Bad Surprises … Good Surprises

A lot of collectors have reported that the Integrity Toys (IT) Convention doll, Inner Spark Natalia Fatale, was produced with the wrong skin tone body.  Her head color doesn't match her body color.  The body is much lighter tan and actually works with many tan dolls including Colette, Paparazzi Bait/Soul Deep Adele, etc.  This got me very excited because I've been waiting for a body donor for Force of Nature Agnes Von Weiss.

I didn't want to pay $140 + shipping for a body donor, so I started watching for good deals on e-bay and the boards as I have several tan dolls I would like to upgrade.  I thought it would be smart to purchase some extra Latino bodies when IT made them available at the end of 2015 and ordered three.  I figured if they were light, I could use them instead of purchasing multiple Inner Spark dolls, and if they weren't, I could rebody the heads from Inner Spark Natalia and sell them secondary market.  Win/Win?

I recently purchased an Inner Spark for $110 shipped (good deal, right) and waited patiently for my bodies to arrive.  They came last week.

Here is a photo of Inner Spark Natalia in her box.

And a closeup.

Do you notice anything odd?  That's right!  Her body is not the light tan color I expected.  Did someone switch it?  That's not possible because she is still thread-sewn into the liner with tape over the thread, direct-from-factory.  So, apparently IT produced some Inner Spark Natalia dolls on the correct skin tone body and some not.  Frustrating!

Here are the accessories.  The jewelry and shoes are awesome (I wish there had been a nicer bracelet though):

She is an attractive doll in her own right.  Here she is fully dressed out of the box.  Although the fabric of the dress is a little stiff and out of scale, it looks great on and photographs quite well.

And another closeup.   What can I say, I am sucker for a good widow's peak.

So, I didn't need one of the replacement bodies for Inner Spark Natalia after all.  She may even be staying for while.

When I took out the replacement bodies I purchased, I realized they were not even the same color as Inner Spark Natalia.  So, I took my last three Natalia dolls out and realized they were two different colors, and neither skin tone was similar to the replacement body.  Apparently there is no consistent Latino color skin tone.

Prestige and Inner Spark are the same, whereas Elusive Creature is more tan.  The replacement body (sitting down) is more reddish than either.

I contacted some doll friends and they were having the same problem with these replacement bodies.  They didn't seem to match anything in our collections.  I started pulling out all of my latino skin tone dolls.  You cannot imagine my surprise (and excitement) when I found that the new bodies were very close to the original Natalia Fatale skin tone!  Here is one of my very favorite dolls, Cosmetic Takeover, with the upgrade!

So, these new, more reddish, bodies will probably work with all Natalia Fatale dolls pre-2007.  That may include Seashore Rebel, Behind Velvet Ropes, Queen of the Hive, Capricious, Black as Night, and Femme Du Monde.  (As I no longer own any of these dolls, I cannot confirm this.  However, I know my Cosmetic Takeover was on a Capricious body before the transfer.)  One bad surprise, one very good surprise!