My Collection Part Twelve: Tonner/Effanbee Ann Estelle, Patsy and Mimi

I thought all of these dolls were made by Effanbee while owned by the Robert Tonner company, but I didn't see Effanbee on my new Dottie Delight doll's box. But in any case, here's my group of 10" dolls, often referred to as "tenners" among collectors. :)

This is Basic Ann Estelle, who I believe was my first Ann Estelle purchase. She and the other dolls from the Ann Estelle line are based on illustrations from artist Mary Engelbreit. Originally she came with a short blond bob, but I recently replaced it with a Monique wig, as the wig she came with is pretty dry. If the braids are on her back, they curl up at the back; the ends could be tied to the tops and would look something like AG Kirsten's. She's wearing a Patsy dress that I bought loose at the Robert Tonner convention that I attended.

Sophie was purchased next in line. I bought either her or Ann nude, as this is a basic Sophie, but I only have one basic romper. She had a red bow sewn into her hair, which I removed. Her face is really endearing to me. She may get a new wig, as hers is pretty dry as well. She's wearing a dress made by me.

I think Ann's baby sister Lilah came next. Lilah dolls are pretty rare. There was another Lilah produced as a centerpiece doll for a convention, riding a seahorse. I don't remember off the top of my head if there were any other productions. Lilah is wearing her original outfit, minus her tights, which are a bright red net, with large bright red dots woven in. Her sweater is removable, but the bodice of her dress has a loose piece of thread floating inside. She rattles when moved, like she has something loose inside of her. You might not be able to tell, but her legs are a little curved, so she's meant to be seated.

I bought Mimi around the same time as Lilah. Mimi was part of a line by Effanbee called Petite Filles. The other doll in this line was a brunette named Babette. I ought to buy one of those just because of her name. :) Truly, though, I did like the clothes these dolls were dressed in. This is Strawberry Cupcake Mimi, wearing everything original to her. Her body has bending knees, like the Patsy dolls, but straight arms like the original Ann Estelle dolls.

Patsy was a line produced by Effanbee, that hearkened back to the composition Patsy dolls produced by Effanbee in the 1920s-1940s. Patsy's body is pretty similar to Ann Estelle's, except that Patsy dolls have bending knees, elbows and wrists, as well as the standard shoulder and hip movement. I bought this Patsy with new eyes and a new wig. I ended up not being fond of the wig. It was a very shaggy short style, that kept falling in her eyes. I just got this Monique one, but I don't know that it suits her. It was up in two high pigtails, but it looked too happy and bouncy a style, to me, for the wistful look on her face. I tried to tie the hair in two bunches, low, but the hair keeps wanting to ride up, since that's how it was styled. I might get something new at some point, even more so since this one is a bit small on her. Her head and body are slightly smaller than the Ann line, though. The dress she is wearing is one that I made using the same pattern as the ones that Georgia and Sophie are wearing, but it swims on Patsy.

I bought Georgia wigless. She only came wearing a pair of corduroy pants with an elastic waist, made for her by the woman who was selling the doll, and had used Georgia as a clothing model. I like her new wig on her, although it's funny to see her with a full head of hair after being bald for so long. She looks so sweet in it, though! I also made her dress.

The next Ann Estelle is named A Bit Younger. She was made for the 25th Robert Tonner doll convention, along with a teen or young adult version of Ann Estelle on a 16" body, called Breit Nights. Both dolls wear age appropriate versions of the velvet dress with embroidered flowers, a petticoat with lace, white tights, and matching shoes and hair bows. This Ann's hair is soft, but extremely flyaway. I had to keep her away from my backdrop, or her hair looked she was touching a plasma ball. For fun, I'll include here a shot from the convention, of Robert Tonner and Mary Engelbreit signing after the Cheery Cherry Mary Engelbreit luncheon. I got A Bit Younger's certificate signed by both.

 

And lastly, I recently posted on how I was able to receive Dottie Delight Ann NRFB as a gift for Christmas 2020. I'm so thrilled to have her back in my collection.

