What A Difference A Body Makes!

My all time favorite Graphic Language Adele, who originally came on a straight arm body, now has a new life. Paparazzi Darling Adele was the FR2 body donor. 
In the first two photos, Adele is modeling a perfect satin-trimmed black shirtwaist Randall Craig dress. The top is slightly large for her but it looks beautiful IMO. Her handbag is FDA.

I went looking through my photo archives for prior shots of GA Adele. She was gorgeous on every body. I've had more than one GA Adele. You know how it is, don't you? You buy, you sell, you buy again. The doll in the purple and green dress is a different one from the one I have now. The one is red is the same gal on her original body.

She never made it onto the first articulated body apparently.


Do you have any dolls that have been transformed by a body switch?

Who Wears it Better?

I purchased the Victoire Roux Story of My Life dressed doll...sold the nude doll and gave the outfit to Fauxnessa first and Dasha second. The dress is adaptable to both bodies. The shoes fit the regular tall FR body but not Dasha. Forget about the gloves. I have no patience for gloves that do not stretch.

Who do you think will get to keep this fashion?

Update on Sybarite Cirque 
I received an apology from customer service for this happening to me, again. They are willing to refund completely if I want to return her. I've asked for a replacement hand. However, tomorrow, I will undress Cirque completely to make sure there is nothing else wrong with her. Also, I was surprised at the poor quality of her manicure. WTF? This is not a Barbie doll. What are they thinking by releasing dolls at this price with this type of poor detailing?
However, I thought I might want keep her when I was photographing her. She has a gorgeous sculpt that suits high contrast photography and her eyes are gorgeous. I'd like to try different wigs on her.
In this photo, she is still wrapped in cellophane - just in case you were thinking there are waves on her chest. I smoothed it out with PS.

Arrived: Purity Dasha - FR2 - W Club Exclusive Doll

The Dasha Purity dolls I ordered arrived today. As I opened the exterior box I caught a whiff of mildew. My heart sank. The smell was coming from the brown shipper boxes. I'm pretty sure they're using a different type of cardboard and it stinks. Luckily, the actual doll box and its contents (the doll herself) do not have the odor. I put the shippers outside. I'm not imagining it because I asked my husband, who can't smell anything, and he noticed it.

Here's a quick picture I took of the doll in the box. My signature is across her chest due to the fact that this picture is going on eBay.  A friend is also sending hers to me to sell.

I like her but not enough to keep both. I'd like to take down her hair...

IT products are few and far between these days as far as adding to my collection. I was really looking forward to this doll. The dress is quite nice. It looks well made and isn't as simple as it appears. There are a lot of details in the construction you don't see at first.

Better pictures will come soon.

If Nothing Changes, Nothing Changes

Excuse the inane title of this post. I'm in the confused zone about Integrity Toy's announcement made yesterday.  Here is a brief synopsis of what was issued:

The last major update of the FR body happened in 2006 and after careful consideration, the entire Integrity Toys team felt that another upgrade was long overdue. With this said, we are excited to announce that starting with the 2013 Convention Collection, the regular articulated Fashion Royalty body will effectively start to be retired and will be replaced by a newly refined version of the FR: Squared (FR2) body!

Since we love to mix things up, also starting with the convention collection, the core Fashion Royalty brand and its spin off FR: Squared will be unified as one.

All characters from FR and FR2 will show up in the new FR line and Monogram dolls are going to be discontinued. In 2014 there will be refreshed Nu.Face and later, Homme bodies.

The renovated FR2 body will be compatible with all FR2 clothing manufactured so far and some of the older garments as well, although not all (the Classic Tall Body torso shape and the FR2 torso shape are a little different).*

*At the convention prior to the introduction of the tall FR body, Jason Wu was asked about compatibility of the new body with existing clothing and shoes. He said they would be compatible. I heard him say that myself. It turned out to be untrue. 

Does a "newly revamped, more unified visual image" mean that everything will look even more like everything else?

Like every other company, Integrity Toys is in business to make money. Their refusal to offer replacement bodies is detestable. They are well aware that bodies have yellowed due to some chemical defect in their makeup. It is their fault for not correcting the issue with the factory. Collectors are willing to shell out money for replacement bodies and they are forcing them to either live with the ruined bodies or spend more money buying dolls just to get bodies.
What is their big fear regarding offering bodies for replacement? Tonner has been doing it for years. They're not out of business. It's no big deal.  It doesn't require fancy packaging or marketing.  Refusing to comply with collectors' needs is downright stupid and greedy. Their cheerleaders are touting their innovation and thanking them for each and every doll that appears and yet, they are not trying to make collectors happy. They are just trying to make money which reminds us again why they are in business.

The FR2 body was innovative for a 12" vinyl doll. They certainly charged enough for their innovation. I'm guessing they have found a way to lower the manufacturing costs. The hip joint can definitely be eliminated. Something will change.

I don't care about the elimination of the FR tall body or the Monogram line. I have enough. I've been selling off my extras.

Finally, they have come up with a new logo. I usually applaud Alain's designs but this one is very ordinary. The backwards F inside the box...does it mean the company is backward and forward looking at the same time? I can understand that.

New Logo

I love the crown logo. It made a lot of sense with the brand. It carried meaning. But just like everything else, it's disposable.

Original Fashion Royalty Logo

Retired Brands:
Avantguard, Monogram, FR2, Basic Edition, Hollywood Royalty, Valia, Monsieur Z

What was your reaction to this announcement?

Vanessa

Throughout the years of my blogging, I have written about how I love Fashion Royalty Vanessa. When the 'designers' over at IT started messing with her face, they caused problems for those of us who loved her original big-eyed, open mouth look. One doll that appeared at the end of the convention in 2011 was an FR2 Vanessa called Evermore. She was just a little more popular than her very unpopular gown, many of which can hardly be given away.
Her eyes were slitty and her hair was designed in an unbalanced, off center bird's nest swirl. Not terrible but very hard-looking and not how I want my Vanessas to look.

