Sunday, July 27, 2014

New Poppy Parkers!



So guess what came yesterday????

Two more spy girls!  These are "Spy-a-Go-Go" and "Agent Lotta Danger" Poppy Parkers (posing with "The Girl From I.N.T.E.G.R.I.T.Y." from my last post).  They're from this year's spy show-themed Poppy Parker line.  The three of them together make me think of that old TV show "Charlie's Angels."

It's been about a hundred years since I got new Poppy Parkers.  I was starting to forget how much I love these girls.  I managed to miss all the convention dolls from last year's Integrity Toys convention (and refused to pay double for them on the secondary market).  So as a result, it seems like forever since I was last able to break open a brand new Poppy box. I think these spy girls have renewed my love for this doll line. 

Being spies, of course, they all come with guns.  Well, all of them except for the W Club upgrade doll, "The Girl From I.N.T.E.G.R.I.T.Y."

Agent Lotta Danger (left) not only comes with a gun, she comes with an entire gun holster slung at her hip.  She also comes with four pairs of hands.  Two are black hands (to represent thin black gloves) and two pairs are normal-toned, non-gloved sets. 

"Spy-a-Go-Go's" outfit is gold.  Really, really gold.  She comes with a lot of extra accessories, which is really nice.  She has two bracelets (gold), a gold gun, sunglasses (gold), gold boots, a gold beret, a purse (gold), and earrings and a ring that are gold with turquoise stones in them to match the rather sparkly dress she has on underneath.

I'm not a fan of the gold-and-turquoise mod party dress, but I LOVE the gold coat.  The coat coupled with those boots equals a win.  Integrity did a very cool thing with the gold coat ... they enlarged the pattern to fit the 16" Tulabelle dolls, and gave one of their 2014 Tulabelles the exact same coat made in the same material.  Their back story for such a deed was that Tulabelle had inherited the gold coat from her grandmother, Poppy!

I thought that was pretty stinkin' clever.  The doll who inherited the coat is called "Front Row" Tulabelle.

Here's the dress.  Meh.  It's very '60s, and the colors are pretty.  That's about all I can say about it.  I noticed it has a belt with it, which was NOT shown in the original promo pictures.

Her hair doesn't *quite* look like the promo pics, either.  The original photographs show her hair as being a little fluffier on the sides.  Mine almost looks like it's in a ponytail in the back, but it's just rolled up and hair-sprayed to death.

Dang it.  I forgot to put on her bracelets before I took this picture.  

Boots!  I'm sure you can tell which is which based on the color of their legs.

Can you tell who the gold boots belong to?

LOL.

And now for some random pictures, because these girls are fun to photograph.


 Close-ups!


The black hands are supposed to be gloves, but they still have fingernails!  Ack!  The fingernails aren't quite as apparent in person, but boy, they sure show up in this photo.  I promise you they're harder to see in person.  But as I mentioned, she does come with regular hands, so you can switch out the black hands for regular, normal hands if you want to.
 Later.



Saturday, July 26, 2014

The Girl From I.N.T.E.G.R.I.T.Y

It's been a long time since I showed Poppy Parkers on this blog!  It's been a long time since I've gotten a new one.  This is the W Club upgrade doll "The Girl From I.N.T.E.G.R.I.T.Y," by Integrity Toys.  She's kind of fabulous.  I'm so happy with her!  Her eyes are gray, and her hair reminds me so much of the beautiful actress Isabella Rossellini in the movie "Death Becomes Her."  I LOVE the hair.  It's different from all the other Poppy Parkers, and gorgeous.

I won't do a full review, but instead just show you my pictures.  Fabulousness squared.  Click on them to make them bigger.



I love her bag!

And you can't go wrong with a mini skirt and boots.


I thought I wasn't going to like this vest, but it kind of works.

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

More fun with the kids

Spun Sugar and Basic Patsyette 2014 by Effanbee/Tonner Doll Company.

I discovered the new 2014 Patsyette dolls work pretty nicely as children for 16" tall ladies like Tyler Wentworth, Antoinette and even the 16" Poppy Parker Fashion Teens.  I finally dug out my old Helen Kish Avery doll ... customized as a freckled redhead ... and it turned out she's very similar in size to the Patsyettes (a hair under 8 inches / 20cm).  Avery is from the Riley line, and is the same size as Riley.  Anyway, she was the only doll I owned from the Riley line, so I had to use her for a comparison shot. (I'll include the picture towards the bottom of this post.)

This makes me think the Patsyettes would probably be a nice scale to be little sisters to Marley Wentworth dolls. (Who aren't made any more, but SHOULD be ... why the heck was Marley discontinued?) 

I'm not sure if the Patsyettes can share outfits with Riley/Avery.  They could probably share SOME outfits, but they'd be hit-or-miss.  The Riley/Avery body's tummy is a lot bigger than Patsyette's, who is on the Tonner Tiny Betsy body.  Patsyette's waist and hips are a lot bigger, so Riley pants would definitely be too small.  A loose-fitting dress might fit both dolls, though.

