February 2009 Archives

Leo and I are of the opinion that international companies who seriously want to compete in the American marketplace should have employees who are competent in both writing and speaking English.

Case in point: Asian BJD companies. I can't even begin to tell you how many problems we had over the years with miscommunication. Sometimes I would have to ask the same question several times in several ways before I'd get an answer. Or I would order a doll to be done in a particular way, and it would show up completely opposite. Worse yet, I'd send an email and get no answer at all. Misunderstandings were commonplace. I realize English is not an easy language to learn, but one would think that having employees competent in it would result in more business for these companies overall.  BJD companies are ultimately in business to make money. 

What really cracks me up about poor English use is the names that the companies come up with for some of their dolls. "Ruru", which makes no sense here as a name, was actually meant to be "Lulu". Oops, Elfdoll's bad. Those darn Rs and Ls are just too similar in Korean. We warned Elfdoll that "Special K." would not be a great name for a doll, being both the name of a cereal and street drug. Oh, well. The most recent example of poor name choice is Dollmore's "Cold Heartbroken" Adam and Eve. They started out as "Cold Heartburn" Adam and Eve. I'm not sure the name change was an improvement. Somehow I doubt if either name really conveys what Dollmore meant them to.

The solution would be simply: why not run potential names by a competent English speaker and then actually listen to what they have to say? I'd volunteer for the job. Naming dolls something traditionally Korean is one thing; naming them after a cereal or street drug makes both the company and the doll harder to take seriously.

In our experience, Asian BJD companies are generally very arrogant. Comments we made about doll names, business practices, customer desires or things that might improve business went largely ignored. I'd be really surprised if this changed in the near future, but one can always hope. Seemingly it would be to their advantage, and ultimately ours.

For those of you who haven't yet seen him, check out Unidoll's new doll with three eyes, Akion. (www.unidoll.com).

While he's not someone I would bring home to meet my other BJDs, I think the concept is really cool. Finding sunglasses for him will be difficult, LOL. Or maybe an eye patch or monocle would serve at times. He could even be a unique type of pirate. I personally think a reptile or cat eyeball would make him even more interesting.

Yay to Unidoll for daring to be different.

What did I like at IDEX?? Lots, actually. There were many friendly people, many beautiful displays, many gorgeous, artistic dolls and fashions. It was a wonderful place to see many creative, talented people and be reminded of how much they enrich the world.

Some of my favorite things from IDEX were made by artist Carol Thompson of Thymeless Treasures (thymetreas <at> aol.com). She does beautiful animals of all sorts, from lions and bears to primates to cats to pretty much anything she's asked to do. I couldn't resist ordering her lion "Leopold", with a sculptured face.  Considering my spouse's name, my birthday (I'm a Leo), and the fact that I love cats of all kinds, he was just too perfect to resist. She also does needle felted animals. I wish I had a tenth of her talent and creativity. I also wish she had a website so I could share her critters with you.

Susan and Mark McKay of Bears of the Abbey (www.bearsoftheabbey.com) also had wonderful animals. I especially liked the dogs, but the bears were wonderful too. Sharon Lederer of Pasha Bears always has critters that catch my eye (pashabears <at> rmci.net). Annette Rauch (www.annette-rauch.com) had whimsical, delightful animals. There were just too many wonderful artists to list them all here, but you can take a look at www.idexshows.com under "exhibitor information" if you want specific information.

I haven't kept up with the world of porcelain dolls much for the last few years, as they just didn't sell well for us. I was delighted to see artist Linda Mason at IDEX with a few of her porcelain originals-it was nice to know that not only is she still alive, but she's still sculpting beautiful dolls. She and artist Stephanie Blythe have formed the Itty Bitty Toy Company to sell their whimsical fairy and elf play dolls. They're not my cuppa tea, but I bet a lot of little and big girls would like them: www.madidoll.com if you're interested.

We haven't decided yet if we're going to IDEX next year. It would be nice if more BJD companies showed up for it.

One of the things I noticed about IDEX is that in addition to the Pullip folks, there were at least two other companies promoting big-eyed Pullip look-alikes. Never having been a Pullip or Blythe fan, I just don't understand why people are draw to them. But that's ok, different strokes and all that. The websites for the two companies, if you care to look, are www.pabol.com and www.huckleberrytoys.com.

Of course I had to take a look at the Goodreau booth, where I saw the new ABC dolls. These dolls look like their heads have been stepped on. Imagine a football turned sideways with big eyeballs and hair, minus the two ends, and there you have it. A friend summed it up nicely. It was her opinion that Goodreau should adopt a new company logo that says, "Goodreau: Achieving New Heights in Doll Hideousness". I can't disagree; I've never thought their doll sculpts very attractive. I've been hoping the sculpts would improve over time. The clothes I do like, and have bought some for my MSDs, but they're somewhat overpriced for having been made in China, I think.

