Traveling with Dolls ~ My Setup

With all the moving stuff, deciding where and how to pack my dolls for the moving to another country was an important topic with my hubby. I was doing some research about travelling with dolls, and the only thing I could find was this topic from DoA. And you know me... if I believe some knowledge/experience will be useful to other people, I share it.

So, here it is this post! I tried to add as much info as possible, and I wrote it on several times: when I was testing the packaging, my experiences when arrived, and a "overall check" after establishing myself on Australia. Each stage is labeled with a title and a month, so you will have an overall idea of when I did everything.

Deciding to Sell (Late January)

I know that on my 2019 goals I added my intention to fix Coco's ankle... but near the time I did this, I decided to sell Coco locally. Hubby had asked me to please, do not sell your dolls as he knows they are important. This decision came because of several things:

• My dragons are too tiny and cheap (and one is a gift from Aileendoll EU, so no selling). Kitty Cookie and Cookie were basics-turned-limited and now discontinued, so there was no chance on getting them back. Merry was a gift from Withdoll themselves, no seeling her). Venezia was my grail and I literally saved years for her... plus she was too expensive. 
• Coco was my Engineering graduation gift for who I saved years as well... but she was evenly mellowed, and that put me off. I stopped playing with her, somehow. Plus, she was not so expensive either.
• I knew I would like to get Coco back, as she was a basic doll. I went to check it, but all girls were sold out at Withdoll. I asked them on the Q/A, and Withdoll told me they will soon restock the dolls with a new body. I suddenly became enthusiastic about the idea of a new Coco (same sculpt) with no yellowing, and a better body.

However, there was the thing I had always dreaded: the Argentinian community is... I do not know exactly, but around 85% pro-recasts, who own recasts, and are really careless about dolls. And since I could not ship internationally, I'll have to sell her locally on my cheap pathetic currency. But I decided to go for it anyways.

At the time I am writing this I have not sell her yet, but I planned to do it in mid February, when people comes back from vacations and the country reactivates.

Package Testing (Early February)

I have not listed Coco or the other stuff for sale, but it was time to get started with testing the packaging. My mom has a very good scale, so she brought it to my house on a Sunday morning so I could experiment.

Here are some basic carry-on-luggage limitations:

• Airline: Air New Zealand.
• Luggage Dimensions: 118 cm (H+W+D).
• Max Weight: 7 kg

I purchased the carry-on from a local brand, and the luggage from a more renown brand. Here I will be "playing" with the carry-on, as I decided to take all my dolls with me, to ensure their safety. So, here you have the open bag:

Details of the bag:

• Empty Weight: 3.130 Kg.
• Brand: Cecchini.
• Measures (H x W x D):

My biggest concern was how to put Venezia in there. Her box did not fit (yes, I am taking the box as well). So I had an idea: I play flute and I had a flute carrier! The carrier was a perfect size and fitted just right inside the bag. The flute has its own box, and it will be travelling with my hubby. So here you have a pic of the carrier and position.

Details of the carrier:

• Brand: handmade to fit a flute and a folded music stand.
• Empty Weight: 0.460 Kg.
• Length: 47cm.

So, I decided that Merry and Kitty Cookie would be travelling in their own boxes.Merry's box had foam overall. So, I took my dragon's boxes and removed the sticker bags; I used the four of them to put Cookie and Merry's hands in one, the dragon's eyes and jaws, their strings, and the eye stickers. All of that, along Merry and Cookie's CoA's went in Merry's box. Here you can see the bags sorted out, and Merry packed also with the tails and ears (I will be adding some bags to the ears/tails, but those are from aepoxy).

Kitty Cookie did not had cushions or nothing inside except bubble-wrap. But I sewn her a pretty and padded cushions when she arrived, so I deemed her safe like this. Here is a pic of the inside of her box.

Cookie did not had a pretty box. She was Withdoll's first tiny release and they didn't had the boxes back then. She came in an acrylic box. And the dragons came in parts as they are scale models. So, with the help of my mom (she had a sewing machine) we prepared some carrying cushions: the dragons have color-coded fabrics (lilac for Nyx, gray for Aion and pink flowerish for Theros), and Cookie has the big one. She fits inside the cushion with her face-protector on, and some bubble-wrap around her feet.

Individually, these were they weights:

• Merry (boxed): 0.245 Kg
• Kitty Cookie (boxed): 0.165 Kg
• Cookie (wrapped): 0.120 Kg
• Dragons (wrapped): 0.125 Kg (three dragons).

The griffin will also come, but since it is more like a plush, it will be safe travelling on my hubby's luggage. However, I would have to squeeze Venezia in. And that is where the carrier comes first. I prepared bubble-wrap protectors for V's hands, and pulled of all my foam pieces I had laying around. I had a thin a long one that fitted perfectly between her legs.

When I took this pics I thought I had lost her face protector... but nope! I found it afterwards, so I will be layering that with bubble-wrap to protect her faceup. Venezia weights around 700 grams. I will be taking her box as well, but it will travel inside the luggage, filled with wigs, her clothes, and other stuff. I also have her outside box, but I am putting there some things I will need to have shipped to me later.

