Mama Corazon Rotoplast Venezuela 1986 approx.

 My two previous posts present dolls that I think are very pretty, but their pictures are atrocious. I really am a mediocre photographer, but these pictures are just awful. I promise to do something about it but not today. Today I’m taking pictures of a very unique doll and I’m so excited to have her that my hands are shaky as if I just had three double espressos and a large Redbull. I must have been a good girl this year because Santa came to me bearing a very special gift and I haven’t even trimmed a proper Christmas Tree yet!

Let me just say that I love the Kelley headmold, ok? Love it! One day I’ll get my own Kelley doll, but so far I’ve managed to collect three Jazzie dolls and Heart Family Mom was next on my list as far as the head sculpt goes. But with no luck. Somehow, whenever she appeared on the radar, I didn’t have the sufficient funds, or I was late and she was no longer available. The few dolls that circulate at eBay are a bit too expensive when you add the shipping and customs costs. But just a few days ago, one collector decided she no longer needed Heart Family Mom in her life and the doll changed the address moving into my cabinet. I’m ecstatic!

Let me add that I was incredibly lucky with my doll because she’s not just any Heart Family Mom – she’s Mama Corazon produced in Venezuela by Rotoplast! Mama Corazon had been displayed but she arrived with her box, her chubby little son, the catalogue presenting somewhat funny fashions, cardboard punch-outs, a very unusual brush and a single shoe with Venezuelan signature. I can hardly read what the box says, but both the Mattel and Rotoplast logos are there and I’ve inferred the doll was produced under Mattel’s license. The pictures on the box also present Papa Corazon with his lovely daughter as well as the incredibly pastel playset I’d love to own. All sold separately, of course.

The box is missing the typical Mattel table of contents though I’m not sure I’d be able to read it if it were there. There’s no production date either but I’m guessing it was 1986 or a bit later because that’s when Kiss & Cuddle Heart Family Mom was produced to be released on the American market. You can see that Mama Corazon was produced to resemble Kiss & Cuddle but there are noticeable differences and not just in the face paint which to me is completely different, but the regular mom has a unique headmold. She’s the only Heart Family Mom with closed mouth and supposedly she was able to leave lipstick marks on the chubby cheeks of her offspring and her husband too. My Mama Corazon has the regular Kelley head sculpt with a smile.

The paper punch-outs are exactly like the ones that Kiss & Cuddle comes with but the dress is made of a different fabric. It’s very good quality though. The further differences in terms of the stock outfit are the ribbons on the dress as well as one giant metal snap that I had never seen before. The tags and signatures inform that the entire stock was produced in Venezuela. As part of her dowry, Mama Corazon came with a fashion catalogue and I find it funny and amazing in equal proportions. I can recognize a few designs that were certainly sketched by Mattel, but there are some that Mattel would never create even within the safety of the four walls of the designers’ room let alone release them! Just look at the leather set for Barbie and Ken and Barbie’s black lingerie! Mattel’s produced a few lines of Barbie underwear, but I can hardly recall any black ones. That would be too daring I guess.

I’m pretty stubborn so getting a Heart Family Mom was just a matter of time, but I would never guess I’d own an actual Rotoplast! Not in my wildest dreams. My only regret is that I know so little on the topic of Rotoplast dolls. I’ve dug out some scraps of information as I was preparing the post on Day to Night but the blogs and the sites that offer some more detail are hardly in English. The translation puts me off, it looks silly and unreliable but I have an eye on a particular book that may shed some light on the matter. It’s Barbie around the World and I must add it to my library.

 

The source: https://www.amazon.com/Barbie-Around-World-Identification-Augustyniak/dp/B01MS1CBN6

I belong to the transition generation. I wasn’t born with a tablet in my tiny hand and my first scream after cutting the umbilical cord wasn’t „what’s the Wi-Fi passsswoooooooord?!!” So I’m quite ... "analog" and I appreciate real, paper books. I like to experience them with several senses, I love the sound of rustling pages, the smell of paper and a bit of dust when the book is old, I like to feel the paper under my fingers and above all, I enjoy the safety of an orderly and easy to follow format that a book affords and the Internet doesn’t. I hope to grow my doll library, though I only have two books at the moment. It seems I’ve formed my new year’s resolution – to get more books on the topic of Barbie and to learn more about Rotoplast dolls! Oh and to improve the quality of the pictures on my blog.