Hey everyone, it’s been a while since I was online. The construction around my house is slowing down and less dusty so I can finally get back into painting! WOOHOO! It seems like I missed so much.
I saw these peek-a-boo eyes while looking at doll kits with my niece for her Christmas present and couldn’t find a discussion about them. I’d love to get everyone’s opinions, my niece loves them and I think her Great-Grandma that has dementia might be getting Ayla for Christmas. What are your thoughts? I wasn’t a fan at first but they’re growing on me the more I look at them.
@anjsmiles has seen them in person so she may have some good info.
More than opinion. Which is all I have. Lol
I dont think kits that were already out as blanks should be used for factory painted. Seems like a slap in the face to any artist that created one in the last few years, not to mention the doll buyers…
I really want to know what they look like in person!! I hope she sees this and responds.
I’m not a fan of the pre-painted aspect at all. I do not think it looks nice in the pictures and I think that’s when things normally look their best. I use air-dry paint though so fully repainting for great-grandma won’t be an issue. That woman raised more than 10 kids and still believes she’s raising them, least I can do is repaint a doll for her.
I like them. Bountiful baby once did prepainted kits as well.
I might get one of these and play around with it for a bit. I’m curious about those eyes and how they look in a realistic doll, though. I only know them from play dolls.
@anjsmiles posted a video on FB. I think it was about how you can remove the eyes ( I know that isnt what anyone was asking but I think that is what it was about.) I didnt have my volume on when I saw it in me feed
I’m not worried about it. It’s essentially a factory painted doll with even less paint on it than a berenguer. It has open close eyes and if you’re looking for realism, that’s not super realistic. They’ll appeal to kids and people with dementia. They are only at a lower price for the first preorders. The kits are ones that are open edition and are only $50 kits to begin with. A real collector wouldn’t be satisfied with them. People who just want a realistic doll would be and that’s where I think it could combat the fake factory reborns. They aren’t going to be called reborns in any way. I do wonder what would happen if artists sculpted kits that are factory painted. I think it’s a good idea.
Some people are saying it should be different sculpts than what are offered as blank kits. I can understand that perspective and wouldn’t have a problem with that. I’m not understanding the hostility from the people who hold that perspective.
From what I heard they were limited edition first ( I cant confirm this), (then macs bought them?) and had it poured in their “reborn fx vinyl”, and are now open and cheaper.
Then they came out with these factory ones.
I’m not sure. I wasn’t paying attention to those kits then so I couldn’t say. I can only go off of how they’ve been selling those kits recently. I just feel like it would be easier and better received if the people who felt this way could say, that’s a cool idea. Could you maybe use some different kits though? It’s more constructive criticism than anger and derision.
@ttulsajess@jlesser Reddit is my only social media and I really appreciate all the input about how other people feel about these kits! I would have liked to see a sculpted a doll just for therapy purposes, but I’m also just happy to see a cheaper option that can take away from the temu/knockoff market. I don’t really have strong opinions about it either way though so it’s nice to hear from people who do!
I think I’m going to snag a cuddle head with my pre-order for great-gma and try some of the peek a boo eyes in it just for fun. I want to see how they sit inside the eye sockets and play with them a bit.
No matter how they’re done, they look like doll eyes to me and the lashes aren’t wide enough. They just kind of sit in the middle of the lid. Now, if someone would make them out of vinyl instead of plastic, that matched kit color and that actually fit in an eye socket I’d be all over that.
The original blank Ayla kit I have purchased for $49 and reborn and sold as show special babies at DOTWE. Both reborn Aylas were purchased from me at the show for kids. I did not realize that kit was ever a LE. I thought it was an ongoing edition from the way it read back when I bought the blank kit for $49. For whatever reason, the sculptor chose to sell the rights to the kit and allow it to be reproduced. If she intended for it to be a LE and stated so when she released it, then she should never have sold the rights to it. That’s where the responsibility for that starts. I do agree that if you release a reborn kit as a LE it should remain a LE and not sold to be reproduced in any other forms.
As far as the manufactured version goes, it looks more like a toy doll. It could be enhanced with some paint if you wanted to paint nail tips, add veins and paint some hair. The open and close eyes look very much like a play doll. It was my understanding that these were made in conjunction with a woman they were working with who requested something like this for her dementia babies she makes. I was told she wanted open and close eyes because the people they were making them for would get upset if their baby did not go to sleep or wake up. I understand that the viewpoint of reality and art from the standpoint of someone with dementia is more childlike and therefore to them it may look normal. To us it looks less natural from the standpoint of realism. The doll I was sent is very small in size. The sculpt was not a large sculpt to begin with but the body that goes with the 1/4 limbs makes a small doll about a 16" I think. I have not put this one together. I did cut the sockets open to see if the eyes can be removed and they can. Mine will wind up being donated.
edited to add that this doll was sent to me as a sample to evaluate what I thought of the attributes of the doll.
I did not realize when they marked those kits down to $49 they changed it to open edition. When I bought mine at full price and it came with a COA Limited Edition of 1000, I thought that the sale kits were just this edition on sale. that’s pretty shiitty.
I just now went to look on the site to see the blank Ayla kit and it says “Edition: 1000 First Round (COA Included)”. It does not say LE and it says first round. I paid $49 per kit and I think that is the way it was worded when I bought mine but can’t say for sure. I purchased 2 on September 5, 2023. I do know the kits have been that cheap a year now. I did get some kind of COA with mine but they are sold so I don’t know what was on them about the numbers.
I would be upset if I bought it at full pricing and was told it was a LE only to have it become an open edition as well. This has already been done by Andrea Arcello with Harper and before that Naomi Johnson ran a 2nd edition of the Robin awake or asleep (I can’t remember which one came first, I think it was asleep) when she put out the other version. People were furious when that happened to Robon. Then when Harper was released again with different arms people like myself who had purchased the first one on the 2ndary market at higher pricing were furious too. Yet people who wanted the sculpt and didn’t get it were all gleefully in support. She continues to sell that sculpt now as an open edition. I sold my Harper lickity split before her new round hit the market and I also sold my prized blank Maisie. I sold Maisie because at that point I did not trust her not to open her up again as well. So I get it. It is not right and I am totally in agreement on that practice being wrong to do so. I understand that Sculptors want to make money as well but it is wrong to say your are making a LE and then change your mind or sell it to someone else. So once again, I blame the sculptor for this because that is where the decisions were made. What a person who buys the sculpt does with it once it is theirs is really not the heart of the issue to me.
However, I cannot say that I know for certain that these Tayla Freitas kits were never limited 1st and open 2nd editions to start with because I was not buying them at the time they came out. All I can see is what is out there now that says they are continuing editions and that is what I thought when I bought mine a year ago.
While we are on this subject, I also do not appreciate it when a kit is opened up as a time LE and a deadline is set for it to close and then it is kept open longer than the initial deadline stated. We have seen that happening as well.
that’s pretty shiitty.
