Thursday, June 25, 2009

Giselle vs Agnes comparison

There have been many people asking me do the sisters Agnes and Giselle share the same face mold so I decided to dedicate a full article for the matter. But first of all I want to apologize for the poor quality of my pictures. I took these aver a year ago when the matter was debated at the W-club and their point was merely to illustrate the point and fast without any artistic considerations including lighting. Later, I sold my Aggie and wasn't able to take new photos. I even thought I had lost these ones, but fortunately I was able to find them from the club archives.

As dolls in general the main differences between Agnes and Giselle are the body and skin tone. Agnes generally features the pale FR1 skin tone (with the exception of the Australian exclusive Firefly) as all three Giselles released up to this date have has the Caucasian FR2 skin tone. Another difference is the body type. Agnes is a part of the big busted Fashion Royalty line with the twist and turn body (see body type comparison post for reference) where as Giselle is a part of the Model Behavior aka NU.Face featuring the small bust shared by many other Integrity Toys lines such as Misaki, Dynamite Girls and Monsieur Z.



And now for the face mold themselves. As you can see from the front view Giselle has a face that is a bit more narrow and defined as Agnes´s features are more soft and round - especially in jawline and cheekbones. From the profile below you can see that Agnes´s cheek is more forward as Giselle´s slopes down from eyes and that her cheekbones are more distinct on the sides. Also Giselle's jaw line reaches back more under the ears than Aggie's. The nose is very much the same, I'd say identical, but the lighter skin tone does make Agnes´s nose to seem a bit bigger. Most lightly this is only an illusion caused by light reflection (black looks smaller white bigger) The mouths are identical.


I hope this clears things out a bit. I promise to take better pictures if I ever get a new Aggie. I'm quite madly in love with the upcoming super exclusive Optic Nerve Agnes, but only future will tell if Ill be able to get my greedy little hands on that jewel. ;P

Sunday, June 7, 2009

The FR Monogram dolls - intro, sculpts, skin tones

Photo by JennFL

The latest addition [before FR squared debut] to Integrity doll family are the highly exclusive FR Jason Wu Monogram dolls that feature fashions from Jason's runway collections. The first in line was the Life Ball charity doll, now followed by Statuesque, Best Drama, Black Party, Blue Chip and the Jeffrey NY OOAK designer dolls. Actually the Jeffrey NY dolls are not all OOAK, but use 4 different dolls as canvas with the exception of Jason Wu and Aggugini. Jason Wu's doll is Life Ball with new hair do and features a combined look of Statuesque jacket in black and Blue Chip dress in purple and orange. Aggugini used the 1st type doll but gave the doll a beautiful make up in vibrant shades of red making it the only true OOAK doll in the collection. Kudos for Aggugini for that!
The four Jeffrey NY base types are:
1) Pale raven with peach lips and grey eye-shadow. Used by Balmain, Bottega Veneta, Burberry, Celine, Gucci, Jil Sander, Missoni, Narciso Rodriguez, Prada and Thakoon.  
2) Caucasian blond with peach lips and grey eye-shadow. Used by Adam Jones, Lisa Perry, Michael Kors, Miu Miu, RM Collection, Rodarte, Stella McCartney, Thom Browne, Versace and Yves St. Laurent.
3)  Tanned brunette with pale lips and light purple eye-shadow. Used by Dior, Dolce&Gabbana, Givency, Haider Ackermann, L'wren Scott, Mastermind and Valentino.
4)  AA brunette with fuchsia lips and light purple eye-shadow. Used by Alexis Mabille, Christopher Kane, Giambatti Stavalli, Isaac Mizrahi, Jimmy Choo, Oscar de la Renta and Sophie Theallet.


Photo by Baris


"Created specifically to benefit the 2009 Life Ball, this gorgeous collectible marks the debut of Integrity Toys' new FR Monogram™ collection. An extension of the Fashion Royalty collectible line, the FR Monogram collection features a new custom face sculpt (body is the same size as the Nu.Face body), as well as the hallmark of Fashion Royalty- miniaturized couture fashion with impeccable attention to detail. *The 2009 Official Life Ball doll is limited to 250 dolls worldwide." (W-club newsletter 31 of May)
Many of you have been waiting for another Jason Wu women's collection fashion to be miniaturized and your wait is over! The 2009 Life Ball Doll wears a replica of a chic evening gown from Jason's romantic Fall 2008 women's fashion collection. The gown is constructed from custom-printed fabric in a floral pattern that has been realized in perfect miniature.


LBD with hands from Aerodynamic Vanessa 
Thank you Kevin for donating this picture

The Life Ball doll features a new beautifully proportioned bust size between the MB/NU and FR, but uses the same lower torso as MB/NU (without the twist and turn mechanism of FR). Also the hand sculpt with all fingers sculpted together is different for FR and MB/NU lines and seems to be the same one used for the new and more articulated Integrity resin doll Valia Pivoine. However, the hands do come off just like with any other 2009 doll and could be replaced with another set of hands from the new "Hand Speak" system. The closest matching skin tone available should be FR2 (the regular Caucasian tone), although LBD skin tone does have a slightly more pink hue the match is quite good as shown in the picture above.


Here is the Life Ball doll compared to MB/NU body illustrating the new bust size:
Thank you Baris for donating these pictures

As well as a new body sculpt the Life Ball doll features a new Caucasian skin tone with a slightly pinkish hue.



The Monogram skin tones differ slightly from the FR ones.  Without taking into account the head tones (some of which vary considerably with respect to the body) I have identified 5 skintones so far; 2 of them I believe are the same to FR1 (agnes) and FR2 (vero) the rest are different in some ways but similar to the porcelain (FR0), orangy-tan (not FR's latina or tan), AA (not FR's adele or jordan). 
NOTE: The OOAK Jeffrey NY dolls marked with capital letters are unconfirmed info based on photos!

PICTURES COMING SOON - In the mean time check
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24046227@N04/sets/72157627145761365/
  • MM0 - Undead / white - white a bit more pinkish than FR0 (porcelain)
    • Dolls: Black Party, Blue Chip,  Incandescent,  Enigmatic, Exquisite, Bemused.
  • MM1 - Japan / pale / greyish - ~FR1
    • Dolls: Statuesque, Jill Sander's OOAK, Jeffrey NY 1, Disclosure , Magnetism
  • MM2 - Caucasian / regular   ~FR2
    • Dolls: Life Ball (pinkish), Best Drama,  Jason Wu Jeffrey's Red Chip OOAK, Jeffrey NY 2,   Curiosity,  Magnificent Dreamscape,  Extravagance.
  • MM3 - Orangy-Tan -   Latina / Amber   close to FR3 and 4 but more orange hue. 
    • Dolls:  Jeffrey NY 3, Discreet , Brilliance, Envied.     
  • MM6 - Black / AA   - different tone, but closer to F6 (adele) than to FR5 or FR8.
    • Dolls: Jeffrey NY 4, Smoldering, Passionate.
To Be Determined:     Beyond the Still Centerpiece, Fascination, Illumination, Jubilation..


HAND Sculpts: none have come with an extra pair of hands.
  • The 2009 dolls featured several types of hands:
    • H1 - Jason Wu's Red Chip - Jeffrey's OOAK.
    • H3 - Best Drama, Black Party, Statuesque and Curiosity
    • H4 - the Claw Hand (Life Ball, some Jeffrey OOAKs).  WARNING - Both of my doll's with the claw hand the skin tone has started to turn, and the hands have become a bit oily on the surface.
  • Since Blue Chip all dolls feature the H5 hands - all fingers separate.  Left hand pinky curved-raised.