Anne Fitzpatrick by Robert Tonner

While I was writing the Ellowyne and Neema review, I spent a lot of time browsing the Virtual Doll Convention (VDC) website--both tracking the Ellowyne and Neema dolls that were available, and also looking at the other types of doll that are offered in that shop.  

In addition to Ellowyne and Neema dolls, VDC sells Amazing Grace, a 16-inch fashion doll who looks like Tonner's Sydney on an RTB-101 body.  They also have some cute exclusive Ruby Red Fashion Friend Siblies.  But the character who really caught my eye is Anne Fitzpatrick.  She's a little girl who's Marley-sized, so about 12 inches tall, with a bright smile and what looks like a lot of joints.

I bought Anne at the same time that I bought Neema, so I thought I'd do a little bonus review of her now, while I'm still in a Robert Tonner kind of mood:

Anne Fitzpatrick by Robert Tonner for VDC, $175.

I'll admit that I don't remember what Tonner Marley dolls used to cost back in the day.  I want to say that they were just under $100, especially for basic dolls, but that could be wrong.  The only receipt I have is for Tonner's 12-inch Lyra Silvertongue doll, who I bought in 2008 for about $145.  

Lyra is an amazing doll with an incredibly detailed outfit, a compass, and a small resin Pantalaimon:

Definitely worth her price.

2008 was a long time ago, but $175 still feels like a lot to pay for a basic Anne.  I think these dolls were made in small editions, though, which helps justify the price.

VDC had another Anne doll, Anne Two, who is wigged and also cost $175, but she was sold out when I visited:

I don't like the bangs on her black wig, but I would have enjoyed the versatility of changeable hair.  And I love that orange sundress!

Anyway, my Anne came in a brown shipper labeled "Anne Basic:"

The doll box is plain white, with "r. tonner design" written in black lowercase letters at the bottom:

There's very little else adorning the box.  The Robert Tonner Design address appears on one side:

And a choking hazard warning is on the other side:

It also says that Anne is a collectible item, not a toy.  I'm not so sure about that!  I feel like Anne makes a great toy, albeit for older kids.

She came tied in place with white satin ribbons.  Her shoes and stand were attached to the sides of the box: 

She doesn't really need a stand most of the time, thank goodness:

The first thing that grabbed my attention was Anne's hair, which was barely kept under control by a white hairnet.  It has a mind of its own!

The second thing I noticed was Anne's shoes.  They're little white sneakers:

The detail in these shoes is great.  They have working laces that criss-cross through tiny metal eyelets.  There's also stitched detail around the laces and at the back.

There are no treads on the bottoms of the shoes, just smooth vinyl:

The shoes are tight-fitting, and it took some effort to squeeze them onto Anne's feet--even with the laces loosened:

But it was worth the effort.  They look so cute:

Still, I hope I never have to put them on again.

The laces have a smooth, almost slippery texture, so they come untied fairly easily if the doll is being posed and manipulated.

The shoes reinforce Anne's great balance:

Something that bothered me right away with Anne is that her eyes are painted in an upwards-glancing position, and her head tends to tips upwards as well.  So she's always looking up:

She has some up-and-down head mobility, as we'll see later, but her head moves up much more than it moves down.  If I jam her chin down as far as it will go, I can get her to sort-of look me in the eye:

Emphasis on sort-of.

Anne has rooted blonde hair that's layer-cut and hangs down to her waist:

From the right side, I can see some visible scalp, even at a distance:

Here's a closer look:

That's not great.

I think the gap is caused by the fact that there are three dense rows of hair at the front of Anne's head, and the hair in these rows tends to fall forward, exposing the scalp behind:

The rooting at the back of the head is much less dense.  In fact, it's pretty sparse:

I expect much better rooting from a Tonner doll, and also from any doll that costs $175.

The hair fiber feels nice, if a bit greasy, but Anne's hair doesn't fall naturally around her face at all.  It sticks out way too much on the sides, and casts a huge shadow over the right side other face:

Those roots are gravity-defying.

