Some personal stuff.

Several of my regular readers have contacted me saying that they miss my almost daily posts to my blog. I want to share the following information with them.

In early 2016 I was handed a serious illness. The surgery, recovery and ensuing treatment took almost the entire year. Thanks to the good health care I received, I am fine now.  As some of you certainly know, one's feeling about mortality changes dramatically after an illness that could be fatal. You just never know.

During that time my collecting and attitudes changed and on top of that, we got a new puppy. My main focus was not on my blog and that attitude has continued.

I post often on my Facebook blog with announcements and random artist's photographs and I link to this blog when I make a major post here.

I realize that some of you don't read Facebook. Smart move. That's a whole other addiction.

When it comes to my own photography and my own activities at events, I continue posting here.
For example:

Kingdom Doll Liberty wearing a creation made by YumYum Couture.

Kingdom Doll Arnamentia models the cocktail length version of Eye Candy by YumYum Couture

I appreciate all of your support in the past and now. To those of you who nominated me for best blog this year, I thank you. I declined the nomination as winning in 2015 caused more trouble than I care to deal with. I'm not going away. I still answer many questions personally when I receive them.

HUGS to all of you!

Superdoll Presents Davincia

DAVINCIA DD_112

The Grande Madam of Tatami.

Venus rules the miniature chashitsu created for them in the London Salon.

It's like a Harajuku Pyjama party, Venus hair is a blend of muted blondes and nudes, with symmetric double topknot, the back twisting into the nape of her neck and the front perching upon her crown.

Her eyes surrounded in shades of caramel and charcoal with lids bearing a stroke of muted vanilla, solid black liner and arched pitch-black brows. Her piercing steel grey eyes are offset with granite. Lips the colour of cameo.

A floor-length satin 'dressing gown' piped in black satin bears pockets and tie belt is worn beneath her patent black; gilt studded lace-up corselet.

She slips off her gown to reveal a flirty black lace bra top and a pair of illusion corded black lace trousers....of course.

Maybe just a small hint as to just what kind of pyjama party this tea party is going to be!

Furthermore, she wears a black satin and lace fan to accent this nude and black combo. On her feet, nude ankle socks, fiendish 2 tone platform sole sandals in gloss gold PVC with ankle straps and oodles of fab.

As winters chill sets in, naturally Venus knows best.

Let the Games begin!

Clone: 1000 Venus d'Royce

Skintone: COSMETIQUE

Of course, she comes with the following standard accessories:

-manic_cure hands (see booklet for hand change instructions)

-booklet

-stand

In stock and ready to be delivered

Price: £259.75 

(Excluding VAT at 20%)

I like this doll a lot but I'm trying to be thrifty. Hahaha. We'll see how long that lasts.

The British Pound is at it's lowest value in years. Great value for the $.

Nigel Chia's Asian Sculpt Debuts

Nigel Chia has sent out an announcement about his new doll, Stella. 

Nigel's website is interesting to browse. Besides learning about his dolls and the doll fashions that he designs and sells, you can see the fashions and accessories he has designed for humans.

http://www.nigelchia.com/product/le25-stella-demuse-doll/

Announcement from Superdoll Collectables

Superdoll sent out this notice today to their mailing list (without the picture.)

As this is our first notice of 2017, we would like to start off by wishing everyone a wonderful and Happy New Year.Reflecting back on they year just gone, we here at superdoll_collectables have had a busy and exciting year. Our production facilities on the orient have seen major changes and we have been working full steam to prepare for the year ahead. Our 2016 special events have raised more than an just eyebrow and our Plans for 2017 are as exciting.

We are looking very much forward to Paris Fashion Doll Festival where we will host our Friday Night Cocktail party 10 March. We are once again very inspired by the festival theme and also a return to our Resin Sybarites for this event.

http://www.dollexpo.fr/Furthermore we are thrilled to be returning to the USA this year and look forward to the wonderful event that Drama Queen Productions will be putting on for the Sybarites in New Orleans on18, 19, 20 May. Registration has now opened for this event, please check out the details at www.dramaqueenproductions.net the commemorative doll for this event will also be Resin, and also includes an optional VIP package. Very Exciting!
Our London October Event has a tentative date set, we are just awaiting confirmation on venues. We will be sure to confirm as soon as possible.

On another note, our plans for this year also include the introduction of 2 new characters to our GenX line in addition to the incomparable clone 1000. But enough about that! Lets get on to the present.....

Our AW/2016 collection "Kinky Look" has one last surprise as we wallow in the winter cold.

(we will be sure to send out a flyer separately)

DAVINCIA.GenX clone 1000.

 On Sale 25 January 2017

In closing we would also like to wish all our Asian customers a Prosperous Year of the Rooster.

