Anyone who’s ever been to my house knows that I have a thing for dolls. Baby dolls, fashion dolls, American Girl Dolls. Truth be told, my daughter’s Magic Attic dolls have better wardrobes than I do—and more expensive ones too. But that’s a completely different subject.

The point is, I occasionally look at dolls on the Internet. You can find some dolls that are works of art on eBay, and they fetch artwork prices. For example, take a look at this one of kind “reborn” doll that is currently going for 820.00



Amazing right? Or how about this one?



I’m convinced some of the artists are just snapping pictures of their kids and posting them as dolls. But some of the one-of-a-kind dolls aren’t as charming as the first two I’ve shown you. In the constructive spirit of the Cake Wreck blog I’d like to offer some don’ts to the doll artists of the world.



Don’t make your baby doll look like it is posing for a mug shot. This doll brings to mind all of those pictures of celebrities who are being carted off to jail for drunken behaviour. Is that the role model we want for Junior? I think not.

Don’t make your dolls look like they are some sort of half-human half-alien cross breed. One can’t help but think that these dolls might come to life sometime during the night and zap you back to their mother ship.



Crying dolls can be cute, but there is a difference between a few pleasantly pouty tears and a face that is scrunched up like the doll is suffering from a ruptured spleen. Really, this is not a moment in childhood that I would want to capture and keep.

My cousin once told me that all babies looked cuter if they had hair. Sadly, this is not true with dolls. There are some things hair is not going to fix. Like this next one.



And sometimes hair can actually make a doll look worse. Take for example, this one:

Yeah, he sort of looks like the Little Dutch Boy who has been seeing far too much of Little Debbie, Betty Crocker, and Captain Crunch.

And for the next doll . . .



All I can say is, “What the heck?!!” What is this even supposed to be? An impressionistic version of a baby doll? A broken mold? A method to scare young women into not having children?

And speaking of those horrible nightmares you have when you’re pregnant where you dream you give birth to a goat, or kitten, or some other creature you weren’t supposed to have–we don’t need this sort of thing, doll artists, we really don’t, so stop with the reborn monkeys. They’re just creepy. That’s why the makers of the Wizard of Oz gave monkeys wings and used them to terrorize Dorothy and generations of young viewers.



Okay pregnant women, look away, breathe deeply and tell yourself that you will give birth to a beautiful baby, not a furry creature or a half-alien spawn. I promise you it won’t happen. And just so that you can get those images out of your mind, I’ll post a picture of my one-of-a-kind artist created doll. But sorry eBay shoppers. He’s not for sale.



Here’s a word of encouragement for anyone out there who is or wants to create reborn dolls: practice makes all of the difference. Look at the third doll on the blog. Now look at the artists latest doll. Amazing, right? You can see more of her work at: Adorable Bundles Nursery.

More doll wrecks

And more doll wrecks