Current Mood : Playful !
Since confession's good for the soul - and it is Sunday - I may as well confess. I kinda saved putting the Barbie Fashion Plaza for today. Beloved and I were up rather late last night, and I really did have time to assemble it then, but... I wanted to reserve a whole day, if necessary, for it. Beloved Hubby had morning AirSoft fun, Dearest Son slept in. Also, I knew I'd wreck the Lab doing it. The only place it could go was The Slab, where the Castle has rested since last year. (sigh)
Might as well confess that, too. Last year, I fully intended to move playsets around monthly, so there was always something new on The Slab. Since the old playset would get stored where the new one was, it'd keep things fresh, and keep me from wanting more. Also, knowing how limited space was, it'd keep me from buying more.
But, as it turned out, time is even rarer than space, and it was easier to play with the Castle, and it camouflaged all the new dolls I kept adding to Chez Insanity. There was always a bit more space in the Castle ! It was holding (hiding) 33 dolls total !
The Plaza can hold quite a few shoppers, too ! But I hated taking the Castle down. Although it didn't mess up the Lab near as much as all these boxes of new possessions has. I have one whopper of a cleanup due ! Boxes, dolls, and fabric everywhere !
I'm glad I took a day, though, and made it special. I really, really love the Plaza. I love the awesome mid-70s graphics, the amazing engineering, the ease of assembly, and the space it affords. I have a renewed sense of why doll hobbyists love vintage, and I doubt I'll ever pine faintly for the Barbie Fashion Shop ever again. This set suits me sooo much better !
I probably could have figured the assembly out without the directions sheet, but I'd have been lost wondering what the numerous pink wedges were for, and where they went, since they don't show on the box photo. I admit, I was really concerned about getting that escalator right, but it was engineered so it'd only snap together one way. It has an ankle-grab stand that slides up a track, propelled by a pull-string. Awesome. The railings are just the right height for a Barbie's hands. Then and Now Barbie was the first to ride today, and it was so cute !
All the little yellow hibiscus and curl railing pieces snap into holes in the particle boards, and they even have arrows on the top, so lining up holes and pegs was easy. It's little details like that I find very impressive.
I'm all done setting it up, but my Lab is still too much of a disaster to take photos in. So I went through dolls, since my ‘one new in, one or two out' idea hasn't held water either lately. Let's see - I've added two Becky dolls, Kira, Triana, Grandma Heart, American Idol Tori, Charlotte, Scully, Mulder, and Prince Ken, all in the last couple of weeks. Not to mention a couple of princesses I knew I wasn't keeping. Once I got all the Castle denizens and the new arrivals together, I eliminated a round dozen... but there's still 30 mall rats, waiting for opening day ! Well, at least the numbers went down a little.
Beloved is still out on AirSoft with DFIL, and Dearest is fast asleep after several hours romping around outside. I'm gonna go back and play - and save the cleaning for tomorrow. Well, I'll clean enough for a photo. Hope your weekend was fun, too !
