| |
Ghost Of The Doll
is an ID website dedicated to toys of the 1980's and
1990's (plus a few 2000's thrown in for good measure)!
The Toys
page has a list of all the toys I have or will be
researching. The information includes images of the
toys, their names, different series produced, books,
playsets, accessories and anything else I can find!
I have used my own
pictures where possible, donations and eBay sales.
Thanks and links for all images used can be found
at the top of each page they are shown on. If you
run your own toy site you can swap links with me on
my Links
page.
I hope you find the
information and pictures here useful to identify what
you have (or don't have) in your toy collections.
I'm constantly adding information, so if your toy
isn't here yet keep coming back as it is only a matter
of time! If you are interested in a toy which isn't
listed then contact
me and I'll see what I can do.
The Toy
ID Help Forum is a place to post pictures
and questions about toys you are trying to identify,
so if you have something that you just can't remember
what it is, or memories of a toy once owned this is
where to go!
The Updates
page shows all the changes I make to the website so
you can easily see what has been added and updated.
Finally, if you want
to contact me you can find out how on the Contact
& Guestbook page.
|
|
|
My name is Sarah
and I live in Essex, England. I studied Fine Art at
Derby University in the mid 90's and it was during
this time I started collecting old dolls and toys
from charity shops and car boot sales. I used them
for inspiration and as materials for my work, but
after a while I just enjoyed the thrill of rummaging
around stalls and shops on the look out for another
bargain! It wasn't long until I had so many old toys
I didn't know what to do with them, and by the time
I moved from Derby to Essex in 2004 I realised it
was time to start selling them on. After doing some
research on eBay I realised that I had quite a little
goldmine. I spent several fun filled hours (ok, days)
washing them and brushing their hair ready to be photographed,
and many of the non brand baby dolls went back to
the charity shops. Then came the hard part; working
out what they all were and their individual names
(from watching eBay I realised that properly labeled
toys sold much better). As a child I had lots and
lots of Sindy dolls, a few Care Bears and loads of
non brand soft toys (plushies), so although a lot
of the toys I had accumulated were familiar I had
never actually owned them as a child (I remember I
hated My Little Ponies and thought Strawberry Shortcake
dolls were weird!). |
So, where to start id-ing
all the toys? I soon realised that although there were (and
still are) some excellent sites for a few of the mainline
toys, many of my toys were very hard to ID (if not almost
impossible) and there were no good all round visual websites
for 80's toys. Most of my research came from scouring eBay
sales and personal collection pages and I accumulated a
huge amount of data which I began organising and filing
on my PC. I'd already began to teach myself a bit of web
design in order to put together a website for my art work,
so I began putting together some pages for Care Bears, Keypers,
Rainbow Brite and Wuzzles. The prospect of putting together
pages for My Little Pony was a bit daunting (I had collected
hundreds of the little buggers!), but the more research
I did the more interested I became in adding them in to
my growing website (especially as many of them were UK ponies
which had less information available on the internet than
the US ones). The more toys I added to my website the more
I began to realise that there must be a lot of other sellers
and collectors out there facing the same ID problems as
I was. And so Ghost Of The Doll was born!
Ghost Of The Doll website
went live in 2004 with a list of about 10 or so toys in
it, adding more as I sold off my toys and worked out what
they were. It was sad to see my toy collection slowly disappearing
to various parts of the world, but the more toys I added
to my website the more I realised that I had stumbled into
another way of collecting toys which took up far less space
and was a bit arty too! I started researching toys that
I had never owned, and in most cases had never come across
before either. In 2006, as the website grew, I decided to
add in a new section the help ID other peoples toys and
by the beginning of 2010 I was getting so many emails requesting
help that the only way forwards was to open a forum, which
turned out to also be an excellent place for collectors
to talk and share their own collections with like minded
people!
Ghost Of The Doll has now
expanded to included 1990's toys, and by the looks of it
I'll be adding in a few toys from 2000 upwards too. I really
enjoy working on this project and put a lot of time and
effort into getting it accurate and to look good too. I
hope that it will keep growing for many years to come!
So, what about photo's of
my once vast and varied toy collection? Well, although I
have many photos of all the individual toys I used to own,
unfortunately I no longer have any of them "displayed"
in my house. I only have one photo session of them as a
group (a selection anyway), taken in 2003. They made a very
colourful procession! Before I stored my toys in my art
studio I used to have them lined up along all the walls
on little shelves and down the corridor of my house. If
fact, they encroached on every living space available! There
were also loads of baby dolls peeking out of the shadows
and a large selection of chiming toys which used to start
up randomly and freak out my friends! I even had a comic
book floor in my dinning room (I glued them to the old lino
tiles then varnished over the top). It lasted about a year
before looking a bit rough, so removed them and tried it
again on my wooden stairs, which lasted much better. Luckily
the land lord didn't mind...

On a non toy related note,
other things I do with my time are card, purse and bag making,
a bit of photography, web design and I have a huge interest
in genealogy (my own and other peoples)! When I'm not working
on my own projects I work in a Shoe Repair shop. I love
all kinds of music, sci-fi tv, my hamsters and my lovely
boyfriend Jamie (who's glad I don't comb toys hair with
his brush anymore)! |