Collecting Fashion Dolls by Terri Gold

3/16/2011

Re-Styling A Doll - A Success Story in Pictures

My friend collector, ParadiseBlue-Jay, recently acquired the Jason Wu designed Neo-Cissy, "L'Enfant Terrible." I found this doll to be unappealing. She has hair growing out of her eye for goodness sake. And someone forgot to give her eyebrows. On top of that, her outfit is very sexy for a doll with a child body and a big head. Nuff said.

Poor thing. She's been hit in the face by a crow.

So yesterday he sends me a bunch of pictures. Here are several:

Monaeglo Gown

Acid green hosiery by Linda in Las Vegas. Necklace from Limousine Sybarite.

Shoes are her own.

She looks fabulous now! I love the colors. It's electric!

He also sent me pictures and a review/comparison between the Neo-Cissy and the Avantguard body which follows.

AG looks pissed.

Body review:
There is a feel to Cissy that smells of Integrity. The light weight hollow plastic feel is okay.. not great but I have come to expect that of Integrity. Integrity has a way of dressing up the cheap.

The Torso / arm pit area is the same on both types of dolls. Knees are better on Cissy. They have the swivel knee-cap. The spindle that attaches the feet and hands to the arms or legs are loose on Neo Cissy. The ridges on the Cissy feet/hands spindles are almost non existent. They slide in and out with no grip. Very floppy.. on my doll. They may be better on someone else's.

The Torsos on the AG's are horrible and floppy.. Neo Cissy's are better.. but not great. I think what aggravates me the most about Neo Cissy's feet is that they are so floppy that she couldn't stand on her bare high heeled feet, without the doll's weight forcing the feet to go almost flat. She looks like the weight of her large head has crushed her feet. Flat high heeled feet is not a great look. LOL.

Hands. I am not happy with the Neo Cissy "hand balls" (looks like posing balls at her hand's base) at her arms. They were made to look like the "balls were needed to pose better. Maybe BJD like? There was no need to do that as the spindle goes into the arm close.

Would I buy another? Probably not. If the sale was good.. maybe. I wish Integrity would pay attention to detail on the underlings of a doll and not just the fashion.

Speaking of the fashion.. very nice. Boots are not cut the way the promo pics indicated. Those looked ankle tight.. these look like rubber boots.

______________

I want to thank James for the pictures and for taking the dead crow off the doll's face. LOL.

In addition, I appreciate the review of the bodies as I'm sure my readers will as well.

SALES to take note of....

—At Wilde Imagination: for a limited time, take $20 off any purchase of $100 or more. Promo Code is SMILE12. Four new Evangelines and several Ellowynes have arrived. You can go spend all your money right now! If I were going to get another Evangeline, it would be the resin. I've just about had it with the terrible articulation and difficult posing of the vinyls. It's really too bad. Such a cool doll with such fabulous clothes and she can't hold a proper sitting pose. Ugh.

Haunted Melody (vinyl) Rooted Hair $175

Timeless Evangeline (vinyl) Wigged (comes with 2 wigs) $140

A Cautionary Tale (Resin) (Resin) Wigged $425.

Beautiful Nightmare Vinyl Wigged $175

Click here to see Ellowyne Wilde's catalog and new items.

—At Tonner Direct: Starting tomorrow, March 17, 2011 at 11:47AM Eastern Daylight Time (why 11:47?) through March 20th at 11:59PM EDT. You get 21% off with FREE SHIPPING. Promo code is MADNESS.That's what I call a good sale. There are exclusions and the offer applies to in stock items only. See the site for more information.
You know they're all mad over there, don't you?

Fashion Royalty Squared Photos

I put Blue Blood's head on Flawless Elise's body. She originally had a regular Fashion Royalty body. The match is perfect. Another bit of good news is that even though this was the first time in more than 1-1/2 years I had removed Blue Blood's black suit, there were no stains at all.

The black shoes are from the accessory pack given to attendees at the last convention. The jewelry is from an earlier FR outfit. For the Gene Marshall line, Ashton Drake used to put a heavy stitch of thread on handbags so a dolls' hand could be inserted and thereby hold the clutch bag. I wish IT would do that for these dolls. Bags can be held under the arm but it cuts down on posing options. I want my dolls to be able to clutch their clutches.

Sadly, I'm not fond of the hat or the shoes that came with this outfit.

Here is Dark Swan Elise wearing Modern Sensibility Dasha's outfit with a few changes. Instead of the jacket, I added the sweater from the Only Natural outfit. I added the bracelets which pick up the green of the top. I get a fleeting sense of dowdy when it comes to this outfit. I don't know if it's the shapeless top or it's color. I will have to change it to a fitted top that shows off her terrific body. And the hat may have to go.
As far as Dark Swan, I didn't like her hair right from the start. She needs a reroot or a wig. I have cut her hair to chin length but it's so thinly rooted that it looks bad.
I'm hoping that the navy jacket can be used with another fashion down the road.

