Mattel's New "Ever After High" Dolls

Too much of a good thing is............................wonderful!
Following Monster High's great success, Mattel has come up with a similarly sized line of dolls called Ever After High. The characters are the children of fairy tale parents with their own painful,  teenage high school issues 
 
Quoting from the SDCC Unofficial Blog:

The premise of the show is similar to Monster High, where the kids of famous fairytale parents attend high school and face a dilemma. Instead of the notion of fitting in like in Monster High, the fairytale tweens are faced with the burden of either following or not following their famous parents footsteps. So are you a Royal or a Rebel (We’re suddenly having flashbacks of West Side Story)?  Whichever side you favor, this should provide an interesting twist as most will associate anything fairytale related with a Disney storyline.

 I think these dolls will capture the hearts of MH lovers everywhere.

Click here to see several brief videos.

About Opinions

David Pogue writes a very popular tech blog in the New York Times. Last week he reviewed the new Flickr interface and according to this week's post he received feedback from many readers who were offended by his opinion.

He wrote:

To me, it seems that some people fundamentally don’t understand the function of a critic. Drama critics, movie critics, restaurant critics, music critics, tech critics — all of us, it seems to me — are hired specifically to present our opinions.

I would never describe my weekly columns as “news stories,” even if there’s sometimes a news element. They are reviews meant to guide readers toward products that, in my opinion, are good or bad.

You can certainly disagree with a critic. Sometimes, knowing that you almost always disagree with a certain critic is just as helpful in guiding your buying decisions as always agreeing.

But in the end, a reviewer is entitled to like the new Flickr just as much as longtime photographers are entitled to hate it.

The reason I am quoting this excerpt from Pogue's blog should be clear to most of my readers. 

Free Doll Clothing Patterns

While browsing Prego this morning, I came across a post from ~MICKI B~ Essex, England, aka Silkspike, in which she wrote about making a few t-shirts her girls. Click here for the original post on Prego.

She put up pictures and added her own methods for refining the shirts. This looks like something we can do!

Photos by Silkspike

Click here for the link to the T-Shirt pattern download.

More free doll clothing patterns.

Altered Color - Digital Magic

One of the themes this week on Prego is Black and White. I have an enormous archive of my digital doll photography, yet somehow, I remember individual photos even when they are several years old.
I like black and white images but even more than that, I like a shot of color in a b&w image. Here are several which appeared in a past FDQ piece a few years ago.
I do all my photo editing using Photoshop.

Click on each image to see the various color details.

Antoinette

Aphrodisiac

Attention

Goldmine

Illusion Nadja

Puki Puki

CHO:LO New Collection "Pastel Perfect 1.4"

Designer extraordinaire, CHO:LO, has revealed his new spring collection. It is a breathtaking group of OOAK fashions for 16" dolls. Not surprisingly they are all sold out but you can still get some eye candy by clicking on the image below which will take you to the Flickr page on which all fashions are pictured individually.

Image by Cholo Ayuyao

Congratulations, Cholo, on an amazing collection.

Searching for the Solution

There are some who think I am out to destroy Integrity Toys when the fact is that I have spent many thousands of dollars over the past years buying their products. I have posted hundreds of my own photos of their dolls here, on the W Club board, on other doll boards and in FDQ articles. Numerous collectors have told me that I influenced their decision to buy particular dolls.

They have literally ignored the fact that close to 80% of collectors polled will not be purchasing the Mommy Dearest doll. They have caused controversy by deleting posts and issuing gag orders.
I don't feel particularly generous towards them at this time due to their methods of dealing with consumers. But, I saw this paragraph in an online magazine and I thought that it would be profoundly helpful for them to change their tune.

FDA Magazine: Number 7

Fashion Doll Agency dolls are few and far between. Most are extremely limited editions and they are quite unusual. I have not posted anything about them in ages but today the link to their newest publication was emailed and it's very nice. The doll on the cover would be a delight to own. She's beautiful. Look at those eyes!

Click on the magazine image to see more.

New Rules! Censorship = Fear

I wasn't collecting dolls back when people were afraid to write the words Barbie and/or Mattel. Apparently Mattel was going around suing people for using these words. Collectors started using asterisks in place of letters, eg. M*ttel and B*rbie. I don't know if that kept them safe. I can certainly understand a company's desire to protect their brand name and to make sure it was not used to market products that were not really theirs.

I have also heard of threads being deleted on the BC.Com boards for various reasons. One must pay to belong to the Barbie Collectors Club and therefore must abide by the rules of the board. Actually you have to abide by the rules of any board whether it's free or not.  It's like visiting some one's house. If they don't want you to smoke or whatever, you can't. That makes perfect sense.

But taking it even further, Integrity Toys and the owners of the W Club are so fearful of the general public that their latest directive prohibits even talking about what happens on the board. I may even get another apocalyptic letter about revealing this new rule to the public. They are claiming that talking about what happens on the W Board on blogs, other boards and in pod casts invades the privacy and denies the privilege of the members. They want to create a safe atmosphere for members to post whatever they wish and not be worried that their responses will be used somewhere else.

It would be really interesting to find a safe board of any kind where there were no arguments, no attacks, no sideways remarks, no dismissive statements. It doesn't exist. Doll collectors are very passionate - at least the vocal ones are. Apparently, the overlords at the W Club want only the cheerleaders to voice opinions. No wonder it's the same people who post all the time. Out of the possibly 1000 members (many with multiple memberships), barely 50 people ever post. A very small percentage post all the time.  In addition people have been viciously attacked off the board by one member in particular. It's not safe and it never was.

Anyone who actually believes that something they post on a board is private, is in dreamland. 

Kindly remember to sign your name if you post a comment.