The New Jamieshow Trent Debuts

Gene collectors rejoiced when Jamieshow Doll announced a resin version of Trent Osborn, a fictional mid-20th Century movie star and the one and only male doll in the Gene Marshall line. The last new Trent dolls were offered at the final Gene Convention held by Integrity Toys in Philadelphia in 2010. All the dolls were identical in sculpt and body to Mel's original Trent which was produced by Ashton-Drake.

Backstory From Ashton Drake Publicity: The 20th century had just made its debut - and soon after, one of Hollywood's favorite leading men, Trent Osborn, made his debut - in a Philadelphia maternity ward.
Born Theodore O'Bannion, young "Teddy" was quite the little neighborhood Romeo, stealing kisses from beneath the playground Pollyannas' pipe curls. He also always had a flair for the dramatic, prodding his playmates into staging elaborate pirate adventures on the bounding waters of the ponds in Philly's most prestigious parks - much to the chagrin of the local police force!
After graduating from high school, he longed for adventure, even working as a truck driver to escape the city limits. But soon he discovered the local theater groups, where he was quickly spotted by a casting director for the Theatre Guild and whisked off to The Great White Way. His refined good looks, coupled with a certain aura of reckless abandon, brought him role upon role - and the attentions and intentions of an army of beautiful young actresses and debutantes.
After playing the gamut of juvenile roles on Broadway, Teddy, now known as Trent Osborn to the New York theater goers, was brought to Hollywood in 1935. A mainstay at Monolithic Studios, he appeared in scores of films, and his most frequent leading ladies included such glamorous stars as Gene Marshall and Madra Lord.
As flamboyant a figure in Hollywood nightlife as he was on the screen, Trent Osborn broke countless hearts. But when he turned on those bedroom eyes, everyone from starlet to seasoned veteran melted at a glance.

To my eyes, the original Trent was a Mel Odom illustration produced in 3 dimensions, a drawing come to life.

Formal Introduction 2001

Despite being a great looking male doll, his joints and posing abilities were very limited. Jamieshow has solved that problem!

The new Trent called "A Double Life," is a resin ball-jointed doll with 15 points of articulation. He can wear all of Trent's prior wardrobe. Like other Jamieshow dolls, he came with a removable wig cap. This doll came with two molded wig caps in addition to the smooth one.

 
He is sold out at this time but here is the Jamieshow Link to read more about him.

My dear friend, Rita, has allowed her Trent to visit for a photo shoot.

There's no question that he looks different in many ways.  Jamieshow captured the essence of Trent and made him better looking! My blonde Trent is "Skiing or She-ing?"

In the photo below,  Double Life Trent is standing on his own. He is wearing "Tennis, Anyone?" an outfit designed by Vince Nowell, produced by Ashton Drake in 2001.

Under the clothes, there are differences as well.

As you can see, my vinyl Trent has changed colors, although that may not be what you're concentrating on.

Shall we give him a bit of privacy?

The Benefits of Being a Brown Noser

Every so often some goody two shoes will criticize my style of expression and tell me how I should express myself or that I shouldn't express myself at all because I am hurting the feelings of a doll designer.

In a recent episode, I posted a simple statement that I thought a doll was ugly. It wasn't someone's doll that they had posted a picture of; it was a specific doll from a manufacturer. I could have said that I didn't like her sculpt and I thought it was ugly. I could have said that I didn't like the extreme paleness of her vinyl or that I thought the dress looked cheap and that's what made her ugly. I definitely could have expressed it differently and explained why I thought she was ugly. But I just came out and said it simply. She is ugly.  I happen to like the performer that she is said to represent but I don't see the resemblance.

Others in the thread like the doll and some did not. There was a mix of opinion. I'm lucky in that I don't need to tell others how to express themselves and I certainly don't need to protect the manufacturer or the designers from the opinions of others. If they were being attacked personally, that would be a different story but this was about a product being offered for sale.

In this particular case, the critic wanted me to be positive in my criticism and constructive.  Well I positively think that this doll should not be constructed again. 

She said:
"There's another colloquialism that comes to mind here. Something to the effect that opinions aren't special and everyone has them. To say that you think something is ugly doesn't provide any insight. Also it's not very nice or constructive to the designers who have spent countless hours creating the doll. They've worked hard to bring the doll into existence and I think it's only fair that we should have to substantiate our opinions with arguments and evidence that we've actually given the matter some thought. " (The red highlight is mine.)

Is she talking about assholes on a doll board? If you don't know it, the actual expression is "Opinions are like assholes; everyone has one. "  Or "Opinions are like assholes; they all stink." So all of her thoughts aren't angelic. She's pretty snide if you ask me and definitely baiting the hook. I substantiate my opinion about a doll with my pocketbook. I bought the doll; she didn't.

However, the truth behind her criticism lay elsewhere. Apparently I jumped her on the line at the Integrity store! OMG I'm so ashamed of myself. Seriously, if that happened, it was not intentional. Many people got in front of where we were waiting.

I'm am ashamed to admit that at about 10 AM I sat down in the hall with my friend Dante and a few others near the store to wait on line for a few hours (!) until the store opened. There were very few people already seated near the door and there were some people sitting on couches around the corner from the door. Later on I was told that those people on couches were on line. Well, when we stood up and the door opened we stood aside and those people went in first.  

