- My Doll Room (my kollection)
- Kelly Parton, Travel Doll Adventures
I purchased my first collectible Barbie doll in 1997. Those first few months of collecting were a whirlwind of seeking information and buying everything with Barbie doll's name on it. I read everything I could get my hands on and joined many online groups. After several more months of searching I finally found a local Barbie doll club and joined that, too. At this point my collection was primarily high-end collectible Barbie dolls that I kept NRFB. I had yet to open a doll and play with it.
Me and a few of my favorite li'l dolls
About a year passed and I found myself making weekly trips down the "pink aisle" at local retail stores. I had noticed a small child doll, Barbie's baby sister Kelly, and was immediately smitten with her. There was something so sweet and innocent about those big blue eyes and full head of signature-Barbie-blonde hair. At only 4 ½ inches tall, she was by far the cutest little doll I had ever seen. Yet I rationalized to myself that my collection did not include pink box Barbie dolls and I did not purchase her.
Post holiday sales on pink box dolls are fantastic and I happened upon a Potty Training Kelly marked 50% off. I took it as a sign from the Pink Princess herself and I went ahead and indulged this guilty pleasure by adding Kelly to my collection. That was just the beginning as I added a few of Kelly's Li'l Friends so she wouldn't get lonely.
I fought with myself about collecting Kelly dolls for many months after that. I just couldn't get past the notion that Kelly was a play doll meant for children, not adults. I compromised and allowed gift sets where Kelly appeared with Barbie to enter my collection. But that compromise was short lived as my fascination for Kelly grew to epic proportions and I finally gave myself permission to enjoy collecting these adorable li'l dolls.
It has been several years of joyful playing and kollecting. I have amassed a HUGE collection of Kelly and li'l friends dolls, fashions, play sets, books, videos, video games, and on and on. I can't get enough of her angelic face and the unlimited possibilities she embodies. Barbie has long since fallen by the wayside and now only makes an occasional appearance in my kollection when SHE happens to appear with Kelly.
Once I started getting serious about collecting Kelly and all her Li'l Friends, I scoured the Internet for more information. Since Kelly had been in production since 1994, I had a few years to catch up on. I was especially curious about how many Li'l Friends of Kelly dolls there were. Being a collector who must have it all, I needed to know what to look for. My Internet searches turned up very little information and I was left wondering what I was missing.
I sought refuge on eBay, the best source for secondary market Kelly dolls. It was a wealth of information and pictures. But I no sooner discovered a doll I hadn't seen before and another would pop up. Not knowing how many more dolls there were was driving me crazy! One day I emailed a seller who had several of Li'l Friends dolls up for auction and asked if she had a list of all the LFoK dolls. She emailed back that she wasn't sure how many there were, but that started a friendship and a collaboration that set the Kelly movement into motion.
At that same time other kollectors were emailing privately with each other and were asking the same questions. There were Kelly kollectors all over the Internet looking for friends to share their love of Kelly with. I suggested forming an online email group where we could chat about Kelly and work together to complete the list of LFoK dolls. On May 19, 1999, the KellyKlub was born. Within a few days we had the list of LFoK finished. Shortly thereafter the Li'l Friends website went online featuring the completed LFoK list as well as full color pictures of the dolls.
The KellyKlub is much more that just a doll group. We chat, play games, exchange swaps, and have kustom doll kontests like most other doll groups. But through the years we have become a family, too. We know the names of each other's children, we share in each other's losses, and we triumph in our successes. We even have konventions where we meet and chat about Kelly in real time! Kelly kollecting is much more fun with a few hundred others to share it with.
Mattel has done a great job with the Kelly line of dolls. She is an irresistible toddler that is small enough to be considered an infant, yet old enough to be considered an independent small child. Kelly has universal appeal as a toddler - innocence, charm, cuteness, and lovability. Beyond that, Kelly's character has been developed similar in depth to Barbie's - Kelly has had many different roles (Birthday girl, cowgirl, Olympic figure skater, etc.) and themes (royalty, dress-up, garden bugs, etc.), a multitude of friends (18 different individual boys and girls), as well as her own line of clothes and playsets. None of Barbie's other sisters have been developed to this degree with any great lasting success. Adding to the appeal of Kelly is her size. She makes the perfect travel companion at 4 ½ inches tall and can easily be tucked into a shirt pocket or a handbag. Best of all, she is reasonably priced! Kelly Club dolls, or the li'l friends of Kelly, sell for a mere $5.00 retail. The quality and novelty is well worth the price, too. It makes collecting an entire set of Kelly Club dolls very affordable.
The Kollector Reference Guide is the natural progression from the Li'l Friends website. The website has been a true labor of love and a collaborative effort with fellow Kelly kollectors. Without the expertise and efforts of the 330+ members of the KellyKlub (especially Laurel Willoughby, Loanne Ostlie, and Katarina Sandberg), the complete and collective knowledge of all things Kelly would never have been possible.
The reference guide is intended to be a reference resource for all kollectors, both novice and seasoned, as they expand and catalog their collection of Kelly dolls. At the very least, when a kollector is shopping on the secondary market they will be informed whether a particular doll is Hard To Find or ridiculously over produced. Regardless of what a person collects, they should have a fundamental reference available to educate themselves on their collectible of choice. Just because Kelly and li'l friends are playline dolls does not mean they are not collectible. Kelly kollectors deserve a formal reference guide comparable to any Barbie guidebook.
My primary goal is to publish accurate, verified, and unbiased information for kollectors, whether it be through the web site or some other form. The Internet has offered immediate and universal access to the Master Kollector's Checklist. But kollectors can't take the web site with them when they go to doll shows or to doll club meetings like they could with a guidebook. Someday I hope to find a publisher for a hardcopy version of the Kollector Reference Guide.
The Kollector Reference Guide will cover Kelly and her Li'l Friends from A to Z with color pictures, fair market values, and detailed descriptions. It will include dolls (US, Foreign, and variations), fashions, accessories, and just about everything with Kelly's kute li'l face on it. Also included will be the Master Kollector's Checklist for tracking kollections as they grow. It will be the definitive guide to Kelly and her li'l world.
Happy kollecting! :-)