(In case you haven’t noticed yet: I now have a page with commission information for things such as faceups, reroots, custom outfits, etc. Check it out if you’re interested!)
Marty is very much a spring-loving type of girl, so as soon as the weather turned even a little bit warm she was ready to go out and enjoy the world. We had a couple of false starts on that, though- here’s the only photo I got of our first attempt before it started pouring:
Our second and third attempts were met with me having a bad bout of social anxiety: nerves about the neighbors possibly seeing me taking doll photos and then me accidentally taking a non-public road at the park we attempted to visit saw to that. Luckily, on my fourth attempt, my wonderful and supportive best friend was kind enough to go with me so I didn’t feel so alone, and we got our adventure!
Marty had invited both Jace and Nevada to go with her and explore the park after classes. Jace was all for it, but Nevada claimed she “wasn’t feeling well” and skipped out on the outing. It turned out not being quite as spring-y as it could have been- only about 45F and dropping as the sun set- but Marty was determined to have a good time with Jace even in the cold weather!
I feel like you can really see the difference in personalities in the two here. They’re great friends despite it all, but Marty’s definitely the more outgoing and peppy of the two while Jace is a bit more reserved and serious. He still has lots of fun with her, though, and was kind enough to help keep her warm when it did start getting a bit chilly for her.
All in all, the two had fun! And if Nevada seemed perfectly healthy when they got back, well, neither one was going to question it.
Playing “catch-up” is fun! In the past few months I’ve had a handful of newcomers come along my way so I thought I’d share a little about them here!
First we have Asamura and Anxelin.
Asamura (Murry for short) is a Pullip Aya and Anxelin (Anxi) is Byul Pollon. Both of them came secondhand from a mass doll lot somebody was selling over at the DollyMarket Forum. They were very much an impulse buy for me- I’d never even looked at either of them until they came up in this lot and suddenly felt like I had to have them. These girls have apparently seen some “use” as they both came with fairly ratty wigs, as you might be able to see above, but I already love them to bits.
Both have received some customization work at this point- for one thing, they got fabric softener soaks that did wonders for removing the tangles and smoothing out their hair. Anxelin received some minor faceup modification: the addition of faint freckles and a little bit of blue eyeshadow near the corners of her eyes. I had seen some owner pics of another Pollon with freckles added and absolutely loved it so I felt the need to follow suit.
Murry’s custom work comes in the form of an arm tattoo. For some reason she strikes me as the type of girl to get a Chinese/Japanese tattoo because it looks pretty but not quite fact check it enough so she ends up with some really random phrase. The one I gave her should say “sesame chicken” assuming I didn’t goof it up even more.
It’s also my intent to buy Asamura a new wig before too long. I’m looking mainly at Monique’s “Destiny” wig in burgundy.
Asamura and Anxelin are “sisters”- Murry is Anxi’s legal guardian but they don’t view each other as mother/daughter because of their ages. They have just moved in next door to Jace in his apartment complex, and the other dolls don’t know a whole lot about their backgrounds yet- expect more to come on this!
My other recent new doll is Taeyang Tuxedo Mask, who I’m allowing to keep his “real” name and calling him Mamoru Chiba. I started watching/reading Sailor Moon a few months ago and Mamoru is by far my favorite character in the series, so I knew he would be my first Taeyang. To be perfectly honest, I’m not a huge fan of Taeyang overall- I find they look a bit old (character age-wise) for my liking and I just find myself much preferring Isul. But he makes an absolute perfect Tuxedo Mask and I had to have him, so after selling my custom Star Butterfly doll Mamoru was my immediate purchase.
As I said, I do think he’s perfect as Mamoru, and I really am in love with this guy! He’s got some problems where his right arm wants to fall off if you turn it wrong, but that’s easily rectified.
One thing I haven’t seen mentioned a whole lot that I thought I’d mention here in case anyone else was curious: the attachment of Taeyang Tuxedo Mask’s mask. I was a bit confused by this until I saw an unboxing video that cleared things up for me. There’s a little wire sewn in at the center of the mask with bent ends facing downward. The wire is flexible enough to be adjusted, and you’re meant to slide the ends of it into the eye sockets to hold the mask in place.
