Exhumed Once More: Living Dead Dolls Resurrection II Sadie by Mezco Toyz

This was the final gift I packed into the DEADvent Calendar, and she's a seriously major acquisition.

That's the funny thing, though. I don't quite know where she ranks in terms of collection significance. She's not the most expensive LDD on the aftermarket the way I got her, and Frozen Charlotte cost more. I already own two Living Dead Dolls who were each released in smaller quantities--variant Isabel and Ember. At the same time, my copy of Sadie turned up at the right time in unboxed complete state, taking off a good amount of aftermarket pennies that could be asked (if not obtained) from her if she was sealed. 

The Sadie Design History

I've previously discussed the evolution of Sadie with her first and most recent dolls here, and then touched on some other Sadies during the DEADvent Calendar feature. This is the grand finale, and I think she capped off my year of LDD full-circle in a beautiful way. A Sadie remake got me into this major collection to start with, and this doll is an excellent design midpoint between the oldest and newest Sadies I highlighted before. She's also the final true "basic Sadie" in the brand--while Sadie has had several other dolls, I consider Resurrection to be the last major permutation of her classic design to collect. 

The other Sadies (Schooltime, Bedtime/Sloth, Celebrating, and Alice) aren't based directly on the S1 template in the way Res and Return are. Res and Return are literally redesigns of the original, and directly so.

I guess you could say Series 35 Res-style Sadie is also in this group of basic Sadies. She has the classic collar and the classic accessories...but her hair and costume silhouettes are so different that she's an outlier to me. She just sheds enough of the S1 DNA to not fully count. 

I want to review Series 35 as a group one day, and Sadie is my obvious pick for which of the six Res-style mystery dolls I'd want to select as the fifth in my personal set of the series. Getting all six mystery dolls, and thus all ten in the bigger picture of S35, is not something I could, or want to, do.

These are all basic Sadies with the accessories and unthemed costumes, and they're all remake designs with inset eyes and a more elite release status, but S35 breaks the visual flow.

S1, Res, and Return are a direct design throughline that S35 doesn't fit into closely. There is a direct throughline, however, if you put S1, Celebrating, and S35 in a row of three.

Celebrating Sadie.

Celebrating Sadie (13th anniversary limited edition) closely imitates the S1 faceup and hair, but she has a more tailored short-sleeved dress and her light eye is colored blue, traits which S35 picks up very similarly, down to the white bow on the left hip of the dress. While Celebrating and S35 could be considered to be equal and alternate adaptations of S1, given how S35 has the accessories and collar based on the original which Celebrating doesn't, and Celebrating has the S1 hair and face style that S35 doesn't, I don't believe it's accidental that the two anniversary dolls have such similar dresses and blue left eyes, and it's fair to call S35 a successor iterating directly upon Celebrating.

So it's like Series 1 Sadie splits off into two evolutionary branches--Res and Return as direct "basics" with the full S1 kit, and Celebrating and S35 as anniversary dolls. Despite S35 technically being another "basic" with the S1 kit, her divergent visual design sorts much better in this structure given how she takes from Celebrating.

If I was chaining release formats, S35 belongs in the "basic remake" line, but as visual evolution, she follows closest to Celebrating.

On a similar but opposite note, Sweet 16 Sadie (from Series 28) is the other main-series release with an anniversary theme. She's mostly a direct reimagining of the basic S1 Sadie look, but her context is themed to a birthday/the brand's sixteenth anniversary and she has an affixed party crown and lacks the classic Sadie accessories, making her also not quite qualify as a basic S1-remake edition to me. The visual look is clearly inherited from S1, but the context and crown take her into a separate design purpose as a party doll (in fiction) and anniversary piece (for audiences).

I'll probably get this one too at some point, but I'd need to figure out the occasion.

Sweet 16 with S35's accessories and no crown would be a complete fourth take on S1 Sadie. 

S35 with Sweet 16's hairstyle and dress would also be a complete fourth take on S1 Sadie. 

But as they are, both dolls fall short of that role. 

Sweet 16 technically fits between Celebrating and S35 in the evolutionary branches, as all three are separate new anniversary (13th, 16th, 20th respectively) dolls with blue left eyes. 

...but visually, Sweet 16 is otherwise not a clean flow from or into any other Sadie. She has the scar from Schooltime, the white skin of Res, the costume and hair and makeup template of S1, and the eyes of Celebrating (all released before her), but all combined and executed to a unique effect unlike other Sadies. I suppose a more radical approach would place her between Resurrection and Return on the "basics" line, but she doesn't have the classic accessories and is too themed to count for me. She also doesn't flow into Return or S35.

