50% OFF SELECTED DOLLS AT eTOYS: Don't miss this limited time only sale--pink line Barbies, Madame Alexander dolls, and much more at true 50% off prices. There are 32 Barbies on sale, including Hollywood Nails Barbie and Teresa at a ridiculously low $4.99, Sleeping Beauty at $8.49, and lots of play sets, some under $5.00! My size Barbie is 1/2 off. There are some nice Madame Alexanders from the 18" line for sale, including Abigail Jane Stewart, which my daughter has and which is a VERY nice doll (she plays with it with her American Girl), for #39.99 instead of the full-price $79.99. There are quite a few Madame Alex 8" dolls, including Paris Chic and Rosie the Riveter, This is a nice sale, it is not very often that you see Madame Alexander dolls for 50% off.

iDOLLS SALE: The wonderful sale of 18" dolls at iDolls continues. I understand this is a close-out, and the buzz about the sale (dolls, clothes and accessories) has been phenomenal in the Forum, so HURRY if you are interested, since things are going fast! Prices are 75% off original retail.

TRU EXCLLUSIVE CHELSIE: Forum members are reporting that this long-awaited exclusive Toys R Us Generation Girl Chelsie is showing up in stores this week!

New GENE Ashton Drake Exclusive; UFDC Exclusive Alex, and NEW Tyler and Esme Announced: Lots of NEW Fashion Doll Announcements in the last few weeks! There is a NEW Gene doll exclusive from Ashton Drake called "Symphony in G" (no photo yet). A new Tyler and a new Esme are scheduled to be unveiled at Expo West--you can see the new Esme, Esme Cover Girl, at http://www.alwaysglowbrightly.com/ (slow download, not a full-length picture, but a very pretty doll--worth the wait!) UFDC will have a special Alex (by Madame Alexander) doll limited to only 350 pieces--"Windy City Chic" available ONLY at the national convention for attendees for $130 (with proceeds going to target 2000, the UFDC Building Fund).

eBay users dislike paid advertising on eBay: eBay sellers are angry about eBay's recent addition of paid advertising on the site. They have been even MORE upset about eBay's practice of linking certain search results with ads on target--for instance, searching "Barbie" would bring up Toys R Us Online Barbie store (not an actual result, just an example of the type of result upsetting sellers). eBay HAS agreed to stop posting ads for competing retailers, AND they have nixed ads on listing pages for now (which is only fair, since eBay has cracked down on its sellers posting URL links, etc. for their own online stores, a practice that was fairly ubiquitous, and which is now limited to small, carefully controlled URL linking.

GI Joe in a Barbie Dress?: A recent advertisement for FedEx, created by BBDO in New York, puts a bunch of GI Joe-like dolls in very frilly Barbie-type dresses in a commercial. The premise is that officials of a toy company didn't use FedEx to shop a new line of Action Figures to the USA from China, so the GI-Joe type dolls are forced to dress them in the only thing lying around (for a commercial)--frills and lace. According to the article, the commercial scored highly in testing with audiences, and "having macho action dolls find their inner Barbie might be behind another interesting Ad Track result. More women than men like the spot, 28% vs. 22%."

Upcoming Doll Events

• Timeless Treasures: The Story of Dolls in Canada is on display now through March 30, 2003 at the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Hull, Quebec. For more information on this huge (over 400 dolls) landmark exhibit, visit http://www.civilisations.ca/cmc/cmceng/pr113aeng.html
• International Convention 2000 of the Doll Artisan Guild: June 28 to July 1 at the Hilton in Walt Disney World. Held every 2 years; I'll be attending so come say hello!
• National UFDC Convention: Fin Du Millenaire: Chicago, July 16-21 2000. The National Convention; over 2000 doll collectors, sale room, modern and antique doll competition rooms, classes, seminars (your Guide will be teaching a seminar) , meal events and much more! Go to www.ufdc.org for more information
• Theriault Marquis Auction Weekend: July 16. Wyndham Hotel, Chicago Illinos. Catalogued and Discovery (uncatalogued) auctions.
• National Doll Festival: Chicago, July 15-19, Sheraton Chicago Hotel and Towers. For information http://members.aol.com/natldoll/pub/
• National Gene Convention 2000 will be held Oct. 20-23 at the Arlington Heights Hilton in Arlington Heights, Illinois (a suburb of Chicago). Registration is $325 and limited to 700. For more information, contact genecon99@aol.com
• Fashion Doll Convention 2000 San Diego, California August 12 to 14 2000 at the DoubleTree Hotel. Convention dolls are Daisy and Willow. For more information, http://members.aol.com/fashiondollsd or e-mal fashiondollsd@aol.com

Want to keep up to date on all the latest in the world of Dolls? Sign up for the weekly About Dolls Newsletter! It's free, and is delivered to your email address every week, full of links to new articles, new clip art, additions to the Doll Price Guide and Galleries, Forum Discussions and more! . Don't miss a single issue--- scroll to the end of this page to sign up now!

2000 Past Editions of Dolls This Week:

January
Madame Alexander 16" Fashion Doll; Mattel Execs Leave *
Doll Costumer Guild Announces New Publication; *
Barbie PC; Barbie Auction *
February
Jill Barad Resigns From Mattel *
All The Toy Fair News! *
Toy Fair Recap; Toy Fair Toys are Technological *
March
New Theriault's Auctions; Dorothy Coleman Dies *
TRU Big Event, Virginia Graves Carlson Dies *
April
New Doll Books; New Barbie Releases in Stores *
Jill-Neimrow Nelson Resigns; Americana 2000 Projects; Fashion Doll Convention *
Barbie for President, Sign Language Barbie; Betty Spagetty and eBay Antique Dealers *
Special Online Doll Auctions; Pleasant Co. Toys For Boys, Cool Collecting Barbie*
May
Pleasant Company Founder Retires/Doll Discounts/Harley Ken HOT! *
Who's Brave Enough to Run Mattel/Hello Kitty Barbie/Barbies in stores now *
Toysmart OUT of Business; Where are Asian Barbies; NEW Mattel CEO *
June
Barbie20001 line info; Gene News; Sailor Moon NEW USA Dolls! *

For all 1999 editions of "Dolls This Week" please go to the 1999 Dolls This Week Archives.