NEWS - LIFELIKE DOLLS IMPRESS CROWDS

Lifelike dolls impress crowds

Wednesday, August 1, 2012 12:55 

The Meeanee Hall was a sea of crafted colour last Saturday as the Hawke's Bay Handmade Craft Market was staged, and many large faces were intrigued by the very little faces of Napier woman Cherie Brown's remarkably lifelike little babies.

She has been creating them from imported vinyl and silicon components for about three years and, up until Saturday at the market, had been selling her life-like creations online.

The babies take about 60 hours to create - about 12 hours are spent on the hair alone.

They generally sell for about $350 to $450, and have proven popular with doll collectors, but also as soothing, therapeutic company for grieving mothers and even people battling Alzheimers.

All the stages of babyhood are created, from premature to toddlers, and Mrs Brown, who has a background as a mum and in the field of nannying, was planning to expand the global family with Asian and Pacific Island babies.

Her creations attracted a constant chorus of admiring "aaahs".

Also on display for the last market of the winter was everything from wood carvings, jewellery, paintings, herbal ointments, designer clothes and soaps - all made by enthusiastic Bay craftspeople.

The markets will resume on Saturday, September 24.

NEWS - REAL LIFE CHUCKY DOLL IN HOUSTON? MOM SWEARS ELECTRONIC PLAY-TIME DOLL IS CURSING AT HER

A real-life Chucky doll in Houston? Mom swears electronic play-time doll is cursing at her 

 

By Tyler Rudick

06.12.12 | 12:13 pm

 

As if talking dolls weren't creepy enough already . . . After buying her 2-year-old daughter a set of You and Me Interactive Triplet Dolls from Toys "R" Us, Houston area mom Rose Pickens soon discovered that one of the little plastic girls had a little more to say than the usual goo-goo-gaga.
"She is a potty mouth," Pickens told KHOU reporter Brad Woodward. "She actually says the ‘B’ word. I just never paid attention to what the dolls say. They say mama and dada, and this particular day she said, You crazy b****."

 According to the Toys "R: Us website, the You and Me babies are "play time dolls that reflect the personality of every young girl." The sturdy 12-inch dolls are apparently programmed to "laugh and play, just like real babies."
"The dolls are basically supposed to interact . . . They play and coo together," explained Pickens. Well, it turns out that some children start speaking earlier than others — you know, "just like real babies."
Toys "R" Us, which has exclusive distribution rights for the talking triplets, is brushing off the allegations and keeping the dolls in stores despite a stream of complaints that started last fall.
“Please be assured that we would not carry a doll that uttered profanity of any kind," Katie Reczek, a spokesperson for national retailer, told KHOU. "We are aware that some customers believe they are hearing something else spoken by one of the dolls in the set, when, in fact, the doll is uttering baby babble.”
In a report from KPRC Pickens said she was surprised by the retailer's lack of concern when she called the store.
"I actually expected them to be shocked. The manager acknowledged that he had heard that this doll does curse and that they had no plans of removing them from the shelves."

You & Me Interactive Play & Giggle Triplet Dolls are available at all Toys 'R' Us stores for $39.99. Stroller and batteries not included.

NEWS - REBORN DOLLS FIND A LIFE OF THEIR OWN

Reborn dolls find a life of their own

 

by Alina Lobzina at 25/01/2012 19:10

More and more Russian women are becoming “mommies” of babies made of vinyl, as reborn dolls gain popularity across the country.
Ladies are discussing their fake little ones or their plans to purchase an artificial bundle of joy online, paying occasional off-line visits to other members of their closed community.
“I had been considering several options, but Lenochka looked at me in such a way that I just couldn’t walk past,” a “mommy” posted in a message on one of the numerous discussion boards. “One picture stole my heart, she looks so sad in it that I really want to cuddle her,” read the message containing about 20 pictures of Lenochka in various outfits.

20,000+ rubles a doll
For some, however, this passion for shockingly realistic dolls has become a nice business. Yekatrina Samgina, the mother of three children herself, became a reborn dolls artists after her youngest baby was born.
“Then I was bursting with emotions and wanted to create this doll myself and I’ve enjoyed paining since I was a child,” she told RIA Novosti.
Samgina’s works cost about 20,000 rubles each, if not more, and for two-and-a-half years she has produced several dozen of them.
“I’ve got no clients without children, or any crazed people,” she said. “It’s not a weird mania of women who have no children.”
Sometimes she is asked to make a doll to look like a client’s real child, so parents could demonstrate it to their offspring later. “It’s like a photo, but in 3D.”