You can kind of see what I mean there. Quite frankly, it’s one of the few doll-hobby-related things that has ever really creeped me out, and I struggle to get it adjusted right, so my Mamoru is probably going to go without his mask most of the time. In fact, one of my first orders of business dolly-crafting-wise in the near future is to make him his “default” civilian clothes from the anime, so it shouldn’t be a problem much longer.
Mamoru is the third Groove doll to spend any time with me that’s based on a fictional character, so the time had come for me to decide how that fit in with my otherwise normal-human-y Groove dolls like Marty and co. I’d decided a while ago that while Marty and the others were from a near-reality earth, that things were not exactly the same as our reality: Marty and Nemo’s hair color is natural, for example, and creatures like the Ai dolls exist. So I just took things a step further in my decision for dolls like Nico and Mamoru. Basically my approach is this: Marty and co. are from an alternate reality earth very similar to our own, but with some aforementioned differences. One difference is that interdimensional travel is possible and is just now starting to be an option to the mass market, still used mainly as a luxury for really expensive vacations and such. Many of the worlds of fiction like novels and TV shows have proven to exist in alternate dimensions, and occasionally characters from these dimensions will visit or move to Marty’s world. Therefore my “fictional” dolls are basically all interdimensional travellers.
Nevada has never read or watched Sailor Moon. Never one to mince words, she’s already pointed out that she and Mamoru have very compatible coloration and would make beautiful babies together, but with Usako and Chibiusa waiting back home he’s very not interested (and Marty, Nemo, and Jace, all Sailor Moon fans, are a bit embarrassed for her for trying).
I’ve already got one more doll on the way with the plans to buy several more, so expect similar posts in the future!
It’s only been 3 months or so since my last post… oops.
“Real life” is at least partially to blame. I’ve been pretty busy lately, having just started my first “adult” full time job. I do have a handful of posts already planned coming up, so hopefully I’ll have those up eventually.
First I thought I’d post about the biggest doll event I’ve ever had the pleasure to attend, since it was just a couple of weekends ago and still fresh(ish) on my mind. (In reality I meant to post this the week immediately after but got sidetracked so there’s that. The first weekend in June, I had the pleasure of travelling to Chicago for this year’s PUDDLE, or (Pu)llip and (D)al (D)oll (L)over’s (E)vent. For those unfamiliar with PUDDLE, it’s an annual gathering for enthusiasts of Groove’s Pullip and associated dolls that takes place every year in Chicago, and includes all kinds of fun such as door prizes, raffles, customization contests, vendors, and more.
I’ve been interested in PUDDLE even since before I was a Pullip collector, because I loved the idea of a doll collectors’ event and found Pullips pretty even before I really got started collecting, so I was very excited when things fell into place for me to attend PUDDLE for the first time this year. I also brought along my best friend/roommate as a tagalong, because even though she does not collect dolls herself she has always been supportive of my hobby and I’m shy without someone else I know around to help me feel a bit more comfortable. We actually had a two day journey, solely because my parents live in central Illinois and wanted to do some shopping in Chicago, so we spent the night at their house Thursday and then rode up together on Friday. (It also got me out of driving in Chicago- score!)
The other dolls rode up in a box, but Marty got to sit on my lap in the car. I spoil her. 🙂
Friday afternoon we checked in and got our name badges for the event, then spent time in the lobby hanging out with other attendees and getting to know them a little before carpooling over to Mitsuwa Marketplace for dinner. I didn’t get any pictures at Mitsuwa, but honestly this was a very special part of the trip for me for a couple of reasons: for one thing, while we were there I realized that Friday was the one year anniversary of when I left the US for Japan for the summer last year, so  it was really nice to have some authentic Japanese food and experience what really felt like a little market lifted straight out of Japan when I was missing it that day, and second, I got to get to know some other PUDDLE people including a couple of folks that I knew from forums online. Plus I got bubble tea, which is always great. 🙂
After dinner, the Friday night “tea party” took place in the lobby of the hotel. People were there selling their dolls/doll related goods, and chatting and making friends. There was also a fun event where you could try your hand at making doll fashions out of paper scraps and other similar things. Marty was the only doll I brought with me Friday night, so she got to be my model:
The collar was folded by my friend, who makes origami replicas of magical girl dresses. Literally every other part of Marty’s outfit is just cleverly draped rectangles.
