How to Restore a Pleasant Company Doll Without Ruining Its Vintage Value
If you are here, you've either found a thrifted or used Pleasant Company doll in less than perfect condition, or you have located your childhood doll and want to bring her back to life. Either way, we have you covered. The excitement of starting a doll project can leave some afraid they will damage the doll taking away all the value, and others eager to learn a new process for the satisfaction of a job well done. But don't worry - if you don't succeed, we are here to help you and can restore a botched DIY job or even if you just get stuck during the process. So you really can't fail. Most minor damage is completely fixable at home such as loose limbs, scuff marks, cleaning, restoring hair, etc. There are also different levels to restoring them to suit just how original you want your doll to be. This would apply for any vintage American Girl doll Restoration or specifically pre-Mattel / Pleasant Company doll repair and restoration. Let's go through the options so that you as a collector can decide the route to take that best suits your doll.
Factory Re-Set by American Girl Care Center
The first step most collector's take is to go back to the brand. The American Girl Care Center is American Girl's own doll hospital. But if you've taken this route already, or even if you are new to it, you learn quickly that American Girl's Care Center is not really a hospital, it is a warranty type procedure where your doll is factory re-set with current American Girl Mattel parts. What is a current American Girl Part? It's the legs, arms, heads, eyes, and torsos made for the current versions and re-releases of the original characters. This means the slimmer head molds, the less detailed eyes, the harder vinyl (as opposed to PC's squishy vinyl), darker coloring in the hair, and the slimmer body with current year tags. While having a factory reset is exciting for play dolls by owners who have a modern version already, this is bad news for a PC collector. It effectively strips away the features that make your PC doll rare and valuable and replaces it with parts that will be identified as common and modern. The most notable difference is the replacement of the head, which goes from the cherub cheeks fatter PC version to a BeForever look with thinner more modern features. For an in depth comparison on what is done for each character visit the blog article where we do a full hospital comparison here.
As well we recommend reading the below blog article:
DIY At Home
If you prefer to have complete control of the process and are up to the task of restoring yourself here are some helpful tips:
Bad Hair - Two options, you can recondition and brush the hair to return the style, or you can use one of our replacement wigs designed to look like the original PC hair. To view our historical character wigs click here.
Cut Hair - If the hair is cut, no brushing or reconditioning will completely reset the hair, so view our link above to use a replacement wig.
Loose Limbs - If your limbs are floppy but they are all there (none missing), you can use a restringing kit, or tighten the limbs with rubber bands to get her legs and arms nice and stiff and retaining her nice squishy vinyl without replacing anything. Not sure how to do this? Read our blog on restringing American Girl dolls.
Missing Limbs - If your PC doll has the squishy vinyl, you need a donor doll to replace any missing limbs from the same time period. The American Girl current parts are not a match as they are slimmer and have a different width of foot. Check with us, because we often save good parts from donor dolls in our Doll Hospital.
Bad Eyes - One problem that occurs is the eye gets stuck open, this can be from grease or dirt. Fixing this problem can be to remove the eye, clean it and put it back in. Then you've kept the original eye and solved the problem. However if you take the eye out and it's permanently broken - the eye will need to be replaced. You can replace with one of our eye selections but if you are trying for 100% authentic you should see if your doll has the PC lashes. Early editions have a different kind of lash, a soft brown lash that looks like real hair instead of later models stiff plastic versions with black lashes. These kinds of eyes are not made by American Girl and the only way you are going to find a replacement is to find a donor doll that has them. To find them, you need to find a reasonably priced used doll that might be in rough shape but where the eyes are still good. If you have a doll where the lashes are not brown and instead are black, you have a later models. Donor dolls can be located from early JLY dolls where parts for the original characters were re-used in the Just Like You line and JLY dolls (unless rare discontinued models) are reasonably priced to use as a donor doll.
Send her to Our Doll Hospital
If hunting for parts and running through DIY tutorials is not in your wheel house, you still have options. You can send your doll to our Doll Hospital and have us locate parts, donor dolls, and perform the restoration. We have a specific service menu for PC dolls that includes fees for sourcing donor dolls and restoring your doll to be 100% original. To put in a doll hospital order for your PC doll click here. This ensures that your PC doll comes back to you just as you want it, whether it's with replica parts from Bbeauty Doll's own designs, or 100% authentic parts sourced from a donor doll. Note that if donor parts cannot be located (if they are exceptionally rare to find) we will let you know the next best option or refund you.
