ought to be enough, don't you think?

We'll see, Emily.

Sunday Surprise: Bitty Pop! Disney Princesses by Funko!

I'm still in the process of gradually adding links to the List of All Reviews page, which is fun because it helps me remember some of my older stuff.  There are dolls on this blog that I'd completely forgotten about over the years, like Mattel's charming Kuu Kuu Harajuku Girls (they didn't last long...) or those strangely-colored but environmentally friendly AZIAM Girlz.  A pattern that I've been noticing as I go through the list is that I used to write more Sunday Surprise posts.  Or I feel like I did, anyway.  There was a period back in 2017 where nearly every other review was a Sunday Surprise!  These days, I'm lucky if I squeeze in three or four per year.

Some of my very favorite reviews (like Sweet e.Baby and WuvLuvs) have been Sunday Surprises, so I decided that I should try to remedy this deficit by adding more surprise-themed toys to the blog.  I'm eager to review the Disney Princess Surprise Tower sets that were recommended to me a few weeks ago, and have those in the queue, but I've been looking at so many Mattel dolls lately, I need a change of pace.

So, with Disney Princesses on my mind, I went on a hunt for more surprise dolls.  And guess what?  I discovered that Funko makes mini versions of their Disney Princess characters!  Eee!  I love minis, and I love Funko and their Disney figures!  Even better, each set of tiny Princesses comes with a mystery character.  Perfect.  So, today I'll take a look at Funko's Bitty Pop! line and uncover a few adorable mystery Princesses:

Funko Pop! Cinderella 222 with a pyramid of Bitty Pop! Princesses.

You Create Barbie Basics by Mattel

I've been talking about head-swapping dolls for a long time now.  Since late January, if you can believe it.   I mean, there was snow on the ground back then, and now it's full-blown spring, with flowers everywhere. I'm probably at the point where I'll be trying to rip the heads off normal dolls, just out of habit.  And the thing is, I haven't even exhausted the concept.  I have a few more dolls that I found during the last few months that I'd love to show you someday.

But for now, I'm going to wrap up the series by finishing my discussion of Mattel's new Barbie Basics, all of whom have easily removable heads.  Today I'll be reviewing the You Create Kit 001, which offers extra bodies, heads, wigs, and outfits to match the 2025 Basics Model 01, who you met in the last review:

Barbie Basics Model 01 with heads from the You Create Kit 001.

2025 Barbie Basics by Mattel

There's been a lot of bleak news in this country lately, but I can usually find good stuff to distract me in the doll world.  For example, several new members joined my Patreon community recently, which is really exciting, especially since I haven't had much time for that site since I got a job.  But I have a new post in the pipeline, and am very grateful to those of you who've been keeping this blog running for the last four years.  Your contributions are invaluable--financial and otherwise.  As an example, my newest Patron, Aether, pointed out to me the other day that my List of All Reviews page wasn't working.  Sorry about that!  I have no idea why the code stopped functioning all of a sudden, and I tried to fix it, but as a last resort I'm in the process of manually entering the links to all of my old reviews.  That'll take a while, but should get everything back to normal.

As another fun distraction, I'm here today to take a look at the highly-anticipated new Barbie Basics dolls!  This crew is part of a broader You Create line that Mattel released last month.  All of the dolls have easily removable heads, which makes this review a nice addendum to my recent head-swapping series.

The 2025 Barbie Basics dolls from Mattel, $25 each.