Tonner City Girls

Another discontinued unsuccessful doll line, wow I really know how to pick them, don't I?

These came out in 2012, and "Astor" and "Basic Houston" shown above are the only dolls I have ever bought direct from Tonner (split shipping with a friend who was also buying some doll stuff). I also have the blonde one, "Brook-Lynn" (groan) and I don't have "Billy" the dark haired one because she was seemingly the most popular and thus the hardest to track down.

They're not quite 16" tall and have some nice if basic articulation. There is only one facial sculpt so yes they look a bit samey. The key thing is that they were meant to be sort of "starter collector" dolls, priced lower than the usual Tonner doll and aimed at The Youth Of Today. This did not work. Personally I suspect the price was just a bit high for what they were, because (as the Makies also discovered) parents base their doll-buying choices on the price of a playline Barbie.

But for me yes they were a gateway drug to Tonner proper. As you can see I sewed for them a bit, and I'd quite like to return to that some day because they do wear clothes nicely, but they're in a box somewhere unloved and naked and that is just sad. I think the idiosyncratic size of them put people off a bit, which is the same thing that puts me off sewing for them. They don't *quite* fit clothes made for other dolls, they need their own stuff and then only they can wear it. See also their shoes.

Also is it me or do they seem to have influenced the later Deja Vu line from Tonner? The slightly vacant expression, etc?

I like these dolls for the most part, I just don't seem to do much with them. Alas.

Doctor Who Dolls Mainly

DollyDaily has moved, which is about the only doll forum I frequent. Pictures of cool dolls! Omg!

Anyway, one of my recent doll purchases was a Thirteenth Doctor Who doll from B&M.

She is currently on sale for £5, down from the £20 I paid so you'd be getting a bargain there. B&M seem to have almost all the Dr Who toys these days, they're doing action figure sets as well. Anyway the doll is about 1/6th scale and comes with her sonic screwdriver. I am not generally a fan of plastic hair on a doll but I am not sure how well proper hair would have worked given how short and specific Whittaker's haircut is on the show.

My other Doctor Who doll is this one:

She is *not* the official Mattel Dr Who Barbie, she is a custom homemade version because the Mattel one was too expensive for me. She's a blonde Made-to-Move with a haircut (OBVIOUSLY the Doctor needs full movement in her limbs so she can defeat monsters) and some clothes I sewed for her. I used an Etsy-bought pattern for the t-shirt and used fabric paint for the iconic rainbow, but I had to make the trousers pattern myself and let me tell you that was a journey. I think it took three attempts to get to the final ones in the picture. The boots are from Cool Cat Collection and the colour is slightly off but I think they convey the general idea. The slightly shoddy braces are made from grosgrain ribbon and some hooks and eyes.

I finished her last year but she still doesn't have a coat because the idea of making a lined hooded coat is quite intimidating. I might just nick the B&M one's coat for her.

And here's the River and Missy Funko Pops. They are  the only Funko Pops I have. One was a present from a friend and the Missy one I got out of fangirl.

Tangkou Doll Nostalgia

Got my Tangkou dolls out the other night to look at them, they had been lingering in a box on top of the tall bookcase. I have Jenny Wonderpants (Chinese Girl), Minty Seadevil (The Gap Year), Lily Pancakes (France) and Flea (Aussie). I am not that keen on their bodies but they can be fun to dress and pose and they have interesting faces. 

What to do with them? Most of their clothes are from before I could sew very well and before I could make patterns, so their wardrobe could do with an update. I put Jenny Wonderpant’s hair in bunches because it’s no longer in  the stock style and there’s a LOT of it and it tangles easily. They could do with some more shoes, which I might do something about next time I have spare money. 

I did think about attempting to draw on their faces a bit, but they all look lovely to me as they are. Even the one with terrible eyeliner that I did with human eyeliner which I understand is A Bad Idea generally. 

They seem to have gone out of business a while back, the website’s been gone for ages but you can still get the dolls and clothes on ebay from either the original company or someone who bought old stock from them. They just never really caught on as a (much) cheaper competitor to Pullip and Blythe. 

Two posts in one day

This felt like it should be a separate post, so...

I have opened an Etsy doll patterns shop, which contains a total of one (1) items. Here is the link, though the only thing for sale so far is a loli-style Ellowyne pattern. I think it's fairly cheap, at least. I may add more patterns to it at some point, but that all depends on my sewing "journey" etc. Like I currently have a mostly-finished MtM Barbie hoodie pattern I'm working on but I don't know when/if I will ever get it good enough to put on Etsy. I've made that damn hoodie so many times already, you know?

Also I feel like I should apologise for my absence even if nobody actually reads this blog. I was on tumblr for a while and I'm theoretically on Instagram as well, but the latter doesn't really allow for posting Extensive Thoughts and I don't really enjoy logging in and out of various tumblr accounts and then forgetting the passwords for them.

I aten't ded

I find myself in a weird position where I know I want to sew but I don't know what kind of doll to sew for. I have too many dolls? No, I don't have too many dolls, there is no such thing as too many dolls. Dolls I have been liking recently include:

- Tonner dolls, mainly Antoinettes because I prefer that more "realistic" body to the very stylised Tyler shape. The size makes for a different sewing experience, with some things becoming easier at the slightly larger scale and some things needing more detail/work. Hemming ballgowns by hand is bad enough at 1/6, you know? The downside is the posability, which isn't great though the expressiveness of the faces makes up for that a bit.

- Ellowynes, which are technically not Tonner dolls somehow? These are probably the largest dolls I sew for, and I prefer the ones with inset eyes. I now have a Lizette as well, which is something I craved for actual years before I finally got one.

- Makie dolls may be no more in terms of manufacturing but I still enjoy sewing for them and dressing them in cute little outfits. Very expressive dolls and I have I think 7 and of those I designed 5 of the faces myself (the miserable ones, mainly). They might just be my favourite kind of doll, though obviously there aren't too many of them out there and they're no longer in production.

- Made-to-Move Barbies are also a favourite, for the stellar articulation. I have yet to get one of the Curvy ones, but I've seen one IRL and they look really good. The main thing stopping me is that would be yet ANOTHER size/shape of doll to sew for and I am already a bit paralysed by choice on that front. Very good for rebodying old heads, I have rebodied "Manuella" my favourite Barbie and shoved a couple of So-In-Style heads onto MtM bodies. Love the posability.

- I got my Tangkou dolls out last night and had a look at them, though the body shape is a bit funny and the articulation somewhat lacking. Good bobblehead dolls, though, with stronger features than Pullip and less hipsterness than Blythe. (I only like custom Blythes, in terms of looking at pictures of dolls. The stock ones are... kind of dull?)

Do you associate styles/fashion trends with specific kinds of dolls? My Ellowynes tend to end up either EGL or super-casual, as a for instance. I do want to expand their lolita wardrobe a bit, but I sometimes shy away from how much more fabric they need compared to Makies and Barbies.