This doesn't flow to me.

Nor this. 

Despite releasing years apart, Res and Sweet 16 look more like alternate takes on the same design scheme rather than sequential dolls with a chain of influence.

Below is the design map that makes most sense to me. Sadie's post-S1 main-series editions from S2, S7 and S28 are off in their own section because none are full "basic Sadie" dolls and none flow into the designs of others cleanly. It's very tidy to me here how the anniversary short dresses and revival dolls form their own chains off S1 while the series dolls are doing their own thing. While it's not fair that S35 Sadie fits in the anniversary chain despite being a series doll and Sweet 16 with the same release format doesn't, the visuals tell the story, and anniversary series-doll Sweet 16 doesn't flow in the line.

Here's the sort if it's just by release format instead of visuals--remake basics on top, anniversary party dolls on bottom. S35 still counts for both, but leans closer to basic due to no visual anniversary/party theming.

(And lastly, her 13th-anniversary S1 remake has only very minor changes like mirroring the orientation of her eye color and having a ball-joint body and gripping hand. She doesn't count as a fully new design.)

So now, context on Resurrection Living Dead Dolls.

Resurrection

Resurrection was a doll line introduced after LDD was a good ways underway, and all of the dolls were released after Series 9 introduced the ball-joint body. Resurrection series consisted of sets of previously-released characters who redesigned and reimagined the looks of previous dolls. While main series had Arabic numerals, Res series used Roman numerals to distinguish them, and their series titles are just "Resurrection [numeral]" rather than "Series [numeral]" or "Resurrection series [numeral]". As such, I abbreviate series to "S[numeral]" and Resurrection series to "Res [numeral]". Resurrection dolls also all have inset eyes which change the look of their faces and make them fancier. Res series have smaller casts than main series, with four dolls to a normal Res collection and no Res series having more than four or less than three.

Every Resurrection series had at least one rarer variant set of dolls though not every variant set was actually rarer than the Res mains. Resurrection VII's variants were actually more common than the mains! While a few variants, especially earlier in the Res line, were more typical palette swaps, Res variants are typically far more drastic design departures than a variant anywhere else in the brand. While most LDD variants are just palette changes with very few having structural differences in hair, costume, or paint, most Res variants function as an alternate design entirely, with all Res variants having paint, color, eye, and/or physical structural differences from the main Res. Res VIII has an outstanding three additional variant sets with permutations of the main designs, while more typical LDD palette-variant gimmicks have shown up in Res releases too-- Res IX had a set of variant dolls that just changed the colors to sepia tones, rather than altering the costumes and character designs, and multiple Res dolls have had rarer editions cast in glow plastic, including variants of the variants.

There's also often a pattern of an original LDD design's traits being split across the two counterpart Res designs. For example, main Res Dottie Rose has a dotted black dress like the original, while the variant has the pink hair color and more recognizable 1950s vibe of the original, as well as the skirt referencing the original's pet poodle Hun. 

S6 Dottie Rose.

Resurrection Dottie Rose.

Res-variant Dottie Rose.

(Dottie Rose's Res dolls also reflect how the original had half its copies with eyebrows--main Res has brows, variant doesn't.) Many Res pairs can be analyzed as divisions of the original design, though this is not always the case--it isn't with Sadie!

Resurrection IV had an atypical format, as it revived two exclusive two-pack duos as Resurrection two-packs in rectangular boxes instead of double-wide coffins--the cast of Res IV was conjoined twins Hazel and Hattie, and wedding couple Died and Doom. Interestingly, LDD Minis Series 4 was also based only on exclusive characters. Late Resurrections were solo rather than marketed within a series, and included a couple of electronic talking dolls with voice boxes and pre-recorded phrases and more divergent packaging. The two variants of a talking doll had different audio. 

Res VIII was the only series with less than four dolls--it had three characters and a setpiece item as the "fourth doll"--the metal Chaos Capsule totem box. No Res series' cast reproduced the ensemble of an original mainline series, and never could have due to the lower totals, anyway. Res I is not the same cast as Series 1, and so forth, though it's not uncommon for original series-mates to appear together in a Res series:

• The Bride of Valentine and Sheena from Series 3 both appeared in Resurrection III

• Angus Litilrott and The Lost from Series 8 both appeared in Res X

• Hush and Dottie Rose from Series 6 both appeared in Res XI

• Cuddles, Chloe, and Frozen Charlotte from Series 12 all appeared in solo releases untied to a series, with Cuddles between X and XI, and the other three standalones after XI. Depending on your opinion, they "share a series" by having similar isolated releases. S11 Maggot was the other Resurrection in this solo format. Cuddles and Chloe, and their two variants each, comprise the four talking dolls in the Resurrection line.

