2014-07-09

Post #100, photo #1000

Oh hey, 100 posts! What on Earth have I been blabbering about for that long??

I considered trying to do something special, but I couldn't think of anything and I didn't want to turn it into a big deal either (chances are I'd end up procrastinating myself into another hiatus). Then I realized I was nearing 1000 pictures on Flickr too.

So, to celebrate my 100th post here's my 1000th photo - it's Ashlynn Ella's evil stepsisters stealing all her stuff. 

Miri got her pink hairband even though it clashes with the other pinks she's wearing. Briana/Bel is stuffing the clock bag full of sun lotion and light reading for a day at the beach, and LeliaBitsu insists on wearing Ashlynn's dress even though it's way too small for her (that's why she's wearing her underwear on her head again - the dress wouldn't fit over them).

Ashlynn: I'd be upset, except this fits perfectly with my story! 

2014-07-08

EAH Hunter mini-review

As I may have mentioned my long awaited Ella & Hunter pack arrived last week. I never posted about it then because I was too buzy pouring boiling water on Ken, but today seems like as good a time as any.


Of all the EAH dolls so far, Ashlynn Ella is actually the one I have the absolute least interest in. I do like her color scheme with lots of pink and teal to go with her dark blond hair, but overall she just looks too much like a generic Barbie for me and that's not what I come to EAH for. 
Buying a doll I'm not enthusiastic about felt slightly wrong, but it was the easiest way to get Hunter, whom I DO want. I'll probably hang on to her to use as a body donor (if I find a head that fits the knob-type connector), but for now I haven't even bothered photographing her - just stripped her of her outfit and put her in the Donors' Drawer. I might let her out if I need the kitchen floors swept, though.


The only photo I took was to document this stain on her not-yet-unboxed leg.


You'd think at least the extra shoes would come in handy, but I'm just not a fan of the model - plus they have the dreaded Plastic Odor Of Death. Even more disappointingly, Hunter's boots also have it, and so does his "leather" bracelet. I don't know if I'm extra sensitive or if I just got a bad one, but I actually had to put them away because the smell was giving me a headache. Hunter has pretty nice boots too, so that was a bit of a let-down. :/


Luckily, the rest of him is pretty awesome. 


Not this bit, though - it's the flocking glue stains on his face that seem to be a fairly common occurrence with this doll. There's one under his chin too: 


I got most (but not all) of it off with hot water and washing-up liquid, but since he's getting a repaint sooner or later I can attack the stains with some acetone then. 


The big bag-off! Barbie Style Teresa vs. Hunter

Here's some of the awesomeness: his bag! It's the one on the right - it's supposed to look like a patchwork of skin, but it's made of hard plastic and and the lid makes a rather un-skinlike clacking noise. Soft plastic would have been the obvious choice, but hey - it's a functional bag, so I'm not complaining. 


Jacket pattern: awesome, but off-center.  

This folkloristic pattern on the back of the jacket was a nice surprise! It looks like an old carved wooden door post or something like that, and I think it's a great detail. I'm not sure if it's supposed to be perfectly centered, but you have to agree it would look better. Oh well. I haven't washed the jacket yet, since the hood and front is fake leather and I'm not sure how it will react to water.


The top: it's NOT this color... 

The forest print top is awesome, and was one of the things that made me want this doll. However, none of the photos had prepared me for how bright green it is! 

...but THIS color.

A more toned down shade would actually work better, I think. I'll try washing it together with something black and see if it catches some dye. Tea would probably be too faint to make a difference.



The plastic strip that secured his waist to the box has some pretty alarming staining. From what I can tell it must have been the "tree top", so I should probably wash it anyway to be on the safe side (there's no staining on his torso, though).




His pants are a interesting, moldy-looking mix of grey and beige (more grey than the photo, actually). They really look like they've been buried in an old root cellar for years. (Is it weird that I see that as a good thing? It works with his character design!)



Since they have a similar color scheme and fairy tale theme, I tried putting him in Prince Derek's outfit (from 12 Dancing Princesses):


He's practically drowning in that jacket: even with the stiff fabric of the bodice pushing the collar up to his ears, the sleeves still cover his hands! The pants are too big as well - he might be able to wear them on their own, but why would he want to? 


