FR16 Incognito Elsa Lin

Left to right: Cosmetic Surrender Elsa (with repainted eyeshadow) and Incognito Elsa have the same sculpt.

It's been a while since I've shown an Integrity Toys doll here, so I was thrilled when my pre-ordered Incognito Elsa Lin was dropped off at my doorstep.  She's part of the 2015 FR16 line, and the only one in the line I ordered.  I'm super in love with her ... except for the hair, which I'll tell you about in a minute.

Incognito Elsa fresh out of the box.

She came in a really lovely yellow shell top that fastens with hooks in the back, and a light gray skirt with a scandalously-high slit in it.  Her shoes are simple ivory pumps, which I LOVE because sometimes Integrity does these insanely-complicated shoes that are impossible to put on the doll.  I'd rather have something simple that I can put on and take off easily.  They fit well and look nice.

Pure elegance.

She came with sunglasses (arrived broken in the package), a really pretty scarf in a nice print, a bulky jacket, a brown purse and some super lovely jewelry.  I have to say, Integrity does gorgeous doll jewelry!  The earrings looks like gold leaves, and there is a matching gold bracelet.  There are an additional two bracelets that match her orange-red lipstick.   Love the jewelry; dislike the jacket.  It's just thick and bulky, like I said, and in my opinion doesn't look good on the doll.  It might look nice life-sized, on a live human model, but the thickness doesn't work quite so well doll-scale.

Anyway, I mentioned the hair.  The promo pics of this doll only showed the hair from the front, and in the promo pics, the bump on top of the head was smaller.  On my doll the bump was HUGE.  It actually looked OK from the front, but when I saw her from the side, I pretty much said "What the actual heck?" to myself and gnashed my teeth.  The back of the hair was in a ponytail, which looked really strange coupled with the '60s bump.  (I've seen it called a "bitch bump" on a couple of forums.  LOL.)  I don't know why they decided to pair a ponytail with a B-bump, but it does NOT work for me.  That thing had to come down.

My attempt to wrap the scarf around that insanely tall hairdo.

"What the actual heck?"

So I loosened the hair gel by dipping the top of her head in hot water, then went to work.  Luckily, the hair underneath the bump was one big, long curl of hair that unwound nicely, so I'm pleased to say she's fully rooted under there!  However, there ARE a few strands of hair that are cut short, but they're behind the hairline.  I'm not going to bother rerooting these, because they aren't too numerous, and with her hair down they just blend in with the rest of the hair anyway.

Here she is with her hair loose and sexy, redressed into an older Tyler Wentworth outfit by Robert Tonner called "Fragrance Launch."  Her hair is not pure black, but instead that gorgeous shade of darkest brown that is almost black, but not quite.

Much better!

I photographed her with 2014's Cosmetic Surrender Elsa, who shares the same sculpt (first photo).  Incognito looks really pale next to her, but Incognito actually has the "Caucasian" skin tone (now confusingly called "FR White"), not Integrity's paler "Japan" skin tone.  She just looks pale because Cosmetic Surrender is tan.

Anyway, hope you enjoy the pictures.  Please click on the photos to make them bigger.

Just beautiful.

Fr16 Afterhours Hanne

Today is FR16 day!

... Mainly because I entered the W Club lottery for this lovely After Hours Hanne, and managed to get her.  She was an Integrity Toys convention doll this year, but they had some left over after the convention, and offered her (and the other left-over dolls) to W Club members in a special lottery.  Yay!  I was so happy to get her.  She looks amazing next to Obsidian Culture Hanne, her fiery red-headed cousin. 

I'm so in love with this new, side-glancing eye screening.  I SO HOPE they use it again next year.  We now need a Hanne with black hair and green eyes, with After Hours' face screening.  Are you listening, Integrity?  Hee hee.

Integrity writes her name on the box as "Afterhours" (one word).  Seeing as I'm a journalist who used to work for a newspaper, this FREAKS ME OUT.  That should not be squished together as one word.  It just shouldn't.  Yes, I'm a Grammar Nazi (or, in this case, spelling).  It's like if they'd squooshed her cousin's name together as "Obsidianculture Hanne."  Nope.  Just nope.

The dress is fabulous.

The whole dress is lined, with perfectly-scaled mini-sequins.  Her bracelet is lovely, and seems to be identical to the bracelet they gave "Ma Cherie" Poppy Parker Fashion Teen.  She comes with black strappy-type shoes (sorry, didn't get a picture). 

Her coloring makes me think she's a South American beauty who's dyed her hair blonde.  Is she a model or a movie star?  We don't know.