There are also cases of a doll's Arabic and Roman numerals matching between debut and Res editions:

• Posey was in 1 and I.

• Lou Sapphire was in 2 and II.

• Sheena and the Bride of Valentine were in 3 and III.

• Lust was in 7 and VII (likely on purpose to maintain her deadly-sins theme from her debut).

• S12 Chloe and Frozen Charlotte could be considered Resurrection XII dolls unofficially since their Reses released after XI, but the Res of S12 Cuddles could not count as technically Res XII because she released between X and XI.

Series 3 and Series 12 are the only two main sets to have every doll reappear in the Resurrection line. Series 18 was the last main series the Res line drew from, with Calavera being the latest mainline series doll to be Resurrected. Considering the cast stands today at 35 series (and has for several years now; I digress), that's a relatively narrow range. Series 1 does not count for the "all dolls Resurrected" title on a technicality--while Eggzorcist has a doll that's functionally a Resurrection in glass-eye build and redesign format through her 10th Anniversary edition, the release format of three global variants and the branding separate her from the Resurrection line proper. Eggzorcist has a second glass-eye redesign in Series 35, but all of Series 1 plus Candy Rotten also has the same treatment within S35, and none are Resurrections.

All series after S18 had no Resurrected cast members, but so did two series prior-- Series 13 and Series 17 (bad luck and urban legends). Neither of those sets were sourced for Resurrection at all, meaning there was not an unbroken chain of every series before S18 being sourced. The later series up to S18 tended to have just one character represented in Resurrection each: Demonique alone for S10, Alison Crux alone for S14, Pumpkin alone for S16, and Calavera alone for S18. Still, Series 12 was fully Res'd, and Series 11 had all but one doll (Jubilee) Res'd. I do wonder if the selections were motivated by distance or fan performance--like, they weren't going to Res a doll that felt too recent to them or one that they didn't perceive a lot of popularity or potential in. Still, while most of Series 12 got Resurrected in the tail end of the Res line, supporting the idea their original dolls needed to age enough, Ezekiel would have been Res'd closer to the time his original doll was released by being a Res III doll while Tessa, Cuddles, Frozen Charlotte, and Chloe were from X and after.

Res dolls overall were released in far more limited quantities, making their aftermarket prices generally pretty high and hard to break into, and God help you if you want a Res variant in this day and age because those are even rarer. Even main-Res Sadie here was a doll who felt impossible...until she wasn't. Planning the DEADvent Calendar made me think of her as a capper, and it all worked out.

Resurrection Sadie

Sadie is from Resurrection II, which is the best demonstration of the unformulaic nature of the Res series lineups. Every instinct would tell me she was surely in Res I as the defining poster child of LDD, but nope, they waited a bit! The S1 doll in Res I was Posey.

My copy has the mirrored clear lid error that sometimes happens, which I first encountered when selecting my Bloody Mary copy. I thought it added some thematic resonance to Mary, scourge of mirrors. Here, it's tangential. 

The lid has a Mezco sticker placed on it denoting this doll as having been a convention exclusive originally. She's helpfully identified as a 2008 release. While this is an eight-year gap between S1 and Res, Sadie had been a consistent presence in the product timeline otherwise through her Series 2, 7, Minis, and Fashion Victims releases as well as other non-doll merchandise.

Red tissue for Res II.

Sadie's chipboard depicts a dirty glowy-eyed S1 Sadie bursting from her grave. The edition of this doll is proclaimed in the top right--there were 525 copies. Slightly arbitrary for a total. Variant Ember is scarcer, at 275 copies, but carries less prestige and price brutality

The gravestone design in this art does not exactly match the stone Return Sadie would get several years later, though they are broadly similar, with the columns on the stone and pointed shape. The Return stone has an angular point rather than a Gothic arch and has more detail overall. On the Res art, the face is sculptural and looks just like the grinning LDD Minis baby face, while the Return portrait is a flat framed photo image of the S1 doll that looks like it'd be rendered on the stone's surface. 