We didn’t stick around too late Friday evening because we were actually staying at a different hotel, so there may have been more that I missed, but we wanted to be up bright and early the next morning so we could have lots of energy!
The doors for the convention hall opened up Saturday morning after the vendors were all set up and ready to go. There were tables throughout the room for people to sit at and arrange their dolls at, so we picked a table and I unpacked my friends:
Regular readers will have met everybody here with the exception of Star (who you’ll see more about later) and possibly Warner, the Ai Doll.
Here’s where I need to let you know about my mistake of the day. I just recently purchased my first DSLR camera and had brought it with me because I was eager to see what all it can do. Unfortunately I forgot to put my SD card in it Saturday morning, and it has no internal storage, so while I thought I was taking pictures on it all morning, none of them were saved, so up until about the group photo time when I realized my mistake I have no pictures.
The theme this year for PUDDLE was “Space,” so lots of the festivities reflected this theme: Convention-goers and dolls alike were dressed in Star Trek and Doctor Who outfits, many of the custom doll entries were space-related like robots or jedi, and there were even little photo booths set up where you could take your doll’s picture with the TARDIS. There were so many dolls, too! Everybody brought their friends along, which was exciting for me because I don’t often get to see other Groove dolls in person. And there weren’t just groove dolls- I saw everything from BJD’s to Barbies and everything in between. It was really pretty incredible.
The first part of the morning was open for people to explore and get to know each other. The vendors (which ranged from Etsy shops selling doll clothes to doll retailers selling NRFB dolls) were open for business. There was also a fun icebreaker game you could play to get to know one another- one of those “find someone who” type games, but with PUDDLE/doll related questions such as “Someone who owns zero Groove dolls” or “Someone who is attending PUDDLE for the 3rd time.” Completion of the game meant you got a free raffle ticket to enter into the raffle drawings.
One of the other fun perks of PUDDLE was gift bags- anyone who was a paid attendee who registered online ahead of time (which was all paid attendees this time, since PUDDLE actually sold out in advance!) received a free gift bag. There were standard and premium gift bags depending on how early you registered- I got the standard one this year because it had been iffy whether or not I was going to get to come, but next year I’ll be signing up early to get the premium bag. The gift bags included goodies such as alien headbands and necklaces for dolls, dolly socks and tights, doll-sized hangers, eyechips, and even some sweet treats for the human-sized attendees!
The first “official” PUDDLE event was the “Dress like your doll” contest. Anyone who wanted to could wear a matching outfit with one of their dolls and join in on the fun, and this was the one contest that accepted non-Groove doll entries as well. I ended up arranging a last minute entry for myself the week before PUDDLE when I ended up with extra red and black spotted fabric from another project and decided to make Nevada a “ladybug” dress to match my own. There were lots of creative entries for this contest! Entrants had outfits based on Kill la Kill, Once Upon a Time, Star Trek, Star Wars, Kiki’s Delivery Service, and more! The winning contestant had dressed herself and her doll in matching “Sally Ride” astronaut costumes, and did a fantastic “zero gravity” strut across stage. Again, as I said before, I did not get pictures of this part of the day, but allow me to link to Cornflower Blue’s photo on flickr here. (Definitely check out some of her other photos from the day- she got lots of good ones!)
After this contest, we took time to do a group photo with all the guests in attendance. We had hoped to do this outside but it decided to start raining right as we headed that way, so we ended up doing it inside instead. People also set up some of their favorite dolls (especially space-themed ones) for a group dolly photo.
In the morning we also had a doll design event, where we were divided up into groups of eight based on our door prize numbers (also from our gift bags) and joined with our groups to design a Pullip or Dal together. This was a lot of fun, and even though I wasn’t super actively involved in the design for our group it was a great chance to meet new people. The final “activity” before lunch was picking out door prizes in order of our numbers. I got a really cute pair of purple Pullip shoes from Mimiwoo, since shoes are always in short supply around here.
