3000 doll collection I HAVE TO LET MY GIRLS GO!

The proud 82-year-old needs another loving home for her precious babies

- Fleur Guthrie

Twelve years ago, when Edith Gibson spotted a cherubic-looking baby doll sitting for sale in a Whangaparaoa op shop, she bought it thinking it’d simply make a lovely Christmas present for some little girl.

But the vintage doll never left Edith’s home and, in fact, it marked the accidental start of a 3000-strong doll collection that has turned the former teacher into a documentary star.

“I wasn’t looking for a doll, yet when I saw this one, who I’ve called Carley, I realised she was something special,” tells the quick-witted 82-year-old. “So I brought her home and got on the computer and identified her as a Mattel baby ‘Cheerful Tearful’. If you pull her arm down, she cries real tears and she’ll wet her pants, then when her arm goes up, she’s all happy again. I paid $8 for her, yet she’s worth $70.

“I was going to give her away but when I thought about the little girls I know, she would have ended up in a toybox with her hair not combed and totally neglected. So she stayed with me.”

Now Edith’s collection includes everything from antiquated porcelain creations to modern-day animatronics and the odd crochet doll she has made herself (“I’ve got a very cheeky one with pink hair in a pink bikini!”).

Edith’s particularly amused by the interactive dolls that sing, dance, stand on their heads or walk across the floor.