OVERVIEW: My Little Angel

In 1993, Ertl produced a small line of toys called My Little Angel. The angel dolls were about 6" tall with removable, glittery liquid-filled wings. Most of the time, when you find them now, the liquid is all dried out and it's just a bunch of glitter. I found the wings very cumbersome and unattractive, so none of my dolls have theirs anymore. The dolls have glow-in-the-dark print dresses, headbands and a small charm.

There were six angel characters. Each one was the angel of something and you could see her theme clearly in her outfit.

Daphne and Joy

Daphne, the blonde in purple, was the angel of music, which is pretty obvious if you look at her headband. Strawberry blonde Joy in her pink dress with hearts is the angel of love. Joy is my second sleeper from the line. She's in pink and she's kinda blonde, not things I usually go for, but she's got a really cute face with her full lips (she's the only one with distinct lips) and upturned glance, so she's #4 out of 6 on my list of faves. Not a high rank, but she's not last, which is the sleeper hit part.

Angela and Cookie

Angela is the nursery angel. Could they really not have come up with a better idea than a giant bottle in the middle of her forehead? I mean, it was the early 90s, but still, come on. She has a sloppy hairstyle and a rather goofy expression, so she's my least fave of the six. Cookie is the cooking angel. ("Where do you think angel food cake comes from?") She's my main sleeper of the line. I figured I'd like her as little as Angela, because she has the same kinda sloppy hairdo and giant weird headband, but there's something about her that I love. I think the color scheme of gold, yellow and green does her a lot of favors and her big green eyes are adorable. She's my #3 fave.

Luminar and Mistie

Drowsy-looking Luminar is actually the starlighter, who keeps stars shining brightly. She's my fave. I love her dreamy expression and crimped hair. Mistie is the cloud chaser angel, who puffs clouds into their shapes. She's my second fave. She's not quite as dreamy as Luminar, but she's almost as cute.

The line also consisted of seven cherub dolls, which were basically drink-and-wet toddlers. Hot pink-haired Candie works with Cookie, while slightly lighter pink-haired Luv works with Joy. Lavender-haired Hope is Angela's helper, while blonde Faith works with both Mistie and Luminar. Poor Daphne gets no one! There were also three sets with one cherub and an animal: Clover the lamb, Lea the lion and Dallas the pegasus.

There were color variants, mostly of the headbands. My Angela has a pink headband, but there's one on ebay with blue, and my Mistie has blue but there's one on ebay with pink. They're fairly easy to find and affordable.

I got into the line in 2008 and bought Angela, Mistie, Joy and Daphne mint on card. It didn't take me too long to add Cookie and Luminar and then I was done collecting. Easy little line!

PHOTO CREDITS: All mine.

RECOMMENDED SITE:
http://www.ghostofthedoll.co.uk/mylittleangel.php 

OVERVIEW: Girlhood Journeys

Juliet and Shannon

The mid-90s brought us the small Girlhood Journeys line. They're a historical-themed line of 14" dolls that have mostly soft bodies that end in vinyl arms and legs. The soft body goes down to about the bicep and mid-thigh, then turns into the vinyl limb. It makes them floppy and unable to stand on their own, but also pretty huggable.

Ertl produced four dolls for the line and each had a set of 3 books.

Juliet's books take place in 1339-1340 England. She's a lovely doll and probably my favorite character from the line.

Shannon, shown with Juliet in the photo here, is from 1880's San Francisco. I had to use this old picture to get a shot of Shannon in here. She was actually the first doll I got from the line and even though I bought her boxed, her face was all sticky and had odd dark spots on it. I ended up donating her before we moved and have never replaced her. Maybe someday! She's the least attractive of the four dolls though, so maybe not.

Kai

Kai is from Africa in 1440. She's a really awesome doll with great hair.

And Marie is from 1775 France. She's so gorgeous. She's actually my favorite doll from the line, though Juliet is my favorite character. I think. It's actually been a bit since I reread the books!

Marie

There is actually one more book. Isabella is the fifth character, a girl from Peru in 1820. She never got her other two books or her doll produced, sadly. And what's driving me crazy right now is that I know I saw a prototype image of the doll years ago and I can't find it now! I only ever did one LJ entry mentioning these girls, which amusingly says I'd only ever want Juliet. It was written in 2008 and I ended up with all four dolls in 2011. Heh. How my mind changes. But I know I saw that picture and I apparently didn't save it anywhere. Argh.

Anyway, Girlhood Journeys is a pretty low-cost line to collect. You can get the books quite cheap and the dolls usually run $30 or less even boxed.

PHOTO CREDITS: All mine.