Sometimes it Pays to Shop on eBay

In 2012, Disney released some holiday ornaments that were shaped like Mickey Mouse ear hats, but were customized for different characters. I thought it was a cute idea and I was rather impressed with some of the ones saw; Princess Aurora (Sleeping Beauty) had a particularly interesting one with pink in the front and blue in the back.

As I am sure anyone does, I was worried about what my favorite characters' hats would look like. I tend to be more harsh of a critic when dealing with something that I like, be it Disney characters or otherwise (I am a real stickler for orcas being correctly marked when represented in art or sculpture!)

I browsed the source I had for looking at the ornaments and when I saw Rapunzel's ear-hat, I was in love. The front of the ornament was amazing. I loved the hair and the tower being there, and the details in the floral design. When I saw the back of the hat, I was even more in love.

Unfortunately, I would not get my ornament that holiday season. They were not available in the Disney Store (online and parks only) and when I went to get myself one, they were sold out. Alas, no ear hat for me. I kept two pictures of it from the stock photos on my computer just so I could look at it from time to time, but I figured it was another Tangled item I would not be collecting. I was disappointed  but at the same time I was okay with it.

Fast forward a few months to March. I was browsing the Disney Store online site to see what new things were going to be coming out to the local Disney Store that I may need to start saving some money for. As I was looking over their Rapunzel section, I saw that they had re-released the ornament. I was so excited, but when I saw that the price was $21.95 and that did not include shipping, I was hesitant to get one.

I then wondered, could there be a cheaper one on eBay? While that is usually the land of ridiculous markups,  sometimes eBay can offer a good price on things; even at below cost from the original seller. I did a search for the ornaments and did find people who had priced them at over 100% markup. I did eventually find, however, someone who was selling them at below the price the Disney Store had them up for. So below that even after shipping, I was a few dollars less. I purchased myself one and was so very pleased.

 When the ornament arrives in the mail, I was surprised that the glitter on the raised portions of the floral design were not sloppily done and that there was complete coverage. I marveled at the detail and set it up on my collection shelf, wishing I had some kind of stand to hang it from. Eventually I would get one, I thought, because eventually I would have all my Tangled items in a section of my house with shelves and a curio or doll cabinet so I could admire all of it all the time.

 

Something interesting happened though. A few days later, I got another box. I was, indeed, waiting for a doll I had ordered, but this box was far too small. What on earth could it be? I looked over the return address and it was very familiar. When I opened it up, I was surprised to find a second ornament. I had gotten no notice that I would be getting a second one and I had not paid for two. I double checked my account to make sure I had not been charged again, and there was no money taken for this surprise. I laughed and set it next to the one on my collection shelf, turning it to face away from me so that I could view both sides of the ornament at once.

Tangled Tale for Tonner's "Tangled"

There are only four dolls major I have left to gather for my collection to be complete (so far, right?) There are a few odds and ends from the Disney Store it would be neat to have, such as Rapunzel's Dress Boutique from when the film was released, but I am not too concerned with those ones for now.

Those four dolls are the Disney Store LE Mother Gothel Doll, the Disney Store LE Rapunzel Wedding Doll (which if I acquired I would have her re-rooted to have long hair and not that ghastly mop she came with.), the Robert Tonner's Rapunzel doll, and Robert Tonner's Tangled doll. Recently, one of these dolls found her way to my collection, but her journey was not easy.

Robert Tonner's dolls are amazing. There are no if-ands-or-buts about it. Usually the dolls that are made are done so to show off fashions and are, essentially, barbies for adults. However, the Tonner Company does get licences to produce dolls based on film, comics, and literature. There have been many Disney dolls made in different sizes, but two of then stood out to me: Rapunzel and Tangled. Both dolls look the same, for the most part. Same face, same clothes, same body, but the difference is in the hair. Rapunzel has her hair loose and a lot longer than she was tall. I would estimate her hair length to be over twenty inches, and the doll herself is only about sixteen inches tall. Tangled has Rapunzel's hair in a braid decorated with flowers. If it were unbraided, the hair would not be as long as it was in the first edition of the doll.

