Integrity Toys 2023 Year in Review

 

The 2023 Club year was a bit of a sloppy drunk.  Let's call her Sheila. Sheila is generally good fun, but occasionally she takes FOREVER, says the wrong thing, over-serves herself, and then spends a lot of time apologizing. Get a hold of yourself, Sheila!

Here is a photo showing what I ordered from this year (though it is missing the Wildflower Misaki doll which I did order.

This is easily the least amount of stuff I have ordered in a club year. I really liked all of the True Industry line up but was trying to be good. I already have versions that I love of all of those characters and don't want to repeat sculpts with them. I did not have a Jasper or an Auden though and I liked them both enough to enter in the lottery. I got Auden but not Jasper sadly (hoping I will find a takeover later). At the slightly reduced club pricing, the sticker shock of the new high prices was not as bad for what is basically the same Dynamite Girls dolls we used to get for like $60 back in the day.  Sookie is the exception to the "one sculpt to rule them all" vow with my Industry/DG/True collection. I already had That Witch Sookie and then added the super fun and cute 13 days of Halloween Sookie as she was so very Sabrina that I could not resist and I adore a giftset. Even though really wanted the fashions from several of the True dolls, I held off on ordering them. Trying to resell dolls or sell nude dolls has been difficult this year.  I have been trying to unload dolls for less than retail and getting no bites.  It is really making me rethink how I buy. In the past, I would not have hesitated to buy dolls only for the outfit as I could usually sell the nude doll and end up with a better deal than if I had done an even split with someone. Now that has not been the case. So I am looking to get just the pieces I want or do splits for the outfits...or look for people selling the dolls at or under retail later.  So from this new True line, I have already secured the cute pants from Hollis and I am still looking for Liu Liu's outfit, and either Jasper complete or just her outfit. 

It felt like a Poppy heavy year. But it is more likely that it felt so Poppy heavy since there was a near complete absence of FR (only the two FR lingerie dolls, Magia FR, and no FR club doll) and only a touch of Nu Face (the new guy and Anika, the Giselle club doll, Giselle Convention doll, and the Magia Nu Face sculpts). I skipped the first two Poppy club dolls. I had no interest in the cheerleader nor the Alice doll. I did cave on the Poppy in Pink as I loved the whole package and frankly would have bought it for the headband alone. I love the Bergdorf brow and have the Jason Wu Anniversary Kiss Blonde Poppy with that brow...but have never taken her out of her box because her current asking price makes me NERVOUS. I always have a hard time enjoying the dolls that have gone wacko on the secondary market. So maybe this new one will either allow me to give up AR or take her out of the box for company. From the regular Poppy lines, I had ordered two of the Poppy Mystery Date sets (Beach and Bowling) but only kept the clothes and the Cabot doll from the Bowling set (I did not already have a Cabot and he was super cute). I only have one doll on preorder at a dealer: the Sergio Silva guy from Palm Springs as he felt like a good deal for the money with the mix and match pieces. I picked up the sequin top and bottoms from the Desert Dazzler Poppy and the gold mini dress Golden Glow loose for a good price. I have the Perfectly Palm Springs Poppy gift set and the furniture set on pre-order too.  I really loved the Palm Springs line overall. I wish we would have gotten some friends instead of the glut of Poppy sculpts. 

From the other lines, I REALLY regret not ordering the Monarch Tae Min Power Vibes. I keep hoping to find him at a good price or make a trade for him. I enjoyed the Magia collaboration. I ordered Vanessa and the Milan Collette (once again...love a good gift set and this had some great pieces). Both the Vanessa and the Collette had good play value with an assortment of pieces to use in different ways. I do not understand why they rolled out the Lukas first and then Karolin later when they would have made much more sense being shown together based on color and theme.  The Nu Fantasy Witches were nicely done and Mark Tinkey is really doing some great work. I got the first Vanessa for her outfit but then passed on the rest despite them all being gorgeous. I don't really do gowns but the first one was a McQueen design so I could not resist it. The style lab Isha from the first virtual convention is currently wearing it very well. I ordered the Lingerie Luchia. I don't have that sculpt yet and I liked her Cindy Crawford look. 

There has been little logic in releases and the schedule this year. Things are late while other things are coming way early.  The time between order and arrival is getting longer and longer for some...so long that people don't even want the doll anymore.  And then things arrive in massive clumps so that you have to drop a ton of money all at once. It seems like the buy/sell/trade section on the forum has been overrun with takeover offers, many at less than retail. I am considering not even pre-ordering the club dolls since I can likely get them later at cost or less if I am patient. The prices have also been really tough to handle. Even if I liked what they were offering, I would not be able to order the same numbers as in the past because of both the price increases combined with the higher edition sizes.  There is no guarantee anymore that you can sell these for what you paid for them. I never buy with the idea that I would sell for a profit...but it used to be a bit more comforting to know that you could generally liquidate some of your collection and at least break even.

There was not a regular convention or even a virtual one this year but rather an online event. The theme was pretty fun with the Stay Tuned TV setting. The little videos were cute but could have done without the teaser emails during the day before getting the actual doll email. Overall I resisted ordering most.  From that event, I only ordered the three poppies. I loved both Galaxy Girl and I Love Poppy. Though I really wish they had companion dolls of some sort. I might make a matching guy uniform for Alien Poppy. I also got the That Girl Poppy and straightened her hair to replace the Kicks Poppy from Supermodel convention that I sold for a shocking amount a few years back.  She makes a pretty good stand in at a price point that I feel comfortable playing with.  I might try to get the outfit only from the Family Matters Tobias. I already have the amazing My Little Pony Tobias so I did not need a second of his sculpt. 

The Misaki dolls were adorable as always.  I got the Wildflower version as I loved both her hair, face, and the adorable outfit.  The boots are soooo cute. I really hope we get a Misaki made to order doll in the club this year as she is pricey to get imported from Japan. (Generally about $210 or so). 

Alright...I think that is the basic jist of the 2023 year of Integrity for me. Let me know your thoughts.