Alice Cullen ~ Twilight Character Figure ~ Dolls

Alice Cullen is my favorite character from the Twilight series of books and in the movies. She is also the latest addition from the Tonner Doll Company to their Twilight line of dolls.
 I think she is adorable with her "Ashley Greene Head Sculpt", 16" Ballerina bust Tyler convertible body, amber eyes, wigged hair and cameo skintone. She is wearing a reproduction of an outfit she wore in New Moon.  The retail price of Tonner's Alice is $139.99 and she is expected to ship in September, 2010.

Here is NECA's prototype of Alice. It was shown at the New York Toy Fair in 2009. I could not find this one for sale.

Here's another from NECA being sold at Amazon .com. I cannot locate a better photograph of this doll. She is obviously wearing the same costume as Tonner's doll.  This one is only 7" tall and is called Twilight "New Moon" Alice Cullen. Price at Amazon is $39.95.

Finally we have the Barbie Collector Twilight Saga "Eclipse" 11" Alice doll for $24.99. This doll will ship in August, 2010. This one has the cutest face and changing the shirt to white was a good idea. It would be an even better idea to make all the dolls with a pivotal body. A vampire has to move, doesn't she?

Which of these dolls is your favorite?

Barbie Giant Pez Dispenser

Recently released by Mattel in honor of Barbie's 50th birthday is this 12" Giant Pez Dispenser with a reproduction vintage Barbie head.  Included in the box are 6 packages of Pez. This thing dispenses whole packages of Pez. There should be giant Pez, not just giant dispensers.

Prices vary from $21. to $29. for the dispenser. Shop around!

How Many Alices Are There in Wonderland?

 Has the Alice in Wonderland theme been overdone? Yes, it's been going on forever. It's the definition of a classic. The story is an ageless one that has enchanted children and adults alike since it was written in 1865.  The story embodies the battles of good vs. evil, apathy vs. involvement, greed vs. generosity and on and on. Who doesn't identify some opposing characteristics in their own personality?

When I saw the numerous Wonderland dolls at IDEX in January, I was impressed by how many different companies and individual doll artists chose to do Alice themed dolls this year. It was not that surprising due to the Alice in Wonderland movie but seemed rather odd that there were so many.

Has one company 'done it right' above all others? No. With the variety of Wonderland themed dolls out there, it's foolish to compare.

I understand that some collectors have an irrational loyalty (also known as ass-kissing) to some manufacturers and so their praise for that company is endless. These people need to become educated about what's out there.

I have already posted the new Integrity Alice.

Tonner has produced several Wonderland character dolls and stunning fashions. 

This is Mattel's latest Alice:

Some others that may be available at different sources on the internet:


Madame Alexander Cloth Alice

Madame Alexander Alice

Living Dead Doll - Alice

Vogue Marge Meisinger's Alice Vintage Repro Ginny Doll

 Azone's Sahra in Wonderland

Pullip Fantastic Alice  (12")

Gwen Stefani "Tick Tock Gwen"

This is just a small sampling of Alice in Wonderland dolls. I've not even touched on the fantastic OOAK and artist dolls which are gorgeous and very pricey such as Maggie Iacono's "Painting the Roses Red" for $1,695.00 or R. John Wrights "Alice in Wonderland for $1,180.

 Doll Reader magazine has published several issues with cover stories that depict artist dolls that are Alice themed. 

There's no comparing one with the other. But...if a company decides to do Alice, one hopes that it's different from any Alice that's been done before and not just another run of the mill blond in a blue dress with a white apron.

Picture of the Week ~ Wayne Nilson

Today our photo is of the beautiful Zita Charles by Wayne Nilson aka Wayne in FL. She is the Zita from the Stardust Convention collection known as "Hostess With The Mostest." The original dolls looked like this:

Wayne restyled her hair by removing her white streak and moving the position of one of the curls. She is wearing an Ashton Drake fashion called "Pin-Up" with shoes by Integrity.

Wayne said:

This was a very simple set up using 2 pieces of white foam-core board, one overhead spot light and a beautiful satin boudoir seat made by a fellow collector, Jay Aastrup.

I use a Canon Powershot A570 camera. I think digital photography is a godsend.  You can literally take hundreds of shots before you get that 'perfect' one, all at no expense.  I always use 3 or 4 spotlights to light my subject.  I never use the camera flash.  Because it's so hot here (most all of the time), I never take pictures outside in natural light.  I always manipulate my pictures in Photoshop to correct lighting or color problems, to remove any stray hairs, sharpen the eyes, mouth and any other elements I want to stand out.  I use very few, if any, props.  I feel they distract from the main subject matter.

