House Flags

 My awesome husband, who knows how much I love Harry Potter..................and also knows how much I love photographing my dolls bought me a set of house banners from Harry Potter for Christmas, thinking I could use them as back drops for photos. I opened the Ravenclaw one first, so pulled out Cho from the original Tonner line for a couple of test photos.

The banners are so pretty, and they will be lovely additions to my background choices for photos. While a little big for the smaller dolls, I think they are doable with the original Tonner sized dolls.

And a closeup of Cho, as she really is so lovely.

Nendoroid Dolls

 In addition to the regular line Nendoroids featured in my post below, I discovered the Good Smile Company also makes what they call Nendoroid Dolls, which feature articulated bodies and cloth clothing. As soon as I discovered this, I started scouring the web looking for the Potter kids in the doll form. I found Hermione on Ebay for a good price and bought her to see what I think. I was very interested to see if she could use the extra face plates/accessories that come with the regular line Nendoroids.

One of the face plates she comes with is identical to one of the regular line Hermione face plates, and her hair appears to be identical as well. The dolls are a smidge taller than the regular line. I'll get a comparison pic of the 2 in a future post.

I was really pleased to discover yesterday that the face plates for the regular Nendoroids fit the dolls just fine.  Here is Hermione in doll form wearing one of regular Hermione's face plates, along with her extra hair front.

These little guys are like chips. I don't think I can have just one. I'm going to have to keep my eyes open for Harry and Ron in doll form as well I believe.

Nendoroids

 Over my 20 years of doll collecting I have learned to "never say never.". I don't know how many times over the years I've said, I'll "never" go there, only to later eat my words. Such is the case with my latest acquisitions within the Harry Potter collecting realm. I stumbled across these little guys a bit randomly on Flickr, as I was doing a general search on Harry Potter figures. I had never heard of "Nendoroids" before that time.

I did some research and was a bit intrigued by all the accessories each of them came with, so I first ordered Harry. 

I got him home and had so much fun playing with him and his accessories, that I immediately went and ordered Ron and Hermione. Each of them comes with their "pet", and various assorted hands and arms. They each have their wands, plus Gryffindor scarf. They also each have a broom and special broom bodies. I'll explore all their accessories in an additional post later.

They also each have additional face plates to change their expressions. Again I'll explore their additional accessories and face plates in another post. Here is Ron, up close, with his default face plate.

And Hermione with her default face plate. I did change out her default hand for her wand holding hand.  In addition to Harry, Hermione and Ron the GoodSmile Company, maker of the Nendoroids, has also released Professor Snape, Draco Malfoy and Luna Lovegood in this line.  Dumbledore is coming as are Quidditch versions of Harry and Draco. I look forward to adding some of the additional characters to my collection.

Professor Snape

 Another Mattel doll from the Potter universe arrived late last week. Professor Snape. I wasn't going to get many dolls within this collection, as I have many of the Star Ace figures and for the most part, their likenesses are better and they come with more accessories, so I was going to limit myself in the Mattel collection to representations I didn't have in other lines, but when I saw Snape I had to add him..................and I have Dumbledore too as  I got him in a package deal with McGonagall. SO maybe I'll collect the professors within the Mattel line.  While Snape's likeness isn't as good as the Star Ace likeness, it's pretty good for the price point (which is a WHOLE lot less than the Star Ace version).

You can definitely tell it is Snape.

A black and white shot for fun. I hope Mattel gives us some of the professors we haven't gotten in the Star Ace or Tonner lines.........as I said previously I'd love to see Umbridge and Trelawney.

Professor McGonagall

 Professor McGonagall is my favorite professor in Harry Potter's world. Very few of the companies that have licenses for the doll/action figure merchandise have portrayed McGonagall......................at least in the doll/action figures that I collect. I do have the Tonner doll, which is a GREAT likeness. I need to get some new pictures of her so I can post them here on my blog. I keep waiting for Star Ace to release McGonagall, but so far it hasn't happened. Mattel did release a version of her last year in their new play line though, and I had to pick her up.

I think she's a great likeness for the price point. She comes in the green robes she wore in the first year.

I also picked up Snape and Dumbledore in this line.  Id love to see Lupin and hoping they also eventually come out with Umbridge............the professor I LOVE to HATE.

One Angry Wizard

 Still in a bit of a Potter mood, so decided to put Star Ace Voldemort's second head option on him and get a couple of new pictures.

Star Ace has been a bit inconsistent with degree of accuracy with its likenesses of the actors. This one of Voldemort is one of their best though. It's a wonderfully creepy likeness.

Mattel's Yule Ball Dolls

 I have been tempted by the Mattel Harry Potter line dolls since they came out, but I thought since I had the Star Ace figures I could pass on the Mattel dolls...........................until they did the Yule Ball wave. Star Ace hasn't done the Yule Ball dolls, and I have Harry and Draco in the Tonner line, but I missed Hermione and Cho when Tonner did them, as well as Ron, so I decided recently to cave on the Mattel versions.