You never know what you'll find when you're searching around on eBay. One day, I saw a small wooden cabinet with drawers, painted by an individual to resemble Mary Engelbreit's style. I posed Ann next to it, wearing the basic romper, so you can see what a good job the artist did. You can also see the size. I store things like the Ann dolls' glasses in there, along with a couple of cardigans I bought from eBay as well.

I think these "tenners" are all cute as a button. :) From basic to convention, I love all of them.

Total dolls: 53

Managing to Post

Well! My winter has been going pretty well as far as mood. Using my light box also helped me maintain something resembling a normal sleep schedule, instead of my body insisting it couldn't be nighttime, because there hadn't been any daylight yet! However, I wasn't really very motivated, which is different from being depressed. I have interest in doing things I find enjoyable, but my body hasn't been responding with physical energy to get things done. From experience, this should start getting better very soon, so I'm trying not to let myself get discouraged. I'm thinking that I should do as many photo shoots as possible through my more productive time of the year, although I've also been suffering from lack of concentration lately. It's frustrating being bored, because you can't even focus on a five minute YouTube video!

However, I'm doing a lot better today (after being sick for almost a week on top of everything else!) These are a few things that I've been wanting to share, that won't require a ton of writing on my part.

For one thing, I'm going to an annual Pullip doll lovers event called PUDDLE. This year it takes place on June 6th, in Elk Grove, Illinois, which is a suburb of Chicago. I've been wanting to go to another doll convention since the Tonner event, and there really don't seem to be that many out there anymore. The Barbie convention is out of my budget, besides which I'm not that big of a Barbie fan overall. I'm hoping that PUDDLE will be an enjoyable experience.

Partially to get to know other Pullip doll collectors before the convention, I'm going to be trying to post more Pullip pictures on my Instagram account. This is the best I could do last month, but March should be better.

Of possible interest to doll photographers are these two sets I saw in the #SNAPSTAR line. I think Aspen's studio is more interesting, as it has the star shaped spotlight *and* a separate spotlight with three color filters. Echo's set only has one spotlight, although it also has the "pink carpet" props. Anyway, these sets might be a budget opportunity to pick up some small-scale lights for photography.

I have so many posts that I've been wanting to make! Hopefully, the rest of 2020 will be better for this blog.

2016 Tonner Convention -- What I Brought Home!

I meant to get this post up several days ago, but it turned out to be more work than I thought it would, getting everything unpacked, sorted out and photographed. It didn't help that my sewing/doll area was in a shambles from deciding what I should take with me to the convention. Also, it didn't seem like I brought a lot home, but it seemed like an awful lot when I went to take pictures of all of it!

Let's start with the dessert event on the first night. In addition to a chance to buy the centerpiece, the doll I've already shown, everyone received a 17" DeDe Denton doll. Half of the dolls were fair with blond hair, and half of the dolls had browner skin, and dark hair. It was pure chance which doll you received, as they were wrapped in paper, and laid out on the tables. I got the blond one. She's already moved on to a new home, as I'm not fond of the DeDe Denton line. A lot of it, I think, is because I don't like her heavy black eyeliner. I'm also not in to rooted eyelashes.

That night the sales rooms were open after dessert. I was a bit disappointed, as they were rather small. Not only were there not a lot of tables, but there was not a lot of room to move around. Marcia was there, and I bought two hair barrettes for my dolls from her, as well as a working umbrella, 6" tall. I was also interested in buying a tiara, but she didn't have the space to have everything on show, and I decided to wait until the doll show on Sunday to look at more.

Something told me that this star barrette would look nice on Meg. She loves it.

This circle barrette doesn't look as good as I thought it would, using Basic Daphne as a model.

It suits this Sydney better, with her thicker, curly locks.

It will be difficult to get the strap around the umbrella, back through the buckle.

Pretty much like a real umbrella!

The more articulated dolls can even look like they're holding it!

At another table, there was a basket of random Tonner clothes, which two women were already rummaging through. I waited for a few minutes, then got impatient and moved in a little to start my own search. I practically grabbed this dress out of a woman's hands when I recognized it! She was in the process of putting it back in the basket, though, so it didn't turn all Black Friday-ish. :) I got the dress, originally made for a Patsy doll, for $3. It was a fantastic deal!