With some chipboard art, it's hard to tell whether the images were photographic or entirely painted or a blend, but it's possible they staged this Res chipboard photographically, where they used a messed-up S1 Sadie body and sculpted a tombstone with a Minis head grafted onto it as the photo base for the final produced image.

The S1-looking doll coming from the grave looks nothing like this Resurrection design itself, but it's more realistic. The dolls coming back would logically just be dirty versions of the S1s instead of full transformations. The art is cute.

There is no poem on the board, and on the website archive, LDD copied and pasted the original dolls' poems on their Res counterparts' listings, so if any of the Res chipboards had poems, they wouldn't have been original. The only Res dolls I know to have gotten new poetry are the Res VIII set, where the three dolls had a narrative pieced together. Bear with me because this is confusing to explain: 

The prime set of dolls and the prime variant set had separate poems, so main Res Pumpkin and main Res-variant Pumpkin had separate poems, and so on. The Lazarus set based on the prime set and the Lazarus variants based on the prime variants copied the poems of the prime sets they were based on, so there were only six poems in the Res VIII series in total, numbered in a sequence. The place of the fourth doll in Res VIII was filled by the Chaos Capsule totem, which had only one poem across its four variants, and this poem was separate from the narrative sequence.

I was surprised to see a death certificate in the back. Fittingly, this is just a reprint of the original S1 Sadie certificate with some new colors and formatting adjustments. The background is a pale greyish white rather than parchment yellow, and red print features for her name. The certificate poem is the same. 

Here she is unboxed.

Resurrection Sadie's two most obvious design departures in the remaking are her stark-white skin and her bangs. Only one other Sadie design was ever this pale--Sweet 16 Sadie from Series 28. And only one other full-size Sadie has this hair--Return Sadie, who must be referencing this doll as she resembles a culmination of several Sadie designs. (Bangs were featured on Bedtime Sadie's debut as a Mini, but vanished on her Series 7 full-size counterpart.) S35 Sadie is the third Sadie with bangs, but her hair is tied in two short fluffy side pigtails.

Res Sadie's hair is very different to the touch. It immediately reminded me of the very silky, airy, finer fiber material used for some BJD wigs, or at least is like the one I tried and failed to harvest when replacing my Isabel's hair. This may not be typical play-doll saran, though I don't know for sure if it's the fiber or the rooting throwing me off. That's because the rooting is very thin on this doll. The top of the scalp is fully covered when combed right, which is a lot better than S3 Lottie or S1 Eggzorcist can say, but the hair isn't thick in fiber type or coverage. Maybe the fiber or desired silhouette called for it. The hair is not perfectly cut, with some strands hanging too long, and it's oddly layered and choppy. It's fairly smooth, but I don't know how high-quality this hair is supposed to be given that I can't ID its material. It's definitely thin, but how much of that is the fiber?

The bangs are above the brows entirely and don't lie totally flat. They're rooted in one row at the front, and gap a little bit, but they're not nearly as floaty or hard to evenly spread as Chloe's were. I was nervous to boil her hair because I wasn't sure how the fiber would respond, and I don't want water getting into her eyes. I eventually blocked out her eyes with masking tape and boiled down her bangs extremely delicately, as well as the sides of her hair. I didn't boil the top of her head because I didn't want to affect the spread and coverage on her scalp. LDDs can reveal their thinner rooting after a boil in an unfortunate way, and Sadie's didn't need to look any thinner.

Sadie's color is stark white, and her eyes and costume are unsaturated as well, leaving the empty-handed doll entirely greyscale.

Of the three stark-white Sadies (Res, Res-variant, Sweet 16), Res-main Sadie is the only edition of the character to be completely greyscale (again, though--without her accessories). Her face looks quite different due to the hairstyle difference and the inset eye shape, and I'm really curious why Sadie and Sin went for bangs in their Res designs rather than their original center-parting. It would have been really cool to see the older hairstyle, though this one certainly looks nice too.

The Resurrection inset eyes are rounder and wider, and feel larger than the Return eyes, and the Res dolls must all have modified versions of the familiar head sculpts they use to account for the open sockets and eye cups the pieces are inserted in. This eye socket, at least with eye fitted, is not the same size as the classic LDD oval eye and is not the same as the recessed sockets of dolls like S12 Tessa/Isabel/Sospirare or Thump, so all of the Res sculpts that align with designs we've seen (standard face, horn head, bumpy skin, torn cheek, open mouth, etc) are still almost certainly unique molds in the Res dolls. 