I know she's a small doll, but I have Barbies with hair that hangs more realistically than this.

Now I understand why the second Anne is wigged.

Since the hair plugs around Anne's face are nice and dense, she looks good when her hair is pulled back into a ponytail:

The layering in the hair makes the ponytail uneven, but it still looks fine:

Let's take a closer look at Anne's face:

She reminds me of Kirsten Dunst--a lot.

She has a hand-painted face with a recognizable Tonner style:

Her blue upturned eyes are framed by thick, simplified upper lashes and lower lashes with lots of little hair lines.  The contrast between the two lash styles is a bit jarring to me.  However, I love the subtle freckles and the hair detail in Anne's eyebrows.  I also like that her left eyebrow looks a bit higher than the right--like she's raising one eyebrow (something I can't do).

She has some subtle shading above her eyes, but nothing as noticeable as what we saw with Ellowyne Languid:

She has large ears with nice molded detail:

Anne's outfit is a sundress with an oversized purple floral print:

The dress closes in back with metal snaps:

After recently admiring some of Ellowyne Wilde's beautiful fashions, this dress feels underwhelming.  The print is way too large for Anne's scale, and, rather than being placed strategically, the huge flowers are in random places.  The pattern doesn't even line up in the back.

The VDC shop also has outfits and sewing patterns for Anne dolls, so there are a lot of re-dressing options.  I think this $15 Garden Party dress is especially pretty:

I wish my Anne had come wearing that.

Anne's sundress is very well made, though, with robust stitching and a lined bodice:

The delicate ruffle at the bottom is nicely done, too:

Underneath her dress, Anne is wearing white underpants, and has a highly-articulated (and very familiar) body:

This is the same body as a Tonner Patience doll--which is the same body as Tonner's 12-inch Harry Potter dolls, and some of his Agnes Dreary girls, too.  I did an extensive review of the Patience body back in 2013, but 2013 was a long time ago, so I'll go through everything again today.

It's interesting: I feel like I'm more impressed with this body now than I was back in 2013.  Perhaps it's because I just reviewed some less flexible Tonner dolls?  Or maybe because my standards for articulation were higher back then.

Anne has a total of eighteen joints, including rotational joints in the legs, which is something I felt was missing from the Ellowyne dolls.

I'm not sure when this doll was first released, but she has a molded 2017 copyright on her lower back:

I believe that the first release of this body was for the 12" Harry Potter dolls, which was in 2010.  So perhaps there were some small changes made over the years that warranted a new copyright.

I'll run through all eighteen joints as efficiently as I can.

As I mentioned earlier, Anne's head can tip up, and maybe a little bit downwards, but the downwards position has her facing pretty much straight ahead:

Her head can also spin around:

And when she's looking towards the back, like an owl, her head tips upwards:

I feel like I should come up with a name for doll heads like this that look more and more upwards as they spin.  Like a stargazer or a spin-up.

Her head can also move from side to side:

The neck mobility is good for the most part, but with those upwards-glancing eyes, I really wish she had more downward movement in her head.

Her shoulders are rotating hinges that allow her arms to lift up and away from her body to about 80 degrees:

Her arms can also spin around:

Anne's elbows are gloriously double-jointed.  If she flexes only the proximal part of the joint, her arm can bend to 90 degrees:

If she flexes both joints, her arm can bend much further--I'd say that's about a 30 degree angle:

Her wrists are rotating hinges, too, with good range of motion:

All of this excellent arm mobility allows Anne to cross her arms over her chest:

Touch her face and rest a hand on her hip:

She can even scratch the top of her head!

Anne has a joint in her upper torso that allows her to tip her chest forwards and backwards:

And also from side to side:

Her hips are ball joints, but the shape of her torso limits their movement.  She can only move her legs to the side a little bit:

She can do slightly better side-to-side splits when she's on the ground:

And she can also sit on the ground with her legs together:

Her front-to-back splits are excellent:

Just under her hip joints, there's an extra point of rotational movement that I was really happy to see:

The rotation in her legs makes Anne a lot more flexible than Ellowyne and Neema.

