Surprise Announcement! New Tulabelle Collection

They weren't going to say the reason Tullabelle got a new sculpt was because she had ridiculous duck lips.

Before

After

So they said she needed to age a bit as it would give them more fashion options and choices.

The face lift was not as much of a surprise as was the entire announcement. I'm somewhat out of the loop and rarely read the W Club stuff. However, I did notice that there was a teaser post recently.  It was posted the day after an entire thread concerning Veronique's polka dot gown was deleted by the W Club police. Good diversion. Did it work?

  If not, perhaps this will work:  

Starting with this totally radical collection, Tulabelle is ready to face the world like never before with a new, more mature look, created especially for you!

That's really nice of them. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

The new sculpt is a huge improvement and the entire collection is interesting, varied and contains unusual accessories.

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There are four different dressed dolls each sporting a $150. price tag.

Idol Thoughts

Love the shoes!
This version would have been cool as a basic doll for a lower price...no jacket, no ill-fitting pants...
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Fashion Saga

Very interesting fabric treatment on jacket and skirt. Again, I love the shoes! She's got a Katy Keene hairstyle.

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Sweet Tartan

When I first saw this outfit I wanted it. It's very cute. The veil and the silver envelope clutch, meh. But the boots, the sweater and the navy top are definitely keepers. I'd have to see the tights in person before deciding.
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Mod*ern Love

This outfit leaves me cold except for the shoes (again) and the wonderful purse. I love them! 
The rest is Barbie-Poppy Parker super-sized.
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Wicked & Divine

Fun! Her hair is delightful. It's the same hair style that a Jamieshow doll sported a few years ago. I like seeing these unusual non-hair-bump styles especially when they're done properly. It remains to be seen as to whether the workers will be able to reproduce this look correctly. 
A problem I see is the ill-fitting shorts. This same bad fit is seen above on the Idol Thoughts doll. Someone has to redraft the pattern for a proper fit.

Didn't Tulabelle have her own body previously or was she on the teen Poppy body all along?

Reminder:
*Please note that the dolls unveiled today are prototypes and the final production dolls, colors and fabrics may vary slightly. Note that these are all 16-inch tall fashion dolls and are not in 1/6 scale.

Visit to the Tonner Store

When I lived in Woodstock, NY, it was a 15 minute drive to the Tonner store. Now, it takes about 3 hours and doesn't happen very often. This past Saturday was the first time I've seen the store since it moved to Wall St. in Kingston.
It's always fun to spend time chatting with Dr. Noreen. We could talk for hours and cure all the world's ills.
For those that don't know my story with Noreen, here it is. It was 14 or 15 years ago when I went to my first Tonner trunk sale. It was held out-of-doors at the old building on Lucas Avenue. I was really just beginning my collecting as I had accumulated a few Tiny Kitty dolls prior to then. I saw 16" Tylers, Emmes and a few others for the first time that day and met Noreen. She predicted what was to come as far as my collecting would go. Who knew? It's a very fond memory.

These are iPhone pictures. Please remember that you can click to enlarge them.
Enjoy!

You can see all of the current lines Tonner Doll Company offers here:
http://www.tonnerdoll.com/shop-collections

Tonner Archive:  http://www.tonnerdoll.com/archive

New Ficondoll "Lacvert"

For those collectors who are going to try for the new Ficondoll Lacvert, the time zone conversion is often confusing. The sales begin on September 8 at 6:00 AM Korea time. That translates to Monday September 7 at 5:00 PM EDT. (New York, PA, etc.) Price and edition size of Lacvert will be posted on the Ficon site at that time.

 ficondoll website:www.ficondoll.com

Our ultra-talented friend Cholo Ayuyao has photographed this platinum-haired beauty.

Lacvert is a wigged, resin 16.5 inch BJD.
More photos may be seen here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/101279871@N08/
I want that gown!


UPDATE:

"Lacvert" 

dressed doll
LE 30

$670

 

"Lacvert" has a new sculpt and pierced ears.

 

"Lacvert" includes doll, gown, earrings, wig, shoes, doll stand.

(not including extra hands parts and dressing ball parts.)

 

gown: poly-silk printed Chinese blue plate pattern

 

makeup: K

outfit: Rhi

wig: Chewin

shoes: Sherry

photo: Cholo

 

We can ship her in 40 days.

