Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Save $50 on the Flying Dragon - today only!

Today only, you can save $50 on Flying Dragon, Ling Lan - a DOLLS Magazine exclusive created by JAMIEshow. The offer is only valid today, October 31, 2012.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! by alington
Happy Halloween!, a photo by alington on Flickr.

Warm wishes for a happy Halloween from us at the Fashion Doll Review, and from my kitty, Nico.

Better late than never - save 15% from Wilde Imagination!


Directly from the promotional email:
It's a Birthday celebration and in honor of this special day, we're offering
15% OFF*
Any Order* from Wilde Imagination on October 29, 30, and 31. And because Ellowyne wants everyone to celebrate ~ each order received on these three days will receive a FREE GIFT with their purchase - from Ellowyne!
To receive the discount and the free gift (a surprise), just use Promo Code4BIRTHDAYS at checkout. Hurry - this promo is only good on October 29, 30, and 31, 2012, for new orders only, and ends at midnight Oct. 31.
Aren't birthdays fun?
[Shop Wilde Imagination Now]

*NOTE: The 15% Off offer EXCLUDES the Wilde Weekend Exclusives from Ellowyne Wilde, Evangeline Ghastly, Amelia Thimble, and Imperium Park. However, every order will receive the Free Gift.
** And don't forget to check out the special sale prices on our Imperium Park line!

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Collection Analysis

I am not really a fan of statistics, yet sometimes, statistics do have their place. If you are a greedy, grasping sort of collector like I am - I would guess that not too many Fashion Doll Review readers are like me in that respect - it is interesting to look over one's collection once in a while, and try to figure out your buying patterns.

Has anyone really looked over their collection, and tried to analyze what they have? Yes, of course, they're dolls, but there's more to your collection than that. Once my own collection grew beyond a "reasonable number," and I would like someone to define "reasonable" for me in this respect, it became prudent to keep a file with information on my dolls, so that I could keep track of what I have, rather than having to bring them all up onto my desk, and do whatever analysis or count needed to be done, to make sure I was not buying more than one of the same doll.

I started the file mainly to keep track of which dolls I had. But since I spend so much time on eBay, it also helps me keep track of when I purchased the doll, and when it arrived in my hands. This has been helpful, so I do NOT open a "no item received" dispute on eBay with a seller. I would hate to cause problems for an innocent seller simply because I have had a "senior moment."

There is no question of WHICH kinds of dolls I collect, since most of my friends, both real life and online know that I am a raging Tonner-holic. In addition to, "Believe in the Power of Play," I think Robert Tonner could actually get away with using a paraphrase of another famous slogan to describe my collection, "Betcha can't collect just one!"

There are many ways to analyze your collection, and here are some of the breakdowns I have done with my collection so far:

Doll Statistics, Blue's Collection, current as of October 28, 2012

Condition: This is the state in which I bought the dolls.

New means just that - I bought the doll from a doll store, a fellow collector, or eBay.

Nude dolls come from a variety of sources including doll stores (like Dreamcastle Dolls, which does splits of dolls and outfits), fellow collectors on doll boards I belong to or eBay.

Head Only - Before Tonner Doll doll bodies available for purchase, many people would buy dolls for the outfits and the "latest and greatest" bodies, but then have an extra head. Most of the time, they would either "downgrade" the head to the older body style, or just sell the head outright.

Used simply means I purchased a doll, wearing its original outfit, but it had been played with or displayed by its previous owner.

The gruesome seeming "Half doll" was literally that, meaning I had bought the head attached to the breastplate with arms. Don't ask me what the seller did with the lower half of the doll. I have no clue!

New -   31
Nude -   74
Head only -  17
Used -   5
Half doll -  1

Then, of course, a famous demographic with me, hair color. I have been a collector for - well, more years than I really care to admit to - and blue eyed blondes are the biggest share of the fashion doll market. I know it is a popular hair and eye color combination, but it really, really got old. Telling my dolls apart got to be more and more of a chore, and I finally tapered off buying dolls like I used to, because all I could see available were more blondes.

Along came my Tonner doll obsession, and it is pretty interesting to see the results. The dolls listed as bald, by the way, are a wig doll, and a doll head in need of rerooting, as well as a new body. Another unique doll in this section is the one listed as having "thermal" hair, meaning that it changes colors with the temperature, something I found out accidentally while washing this hair. "Mixed" simply means that the hair colors are a blend, and I really can't fit the hair color into one or the other of the colors.

Hair Colors:

Auburn -   7
Bald -  2
Blonde -   16
Brunette -  38
Gray -   1
Mixed -   2
Platinum -  4
Raven -   38
Redhead - 20
Thermal -  1

Trying to figure out why I am broke all the time took a little bit of thought, so I checked my file, and decided to take a count of how many dolls I was buying in a year. The results REALLY surprised me!

2007 -  1
2008 -  26
2009 -  37
2010 -  25
2011 -   21
2012 -   19 - so far!

Finally, this might be a bit controversial. I have been guilty of loudly complaining about the doll companies mass producing dolls featuring only a limited number of face sculpts. This was before I found out anything about the manufacturing process, and how long it takes to have an artist sculpt a new head, make the master molds, and produce the dolls. The process has, since I was a kid collecting dolls, become a lot more streamlined, and more profitable for doll companies to make more than one sculpt. But I was still curious, for the lovelies of my collection, to see how many of a particular sculpt was repeated in my collection. As you can see, Tonner's Angelina sculpt is leading, since she is one of my favorites.

Angelina Ruiz - 11
Sydney Chase - 9
Kit -  8
Emilie -  7
Stella -  7
Daphne Dimples -  5
Marley Wentworth - 5
Tyler Wentworth - 5
Antoinette - 4
Jane -  4

Anyway, these are different ways I have tried to analyze my collection. There are so many different ways you can look at your collection, and try to figure out what you are spending your hard earned money on!

Thursday, October 25, 2012

OOAK Australian designer Integrity Toys dolls

Limited edition Alannah Hill POUT doll, courtesy Chadstone
According to a recent newsletter from Integrity Toys, there are a few OOAK couture dolls available for auction on eBay Australia. I'm not sure they ship outside of the US--but it wouldn't hurt to ask. Here are IT's notes on the doll:

Earlier this year, we participated in an exhibition of our dolls in Australia called POUT which featured a selection of 50 Fashion Royalty dolls created by the Integrity Toys design team since the start of the collection in 2001. Also part of this exciting exhibit, selected top Australian fashion designers where invited to replicate some of their creations in miniature and were each given an FR: Monogram doll to display their OOAK creations. These mini-couture models where also put on display at Chadstone.

These OOAK dolls that the Australian designers created are now available in a charity auction on eBay. The charity that benefits from these auctions is the Royal Women's Hospital in Melbourne.
Please note:
  1. These are one of a kind fashions crafted by various Australian designers. As such, they may have different levels of detail and quality.
  1. While we wanted to alert you to this auction, Integrity is not involved in any aspect of it and cannot answer questions, etc., so please direct them to the auction seller.
  1. Please note that none of the props shown in the photos are included in these auctions. Only the dolls with their fashions are included in the auction. If you have any questions about these dolls, please contact the auction seller.
A link to the auctions can be found here. The auctions start at AU $100 (currently $103.87), and have 3 days and about 7 hours left. I have to admit--I'm tempted!

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