Nigel Chia's "DeMuse Doll"

 

The LE 5 debut DeMuse doll may be sold out but you can check Nigel Chia's website for a fascinating selection of photographs of the creation of the doll and more. 

Here is the link: http://www.demusedoll.blogspot.com/p/about-us.html

And in other good news, Ajuma has arrived. She will have plenty of camera time soon.

Paulette Goodreau Announces Her Retirement

Paulette of Goodreau Doll  has announced that she and Annette are retiring from the doll manufacturing business.  Here is the copy of her post on Facebook:

Annette and i have decided that we are retiring from the doll manufacturing business. I am still going to be a doll artist but it will be ooaks, designs for other companys, and perhaps some small runs of resin and vinyl for my charity projects.

As a lot of you know my Mom has alzeheimers and her health has declined. I want to be able to help my sister Mary with her care. We are also in limbo with a move to the east, 4 super old dogs, and 3 young pups! I want to take care of them and the doll companys just take so much of my time. They have been very profitable for us and allowed us to give back, but sometimes money is not everything. Sometimes time is much important.

The remainder of Goodreau Doll merchandise is moving to Toona Roona, we hope to make the transition in the next three weeks. Till then my goodreau doll website is down, you will be redirected to the toona roona website, and hopefully be able to order sometime in Dec. I am working

as fast as I can to pack the goodreau stock up.

I will still be at modern doll and i will be mentoring a few more artists this year. So i am still around and I still am working on what I would like to do with MIM, sell it, or close it down. Annette has encouraged me to start writing so perhaps after i sort MIM out I will finishthe 4 books i am working on!!!!

We have done so much in the last 7 years i feel so very fortunate. Annette and i with the help of all of you have built successful companys and we have been able to help generate or directly give tens of thousands of dollars to charity. We will continue to do many charitable projects and continue to give what we can to a world that has given us so much. Love you all Paulette

Second 2012 W Club Exclusive FR Doll

"Out Sass" Vanessa Perrin is dressed in a stunning mix of color and styles.

Out Sass
Vanessa Perrin Dressed Doll
Fall 2012 FR W Club Exclusive
Suggested Retail Price: $125

Limited Edition: TBA 

Special W Club Member Pricing: $125.00

Approximate Ship Date: Late Winter/Early Spring 2013

 IT calls it retro-chic; I call it talent. It's plain to see that the person who designed this outfit is not the same one who designed some of the convention collection's outfits (e.g. Veronique, Kyori, Vanessa.) The handbag is the only missed note of the entire fashion. It should have either been bigger or made to be a cool clutch.

I can only hope that it fits well because it looks like something is going on with the pleat at the back of the skirt.

Why is posing pigeon-toed so popular?

 This is Vanessa Redux 3 although in this photo, she looks like an awfully close relative of Poppy Parker.

Dior Noël au Printemps - Windows

At Le Printemps department store in Paris, the Dior window display is wonderful.

Review: Lilac Frost Poppy W Club Exclusive

Finally after so many months of being packed and then moving in and waiting for my photo studio to be completed, I have my set-up going again. Lilac Frost is the first doll to be lucky enough to have a photo shoot in the new studio. Mr. Woodie is her accompanist.
This was a Club Exclusive but I don't think it was considered a Club doll. High End Envy Erin was the First 2012 Club Exclusive Doll. Whatever.
Here she is in all her lilac glory.
I think her screening is delightful. The outfit appears to be very well made and fits perfectly. The gloves...forget about it. I don't have time to fight with tight vinyl gloves. I love the hat!

 Her jewelry is pink rhinestone studs and bracelet.

 See the comparison above and below for the changes made from the promotional doll to the production doll. Above, of course is the production doll. Below is the promo.

In the promo, Poppy has only painted lashes. The production doll has an extra set of applied lashes. I like that as it makes her eyes smokier and more intense. Her actual screening is also more intense although that could be a result of the photographer's lighting.

If you love Poppy, you will have to have this one. I've seen photos in which the collector has loosened the upturned ends of her hair and she looks amazing.

Integrity Toys' Norma Desmond as Hollywood Royalty

Giselle as Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard? The fashion is drop dead gorgeous. The face? Where is Norma? I doubt that many would buy a doll that looked like this:

 IMO Gloria Swanson wasn't exactly the best looking actress of her day and you can't portray talent in a doll so picking Giselle was as good a decision as any. Just don't expect visitors to your collection to say "Wow, you have a Gloria Swanson doll!"

W Club members were offered the opportunity to pre-order this doll from dealers a few days ago and from many reports, she is nearly or completely sold out.

Item # 14034
Norma Desmond
Sunset Boulevard Commemorative Collectible Doll
Limited Edition of 500 Dolls
Suggested Retail Price: $119.00 USD
Estimated Date of Arrival: Week of November 19, 2012

For me, the beauty in this doll is the fashion. It represents one aspect of the era of the Golden Age of Hollywood. Gloria Swanson is known best for being a great star during the silent movie era. She continued to act into her later years and died at the age of 84 in 1983.

So now you know more than you wanted to about Norma Desmond.

