The UFDC (United Federation of Dolls Clubs) held their annual conference in San Antonio, Texas, back in July and Dianna Effner was spotlighted at the event. The souvenir doll, along with the 'companion' doll for the event, were both vinyl dolls sculpted by Dianna, however they are not artist painted but painted by the factory in China that produces the blank Little Darlings for Dianna and her artists to make into their gorgeous creations.
At first I wasn't particularly interested in getting my hands on one of the dolls from the event but as they started to appear on Ebay, I was increasingly drawn to the dark haired 'companion' doll, a #2 sculpt called Ana. Ana was dresses as a little Indian girl and she just looked very cute in the sellers photos, so I decided to go ahead and get one. However, I was outbid a few times on Ebay, so wasn't going to bother, but then I heard that the UFDC were selling off the 'extra' dolls and decided to go ahead and get one. I had seen 'real life' photos on the Little Darlings Yahoo group and on Flickr and realised that despite the fact that the doll is not artist painted, she has so much potential....I'm so glad I went for her!!! She arrived yesterday without any customs fees....that has to be a great start....and she really is as cute as a button.
The doll herself is exactly the same as the Little Darlings. The only difference, as I've already mentioned, is she's not handpainted by one of Dianna's trained artists, plus she doesn't have the manicure and pedicure that the artists ones come with. She does however come fully dressed in well made outfit of tee shirt dress with, funnily enough, ra-ra frills around the bottom, matching calf length leggings, sandals and a beaded necklace. The outfit does up at the back with velcro. Her wig is glued on, it is not bad quality either although mine was shedding a little bit, it has a straight fringe and two little pieces of hair pulled back at the sides into ponytails and these are decorated with long strings with beads on the end. The wig actually feels like it could be artificial mohair, it's quite soft. However, it wasn't the style I had in mind for her so I prised it off using the handle of a spoon. Unfortunately her head underneath was quite stained from the wig, but it doesn't show with a new wig on so I'm not bothered by it.
I have ordered some Judikins Diamond Glaze from Ebay UK, after hearing that this is what Dianna and her artists use to glaze the eyes and give them that beautiful shine. Hopefully that will be here at the weekend and I can give it a go on this new girl.
In the meantime, I've been having fun trying out wigs on her.....I won't bore you with the photos of all the different wigs, because we've been there, done that, already once this week, I'll just go on to show you the two I chose for her to try out. She chose the outfit for herself ;) I thought perhaps I'd finally got a 'girlie' girl to go with Ellie and Finn....until I saw her dirty sneakers!!! I haven't had time to make her an outfit of her own yet, so she is wearing a mishmash of things that she found in the dolls clothes box!!!
In the meantime, I cut the below wig shorter (this was the one I first tried on Finn and liked) and now it is a chin length bob....I think this will be Reece's wig for the time being as she looks so cute in it!
And here she is with her two artist painted sisters/friends:
Comparing the two girls of the same sculpt:
Bottom line: Well the bottom line is, I know that Reece is not a handpainted doll, but quality wise, she is great! I think she is a very cute doll with so much potential. All I've done so far is change her wig and I'm sure you'll agree that she fits right in with Ellie and Finn!!
If you want an alternative to the long wait for an artist painted Little Darling or the high prices on the secondhand market, then I would certainly recommend one of the UFDC Convention cuties.
