Archive for May, 2012

Today is the birthday of one of my favoirite Barbie designers: Mr. Bill Greening. I adore his designs and can’t wait for the Empress of The Aliens to come out so I wanted to take this opportunity and wish him Happy Birthday!

As I have already told you in the previous post, Barbie and Cosmopolitan has teamed up with Magia 2000 to create 5 beautiful dolls dressed in some of Italy’s finest designer clothes, for a project called Barbie Play With Fashion. The first doll is a beautiful Cosmo Girl that wears the creations of TWIN SET Simona Barbieri.

Barbie chose a short dress designed by Simona Barbieri in order to be glamorous, trendy and feminine. Impalpable materials embellish the dress: the elegance of soft fabrics, materials enriched with laminate crochet edges and the fringed knit skirt make the outfit
at the same time romantic and extremely fashion. A doll made real by a unique style with attention to the smallest detail: the boots and the bag define a total look in full TWIN-SET style. Barbie’s clothes and accessories were hand created by Magia 2000 (Mario Paglino and Gianni Grossi), Barbie’s official stylists in Italy.

Here are the pages from this months Cosmopolitan VIA the TWIN SET website.

Hello again!

Here’s the post I’ve promised you with all the info and pictures from this year’s Italian Doll Convention. Because I’m an airhead I forgot to get my camera so I had to take the pictures with my iPhone. I so hate myself right now… Anyway I hope you’ll enjoy them.

Oh my I don’t even know with what to start! Let’s start with the gala dinner as I didn’t manage to go to the fashion show. I know…I know… Shame on me! I slept during the show! Oh boy…. But I was fresh for the gala dinner! My table host was the amazing Antonio Russo who is the president of the Italian Doll Club and has an amazing collection of 8000 dolls! Yes, 8000! Mostly vintage Barbie but also other dolls. He’s a lot of fun and I trully enjoyed staying at his table.

Just before the gala I met Kathie and Pete from San Diego. You may know Kathie from The Fashion Doll Review and her eBay store Kathie’s Fashion Dolls. They are such a fun couple and I had the time of my life talking to them. Their present for everybody at the table were some uber cute shoes made by Jennifer Sue. My dolls will soon rock those shoes like they never rocked another pair before. My present for everyone were some hand made and hand painted traditional vases from the northern part of my country. I can’t wait to see if someone will use them for their dioramas.

At the gala dinner we got a LOT of presents and I also won a Barbie Basics no 7 from the first wave. Yey! Each one of us had under our seat a picture of a flower and the owner of the camelia flower had to go to the front of the room and…play darts. Then, based on the points we got playing, we each got the chance to chose from a pile of very carefull wrapped presents. Some won dolls, some won other things with Barbie and I won the Basics doll. Yey! Then, based on the number I got assined when I sat down at the table I also won a Swarovski pen. Very, very cute!

Someone at my table won the center piece doll that was a beautifull OOAK made by a young Italian artist. There were some amazing center piece dolls in the room. I love each and everyone of them.

Hi everybody!

Thank you for being patient. I wasn’t able to do any live blogging from the convention but tonight I’m going to post a very looooooooooong article about everything that happened at the Italian Doll Convention 2012 plus tons of news of new 2013 Robert Best creations!

Until then this is the convention doll. Real pictures and comparison with the original doll coming soon!

Platinum Hope Diamond IDC 2012

First of all congrats to Nik and Marie for their amazing Mother Nature Barbie that sold for 995 euros at the IDC 2012 auctions! Amazing doll and amazing auction. Congratulations guys!

Now let’s see their amazing new dolls. I’ve added the price under each doll. Hurry up if you decide to buy them. They sell out pretty fast!

New sneack peaks of the 2012 Barbie Collector line have just been released on BC. We have abrand new line of Cheerleaders, two new DOTW Brazil and Hawaii plus the brunette version of Holiday Barbie 2012.

I like the cheerleaders but were’s the articulation?! I like that they used a lot of face molds for this line and I’m sure a lot of people will buy them for their heads. Also I kind of like DOTW Hawaii. She’s Lea, isn’t she? Cute, cute, cute!

So…anyone of these beauties on your wishlist?

Later edit: Just added the closeups via mybarbiedoll and Ed doll boys.

In the mass blogger interview I did for I Luv Dolls I told you about the new articulated Steffi Love doll I recently purchased. She has just arrived and I can’t wait to take her out and photograph her. She has amazing articulation and the quality of the plastic is very, very good.

