The Best and The Rest: My Collection 2018

It goes without saying that life has a way with our hobby for which we don't always plan. I started out the year recovering from bilateral knee replacement surgery. Going up and down the staircases in my house was not my favorite activity. Then, somewhere around July, we were going to move. The first thing I packed was my dolls. Needless to say, we did not move so I had to unpack and I'm not quite done. I made the difficult decision to sell off my large Tiny Kitty collection. Tiny Kitty dolls were the ones that brought me to the 16" Tonner dolls and from there...well, you know how it goes. I must admit that this is not the first time I have begun to sell my TKs. This time I'm determined as there is no room and I don't keep dolls in boxes.
It's time to review what I've added to my doll collection during 2018.

The Best

An interesting turn of events was my buying several of Integrity Toy's 12" dolls.  I had cut back almost entirely for quite a while but IT really brought it to Fashion Royalty this past year.

Eugenia Modernist was a 2018 W Club Membership Registration Upgrade Doll. This doll is stunning with her dark skin tone and sleek light blue mini dress with matching round handbag. Her open-toed silver thigh-high boots and silver accessories made her a perfect doll to add to the tribe.

I wasn't going to go for her but every time I looked at her picture, I loved her more and more: 

Elise Jolie "Perfume Blond" W Club 10th Anniversary by Jason Wu Doll.  She was quite pricey as she came with a full-sized bottle of Jason Wu perfume which I don't particularly care for. I tried it at a department store. She also comes with a miniature of the perfume bottle which I love. Her pastel peach, sparkle-embellished gown is one of Jason's creations as well. I was able to sell the real perfume and so brought the total down somewhat.

Isha Kalpana Narayan "Divinity" W Club Doll was irresistible to me because of all her jewelry accessories and the pretty style of her lace and tulle dress. I think the henna designs on her forearms and hands are a beautiful accent.

"Hot To The Touch" Bellamy Blue is an Industry Line doll. I don't collect guy dolls any longer (or so I say) but when I saw this one's fashions, I caved.  I'm still on the fence about keeping him and that's why I don't have a free-standing photo of him.

Victoire Roux's "Divine Evening" fashion was added. It fits my Monogram dolls perfectly and it's not black.

It's close to impossible for me to choose the best of Kingdom Doll 2018. I love all of them.  I can't choose a favorite. The Seren giftset, The Eden Atelier doll and Vanbrugh are all gorgeous.  Seren came with several outfits and many accessories and props. Eden's gown and wig are truly miniature works of art. Vanbrugh is a classic stunner. She looks amazing in every wig and every style I put on her.

Seren

Eden

Vanbrugh

The Kingdom Doll Convention Dolls all had the newly redesigned body. Like most conventions, there is a souvenir doll and often an optional companion doll. In Scotland, our souvenir doll was Rosalind "The Red Queen." She has dimples and is so cute.

There were two companion dolls. Attendees had to decide in advance, without seeing her,  if they wanted the white or the black. We were told that their outfits were the same but their effect would be very different. Normally I'd go with black but I decided to let fate decide for me as I knew both would be fabulous. The black sold out and I am happy to say that I was thrilled with Raphaella, The White Queen. This gal has freckles and a very youthful vibe. That was unexpected.

This gorgeous doll was a surprise gift from Kingdom Doll to the attendees. Her name is Realm.

Another Kingdom Doll I added to my collection prior to the convention last year was Electra. In this photo, my skeleton is playing with her. She is about to lose her patience. Electra was the first doll released with the new body.

Kingdom Dolls are my favorite dolls.

Fashions from other sources deserve special mention in my "Best of" category.  I purchased 7 outfits from Aquatalis, a company in Vietnam you can find on Etsy. Two haven't arrived yet. of the other 5, one stands out. They call it Chandos. It is embroidered all over with flowers and leaves. Nimue models.

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This one hurts to write about because she was not an inexpensive doll and I had very high expectations of this company. The doll is Dominion Doll's new 12" creation, Aura.  Before I buy another, I will make sure the following has been taken care of.
First of all, her earring holes are too small for any of my earrings (and I have hundreds of pairs) to fit. It's a fairly minor issue if I wanted to get out my jeweler's drill and fix it but do I? I'm not about to send her back to Russia for such a minor issue.
The major issue is that her ankles do not support the weight of her upper body. I recall having this issue with the early Numina dolls. The joints are always going their own way when I try posing her standing normally and this is unacceptable. I'm going to have to wire them.

However, she is gorgeous but she does need better engineering. Ease of posing a doll is very, very important to me.

I have spoken with a collector friend and apparently, her Dominion doll does not have this issue. Hmmm.

I'm going to try her in a lighter-weight fashion such as slacks or simple sheaths. That could make a difference. But still...

