It’s an age-old question when it comes to vintage dolls, such as Kenners. Do you restore the doll or do you leave her as-is in the manner that you found her in? If you ask me, the answer depends.

For one of my dolls, I definitely restored her as much as I could. Meet Lillian Rose (or Lily, for short). She got a fancy set of Takara legs (along with a pelvis) and her hair was restored as much as possible. I took her scalp off, secured any loose plugs, and had a trusted friend help me out with those blonde locks – now she looks fantastic! (She’s actually sporting a pretty nasty crack in her torso that she endured from BlytheCon Vancouver – no photos of that because she needs to preserve some dignity, I’m in the planning process of getting her a new modified body so I won’t be fearful of taking her out and about in the future.)

And then there’s Primrose a.k.a. Prim. She came to me with zero legs and got a replacement set (also Takara) pretty quickly and I did not touch her hair at all. One of the things that I loved about her upon first seeing a photo of her was her fantastic and epic hair – who wouldn’t fall in love with that? Since then, her hair makes somewhat regular appearances both here and on my Instagram because Prim has very quickly become one of my favourites since I got her a few years ago, initially because her fantastic hair and also because of her charming face.

I’m a fan of Kenners that don’t look “perfect” because (truth be told) the perfect Kenners are actually a bit intimidating! I’d feel worse about if I had a Kenner with perfect make-up that got scratched or hair frizzed up versus a doll that already has make-up partially worn off or hair already a bit frizzy.

If you have a Kenner, do you restore her (either yourself or have someone else do it) or leave her as-is?