#Creata

[fairykukla]

My girlies are back from the salon (part 2)

I sent a box of 70s and 80s era dolls to @imreadydollparts to see what she could do with their terrible hair.

The Creata Flower Princess Edition:

First, you have to understand about the Creata Flower Princess line. Their styling was much more like Ideal's Tammy than Mattel's Barbie, though the body was a Barbie clone. They started in the late 70s, and the artwork really showcases that. The dolls were fantasy fairytale princesses with no connection to the "Big" properties Disney was camped out all over.

And they had notoriously terrible hair. It was curly, too, which is something that is hard to do well and impossible to maintain.

There was a blonde with green eyes, a redhead with blue eyes, and a purple haired one with purple eyes. So you know I was all over this whole thing. I even had the Unicorn.

I dug out the remains of my collection. Their hair was universally matted and trashed. I'd tried to tame it with pipe cleaners, but to no avail. I wrapped them up and sent them off.

The original Leanna. If you owned one, or have one now, your jaw just hit the floor. Look at those soft waves! The GLOSS is back! She's spectacular!

Laurelle, Ballerina edition. Her hair hasn't looked this nice in decades.

And poor Lissete. She had two toned hair in platinum and purple. The purple disintegrated completely. I was expecting to receive back a failed experiment, but I really like this simple trim. I can display her in the original costume and she will look lovely.

I also may re-root her. These dolls are why I learned how to re-root in the first place, so I may as well. But in the meantime, she's perfectly displayable!!

Cut for doll nudity:

[box-full-of-dolls]

Aurora (1987)

[serenamatroia]

[smallerplaces]

Creata "Hilary" joins the fam

Here she is, after three boil washes with conditioner but before the next two boil washes with fabric softener. She has borrowed someone's dress.

A "can someone ID this doll" post on r/dolls got my attention when someone (not me) pointed out the existence of the 1980s clone brand Creata. Crystalline Toybox's guide to Creata dolls is extensive and fascinating. The appeal of the rocker line, we can all figure out, but why were flower princesses (with princes!) hot in the 1980s?

After wallowing in this for a bit, I went browsing eBay, just to see, and discovered that as well as the adult dolls, there were little girls, sort of Stacie-ish in size and function. BananaMom's haul video from 2019 confirms that there were a lot of these gals between 1987 and 1989, marketed as Today's Girls (with an S, because we're back before everything had to end in Z). There were Pony Gals, some sort of slumber party, and, according to the back of a box I found in an eBay listing, mini-flower princesses.

So I bookmarked a Today's Girl whose face I particularly liked, the seller made me an offer I couldn't refuse, and she arrived from Florida about a week later. Based on her shirt, it's plausible that she's Pony Gals "Hilary" (who came in multiple hair colors).

She arrived looking just as described. The seller's "just needs her hair combed" was technically true!

Her hair was a ratted mess. I pulled out a real comb from the dollar store, put on some YT videos, and started combing out small sections.

Over the course of 45 minutes, I learned about common mid-century housing types in LA, how to make donuts, how Chef Frank makes the perfect French toast, and that Epicurious' food experts tasting jarred tomato sauce are unaware of necessities of mass production such as machine-harvesting rather than strolling gently through the field, plucking each tomato at its individual peak of ripeness.

Here she is before her first of three boil washes that got her to the point seen in the first pic. I also trimmed her hair because the furthest ends were so damaged that all they did was catch on one another like Velcro.

Today I went to a different dollar store, got a small size of fabric softener, and gave her another two washes. I think the fabric softener helped, but her bangs still aren't quite-quite.

Hilary is about 6-1/4 inches tall, making her smaller than Whitney (who's from the early 1990s articulated Stacie line, thus 7.5") but much taller than Brooklyn, a 4" Sparkle Girlz Mini from the early 2010s.

Comparison of body types is after the cut.

Whitney obviously has a much more posable body.

Hilary can raise her arms to touch her face and can do front-to-back split, but that's about it.

She cannot sit in any position other than legs splayed.

When I went to try Whitney's dress on her, I discovered that her hands are too big to fit through the sleeves. They are slightly larger than Whitney's, and her feet are almost as big!

This somehow didn't add up to my having any shoes that fit her. I'd be regretting donating my mother's huge collection of shoes except that I know she didn't have any dolls this size, so probably nothing would have fit.

While we're naked, here are Hilary's marks.

Hilary's head was copyright in 1983 and her body in 1985. Confusingly, the USPTO database shows Creata registering "Today's Girls" in 1991, even though BananasMom clearly shows boxes with late 1980s dates.

