Phyn And Aero dolls first release

One of the new ways that Robert Tonner will release dolls from now on is the Phyn And Aero brand, in collaboration with Andrew Yang. They just made their first official release available to order, so let's see what are these dolls all about. One of the characters, Annora Monet, is designed by Robert, while another, Kadira, who will be released later in the year, is by Andrew Yang. The dolls are resin and ball-jointed. Their styling falls somewhere between character dolls and fashion dolls. They all come with their own storyline, which you can read in the company website. The whole thing is like a revamp of their Deja Vu line, with much better sculpts and in resin. There are three dolls, three outfits and you can buy separately sets of eyes. The brand also makes an effort to give doll artists the opportunity to collaborate with Robert Tonner, releasing their doll through it.

P17AMBD01 – Annora Monet # 1

Annora comes in a cotton cami with shirred detail and matching bloomer pants.  She wears a pair of floral boots and lace tights. 
Resin ball-jointed doll with 19 points of articulation (double jointed at elbow and knee)
Deep rose saran removable wig
GR-03 Dark brown eyes
White cotton, front shirred cami with a silk floral trim
White cotton bloomers
White lace tights
Floral front lace boots
Item shown is a prototype. Final production item may vary in appearance.
$350.00/LE 100

P17AMBL01 – Resin Blank
$295.00/Open Edition

There is also an Annora resin blank doll, ready for customising.  Paired with a set of Annora’s eyes (purchased separately) Annora can be turned into the doll of your creative dream.  Annora Resin Blank has 19 points of articulation.

P17AMBD02 – Deluxe Basic

Resin ball-jointed doll with 19 points of articulation (double jointed at elbow and knee)
Long black saran removable wig with bangs
B-09 Topaz eyes
Second head with face up has removable wig - red with black undertones, cropped with bangs
CC-10 Chestnut brown eyes
Third set GR-01 Dark blue eyes
Soft yellow satin slip with pleated demi-skirt and silk floral trim
Matching knit striped over-the-knee stockings
Gold silk slides with silk floral trim
Item shown is a prototype. Final production item may vary in appearance.
$550.00/LE 75

P17AMDD01 – Strength of Character

Annora steps out in a romantic/gothic inspired rouched dress of black taffeta with soft suede boots.  A spray of ebony silk roses and a lace bow are around her neck.  
Resin ball-jointed doll with 19 points of articulation (double jointed at elbow and knee)
Bleached white crop removable wig
CB-01 Ice blue eyes
Black rouched dress with knit lace sleeves, ruffle trim and rhinestone pin at belt
Black suede boots (not as shown)
Black lace choker
Fabric rose head band in black
Item shown is a prototype. Final production item may vary in appearance.
$475.00/LE 100

P17AMOF05 - She Persisted/Outfit Only

Modelled on Deluxe Basic
Dotted peach net dress with black lace trim and embroidered, sequined emblem decoration
Black knit lace tights
Black ankle boots
Item shown is a prototype. Final production item may vary in appearance.
$75.00/LE 75

P17AMOF02 – Fantasmagoria/Outfit Only

Modelled on Deluxe Basic
Three Separate Pieces Only, modelled on a dress sold separately (see below)
Printed “tweed” coat with velvet trim and contrast lining
Inverted bag velvet hat with vintage look brooch accent
Black vintage look fur stole
Item shown is a prototype. Final production item may vary in appearance.
$75.00/LE 75

P17AMOF01 – Kaleidoscope/Outfit Only

Modelled on Deluxe Basic
Black fishnet t-shirt
Multi-colored sequined tank
Tiered multi-color metallic print skirt
Black lace knit tights
Black lace up ankle boots
Item shown is a prototype. Final production item may vary in appearance.
$89.00/LE 75

All Annora Monet items are expected to begin shipping in late July, 2017.  You can pay in full at the time of ordering or you can request a layaway plan with a series of three payments.  You can contact Phyn And Aero at 844-361-8429 (domestic), 845-802-5552 (international) or via email at info@phynandaero.com. All photos courtesy of Phyn And Aero.