Later,

FR16 Obsidian Culture Hanne Erikson

I didn't get this doll when she first came out.  It took seeing owner photos of her with her hair down before I realized what a stunning beauty she is.  The first time I saw the original promotional pictures of Obsidian Culture Hanne, I was in awe of how detailed the suit is, with the embroidered pink leaf design all down the sleeves and collar.  The jacket has working pockets!  The veil is on a headband that's adjustable, so it fits perfectly and doesn't need pins to hold it on.  The purse is detailed, and really looks like a minature of some haute couture purse.  The whole ensemble is amazing.  But I wasn't ready to jump into buying this newly-revamped FR16 line. 

The thing is, I'd bought three of the original FR16 dolls (one of Integrity Toys' 16" doll lines).  I kept waiting for them to release more like the original Freya, Anais and Elsa (the three I had), but instead, they decided to change the way they painted the eyes.  So there were new FR16 dolls this year, but they didn't match the ones I already had.  Sigh.  The new dolls had a more realistic look, as opposed to the slightly more doll-like look of the older FR16s.  

So, because they didn't quite match the dolls already in my collection, I resisted buying them.

But then I saw some pictures of Hanne redressed, with her hair down.  Suddenly she seemed amazing to me, and I had to have her.  It's astounding what one little change can do for the look of a doll. 

So when she arrived, that hair didn't stay up any longer than it took to snap a couple of pictures.  She went from eccentric fashionista to goddess in 30 seconds.  Taking the hair down was very easy.  It involved snipping two rubber bands, and unwinding one lock of hair that'd been wound around the base of the ponytail.  Then I just gently pulled the hair down with my fingers to give it its current look.  There was no bald spot in the back of the head.



Left:  How she looked right out of the box, before I took that down that giant mass of curls.

The set came with fur-trimmed gloves.  I made one half-hearted attempt at putting them on, but putting gloves on Integrity Toys dolls is like vacationing in the 10th Circle of Hell, so I left them in the box.  She couldn't wear her awesome ring at the same time she had the gloves on, anyway, and I wanted to show off the ring.  It's such a charming little accent, with a black stone in it to reflect her name, Obsidian.  The earrings are wonderful, too.  It's interesting they have pink stones to match the embroidery on the jacket, rather than a black stone like the ring.  It's an intriguing design detail that I find quite natural-looking.  How many people have rings that perfectly match their earrings, anyway?

 The one negative thing I have to say about Obsidian is not about the doll itself.  It's about her stand.  The stand was useless with my doll, because her skirt was so tight that I couldn't fit the stand underneath it.  If her skirt had been looser, the stand would have worked.  I'm going to have to get a waist-grip stand for her, because there's no way the average Integrity stand is going up that tight skirt.  (That sounds rude, but you know what I mean.  LOL!)

You'll notice I don't have any pictures of Hanne on her stand. 

Obsidian Culture is an exclusive at Couture Dolls.  There is one other version of Hanne, a blue-eyed blonde in a really incredible white dress ("Platinum Society" Hanne).   I had a hard time choosing between the two, and I *might* cave and buy the blonde for myself for Christmas. 



And now for a few more random pics.

Click on the pictures to see them larger.

Happy Independence Day!

Independence Day (July 4th) celebrates the day the American colonies won their independence from Britain in 1776 and formed their own country.  Yay!  Being both a doll lover and American, of course I have to post pictures of dollies wearing my country's colors.  

Modeling are the Tonner Doll Company's "Sugar Plum Party" Marley (I love her hair!), and Integrity's FR:16 girls Anais, Freja and Elsa.  I made all of the clothing.



By the way, when is Tonner going to bring Marley back?  She was awesome!

Sick and miserable this week ...

Between being sick this week and the neighbors getting their roof fixed, I haven't taken a whole lot of pics in the past couple of days.  You might wonder what the neighbors' roof has to do with anything. ...

I take my best pictures outdoors, because I'm lucky enough to have a 6-foot wooden privacy fence so I don't have to deal with my neighbors staring at me like I'm a crazy lady while I take pictures of dolls.  LOL.  For the past few days, there have been workers up on my next-door neighbors' roof, and they can see down right into my back yard.  Sigh.  I'm way too self-conscious to have them staring at me while I take photographs of my dolls. 

I tried to take pictures indoors yesterday, and this was the only pic that came out decent.  It's FR:16 Anais, looking beautiful and fierce.  I love her like this, so I had to share.  The sweater is by Tonner, and the earrings are from Rock Wedding Lilith.  I made the headband.

