Steffi Love Running Horse

Another horse in the series - not Mattel and not Barbie. If I had one word to describe its appearance and further development of the situation, it would be - SURPRISE. I warn you that this post will be long... So, you can prepare a cup of coffee or tea for reading.

The announcement

I will start from the beginning, so from the moment I saw the announcement. I saw a strange horse - its body reminds me of the High Stepper mold (something like mine Lucy and Tawny), its eyes and glitter - rather resemble Bratz horses, the head is similar to the Nibbles mold (a horse with moving head, neck and a magnet in mouth), except that its eyes are bulging and large. On the battery cover, which was visible in one of the photos, there was an inscription - Simba. And thus, I realized that it was probably a Steffi Love doll horse. Typing various phrases in Google, searching with an image - NOTHING - no information. About this moment, a small light bulb lit up in my head - the horse has Simba brand name, there is almost no information about it, but it certainly belongs to Steffi Love - it may be an interesting addition to my collection, a white crow among horses for dolls. To make it even more intriguing - the price in the announcement was in the range of very budget purchases.

I looked through the websites of other collectors and found photos of this horse on the German website. I was right, it was Steffi Love's horse and it was sold under the name - Running Horse - that's all the information I get. I don't know which year it was available on the market. But since it is such a puzzle, I decided to take a risk and take it into the herd. I don't like its eyes, they are not my style, but it is an interesting specimen and its inaccessible story intrigued me.

Parcel

The arrival of the mysterious horse coincided with the end of the editing of the video about Rex and the arrival of the budget gang from the previous post. Steffi's horse had to wait in line for unboxing for at least one day. Although I was really dying to know what it would look like live.

The moment finally came and I freed this horse from the foil and cardboard.

There is a round, protruding button on the hip on the better side of the mold, at first I thought that it triggers some additional functions - such as horse sounds.

I immediately began to wonder what gender to assign to it. With that black hair, it looked like a guy. However, in my herd of non-Matell horses, for now, I have only boys - so girl would be better. Another thing was the scope of work - at the beginning I assumed only a standard work - washing, brushing ... and there was a slight uncertainty - this hair, especially in the tail - looked as if it was about to crumble into dust. I have a new beautiful black hair tucked away in my inventory for Joey - I just don't have time to install it . It occurred to me that Joey could wait if I accepted this horse into the family quickly, on the lowest resistance line - I would probably never come back to it again, and keeping another orphan with damaged hair - ruins the overall picture of my herd . And so it was decided that the hair would be replaced.
As you can see, there is not a single cap covering the screws anywhere - so it seemed that it would not be a big problem to take this horse apart.

The advertisement stated that the horse was powered by four AA batteries, once it walked, now it probably does not walk anymore - it was not checked. So I put new batteries into it, turn it on - and the horse started moving. Surprisingly, only the legs were moving. The neck was standing still. I was sure it should move with the legs - like my Mattel walking horses - so another thing to check - maybe it broke, maybe it came off - I have to open it anyway. After pressing the round button on the rump - nothing unusual happened, nothing I expected - after pressing it and holding it, the horse just walks - until the button is released. I figured out that it was a TRY ME function - when the horse was in the box.

In the meantime, I was still browsing the internet for information about the mysterious Steffi Love Running Horse from Simba. I have been browsing the Simba Dicke catalogs since 2013 - earlier are not avaliable There was only this one German doll horse toy website with a picture of this specimen in the entire Internet taken by Google. Finally, I got the idea to use other search engines. And only the Russian search engine - yandex - spat out 3 photos from the Russian Internet for me, I am throwing them below. BTW - I had to scale them a bit, because they were all stretched vertically - in Russia they have monitors with non-standard proportions, or what?

Picture from yartoys.ru

Picture from gallery.ru

Picture from Gallery.ru

The black hair confused me a bit because I assumed that the bridle was complete with reins as well. As it turned out - the reins were missing and the bridle is torned where they were joined. In general, it looks more like a halter, and a bit too small.

It seems to me that there is some inner, very strong aversion to blue eyes of horses in me. They have a negative effect on me - this was the case with Henia and Richard - here I have the same thing - they irritate me. These are also sticking out ... brrr ...

Preparation

Time to take off the bridle and the saddle.

