Diary of a Dorkette: The Archive Store!

Ever seen the toys on this blog and think, "Gosh, I'd love to own that!" Well dear reader, you might just have a chance! Click below and learn more about the chance to purchase items from my toy archives!

I love toy collecting. It has been such a constant in my life. Collecting has provided me with endless hours of joy, bonding with friends, making new friends, I mean my goodness, this blog would not exist without my love for toy collecting. With that said, sometimes this hobby has felt more like an anchor, dragging me to the bottom of the ocean and I have struggled how to loosen some of the more suffocating aspects.

Part of what I have been doing has involved selling/donating/giving away items from my collection. I've done that off and on for years but it has become more of a larger focus in the past two years. I donate a lot, but have also been selling on eBay and Mercari, but it dawned on me, why not also sell items here? So, while I work on creating an actual website for the Diary of a Dorkette Archive store, items will be available here and on my Instagram page (Diary of a Dorkette) and each item will have pictures and some details about what the item has meant to me and its history.

How this works: Very simple. If you see an item you would like to purchase, email me- missmermista@gmail.com that you would like to purchase the item. If on IG, simply leave a comment marked as "Claim". Prices will be listed with each item for sale, and I will calculate shipping. This will be open to those outside of the United States as well. Payment options will be through PayPal, Venmo, or Zelle. I'll add up a total with shipping and create an invoice depending on payment method. Let me know if you have any questions! 

So, let's check out some of the goods! (Keep in mind, this is just the start, there will be plenty of more fun stuff for sale)

Item 1- NIB Monster High Frights Camera Action Premiere Party play set (Monster High dolls not included) $30.00 plus shipping

My goodness, Monster High. From the moment those dolls were on shelves, they captured my collecting heart so fast. With a mix of nostalgia and a fresh look towards the future of doll collecting, MH really ushered in a new wave of excitement and creativity for doll collectors. We had truly never seen anything like it. Monster High has been featured pretty heavily over here, from doll reviews to toy stories. I have made it no secret about how fun it was to collect this line. My dear friend David and I, we were obsessed with collecting these dolls. Always on the haunt for new releases.

This Premiere Party set is brand new in the box. It was originally intended to be a backdrop for a side story from All My Toys. In it, toy Miss M was set to star in the brand new sequel to Jaws, which was named Jaws 5. Yep, we weren't getting too creative on that one. The storyline was going to involve all the shenanigans during the filming of Jaws 5, right up to the movie premiere and press tour for the film. It was going to be classic dorky toy soap. Since most of the figures involved in the story were going to be smaller in scale to this set, the running joke was that they built the premiere to fit in scale with the shark. Everyone was going to be complaining about the size difference. I was torn on if the shark was going to be a no show to the event (pissing people off even more) or arrive and just start eating everything, causing chaos. Alas, that story never came to pass.

But! For fans of Monster High, this is the perfect chance to pick up a really fun play set, ready for you to create your own movie premiere!

SOLD! Item 2- Princess of Power metal folding tv tray in perfect condition $30 plus shipping (She-Ra Origins not included)

She-Ra! She-Ra! I mean. She is the wallpaper to this blog. Anyone with even the smallest ounce of common sense can tell my love for She-Ra runs deep. Forever my personal hero (not counting Erica Kane) She-Ra is the bees knees. And so is this tv tray. I'm not the original owner, but the comic store I used to frequent knew how much I loved anything and everything Princess of Power, so they came across this tray and saved it for me. It was so sweet and one of the reasons I love being a regular at a store. I was a regular at my local Kay Bee Toys back in the day and the manager there, he was always holding things for me or giving me a heads up on certain items. My goodness there are so many stories I could tell about that time. It's just fun.

This tray never made it to any blog posts, at least not to my knowledge, but has stood by as wall art that has lovingly looked over at me with all my toy photos and other blogging hijinks. I've never used it for its intended purpose, and am not quite sure if any previous owners had either, but judging from these photos it looks to be in perfect condition. 

I have long debated if I want to actually sell this, but I feel it is time for this gorgeous piece to bring joy and creativity to a new home. I would look up at it during some of my activities for when I'd be putting a post together and it would just bring me so much happiness. I now want this tray to do that for someone else. I think that would just be delightful.

SOLD! Item 3- NIB Mattel Guardian Goddesses SunSpell doll $80.00 plus shipping (Elvira not included)

This was one of those up late at night can't sleep kinda purchases, a chance to own one of those holy grail items and I knew if I had just went to sleep I would have woken up and been like, "Whew, I did not need that! So glad I didn't make such a rash shopping choice." Oh the shopping decisions I make at 1am. SunSpell was certainly a doll I had long wanted in my collection. I originally saw the Guardian Goddesses at a toy shop at Astroworld when I was a kid. I remember the colors on the box standing out a great deal. That was the only time I had seen these in stores, this had been a speciality shop so they had toys that were no longer in other toy stores. 

I would eventually come across images again in a big Barbie collector book, and the urge to one day own this doll had me on high alert. I'd occasionally search on eBay, hoping to find good deals. Finally my time was at hand! But the crazy thing was, once I had this in my hands, it was almost like the excitement was not as big as I thought it'd be. I loved being able to see this doll in person, to geek out over the box and details. But she eventually went in a pile of other dolls that were never able to be properly displayed.

And she deserves more than that. She's a friggin Guardian Goddess for crying out loud. The box may have some dings and creases here and there, but my hope is that someone will be able to show this doll off in a blindingly bright way. The gimmick may have provided some controversy,  (the spreading of her legs for the power pose) but this SunSpell is really special. I don't know if she was a precursor, but she certainly gives off a She-Ra vibe, some good years before She-Ra was even a thing; she was but a mere twinkle in King Randor and Queen Marlena's eyes. 

SOLD! Item #4- Spectra and AstraGold, box has been opened but AstraGold is still attached to card $65 plus shipping

Now I love absurd random toys like the next gal. And the '80s was full of random absurdity in the toy store. I would even say that absurdity carried over into the early '90s too, but the '80s was a great time to collect toys. Enter the cool hip teens from outer space (a planet called Shimmeron to be exact), led by their teen queen Spectra! Oh how I love Spectra, not to be confused with Sally Spectra from Bold and the Beautiful, but in my world both are somehow connected. Anyways, Spectra combined on point trends at the time like vac metal and lacy fashions, and with a nod to those '60s teen dream films and kitschy sci-fi past, the perfect short lived doll line was born. 

Oh, I also forgot, metallic hair tinsel was another huge draw to this line. It was like Jem and the Holograms meets the Jetsons. I don't know, it just worked. I loved these so much, that I even wrote one of my most favorite blog posts about this line and another similar doll line called Aurora. That thesis worthy post is deserving of a PhD in doll collecting. 

Anyways, as you can see, the box has been opened, but AstraGold is still attached to the card insert. She has never been untied from the card. 

Box has some imperfections. It has been opened and there are some dips and dents. When I originally purchased the doll, the box had been sealed, but I opened it up to take better photos of AstraGold for the post I wrote. The dips and dents were already there when I purchased it.

But you gotta love the back. This was the main set of dolls, Spectra came decked out in her lacy Madonna wedding dress. Tom Comet, well. He's got the best head of hair, I just know Ken is boiling over in rage.

Booklets of other items are also included. These feature a variety of Shimmeron fashions and other items to collect. Fun piece of toy history.

So dear reader, this is it for now, but there will be more items for sale in the Archive Store. I hope that these items are able to find a new home, to bring excitement and dorky fun like they did for me. Hope you have all been doing well!