A ruined plan - a Dolly story

"Und dieser Traum war alles, was mir blieb in all der Zeit"

Literally: And this dream was all that was left to me all this time

from The Count of Monte Cristo by Frank Wildhorn

As you may guess I was very excited about the party and looking forward to it. I was jumping about a just little more and was just a little less careful then usually. That is the only explanation I can give.

Just the day of the dance, in the morning I was on my way down from the shelf to talk about some thing or other concerning the dancefloor to Meritre. I'm not sure what happened, perhaps my foot hit the chair or one of the drawers weren't properly closed and my foot hit and slipped on the knob? I really don't know what happened.  I hit something and landed not very elegantly on the floor with burning pain in both of my ankles.

I'm soooooo good at this. It happens. I didn't think it was very serious and hoped that it would be better in a few minutes as so many times before and I can go on. I managed to get into a somewhat upright position, too. Now standing up can be a little tricky.

Luckily the others were out and preparing things for the party in the other room or they would have made a fuss. I thought nobody saw me but I was wrong. Of all dolls the doctor was the first to come, she saw what happened and came to check if I needed help. You can count on Sorghoktani, no matter what.
I must have looked quite miserable with my ankles still hurting very badly as she guessed that this was a case for her.

"No need to talk, I saw what happened. I'll help you so you can sit down over there." she said.
You could possibly try telling your sister everything's all right (although I doubt she would have believed it) but it was impossible to say the same to the doctor.

Especially when you're hissing because of the pain while she helps you up and leads you to a pile of books where you can sit down.
She then asked me to pulled my skirt a little up so she could have a proper look.

'You have probably hurt your ankle. Both your ankles." she said after a quick look. 'I'll have to set them. Both.'
I tried to get a glimpse of my ankles myself. It looked quite bad.Ok, I mean my boots. But it still looked bad.

And on top of that, my sister appeared out of nowhere. As if she somehow knew that something has happened. She wanted to know what's going on and Sorghoktani filled her in while went on and examined my feet through the boot very carefully.

'Badly strained ankles. You need to rest.' she announced finally.
'But it will be all right until the evening, right?' I asked. I was still hopeful.
'Dancing? I doubt you'll be able to walk. I'm sorry, sis, but looks like you have to stay at home. No worries, I'll be there for you.' my sister said.
'No need to do so' I tried to convince her that there was no need to sit around me and she should go and enjoy herself.
'No, I'm staying with you. There'll be more than enough ladies there.'
We discussed the matter thoroughly once more and Sorghi took advantage of my beeing distracted to set my ankles. It did hurt but not as much as before.
'Now the other one. You go on talking.' she said.

But I wasn't really distracted anymore and the second ankle setting was much more painful than the first. I was amazed by her skills nevertheless.
'You were able to do it without takin off my boots. Pracically blindly. But why didn't you take them off?'
'That would have made your injury much worse. All that pulling wouldn't have done your ankle any good, no matter how careful we would have been. Better this way.'
'Thank you, Sorghi. Now getting some rest.' I stood up, thinking I'd be able to get to my usual spot with my ankles set. I was never so wrong in my life. I wasn't able to do one step and would have fallen if Sorghoktani wouldn't have caught me.

What a big fool I am, I thought. Now it hurt so much I could hardly hold back my tears.
'It's my fault, I forgot to tell you not to move.' she said.
'Well, talking about getting some rest and getting up doesn't really match.' That was my sisters opinion.And she was right as almost always.
Sorghoktani lowered me on the books once more.

'I think it would be best if you just stayed here. No standing up, no moving the legs.' she said.
'Now we need to find a way to get her somewhere nice and quiet.'
'Yes. She'll need lots of sleep to heal faster. I'll give her somethingto make her sleepy.' the doctor promised. Kiki made a surprised face. The doctor explained a moment later.
'It's very painful for poor Dolly, with the setting and all. She couldn't sleep although she needs it badly. The faster the pain is gone, the better. And even better if she isn't awake to feel that pain.'
They went and told Meritre about the misfortune that happened, while I  sat on the books waiting.

