Hollywood Dolls

Le Musée de la Poupée-Paris is delighted to be celebrating the fifth birthday of iconic doll range ‘The Sybarites™’ a product of Superdoll_collectibles™, London with an exclusive six-month exhibition. It opened on the 14th of March and will go on until 19th of September 2010.

Not since The Pandores, luxurious fashion dolls created in the XVII century and the Second Empire Parisians, have we seen anything like the Sybarites™. During the Ancient Regime, the Pandores were the equivalent of Paris fashion ambassadors to the European Courts. The Pandores wore the latest creations in order to tempt the aristocracy to commission the couturiers to create a life sized version. These dolls even had Diplomatic immunity: during times of war, the dolls had a royal pass to cross war torn borders.The aim of this exhibition is to travel, hand in hand with the fashion doll, from the last two centuries until today. You decide; utility item? play-thing? ...or highly coveted objet d’art?

The Sybarites™ were the first manufactured doll of then couturiers Charles Fegen and Desmond Lingard; they were born out of the void in the doll-world in terms of the quality and beauty that C&D were looking for in the dolls they wanted to buy and, ultimately dress in their fabulous gowns. Through painstaking development, clandestine market research and their strong vision, C+D crafted the doll of their dreams: Clone 0101 Venus D’Royce. Initially there were two breeds of clone and since inception in 2005, these have expanded into the double figures, however some remain unseen by the public eye.

Oh how I want to visit this show... but then again, seeing so many unattainable dolls together in one place would probably make it a heart-rending experience.

P.S. You can listen to this blog post if you download the audio file from the right column - see the section titled Audio Blog Posts!

The Tonner Doll Company, as they usually do every year, unveiled their 2010 collection during IDEX 2010. Lots of dolls, old and new, lots of directions to go for the company and collectors alike. I will not be posting all the dolls that are in the line as that would be space-and-time consuming. Instead I will focus on what I liked from the vast ofering plus some new lines. For more check out their website.

Cami & Jon is their brand new line and most awaited this year. It is about three basic 16" fashion dolls with the Antoinette body and many outfits - in other words, a new sculpt for Antoinette. I do not like the Cami face, it is too dolly-like and not very realistic. I think she looks like Tyler Wentworth. The outfits are contemporary fashion styled but nothing extraordinary. Although I must say that the quality of Tonner clothing always makes their contemporary fashions very desirable - and the Antoinette collectors will love the variety now offered.

Update: Jon is finally up on the site, the face sculpt is Jac, a very popular and loved face. It is always good to see more diversity in skin tones.

In their usual mode of operation - building up excitment and tension without an actual product to show - Tonner announced they will be officialy producing Lord Of The Rings dolls, starting with Aragon and Arwen. No photos yet, still pending approval of faces. If they are as late as the torchwood and Doctor Who dolls, they will have another bomb in their hands. Same goes for Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland - but at least here they have an Alice to show. Supposedly a likeness of Mia Wasikowska, the doll looks ugly. At 16" with the geisha bust, she looks too adult to be Alice. Mad Hatter, Red and White Queen pending approval - I hope these turn out to be more interesting.

DC Stars are more action figures than fashion dolls, so I will not show any here. But the fashion doll that shares their body, Deanna Denton, has a great looking doll in the collection: Peggy Harcourt Cristal. The gown is excellent and her face paint a bit more daring and sexy than the usual Tonner style. I would get this one if I could afford her. The rest of the collection is very predictable. They also offer one gown for the DC ladies (which DeAnna can wear too) which looks great: Onyx, from the Tonner wardrobe collection, which consists of outfits and accessories made for the action figure/doll series, making them look more casual and properly dressed - can't wear tights and capes all day long!



There is a new Ava Garnder dressed doll, as well as a new Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. I wonder how many dolls of the same actress can one collector have before stopping - one or two is more than enough for me. Maybe they should just keep releasing the Hollywood Glamour outfits for them and make new stars to release as dolls - how about Rita Hayworth, Marlene Dietrich etc. The outfit on the new Crawford doll reminds me of Gene Marshall Unforgettable by Ashton Drake.

Antoinette this year has become a bit stale outfit wise. The only interesting one is Wanton but they should have made it in colour, not black. The white skinned mannequin, Alabaster, intrigues me as she could help me finally realize a long dreamed of project for a doll.

Gone with the Wind from Tonner finally releases the famous green dress from the barbeque at 12 Oaks. And they do it in WHITE? Are they kidding? Is their designer colour blind or is it possible they could not find a proper fabric? This one has been done so many times by so many companies that one would think Tonner would get it right - epsecially considering their GWTW releases so far. But no, they go and majestically screw up one of the most iconic dresses in the history of film making. And she has no lace shawl either. Mammy would be furious! They are also doing the same doll in 22" size as well as the All Dressed Up Like Racehorses dress (the Honeymoon dress), which has been done much better by Franklin Mint.


The basic Tonner fashion doll line, Tyler Wentworth, has only three dolls (so far at least) a basic Mei Li, a dressed Tyler and a dressed Sydney, both of whom are boring to say the least. But Mei Li is a much sought after sculpt and her re-release in basic form will make many collectors happy.




The Re-imagination, Fashion Zombies and Sinister Circus lines are presented together. These dolls leave me fashionably numb. Horror and fashion never merged well. But there is one final doll that may be the best one in the line-up: One of the Deveraux Sisters, the flapper dolls that Tonner makes. Backstage Invitation has it all: the extravagant lush outfit (with velvet robe and silk slip) and the dreamy facepaint. No wonder it got a Coty award. I wish I could afford this one, she looks smashing.