Merry Christmas!

Last post before Christmas.  I had to show you a couple more pics from my themed photo shoot with the Prettie Girls Tween Scenes, because showing you these pictures in January would be a little awkward.  Plus, I had to show off the Santa hats I made.  :)

I hope everyone has a great holiday season.  

Some random doll news

Prettie Girls Tween Scene dolls Dhara and Alexie.

Tonner One World

Collectors have already heard about the Dec. 3 merger between Tonner Doll Company and One World Doll Project, who do the 12-inch Prettie Girl and the 16-inch Prettie Girl Tween Scene dolls. The merged company, Tonner One World, plans to continue their high-end collector's doll lines, but in addition, they'll also be doing play doll lines that will be sold in retail stores. The Tween Scenes are currently in Walmart and H.E.B. stores, but will also be in Toys R Us and Target beginning in 2016, so it looks like this line will be expanded.

Tonner One World also plans to introduce two new doll lines at Toy Fair 2016 in February: an 18" baby doll line called the Prettie Girls Dream Babies, and a fashion doll line called the Prettie Girls NYC. I don't normally cover baby dolls on this blog, but I'm intrigued by the Prettie Girls NYC and can't wait to hear more about them. I don't know what size they'll be yet. 

 

Lammily's new character

I'm sure people remember the Lammily doll, that made waves last year as the love-her-or-hate-her doll with more realistic proportions than most other fashion dolls. Well, the company has introduced its second character in the series. This time she's an African-American photographer.

 

I think her face looks quite nice, and the clothes are so pretty! Her hair in the picture is a bit ... interesting. With some restyling, she'd look great, though, I think. She's not out yet, but available for pre-order.

That's all for now. Love ya!

 

Dolly food!

Handmade doll food by Chef Gina.

I thought I'd show you two different types of doll food today. The first is a handmade dinner for your more refined dollies by Chef Gina, shown here on a table and chairs made by the Tonner Doll Company for their 10" Patsy-sized dolls. 

 

For lunch we have stuffed pierogis with glazed carrots and salad, washed down with iced tea with lemon, with yogurt for dessert. There is a separate large salad bowl, with a helping of fresh greens divided onto each plate. The plate is ceramic, not plastic.  (Remember to click on the photos if you want to see them bigger.)

The tomatoes look amazing. It also looks like there are thin slivers of onion ring in the salad, a slice of egg, and cucumber. I don't know what Chef Gina used to make these with, but they're so much nicer than play food you can buy at Target. But since they're made by hand, they're also more delicate than plastic play food, so these won't work for young children. It's a nice set for older kids and adults, though.

The iced tea is set in a plastic glass, but the ice cubes and lemon slices look great.

The yogurt has a sprig of mint in it. I've been calling this yogurt ever since I first laid eyes on it, but it just occurred to me that it could also be cottage cheese. Whatever you think is the yummiest, I guess.

And now for some play food. ...

Play food from the Our Generation doll line.

The next collection is Our Generation doll food I got at Target. The food is from two different sets: "Love a Luau" and"R.V. Seeing You." My daughter Eva's birthday was four days ago, and she got them as gifts. They were an immediate hit! There are some things that were in the sets I didn't even get a chance to photograph, because she spirited them away to her bedroom. There was a pair of fried eggs in a pan that came with the R.V. set, and they've somehow managed to get lost already. Ah, well. 

The shrimp look SO GREAT! They're from the "Love a Luau" set. Eva loves shrimp, so I had to get her this one. 

 

Some of the food looks good (for play food), but some is hit-or-miss. I liked this make-your-own hamburger. The individual parts of the hamburger are separate so your kid can put them together any way she wants. Whoever painted the bun on the far right apparently skipped the "how to paint hamburger buns" workshop. LOL. The bun on the left looks good, though. The tomatoes are too dark, but the detail is nice. The lettuce looks great!

The fruit. I love that they painted the tiny seeds in the watermelon and the apple halves. I appreciate details like that. It would have been so easy for them to not bother painting those, considering the Our Generation sets are mass-produced items.

The cookies look disgusting. LOL. The sets came with pink plastic plates. It would have been nice to see plates that were a little more ornate, and you know, not pink, but it's a play set made for children. I guess I can't complain much.

I love this tropical drink that came with the luau set! It looks suspiciously like an alcoholic drink. "It's a fruit slushie, Eva. I swear!" Very cute, though.

Later,

(Disclaimer: Chef Gina kindly sent me the pierogi set for review.  I bought the Our Generation sets at Target.)

The Dream Big Friends Kickstarter

I just discovered this new Kickstarter for this super-cute doll.  It looks like the Kickstarter has only just begun recently.  I think she's wonderful!  I love that she looks like she just stepped out of the pages of a comic book.  The doll is 10" tall, and has articulated elbows, wrists and knees as well as hips, so she can sit nicely in a chair with her legs together and hold things in her arms.  She comes with the kitty.  Her clothing is fabric to allow her to move and pose well, and the hair is molded.

