Btw... My Tangkou French Girl Arrived ...

So here's a little photographic review on the deboxing process and my first impressions of her...

I guess I forgot to mention, that my new French Girl Tangkou arrived the other morning, nagdabbit, I have been so side tracked recently, anyhoo, she's here and hmmm as I bought her for custom work purposes, I'm not so miffed as I could have been, but still hmmm I say... and here's why:

She arrived safe, sound and well packaged and her outer box is as stunning, as I expected from buying my Chinese Girl.

 There was no "sets" number on the box front, which led me to believe she may be a later version of this doll,also I noticed the eye lids on the box are the same as "Chinese Girl's" but as Tangkou boxes, passport etc frequently have a mix of several other Tangkou doll pictures in them, I just assumed this was a similar thing, especially as all the "French Girl"s I've seen have the cross-hatched black and pink eyelids.

 The back of her inner box is identical to "Chinese Girl" Tangkou's box, as it the rest of this box art.

She looks really cute in her box, I also love the cover of the outside box. You really can't fault the quality of the design and materials used for the packaging.

She is definitely much cuter in person, than I thought she looked online, and again, the quality of the fabrics used for her costume are just as high quality, right down to the plastic her shoes are made from!

One thing did notice though that I didn't like was she had quite a lot of tiny fluff on her from her hoodie, it was over her top, her legs and even in her hair... One piece was really bothering me, so I decided I'd just gently pick it off... bad move - I ended up with a chunk of her wig as well, which sadly came away as soon as I touched it!

It seems so strange to me that they would have excellent quality in every other aspect, so why not for her wig?!

This time, the box was rattling like mad, when I took possession of it, I found out this was due to the things inside the box breaking away from the tape holding them to the back of the box!

Same items inside as "Chinese Girl" came with, although her "Credit Card" style Certificate is obviously slightly different, due to batch umber etc.

Passport, also identical, taped to back of box under the hair brush, "Alice Band" and stand packet.
Next to this is a small bag with her underwear and feet inside!

First pages of Passport ad "Credit Card" style Certificate... The second page has two diagonal slits at the top and bottom, presumably to hold the "Certificate Card".

This area is however,  slightly too small and so the Certificate can only be held at one corner.

Her feet (at the top left of the bag), below this, the "Heart Button" is for the eye change mechanism.

After taking off her boot (which is of excellent quality, as are her socks), I got a better look at her ankle joint.

It seems weird though, how she has to have her feet removed to wear her - what should be - "made to Measure" boots!

This girl is also packaged with the buyer in mind, and very easy to remove from the plastic inner sleeve, again, using one twist tie to hold her neck in place.

Her feet are held in place with a strip of plastic, which is held in place with a strip of sellotape.

This was a shock, I was so looking forward to seeing those black and pink, crossed hatched eyelids, so it was a bit of a downer  to discover, she doesn't have them!  She has the exact same eyelid make up as my "Chinese Girl"!

Yeah I know the picture on the box has her shown with the pink ones, but in every photo I saw of this girl on the Tangkou websites, she has the black crosshatched ones... oh well :(

Even with no hair and big splodges of glue stuck to her head, she is still a very pretty doll!

As you can see there was a little residue left behind, when I removed her wig, but to be honest, it was actually a lot less than I was expecting!

I contacted 6th Sense to ask them why she has different eyelids  whether this means she is a later version  if this means she is not a limited edition, like the previous "French Girl" and to inform them that the quality of the wig was terrible as the hair came out in a clump after the lightest of touches!

The reply wasn't quite what I was expecting either! - Perhaps I have been spoilt by the amazing Customer Services Dept in MakieLabs?

Even so I certainly didn't expect what I got in reply, 3 days after my query (not bad for a large company) I received an email informing me:

"Tangkou France with black/pink eyelids was the second production runs (2011). 

Regarding advertising, you can find some pictures with the two different colors on online retailers sites and this is why it is written on the item description 'eyelids colors may vary'.

I suggest you, on your next purchase, to ask your seller your eyelid color wanted."

Well I'm glad that cleared that up, next time... I'll definitely ask the seller whether or not the doll has eyelid patterns that I didn't know was an option, after looking online at Tangkou dolls and seeing only "French Girl" Tangkou dolls, that don't have the "pink bow" option, which is why I had no idea this might happen!

"About the wig, the manufacturer intended to make them interchangeable. However, to much glue was used to make them easily removable. So it comes the time to remove it, we have to be very careful. I recommend you to contact your seller and discuss with him about your hair problem."

Hmm, so it's down to the seller, not the manufacturer?  

Also, I didn't actually try to remove it at the time, Aaron said "It's up to you Mum, but I wouldn't customise her, I'd keep her as she is" and I had just started thinking he was right, when that bit of fluff (from the hoodie happened) and voilà chunk of hair in hand, I hadn't even taken her out of the packaging so there was no way I could have removed the wig at that time!

On the plus side she ends with this, in regard to my  Tangkou "Chinese Girl" review ...

I have read your blog and I absolutely love it. Great description with a lot of details and nice pictures!

Thank you. 

You can find that review is here if you haven't read it and would like to: "Chinese Girl" Tangkou Doll Review

I do feel a bit bad about having sarkie thoughts, especially when it comes to the last part of the email, but meh I say Meh, I'm not so sure that the Seller is responsible for the problems I've encountered and all I really would have liked from 6th Sense / Tangkou would have been "Thank you, we've made a note of these issues and will be making sure that the dolls with 2 types of make up style are clearly marked on our websites" or even "Sorry for the issue you've encountered with the wig quality  we will look into this issue, and try to rectify this on future dolls" something like that really, but to pass it off onto the seller I feel is a bit of a cop out.

 Also it has left me confused, so that would make my "France" a first production run, later tweaked and reissued with pink and black eyelids due to hair glue issue?

If so, why was the wig quality issue not addressed at the same time as the glue for the wig issue was?

And if my girl is the first issue "too much glue" type, how come her wig whipped off so easily without leaving load of residue behind on the doll's head or wig?

It all seems a little fishy to me, but having said that, she was a cheap for custom, although if she is in fact a first edition, perhaps I should leave her as is - minus the dreadful wig that is, I already have a replacement on stand by, I just hope it looks good on her o_0