My "Guidelines for Collecting Dolls" have not been very useful this year. I've not had the time to focus on selling off dolls from my collection. At the beginning of the year I had a health scare. Earlier in the summer, I found out that I was moving classrooms (from a mobile to inside the building). My mother-in-law has had some very serious health issues and has required a lot of my time and care.
Even though I've been unable to sell as much as I wanted, I still was able to "fine tune" my collection this year using doll sales proceeds from 2018. I even had enough cash to attend the IT Convention "Live From Fashion Week". After all of the issues this year, I was afraid it wasn't going to be possible, but my loving husband took the week off to handle things at home and insisted I needed a vacation. What a wonderful man!
I drove from Atlanta to Raleigh to pick up my friends Reese and Sal. From there we drove on to Baltimore. Unfortunately, three collectors and their luggage doesn't allow for a lot of room to bring home extra dolls to sell, but we found the room for all of the dolls we wanted to add to our collections! I couldn't have asked for better driving buddies - such wonderful conversation!
I left home at 5:00 a.m. on Wednesday morning. This was only my second convention, and I really wanted to go to room sales! (I missed the room sales at my first convention because we didn't leave until Thursday and my husband felt uncomfortable going into other collectors' rooms.)
We arrived just in time to register and pick up the Welcome Doll ... Fresh Perspective Agnes Von Weiss. AGNES VON WEISS!! A Welcome Doll? That's never happened before. And what a beautiful version!!
Reese and I checked into our room, unpacked, and checked out our dolls (of course, not in that order!). Then it was off to room sales. There were specific artisans we definitely wanted to hit. (Unfortunately, Squish Tish/Yoko Dolls was only selling at the Bazaar; Randall Craig was only selling at a specific time on Thursday, but I was seventh in line and was able to snare a gorgeous dress and jewelry!)
We were able to pick up some incredible handbags! One of my favorites, Paintbox Designs, was open (almost impossible to pick just one). We got to Rebecca's suite after dinner and I found a marvelous scarf! I tried very hard to be extremely selective. It wasn't easy. Had I $1000 for this purpose only, I would've easily gone through the entire amount. There were some incredible prices on NRFB dolls!
We came home, went through our loot and took showers before bed - sweet dolly dreams all night long. The next morning we had breakfast in the hotel before going to the IT salesroom and Style Lab.
This year IT was at the top of its game. They took some great suggestions for improvement from collectors and implemented them. When you registered for the convention, you were given a cue number. The cue numbers were then assigned a colored lanyard. Collectors were lined up by their lanyard color and cue number. There was no stress! No one broke line! No one got into arguments! It was wonderful.
When your color was called, you walked into a "holding area" where all of the dolls were on display! You could look and think about your favorites. There were six dolls in the Convention Collection:
1. English Rose Eugenia Perrin Frost (FR)
2. Spring Romance Adele Makeda (FR)
3. London Show Nadja Rhymes (NuFace)
4. Winter Shimmer Lady Aurelia Grey (East 59th)
5. Young Romantic Poppy Parker (PP)
6. Kimono Go Go Poppy Parker (PP)
In addition, there were three salesroom exclusives (and you didn't need a ticket to purchase them):
1. Art of Manliness Darius Reed (Monarch)
2. That's All Plum Powers (The Industry)
3. Devil Made Me Do It Tulabelle True (The Industry)
There were also six different versions of Poppy Parker in the Style Lab, a two head hair fashion giftset, six different boxed ensembles, six different carded dresses, an accessory set, and doll bodies.
Doll overload set in - I began to hyperventilate!!
I went in with the mindset of a collector not a speculator. Rather than thinking about what I could sell to make money, I thought about what I wanted to add to my collection. I knew exactly how much I wanted to spend. I limited my purchases in the Salesroom to five. Shown in order of preference.
London Show Nadja Rhymes was a no-brainer. A pale version of Nadja - enough said.
Adele Makeda 2.0 is a favorite mold, so I knew Spring Romance was coming home with me.
I was totally surprised by Winter Shimmer Lady Aurelia Grey and how much I loved that dress and her face and hair! I think this is the best version of this character yet.
I am a fan of the movie The Devil Wears Prada, so That's All Plum Powers (an older The Industry character representing Miranda Priestly).
And Devil Made Me Do It Tulabelle True as Andi rounded out my five.
I will do individual reviews of each doll as I get to them. I may regret not purchasing Eugenia, but I already have so many beautiful versions of her at home. Although the two versions of Poppy Parker were lovely, I knew there would be a Poppy Parker luncheon and I had seen versions of Poppy in the Style Lab display I preferred.
