Sunday, September 25, 2011

Doll Questions for Doll Enthusiasts

I Do think internet sales are cutting into the sales of "brick and mortor" toy stores, as "A Phily Collector" has asked. I, for one, have to shop Ebay, (gurrrrr) and Amazon, They have an Accessible site, although NO accessible link for leaving feedback for Market Place sellers. I do not have transportation to Get to toy stores and do Not want anybody else picking out my dolls for me, because they don't know what to Look for. Other shoppers who can see can be distracted by clothing or paint jobs which make one doll visually Look different than another doll. For me, they All feel the same.

Here are some questions I cannot answer, now that I don't have sighted help shopping. Will you kind readers, please help, if you can find the time?

1. Who are Power Team? Are they dolls, 12 inch action figures, or what? If they have some cool guy figures, I'm interested. Too many girls with No guy friends or dates.

2. Do "Dynamite Girls" have oversized heads and faces like Bratz, Flavas, or (I think the spelling is) Live Girls?

3. Are there any dolls other than Mixis being sold which Don't have big heads?

Now we get to some questions which may seem too sensitive to be answered. Please remember, I am totally blind and Don't go around touching the faces of Other grown people Or children.

Can't say why, but I have always been Fascinated with faces, though I could never see well enough to look at them. So as a kid I had to ask my sister if Native Americans were red like a fire engine, I could see colors. I asked if white people looked like sheets, if Chinese people looked like lemons, and if African American people looked like patent leather. (Giving my age away with that one.) Of course, the answer to all of my questions was NO. I have since learned from Ann, who was a visual artist, that there are usually at least three predominant colors which make up Anyone's skin tone and with Well-made dolls, it is the same. Sounds very beautiful to me!

So I try to find people with a good eye for detail and the ability to describe well. Then I ask questions like: "Is this doll a warm tone brown, like she has a bit of red or pink in her skin, or a Cool tone, like a bit of purple in her skin?" With these sorts of specific questions and a good describer, I can Usually guess what colors of cloth will look good with a particular doll's skin tone and hair color. In hair, for example there is white blond, warm golden blonde, strawberry blond, which contains red, brown blond (sandy) etc. With darker colors there is brown/black, blue/black, black/brown, black with reddish highlights, etc.

I call my own hair color brack. Most sighted people just call it black. But it is really brown black, so dark that you have to Really look, to see the difference.

But I still have trouble with faces. I did touch Ann's face and it was most like Fiona of the Get Set Club, only smaller. Probably the closest to is is one of the smaller Teresa faces.

I have Gia from the Get Set Club as well as the other four. Their faces are All gorgeous and distinct.

Recently I got some Yue Sai Wawa dolls. I couldn't find their cheekbones. I mean no offense to anyone, I am ignorant! Jade from Integrity Toys has cheekbones, Gia does, Mulan does, are there Chinese people or Chinese-American people who have naturally rounded faces so that their cheekbones do not stick out, but blend into their faces?

I know many differing groups of people live in China and in Taiwan, where there are still a few aboriginal people. So is Yue Sai Wawa a doll with a "stylized face" or is she just an example of a differing kind of face, just as the face of Mulan is not like the face of Jade or Gia?

I know that the Princess line of Barbies tends to represent what is thought of at the Perfect face in each culture. And the "Princess of the Chinese Court" (I think that is the correct name, cannot look at the box to be sure) has a face which, if followed from one ear to the other, around the front, feels rouunded also. So I wondered if Yue Sai Wawa dolls are a Classic or Perfect style of faces.

Please excuse my ignorance and forgive any offense I may have caused anyone. My favorite subject in school was always geography, if it included the food, languages, customs, and dress styles of other cultures. I like music from Bolivia, Scotland, Senegal, Grece, and Bulgaria.

So I have always been fascinated by the variety of people on Earth, and how they look similar to, and different from one another. I like sculpting faces from clay, but like to be accurate, when I can.

2 comments:

  1. None of your questions offend me, but I can only speak for myself. I would not think that they would offend anyone else either. Just a guess on my part, wink and smile.

    1. Power Team action figures are 12" jointed figures by M and C Toys. The Power Team figures - mostly males but there are a few female - usually have unique faces, but sometimes, you can find a black and a white figure with the same face sculpt. Their bodies are a cross between jointed Joes and Kens. Their bodies are more muscular than Kens. (Note: they have nipples on their chest.) Their feet are more in proportion to their bodies than the feet of the Kung Fu Grip G.I. Joes from around 1976.

    It used to be easy to find Power Team figures at Big Lots, K B Toys, Family Dollar, and Sears. You might still be able to find them at Big Lots, but make sure that you are getting the 12" figures and not the tiny ones. There seem to be a lot of those tiny ones left.

    2. Most Dynamite Girls have normal sized heads, but their is a group of them with larger heads. The 2010 line called "Vintage Vinyl" had larger heads. Seems as though the current line has reverted to normal head sizes. Whew. They are cute dolls ... younger than Integrity Toys' Fashion Royalty dolls. Smaller breasts and fashion doll jointed bodies at the elbows, and knees.

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  2. Hi there.

    This is to answer the question: are there Chinese people or Chinese-American people who have naturally rounded faces so that their cheekbones do not stick out, but blend into their faces?

    I didn't think it was offensive. I'm Asian (Filipino with some Chinese heritage, to be more accurate) so I'm really interested how the Asians are represented and perceived in the doll world.

    To answer your question, yes, some Chinese (and other Asians) do not have prominent cheekbones. I was touching my cheeks to get an idea of how to describe mine. All I could imagine was a small portion of surface of an inverted cone. When I smile, that is only when I get a bump on my cheeks.

    You wondered if Yue Sai Wawa dolls are a Classic or Perfect style of faces.

    I'm not in a position to answer what is classic or perfect when it come to faces. I do know that the doll was modeled after its designer, Yue-Sai Kan. Although I can see some resemblance with the doll, Yue-Sai Kan has prominent cheeks. I haven't seen her in person so I'm saying that based on her online photos.

    I hope that helps. *smile*

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