After lunch was somewhat of a calmer time and was all about customization. People began setting up their dolls for the customization contests, and there were also several people throughout the room who were able to answer questions and provide assistance on customization-related things such as rebodying or opening up heads and the like. This was also the last chance to buy raffle tickets for the raffles or put in bids for the silent auctions.
There were two different categories of raffle items you could enter to win- regular or special (which obviously cost a little more for the tickets). Regular raffle items included handmade doll clothes donated by PUDDLE guests and sponsors, PUDDLE photobooks, an Ai doll, and even a MIO kit with a wig and eyechips for customizing. The special raffles included more “big ticket” items- Pullips donated by Groove, custom dolls, and the most gorgeous space-themed custom doll dress I have ever seen. There were only two silent auction items this year, both dolls, so those didn’t tempt me too badly.
The customization contest had four categories- Full Custom for dolls that contained no factory elements (Faceup, hair, eyechips, etc.) Modified for partially customized dolls that did still retain a bit of their factory look, Custom Outfits for entries that were only customized in clothing, and Minis for any mini dolls like Ai Dolls or Mini Pullips that had been customized in some way. All of the categories had first through third place prizes as well as a “fan favorite” voted on by guests, with the exception of the Full Custom category, which presented awards to one winner in Pullip, Dal/Byul, and Boys subcategories along with the fan favorite.
I used the afternoon to do some vendor shopping while the judges were making their decisions and vendors were winding down. I had noticed Friday night that Marty’s joints were getting really creaky, so I decided it was time to finally get around to rebodying her. Since one of the vendors was selling Obitsu bodies and happened to have the small-bust 25cm body I wanted for Marty, I went ahead and picked it up for her. I was actually really amazed at how nice and poseable the new body is. Now I kinda want obitsu’s for all my girls! I had a little bit too much fun posing the new body with the dolls while I was killing time:
Patty-cake!I can lift myself!Does Jace only like her for her body?!
Jace’s hat and pants in the above picture are also from my vendor exploration. The hat came from a vendor who had crocheted doll hats for all of the Sailor Moon senshi. I have a “rule” for myself that I’ll only buy Sailor Moon merch if it has Tuxedo Mask on/in it somehow (mainly as a way to keep myself from buying all the merch!) because he’s my favorite, so Jace got the Tuxedo Mask hat (although it may get stolen from him now- more on that later). The pants came from the “take something, leave something” table, a table where people could bring unwanted doll items such as clothing, partial/broken bodies, miniatures, and the like. I’m pretty sure they’re girl-doll pants, but Jace will take anything that will fit him since he has so much less clothing than the girls, so we rolled with it. I also picked up a few other little things from the “Take something, leave something” table like a skirt and a picnic basket.
The silent auctions were the first to close, followed by the raffles. It was really fun getting to watch people win the items they’d entered for, especially with the special raffle items. I actually won one of the raffles I entered, for a set of two pairs of handmade Isul pants as well as a pair of shoes. So now Jace is probably doing pretty good on pants- he just needs some more shirts!!
Next they awarded the “best in theme” prize, open to dolls, outfits, or other displays that exemplified the “space” theme. This year’s winner was a fantastic Star Trek dolly diorama filled with pom-pom “Tribbles” which was truly adorable and well-deserving of the win.
The announcement and awarding of the customization prizes was the final “big” event of the day. There were so many great entries, that I’m realizing now I didn’t get nearly enough pictures of (again, go see Cornflower Blue’s flickr!) I had entered a couple of my own dolls into the contest. You’ve met Nico the Screwless Wonder, my first custom Pullip and second Pullip overall. I kind of just entered her for the heck of it last-minute despite her not being particularly involved. The doll I made specifically for the contests, however, was Star Butterfly:
Star was made from a Dal MIO kit, and is based on the character from “Star Vs. The Forces of Evil,” a cartoon I really love about a princess visiting earth from a planet in another dimension (so a little bit space-themed, right?) I made all her clothing and accessories with the exception of her tights, which I bout from JLHSisterDesigns on Etsy (in the Pullip size since I wasn’t paying attention- you can kinda see how they’re bunched at her knees here). I’m planning on giving Star a post of her own soon, so you can see more details about her, but I’m really proud of her.
