#doll babble

Well, I'd like to anyway.

I've had the nebulous idea and desire to make one for a couple of years now, but because I wasn't doing much of anything doll related I didn't look too much into it.

I had at first considered going the customized fashion doll route, but that idea got shot down quickly when I remembered how much I don't care for most masculine face sculpts. Also, articulated male bodies in specific skin tones are a pain to hunt down and can be potentially pricey.

Then I remembered custom Nendoroid dolls are a thing. Smaller, cuter, and closer to the original designs! I put a pin on that idea and moved on.

I was very lucky to be reminded of Nendos last night and found out they're coming out with a new skintone! Still hesitant to commit to the idea because money and I'm scared I'll quickly become overwhelmed and shove it in a bin with the other dozens of WIPs.

tldr; Maybe? Someday I would like to make fashion doll sized dolls of Malroth and my personal builder, but I think doing custom Nendoroids would be better for now.

Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut:

Nendoroid Doll archetype 1.1: Girl/Boy (Chocolate)

jfA;DkjfHEe;IuFhrW;ofCVn9 8v3YE98h!!!11!

They're absolutely perfect for what I've been thinking!

I would like some more proportionate character dolls someday, but I had figured years ago that going chibi, Nendoroid specifically, would be the best path for this. Especially since the characters are chibi themselves.

Only problem I see right now with them is the hands. No idea if the customizable nendos come with extra hands. I would like grippy hands please.

Unfortunately I have no real solutions or answers, just typing out some thoughts and feelings.

I received pictures from Spreenow of my 1/2 scale, 105cm tall artist BJD whose progress I’ve been stalking for over a year! 

She’s made by the Chinese artist Dust Witch (塵埃魔女), and has two head sculpts, the dreaming head being Falling Sakura (落樱) and the open eyed one is Autumn Leaves (红叶). I ordered both heads ^^  All the pics except for the first two belong to the artist.

Check out these measurements! 

Height 105cm

Head circumference 42cm (0-3 year old wig)

Eyes 30mm

Neck circumference 20cm

Shoulder 22cm

Arm length 31cm (including hand 40cm)

Bust 46cm (children’s tops size 1Y-3Y? (EN); 80-90cm (CN) - bust slightly loose)

Waist circumference 40cm

Hip circumference 54cm

Leg length 56cm

Foot length 15cm (children’s shoe size 9-11 (US);  8.5-10.5 (UK); 26-28 (CN))

(105cm is equivalent to the height of a 3 to 4-year-old human girl but thinner) 

You can see the size comparison with Dust Witch in the pics - I blurred her face for privacy ^^; Falling Sakura will be about the same height as my Dollmore Trinity, but much more thickly set I think. Her package sitting at Spreenow weighs 11 kilos! And she was about $850 USD with both heads, compared to Dollmore’s $2700 Blue Voler Elysia fullset... :OOO

I managed to use Taobao’s chat window to talk to Dust Witch using Google Translate, and I was glad I did - she was really lovely. She answered my questions and was really nice about my auto-translated compliments of her gorgeous doll in Chinese, and was happy to send the doll to Spreenow to be sent on to me in Australia. I can’t wait to pay shipping on payday. It’s no more than what I expected to ship such a heavy doll via EMS, about $130 USD.

I was so excited to make a custom gender swapped Beetlejuice MH doll. Started working on it, started planning for a Lydia for the following year and then

Mattel released their Beetlejuice and Lydia 2 pack that same time 🙃

It's so dumb, but it completely discouraged me from wanting to keep working her. I'm not sure why since they would not be the same, but I dunno I just stopped.

Guess my depression just needed an excuse to not do anything.

I still have my white board over my desk with all the steps and things I need to do to complete her. I don't even notice it anymore.

I still want her done.

In regards to this post: https://www.tumblr.com/zaksdolls/800503090807717888/nov-29

@kosomolski-dolls, I figured I'd answer here just in case someone else thought it interesting or useful.

I used acetone to wipe off the black gradient off Sirena's tail because I wanted a clean slate to work on. I know now not to use acetone on all plastics, but I was still new to customizing at the time. I figured it'd be fine because what was the worse that could happen? :D

As for the neck, I'm sure some excess from the cotton ball may have dripped or I may have also ran it over just to make sure I got all the paint and grime off.

I had a friend at the time who collected and customized MOTU (He-Man, Masters of the Universe) toys and clones. They mentioned to me after this whole fiasco that metallic and shimmery plastics tended to be more brittle and would crack often. How true is that? I'm not sure. Is it still something that occurs with modern toys and plastics? Can't say.

But it was interesting and if that really was the case then I assume that brittle plastic + acetone = cracked broken plastic toy.

And tears.