So Meritre, again, set up a resting place for me and Sorghoktani prepared the sleeping stuff. She also got a pack of paper handkerchieves to put it under my ankles. A soft yet stable support is what they need now, she claimed.
I was more concerned about the medicine, I didn't like the idea of taking sleeping pills but soon I had to realise that the doctor was right. I could only focus on my ankles, they hurt so much.

'I'm not happy about it, either but there is nothing better to be done. Drink that and you'll sleep soundly till morning. Then it'll be much better.'
'I'll stay here with you' Kiki said.
And we started again. But this time, I won with Sorghi unknowingly helping me.
'I couldn't have fun knowing you're miserable.' my sister said.
'And I couldn't sit still knowing you miss the fun because of me.' I answered of course 'Maybe I'll even sleepwalk!'
'Actually, the more dolls are around, the more noise is ther and that could wake her.'
'Ok, ok, I get it, sis. I'll go.' Kiki said.
'And you go too, Sorghoktani.'

She could hardly take back what she said about noisy nurses so she reluctanty agreed after things were arranged so everybody was satisfyed. We agreed that Flit, Sorghoktanis pet bird is going to stay with me and report every hour to the doctor.
Now I ruined my own plan since I can't go to the dance. I wouldn't want them to put it off just because of me but I'm still not happy that I have to stay behind. They are all so sweet, can you imagine, they are already planning the next one that 'll be held as soon as I'm ready to go. I have the best friends in the world.

I drank that strange liquid  that was  to make me sleepy and my head became heavy quite quickly. I remember hearing some music and laughing while beeing half asleep.
It's so typical. Why is it always me who needs tha docor? If there is a fever to catch, I always do so. If there is dollfluenza going around, I'm sure to come down with it. Even if nobody else gets it. And if there is absolutely no illness roaming among the dolls then  I find other ways to hurt myself, however careful I try to be.


Note by Sorghoktani: Dorothea fell asleep within a few minutes.

I watched her for a little while before leaving for the dance. Oh right, Flit must be sent over first.

Note by Kiki:
She most likely doesn't know but Dolly didn't only ruin her own plans. I have to think of a new plan myself. And Vester who could be called the dancing king (if Dolly is the dancing queen ;) was busy teaching dancing all the dolls. (Meritre asked him to do that, othervise he wouldn't have dreamed to do it) I have to say he wasn't as enthusiastic as he was when he had just one pupil. His mood  wasn't lifted when he accidentally overheard the girls that Dolly definitely won't came.

In fact, he couldn't be more disappointed.
I have an idea. Dolly will surely want to hear what was the party like, if something interesting happened  and so on. I'll bring her a visitor to tell her evereything ;)
No, I'm not mean. I just want them to talk a little.

A splendid plan - Kiki tells a Dolly story

"I can show you the world
Shining, shimmering splendid"

from Disney's Aladdin

"A party?" Meritre was surprised.
"With dancing and decorations and music and all."
"But you are a dozen girls and there are only two guys, how did you think it will work?"

"They'll hand out numbers to the girls." said Daphne humorously.
Dolly looked away probably so she wouldn't laugh out loud. Looking away she looked as if she was uninterested but the party was her idea in the first place.

I was standing at my usual spot, a little further away, listening to this new idea.
"Why, there are three, if only you would let out Aladdin and Eric." she threw in.
"So Vester still doesn't count? But he's pretty much the only one in the group who can dance."
"Okay, let's say four. That's enough, isn't it?"
"Three girls for each one of them."

 "I won't dance so you need not count me." said Sorghoktani. " Besides, I don't have anything to wear."
"Oh, that doesn't matter, we're all going in our usual clothes." Valancy replied cheerfully.
"My leg wouldn't let me dance anyway."
"But we need our dolldoctor. What if someone twists an ankle while dancing?"
Sorghoktani smiled but said nothing.
"Hold on, I didn't say anything about agreeing to a big, noisy party, very likely messing up the whole house. Why do you want a ball anyway?"
"Because it would be something new and fun for us."
"It would be so wonderful to spend such a nice evening with everybody beeing there."
"And we won't make a mess and everything will be cleaned up." Daphne promised.