 From Wikipedia:
Sunset Boulevard (also known as Sunset Blvd.) is a 1950 American film noir directed and co-written by Billy Wilder, and produced and co-written by Charles Brackett. It was named after the boulevard that runs through Los Angeles and Beverly Hills, California.
The film stars William Holden as Joe Gillis, an unsuccessful screenwriter, Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond, a faded silent movie star who draws him into her fantasy world where she dreams of making a triumphant return to the screen with Erich von Stroheim as Max Von Mayerling, her butler and ex-husband. Nancy Olson, Fred Clark, Lloyd Gough and Jack Webb play supporting roles. Director Cecil B. DeMille and gossip columnist Hedda Hopper play themselves, and the film includes cameo appearances by leading silent film actors Buster Keaton, H. B. Warner and Anna Q. Nilsson.

Praised by many critics when first released, Sunset Boulevard was nominated for eleven Academy Awards and won three. It is widely accepted as a classic, often cited as one of the greatest films of American cinema. Deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the U.S. Library of Congress in 1989, Sunset Boulevard was included in the first group of films selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. In 1998, it was ranked number twelve on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 best American films of the 20th century, and in 2007 it was 16th on their 10th Anniversary list.

Wasn't there a Sunset Blvd. backdrop produced for one of Integrity Toy's Gene Marshall conventions? 

Ficon's Miss G White and Black

Sales began for two new Ficon dolls, Miss G in White and Black. Both are LE20 and retail price is $630. They include the outfit with dress, shoes, bag, jewelry and Chewin wig.  It's not surprising that Black is already sold out but I think both are just gorgeous.

The following photographs are from Ficon's gallery and are by Alexandra Forbes.

See more at the Ficon website.

City Girls from the Tonner Doll Company

A very cute and affordable line of 15 3/4" dolls has been released by the TDC. They are the City Girls and are targeted toward younger doll collectors.
This debut contains one basic doll, three dressed dolls and three fashion packs. I would definitely purchase these for a child that was ready to move on from, for example, the American Girl dolls although they certainly could exist side by side in a child's collection.
Here they are.

Basic Houston

$39.99

Taxi! Billy

$49.99

Color Block Astor

$49.99

Golden Swirl Astor

$59.99

Here are the fashion packs which are $24.99 each.

Cape Town

Gray Haze

Networking

They remind me of the Mod British Birds by Somers and Field, not in their looks but in their affect—innocent, fresh faced and smartly but simply dressed.
The dolls look to be fully articulated although I could not find information on their material and construction.
Looking back in my blog, I found a picture from last February's Toy Fair of the City Girls. Apparently two of the three dolls shown there did not make it into the debut. Perhaps they will appear towards the end of the year.

New Photo Studio and Doll Room

Soon I will be back to taking pictures with a real camera. It's been so long. My studio is getting the finishing touches this week. It feels like forever. 
Here is a partial view of the room.

The big window is called an egress window. In PA all houses with basements built after a certain year have to be built with a way to exit other than using the staircase to go up.  I have another smaller window on the adjacent wall. Lots of light. My last studio was constructed as a darkroom - literally - and that's what it was. There was no light at all other than artificial. This will be interesting to see how and if I incorporate the light into my work.
Yes, the black and white floor was intentional as it is exactly how I did the flooring in my darkroom years ago.

Yesterday I finished redressing the last Fashion Royalty doll. They were the most time consuming of all dolls to redress and display. I did lots of body swapping as I'm tending to like the slimmer bodies of the Monogram dolls for some of my FR.

Here are some random display pics from last night.

My current crop of Eugenias.

Another gorgeous Vanessa.

She's been on display in our bedroom this past week.

Silkies are the best for displaying early Fashion Royalty fashions.

Poor thing is still naked. I'm not loving her.

Only a few Gene dolls left to dress.

The only Agnes (left) I have kept out of all of them.

In this and the next two photos are some of my older FR dolls. Several have been re-rooted and all have been re-bodied. Dress on the right is a Huckleberry Jackson.

The Kyori on the right is one of the very few dolls I own that has never been redressed. She was the last Atelier doll.

I love my Mini Avantguard dolls.

Somehow Liz doesn't belong.

What a serious waste of money this doll was. I hate her hair. Her outfit is cheap. Only the sculpt is nice.

She has been transferred to one of Angelic Dreamz demi-Jamieshow bodies. If I could, I'd put all my Silkstone dolls on these articulated, BJD bodies. They are fabulous.

Currently I have two Dynamite Dolls. That's more than I usually have. The girl dolls' clothes are from Clear Lan. Boots on left are Azone. Green handbag is Purse of the Month from a while back.

I purchased the outfit from the Kesenia "Your Kind of Model" doll after seeing IRL pictures. The doll's vampire mouth still doesn't appeal to me, but the outfit is wonderful.

The base dress is a pastel pink strappy cocktail sheath and will stand alone as a lovely garment. It's beautifully designed and constructed. The over dress is sheer black with silver and black embroidery.
The shoes are too small for FR2 feet but they are also nicely designed.

My model is a re-rooted True Royalty Vanessa who is sporting an FR2 body. I had to 'tie' the straps on the pink dress to make the bodice smaller for this body.

It comes with silver colored jewelry (earrings, bracelet and ring) an embroidered handbag with a magnetic closure and a faux fur jacket. That's a lot of fashion and well worth it. 

 And for a little comic relief:

Modern Reproduction Ginny dolls.