Browsing the internet as I tend to do, I saw two people selling this doll for their original listed price: $189.99, a little more once you factored in shipping costs. I could not justify spending that much on a doll, so I just kept looking at images and dreaming and wondering if she was as wonderful as all the views said she was. During a search I found the Tangled doll for waaaaay under her listed price. Including shipping, I would still be making out like a bandit. I was so excited. I immediately checked my finances then purchased her.

The next day at work, I was so excited. I was humming and bright and just-perky-enough not to be annoying when I got a phone call on my cell. At a break, I checked my messages and it was the person I had bought the doll from. I thought it was strange, so I called them back and he delivered terrible news. They were out of the doll and the site had not been taken down as it was supposed to be. He said he was sending me a refund check in full in the mail and apologized again.

My happiness shattered. I was back to square one. Sure, I got my money back and everything in that arena turned out fine, but I was so sad. The rest of the work day went slower, the drive home felt worse, and I went back to teasing myself by looking at the other dolls that were for sale. I still refused to pay that price. She was so close, yet so far away...

It wasn't long until I was browsing the net some more and I saw her again. Someone listed her online for sale on eBay. Again, she was below the original listing price and after shipping she was only $4 more than the other price I had agreed to pay. With the money I had gotten back from the other sales person, I knew I could afford her, but I was a little worried that this may turn out to be another bust. The buyer had a high approval rating and all negative feedback that was given the buyers themselves said their money was given back, so I figured I would take the chance.

She was mailed the say after the auction ended, on a Friday. She was estimated to arrive on Tuesday, but surprised me with a Monday appearance. When the box she came in was opened, there was another box inside. It was the Tonner's Disney Showcase box and I knew it was a good sign. The lid was removed, the tissue paper parted, and there was Rapunzel looking up at me with her big, green eyes. I had her. Tonner's Tangled was in my hands and she was mine at last.

Carefully, I deboxed her. I had learned how to do so from my grandmother and mother. She was easily removed from her box, since she was tied in there with ribbons rather than those horrible little plastic twists and tags that keep my other dolls safe in their boxes. The ribbons and all the items that padded her and kept her safe were put back into the box and placed in the closet with some other dolls I do not have the room to display at the moment. I set up her doll stand, put on her little ballet flats (even though she did not wear shoes in the film, they were too adorable not to put on her), and stepped back and just looked at her.

What I liked about this doll is that she did not look like the others I had. She was not just an animated-style doll that represented the heroine in the film. She looked as though she could have been a real person. She was so very clearly Rapunzel without being overtly cartoonish. Her face is so calm and gentle. There is a quality about it that speaks to an innocence and a curiosity. She is so very child-like, but also so grown up and ready to see the world.

I loved the detail in her dress as well. It was amazing to me that the dress was in three parts rather than a full dress like the Disney versions have made her to be. The fabric was satiny, smooth, and even a little soft. The lace chosen was beautiful and the bodice had the printed design that it had in the film, as did the front panel.

Her hair was beautiful and shiny and braided with flowers. One of the details that I love about the hair is the extra hair at the bottom that is wrapped around the end of the braid like it was in the film. It was also soft. It did not have that plastic doll-hair feel. However, the hair is the first thing on the list of features I did not like about her as well, strange as that is. Within her hair was a strand of rope. You can see it in the images of her braid (it's the long lighter-colored strand in her braid on the left-hand side.) Also, her wig is does not look like it fits her properly. From a distance it looks all right, as evident by the photos, but when you look at the head closely you can see how the wig almost doesn't seem to fit her right. The edges of the wig are exposed and don't look a nice as it would have if the doll had been given rooted hair.

Another thing that I did not like about the doll was the detail on her dress. While it was beautiful on one hand, on the other the embroidery (which was really a printed pattern) did not follow the hem all the way around. It stops only a few inches along the bottom hem on either side of the dress. I can ignore the face that the front panel was not overlapped with the other panels to give it an under-skirt look, but the embroidery only going around part of the skirt seemed like a minor oversight that would have made the dress so much better.

Despite those minor issues, I am still so very glad I found her. What she has also done is set me up to know that I will love the Tonner Rapunzel if I can ever find her. She is next on my list, if possible. 

Reborn Rapunzel Doll

After a long day, I sat down at my computer to have some quiet time to myself. I spent this time lazily browsing eBay to see what other Tangled things I could find and see if there was anything new. While there were a few things that stood out as new, or at least were things I had not seen before, a familiar image kept appearing in my searches.

