My First Doll Club Meeting; Dealers vs. Manufacturers; Eclectic Doll World

About 1-1/4  hours into the drive, I was tempted to turn around and go back home. I left my house at 5 PM for the 41 mile trip to Philadelphia. Under 'normal' circumstances, the drive takes 50 minutes. Last night the traffic and weather were anything but normal. But I forged ahead, sometimes at 5 miles per hour and sometimes at 25 mph, finally arriving at my destination after 7 PM.  Philadelphia is a beautiful and interesting city seen through my touristy eyes as I barely know it. Every time I see the facade of the art museum or the clock tower in Center City, I am enthralled. Anyway, next time I will head into the city in the afternoon, not during rush hour in a storm. Duh.

Happily Ever After is one of the last remaining brick and mortar doll stores anywhere. It is tucked into a charming part of Philly which (I believe) is part of Antique Row.  Like so many other small businesses they have suffered from the massive movement to buying on-line. Ed, the owner, told me that there were once quite a few doll and toy stores in the area. Another devastating blow is being dealt to these stores by those manufacturers who are now selling directly to collectors, in some cases selling goods at the same price the dealers would be paying. For example, yesterday Tonner Doll offered some amazing deals on Basic Cami dolls. A collector could purchase a Cami for about $45. with free shipping. If that is what a doll dealer pays for the doll, how can they possibly sell it to a collector and hope to make money?

It is a serious conflict of interest. Why would you compete with your dealers? As a collector who shops for the best prices, I'm going to avoid a dealer who is selling a doll for more than I have to pay elsewhere. I may also wait to buy a product if I see that the price always drops. No one runs a business solely to have fun. Businesses exist to make money. I see both sides of the issue. Of course the collector benefits from lower prices but we lose dealers. How many of us have doll stores near home where we can go and see the dolls in person? Very few.

Back to the club meeting...
The theme was the Swinging 60's. We were asked to bring a doll that was either manufactured during that period of time or one that was dressed in an appropriate fashion. I brought a Somers and Field Willow doll called GoGo.

I have a neat collection of these Mod British Birds but they are all in boxes as I'm planning to sell them. I've been planning this for a few years but every time I look at them, I find a reason to put them back and wait. At least one of the girls got out of her box last night.

The presenter dressed as a hippie and also brought along a load of dolls manufactured in the 1960's, most of which I had never heard of before.

We ate pizza and cheesecake and had Show and Tell. That was fun.

Chew and Tell

 I took only a few photos as I was more interested in listening. There were many more (and larger) dolls presented.

A point I want to emphasize is the value of seeing the broader picture of the doll world. You may know that my collection is quite eclectic but doesn't include any vintage dolls. A good percentage of the attendees who were there last night are vintage collectors. The benefit of the mix is you realize that your little world of modern fashion dolls is but a tiny fraction of the doll collecting world. I've come across collectors wouldn't spend a minute of their time looking at dolls they don't collect. I admit to sometimes being one of those collectors. I laugh at the reborn dolls - they do freak me out. I've only seen vintage French dolls from 18th and 19th centuries in museums.  I put down the cheap Barbie dolls without articulation. I don't care for vintage Barbie and know nothing about them but I appreciate the love others have for these dolls. There's a place for all of them. My dolls aren't better than your dolls; they're just mine.


I could definitely fall for these Mignonettes:

http://www.antiquetoychest.com/category/dolls/german-bisque-dolls/page/2/

http://www.rubylane.com/item/405753-572/All-Original-Mignonette-Presentation-box78

Sigh...look at this on eBay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Old-little-box-with-French-Mignonette-and-accessories-/300919212231?pt=US_Dolls_Bears_Toys&hash=item46102ec8c7

I'd definitely have to play with these. Why did I look?

Deja Vu: Tonner's New Collection

This very bold statement accompanied the image above:

On Saturday, August 17th, 2013 Tonner Doll will proudly present two lives as part of the new direct-to-consumer exclusive Déjà vu Collection.  Get the strange sensation of Déjà vu and be the first to experience a whole new concept in fashion dolls!