 

In-between a Rock and a Hard Place

"The polka dots are completely mismatched around top, middle and bottom of the dress. The dots are misaligned, droop far too low on the left side and it's only accentuated by the black trim."

Browsing a doll forum today I came across the above comment by a very disappointed collector who had received doll dress in a giftset for which he paid $225.
He rightly believes that the dress should have been "impeccably" made for that price. I get the feeling he hasn't been around that long because of this expectation but he is, nevertheless, correct.

The dress in question is seen above.

Royal Treatment Véronique Perrin™ Dressed Doll Gift Set The Fashion Royalty® Collection 2015 Online Event Exclusive Limited Edition Size: TBA (Edition Size Based on Orders Received) Estimated Ship Date: Approximately Fall 2015

The set came with this dress as well:

Apparently the belt was made too small because many collectors are having difficulty fitting it onto the doll.


All of it:

 Wouldn't it be better to have one high quality item rather than two poor quality items?

Blogger "Desperately Seeking Dolls" states:

"I believe IT missed an opportunity here.  It wouldn't have been a major cost to include another pair of shoes, some hose, better jewelry (including a pin for the coat), and a hat.  That would've tipped the scale.  I believe the Royal Treatment is a lovely doll, but they overcharged for a gift set that wasn't executed well.  It's left a bad taste in the mouths of their loyal collectors."

But that's not the point of this post.

My question is what is a proper return policy? If the manufacturer cannot provide a properly made item, should you get your money back? Can they tell you that all the polka dot dresses are made that way and there are no replacements and no refunds? Should they give you a token credit to use towards a future product?

This was a direct-from-Integrity-Toys-item-not available-through-dealers,  although some dealers have some for sale. The issue a collector could face if this were a dealer product would be that the dealer could get annoyed. We don't want to mess with our dealers, do we? Ahem.

So are we between a rock and a hard place or is there another way to demand appropriate quality for money spent?

From Kingdom Doll: Two Outfits with Accessories

These two adorable, casual outfits will go on sale on Friday, September 4, 2015 at 6PM Britain Time.
That's 1:00 PM here on the East Coast of the US.
The blue "Bobby" comes with sweater, jeans, boots, handbag and water bottle, compact and lipstick replicas. $185. US
The red "The Guard" comes with another cute sweater, denim short skirt, boots, handbag and the same accessories as Bobby. $175. US

I'm going to get Bobby as I will have more use for the jeans than the short skirt. I'd like both pairs of boots but a girl can't have everything.

Link to Kingdom Doll store

Introducing the Second 2015 W Club Exclusive Doll

Yesterday W Club members received a preview and opportunity to order the second W Club doll.
Her sculpt is that of Vanessa 1.0 which was verified today as yesterday they told us she was 3.0.
Her price is $130 plus s&h. Members can use their $20. coupon only towards the final payment, not the deposit.

She's called "Black-Tie Ball" and the edition number will be equal to the amount of club members ordering her which means it will probably be somewhere over 1,000. There are 1,978 memberships. Not particularly exclusive, but I get it.

Here is the text describing her:

Vanessa Perrin has been invited to be the official Master of Ceremonies of one of Europe's most talked about events and she's absolutely thrilled about it! Ready to be the perfect stage host, Vanessa will surely steal the spotlight from the firmament of stars in attendance!
Vanessa is a 12.5-inch fully articulated vinyl fashion doll with beautiful platinum hair that is gorgeously styled, yet perfect if you wish to create your own looks! Her gown is intricately detailed with elaborate corset detailing and shows just enough leg to drive Vanessa's admirers wild! Complete with shoes, a lovely jewelry set and a doll stand. For adult collectors ages 15 and up.

While I'm a lover of the original Vanessa sculpt, this gal does nothing for me. I do not like her makeup and the dress looks pedestrian and ill-fitting in the bodice and bust area. I do not see "elaborate corset detailing" as they say exists. The horizontal seam looks like it goes right across the fullest part of the bust. Something is off.

These earlier Fashion Royalty items do have elaborate corset detail:

This new dress does not have it.
I detest phony hype from any company. Collectors are not blind. However, many are driven by the collective crowd mentality and the belief that a W Club exclusive is special.

She's pretty and there is nothing special about her which is sad because club members should be offered the best of the best.


I must add that these Integrity Toys photographs are of the prototype and "final production colors and textures may vary slightly."