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Reality TV Spotlight Shines On Eccentric Staten Island Doll Collector
By
Jamie Feldmar
Published Aug 15, 2011
Modified Aug 15, 2011
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Photo courtesy TLC
By
Jamie Feldmar
Published Aug 15, 2011
Modified Aug 15, 2011
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A Staten Island woman whose home is filled with hundreds of creepily realistic dolls is the subject of a new TLC show, called, appropriately, My Collection Obsession. And boy howdy, does Obsession look like it'll put My Strange Addition to shame!
Platinum-haired plus-sized model Marilyn Mansfield (we're willing to bet at least one Barbie that isn't her birth name)—who is married with three real-life children—is also mother to some 300 dolls, ranging from $2000 "reborns," which come complete with human hair, to "Living Dead" dolls and Goth-themed "Krypt Kiddies," which she won't leave the house without. "I take them anywhere you would bring a real baby," Mansfield told the Post. "I do it for myself because it makes me happy. I just loved when my kids were babies—and these babies stay babies forever. I buy them clothes. They never grow out of them and they never get dirty." She says her 12-year-old daughter helps her wash the dolls and her seven-year-old son is starting a doll collection of his own.
My Collection Obsession premieres next Sunday, August 21st on TLC, with other episodes dedicated to a man obsessed with his vacuum cleaner, a woman seriously addicted to shoes, and a gay couple who've turned their home into a Dolly Parton shrine. We can't help it if Mansfield's collection calls to mind these disturbing (and disturbingly campy) late '80s doll-themed horror flicks:
And let's not forget George Costanza's fiance's doll collection, which included a doll that looked like his mother.
Tagged
dolls
My Collection Obsession
reality tv
staten island
tlc
tv
Jamie Feldmar
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