My Collection Part Five: Tyler Wentworth by Tonner

Since I have many 16" Tonner dolls, with several different face sculpts, I'm going to only share my Tyler Wentworth dolls in this post.

I've never given any of my Tonner dolls names beyond what they'd been given. I enjoy looking at them, and dressing them, but they're not "alive" for me in the way that my Barbies are. They don't seem to have personalities to me. Therefore, I'm calling these Blond, Brunette, Redhead, and Vintage.

Blond was the Tyler sculpt in a wave of four Basic dolls. She's wearing the swimsuit and headband that she came in. That series included interchangeable feet, either flat or high heel. The feet are on pegs that pop in and out of the doll's leg. The flat foot also has some slight bending movement at the ankle.

Brunette was a special Signature Tyler, which I bought nude. Tyler Wentworth was a fashion designer, and her signature office look was a white button down shirt, a black skirt, black nylons, and black pumps. Brunette's signature look was glammed up; the shirt was satin with buttons looking like diamonds, the black skirt was covered with sequins and had a belt with a square buckle with clear stones, and the black heels were T-straps. The doll also came with "diamond" earrings. I presume the earrings came loose in a bag with Brunette, and the seller kept them with the outfit. I vaguely remember having to pierce a doll's ears to put earrings in, although dolls meant to have them used to have a faint hole in the earlobe already started.

 

Brunette is wearing an outfit which came as separates, although maybe the shoes and purse were a set? I took pictures of Brunette without the scarf, and of the shoes and clutch.

I think Redhead was in a wave of different sculpts, all in striped swimsuits, called Superstripes. I sold off the swimsuit, as I didn't care for it. Superstripes is wearing a green teddy from another Tonner doll, which was an exclusive to a specific doll store. The lace on the sides of the teddy is showing its age, and the straps never would stay up nicely on a doll's shoulders.

Vintage was a doll named Hope (the production's name,) who was an edition of 500 sold exclusively at an event at the Rosalie Whyel Museum of Dolls, to benefit a cause called Teen Hope. She came in a 1910s style dress, and she did having earrings in. Again, I bought her nude, and the seller must have kept the earrings. It doesn't bother me, as earrings for dolls this size are easy to buy or make. She's wearing an outfit that I drafted and sewed myself, although it was for a Gene doll.

To coordinate with her original outfit, Vintage has her hair in an up-do. There are several loose hairs; I think trimming them off would be the best way to deal with them.

Total dolls: 24

Xanadu has asked me some questions about the Tonner 16" line of Tyler and assorted, so there is more information below the fold.

While the original Tonner webpages seem to be gone from the internet, I found two good sources for Tonner 16" sculpts, dates, fashions, etc.

The first one is from Dreamhouse Dolls, which seems to have a very comprehensive list of every, or almost every, doll from the Tyler range. This includes dolls from different lines, like X-Men, Pirates of the Caribbean, vintage movie stars, which used Tyler doll body types. The second one is a personal webpage, which has a lot of prototypes, and OOAKs. Both of these pages are incredible resources for the Tonner collector.

As you can see if you check out either of those pages, the original Tyler dolls had very simplistic face paint. I remember hearing that an artist named Sherry Miller repainted the Tyler face fairly early on in Tyler's production, and that style stuck with Tyler more or less from then on. Sherry Miller's name comes up a lot on the prototype and OOAK page, including a picture of a Kitty Collier doll wearing Sherry Miller facepaint. I also vaguely remember a OOAK Tyler bride doll being produced on the occasion of Miller's daughter's wedding.

Tyler was produced from 1999-2016. Tonner had produced other dolls before her, and other types of dolls, such as the 10" Ann Estelle line, were made during this time. Tonner bought, and produced dolls using, the Effanbee brand name, and also made dolls under his Wilde Imagination company. In 2008, Tonner rolled out a different face sculpt for Tyler, which drove at least half the "fandom" ballistic. It seems to have been used on only a small number of actual Tylers, and became the face sculpt for the Diana Prince/Wonder Woman dolls instead.

I was fortunate enough to attend the 25th anniversary Tonner doll convention in 2016. It was in Columbus, Ohio, which saved me a fortune on travel, since Columbus is only a 2.5 hour drive away. If you search "Tonner convention" in the upper left corner of my blog, you should see all of the posts that I wrote for the event. You will also see a picture of Tam and me; we attended a doll show at the same venue as the convention together, the day after the convention, and then had lunch.

Lastly, there were sewing patterns made for Tyler, by Tonner, and also by the McCall's Pattern Company. The Tyler one that I own is dated 1999. I think Tonner made at least one more of his own, but I couldn't say for sure.

 

 

Next are two patterns dated 2002. The black flowered dress and shrug are from an actual doll from the line, named Midnight Garden. I'm pretty sure the golden dress is made from the pattern. Then there is a pattern for Tyler's signature style blouse (which is actually a bodysuit,) belt, and skirt. There is also a jacket and clutch pattern to go along. I believe both of the dolls on the front of this envelope were production dolls. The drawing table, stool and accessories were also produced for a time. The table/stool, and the fabric, fashion sketches, scissors, etc., were sold in a separate pack. I *think* the fashion mannequin was probably for sale for a time, too. It would make sense. I know there was also at least one "closet case," and some clear hangers, available at some point.

Lastly, two patterns from 2005. The pattern pieces from M4860 are probably the same ones as 3701 from above, with the addition of the pants and dress. For the one on the right, I *think* the black and gold suit is from a production doll. The black and gold jacket is actually over a shorter version of the wine-colored strapless dress on the right.

 

I'm glad that I have the Tonner 16" dolls in my collection that I do, but it seems I need to make an effort to "bond" with them. They're gorgeous dolls, still valued by collectors, but I haven't done a lot with them. I could just display them, but they would at least need more clothes. Several of my dolls are still in their basic swimsuits. Some dolls I bought nude, or bought the doll dressed and then sold the outfit, because I didn't like it. However, if you've read my blog long enough, you've seen how much I like to have other dolls out and pose them, create for them, etc. I don't know what I will do, but I'm going to take my time deciding.

In my memory, at least the earlier years of Tyler were halcyon times. I got a look at the earliest Tyler dolls in an actual doll store! There were more doll magazines around, and you could buy some in an actual bookstore! Everybody on the Tonner forums would talk for weeks before and weeks after February's Toy Fair in New York about the new dolls. It was exciting and fun. There may be one of the old Tonner forums still around, but they went to registration only at least five years ago, probably longer, and I was never particularly fond of that one anyway. I guess nothing lasts forever.