A Capital Affair Tiny Kitty

"A Capital Affair" Tiny Kitty came to me a month or so ago, and I never did post pictures of her.  She was a special event doll from the 2013 United Federation of Doll Clubs (UFDC) convention in Washington, D.C.  I didn't go to the event.  I just fell in love with her through pictures, and ended up buying her from someone who did go.

I'll start off with a comparison pic of her next to "Garden Club Luncheon." 

Mother and daughter?  LOL.  When posed side-by-side, my first thought was that "Garden Club" looked like the very fashionable mom.  It had everything to do with her styling, of course.  The hair, the clothing. ...  If not mom, then an older sister.

I wanted to show off the differences between the two faces, since their coloring is similar.  If you'll notice in the pictures, GCL has pitch black hair; ACA has dark brown.  GCL has grey eyes; ACA has blue.  Their lip color and eyebrow shapes are different. "Garden Club's" hairline is lower, and she also has longer eyelashes.  I have to say, I think the hairline on "Capital Affair" is a touch more attractive.  I also prefer the shorter eyelashes.  I still love "Garden Club Luncheon," but "A Capital Affair" is definitely the true beauty, here.

I'll include a few more pictures of the latter, since she hasn't gotten her own post yet. She came with a see-through pink nightie, which I haven't tried on her, yet.  See-through!  Ack.

And now some more pictures. ...

The hair is incredible.

The extra nightie, and a lace fan.

Garden Club Luncheon Tiny Kitty

"Garden Club Luncheon" is one of the new 2013 Tiny Kittys by Robert Tonner.  She was my first choice, although I love the other two dressed dolls in the collection, too: "Dinner Dance" and "Pink Champagne Supper." She only just came today, and I immediately had to take her outside for pictures.  I didn't order any of the others in the collection.  I wanted to see one up close and in person first before I even thought about ordering any more.

I'm really impressed with her!  Every part of her outfit is beautifully made and fits well.  Her black dress seems to be velveteen, and the only problem with this material is it attracts lint.  Besides that, though, her whole ensemble is wonderful.

She has grey eyes and pitch black hair.  I love that her lips are a deep, true red. ... It would have been so tempting for a designer to give her bubblegum pink lips to match all the rest of the pink in her outfit.  I'm so glad they went with red.  Love the red!  It really stands out in a very charming way.


Her jewelry is pink rhinestone earrings and a matching bracelet.

The hat fascinates me.  It's actually of a very simple construction, with a band of thin elastic on the underside to put around her hair.  Simple but effective. 

Her hair is a rather elaborate updo, not merely a bun.  I love how the hair looks, and have no desire to take it down. 

By the way, in case anyone was wondering:  The 2013 Tiny Kitty dolls seem to be the exact same skin tone as the older Kitties!  I held this girlie up to my older Tiny Kity in natural sunlight, and I couldn't see any difference in their skin colors.  Great news for anyone who wants an articulated-arm body for their older Kitties.  Just sayin'.

 

 

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

Review of the Kawaii Crush dolls

Doll comes with a skirt, pajama bottoms, and two hats.

I got one of these on a whim after having a particularly bad morning.  I had to get some blood drawn at the doctor, and let's just say, getting a needle stuck in my arm was the best part of my day yesterday.  Sigh.

Anyway, I was feeling a little down, and ended up at Target.  This little panda girl jumped in my basket and came home with me.  I'd been curious about them, and wanted to be able to see one up close.  I adore animal hats.  I loved the blue and purple color scheme on this one, the girl called "Amanda Panda Pop."  Her tiny size also appealed to me (2.5 inches, or 6.5cm).

Those arms don't move.  Ever.

It turned out the best things about this doll were the animal hats and the packaging.  The doll itself was very disappointing.  I tried to write a "pros" and "cons" list about this girlie, and could barely come up with two things to put on the "pros" list. (I struggled to come up with #2.) 

Pros:

1.  The animal hats fit well and are really cute.

2.  The doll is colorful and has a bit of charm, if you like the big-eyed look.  And I do mean BIG eyes.

Hats are SO CUTE!!!!

Cons:

1. No arm/shoulder articulation. Those arms are stuck in that position permanently.

2. The Kawaii Crush dolls have a hinge at the waist so they *theoretically* should be able to sit, but their thick rubbery hair keeps them from being able to sit down.  The only way they would really be able to sit is if you gave them a backless stool to perch on.  They cannot use any chair that has a back to it, and cannot sit on a flat surface.

Now you can see the problem.

