January - A Slippery Slope for Collectors

With IDEX and New York Toy Fair just around the corner, new doll lines are set to debut. Dealers and manufacturers are anxious to make room for the new products and the sales abound. Collectors are "winter cleaning" their collections and offering up some great stuff. What's a helpless collector to do?  Here's a rundown (read: admission) of my January activities so far:

FR16 Spring Kissed (nude) It hasn't arrived yet but my motivation was that I would use the body for an older Avantguard and sell this giant Poppy face.
FR2 Dominique Makeda Impossibly Beautiful. It was on sale for $50 less than the original retail. I wanted her body and outfit. Sadly, very few want her head so I will probably be stuck with it. Pictures follow.
Superfrock Testament Fashion - Second time around. I sold my first before I ever had Sybarite dolls.
Superdoll iBean sunglasses
Sybarite Blade pantsuit and miscellaneous accessories.
Superfrock Pet Carrier from Automatic
Ponytail wig from Cheryl Wood.
Two reroots and a custom jacket.
Monster High Cleo de Nile’s Vanity and a lot of Monster High Odds and Ends: Although these are adorable, I think this has cured me from buying any more MH stuff. What a waste!
W Club Memberships: We'll see. I did not order any of the upgrade dolls as I didn't care for them.
Perfectly Purple Poppy: This was a pre-order that was delayed for about 8 months.
Theatre de la Mode ROYALE #82: Another  delayed pre-order.
Tonner Deluxe Fashion Closet: A great bargain.
And then there are the dogs. Sigh. 

Meet Krypto.

 This is a Tonner product and was made to accompany his Superman figure from several years ago. Sadly he is stained from the red cape but I may have him painted eventually. Why did I buy this? I loved the original Superman comics and Krypto was such a great dog. January fever got me so Krypto moved in.
If that weren't enough...

Obitsu makes these jointed dogs and in a January mindset, $25. each seemed like a good idea. I bought a white one as well but I can't find it and it's not even out of it's box. Sigh, again.

No she's not a dog. Miami Glow Vanessa was the recipient of Dominique's body and fashion. I like the gown now. There were some problems with the product, however. The beautiful silk (?) gown was stitched to the box and even with ultra careful removal, thread holes remain. I even steamed the fabric to no avail. Sad. It's really a beautifully designed and carefully constructed garment. The body itself is the first FR2 body I have received that was wobbly. There is a huge space at the thigh joint which allows the legs to swing loosely. Going backward? My temporary fix is to put tape around the joint (not inside) to hold it. The seams on this body are not finished nicely. She's got stripes on her arms and neck and probably on her legs, too, where the seams are joined.  I don't know if I will seek a replacement body.

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I was ill all week and I thought I'd feel better if I deboxed something. I am a deboxer but occasionally I will get a Mattel product and put it somewhere without opening it. Too bad I was able to find this one - the Grace Kelly Trousseau. This has to be one of the least attractive of all modern Mattel sculpts. Not only is it unattractive, they forgot the matte finish. 

The second outfit is a very nice navy sheath. Unfortunately the coat is not made properly. The empire seam which should be under the bust, hits almost at the largest part of the but. It was cut too short for a silkstone body. There is a big white hat but it never made it into the pictures. It's probably hiding with the white Obitsu dog somewhere.

Needless to say, deboxing this set did not make me feel better. 

Did you all have a good January (so far?)

Mattel Barbie at NY Toyfair 2011 by Michael Williams

Here is a link to Michael William's fabulous photos from 2011 NY Toyfair's Mattel Displays.

Photo By Michael Williams/mawphoto.com

Click here for more.

Tonner Pre-Toy Fair Release

 I'm just going to highlight just a few of the new releases. Stranger characters first.

Kermit The Frog - Wild Frogs (LE500) Price $69.99

He's cute, if you like frogs. I love the jacket. Kermit is 11" tall and is good friends with Miss Piggy.  ;-)

Futterwacken (LE300) Price $249.99

If I could rent this doll for a week, I'd do it. That's how I am with outrageous character dolls. I like them for a short period of time and then they get tiring. There's no point to redressing because their fashions and make up are what makes them special. I absolutely love the costume on this doll as I loved Tarrant, The Mad Hatter's costume previously.
Johnny Depp  head sculpt, 17" Mat O'Neill body, green eyes with red wigged hair, lily skintone.

Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dee (LE 100) $374. Set

These characters from Alice in Wonderland are resin. Outfits are removable but shoes and socks are painted. They have 5 points of articulation.
I always thought their names were Tweedle Dee Dee and Tweedle Dee Dum.
They were very funny in the movie and for an Alice fan, they will be an enchanting addition to a collection. They are cute.

