Meet the Moshlings

Many of you who follow me on Instagram will have seen various dolls appearing in my posts.  I’ve been collecting them with a passion for a number of years now so it will be lovely to introduce some of them to you .

Here are two of the oldest Vintage dolls I have.  The one on the right with the hat is a Pepper doll from 1964 and was the little sister of Tammy (the US version of Sindy), she’s the same age as me and so is extra special. This one was an e-bay find and when she arrived, I was delighted to discover little teeth marks on the feet – battle scars from an over enthusiastic little owner perhaps?

The doll on the left is a Tiny Betsy McCall.  I discovered these when I was researching paper dolls. The McCall magazine introduced a paper cut out on a back cover in 1951.  These proved so popular that they went on to bring out collectables.  My one comes from 1957. They are still being made,  but I love the vintage ones, with all the character they have, the history of all who have played with and hopefully cherished her.

The next bunch are the Liccas, which are Japanese dolls made by Takara.  What I like about these is that you can collect a family or even a community of dolls as the different generations of Liccas have come with mothers, fathers, grand-parents, siblings, pets and eventually teachers and others that they may interact with on a daily basis.  The doll on the left, a 2nd Generation, Jenny, came in a tennis outfit. The doll on the right is a Licca Castle.   I have a particularly soft spot for Wataru, a first generation doll.  Here you can see him dressed stylishly in a Woolly Rockers jumper and MforMonkey trousers.

If you collect dolls, I think its quite common that you end up wanting to create your own characters. Fortunately there are some very easy ways you can do this. Azone and Obitsu make a variety of separate bodies, heads and parts for you to put together yourself and customize. but you can also let your imagination go a little crazy at times. I created the Deer boy when my step daughter brought me a fridge magnet that she thought might look good on the walls of the Moshi Studio by I didn’t think the rest of the gang were really into stuffed animals, so he’s been given a new lease of life with a Licca body and makes an excellent friend for Wataru.

There will be more of the Moshlings in future posts when I'll introduce the Blythe girls and also some of the smaller and fluffier Moshlings that we have around the place.