doll north 2017? May 26-28

Im a few pages late, but I wanted to throw my 2 cents in...

Yup, it makes me uncomfortable. Of course I appreciate the volunteers, but letting volunteers win prizes looks bad, and it's quite uncommon business practice because of this. Not even radio stations or CocaCola lets any employee (or even their family) win contests. I was really surprised when I saw this happening at DN.

Weird, I gave feedback last year and the year before? (Positive and negative) Maybe not many people are comfortable giving feedback if they don't feel it will be listened to, but I too noticed a number of other collectors who didn't seem pleased with staff and absent ppl winning prizes. If you're going to argue with the feedback why not hand out cards people can drop in a box after it's over?

 

Hi @MasahtiJade thanks for your feedback, I hope you happened to catch my response below regarding how our staff are eligible to participate, and when it comes to prize winning Doll North staff are only eligible for charity raffle so long as there is no risk of collusion. The staff who cannot participate in charity raffle are: Coordinators, Prize Treasurer, and staff who operate the charity raffle table. In the end we are trying to raise money for a good cause (Sick Kids) and feel these rules encourage more money raised for charity, and prevent any possible fixing of the raffle draw. I do apologize for it making you feel uncomfortable, I hope you will appreciate the careful thought and concern we have put into how our volunteers are eligible to participate when at the rest of the convention they would be eligible to participate in all events for prizes (including games and competitions.)

We are happy to receive (and provide a response if requested) all feedback attendees would like to provide, please ensure the feedback is sent to: [email protected] or PM us on one of our social media accounts @DollNorth

 

@Meyneth Ugh, yes, I just went to Walmart since it's Sunday and after I finished work everywhere else was closed and tomorrow is a holiday so that leaves me stranded on my free creation day. They were empty because they were redoing their crafts/sewing/projects section. I had to make due with what little they had. Which was trim and twine It's going to be one VERY inventive day tomorrow trying to get all the smaller details done with, well, no supplies Why did I leave it to the last minute? Why did I think I was finished when I was clearly not satisfied with the past end result?

I also ALMOST forgot I'm in the doll photography contest, too, haha. I had to quickly go out and buy a jump drive at the Source in the mall where I work to specifically put ONE photo onto it so I can go get it printed at Staples on Tuesday. The things we do, eh?

 

I am so excited that I finally have the chance to go to Doll north this year. It's going to be my first convention. There are so many activities in the program that I don't know when I will have the time to go shopping. The prizes for the charity raffle seems so amazing. Do someone knows what is going to be the cost of the tickets for the charity raffle?

 

Charity Raffle tickets will be:
1 ticket - $2

5 tickets - $6

10 tickets - $10

25 tickets - $20

50 tickets - $40 with a complimentary DN pin

There will be 13 - 15 charity raffle boxes total, each one is designated to one of the available prizes so you will also have the discretion to choose which doll to enter for. It's always interesting to see the strategies everyone has to enter raffle, I know of past winners who bought hundreds of dollars of tickets for one box wanting to win a particular doll, and they did. I also know of entrants who bought only one ticket and won so it really can happen to anyone.

We are preparing an album to be posted tomorrow which will feature all of the possible prizes in the DN Charity Raffle, not all sponsored prizes that have been announced so far will end up in Charity Raffle some will be assigned as prizes to the Competitions, or any DN Game event such as Project Runway, BJD Bingo, Name That Sculpt & Scarily Ever After. Be sure to make it to as many games as you can for a chance to win

We're feeling the excitement here too, I'm adding the final touches to a backdrop display that will be premiering this year to go along with our fairytale theme, along with a fairytale set put together by DN Staff member Marianne. Be sure to check out our new sets they will be located in the alcove under the stairway in the lower level foyer.

I've got my own dolls to get dressed for the event too, and if I'm lucky my boys will be back from their faceup trip to Finland (Migidoll Owen & Migidoll Ryu) so maybe I can bring them along too. I have to bring my Lillycat Jolie to meet Lillycat herself, and my Withdoll Margery who I sat down and finally gave a faceup last week after much encouraging prodding from @SporeXP

 

Oman, any display put together by Marianne is a good one for sure! Super pumped to see it!

 

Aaah I'm so excited! Only a few more days of work and then... Dollies everywhere. Got my doll's faceup done now I just have to finish his hands and he'll be all gussied up for the con.

 

Ohhh, that reminds me, I should watch some faceup tutorials before the speed challenge! Anyone have any good youtube vids to share?

 

@xkelpiex videos aren't a bad thing. That's what Marissa was doing. I watched minimal videos on learning and rather read and looked up pictures of what people did because I learn better that way. Maybe even have willow besides you as you practice? try to mimic the basics of her faceup just to get a feel? At first it's all just learning about control of the brushes and how to get the results you want~

 

Prizes for our 2017 Charity Raffle are now announced check out the full album here: Doll North

 

Ugggh there are some SUPER sweet prizes in there. I will certainly be buying a lot of raffle tickets.
I'm excited to see the set Marianne put together. I have been watching her post about it for weeks now!

