Doll Tale Thursday #24: My Dolly Stimulus

Rapunzel porcelain doll 

DOLL:
Rapunzel
Fairy Tale Series
by Geppeddo

HER STORY:
Rapunzel is my absolute favorite fairytale.  Never mind her hardships and the stupid romance, it's all about my fascination with her hair.  I love long hair on people and dolls so it isn't a shocker that I love Rapunzel too, especially in her doll form!

I've actually had Rapunzel way before I collected Barbie and all the other hipster fashion dolls I have now.  She's about 16" tall, not 14", as I had briefly mentioned on a porcelain doll topic many blog posts ago.  I got her in a Geppeddo mall kiosk during the Christmas season, while I was visiting my family in Cherry Hill, New Jersey.  That was 2003 and I didn't seriously collect dolls until around 2005, even though I probably bought my first Collector Barbie in 2004.

I remember my Rapunzel being 75% off when I bought her with the $20.00 my aunt gave me for Christmas.  I bought her for $15 and got her a wooden stand for $5.  I remember that clearly because I was so ecstatic to buy my own doll of my own choosing.  The freedom I felt almost seemed like I'd never gotten anything on my own before.  Maybe it's because it was something I had a passion for,  going all the way back to my childhood that I never acted on.  When you're a child, you are gifted dolls.  When you're older there's that generalized notion that you outgrow dolls.  Not to mention, I only had that $20 in my pocket (maybe some odd change too) and I was determined to splurge it all on Rapunzel.  She had me wrapped around her little porcelain hands!  The poor jobless student that I was, was defying an adult trend and spending the only allowance I had on something I was instantly in love with.  Totally exhilarated!

My Rapunzel was also the display doll.  It was later in the day and the lady at the kiosk was running out of certain dolls.  I said I'd take the display anyway even though there were a couple of cute Cinderella variations and a Snow White staring back at me with the same price tag that she had in stock.  As much as I wanted an unopened and untouched Rapunzel doll, I knew I would regret it if I didn't choose her.

I don't know when Geppeddo went out of business but I think I purchased Rapunzel at the time when Geppeddo was literally starting to liquidate dolls.  I'm just happy I got mine when I did.  She's one of my prized dolls because she represents a crossroad in my life when I decided I wanted to be a doll collector.  It took years for my collection to snowball but she was the first of my many happy dolly purchases.