In the last few months a couple of new books about Licca dolls have been released. I haven’t had the opportunity to buy them myself yet, but I’d thought I’d share a little info about the books that I discovered while poking around online.

The first book was published in April by Shueisha and it contains 160 pages. I believe the author is named Kozima Yasuhiro and the title translates to something like Licca-chan Comes but I’ve also seen it selling as Licca Doll’s 1967 Birth Story. I suspect the title is actually translated as something like The Birth of Licca. It sells for 1,785 yen in Japan and you can see some interior pages from the book at the Japanese e-Hobby website.

The second Licca book was published in May by Kodansha and I believe it contains 200 pages. It also seems to come with some kind of CD or DVD as well. The book is simply called Licca-chan’s BOOK or Licca Book and it sells for 1,680 yen in Japan.

You can currently find these books selling on eBay for ridiculously high prices and at Japanese bookshops in the US such as Kinokuniya.

I’ve been playing with pixel dolls more than vinyl and resin dolls lately. If you’re a fan of digital dolls please come by and visit me at my new Sims 3 blog: Machine Dolls.

In other news. . . I’m working on a major redesign of this blog that I hope to have done in a month or two. Expect big changes soon!

More of my vintage Licca family & friend pics can be found at Flickr.

At the start of January 2009 I joined the Doll a Week Flickr photo group. I thought it would remind me to snap a picture of at least one doll from my collection each week and so far it’s working. I have a lot of dolls I’ve never photographed and I’m hoping that by joining the group it will inspire me to shoot some pics of some of my neglected dolls. Here’s the 4 photos I took in January.

Repro Licca (#25) with Japanese vintage plastic deer toys.

Kokeshi doll. Given to me as a Xmas gift in 2008!

Antique Japanese doll (type unknown) from the 1930s

Vintage Japanese pose doll I call “Amber.”

My Licca friend Harumi Asaoka is wearing a vintage Skipper dress made by Mattel called Beachy Peachy. With her blond hair and green eyes, I thought Harumi looked like a daisy, so I thought she’d look cute in a daisy covered dress.

I bought the dress for $2 on ebay and it was terribly stained but I managed to restore it after a good cleaning. I really love how it fits her and now I really want to get more vintage Skipper fashions for my Licca and Blythe dolls to wear.

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