The Prelude: A Toy Restoration Story

Greetings, and welcome to the Glitter Trench blog!

First, let me introduce myself. My name is Crystal, and I'm the founder of Glitter Trench. I live on the South Coast of Australia with my beautiful family. Both my husband and I are collectors - each with our own preferences - and, of course, our two boys have their own things that they love! Between us all, there is an amazing array of wonderful toys, cards, games, books, and everything in between, surrounding us at all times.

As anybody who collects anything, or gets things delivered will know, sometimes you gamble with an online purchase. Even with the most considerate of sellers, sometimes your package will go through the seven layers of Hell to get to you and arrive damaged. My toy rescue/restoration journey begins with one of my recent purchases, a new-in-the-box 85th Anniversary Barbie Signature Harley Quinn. The pictures displayed were all straight from the original Mattel listing, no actual pictures. But, it was a great price, and the seller had a 100% positive feedback rating on eBay, what's the worst that could happen?

Well, when she arrived, she was only in an AusPost padded mailer, and I opened her up to find a crack in the corner of the box, and the plastic was almost completely separated from the cardboard. This is a common new or casual seller error, where fragile items aren't packaged correctly for shipment. They can be subject to all sorts of treatment in transit, so it's important to have that extra protection; at least boxed with paper or bubble wrap to create a buffer. Anyway, I was pretty upset about it, but she was still in mint condition in the box, so I sucked it up.

The Harley Quinn Barbie in the damaged box. It's small, but once you see it, you can't unsee it!

But look how pretty she is! And yes, I know her hand is off, it's at the bottom of the box.

Then, my husband suggested we could fix the box ourselves by replacing the plastic (disclaimer: we still haven't done it, but it's on the list). What an idea! I immediately thought of all the toys from my childhood sitting in boxes, possibly disintegrating, just begging for a glow-up. I haven't had the heart to donate them, and my boys aren't interested in all of them (I let my oldest pick what he wanted). So, time for a makeover! I researched tools and techniques, and have just completed my first simple restoration, which I'll go into detail about in my next post.

I've always felt certain toys can hold a special place in our hearts. They're your friend when you have nobody else, and you could almost believe they have a soul and love you back. I still have my very first teddy, Cuddles. He's been with me for as long as I can remember, and is definitely showing his age at this point! But as all others have come and gone, he has remained. I know I'm not the only one with a treasured childhood toy, but not all of them stay with us. They end up in landfill or circulating op-shops; once loved, now displaced. New toys are great, but imagine if those that have had a rough life can get a second chance?

I am so excited to be on this journey. It will be full of learning experiences, I am not trained in anything in particular (though I do love art and making things), I am purely doing this for the love of the toys. I will be thrifting many of them, giving some of my old toys new life, and potentially accepting commissions, depending on how my skills develop. I am just starting out, and I have to give myself a chance to learn through hands on practice and making mistakes along the way. If you decide to follow along with me, thank you! I hope you'll find something interesting in what I'm doing.

In between the restoration pieces, I'll be selling my handmade earrings if you'd like to check out our shop! I'll have many more designs coming soon too!

Cuddles, for your viewing pleasure.