The Tonner company always made the BEST sweaters.  I wish they'd release more sweaters like this, in different colors.  I don't think they ever did this sweater in blue or purple.  They released versions of this sweater in off-white, green, pink, black and orange, but you can only buy them on the secondary market, now. 

Later, alligator,

FR:16 picture spam time!

Well, my FR:16 Anais showed up on my doorstep today.  She is the only FR:16 I bought nude, so there won't be a review of her clothing.  I have to say, I LOVE her face sculpt!  She's totally fierce.  I like her better than Elsa Lin.  Freja is still my favorite from the FR:16 line, though.  So ... some picture spam of my new girls!

As always, you can click on the pictures to make them bigger.

Thanks for looking.

Review of FR:16 Main Feature Elsa Lin

All right, I couldn't stand not getting another FR:16.  I've been carefully stalking eBay, online stores and forums for the past week searching for a good price on an Elsa Lin, and finally got her for a LOT less than retail.  It's been so difficult finding "live" pics of this girl (read: ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE), so I thought I'd spam you for a while with pics.  She seems to be the least popular of the FR:16 girls and I think part of it is her skin tone.  She looks vampire-white in the promo pics, but I confirmed with Integrity that she actually has the "Japan" skin tone like their Fashion Royalty Luchia.  Her skin doesn't look quite so ghostly white in real life. 

I think her sculpt is very pretty, and looks like it will be versatile.  She'll look stunning with longer hair in different colors.  I can't wait to see her as a redhead or blonde.

Her bold yellow-and-black dress is pretty and designed nicely, but I don't think the colors flatter her.  (Yellow next to that pale skin tone?)  I think she'll look better redressed.  That's just my opinion, though.  I'm not a "runway" type of girl, anyway.  I couldn't care less that my dolls are wearing a runway designer look.  I just want them in nice, normal, functional clothing.  I have FR:16 Anais coming, too, in a couple of days. ... I think the yellow-and-black dress might look better on her darker skin.  I'll have to do a re-dress and find out.

Elsa doesn't come with a lot of extras, but at least that keeps her cost down.  She comes with simple stud earrings, two circle bracelets and a really gorgeous ring that looks like it's inlaid with yellow topaz.  The earrings match the ring, and are faux gold with rhinestones that look just like yellow topaz.  She has a well-made metallic gold clutch purse and panties underneath the gown. She has a pair of very attractive black shoes with gold heels.

Her eye paint is lovely.  Her eye color is a unique grey-toned aqua, and her makeup palette is done in smokey blacks and browns. 

Yup ...

Well, I went and did it.  I bought two more FR:16s.  "Main Feature" Elsa Lin and  "Fit to Print" Anais are now on their way to me.  You know I'll spam you with pics when they arrive.  :)  The only one I won't be getting is Saskia.  I usually like open-mouthed sculpts, but I never warmed to this one.  It's the same sculpt that was used in the AvantGuard series for "Aphrodisiac," "Goldmine," "Attention," "On Edge" and "Bijoux."  Out of all of those, "Goldmine" is the only one I really liked.  Never say never, though.  I'm not going to get THIS Saskia, but maybe I'll like some future incarnation of her. 

I am SO GLAD the FR:16s aren't terribly popular yet.  It means I've gotten excellent prices on each one I got.  Well, one of them I got in a trade (Freja), but the other two I got for obscenely low prices by stalking eBay auctions ... I got them WAY below retail.  I think this year is a great time to get them, because I suspect the line will be more popular next year after we see the upcoming W Club exclusive FR:16, and whatever FR:16s they want to grace us with at the Integrity Toys convention.  I think next year they'll be harder to find for discounted prices.  It will be interesting to see if my prediction holds true.

More Freja redressing ...

I couldn't help but redress my FR:16 Freja again.  These first few pics are Freja wearing a Tyler Wentworth outfit.  It fits her pretty much perfectly except the waist in the skirt is ever so slightly loose on her.  The FR:16s must have a smaller waist than Tyler.  The shoes from this outfit fit Freja nicely.  If I ever manage to remember the name of this outfit, I'll re-edit this post with the name.

I also tried her in a Gene outfit called "Suited for Fur." (Last photo, below.)  It fits her perfectly, even the shoes.  I was stoked to discover her mauvey-pink lipstick matches the dress and hat perfectly.  LOL!  Don't ya love coincidences like that?

