I got a major deal on 3 of the Madame Alex sized 16" dolls today. This one store I go to has had these kinds of dolls on the shelf for a year at like $99 for the limited Disney ones, $75 for the Desperate Housewives and the Alex Ford type dolls. They were originally like $150 a pop retail and they still can go for like $110-125 some places. I actually had bought two the last time they had a big sale. Got them cheap because they had a mark down sale on the markdown dolls. But I couldn't afford all of them and I really regretted not being able to go there. It's not often you see 16" girls around here. I went in there today and the manager gave them to me for a really decent sum. Almost as good as those two Alex dolls I bought so I bought the three on my CC. Came in just under $100 and no way I can beat that. It's like I paid for 2/3 of one and got two free!
I don't want the outfits on any of them but I do like the face on one of them. She's the Jadde Lee doll basically only Anglicized a bit paint-wise. It's an interesting variation and I like Jadde so I think I am going to keep that one. I may just use the bodies on the other two to finally articulate my MA Garbo and Dietrich dolls then sell the clothes and maybe one or both princesses on the straight legged bodies. Not sure. Depends upon if the skin tones match or not. If they don't I may just flip the two princesses. Being Disney and Madame they're bound to be worth $75 a pop to someone outside my area. There's just no 16" doll people here hardly, that's all. But online I've seen both of those Princesses selling at that, even more so I figure why not? If nothing else I know I can sell their clothes. MA actually makes some of the best 16" girl clothes out there and most 16" doll fans know that so you can get what I paid for them for their clothes if nothing else.
Snow and Belle have the same face. It's the Sienna Evans face. Paint is a bit different, that's all. Like I said the Britt face is the Jadde face. I don't think any of them particularly resemble who they are supposed to be but they're all lovely dolls in person and the clothes are just gorgeous. MA makes Gene/Tonner type clothes, very well made, very high end. Snow is harder to find and I'm thinking I might just try to sell her, but I may just sell the Belle outfit and Edie's and keep the other two dolls to play with. At the very least I'm keeping Edie, but I don't much like orange except in wigs and that outfit can go and I won't regret it one bit even if it is a MA outfit. But I think I got a stellar deal no matter which way you look at it. These dolls will pay for themselves one way or the other and I get to keep at least one. The price on Amazon is lower than it was actually. They have all been running $110 or so for a long time. BTW, you can't see it here but the jewelry on Edie is really nice. I already have it though. It came with my other DH doll. The dress I think is a bit tacky but then again I'm not an orange and lace fan. But the gems they're really top notch...
Edie...
http://i.ebayimg.com/t/DESPERATE-HOUSEW ... 2,s:0,i:81
and a face shot:
http://i.ebayimg.com/t/NEW-Madame-Alexa ... 0,s:0,i:76
Here we go. Belle at Matilda Dolls...
http://www.matildadolls.com/disney_49040.htm
and here's Snow...
http://www.matildadolls.com/disney_48650.htm
On second thought, the dolls are staying and the clothes are going. I'm caving here. Deboxed I love them all! They won't even be donating their bodies I'm afraid. I'm just too taken with them. I do want to change a couple of eye colors and lip colors, restyle the hair just a bit but otherwise I really like the face paints on these. The Belle is a Sienna, but she's Sienna brunette and with soft curly brown brunette hair down to her waist when you take it down. The Snow is actually according to Matilda an Alex Ford sculpt doll. I can see that now, I think, but the face paint is so very different it's really hard to tell. She's completely different in character. Had I not read that I doubt I would have realized it was an Alex and not an Amanda or maybe a Sienna. I'm not sure but I think MA used this doll as their Scarlett too. She's got the raven hair and if I changed her eyes from brown to green she'd be a dead ringer for that "Dinner With Rhett" doll they made. At least I think so. The third doll is definitely a blond Jadde and she's too beautiful in person. Lovely hair. Lovely face. Just perfect.
I took the clothes off the dolls because knowing that dolls have been boxed for 4-5 years probably I wanted to see if there were any issues. Also, I have cats and Madame Alex boxes are definitely not cat fur proof. I wanted to bag the clothes to keep them clean and hopefully fur free. Check for dust and dirt inside the boxes. Everything looks good there in fact the pics I've seen in no way do these clothes justice. I don't know why but MA chose to not put roses on Belle's ball dress. I wasn't too sure I liked that but then when I unboxed the dress it was so delightful I was glad it wasn't stereotypical Belle. It would actually look great on just about any 16" doll, and particularly a Southern Belle like Scarlett or Melanie. The roses are totally unnecessary. There's no period jewelry, no shawl, no hat but that's all it would take for this dress to go to a BBQ at 12 Oaks. It's totally GWTW right down to the cotton and lace petticoat underneath. All it needs is a flower strewn shawl and a matching hat and it's there.
The Snow outfit is a piece of art. Wait till you see the pics I'm going to take of it. I've seen some really classy SW outfits but this one is just WOW. Even the orange and gold dress is pretty nice when you really take a good look at it. First impression I didn't care for it much. But now I'm actually revising that opinion a bit. I still think it needs a bit of beading or something to tone down the orange but it's actually got a lot more class than I thought seeing it in the box on the doll and regardless it is very well made. I think what made me think it looked cheap is just that it looks all wrong on that doll. She has very delicate looks and that dress just overwhelms her. I think it would look much better on a brunette maybe or at least a more suntanned blond. This girl is way too pale for it.
More later. I'm going to take pics of the three, then do their hair and makeup to suit me. Then dress them in something I like more and take pics again. I think these three are going to look really special when I am done. They have so much potential, far more than I ever realized just seeing them on the shelf.