I'm really pleasantly surprised by all of them. It appears they are on the Monster High bodies. They are much less expensive than the Star Ace line, so I may have to go back and pick up some of the basics to play with, as they are quite fun to photograph, and I do have a soft spot for all things Harry Potter.

I think Ron's likeness may be my favorite.

It appears they male dolls are closer to the likenesses of the actors, and the females are more generic sculpts, but I do quite like Hermione too!

And while Cho is probably my least favorite of the 4, I am glad to have her. I would have loved for Mattel to have done Victor Krum as well. Who knows, if the line is successful enough maybe we will eventually get him.

All in all wonderful dolls for the price, and I look forward to exploring the line more and picking up some more of the dolls.

Star Ace Ginny Weasley

 I'm on a bit of a Harry Potter kick. Sideshow had free shipping and $20 off Ginny Weasley during the Spooktacular event, pair that with $50 points I had sitting waiting to be used and she was a deal too good to pass up, so I finally caved and bought her. I had been eyeing her for a while.

She looks very stern. She is on the same body as the first year Hermione, but her face looks older than the Ginny in the Chamber of Secrets to me. I kind of wish they had put her on the Prisoner of Azkaban Hermione body.

They also appear to have recycled all of Hermione's accessories..............books/bookbag. If she was to be representative of Chamber of Secrets Ginny, then I wish they would have included Tom Riddle's diary. Her box really doesn't state what movie she is supposed to be from. In fact, the picture of her on the box appears to be from the Order of the Phoenix movie. In that case, she should have definitely come on the taller body, as she was as tall as Harry in the movie, best as I can remember. Oh well. 

All in all I'm pleased to have her as an addition to my Star Ace collection of figures from Harry Potter's world. I think I want to add Luna next, although I still need teenage Ron and I really want to get Professor Lupin too.

That Potter Magic

 There is something so "magical" about the whole Harry Potter universe, pun intended, lol. I do love the books, the movies and all the dolls I have that represent the characters of that world. Playing a bit with the younger Tonner set today.

Harry

Ron

And Hermione

A Time for Magic

 Some of my favorite dolls from Tonner's Harry Potter line. Ron and Harry from the Deathly Hallows.

Steppin' Out Barbie

I have an old china cabinet in my dining room where my Silkstone and some other black/white/pink themed Barbies reside.  Today I thought I'd take one of the girls out that had never been photographed.  This is Steppin' Out Barbie and she is so reminiscent of Old Hollywood Glamour.

The Mackie face really is so lovely.

I really love her hair.............and her understated makeup as well.

The Illusions

Still in a bit of a Barbie mode, I decided to get a couple of dolls out of my curio to photograph. These 2 girls have been in my collection for quite a while. The Nolan Miller "Illusion" girls. Sheer Illusion came first I believe.

And then there was Evening Illusion. I love everything about both of these dolls, from their gorgeous hairstyles and makeup, to the wonderful gowns.

I think they are both timeless.

Back to My Roots

As I've said before, my collection is extremely diverse. Over my 20+ years of collecting, I have sampled a little bit of "most" everything fashion doll related. As my tastes changed, much of what didn't suit anymore went on to find new homes, but one constant within my collection has been Barbie.

Barbie started it for me when I was 3 years old and first held one in my hands. I still have that one by the way. A little worse for wear, but she has held up well over the years all things considered. In 1990 or so Barbie re-entered my life, and has had a place within my collection in some capacity ever since. The Silkstone collection is one of my favorite's within the realm of Barbie.

And even though my main focus tends to be my BJD's these days, I still have all of the Silkstone dolls I've collected over the years and enjoy revisiting them for play time every now and then. I also enjoy the added articulation in the play line dolls and have added quite a few of those over the past several years as well. Harley Ken is one of my favorite sculpts among the Ken line.

He cleans up pretty well I'd say. This morning I just felt like playing a bit with a couple of dolls within my Barbie collection, and thought I would share.

A Stroll Around the Grounds

Took two of my Tonner Vampire Diaries dolls out for some photos today.  Catherine is wearing a dress actually done for Tonner's  Gone with the Wind line. Since the doll was based on the character from roughly the same time period I thought it would work well on her and go well with Damien's gray suit coat.

This is one of the outfits done after one of the "lost sketches" in the Gone With the Wind line. I believe it was called A Day at the Races.

As always with Tonner, the tailoring on the menswear is wonderful as well. The actor likeness was also exceptionally good on Damien IMHO. A lot of Tonner's character sculpts were hit or miss. Damien was definitely a "hit" in my book.

Catherine's sculpt isn't near as good as Damien's, but I like this version of her MUCH better than I did the sculpt when she was presented as "Elena". I ended up selling that doll on as I didn't think it looked anything like Elena. Catherine isn't perfect, but I do think she hits the mark much closer than Elena did, proving that paintwork can certainly play a major roll in conveying the feel of a character likeness doll.