There was another Patsy two piece outfit in the basket, but it was made of a rather thin feeling material, and I didn't love it, so I passed on it.

You already know about the Ann Estelle doll that I bought. Here's some decent pictures of her, and a picture of her next to her "older" sister, an unarticulated Ann from the first time the Mary Engelbreit line was produced.

Poor Ann-on-the-left's wig is just not as nice as Ann-on-the-right's.

The lace-trimmed petticoat beneath Ann's dress was made with too much material, so that the fabric folds up on itself. I suspect that the petticoat was designed before the velveteen was picked to be the dress fabric. The petticoat just can't hold up the weight of that heavy material.

Oh, also, everyone had table napkins at the Ann Estelle luncheon that matched the print of 18" Ann's plaid skirt. I forgot to take pictures of those, but they're just pieces of fabric. I collected a couple from other people who didn't want theirs, and no, they hadn't used them. :) There were regular napkins at the table as well. I'll use the fabric to make something for my 10" dolls at some point. Here's the picture of 18" Ann on our table.

At the formal dinner event on the last evening, there was a small jewelry box at every place setting. This contained a necklace and a pair of earrings sized for the 16" dolls, or possibly the 17" ones too.

In the human sized silver tote bag that everyone received at registration, there was one doll accessory, along with a few other items like our name tag. I don't know if everyone got the same thing that I received. In mine was a red purse with white bows, made for the Ellowyne Wilde line.

And at last came the Mid-Ohio Doll Show! Tam has explained how much bigger the show used to be, on her blog. Here, I think there were only four aisles, with tables on either side. It took place in what had been the room where we had our meals at the convention, so if you've seen anybody's pictures of that entire place, you can tell how relatively small the room was. Not only that, but the aisles were pretty crowded. Plus, chairs for the vendors to sit on were not behind or next to the tables, but in front of them, which blocked some of the merchandise. Honestly, knowing that Marcia (see above) has an online store, I passed on buying anymore of her items. It wasn't her fault, but she was standing right in front of the tiara display, digging through a box for a customer, while a man was on one knee, stretched out to look at something, right behind her. And her chair was on the other side of her. I waited for a couple of minutes, but I didn't want to wait too long for something I can get at my leisure later on (and also when I've saved more money up!)

One of my biggest priorities was shoes for Ann Estelle and the gang. Having bought so many nude dolls, several of the poor girls had bare feet! Clothes I can make, but shoes are more difficult. I ended up picking up a pair of white Mary Janes, a pair of black T-straps, and two pairs of sneakers. The shoes were not specifically made for the 10" Tonners, and are a little roomy. On the other hand, the shoes with buckles slip on easily that way, and I don't want to mess with tiny buckles anymore than I have to.

I also bought a couple of pieces of doll jewelry, only I made a mistake there. For some reason, I thought the numbers written on the front of the package were the size doll they were for. Turns out, it was the chains that were 6" and 11" long. Oops. I can put them on new chains, or something. I also need to do something about the earrings I bought. Both the hooks are way too long, and oddly shaped.

Lastly, I got to meet a real life fellow doll blogger! I met up with Tam, of Planet of the Dolls, at the doll show, and then we had lunch before I had to head back north. It was so nice to talk to someone who likes dolls, as I do, and is a nice person besides! Here's the "selfie" that I took.

I've enjoyed sharing my experiences with you fellow collectors out there! Thank you for reading through my posts!

2016 Tonner Convention Day Three Workshop, Formal Dinner Event, and PJ Party

There were seminars and workshops in the afternoons for both Friday and Saturday. The seminars were free, although reservations needed to be made as seating was limited. Friday's seminar was on the Wilde Imagination Company. Saturday's was a talk by Andrew Yang, about his great-grandmother, Mary Astor. Apparently there are going to be some dolls of her produced, and from what I've heard, they'll be wearing some sharp outfits from the 1930s. I didn't attend either seminar.

I chose to take a workshop on Friday which involved making a Tyler sized bag. The story behind the bag is that Marley Wentworth is now a fashion blogger, and she designed a laptop/tablet bag for some sort of competition. My workshop cost $15, which I though was very fair, especially since we got a pattern that we can use to make further bags. Here is a picture of our workshop materials.