I found another outfit for Hilary, most likely Kelly clothes.

If you're wondering, why is a small child wearing bright lime eye shadow... just chalk it up to 1980s weirdness. More important is that her eyebrows have gone gray!

I may fix that with an eyebrow pencil eventually, but not until I'm sure I'm done trying to smooth her hair.

Meanwhile, Stacie, Whitney, Brooklyn, and Zuri are eager to get to know their new friend!

[packratshiloh]

Found this Creata doll and kinda stumped who she is. Probably 80s given the makeup. I see other creata mermaids but they're 11in dolls and she's like 5in maybe

But anyways, my niece is obsessed with mermaids so I sent her to her as a birthday gift 💕

[primepaginequotidiani]

PRIMA PAGINA Corriere Della Sera di Oggi giovedì, 22 agosto 2024

[dollchonks]

Creata is such a mysterious company. They made a zillion products but there is like no information out there about them.

I did a search for Creata on Mercari, saw this little girl, and fell in love with her zany face. It's actually super adorable in person. I might have to keep a look out for more of the Bright Eyes line... Though right now I am sick of dealing with new dolls. I still have dozens and dozens of old dolls to deal with!

I ripped her head off because I suspected the neck was melting and now I can't get it back on, lol. I wouldn't mind getting her a new body, though, since her old one is so cheap. And her outfit is hideous.

[miyazukini]

guess i'm officially drawing cars now? it's mostly a fun exercise to keep me loose. but hopefully i work up the confidence to draw them in "poses" with characters regularly! uwu

YT video of the process

[jhannatofficial]

Revving Up: The Top 10 Most Popular Cars on Indian Roads

[queenofsquids]

I scrounged around the thrift stores for a faux fur that might spark joy on the Creata pup, and ended up with this hapless purple flamingo. I don't like how thin and shiny the fur is, but the color was just right for me so I went for it. There was barely enough to cover his gigantic noggin. I used the wings as ears 🥲

Now we're getting somewhere, and that somewhere is a Fluppy x Jem crossover 😆

Still, I'm not in love with this head or combo. Probably need to work on his paint or repaint altogether. I considered getting him a tan body and painting his head to match 'cause I think that'd look smashing with the lavender. But not sure I wanna spend that much (even if imomodoll IS more affordable than Volks ... it's still around $80 for the body alone)

[fairykukla]

And Part 3, because I almost forgot one:

This one is a Creata doll but not a flower princess; this was one of their Rock Star line meant to compete with Jem and Barbie and the Rockers. She has the later sculpt with the toothy smile.

Her hair was a nightmare. I had her in a Grecian inspired outfit and had given up on her hair so badly that I'd just wrapped a ribbon around the whole mass and said "Good enough."

She's so pretty! I want to try to locate her original outfit now so I can display her that way!

It was this one.

The rest of that line was actually pretty cool but I was spending my disposable income on other things besides dolls at that point.

This one is slightly tempting now:

My girlies are back from the Salon!!!

First of all, I'm glad I waited til today to open this box. Yesterday was like, the longest day of my life and I was exhausted from all the stuff I had to do. This was like getting a whole box of presents!!!

Starting with my beloved Sea Wees. I sent @imreadydollparts the absolute worst of my collection, featuring one doll from each release wave.

Coral is a first wave Sea Wee. They had the worst hair imaginable, and Coral's tends to be more brittle and fragile than the others. I don't have many of these; my original Shelly snapped off at the neck and was thrown away. This is a miraculous restoration. The hair feels exactly like it would have straight off the card. It's been trimmed neatly and is a very presentable example (paint rubs notwithstanding.)

Next: sea wees and babies:

Breezy has a little molded plastic (or rubber?) baby Blew, and of the "sea wees and babies" series, she tends to age poorly. Her hair came curled, which was probably a mistake for such shitty fiber. These were marketed as bath toys; why give them hair like this!?! My poor Breezy is faded, rubbed, and her hair was a disaster.

But OH MY EARS AND WHISKERS look at her darling updo!!!! This is simply PRECIOUS and she's going to get a starring spot in my display.

I know that the paper towel is to keep the hair tidy in transport, but I kept seeing them as blindfolds. I decided that this is one of those makeover shows where the recipient doesn't see anything until the end. Camille is from the Tropi-gals series where they had a mermaid, a baby, and a sea pet. This Camille is my worst one, both in terms of paint loss and hair issues, and now she's just lovely! I will repaint her just so that she can live up to that lovely hair! Her bangs were a complete disaster, so I'm thrilled with how she looks now.