She also has extremely flexible knees:

These hinged knees are interesting.  They're not technically double-jointed, but they move almost as well as double joints.

From the back of the leg, you can see what is essentially the knee cap, covering the top of the hinge:

When the legs are bent, the knee caps come forward to cover the front of the joint:

The knees bend a bit past 90 degrees, so Anne can kneel on one knee:

And on two:

She can also sit in a chair extremely well:

And in many different positions--including cross-legged:

Anne's ankles are simple hinge joints with a decent range of motion:

I like all of the detail in her feet, including very clearly delineated toes and perfect little nails:

Overall, Anne has excellent flexibility:

In both standing and sitting positions:

I think she's especially good at sitting:

And even running--with the help of her stand:

At 12 inches in height, Anne is taller and in a different scale than Barbie dolls like Petra:

Signature Looks Barbie (left) and Anne Fitzpatrick by Robert Tonner (right).

She makes a good little sister for 16-inch fashion dolls like Tonner's Cami: 

Cami (left) and Anne Fitzpatrick (right) by Robert Tonner.

Anne is almost exactly the same size and scale as Tonner's Marley-sized dolls.  I don't have any examples of the Marley character left in my collection, but I do have Alice, who shares a body with Marley:

Alice (left) and Anne (right) by Robert Tonner.

Anne and Alice have slightly different torso shapes, and of course Anne has twice as many joints as Alice.

Alice's body has a 2004 copyright on the back, which makes sense, because I think the very first dolls with the Marley body came out in 2005.

Anne's hands and feet have a lot more molded detail than Alice's.  This is especially noticeable on the bottoms of the feet:

Anne (left) and Alice (right) by Robert Tonner.

Anne's fingers look long and sausage-like next to Alice's, but I appreciate that some of her fingers are separate:

Alice (left) and Anne (right) by Robert Tonner.

Despite their few differences, Anne and Alice can share clothing nicely.  Here's Anne in Alice's dropped-waist Victorian dress:

And here's Alice in Anne's floral dress:

Alice is a really beautiful doll, and I actually love how she looks in this dress!  The colors suit her:

I don't have any shoes for Alice, those got lost, but my guess is that her shoes would be too small for Anne.

  

Because Alice's feet are the smaller of the two, she can easily slip into Anne's sneakers:

That's a solid Victorian look.

I put Anne back into her original outfit for a few more pictures:

I don't love how Anne is always looking upwards, however, this gives her a dreamy appearance that I'll confess I've grown to appreciate:

I tried to deal with the other thing that bothers me about Anne (her rooted hair) by adding a clip to try and keep some of the hair from hanging over her face.  It helped a little, but the hair on her left side is still sticking out too much:

My favorite thing about Anne is how well she poses, especially how well she sits:

Can you look at me please, though, Anne?

I can try.

At the end of August, my husband went to Friday Harbor, Washington, for his job, and I was fortunate enough to join him for a few days.

Anne had just arrived at that point, and I decided to bring her along on the trip so that I could get to know her better.

At first, Anne didn't want to venture much past the front door of our rental house.  But there was plenty to get her attention, including this bed of lovely purple flowers:

These flowers are certainly more in scale with Anne than the huge ones on her dress!

They don't really match her dress, though.

After a little while, Anne got curious and wanted to explore further away.  

The place we were staying was tucked into a densely-wooded area right near the water.  Anne was apprehensive about the water, so she started her explorations by walking down a wooded path:

She looked around for a safe place where she could sit and take in the scenery:

And spotted a nearby stone wall that looked perfect:

After sitting for a while, Anne noticed an intriguing staircase made out of huge tree trunks:

She ventured over and examined the weathered, stone-colored wood:

She decided to climb up on one of the bigger slabs:

Which turned out to be an excellent spot to sit and relax:

The next day, after getting used to the idea of having a huge body of water nearby, Anne summoned the courage to explore closer to the ocean:

Are you sure this is safe?