Basic Patsyette and Tranquil Antoinette.  Their hair is the exact same color.
Winter Wowzers Poppy Parker Fashion Teen poses with Spun Sugar Patsyette.


And now for some random cuteness.  Or cute randomness.  Whatever.  :)   If you didn't see my review of the 2014 Tonner Patsyettes, you can find it here.  Click the pictures to make them bigger. 

Spun Sugar Patsyette is getting ready for school in a Tiny Betsy dress.

Posing for pictures with her Lalaloopsy.

Comparison of 2014 Patsyette and a doll from the Helen Kish Riley line.

Here's that comparison picture I promised you (above).  This is Basic Patsyette 2014 next to a customized Explorer Avery by Helen Kish.  I love Avery's cute chubby legs! 

I made the green and yellow dresses. :)

Friday, July 18, 2014

Review of the 2014 Patsyettes: Spun Sugar and Basic Patsyette

I'm afraid I had to rename these two dolls.  They are now "Blue Lace Explosion" Patsyette and "Little Irish Girl" Patsyette.

Blue Lace Explosion ... well, obviously.  Just look at her in her girlie, froufy cuteness.  I want to make a white apron for the dress to make her into a tiny Alice in Wonderland.  I want to search a toy store for a tiny white rabbit to put in a waistcoat, because of course I do.  She's so Alice-y and precious.

Her hair is quite a nice color ... a natural wheat blonde, not Barbie yellow.  I actually love the dress.  It's perfect for her in so many ways, and it comes with cotton panties underneath, and tiny white socks and shoes.  The blue ribbon in her hair is sewn to her head, but could be removed with a couple of snips.

The dress is nicely sewn, and snaps in the back.  There is no separate petticoat.   The real name of this doll is Spun Sugar Patsyette ... I guess I should mention that, for the sake of Google searches.  LOL.



Little Irish Girl was named because every time I see dark red hair, I think of my freckled Irish grandmother.  She had this exact same hair color naturally.  (Yes, I was jealous.)  Being the basic Patsyette doll (i.e. not in a full outfit), I had to try her in a couple of Tiny Betsy dresses.  I love her in the blue plaid!  She's so perfect in it that it looks like she should have come with this outfit. 


The longer, mauve dress (below) is a Tiny Betsy dress called "Wednesday's Child."  I don't like it on my little Irish girl quite so much.  It's a touch too high-necked, and makes this poor little girl look like she doesn't have a neck.  LOL!  She looks much better in the blue plaid.  I'm sorry, but I don't know the name of the blue plaid dress, only that it was made for the 8" Tonner Tiny Betsy doll. 

Basic Patsyette comes with white lace tights and tiny black plastic shoes.  The dolls don't come with stands, but they can actually stand on their own unassisted, if the surface is flat.

I'm in love with their faces!  They have simply beautiful faces.  Being (partly) a review blog, though, I do want to mention the one flaw I feel the 2014 Patsyettes have:  their arms!  If you've been following this revival of the Patsyette line, you know they were put on the 8" Tiny Betsy body.  It's not a terrible body, but certainly not the best the Tonner Doll Company has ever offered, either.  (Technically, this is an Effanbee doll, but the same person owns both companies.)   The arms are straight and have no elbow jointing, but my biggest issue with them is they seem a touch too short.  This bugged me at first, until I got used to the look.  Besides this, though, they have great shoulder rotation and can swing their arms out sideways, as well as up and down.  If Tonner redid their arms, it would make a huge different to this doll line.  Maybe I need to swamp the company with requests for better Patsyette arms.  Hmmm.

The legs do have bending knees.  The legs cannot swing outward from the hip like a lot of Tonner dolls, but merely bend forward or backward at both the hips and the knees.  They can sit perfectly in tiny doll chairs.  There aren't a lot of ways you can pose their legs, but at least they can sit nicely, and in a lady-like fashion ... no splayed legs.


I love their size!  They're 8" tall (20cm).  I'll have to do some size comparison photos later, but it's now rainstorming outside, and I'm not able to take any more pics today.  (I was barely able to get these pictures before the storm started.)  I want to compare them to the size of a Helen Kish Riley doll, but the only one I have is buried deep in a closet.  I'll have to dig her out to do a size comparison.

I just did a Part 2 to this review.  You can find it here.

Later,
Full body view.
Random eyeball shot, just so you can see the painting up close.

Omigosh, the cuteness!  The cuteness ... it burns!


Thursday, July 3, 2014

Independence Day shoot, Part 2


And another Independence Day picture.  Just 'cause.

These are "Dark and Stormy Night" Amber and "All Good" Lizette, from the Ellowyne Wilde doll line.  Aren't they cute? 


Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Independence Day photo shoot

Friday is a major holiday in my country.  July 4th is the day the American colonies won their independence from Britain in 1776.  So, I did a patriotic photo shoot with Patience.  Her outfit was pretty much perfect for this theme.

:)