Two new direct exclusive dolls at BarbieCollector.com: Venetian Muse and Mistress of the Manor

Two new gorgeous dolls are available from Barbie Collector. Above, it's Venetian Muse, the second in the Global Glamour Collection.

It's been a long time since a doll has tempted me so much! Venetian Muse uses the Louboutin sculpt and Nostalgic skin tone. She retails for $100 and is only available through BarbieCollector. Also, she's a Gold Label edition, with no more than 5000 dolls produced.

She was designed by Linda Kyaw, and she is similar to an auction doll sold at the Italian Doll Convention last year, called Masquerade Beauty. (You can see photos of the auction doll on Dutch Barbie World's blog.) You can read more about Venetian Beauty here and here.

As if that weren't enough--check out the latest installation from the Haunted Beauty collection: Mistress of the Manor. She is designed by Bill Greening, retails for $100, and no more than 6100 dolls will be produced.

Mistress of the Manor uses the Mermaid sculpt (I didn't know I liked her so much!) with black hair with a white streak in a top knot. She uses the Peace skin tone.

As no more than five dolls (of each doll) are available per order, my guess is that we will also see this doll available from dealers at a higher price.

Both dolls are available for sale now, and I bet they will sell out quickly! Check out BarbieCollector.com for more information.

The photos are property of Mattel, and I'm using them to promote their dolls.

Tonner Dolls at the Halloween doll meet

Halloween Doll Meet, a photo by alington on Flickr.

So yes, I admit, it's a little late. And I haven't been taking as many photos as I have been. But after going through a few of these on my camera, I've been really enjoying these photos from the last doll meet.

Here's a recap of some really lovely Tonner girls from the meet-up.

The Lana sculpt, a Halloween convention doll from 2009, I think.

More photos follow:

Tonner Halloween convention coverage

The Beast Within and The Beauty

 Lots of great new dolls have been released for Tonner's Halloween convention. You can see a nice summary at Dreamcastle Dolls website, including photos. While you're there, be sure to check out the Consignment Corner, where you'll find lots of older dolls, repaints and hard-to-find items. She's got some terrific items at great prices in stock.

Tonner's Facebook page also has a lot of video available. You may have to scroll down this list at this point to the older posts to see the actual video.

Of the dolls released, the events had an Alice in Wonderland themed event (ugh!). They must be out to get me! Of course I love Blue Alice and the Amelia Thimble Sweet Treats set. Other dolls include Never on Time (Tonner's version of the White Rabbit), Madness and Queen of Hearts. I love her outfit. The Knave of Hearts was the souvenir.

A new Sydney BJD, The Way Sydney Does Halloween, was a limited edition piece of 50. Unhappily Ever After was the Cinderella themed event, including the Prince, Cinderella, Ferse and Zehe (the two stepsisters) and the Stepmother.

Black Flame is an interesting Antoinette centerpiece, shown here. Additionally, there were the souvenir dolls The Beast within and The Beauty.

Harry Potter lines were introduced as well, including a new Harry Potter and Hermione.

I believe, though I'm not sure, Tonner may have picked up the license for Avatar, which will also be done in resin.

Black Flame

Photos property of Tonner Doll Company.

New additions to Ellowyne Wilde

Woefully Bewitching Ellowyne Wilde

Through October 18, Woefully Bewitching ships for free within the continental US from Wilde Imagination. She's a limited edition of 1000 dolls and retails for $155. She has purple inset acrylic eyes, raven hair, and this amazing purple costume. (I really want this Ellowyne--kinda wish I hadn't overspent my dolly budget this month!)

Also, you can check out Evangeline Ghastly's latest addition, Wrapped In Sorrow, a new robe for $69, which also ships for free through October 18.

Have any of you ordered the new Amelia Thimble yet? Check out her latest fans on Wilde Imagination's Facebook Page.

A Little Halloween Display

For quite a few years I've been meaning to set up a Halloween doll display. Each year I'd find new items to include, but I'd never quite manage to get it all together. That changed this year. As part of my goal to rein in my collecting, instead of buying more items this year, I hunted throughout my house for all the goodies I've been amassing over the years. Once I found everything, I put together the above display.

This display is dedicated to items in the playscale size, also known as 1:6 scale. Included are Halloween Barbies, Halloween Kellys and one Tommy, the Lucy and Ethel Martians from Lucy is Envious, and various Halloween decorations. While the first Halloween Barbie came out in 1997 as a Barbie and Kelly gift set, I didn't start collecting the Halloween Barbies until 2001. Every year since 2001 is represented in this display with the exception of 2005.  I'm not sure what happened that year to keep me from buying the Halloween Barbies, or maybe I did buy them and they're still lost in my house somewhere.  There's a truly scary thought!

OK, I have a confession.  I fibbed at the beginning of this post. I actually did buy something this year...the Kellys and the Tommy. While putting the display together, I realized I didn't have any of the costumed kid dolls. What is Halloween without the trick-or-treating kids? For these I resorted to eBay. I found some great deals on these dolls by buying the ones sold in groups. While some sellers will only list one doll in an auction, other sellers will group several together. Even after combining my bid price with shipping cost, I still paid less than original retail on each doll.

The props were a lot of fun to discover. The Mummy's Mansion sign in front of the Target Exlcusive "Halloween Fortune" came from Michael's. I don't remember the price on the sign, but I do remember it was on sale. That's one thing I love about Michael's; they'll put special occasion merchandise on sale even before the special occasion! The tiny skulls are from Target and came in packages of 30. I believe they retailed for around $5.00. The different headstones and gargoyles came from several different stores, Target, Michael's, or Big Lots, and each retailed for less than $2.00. If you look closely at the "Beware of the Black Widow" headstone you will notice a little spider sticker.  She's from a Halloween sticker set from Michael's.  I've scattered the other pieces from the set around the display. The two pumpkins came from a six pack I purchased for $2.99, also from Michael's. They're great because they are not decorated for Halloween. I'll be able to use them again in a Thanksgiving display. The tiny handled pumpkin in front of the little Genie Kelly is a cupcake topper from my childhood.

I'm really happy that I finally set up a special occasion display. As much as I enjoy discovering all these neat things in the stores each year, I think I might have had more fun arranging them and rearranging them until I had them just the way I wanted. Now to start thinking about my Thanksgiving display!