Underneath the bag pattern pieces, there was a bag filled with four different kinds of non-fraying fabrics. We could use them however we liked, using one color for everything or two offsetting colors. The large gray rectangle in the bag is supposed to be a tablet. It wasn't until we were into the project that we were told that our instructor, Jay Barrett, had designed his own mold and cast our "tablets" out of resin. The colored pictures are supposed to be computer screens, which will fit inside the tablet. There were also metal pieces to use to attach the straps to the bag, some pins to stick into the bottom of the bag to give the bag feet, and some bits and pieces to decorate the bag if you wished. I'm sorry, but I'm too tired too remember the correct names for some of these pieces, or look them up! I enjoyed the workshop, even though my bag turned out far from perfect! But it was a good starting point for me to try to make a better bag, which is a doll craft that I've never tried. By the way, Jay came all the way from Australia for the convention, which I though was neat.

Apparently, there were serious problems with the shoe making workshop on the previous day. The glue wasn't holding together at all; I believe participants are getting mailed supplies to make another set of shoes. Jay mentioned on Saturday that the glue had been affected by the air pressure changes in the plane when the person who ran the workshop traveled there (I got the impression that wasn't his workshop, but I'm not sure.) I suppose it would be a lot of hassle to run around and buy workshop supplies once you get to an event like this, but it certainly caused problems on Friday. Word got all around the convention about how badly the workshop had gone.

There were two other workshops, a ribbon dress workshop, and a Betsy McCall workshop. I didn't hear anything about those, or see any of the results.

Saturday night was the Big Event, the formal dinner event. Some people were decked out to the nines, some were in between, some were mostly casual. I noticed that while a lot of people like dressing for every event, there were lots of people who didn't, and neither did I. The centerpiece was a Tyler doll preparing one of her designs on a model. Each model was completely different, different mold, different hairstyle, different costume. I actually won the first chance to buy the centerpiece, but I passed, as $400 was too much for me to spend. :( Multiple numbers were drawn for the centerpiece, because there were tables which hadn't had anyone pick the first number that was drawn. So, our table hostess was the second number picked, and she bought it.

In the middle of the room was a catwalk. After dinner, there was a fashion show, featuring about twenty of Tonner's doll fashions created in human size. I only recognized a few of the outfits, and couldn't get good pictures. Some of them are on the Tonner Doll Company's Facebook page. We were also told pictures of each centerpiece would be online, but not where. I don't know. I heard before the convention that there was a Tonner convention Yahoo group, but could never find it.

Robert left the stage and the room with one of the models, who is apparently a good friend of his from his Bill Blass designer days. One of the Tonner people, who'd done most of the announcements for the meal events, told us that it was now time to clear the room so it could be set up for the evening's pajama party. At that point, many of us wondered if there was going to be an event doll, as we all expected. One woman in another part of the room eventually yelled out "Where's our doll?" It honestly seemed like they accidentally passed over that part, although it could have been for show, to get us excited about the doll. Someone ran to get Robert back, and he came back up to the stage, while the table hosts/hostesses got out the dolls, which had been under the tables. We had to wait to open the box until everybody got their dolls out of the shipper, which was a time consuming process. In the dim light, the doll looked gorgeous, although not my style. It wasn't until I took some pictures of her that I noticed an issue.

Someone had rather sloppily put on her eyeshadow on her left eye; not only was it crooked, but it ran up into her eyebrow.

Fortunately, they had some extra dolls, and I was able to swap her out at the doll show today. However, it left me a little disappointed in what had happened. For one thing, when I showed the doll to a woman behind the table, who was Tonner's executive assistant, she said, "That's eyeshadow." I said, "It runs over her eyebrow." The light was not great in the room, although better than last night, but it made me a bit uncomfortable that I had to explain why the doll was defective. This was a limited edition doll, the climactic doll of a 25th anniversary celebration convention. She has a face mold that was made especially for this convention. I feel a flaw like this should have been checked before the dolls were handed out. Also, one of my tablemates got a doll where the inside box, not the shipper, was already pretty banged up. She got a fresh doll that night, but again, it just felt disappointing.

