Fabulous Facets BBQ 2016

Are you ready for another fabulous Facets BBQ??

I'm inviting area doll collectors (and any traveling ones) to come to my house in Matawan, NJ for a BBQ and doll party on Sunday, September 11th starting at noon.

Matawan is in central NJ, near exit 117a of the Garden State Parkway. It is easily accessible by NJ Transit trains from NYC or Newark.

It will be like the previous BBQs with lots of people, food, dolls, sales, and more, but there are a few changes, so please read on...

I'll provide all of the food, and there is a cover charge of $17 per person and it must be paid in advance by PayPal (to applefrien@aol.com) or you can send me a check or give me cash if you see me beforehand.  Payment is required no later than Wednesday, September 7th in order to get an accurate head counting for food shopping.

I'll have a sales area set up in my basement - space is on a first-come basis and is limited. If you are planning to bring things to sell, please let me know so I can estimate how much space is needed per person and try to get enough shelving/tables to accommodate. If you've been here before, you know the set-up. If you haven't been here before and want to sell, email me for more info. Of course, Facets will be set up for shopping, too :-)

In addition to shopping, we'll have door prizes, the infamous "free table", and lots of dolls to look at.

The "free table" is a table of doll related items that are extras, slightly used, unwanted, etc... It's a good way to get rid of those items that you think someone might want and you don't feel like putting on eBay. If you have some things you'd like to put in, bring them. However, if no one takes them, you have to take them back or throw them out - they can't stay here! If you want to mail donations, LMK and I'll give you the address. I've already gotten some amazing things mailed to me!

If you want to see what the Free Table is like, check out pictures and Paul's video from last year:
http://facetsbymarcia.com/BBQ2015.htm

Feel free to bring a doll for display. I don't have a theme - bring a favorite, a new acquisition, something you want to show off, whatever.

Contributions to the door prizes are appreciated.

If you need a place to stay in this area, I recommend the Woodbridge Hilton. It's about 20 minutes north of here and is more reasonably priced and nicer than the few hotels in the immediate area. If you are looking for travel mates or roommates, LMK and I'll try to help.

I hope you can make it to the party - it's a day of great fun, great dolls and great people :-) Email me to RSVP or ask questions. When you email me, I would appreciate it if you could put "BBQ" somewhere in the subject so I can sort out those emails.

Marcia
www.facetsbymarcia.com

P.S. If you know someone who might like to come to the BBQ and that hasn't gotten an invitation, please let me know and I'll invite them.

The above invitation is from Marcia except for the bunny cartoon which is my addition, :-)

Arnamentia: Kingdom Doll's 2nd Atelier de Royume Doll

Introducing the second of Kingdom Doll’s Atelier de Royume collection.
Named after the ancient British Goddess of flowing water, spiritual healing and purification, it is said that in times of despondency or peril Arnamentia offers renewal of the mind, body and soul.

Featuring the limited edition head sculpt Brigantes, this highly anticipated doll is dressed in a stunning hand crafted piece of miniature couture created exclusively for Kingdom Doll by our bead atelier extraordinaire, the talented Priya Desu Bohra. Ever fashion forward, our goddess has paired her exquisite jacket with wet look black leggings and gladiator style sandals.

Arnamentia’s raven hair is cut in a sharp bob framing her pale water sapphire eyes which are accented with intense shadows of aqua, turquoise and darkest peacock blue. Her makeup palette was designed to echo the goddess’s key element, water, from shallow streams to the deepest oceans.

Also accompanying the doll is a stand, pair of hands on the hip pose hands, single bag pose hand and pale pink dressing hands/balls.

Arnamentia is priced at $895 plus shipping and will be sold at 6 p.m. BST (British Summer Time) on Saturday 20th August. Ltd Edition 25 worldwide.

As with our previous Atelier de Royume doll, Arnamentia will be sold via email to kingdomdoll@yahoo.co.uk . The opportunity to purchase her will be offered to every 5th email until she is sold out, i.e. email 5, 10, 15, 20 etc.  Please only send your emails at the allotted time and date as those sent before will unfortunately not be counted.

Please only send one email per person, multiples will not be counted and merely make the process of identifying those able to purchase so much slower! Unfortunately we will only be able to send replies to those lucky customers.

Please do note that Arnamentia's resin does photograph lighter than her actual resin colour in hand. The resin is our NEW casting of Celtic Oak the original resin used on Brigantia.

KINGDOM DOLL STORE


We would like to thank you for your continued support.
Sending you all our love from the British Isles

Alexandra, Amanda and Sarannah
Kingdom Doll
 

The above is printed in its entirety from Kingdom Doll's announcement.

6:00 P.M. British Summer Time (BST) is  1:00 P.M.  Eastern Daylight Time in Pennsylvania.  See the time zone converter in the right-hand column on the blog.