Resurrection Tessa (both variants) may be the only Res LDD with a normal Res head mold that's empty, or may be the only Res with a mainline head mold? I thought she repurposed Thump's gore-free hollow-eyed head, but a closer look suggests her sockets could be larger than Thump's. Her eye shading makes it very hard to be sure.

Thump has eyes the size of the normal LDD oval shape, but its head mold doesn't have the fleshy gore texture of S12 Tessa, nor the bumpy skin or shriveled lips. If Res Tessa's sockets actually are bigger, this might be what all Res dolls are molded with. I may be wrong, and Res Tessa may be using the Thump head that debuted just before her like I assumed previously, but I'd have to see both dolls next to each other to tell (and while I'd love both, Tessa is not on any shortlist). It's also not unheard of for Res dolls to get new sculpts, so Tessa could have a separate unique head if it isn't Thump's and isn't the normal Res mold.

Res Tessa also included her gouged-out eyes as little glass spherical eyeballs that could pop into her sockets for goofy effect, but without knowing the identity of her head mold and whether it was a Res head or not, I can't say much further! The gag worked, for what it's worth, but it gives me zero information toward normal Res eyes.

The Tessa matter is entirely inconclusive from my end right now, and so she's no help in solving how Res dolls are normally built. 

Maybe the answer is in the Resurrection Maggots? Both of the Maggot Res editions have one hollow socket on the right to depict a missing eye, and that appears to have a flat back like Tessa's, possibly showing what a Res head looks like with an empty socket.

Res-variant Maggot.

The empty socket does more clearly look bigger than Thump's (or at least, isn't the standard oval) when looking at Maggot, which could indicate Thump's was never a Res head being repurposed, but Res Tessa might still be using its head sculpt. I do have reason to believe the Res Maggots didn't get new head sculpts. I think they're prefab heads with one eye omitted because Frozen Charlotte's Res doll has a special mold with a pulled-in sad lower lip for her tragic facial expression, and variant Maggot above also uses that face sculpt under her mask. Mezco probably wouldn't re-mold a doll head that recently debuted in Resurrection itself just to depict a one-eyed face in that expression, and I don't think both Maggots would receive their own divergent head molds for the one-eyed look. I expect Maggot used the Charlotte head and left one eye out, and that this variant is the answer to what the eyes normally rest in. As a counterpoint, Resurrection Angus indisputably got new head molds for both of his variants...but the Maggots seem possible to have executed by building the dolls on existing standard Res heads sans one inset eye.

This all makes me really want to dissect a Res doll or pop out an eye and definitively see how their heads work, but I'd only ever do that on one with totally shot eyes that are no good to display due to fading or water damage or something. I thought I found my guinea pig with a pristine but cheap and incomplete Res doll I snapped up, and was waiting to test on her, but long story short, she wasn't my answer. More on her soon, though! I'd waited on her before publishing this post so I could drop the info on how Res eyes work, but I won't be learning and delivering that information after all...at least, not now. So no further delay for Sadie!

I like the effect of the round eyes on Sadie, and the eye pieces are nicely aligned. Her eye design and makeup really suit the shape and make her quite arresting. I feel like maybe some Res dolls with less paint around the eye don't wear this eye shape as well. The only classic LDDs with inset eyes like this outside the Resurrection line were 10th Anniversary Eggzorcist (basically the character's official Res, but released in three global color variants), the Beauty and the Beast "Scary Tales reimagined" set, and the S35 random mystery chase dolls which included pigtailed Sadie above. These dolls consisted of six characters--a functional second Resurrection for each of the Series 1 cast, plus a variant/functional first Res of Candy Rotten, who officially debuted within the same Series 35, but had originated as a character at the same time as S1 and had never been produced. 13-inch Alice in Wonderland Sadie, based on the standard edition and also paired with a Minis counterpart, had inset eyes but was a unique one-off doll build and was a scarce convention exclusive. I believe the 18-inch porcelain Posey and Abigail Crane dolls had painted eyes.