I would also like to point out, that although I said in a previous comment that the two dolls were "free," they were of course included in the price of our convention package.

The pajama party started pretty quickly after the dinner was cleared out. I missed quite a bit, because I wasn't staying in the hotel the convention was held in, and I had to go back and change into pajamas. Also, I forgot to bring back the little piece of paper that got people into the pajama party (there was nobody at the doors by the time I got back.) Because of those things, I missed out on getting this doll case in a silver stripe pattern. Yeah, I could have tried to get one afterwards, and yeah, it retailed for a lot of money, but I don't have room for it and don't know how often I'd use it, and I was super tired by that time. At previous conventions, the PJ party has apparently been pretty fun, involving dancing. Last night, there were snacks, but the only things that happened were the drawings for the raffles. I totally missed the raffle room, so I wasn't involved in that at all. Several people won more than one item, so according to my table hostess, they must have put in a lot of money for raffle tickets. The last drawing was for a OOAK resin Ellowyne in a hand beaded and hand sewn dress. Robert did some of the work, but I think I heard he had help? This drawing was a reverse raffle. Twenty five people were called up onto the catwalk which was still there from dinner. As each number was called, that person had to leave; the last person standing won. On the giant screen during the party was a slide show of the contest winners. Robert didn't seem like he was feeling it last night. He was probably as tired of the rest of us; he might also have a really dry personality, which how he came off in general, from what *I personally* saw of him at the public events.

Some people had great nightwear for the party. One man was wearing a striped nightshirt and cap. My Hello Kitty loving tablemate was dressed in pajamas that made her look like a giant Hello Kitty.

And that's it for the convention! Wow, was I exhausted by last night, and so were a lot of others. Overall, I'm glad I went. I think I'd always regret missing this opportunity of going when it happened so close to where I live. It was also good for introverted me to get out, and meet some doll people. But there were some letdowns, although that's probably normal. This was the first convention of any sort that I've ever been to! I'll put up at least one more post about the other things I either bought or was given, and my experience at the doll show today, which included meeting Tam of Planet of the Dolls!

2016 Tonner Convention Day Three Luncheon Event

Tonight I'm only posting about the luncheon that took place today. I'm so tired, and there's still the doll show tomorrow! It's been a great time, and I'm glad I got to experience it, for sure. I'll finish up the convention report over the next couple of days. I know when I was researching what this convention would be like, I found very little out there, so I hope I can help someone else with this.

Lunch's theme was Cheery Cherry Mary Engelbreit. I've posted pics of Ann Estelle and some of her friends here before, and it seems the line is being started up again. At the luncheon, we also got to see Ann Estelle grown up, into a doll who uses the Ellowyne Wilde body. And the table centerpiece was from Tonner's new 18" My Imagination line, but the doll was wearing a Mary Engelbreit outfit. The one at our table was a brunette, but there were also a blonde, a redhead with short hair, and I think I saw a darker-skinned doll with dark hair. Although the doll in the picture wears glasses, no glasses came with the actual doll. This was probably because the My Imagination dolls don't come with glasses, and the original picture was probably a prototype. The doll's original basic line dress and sandals were also in the box.

The woman who won the centerpiece doll actually wanted to buy her this time! She was the woman who collects American Girl and Magic Attic, so it was right up her alley. She's saving this doll for her granddaughter in a couple of years.

I bought A Bit Younger for myself. She has the Ann Estelle face, but brown eyes, and the new, more articulated, Patsy body. I'll take good pictures of her when I come home. Mary Engelbreit herself was at this event. There was a video about her career over the years, and then there was a short Q&A period. I asked how old 10" Ann Estelle is supposed to be, as I've wondered for a while. Robert said he pictured her as 6 to 7, while Mary pictured her as 7 to 8. So they settled on 7. :) Afterwards, Robert and Mary had a signing session. I had both of them sign my certificate of authenticity for A Bit Younger.

I brought my Ann Estelle and Lilah to this luncheon. They attracted some attention, especially Lilah, who is a rarer doll. I made them matching sister outfits, some of which I threw together right before the event! But I got to meet a couple of new people who saw me with the dolls, so it was worth it.

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.