The My Twinn Project

One of my new ideas for the blog is to write about the doll-related projects in my life.  I could call this series of posts "regular person attempts tricky things that you can learn from the internet!" but I'll probably just put the word "project" somewhere in the title.  I love a good project.  I've documented project-like things in the past, but I'd like to make it more of a regular occurrence.  The basic formula will be to set the scene in a relatively short post and then publish a few progress updates--interspersed between my more conventional reviews.  This way you'll get to follow along and share in the suspense as I succeed (or fail!) in my endeavors.  When the project is complete, I'll put together a cumulative post with some concluding pictures and statements.  Let's see how it goes!

The first project involves My Twinn dolls.  My Twinn went out of business in January.  I was sad to hear this news, but it didn't come as much of a surprise.  By late 2015, the quality of the 18" dolls was plummeting, there was a glut of unsold, mega-browed 18" Adopt-A-Friends, and the company had ceased production of dolls with darker skin tones.  The situation didn't look promising.  The way I see it, My Twinn dolls were made great by four critical things: a great range of customizable options (including over 40 face molds), overall high quality of construction, beautiful inset eyes, and carefully hand-painted eyebrows.  Many of these features had gone out the window by the time My Twinn closed its doors.

Like many collectors, I think the best versions of My Twinn dolls are the ones assembled in Denver, Colorado from 1995 through 2001.  These dolls have high-quality vinyl, beautiful (durable) eyes, nice wigs, a variety of faces, and (occasionally) artist-painted eyebrows.  To commemorate the end of My Twinn, I decided to add one more of these vintage gems to my collection.  The Denver dolls are all at least 15 years old by now, though, so adopting one is likely to involve a bit of restoration.  This project will document what kind of work can be required...and how I struggled through it.

My Twinn Audrey from 2001.

An 18" My Twinn Face Mold Guide

I don't know what it is about My Twinn, but they're ridiculously good at sidetracking me.  I had a completely different review planned for this weekend, but here I am writing about My Twinn again.  This is actually more of a project than a review, though, so let me back up and explain.

The other day I got an email from AJ, admitting that she had been bitten by the My Twinn Adopt-a-Friend bug during the most recent $49 sale.  Hearing about AJ's experience in picking her new doll (which you can see on her blog) sent me scurrying over to the My Twinn site myself.  Before I knew it, I was back in my old habits--hunched over the computer, entrenched in the process of peering at tiny pictures, trying to find some treasures amidst about a thousand discounted Adopt-a-Friend dolls.

The most recent sale was for the newer, smaller, 18" Adopt-a-Friend dolls, and I found the process of choosing one of these characters more difficult than it was for the older 23" Friends.  I think the biggest problem is that the facial features aren't as distinct.  I ended up spending most of my time just trying to identify the different face molds, which was really hard for me.  I searched the internet looking for clues, and couldn't find a single resource on these new faces--there certainly isn't anything on the My Twinn site (there should be).  So, for this post, I am going to share some of the faces I've deciphered, with the ardent hope that many of you will know more than I do, and will pitch in to fix any mistakes and help me create a complete, accurate resource.

18" (left) and 23" (right) My Twinn Katie faces.