Gloss - The 2014 Integrity Toys Convention ANNOUNCEMENT!

It's here!  It's finally here!  The announcement about the convention!  Took them long enough.  The email they sent us is very dense in information, and I don't want to just copy and paste it, because then that's just boring.  You read this blog for my stupid, crazy-ass commentary, right?

Let's get down to the brass tax here.  Or should that be vinyl tax?  This is a direct quote from the email, I guess as a mission statement on what 'Gloss' is:

"The lights go down; the warm breeze hits you. You can feel the beat of the music taking control as it moves you to another place. You are surrounded by photography, glamour, fashion, glitter and beauty. You just need to add a bit of... GLOSS."

Glamour and glitter, fashion and fame.  JEM!  No, no.... no, they specifically said in the email that Jem would not make an appearance at the convention, which is a no-brainer.  She'll be on display in the 'museum' where they show off all the dolls that have been released over the year, but as a Hasbro trademark, she would never make an 'official' appearance at another company's convention.  BUT, Color Infusion will take her place.  It's always very popular.

Back to the info that you only care about if you're going!!!  Gloss will be from October 30 to November 1 at the Hyatt Regency in Orlando.  You get a convention goers' rate of $159 for a King or Double/Double room for single or double occupancy.  It's $169 per night for three in a room, and $179 a night for quadruple occupancy.  That's the 'max', but I'm sure the max has been secretly exceeded before, just like it has at any party type function where a hotel stay is necessary.

Right now, the WClub members are allowed to register themselves and 1 guest only, until the info goes public (like right now?).  After that, if it doesn't sell out, it's free reign.  It's Battle Royale!  It's the Hunger Games!  It's Filene's basement bridal sale!

So... Gloss.  I'm not sure what that means yet.  Like... lip gloss?  The new trend of glossy fashions?  The glossy pages of a magazine?  High shine!  I hope we get a thing of lip gloss in our swag. (I wear gloss when I wear something on my lips - my eyes are my stronger feature, so I don't usually wear lipstick, because then that would detract from my eyes and also be too much makeup).

And yes, I did say "in our swag".  OUR.  The day that the convention email plopped into my inbox was a shitty one right from the start.  I got an email early in the morning that something I'd sold on ebay didn't make it to its location.  So, of course being anti-seller like eBay is, they automatically sided with the buyer, and my money (that I was holding to pay for the first convention installment) went bye-bye.  You just gotta laugh at that point, right?

But, things have worked out, thanks to the generosity of others, and I am now registered, with the first portion of the $475 convention fee cost paid off.  Not cheap.  I will not be attending in person, but will have my friend's husband as a proxy, so he'll be pretending to be me.  I don't envy him that task.  But, you do get lots of stuff for that money.

This year, you get a gift doll right off the bat, of course.  You also get the chance to enter 'improved' raffles.  I didn't know you could improve the raffle system.  Seems pretty air-tight to me.  Or, maybe they just meant how many people can put into each box?  I know there are some who spend HUNDREDS in one box trying to get a certain thing.  Mannnnn, if you lost that one doll after spending that much.  That would suck ASS.  If I ever enter raffles, I'll only put in one or two tickets, and then just be happily surprised if I win, because I'm lottery poison.  Don't stand next to me in a casino.  Seriously.  SERIOUSLY.

There's also going to be a thing called the "Hall of Gloss", which sounds really slippery.  Wear rubber soles!  I guess it's just a themed convention room.  They'll have a Friday night "Hall of Gloss" Trick 'R Treating, and you might get swag, you might not.  They wanted to make it kind of an optional thing for people who maybe wanted to chill with their families, or go get smashed at some club and fuck some regrettable stranger.  Or go to the Universal Studios Haunted House... and fuck some regrettable stranger.  But he's dressed as Dracula, so that makes it more of a 'it's funny in five years' kinda story.

Back to the Hall of Gloss - it will also be host to a Fashion Bazaar, where people can buy and sell their own creations.  So, is this replacing room sales?  It might be a good idea, so people aren't running all over the hotel.  We'll need some more details on this.

We also get two sit down dinners and the Poppy luncheon.  Well, not 'we'.  My proxy will get to eat all the delicious food.  I guess I'll have to buy some nice food when the time comes - and eat it while wearing my Avengers pajama pants.  This means one less centerpiece than last year, but people never walk away from convention with too few dolls, so I'm not too concerned about that.

There's also going to be more OOAK dolls at the 'revamped' raffle.  That's cool.  And the contests will be back.  Last year, Lisa Ramsammay won a doll contest, and her doll is going to be produced sometime this year.  The convention email promises that the same thing will happen again.  I've already considered entering something, but I'm not THAT awesome of a sewer.  I mean I can totally make an outfit from a pattern, but from scratch?  I dunno.

Aaaaannnnnd, then there's the WClub luncheon.  Where the new Nu.Face collection will be unveiled.  My proxy is not a member of the WClub, so he cannot go to this luncheon.  It spares me from having to pay the luncheon fee, but it means that I'm going to have to squirm around and maybe kiss some asses and generally act like the middle segment of the Human Centipede if I want to get the centerpiece.  I may not want it, though.  Nu.Face isn't the bulk of my collection.  I love my MILF-y older ladies, thank you.

Anyone who has registered for the convention will receive a convention e-packet in late June or so.  I imagine by that time, the convention will be sold out, since it only took a couple of weeks to sell out last year.  There are more spaces this year, but there are also a LOT more WClub members.  I know most of those numbers are Jem collectors, but some of them are beginning to cross over, and I'm already reading on the forums about quite a few first-timers going this year.  I'm also a first-timer... sort of.  More like a Ghost First-Timer.  Paranormal Convention Activity.

The packet will have info on workshops, and the Color Infusion Style Lab.  This year, you're able to pre-order the entire Color Infusion line, which I know will save a lot of people a lot of aggravation.  Personally, I am very glad that I don't care about Color Infusion AT ALL, because it always sounds like it's a giant nightmare.  They're using a coupon system this year, so someone can't just go buy up all the guy dolls (they're the most popular, and someone did that last year apparently).  I like how IT does try to improve things, and if it doesn't work, they'll try something different.

So, I'll be keeping you in touch with lots of convention news via proxy, and I won't have to pay stupid secondary market prices for dolls!!!!!!!  Woo!  I just need to stop spending money on dolls NOW, and save my pennies.  Easier said than done....

More in late June when we get our info packets!