It's the first time I have Steffi's horse in my hands. Both the bridle and the saddle are made of a flexible rubber-like material. I couldn't open the bridle, I was afraid it would break, so I just pulled it off the ears without unbuckle it. There is nothing extraordinary about it, practically no decorations, except for a few sticking out lines.

The saddle is very flat but quite nicely decorated. Fastened with a bellyband similar to old Mattel's western saddles. Similarly to the mentioned saddles - there are holes here, the purpose of which I do not know. My guess is that they could have been used to attach the doll - e.g. in the box. The above photos show the saddle before washing, especially in the middle picture you can see how much dirt was on it.

I wasn't fully convinced yet, but I wanted this horse to be a mare. I don't know why I thought about the name for quite a long time, since she brought it herself - there was no other choice than Stephanie - from Steffi Love. So Stefa looked pretty cool without the accessories - as you can see in the pictures above. What can be deduced from this photos when comparing them with the photos found on the web - not only the hair of the tail is missing but also the mane was longer.

Before I found these photos on the Internet, I immediately felt that there was a magnet in her mouth.

You can see the glitter here - those light spots.

The battery cover - is secured with a screw - just like the High Stepper mold. Similarly, the switch is between the front legs. The inscription SIMBA - MADE IN CHINA is visible on the flap. In addition, there is a note just below the screw to use alkaline AA batteries. There is no year, as in the case of Mattel, because as you can see, it is a copied mold, I wonder whether it is under a license or a classic fake. Perhaps adding a moving head and a magnet in the mouth - it was supposed to make it a different mold, so that no one can say so.

We took a close look at Stephanie, I documented her condition upon arrival, so it's time to deconstruct.

Oh my, I took horse apart!

First screw, second screw ... and another - the horse is in pieces. There was no problem with the deconstruction. Well, maybe just that the screws were tightened very tightly. Below are parts of the horse's coat ready for washing. Guts and legs - that is, the whole mechanism and legs - I forgot to photograph - they are in the video.

Washing

Washing was quite expressive - plastic parts landed in a bowl of water with detergent. I rubbed them with a sponge, rinsed and dried them. While washing, I suddenly thought - who said this horse should have a black hair? The fact that it was like this does not mean that the new one should be the same. Besides, with the black hair she looked so sad and somehow it doesn't suit her at all. Maybe if the plastic did not have this glitter, it would look better. Because of this glitter, she is asking for something brighter.

I searched through my hair stock and chose two colors - golden blonde and brown hair, that I fitted to Lucy. And to be honest - I couldn't make up my mind.

The blond looked tempting, but I had a Cripple on the back of my mind.On the other hand, this brown was so perfectly matched to the color of the plastic that I was afraid it would blend together. I sent the above photos to Dorota. She also needed a moment ... and when I knew which way to go - she replied that bronze would be better. Phew ... we agreed.

New hair preparation

Lucy's hair is made of henlon, a material that I thought was easier and more pleasant to work with at the time of the Wavy restoration. Everything is great until the hair starts to tangle. The hair that I had left of Lucy was tied with an elastic band and packed in a foil sleeve - just like at the time of purchase. Unfortunately, when I tried to get rid of the elastic the hair got tangled terribly. There was no way to brush them out, because on subsequent attempts - it tangled even worse.

Finally, I put it under the water and washed it with shampoo. I applied a large amount of conditioner and holding it very tightly in one hand - combed with a wide tooth brush with the other hand - starting from the top and ending where the brush stopped on tangles. I splashed the entire mirror in the bathroom. When I managed to slide the knots down as far as possible, I decided to cut them off. I trimmed the ends, rinsed off the conditioner and dried washed hair with the slightly warm air of a hair dryer.

The hair was factory-crimped into very fine waves - you can see it in the photo at the top. I think that these crimps make them tangled easily. After drying the hair, I immediately grabbed the hair crimper and straightened the waves. It was impossible to remove them completely, although I almost burned my hands, but the effect was visible and felt to the touch.

I had already some experience, I knew that dividing the visible portion in half, then subtracting one-third of the volume - the remaining two-thirds will form a tail, and the half and the set-aside one-third of the other half - will form a mane. Well, I messed up with this calculation a bit - but I can't do it any more clearly.

Repairs

After dismantling Stephanie into parts, it turned out that the neck is only manually movable - it has no connection with the mechanism and never had. I was only surprised that it holds on a small element protruding from the body (a small plastic rectangle protruding at the top of the body - on both sides - visible in the photos above with parts of the body before washing). So the neck needed no repair. One of the hind legs, on the other hand, was cracked. Not broken yet, but it was close.