And apparently, I’m not the only person who liked her, because she won the Dal/Byul category for Full Customs! I feel so honored to have had my work chosen! Here’s star with the winners for the other categories:
From left to right- Boys (actually a Dal with some facial sculpting), Pullip, Dal/Byul, and fan favorite. Considering Star was the only winner with no sculpting or skin-tone changing involved I’m pretty lucky to see her stand with such great entries!
I also was smart enough to snap a picture of the winning mini, because look at this thing:
She’s a Little Sister from “Bioshock.” I’ve never had any interest in playing Bioshock but this doll is just amazing.
Glowing eyes! How cool is that?
The prizes for the Full Custom category were a MIO kit in the subcategory-appropriate type, a pair of eyechips, and a cute little dolly emergency kit stuffed full of things like a mini-screwdriver, screws, velcro dots, snaps, and the tiniest little scissors I have ever seen. This means I get to do another custom Dal, which I’ll be starting on very soon! I didn’t really “snoop” at what the other prizes were, but I’m sure they were great also.
With the main festivities over it was time to pack up. My roommate and I had to skip out after the main events, since we needed to head back to my parents’ house that night in order to do our long drive on Sunday. There were more informal events like a group dinner and another lobby hangout party after the convention proper on Saturday night, but we missed out on those as well. We might see about staying around later next year; it’ll just depend.
All in all I had a ton of fun at PUDDLE, and fully intend to attend next year! Next year will be the tenth annual PUDDLE, and the theme has been announced as “Tea Party,” so I’m already plotting and planning to prepare! I think since next year I’ll have a little more of an idea what I’m doing it’ll be more fun too.
Here’s some PUDDLE-related pictures I took that didn’t really fit in anywhere else:
The creator of the tribble diorama shared the fuzzy love afterward, so Warner found herself a new pet. Uh-oh!Marty on her new body! That alien headband from the gift bag works really well at holding wigs in place while the glue dries. 🙂Jace tries on raffle pants!And the other pair! Now he just needs a second shirt!
See you next time! (Hopefully it won’t take me three months again!)
So long story short, I really want a BJD some day, but right now, I can’t afford a “proper” one (probably not for another year or so at least- I need to get a better job and get through PUDDLE and such first!) That hasn’t stopped me from looking and mostly oohing and aahing at them, though, and in that process one day, I stumbled across this listing for a 3D-printed BJD on Etsy. Naturally I was intrigued, and at the price listed, it was much more within my price range than a “standard” BJD, so I decided to go for it!
The 3D Printed Creature Creator Kit was created and designed by Doll Art by Julie (website here), whose other OOAK and custom dolls are amazing as well, so definitely take a look if you get a chance! One of the things that drew me most to this 3D printed BJD were the myriad customizing options: every portion of the doll is customizable with a range of option parts (various animal paws/ears, tail options or wing options for an additional charge, etc.) as well as the color of the plastic the doll is printed in being up to you. The angel wings option immediately made me think of my original character Aura, who you’ve met before if you’ve explored my Dolly Family page as she was my first ever custom doll as well. Really I’m hoping that if these dolls are relatively nice, I could eventually create all four of my main original characters so she won’t be lonely!
I asked the creator about eye and wig size, and the doll takes 6mm eyes and a 2-3″ wig if you select the “Laila” head option as I have. I was also able to order the wings in a different color than the rest of the body (although I’d recommend contacting the creator yourself if you’re wanting to do a multi-colored order to make sure that what you have in mind is all right!) I went ahead and ordered the doll with all standard “human” female parts in flesh color, as well as angel wings in white. I also ordered a pair of green eyes from Mimiwoo for her at the same time.
The doll took a little while to get to me because she was travelling from New Zealand, but it wasn’t an unreasonable wait time by any means. The packaging was cute, and really drove home to me how tiny this doll actually is:
The back of the packaging includes a list of the contents, as well as assembly instructions for the doll and a link to the designer’s website where she has a photo tutorial and relevant videos.
I took the doll out of her ziploc bag so you can see all the pieces as they came. I did leave some of the smaller parts in their little bags so I didn’t lose them or mix them up.
