Dolls: Evil Or Just... Evil?

[Spookdaddy]

Spotted in a shop selling a bizarrely diffuse range of products in Santiago de Compostela:

Somehow the juxtaposition of frighteningly realistic looking dolls with great big knives makes the former look even scarier than usual...and obviously, they were already much scarier than the knives.

I'm still somewhat perturbed by the look on the face of the particularly thuggish looking baby on the right - whose expression seems to be saying, 'I don't know what the fuck that thing is, but I want one - it looks like it might be fun. And I'm gonna start working out what kind of fun I could have right now - so I'm good and ready when the times comes':

 

[Kondoru]

That's an ok doll; she is mugging for the camera.

And the thug is speculative; "I need a bigger knife than that"

I hated dolls as a child; and of course being a girl I got given loads I never once played with. I much preferred dinosaurs and soft animals. Things that, like the cat, were fierce and cuddly.

But this was the 70s.

And we have more gender toys than ever...and the colour pink...

(Dont get me onto the horror that is realistic babies...genuine babies are ghastly enough...)

 

[Analogue Boy]

Guess who’s eyeing up Ken.

 

[Spudrick68]

I'm currently reading Stuart Maconie's Hope & Glory. He mentions John Logie Baird and the first TV pictures.

It mentions a doll used because the lights were too powerul for someone to stand under.

So I had look for Stookie Bill:

John Logie Baird's test subject 'Stookie Bill' | Science Museum Group Collection

 

[His Extremely DeLux Self]

I like most dolls and stuffies, really I do, and tend to relate to them as being conscious beings, if of a different sort. This approach has always served me pretty well. I was (surprise, surprise!) the kind of little boy who played with dolls when the right circumstances prevailed, and it took my Pops until I was around six to convince me to be any different.

But there was the Jackie doll when I was a little one. And she was...different. She'd been my Mom's favorite dollie as a child, who Mom had brought home with the sentimental feelings you might expect her to have--which I guess would place Jackie-Doll as having been made in the early to mid 1930s unless my Mom got her second hand. Jackie-Doll was about 2 feet tall and weighed maybe five pounds; she had a stuffed torso and a red and white dress; her limbs and head were made of some kind of composition compound that was probably glue and sawdust.

And she had light brown glass eyes that were always open. A bland little nondescript expression on her molded and painted little face. And she had .light brown hair in two braids, hair that looked just like a little scalp crudely taxidermied onto a doll. She doesn't sound like that big of a deal, does she? She was, though. She surely was.

Her hair might've been the awfullest part of her, visually, or was it her glinty pale-brown eyes? I can conjure up a clear picture of her in my mind's eye--too bloody goddamned clear for my liking, actually--but can't pinpoint what her scariest feature was. For whatever obscure reason, Jackie-Doll terrified me from the moment I first laid eyes on her. I didn't try to play with her, I didn't even touch her unless I had to. And until I was at least seven, I flat-out refused to be alone in the same room with Jackie-Doll. One of my parents figured this out fairly early on, and so Jackie-Doll was esconced in an old rocker in the parental bedroom to keep me from invading the room during parental absence, and, yes, it worked fine.

Nothing real dramatic ever ensued. I got older, and got over my fear of Jackie-Doll to a large extent--but even as a teenager I still didn't like that doll or want to be around her, and the last time I saw her, when I was in my late 20s or early 30s, I still wanted to give her a wide berth. So I did.

I was a weirdly sensitive little cuss, and experienced some peculiar realities, but I can still think of no real reason for Jackie-Doll to have effected me that strongly. She did, though--she just did.

 

[GerdaWordyer]

I don't understand the modern fear and hatred of dolls and clowns. Clowns were welcome when I was a kid, and all girls loved their dolls. What happened? What turned our friendly pals around?

 

[His Extremely DeLux Self]

I don't understand the modern fear and hatred of dolls and clowns. Clowns were welcome when I was a kid, and all girls loved their dolls. What happened? What turned our friendly pals around?

I always liked clowns; when I was a shorty and the circus would come to town, they were my second favorite performers, right after all the animals. I can understand an underlying unease with them due to their not-normal-human appearance and their boisterous, seemingly chaotic behavior, and indeed the good ones often know how to play that unease to make really funny comedy. And they are naturally in disguise, triggering the atavistic adult fear of strangers--but most circus and party clowns act in a friendly or sympathy-engendering mode, not an actively scary one. Grown-ass adults who are actually scared of clowns strike me as being somewhat chickenshit and overly fond of convention, to be quite honest about it.

