Jamieshow Madra Redressed

Madra is modeling "Special Appearance," a gown by Ashton-Drake for Violet.

The jewelry was a table gift at a convention from another collector. The wig is by Ilaria.

The gown is covered with beads and sequins. It has no closures and slips on over the doll's legs - over a full length slip.

Here she is in a new wig from Chewin. Both wigs were made for Sybarites but they work on Madra.

Franklin Mint and Ashton Drake Dress their Princess Catherine Dolls

The Franklin Mint will be producing a vinyl portrait doll of HRH Catherine. You can have one (or more) for $295.  Click on the picture to see the description and/or to place your order.

Here is Ashton Drake's porcelain 16" doll for $149.99.  Their description says fully poseable. Hmmm...I wonder exactly what that means. They did a very good job recreating the look of the gown but it it likely a retouched photo for now. It's too good.  Click on the photo to go to the Ashton-Drake page.

Princess Catherine Commemorative Porcelain Bride Doll

Tsk, tsk. The Danbury Mint still has their artist's rendering on their website.

Personally, I would rather have a Pippa doll in the dress SHE wore. What a great-looking doll she would make!

Gene's Final Curtain Call ~ Part II ~ Favorite Gene Photographs

Lucky Stripe

Lone Star Soiree

Heavenly

Heavenly wears a Tonner Fashion

Daughter of the Nile Gene

Candied Lavender Gene

Calendar Shot Gene wearing Stolen Moments Fashion

Calendar Shot Gene

Bridge Club Fashion on Heavenly Gene

Blue Horizon Gene

Bon Voyage

Apres Ski

To be continued.

IDEX - Brides of Dracula Dolls

I had seen promo pictures of the the three Brides of Dracula dolls before seeing them in person and decided that I wouldn't be getting them. The last set of vampires that attracted me were from the pen and mind of Anne Rice. I have a vampire slayer in my collection and she's staying. I can't imagine the violence that would occur in my showcases should these 'ladies' arrive on the scene.
But...when I saw the dolls in person, I liked the fashions on two of them enough to consider purchasing them just for the clothing. They look better in person than in the photos.
I don't think these dolls go far enough toward representing vampires. They're just pretty dolls with fangs in gothy fashions. At a price of $149.99, one really needs to like fanged dolls with red or yellow eyes.
The dolls are manufactured by Integrity Toys and distributed by Ashton-Drake Galleries. However, some individual dealers are selling them. They have the 12" Fashion Royalty body. I will find out if these are limited editions.

The blurbs about each doll are very strange. Very, very strange. Some excerpts: "This is one lady that you will never see wearing a crucifix." "...the perfect fashion for feasting on human flesh." "...do we see some dried up blood in the creases of her lips?" Who wrote this garbage? By the way, vampires do not eat flesh.

Why can't a female vampire have several male vampires for husbands? Is this the vampire version of Big Love?

If Barbie Dolls Were Articulated...

...would Mattel charge $150 for a doll like December Turquoise?

One year ago, Mattel introduced their Princess and the Frog doll.
Here are images from the Disney cartoon.
Integrity's interpretation of Tiana is very nice. She is a pretty doll. This version and another are going to be sold through Ashton-Drake Galleries only. The price is $149.99 and an edition size is not listed.

Integrity to Compete in the Supernatural Themed Doll Market

Along with Ashton-Drake, Integrity Toys is working on a project to produce characters in 1/6 scale from the Dark Hunters' series by Sherrilyn Kenyon. I have to admit that I never even heard of this series until I read the announcement. With my tail between my legs I slunk off to Wikipedia and Amazon to look. Apparently Ms. Kenyon is a book writing machine, pumping out book after book filled with stories of paranormal romance. Since her first book, Fantasy Lover, which was published in 2002, seventeen (!!!) more books in that series have been published. In addition there have been thirteen short stories and novelettes published in the same period. I wonder if that's a record.

It's fairly widely known that Ashton-Drake quality control is far from reliable. If Delilah Noir is any indication of future quality then this new project may be doomed from the get-go. In any event, it won't be boring.