The kit includes all the body parts requested, elastic for stringing, a wire for assistance in stringing, 3D printed eyes, rubber bands for head connection, and eye putty. There are also magnets, both for the head pieces and the feet, to hold the doll’s head cap together and to help her stand and pose. A washer is included as a stand for her. You can also get a feel for her size based on the fact that this photo was taken sitting on my closed laptop.
The one thing included in the kit that I had the hardest time figuring out is the two small beads, pictured in the bag with the magnets and rubber bands, etc. It was only once I watched the assembly tutorial video on the designer’s website that I realized these were an alternate eye option.
Aura’s eyes came in the day after she did, and even though it’s going to be a little while before I put her all together, I couldn’t resist popping her eyes in to get a feel for how they looked. Here’s her tiny head with her even tinier eyes:
Now, some general observations about the doll. As you can see from the picture above, this kit does not come with nice, smooth parts like you would get from a resin or vinyl doll. The striping effect is a byproduct of the 3D printing process and I was fully expecting it, myself, but it may not be super evident in the Etsy listing’s photos and such so I wanted to let you know. This may not bother some people, but if it will bother you, please be aware that a lot of sanding will be required to get a smooth finish.
I’ll also say that it took a bit of work with an Exact-o knife before the pockets in her head for the eyes were wide enough to take the eyes. A lot of the little joints and pieces could use some clearing out as well.
I’m personally okay with the fact that this doll is going to take a lot of sanding. I find I bond with my dolls the more I work on them or with them, so spending some quality sanding time on Aura will let me really bond with her. I may be singing a different tune once the process is underway for all I know, and it might dissuade me from buying the three more I’m thinking about at present, but I’ll let you know where I stand on that once all the work is done.
I intend to sand Aura thoroughly and paint her face at least before assembly. I’m also considering giving her a basic full body blushing- she’s here at least partially to curb my BJD craving, so I might as well work with her like I might a more traditional BJD. I couldn’t find any wigs I really liked for her and really didn’t want to spend as much on a wig as I did on the doll herself, so Aura will most likely be getting a homemade brushed yarn wig. Of course, clothing for her will be custom-made too, since I don’t have a clue what size she would wear. I’m hoping I might be able to modify one of the tiny BJD patterns I’ve bought from DGRequiem for my Ai dolls (AKA my other BJD  “appetizer” dolls), but we’ll just have to see.
I’m probably not going to work on Aura until after Easter so stay tuned for then! I’ll let you know when I’ve made progress on her!
As you might have guessed, I like to craft. I also work at a fabric and craft supply store, which does not help when you have an impulse-buying habit. At the moment, however, I’m not letting myself buy any craft supplies until the end of the month, and that means I’m using up what I’ve got hanging around.
A coworker recently mentioned she was making quilted mug-rugs as a scrap project, and while searching around for ideas I stumbled across the idea of making mini-quilts for dolls. I thought it’d be a really fun project for practicing quilting, so I’ve made a couple this week, and they’re super fun to make!
The first one I made was using some leftover fabric from an apron I made to wear to work. The fabric reminds me of ladybugs. Since it was my first I went with a really simple patchwork pattern.
It measures out at about 12×16″ and I got it done in two sittings. It’s my first time machine quilting too so that was a fun experiment!
I had so much fun making the first I immediately went to make a second! This one I decided to try a bit more complicated of a pattern, so I used a disappearing nine-patch technique and nine different fabrics.
I don’t think this one turned out quite as nice. The pieces were kind of uneven, so the blanket’s not perfectly square, and I got the alignment on one of them wrong in the end. But I still really like it! It measured out at a bit over 16″ square.
I really enjoyed making these, and I fully plan to do more in the future- in fact, I’ve got the next one planned out already and will probably put it together later this week! These two are currently available in my Etsy shop for $20 each if you like them.
I’ve been working on this little lady for what feels like forever! Meet Connie Maheswaran!
Some of you may recognize her from the Poison Ivy post from earlier this week; others may recognize her from Steven Universe. And indeed, she is based on the Steven Universe character!
