Vanessa channels Samantha Stephens

 

High Point Vanessa channels Samantha Stephens from "Bewitched." Happy Halloween!

Review of Hujoo Freya

The first time I ever saw this doll I thought she was weird-looking and didn't like her, so it's really really, interesting that I actually OWN ONE now.  You see, I was never a fan of anthropomorphic dolls.  Really, the closest I ever came to liking anthros was my deep childhood love for Bugs Bunny.  Hee hee. 

So ... I began noticing these cat dolls on the Junky Spot Facebook page, and they seemed to be really popular.  They kept selling out.  I was fascinated by them, but didn't actually love them at first.  The fascination continued over a couple of months, and they steadily grew on me.  I was converted over time from thinking they were a little too odd for me, to squeeeing over their cuteness.  (How many "E"s does the word "squeeeing" have?)  Admit it: Cat faces are cute.  Cat paws are cute, too.  Cat tails are cute.

I kind of wish they'd had a rounder, more cartoonish body.  They use the same female body as many of the other Hujoo dolls (the ones with human heads, I mean), but with cat feet and paws, and a tail.  They're 23cm/9" tall. 

They are made of ABS plastic, not resin, but other than that, they fit the description of an Asian ball-jointed doll in every way.  Their eyes are changeable.  They can sit up nicely and stand on their own.  Their posing is fairly good, but with some limitations.  I think they should have had better movement in their head and wrists.  You can move their heads up and down, side-to-side, BUT ... and this is a big BUT ... you can only move their heads side-to-side if it's in the "down" position.  If the head is in the "up" position, for some reason you can't move it from side-to-side any longer.  Weird.  If you raise their arms in the air, the arms do stay in position without falling, which is nice.

They come with a vinyl insert that you can put in their heads to keep their eyes in place without the use of putty.  It actually works really nicely!  The only problem with it is it forces the eyes in a "forward" position, so if you want upturned eyes like mine has, or side-glancing eyes, you're going to have to use putty anyway.  If all you want are forward-glancing eyes, then the vinyl insert works like a charm.  (I only tried it with half-round eyes, by the way.)

They come unpainted, with no eyes as a do-it-yourself dolly kit.  (They DO come already strung, though.)  You have to buy the eyes separately (size 16mm).  The first production run of these dolls had an issue with the pegs in the head plate not fitting properly.  You had to sand the pegs down a bit to get them to fit right.  Mine was first production run, and she didn't really require a lot of sanding.  I found that some plain old sandpaper did the trick quite nicely, and didn't take a lot of time.

Anyway, they're only available at one store right now:  The Junky Spot in California, USA.  Although they're produced by Hujoo, they are an exclusive to just that one store.  (The store's owner co-designed them with Hujoo.)  ... No, I don't get anything for promoting the doll or the store (I never do), but since I bothered to do a review of them, I thought I might as well tell you where you could get them. 

By the way, in case someone is interested:  I did my faceup with acrylic paint (nose, black eyeliner and mouth lines) and oil-free watercolor pencil (everything else).  The eyes are 16mm glass Soom eyes. 

Vanessa and Natalia

Some more redressing.  Ready to Dare Natalia looks nicer out of that pink dress she came with.  Vanessa wanted to try on the pink dress, so who am I to say no? 

I've photographed them here in front of my crape myrtle.

High Point Vanessa: Goddess

What can I say, except I'm glad Vanessa is back to her original look! I love the sexy open mouth.  Her lips are parted, but her mouth isn't open TOO wide. ... just enough to be intriguing.  She's gotten her fire back!  People on the forums are calling this new Vanessa sculpt "Vanessa 3.0."  The previous Vanessa 2.0 was nice, but there was nothing of her original personality in the sculpt and she ran the risk of getting boring real fast.  In fact, the first time I ever saw the 2.0 sculpt, I thought she looked a little depressed.  3.0 has brought back all her original attitude in a beautifully screened and painted package. 

This particular Vanessa is flawless.  Her eye paint is attractive, with neutral colors ... nothing garish.  She has my favorite dollie lip color of all time.  Her long, wavy hair is very versatile and fun to photograph and play with. 

Here I've redressed her in the outfit from "Style Counsel" Veronique, with the jewelry from "You Look So Fine" Erin (Rock Wedding Erin).  Gah!  I hate those little tiny hooks on doll necklaces!  Most of my doll necklaces I can't even use because my clumsy hands can't deal with the little tiny hooks.

Click on the pictures to make them bigger.  :)

And the prize for the best Poppy Parker hair goes to ...

This is the 2012 Workshop Poppy Parker from the Integrity Toys "Tropicalia" convention.  Swoon!  I was able to get her secondhand from someone who went to the convention, and wow, this Poppy is amazing.  She even makes me like this style of eye paint, and I haven't been a fan of this eye screening before now. 

I've been waiting two years for Integrity to produce a Poppy with this shade of red hair, and when they finally do, it's an extremely-limited edition, convention-only Poppy that's going for $200 on the secondary market.  Of course.  I was only able to get her because I traded a NRFB doll for her.  LOL.

She's wearing a shirt from FR2 Dasha, here.  It goes with her lovely green eyes.

And now for some Lalaloopsies

I thought we needed a break from discussing Integrity Toys' dolls for one day.  So here are some Lalaloopsies!  Totally useless little minions of Cute.  I actually had to make myself stop buying these things.  One Loopsie is cheap.  Twenty of them are not.  LOL.

Keep me away from the convention dolls!

OK, drooling over pictures from this past weekend's Integrity Toys convention is REALLY, REALLY bad for me. I now have the 2012 Workshop Poppy Parker coming to me (via a trade) and the convention "High Point" Vanessa (via my poor, strained PayPal account).  I had to buy Vanessa nude because I couldn't justify spending extra money to get her dressed.  LOL.  Come to think of it, BOTH dolls will be nude because Workshop Poppy came nude to begin with.  I guess I'll spend the next couple of days searching for the perfect outfits for each of them. 

I really need to stay off the forums now.  It's bad for my pocketbook.

I'm thrilled that Integrity changed Vanessa's face sculpt again.  She now has a sexy open mouth again like the original Vanessa did.  Vanessa 2.0 (shown in the photo) is pretty, but I really missed the parted lips of the original.  The first sculpt held a special place in my heart, since "Pale Fire" Vanessa (with the original mold) was my very first Integrity doll EVER.  I stupidly traded her away and have regretted it ever since. 

I'll take pics when my convention girlies arrive.  :)