New Gene Doll Announced ~ It's A Cinch!

Today a new Gene Marshall doll was announced. She is called It's A Cinch! and will be available from your regular doll dealers during the 1st quarter of 2010. LE 200.

To read the description in full, check out any Gene dealer's website. The retail price is $125.

There Ought to be a Law Against Smoking Dolls

I'm just sick of getting dolls and doll fashions that smell from cigarette smoke.
Last week it was two NRFB fashions and today it was a doll. The fashions were from an eBay seller with a lot of excellent feedback so I was very surprised. The doll was purchased from a seller I found on Ruby Lane.
Perhaps smokers do not believe that even if their dolls are packed away, cigarette smoke is invasive. It will get on everything and into everything just like it coats your lungs and body, it will deposit itself on your merchandise. The packaging materials stink, too. If they are aware of that and are still selling their polluted stuff to unsuspecting buyers then they are as disgusting as their habit.
I was discussing this with a seller (thankfully before I bought anything). She told me that her son is a smoker and he visits occasionally but her dolls are packed away in a closet and she doesn't believe they have any ciggy smoke smell.

Cigarette smoke produces airborne tar just like this.
The second problematic component of cigarette smoke is the very high level of tar solids that are disseminated into the air when cigarettes are burned. This is the same petroleum based tar used to make asphalt roads. This petroleum based tar clouds the air and sticks to every surface of the room. Not only can you see this tar in the air you can also see and feel this yellow brownish sticky substance on surfaces such as walls and furniture. Cigarette smoke tar even seeps into your homes air vents, and appliances with vents such as TV's and stereos. This disgusting goop discolors paint and it also has a terrible, sickening odor.

Hello!
Everything in your house smells if anyone smokes there.
Including you.

Here are links which give some advice on removing cigarette smells:
http://www.ehow.com/how_5475212_remove-cigarette-smoke-smell-dolls.html
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/281843/doll_repair_common_problems_and_how.html

Sugar Daddy Ken Gone Along With Entire BFC Thread

BFC Members Agreement #9
We may, in our sole discretion, ... (b) remove any Content, .... We may exercise these rights for any reason or no reason, all without notice or liability to you or anyone else.

Comment by one member
"...I am really sick and tired of the media/public dictating what dolls I am allowed to buy."

I say that it's not the public, it's the men in the corporation making the decision. Mattel makes toys and they want it to stay that way. Every one wanted that doll. Now, if he is actually ever made, non-collectors will snap him up and we won't even be able to get one!

Why don't they just put him out as an American Girl doll who had a sex change? He can go live with the re-homed homeless doll and they can decorate and go shopping and write books....

Why is it OK for female dolls to be produced in scanty fashions with slutty makeup and come-hither hairstyles but it's not OK for an effeminate looking Ken doll to be produced? I call that sex bias and it's disgusting.

Michelle Obama Doll - FAIL

This is the promotional photo that was advertised for the Michele Obama Inaugural doll. I blogged about it on June 1, 2009.

A fellow collector sent me these pictures of the actual doll that she received:

What a complete disappointment but not a surprise. When a company advertises with an artist rendering rather than a prototype or a production sample, you can be sure you will not get what you see in the ad.

Seriously, some of Mattel's $39.95 celebrity dolls have more of a resemblance to their human counterparts than this.

Mattel's Sugar Daddy Ken. Will He or Won't He?

One of the moderators over at the BFC Board stated,
"What a week! As you have seen, we sneak peeked the BFMC Palm Beach line. One of the concepts in the line was a Ken doll. We posted the photo with the internal "working" name and the photo and name was also released to dealers. The Ken concept is not part of the official spring Palm Beach product line."

Huh? What happened?

This is the topic of intense discussion on that board and among Barbie collectors. From what I have read pretty much everyone wants that Ken doll to be produced. Count me in. The statement from the moderator is vague about the outcome of this particular doll.

The funniest post I read was posted by dollyhoarder who said:
"My guess is...they will probably change the name from 'Sugar Daddy' to something benign like 'Still Anatomically Incorrect Ken Walking Neutered Dog.'"

I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Picture of the Week ~ November 1, 2009

The spotlight this week goes to Paul Pham's photograph of his own creation. This is the IDEX Grey prototype. Paul posted this on Prego during a week of Halloween themed images, thus the ghostly figure on the right.

 See more of Paul's creations at his site DOLLCIS.

Congratulaions, Paul, on the Picture of the Week!