3.  They also can't stand up on their own, which is a bit of a dilemma, since they can't sit, either.  You pretty much have to constantly lean them against something.  I think these girls would have been better off as figurines with bigger feet so they could stand, without the pointless hinged waist.  Either that, or give them short hair so they can sit down.

4.  The panda friend cannot stand on its own, either.  It sort of looks like it's standing in my pictures, but that's only because I propped him up against the doll's hair.  He also has these unfortunate lines through his eyes that ruin him for photography.  The line are a part of the sculpt and there is nothing that can be done about them.

5.  The pajama bottoms are ill-fitting, and split all the way down the back, so they look a little awkward.

Ahhhh ... no.

6. The small clothing pieces would be extremely easy to lose, making this a bad toy for a very young child.  Those shoes come off, and they are SO TINY! ... Although to be fair, a lot of other toys also have tiny, easily-lost pieces. 


Not a negative, but I thought some people might want to know this:  The hair doesn't seem to come off.  I was wondering whether their hair was interchangeable like the Pinypons and PinkyStreet dolls, but it's not.  

Here is one more positive I discovered after a while, regarding the animal hats:

Panda cuteness on a Momoko doll.

I was hoping those cute animal hats would fit other dolls.  I tried the hats on my Fashion Royalty, Poppy Parkers and Momokos, and I was able to just barely squeeze the hats onto their heads.  They fit!  Stayed on pretty well, too.  ... I was expecting the hats to pop off again, but they didn't.  I didn't have a Barbie to use as a model, sorry (I don't do Barbies).  The hats looked especially cute on the Momoko.  The Kawaii Crush girls' heads have a 9.5cm circumference (just under 4"), so if you have a doll with a head that tiny, you might be able to use the hats for them.

I think FR2 Elise is a little too dignified for this.

Later,

My customized Tonner Patsy

I know this customization looks difficult, but it was SO EASY.  The only change I made to this Effanbee/Tonner "Pretty Party" Patsy was to change the eyes.  That's it.  But wow, what a difference!

I knew this pretty sculpt would look better with different eyes, so I took the plunge and switched them out.  I got out an exacto knife and some full-round glass eyes, and basically did this tutorial. 

It involved peeling off Patsy's glued-on wig, then cutting a round hole in the back of her head with the exacto so I could access her eyes.  Wrap the head in a heating pad for a little while to soften the wig glue.  It makes it easy to peel the wig off.

The default eyes are not glued in.  In fact, you could probably just take the old eyes out and put new eyes in without ever having to cut her head open (although cutting open her head makes it easier).  I suspect you could just heat up her head with a heating pad and pop the old eyes out, then pop the new eyes in again from the outside of the head like I did in this Bratzillaz tutorial.  However, you'd be risking scratching her face paint near her eyes if you did that, which is why I chose to open her head and attack the problem from the inside.

The lady who did the Patsy tutorial uses 16mm eyes, but I like 14mms better.  The 14s are also easier to put in, because the 16s are overall larger in addition to having a larger iris, which makes them really difficult to shove into those eyewells.  (I tried. ... Boy, how I tried!)  The tutorial lady had used half-round eyes, but with the 14mms I was able to use full rounds and they still worked nicely. 

Right now, Patsy's new eyes are being held in quite well without any glue or putty or any extra effort on my part.  They're stuck pretty firmly in the eyewells and won't budge unless I make them.  Technically, I could just leave them unglued so I could change her eyes out again for another color any time I want.  I'm undecided about gluing them, because the idea of being able to change her eyes any time I want to is just too tempting.  I LOVE them like this!  The new eyes have really brought this doll to life. 

Omigosh, I love her! 

By the way, the whole process of changing out her eyes was really quick and easy.  My only tools were the exacto knife and a heating pad (or hair dryer) to warm up the vinyl.  I didn't alter her face paint at all ... the face paint you see in the pics is all her original factory paint.  Nice, isn't it?  She's really beautifully painted.  The only other thing I did was to get rid of her spidery-looking default applied eyelashes, as you can see in the comparison photos.  The eyelashes just didn't work on her, and she already had nicely-painted eyelashes on the corners of each eye.   

Really, her original eyes probably would look fine if only the factory had positioned them up a bit higher so you could see a little white under them.  The quality of the factory eyes was good; I just wasn't crazy about how the factory workers had set the eyes.

In these pics I was playing with her eye position.  I'm not sure whether I prefer side-glancing or forward-facing, but so long as the eyes stay unglued, I'll be able to change them at whim.

Please click on the pictures to see them larger.