Res Sadie's basic eye design follows from the original's greyscale goth inverted heterochromic eyes, and the asymmetrical eyes are on the same sides of the face as the S1 original--the Return doll swaps the sides instead. Here, the paler eye is interpreted as grey rather than white. Celebrating Sadie, Sweet 16 Sadie, and Series 35 Sadie make one of her eyes blue in different ways, but Celebrating and S35 have a classic black eye with white pupil on the right, while Sweet 16 has a white eye on the right and a pale blue eye (only through a blue iris outline) on the left. Sweet 16's eyes thus can be read as having the darker eye be blue, or that she's splitting the difference between the classic heterochromia and the Sadies whose eyes are both pale white. The Return irises have good detail but are not trying to look like photorealistic human eyes. Her faceup follows suit, with bold eyebrows and lashes and flat pale rings of grey shading her eyes--no airbrushing or painterly rendering. I think the flat cartooning suits the eye shape and works with the S1 throwback. Her lips are black like before.

I've seen from pictures of an unfortunate Res XI Dottie Rose that these inset eyes, like others, can be subject to fading or damage to the print inside them, so guinea pigs for eye removal can exist! I'll be careful with Sadie and keep her out of the sun (already my LDD protocol) and especially water. LDD inset eyes don't usually have matches on the craft market! This Sadie's eyes are still pristine and they look great. They have a bit of depth so there's a slight follow-you effect at different angles, but it's not a full parallax where the iris looks like it's moving--it's mostly the pupil, and if the doll's gaze is changing, then it's much more subtly because the iris doesn't change.

I suppose that captures the eeriness of a doll pretty well, though, with the eye looking entirely static but this strange feeling that it's still somehow looking consciously at you. The subtlety of the just the pupil following you gets at the lingering unease of a haunted doll pretending to be inanimate. I don't think this was a design consideration or intentional.

Here's the three Sadie faces together. Res still embodies that cute tiny-child energy of S1 (a lot more than I expected her to, actually), though it's a great midpoint between S1 and Return.

Sadie's dress is a similar update to the Return doll's, with its white satin and black velvet fabrics and button detail, but the Res piece is more visually ornate even if it's not as intricately crafted. It would be misuse of the adjective to say this makes her look more "Victorian", but it's a bit less distinctly 1960s in tone than the original simpler look even though it still fits the era.

The Return doll's dress just added cuffs and cuff buttons and a brooch on the neck while making the fabrics fancier, plus having an internal full lining and a working back zipper, but the Res dress has more fancy detail. The pointed collar has textured black lace accents down the halves of the shape, going around the back, and the dress hem has black lace trim. The neck has a line of four minuscule skull buttons between the collar points, and the wrists have thick white cuffs trimmed by more lace. While the Return cuffs are fancier by being folded backward onto the wrist and having buttons sewn on, they can start to get untidy, and Res's are easier by just being tubes sewn to the end.

None of these Sadie dresses directly recreate the iconic Wednesday Addams costume they're inspired by, nor do I expect they'd be allowed to, but Res has some of the closest details to the 1960s TV series dress worn by Lisa Loring (and based closely on the foundational Charles Addams drawings) because it has a column of front buttons and white wrist cuffs.

Sweet 16 Sadie's dress is about equally close and distant to the Wednesday dress as Res Sadie's. Sweet 16's dress has cuffs, black buttons, but all down the front like some depictions of Wednesday's, and has a more tailored shape, but she also has a bow at the neck and white trim on the bottom that Wednesday doesn't.

I feel like unrelated character Hemlock's dress is actually something of a missing link in this evolutionary chain of LDD costumes, because it came after S1 Sadie's in the same retro pointy-collar kid's cut but introduced vertical buttons under the collar and lace trim before Res Sadie echoed them several years later.

It's still not a direct evolution, since Return Sadie walks back a bit from the Res design to more closely match the original, even as she takes the hairstyle and fancy vibe of the dress directly from Res.

Res Sadie's dress had some issues. On the left wrist, the lace band is a little twisted and doesn't lie flat in a full circle. The dress also had some messier threads. The collar had some red staining that led me to put the dress in diluted bleach to tidy it. Big mistake. While this was the solution to properly clean LDD Minis Lottie's dress from its stains, the effect this time was to completely un-dye all of the lace, and I think it yellowed the satin a little too. I had thought I diluted it enough.

The un-dyed lace color wasn't pure white I could work with, so I had to painstakingly recolor the lace with black paint, which was not a perfect result, and I made a few slips despite best efforts. All of the pictures you've seen in this review are after this flawed manual color repair. This doll has certainly plummeted in aftermarket value, but I was doing what I thought was best with the information available to me.

Up close, the repair visual is definitely worse, and only the lower edge of the dress was easily done because it wasn't touching any white, but it works enough for display. I'm consoled by the fact that the dress was not perfect to begin with, even though it should have been. I feel like I've done a grail doll a great insult...but I still have that doll and she still looks okay and there's an absurdity to the scarcity and prize factor of the doll that ought to be recognized. 's just a silly toy at the end of the day!

