MGA vs. Lady Gaga and Bravado

MGA Entertainment must miss their legal battles with Mattel: the Bratz maker has a suit against Lady Gaga's merchandising unit, the Universal Music Group-owned Bravado AND Lady Gaga. MGA and Bravado were working on a Bratz line that is to resemble Lady Gaga when Bravado and Lady Gaga asked that the dolls release date be put back until 2013 to coincide with the release of a new Lady Gaga album. MGA - understandably - wants to issue the dolls this year. Thus, a suit is born.

Popcorn, anyone? Opinions?

Brunette Holiday Barbie, Anyone?

Pssst ... heard the rumor about the brunette Holiday Barbie? Well, she exists and you can have notice sent to you as to when she hits the market. This scoop came from The Doll Attic.

Enjoy!

Silvia Seeks (ITBE) Sleek

...  and Fresh's Dress.

Doll collector Silvia of Spain asked if anyone has for sale or knows where she can buy an ITBE Sleek doll (Integrity Toys 2009) for a reasonable price. Sleek can be mint out of box or NRFB.

Also, if you are selling or know someone who is selling just the yellow dress for ITBE Fresh (Integrity Toys 2009), she would like to buy that outfit, too. Or if you have the Fresh doll with the original yellow dress, she would be interested in buying the doll to get the outfit. Please leave a note in the Comments if you have sales information about these dolls.

Alas, I missed getting any of the Integrity Toys ITBE dolls, even when they went on sale.

Thanks for any responses. Sincerely, D7ana

St. Regis Lace Lingerie and Liv Sandals from Limbe Dolls

Tuesday morning, I found a thick envelope in my mail. Guess who the envelope was from? Yes, from LimbeDolls! My late birthday present! I carefully opened it to uncover new LimbeDolls sandals for Liv doll bodies AND three lovely sets of St. Regis Lace lingerie. Well, as you can imagine, lovely fashions like these do not appear daily nor do they go unclaimed. Here's what happened next:

Toshiko: OMG! St. Regis Lace undies from LimbeDolls! Dibs on that black set. Dibs, I say!

Joss: Why are you calling dibs on them? You aren't getting married. You can't wear them.

Tosh: Not only can I wear them, I'm gonna model them. For today's blog post.

Joss: Even worse. First, that's lingerie for brides - not for single students who don't even have a beau. Second, you are not seriously going to flaunt your scrawniness online. You'll never get a guy if you show what you ain't got.

Tosh: First, as resident Goth, I should be the superstitious one. Not. Wearing them regardless. Second, this is America. You can never be too thin.

Joss: Oh, sure ... anorexia is totally in. Never too thin.

Tosh: I am not that thin.

Joss: Are too.

Tosh: Am NOT. And if you are too insecure, you don't have to do it. Leave it to us professional models.

Joss: I am TOO professional.

Tosh: Doubting Thomasina ...

Joss: It is my professionalism that stops me from making a career busting mistake like this one.

Tosh: Green does not become you, Joss.

Joss: Green does TOO become me. There isn't a color under the sun that - oh, sometimes, you are too dense to be true.

Naomi: Toshiko, Photographer Ken wants you in the center.

Joss: ... because you'd disappear in profile ...

Tosh: Coming, guys.

Joss: Really, Tosh ... you aren't going against those boob jobs. Look at those massive mammaries ...

Naomi: Jocelyn, who you calling a boob job? These girls are for real.

Tosh: Joss was kidding ... she didn't mean anything. Let's do this shoot.

Naomi: Whatever. Ken, I got Toshiko with me.

Joss: World remember: I told her so.

So, world, what do you think? Is Toshiko too thin to wear the St. Regis lingerie? Will she bring bad luck to her relationship with her as-yet-unknown groom? Is she destined to remain unwed because no man would marry a young woman who modeled lace lingerie? What do you think?

Thanks, Paulette!

Getting the JLS and/or The Wanted Dolls to America

Okay, Hasbro is bringing the One Direction guys to the United States. Applause and feet stamping. But what about the JLS guys? What about The Wanted? Will Hasbro bring them over, too? I have not seen anything to indicate that they will. But hey 2012 is our pro-active year -- so I decided to ask Hasbro directly.

First, I submitted an email query, but the toll-free telephone number seemed to beckon me. Come on, place a call. No cost. You get an immediate answer. So, I called their Consumer Affairs division - very pleasant conversation - and learned that that division had no knowledge of JLS or The Wanted dolls being brought over to the U.S.


What next then? A phone campaign? No. Customer requests would NOT get the JLS dolls here in the U.S.A. Even if we sent in millions of requests, Hasbro would not be able to sell those dolls here. Why not? Because Hasbro does not have the license to do so. They were granted the license to sell the One Direction dolls only.

The next step for JLS fans or would-be American JLS doll collectors is to contact  the JLS and The Wanted marketing departments. Do they have a plan to sell the boy band dolls in the U.S.A.? (Possibly they do. Possibly that plan rests on seeing how well the One Direction dolls do here. Or maybe their fan base in the Americas is not as fierce as is the one for the One Direction dolls?) Note: the Hasbro Consumer Affairs representative mentioned it can take about 18 months for a new doll line to get distributed.

So, that is how the JLS/The Wanted query was answered. We collectors could contact fans of the JLS and/or The Wanted to find out if they would help us push for the Vivid Imaginations dolls to be brought here. Depends on the amount of effort we want to put into getting the dolls here. Or we can see about getting these dolls through Amazon.co.uk or private collectors.

Anyone interested in following this up?

Royalty at Ross Dress for Less

Guess which member of British royalty is available at Ross Dress for Less Discount stores? (Aside: I do mean a playscale version of British royalty.) Did you guess Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge aka Princess Kate? How about in her wedding gown? Excited now? Well for the princely sum of $9.99 (not including tax), you can have your playscale Duchess Catherine. Yes, that's the one with the tiny, many teeth by Arklu Ltd. Here are two photos of the Duchess - one showing her dress and the other showing those infamous teeth.

I'll say it: thanks, Ross Dress for Less! A duchess and a wedding gown for a little over $10.00.

P.S. No offense intended to fans of the Duchess of Cambridge, etc. My understanding is that the former Ms. Middleton was Princess but that now she's a Duchess.

Hasbro One Direction Dolls on Preorder

This link came from DBG of Black Doll Collecting: FAO Schwarz is taking pre-orders for One Direction dolls. Whhoooo, hooo! Applause and feet stomping. Remember I thought that Hasbro was going to create their own dolls. Blip! No, it seems that they intend to distribute the UK Vivid Imaginations One Direction dolls.

Hey, that would work for me. I want the Zayn and the Harry dolls. Love the ethnic variation of the former and the interesting curly plastic hair of the latter. More playscale guys - yippee!

Thanks again, DBG!

Update: additional links for the 1Direction dolls - Toys R Us and Walmart also set up preorders. Curious about seeing the guys nude? I did mean the doll guys. Not the 1:1 live guys ;-D

No, it hasn't become that sort of blog, lol.