In the meantime I want to show you some great new fashions plus a super cute jet boat that was just released. I don’t know how many of you have managed to get this doll or her accesories/fashions but I must urge you to go and get some of them. They are all made very well, her shoes are soft and fit any Barbie feet and her accesories are so much fun. Plus they are very inexpensive. Check the laste releases below. Aren’t they cute?

I think everyone has heard the rumors about the Liv dolls being discontinued. Well…they are true. D7ANA from A Philly Collector of Playscale Dolls and Action Figures has gotten in contact with the people from Spin Master and this is what they had to say:

” … we currently do not have plans to release any new LIV dolls or accessories in 2013.”

So that’s it guys! No more Liv dolls. I wasn’t a fan but I must say I’m sorry they will not make any of these dolls because they are cute and I know for a fact that their fashions and accessories are very nice and of good quality.

The dolls are stil available in my country so if you are looking for them and can’t find them, please let me know and I can order them for you. Here’s a link to the company that imports them. You can see there the entire catalogue.

Ok, so I decided to participate also in the mass blogger interview done by I Luv Dolls. Here are my answers.

1. When did you start collecting dolls?
My first doll was given to me when I was little, like 6 years old. Then I started asking for more and more but got tired of dolls when I became an adolescent. My passion hit me again in 2008 when i discovered some great Collector Barbies on a Romanian online shop. That’s when I really started collecting and I have no intention to stop ever again.

2.What was your first purchase as a collector?
In the autumm of 2008 I begged a frind of mine that lives in NY to buy me some 80s Barbies of eBay. I wanted to pay him but he was so sweet and decided to give them to me as a present. Lucky me! I can’t remember now all of them, they were several, but one of them was Unicef Barbie.

3.How many dolls do you own?
I stopped counting after 200 so I have NO idea what so ever.

4.What is your favorite doll and why?
By far my favorite doll is Pink Splendor Barbie. She embodies everything I love about Barbies. Just perfect! The dress, the pale pink, her high couture hair, her amazing face and makeup. Just stunning. I hope someday to have her.

5.What doll or dolls are not your favorites and why?
Pullip dolls. I don’t like them at all. Sorry… They look to creepy to me.

6.What is the biggest challenge about collecting dolls?
Making my husband understand when money are flying of the credit card. He support me and my collection but I do fight with him when he thinks I collect way to many types of dolls. He would like me to stick to Barbie but I keep trying to make him understand that is not possible.

7.How do you display or store your dolls?
I have a special room in my apartment from my home town. I live in the capital of Romania and my aparment here is too small so I just keep a few dolls here. The rest are being shipped every month to my hometown. My mom makes sure they arrive safely and stores them in special boxes.

8.Have you ever been to a doll show?
Not yet buy I’m going in a few days to Milan to the Italian Doll Convention 2012.

9.When you travel, do you look for dolls?
Like duh! Of course! That’s the first thing I do.

10.What is your latest purchase?
A few Maxie dolls and a jointed Steffi Love. Can’t wait for them to arrive.

11.What doll is on your wish list now?
Empress of the Aliens Barbie and Mermaid Barbie. I have no idea how to get the second one without having to sell my kidneys.

12.What do you wish you didn’t purchase?
Like Madonna said: absolutely NO REGRETS!

13.What is your favorite doll related item?
My doll houses. I L-O-V-E doll houses. Please give me more!

14.How often do you photo your dolls and what doll is the most photographed and/or photogenic?
Unfortunately I don’t really have time to do this. I have a busy schedule and very impatient clients so I don’t really get the chance to do this.

15.Do you talk to other collectors in person or just on the web?
We started having doll meetings with the local doll collectors and I just love that! Also I often call them or meet them just for crinks. They will all me at my wedding in September also.

16.If you had the chance to speak to Mattel or other toy makers, what would you say?
I’ll tell you about this when I get my answer from a person at Mattel that is in charge with the European market.

17.What doll do you wish would be reissued?
The Mermaid Barbie 2012!!!! Please Mattel!!! PLEASE!!!!

18.What two dolls would you combine and how would you want them combined? (Muff style question)
I would definetly change the body on all Barbies with the ones used by Integrity Toys. Those are the best bodies, in my humble oppinion, and Barbie deserves such amazing bodies.

I recently discovered this incredible blog run by a guy called Adrian Anderson who created amazing little things for all you dolly needs. I’m most impressed with his bed sheets but you must also check out his tutorials.

Click on the image below to see his blog.