I’ve been catching up on all the new dolly releases lately so my apologies for all the recent blog activity!

I was super surprised and thrilled to come across these adorable Alice in Wonderland inspired Jenny & Licca Birthday dolls coming out this month from Club 67, as well a couple of great looking Jenny Roma fashions. In all honesty, I just haven’t liked what has become of Jenny & Licca ever since the official Takara/Tomy merge. The recent Jenny & Licca dolls, as well as the fashions, just haven’t been very appealing to me but I’m totally smitten with the upcoming stuff!

Below: Jenny, Licca and little Miki & Maki in Wonderland!!

And two “must have” Jenny fashions in plaid and houndstooth - fabulous!

When I was in Japan in late 2005 I bought many vintage Licca friends and family dolls. I haven’t been able to share photos of them all yet due to major camera troubles, lack of free time and a computer meltdown so severe that I had to buy a whole new system. But that should change soon since my camera has been fixed and I finally got a Photoshop update.

In the meantime I recently sent my vintage Lady Licca and & Licca friend Harumi Asaoka to Japan to visit the super talented Mikiko who I’ve admired for a long time thanks to seeing her wonderful work in magazines like Bean. Mikiko was kind enough to restore my Lady Licca and Harumi Asaoka dolls and now they look better then ever! She also kindly made my Lady Licca doll a cute little dress for her journey home. Here are a couple of before and after photos (please excuse the horrible quality of the “before” photo which I took with the camera on my computer late at night since I didn’t have a camera!).

Before . . .

After . . .

I forgot to mention that my buddy Lala has started a new doll forum called The Blythe Network and you can find me there as well. Normally I avoid doll forums but knowing Lala, The Blythe Network promises to be a friendly and fun place to hang out if you enjoy chatting about dolls. I even started a Licca Lovers group there myself since The Blythe Network is open to all sorts of various doll chat. Please feel free to stop by and say hello to me if you’re already a member and if you’re not, what are you waiting for?

I haven’t updated this blog in ages but I wanted to mention that I’m really fond of the new Blythe doll coming out called Miss Sally Rice and I love the Fall Whisper fashion set.

Miss Sally Rice

Fall Whisper Fashion Set

The Japanese street fashion magazine KERA is releasing 3 new super cute Jenny dolls in association with Takara/Tommy and some of Japan’s leading Gothic Lolita designers; Angelic Pretty, ALGONQUINS and Metamorphose temps de fille. Each doll retails for 15,540 yen which is about $135.00 and I think they have to be pre-ordered. For limited dolls created by some of Japan’s best designers the price seems fairly reasonable. Unfortunately I can’t currently afford to buy one myself, but they are really lovely and I think the ALGONQUINS Jenny is especially terrific looking. Every doll comes with some fabulous accessories that you can view in detail by checking out the links I posted above. In the meantime you can drool over these photos with me. . .

ALGONQUINS Jenny

Angelic Pretty Jenny

Metamorphose temps de fille Jenny

One of my favorite Japanese designer brands is Swimmer due to their super cute styles and cheap prices that I can afford. They’ve been around for years and believe me when I say that no one seemed to know or care who and what Swimmer was in the English speaking world until recently.

In 2005 when I was in Tokyo I looked for a Swimmer shop and stocked up on Swimmer goods. I took some pics of my stuff and posted them on Flickr.

Part of my Japanese Art & Design Collection at Flickr

Since that time interest in Swimmer seems to have exploded online, mainly with other doll owning folks who tend to be the trendiest people you’re likely to meet. I find it all really strange since as I mentioned above, Swimmer has been around for awhile and no one seemed to care. I first saw their goods in a Japanese fashion magazine in the late ’90s.

The official Swimmer wesbite finally opened last year: SWIMMER Offical Website

The company has also been opening lots of new shops all over Japan. but they haven’t opened a US store… yet anyway. Sadly, like most things when they begin to get trendy and over produced, the quality starts to go down. I’ve been pretty disappointed with all the new stuff that Swimmer has produced for 2007 which is displayed on their wesbite. I really prefer thir cute retro animal designs over thier super girly stuff.

Oh well… only time will tell. Hopefully their 2008 collection will improve.

I’ve just started contributing to the great Groovy Age of Horror blog. I plan in sharing scans from untranslated sixties & seventies era manga there so if you enjoy horror manga from the ‘groovy age’ please stop by the blog and check out my latest post which is called, Terror in Tokyo! An Introduction to Horror Manga.

I’ve also started some new sets at Flickr for my Horror Manga scans and my music blog Let’s Go J-Sound! so if you’re in the mood for some eye-candy be sure to give them a look.

Long time no post! This year I’ve spending most of my free time over at my movie blog so please come by and visit me at Cinebeats.

Camera problems have slowed down my picture taking, but hopefully I’ll be able to start snapping more pics soon. I also hope to revamp Peppermint Kiss Kiss sooner or later and I’m builidng a site for my Licca dolls which is just about done, but I need to be able to afford to host it somewhere and money is rather tight right now. I haven’t bought myself a doll since Sept. of last year. Going through dolly withdrawal has been tough.

Some Dawn doll seasonal cheer…

Lots more Dawn doll holiday pics can be found in my Dawn doll set @ Flickr

Cute “Office Lady” Fruit Labo commercial featuring the acting talents of Momoko!