☯ It's Official, I have fallen in Love with Tangkou Dolls! ☯

For the last month or so, I have been eyeing up the new Tangkou Dolls.

Image taken from www.tangkoudoll.com

Just to clarify which doll I'm about to start talking about, I think I should make a list so you know who is who:  

First Row:       1. England, 2. France, 3. Aussie, 4.Italia.
Second Row:  1. Pinnoccio, 2.Red Ridin, 3.Yellow Duck, 4.Pink Bunny.
Third Row:      1. Chinese Girl, 2.Miss. Audrey, 3. Vampire, 4. Loli.

Originally I kept finding myself looking at Miss. Audrey, Chinese Girl and Loli.

Miss Audrey's Box

 But they all seemed to be very high priced especially as I didn't know enough about these dolls and hadn't discovered their website so I couldn't really gain much info about them, except from the sales listings of course, which is all well and good but I tend to use a sales listing as a place to get basic information to help me in my search elsewhere online as a seller is more often than not likely to big up a product while playing down it's faults.

Isn't she gorgeous?! Even so...I wasn't prepared  to spend £48 + on a doll I know nothing about, when my Pullip only cost me £30, my Dal £46 and my Blythe £56!

Miss Audrey.

Ok so the Blythe was slightly more than they were asking for the Tangkou Doll, but my point is, I knew what I would be getting with my Blythe and I'd spend close onto 5 years wanting one and never finding one I liked that I could afford - as she was not going to be a custom job Blythe, I had to like her A LOT before I even thought about parting with my cash!

After I discovered their website and found their were many more versions of the doll out there, and read up about them all, I found the one I was most drawn to was Chinese Girl... with France as a close second, but only because she has a wig and would be easier to customise - I really don't like her "hair" or outfit, so she would be a very good candidate for this. 

I love her box though!

I still have a huge urge to buy a France one as I really want to customise one of these dolls, and I want to start with one who has a wig as re-rooting big heads it a total pain; as I discovered while I was re-rooting one of my Little Big Eyes Dolls.

Of course, if I am unable to get my hands on a France for Customising, I could always look out for an Aussie, as she also has a stock outfit and hair which I really don't like, but on the plus side, like France, her hair is also a wig and therefore easy enough to remove and replace with something much nicer, I would of course be stripping the face completely of it's original "face up" and starting again, the only thing I wouldn't strip off is the "make up" on the eye lids - viewable when the doll's sleep eye function is accessed.

Every one of the dolls have the "sleep eye function". The photo / diagram above is of France doll's eyelid make up,  I found this picture on the Tangkou UK website, which oddly is the only website that has images of any of the doll's eyelids, and even odder, only for the France doll, I can't help but wonder why that is, unless of course they all have the same "Eye make Up"!

I've been looking again at Aussie, and I'm starting to think, she is just as pretty, so yeah, I'd be happy to take one of them for customising too!

See what I mean?!

 Chinese Girl, if I ever managed to get her would be staying just the way she was when purchased, and France would have to be under £30, in order for me to feel good about customising her!

A couple more weeks past with me keep going back for another look, and even saving one or the 
other into my "Watch List" and "Basket" when something weird happened... the prices dropped considerably, and I started to notice more and more France, Aussie and Chinese Girls, with a starting price of £19.00 at auction!!

Most of these were either the Aussie or France girls, but one night, I spotted a France starting at £19.00, and I decided "Why not?" so I bid on her, unfortunately I lost the bid in the last few minutes, to be honest, I did kind of expect that as I'd set myself a "spend limit" because she was going to be a "Custom" and I would be happy with just her head to work on,  so I wasn't going to go over that amount, especially as I found I could buy my favourite "Chinese Girl" for £38.00 on Buy It Now!

Chinese Girl in her box - Auction Photo

And then... on Friday evening, I was doing my weekly "check" on the listings for these dolls, and I found an  Italia, for £19.00 opening bid, with no bidders and only 15 minutes to go, I watched the minutes tick down for a while, but as my pay day wouldn't fit with Ebay's 3 days to pay rule, I had to let her go, I was a bit unhappy about this especially as she remained unsold at the end of the auction, but I had checked on the website and discovered she too is a "rooted" doll, so I decided it wasn't too bad, but it gave me a reason to keep going back each day to check if this might happen again.

On Sunday Evening, it did and with an awesome result for me... I found Chinese Girl, for £19.00+ postage, in an auction, with only 6 minutes to go until the end and no bidders!

Auction Listing Photo.

One thing I have only just noticed about these dolls is all the images I've been looking at on the Tangkou website is the ankles in a lot of the photos seem to be at an odd angle, so much so, they look painful!

Such as the dolls ankles in the picture above, I really hope this is not something every one of the dolls have.

The seller added this information to the listing, some of it as you can see from the image of Chinese Girl  I found on the Tangkou website...

Knowing I most likely had no chance at all, I placed my bid and decided not to bother checking the auction until the next day, after all this girl seemed to be very popular so I definitely wasn't going to win this auction, but the next day, I found I'd been totally wrong... 

I had been the only bidder, and now all I had to do was pay £23.00 and she'd soon be in my hands!!

     Here's some more images of "My Girl" from their website...                           

      Isn't she beautiful?  -  I can't wait to get my hands on her!

If she does have that ankle problem, I may have to either keep her as a "Display Doll" in her box or customise her by giving her a new body (I have a spare Pullip body needing a new head, so that should work), this of course depends on how easy her head is to remove and also, If I manage to get hold of another one as I would very much like to keep one as is, but as I also like to "play" with my dolls, ie. make them dioramas, pose and photograph them I'm not sure at the moment.

I guess I should wait until I actually receive her and open her box before I make that decision!

One  thing I have decided, is that I will be doing a full review of her once Postman Kev' brings her to me, so if you're interested in more information on her, stay tuned!

There are 2 Official Websites for Tangkou Dolls:
 http://www.tangkoudoll.com/   and  http://www.tangkoudollsuk.com/  (UK Site)

The UK Site is offering a 3% Discount on some of these dolls at present, the dolls with this discount offered are: England, France, Aussie, Italia & Chinese Girl, the first four are now £33.99 and Chinese Girl is now £38.99.