There are two more Integrity projects in the works with Ashton-Drake as well. One is Disney related and the other is vampire related. Both will be under a new Couture Fantasy label. I cannot wait to see this.

I just hope that the convention does not become about dolls other than Fashion Royalty. It's already happening with the introduction of Poppy Parker as a table centerpiece. It's not new as Dynamite Girls and Hollywood Royalty were also introduced as centerpieces. But if it's a Wu convention, I want WU not WHO.

Next they'll be collaborating with Mattel.

Just kidding, people. Don't spread any rumors.

Gene Marshall line to be Retired!

Mel Odom just sent out the news. The Gene Marshall line will retire! This is the letter from Mel:

Hey Kids,
This is a letter I've been writing in my head for quite some time, but have not been able to actually put down on paper. It's a tough letter to write and I've been pretty emotional about it. (Big breath) I've been feeling lately like it's a perfect time for Gene and her friends to retire. I've been working on Gene since 1991. That's when the first drawings of her are dated and I'd probably had her in my head for some time before that. The point is, she's been a consuming interest of mine for close to 20 years. It's been the most detail intensive project of my life and certainly the most fun. I've been given much because of Gene; acclaim, financial security and the best bunch of friends and collectors anyone could ever expect from their profession. It's been an amazing journey for me- completely different than what I had imagined.

This year, we've had a really wonderful collection, with awards and popular triumphs and a great sense of energy among you guys. I've really enjoyed it. It's been amazing. And the Hollywood Royalty minis being a hit was just the sprinkles on the cupcake for me. I just think it's always better going out a winner, while you are on top.

This is the thing...I want to do something else. I'll be (gulp) 60 next year and feel like there are other things I can accomplish if I can devote my full attention to them, like I have done with Gene. I've practically ignored my first loves, drawing and painting, for far too long. For twenty years before Gene, I was known as an illustrator and graphic artist. I don't think I can go back to being an illustrator; that's over for me. But I'd like to be known as a painter and I'd like to maybe teach art. As some of you know, I've been knocking on the doors of art galleries with my paintings for the past few years and am not about to give up on that particular dream of mine. I feel like I have enough time for one more great phase in my career, even though I'm not positive what it is.

Gene is in my head and heart and nothing I can ever do will change that. She's always been with me in some form and will stay with me and very probably morph into another phase of whatever it is I do, paintings maybe. But I've always had to change every so often, like when I stopped focusing on illustrating and created a fashion doll. This is one of those times. So Gene and I are pulling a Garbo, and retiring, but not without a fabulous sendoff.

I have gone over my plans with Integrity and we all want to make sure that we have a proper celebration for Gene and her friends (both plastic and human). I have really enjoyed working with Integrity and making these past few years some of Gene's best ever. The Integrity team and I are planning one last, big blowout for all of us- a 15th Anniversary convention to celebrate Gene and all her friends, to be held in early June in Philadelphia. And for this special party we're creating one more collection, "The Stardust Collection", a curtain call of sorts for all of our characters, and get this... including Trent. Ashton Drake is graciously allowing us to use the original molds to create one more classic Trent for the party. So, Trent will be there and Oona and Ivy and Violet and Madra. I'll be there and hopefully everyone will be there, to celebrate 15 years of the coolest thing to happen to fashion dolls since high heel feet.
Facts and forms will be forthcoming, but I wanted to tell you all this personally. There will also be a special Gene happening in early 2010; you'll be privy to the information later on. It'll be fine, you'll see. Gene will be a perfect 15-year long phenomenon in the doll world, a story with a humble start and surprise ending- a beautiful arc of stories, characters and costumes that changed the doll world. And as long as Cher and Barbra Streisand are in this world, there's always a chance of a comeback somewhere down the road.

I'll still be blogging; the W Club has happily agreed to continue to send all of you my "Mel Mail updates", right through the big party in June. Later on, I'll be blogging from my own website
www.melodomart.com, which should be completed and up soon. Any of you who are interested can come along with me for the rest of the journey as well. You're all invited. Thank you for everything and remember to always....

