Tonner West Coast Luncheon & Collection Preview 2016 Review

The theme of this year's event was the silver anniversary of Tonner Dolls!  

Congratulations on a great 25 years!

Robert greets collectors.  He is very friendly and ever attentive.

The venue was a bit more intimate this year.

The collection and sale room was located in an adjoining room.

There were four show exclusives this year.  A strawberry Evangeline with very natural tones on her faceup in a black and white stripes and lace gown.  A Prudence and Ellowyne with matching outfits and hair in coordinating colors of pink and blue.  They are wigged dolls and come with the colorful bobs as well as the longer blond wigs.  And they have cute tattoos on their arm!  And there is a new doll on the scene: Agatha Primrose! She is a fully articulated 11 1/2 inch doll.  Robert describes her as the unlikely fashion doll, with glasses and a bit of quirky sense of style.

Evangeline

Agatha Primrose

Prudence & Ellowyne

These are three of Agatha's new designs!


The food was a good as ever.  Chicken stuffed with spinach over a bed of rice and topped with a creamy sauce was served with steamed vegetables.  The desert was a fluffy chocolate mousse served in a fluted chocolate cup decorated with berries and fruit sauce.  And the coffee was excellent!  Sorry, no food shots to salivate over.

After the meal, Robert gave us a retrospective of the last 25 years of Tonner Doll Company.  A few quick facts that you probably know if you read one of the books:  Robert grew up in Indiana and went to Parsons School of Design.  After school, he was hired by Bill Blass and designed for Blassport.  His first dolls were released in porcelain.

Some of Robert's work for Blassport.

The first doll.

Another early porcelain girl

And now ------  the dolls!

 

Upon first arriving, I was excited to note that Patience is back!  

And she was front and center on the display table.

I have almost the entire previous collection, and I just love Patience!  Last year, I was very sad to find out that he was discontinuing the line.  I thought that he had not given the dolls enough time to catch on-- big head dolls are so very vogue in collecting right now.  And the flirty eyes are unique and very fun to play with, and these girls are super posable, too!  Robert said that since the doll were discontinued, they have been in high demand on the secondary market, so he decided to bring them back.  And he is considering more outfits, too!  Super YAY!

Springtime Patience

Super cute outfit!

What a sweet face...

Dotty Patience

Basic Patience

Wiggy for Patience

And a Basic girl with removable wig!  And a super special blond wig!

I HAVE to have this set!

And another cute bobbed sailor girl: Seaside Patience.  I will definitely be getting her to go with my other blond sailor girl.  I am such a sucker for sailor cuties!

 Seaside Patience

A Shoulder to Cry on Sad Sally

And another cute Sad Sally this year. . . 

I have not yet added one to my collection, though not for the wanting.  This may be the girl for me!

A big collection for Ellowyn is underway!

Right on White

Overhead Costs

Baffled in Brocade

Perfectly Poised Outfit

A Dream of Marigold and Cinamon

Some stunning additions to the Evangeline collection . . .

 And Miette . . .

The men of the Deja Vu series are really impressive, so detailed.

Deja Vu

Rockabilly Collection

Finally, Robert revealed a few exciting things to look forward to this year.  He confirmed that they have signed another agreement with Mary Engelbreit! At long last we will have more Ann Estelle dolls!  He will be adding more to the 10" line and some larger, older counterparts to the collection, the older versions of the kids that are depicted in Mary's work  He is also going to make ME outfits for his new line of 18" play dolls.  I asked if he would consider another 18" Ann Estelle, since they are pretty hard to get now.  He said it was a possibility!

The Downton Abbey dolls were designed and sculpted, but the license was yanked, so we won't be seeing those.  Boo!  But he will be doing more Harry Potter dolls! Professor McGonagall will be the next in line.  Yay!

Also, Robert said that there has been some hold up in receiving dolls from the factory.  Some have been in the works for a very long time, and they never receive them.  So he is beginning to work with another factory.  He expects the dolls to be of higher quality! And to be received quicker, too!

The new website is up and running now.  It fully integrates both sites and cleans up the years of buildup on the other sites.  It will take some getting used to the new format for some, but in the end he expects it to work better.  There are some beautiful pieces of furniture available now: chaise lounges for 16" dolls.  And many of the dolls pictured in this blog are already available.  Check them out at Tonnerdoll.com!

I'll leave you with a few parting pictures of the new girl on the scene, Agatha Primrose!

Takara Middie vs. Fake Middie Comparison

There is a lot of controversy surrounding Blythe fakies.  And I am not even entering into the real versus fake dispute.  Here, I simply want to share some photos and observations on the fairly recent addition of fake Middies available on the market.  I know that lots of people already have fake Middies, but I thought a series of comparison shots might be fun!  I am comparing my Takara Macaron Q - Tea Party purchased from Junie Moon and a Fakie purchased from Blythe Homes on Aliexpress.com.

