Some time ago, when my United Colors of
Benetton Barbie had her debut on my blog, I mentioned that my further
plans as for the series was to purchase Christie. I didn’t entertain
high hopes for her early arrival though. I’d spent too much time trying
to achieve a compromise between Barbie’s condition and her price and I
expected Christie to come just as difficult. You may imagine my
surprise, when Nana Arima
put a link to an ad in the comments section and when I opened it, there
she was, my Christie. And the ad had been posted just a couple of hours
earlier. I was pretty sure, the doll was no longer available, but I
still wrote to the owner asking her about the doll and the transfer data
in the same message. I know that’s not how you do it, but I wanted the
doll, badly. The next morning I woke up in the state of great confusion
as something hard just hit on my skull. That was my toddler trying to
wake me up with my phone and she was evidently satisfied with her
actions that she readied for another blow. I managed to intercept the
phone, to her great displeasure and protests and I thought I might check
out the doll. The terrific news made the headache disappear
momentarily!
I’ve already described the three waves
of United Color of Benetton x Mattel collaboration so I’ll focus on my
Christie now. The doll is just lovely, so sweet, happy and innocent
looking! She arrived in great need of a bath of course, but that’s to be
expected. Her hair needed only a wash and a bit of a conditioner to
shine again and I just recreated the factory partline and the style. I’m
glad she has no bangs that would obscure her pretty face. Her
complexion is quite dark and I’m happy it is. Her make-up is almost
nonexistent. There’s just a tiny bit of a blue eyeshadow to grace her
brown and blue (?) eyes and some soft red lipstick and that’s it. She’s a
natural beauty and she needs nothing more. I love her puffy lower
eyelid. I compared my only 2 Christie- molded dolls and I was astonished
at the striking difference between them. They couldn’t be more
dissimilar. The difference in their skin tone, their eye make-up and
their lips is unbelievable when you consider they share the same
headmold! The feelings the two dolls evoke are entirely different as
well. To me Christie is a happy, lively and kind next door kind of girl.
But Morocan Barbie is royalty! She’s dreamy and mysterious. Plus, she’s
had more sleep I presume, since her lower eyelids are far less puffy.
Benetton Christie is not perfect, and
it’s evident she’d been plenty played with. Her hip joints are loose for
one thing and for another, one of her eyebrows is slightly shorter.
It’s not bad at all, since her skin is so dark. Her previous owner
seemed to love her so much she could eat her and apparently even tried,
because her right thumb is missing. But the owner had informed be about
the thumb before I paid and this fact didn’t discourage me a tiny bit. I
mean, I buy mostly used dolls and I don’t expect them to be perfect in
every sense. I’m prepared to accept certain flaws, I only wish to be
aware of them at the time of payment. I hate to discover them when I
take the doll out of her packaging. Fortunately, this time the seller
turned out to be an honest person.
Christie’s stock isn’t complete, but the
most important elements of her clothing and jewelry are still there.
She comes with a hoodie that looks really warm and comfy and I’d love to
have one for myself. It’s of course very colorful. The white hoodie’s
been trimmed with a red ribbon and there are various patterns all over
it- triangles, stripes, flowers, you name it. The sleeveless half
turtleneck underneath seems to be very much in conflict with the hoodie.
The colors are no longer so vibrant but other than that, it looks great
and the patterns are even crazier than on the hoodie. The doll is
wearing a yellow scarf tied at her waist and fortunately, the magenta
leggings are plain, otherwise, you’d get blind with the colors and
patterns and all that. Christie’s missing her thigh-high red socks, her
yellow sneakers and her purse that matches her turtleneck. I’d love to
have these too, but I’m not prepared to pay ransom for her, so I just
found some pink sneakers in my own stock and she’ll have to settle for
what she has. Her ring is missing too, but her hoop earrings are in
place. I must say the pink earrings look very nice with her dark
complexion.
A collector is such an insatiable
creature. I first wanted Barbie, then I longed for Christie and now that
I have them both, I would like to own Ken as well. Does it ever stop? I
hope not because it would mean the end of my collection. Meanwhile,
here’s my two Benetton girls.
