Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Doll-A-Day 152: American Girl Kirsten and What Else I Bought at the Flea Market

  Today I'm showing you most of the stuff I bought at the flea market on Saturday.The first thing I saw that had promise was the corner where the lady I bought the $1 Betsy McCall from last year was selling her goods.

Last year's Betsy in her original pj's. She's just dancing folks, She has two whole legs.
I was pretty sure it was her, so I headed straight for her stuff. It was her, but she didn't have much good stuff this time. She also wanted $3 for her Barbies, which is way above my buying range, unless it's something super special. I did get this Best Friends Club Ink Kaitlin doll from her.

I already have a Kaitlin and the boots this one is wearing, but I wanted the jeans and dress she's also wearing.
  Elsewhere I also got this great Bratz English telephone box. (It lights up too!)

And the tiny doll next to it I showed you the other day.
  I also got a box full of Sunshine Family stuff, including the house, baby's room, truck, and the farm in it's original box.But the find of the day has to have been this American Girl Kirsten.

She's marked Pleasant Company, and wearing her original Meet outfit, minus her apron. Kirsten Larson was one of the first three original historical American Girl dolls that came out in 1986. She's supposed to be a pioneer girl from 1854, whose family settles in Minnesota after leaving their native Sweden.The character was archived in 2010.

This doll seems to have been played with very little. Her limbs are super tight. She's very clean, and her outfit only has a few spots on the back of her dress, which will probably wash out.


There is only one problem. She has silver eye in one eye.

 I have a Samantha, and I would love to have an Emily, but I'll probably be letting Kirsten go, so her new owner can deal with her eye problem. I checked, and she can be sent to the American Girl hospital for new eyes for a total cost of $36, including shipping.Actually, the silver eye doesn't look bad, it just doesn't match the other one.

  I've read two different theories on silver eye. One said that it was where the eye gets water in it. Someone else shot that one down by explaining that the eyes are acrylic and wouldn't be affected by water like old fashioned eyes made of metal, or with metal sockets. Someone else explained that they had a theory that silver eye was caused by light fading the eye. They had a doll with one silver eye, so they experimented with the other one, leaving a high powered light on it for a period of time, and the other eye did develop silver eye. Some plastics also change over time, so it could just be a flaw in the make up of the plastic the eyes were made from.
  In general I'm not a huge fan of American Girl dolls, but I do like the historical costumes and the huggable feel of the bodies. I also love dolls with teeth! My main complaint about American Girl dolls is that they all look so much alike. (To me anyway. I know a lot of people can tell the difference between all the face molds.) If Kirsten had been an Emily, or even a Felicity, I would be a lot more excited right now!
  See you tomorrow for another doll.

9 comments:

  1. OOOOOOOOOH, I'm envious of your telephone box. If I could find one of those, we (and I KNOW it would become a family project) would turn it into a TARDIS. Nice finds, though.My most impressive recent find (to me) was a Living Skipper in a vintage outfit.

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    1. Oh! A Tardis! I never thought of that! (But how to make it bigger on the inside?!) The kids would have gone for that in a big way when they were smaller. One of the best Living Skippers we have found was found by Ivy, laying face down in our local Goodwill. (The doll that is, not Ivy...)

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  2. Actually did you know AG will fix silver eyed dolls for free? It's a defect and you either bring them to the store or fill out the form for the hospital. You only have to pay shipping! :)

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    1. Thanks Korianne. That makes a difference! Oh, I looked at your blog and got excited that you were selling your Gianna BFC doll, but she seems to be gone already. :(

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    2. "Actually did you know AG will fix silver eyed dolls for free?"

      That's true. However, when you take a doll in for this, they will replace the entire head, not just the eye, and if it's an older doll they may also replace the entire doll - and when they do this, you don't get the original parts back. If you have a "pre-Mattel" doll I would definitely not advise that you do this, because you'll basically end up getting a new doll.

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    3. Thanks for the information and advice Olivia. That's good to know. I would hate to think that they throw away the older dolls!

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  3. My sister got for Christmas 1969 a Dancerina, which she LONGED for. And then the doll's arms fell off. She was devastated!
    My Mother called the german Mattel, they said 'send the doll, keep the clothes, they will bother us'. My Mother did, the parcel came back- and there was a new doll! We knew it for sure, the first had no teeth, the second had.
    My Mother called again and spoke to a very nice man, which said he understands how much a girl can cry if her doll disappears, and no new doll can fix that hole in the girl's soul. He promised to seek the old Dancerina and send her, even if the arms would be missing, and he told us, they had huge mountains of toys outside the factory! So he could not promise he will find her there, but if, we will get her back.

    He never called back, and he never sent that parcel. But I begged and begged my Mother to go with me to Hessia to these huge toy mountains. She never did, of course, and said it wouldn't be allowed.
    Mattel moved some years ago, my sister broke the arms from her new Dancerina and lost her later, togehter with all her other dolls, my Mother died, I learned to fix Dancerina's arms, and I even bought a new one for my sister for Christmas-
    but believe it or not, in my dreams I still climb on mountains of Mattel toys from the Sixties.
    If I would wake up one day and find me not in my bed, but stay there on these mountains in reality, I would not leave a single Barbie head or Hot Wheels car or whatever there, would all of them take with me home and love them. Trust me.
    You will hear from me that very moment.

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    1. I totally understand about your sister wanting her same doll back.It was very nice of the man to even try to find her.How sweet of you to replace your sister's doll!

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  4. Thanks a lot for your friendly answer :)
    Oh yes, it was so lovely of him! SOmetimes men have such a great understanding of dolls and girls! My mother said her that her most beloved doll, a baby, which was stolen after the war in 1945 only because her Mama tried to hide it and so brought it in that danger, was bought by my Grandfather, and he searched and searched in that huge store for hours, taking every doll and look into her face. My Grandmother had told it my Mother :)
    Yes, the man could have say: Well, be happy, the new Dancerina with that shining teeth is our new star! or so, but now, he was so sweet :)
    Thank you, too, because you say it was nice from me, too. She will get her when I will have replaced the record, too. I have still the old record, but that single album must be in the cellar :/ And I think, she must get it for CHristmas, as she did back then. I cannot imagine to give her a Dancerina Easter or in summer. I cannot imagine her face :) We loved to watch back then a mini serial about a little ballet dancer at the Opera in Paris, which was blamed for something another did and was thrown out, but later allowed to come back because they found out the other girl wasjealous and did the crime. So she could not sleep or eat, only wanted that doll. My Mother had sewn ballet dresses for all of her dolls, but of course, Dancerina REALLY could dance, and she had these wonderful pointed feet and shoes. Dancerina is so expensive her; she is much, much cheaper in the US, but there she has painted eyes, so I could not buy overseas. Sigh. But I think I will buy one for me there. I always look if I have to replace a doll of mine if the 'new' resembles the lost one, but since I had no Dancerina, a doll with painted eyes will be nice for me, too :)

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Thanks in advance for your comments.