Now, dolls on the other hand--most of them are inanimate, and many of the more unusual not-exactly-inanimate ones strike me as being playful, fey and rather sweet, but those other ones....brrrrrr. It's hard to put one's finger on exactly what's wrong about certain dolls, but there's most definitely something there. Perhaps it's due to their being soi-disant representations of people or personified entities making them more easy for certain straying energies to latch onto and personate?

 

[Spookdaddy]

Guess who’s eyeing up Ken...

Not only that, but James T appears to be putting his hand down the front of Ken's trousers.

I reckon Barbie's in for a very quiet mission.

 

[escargot]

I don't understand the modern fear and hatred of dolls and clowns. Clowns were welcome when I was a kid, and all girls loved their dolls. What happened? What turned our friendly pals around?

Horror fillums, especially ones aimed at teenagers.

 

[escargot]

I'm currently reading Stuart Maconie's Hope & Glory. He mentions John Logie Baird and the first TV pictures.

It mentions a doll used because the lights were too powerul for someone to stand under.

So I had look for Stookie Bill:

John Logie Baird's test subject 'Stookie Bill' | Science Museum Group Collection

'Hello, come in, we're just about to try our new Television Set! It's the latest thing, y'know! Take a pew while I switch it on.'
'Oh thank you, how exciting!'
'Look, there's a picture!'

 

[sherbetbizarre]

Rehousing creepy (and possessed!) Dolls...

 

[Mythopoeika]

Rehousing creepy (and possessed!) Dolls...

I just find them alarming to look at, quite apart from any kind of 'spirit' manifestation that may be attached to them.

 

[ramonmercado]

This one is creepy!

In Canada, a little girl loves her baby ghoul doll.
From YouTube:

Last Halloween, my family went to Walmart and our 2 year old found this creepy baby doll and proceeded to nurture it and tote it around the store.
Come to checkout time I couldn't not buy it for her. She proceeded to take it everywhere, the park, to sleep, to eat, bathe with for weeks.
I documented for friends and family on my Instagram and they all had such a laugh. Fast forward almost a year later she still plays with it all the time, and I posted a video on TikTok and it absolutely exploded.
We are glad to share her story, as I think it shows that discrimination, hate, and prejudice are something we are not born with, but learn. I hope to teach my kids to be accepting of everyone for who they are and not their appearance, race etc.

https://boingboing.net/2021/07/29/toddler-loves-her-creepy-undead-baby-doll.html

 

[Bad Bungle]

It's doll houses that were my childhood fear, not dolls - unless they had teeth.

 

[ramonmercado]

Some sweet dolls!

Watch this video to learn about the Creepy Doll Adoption Agency.

You can make a difference today and give a haunted or unsettling doll a brand new home. Many people out there find themselves unable to live with their possessed dolls and give them away to Sara and Brian, founders of "Unsettling Toy Removal and Rehoming". Sara and Brian have been "rehoming" these dolls for the past two years, and make it easy through their website: https://unsettlingtoys.com/. You can search through the unique dolls that are up for adoption, and also look through past adoptions on their site. Although I want to adopt an unsettling doll, I'm not so sure about a haunted one. I guess I'll just have to take my chances.

From Youtube:

"He's a bartender and she's a school psychologist, but, on the side, they help haunted or otherwise creepy toys find new homes. In this installment of SIDE HUSTLES, Sara and Brian take us behind the scenes of their business removing and rehoming creepy toys that are "with spirit" or just unsettling.

https://boingboing.net/2021/09/06/a...er-than-the-creepy-dolls-adoption-agency.html

 

[escargot]

This one is creepy! ...
https://boingboing.net/2021/07/29/toddler-loves-her-creepy-undead-baby-doll.html

I'd worry about whether that's an actual doll, as in a toy, or a Halloween prop. If a bit can come off and choke that sweet little girl her parents will have their own baby ghoul.
Looks like they've checked it and all seems good though.

 

[Bigphoot2]

Must admit I agree that the paper the message was written on looks a bit "fresh" considering it's been behind a wall for 60 years. Most likely a wind-up but you never know...