Till Later

C&D and all here @ S.D.H.Q.

____

I can't wait to see what Davincia.GenX looks like!

Some New Photos

It's been a very busy January occupied with the monthly thinning and selling of my collection excesses, putting away holiday decorations and binge watching House of Cards. That show is irresistible, addictive and oddly realistic these days. I'll say no more.
The new Kingdom Doll Lancelot arrived. He came only with underwear and a wig. I'm glad I had another male wig that fits him as I was not fond of the style wig he came with. I'm trying to restyle it but it has so much stiffener, I'm not sure I'll be able to. I have to do some research on that.
Evan is the next Kinsman on the menu but I did not pre-order him. At this time, including Lance, I have only three resin male BJDs. I've invested in wigs and fashions for the Jamieshow and Deva but I don't play with them at all. I'm hoping to sell Angelo. Although he is gorgeous, I'll let someone else enjoy him.

Here is Lance and Guinevere. I've been told that Matt O'Neill's shoes will fit Lancelot. In the meantime, a dog is keeping his feet warm.

Guinevere's skirt (kilt) is from an Integrity Toys' Homme outfit! Apparently, most of the shirts and shoes fit the Kingdom Dolls. I wish they'd make sweaters. I have loads of Homme clothes. Gotta find the time and motivation to try them on.

As far as Lance's outfit, it's from the Camelot event last October. I thought it would be too large for Lance as he's smaller than the original Kinsman dolls. It fits perfectly. I had one heck of a time getting the shirt on. I had to remove his hands and put it on with his arms extended straight up in the air. The slacks and jacket seem as if they were made for him.

Here is Michigan Avenue Alejandro, a Jamieshow doll. He is wearing the outfit from the first Jamieshow event, Prohibition, which was held in Canandaigua, NY in 2012.

It's a beautiful fashion with great attention to detail. The tailoring is top notch. I would be thrilled if all doll clothing were this quality. Really!

Until next time....

Collecting 2016: The Best and the Rest

This has been a very interesting year in my collecting. I've cut way back on my 12" doll purchases and forged full steam ahead with my 16" BJD collection.
Most of my dolly funds went for Superdoll, designer fashions, wigs and Kingdom Doll. Other purchases were scattered amongst Integrity Toys, Mattel and Tonner.

___________________________________________

Mattel wins the award for a good idea but failed execution with regards to its articulated Silkstone. The first release, Classic Black Dress Barbie® Doll, was a huge disappointment. The finish of the Silkstone seams and joints was poor. The dress was seriously cheap-looking. There was no quality at all.

I did buy two other Silkstone dolls this year but I think I'm going to stop. Glam Gown has a pretty face, a nice hairstyle and in the promotional photo, her gown looks lovely. Unfortunately, IRL,  the fabric is stiff and doesn't drape well. Too bad.

Stiff As A Board Barbie

  

In my not so humble opinion, the best doll Mattel produced in 2016 was The Barbie Look™ Barbie® Doll – Party Perfect. 
She has an articulated body, a cute hairdo, a decent face and an adorable outfit. AND...she actually looks like the promo picture! Shocking. Compared to my other dolls she cost near to nothing and she's just a delight so it didn't matter that the "accessories" were garbage. 
I have a very eclectic collection which contains dolls costing less than $20 up to $1000. I buy what I like.

Each of the Barbie dolls shows Mattel's promotional photo alongside or underneath.

The best Barbie outfit came on Hudson's Bay Barbie although I did change the boots and the body, got rid of the crummy handbag and somehow lost the hat while I was holding it. I can't explain that phenomenon. She was originally on the boring Model Muse body which I can't abide. 

This outfit is so cutesy and matchy with it's dress, coat, doll coat, coffee cup and cell phone all clad in the signature Hudson Bay stripe. The fact that they included a poodle didn't hurt either.

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Integrity Toys wins the award for abandoned doll lines and dolls which are indistinguishable from toys. However, there were some that appealed to me from the very small Fashion Royalty line.

I purchased only three dressed dolls and one fashion from Integrity in 2016. I did buy quite a few designer fashions from individuals not connected with IT.

Anika Luxotika uses the Dasha sculpt and I loved everything about her such as the interchangeable robotic body parts and the strange, far away look on her face. 

Culte de Paris made the edgy fashion she is wearing in the third photo. She'll be wearing it for a very long time.

Fashionista Eugenia was my one bow to the 2016 Integrity convention. The designer dress and the beautiful Eugenia with her red/orange chalcedony color hair and full red lips are very attractive to me.

