Whatever your style, and no matter your age, there’s a perfect time to start collecting. The Bold Doll explains how it’s probably now…
While surveying the storage facility that used to be our guest bedroom, I began to muse on my doll-collecting habits, how they’ve changed, and how they might develop over the years to come.
As a relative newcomer to the art of amassing vast numbers of our plastic friends, I still have some way to go before reaching the giddy collecting heights of some of my peers. Most of our apartment, for example, still remains doll-free. But I do spend inordinate amounts of time trying to keep the burgeoning collection under control and within limits. I suppose when you give this up you have truly become a real collector and the dolls have taken over!
It occurred to me, as I tried to find a free bit of shelf space to stash the latest unnecessary purchase, that the way people collect dolls really does change with age and I began to develop my Ages of Collecting Theory. Worry not academics – this is never going to be serious competition for your thesis.
0-5 is something of a golden age of collecting, in general we just sit back and the collecting is done for us – all manner of cuddly and chewy toys come our way. This is how I was introduced to Dinah, a not very cuddly ride-on dog with four wheels, matted fur, and only one ear (going by old family photos). I’m assuming she was in a more attractive state when she first arrived. Very little effort is required from us and anything that doesn’t meet with our approval can be thrown out of the playpen. There are few people who still have intact toys from this age group, favorites are often dismembered or otherwise destroyed.
5-10 is the period when we develop our own style and taste. It might, admittedly, not be great but it’s a start and will set the foundation for a lifelong love of pink, hatred of purple, fondness for plush, and so on. This is when we learn pester power and use our discernment to create the collection of dolls and toys we want. It may well be strongly influenced by TV advertising and peer pressure but for the first time we’re making choices about the objects we choose to have round us. My first discovery of fashion dolls and their wardrobes was the wholesome, home-grown Sindy (the UK’s version of Tammy), although even then I was aware that she didn’t have the fashionista credibility of some of her American cousins. This formative age is the one that will form the basis for a grown up nostalgia for dolls and toys that many of us experience in later years. But I’m getting ahead of myself – that’s to come later.
10-15 is usually a period of withdrawal from the world of dolls, sadly. Often we decide we’re far too sophisticated for childish playthings and become more interested experimenting with fashion for ourselves rather than on our dolls. In any case it would have been safer to stick with the dolls – we all have early teen photos that we’ve come to regret. But we have to learn somehow… I did experiment with making dolls and puppets during this time, but abandoned this in favor of other pursuits.
15-25 is a sorry time for most dolls, our lives become so full of other interests: college, work, dating, just getting yourself together, and spending way too much time with unsuitable people – that filter doesn’t seem to kick in until a bit later. This is the age when dolls tend to get packed away and languish in the attic – developing mold, green ear, and other nasty doll diseases of neglect. The only ‘doll’ I had in my twenties was a little mascot monkey that I’d found in a drawer at home and who sat on my desk from time to time.
25-35 can be when the first doll reawakening occurs. We’ve become a bit more settled and established and maybe we’ve been encouraged to venture into that attic by parents who want to clear out the junk. Indeed this is when I rediscovered those dusty lost treasure of my youth. If the fluctuating temperatures and infestations haven’t done there worst you might still be left with a passable collection – or this might be the time when, remorseful for the sorry state of childhood friends, you decide to invest in replacements. This is generally not a collecting phase as such – just a little replacement here and there. But it’s a slippery slope.
35-45 can be when the full-blown collecting bug kicks in. You’ve stockpiled all of the dolls of your youth – and more besides. Now you’re in control of your own finances there’s no reason not to have the whole set of Kiddle Liddles or Strawberry Shortcakes. Without the restraining influence of cash-strapped parents, the sky’s the limit. But this is also the age when many of us discover that dangerous enabling group, the Doll Club. This is when things take a real turn for the worse. The Doll Club will open up whole areas of collecting and dolls you have never heard of before – all of which you must have, obviously. Your interest may widen from the hitherto narrow focus on childhood pleasure and begin to encompass more contemporary, not to mention more expensive, dolls to collect.
45-60 by now you’re probably a member of several doll clubs and have subscriptions to all the doll magazines to feed further your addiction. Your home is no longer yours but has been colonized by composition, vinyl, resin, rubber – whatever floats (or sinks) your doll boat. There is not a surface anywhere without a doll on it. If you’re lucky enough to have hung on to your partner/family/loved ones – just thank your lucky stars that you found someone so tolerant. Unless of course you are living with another collector in which case I wonder where you sleep at night.
60-75 with luck, common sense has taken a hold by now and you begin to realize that unless you’ve got someone younger with a keen interest in dolls, it’s a good idea to rationalize and cash in some of those dolls that have been in boxes for years and have been virtually forgotten about. This is the time to stop buying and to streamline – paring down to a small but perfectly formed collection of your ideal dolls.
75+ Yeah right… none of that stuff in the previous 15 years happened did it? Face it, you’re just a hopeless case and the dolls are here to stay!
This feature originally appeared in the Fall 2011 issue of Fashion Doll Quarterly magazine.
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