Doll Show - Toledo, Ohio - April 27th, 2024

I see by one of Tam's latest posts that she was here too. We were hoping to bump into each other, but it was not to be this time. Fortunately for me, the photos that I took are almost completely different from hers, although I took a lot fewer.

This table near the front attracted me, because the dealer arranged some of her dolls in a holiday type theme. I took pictures of Easter and Independence Day displays. I know RagingMoon likes the red, white and blue, and I do as well.

 

 

This was technically a Doll and Bear Show (most of them are around here) and there were plenty of stuffed animals for sale. The adorable bunnies appear to mostly be Steiffs. I'm not sure who manufactured all of the cats, but I'm guessing that the Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood character Daniel Striped Tiger was a cousin of one of these felines. (By the way, Daniel's middle name is pronounced like bi-ped.) At least one seems to have the Steiff logo, so they may all be Steiff animals too.

When Mr. BTEG and I were in Hamburg for several weeks, one of our favorite places to visit was a local toy store. Mr. BTEG loved the LEGO and building toys, and I looked at all the dollhouses, but we each ended up with a Steiff animal too. The new ones at least are a lot cheaper there, although I suppose ours are vintage now, since they're over 30 years old. Yikes! I got a sweet stuffed lamb named Laemmchen, which literally means Little Lamb. Not very creative, I know, but it suits her. She measures around 7" inches long.

This dealer is building up her own Tammy army. Barbie, Midge and Ken are not very far behind, but no match for the wall of Tammy.

There were very few modern dolls compared to the vintage and antique dolls. There was one Ellowynne. I was tempted by the Mattel Teen Trends Gabby to the bottom right behind Ellowynne, but her white pants were badly yellowed.

I also saw my first Leeann doll in person. Leeann is a doll created by Canadian doll enthusiast and creative, Denis Bastien. He was mostly involved with doll sewing until he got the idea to create his own doll, a girl with endless energy and curiosity. Leeann was eventually joined by a whole group of friends. I have linked to his website, but there will be nothing on it until August 15th, as he has journeyed to France for the summer. Leeann is about 12" tall, if I remember correctly. Judging by her box, this particular doll was a UFDC convention souvenir.

I saw one My Child doll, a boy in a very pastel get-up.

I loved this doll, but also her outfit. When you get closer to her, you see that her jacket is a very tiny check pattern.

I took a few pictures of dolls to share with people. The Disney Fairies were for my youngest daughter, who loved the Disney Fairies series when she was a girl. I think these were Disney Store exclusives.

And the Terri Lee dolls photo is for RagingMoon, who shared pics of her own Terri Lee recently. My favorites here are the one in the blue velvet coat, and the one in plaid.

Unlike Tam, I did not buy any dolls. I don't have the money or proper storage space for antique or vintage dolls that I would consider right now, and antique and vintage were the huge majority of this show. I didn't see any newer dolls or clothes that I couldn't live without, either. I did buy three pieces of doll jewelry, though. Cecilia from Rainbow High will be my model, as she was handy and has appropriate clothes that won't detract from the baubles. I got a pair of blue teardrop earrings. Cecilia is merely holding one up to her ear. The posts are very long, and I'm not ready to trim them until I figure out which type of dolls will be wearing these.

 

The chain is also rather long on this necklace with the porcelain rose pendant. You can see it to Cecilia's right going down her back, if you look. This means a larger doll will probably get to wear this.

Lastly is this petit point pin. This is also a little bit large for a 1/6" scale doll, but I love petit point, so I had to get this. It will certainly look nice on a Tonner size doll. It's even about the same size as a petit point pin and earrings which are supposed to be for humans. My set is also vintage now.

Sadly, most of these dealers at this show seemed to be based out of Michigan or thereabouts, which is further west from me than Toledo, so I won't see many of these people in Strongsville at the next doll show there. It was an hour and a half drive from home, and I think any large area in Michigan might be a bit too far for a day drive. If I want to go to something badly enough, Mr. BTEG and I can always make a vacation out of it, I suppose. What would you most want to see/purchase at a doll show?

My Collection Part Fifteen: Doll Show Purchases

I was going to say that I "only" bought three new dolls at the recent doll show, but three new dolls at once is really not that bad, is it?

The first one is Mattel Ever After High Darling Charming. She came nude, and is now wearing Mattel's Darling Charming shoes, and a Shibajuku Girls sailor suit. Her hair has been washed and conditioned. I still have to get all of the glitter off of her face, wherever that came from.

