I loved Strawberry Shortcake dolls when I was a kid, and I still find their little freckled faces adorable now. Sometimes a 25 year old toy can look a little the worse for wear, however, and the hair is often the first to go.

Fortunately, 80s Strawberry Shortcake dolls aren’t in short supply, so if you have one with messy hair a new ‘do is a definitely an option.  I found one with a big bald patch on ebay for a few dollars and thought I’d give mohair a go.

The first stage is to remove her head.  This is easy to do: you just take the head in one hand and the body in the other and pull.  Voila!

Secondly, you’ll need to cut her hair really short, like this:

Once the hair is short, you’ll be able to pull it out very easily with tweezers, leaving your little Shortcake with a funny bald pear-shaped head:

I then took some leftover mohair from a Blythe reroot (thanks Jade!) and used one of Rachael’s reroot tools to push little chucks of mohair into each of the holes in Shortcake’s little head. I won’t repeat Rachael’s tutorial as it needs no further explanation. I’ll just show you the results:

A crazy soft pastel afro! And with a hat, it’s very cute:

I love it, and it’s really quite quick and easy to do. Hurrah!

The first time I saw pictures of a Momoko were in the first Doll Coordinate Recipe pattern book. There is a full page of pictures of Momoko dressing herself - a display of poseability that was quite astounding to a Blythe-only doll collector, as I was then.

Still, I hadn’t seen one of them in real life, so I remained intrigued from a distance for a year or two before getting really sucked in to the marvelous world of Momoko. It was the ‘Wake up’ Momoko range that did it - a small range of dolls in basic outfits with minimal make up. I had been reluctant to pay 12,000 yen for a type of doll I wasn’t sure I’d like, but 6,000 I was ready to risk!

And so arrived Betty:

I was smitten right away. That profile! The almost-realistic proportions!  I also love that she can tilt her head and stand up on her own. She’s cute and versatile, and as the Momoko official website tells us, Momoko clothing really is true to life. Each clothing item is a real item in miniature, even the super-fine knits and the little fasteners. I particularly love the Momoko Dr Marten boots which have moulded laces tied around the ankle and the distinctive sole pattern on the underside.

Of course, these kinds of details mean that Momoko clothes can be fairly expensive, especially the Petworks-produced Close Clipped Sheep items. The latest collections, Puppy Garden, are a tear-inducing 39,000 yen, but coordinate to create a complete wardrobe with several pairs of shoes. Totally tempting, particularly as they come with an exclusive Petworks doll. I love the crimpy-haired girl this time.

Production of Momoko is split between Sekiguchi and Petworks, the Petworks girls being more exclusive and expensive. They are very similar dolls, although I have to admit to only having seen one Petworks Momoko in real life. The only difference I could identify
with a quick look was that the joints seemed a little sturdier on the Petworks version. I expect there are many other differences a more knowledgeable and experienced collector could show me.

This season Sekiguchi have a line up of new releases that I just love:

(both photos are stock pictures taken from www.momokodoll.com)

Here they are on display at Pretty Power Osaka:

(http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/pretty_power_osaka/49432813.html)

I have a definite favourite in Sparkling 80s, with her dark hair and eyes, but I absolutely must have the outfit from Milk Tea Party too. The high-heeled mary janes are a new mould and very cute. Let’s hope they’re not as delicate as the last new shoe - a high-heeled T-bar shoe that is apparently very easily broken.

These dolls are due to be on sale Autumn/Winter 2009 at 13,400 yen, with pre-orders already being offered in some stores for Outdoor Boyish. I will be alerting Santa.

Hurrah!