Review of "It's A Wrap" Workshop Poppy Fashion Teen

When Integrity Toys recently unveiled the 16", 2013 Poppy Parker Fashion Teen line, I was impressed with them.  I didn't preorder any, though.  I'd never seen one in person, and wasn't totally sure I wanted to take the plunge into collecting yet another line of dolls.  I did some searches on Flickr for photos of the already-released MegaPoppys from last year, and fell in love with this one.  She was the workshop doll at the 2012 Tropicalia Convention, and came only in a basic underwear set, with white plastic shoes and a lavender piece of fabric.  I wasn't at the convention, so I STILL don't know what they used that piece of fabric for.  I suppose it was part of the workshop.  Anyway ...

In my opinion, this is the best of the 16" Poppys from last year.  Her face is thoughtful and intelligent, and her face screening is lovely, with subdued colors for the eyeshadow and lips.  I ended up getting the outfit from "Love Letters" to dress her in.  (I love purple!  Plus, I have an obsession for cocktail and party dresses.) 

Her hands are expressive, but gloves are very difficult to get onto her splayed fingers.  Her hands are removable for dressing in tight sleeves.  The left hand on this one was slightly loose:  Not so loose that it would fall out, though.  I've seen a couple other people also complaining about a loose left wrist on the 2012 Fashion Teens, so perhaps it was an issue from the first collection.  I hope they were able to fix it for 2013.

Her feet are formed like the feet on their FR16 line, with hinged toes so that she can wear either heels or flats equally well.  I like this feature, although the first time my daughter saw that type of feet on the FR16s, she gleefully announced the dolls had "monkey toes"  and started bending the toes up and down on Mommy's expensive dolls.  LOL!  The hinged toes make it easier to fit them into a wider variety of shoes, which is sort of awesome.

I think the body sculpt is attractive.  I even like her rear end.  LOL.  It's a nicely-rounded, feminine rear end like Marilyn Monroe's, not a skinny, flat boy rear end like a lot of dolls have. 

Someone on the forums said they thought the 16" Poppys have big heads.  I don't see it on "It's a Wrap."  At least not on my doll.  I took a full-length shot so you can see the proportions.  I guess it depends on what you consider a big head.  It looks fine to me. 

The lips are ... hmmmm.  OK.  I don't love them, but I don't hate them, either.  I think she would have looked better with a totally closed mouth, but they aren't bad.  They make her look like she's in the middle of saying something to you.  In pictures, the parting between the lips really shows up well; in person, the part is not quite as apparent.  The 12" Poppys have more of a closed mouth, so the fact that Integrity opened the mouth slightly for the 16" version was an interesting choice. 

The only real negative was the stand she came with.  It's awful!  It's actually completely useless.  The saddle part of the stand is so wide that it forces her legs apart if you try to stand her up on it, which is not in the least attractive.  I had to borrow a stand from another doll to use for this photoshoot.  I really hope the 2013 dolls get better stands!

Overall, I like this doll quite a bit, and I'm now planning to get at least one of the 2013 dolls when they come out.  I've looked at live pics of the Tulabelle line as well, but I don't like her face as much as I like the faces on the 16" Poppys.  I keep wishing Tula's eyes were just a TEENSY bit closer together.

Since I'm posting a lot of pics, I'll keep them small so the page will load faster.  You can click on them to make them bigger.

Later,

Some thoughts on the changes coming at Integrity Toys

I've been so busy over the past month that my time to photograph dolls has been short.  I thought I'd take out one of my beauties I haven't photographed in a while, my FR2 "Rare Appeal" Dominique.  I don't think I've ever shown her on this blog before, because my pictures of her never came out good enough to show.  I think I finally got some decent pictures, at long last!  She's wearing the gown from "Private Goddess" Natalia.  It fits the FR2 body perfectly.  Since Integrity Toys has announced they are retiring the current Fashion Royalty body in favor of a refined FR2 body, that's good news for anyone who owns this gown.

They will be combining the Fashion Royalty and FR2 lines and giving them all a newly-redesigned FR2-type body.  They will debut the refined body at the Integrity Toys convention this year.  I have mixed feelings about them retiring the old body.  I'm mostly happy about it, since I LOVE the FR2 body.  It's sexy.  It's aesthetically pleasing while still being wonderfully articulated.  It looks great in tight clothing like swimsuits, that show off the body's form.  I hate that a chunk of my current Fashion Royalty clothing won't fit the new body, though, particularly pants and tight skirts.  Some will fit, some won't.  I believe most NuFace clothing should fit the new body.  All FR2 clothing will fit just fine. 

I don't have a lot of NuFace or FR2 clothing, so I'll just have to see what works and what doesn't.  Despite the problem with clothing, I'll be thrilled to see what they announce and present at the convention!

The other news was that they will be re-designing their male doll body (the "homme" body).  Yay!  I'm optimistic this will mean improved mobility in the neck, which that body sorely needs.  I stopped buying the guys about a year ago because the stiff necks made them difficult to pose in photos.

Also, they plan to discontinue the Monogram line.  *Is sad.*  I pouted when I heard that, since I'm a big Monogram fan.  Sigh.  I hate when I fall in love with a doll line, only to have it discontinued later.  I understand most doll lines can't last forever, though.  (Well, unless it's Barbie, that is.)

Hope you like my pictures.

On another note, don't you love Dominique's lips?  LOL.  Every time I look at this sculpt, I think her lips are fabulous.

My doll catalog

I'm so proud of myself.  I finally made a photo catalog of my entire doll collection.  I made notations on each photo that essentially went "Type of doll - Specific name of doll - Any other important notes on the doll I felt should be here." Such as "Poppy Parker_To The Fair _ Integrity Toys club exclusive from 2013."  Right now the catalog is only on my computer, but I might have to put it on a CD later.  My main purpose was to have a record of what everything is in case I died some day, so my daughter would have all the information.  I used all my own photos for the catalog, so if she one day decided to sell the collection on eBay, she could use the photos I've provided and labeled. 

It's nice to have the info at my fingertips for my own benefit as well, though.  There were a few dolls whose names I'd completely forgotten.  I couldn't remember the years for ANY of them.  It will be a nice resource to have, AND it will keep track of how many of each type of doll I have.  I'll just have to keep it updated. 

I'll never have to do an online search to find info about my own dolls ever again!  (Dontcha hate it when you have to do that?)

LOL.  By the way, you might notice on the picture of Goldstroke Adele I made a note that she's "not worth much."  This is because she has a broken neck.  My poor Adele!  Her neck crumbled and cracked the very first time I'd tried to turn her head after I bought her (which was over a year after she had been released).  Sigh.  The warranty was already expired on this doll and I wasn't able to get her body replaced.