She was amazed by the beauty of all that water!

I feel so small.

Near the water, Anne found what I think was her favorite discovery of the entire trip: an unusual and distinctive Pacific madrone tree, with its bright orange, green, and yellow bark:

After relaxing near the tree for a while...

Anne asked me to boost her up into one of the higher branches, where she thought there might be a good view of the water:

Oh, wow.  This is so cool!

There was definitely a good view!

I feel like I could fly!

Anne got a little too excited and fell off the tree...

Ahhh!

But fortunately, I caught her and helped her get back up to her perch:

Whew.

After that, there was no stopping Anne from seeking out more views of the ocean.

On the back deck of our house, she found a spectacular view that she wanted to share with all of you:

Wait until you see this!

What a special place.

It was so beautiful on Friday Harbor, my husband and I spent several hours wondering if we could afford to live there.  Apparently we can't.  But we'll certainly be back to visit again someday!

After Anne and I got home, I searched around for another outfit for her--hoping to find something with smaller flowers.

I found this adorable yellow dress on Etsy from Jodie Creations

It reminds me a bit of the VDC Garden Party dress that I was admiring.

It's beautifully-made, with a cute little sun hat that helps keep Anne's hair closer to her head:

I like how the brim of the hat can be worn folded up, or down:

Underneath the hat, Anne's hair is as wild as ever:

That hair belongs in an 80s rock band.

But the blonde color goes well with the dress:

I wish that I'd had this cute dress with me in Friday Harbor, but the best I could do was take Anne outside my regular house for a few more quick photos: 

The vines around our fence are turning yellow, which looks great with the little flowers in Anne's dress:

But I especially like the pictures of Anne with one of our trees in its full fall color.  How often can you wear a sundress in October on an 80 degree day after the leaves have started to turn?

Anne thought that her hat was looking a little silly in these photos:

So she took it off and enjoyed the fall sunshine on her face:

Bottom line?  I have two primary problems with this doll.  First of all, I don't like how her hair is rooted.  The plugs are spaced too far apart in back, which makes the scalp visible in certain areas.  It also restricts the styling options that are available.  In addition, the pattern of rooting on the right side of Anne's part causes that hair to cover her head like a visor.  In fact, all of the hair in the front sticks out too far away from Anne's head.  Overall, this hair has the appearance of massive volume, while only actually being thick near the hairline.

My other issue with Anne is that it's hard to get her to look straight head.  Her eyes are painted in an upward-glancing direction, and she can't tip her head downward to compensate.  She can tilt her head upwards quite a lot, though, which makes it even more likely that her eyes will be facing skyward.  I will say, however, that in some poses, I really like the way Anne's upward-glancing gaze makes her look lost in thought or dreamy.

Other than those two problems, Anne is yet another delightful Tonner doll.  She has a beautiful hand-painted face (with freckles!), nice hair fiber, and a high-quality, well-articulated body.  She sports an impressive eighteen joints, which is more than most of the Tonner dolls in my collection.  The highlights of her articulation are awesome double-jointed elbows, highly flexible knees, and a rotational joint below each hip.  These things make Anne markedly more poseable than dolls like Cami and Ellowyne.  I'm not crazy about the dress Anne comes with.  It's very well-made, but feels too basic.  It also lacks the kind of thought and design that I'm accustomed to with Tonner dolls.  But the range of patterns and clothing available at places like VDC and Etsy offer many alternatives.  Furthermore, Anne is able to share clothing with other 12-inch Tonner dolls like Marley, Alice, Patience, and Agnes Dreary.

All in all, I'm happy to have Anne in my collection, and I'll probably keep her around.  Her sunny face lights up the shelf and makes me smile.  But I wish that, for close to $200, I was left with the same kind of awed feeling that other Tonner dolls have given me over the years.