The designer has a whole lot of dolls planned, in many ethnicities.  They put this image up in their video (below), and I took a screen-grab of the set.  They mention they want to do boy dolls as well.  I'm dying from the cuteness.  Dying!  How cute are these?!?

Anyway, here's the Kickstarter, if anyone wants to buy one of these girls and get this line made.

 

 

All photos show the prototype dolls, and are the property of Bigshot Toyworks.

Adventures at MakieLab

These Makie dolls by the British company MakieLab have been on my radar for over a year, only I never bought one before now.  These are the dolls you design on their web site with an adorably-cartoony make-a-doll program, and they then custom-make the exact doll for you right there in England.

I just found out they've lowered the price by 35% over what the prices were mere months ago.  They're now $75 in American currency.  Apparently, the Makies now have a new plastic body that's enabled them to reduce prices.  The new body reportedly has even better posing than the old, although I've seen people lament that with the new bodies, people can no longer dye their dolls different colors, possible with the older bodies that were fully 3D printed.  There are some really nice customs out there in shades of blue, green and purple, all done with the older body.  Anyway, I saw MakieLab was offering free shipping this week, so I took the plunge and created a Makie!  Actually, I created two.

Violet and Winsome, otherwise known as pouty and happy.  I would have LOVED to have gotten both and declared them twins, but I could only afford one this time around.  I ended up choosing the smiling version for my first Makie, in the medium skin tone.  Here's the final girl that I ordered:

The sliders on the web site were so fun to play with!   I took screenshots of my messing around with the "Attitude" eyebrow slider.  The "Ferocity" slider changes the thickness, and there are also two other eyebrow types in addition to this one.  (Click on the graphics to see them larger.)

If you choose one of the other eyebrow styles, it's possible to make a really angry face.

I also messed with the eyelid sliders.  These narrow the eye to change the facial expression.  It's really pretty brilliant.  I think the wider eye makes her look sweeter, while the narrower version makes her look slightly condescending.  Between this, the various eye types and an eye tilt feature, there are a lot of options.  You can change her nose and jaw/chin shape as well.

I tried some different hair on her.  The immediate issue I discovered with their newest version of the make-a-doll program is that it's extremely difficult to figure out which hair is supposed to be a natural red.  There's a fire engine red, and there's this.  It's impossible to tell whether this is supposed to be a medium brown or a shade of red, or something in-between.  There are some other shades of brown in there, but no other shades of red other than the unnatural, vivid fire engine red.  I didn't order this wig because I wasn't sure what color the actual wig would be, and I had a suspicion it wouldn't be quite THIS color.

Tried a few more wig choices.  It was pretty fun to mess with.

I loved the white hair as well, and ended up ordering a separate white wig in addition to a black one and the purple.  I also ordered an eyeglasses set that included three pairs of eyeglasses in different colors.

I gave her small elf ears.  On the site, when you click on the "Ear Shape" button, the hair turns transparent so you can see the ears underneath.

The outfits are (with a few exceptions) different than they were a year ago.  I don't have very high hopes that the outfit will be a great quality, but I don't plan to keep her in this for long, anyway.  I know I'll be sewing for her soon.  The parrot top made me smile, and I thought the blue leggings might be useful for other outfits.

So, when it was time to check out.  I got this window, showing the price in American dollars.

Here's the weird thing.  As I was checking out, I decided to add the two extra wigs and the eyeglasses set, and the prices suddenly switched to British pounds.  LOL.  The currency switched back and forth a couple of times before I was done.  I wasn't too concerned about it, since I knew it wouldn't matter when I paid.  I'm just mentioning it in case someone else buys from them before they can fix this.  Don't panic!  It'll work out fine.   Other than that, I had no problems checking out and paying.  Order came to $95.66 total with the three extra items added, still less than the original price for the doll alone, which would have been $115.

I'm so excited!  I've heard it's a two-week wait while the doll is custom-made.  I'll certainly post a million pics of the actual doll when she arrives. 

See ya!

EDIT:  She arrived!  You can see her real-life pics here.

Prettie Girl Tween Scene: The search for shoes

Prettie Girls Tween Scene dolls Valencia and Alexie.

Decided my Prettie Girl Tween Scene dolls needed shoes.

Like, badly. 

So I thought I'd try out a few.  Came to the conclusion that shoes for the 13" Dianna Effner Little Darlings dolls might fit, since Tween Scene's feet are exactly 50mm x 20mm and Little Darlings shoes are close to this.  I bought three different kinds to try.  Two were perfect, and the third was not quite.  I also tried Hearts 4 Hearts and Delilah Noir doll shoes on them, too, but those were both way too big.  MSD-sized shoes for Asian ball-jointed dolls are too big as well.