This is the face of a fan-made OOAK Rapunzel Reborn Doll. A reborn doll is a doll that is made to look like a child in a very extremely life-like way. They highly collectible in certain circles of doll collectors and are no doubt great works of art in their own right, even if sometimes they do tend to creep me out. Especially the newborn ones.

This doll, admittedly, did make me uncomfortable when I first saw her. The image that was used to show her off as her main sale image (the one above) was just so... odd. It wasn't just that the part was on the wrong-side of the face, but the whole outfit seemed to be almost choking the doll rather than showcase her long hair and Tangled-like outfit.

While I was not interested in buying the doll myself, I nonetheless looked over the auction and the additional images of her. There were a lot of them. Different angles, different things done with her hair, then other dolls at the end to showcase what other kind of dolls the person was making and selling; a sleeping toddler and a doll that looked more like a four-year-old child.

The doll was for sale in the United Kingdom. Some of the information was a little hard to gather, since it did not appear the person selling the doll spoke English very well or they were just terrible at spelling. Her price was about $1,200. Reading the description further, it was shown that her hair was real human hair:

"... heated irons [straighteners] can be used with human hair. Each hair is hand rooted into Rapunzel's head 1-2 hairs at a time and looks as though it has grown out of Rapunzel's [scalp]. I use expensive high quality 100% human hair, you can gently wash and treat it as your own hair."

Given that some people who do buy these dolls are attempting to cope with the loss of a child, I can see the desire for real human hair on a doll like that. There is also the who concept of it being nicer to feel than plastic hair, and a more natural artistic fiber, but given how some human hair is harvested then sold off makes me a little uneasy about the doll having human hair. Good thing I wasn't buying it.

"Rapunzel has beautiful skin tones with gorgeous pink moist lips like a real little princess."

Something about that part of the description rubs me the wrong way, no matter how innocent it really was meant to be.

"Dark brown eyelashes. Rapunzel has pierces ears, this makes her a lot of fun to play with, changing her earrings. She has one pair of diamante stud earrings. Rapunzel has realistic veining jut like a real toddler. Rapunzel is made of soft vinyl, she has full limbs and a white doe suede body."

The debate on earrings on a baby aside, there is an impressive quality to the manner in which the doll is sculpted and painted is wonderfully detailed. If you look closely at the skin, you can see where there are some veins and the shifting colors of the skin tone really do look like a living child. I can appreciate these dolls as wonderful works of art, but I do not think I would ever be caught in the complete fan-dom that they have following them.

To see the original auction, Click [[Here]]
Doll photos by Natalie (babybubblesnursery_lifelikedolls.)

Bropunzel

I know many men with long hair that would be labeled "Rapunzel" by today's society. Here is a little bit of love for them, even if the artist chose to use the beard rather than his other hair for comical purposes.

Crown of the Lost Princess

Prior to the completion of the wig I did of Rapunzel's hair when she was in the kingdom of Corona, her tiara was the most ambitious costume project I had undertaken for an accessory. 

The hardest part of the whole process was finding the three large crystals to use in the crown. I had found the two smaller ones at a craft store, but the larger one was harder to come by. I ended up having to buy it online from a crystal supplier. I was very lucky to find one that was not only larger, but was also in that 'Aurora Borealis' tint that the other two were in.

At the time, the crown was also the most expensive accessory I had made, to later be beat again by the wig. The cost for just the small crystals on the crown was over $80. Given they were Swarovski crystals, it was an expected expense. Those crystal just shined better and captured the light more brilliantly that any other glass or plastic gems I could find. I did use some plastic gems sparingly  though the main crystals are acrylic, I believe, so they technically are plastic as well.  The two large pearls that flank either side of the tiara between the pearl-flowers are real freshwater pearls from my bead collection; the rest of the pearls used were glass.

The main body of the tiara is foam. This allowed the crown to be easy to craft as well as light weight. Sort of light weight; those crystals are a little heavy. The backside of the crown did not have the same appearance as it did in the film, mostly for ease of creation and that when I actually wear it and pin it into my hair, I cover it with some of my hair to help hold it in place.

