News, reviews and photographs of Modern Fashion Dolls including Kingdom Doll, Fashion Royalty, Sybarite, Tonner Doll, Gene Marshall, Barbie and my own experiences as a doll collector.
Finally after so many months of being packed and then moving in and waiting for my photo studio to be completed, I have my set-up going again. Lilac Frost is the first doll to be lucky enough to have a photo shoot in the new studio. Mr. Woodie is her accompanist.
This was a Club Exclusive but I don't think it was considered a Club doll. High End Envy Erin was the First 2012 Club Exclusive Doll. Whatever.
Here she is in all her lilac glory.
I think her screening is delightful. The outfit appears to be very well made and fits perfectly. The gloves...forget about it. I don't have time to fight with tight vinyl gloves. I love the hat!
Her jewelry is pink rhinestone studs and bracelet.
See the comparison above and below for the changes made from the
promotional doll to the production doll. Above, of course is the
production doll. Below is the promo.
In the promo, Poppy has only painted lashes. The production doll has an extra set of applied lashes. I like that as it makes her eyes smokier and more intense. Her actual screening is also more intense although that could be a result of the photographer's lighting.
If you love Poppy, you will have to have this one. I've seen photos in which the collector has loosened the upturned ends of her hair and she looks amazing.
Giselle as Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard? The fashion is drop dead gorgeous. The face? Where is Norma? I doubt that many would buy a doll that looked like this:
IMO Gloria Swanson wasn't exactly the best looking actress of her day and you can't portray talent in a doll so picking Giselle was as good a decision as any. Just don't expect visitors to your collection to say "Wow, you have a Gloria Swanson doll!"
W Club members were offered the opportunity to pre-order this doll from dealers a few days ago and from many reports, she is nearly or completely sold out.
Item # 14034
Norma Desmond
Sunset Boulevard Commemorative Collectible Doll
Limited Edition of 500 Dolls
Suggested Retail Price: $119.00 USD
Estimated Date of Arrival: Week of November 19, 2012
For me, the beauty in this doll is the fashion. It represents one aspect of the era of the Golden Age of Hollywood. Gloria Swanson is known best for being a great star during the silent movie era. She continued to act into her later years and died at the age of 84 in 1983.
So now you know more than you wanted to about Norma Desmond.
Praised by many critics when first released, Sunset Boulevard was nominated for eleven Academy Awards
and won three. It is widely accepted as a classic, often cited as one
of the greatest films of American cinema. Deemed "culturally,
historically, or aesthetically significant" by the U.S. Library of Congress in 1989, Sunset Boulevard was included in the first group of films selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. In 1998, it was ranked number twelve on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 best American films of the 20th century, and in 2007 it was 16th on their 10th Anniversary list.
Wasn't there a Sunset Blvd. backdrop produced for one of Integrity Toy's Gene Marshall conventions?
Sales began for two new Ficon dolls, Miss G in White and Black. Both are LE20 and retail price is $630. They include the outfit with dress, shoes, bag, jewelry and Chewin wig. It's not surprising that Black is already sold out but I think both are just gorgeous.
The following photographs are from Ficon's gallery and are by Alexandra Forbes.
A very cute and affordable line of 15 3/4" dolls has been released by the TDC. They are the City Girls and are targeted toward younger doll collectors.
This debut contains one basic doll, three dressed dolls and three fashion packs. I would definitely purchase these for a child that was ready to move on from, for example, the American Girl dolls although they certainly could exist side by side in a child's collection.
Here they are.
They remind me of the Mod British Birds by Somers and Field, not in their looks but in their affect—innocent, fresh faced and smartly but simply dressed.
The dolls look to be fully articulated although I could not find information on their material and construction.
Looking back in my blog, I found a picture from last February's Toy Fair of the City Girls. Apparently two of the three dolls shown there did not make it into the debut. Perhaps they will appear towards the end of the year.
Soon I will be back to taking pictures with a real camera. It's been so long. My studio is getting the finishing touches this week. It feels like forever.
Here is a partial view of the room.
The big window is called an egress window. In PA all houses with basements built after a certain year have to be built with a way to exit other than using the staircase to go up. I have another smaller window on the adjacent wall. Lots of light. My last studio was constructed as a darkroom - literally - and that's what it was. There was no light at all other than artificial. This will be interesting to see how and if I incorporate the light into my work.
Yes, the black and white floor was intentional as it is exactly how I did the flooring in my darkroom years ago.
Yesterday I finished redressing the last Fashion Royalty doll. They were the most time consuming of all dolls to redress and display. I did lots of body swapping as I'm tending to like the slimmer bodies of the Monogram dolls for some of my FR.
Here are some random display pics from last night.
My current crop of Eugenias.
Another gorgeous Vanessa.
She's been on display in our bedroom this past week.
Silkies are the best for displaying early Fashion Royalty fashions.
Poor thing is still naked. I'm not loving her.
Only a few Gene dolls left to dress.
The only Agnes (left) I have kept out of all of them.
In this and the next two photos are some of my older FR dolls. Several have been re-rooted and all have been re-bodied. Dress on the right is a Huckleberry Jackson.
The Kyori on the right is one of the very few dolls I own that has never been redressed. She was the last Atelier doll.
I love my Mini Avantguard dolls.
Somehow Liz doesn't belong.
What a serious waste of money this doll was. I hate her hair. Her outfit is cheap. Only the sculpt is nice.
She has been transferred to one of Angelic Dreamz demi-Jamieshow bodies. If I could, I'd put all my Silkstone dolls on these articulated, BJD bodies. They are fabulous.
Currently I have two Dynamite Dolls. That's more than I usually have. The girl dolls' clothes are from Clear Lan. Boots on left are Azone. Green handbag is Purse of the Month from a while back.
I purchased the outfit from the Kesenia "Your Kind of Model" doll after seeing IRL pictures. The doll's vampire mouth still doesn't appeal to me, but the outfit is wonderful.
The base dress is a pastel pink strappy cocktail sheath and will stand alone as a lovely garment. It's beautifully designed and constructed. The over dress is sheer black with silver and black embroidery.
The shoes are too small for FR2 feet but they are also nicely designed.
My model is a re-rooted True Royalty Vanessa who is sporting an FR2
body. I had to 'tie' the straps on the pink dress to make the bodice
smaller for this body.
It comes with silver colored jewelry (earrings, bracelet and ring) an
embroidered handbag with a magnetic closure and a faux fur jacket.
That's a lot of fashion and well worth it.
Huck announced the debut of his new line which goes on sale today at 9PM CET Central European Time. I believe that is a 6 hour difference from eastern time. They would be 6 hours ahead. So 9PM CET = 3 PM EST.
Here is a group shot showing some of the offerings.
Explaining that he is so happy to own these dolls now, he designed an outfit specifically for each doll as opposed to creating a thematic presentation. http://www.huckleberryjackson.com/shop/