Also I am excited I may actually have my doll ready for the masq. I just made her wig cap a few minutes ago so it is all coming together. Hopefully I can get her face to where I want it before the weekend! **fingers crossed**

 

Ok, uncomfortable may have been a slightly strong word. I do understand it's for charity, so for me this actually does trump concerns about staff. But keep in mind most con-goers aren't going to know who volunteers for certain events, just that they're staff, and that they're winning. :P Still, I do appreciate the work of all current AND former staff to keep this con running.

 

ITS TOMORROW GUYS❤

 

I'm really excited. Tonight I'll be spending some time packing up two of my dolls that will be coming along with me but other than that for once I feel like I am actually ready for con outside of that. Kinda hoping the weather rains itself out today so we can have a lovely weekend~

I'll be bringing along my MDD Ingrid and one of my teenie gems; a skoll named Tundra. While I likely wont make it to Doll North until Saturday due to other AN obligations on Friday night I am super excited to see everyone!

 

Heard it was supposed to rain Friday and storm on Sunday. D: Doll North is mostly indoors I suppose, I feel bad for anyone with big or expensive cosplays going outdoors in it though. Hopefully it turns out better than it says it will.

 

I had a blast doing my Pattern Drafting panel on Sunday and was happy people seemed to enjoy it. Man ninety minutes goes super quickly though! I had so much I wanted to cover but didn't get a chance to. I am hoping I get the chance to do more doll panelling in the future!

I was also happy to be able to enter the Raffle (even if I didn't win anything), however I am mad at myself for forgetting to pick up some MSC! **sigh** Next time!

 

I won a maskcatdoll head at doll north and I'm pretty sure the coa was wrong? It says the head is pink skin but it looks very yellow to me, I've been looking at pictures online and it seems to be the normal skin. Anyone have suggestions on what to do about this? Or does it matter if the coa has the wrong skin color?

Also I had a super great time at the con, bought some great doll clothes and had fun at the face up workshop!

 

I had such an amazing time this weekend, it flew by! Everything in the market was fab, and I'm super excited about the MSC i was able to pick up. I can't wait to see everyone's pictures, I feel like i didn't take nearly enough; i was so distracted by all the fun

 

I noticed that on the coas maskcat sent (she packed them separately) I matched the pink skin to the more pink of the two normal skins but they were both on the yellow side to me. It's possible they were mislabeled by maskcat. If you could send us a picture of the head to [email protected] or on our Facebook page we can contact maskcat and verify with her.

On my way back to London, missing the con fam

 

Thanks to all the hardwork from the Con staff. Great Con as always and I'm already excited for next year~ I took about 3 pictures for the doll convention so have nothing to share. xD


@thanatoaster my sister won a maskcat head last year and we said the same thing-- it said pink skin buuuuut it didn't look like it was pink. I think it's just a labeling error on the company end. I wasn't sure they even had separate skin tones and that it's really their 'normal skin' from what we researched last year. But it may have changed by then too.

 

This con was fantastic! Glad we were able to make it out this year and hopefully we'll be back again in the years following. *A*

 

Recommendation for next year: make it more clear in the con booklet when the raffle ends. I was busy all Saturday and had a cosplay photoshoot on Sunday and by the time I got done with everything and made my way to the doll market they just started to announce the raffle winners. I thought i had another half hour at least judging from the con booklet. I was very bummed out :c

Also I think I've mentioned this before in earlier years but dioramas and photoshoot areas for smaller scale dolls would be nice

 

Can you recommend where we need to add this information to the booklet?

Ticket sales hours were advertised here: Doll North

The con booklet also indicated the 3pm Sunday drawing time on page 16 (Crowne Plaza map) and on page 75 (Sunday schedule) . We were told to keep our schedule descriptions under 5 words so there was not a lot of space for added detail on the schedule.

We'd love to see more set variety too, it's up to which volunteers or con goers have the time and effort to contribute. This was my first year putting a set together (Beauty and the Beast) and I tried to make something that allows for more size play such as putting small dolls in the bell jar or holding the mini bell jars. Con goers are more then welcome to contribute sets, ideas or props too just send us an email We may be able to offer some compensation depending on the scale of the project, we're always open for congoer support.

Thanks again to all that made it out this year! We hope you enjoyed yourselves.

 

Sorry for the double post, I started an album here if anyone would like to share photos:

/threads/doll-north-2017-photos.746984/

 

Another year, another busy schedule. I missed everything I wanted to do including meeting new people. ;00000; I wish there were more hours in the day sometimes! I really hope everyone had a good time. This year seemed to be extra busy and I was super excited to see new people travelling to Doll North, especially those from far away or out of the country completely. Thank you all for coming back every year and participating in our events. It's really rewarding to see everyone having a good time.

Also, when it comes to Charity Raffle, our scheduled time is always 3PM on Sunday for Charity Raffle and 2:30PM on Sunday for Competition Announcements. The only time it changes is when we are running a little late. We definitely had some technical difficulties this year, hahaha.