I dragged my housemate out about a month ago to go look at Hasbro’s Disney dolls. She’s very patient with my hobby/addiction (and also a good person to have along to keep me in line). However, she was the one who looked at Jasmine and said “she’d be perfect to make a Connie out of!” And here we are now.
Connie’s faceup got done very shortly after she came home, and she’s just been waiting on me to finish her clothes. That took me a while for a number of reasons: for one thing, my sewing machine is evil, so I hand-sew all doll clothes. For another, I was designing patterns myself by trial and error, rather than using one of DGRequiem’s like I would for most customs. But more importantly, I wanted to make her three outfits. And that I did. Her first outfit is the one pictured above, her “Theme Song” outfit complete with a sunhat and little glasses:
The dress is made of cotton and knit material. Her boots and sunhat are felt, and the glasses are wire wrapped with embroidery floss.
Her second outfit is her “Tennis Practice” outfit:
Knit fabric for the t-shirt, cotton for the shorts, and felt for the shoes. Her shorts have sewn-on details and her shoes have white painted edging.
Finally, my personal favorite, Connie’s “Sword Training” outfit:
This outfit is from knit fabric, with felt belt and shoes, and polymer clay sword.
Connie is now available at my Etsy shop for $60 if you’re interested! You can find the listing here:Â https://www.etsy.com/listing/270240978/custom-doll-connie?ref=shop_home_active_1
Today’s the official release day for this doll line so I thought it’d be as good a time as ever to share photos and observations about Poison Ivy!
I’ve been excited about the DC Superhero Girls line since it got announced. I love superheros and love that this is a superhero line marketed to girls, and I love that it’s DC in particular because I’m a DC fan moreso than a Marvel fan. For those of you unfamiliar with the line, DC Superhero Girls is taking a “Monster High”-esque approach to these superheroes- they all attend Super Hero High together. The line will include both dolls and action figures, and is launching with six characters- Wonder Woman, Super Girl, Bat Girl, Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, and Bumblebee. At the moment, it is exclusive to Target in the US.
A little while ago reports began to crop up that these dolls had begun to show up on shelves at certain Targets. I checked mine and they weren’t on the shelves yet. Then reports came that the official release date would be February 28, and some boxes in the stock room were marked as such, but others were not, and that if you gave a DCPI number to the employees some stores would bring them out from the stock room and sell them early. I figured it couldn’t hurt to try- I wouldn’t be upset if they turned me down, but I’d be really excited to get one early too- so I went and asked, and I was in luck! I figured I’d wait to post my blog post until today though so they should be available to the general public by the time you’re reading this.
Wonder Woman is my ultimate top want in this line, but I actually anticipate buying all six of the dolls (haven’t decided on the action figure yet). From what I can tell by what I was reading, it seems like the assortment box with Wonder Woman, Bat Girl, and Super Girl was the one that was labelled for the release date while the one with Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, and Bumblebee was not, so the luck was better for early buys if the store only had the second assortment in stock rather than both. My store only had that second box, and Poison Ivy looked the most exciting to me out of those three, so she’s the one that came home with me.
Her bracelet and hand “magic” were on opposite hands in the package; I just accidentally reversed them here in redressing her.
I was surprised by how large Poison Ivy is. I was expecting her to be on scale with EAH or MH dolls, but she’s actually significantly taller (according to RequiemArt, the DC girls are 125% bigger in all measurements).I posed her next to the Hasbro Disney Princess doll I’m in the middle of customizing for kicks, because she’s the smallest playline doll I currently have:
More on the clothes below. Expect a post about the custom doll very soon.
Her size is advantageous because it means that on her flat shoes, she can stand on two feet quite easily without the need for a stand, as seen in her introductory photo. Even more exciting is that she can stand on one foot unaided if you balance her right:
We managed to get her in several one-foot poses but I’ll spare you the photographic onslaught.
Ivy’s articulation is similar to a Monster High or Ever After High doll, with a couple of differences. One that works in our favor is that Ivy has an added torso joint that adds a lot of additional movement:
She can lean right…
lean left…
lean back…
lean forward…
and pivot! (Actually all 360 degrees but this seemed about as far as “natural.”
Unfortunately, she also has fairly limited leg motion:
This is Ivy’s maximum side-to-side splits.Her knees do not pivot at all, so her feet are always forward facing.