2011 Cami Wigged Basic (LE500) Price $109.99

 This Cami comes with two wigs. The other one :

 The best thing about her is the inset eyes. That's a new feature - besides the fact that she and her sister releases do not have crimped hair. Yay. The other new Camis do not have inset eyes.

Damon Salvatore (LE1000) Price $169.99

 Thud! This guy is hot. He represents a character from the Vampire Diaries.
Damon has the 17" Matt O'Neill body, blue eyes and brunette wigged hair. Wigged hair on a male doll is, to me, always superior as it lays better.

James Collins (LE 500)

17" Matt O'Neill™ Body; Brown Eyes, Raven Hair, Tan Skintone

Price $ 189.99

James Collins is so vanilla compared to Damon and reminds me of Lord Asriel from the Golden Compass - at least his suit does.  He should have been given a wig, too.

Daniel Craig is so hot.

You can see the rest at www.tonerdoll.com.
Don't forget, there will be more on February 11, 2011.

Integrity Toys 2010 Line to Debut March 6

On Saturday, March 6, 2010, an on-line unveiling of many of the Integrity Toys' products will take place. As far as I know, only the members of the W Club were invited to attend. We pre-registered and were given a link for entry. The event will use an internet conference format which is live with available interaction from attendees.
It should be very interesting.

I will be permitted to post the images on the following Sunday morning so stay tuned.

The concept of an exclusive club is not an original one. Mattel does it. Tonner did it. Madame Alexander has one and there are others. These other companies also promote their products at toy fairs. Non-Integrity Toys collectors I met at IDEX have questioned me as to why IT does not do so. One person who shall remain nameless and who is now a dealer told me that she was put off when she called to get some information. Her calls were never returned. I have no idea what the situation was at the time.
I think it's about money. It costs a great deal to participate in a real toy fair event: renting the exhibit space, transporting the reps and the merchandise, accomodations and food, display equipment...ALOT of $$$.
The main goal of toy fair is for dealers to see the goods and to place orders. Apparently Integrity Toys has dealers camped out on their back porch clamoring to carry their product. Excitement over the dolls is generated through a combination of marketing to W Club members and then the members themselves go wild.
Having a well-known designer helps to raise the prices and the elan.

Fourth Annual Integrity Toys W Club "Toy Fair" Event

We arrived at the W Hotel in Manhattan shortly before the scheduled opening of the Integrity Toy's traveling store. I was expecting lots of deals and goodies however we were presented with very little in the way of variety or bargains. A few items from the Gene Marshall line were reduced. There were dolls that didn't sell well in the retail market for sale at retail. Phase I of the AvantGuard dolls were available in limited quantities. Eclectic sold out fast. I wanted her fashion so I purchased one and sold the nude doll to another collector. I also picked up the Josephine Baker event doll called "La Joie de Paris." This is a Limited Edition of 350 dolls. At $120. this gal was no bargain but she looked beautiful in her futuristic blue and silver gown with the silver gauntlets and I couldn't resist. I really like the packaging of the Hollywood Royalty dolls with their window boxes and the featured doll's signature on the front of the box.

Josephine Baker photo courtesy of Integrity Toys

We sat and chatted and greeted eachother in the lovely seating area outside of the main event room until it was time to go in to dinner. The space was very large with tables set for the meal on one side of the room and the displays featuring the new lines on the other side.

On each table there were two dolls dressed similarly with the same color hair. One was a Luchia and the other was a Zita. At each place setting there was a placecard and a gift of an AvantGuard wig and a pair of shoes.

The food was very good. We had the steak. The service was excellent. Everyone I asked said they'd love to have a convention right there in Manhattan.

Brief remarks were made by Carol Roth,


Mel Odom,Jason Wu and Percy Newsome. Jason began his greeting by saying, "A few things have happened since we last met." We all laughed.

We browsed the collections during dinner. My comments on the dolls will be in posts to follow.

Prior to dessert, those who had won the opportunity to purchase the centerpiece dolls were notified and asked to go to the salesroom to pay for and pick up their dolls.

From 9:00PM to 10:00 PM a free cocktail party was held in the same room as the displays. The area of the dining room was partially partitioned off so that those who lingered over coffee could hang out. There were many areas outside of the main room to gather, chat and sit comfortably.

Overall, it was a fun mini-convention. The atmosphere was 100% superior to that of the FAO events of the previous two years. And it did not snow!

Some of our tablemates:




Marg of MFD and Luanne: