Back in the middle of May, I purchased four dolls off of Ebay. The first to arrive were the "Molly's" that are currently known as "Molly 1" - a Pleasant Company stamped doll and "Molly 2" a historical girl stamped American Girl.
In the past, I've purchased eight of my American Girl dolls off of Ebay, having over four hundred purchases on there, I can honestly say that every experience was fairly good. That was until recently. The listing for the two Molly's was as follows - "Both retired 18 inch Molly dolls. Slight dry hair. Limbs good. Stand alone. No X. Ask questions before bidding. Eyes open and close fine. No silver eye. One has American Girl on back neck and one has Pleasant Company on back neck. Both bodies firm stuffed. Both body side tag. No rips no cuts no odors no stains. I have not cleaned them but they are nice.". Here's the picture that was included in the listing. 
I am by no means an expert in American Girl Dolls, I started my collection about two years ago. But my understanding of the above highlighted items would mean that the hair isn't so dry that it leaves a pile of dust every time the doll is touched, that the legs jiggle from side to side when lightly shaken and that and that no odours meant that the doll didn't reek of perfume.
Molly 1 and Molly 2 were in dire need of some TLC. I didn't have much hope for Molly 1's hair as it was falling apart with every movement, this poor girl look like she had a severe case of dandruff. Her legs flopped all over the place. Molly 2 wasn't in much better shape, her hair was also quite dry, not as bad as Molly 1, at least she didn't leave a trail behind her. Then there was the stench of perfume on her, this is a child friendly site otherwise I'd say where she smelt like where she came from - Think Dolly Parton and Burt Reynolds film in 1982.
At this point I was completely devastated, I wasn't going to have one true Molly, let alone have one to resell as that was part of the deal with the hubby to justify the cost of them.
With nothing to lose, I decided I would try the boiling water dip to see if it would make any difference. After five treatments, surprisingly Molly 1's hair stopped falling apart and actually looked better than Molly 2's hair - she had the same amount of treatments. I was feeling a bit less defeated. However I couldn't find a replacement wig for Molly 2, which at this point there was no doubt that her hair is done, there's no hope for it. After discussing it with my husband, he encouraged me to go ahead and turn Molly 2 into a custom.
Now that Molly 1's hair was in better condition, and Molly 2, well Molly 2 is bald at the moment, something had to be done about their limbs. The poor things were so loose they couldn't sit without flopping over, let alone stand. I have never done this before, even though several of my girls could use some leg tightening. So I decided I'd start with Molly 2, since she reeked of perfume and had no hair, I figure what do I have to loose. Aside from the fact that the silver bands were missing and the ends were just knotted. So, for now she just has some hair bands wrapped between the plastic ball joints and the knots. One day, I'll get a kit to fix her limbs properly.
Since Molly 2 was fairly easy to take apart and fix, I decided I'd give Molly 1 a go. Much to my surprise, she'd already had her limbs tightened at one point in time. Given how dried up the elastic was, I would say it was a long long time ago. Fortunately, Molly 1 had the silver bands/clamps and was even easier to tighten. On a positive note, I never realized how easy it was to tighten their limbs. I can't believe how hesitant I've been in the past to fix my other girls of their floppy legs.
Molly 1, the original Pleasant Company Doll, has a smaller face than the Mattel Doll. I'm going to keep her as Molly, and hopefully one day find a Molly wig for her. For now though her hair is okay.
Molly 2 is going to undergo a transformation. Her new wig has been purchased and will hopefully arrive sooner rather than later. I'm hoping she can do a reveal by July 1st. But for now, I'll let you know that she will now be known as Helena Marie.
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