Her hands do come off like EAH dolls, making changing clothes easier. The pegs seem very thick and sturdy to me.
Her stock does include a lot of plastic parts, but I’m glad they’re including her vines somehow. I really like that her jumpsuit is separate from the blouse/dress piece.
Not pictured- her plastic hair adornment. Because I’m sure once I take that out I’ll never get it back in again.
On a whim, I decided to try some Barbie clothes I bought for Marty on her. They fit quite well in my opinion, but I will say that the sleeves on the cardigan were snug, so non-stretch sleeves might not work very well. I can also guarantee you she won’t be wearing Barbie shoes- Ivy’s feet are massive compared to Barbie’s.
The cardigan sleeves were snug. Girl’s got some muscle!DC girls shoes vs Barbie shoes. Ivy might get her toes in those sideways but that’d be about it.
I really get a “I’m fed up with your crap” vibe from Ivy’s face, so that’s carried over into my personality for her. Between her outfit reminding me of Peter Pan and our multiple ballet-ish one leg poses we managed for her the other night, I’ve decided she’s also a bit of a theater geek, and gets along well with Dexter as a result.
I’m excited to eventually add more of these to my collection! Ultimately, while I am disappointed by the limited leg movement, I really like this line and can see myself collecting them as they continue to expand the line!
Various photos I’ve taken for different things in the past few weeks. I’m not gonna post all my super sketchy quick snapshots or anything like that, but I’ll share the ones I put a little effort into.
Klepto Strikes Again- for Round 15 of DollyMarket’s photo contests, where the theme was “Bad Habits.” Nemo likes to “borrow” other people’s clothes, so here she’s “borrowing” Marty’s jacket, headphones, and legwarmers, Jace’s hat, and Nevada’s shoes and purse. I was having no luck getting them to balance on their own, so all three of the dolls standing have forks in play to help keep them upright. Nemo actually always wears Marty’s jacket, and since this photo has kind of claimed the headphones as hers as well.
Conquering Her “Fears”- for a weekly photo challenge on MHArena, where the theme was fruits and vegetables. Nevada wanted to do a photo where she conquered her “fear” of apples, which she claims to be allergic to.
Listening to the New Girl’s Backstory- For Round 12 of DollyMarket’s photo contests (the theme was Fandoms). Nico wanted to share her story with Marty and Nemo, and what better way than to read the books written about you and your friends? Nemo was getting a little sleepy at this point, but she’s more enamored by Nico than you might think.
Marty’s Favorite Cuddle Spot- for round 10 of DollyMarket’s photo contests, with the theme of “Night Time.” Marty liked my giant pile of stuffed animals at the foot of my bed in the dorms, and she kind of misses it now that we’ve moved. I’ve got to work on low-light photography.
“Fancy Dolls” Group Photo- taken shortly after Nevada arrived. I wanted to show the gang all together, as well as Jace and Marty in their hand-crocheted winter gear.
A Celebratory Selfie- The Lord of Ebay wanted to take a selfie to celebrate the 20th anniversary of eBay’s launch. And just now as I’m looking at this I’m realizing that her eyebrows seem to have stained the vinyl around them…
Appropriately enough, my next photoshoot to share is Nico the Screwless Wonder. Nico is the Pullip MIO kit I bought in Japan this summer, with the express intention of creating Nico. You’ll also recognize her as the exact same character as the Ever After High custom doll from my previous photoshoot- Nico is seriously my single favorite character in all of fiction, so she gets two dolls in my collection! Besides which, since one of the characters traits is eyes that change colors from brown to yellow depending on if her demonic side is active, Pullips are a really great format for her so I can rechip her depending on the mood.
We had some uncharacteristically warm weather for February the other day, so I took Nico into our backyard after I got off work and got some quick photos while the light was still good. She’s in need of a little bit of a repair- her left eyelashes fell off in transit from my dorm to our new house, but I haven’t gotten a chance to fix them yet.
Conquering Her “Fears”- for a weekly photo challenge on MHArena, where the theme was fruits and vegetables. Nevada wanted to do a photo where she conquered her “fear” of apples, which she claims to be allergic to.
Dollywosh 