A Plea from Rudy Teruel of R and D Dolls

Rudy posted a call for help on his blog concerning the devastating aftermath of the Typhooon Ondoy in Manila and surrounding areas. Please click this link and read what he has to say.

Please Help!

http://www.rnddolls.com/

Picture of the Week Award ~ 9/27/09

This week's spotlight goes to Mark Harris for this photograph of his Mdvanii clone dolls made by doll artist Darrell Wallace. Their clothing and jewelry was made by the photographer.
The composition, natural lighting, posing and styling all come together to create a photograph with depth and movement.
See more of Mark's creative photography here.

Congratulations, Mark, on the Picture of the Week Award!

Fashion Police

FAIL

Treasured Antoinette wearing Sensual

I just wanted to post this picture of my Treasured Antoinette dressed in the outfit from Sensual. It's a winner and I love it!

Tonner Doll - Antoinette "Pure"

I love the list of names they've come up for Antoinette and her fashions. Look at these: Evocative, Exceptional, Extravagant, Determined, Confidential, Striking, Idyllic, Hypnotic, Symphonic, Obsessed, Dramatic, Sensual, Emphatic, Enlightened, Optimistic, Serene,
Influential, Frivolous, Sinuous, Brilliant, Posh and Prim. It's a list of pleasant feeling words to help you develop your emotional literacy! So now, if you are having difficulty describing your feelings you can turn to your Antoinette collection for help. Yay! "Believe in the power of play."

I don't think I've ever felt pure. Pure anger, yes. Pure lust, yes. But just pure, no.
Here's a part definition from Merriam-Webster's OnLine Dictionary:
3 a (1) : free from what vitiates, weakens, or pollutes (2) : containing nothing that does not properly belong b : free from moral fault or guilt c : marked by chastity : continent d (1) : of pure blood and unmixed ancestry (2) : homozygous in and breeding true for one or more characters e : ritually clean...

______

The best part of Pure besides her wonderful Antoinette body and pretty face are the boots. But these are not worth $166.

The handbag is stiff and looks awkward on her arm. The shawl is just an edged piece of fabric without a lining or anything. She came with no jewelry.

What was I thinking when I ordered her? I wanted a raven-haired Antoinette.
It's depressing.

Integrity Toys' "Attention" Avantguard Doll

Chelsea's Collector Cottage exclusive Avantguard doll "Attention!" arrived yesterday. She looks exactly like the promotional pictures. The dress is cute.

Her facial screening is immaculate and I love the colors.

The shoes are cute.

The feather hat sheds on everything. (She reminds me of the Statue of Liberty in this picture.)

The wig is not made properly and the stockings had defects in them from where she was tied to the box.

I don't feel the WOW factor with this doll. Something is missing. I think this dress should have been an individually available fashion, not something for a $250. exclusive doll. It's not enough. The earrings are such a waste of time I didn't even bother. Every pair of earrings one inserts into an Avantguard head has to be snipped shorter and after I struggled to get the wig on (sort of) I wasn't about to knock it off to put two little studs into her ears.

___________________________

Every now and then I'll be playing with a doll or photographing one and I begin to wonder why I am collecting dolls. It happened today. It wasn't just about one doll, it was the cumulative effect of poor engineering and/or design of certain aspects of three of my new dolls. Why do I continue to spend hundreds of dollars on dolls whose stands don't support? In two cases, the stand didn't even fit between the doll's legs because the dress was slim-fitting. You can't tell me that this fact is not known by the designers. What do they do, shrug it off? While it's true that I don't use stands when I am photographing my dolls, I do use them to display my dolls.
Tonner's saddle stand and Integrity's Avantguard stand add a good amount of thickness to that area of the doll supported by the stand, namely the crotch and the butt. It used to be that one could hide the ugly plastic of a stand when the doll was wearing a gown or a skirt. Now that many of the styles have become short and tight that doesn't work anymore.

Robert Tonner may have been on the right track with the stand that inserted into the crotch area - at least for some dolls.