The very strange early bighead Fleur dolls

What also stands out is the facepaint. Bighead Fleur dolls have small, azure blue eyes with very subtle to missing eyeshadow and small red lips that tend to fade. Their lashes are long and rather straight, no as curled as the later Fleur dolls have. In fact, the Bighead facepaint reminds a lot of the Ballerina head facepaint. 

To compare you see also a Fleurdoll from the late 80s ((Sunshine facemold) with royal blue eyes, thicker and more dramatic eylashes and bigger, red lips that don't tend to fade. These doll can't be confused if seen side by side.

The body of Fleur dolls can be changed easily so I have no proof, that my loose Bighead Fleur dolls came on their correct body. But all of my dolls seem to have the same body, which is like the Ballerina body but with slight differences.

The torso is identical in both bodies. The bodies have their legs connected with a rubber band like a ball jointed body. The main difference lies in the arms and legs.

 The arms are made of a different kind of rubber, they are softer and kind of translucent. The hands are a bit bigger and a bit less defined than the regular Ballerina body hands.

Due to it softer texture, the Bighead body arms are easier to bend and also the maximal angle they can bend is bigger than of the regular Ballerina body arms. It can bend to 90° and even further while the regular Ballerina body arms bend only to around 50°.

The legs are made of a different kind of rubber too, they are more translucent and more prone to discolorations caused by the wire inside them. They remind me of the legs of Dungaree Fleur, which are also always found with discolorations like this, so they might have been made of the same material. 

The knees of the BIghead body click 3 times to nearly an angle of 90°, the knees of the regular Ballrina body click only 2 times and the angle they can bend is a lot smaller. 

The ancles can bend similar on both bodies.

I only have one Bighead Fleur in box, so the following is only a theory. If you have any of these dolls boxed or from your childhhod in original outfit, please let me know!

One of my Bighead Fleur dolls is a boxed Parade, so I think it's safe to claim, that she was sold at least as Parade Fleur. 

Two of my loose Bighead Fleur dolls were wearing the Parade outfit and a doll owned by Patricia Ruiter also came to her wearing the Parade outfit with still attached golden thread to her hand, where the batton was attached. 

The hair is shoulder long and sparely rooted. She has slight eyeshadow or no eyeshadow.

One of my Bighead Fleur dolls were wearing the Kitty Fleur outfit. I don't have any of them in box, but looking at photos of Kitties Fleur in box at www.fleurdolls.com (click here to be forwarded, extern link), at least one of these dolls appears to have the Bighead facemold. She also shows typical discolorations on the legs.

They have poorly rooted, over the shoulder long hair and very  subtle eyeshadow.

Two of my Bighead Fleur dolls came to me wearing the Ballerina Fleur outfit including pants, shoes and the hard to find headband. The seller claimed, that the dolls were wearing the outfit they were bought in. These Bighead Fleur dolls have curly shoulderlong  hair rooted only at the upper hald of the head.

One of the Bigheads I bought was wearing the Babysitter outfit, however since the belt was removed she could have been redressed. She has overthe shoulder long hair, sparely roted only at the upper part of her head. She has no eyeshadow. There was a Babysitter Fleur doll in unplayed condition sold on Marktplace some time ago, sadly I didn't get her, but the owner of Fleurdolls.com was the lucky one, who could buy her. I have seen one photo of this rare doll, and to me it seems like she could have the Bighead facemold and body, but we have to wait for confirmation from Fleurdolls.com. So we have to be a bit more patient untill we know more about this ultra rare doll. As soon as I have more informations, I will edit this post.

If my identifications are correct, it seems to me that the first Bighead Fleur doll was the Babysitter Fleur made in 1980. The possibility is, that the Bighead mold is just an oversized Ballerina mold, due to frequent use of the mold form or a new  headsculpt tried out in the experimental year 1980 with the squeeshy vinyl also used for Squishhead variant of Basic Fleur. 

It is possible that dolls made in 1981, which were usually produced with the small Ballerina facemold, were also produced with the Bighead facemold, which was left over from the previous year. The Bighead variants are for sure the more rare ones to be found.

Till now, I haven't seen a doll made after 81 with the Bighead facemold... so this mold was probably discontinued in use in 1981. But these are all just theories, because as we have already learned, Fleur doesn't like to be simplified, and as soon as I think I have solved a Fleur mystery, a new mysterious Fleur appears at the horizon!