Teacher knocks through wall and finds 'something staring at him'​

Jonathan's friends have told him to get out and sell his home after spine-chilling find

A primary school teacher was told to "move out" after a terrifying discovery inside the walls of his house.
Jonathan Lewis picked up the keys to his new home on Friday but has already been told by his friends to put it back on the market after a sinister warning.
The 32-year-old knew there was a space under the stairs in his new Walton home so he took to the wall with a hammer and peered inside only to find two beady eyes staring back at him.

https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/new...ZbYOI0lkKZipt-0kvP2HowMqkfwe6VAcCR006lA8R_9eo

 

[Mythopoeika]

Must admit I agree that the paper the message was written on looks a bit "fresh" considering it's been behind a wall for 60 years. Most likely a wind-up but you never know...

https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/new...ZbYOI0lkKZipt-0kvP2HowMqkfwe6VAcCR006lA8R_9eo

Just a sick joke done by someone who knew a new owner would have to knock a hole in the wall. It looks like a useful bit of storage space. Fit a door to it and burn the doll.

 

[Bigphoot2]

Just a sick joke done by someone who knew a new owner would have to knock a hole in the wall. It looks like a useful bit of storage space. Fit a door to it and burn the doll.

A really evil person would have a whole collection of identical dolls and every time the new owner got rid of one another one would appear

 

[Nosmo King]

Must admit I agree that the paper the message was written on looks a bit "fresh" considering it's been behind a wall for 60 years. Most likely a wind-up but you never know...

https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/new...ZbYOI0lkKZipt-0kvP2HowMqkfwe6VAcCR006lA8R_9eo

It's not a particularly scary looking doll

 

[Mythopoeika]

It's not a particularly scary looking doll

During the daytime, anyway...

 

[Bigphoot2]

It's not a particularly scary looking doll

They're the worst kind, lull you into a false sense of security and then the cute little, non-scary doll gets a knife and before you know it you're wearing your intestines as a scarf.

 

[Nosmo King]

They're the worst kind, lull you into a false sense of security and then the cute little, non-scary doll gets a knife and before you know it you're wearing your intestines as a scarf.

On 'Jack and Ozzy's world tour' Jack had a really creepy doll called 'Robert'which really freaked Ozzy out, he tried various times to destroy it, once even microwaving it.

 

[Naughty_Felid]

On 'Jack and Ozzy's world tour' Jack had a really creepy doll called 'Robert'which really freaked Ozzy out, he tried various times to destroy it, once even microwaving it.

View attachment 45328

That's the real Robert the Doll or a very good copy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_(doll)

 

[Nosmo King]

That's the real Robert the Doll or a very good copy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_(doll)

I think Jack bought a replica from the museum to take on the trip with them, the doll pictured is the real Robert doll.

• The doll and a replica doll sold at the gift shop at the Martello museum appeared in the second season of Ozzy & Jack's World Detour.[17]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_(doll)

 

[charliebrown]

My doll story is about doll that is over 100 hundred years old as my mother has been gone for a long time.

Sadly my mother’s sister died young and my mom put her sister’s three foot doll in a closet.

When my mom died, the family found this doll in the closet and everyone just freaked out and took this doll to the trash on the street.

My wife could not have this so she rescued this doll, but having this doll out in the room also kinda freaked my wife out.

So, this doll has been in our closet for someone to discover in the future.

We do not know any history of where this doll came from, or why such a big doll.

 

[SimonBurchell]

I recently came across this unspeakably eerie doll at Inveraray Castle, the photos don't really do it justice. The whole room was pretty thick with eeriness, even the portraits on the walls were weird and seemed to be watching me. The room is supposed to be the most haunted in the castle, and I can well believe it:

 

[escargot]

I recently came across this unspeakably eerie doll at Inveraray Castle, the photos don't really do it justice. The whole room was pretty thick with eeriness, even the portraits on the walls were weird and seemed to be watching me. The room is supposed to be the most haunted in the castle, and I can well believe it:

View attachment 45534View attachment 45535

That's a lovely art doll.
I get the urge to make those but am not artistic enough to render the faces nicely like that one.

 

[SimonBurchell]

That's a lovely art doll.
I get the urge to make those but am not artistic enough to render the faces nicely like that one.

Lovely, sat on a chair in bright sunshine, I'm sure. Personally, I wouldn't turn my back on it.

 

[GNC]

I wonder if the paranoia about children has rendered playthings like dolls sinister for some people, like a lightning rod for anxiety. Happened to clowns, it's happening to Santa Claus - look out, Transformers and My Little Pony!