Meritre seemed to think it over. Dolly had to look away once more because Meritre made such a funny face. Then she smiled. I'm sure she thought that a party is a great opportunity for matchmaking. But Dolly can't stand if she's forced to something. Like those matchmaking schemes. I afraid I messed already too much and instead of helping, I made things worse. Maybe I should take my own advice and just... let it go?
"Well... if you can organise it, you can have your party next Saturday. You'll have all the bedrooms for yourself. And a computer or CD player or something, for music. You just go on and do whatever you want done. Let me know if you need any help."
And so we started planning and preparing. The exact place had to be chosen, seats had to be set up for those who were not dancing, the playlist had to be made and so much more. We were all very excited. We decided against decoration since it would only add to the mess and we had lots of other, more important things to attend to.
"You can't dance with that cape" Dolly told me.

"No. But I didn't plan to dance anyway."
"You should put on the new outfit that came recently."
"But of course, pink trousers are just the thing for a ball. Seriuosly, Dollly, no, I won't."
"Pah, I wasn't talking about that, you know that. Just wait till you see the dress." She danced out of the room to put on that pretty blue dress.

"Tadaaam, sis!"
I was holding the blouse and the trousers that came together with the dress.
"Very pretty, you should go to the dance wearing that."
"No, no, no, it's for you!"She looked at the clothes I was holding, almost like as if she was frozen. "You're not wearing those to the ball, are you?"

I laughed.
"No, of course not. I'm just bringing them to Hannah. She's to modell this outfit. Pink and purple are her colors."

She was looking as if she didn't really believe what I told her. I could see she was thinking hard, she was still holding up one arm like when she presented the dress. She told me everything she could think of to persuade me to take the dress.
I think I know someone who would agree with me that Dolly should wear that blue dress to the dance. ;)

Note by Dolly:
All my attempts to persuade Kiki to try any of the clothes on herself were in vain. She kept telling me that there were too many girls even without her. Well, she was actually right. And we were busy preparing and having fun. We all agreed that it was a good thing to take over ideas from other dolls we happen to meet in the great blogging world.


Note by Meritre: My dolls were busy reading the blog Likeness of life and as soon they saw that the dolls there had dances, they wanted to do the same. Because it was fun and interesting things happened during dances.

The dancing queen - a Dolly story

"You can dance, you can jive, having the time of your life
See that girl, watch that scene, digging the Dancing Queen"

Song: Dancing Queen by ABBA. I guess it could be called a song from the musical Mamma Mia as well.

It took a whole week untill I was allowed to get out of bed and return to the others. Dollfluenza is infective (for dolls only, not for humans, although Kiki did not care for it and visited me every day - as she is the snow queen and all she hardly ever gets those illnesses) so I was put in another room for safety. A last check, a last cup of tea, some biscuits and I was allowed to go back. Meritre had to be off to somewhere but she offered to take me back to our room before leaving. I declined kindly but firmly this offer, it's much safer to sneak back than to be brought back and everyone notices you're there and stares at you as if you came from a different world. You may have noticed that I'm not keen on attracting attention. :)
The door was open just a bit so I could slip in unnoticed. I looked around cautiously.

Noone to be seen. Great! It's not far to the desk and the other girls must be all up there.

Now, to sneak along the bed and climb up the desk... but I did not get to do it. I literally froze, when a vaguely familiar voice called out to me. I would have preferred to run away but I was impolite long enough. "Uhmm, hi!" was all I could get out of my mouth.

"Good morning, m'lady, I was hoping to see you today." Mylady? Me? What? He didn't talk like that last time. Well, at least he did the starting the conversation part.
"I was wondering if m'lady had a little time to practice the valtz?" Why me? I didn't want to but I didn't have the heart to simply say no. That often leads to trouble according to my experience. Kiki had already said once that I'm just too tender-hearted. She said that's mostly a good thing but I should be careful. Now I know why. It must have been written all over my face that I was unwilling because Vester sighed.
"I asked the other ladies out of their boxes but..."
"Oh, great," I smiled "Daphne would be a perfect choice, with her ballgown and all. She dances in her movie as well."