Darling came with a Monster High Operetta doll that I didn't really want, but I think the seller wanted to get Operetta off of her hands. I was ready to just pay for Darling when the seller told me Operetta was included as part of the price. I'll find something to do with her.

Next is a mint mini American Girl Josefina in her meet outfit. She didn't come with her box, or the mini book, but she was a good price. Now I can keep mini Josefina in her Christmas outfit intact, with her veil still sewed to her hair.

Lastly, here is a doll that I bought at what I called the "Tonner table." This woman had mostly Tonner items for sale. There were some Patsy dolls and at least one Amelia Thimble. I came home with a doll  that I have been interested in for a very long time, Jane. Jane was a Tonner Club doll, so you couldn't just buy her on the open market. She's 14" tall, and has the Betsy McCall body. There are a couple of other child Jane dolls made, with bending knees, but none of them were easy to get. I wasn't sure I was going to keep her, because she doesn't really fit in with any of the dolls I own. I was thinking she might work with my 10" Ann Estelle dolls, and Rachael reminded me that Betsy McCall had a 10" younger sister, who I now think probably had the Ann Estelle body first. Here's Jane with her younger "sister," Sophie. What do you think?

Look how alike their hand sculpts are.

Rachael doesn't think Jane's jumper/pinafore makes her look her best, and I tend to agree. Fortunately, I have a couple of Betsy McCall patterns that I bought during a 99 cent sale or something. Jane also came with a Tonner Club pin, and I love the bracelet that Jane came with. It looks like jewelry a girl would cherish.

Tonner also made an adult Jane, but she uses the Tyler 16" body, so she's not in scale with child Jane at all. He also did the same thing at the last Tonner Convention, where he introduced a 10" Ann Estelle, and a 16" grown-up Ann.

Total dolls: 69

Improving Storage For Doll Items

In my experience, doll collecting is a lot more fun if you can easily find what you want, whether that is a new outfit, some jewelry, or even a backdrop or prop for display or photography. I wanted to show some pictures of a couple of changes I've made recently in how I store things related to my dolls.

First of all, I found a few double-decker small storage containers at Target. Unfortunately, these were being clearanced out, but there are probably similar storage items out there. I also picked up some more round stackable containers which are generally sold as a way to store beads for crafting. I already had some of those to store small snaps for doll sewing, but I've decided I also like them as a place to store doll jewelry, and some small accessories like sets of doll dishes. In so doing, I managed to cut down space in at least one of my doll drawers. I went from this:

to this:

The new containers are on top of the old container to show how much less space the new stuff takes

And since my drawer is deep enough to stack the two rectangular boxes on top of each other, it takes up even less space. Coincidentally, most of my 16" size doll shoes fit really well height wise and width wise in this container. In this picture you'll see how a row of shoes fits nicely in the box, with another row of shoes lined up the same way on the other side of the box. The shoes in the top box are loose because most of them are too tall to stand up.

Next, I've never really had a single place to store clothes for my 11 1/2" dolls. They've just been stuck in several plastic storage boxes, since I didn't have anything big enough to hold them all, especially the large, poofy princess dresses. What I ended up getting was an ArtBin Super Satchel. I consider it worth it just because I won't have to buy anything else to store 11 1/2" doll clothes in for a long time. As you can see in my picture, I haven't used very many of the separators available for this box. I might put another separator in on the right side, and put tops and jackets in the new, smaller space, and pants and shorter dresses in the second space. Right now, I also have Stacie size clothes in the top left. In the top right section, for now, are larger shoes, the ones made for My Scene dolls, that I want to keep. I also have my one pair of Liv doll shoes in there as well. I'd like to find a doll who can wear them, and who fits in my collection.

Lastly, like some of you, I've been buying more and more pieces of scrapbook paper, both to use for photo backdrops, and as wall paper and flooring in some of my smaller rooms.

After a couple of pieces of paper got a bit crumpled, I gave in and bought a case specifically for storing scrapbook paper. Sometimes I do hate spending money on storage instead of dolls, or doll furniture or jewelry or clothes, etc.! But protecting and storing what you've got is important as well, so I got a case.

I'd been in a storing-things-the-same-way-forever rut. It was nice to make some changes for the better. And in the end, it works towards the same goal of enjoying what I already have in my doll collection. Do you have any clever ways to store things?

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!