Fashion Royalty: Darius Reid - High And Mighty

The first male fashion doll I am presenting is the latest release from Jason Wu's Fashion Royalty Cult Couture collection: High And Mighty Darius Reid. He is an African-American male doll, the third man to be added to the FR Homme Collection (the other two are Pierre De Vries and Francisco Leon). his story card is the first to be read only on-line- the one in the box does not have the usual text printed on it.

Darius has the face sculpt of an older Integrity play line male doll, Tariq. The body is the standard FR Homme body, tall and lithe, with articulation at the neck, chest, shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips and knees. FR Homme dolls still do not have articulated waists, but that might be due to the fact that it gives them a better looking "six pack"! Best part of the body, apart from the aforementioned abdomen, are the hands - they even have veins!

His face paint is done very well, he has a strong and firm look. His eyes are very well designed, probably the best made eyes in the FR Homme series up to now. He has no hair, sporting the shaven head look favoured by so many African American men. It also gives him versatility, because it means he can easily wear wigs. His skin colour is a dark chocolate brown, lighter than Nadja R but darker than Adele Makeda.

His wardrobe is exceptional for the most part. He is wearing a lovely coat, supposedly velvet (FR description) but in reality it feels like felt. It has "satin" lapels and it is very well tailored (lined too), with a false single button (it has a hook and eye to close). Under this, he has pinstripe flat front pants with vertical side pockets (but no belt, a major faux pas here), a vest from the same material, which is very well made too (the satin of the back is to die for) and the white shirt we have seen before on FR men - they could have given him a purple or fuchsia shirt, or even a copper coloured one, he would have looked more edgy.

The fun part are the accessories though. He has a fedora, a flocked thin plastic moulded hat with a "silver" chain in place of the classic ribbon. It is the worst part of the outfit and it looks unnaturally cheap compared to the rest of the ensemble. Given the success of FR in making extremely good and detailed accessories, this one seems neglected. There are sunglasses - these have the same lenses as other FR sunglasses but the arms are a whole different story: sculpted to look like entwined serpents, they give the edge this doll demands. The best FR sunglasses I have seen. Darius is wearing black socks and white sneakers, nothing special there.

His jewellery is very well executed: he sports a big "silver" shark tooth at the end of a chain and a lovely "stainless steel" watch that has a secure fastening and looks very good. It is easy to put on and does not look fragile at all, contrary to the one Pierre was wearing last year. The prototype doll had a golden watch on it, which had struck me as odd, considering the rest of the accessories had "silver" tones. Luckily they corrected it on the final product. I hope they improve the hat the same way next year. See the watch below up close:

Here you can check the hat, sunglasses and pendant:

And here are the shoes - they are plain with the ends of laces inside-makes them easier to put on:

Darius is very handsome and suave. He gives the FR ladies a run for their money. With the proper accessories and outfits, he could turn out to be one of the best and most sought after FR dolls. I cannot wait to see what Jason Wu has in store for him next.

Darius is a limited edition of 800 dolls worldwide.

Tonner - Women In The Media Awards Layne

The dressed doll release of Layne has a different colouring than her Basic Black counterpart. She has thick black curly hair cascading down her back and a slightly stronger face paint: more intense eyeliner, darker brows and stronger blush. See her in close up here:

She is part of the Haute Couture dress line of the Wentworth dolls - a limited edition of 1000 pieces. While the quality of the fabrics is excellent, and the three layers of the dress are excellently made (silver "Chantilly" lace on top of silvery fabric on top of white satin)the scale of the lace in her dress is too large for a 16" doll - almost human size lace here. The finish of the edges in rough cut organza strewn with beads and pallietes is poorly done - the description of the doll said layered organza, we only get a trim. The beads and sequins are OK but are lost on the hem of the dress, while showing better on her off the shoulder "sleeves". And the major faux-pas - the dress is shapeless. It looks like an A line dress but after the hips it looses shape and due to the nature of the material, does not fall gracefully to the floor.

For a dressed Haute Couture doll she has surprisingly few accessories. Supposedly she is a famous anchor, receiving an award in a ceremony. Imagine one such modern woman going to a gala without an evening bag. Or not wearing any jewellery other than a pair of earrings with this dress - a diamond bracelet would have been sufficient. Or not having a chiffon or organza wrap to anchor the dress. Her “award” is a badly designed and made clear plastic pyramid on a painted metallic base. I would have preferred a nice silvery leather or lace covered clutch instead of this. She does get an excellent pair of silver leather strap high heels though. She wears them with tights, which is a bit strange - I do prefer strap shoes on a nude leg. See her proudly showing them off here:

And a close up shot here:

Both Laynes together - which one do you prefer? I like both the same- each for different reasons. Hope to see more of her in future releases.

She photographs well - born to be in the media it seems!

