Tatyana Alexandrova Nouveau Regime FR2

The new FR2 Tatyana arrived today. She photographs beautifully.

Her dress and purse are lovely and well made. The jewelry consists of earrings, bracelet and ring.

Her shoes are a total nightmare. It took me nearly 45 minutes to get them on properly and buckled. I only opened up the top two buckles. The buckle opening is barely large enough to get the strap through and the strap is fragile so you have to be very careful not to pull hard or it will break.
On top of that, the shoes are too wide and slip around no matter how tightly you close the straps. If that weren't enough, the soles are not made properly to contact the ground.

For $175. I need better. Here are unretouched photos of the doll's face and hair. Her bun can be smoothed down with some gel so that's not a big deal.

But look at the lip painting. The dark shadow line extends further on one side than the other.

She is a pretty doll but the quality control is not there. I am not going to ask for a replacement because I know the doll is sold out and even if they have replacements, it's liable to take months to get it. 

I would love to change her hairstyle. Rerooting would cost another $100. Not worth it.

2010 IFDC Convention Souvenir and Companion Doll

The two dolls presented on Saturday night to attendees are based on characters from Alice in Wonderland. They are being considered part of the Nu.Fantasy collection but will be outside of Japan.

The souvenir doll, "The Red Queen", uses the previously issued Fashion Royalty Tatyana face mold.  Her gown is red tafffeta with black tulle and beaded embellishment on the bodice. She is called "Checkmate." LE 300.

The companion doll called "Curiouser and Curiouser" is a take off on the Alice character. She uses the Gavin Dynamite Girl sculpt.

For those of us who are used to expecting Fashion Royalty dolls, the landscape has changed. The upcoming "Dark Romance" convention is not called the Jason Wu Event/Convention; it's the Integrity Toys Convention with Jason Wu. It's interesting to watch as the company changes.

Bad Mood Alert

The verdict is in. Crusty, thick, dried and flaky hair goop with net marks is out. Both Moods dolls, Body Double and Blonde Ambition Veronique, have dismayed collectors with the amount of dried gel on their hair and residue on their faces. Body Double's curls are literally pasted to the sides of her face with the stuff. It doesn't wash out easily. Apparently when the factory workers 'set' the hair they use a hair net to hold it in place. Unfortunately the marks from the net remain as little lines of goop dry in a criss-cross pattern. The same thing happened on Josephine Baker and the convention doll, Tatyana. Josephine was so bad that there was lint stuck to her hair and everywhere else on her face. In the picture of Tatyana below, there are still some lines of goop remaining after I tried to flick them away with a fine needle.




There is a Thai woman on eBay, (parawatee2008), who creates intricate hairstyles in this mode. She uses something that leaves the hair shiny and beautiful. If she can do it, why can't Integrity?

Moving on to the clothing packs...
The Starry Night Moods Wardrobe which consists of a gown, hat, fur, shoes, gloves and jewelry has one major defect. The stitching on the front of the gown puckered the fabric. It shows up on all pictures of the gown I've seen. I think it was an unfortunate choice of fabric because the styling of the gown is lovely. The back with it's draped neckline and strands of rhinestones is just fabulous. The fur is sumptuous and in classic Wu fashion, the tails are attached with strands of beads. I love it. The hat is very nice and the rest of the fashion is fine. It's interesting how the fabric doesn't pucker on the back of the gown. One wonders if two different people made the gowns.


The French Dressing Deluxe Accessory Pack consists of a coat with a charming faux Persion lamb collar, a straw cloche, black tights, vinyl gloves, jewelry and shoes.
I headed straight for the wonderful wine colored gloves as I thought they were a wonderful looking accessory. Well, I want to know what type of doll these were made for. I could not get them on the doll even after attempting to stretch them. The coat looks great in the promos and terrible on the doll. One side of the collar hangs lower than the other. This was a poor execution of a good idea. I love the hat and after I removed the cheesy attachment and put a pin on it, it looks great.
The black tights are at least 1" too long and do not fit into the black shoes. What a waste.
In the photo below of Fierce Subject Kyori, she is wearing the cloche with the jeweled item from the FAO Tatyana giftset. The rest of her clothes are items from the 2008 convention.

Finally there is the Luxe Finish Accessory Set. Everything in this set is delightful. I love the purse and the fur. In the photo below of Body Double Veronique, she is wearing a Monique wig, the dress from a previous Fashion Royalty doll and the fur and jewelry from this set.



This were the first W Club exclusives of 2008. Why did they arrive mid-December? Something is wrong down in Baltimore. It's unfortunate because Jason is fabulously talented and when his designs aren't executed properly, it reflects on him.

My recommendations:
Get the dolls and change their hair. These are the last Veroniques with this facial mold. I think that's really sad because Vero is gorgeous. She is one of the two original characters and will be getting a new face. Body Double is the only tan Vero produced to date. The NRFB dolls seem to be going for $125. and nude for $100. Their original price was $84.
Most of these items are being sold on eBay for reasonable prices but hang in there because the price will drop on the clothing items.

Swept By The Moods of Paris: Tatyana Alexandrova

"I left Moscow with one goal in mind: to conquer Paris and break it with my iron will. I was wrong, one does not conquer the City of Lights; Paris conquers the heart at first sight."