The 4th wave was called "Icy-gals" which always seemed weird to me, but the Sea Wees got a makeover with action poses and molded-on furry jackets. Their hair was slightly less shitty, but this Shelly was totally trashed. Look how smooth and lovely her hair is now!

I happen to have duplicates of the Icy-gals because I caught them cheap on eBay back in the late 90s, and I used them as ornaments on a white Christmas tree. I wanted a Mermaid tree, and I was a damn grown up living on my own so I did what I wanted.

I haven't displayed my Sea Wees in many years. I'm going to find a place to get them out and appreciate them.

[the-monkey-ruler]

Mini World: CREATA (2018)

Date: Apr 28, 2018 Platform: Android / PC Publisher: MINOVATE HONG KONG LIMITED Developer: MINOVATE HONG KONG LIMITED Genre: Massively Multiplayer Theme: Adventure / Casual Type: Appropriation

Summary:

Mini World is a 3D free sandbox game about adventure, exploration, and creating your dream worlds. There is no grinding or leveling up. No IAP gate that locks features from free to play players. Everyone can enjoy the game’s full features with great freedom

Source: https://www.miniworldgame.com/

Link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/814480/Mini_World_CREATA/

[dollsahoy]

Creata Flower Princess heads on modern articulated Barbie bodies--Leeanna and two Lisettes. I had a few of these when I was a kid and they made a big impression on me 🌸

Thanks again to @musicalmeowsandcandiedlemons for the Lisette head on the right, which still has the original curls!

[smallerplaces]

2023 in Review 3: the Katie Krew

The Katie Krew did not start out to be a krew.

When I first started thinking about getting back into dolls, I happened on a discussion of Creata's "clones" from the 1980s. Like a lot of fashion doll lines of the late 20th century, it's unclear how much the dolls were actual clones and how much they were simply fashion dolls doing their own thing. The rock 'n' roll Creata line, for instance, was probably a clone for Hasbro's Jem & the Holograms. But the Creata Flower Fairies? Much less clear.

Really unclear on its clone origins is the 6-1/4" doll at front left, with dark curled hair, wearing her karate practice outfit over a red striped top. That's Creata's "Today's Girls" Hillary. "Today's Girls" debuted several years before Stacie was a twinkle in Mattel's eye, but long after Todd and Tutti. There's really no Mattel niche that these dolls match! They were definitely also used as little sisters for the Flower Fairies, but mine was sold as a little equestrian (foreshadowing Kid Kore's horse riders).

My first Kid Kore Katie happened because I was researching Native American clone dolls (there were a lot in the 1990s). I bookmarked on eBay a cute and cheap brown-skinned doll with dark braids -- the doll now sitting in the front row wearing checked shorts and a blue and pink jersey, waiting for her hair to be rebraided. That's a Dancing Brook, the "little sister" of the Heartland families. She is now officially called Brooke.

Then it was a no-brainer to get a Rosa Lee, the Romani Katie. She's the curly haired brown girl behind Hillary, wearing a flowered dress.

The golden-blonde Katie, now named Isabelle, came as a lot with my Black(ish) 2002 Jodi, along with the brunette Katie that was shorn and flocked in titian to become Ben. Isabelle is at middle right, wearing an aqua gingham cowgirl outfit with gold trim. Ben is perched above her in khakis and a red and aqua sweater. (Katie originally had a brown-haired dude pal (Todd clone) named Kyle, who was also dressed in western wear as Pistol Pete. Kyle is hard to find, and it was more fun to make my own younger brother for my redheaded Kelsey.

Bette Mae, the brown gal with lots of straight black hair, wearing the pink striped shirt at middle left, is my second Dancing Brook. She's named for one of the leaders of the Seminoles in Florida, as I decided to have the two Dancing Brooks come from different tribes. She arrived with a large lot of vintage Katie clothes, which is why everyone here except Hillary has shoes!

Katies are absolutely, positively a direct competitor with Mattel's Stacie. They appear in a sister pack in 1992. However, Katie has a slightly younger sister, Carla, who was being sold as "Girls Club" before Stacie launched. Carla had a Katie head mold on what sure looks in photos like a Creata 6.25" body like Hillary.

The Katie Krew proved so compelling that I got rid of my 1990s Stacie and Whitney dolls, who'd once been major thrift finds (but Stacie had worn the same outfit for 10 years, so my enthusiasm wasn't as high as I thought). I'm still a little on the fence about Bette Mae, but every time I put her next to Brooke, I notice subtle differences in their face-up and decide she's uniquely adorable.

[tomadaclown]

Dreamy flight

[dooniichez]

Downloaded mini world on my Tablet, so here are a couple of my favourite Mini world skins :]