Work In Progress: Ginny Doll Restoration (Part 1)

Tropical Adventure Ginny
Her head was only held on by the box tie at this point.

Being a fan of international-themed dolls, I've been debating picking up one of the International Collection dolls from the Vogue Dolls Ginny International Collection (a series from the late '80s) for a while now.  I'd always held off buying one though, because  I'd heard about quality issues and didn't want to end up overpaying for something that would fall apart as soon as I brought it home.

But then last month I found a lot of dolls from the series that had already fallen apart.  And that proved to be the one that I couldn't pass on, so now a semi-dismembered "Tropical Adventure", "Navajo Princess", and "Sari" are part of my collection, and my first project dolls of the year.

Ginny dolls of this vintage have legs that are attached with sculpted peg joints, but their heads and arms were strung with a plain (non-fabric covered) elastic, which tends to decay over time.  That decay appears to happen regardless of play use, as two of the three dolls in this lot had never been removed from their boxes, and according to the seller, the third had been displayed by an adult collector.

"Little Navajo" Ginny

Interestingly, on the two dolls who were still tied to the box, it wasn't immediately apparent that the heads were detached as well, as they were held in place by the box ties.  I give respect to the seller, since they were very transparent about the condition of the dolls, since they easily hidden that fact.that the heads on those two were about to come off.

"Sari"
Unfortunately part of this dolls outfit was stained
from the tape that held the comb to the side of the box.

Close-up of the neck joint on "Tropical Adventure" as her head comes off

Out of the box: Tropical Adventure

Each doll comes with a variety of accessories, include a stand (with a heart-shaped base), two combs and some jewellery items.  While the dolls themselves are a fairly light plastic and clearly had some quality control issues with stringing, the outfits were actually better quality than I had expected from the in-box photos, and included multiple individual pieces (I had expected the tops to be single pieces, but was pleased to discover that they were actually more realistic than that).

Amusingly, the "earrings" are attached to the doll's scarf
rather than to her head/ears.

The 5-piece Tropical Adventure outfit.  The doll also came with
a matching beaded bracelet, but that was in a small bag rather than
on the doll itself, so I haven't opened it yet.

The bodies are stamped with: Vogue Dolls. 1986
R. Dakin & Co. Made in China.

Tropical Adventure's head and the remains of the elastic.

Overall, these dolls are in decent condition (aside from the obvious arm- and headlessness) and now that I know what size of elastic to pick up, getting them into display-ready condition should be a fairly simple process.