Heidi Ott 18" Faithful Friend Beth Doll

Greetings and Salutations Doll Friends!

I am sure I've mentioned before but I have always loved dolls! I collected them, a bit, before my kids were born, I had maybe ten and I displayed them in my craft room on a table. Then my own babies came and, silly me, I thought I needed to "grow up" and get rid of my "toys" and I *gasp* sold or gave away all but the ones I had as a girl. Here is a photo of some of my dolls back then. Please excuse the bad quality of the photo, it's from my scrapbook. Just wanted to show you that I've loved dolls quite a while. 

As you can see in the photo, at that time I owned two Heidi Ott Faithful Friend dolls. I loved them and am so sad I got rid of them then! Fate meant that I should have at least one of them in my collection again though! Because recently I went to Goodwill and found this beauty for $9.99 new in the box!

Ok, I'll admit, the box itself isn't a beauty anymore... But it's not to bad considering its 20 years old! 

So much fun that I get to be the to unbox her after all these years. 

 

As I was pulling out the box inside the box the register receipt from the original purchase fell out! Fun! So it looks like someone bought her in 1998 on sale for $32.99! 

I already knew she was going to be top notch before I unboxed her but I took photos of all of it so I could show you how she was in the box in case you're considering purchasing one on eBay. They are plentiful there and you can buy one for a pretty good deal.

I love the way they boxed her! She was held in by little fabric strips, not zip ties or fishing line type string. Classy!

 See? Untie one cloth strip and her feet are free to get out of the box.

I though this was a great feature! Her hands were both covered but cloth tubes to keep her clean and nice! I am kind of surprised they did this because it doesn't display too well in the box but it is awesome that after nearly 20years her hands were in great shape because they were so well protected! 

I also loved this little detail of the box. That hole in the top is such a neat little extra, making it easier to pull the inner box out of the outer box. 

One rubber band held her head in place, held by those two little hooks.

 Again they had a fabric scrap protecting her neck from the rubber band. So neat!

Here is a closer look the "tube" of white fabric on her hands.

And one of the one by her neck.

One thing it seems to be agreed on in all reviews of these dolls is that their clothing is top notch. I hadn't thought too much about this back when I owned my two before because I left them in their original outfits and never changed them enough to notice how well made the clothes were I guess. Well, it's true, they are fabulous clothes! I love the coat, hat and muff she came in and it's probably worth the $9.99 I paid for the whole doll!

Here she is in her full outfit from the box.

This is her dress. Plain but pretty.

She has a mark on her neck that says Heidi Ott.

Here she is with one of my other 18" dolls, a "My Life As" doll (Walmart) named Leanne.

And with my Our Generation doll named Florence.

All changed into more modern clothes. I upcycled that skirt from baby clothes. 

All in all I love her. I plan to re-wig her at some point because as much as it is commonly agreed that the clothing and doll itself is top notch, they had to make it affordable somehow and so used "not so great" wigs. I will leave hers in pigtails until I do, to make it stay as nice as possible. I think I'll go with a bit darker blonde perhaps or maybe another colour entirely. Just a matter of time and finding wig money in my doll budget! 

That's it for now! Thanks for stopping by! See you again soon I hope!

XOXO