2016 Tonner Convention Day One

Meg was eager to take her first long trip with me. She had to settle for sitting in the front passenger's seat after I explained I needed to be the one to be doing the steering.

I didn't get to Columbus in time for the afternoon registration, so the first event was the dessert event at 7:00 PM. The doll featured here was the DeDe Denton doll. There was a DeDe Denton doll centerpiece which one person at a table could win a chance to buy. Each attendee also received a basic DeDe. Half of the dolls were blond, half were brunette. Interestingly, the doll's name is spelled DeDe everywhere, except on the box we received the doll in, where it is spelled DeeDee. DeDe comes on Tonner's 17" athletic body. She is the granddaughter of DeeAnna Denton, whose story was that she was the socialite heiress daughter of a man who'd made his fortune selling Denton chewing gum. I'll be taking pictures of the doll I received soon; she's going on eBay, as I don't want her. Nobody at our table wanted the centerpiece doll either. Actually, my table is interesting. Everyone at my table is attending her first Tonner convention, except for our hostess. There is also one guy who seems to have been to other events. The person to my left used to be a dealer, apparently, back in the days of Betsy McCall and Magic Attic. She also collects American Girl, but misses Pleasant Rowland's passion for the line. The person to the right is a fan of Tonner's Wilde Imagination products, and doesn't really know much about his Tonner doll range. The grandmommy, I mentioned to the former dealer, and another woman at my table, your adventure of finding a Magic Attic doll in your backyard!

The centerpiece doll was very nice. Just not anyone at my table's cup of tea.

The theme for the evening was "sparkling white." I wore a white tee, and dressed my Tyler in white. When people saw me taking my Tyler out of my bag, they were confused and thought she was the event doll. One of the things I like about Meg, who also came along as my travel doll, is how so many Mattel Barbie and family clothing pieces fit her, so she's easy to find clothes for. She wore a Teen Skipper camisole and blouse, with the denim pants she's worn before.

Here's a couple of pictures of the room where we had dessert. I assume we'll be having all of our meals in here.

The last event of the evening were a couple of videos, and a slide show. We got to see Robert as the anchor of DNN, the Doll News Network. He talked about the new Barbie bodies, merely presenting the pros and cons. He also talked about the Lammily doll line. Some of the attendees were surprised when I assured them that the more, um, controversial accessories of the doll line are real.

Tonight was also the night Robert gave an overview of his 25 years as a doll maker. Here's one of his first displays at Toy Fair.

Here's what I believe he said was the first vinyl doll he produced.

He also talked about how well dolls with a famous story, such as Alice in Wonderland sell, and talked about his various licensing deals.

I only have one quibble, which is the way we got dessert. Tables went to the dessert line, in a group, one by one. We were one of the last tables to go up, if not the last. By the time we got to the dessert table, most of the plates of desserts were completely cleaned out. Robert also started the door prize portion of the evening while we were in line.

The best things about the night, from my point of view? Each child under 12 got a doll as a door prize. I'm not sure what doll they got, though. Either it was not announced, or I missed hearing about it in the hubbub. In a not related to children category, they were not stingy with the champagne which was served with the dessert. I'm not a champagne drinker, but I think it speaks well of an event when food and drink are plentiful. At least in this case, the drink was. One advantage of our table was also that we were right next to one of the stations serving ice water.

I already picked up a few things in the sales rooms, and we got a few nice things with the registration materials. I'll probably do a post showing my total "loot" when I get back from the event. I'm looking forward to seeing what tomorrow's events bring.