Tonner's Take On Marilyn: UPDATE

For month's, I have been anxiously awaiting photos of Robert Tonner's upcoming Marilyn Monroe doll. I had a few hopes for it:

1. That she would be 16" and that she could wear clothes from The Franklin Mint.

2. That she actually looked like Marilyn!

3. That she was articulated, had rooted hair, and applied eyelashes.

Finally, the photos are out! Well, one or two at least. For me, the jury is still out, but that's mainly because I don't think the photos released are really doing a very good job of capturing the doll (or maybe they are).

After seeing the official publicity photo (above), I thought my wallet was going to be very happy. It neither captured Marilyn's face nor her body shape. The doll is too thin, missing all of the voluptuous curves that were Marilyn's signature. She looked more like Nicole Kidman than Marilyn Monroe.

On top of that, the doll is a whopping 22" high. No sharing of clothes with this gal! But then I saw a second photo on the Tonner Facebook page (which is now defunct). This one was of an actual centerpiece doll. Although it's only a cellphone photo and the resolution is not real great, the resemblance on this doll to Marilyn seems much better.



I am still on the fence about this one; the 22" size is a huge buzzkill for me. World Doll's vinyl Marilyn is still the best resemblance, with the Franklin Mint's vinyl coming in at second. As for Tonner's version, I will wait to see additional photos before deciding what to do.

UPDATE:

Tonner has just released photos of a second Marilyn at their convention:





Wearing an outfit from "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes," this doll is (happily) the 16" size. There is hope that my Marilyn clothing collection can now be used on an articulated Marilyn! I can't say I'm crazy about the face sculpt (the 22" actually seems closer to Marilyn!), but I am happy at the accuracy of the outfit; much better than Ashton Drake's version that they created for Gene, which went a little crazy with the beads:



See more Marilyn Monroe doll photos on my Marilyn Monroe doll web page.