Doll Winners and Losers of 2010 - My Picks

So many dolls have arrived this year it's mind-boggling to look back.
I do keep an accurate database with images so I know exactly who arrived and when. I also know who was voted off or waiting for adoption.
The following are not all newly released dolls but they were new to my collection this year and deserve their honors. 

Favorite Dolls of 2010

'Blue Horizon' Gene - Part of the Gene Marshall Convention: The Girls from Dream City

Avantguard Mini Clone Set 

'Flame Blue' Vanessa

'Dreamy' Trent - Gene Convention

'Fashion Plot' Gene (Ashton Drake)

Dasha FR2

Elise Jolie FR2

'Dark Desire' Madra (Ashton Drake)

Cami Basic Platinum

'Red Rabbit' Misaki - I haven't had the time to photograph her yet!

'Disclosure' Monogram - "

'Bijoux' AvantGuard Doll - See recent post.

Evangeline Ghastly and all of her fashons. -See recent post.

Numina Devon.  See recent post prior to this one.

Favorite Separate Fashions and Accessories of 2010

—DollyStyle - Fashion"Our Eyes Conected"by Lovesound

—Tonner 16" Antoinette HYPNOTIC Fashion Doll Outfit:
This picture was taken inside the Tonner Company Store quite a while ago. The silver outfit is Hypnotic and it took a long time for me to get.

—PukiPuki  Hand-knitted Outfit

—'Testament' Sybarite Fashion. I had to have this even though I have no Sybarite.

—'Venus Rising' Tonner Anne Harper Fashion

—'Chic Explorer' Outfit By Louisham Louos

 —JamieShow Outfit from Angelic Dreamz

—'Look Of Love' Poppy Parker Outfit. Actually I like all of the Poppy Parker outfits. They are well-designed, tasteful, fit correctly and adorable. 

Modeled by Mini-Gene

—Christian Louboutin Barbie® Shoe Collection - Presentation in the box is beautiful. 

—Giselle and Smoldering Convention Fashions

—Randall Craig 'The Girl Can't Help It';  'Feeling Good' and most of his IFDC convention line.

—Tyler Wentworth’s “Red Hot” fashion. An "oldie." Slinky, red sequined gown.

—Tabloach Wigs for Puki which fit the Monogram Dolls.
—Horseman Urban Vita Collection French Chairs and other Horseman furniture

This was a year in which I felt I had way too many dolls and I looked at fashions and accessories more than acquiring dressed dolls. 


The disappointments were:
This was, for me, the biggest disappointment of the year: 
—Tonner Convention 'Unforgettable' 13” Revlon

Unforgettable - pre-ordering sight unseen can be a disaster.

—'Virtually Stunning' Alex - Coarse and cartoony-looking features ruined this doll's appearance and made me appreciate the original Alex even more. Why was this gal turned into an Amazon?

Left: Original Alex Body   Right: New Alex Body

 Today I acetone-removed her lip paint and eyebrows and she looks much better already! I am going to attempt a partial repaint.

—Deneuve - I could not love her face no matter how hard I tried.  Her body was wonderful.

—'Tricks of the Trade' Eugenia Perrin Frost - The fashion was not fashionable.

I think several design possibilities were overlooked. ;-)

—Vaughn Workshop Doll - My straightforward one-word opinion of this doll started a shit storm. The word was ugly.

Image by Petra Elise used by Permission

—Kesenia - Ridiculous looking mouth was created when the vampire fangs weren't painted in.

—Jordan 'Fire Within' - A sad mess in her overly youthful fashion and under-developed facial
screening. I did a partial repaint and sold her so I wouldn't be reminded of how much I paid for her. Loved the earrings and shoes.

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This year we saw Fashion Royalty dolls' prices slashed by Integrity for the first time ever. It began with the discontinued Gene Marshall line and once they crossed that barrier, which had to have been an ego blow, they went forward with everything else that couldn't sell at retail.

I will be way more careful next year with the 12" dolls. Some of the dolls were pre-ordered with a kind of magical thinking that I'd love them. It was painful to see the gorgeous exclusive Nadja go on sale for half price...it's still up there.

My list of wonderful acquisitions is by no means complete. Compared to the amount of items I collected, the list of disappointments is small—but if you collect dolls, you will agree that every disappointment hurts.

During the year I added to my Silkstone, Tiny Kitty and Cissette collections. I'm still hunting for Tiny Kitty's Dress Shoppe.  The Silkies are useful for displaying Fashion Royalty 1st generation articulated body (short) fashions. They fit the Silkies almost perfectly! The Silkie I really wanted was ridiculously expensive so I didn't get her. I do draw the line once in a while.
Cissette has an unexplainable attraction for me. How did they get all the pieces of this fashion onto this little doll? It's so over the top.

Look how cute she is next to Cissy.

Time to wrap up this way-too-long post. I'd love to hear what your favorites and disappointments were in 2010.

Avantguard Dolls in Monica Merrill Outfits and Photographic Ruminations

My favorite Avantguard doll is wearing Monica's "Take a Letter" outfit in this photo. It fits very well. The earrings that come with this outfit are black beads. I like diamonds better. Ahem.

I love this doll and that makes me chuckle because looking at her pleases me! 

What I'm not sure about is the shadow on her face created by the light on the right side of the figure. It does repeat itself on her chest but something is off. I think I could have done without the second light on the right and j ust pumped up the power of the other strobe.  I'm shooting with one strobe reflected off an umbrella and one directly diffused strobe which I placed approximately 90° apart from eachother. I have the umbrella higher. I love using high contrast when shooting this doll. I definitely need to work harder when shooting white...it's just not as good as I envision.

In this next photo, I did eliminate the second light. The background is grayer (I could have lit that separately) and the extreme contrast is softened. Her face looks better without the distinct shadow. The big area under her face of faux fur is blown out and takes away from her face. This image could have used some pixel pushing for sure.

The shoes seen in the photo are Goldmine's own.

These last 2 images are of "Attention" Avantguard and were shot with a point and shoot using window light and fill flash from the camera.
The outfit is from a dressed Monica Merrill doll as is "Taking a Letter" and is called "Jonquil Sass." Again, the fit is excellent including the shoes. It's such an adorable outfit. The wig is from another AG doll.

It's painfully apparent to me that my point and shoot is vastly inferior to my studio, tripod-mounted camera. But I'd be taking a lot less pictures if I had to take everything into my studio to shoot. Yes, I know that the last picture above is out of focus but I wanted to let y'all see the entire outfit with shoes.

Tonner Fall/Winter 2010 Line ~ Part 1

I'll begin with the doll that I think is the worst of the lot. That would be the new 13" Supergirl. LE 1000 $139.99

Property of Tonner Doll Company

Why wasn't her hair combed properly for her photo debut? What is the lump at the crown of her head?  I have the feeling that Storm Photo, Tonner's professional photographer, did not take this picture.

OMG. Her face is so large, I can't believe it.  She ties with the event exclusive Little Miss Revlon for the huge jaw look I find quite unattractive.

It's a shame because the 16" Supergirl shown below is my absolute favorite female sculpt of Tonner's to-date!

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As part of the Cami & Jon Collection there is now a male named Andy Mills, Event Planner. This is an adorable young man with a cool nerdy look.

Tonner Doll Co.

His description states that he's got the 17" Matt O'Neill Body, blue eyes and wigged brunette hair. 

LE 500; Retail Price is  $179.99.