Hi Doll Friends!
So I recently did a doll body transplant for a doll who's vintage face scuple I loved but who's body I wasn't too fond of... Well, after loving the results of that so much, I got on a bit of a kick.
This recent Vintage Sekiguchi Doll eBay find got me to thinking... "What would a Sekiguchi be like with a 'poseable' body?" Well, I still had the Our Generation doll I got here always seemed, to me, to have a bit of a 'green' tinge to her hair.... So... I decided to change out the Sekiguchi head onto the OG body.
As you can see, the Sekiguchi doll bodies are not poseable at all, mostly cloth. So they always have to sit and never look just 'right' in the doll clothes made for 18" dolls.
To get head off, you just have to open up a bit of the seam at neck, take a 'seam ripper' tool and get it up under the old zip tie... Then after you have the seam ripper in there, it's easier to get scissors in and snip the tie.
Only trouble? The OG Doll was a 'poseable' one and I forgot they come with armatures. Not normally a problem except the Sekiguchi had a 'neck' attached to their head just like the Vintage Mattel Cameo Doll had.
I was committed at this point... So I went and yanked the wig off another OG doll and took off it's head instead. Helps to have lots of dolls and have some that, while you like them, you haven't 'named' them yet and so aren't all that emotionally involved in them. Haha!
This one was a 'standard' doll and so no armature. Perfect. I pulled a bit of fluff out to make room for Sekiguchi doll's 'neck' and then zip tied them back on...
Awesomeness!!
So I had the head off the other doll already... And my Leanne doll's body hadn't ever been a favorite. I loved the face sculpts of Pen Pal Dolls but the bodies and hair were a total disappointment. I even re-wigged both of my Pen Pal Dolls. So, I solved it finally by giving her the OG body with the armature. What's funny is that she ends up with a different wig as well... So "Leanne Doll" is really custom! Haha! I'll show you her new wig in an upcoming post!
However... I had a different doll that hadn't really ever made it out of a box in basement simply because I loved her face but really disliked the design of her body. Her shoulders didn't look good in anything... She is a "TAK MAY" doll per her kneck markings but I've never been able to find any doll like her much of anywhere, even on eBay. So she is a bit of a mystery... Anyway, so now I had the 'spare' Pen Pal Doll body. As much as it wasn't my favorite, it was a huge improvement over this one and also the skin tone was pretty much spot on! Hmmm....
See how weird her shoulders are?
This is her tag. It says: "Creative Designs Int'l Ltd. Travose PA 19053" (etc) but despite all that information I've never been able to find another doll like this... Until...
The other day at a Thrift Store, I found a brunette of the exact same brand!! It's like finding two unicorns or something because I am telling you, these dolls don't exist! Not really... Obviously they do because here they are... But do the research! I can't find them anywhere in eBay even in 'history' of passed auctions. That's pretty rare. Have you ever seen them before?
Here is the top of the Pen Pal body. They come with strings, kind of like American Girl dolls but they aren't the quality by a far stretch. I mean, they can actually pose reasonably well and can sit really well (with legs forward instead of all spread eagle!) but they are very 'light weight' plastic and feel 'insubstantial'. Not the best... but better than the TakMayBlonde had before!
So I switched them out. I used a zip tie because the strings never seemed to work well. Again, I wish I had zip ties with smaller 'tie' parts. I need to research them and see if they make them (well, obviously they do... but where to buy?). If I find them, I'll go about replacing the ones that I have that are like this...
So here she is! With a body that will look nicer in clothes! Woot! Doesn't she have a pretty face! Those eyes!
Here is the Pen Pal doll tag.
So then I decided my other doll needed a 'proper' body. Since I had a couple of boys made from the 'Battat 1998' face scuplt, I decided to take the wig off one and steal it's body for this girl. As a side note... Perhaps I should confess now. About half of my 're-wigged' dolls don't have thier wigs glued down. Since no children play with my dolls and generally wigs stay on pretty well once you get them in place, I don't see a need to make them 'permanent' unless the doll is just 'perfect' as it comes out and I know I'll never ever want to change them. If that makes sense. It's paid off a few times when I've changed my mind about a doll wig. So, in this case, my 'Elvis' doll is no more... But Kevin doll was born! So it's a progression sometimes, right? LOL
Here they are before surgery! Haha!
Oh no! They've lost their heads!! Haha!
Here they are, all swapped! Naturally I'll likely donate the 'cast off' dollies to Goodwill. Who knows who might find them the right spare part for their doll project, right? Halloween is coming... People need dolls to make into Halloween decorations and this sort of doll would be spot on for that. Right?
So, here they are, all new bodies!! Able to stand up and pose and look fabulous in clothes! Doll body swaps are fun. Pretty sure I'll never be able to pass up a second hand doll again if the body is in good shape because you never can tell when you'll find a doll with a beautiful face but a sub-par doll body!
Till next time!
XXOO
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