Tonner's Layne Reese - Basic Black version

2007 saw a new addition to the basic body in Tonner dolls. The Basic Black dolls had an extra articulation feature: changeable feet. They come with two different sets of feet that can be changed to give a different look and pose ability to the doll, not to mention more outfit options. Fashion feet (aka high heeled arched feet) and flat feet. It is very easy to change them and the articulation is borrowed from action figures. They are an edition of 1500 pieces per character.

Basic Black Layne is part of that line, comprising of four basic dolls. Her face sculpt is the original Mameha sculpt, first used in the Memoirs of A Geisha line. She comes with a black one-piece swimsuit, with a semi-transparent panel on the front, all lined in flesh coloured fabric inside. A pair of sunglasses, and two pairs of shoes complete the outfit. One pair is high heeled plastic mules, the other is flat rubber sandals with a fabric strap.

Basick Black Layne Reese with her flat feet on

Her hair is auburn. It could have been a bit more dense, as it can be difficult to change the hairstyle a bit due to the quantity of hair plugs she has on her head. She has an elastic hairband too. Her face screen is nice but a bit bland for a red head. I think she needed stronger eye and brow colour. Lips are painted a generic red, which could also have been a bit more adventurous. Here is a close up:

The flat feet articulation is not that good looking or functional. She cannot stretch the foot to become a straight line with the rest of the leg, as she should have been able to. She can stand on her own with them though. That makes her stand redundant. It is the worst stand I have ever encountered on a Tonner doll. If she has her arched feet on, the metal circle of the stand cannot reach her waist - she's too tall for it. If she has the flat feet on, she can stand by herself. Plus it is a cheep looking stand, with a clear plastic base that is not the solid one most Tonner dolls usually get, but a hollow one that is not heavy enough to support a doll properly. And of course it cannot be used with full skirts or gowns. Utterly useless. Here is the flat foot detail.

She is versatile enough to provide lots of fun re-dressing and photographs nicely. I like the Mameha sculpt a lot - Asian ladies are so beautiful. They could have made the ethnic characteristics more pronounced though - it would have been so much more interesting to see that in the Geisha line too. But I guess it is all a matter of marketing.

Layne has also been released as a dressed doll, which we will see in the next post. Here is a photo of Layne seated:

And one in her sunglasses-star material for sure!

The earrings on this photo shoot are courtesy of Toni Brown from Bordello Dolls

Madame Alexander's Greta Garbo

Garbo as a doll eh? Sounds strange but here she is. Madame Alexander made two Garbo dolls, one in 2002 (along with a Dietrich and a Garland) and one in 2003. The first one was named Grand Hotel (from the film) and the second one Camille, each dressed in outfits from the corresponding movies. Each was released in 1500 dolls worldwide. I have the first one, Grand Hotel.

The body is not highly articulated - only joints in shoulders, neck, legs, waist. She does look like Garbo, especially if you play with her hair a bit. The face paint is good, the hairdo not as much. The problem is that, as in other Madame Alexander fashion dolls, the body does not seem to have proper proportions. But she does look a bit better than the highly articulated Alex doll.

She comes wearing a lovely blue satin dress, thirties style and simple, with a zipper down her back, and a single strand pearl necklace. The pearls do seem a bit large for her size. no earrings though. Over the dress she is wearing a blue wool coat with fake fur collar and big buttons. The ensemble is topped by a matching blue hat and completed by simple dark blue fabric pumps and a nondescript bag.

I like the sculpt a lot - she looks mysterious enough for Garbo and I just have to find the right outfits for her to wear to show the likeness off. Maybe from Gene's wardrobe. See her in b&w: a real movie star of days gone by.

Sans hat and coat: "Gif me a viskey, ginger ale on the side and don't be stingy!"*

* Garbo's first line on her first talkie picture.

Scarlett O' Hara-Vivien Leigh, by Franklin Mint

"The legendary film heroine Scarlett O’Hara™ as portrayed by Vivien Leigh, brought to life in a historic collector portrait doll. Crafted in pose-able, lifelike vinyl". this is the introduction to this doll in the official website of its manufacturer, the Franklin Mint. The doll is an incredible likeness to the actress, one of the best ever made in my opinion.

The doll was issued in August 1999 (Thanks Ace!). It has been re-issued in late 2006 after a long period of being out of production. The doll had a total of 15 costumes created (along with the wedding dress and the calico dress), faithful replicas of the movie costumes by Walter Plunkett. In addition to them there was a doll trunk (storage box for the doll and her gowns) which was a replica of a hat box in the style Rhett gave to her with the infamous green hat, and a dress form, to display the costumes when not on the doll itself. In the photos of this post, you can see her with the red velvet dressing gown, worn in the famous scene with Rhett Butler. It is a regal dressing gown and compliments the doll very well.

It is difficult to find the doll and costumes in low prices on the secondary market as it is highly collectible (sigh). I will later post pictures of her in other costumes, either from the film or more modern ones, as she is the spitting image of Vivien Leigh. I am on the search for a reasonably priced second Scarlett to turn into the actress. Enjoy the lovely doll.