Sybarite GenX Dalston

I'm pleased to report that Dalston does not have the serious knee joint overlap issue that several other of my GenX dolls have had.  I am awaiting a replacement for Bethnal who arrived back in London the other day.

It looks like one has to get lucky when it comes to getting a properly made doll.

Dalston's outfit is adorable. The mix of colors is very pleasing to me. In order to get her bra to stay up, I put a few stitches across the two straps in the back. I urge extreme caution putting her shoes on as they are not the easiest fit and I did, in spite of being very careful, pull the end of one strap off. Happily, it just sets there without being noticeable.

SISTER MOGULS AGNES VON WEISS and GISELLE DIEFENDORF™ DUO-DOLLS GIFT SET

The Second W Club Exclusive of 2016 was revealed to members yesterday. 

Here are the [simplified] specs from the email announcement:

Sister Moguls: Agnes Von Weiss™ and Giselle Diefendorf™ Duo-Doll Gift Set

The Fashion Royalty Collection 2016 W Club Exclusive

Limited Edition Size: TBA

Estimated Ship Date: Late 2016

Special W Club Price: $199.00 + Shipping, Handling and Applicable Sales Tax*. 

Head Sculpt: Agnes Von Weiss™ and Giselle Diefendorf™

Body Type: FR2013 (Agnes) and NU. Face 2.0 (Giselle)

Skin Tone: Cream (Agnes) and Japan (Giselle)

Hair Color: Pale Blond (Both Dolls)

Eyelashes: Yes, Hand Applied

Baroness Agnes Von Weiss™ and her younger sister Giselle Diefendorf™ are 12.5-inch fully articulated vinyl fashion dolls with long, matching pale blond ponytails and hand-applied eyelashes... Agnes takes the lead in a perfectly form fitting, see-through lace gown designed by her talented sister Giselle, who assembled her own look from pieces of Von Weiss' latest runway looks! ... comes in an exclusively designed carry case package for safekeeping! A new double-doll stand and a numbered certificate of authenticity is also included. For adult collectors ages 15 and up.

**Pictures of prototypes shown below; final production colors and textures may vary slightly. Any staging props are not included. Case and doll stand pictures are digitally rendered; final production may vary slightly.**

___________________________

I cannot tell who is who. Agnes should have a very sour look on her face and yet they look the same.  The dolls do have different body types and different vinyl tones.

The dual stand is interesting but not a reason to buy.

My favorite thing about this set is their hair style.  

Least favorite - everything else.

Integrity Toys' Response to Questions Regarding the Use of Decals

W Club members received a carefully worded statement about the use of decals in an email yesterday. It is more notable for the information that has been left out than for what has been included. 
All I had to do was Google "water slide decal" and the information was right there. The following is from Wikipedia:

 Water slide decals (or slip decals) are water-mounted decals generally printed face up and rely on the dextrose corn sugar residue from the decal paper to bond the decal transfer to a surface. A water-based adhesive layer can be added to the decal to create a stronger bond or may be placed between layers of lacquer to create a durable decal transfer. The paper also has a layer of glucose film added prior to the dextrose layer which give it the adhesion properties, the Dextrose layer give the decal (lubricity) the ability to slide off the paper and onto the substrate.

Water slide decals are thinner than many other decorative techniques (such as vinyl stickers) and as they are printed, they can be produced to a very high level of detail. As such, they are popular in craft areas such as scale modeling, as well as for labeling DIY electronics devices, such as guitar pedals.
Until recently, water slide decals were professionally printed and only available in supplied designs, but with the advent of printable decal paper for colour inkjet and laser printers, custom decals can now be produced by the hobbyist or small business.

 Source: Wikipedia Water slide Decal.

There are plenty of instructional videos on Youtube for making and applying your own.
 
I also found out that I can print my own water slide decals on paper readily available for home printers. So all this language  "the test was sent to a new partner we have overseas who recreated the shapes for us in vector format and from that, tiny waterslide decals are generated. " just means it's made in China.

Here is the text from the IT email. 

Many of our astute fans have commented online that there was something different about the eyes of two of IT's recent dolls; Anika Luxottica and the W Club Upgrade Vanessa Perrin.  We can confirm that those observations are correct; we are using a new technique to improve eye consistency.

Based on the ongoing feedback that the team has received expressing concerns about sometimes subtle or pronounced balance issues with the screening on various dolls, IT is currently testing a new water slide application method for their doll eyes that will eventually eradicate this issue completely.

This relatively new method has been around for a little while now and is being used by more and more companies in the industry. The W Club Liaisons sat down with Alain Tremblay to ask about this new, promising method to address some of the concerns that we read online... read on!

