"Apres Ski Asset" Poppy Parker by Integrity Toys
- Wendy Dandridge
- Jan 2
- 5 min read
Updated: Jan 7
January 2, 2025
Happy new year reader! I hope you were satisfied with all your holiday celebrations and festivities and now you're over the hangover but still full up with holiday cheer and fortified for a wonderful 2025!
Well, Après Ski Asset Poppy Parker has arrived and since she took the same plane at the same time as my Surrealist Gala girls, she had to stay in the box for a couple of weeks and frankly she's a bit stunned at this kind of treatment. Poppy is usually the top of the Marquee and as such she's used to being opened as soon as she arrives and not getting bogged down in security like that. Sorry Poppy but even you must get caught up in the spokes of the system from time to time, it's bigger than both of us. Also, I got your rider, but we just didn't have time to sort a bowl of green only M&M's for your dressing room. Sorry.
Apparently, the story of the convention here is that this isn't even Poppy, it's Dasha the evil half cyborg villain in disguise as Poppy who's - stealing art? Or - looking for key information? I'm not quite sure why she's spying I just know that she's spying in the 60's in this adorable snow bunny costume and since it's the 60's the most advanced portable technology she can be looking for is... I don't know a microfiche. Yeah, that sounds right to me - Poppy/Dasha here is skiing all over the Swiss alps looking for the secret microfiche that contains the information she needs to... accomplish her ultimate evil goal in the future. Once she time-travels back to the future and transforms back into Dasha the half cyborg... Ok... Look, so they didn't write the greatest story, they're not authors they're fashion doll designers trying to string together a bunch of unrelated dolls with some kind of narrative here give them a break!
As you can see, this Poppy just won't take a bad picture. She's incredibly photogenic and looks better in each picture than she did in the last. It's strange, because in real life I decided in two days that her eyeshadow was too much and her lipstick not enough for me. The raven hair is always a slay, or a boring choice if you look at it another way. But in pictures, her makeup is perfect, and you can even sort of pick out the pink in her lips and nails; in real life I have to strain a bit to see it. But she photographs like a true supermodel, pre-airbrushed. Redressers are going to adore her, and she's going to take some beautiful pics on the internet I would imagine, provided she's dressed in blues and greens, maybe gray and of course black. Her eyeshadow is beautiful in photos, but it's also limiting.
Unlike a lot of collectors, I love a good beauty mark on a doll, and this Poppy has a well-placed one, which you don't need to tell her because she knows it already. She comes with a short blue fur vest to put over her tiny tweed ski suit. The whole ensemble is adorable, and Poppy looks so cute all decked out on her stand holding her skis with gloves on and all accessories added. She's a sweet little treat for all the club members who didn't get to go to the convention, because she's technically a convention doll but was offered to the whole club as a made-to-order.
Her little tweed snowsuit is not, as many have said "sexy" in my opinion. Many keep trying to say this Poppy is sexy and I agree she's wearing short shorts but that's as far as I'll concede that point. Her tweed jumper lends itself only to boxiness. I remember this fabric from other dolls it's been used on before, and it's always pretty for colors as it is here for the blues, but it's always boxy. It obscures Poppy's figure rather than accentuating it.
But I would argue that what the hell is wrong with that? She's still a knockout and she's skiing for God's sake! And may I add - spying! In the 60's! It's got to be hard. Plus, she's a girl and she's just a teenager. That's an emotional struggle we can all relate to. I mean sure inside she's adult half cyborg Dasha from the future, but nobody knows that from looking at her! God the pressures on modern women today and then we have to worry about being sexy too? Does being sexy pay my bills? Well, if you're a supermodel I guess that's exactly what it does so you might want to think again about this outfit Poppy Parker.
One little detail that shows Poppy does know which side her sexy bread is buttered on is her naughty little fishnet stockings. Now I do live in the northeastern U.S. where skiing is rife, absolutely rife, and she is the first person I've ever known to wear fishnets skiing. Most skiers I know go with a traditional ski or snow pant, but I'm sure these fishnets were perfectly warm and waterproof for Poppy out on the slopes in their way. I mean, they are cute as a bug's ear. Somehow, fishnets kind of go from hooker by the airport to little girl with a porcelain tea set when they go from black to white. Rather predictably I do like them here; they look sweet even if they are in practicality ridiculous.
These are her other shoes, the ones that click into the skis. They are sort of utilitarian I guess, not cute like the blue fur boots. Well maybe they're a little cute, the one on the right maybe but not much. I far prefer the knee-high boots.
Jeez every picture I take she looks more gorgeous! Then I put my phone down and look at her and I'm like "What's the big deal?" There are people like that too reader, you know what I mean? Some people look so beautiful in pictures but in real life they're just a big letdown. NOT a problem I am cursed with, by the way, I'll melt your Lense at 20 paces, and I got it from my mother (sorry mom you're beautiful in real life like me). But I have met these gorgeous picture people and what a life they must lead! Always failing to deliver through no real fault of their own, just a photogenic quality they were born with.
But if you know Poppy Parker you know that this is not a quality that she usually possesses, this is not a part of her genetic dolly makeup. So, it must be something to do with the crazy Dasha/time travel storyline that is throwing her off. Normally Poppy is just as stunning in person as she is on camera, and I trust she will be back to that formula in her next iteration. She's supposed to be shipping in early January - the version some Poppy fans (including me) are highly skeptical about: roller skating, shimmering metallic, pastel Poppy "Star Muse".
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