I took the nest out and cut it off in an impulsive moment. Fooling around produced this silly look. It was fun.

Her pointy head hung around in a drawer until a few months ago when I sent her to be rerooted. Then she hung around even longer waiting to be styled.

This was my first attempt at doing a wrapped pony tail. I used a lot of Got-To-Be-Glued hair product to hold the wrap in place. I do not understand how people use pins to hold hair in place. Pins are straight (usually) and the hair just flops around them. Obviously there is a lot about hair styling I have yet to learn.

Here's my gal now.

Much better.But I really should have her eyes repainted. Sigh.

2012 - It was a very good year.

In this final 2012 post, I look back over the last 12 months to find what I've actually kept out of the hordes of dolls and doll items that I purchased.

My doll collecting has changed dramatically over the course of the last two years. I started adding Sybarites and other 16" resin BJDs to my collection and continued thinning my 12" doll army. I've focused more on adding more clothing for all my dolls and filled in a few Tonner dolls, outfits and props that I've wanted. I scored 7 Cholo Ayuyao gowns and dresses. I've switched many of my favorite 'older' dolls to new FR2 bodies.

The biggest mistake purchases were impulse buys consisting of mostly Mattel products, not including Silkstones, although I was disappointed with many of the 2012 Silkies. The Monster Highs and several dressed vinyl Barbies were momentary goodies which added nothing of substance to my collection. I wasted a little money on outfits made by other collectors which did not live up to my expectations.  Ultimately, I was surprised at how many dolls I purchased and didn't keep or traded for something else.

Moving was time consuming and very disorienting and I'm just now starting to see a tiny crack of light at the end of a long tunnel.

Instead of posting 'normal' photos of my favorites, I have made Instagram pictures of some of them. Why? Because they're cool, it's fun and I'm bored with normal pictures. 

Sybarites and their fashions played a large part in my collection this year.
Vapore:

Domina:

Neurotica: (Redressed/Rewigged) Actually, she's not dressed at all. She is holding the shrug from a gorgeous SybMonde exclusive fashion, Rosa Gloriosa. Wig by Cheryl Wood. I added several of her wigs this year.

Domina modeling Rosa Gloriosa

Fidele's Fashion. No doll :-( just the outfit-for now.

Venetian modeled by Toxica.

Speed modeled by Talc. It's an older fashion but new for me.

JamieShow
JamieShow Alejandro and the Jamieshow outfit from the Prohibition Event in Canandaigua. He is my first and only male resin BJD and definitely a keeper.

Image by George Gonzalez

Tonner
Tonner's new Precarious sculpt and fashions designed for her were big hits IMO. I purchased two of the dolls and several of the outfits.

Swing Time Fashion (This is not Precarious modeling. It is a TDLM doll)

 

Precarious "Party Girl"

Neo Tokyo from the Freedom For Fashion line

Simplicity Antoinette

Ghost of Christmas Past an older Tonner Re-Imagination doll.

Ficon

"Leonie" (Redressed)

That's it for the big dolls. It feels like there should be more because all of my Tonner's were the first dolls to be packed along with my Gene Marshall dolls. They were packed for almost one year by the time I was able to get them back out of their boxes and into showcases. Many seem new to me all over again. I can stare at the dolls and love each and every one of them. Unloved dolls find new homes.

Integrity Toys' Fashion Royalty, FR2
This is a little more complicated to show as I added very few complete dolls this year from IT's lineups. I kept more fashions than dolls. I even purchased an older Vanessa NRFB so I could have an unaltered version.

Pale Fire Vanessa

I may have mentioned previously that there seems to be a disconnect in the design team. By that I mean that someone in there is a really bad designer and that would be the person that designed most of the recent convention's outfits. That was the worst collection I've ever seen.  However, during the year there were some gorgeous fashions worthy of the name Fashion Royalty. 

I liked both of the convention's FR2 dolls but Dasha's outfit was less than stellar. Elise was totally gorgeous.

Escapism Elise

Infallible Dasha redressed in VJohn

Of the other three FR2 dolls released in 2012, it was mainly the fashions that interested me.
Tatyana's red dress.

Nouveau Regime Tatyana

I finally broke down (like that's difficult) and purchased Opium Ayumi. Her outfit looks better in person than in pictures.

Opium Ayumi

My favorite fashions all year were Main Attitude Adele Makeda's suit

Integrity Toys' Photo

Your Kind of Model Kesenia's outfit

Modeled by re-rooted True  Royalty

Monogram Admiration's suit

Integrity Toys' Photo

 My favorite dressed Monogram was Allure

Integrity Toys' Photo

From the Victoire Roux line, I kept only the outfit from Place Vendome. Vanesssa looks stunning in it.

These outfits are keepers. Now if I could find the perfect male doll to wear them. These four photos are all Integrity Toys' images.

Silkstone "Walking Suit" was my favorite new Silkie.

Favorite new prop is Byers' Choice Caroler Display Accessory.

There is more but you are probably snoring already.

Companies have to stop going backwards with the quality and appearance of their products. When this happens, the perceived value drops and collectors will search out other items.

Progress in the New Doll Room

Unpacking and organizing the dolls has been more difficult than packing them. I did not keep all the dolls dressed. Some were only partly dressed and some nude. Anyway, it was time to record more progress and I have done so with a bunch of quick snaps taken during the hurricane yesterday afternoon. We're halfway there.

Here are a few more shots I took this afternoon after unpacking the rest of my FR and many of my Silkstones.

 The large showcase for my Tonner 16" dolls is elsewhere in the house.