Now Playing: "Return of the Jedi" - guess-who wants to see it again ?
Current Mood : Thoughtful
Another day, another 40% off coupon to Hobby Lobby for another 12-pack of wedding favor shoes. At least I won't need to repeat that again ! The coupons do say ‘one per person per day', so at least I'm following their rules.
Spent most of the day futzing around with Poison Ivy. Back in '04, Mattel made several ‘Barbie as...' dolls of various DC Comics' female characters. While most were yer good girls (Wonder Woman, Supergirl), surprisingly, they also let the ‘dream girl' have a bit of a wild child streak. Costumed aggression ended up on the glamorous side of Gotham when Babs vamped as Batman bad-girls Poison Ivy and, a year later, Harley Quinn. My cool brother-in-law got me Harley that year for Christmas - she has her own page on the main site - and a couple weeks ago, I found a bootless Ivy at a flea market for a mere $1. bill. Two weeks later, I shelled out another buck for her boots. Same seller. (sigh) I fully expect to find (and pay another buck for) her keychain lunchbox next time they're in town.
Still, it was hard to be disappointed with Ivy (or Pamela Isley, to friends). Her costume was spot-on, the boots were all sort of sexy in green, the fishnets really added to the overall presentation, and her eyes were magnificent. Her eyebrows lent a bit of "intense crazy" to her gaze, but it still suited her. What ranked was her body. Oh, it was curvy enough, but it was the dreaded ‘bendy' body.
There's a reason Mattel doesn't use it anymore. Nobody likes it. In fact, it may be the one body fans hate *worse* than the ‘squat squad' one now being phased out in Playline. The appellation ‘ever-flex' was first used for ‘Jewel Girl' in late '00, and was only on her waist/torso section. Ivy's body, however, bears a 2000 Mattel trademark - she was born in Indonesia, btw. In '02, the ‘Dance & Flex' playlines highlighted the all-bendy-body, and it was now referred to as an ‘ever-flex' body. From there, Mattel seems to have gone nuts with the name. ‘Jam and Glam' girls had the ever-flex waist, so did ‘Chair Flair' characters, and ‘American Idol' dolls had ever-flex arms, but all of ‘em had ‘Ever-Flex TM' splashed all over their boxes. An '03 cheerleader had the ‘E-FTM' body, but aside from eBay research results, I'd never seen that doll before. ‘Trendy and Bendy' pretty much said it all in the name...but wait ! Only her hair bends. Not her body. And nearly all the ‘04 superheroine/supervillianess dolls had the Ever-Flex TM body...but for Harley and Elektra, out in ‘05. I imagine the soft rubbery bendy body just didn't take Harl's red/black elements very well. And the lack of sales of Ever-Flex was making itself known.
Whew. It's almost impossible to keep up - or even slog through it all. In any case, I spent a good chunk of today with Ivy's head in my purse. Ever wanna freak out a cashier, dump out a loose Barbie head while yer lookin' for your MasterCard. Anyway, I was gonna find a good standard Barbie body for her, and she's so pale, I couldn't rely on sheer memory to get the right one. I loved her eyes and even those odd-angled eyebrows, but that body simply freaked me right the heck out.
I spent about ten minutes in a toy section holding the head up to various pale bodies. Found a $5. ballerina Barbie that might have worked...but not quite. The toy section is normally vacant at 9am on a Tuesday, but it was busy today. Goss knows how many folks I weirded out. When I got home, Ivy's head went back on the bendy body it came with, and I decided to give her costume to another redhead and donate Ivy. Redressed, of course.
And I had a re-think. I'd never undressed her - she's only ever worn her Ivy costume with the split-seam green fishnets. Repaired those and got ‘em ready for the wash. For the first time, I got a really good look at the body I thought I hated. It's really not that bad.
Sure, her arms and legs bend at weird angles, but if the doll's in long sleeves or pants, it's barely noticeable. She doesn't sit up so much as she sort of balance-leans, but it gives her a more relaxed posture than all my other dolls. Her fingers don't bend, but her wrists do, and her hands are actually rather nice. You could even separate them with a blade if you wanted to. Her chin really does tuck to her chest, and her bendable neck gives her a unique gaze. And the ‘Barbie' signature trademark is engraved on the underside of her right foot. I love how her feet cross so naturally at the ankles.
I've saved a special paragraph for her other...umm, physical attributes. Her bust and butt are soft and actually bouncy ! No kidding, if you poke at ‘em, it's like a marshmallow. A bit harder than the real thing on a person, but springier than any Barbie's bits have ever been before !
Beloved Hubby said that she resembled Garbage lead singer Shirley Manson. And she is one gorgeous redhead ! So I think Ivy'll be staying around for a while. With her original body and her mysterious eyebrows. I find myself liking her more than I though...
