Kingdom Doll's New Body Debut

Just released, the Electra Gift Set doll features a totally redesigned body. I took several photos of a doll with the prior body to compare it to the new one.
Eden is on the left; Electra is on the right. Their resin tones are different. Electra is fractionally taller.
Note that the low waist joint is gone. I don't miss it at all. It helps the nude body look more attractive.
The legs are more modeled. See the thighs, knees and calves. They're more shapely.
The arms, too, are more defined and toned, if resin can be toned.  Her neck looks a bit longer but I did not measure it.
Looking at the doll from the back, you can see the upper spine articulated on the surface of the resin and her rear end looks so much better without the joint in the way.

The new body is very easy to pose. The joints hold their position quite well.

Personally, I have a problem with her feet having been made so much larger. Although it is ultra hi-fashion, I have a vast collection of shoes, including Sybarite ultra hi-arch heels and not a single pair fits Electra. Not only is the foot's arch more vertical, the new foot is very wide. For selfish reasons, I'd like the foot to be more compatible with some of my existing collection of Kingdom Doll and other shoes. We may need to petition the designers for replacement feet or surrender and buy an entire new wardrobe of shoes. Hopefully we'll be given several pairs of shoes as gifts at the convention. We've been told that new shoes will soon be offered for sale. Resistance may be futile.

 The foot is sculpted beautifully with realistic wrinkling at the back of the heel and the toe bend.

Let's not go here:

A few more shots of Electra.

The gift set itself came with two outfits. One was a bright pink gown with a silver ribbon-like wrap tie and glitter covered silver pumps. You can find a picture of that gown in a prior post.  The other outfit was a black pant suit in the same style as the pant suit from Sinful. A very cute silver shoulder bag, silvery bead necklace and ten skinny bangles were the other fashion accessories.
This set did not come with an additional pair of hands which was very surprising.

________________

Earlier clothing will still fit the new body.

The fun stuff was the contents of her briefcase:
Three passports, each containing her photo,
Three airline tickets,
One hefty gold bar,
Pistol,
Classified job files in a folder with a heavy envelope to hold it all,
Assorted rhinestone diamonds,
Bound stack of $100 bills,
Cigar.

I'm quoting here: "Electra stars in '00 Fabulous' the new series of dolls which feature a character driven interwoven storyline"
Over the years, out of several hundred dolls, I've created back stories for only four of my 16" Tonner dolls. Even the ones meant to represent celebrities were just dolls. Loads of collectors like to make up stories for their dolls and this is perfect for them.  My Electra fits in with her sister Kingdom Dolls.
I admit that I talk to them on occasion and say hello if I've been away for a while. When I'm dressing them, I'll tell them they look great - stuff like that. That's as far as the anthropomorphism goes around here.
I do believe that there is power in play as Robert Tonner says.  I don't think about problems when I play with my dolls. The time just goes by peacefully - unless something doesn't fit and then I get pissed.

_______

This is the beautiful wig she came with.

Beautiful with or without a wig. Also, see the foot standing in the silver pumps.
Clothes Electra is wearing in this photo are not KD.

Jamieshow Convention "East Meets West"

I attended a fun, three day event in Chicago at the Jamieshow/Gene Convention this past weekend.

Although I don't actually collect JS or Gene any longer, I wanted to spend time with friends and go back to Chicago which I loved the first time I was there. 

I'll describe the worst part of the trip first.

You may agree that flying and airports are not fun anymore. The plane rides were smooth and thankfully uneventful. In spite of the size of the seat, it's enough room for me as I always get an aisle seat and pay for the extra inch or two of leg room up front when I buy my ticket. And I am small.

Philadelphia airport is not too bad. They seem to have done a lot of modernizing. But American Airlines does this thing called priority boarding. Either you have a first class ticket or you pay to board first. No to both. So I was in group 6 out of 9 in spite of the fact that my seat was in row 8. Everybody's in such a hurry to get on the plane to stuff up the overhead bins with items they're not supposed to put there. I saw child-sized carry-ons taking up the room of an adult sized carry-on. Those items are supposed to be placed under the seats. Luckily no one was dragged off the plane broken and bleeding.  

Chicago's O'Hare is a real nightmare. It reminds me of what the traffic pattern in India looks like. You can't see more than a few feet ahead of you when you're as short as I am. The human mass of which I was part, was directed to walk an alternative route to baggage claim. (I racked up a load of steps that day on my Fitbit.)  Some jerk left a vehicle unattended outside the terminal and officials shut down an entire area, diverting all traffic elsewhere. I had no idea how to get to the shuttle. While waiting for someone to tell me how to get there, the emergency was lifted and the shuttles were once again allowed to enter the area. Goody.

Returning to Philadelphia was a bucket of fun, too. For some reason the x-ray machine detected something in my left hip area. I have no implants, neither did I have coins or a metal belt on my person. So along comes a lady with her blue plastic feel-your-junk gloves. However, she was very professional and nice and I was not uncomfortable. 

To make up for that,  O'Hare is a gigantic food court. The choices are dizzying. I had the most tasty deep dish cheesy pizza ever. Score 1 point for Mr. Edward Henry "Butch" O'Hare.

I spent Thursday walking and shopping. My favorite shop in Chicago is the Museum of Contemporary Art Store. You MUST go there. I can spend 2 hours browsing, touching and deciding what to buy. Their products range from the sublime to the ridiculous and everywhere in between.  I have provided a link to their store but the shop has more than they have listed and is much more fun.

A cocktail party was held on Friday evening accompanied by a band with a collection preview afterward. 

On Saturday there was a buffet breakfast followed by two workshops - shoe making by Juli Riedel and wig cap styling by Joseph Novak. After a short break, Pat Henry gave a talk accompanied by a slide show on the basics of photography. She included tips on taking better iPhone photos along with suggestions for photo editing apps.

The salesroom opened at 2:00 PM. It was very busy with lines snaking through an adjoining room for several hours. The companion dolls such as Trent created quite a stir as did Madra. 

Saturday evening was the main dinner at which Mel Odom gave a talk. He is always entertaining. We were gifted with a set of flat feet for Jamieshow gals and some other little goodies.

Sunday morning was the farewell breakfast buffet. 

Here are my mostly unedited (iPhone) photos from the event. I will let them speak for themselves. You can click to enlarge.

The Dolls:

 Six New Basic Dolls. Everyone loved the Anna Wintour type. 

I want the wig cap Lee is wearing for my Alejandro.

 Ten New Fashions

Correction: There were 12 new outfits. Kay Stemnock sent the additional photo above, right.

 Gene

 Trent- San  (I added the San.)

Ling Lang

The gorgeous convention souvenir doll Luna Li.

 Madra

Also offered in the shop were loads of wig caps, posing hands, doll stands and a very few dolls from last year's convention. 

Attendees:

Workshop kibbitzers. This was the most fun of the weekend.

Out of the Hotel

Great architecture old and new and gazillions of shops.  I have to admit that I'm spoiled living in Pennsylvania. We have no sales tax on clothing and I live less than 30 minutes from the largest mall in the eastern US. As my real estate agent says, "Shopping is a sport here."

 Above: Outside the Lego and American Girl stores.

Old Firehouse

 The new American Girl hotel accessory, front and back.

Great view from my window looking north on Michigan Ave to the Lake.

The best part of the event for me was sharing with friends old and new. I enjoy conventions of this size as one can really talk to everyone. The dolls were so beautiful that I just had to buy one and that was Madra. She is waiting (patiently) for a photo shoot in my studio.