Hey, did I tell you yet that I love her tan?  It's not a baked-too-long-in-the-tanning-salon tan; it's just a lovely, very natural golden tan.  As much as I love this skin color, though, I'd also love to see this sculpt at least once with the lighter "Caucasian" skin tone (as Integrity Toys calls it) in the future.  I have to say, though, this sculpt really can take any skin color and still look fabulous.  Case in point:  My two favorite AvantGuards were "Livewire" and "Androgyny," who both shared this sculpt, but were opposites in skin color.  Both were equally amazing.  They also happened to be the only AvantGuards I ever bought.

 

Made a dress for Freja ...

I didn't think I'd ever get into having 16-inch dolls again, but I'm enjoying Freja.  For one thing, it's more fun and less stressful for me to sew clothing for the larger scale body.  I just finished this faux leather dress especially for Freja.  The white polka-dotted belt is removable; I only just made it because it went with the awesome hat, which I stole from a Gene outfit.  (I have no talent for making hats.  LOL.)  The Gene outfit that went with the hat unfortunately was too tight for the FR:16 body.  I could get the dress on her, but it wouldn't snap up all the way in back. 

Freja needed a basic "little black dress" anyway.  Hee hee.  The jewelry is also from Gene (I think), but I forget which outfit it was from.  I have a bunch of old Gene clothing shoved into a drawer, here, and some of the pieces have gotten separated.   

I've discovered the FR:16s seem to fit well into the Integrity-made Gene clothing and shoes, but not so well into the older Gene clothing and shoes. After I took these pictures, I discovered she fits perfectly into the Gene fashions "Suited For Fur" and "Town and Country."

If you'd like to read my review of this doll, you can see it here.  (Or just scroll down.)

On another note, I also discovered she has the exact same shade of saran hair as "Look of Love" Poppy Parker.  The exact match is "Chestnut Brown" saran from dollyhair.com.  The color probably has a different name on restoredoll.com, but I don't know what their name for it would be. 

More later,
Hugs

Review of FR:16 "Perfect Layout" Freja Mossimo

Freja wearing a Gene outfit.

I saw someone was selling Freja secondhand, and, having a rather empty bank account due to other pre-orders, I asked if they'd be willing to make a trade.  Lucky me, they accepted, and so I now have my first FR:16!  Sending many hugs to my trading partner, Don!

Since the FR:16s are a new line, I thought I'd do a review. 

First off, I'm totally in love with this sculpt.  This is the face sculpt that previously had seven incarnations in the AvantGuards line by Integrity Toys, beginning with "Eclectic," "Lush" and "Livewire." I'm so glad Integrity resurrected this face for their FR:16 line!  However, instead of the anorexic AvantGuard bodies, the FR:16s have a new, curvier, beautiful body sculpt.  A HUGE improvement!  Freja's body is not floppy, either, like many of the AvantGuards were.  This girl would actually look nice in a swimsuit.

The jewelry Freja came with was very simple (stud earrings and two bracelets).  Not exciting, but at least it kept the cost down.  I was pleased to discover her sweater is a separate piece from the skirt!  I've spent the past month thinking it was a one-piece dress.  She comes with panties underneath the skirt, which is also nice.  No pantyhose. 

Her hair is rooted.  No wigs!

Pluses: 
1. Her toes are hinged so that she will fit into a wide variety of shoes of differing heights.  This will make it easy to find shoes for her.  She literally can wear both flat shoes AND heels equally well.
2. The makeup is nicely applied and blended.  Lips are pink, but not TOO pink. 
3. She has the "handspeak" system, which means her hands pop out so it's easier to re-dress her in tops with tight-fitting sleeves. 
4. Sweater is a separate piece from the skirt for more re-dressing mixing and matching. 
5. Since she is 41cm / 16" tall, she can fit into a lot of Tyler Wentworth outfits, and some Gene outfits.  (Some Gene outfits will be too tight, however.  It seems like the Integrity-made Gene clothes fit better than the older Gene outfits.)

Minuses: 

1. Sweater does NOT open in the back at all, which makes it difficult to get on and off the doll. 
2. The shoes are delicate and one of the shoes on mine has already come apart.  The shoes are attractive, though. 
3. Her articulation is slightly less perfect than the articulation the AvantGuards had, although the body is so much more attractive that this really doesn't bother me in the slightest.  She's still very nicely articulated. 
4. The toe joint isn't attractive.  My 4-year-old said "Look!  She has MONKEY TOES!!!"  LOL.  Well, I guess sometimes we have to trade esthetics for functionality, eh?

I will definitely be posting more redress pics here at some later date. 

Overall:  I love her.

What they could do better:  Make those awesome sweaters so they open in the back!

Thanks for reading. :)