As Derek has the older Ken feet, his boots are slightly too small for Hunter: his heels peek out in the back!


His feet are a bit wider than modern Ken feet too, so not all shoes will fit him, but these Fashionista boots fit perfectly:

Top: Justin Bieber backstage (with print that didn't like being washed) 
Shorts and boots: Fashionista Ryan 


I'm glad I finally decided to get this set, since I like Hunter's ...well, hunter motif. The earth colors, the "leather" details, the "cool" and unusual hairdo - his design spoke to me more than any of the male EAH dolls I've seen announced so far (even Dexter Charming with his glasses!), and in the end I decided if I'm ever getting one of the EAH guys it should be this one. 


Now I just need to figure out how to wash that gunk out of his hair without the flocking coming loose.



2014-07-07

Frankendolly! Articulated pregnant Steffi Love


So today I finally finished my first proper frankendolly! I've had this mod in mind for a year at least but I wasn't sure exactly how to go about it. Well, at some point you just have to break out those hobby knives and give it a try.

The goal was to give some articulation to one of those pregnant Steffi Love dolls.  This one came from the thrift store and lacks the actual baby bump, so I guess that makes her just plus size (and a good candidate for hybridization). I like my dolls to have at least decent articulation, and it annoyed me that this one had only the basic 5 joints + click knees. The new articulated Steffi Love body had come out, and since they're both the same bright peach-pink shade, I started to wonder whether I could kitbash them together. 

There's a whole bunch of process pics so I'm putting a cut here. Click through for thousands of little plastic fragments that will get in your hair for weeks!


Those of you who aren't interested in slow-loading pics with creepy doll parts can feast your eyes on the final result here instead. (Please ignore the terrible repaint and lack of hair, it's my practice head.)



Peter Pan 2 Jane's dress always reminded me of maternity clothes, and her shoes are very sensible. 

She can sit!




2014-07-02

Random updates: Ken reroot, shoes for Lottie, and another sweater

Just some doll stuff that's been going on this week: 

I finally finished Ken's reroot! Well, I finished rooting about 6 months ago, but I procrastinated on the cutting and styling. Luckily I found a couple of good tutorials and it didn't turn out quite as bad as I feared. 

I took a billion photos and dumped on my Flickr, but here's the before&after: 


I don't know what I did with this picture, it just looks uncannily real somehow:

Spooky! 

I used nylon in color Nickel (at least that's what MyLittleCustoms call it) and a reroot tool since I couldn't get his head off. The thing is, I always thought it's nylon that fries easily in boiling water, but I may have gotten it wrong. This took a couple of boil perms (wrapped head in a strip of fabric, poured boiling water over it, then cold, then set to dry) to make the hair lay flat; it wouldn't have worked otherwise. 

Since the boil perm worked without seeming to damage anything, I tried it with Young Sweethearts Michael's hair too. I haven't mentioned him but I got him used and his 70s hair looked, well, like this: 

"My hair is a bird - your hot tap water treatment is ineffective!"

Using the same technique as with Ken, he now looks like this: 

Much better! 


The little 21cm Volks guy needed some more clothes in his size, so I made him a sweater. I learned a lot from the one I made for Darren and from stuff I've sewn since, and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Some day I'm going to see if I can replicate it in a more interesting color (somethig which would've been easier if I'd saved a proper pattern...). 

Of course, when I say it's done there's still a random seam or two left. 


Oh, and my package from Amazon arrived today. Hunter and Ashlynn will have to wait, but Barbie Style Teresa (is that the name? It's what amazon calls them) has already been deboxed, undressed and had her body donated. Somehow I've run out of floating heads in that particular skin tone, so I used it for upgrading Diva instead. 

The weird thing is Teresa's necklace looks exactly like the one Dreamhouse Midge is wearing in the box art. Midge the doll wears a pretty ugly simplified version without the painted blue dots, so I don't know why they put the "real" version on Teresa?? 

LITD Midge left, Teresa right. 


Also, Lottie has two new shoes that came with robot accessory pack! The interesting thing is, it's not an outfit pack, just a robot buddy for Robot Girl Lottie - but it still comes with twice as many shoes as the outfits do! And since shoes are the hard currency of the doll collecting world, it was an easy choice. 

Pink and green! The stickers are for customising the robot.