#12 of 2021 - Pretty Reckless Rayna Ahmadi

 Never has irony been more obvious with an Integrity Toys product than the name given this Rayna Ahmadi.   It has become an apparent joke among collectors regarding the coincidence that the factory worker who rooted this dolls' hair was "pretty reckless".  

It's safe to say that I am a BIG fan of the Rayna Ahmadi mold.  I own every version ever produced.   When Pretty Reckless was unveiled I knew I had to have her.  Imagine how fortunate I felt when I was able to purchase her at retail price!  

I was so looking forward to this amazing doll. Here is the promo photo from Integrity Toys.

Just look at that ensemble! And the doll is gorgeous.  Here is the IT closeup.

Unfortunately, the photographer for IT has been a little heavy handed with the filters and Photoshop aps lately.  This is the actual production doll.

Her hair is not the rich tone in the promo photo. It is truly platinum white; it's almost translucent. The eye makeup is much heavier.  It almost looks like its smudged.  She looks either hung over or like she's been on the losing end of a WWF wrestling match.

But the real problem is with the rooting of the hair.  Fortunately, the front of my doll's hair looks pretty good.  The right side is a mess.  You can see skipped stitches, crooked hairline, and the white painted scalp shows through the sparse rooting.  It's just not pretty at all.  From this angle, you also get an idea about the skin tone difference in the head and body, which IT now says is acceptable production deviation.

Here is the left side.  It is much better than the right.

I have seen much worse versions than mine.  Reluctantly I contacted Patient Care.  They gave me the directions for returning the head for a replacement.   I always hate the hassle of this.  You have to ship the head to Canada, send a copy of the receipt to Patient Care, and then wait for as much as 3 months for the replacement to arrive. More than a couple times, I have actually gotten a replacement that was worse than the original I mailed in.  It has been rumored that IT sometimes sends replacements from the "return" pile.  Add to this the pandemic, and I'm not sure I want to even put myself through these hoops.

When you pay upwards of $200 (which includes shipping) for a doll based on a promo photo, the production doll should be pretty close to what is advertised.  I think it's time, IT invested in better photo editing programs and tried to get the pictures as close to the production doll in hand as possible.

I am one disappointed collector in this purchase.