Yesterday members of the W Club received "confidential" notification of a top secret body replacement sale which will commence shortly.
Here is an excerpt from the email:
"These bodies will go up for sale next Tuesday (September 2nd). To accommodate members living in different time zones and with different work obligations, we are going to put up a portion of the allocation at 10:00 am CST (Chicago Time) and if that allocation sells out we will put up the remainder at 5:00 pm CST (Chicago Time). We understand these times might not accommodate every member, but we have done our best to try to accommodate the greater majority of members.
Should bodies remain, we will open up the offer to the public sometime on September 4th- we will keep you posted, but the information should remain confidential until that time (this means no pre-selling on eBay during this Club window or discussion on the boards)."
{I am trying to figure out if I am breaking confidentiality by posting this in my blog. I'm not pre-selling or discussing it on the boards as per the above caveat. So I guess I'm OK.}
When the Integrity Toys forum first opened I posted a poll which asked about the desire for replacement bodies. The response was enormous. This was quite a while ago. At that time I had already scraped together enough tall bodies to grow my first and second generation FRs to the latest size. The only dolls that needed replacement bodies were Adele, Vero (including Vanessa & Kyori), Natalia and Isha. The other characters appeared on the scene after the bodies got tall. So all that was really needed were four different skin tones. There will be four skin tones and they are called White, Black, Latina and Japan. The "Japan" color makes no sense at all because all the dolls with that color came with tall bodies to begin with: Agnes, Luchia, True Royalty Vanessa, Mastermind Veronique and A Brighter Side Kyori. There will be no tall Isha body. The bodies will be a whopping $45. each plus shipping. That's a lot of moolah for a piece of vinyl. Each member will be allowed 3 of each color body.
But wait...here comes the funniest part of the email:
The replacement bodies will be marked on the buttocks to ensure that the bodies are authorized and authentic and separate them from the ones produced with the dolls, thus allowing future generations of collectors to distinguish whether a body has been replaced or is factory original.
As if it would make a difference to future generations. (Will the dolls last for future generations?) I have sold so many dolls that have been switched to tall bodies, I have lost count. Why would anyone care? What I care about is if the swinging hip syndrome has been cured. Picture holding your doll with your thumb and forefinger and gently rotating your wrist back an forth. Visualize the doll's legs swinging along. This means that your doll will not stand or hold a standing pose easily. Some just flop forward at the hips without the slightest provocation. If someone switches the head to a good, firm body, would you care if it is not the one that came with the doll? If I bought a doll that originally was a different body type, don't you think I would recognize that fact? Duh with a capital D.
Perhaps brand new Fashion Royalty collectors could be fooled into buying a modern head with an old body but the old body will not be labeled so that argument is worthless.
The bodies shouldn't have been priced higher than $30-$35. They probably cost less than $5. to manufacture anyway. Integrity has overpriced these.
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On the other side of the fence, Tonner has shipped articulated replacement bodies for Tiny Kitty. I picked up 7 bodies today at the Tonner store for $20. + tax each. They're not exactly the same color as my earlier TKs but they will do very well. They are priced correctly. They have been selling articulated (BW) 16" bodies for quite a while. I haven't purchased any but I think the price is $35. each.
