Nu Mood "Jess" by Tonner Doll: Cinderella Reincarnated

Robert Tonner's Basic Cinderella is probably my favorite doll of all time.  I have a huge emotional attachment to this doll and have collected almost every single Tonner doll that shares her face, including all of the newer "Cami" dolls that have a slightly re-sized version of the Cinderella face sculpt.  You might remember from my earlier post that I haven't been too happy with the more recent changes in these dolls. The introduction of "Wigged Cami Too" marked the first time since the debut of the Cinderella face that I decided not to spend my money.  I still have no interest in buying that doll.

Right before IDEX, Tonner premiered his "Nu Mood" line of basic dolls.  These dolls each have one of three body types (Curvy, Dance or Fashion) and they share interchangeable hands and feet and a mix-and-match wardrobe.  This is a cool idea, especially since one of the options for the switchable feet is ballet feet.  I really liked the New York City Ballet line of Tonner dolls, and seeing the re-introduction of the en pointe feet was good news for me.

Better news for me was that one of the Nu Mood characters has the Cinderella face.  Her name is Jess, and she comes with the Dance body.  Perfect.  These dolls retail for $59.99, but mine was less expensive because of a pre-order special.  I haven't paid this little or been this excited about a new Cinderella-faced doll for a while.  The thing that had me the most excited is that in the promo pictures, Jess looks like Cinderella, not Cami.  Don't get me wrong, I love Cami--I adore her, but seeing a new Cinderella after all of these years was like seeing a beloved old friend.  She arrived on Thursday and I have been patiently waiting for the weekend to get her out:

Tonner's Nu Mood Jess

Quick Lorifina Update: BFC Ink. Outfits Show Promise

One of the problems with a discontinued doll like Lorifina is that it is difficult to find a wardrobe for her.  Occasionally, there are single items of Lorifina's original wardrobe on eBay, but it gets tiresome to seek out pieces of clothing one at a time, and the shipping costs can really add up.  So, I have been searching for a current line of dolls that can share clothes with this tall beauty.  I've scoured the doll aisles of several stores looking at all of the dolls in the 20" range and, of all the dolls I've seen, the BFC, Ink. girls are the closest match.  Although their heads are larger than Lorifina's, the BFCs have bodies that are slim and tall like hers.  BFC Ink dolls are 18" articulated dolls made by MGA Entertainment.  They remind me a bit of American Girl dolls, but are slightly shorter and have slimmer bodies.  BFC stands for "Best Friends Club," but I have no idea why they spell "Ink" that way, assuming it is short for "incorporated."

Anyway, I've come close to buying a BFC outfit pack several times, feeling pretty sure at least some of the pieces would fit, but haven't really loved any of the clothes enough to spend $14.99.   Today I found a nice outfit that looked like it would coordinate well with my Lorifina's other clothes, and so I decided it was time to put this idea to the test.  Here's the outfit, it's called "Icy Cute:"

Barbie Fashionista "In the Spotlight" Artsy Doll by Mattel

I don't collect Barbie dolls, so I don't know a whole lot about them.  In fact, I never had a single Barbie doll when I was growing up.  I think this was because my mom didn't approve of them, skinny waists and all.  One other possible explanation for my lack of Barbies is that whenever I was given a doll with rooted hair, I would gradually cut off all the hair until it was just a wreckage of uneven spikes (and then I would poke the spikey ends into the head with a pencil).  So, yeah.  That could be it, too.

For one reason or another, I have mostly avoided the Barbie aisle for my entire life.  However, when Mattel released the "Fashionista" line and I learned that the dolls have exchangeable heads, I was interested.  Actually, on these dolls the whole head and shoulder unit comes off, and you can buy extra head attachments to change the look of your doll.  This means that stores have extra heads for sale on the shelves.  Picture it: rows and rows of disembodied Barbie heads smiling out at you from shiny plastic boxes.  It's a little weird.  I had to get one and try it out.  The trouble is, I know so little about Barbies that I bought the wrong thing.  I bought a doll that said "Fashionista" on the box, and I bought a head that matched her skin tone and also said "Fashionista," but when I got everything home and tried to get the doll's head off, it simply would not come off.  So, the first thing I learned about the Fashionista line is that not all of the dolls have interchangeable heads.  Watch out for that.

About a week ago, I got an email asking me if I had ever considered reviewing the Barbie Fashionistas.  Well, I have to admit that I had been waiting for an excuse to give the head-swapping adventure another try.  I mean, I still have the head I bought sitting here in its box with no body to put it on.  Armed with new determination, I headed out to Toys R Us and bought this:

Fashionista Artsy

"Summer Lila" and "Summer Lucas" by Salvador Berenguer for JC Toys

Based on the focus of this blog so far, you might be surprised to learn that I got my start as a doll enthusiast by collecting baby dolls.  Actually, to be perfectly accurate, I got my start as a doll enthusiast the moment I received Madame Alexander's baby "Victoria" as a gift from my grandmother.  Victoria and I were inseparable for the better part of my youth:

My mom made us matching outfits!

As an adult, baby dolls started to appeal to me again around the time I got a yearning for real babies.  Even after I had my two boys, baby dolls served as reminders of the most precious stages and expressions of my little guys.  As my kids got older, I moved into collecting Himstedt child dolls, but that stage couldn't last too long because Himsetdts are big and expensive.  These days, for whatever reasons, I am much more interested in fashion dolls.  It might have something to do with shelf space.