"She said she's a very clumsy dancer and hated it."
My relief was gone.
"She apologized about a thousand times." he added.
I swalloved. Right, I have forgotten that, although it was one of the first things she told us when she was let out of her box. I had to find another girl for him.
"Aaaand Kuei-Lan?" I offered.

"She was positively scared stiff of me." he replied. "Just bowed and disappeared." He was not really happy about that and I could understand. Who likes to be the monster of a dollfamily? Or worse, not even belonging to the dollfamily.
"Hannah?" I suggested.

"She said I should go and ask you and that she wouldn't steal someone elses partner."
By this time I realized my friends still had their thoughts on the two of us and I didn't like it.
"Pocahontas?" She is always very obliging.

"She has a bad leg. She has trouble walking, not to menion running. Factory defect." Oh yes, that's right, I forgot. That's why she often stands at the window and stares out, she would love to go out there but with her limp it's just not safe.
"But sure Valancy would agree?" 

He shook his head.
"But she assured me you would be delighted to oblige me, m'lady which I can't really believe."
"Sue?" She was my last chance.

"She was practicing walking. Since she is a mermaid, she has difficulties with walking. Having that fishtail for most of her life didn't really help."
I could hardly blame any of the girls but I still felt like I was let down.
"Than it has to be me" I sighted "and by the time I get back, there will be pink hearts all over the shelf." Huh? How did that slip out? I didn't mean to say that!
"So that's it" he frowned "Your friend have strange ideas." I just nodded.
He seemed to ponder over something, than he spoke again.
"I guess it's not easy with so many girls around and only me and Edward Eugen..." It sounded ad if he was talking to himself.
"But why you and me?" he asked.
"Probably because you were staring at me the whole time Meritre was deboxing you." I offered.

Remember that?

"Where else was I expected to look for guidance if the only doll in sight? And that only doll happened to be you." I never thought about that but it was indeed true, since Meritre did the deboxing and taking photos in another room. She said the light was better there. I detected no difference.
"But they already watched... the dancing class, at least part of it. That was enough for them."
"I can imagine that." He sounded bitter.
He didn't mention the Holiday Frozen sisters but from what Kiki (she simply doesn't dance) told me, those two share my opinion of  Hans and his villanious ways. And of course I saw him up there talking to them, something he had never done before. He was really desperate if he was willing to try that.
"All right, I'll do it. But only now and then and we have to find a place where the others can't see us."
"Beeing secretive might make things worse."
" We have to make them understand that we are simply... friends."
"Simply... friends."
"Yes, only friends and nothing more."

And I thought he will make things worse with... talking. Too bad, girls, I grinned, it's nothing of that sort. Just friendship. And I was upset about that? I could have hit myself. He only needed a friend. At least now all's well. At least I think so.

PS by Kiki: Now they are one step forward. Dolly keeps saying she doesn't trust him a bit but this is a case where actions speak louder than words ;)

Disney Store 2017 Classic Pocahontas doll review

"Hilf mir durch die Nacht/ Gib mir die Kraft /durch die Dunkelheit zu gehen"

Literally: Help me through the night, give me the strenght to go through the darkness

From the musical Rebecce by Sylvester Levay and Michael Kunze, it's the beginning of the song and the first line is also its title.

She does go through dark times in her movie, doesn't she?
One of my other Christmas dolls is Pocahontas, and she is the very first Pocahontas doll I own.

She has a nice, simple box with the name of the character and the movietitle on the front. The fancy one is the movietitle and the plain one is the characters name, if anyone is interested.
It is decorated like each one in 2017:

a picture of the character on one side,

another one, not showing the character but connected to a film, on the other side.

Closer look at the ship

In Pocahontas' case it's the ship but I've seen sidekicks as well on for example Belles box. On the backside there is one more portrait of the character.