Res Sadie has a lot of design touches Return Sadie clearly imitates, and she has a similar vibe of feeling slightly older in the same way, too. S1 dolls had more childlike outfit cuts that were less tailored and swallowed the doll bodies in an effect that made the characters look maybe five years old at maximum. This is a major factor that makes the S1 dolls so endearing and adorable. Res Sadie, however, has a closer-fitting outfit that makes her look like an older child between 6-8 years old, despite the ball-joint LDD molds not being much different from the swivel originals. It's a fascinating costuming effect. At the same time, I still totally get that very-little-kid energy from her as well.

Sadie has classic white socks and black Mary Janes. She can rock back and forth in her shoes, but never to the effect of tipping her over. She stands easily.

Sadie's accessories are just like the S1 doll's, though they're mostly modified to be held better. First is the purse.

S1 on top, Res below.

The Res purse is undecorated and lacks the textured sulfur symbol on the lid that the S1 original had, meaning this must be the re-mold used for Hot Topic-exclusive character Tragedy. For Tragedy, the purse was presumably redesigned so the design idea of her name written across the lid would look good.

On my Series 1 Sadie, I found the handle suddenly being too loose to stay slid over her fingers, which was disappointing after it had worked fine before. The same problem still exists here. Series 35 Sadie seems to rock her purse (the original S1 mold) with her gripping hand. I had to test the combo myself. 

The gripping hand works pretty well when the arm is lowered.

But raising the hand gets the handle ready to fall right out of the gap between thumb and fingers.

This is worse than Return Sadie's secure grip on her purse handle, but definitely better than S1, Res and Tragedy having to slide it unstably onto their fingers. I know Tragedy is a swivel doll due to her partner Misery (sold separately) using Series 5 Dahlia's head mold. Resurrection Sadie was released after Series 12 introduced the gripping hand and has no excuse not to have one for her purse. Perhaps her knife precluded that.

Because yes, Sadie has her knife again.

The Res piece has more elegant blood paint, and it's the modified mold with the accessory peg to place in her palm. 

I think the knife looks better in her right hand, so perhaps it's good she doesn't have a gripping hand? Series 35 Sadie is evidently able to hold her knife in her gripping hand, so I wonder if it's a different sculpt. This knife handle shape is so stubby and thin that it doesn't fit firmly into the gripping hand. 

This peg knife doesn't work to be held downward in a stabbing pose like it would with a gripping hand.

Sadie also has a remold of her Series 1 bouquet, identical except for the palm peg that was added. Like some other LDD peg accessories I've encountered, and unlike Sadie's own knife, I found the bouquet peg to be too wide to press into Sadie's palms, so I cut down the peg a bit with an X-Acto blade until it fit. I don't know why some accessory pegs go in just like that and others are so wide and bendy and hard to put in a doll's hand. Consistency, Mezco!

Here's a full "evolution" lineup of the basic Sadies with their common accessories. The bouquet is my least favorite piece of any of them, but it's the only accessory all three can reliably hold. S1 is no hope with her knife, and Return has a cleaver instead.

It's a fascinating comparison. S1 to Res is a bigger jump in some ways than Res to Return, since the hair and dress and presence of inset eyes are so alike between the latter two dolls. Return is obviously a much more sophisticated build and sew than either of her predecessors, while Res has a vibe of her own due to her high-contrast greyscale palette never matched by another Sadie. Res is kin to Series 1 through her classic accessories and her facial energy. 

It's extremely special to be able to have all three of these dolls together. 

And here's my whole troupe of Sadies after the DEADvent Calendar.

And I don't think it stops here!

I wouldn't even have considered Sadie to have become such a focal fascination to me, but she's one of those lucky all-purpose franchise mascots to genuinely appeal to me personally, and I credit my massive year of rekindling and expanding my LDD knowledge and research to an awesome Sadie doll putting the brand back on the map and getting me collecting.

Sadie's constant visual pairing with Sin was carried over into Resurrection, where Res III Sin, just like Sadie, became stark white with bangs, and has a matching dress in red velvet. Main-Res Sin does not have skull buttons on her dress. Her horns and tail look flocked, which was first done for Lou Sapphire--so, a technique as early as Series 2! Most horned dolls since S2 Lou did not have flocking, but he introduced it.