The video above is of the crown I made outside in daylight. It is slightly different there than from the image at the top of the blog because I popped off a few crystals in the front above the main pink gem and affixed some more to make it more screen accurate.

I have been asked a few times to make a tutorial on how the crown was made, but I have yet to get around to doing it. My biggest concern would be that someone would take the information and use it to sell crowns to fans and that is what is stopping me from doing it now. Such is the internet though, right?

For now, the crown is proudly displayed on my art site, on my YouTube page, and in a poetically lovely place in my collection: between my Designer Princess Rapunzel doll and my Designer Villain Mother Gothel doll.

The Kingdom Braid (Doll Version)

"Some little girls were braiding one another's hair nearby. When they saw Rapunzel approaching, their eyes lit up with delight. They had never braided such long hair before! When they were finished, Rapunzel walked away with a neat braid bundled down her back."
                                                                       --Tangled: A Dazzling Day

 I had had plans to take my new doll out into some form of nature, be it my back yard or actually somewhere more photogenic to take some pictures of her long hair unbound and beautiful. Well, that plan fell to the wayside. I was combing her hair and found myself bored and really, REALLY, wanting to put Rapunzel's hair in her signature floral kingdom braid, so I gave in and did so.

I have done this braid multiple times on multiple different dolls, but I think this doll had hers turn out the best. It was probably because of her size that made it a lot easier to work with. I meant to take pictures of the progression of the braid so that others reading this could use it as a tutorial for their Rapunzel dolls or other long haired dolls they had sitting in their collection.

The best I could do would be to describe what I did to the doll with a typed explanation here. I may end up doing this braid again sometime in the future and at that point I will take photographs for reference.

• The first thing to do is to make sure the doll's hair is clean and tangle free. For this doll, that took washing her hair in conditioner in order to soften and clean it as well as some gentle combing. If you comb a doll's hair too hard you may pull out a lot of the hair and there is no growing back!

• Next, I lifted the hair up so that I could get at the hair at the nape of her neck. Here, I crafted two small braids that would be the accent braids that ran through the main braid. I have seen some people just wrap these braids in a double-helix shape around the main braid, but that is not how it really appeared in the film. I was going for something a little more screen accurate.

• Before I moved onto the main braid, I worked on the other two small braids on either side of Rapunzel's head. In life, these would be done with Dutch braids, but since she was a doll and her hair did not behave like real human hair (in terms of the amount of hair that is actually in the doll's head and how it is spread), I carefully sectioned off two portions of hair from the front and braided them so that they were at the right angle to flow back towards the back of the head. This was a little tricky as I wanted to preserve her pouf-bang look while still getting the correct braid.

• The hardest part of the braid was about to come up! I took the two front braids and crossed them so they formed an X behind Rapunzel's head. I held the crossed braids in one hand and separated out the main three section of the larger braid. The front braids were then matched to the section of hair that was opposite from the side they had originated on. Thus, the front braid that started on the left-side of Rapunzel's head was matched with the main braid portion that stated on the right side of Rapunzel's head. Any part of the front braid that was still braided beyond the crossing point I unbraided so that the front braid would end at the cross and not become another accent braid in the main braid; mainly because it was so much larger than the other accent braid and would take away from it!

• With that bit of trickiness, done, start to braid the main braid. Do not go too far since you will want to only secure the front braids so that you can pick up the accent braids and begin to incorporate them into the main braid. This part can be tricky as well, but not nearly as much as the previous step. Make sure the accent braids can be see on the top of the main braid, or else what was the point in putting them in there? Once they are lined up, braiding the rest of the hair will be simple. 

• Finish braiding the hair then add flowers as you see fit! Being screen accurate with the flowers is hard to do on a doll, and no one will fault you for just using small flowers you have found at a craft store. I found mine at the bridal department in the craft store. This makes the color choice usually limited to pastels, but they still look lovely in her hair. I had some yellow ones at one time as well, but they got used in the customized bridal Rapunzel I did; another post for another time.

 

And there she is! All complete and ready for her day in the kingdom of Corona with Flynn Rider. 

(PS - You can click on the images above to see them in a larger scale so that you can study the braid closer if needed for your own doll's hair. Good luck!)

