Hello again!

All of the Integrity 2002 play line doll pics are now up. Last night I also put up side by side pics of a 2001 Alysa and 2002 Alysa, as well as a 2001 Janay and 2002 Janay. Hopefully they will convey the smaller size of the Alysa mold to you and better show you the new Janay head mold.

This morning I put up 2 pics of Mila, the new friend that was supposed to be produced in the play line this year. She may not be done but you have an opportunity to influence whether or not she is produced. If you want to pre-order her, by all means do so. Pre-order numbers will be passed along to the company to help determine if there is enough interest to proceed with her production this year.

Now for a little tidbit that amazed me. The drop-dead gorgeous Mozambique Masquerade Janay collector doll will only be carried in 10 TRU stores! One of the stores will be the Times Square New York store but the other nine stores are unknown. I was left with the impression that even TRU doesn't know yet, that the other stores were in a "to be determined" status. What struck me as so strange about this is that the doll came about because of TRU. They wanted a high end collector Janay available and requested that one be done. Perhaps TRU is considering this a test market doll. I'm guessing but it sure seems like the only plausible theory that I can come up with. I've got to get with Percy again after he gets back into his office because I think this holds true for the Serengetti Sunset Janay as well but can't swear to it. My notes don't indicate availability on her and I can't remember for sure.

Additionally, the way I understood it, TRU also ordered only blonde Alysas, so using the Embassy Ball Alsya as an example, the ones in TRU will have blonde hair, not brunette hair. I also learned that basically TRU only orders enough of the play line to stock what equates to only about 50 stores. No wonder the dolls are so hard to come by, or appear so briefly in the stores! Most likely with time we will see the major chains' buyers increasing this number but until then, it looks like a collector's best bet to be absolutely sure they get a doll that they want from the Integrity play line is to order her from the dealer of choice who carries them.

Suzanne http://members.aol.com/SuzW397026/