Our heroine is 16" in height and boasts a completely new Robert Tonner body and head sculpt, and a compelling story with equally compelling fashions from across the spans of time. 

After encountering Déjà vu, you'll never look at a 16" fashion doll the same way - no matter how many lives you've had!

___________________

What I'm thinking is that we're going to see a pop-it bead concept doll. The (really cool) images above show the 'spans of time' as far as fashion goes, but do you see the buttons? What do they signify? Let's unbutton a head or an arm or a leg. Hmmmmm.
We can already change feet and hands. Why not the rest of the body parts? 
Wax on; wax off.

Just for fun, check out this blog post:

 http://theloveofvintage.wordpress.com/2012/07/29/popits/

The Barbie Look Collection

Sigh. It's such a shame. These are cute dolls and if they were articulated they'd be so much fun.They're all called "City Shopper Barbie Doll"  (Blonde, Brunette, ? and ?) Why don't the bottom two have distinctions? Strange.

Some of the clothes look cute and if you don't mind rubbery shoes and velcro, they'll do just fine.

Winter Weekend

Pink on the Green

On The Red Carpet

If you were to purchase all the items in this collection, including the wardrobe, the total would come to $289.45 plus shipping and tax. That's not so bad for four dressed dolls, six accessorized outfits and a wardrobe. It's a nice collection but they could have included a darker skinned doll.

 Click here to see the rest of the collection.

Misleading Ads on eBay

I'm going to start posting about the bullshit I find in auctions on eBay. I usually just send a polite letter to the seller but they rarely change their ad.
Today's garbage is an auction for a replacement Tiny Kitty body. The ad reads thus:

HTF! RARE!! 10" Tiny Kitty Articulated Body

You are bidding on a Rare, Hard to Find, REPLACEMENT BODY for your Tonner 10" Tiny Kitty doll.

This body is BRAND NEW from the factory and Never used.

Consider the cost of an articulated Tiny Kitty doll, and you will see that this is an Inexpensive way to update your Tiny Kitty doll and have an articulated body.  This New body has the highly sought after articulated elbows and wrists for unlimited posing possibilities! 

Not only are replacement bodies easy to find, they are not rare. Anyone can get them directly from the Tonner Store for $39. a piece. Last time I purchased a few it was buy 4 get one additional one free.  I informed the seller of this in a politely worded email.

Now, if this seller had discovered a Tonner body for TK whose knees did not splay out when she was seated, that would be rare because it doesn't exist. 

I previously blogged that I discussed the Tiny Kitty body with Robert last month in Orlando. The new Tiny Kitty's bodies will be the same as the last ones...unlady-like. I am really sad about that.  I  have a big collection of the gals and they look awful seated. 

A few more pictures in which the dolls would have looked nicer if their knees could come together.

If and when they get the body right, Tiny Kitty will become the fashion doll she was meant to be.

Tonner Company Store
14 Hurley Avenue
Kingston, NY 12401
845.339.2960
Store Hours
Wednesday - Saturday: 10am - 6:00pm EST
Closed Sunday, Monday, Tuesday
Contact Us!
Jennifer at the Tonner Company Store: jbeichert@tonnerdoll.com - or by phone 845-339-2960.

SALE ALERT Summer Savings at Tonner Site Wide 20% Off and Free Shipping

I have to admit, I buckled. I bought Forever Edward for his clothes.

I will sell the doll as he is not a character I 'need.'

If you do decide to buy, before you click the complete purchase button, do your research and make sure you are getting your goodies for the best price. A quick check on Google will bring up a bunch of shops selling your mainline Tonner items. 

I'm glad I didn't cave right after the convention and buy Lady Grace. She is listed at $199. and last week, if I had ordered her, I would have been paying shipping, tax and no discount. (You have to pay tax anyway.) The difference in price between last week and now: $224.70 - $167.16 = $57.54! That's a nice chunk of change.