... Skip ahead ...
I drove back home from Baltimore on Sunday. I had just enough time for a quick bite to eat, unpack my luggage, and get some sleep. I retuned to work on Monday morning at 7:00 a.m.
I didn't have any play time this past week, so my boxes remained unopened. Yesterday (Saturday) was a dreary, rainy day and we ran errands and I caught up on laundry, housecleaning, and grocery shopping.
I woke this morning to a beautiful day filled with dolly promises.
First, I decided to rebody The Muse Adele Makeda to a FR2 body. I ordered some Dark A-Tone bodies from the last IT body order, but I wanted a body with the hip joint. Timeless Adele (mold 3.0) went into the heating pad with The Muse.
It was time to decide how much Spring Romance from the convention fit with The Muse.
First a picture of the outside of the box. How clever. I have to praise the return to these shoebox-like containers. I much prefer them to the ones with the flaps. The box is designed with perforated circles with a colored layer behind it. A different color represented a different line! The FR color was neutral tan/peach color. CUTE IDEA!
Here is a photo in the box. I love the face. Mold 2.0 is a personal favorite.
Full length in the box. This ensemble is so gorgeous!
And look at all the accessories. (Photo from IT) I adore the hat and purse. The shoes are amazing. Look at those enamel earrings.
I decided I needed a photo of The Muse with Spring Romance. But I had to find something with pastel colors for her to wear. Does anyone realize how few pastel pieces of clothing are available for these dolls?
I decided to put the Fashionably Floral Silkstone top with the pants from Be Daring Imogen Lennox. Then I used the shoes and jewelry from the 2007 ensemble She Comes in Colors.
Different enough? Surprisingly, I actually prefer The Muse. I thought I was going to prefer Spring Romance! They would make an incredible set of twins since they aren't identical and really complement each other.
Now for the decision: 1. Keep both and have twins? 2. Sell Spring Romance Adele Makeda NRFB? 3. Keep Spring Romance's clothing and sell the doll nude?
Surfing the internet looking at doll photos is one of the most financially dangerous things a collector can do, especially when paired with a "dolly drought" like we've had this year. A couple entries ago, I posted that I had (at first reluctantly) started collecting The Industry line from Integrity Toys (IT) When I First Started Collecting The Industry.
It all started by my being seduced by the Style Lab ensembles from the past couple year's conventions and the fact that IT had even produced some Poppy Parker convention dolls on the The Industry body. Since pre-convention prices on secondary market were quite tempting, I added the first two Tulabelle True dolls to my collection. It sort of "released the flood gates".
Earlier this summer, IT announced that they were changing the Tulabelle True mold, hoping it would help jump start collector interest in this line. This caused me to check out the prices on a couple of the later versions I hadn't added to my collection. It was very easy to acquire the caucasian Fairytale Convention Tulabelle at almost convention cost. She was sold nude NRFB. I believe this girl is extremely under-rated!
#30 of 2019 is Fairytale Tulabelle True
I was surprised to find the last mainline Tulabelle True still available at dealers! Snatched one up on sale even! Strawberry blonde hair and green eyes! How could you go wrong? I believe this is the best version of mold 1.0!
#31 of 2019 Come Thru Tulabelle True
While I was visiting dealers' websites, I found a Style Saviour Liu Liu Lang still at retail. Following my rules for not making spontaneous purchases, I went on flickr to view IRL photos of this doll companion of Tulabelle. Unfortunately, I found this photo: Style Saviour Perfection. Did you click on it? Do you want one now, too? I had to have one after seeing this photo. I, eventually, hope to customize my own as a copy.
#32 of 2019 Style Saviour Liu Liu Lang
All of this brings me to the doll released by IT using the Tulabelle True mold 2.0, Yeti For It. I won the "Right To Purchase Lottery" for this doll. She is an actual 12" version from the 16" line that is now retired. (I'm hoping to see a Pomp & Circumstance and Sweet Tartan.)
Here are the preview photos from Integrity Toys:
I was so excited when she arrived. She reminds me of a young Marie Osmond. I remember watching the Donny and Marie variety show when I was a little a girl, so I love the reference. Here is a "real life" photo. This giftset came "fully loaded"!
Here is a close up in the box:
One out of box! (My only complaint would be that the body and head have slightly varying skin tones. This seems to be a common production flaw this year.)
She redresses so well!
#33 of 2019 Yeti For It Tulabelle True.