Anyways, Her you have V's test on the floor, and then inside the carry-on, and inside the carrier. Her head is pointing towards the upper side of the baggage (where the handle is). The pic does not have the face-protector (I took it before finding it), and then I decided to add some wrap around the arms, so they won't scratch against her body.

So, this is were we are, at! So far, so good. I added a foam piece at the top of V's head, and she has another one under her feet, but it is not visible. Total weight so far (bag + carrier + Merry + Kitty Cookie + Venezia) = 4.695 Kg. So far so good!

Since the carrier had zippers, I zipped Venezia in on the smaller side, so she will be tight. It is quite padded on the sides, plus you saw I added some extra padding at the front of her legs, where the boxes are located on the outside.

The next step was relatively easy: adding the tiny crew inside the other side of the carrier. I put two foam bits on each edge, and added them inside the flute carrier, and on their wraps. So much padding! Then, I secured all of this using the straps of the bag. Handy, right? Total weight so far (doll crew only): 4.925 Kg. Perfect! Here are the photos. I tried two setups: everyone inside the carrier, and Theros outside (her wrap is the most filled).

But there was some remaining stuff! My flute is around 1Kg, so hubby is already counting with less weight for his own stuff. I will be selling my camera body, but I will take the lens with me (0.475 Kg aprox)... and so, I had to make some rearranging (as you see on the following pic) to fit the lens box. I put it on the bottom as that is the deepest part of the carry-on. I find that keeping the flute carrier in position is the most important thing, and that is why I secured only that with the "bag belts".The boxes won't move, as everything fits tight.

Total weight (dolls + lens): 5.460 Kg. This is awesome! I still have 1 Kg for some basic stuff, and the rest will have to go on the luggage. But I think this position is great!

Departure & Arrival (April)

As my flight had scales, I went through three airports. The only one that caught their attention once, was Venezia, when going out from Argentina, probably because of her size. The guys on customs where quite friendly and he left me open the package by myself; he didn't touch the doll at all, and simply had a look at her. The guy on the scanner was giving me this look of  "old woman playing with dolls", but you know what? I don't care!

Next stop was Auckland. I warned the guy on the scanner and the woman on the counter before (where you put the small bag, watches, jewelry and so on on a "plate") that I had dolls. Weirdly enough, I had a tiny box with a deck of cards in my purse. And that caught his attention, because it appeared in the scanner as a black, solid box. The guy took my bag to a different counter, made me unlock the lock, and after I stood behind a line, he opened the bag with gloves on, checked the tiny box, and cleared me out. Nobody cared about the dolls here.

Final step was Melbourne. I warned the guy on the scanner that I had dolls, and he simply waived me away. Scanned the bags, and "Hey, welcome! That's the exit" (quite literally). I'm assuming they have had their share of weird things popping out on the scanners, like sex toys, weird belt buckles, and so on. So, one of my big worries was easily passed by.

Carry-On Opening (May)

Yeah, this was mostly like a box opening. Honestly? I've been missing my dolls a lot, but I wasn't able to even check on them while I stayed at a hostel. So I only opened them when I go to my new house. I took me even a couple days more until I was able to open the bag on a Saturday.

I even made a small live streaming on Instagram! I wasn't planning on editing it, but I ended up editing that video and it is now on my YouTube channel! You can watch it right here in my blog:

The girls arrived all safely, with my 50mm lens on the purse. I was actually quite worried about crushing the dragons, but apparently the packaging and all the bubble wrap and face protectors did the trick. As you saw, V travelled on the flute case, and her box came in my luggage (I treasure the original boxes, I was not going to dispose of that). I took the silhouette off, and put that on my partner's luggage, but I brought the two plain sheets. I stuffed the whole box inside with the Tree Stump House's furniture, wigs and some clothes. Happily, everything arrived fine, except a single casualy -the sheer round table. I knew it was too fragile, but the only thing that broke was the acrylic. I kept the "table legs", so I'm planning on fixing it by using a new acrylic to create the table again.

My luggage actually had little clothes, and it was mostly doll stuff, honestly. Clothes can be easily replaced, but not doll stuff. Another thing I did, was classifying their clothes and belongings in bags, and then stuffing everything in a single bag. It had its pros and cons: individual bags are smaller and easier to fit in different places, but having them all together prevented them from wandering of inside the bag, when I took my clothes off daily.

Though I'm grateful the only casualty was that table, I wouldn't put my dolls on the main luggage. DoA has some horrid stories about how those bags are handled. I also double checked the lens, and it is fine -I'm grateful I never throw the packaging from this stuff, as I'm not sure if it would have travelled safely with the carrying bag only.

Oh! I also brought a coffee mug! I covered it with bubble wrap, and then inside a very, very fluffy sock. And it arrived perfectly! Also on the carry-on.



So, this is for today. It was quite an adventure, and I hope this "report" will help any travellers out there. Feel free to drop in your experience in the comments, as it may help other people, or also write doubts and questions there. Wish you the best for the new week!