US trend arrives in Russia
The trend first emerged in the US in the 90s, and the first reborn dolls reached Russia in mid 2000s. Not many reborn doll owners will confess it’s more than a hobby. “So many people say bad things about us and believe we are mad. But we just like dolls,” a themed discussion board member wrote in an email to Komsomolskaya Pravda, rejecting to meet a reporter.
Another reborn doll artist, Tatyana Tsorn, also thinks that things are not as bad as they seem.
“Most people buy dolls to decorate their homes,” Tsorn told KP. Extremes, however, also happen, she admitted. “Recently a woman was asking on a discussion board where she could get a mechanism so her doll’s heart would beat and she could hear it breathe.”

Something like a lap dog
Psychologists agree that not every reborn doll owner needs some help from a specialist.
In general, it’s similar to some people’s obsession with lap dogs, believes psychologist Anetta Orlova.
“For some women it’s a substitute for their own children,” Orlova told KP. It could be a good remedy for those mothers whose desire to nurse children remains long after their own children have grown up, she added.
“But there is also the third type… They have just lost the boarder between their fantasy and reality,” Orlova said. And for many, playing with a vinyl baby seems to be a more favorable option than adopting one from Russia’s numerous orphanages, according to her. 

NEWS - DOLLY WALLIES-COPS SMASH CAR TO SAVE BABY, FIND ITS A DOLL

 I wonder how many times this kinda thing happens...MICHELLE

===============================================================

Dolly wallies

Cops smash car to save baby...& find it's a toy 

Realistic ... doll in car cops broke into

By ALASTAIR TAYLOR

Published: 30 Jul 2011

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COPS smashed a car window to save a "baby" left in the motor on a sweltering day - only to find it was a realistic DOLL.

Chanel Cristofis, five, left the doll called Sam in her dad Anastasi's Vauxhall Zafira when he dropped her off at school.
He then went to work at the fish and chip shop he owns.
But a passer-by in the chippie car park spotted the eerily lifelike £100 Reborn doll and called the police in Worksop, Notts.
Amid fears the "child" could die in the heat, officers broke into the car before realising their mistake.

Reborn doll Sam

Anastasi, 37, said: "I couldn't believe it when the police turned up holding the doll and told me what had happened. The officer told me not to leave it in the car again."
The detail-packed dolls are a hit with little girls. Artists work painstakingly to make them look like real babies - even giving them birthmarks and tiny veins.

Chanel's mum Victoria, 25, said: "She is inseparable from this doll but it has caused all sorts of problems.
"A woman in a supermarket saw Chanel shaking it and was horrified. She asked what sort of mother I thought I was to allow my baby to be treated like that. I can see why the police did it. If it had been real, everyone would be thanking them."
Police are to pay for more than £200 damage done to the car. Sgt Robert Holmes said: "The call was made in good faith. Drivers need to think about what they leave on view in their cars."

NEWS - MUM CREATES NEW LIFE WITH DOLLS

Mum creates new life with dolls

Chris Calcino | 28th July 2011

A fascination with dolls has led to a lucrative career for Kumiko Kids Reborn Nursery owner Natalya Edsen.

Bev Lacey

ALL it took was a trip to the markets and Natalya Edsen knew she was destined to make babies.
A stall laden with alarmingly realistic “reborn dolls” stood out from the wind chimes and bric-a-brac, and she was hooked.
The Toowoomba mother has built a career on one of the stranger trends to sweep the country — adult women opting for intricate fake babies over the real thing.
“Business is booming. I’m completely booked with orders until October,” she said.
Operating out of a “nursery” in her home, Ms Edsen spends hours each day bringing her dolls to life.
With some fetching $800 price tags, they have to do everything a baby does — except cry.
“One doll can easily take up to a week, working constantly,” she said.
“Each hair goes in, strand by strand, and the dolls have to be baked between each layer of water-thin paint.”
It is not just girls and clucky mothers who employ Ms Edsen’s services.
Her award winning dolls have been used as therapy for alzheimers and dementia patients, as well as mothers who have lost a child.
“The strangest thing was doing my first replica of a baby who died,” she said.
“I was so worried about it, but the mother was over the moon. It made me really proud to know I’d made someone so happy.”
She also runs classes for would-be mothers who want to build their bub from scratch.
“If I haven’t made a baby in a week, I get withdrawal symptoms,” she said.
“They’re very addictive and they’re just so cute!”