Here is the link to the sale:

Enjoying My Dolls

One of my favorite gowns on a favorite doll, Inro. The fashion is from Tonner's Hypnotic Antoinette. I love when fashions from different dolls are interchangeable. Wig by Ilaria.

Here is Jamieshow Ling Lan wearing a Doll Peddlar Exclusive by Ficondoll called Baram2. Wig by Cheryl Wood.

This is what it looks like with all it's pieces...lots of options.

Leonie got a gift from Cheryl Wood of an edgy blonde wig. It suits her well. She is wearing Miss G Black's fashion. Ficon dolls have wobbly legs and although I try, I cannot pose her without a stand.

I sold all of my Avantguard dolls months ago due to loose joint issues and discoloration issues. I really didn't think I'd buy another but I wanted the shoes from On Edge. Don't tell me you never bought a doll to get a pair of shoes! Actually it's the first time I did it and I'm glad. I like this sculpt and always have. She is wearing her own wig (which was a nightmare to put on) and her own clothes. The glasses are Horseman/Urban Vita.

I'm currently in the middle of reorganizing my doll room which wasn't too organized to begin with. These things take time. :-)

Alexandra and Sydney Sheldon's exceptional collection up for auction at Bonhams Los Angeles

Press Release 30 May 2013

LOS ANGELES — Bonhams is pleased to offer the exceptional doll collection of Alexandra and Sidney Sheldon on June 24 at the Sunset Boulevard salesroom. Alexandra, a former actress, model, and advertising executive married the late Sidney Sheldon in 1989. Sidney won an Academy Award® in 1947 for screenwriting and created hit television shows like I Dream of Jeannie and The Patty Duke Show, all before becoming the seventh best-selling fiction writer of all time, authoring titles including 1973's number one bestseller The Other Side of Midnight.
During their marriage, Alexandra introduced Sidney to collecting dolls, an interest inspired by her love of design, color and whimsy. The couple acquired an impressive collection over several decades, which graced their Paul R. Williams-designed Hombly Hills estate. Bonhams will offer the entire collection of well over 450 dolls on June 24.
A variety of esteemed international dolls makers are represented, including fine examples from the Italian maker Lenci. Made in the early 20th century, Lenci dolls were constructed of felt and renowned for their unusually large size and beautiful craftsmanship. The company had many celebrity fans in its heyday, including Josephine Baker and Queen Elena of Savoy.
An extremely rare Lenci felt doll of Rudolph Valentino, as seen in his film The Son of the Sheik, is the auction's top lot (est. $6,000-8,000). Standing over two feet high, examples of the Valentino doll are scarce as it was discontinued only one year into production after the 1929 stock market crash. Lenci incarnations of famous fictional and historic figures will also be up for auction, including Madame de Pompadour (est. $800-1,200), Mozart (est. $1,200-1,600), Columbina (est. $1,800-2,000) and Madame Butterfly (est. $2,000-3,000).
Two Lenci felt "boudoir dolls" on offer are sure to raise eyebrows (est. $800-1,200 each), as are the "opium smoker" dolls from 1921, one of which comes with a pipe (est. $1000-1,500). Lenci dolls in traditional dress from Asia, Europe and the Middle East are also represented.
Other highly collectable makers on offer include R. John Wright dolls, Skookum dolls from the 1920s-1940s, Kewpie dolls, and German bisque-head dolls.
"We're so pleased to offer the exceptional doll collection of Alexandra and Sidney Sheldon," said Dana Hawkes, Bonhams Entertainment Memorabilia Consultant, and specialist in charge of the auction. "It's an excellent opportunity for a new generation of collectors."
Bonhams auction of the doll collection of Alexandra and Sidney Sheldon will take place on June 24 in Los Angeles. The auction will preview in Los Angeles from June 21-23.
A fully illustrated catalog is available at now www.bonhams.com/auctions/21322.