I cannot speak to what it is like to open a fake middie and customize her, because I don't do that.  So this discussion is limited to externals.  I welcome any comments below that would enlighten me and the readers in this area.

Here is the cover shot of the 2 girls.  In the photo comparisons, the Takara will always be on the left (the blond in panties) and the Fakie will be on the right (pink hair girl).  Many people prefer the hair on the Fakies, with Blythe purists even replacing the Takara scalps with fake's hair.  But for me, while the fake hair is often pretty, I find it a little too fine to be able to control and style, generally speaking.  And sometimes the Fakies arrive with hair that is so extremely greasy that it seems to be thickly coated in vaseline- a real hassle to get clean.  However, this Fake Middie arrived with hair that was clean, soft, thick and a very nice color.  My real issue with her was that I did not like the coloring of her face up with the hair color.  (Not a problem since I sent her out for customizing.)

Here is a close up for detail.   The lips are painted differently, which is not uncommon with Fakies.  But to my eye the actual sculpt looks a little different- the nose and eye hole both look slightly larger.  I can't take an actual measurement, because she has already been sent off for customization, but if anyone has actual info on this, I welcome it.  Also, it might be that this Takara was released in October 2010, so possibly the sculpt has changed a bit?

 

The bodies look very similar to my eye.  Is the head just a tad bigger? And the way the arms slope onto the shoulder looks just slightly different.

From the back, same eye rolling mechanism and same two screws at the back of the head.

 

Here's the side view of their faces.

 

This is the Takara.

 

This is the Fakie.  You can see that the seam is not as perfect a fit, and there is some plastic mold hanging onto the earring hole.  All Fakies that I have seen have the earring holes.

Their hands. Again, Takara on the left.

Feet.

This is a close-up of their eyes.  Takara is the blue on the left.  I know that they both look bright.  But the Takara is actually a bit more intense while the Fakie seems a little washed out and not quite as shiny.  Also, the line in the Takara are more subtle compared to the pronounced rectangles in the Fakie.  I have heard the the chips are not exactly interchangeable without some modifications.

You can see some of the glue from the scalp to the back and front face plates in these two shots.

 

Finally, there is this tiny flaw- a little red dot on the thigh.  The body seems well enough constructed.  The Neo Fakies have very rubbery legs compared to Takaras: a significant difference in quality.  But I think that in the Middie Fakies this difference is not nearly as pronounced while still there just a bit.

I hope that you have enjoyed this comparison of the two Middies!

Socks for Blythe! (a knitting pattern)

Ankle socks for Blythe

Our girls need some socks to keep their little tootsies warm as the nights are getting colder!

I am SO excited to finally share this pattern with you!  

Above you can see the ankle socks are close fitting enough to wear with close fitting shoes.  The shoes pictured are by Jemgirl for Licca/Blythe.  There are lots of styles available in her Etsy shop (here is Jemgirls's shop).  And Chantilly Lace often sells a big selection of them at BlytheCon USA, if you happen to attend.

I use US 000 double point needles.  And a super soft, fine lace weight yarn.  I look for Merino, because it seems to work best so far.  I like Athena by Elegant Yarns.  Here is a page for it on Ravelry.  But you can find it online at Amazon and other retailers, if you do a search.  And I have found similar yarns at local yarn shops.

This pattern is knit in the round, so there is no seam.  And I like that.  But it makes for kind of fussy work with such tiny needles and fine yarn.   The end result is yummy though.

Polly has another pattern online for free, too:  Sweet Socks.  These are knit flat and sewn together at the end.  These are good if you like flat knitting or you don't want to do the fussy, tiny knitting in the round.

My pattern also has a knee socks length version, too.  (See the picture below)

Here is the pattern:

Socks for Blythe

Finished Size

Ankle and Knee socks for Blythe

Materials

Soft lace yarn

000 dpn needles (1.50 mm)

Ankle Socks

CO 16 sts (not too tight)

K1P1 rib 6 rows

Divide onto 3 dpns and join

Knit 20 rounds

K2tog K1 K2tog (on each needle)

K2tog K1 (each needle)

Cut yarn, thread though needle and pull through all stitches closing toe of socks, weave in end.

Close the top rib with small seam, if desired.

Knee Socks

CO 20 sts (loosely)

K1P1 rib 8 rows

Divide onto 3 dpns and join

K 20 rounds

*K next round to last stitch, slip that stitch to first dpn and K2tog (decreasing 1 st under back seam), finish round (so this is 2 rounds)

K 1 round*

Repeat from * to * 2 more times

Redistribute stitches for evenness

K 17 rounds

K2tog K1 K2tog, K2tog (3 times), K2tog K1 K2tog

K2tog next round

Cut yarn, thread though needle and pull through all stitches closing toe of socks, weave in end.

Close the top rib with small seam, if desired.

And I'll put a copy on Scribd.com for easy printing. (Click here to go there)

Enjoy!