W Club Liaisons: Alain, thank you for taking the time to get back to us. The Anika Luxottica doll that was unveiled at IFDC is a huge hit with fans and everyone was impressed with her, especially her edgy facial screening. Can you please elaborate a little more about the technique that was used to create this screening?

Alain T.: Thank you, I'm glad everyone loved this girl; I had a blast designing her! The new technique is actually really interesting! We decided to test it out on her first and then, Vanessa since Anika's eyes are so detailed and different than the other dolls that we've done in the last few years. To achieve this new look, Jessy Ayala and I collaborated to create her initial makeup look, then the test was sent to a new partner we have overseas who recreated the shapes for us in vector format and from that, tiny waterslide decals are generated.

WCL: Is the entire makeup on Anika and Vanessa applied using this technique?

AT: The technique we are developing could basically be called a "hybrid application method" if you'd like. Only the eyes (outline, white, iris, pupils and "catch light" dots") themselves are applied this way, since those are the most complicated/multi layered segments that are on any doll's face. The rest, i.e., the lips, eyebrows and eye-shadow layers are sprayed using the traditional mask and airbrush technique first, before the eyes and eyelashes are applied on top. This way, the eyes will be balanced, since generating these shapes in vector art is more precise than spraying the entire screening in multiple-layers the traditional way.

WCL: Is this new method durable? Will the eyes come off easily? Many are concerned about this.

AT: Once applied, the water slides are sealed with a topcoat, so yes, it is perfectly secured and should not be any different from the traditional mask layer doll eyes. Of course, it goes without saying that using alcohol, acetone or heavy scrubbing will damage the paint on any doll. Common sense applies.

...

WCL: What other IT dolls sport this new method?

AT: At the moment, only Anika Luxottica and the Upgrade Vanessa have it, but a few of the upcoming dolls in the 2016 FR Collection will also be created using this new, cutting-edge method.

WCL: Alain, thank you for taking the time to explain this to us and we look forward to what new exciting things the team will be able to create using this method!

Let's be clear, waterslide decals have been around for a very, very long time. It is not a "relatively new method." Decals are used in many other industries and are extremely durable.  I'm fairly certain that the tattoos used on a series of Sybarite Dolls are waterslide decals. (Gothica (not shown), Neurotica and Toxica.)

Tonner's Zombie Boy  - this had to be mostly applied decals. In this Tonner photo below, left, one can see the edge of the applied decal on the forehead.

Water slide decals are different from ordinary decals and stickers:

Different variations of decals include: water-slide or water-dip; and vinyl peel-and-stick. A water-slide (or water-dip) decal is screen-printed on a layer of water-soluble adhesive on a water-resistant paper, that must first be dipped in water prior to its application.
Upon contact with water, the glue is loosened and the decal can be removed from its backing; overlong exposure, however, dissolves the glue completely causing the decal to fail to adhere. A peel-and-stick decal is actually not a decal as described above, but a vinyl sticker with adhesive backing, that can be transferred by peeling off its base. The sign industry calls these peel-and-stick vinyl stickers vinyl-cut-decals.

Source: Wikipedia "Decal"

Source: eBay Auction

  ______________________________

IMO (as always) the bottom line is that decals, used appropriately and according to need on dolls, can result in excellent effects.  If used just to make it easier for a factory to get things right...well, that's another story.
Those of us who were Fashion Royalty collectors from the beginning know the difference. 
Here are a few early Adeles and Veroniques. No decals, no lashes, just nicely painted faces. Everything changes. Most of us hope that things will get better along the way. This is an expensive hobby. It's a luxury and the dolls must match up to the high standards collectors are paying for.

Click to enlarge.

Review: Dasha as Anika Luxoticca

In spite of all the hoopla over the use of decal eyes instead of paint, I like this doll.  As I said previously, I never would have known about the decals if another collector hadn't told me. It's not a pleasing thought but if they continue using the decals, I certainly would expect to know in advance so I can make an informed decision about whether to buy or not.

My doll has a few issues. The arrow is pointing to a line on her hair that was created during the styling in the factory. I'm definitely not asking for a replacement because from what I've seen, I might get something worse. In her hair is a very nice silver clasp. I love the profile look.

I could not remove one of her legs but I'm sure that if I warm it up, it will come off. In the photo below, she is wearing her cyborg limbs. They are very cool. I would have liked Cyborg hands as well.

Anika's hair bump is uneven. That bothers me more than anything. I hate hair bumps.

Her dress is very slim-fitting and the fabric is strangely stiff. Enclosed with the doll was a packet of extra silver embellishments.

Her jewelry is silver-toned with stones that resemble opals. She came with earrings, a bracelet and a ring.  Her heels have a techno pattern which fits right in with the theme.