Above is the text from the story card that accompanies the Paris J'Adore Tatyana Gift Set. This is only the second Tatyana. The first was the 2008 Wu Convention doll about whom I wrote previously:
terrigoldphoto.blogspot.com/2008/10/tatyana-new-fashion-royalty-character.html

This fabulous set comes with the doll, a long lace gown, a long brocade coat embellished with rhinestones, faux fur and a tiny frog closure, a short brocade dress embellished with beads and a faux fur hem, a head piece, earrings, ring, bracelet, necklace, panties, hosiery, shoes and boots. If you like the sculpt you will like this set. The fabrics are very rich and the clothing is elegant and finely constructed. There are many pieces of great jewelry (I love that) and varied looks can be created from these wardrobe items and the coming Moods W Club collection.

The one defect that has popped up several times this past year is the uneven sole/heel combination of the shoes and boots. The heels are too high and the doll cannot stand with her heel and ball of foot planted on the ground. Apparently they tried to remedy this problem on the shoes by adding an extra piece of sole.

It is not enough. If the doll were to stand in the shoes or boots with the sole and heel touching the ground, she would tilt forward. So...please, Mr. Newsum, tell the factory to get on this and re-engineer the height of the heels. We don't want our dolls falling on their faces, do we?

Jason must love this character to have elevated her so fast - first a convention doll and then an FAO exclusive giftset!

Many collectors were surprised and others dismayed at the length of Tatyana's hair. I think it would serve well used as an extension if one were to cut it off.

The doll modeling the short dress is She Means Business Veronique whose hair was restyled by Parawatee of Thailand. The fur stole is not part of this set.

Still available at FAO Schwarz website for $250. Limited Edition of 300. Item #: 916556.
Right now shipping is free on orders over $120. Last week there was a site wide sale of 20% off which brought the price down to $200. Don't forget that FAO now charges tax in many states than they previously did due to the fact that they have boutiques in Macys stores. As far as giftsets go, this is a decent price for what you get. It's still a lot of money to spend right before the holidays. But if you can swing it and you like Tatyana, I recommend this purchase.

On the CDCMHS (Compulsive Doll Collector Must-Have Scale) this scores a 7—8.

Tatyana - New Fashion Royalty Character

I look up everything on Wikipedia.

Tatyana is a Slavic female name derived from the Roman name Tatianus, which was derived from the Roman clan name Tatius. Saint Tatiana is considered a patron saint of students and Tatiana Day is now an official school holiday for students in Russia. There was a Princess Tatiana Konstantinovna of Russia (right) and her distant cousin Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna of Russia. (below)

I might also add that Tatiana is the name of a Siberian tiger who bit a zookeeper's arm severely and about one year later, after an escape from the tiger grotto, killed one patron who had been taunting the tiger and injured two others. The tiger was killed by police.

Fortunately none of these pictures looks in any way like the doll we received on the last night of the 2008 Jason Wu Convention, although the Princess looks to have been quite beautiful. Our Tatyana has pale porcelain-looking 'skin' and is wearing an unusual dress and hat as you can see in my photos.

The dress is constructed meticulously and fits perfectly. The shoes echo the royal blue and black of the garment. She sports a large faceted blue rhinestone ring which I love and her earrings and bracelet match except fot the big plastic drop hanging from the earring. That is the only sour note in the entire ensemble. Why the big blue plastic blob when the rest of the jewelry is metal and rhinestones?
The hat sits well atop her updo. It is a stunning hat but I need a faux fur wrap to match, perhaps with little fox heads and tails. That would be so fun.
Today I changed her outfit. I took some time holding garments up to her face to find a color that would not make her look washed out. Here are the results:

Tatyana is wearing a gown made by a Thai dressmaker and Agnes' Drama Behind the Drama faux fur coat. I think she is staying.

Counting My Blessings

I don't want to get all mushy here on a public blog but.....with the headlines being what they are and knowing that thousands have lost homes to foreclosure and thousands have lost jobs due to the tragic losses in business and the stock market decline, I am so blessed to have been able to attend an amazing function like the Wu Convention. It's pretty hard to believe that a few hundred of us got together to celebrate our love for these little vinyl objects of art while the world's economic markets are in economic chaos and decline. We are well fed (sort of), well-dressed and funded to the degree that we could spend at least $2,000 for a four day event and a few dolls!

There are several people trashing the convention collection on the doll boards. These are people who did not (could not?) attend. My suggestion to them is to move on to another hobby. Envy in any form is unattractive. End of rant.

My booty from this convention exceeded my every expectation. My Mom used to tell me not to 'brag' or someone would give me the 'evil eye.' LOL. But just in case the evil eye is on it's way to me I am protected by mirrors and if you send me the evil eye it is reflected back at you. Now that you all think I am completely crazed, I will proceed to say that hubby and I were lucky enough to be able to purchase every centerpiece! I had all my dolls shipped home and they are not here yet. Boo hoo. I did take my raffle win home. I won the 2008 Gene Convention doll, Distant Venus. I put all my tickets in her box and got lucky. (Sorry, Nise.)

Distant Venus

Since I don't have my own dolls to photograph yet, I am posting the official Integrity Toy's photos of the centerpiece and convention dolls here.

Fine Jewel Eugenia

Josephine Baker

Truce of the Matter Kyori Sato Giftset (Unknown Photographer)

"Shirred, Not Shaken Vanessa"

Tatyana Alexandrova Convention Doll