Riviera Drama Agnes Von Weiss W Club upgrade doll revealed!

Back in January, when the W Club announced its registration opening and upgrade dolls, we had to preorder one of them, Riviera Drama Agnes, based on a sketch. That was because members had gone through a voting process to decide the basic doll features. Now the first photos of the prototype doll are available, and she is a stunner! I'm happy to have taken the plunge and preordered her. Plus she's wearing green, which is rare in fashion dolls, and is the colour of the year according to Pantone. The doll will ship mid to late July 2017 and there is a waiting list for the members who did not preorder her.

Riviera Drama

Agnes Von Weiss™ Dressed Doll
The Fashion Royalty® Collection
2017 W Club Upgrade Doll
Approximate Ship Date: Mid to late July 2017
Edition Size: TBA (Determined by the total amount of orders received)

Doll Tech Specs:

Head Sculpt: Agnes Von Weiss
Hair Color: Raven (Black)
Eyelashes: Yes, Hand-Applied
Body Type: FR 6.0
Foot Sculpt: High-heeled / Traditional
Quick Switch Feature: No
Skin Tone: Cream

Agnes Von Weiss is a 12.5-inch fully articulated doll with full rooted hair and hand-applied lashes. Her raven hair is styled in a controlled curl hairstyle. Agnes comes dressed in a one-piece outfit. Doll includes purse, jewelry, high-heeled shoes and accessories. For adult collectors ages 15 and up only. A doll stand and a certificate of authenticity are included.

The doll in the photos is a prototype. Final colors and textures may vary slightly. All photos and information contained herein is copyrighted Integrity Toys, Inc. and Intercap Merchant Partners, LLC 2017 and may not be reprinted or disseminated without express written permission. Fashion Royalty and all other trademarks followed by ™ or ® are registered trademarks of Integrity Toys, Inc. Chesapeake City MD USA 21915. All rights reserved.

The W Club is a trademark of Intercap Merchant Partners, LLC. All rights reserved.

Doll Photography by Jayme Thornton and/or Alain Tremblay.

One Of A Kind RuPaul dolls come out for Drag Con!

Twelve years ago, Integrity Toys released their RuPaul doll. And no one could predict back then what a household name RuPaul would become with his successful tv show RuPaul's Drag Race. Such an iconic person would of course be involved in the biggest drag queen convention in the world, Drag Con. Oh Mannequin, the team responsible for creating all of RuPaul's booths and merchandising at the convention, asked their friend, the multi-talented doll creator and designer Andrew Yang, who for the past year has transitioned into commercial doll making, collaborating with Phyn & Aero and other doll artists and sculptors, to customise 12 Ru Paul dolls into one of a kind Ru looks, in a very short amount of time.

As with any celebrity who makes product, the RuPaul team are guaranteed a certain amount of goods-- and there was one style of doll, the black haired version of The Glamazon doll, that Rupaul's merchandise team had a little extra stock. RuPaul rarely wears black hair, so this particular version didn't have the same magic as some of the others-- not to mention her slightly dated bell bottoms and black bustier.

Already used to working under tight deadlines, Andrew started working on the dolls right away: the dolls didn't need to be fitted for redressing and creating them as "art dolls" would shave some time off the construction end of things. He also was anxious to create a fun project that would be fast and shareable, and at the same time a fun exercise in putting out some new and exciting work-- to say nothing of the fact that RuPaul is one of his few idols. Talk about a dream project! One of the most exciting things about the project was that RuPaul selected each of the looks himself. Many of them were based on looks from the show designed by Zaldy, and other iconic moments from his long career, like a Bob Mackie and "Wonder Woman" number. 

So how did Andrew tackle the assignment? First of all, the hair had to go. After heating the dolls in his oven on the "warm" setting and shearing off all the locks, the material had softened enough to remove all of the heads safely without damaging the (relatively old) plastic. Then came the scraping and the tweezing of all the leftover hairs. After that was done, He painted all of the scalps-- all of these girls would definitely be blonde!