At the Ashton-Drake booths, I saw the requisite baby and porcelain dolls, but also the new Delilah Noir doll, which they are more or less calling a BJD.

Made of vinyl, her head is disproportionately large (a common affliction, it seems) and her inset eyes give her a somewhat vacuous look. Her clothes were kind of cute. I couldn't help but think that overall, she just looks cheap. She won't be joining my collection anytime soon.

I was surprised to see that the Kish Company is offering a new line of vinyl play dolls in conjunction with Ruby Red Galleria. Ruby designed the dolls, named Ping Li, Lucy and Lori. Their faces are kind of plain, but their clothes are cute. The biggest problem I see with them is their cost-$180 each. That seems pretty high for a 12" play doll, even a highly jointed one.

Of course the 14" Kish dolls for this year are really cute, especially Urban Song and Lark. Hopefully I will be able to resist both, as I need yet another doll like I need a hole in the head. As with previous Kish releases, the dolls seem overpriced considering where they are made. No new Rileys were on display and I don't know if there will be more made. It seems like Riley has already been done to the nth degree; heaven knows they sure went down in popularity the last couple of years we sold her.

The Tonner Company had many "character figures", aka dolls on display, but nothing was seen of Tyler and friends. I especially liked the fashions for DeeAnna Denton. For me, she has the same look and feel as the 18" Kitty Collier or maybe the American Models. I was really impressed by the 'fro Friday Foster was wearing and thought "The Sun" and "Star Crossed" of the Reimagination line were especially well done.  What the heck happened to the Maxwell Smart doll is beyond me-it sure doesn't look like Steve Carrell in the slightest. Miss Piggy turned out quite nicely. She's probably 16" tall, bigger than I expected. I have to wonder how well she will sell. The Tonner Company has to be paying out megabucks to get the licensing rights for all the character figures they are producing. Supposedly they will be making Belle next, but are not sure about the Beast.

More on IDEX tomorrow.

Of course Leo's laptop died while we were in Orlando, so I couldn't write anything while we were there. Leo also lost his cell phone on one of the rides at Universal Studios so I guess you could say we were "technologically challenged" while there. Sheesh.

What I noticed at IDEX: baby dolls of all colors, shapes and materials are apparently taking over the world. Reborn or not, they were EVERYWHERE. I've never seen so many, especially of the realistic sort, in one place. It was a little disturbing. To be honest, some of them looked like ugly little fetuses. I have to wonder how many people actually BUY them. They sure didn't sell well for us the last few years we were in business.

The other thing I noticed: Linda Rick, dba The Dollmaker, is taking over the rest of the world. She had many, many booths, with mostly vinyl dolls of all ages plus a few porcelain ones thrown in for good measure. Big dolls, little dolls, ugly dolls, cute dolls, they were all to be found in one of her booths.

There was actually very little BJD related stuff, unfortunately. I saw Kimberly Lasher's new dolls and they were pretty cute. Kim designed the body she is using on her dolls too; good for her! The new body can fit DT clothes as well as some other MSD clothes.She will also do custom faceups for her dolls as requested so the opportunity is there for much customization for the buyer. You can see her dolls here: www.KimberlyLasherdolls.com

Pullip (JUN Planning) had tons of dolls on display. I liked the dolls that were collaborations with Disney best of all. Too bad the Pullip people were so awful to deal with when we tried to sell their dolls. Communication was non-existent despite my many emails and phone calls. I hope other retailers have better luck with them than we did.

Wilde Imagination had a beautiful display set up of Ellowyne and also Evangeline Ghastly. I love Ellowyne's clothes and accessories; I just wish her head weren't so disproportionately large. Same goes for the resin version of Evangeline; her head is just too honking big, as are her hands. But her clothes are spectacular. Evangeline will be coming out in a vinyl version in late spring or early summer. The vinyl version's head is smaller. I admit to pre-ordering her and several of the outfits and shoes sets, dang it. Her hands are still too big, but I can deal with that. I just couldn't resist the clothes any longer. Her pet skunk is coming out in a new version with fangs; I couldn't resist her either. The dressed version will sell for less than $160. A couple of the versions will have rooted hair and the other will have wigs. She can wear the same clothes as the resin Evangeline, but her shoes will be slightly smaller. Guess I'd better start making room on my doll shelves now.  Wilde Imagination will also be introducing several dolls from the Oz stories. Their eyes are painted and I just didn't think them that attractive, but that's only my opinion.

Also at IDEX was Ruby Red Galleria, which specializes in clothes and shoes for Riley Kish and the Bleuette doll, as well as doing wigs for some BJD sizes. Their merchandise was well made and the prices not out of line with other high quality lines. I may have to order a couple of items for my own Riley (not that she is in any way, in actual NEED of more clothes, you understand...) Some of their Riley items are downright adorable. You can take a look at: www.rubyredgalleria.com and just try to resist!

More on IDEX tomorrow!