2010 IFDC Convention Souvenir and Companion Doll

The two dolls presented on Saturday night to attendees are based on characters from Alice in Wonderland. They are being considered part of the Nu.Fantasy collection but will be outside of Japan.

The souvenir doll, "The Red Queen", uses the previously issued Fashion Royalty Tatyana face mold.  Her gown is red tafffeta with black tulle and beaded embellishment on the bodice. She is called "Checkmate." LE 300.

The companion doll called "Curiouser and Curiouser" is a take off on the Alice character. She uses the Gavin Dynamite Girl sculpt.

For those of us who are used to expecting Fashion Royalty dolls, the landscape has changed. The upcoming "Dark Romance" convention is not called the Jason Wu Event/Convention; it's the Integrity Toys Convention with Jason Wu. It's interesting to watch as the company changes.

Facebook Bans Doll Nipples (Seriously!)

 Source: Asher Moses via http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/now-facebook-bans-doll-nipples-20100705-zwnr.html#poll


"Facebook's prude police are out in force yet again, this time threatening action against a Sydney jeweller for posting pictures of an exquisite nude porcelain doll posing with her works.
Victoria Buckley, who owns a high-end jewellery store in the Strand Arcade on George Street, has long used dolls as inspiration for her pieces and hasn't had one complaint about the A3 posters of the nudes in her shop window.

 But over the weekend she received six warnings from Facebook saying the pictures of the doll, which show little more than nipples, constituted "inappropriate content" and breached the site's terms of service.

The warnings said Facebook would remove the images and Buckley is worried she will be banned from the site if she posts them again.

It comes after the site incurred the wrath of mothers all over the world by banning photos of women breastfeeding their children, calling such shots "obscene content". Facebook has also come under fire for banning images of a British woman's mastectomy scars, published on the site to raise awareness of breast cancer.

Buckley said Facebook was behaving like "philistines" and blamed the issue on "American puritanism".

"Really here we're talking about nipples on a doll - I've got A3 posters of her in my window in the Strand Arcade that have been up for months and we haven't had one negative comment. The doll herself is in the window," Buckley said.

"Somebody's got a Michelangelo fan group on there and they do have a picture of the Statue of David ... why is that OK and this isn't?"

And these aren't just regular barbie dolls, they're high-end porcelain figures designed by Marina Bychkova of Enchanted Doll in Canada, featured in art and culture magazines all over the world.

Those who want to buy one face a two- to three-year wait. The dolls can cost from $5000 to $45,000, which is the price one sold for on eBay in January.

"The shoe designer for Louis Vuitton collects her dolls and they're really hard to get hold of; they're really precious things, they're not just a barbie or something," Buckley said.

"They're the right scale for my jewellery, they interact with it visually, so I actually design collections around these dolls and their interactions with my jewellery."

For now, Buckley has censored the images of the dolls on her Facebook fan page but has posted the uncensored versions on a new group dedicated to the doll called "Save Ophelia - exquisite doll censored by Facebook".

Buckley wants to gauge Facebook's response to the images being posted on that group before deciding whether to put the uncensored version back on her own fan page.

Her emails to Facebook have so far fallen on deaf ears, although this may be because Sunday is a public holiday in the US. Buckley had also posted the photos to Flickr but these were removed for similar reasons.

"I've invested quite a lot of money in this campaign for my jewellery and I'm quite reliant on the Facebook page to get the message out," she said, adding thousands of people had said they love the dolls and imagery.

"You can invest thousands of dollars and months of your time building a new campaign and you put it on sites like Facebook and Flickr and it just takes one person [complaining] to bring the thing down.

"I've got another campaign coming up soon with another doll but I don't know what to do."
Ironically, while Facebook is overzealous in targeting relatively innocuous images on the site, it has been criticised by police for its unresponsiveness to real criminal issues. The Australian Federal Police has said the site's woeful relationship with law enforcement bodies was hampering police investigations and putting lives at risk.

Facebook has been approached for comment."

I've seen so much offensive content on Facebook that doesn't seem to be policed. It's mindless automatons who work behind the scenes that are doing stuff like this. If you object to this type of random and harmful censorship, I suggest you take some kind of action to let Facebook know. But how does one even contact Facebook? Is there anything but a chimpanzee on the other end of the line?