Despite not acquiring a lot of new baby dolls at this point in my life, I still retain many and strong opinions about these dolls.  Recently, someone asked my opinion on what would be a good realistic baby doll for an older child.  I had a great time thinking through the options.  For this special girl, I ended up recommending Zapf Vivian or Lilian, by master sculptor Cathariena Teunissen. The process got me pondering what the best realistic baby doll choices are for each price range and age group and I thought I'd start sharing my thoughts about this topic here.

Monster High Review: Nefera De Nile and Operetta

It's hard to keep up with the Monster High releases!  I heard the news on the "Prego" doll board yesterday that Purrsephone and Meowlody are up for pre-order at Toys R Us (well, they were.  It lasted about 5 seconds), so that's pretty exciting, and also three new dolls have hit the shelves recently: Nefera de Nile, Operetta and Cupid.  I haven't seen Cupid yet, but the other two materialized at Walmart the other afternoon and I snatched them up.

I was especially interested in Nefera de Nile because she has a different body than the others.  She is the older (and taller) sister of Cleo de Nile, and so is another daughter of The Mummy.  The other new release, Operetta, is the daughter of The Phantom of the Opera.  That's a mouthful to say, but she is very interesting--particularly if you like the 1986 Andrew Lloyd Webber musical.

I don't think I want to take Operetta out of the box just yet (don't ask me why--that's a whole other story) but I will de-box Nefera to get a close look at that new body.  Here she is in her box:

Monster High Nefera De Nile.

The Liv Dolls' Horse, Nutmeg, vs. the Moxie Girlz Horse, Cricket

I am a big fan of horses.  When I was younger, I had a massive collection of Breyer model horses that was the focus of my entire imaginary world.  In the early 80s, you could get these highly detailed plastic Breyer models for about $6.00 at Woolworth (in nice cardboard boxes...), but now they run in the $40 range and are typically found only at high-end toy stores (although Toys R Us does carry a play line of Breyer horses).  

When Spin Master premiered their Liv horse in 2010, I could not wait for it to hit the shelves.  I saw some small pictures online suggesting that it was a highly articulated horse which I thought was very appropriate considering the impressive articulation of the Liv dolls themselves (no, no, don't worry--I am not going to gripe about that again).  There aren't really a ton of articulated play horses on the market right now.  Our Generation has a 20" horse that looks semi-articulated and pretty handsome (available at Target).  There's still an articulated horse for the Fisher Price Loving Family.  I think that's about it.  Let me know if you have intel on any others.

I was really hoping that the Liv horse would be kind-of like Smoke, a 1970s Lone Ranger articulated horse I had when I was a kid.  I loved posing that horse and I don't know what happened to it.  Smoke had about 14 points of articulation and could strike some very realistic poses.  That was the coolest toy. 

Anyway, I have been meaning to write a review of Nutmeg, the palomino Liv horse that I've had for about a year now.  While I procrastinated with that review, however, I caught wind of the new Moxie Girlz Cricket, who is a palomino horse that is articulated and apparently walks and whinnies.  Well!  I thought it might be fun to de-box Cricket and have a nose-to-nose showdown between the steeds of two very popular play doll lines.  Here's Cricket:

Moxie Girlz horse, Cricket

Couture Swallow Sybarite by Superdoll

Artists Desmond Lingard and Charles Fegen have been making haute couture for many different doll lines since the start of their fashion design company, Superfrock, Ltd, in 1999.  In 2005, Lingard and Fegen expanded their business to include Superdoll Collectibles, a doll-making operation that introduced the world to a new line of 17" resin ball jointed fashion dolls called the Sybarites.

Sybarite is such a cool and unique name for a doll line.  The online free dictionary tells me that a sybarite is, "a person devoted to pleasure and luxury, a voluptuary."  That first part is very helpful, but a voluptuary?  I have to say, I like that word, but I have never heard it before.  Merriam Webster says that a voluptuary is a person interested in luxury and, "the gratification of sensual appetites." Alrighty then.   That sounds like a good fit for these dolls.

I have the extremely good fortune of owning two Sybarite dolls.  One of them, "Raja," I got on clearance from the now-extinct Haute Doll magazine shop.  When I bought her, Raja was not very popular and was being let go for about $450.  My other Sybarite, who you will meet here, is also a Haute Doll magazine exclusive.  She was limited to 250 (a big edition for these dolls) and retailed for $725.  That's a hefty price for a 17" doll, but some collectors are willing to pay a lot more than that for these haughty fashion divas.

The best way to buy a Sybarite is to join the Superdoll mailing list and be really fast when the new dolls get posted.  Like 5 minutes fast.  If your fingers are fast enough, you'll be one of the lucky 50 or so people who get a new doll for around $500-600.  If you blink and miss the release, you can find Sybarites on eBay most days for around $1,000.  Superdoll actually has a basic doll named Talc still on sale on the website for about $530.

Are they worth the competitive stress and the big price tag?  You tell me.  Meet "Couture Swallow:"

Sybarite Couture Swallow by Superdoll.

WARNING: Before you take the jump, please be warned that this doll is much edgier than the other dolls I have discussed, both with and without her clothing.  Although I try to keep things tasteful and artistic, the photos are likely not work-appropriate and may not be to everyone's taste.