Well I certainly apologize if I bought the doll she wanted. Oh wait, there were a few hundred of each doll. And no, I didn't run right up to the register like some to buy the grab bags. I didn't even know there were grab bags.

 My critic wrote:
"I know that you write for FDQ. As a writer I expect more from you. And I also know that you love the Integrity dolls as I do. I know that because I saw you while I was waiting in line with my husband to get into the souvenir shop at the convention (first you were behind us then you were ahead of us). My point is, doll collecting should be fun. Bring more of the love and less of the negativity. If you must be critical, please at least make an effort to be kind and constructive about it."

I have to be a little snide here myself and say that her grammar is not all that good. The construction of that sentence means that she is a writer and expects more of me. There should be a comma after the word writer.  Maybe she is a writer but I don't think that's what she meant. She wants to hold me to a higher standard.

When I read the part about being ahead of her on line, I realized that she was not really talking about a doll at all. This was her personal resentment at me for being jumped (if I actually did that) or an attempt to raise herself to the heavenly level of collectors (aka sycophants) who are always lovely and loving.  I swear, I'm not making this up. I hope she takes me up on my invitation to discuss this issue via personal email.

Let me just say this about brown nosing: it works with at least one of the employees of that company.  

"I took a few shortcuts on the foundation. No one will ever notice."

Cartoon: by Larry Hehn on August 4, 2010

2010 Integrity Toys Convention - Diorama and Fashion Competition

I think there were more diorama competition entries this year than I have seen in the past. People really put their time and effort into some great little works. There was one gigantic diorama which I can't really call a diorama - it was more of an installation. A separate category should have been created for it. It won and it certainly deserved an award for the electronic devices and the incredible amount of work that went into it. Unfortunately, the other dioramas were overshadowed by it's size. There were a few others that ought to have been recognized as well. I also believe that people who are part of a convention team including teachers, helpers, et al should not be eligible for prizes. Again, it is better to avoid the appearance of impropriety when running contests, raffles and such.

The fashion categories had delightful entries. Hopefully, after several  years the announcers will realize that a picture of the winning items ought to be projected onto the screen when the winner is presented. Very few knew what each person had created (except for the winning diorama.) It was nice to see that the winners actually got something besides a plaque or a ribbon for their efforts.

I thought they were all winners. When entering a competition like that you really put yourself out there and being recognized for the effort is important.

Several entries are missing from my photographs because I took the pictures early on Thursday before some items arrived at the hotel and there just wasn't any time after that! I apologize to all whose beautiful work is not represented. I wish I had them all with your names right alongside. If you can help to identify the images, please let me know. You can click on each photo to see an enlarged version. Enjoy!

Deb Buckner

Lori Lyon

Janice Delp

Karen Kolkman

Gin-O

Veronica Hage

Veronica Hage

Janice Delp (Halloween of the Future)

Janice Delp-left

Lisa Ramsammy

FR2

So what is FR2?

If only I could stop calling it FR two and start calling it FR Squared. The problem is that the numeral 2 is in the numeric form and not the squared form and I hated algebra anyway.
Fashion Royalty times itself. Hmmm...twice as good? Twice as expensive? Twice as hard to get?

I have played with Dasha the FR2 doll from the convention collection and I am very impressed with her body. First of all it's a very pretty body. She's got a lovely chest and graceful limbs. The range of movement is excellent. I don't like her hands. They're a little rubbery and the fingers are spread out.  That's useful for putting rings on her fingers but the other hands held things better.
My overall impression is that this body rocks! Congratulations to Integrity Toys for introducing a terrific body for 12 inch dolls. Now let's see the same on the Avantguards.

 Dasha's feet are a bit longer which makes many shoes from prior outfits unwearable. What I would do is carve a bit off the back of her heel. If done carefully and sanded smooth, it won't show. Or we could petition IT to tweak the mold and bring the feet back to the prior size. That won't work. On the other hand...all the shoes I have that were too big will now fit. Still, many of our older shoes will fit. The fit of the clothes remains to be seen.

I'm sensing that FR2 is the demarcation between the end of Fashion Royalty as we know it and a reorganization of their lines. And in a way it's an invitation to those of us whose collections are out of hand to back away from continuing to accumulate more and more and just concentrate on the finest dolls (and less of them.) In the last two years since the disappearance of Veronique, we have seen a big change in the FR line besides the introduction of the Monogram dolls. Many of the fashions have been less than what we had come to expect. Jason's absence was palpable in the Fashion Royalty line except in the dolls from the 2009 convention and some exclusives. But the FR2 line seems to be his work. Except for the styling of the centerpiece "Dark Swan" Elyse Jolie FR2 doll, they're all classy and beautifully designed.

These dolls come with an adjustable height stand that supports dolls under their arms. These stands are OK if the fashion is not heavy or doesn't  have a large skirt because the vertical support bar is up against the body and pushes the fashion forward from the rear. I'm glad I have dozens of left over stands from earlier dolls. 

What do you think of the longer eyelashes, larger feet, flat, spread-fingered hands and the new line in general?

They are not available for purchase yet and we were not told the date upon which they would be released.  I don't know how much they will be but I'm quite sure they won't be cheap.