It's the picture they always use for Pocahontas. I like the one on the side of the box better and would have put that one on the back.
Of corse Dolly has to welcome her by sitting on her box.

Naughty girl.

Pocahontas comes with Flit, like last years doll but this time the doll imitates a running pose and does not hold out her hand for Flit. I like the idea but the knee joints are not really fitted for it in my opinion. More on her feet and legs later. She has lots of threads holding her long hair in place but had no plasic ties in her dress. To make up for it, she had two in her head. But they were fairly loose and easy to cut so I won't complain.

She comes with a pretty forest background.

She has a nice face with a good likeness to the movie character in my opinion since she got the very much needed update. She looks like a dreamer. She has brown eyes, interesting eyeshadow combined of a goldish, a brownish and a bronzeish color. A little blush and thick, orange-pink lips complete her makeup. I wondered if she looked a bit like Mulan since both girls belong to the Mongolid race so here is a picture of my Mulan doll to compare:

 

I think while there are certainly a lot of similarities (thick lips, flat noses instead of the little turnup noses many other princesses have, the eyes), these are quite hard to catch because the base shape is very different, Pocahontas has a more angular face and Mulan has a round face. She also has an overall smaller head than Pocahontas. I think both girls are pretty.

Pocahontas profile is unique and quite different from most of the other princesses and I was curious how well they caught it.

Here she is as she looks in the movie and as she looks in doll form.

I think they catched her quite well but of course there is room for improvment. They could give her a bit more copperish and darker skincolor. And lipcolor also.

Her long black hair is quite soft and has only a little styling product around her face and in one section so it stays like it was in the box. Her necklace is missing the gem part, as always but I never knew it closes with velcro, like her dress. I wish they would make it plastic.

I think the dress is nice and movie accurate (although not as perfect as I thought before I saw a screenshot), she has the belt part that goes all around and of course her tattoo on her arm.

The fabric they used for it hid the hole for the waisttie as soon as I removed it. Usually it needs quite some time untill the fabric straightens out, Belles dress doesn't lay as beautifully on her lower back as Pocahontas'.
Now we come to her legs. She comes barefoot and she has flat feet and klick knees. She has of course articulated arms and can move her head. Head, shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips and klick knees sum up her articulation.

You see, a little above her knee a tiny little hole is visible

I discovered a tiny hole on her leg and I know from one of the Toybox Philosophers posts that it is caused by the inner structure, the armature of her leg. (She has a post about the inner structure of those legs, a review ended up like this, it's really interesting, you can find  it here: http://www.toyboxphilosopher.com/2014/09/2013-and-2014-ariel-and-merida-from.html)
So I left her with one bent and one straight leg because I'm afraid it may break. I tried very gently but she refused to straigten her leg.

Flat feet actually work quite well for Pocahontas since she is barefoot and spends most of her time out in the forests. I compared her flat feet with the earlier (2015 to be precise) princess feet.
The new feet looked a bit bigger to me.

I looked at them from  different angles. The new feet seem broader.

Looks like the toes are a bit different, too.

The older feet look more elegant in my opinion, more fitting for elegant outfits while the new feet work best for the barefoot characters.
The Flit figure she comes with is cute though very small. He has a Disney sign on one of his wings.

This little bird has feet that are made so that he can sit  for example on Pocahontas hand or on the edge of the box. He could sit better on the later so he was photographed from different angles there but here is a picture Pocahontas holding him.

He is quite well made for such a small figure. He is already good friends with Chip and Mushu.
Overall, Pocahontas is a nice doll and I'm happy to have her in my collection but I think because of her pose in the box she needs extra attention and care so her leg won't snap. This could be an issue for younger children but even careful adult collectors can run into this problem. I wish the princesses would get a new knee design, the one they gave series Rapunzel seems nice. Now they only need to start using it for the classic dolls.
And last but not least, my Pocahontas is named Sorghoktani. My sister gave it to her and I think it suits her very well. She is the only Pocahontas here for now but that might change.


Update 29 01 2017: Added a new picture, Pocahontas holding Flit