Play nice Kids,

Mel

Delilah Noir Re-Paint

One of the newest members of my tribe is a OOAK Delilah Noir from Ashton Drake. She's a new doll who is vinyl, 16" tall and has a combination of ball and strung joints with 14 points of articulation. With the ability to change her eyes and wigs, she's immensely useful. The factory product comes with two wigs and two outfits and the back story is that Delilah is innocent looking by day but changes at night. Could they have come up with a more tiresome story line?

Image property of Ashton Drake

In spite of that I was attracted to her when I saw the factory version but when I saw the repaint, I knew I had to have her. Mine was repainted by Michele Hardy and came to me nude with only a pair of black boots.

Some of Tyler's clothing items fit—but she needed her own wardrobe and wigs! I purchased a 6/7 Roxy wig and it looked very good on her.
Having found out that she could wear the 16" Goodreau American BJD clothes, I browsed over there and purchased two outfits. Paulette sent me a wig along with my purchases as a gift. I love it.
Here is Delilah wearing the Goodreau fashion, Cream Elegance, and the gifted wig. The necklace and bracelet are from a Teen Trends outfit.

Goldmine: The More I See You; The More I Love You.

Here are two shots from Goldmine's latest photo session. She looks fabulous in the photos but I have to say that she looks even more beautiful in person. This has to be my most beautiful doll (this month anyway.)
She is wearing an Ashton Drake Gene outfit called "Will You Marry Me?" The shoes are from another set.
I'm thrilled that the AvantGuard dolls can wear and look fabulous in most of Gene's fashions, old and new. The period dresses sometimes look a little dowdy but the rest are very flattering.

 

 

Nuts and Bolts and Photos of AvantGuard Goldmine

I'm having a great time redressing Goldmine. She is really a beauty and can carry off many varied looks. It's been a long time since I felt this way about a doll.
I've had just one problem with this gal - inserting earrings is particularly difficult. I use a push pin as I do with all my dolls to make the ear hole the right size for earrings. There seems to be something inside Goldmine's head that stops the earring from going all the way in. I really had to work the opening more than should have been necessary.
The only complaint I've heard is about the light weight of this doll line. Someone called it a "quality issue." When I questioned her she said that she wants her dolls to weigh more. Since I don't have anything to compare her to besides Gene and Tonner dolls, I can't make a statement about her weight.

I certainly hope that nuts don't suddenly appear inside their bodies.

This photo was taken by a collector named, Em'lia. Her Model Behavior (12"/Integrity Toys/Jason Wu) doll broke apart in a fall and she was horrified to discover the nut glued inside. Obviously there is no intrinsic need for a nut inside these doll bodies. It must have been placed there to make the doll weigh more. Many have come to the conclusion that the nut is the cause of the floppy hip joints which keep the majority of Fashion Royalty and these dolls from holding an upright pose. This discovery has been the source of a great deal of indignant foot stamping and the source of several conspiracy theories. I have discovered that many people do not know the difference between a nut and a bolt and that several people think that a nut like this weighs a great deal and is causing their postage to sky rocket.

However, some pretty good comedy has resulted. A remark from one collector went like this: "...now if anyone takes apart a Homme and discovers they have matching bolt...I will die laughing."

Another collector made the following suggestions:

"I suggest they make the nutsack, I mean the nutcase, I mean the body cavity, accessible. Certain edition numbers could contain a valuable prize instead of a plain nut, which would give us a logical reason to look at the COA. Or you could take the nut out and put stuff in the doll, like her jewelry, or a baby tarantula, or one of those little voiceboxes from Build-a-Bear*, something fun."

The entire thread made perfect sense to me. ;-)
-------
Back on the topic of AvantGuards.
There is something about the body that inhibits complete posability. I don't know what is causing it yet. In any event, she is way more posable than Tonner's 16" dolls.

Here are some of my recent images using Goldmine as my model.

This is the fashion from Film Fatale Gene by Ashton Drake. The pants looked too short when she was wearing shoes. Therefore - no shoes.

Wearing Integrity Toys/Mel Odom/Jason Wu silver trench coat from "Star Entrance Gene."

Wearing Ashton Drake's "Tango."

Wearing Ashton Drake's "Lucky Stripe."



I am looking forward to the release of Androgyny and Aphrodisiac.