Welcoming the New Doll

There is something about dolls that I love. It is not a blind obsession where I feel the need to collect every doll under the sun from every walk of life. Mostly, my doll collecting falls into the category of "If I like it and I can afford it, I will take it!" I have various dolls around my home, but the majority of them fall into the fairytale theme; namely Rapunzel and Tangled.

Indeed, I have many, many, many Tangled dolls. I have multiples of some dolls because I have changed their hair color or am working to customize them and wanted a doll that was still as it was made and left in the box.

One doll I fell in love with when I first saw her was the first edition of the 17'' Singing Rapunzel Doll. Her dress had the same details as the film and her hair had the tinsel in it to make it appear shimmering and magical. My collection had started in 2011, after the first wave of dolls had gone through the Disney Store. I had myself a singing Rapunzel doll, the second edition in her satin dress, but there were no details like in the film.

Possiblezen's Singing Rapunzel.

The cosmetics were not the only thing that changed during the first two editions of this doll. To operate the first doll, you had to touch the right hand of the doll where there were two prongs. You had to touch them both at the same time to get her to sing. This proved to be a little difficult for children to do and when they redesigned the doll to have only one prong to ease-of-use, they redid her clothing and hair as well.

I was a little sad when I found this out. I absolutely loved the old design. I would often haunt Possiblezen's flicker pages to stare at the version of the doll he had (seen to the right.) Not only was she the first edition of the doll (note the two prongs on her right [our left] hand), but he had braided her hair, added flowers, and even out some gems on her dress. All of this just made me want her more! I eyed these images for over a year.

Last week I was browsing eBay as I tend to do, and I saw two Rapunzel dolls that were both the 17 inch singing doll in the original dress with the tinsel hair. One of the dolls had hair that was so matted I knew I would not be able to comb it out, even after letting it soak on conditioner. The other one, was a composite doll. What this meant was that the seller had gotten the head and dress from the first edition doll but replaced the body with the second edition doll to make sure any children who had it could make it sing easily. I was not too concerned with the fact that the doll was a composite, since the doll was meant for me and meant to stay in my collection. If she was worth money someday, great. If not? Well, I loved her and that is all that mattered.

I watched the doll for a little while, then decided that since the buy out price was about the same as the doll would have cost in the store new, I bought her. My life has been emotionally straining as of late, as you may have read in the my other post, and this doll was going to be here to cheer me up. I just knew it.

The night before the doll arrived, I was absolutely miserable. Without going into details, I felt as though I did not belong where I was living anymore and I felt as though those that were close to me were not as desiring of my company as I thought. When I woke the next day and went to the mail box, there was a box in there waiting for me. When I opened it up, Rapunzel's smiling face was there to greet me. Immediately, I took her inside and unbraided her hair. It felt a little grimy and there was some dirt on her face. After washing her face, I wet her hair and washed it with conditioner (ironically I used a conditioner that made a Rapunzel comparison on the back of it.) As her hair dried, I set to work on fixing her dress. The edge of the dress where the trim is against the other panel in the front had un-pleated. Therefore, the trim was further from the panel than it should have been and did not look right. I ironed the pleat back into place with low heat then put a small stitch in the holes of the lace at the hem of the skirt with invisible thread so that it would not un-pleat as quick.

As I stared at my new doll, I was unsure what to do with her hair. Logic told  me to braid it, since that is the best way to keep the hair tangle free and from getting messed up. However, I knew I was going to want to take photos of her with the hair in braided, so she stood on my Tangled  shelf for the day as I cleaned and worked on some art projects, before I finally got out my camera and took photos of my new Rapunzel. I took a lot of photos.

The composite Rapunzel doll beside a boxed second edition of the singing doll.
The second doll's box also advertises only 14 inches of hair versus the
roughly 17 inches that the first doll was said to have.

A few more creases in her dress need to be taken care of,
but she looks so cute I cannot stand it! I wanted to take
a thousand more pictures, but I did not have the time to.

Rapunzel's hair.  From crown to the longest point,
her hair is about 19 inches long, though I think it was
originally advertised at 17 inches.

I have a desire to take her out into nature and take a few pictures of her there before I bind her hair in a braid and add some flowers. When that day comes, you can bet there will be more pictures and that they will get posted here.