The Doll Blog Strikes Back (with naked pics of unarticulated Kevin)

I think I've discovered one of the fundamental rules of blogging:

As soon as you make a post where you applogize for your absence lately and promise to start posting more regularly, your blog will immediately go on hiatus for at least a month. I can't believe I fell for it! (Also, your next post will then be an apology for the unannounced hiatus and has approx. a 50% chance of being the last post on that blog ever. I'm on thin ice here.)  

I haven't been in much of a doll mood lately. My interest in this hobby tends to come in waves, and I think might just as well accept that instead of feeling bad for being an inconsistent blogger. Anyway, last week I read this article by an(other) adult collector of Monster High, and suddenly dolls sounded like fun again. I still haven't mastered the Blogger app, so this link probably won't be clickable ETA: now clickable! http://m.xojane.com/issues/im-37-years-old-and-i-collect-monster-high-dolls

So, what's new on the doll front? Well, I was hoping Ever After High would appear here before christmas, but so far I haven't seen a trace of them at any of the big chains. What I have seen is DVD:s of the webisodes though, so the dolls shouldn't be far behind. Seems like a missed opportunity to leave them out of the christmas catalogs, though. 

I'm not entirely doll-less, though! I finally got my hands on an older Fashionista Ken. He doesn't have a name yet, but according to Mattel he's Prince Derek from 12 Dancing Princesses. He came in good condition with boots and all his clothes (except for the crown), and his hair still glued down with conditioner. A bit overpriced but still a good thrift store find. It turns out his shoulders are a lot wider than my unarticulated Ken's. I'll have to make some pattern adjustments. Oddly enough, even though their feet and legs are virtually the same size, Derek wears larger shoes and boots much better.  

Let's see if I can get these pictures to work: 

ETA: putting a cut here in case the pics turned out huge

Here's a fun detail I discovered when I was posing him: golden elastic I guess he's a royal to the core (or maybe it's seasonal?).

He could use some wrist joints, but apart from that he looks fairly natural trying to sit on the tiny IKEA Huset chair.

(The sunflowers were another amazing thrift store find. Playmobil, I think. They're even detatchable!) 

I also found an unarticulated Kevin (Steffi Love's boyfriend). This is not Cool Kevin but the budget version (uncool Kevin?) so the body is just hollow blown plastic,  almost transparent in places. The clothes are baggy and ill-fitting as usual (although that may be on purpose since they're for little kids) but I don't mind - as usual, it's his head I'm after.

Seems like a fun guy! I'll see if I can get him on a "Cool" body, I saw someone on Flickr who did that. They're the same bright peach shade:

(Since that pic was taken I've managed to get rid of the white miscoloring after the Remove-Zit with some fine-grain sandpaper. Not perfect but much better. Next time I'll try to follow the instructions.)

Alright, now let's see if I can post this thing.