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The Rest

I have already written about how disappointed I was with the Outlander Dolls, Jamie and Claire Fraser. Claire was one of the most unattractive dolls that Tonner has ever produced IMO.  I gave that doll a lot of chances and nothing made her look good. She did not look at all like the actress who plays the role of Claire. Not a wee bit. The face and body of this doll are huge. Her clothes and shoes are way too large for Tyler or for any other doll I own. Both had to go.   

 

As far as Jamie, he has an attractive sculpt. The jury is out on whether or not he looks like the TV Jamie. His hair came in a dorky style. I washed and restyled it, sold his outfit and redressed him. Not great but he's staying.

 

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All in all, it was a very good year. I love my collection and enjoy gazing at each doll. My dolls live a great fantasy life with the finest fashions, jewelry, hairdos and accessories. They don't get wrinkles, gain weight or get sick. They always look wonderful and they get to have things like tiny liquor bottles filled with real Scottish whisky!

Metrodolls Event "A Novel Romance" Benefiting The Guide Dog Foundation for the Blind

It's not an easy choice to decide what to talk about first, the charity or the luncheon. So I'll reference the charity now.

The Guide Dog Foundation for the Blind

Mrs. Linda Newton and her husband came to the event with Marchon, Linda's guide dog. I asked and was permitted to interact with Marchon. I got down to the dog's level and put my face near her. She gently sniffed my face all around from ear to ear and then I kissed her on the head. I felt like crying for some reason. She was so gentle and I felt the love flowing from her - or was it me? Doesn't matter. It was a wonderful experience.
Linda addressed the attendees with a talk about her own experiences as a blind person and with guide dogs. Marchon is her fourth. She teaches at the Foundation. In addition, Linda and her charming, sighted husband, have raised four sons! Wow. We were all moved by this delightful and powerful woman.

The Convention Doll
A Novel Romance refers to the Outlander series of books by Diana Gabaldon. If you haven't read the books, put aside a few months and dig in. You won't be sorry.
The souvenir doll is the first from Robert Tonner of his new Outlander line. She is "Garden Encounter Claire."
In the book, Claire and Jamie are in Paris visiting Versailles. Claire runs into her most hated foe, Captain Randall.

With Claire in this first photo above is her beloved Jamie. 

You can see how not thrilled she is in the next photo. 

Here is Robert Tonner's interpretation of the fashion and the character. I think he got the fashion perfectly; her face, not so much. I do hope it's possible to produce a better look for Claire as she is not as plain as the doll looks. 

The Centerpiece Doll's look was taken from a gown worn by a character in Tolstoy's Anna Karenina.
Miriam Shephard O'Mahoney designed and created the gorgeous gowns.

The Auction Merchandise:
Beautiful and varied dolls, fashions, props and accessories were donated to Metrodolls for the benefit of the charity. There were 25 items for the open auction.
A good deal of money was donated outside of these items. Including other donations, the total is about $22,000. That is fantastic.

Here is the list and the amount that was raised by each item.

Here are most of the photos, not necessarily in the order as printed above. 

My absolute favorites were:

#4 A OOAK Mods Doll in a fashion designed and created by Tom Courtney. 

#7 Bashette's Day Bed with Accessories. I liked it so much, I bid and won it. 

#17 Kingdom Doll Helen in a Monaeglow gown. 

#12 Kadira. 

#19 Pidgin Doll. Amazing! 

I would have wanted to go home with #16 Michael Giunta's "Midas Touch" and #24 YumYum Couture's "Innocence." 

You can click on each photo to enlarge.

There were silent auctions (purple bags) and helper raffles (pink bags.) I was not lucky. :-(

Another wall was lined with dealers' goods for sale. Everything was a feast for the eyes!

Jeff Lega offered a mix of vintage and modern dolls from Lynn Fenstermacher's collection.

Sandra Stillwell displayed her beautiful products which caused a lot of mouth-watering gazing.

Could you just die?

Michelle Hodge accompanied Tonner's new Annora and a few other dolls.

 Jackie Cranston was selling fashions.

No event would be complete without Facet's Boutique by Marcia.

Ed Ferris displayed dolls to sell.

Finally, Metrodolls itself had a sales table. Manning it and looking very manly in his formal kilt uniform, was Eddie Haley.

Robert Tonner gave a talk and showed slides depicting his new method of designing dolls on the computer. I always look forward to and enjoy his talks. There have been a few times I heard the same talk more than once and still laughed at his jokes.

More photos for your viewing pleasure. The first photo was taken by someone other than myself.

Bryan Marsee, Eddie Haley and Michael Giunta

Marcia Friend and Bryan Marsee

Me with a terrible haircut and the ever handsome, Robert Tonner.

Some table mates with assorted characters in the background.

Len's Doll is dressed in period-appropriate garb.

A table gift from Metrodolls.

Every attendee also received a fashion inspired by Jane Austen's "Regency Park." You can see this outfit and read Marcia's run-down on Metrodoll's blog.