Conclusion:
Doll Restoration sometimes takes a bit of research before getting started. Take a look at what your doll needs and then look at what you will need to fix her (a donor doll, or parts from us). If you get stuck, you don't have to guess. Send us a contact message or a chat and include some pictures, and we will help you through it. Take your time, and preserve as many original Pleasant Company components as possible. Be prepared for rare parts to be harder to find and may need time to locate.
Quick Doll FAQ
Can I put my doll in the washing machine?
Yes you absolutely can, but there are some limitations and recommendations that go along with that. Dolls have metal casings around their eyes and detergents are not good for the hair, so the recommendation is that you remove the head and the stuffing from your doll and plop the body into the washing machine for cleaning. Do not put the body into the dryer when it's finished the washing cycle. Instead hang dry it upside down (this lets any water that went into the legs and arms drip out. My favorite method is to tie the feet to a plastic clothes hanger and hang it from my shower nozzle. Once your body has fully dried, you can restuff it and put the head back. Need help? Use our chat and we will help you along if you get stuck.
My doll has silver eye, is it ruined?
No, silver eye is caused by the paint separating inside the eye casing and is a result of aging. Your doll is not ruined. The eye can be repainted if you want to tackle the task yourself (needs the knowledge on how to remove eyes and take eyes apart). Or you can send your doll to us to have it repainted or replaced with a donor eye.
My doll has lost her face paint, how do I deal with that?
If you have painting skills, great. Using watered-down acrylics or pastel chalks sealed with matte varnish will restore faded lip and cheek paint. If you are not artistically inclined, you can send her to our doll hospital with a face-up request booked for you.
How to Clean Vintage Vinyl and Remove Stains
Basic Wash - Baking soda paste or gentle dish soap with a soft cloth to remove any exterior dirt and grease.
Lifting Dirt from Vinyl - Vinyl Cleaner and a toothbrush will lift dirt out of the vinyl and bring to the surface to wash away leaving vinyl looking brighter and newer. See our tutorial here.
Shine marks and scuffs - Carefully use a damp Magic Eraser around the area making sure you steer clear of face paint. Magic Eraser has tiny grains working like sandpaper and it will sand your face paint right off. Use for scuffs and shine marks only.
Deep stains (ink/marker/highlighter) - Use a 10% benzoyl peroxide acne cream treatment and put out in the sun with plastic wrap over it. Note that this is a bleaching method and that vinyl skin tone can change color. There is also sun fading risks if you leave it in the sun too long.
Do I need to completely restring if my limbs are loose?
No you can use the popular "hair tie trick" for looseness. It requires that the current stringing still has stretch to it (it has not unraveled, been cut or is hanging by a thread). Remove your doll's head and remove all the stuffing from the body. For each limb repeatedly wrap a hair tie (as you would a ponytail) in the space between the limb cup and the knot or clamp on your current restringing setup. Fill the space tightly with the hair tie. Do not wrap over the knot or clamp, it must be set in just the space between your tension cup and under the knot/clamp. Restuff your doll after all limbs have been done with the hair tie, making sure you are packing fluff tightly and in all the crevices around each limb. Any space will keep your limbs loose. Reapply the head and tie your neck strings. Test your doll by lifting it into the air and seeing if the legs hold straight horizontally.
How do I deal with dry, frizzy, or tangled kanekalon wigs?
For brushing, always mist with water and use a wire brush it a wide tooth comb to help untangle hair. I find that kid's brand detangler works best to help against rats and matting. Note that synthetic hairs can melt, especially on early PC wigs so use caution in using any high heat boiling or heated styling tools like curling irons or flat irons. A low heat flat iron pass on damp hair needs to be a careful test before diving in. Roll curlers are also great at setting hair in, and a low heat blow dryer can help set the curls. Rolling wet and then letting dry will also do it. Really curly styles can often be lightly brushed or combed one curl at at time and then finger twirled or set.
How do I tell if my doll is Pleasant Company or Mattel?
The first indication is the neck stamp at the back of the head which will say Pleasant Company instead of American Girl (Mattel), Pleasant Company had inventory from 1986-1998 and when American Girl purchased the company, they did use head molds until they ran out. Other indications are squishy vinyl, which means you could pinch the doll's leg or arm and it would pinch in. Modern limbs are hard and can't pinch in at all. Early editions from PC had soft brown eyelashes on their eyes, which were later replaced with black more synthetic lashes. Body tags also can be an indicator if dated pre 1998. PC dolls typically had character looks and hair with more detailed eyes and lighter shades on the hair than later reproductions. They also had a fatter body and wider feet than newer more slim versions. Modern AG dolls frequently have stamping or imprinting on the under side of the foot.
Comments