9/07/2015

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.
 

9/04/2015

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?