Monday, January 16, 2017

... And The Beat Goes On

Prior to Thanksgiving, I contacted Integrity Toys with an issue on my Cover Girl Veronique from the convention collection.  Her eye makeup was messed up from the eyelash glue.  (Her left eyes looks "milky")   I sent the head to Canada and was told by customer service, a human Veronique, that she had a perfect head and would send it to me with the replaced Dominique torso that had staining.
You can imagine my surprise in December when the torso arrived without a Veronique head replacement.  I was told by human Veronique that the perfect head she told me she had, turned out to be flawed and that I would have to wait until one was shipped from Asia.  My poor Cover Girl is still sitting in her box without a head almost 60 days later ...

It seems that quality control continues to be an issue at IT.  As I mentioned in my entry for Defiant Rayna, IT changed the doll pre-production but didn't bother informing their collectors.   I paid for Love, Life, and Lace Agnes so she could ship with Defiant Rayna.   I was very excited about receiving Love, Life, and Lace Agnes so I could include her in my countdown.  Unfortunately, Agnes didn't make it to my countdown; it turns out her head is a couple shades lighter than her body.  It's as if the head is the old "Porcelain Skin Tone" and the body is some variance of cream.
There was a big ruckus from collectors and IT finally decided to redo the heads.  I'm not sure I like this idea because IT did the same thing with Flawless Elyse.  The replacement head wasn't nearly as nice as the original.  This caused me to reluctantly sell her on the secondary market.  I'm not sure why they didn't just redo the bodies - it seems to me that would be easier and require less production??

The first doll I received in 2017 was the Sister Moguls giftset.  They are gorgeous, but did you notice anything about how much they look alike?
This was odd since the promotional information described Giselle as "Japan Skin Tone" and Agnes as "Cream Skin Tone".  I was really looking forward to having a cream skin tone Agnes since I don't have one with blonde hair.  I already have Dressing the Part, Head for Glamour, Aristocratic, and October Issue in Japan.  Again, collectors were not notified that the production would be different.  IT has agreed to allow collectors to return this doll for full refund ... but I do love her so ....
I'm just not sure what to do ... I wrote a funny list of skin tones and posted it on Flickr.
Collectors have added:

12 - Don't be so picky, nothing in life is perfect
13 - Did you use flash?
14 - The color difference is only visible from certain angles
15 - Just buy a different body and see if it fits
16 - We are new to this - you can't expect us to match head and bodies after only 20 years in business
17 - The wrong new color will be the right one
18 - However in hand, the difference is just barely visible
19 - This is how this particular doll is made
20 - If you look at the doll in the dark, you won't see a difference
21 - We can't see a difference
22 - Real human beings are flawed, and it is a beautiful thing
23 - We reserve the right to change anything about the doll pre-production and not inform anyone.
24 - Your guess is as good as mine

I guess it's good that we can laugh about it.  The Sister Moguls giftset was $200 which is too much money to pay for something and not get what you thought you paid for.  Also, I don't like waiting months to receive replacements.  Unfortunately, when you're the only game in town, you can get away with these sorts of things.  I was hoping 2017 would be a better collecting year.  I am not as optimistic as I was.







8 comments:

Barb the Evil Genius said...

It's bad enough to see Mattel have quality control issues. It must be very frustrating to pay so much for a doll and have her come with flaws. The doll I received for the big dinner event at the Tonner convention last June also had a face issue; her eyeshadow on one eye was painted on crookedly and zoomed up into her eyebrow. Fortunately I was able to get a replacement doll the next day, after the woman at the booth first told me she was fine. Maybe these people just don't look as hard as collectors do???

Anonymous said...

They are beautiful dolls, but messing with skintone is absolutely NOT acceptable!

Anonymous said...

I have noticed a lot of doll heads don't match the body in tone on several dolls in the last few years, including some of the 16 inch gals...I cut down my collecting from IT because of all the issues, I used to buy almost everything they made, last year I bought very few dolls, and most were from the Poppy line...but yet the prices seem to keep going up lol But alas I still love many of their dolls..the new Fresh and Delightful Veronique seems to have an issue with the skin tone not matching either..at least it appears that way from the pictures I see...I just wonder if they changed factories or something? The new bodies are not very well done either, the seams are very noticeable and several of my dolls had nicks or excess plastic here and there...sigh...what can ya do???

Anonymous said...

I was actually not offered a refund on the Sister Moguls. I didn't press the issue, but it was not a blanket offering to all who contacted patient care about Agnes' skintone. Don

Anonymous said...

I had to laugh at your list of colors and the add-on comment ones by collectors. It's so true and funny, yet so sad on the other hand. I find it so hard to believe what collectors have come to deem "acceptable" in terms of what we as consumers should accept as "normal flaws" in our doll purchases. It was one thing to overlook a thing or two when the dolls cost $79 and $99, but I can't understand how in today's economy with the prices almost reaching the doubling point and the issues mounting, collectors keep rallying around a product when it has issues. An environment is being created where if you bring these issues to light, you are a "whiner" or "complainer" and if you don't, you are considered somehow more "positive" and congratulated for your acceptance and compassion.
It's really made me slow down my collecting...the product is declining, and that underlying mentality is a huge turn-off. It would be nice for collecting to be fun and stress free again!

Misty said...

Sybarites cost a whole lot more and some of their flaws are defended by some collectors as well. This is not unique to IT.

Julia said...

I had ordered LLL Agnes and it was so disappointing when she arrived with a whiter/lighter colored face than her body. I ended up returning the two LLL Agnes dolls I had for a refund. Now I am hesistant to order any doll with the cream skintone. I always wanted an Agnes, and LLL Agnes was going to be my first, but I decided to let her go because I was not going to be happy seeing her face "glow" among my other dolls on the shelf.

I hope IT fixes the body/head color issue on their dolls. Poppy seemed to be fine in 2016. And since Poppy is still my major focus, I hope IT continues to produce great Poppy dolls.

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