---

NOTES FOR EDITORS
Bonhams, founded in 1793, is one of the world's largest auctioneers of fine art and antiques. The present company was formed by the merger in November 2001 of Bonhams & Brooks and Phillips Son & Neale. In August 2002, the company acquired Butterfields, the principal firm of auctioneers on the West Coast of America. Today, Bonhams offers more sales than any of its rivals, through two major salerooms in London: New Bond Street and Knightsbridge; and a further three in the UK regions and Scotland. Sales are also held in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Carmel, New York and Connecticut in the USA; and Germany, France, Monaco, Hong Kong and Australia. Bonhams has a worldwide network of offices and regional representatives in 25 countries offering sales advice and valuation services in 60 specialist areas. For a full listing of upcoming sales, plus details of Bonhams specialist departments go to www.bonhams.com
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
 

Click On Image For the Complete Catalog

2013 Wilde Halloween Convention

Wilde Halloween Convention!
Register Now! 

Join Wilde Imagination as we celebrate our first ever Halloween Convention in the quaint town of Tysons Corner, VA! Leave all of your inhibitions behind - and join the Wilde Imagination family as we gently rap at the door of the beautiful Sheraton Premiere Hotel, October 18th-20th, 2013.

Your registration includes all ghoulish events of the weekend, amazing dolls dressed to ‘thrill’, delicious food, and costume contests with prizes! A souvenir Ellowyne along with an amazing sales room are all included.

Registration is $349
A non-refundable deposit of $100 will hold your spot

Sheraton Premiere at Tysons Corner
703-448-1234
8661 Leesburg Pike
Tysons Corner, Virginia 22182
United States  

Register Now

Mattel's New "Ever After High" Dolls

Too much of a good thing is............................wonderful!
Following Monster High's great success, Mattel has come up with a similarly sized line of dolls called Ever After High. The characters are the children of fairy tale parents with their own painful,  teenage high school issues 
 
Quoting from the SDCC Unofficial Blog:

The premise of the show is similar to Monster High, where the kids of famous fairytale parents attend high school and face a dilemma. Instead of the notion of fitting in like in Monster High, the fairytale tweens are faced with the burden of either following or not following their famous parents footsteps. So are you a Royal or a Rebel (We’re suddenly having flashbacks of West Side Story)?  Whichever side you favor, this should provide an interesting twist as most will associate anything fairytale related with a Disney storyline.

 I think these dolls will capture the hearts of MH lovers everywhere.

Click here to see several brief videos.

About Opinions

David Pogue writes a very popular tech blog in the New York Times. Last week he reviewed the new Flickr interface and according to this week's post he received feedback from many readers who were offended by his opinion.

He wrote:

To me, it seems that some people fundamentally don’t understand the function of a critic. Drama critics, movie critics, restaurant critics, music critics, tech critics — all of us, it seems to me — are hired specifically to present our opinions.

I would never describe my weekly columns as “news stories,” even if there’s sometimes a news element. They are reviews meant to guide readers toward products that, in my opinion, are good or bad.

You can certainly disagree with a critic. Sometimes, knowing that you almost always disagree with a certain critic is just as helpful in guiding your buying decisions as always agreeing.

But in the end, a reviewer is entitled to like the new Flickr just as much as longtime photographers are entitled to hate it.

The reason I am quoting this excerpt from Pogue's blog should be clear to most of my readers. 

Free Doll Clothing Patterns

While browsing Prego this morning, I came across a post from ~MICKI B~ Essex, England, aka Silkspike, in which she wrote about making a few t-shirts her girls. Click here for the original post on Prego.

She put up pictures and added her own methods for refining the shirts. This looks like something we can do!

Photos by Silkspike

Click here for the link to the T-Shirt pattern download.

More free doll clothing patterns.

Altered Color - Digital Magic

One of the themes this week on Prego is Black and White. I have an enormous archive of my digital doll photography, yet somehow, I remember individual photos even when they are several years old.
I like black and white images but even more than that, I like a shot of color in a b&w image. Here are several which appeared in a past FDQ piece a few years ago.
I do all my photo editing using Photoshop.

Click on each image to see the various color details.