I like Sin's Res variant even more with her bright red hair and black dress accents. Her horns and tail are also black, and she has black fine-mesh tights and the buttons. The only thing that doesn't work for me is the tights. Black ankle socks and red Mary Janes would have been ideal, or vice-versa if you must.

The variant of Res Sadie, meanwhile, trades the white dress accents for red ones and reflects Sadie designs like her handmade original, Series 2, and Series 7 dolls by having two matching lighter eyes--always a downgrade to me. While Sadie's dress has always been transparently inspired by Wednesday Addams, the Res variant is the most blatant nod by having Wednesday's classic hairstyle as well.

No other Sadie had hair like this. If the red accents weren't there, this design might not have been legally possible!

Here's some portraits with just Res Sadie alone.

Then the first snow of the late year hit in November, and I decided to include Sadie in it, too. My first Sadie post took place during a very light snow in February, so I thought it would take things nicely full-circle to bring her back to snow and her grave.

Return Sadie as it begins to snow, February 2024.

S1 Sadie after snowfall, February 2024.

Fully-snowed Resurrection Sadie, November 2024.

I also used the snow for some loose interpretation of the Resurrection chipboard art with S1 Sadie.

I took Res Sadie for some Victorian antique photographs, mixing dollhouse and human furniture for texture, and putting a black rose prop in a vase. I wanted some authentic old and eerie tones you get from old old pictures. The tone suits her costume even if she's not genuinely of that era and design.

This was the first time I've used a death certificate in a Living Dead Doll's staged photo art, but I think it suits a Resurrection to have the document, since the concept of LDDs reviving with new looks almost demands the paperwork to prove they're the same...and that they've defied the proclamation of death one step more then they did the first time around!

I also tried a simpler setup just on the checkered surface, with shadows added on the edges in post to imply a featureless dark expanse she's sitting on.

Here's Sadie photographed against LDD pink as a backdrop.

I then set up a toy shelf in a wall niche to play with the subtle following effect of Sadie's gaze, placing her among innocent toys to frame her as the spooky haunted traitor in the midst with her eye just catching the camera. I took out my mother's old dolls (who I've called Sabrina and Chrissy) for this shoot, and doing so was what inspired me to give them a proper look-over and tidying in their own post--these photos were taken before their spotlight.

It was a really fun challenge creating visual compositions where Sadie and her gaze at the camera are the true subject, but the arrangement makes her look incidental, as if the camera wasn't trying to center her but the viewer immediately sees there's something wrong with that doll. These would also be the kind of stills that would chill you after watching a recording where you moved around the room and didn't see anything during the live filming, but running the footage back and pausing, you see that one doll on the shelf was looking at you. I don't think the "belatedly realizing you caught something disturbing on camera" narrative ever gets old.

Shooting with a "decoy subject" is tricky, but it's a lot of fun to make a frame built around something that's meant to look out of the way. Keeping her knife out by her side was the perfect amount of subtlety for the sinister prop.

Styled as ghost-hunt night-vision cam.

Styled as a flashlight-lit home recording walking around at night investigating a house--personally, I think this is one of the scariest possible formats for a paranormal video.

Despite all indications and framing, the China Girl is not the takeaway of this picture!

One problem with LDD as a collective is that a huge appeal of the creepy-doll trope is the idea of a messed-up toy invading a sweet bedroom and standing out as a horror against much more appealing toys. 

I've invoked this with Teddy previously!

Living Dead Dolls are nothing but horrors, though, without a token "normal" to be found, so putting them together is great as a collector and fan, but a group of LDDs cannot offer the contrast of the monster doll in the gentle playroom. You have to source your own sweeter toys for that kind of visual storytelling.

At the end, I feel like Frozen Charlotte will prove the bigger prestige acquisition than Resurrection Sadie, despite Sadie being the scarcer, more exclusive doll to own. Sadie just doesn't live up to her stature in terms of her manufacturing. Her hair is thin in a strange way, and her dress in arrival condition was a little messy and wonky and discolored before I even made it worse. Her accessories also aren't 100% there functionally. Her purse doesn't hold easily and her bouquet peg is too thick as molded. Sadie is, however, a beautiful doll, and I do acknowledge that she is quite the prize even when a little messy and costume-damaged by my attempts to fix her up. She's a very striking doll with her color palette and inset eyes, and has a lot of spooky, pretty, and cute charm. I may be doomed to have her in the sense that I've seriously undercut her resale appeal, but there are far worse dolls to be stuck with.