Thinning one's collection is never a minor undertaking - it takes a lot of effort, thoughtful reasoning, and courage. Since I started collecting Jamieshow/Owensu Muses, my doll collection has truly expanded beyond storage and display capabilities. I've tried to sell dolls every year to accommodate incoming girls, but I seem to always fall short of my one-to-one ratio goal. When I take out a doll to consider listing her for sale, I remember where and when she was purchased. Sometimes when there is a specific memory attached to a doll, it makes it even more difficult to part with it.
I started collecting Integrity Toys (IT) dolls in 2004. At that time there was only one IT category, Fashion Royalty. Since the W Club didn't come into existence until 2006, the only way to get Fashion Royalty dolls was through dealers, attending a convention, or purchasing on secondary market. Fashion Royalty was a huge success as Barbie was losing its collecting base due to over production of "limited edition" dolls and there was a movement away from the fashion model body type and mature faceups. If you didn't have a firm financial commitment with a specific IT dealer, it was almost impossible to get Fashion Royalty dolls as secondary market prices were actually quite steep and there were more collectors than dolls.
Even with all the sales I've made over the past several years, I am still looking at a collection of 175 Fashion Royalty dolls. That's just Fashion Royalty! Many of them are still NRFB! I have this lofty goal of trying to have at least one representative of each Fashion Royalty mold. At first that doesn't sound like a lot, but there have been almost 40 molds/characters in the Fashion Royalty universe alone!
The easiest place to begin was shelving "all the single ladies". Here they are:
First up is 2020 Iselin LE 500 - Jason Wu Fall 2018 Collection
Next we have 2022 Alyssa (mold 1.5) LE 450 - Jason Wu Spring 2020 Collection Bridal Ensemble
And the final "single" version Fashion Royalty is from 2025 - Janay (2.5) Mother of Pearl. Although Janay has shown up four other times as a character in The Industry, this is the only time there has been a Fashion Royalty version.
So I started with only three girls on the first display shelf. Since I was doing "single ladies", I decided to add characters/molds for which I only had one version in my collection. Even though other versions have been produced, only one has been able to establish a permanent place in my collection. I am going to list them in the order in which their character was introduced to collectors.
Number 4 on the shelf will be Adele Makeda mold 1.0 introduced in 2001/2002. There were eight versions of this mold produced before it was revised in 2004. Mold 2.0 has been so extremely popular that we have only seen two other versions of Adele Makeda 1.0 produced in the past 20+ years; both of those were were in archival releases. I have always struggled with warming up to Adele Makeda 1.0, until the last release, 2020 Flawless Beauty LE 400 from the Legendary Convention Style Lab Collection. She reminds me so much of supermodel Naomi Campbell. (She is wearing the Perfectly Decadent fashion from the same convention.)
Number 5 is another doll from the core group. Natalia Fatale was released in 2004 as the arch rival of Veronique Perrin. There have been eight version of mold 1.0 produced, but none have come close to the premier version, 2004 Natalia Fatale (1.0) Cosmetic Takeover LE 300 from the very first IT convention.
Natalia Fatale seems to have the opposite journey of Adele Makeda. As Adele Makeda 1.0 was replaced with an open mouth mold, collectors didn't like the open mouth of Natalia Fatale 1.0. This led to Natalia Fatale 1.5 where designers tried to take the Natalia Fatale 1.0 mold and simply close the mouth. Mold 1.5 was introduced in 2006 and there were only four versions produced. Number 6 is 2011 Natalia Fatale 1.5 Go West LE 300. This doll reminds me so much of Lana Parilla who played the character Regina Mills (aka The Wicked Witch) in the television series Once Upon A time.
The third version of Natalia Fatale (mold 2.0) has been very popular with collectors, so the previous versions seem to have faded into oblivion. (In 2020 we did get an archival version of 1.0 as Acquired Traits though.) Even though Adele Makeda version 2.0 is the collector favored version on the character, designers decided to try their hand at another closed mouth version in 2011. There have been ten versions of mold 3.0 released, but it hasn't been able to develop the fan base of mold 2.0. Only one has had any staying power in my collection. Number 7 is 2011 Adele Makeda The Faces Of LE 1180. (She is wearing a coatdress designed and created by a personal friend, Sal Arriaga)
The FR2 dolls were first introduced by IT in 2010 as a separate line. One of the original FR2 characters was a revised 2011 Luchia Zadra mold 2.0. There were only 4 versions of this mold ever produced. Number 8 is 2022 Dusk In Bloom Luchia Zadra 2.0 LE 1500. Who can resist a Cindy Crawford look-alike?
IT introduced a new character in 2015 that we haven't seen since the last of four versions in 2017. Number 9 is 2015 Immaculate Finley Prince LE <250. This doll was produced with a Monogram body and is wearing the ensemble from 2011 Quiet Storm Annik.
The next doll is a quite a new sculpt that was just introduced last year and made its way to collectors earlier this year. Since its popular introduction, we have already received another version, but I haven't added it to my collection. Number 10 is 2025 Anais Perrin Constellation LE 800. This girl is much more popular with collectors than her sister.
That almost makes my shelf full! I only have two spots left, so I decided to move ahead with single versions on display.
The next girl is another doll that was initially part of the FR2 lineup. She was a new character introduced in 2010 and there have been 12 versions released in the past 16 years. For some reason I struggle with committing to this mold. There is only one other version remaining in my collection, but it isn't on display at this time. (It's actually in my "sell" column). Number 12 is 2018 Dasha D'Amboise Daydream LE 515. As much as I struggle with other versions, this Daydream is one my very favorite dolls in my entire collection. Go figure!
The last space on this display shelf is for a character that was introduced in 2011. There have been only nine versions of this doll released and only one has made its way to my display shelf. This doll reminds me of my collector friend Rich who convinced me to purchase her. He was totally right; she's quite unique and beautiful. Number 12 is 2012 Shake It Up Korinne Dimas LE 300.
So ... my first display shelf is now full. It represents dolls for which I only have one version on display (or there has only been one version produced). That was the easy part. Now I have to go through the remaining 25+ molds/characters. Stay tuned!