Antoinette

Aphrodisiac

Attention

Goldmine

Illusion Nadja

Puki Puki

CHO:LO New Collection "Pastel Perfect 1.4"

Designer extraordinaire, CHO:LO, has revealed his new spring collection. It is a breathtaking group of OOAK fashions for 16" dolls. Not surprisingly they are all sold out but you can still get some eye candy by clicking on the image below which will take you to the Flickr page on which all fashions are pictured individually.

Image by Cholo Ayuyao

Congratulations, Cholo, on an amazing collection.

Searching for the Solution

There are some who think I am out to destroy Integrity Toys when the fact is that I have spent many thousands of dollars over the past years buying their products. I have posted hundreds of my own photos of their dolls here, on the W Club board, on other doll boards and in FDQ articles. Numerous collectors have told me that I influenced their decision to buy particular dolls.

They have literally ignored the fact that close to 80% of collectors polled will not be purchasing the Mommy Dearest doll. They have caused controversy by deleting posts and issuing gag orders.
I don't feel particularly generous towards them at this time due to their methods of dealing with consumers. But, I saw this paragraph in an online magazine and I thought that it would be profoundly helpful for them to change their tune.

FDA Magazine: Number 7

Fashion Doll Agency dolls are few and far between. Most are extremely limited editions and they are quite unusual. I have not posted anything about them in ages but today the link to their newest publication was emailed and it's very nice. The doll on the cover would be a delight to own. She's beautiful. Look at those eyes!

Click on the magazine image to see more.

New Rules! Censorship = Fear

I wasn't collecting dolls back when people were afraid to write the words Barbie and/or Mattel. Apparently Mattel was going around suing people for using these words. Collectors started using asterisks in place of letters, eg. M*ttel and B*rbie. I don't know if that kept them safe. I can certainly understand a company's desire to protect their brand name and to make sure it was not used to market products that were not really theirs.

I have also heard of threads being deleted on the BC.Com boards for various reasons. One must pay to belong to the Barbie Collectors Club and therefore must abide by the rules of the board. Actually you have to abide by the rules of any board whether it's free or not.  It's like visiting some one's house. If they don't want you to smoke or whatever, you can't. That makes perfect sense.

But taking it even further, Integrity Toys and the owners of the W Club are so fearful of the general public that their latest directive prohibits even talking about what happens on the board. I may even get another apocalyptic letter about revealing this new rule to the public. They are claiming that talking about what happens on the W Board on blogs, other boards and in pod casts invades the privacy and denies the privilege of the members. They want to create a safe atmosphere for members to post whatever they wish and not be worried that their responses will be used somewhere else.

It would be really interesting to find a safe board of any kind where there were no arguments, no attacks, no sideways remarks, no dismissive statements. It doesn't exist. Doll collectors are very passionate - at least the vocal ones are. Apparently, the overlords at the W Club want only the cheerleaders to voice opinions. No wonder it's the same people who post all the time. Out of the possibly 1000 members (many with multiple memberships), barely 50 people ever post. A very small percentage post all the time.  In addition people have been viciously attacked off the board by one member in particular. It's not safe and it never was.

Anyone who actually believes that something they post on a board is private, is in dreamland. 

Kindly remember to sign your name if you post a comment.

Some Tonner 2013 Convention Dolls

I'm posting a few of the beautiful Tonner Convention Dolls. For a complete selection of pictures click on the link at the end of this post.

Dark Innocence Evangeline

Dark Innocence Parnilla

Mod Tyler
Centerpiece

Mod Ava
Centerpiece

Daisy

Lady Emily
Centerpiece

Jay Centerpiece

Zelda Centerpiece

Of these, my favorite is Daisy and I would definitely get her if I could just get the head. Her face is so pretty and she looks just like Daisy in the new Gatsby movie. I like Zelda's fashion.  I think Lady Emily is spectacularly dressed.

I know nothing about these dolls regarding price or availability but I'm quite sure they will appear or have already popped up for sale on eBay and the doll boards.  I you see anyone selling Daisy's head, please let me know!

For a great selection of photos from the event go to DREAMCASTLE DOLLS.   Carol has done a great job of providing as many good pictures of the dolls and displays and competitions as possible.