Modern Sensibility Dasha is wearing the outfit called Sheer Bliss. It's a detailed LBD with a micro pleated layer of a tulle-like fabric over a semi-sheer lining. It is high waisted and reminds me a little of a maternity dress. I like it anyway. The shoulder area has a metallic silver layer under the tulle with black beading. Too much underarm area bulk keeps the arms from being held close to the body. The black shoes have a stretch lace insert. They are very pretty. The earrings are the ubiquitous studs. I didn't get the black sunglasses shown with my outfit! Mine are a metallic color. I like the black better. The bracelet is a complete waste with a nondescript design and it just hangs there. A lovely shiny blue clutch bag gives the outfit a shot of color. I added a rhinestone pin at the waist.

On the W Club forum there is a lot of unhappiness being expressed as a result of the mismatched vinyl on Flawless Elise and the unsatisfactory appearance of her hair styling. It seems some collectors are being told different things regarding replacements. The poor hair styling is human error. It happens across all manufacturers but, of course, that does not make it acceptable. The explanation is that the styling is done by hand. Duh. Some workers are more skilled than others. Training, training, training.
I'm guessing that the factories are more interested in volume than artistry. We lose. The designers can't live in the factory and make sure every doll is perfect but when so many turn out unacceptable, what is the problem? There's no way a factory could think that a body and head shouldn't be the same color so a misinterpretation of instructions can be ruled out. I'd love to know what the prototype looked like.

3/13/2011

BIC Co. Ltd. Japan: "WE ALL ARE OK!!!"

Email message sent out by BIC and Kazue a few minutes ago.

Dear Customers

We thank you for your patronage.
As reported in the media worldwide, there was a massive earthquake.
Fortunately, WE ALL ARE OK, our office and the warehouse is NOT in the area suffered from the earthquake.
We really appreciate that many people sent us the heartfelt messages to cheer up our spirits, and many countries from all over the world have proposed to support our country to rescue the people.
Now our business operates as usual, but due to the obstacles inherent to the disaster, there are some points which we have to ask you to understand.

(1) Delay in delivery
The airfreight transportation depart from our area is working almost normally.
But because of the changed flight schedules, and the traffic regulations to the airport from our central post office, there would be a few days delay in delivery.
(2) Shorter actual business hours
Due to the significant electricity shortage throughout the country, our area will be subjected to the planned power cutting by 6 hours a day, and it is expected to continue until April.
It would confine our operation (which needs PC & internet) 3-4 hours shorter than usual.
We are afraid that it might lead to some delay in order fulfillment and shipment, but we will endeavor to complete and send out all orders as soon as possible.

We are really sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused you, and we hope your kind understanding in this matter.

Sincerely yours,
Ms Masumi Tokumoto, on behalf of Ms Kazue Shimoyama

P.S from KAZUE
We will perform a clearance sale including charity within several days, in order to support to people of a stricken area through all activities. I t will be 40-50% OFF...
Please wait for next information.

Doug James and Doll Show in New Jersey

I made my way over to Teaneck, New Jersey today to attend the Doll Show at the Rothman Center at Fairleigh Dickinson University. I set my clocks ahead last night and set my alarm for 7:00 AM. When I awoke at 8:30AM I discovered that I had set my clock to PM instead of AM. Oh well. Lucky for me it wasn't a missed flight or a job interview. My friends arrived pretty much at the same time so I was OK.
I'd never been to this show which takes place every few months. Most of the booths are selling vintage dolls and accessories. I love the truly vintage items but I dare not even think about going there with my collecting. There are several dealers selling modern fashion dolls.
A bunch of us crazy collectors gathered at a large table to eat lunch and have a show and tell! Dolls were passed around and there were lots of oohs and aahs to be heard. I had a great time and will definitely be attending again. If you are in the general area - NY, NJ, CT, PA - think about coming.

I was very happy to finally meet Doug James in person. For those who are not familiar with his work, Doug James worked with the late Laura Meisner for the L.L. Knickerbocker Co. to design and create

Mod British Birds, Willow and Daisy. (link) There is no official link for Daisy and Willow. (link)

You can find many images of these dolls on the Yahoo group by the same name. I have a nice collection of them. They are interesting and very pretty dolls but their bodies are stiff without articulation. Many collectors dress their Tyler and Ellowyne dolls in the clothing which is mod 60's era styling.

Doug designed the CED dolls

Portrait Claire ~ Image Property of Doug James

Violet and Gabby

Image Property of Doug James

And now he has created Seine, Sayer and Sebastian Fashion Dolls.

Seine ~ Image Property of Doug James

See the link for more images of these new dolls, their fashions and wigs that are currently available.

Here is Doug himself holding Sebastian for me as I took this picture. (At least I think this doll is Sebastian.) If you like a male doll with a body that says hunk, this may be the doll for you! He is anatomically correct and fine to look at, almost as cute as Doug. :-)

Getting back to the doll show...I did not bring a camera because I didn't want the event to turn into work for me but I couldn't resist taking a few shots with my iPhone.

Click on this link to see the pictures I took today and remember they are made with a phone. Be kind. Hehe.

Doll Show - Rothman Center at FDU

3/12/2011

Homage to Vanessa

Here is a picture of every Vanessa in my collection. A few have been re-rooted. One is a duplicate who has been repainted and re-rooted. There are a few I have never redressed.
—Do you have a favorite Vanessa?
—Which is your favorite picture?

Pictures have been posted in a small size but you can click on each to enlarge.