I really like the latest issues of Dollybird (vol. 7)! I love the vintage air hostess look and the current issue is jam-packed with pictures of beautiful vintage dolls wearing wonderful stewardess costumes. The cover pic reminded me a lot of the Kisara doll photo I took for my Fashion Doll Quarterly article last year.

My photo

Dollybird vol. 7

The magazine is full of great pictures of various Takara air hostess dolls but their picture of the 2002 Kisara really doesn’t do the doll much justice. Oddly enough, Dollybird did choose to publish a really nice layout featuring Jason Wu’s new Monsieur Z doll which made me realize just how much their Fly Girl had borrowed from Takara’s 2002 Kisara.

Takara’s 2002 Kisara Calendar Girl & Jason Wu’s 2005 Monsieur Z Fly Girl

The similarities include orange/white dress & hat combo, orange/white strip boots, white fishnet stockings and white gloves. Her eyes are side-glancing as well. If that isn’t a copycat fashion doll, I don’t know what is. Takara’s Kisara costs about $35 and Jason Wu’s Monsieur Z Fly Girl retails for about $95. I’m really tired of seeing so many doll designers in America and Japan borrow heavily from Takara’s idea pool while people bad mouth Takara left and right. Takara is no more now since they’ve merged with Tomy and they are now Takara/Tomy. Their doll production has really slowed down and suffered from this merge in the last couple of years it in my opinion, which is sad. It’s an end of an era for Japanese fashion dolls. Who will all the other doll companies in Japan borrow ideas from now?

And while I’m ranting a bit, I must say that poor Kisara, who is one of Takara’s most popular dolls, should really get more respect. Kisara is one of my favorite Jenny friend dolls and only second to Shion, but they both fight for position as my favorite Jenny friend doll all the time. Her face mold is really lovely and I think she obviously inspired the original PetWORKs Momoko design.

I need to go on a Kisara photo spree soon. I got a lovely version of her while I was in Tokyo that I’ve coveted for years, as well as the latest limited Jenny’s Club exclusive Kisara and I still haven’t taken pictures of my two Totoco Kisara dolls.

I want to add that I like the closed mouth Jason Wu Monsieur Z dolls and their fashions are really nice, but I find the open mouth dolls unattractive and almost Bratz-like. As for Momoko dolls, I really think they’re extremely lovely and I may get my own some day even if I’m reminded of Kisara every time I see one.

I’ve been dying to get my hands on one of the new Modern Pet Repro Licca dolls ever since I saw them. I think they’re one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen and worth every retail penny, but they were very limited and are now going for huge amounts on YJP. They give me EXTREME dolly lust!

If you like Japanese music you should visit a new music blog I’m contributing to called Let’s Go J-Sound! You’ll find all kind of music info and limited song downloads there from the 1950-2006.

http://jsound.blogsome.com

This Supercar music video for their song Strobolights is just too cute for words. Every time I watch it it makes me smile for an hour! If you like dolls and toys, as well as catchy electro tunes you should give it a look too.