Andrew knew that he would be a candidate for an early onset of arthritis if he tried re-rooting the hair himself, despite getting tips from the always amazing Integrity doll community  re-routers like Salvador Arriaga. So he called up one of his Los Angeles dolly friends, Denisa Medrano. A hair designer at Mattel for six years in the late nineties and early 2000s, Denisa now works independently, acting as the go to girl for anyone developing a doll, rooting and designing hair for dolls for almost every major player in the toy industry. Going to her studio in Torrence is always an experience: its a magical wonderland filled with dolls and hair of every colour, texture, and curl. Andrew firmly believes that hair makes the doll, so it was important to work with the best.

Denisa's right hand man is the phenomenal stylist and doll photographer Randy LaCroix, so between the two of them, the dolls would be in good hands. The doll heads had to be kept pliable in the oven as the hair rooting machines always work best on soft plastic, so the process of rooting and rotating out and styling took almost three days.

The next step was fabrics and trims-- luckily Los Angeles has a phenomenal garment district, so between that and Mood, Andrew was able to source everything in a relatively short amount of time. He went to work sewing the clothes, and making the accessories. For his bigger fabric dolls, Andrew is used to working on many things at once, so everything is done in stages, pattern making, cutting, and sewing for each doll. And the un-articulated bodies made for great dress forms, even though sewing in such tiny scale was a fun exercise in and of itself.

Andrew used the same design philosophy when making the small Ru outfits as when re-interpreting a look from Chanel for a client like Barneys New York or someone custom in one of his larger fabric dolls. He did not set out to recreate the look in miniature (he said there are vastly more talented people at doing that job), but rather, treated the doll like a fashion illustration and tried to capture the feeling and mood of the original look. Sometimes that can be done with just the hair and makeup, and you can get away with taking more creative liberties on the clothes, other times, there are certain things you have to get right on the outfit.

Third step: painting the face. The makeup was more about being organized. At this point, all of the hair was roughly styled, so when he covered up the nylon locks to keep them from getting painted with matte acrylic spray, Andrew made sure to label all of their paper towel coverings with dress nicknames. His nightmare scenario was doing a faceup for one look on the wrong hair. For most of the looks, he only partially repainted, as the original screening was beautiful and he wanted to make sure the dolls maintained a level of consistency and looked in line with the original dolls and Ru's brand.

After the heads went in for a last round in the oven, and back on the dolls, each of them went through the styling comb again. Randy and Denisa's styling was beautiful, but they are used to delivering something commercial and prototype perfect, and Andrew wanted to find that perfect balance between messy and glamour for a lot of the hairstyles.

It was a big stroke of luck that right around the time Andrew was finishing the dolls he crossed paths with André Armenante, a West Hollywood based filmmaker, inventor, and theatrical designer. He migrated from a career in special effects/robotics to the toy industry with his cutting edge interactive hologram playset HolograFX, which launched with Toys R Us worldwide and was the most awarded toy of 2014. Recently, Armenante was a lead special effects designer for ‘Magic To Do’ - a new musical from Stephen Schwartz the Oscar, Grammy and Tony Award winning composer of Wicked, Godspell and Pippin and has worked with the likes of David Copperfield, Mattel, and Hasbro.

Usually, on these short turnaround projects, the artist doesn't get a lot of time to document the work in a great way, so when André wanted to collaborate, Andrew jumped at the chance, and in the days before the dolls were delivered to Ru's people, they shot and edited a fun showcase video-- which couldn't have been done if they weren't pushed to do it all in time by Andrew's partner Daniel Randell!

Andrew believes that if the doll world is to survive, and not become a hyper expensive collector hobby, it is important to market and create a buzz around dolls in a way that reaches beyond just the community, so in many ways this was a perfect project to create some excitement around dolls, and it worked! Hours after the ribbon was cut for Drag Con 2017, most of the dolls had been sold, and by the time the convention doors closed, it was a sell-out ! Congratulations Ru!

Andrew had a lot of fun working in this scale, and on such fabulous dresses, so you can expect to see his new doll, Kadira, in some more flashy fun evening wear-- and commercials for her too! Now back to making all of her samples!....