Here are my results with the Little Darlings shoes:

1st pair:  Lavender patent heart mary janes from Debs Adorables on eBay.  These were really 99% perfect except that the straps are a little too long for the Tween Scene feet.  It could be corrected quickly with a pair of scissors, but I decided to just leave it as-is.  They look pretty cute.  They work either with socks or without.  This merchant only sells to the United States, though.

2nd pair:  Black-and-white saddle shoes from JuJu's Dolly Mall on eBay.  These are 100% perfect and awesome, and SO CUTE!  They even came with the socks.  Was very pleased with this purchase.  JuJu's sells internationally, although they're located in the United States.

3rd pair:  Tan heart cut shoes from JuJu's Dolly Mall.  (Same link as above.)  These were ... not perfect.  The fit was a little loose in length and width, so they need to be worn with socks/tights.  The biggest issue was they were too HIGH for the Tween Scene's foot.  It may not be obvious in the pictures, but it was bugging me a little seeing it in person.  I think they'd be fine if I put a Dr. Scholl's-style insert in the bottom, so that the foot is raised up a little bit inside the shoe.  I think if I did that, it would look OK.  Not pleased with this purchase. 

I'll close with some more random shots of these girls, since I spent a couple of weeks making them outfits.  I made all the clothes in these pics.  Now you know why I needed more shoes.

See ya!  Click on the pics to make them bigger.

Hana, with Dhara in the background

Dhara

All ready for Easter!  (In ... um ... four months.)

Lena

Valencia, who is fast becoming my favorite.  She can't take a bad picture.

Lena and Hana

Somehow, Lena ended up posing with everybody.  Here she is with Alexie.  Camera hog!

Prettie Girls Tween Scene Dolls, Part 2

From left:  Prettie Girls Tween Scene dolls Dhara, Hana, Valencia, Lena and Alexie.

My three new girls arrived!

I thought it would be interesting to point out a few things I noticed about the Prettie Girls Tween Scene dolls.  I got five out of the six characters.  The only one I'm missing is Kimani, who is dark-skinned like Dhara, but with brown eyes and curly hair.  I might pick her up later.

From left:  Hana and Alexie.

The five I have are actually five different skin tones.  That surprised me, because I would have expected Hana to have the same skin color as Alexie.  Although you might not be able to see it in my photo, their skin colors are different.  Hana is veeeeerrrry slightly darker, with more of a pink tone.  I think it would be lovely to see another variation of Hana one day that used Valencia's tan skin tone, to represent people from places like Indonesia.  Anyway. ...

From left:  Dhara and Lena.

Lena and Dhara have different skin tones as well.  Lena's is subtly lighter, and a whole different tone than Dhara's.  (Dhara is the one with the tiny braids.)  I love this, because it makes it easy to tell the dolls apart in person.  ... Good news if you have two daughters who both like dolls.  I have no idea whether Kimani has the same skin tone as one of these ladies, or yet a sixth skin color.  Lena has hazel eyes (a mix of green and brown), and Dhara's eyes are more pure green.

Dhara in her arrival outfit.

I have to mention Dhara's outfit.  She was one of the three I'd ordered from the Walmart.com web site, so I didn't get to see her before she was shipped.  When she arrived, there was a bit of a surprise.  The photo that's on the Walmart web site shows her wearing a flower-printed dress, yet this is what she arrived in!  This outfit is cute, but not what I was expecting.  I'm wondering if there are some other versions of Dhara out there that have the flower-print dress.  Crazy, huh?

I noticed the promo pics on the One World Doll Project web site show the correct outfit.  Anyway, if you order this doll, be aware this will probably be the outfit you get.  It comes with red sneakers, by the way, and an extra shirt made from the same floral fabric as the pants.  All the dolls come with an extra shirt, which is so awesome.

Another thing I noticed is they aren't all the same face sculpt!  When I first heard about this line, I assumed they'd all be the same sculpt, but I was wrong.  I'm seeing several differences between the sculpts on a few of them.  I don't know how many head sculpts are in this line total, but I aim to find out one of these days.  I think that's great news, because it means that going forward, the dolls won't end up all looking like clones of each other with different hair and eye colors.  It helps each have their own unique personalities.

Prettie Girls Tween Scene dolls Dhara, Hana and Alexie in their arrival outfits.

I think they look so cute all sitting together.  I made all the dresses you see in that first photo.  The shirt-and-jumper outfit on Lena (below) was made from the Maudlynne Macabre-sized "Autumn Stroll" pattern by Designs by Jude.  Maudlynne uses the same body as the Tween Scenes, so the fit is perfect.  Any Maudlynne Macabre patterns will work for the Tweens.

You can read Part 1 of my look at the Prettie Girls Tween Scenes at this link here.
And a post about shoes that fit them here.

Click on the photos to see them larger.