The third IT doll is Marie Laveau from the television series American Horror Story. She is played by Angela Bassett and there is a decent resemblance to her. Basically, I just really liked her hair and the outfit is cute and well constructed. Below, on the right, is an older Mini Avantguard doll whose body is quite slim. The bodysuit fits her, too.

While I'm sure Integrity has an audience with it's Jem and My Little Pony lines, the grown-ups are not going to be around for long, hungering for the scraps they feed us. I joined the W Club at its inception and the exclusives were all Fashion Royalty dolls. I may not have loved every one of them but at least I had choices from dolls I actually collected. Someone posted the number of dolls produced this year for all the lines and Fashion Royalty totaled only about 10%.

Below are two dolls I'd expect to find in an 8-year-old's room, manufactured by Mattel and priced very low.

I don't want to have to wear sunglasses to look at my dolls. 

But everything changes and all companies do what it takes to stay in business and stay relevant. I still love the 100 or so FR dolls I've kept and updated (and keep updating).

Sadly, many of the bodies, even the newer FR2 bodies, have deteriorating joints. Lots of them are now sitting down. 

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Rudi Teruel has been selling limited edition designer fashions. They're mostly for 12" dolls.

Here are some of my favorites of this past year.

When you stop buying doll after doll, it's appealing to freshen up your collection with new fashions.

From left to right, my models are Dasha, Elise, Elise and Marie.

And my dear friend, Antonio Realli, keeps them coming

These are two of his fashions for 12" dolls. Several more will be shown on 16" dolls further on in this post. 

Superdoll is putting out a lot of product. There are no shortage of GENX dolls and any collector who logs into their site at about 11 AM EST, on the date previously announced, can find the doll. They don't disappear in very short periods of time like the popular resin dolls used to. Some are even available for 24  hours or more! 

My absolute favorite Superdoll item from 2016 was an outfit called Blue Duke. The styling is trendy. There are lots of pieces - blouse, sweater, pants and jacket, handbag, boots and two bracelets. I love it. 

Miss Chief modeling Blue Duke:

Two other fashions from 2016 which are charming are Glitter Tit and Moon Mood.  

Forest modeling Mood Mood:

Star modeling Glitter Tit:

It's very useful that Kingdom Doll can wear so many outfits made for dolls from other manufacturers. 

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Kingdom Doll

I added eight dolls to my collection of Kingdom Dolls this past year. Morgana was a surprise as she was the centerpiece at my table during the convention. I was stunned that I won the chance to purchase her. She has become my favorite with Guinevere and Draig following closely behind. 

Morgana in her original fashion. 

Here Morgana is wearing a confection of a gown by Nigel Chia.

Guinevere in her original fashion.

Draig wearing her original fashion.

I mentioned above that several designer fashions have found their way into my collection.

Liberty wearing another Nigel Chia.

Here are Star and Viola modeling Antonio Realli fashions. 

One of my favorite photos I shot this year was this Halloween picture of Viola wearing a Tonner witch ensemble.

A big challenge for me was not to completely rely on my iPhone camera as it is my lazy way to go. Every now and then the phone did quite well and produced a worthy image. But the opposite is way more common. I had an excuse for several months but, thank goodness, that's over and now we'll be getting down to business. I hope.

Big news this year was Tonner's announcement that all of his proprietary lines (i.e. Tyler, Ellowyne, Marley, Cami, Antoinette, Deja Vu) are being discontinued as is the Tonner Doll Company and Wilde Imagination. He is forming a new company and will call it Phyn & Aero. (See my post dated 12/22/16.) They will be continuing with the licensed dolls and we'll see Outlander. Yay. You better believe I want Jamie in a kilt. Tonner can do excellent reproductions of costumes and hopefully we'll get a Scottish one as shown in this photo of Jamie below. This is what he wore in the wedding episode in the television series. 

The bad news this year was the discovery that decal eyes were being used on several of Integrity's dolls. The controversy and invective on the W Club board was like a typhoon. Many threads were ultimately deleted. Come to think of it, that's the regular practice of the Admins now. They delete any thread that has major criticism about the dolls. 

Collectors PAY to be there. I don't think deleting controversial threads is right. Some individual abusive posts ought to be deleted but not entire threads. That is just downright disrespectful of their clients, especially when they are paying to be part of a community. 

If it were free I'd say that it's visiting their living room and they can do whatever they want as it's their 'home.'  

But that's just my opinion. Collectors can speak with their wallets. Money is what companies understand - the bottom line is what they pay attention to. 

The other news is Haute Doll Magazine has folded. 

I wish all my readers the best New Year ever. May we all be abundant with good health, happiness and love. May we have the pleasure of beautiful dolls and fashions. May we enjoy each other's success.

Happy 2017!!

Sincerely,