I fixed it with super glue.

I also tightened the screws in the legs and cleaned the battery compartment and the contacts.

New tail and mane

Contrary to the previous videos - hair replacement on walking Barbie horses - this time the exchange will take place on an open horse and the mane will be created on the base.

I made a new base from some plastic packaging - I like to use recycled materials. I traced the old base on this plastic and cut it out. Then, trying on the pins inside the neck - I made holes to fix the base in the neck.

Before creating the mane, I installed a new tail. And of course - I forgot to took a photo from this stage (take it easy - it will be in the video). Making a tail is a piece of cake - I fasten the measured hair with a tie in half, thread it through the bar inside the horse, fasten it with another tie - and it's ready!

Creating the mane is more fun. As with baseless manes - first I separate fine strands from the prepared hair - in the case of base mane - it's better when they are less dense and there are more of them. Although I did not want to make them too small, because it is a very tedious job, and there is no visible difference later on. I tie these strands with a thread and secure them with glue.

22 strands came out of the prepared portion of hair. In the new base, I made holes for attaching the strands, and using a rooting needle, threaded the threads through these holes and tied.

When I tied all the strands to the base - I secured the entire seam with a hot glue.

It doesn't look very nice in close-up, but it doesn't really matter - the seam won't be visible. The fact that the strands are of different volume does not matter too.

Stephanie in her new incarnation

After putting the filly together and mounting the hair, it looked like this:

Well, I do not know about your impressions - the resulting effect surprised me very positively at this stage - when the hair was not yet styled and even. I really didn't think it could change like this.

As for her motor functions - unfortunately, she still falls after the first step. In my opinion, it may be a manufacturing defect of a stolen mold - it seems as if the head and neck are too heavy and the front legs are too weak. I haven't tried to start it with the doll on its back, but the weakness of the front legs doesn't bode well for success. So - yes it works - but it looks better when it is standing. I wouldn't recommend it as a toy.

My hair curler went to work to arrange the fringe, mane and tail in their place.

Well, it's a nice chestnut! And somehow it did not seem to be happening at all. Cutting the tangles from the hair while preparing it did not do much harm - the hair came out of the right length and only needed to be trimmed. I decided not to shorten it more, but looking at the pictures of the original - it was about the same.

Bridle, reins and the saddle

It was supposed to be a simple and quick admission to the herd - the usual cleaning, brushing and re-dressing - a few photos - and that's all. Eh ...

Looking at her in that beautiful new hair and at that her poor original equipment - well, it did not match. From the beginning, I assumed that she need a saddle pad, although I had no idea what it would look like. I searched my inventory and found a beige velvet - but though I pulled it out - it somehow didn't appeal to me. And suddenly I had an idea to break the black and brown with the blue that matches her eyes. I managed to find the material from which I made a saddle pad for Baja - another recycling - because it is a cut from my beloved old summer jacket. I cut it to size, hand-finished the edge - the saddle pad is ready!

It's time for a bridle and reins now. Seriously, at the beginning I thought that I would only make reins for this bridle and I would get over with it! However, when I looked at Stefa, at this new saddle pad ... No! From my material resources I took out leather-like scraps (recycling again - they were left from car covers that my mother used to sew for our past car - Polonez - a long time ago) - I cut two thin strips of it. I made circles of wire. This black color scared me a bit and it turned out that the strap for the forehead was too short - and in the box in which I keep the wire for the rings, I found a blue stripe of the right length from the time when I was making a bridle for Champion. The color matched the eyes and the saddle pad perfectly. Another black strap for the reins - hooks - and the tack is ready!

Photo sessions

Taking the opportunity that the weather spoils us this year and we can enjoy the colorful autumn. I went with my real dog, Stephanie and the camera to our forest. This was my first time with a horse outside the fence, I usually do garden sessions. But Stephanie looks wonderful against the background of the autumn forest!

Hair clips and photos with a doll

But all the time I missed a certain accent in the hair. In the original, she was given a brush and a comb in different colors, two carry buckets, a bundle of apples and a hay. Why doesn't the horse wiyh such long hair have any hair ornaments ?! I was inspired by the mentioned Nibbles - something not big, not exaggerated - bows!