davidd's A DOLL A DAY 2024

[davidd]

Maybe you just need to participate with some more people. Like that other place where you took that thing so personally.  It’s a few more people there…

I thought I might get drawn into Ever After High… But then Rainbow High came along…!

Yeah, there was no way you were gonna resist a Monarch Butterfly themed "affordable" playline doll! 

I was surprised that Ever After High ended, and rather abuptly at that, after the 2018 releases. I think that the Disney Descendants line killed them off. Fairy Tale characters are fun, but kids (or, their unimaginative parents) love Disney fairy tale characters more.

Mostly the EAH dolls were too "girly" for me (this coming from someone who probably had a hundred Monster High at one point)   , but I liked the "Dragon Games" line because they wore armor and looked kinda kick-*ass Medieval-ish. But they didn't include swords or weapons, so I had to enhance their armament with cocktail skewers. At one point I think I had all but one of the "Dragon Games" line. I ended up selling most of them (one or two appreciated dramatically in price, so I actually made back some of the money I'd spent), but I kept my two favorites, plus one other non-DG EAH figure.

(While researching this post, I discovered a simple yet thorough website documenting all 217 official EAH releases:  https://www.eahmerch.com/dolls/all/ 
I appreciate when people take the time and put in the effort to maintain informative web pages like this.)

As for participation, there are plenty of people on Instagram and Flickr; I even leave comments on a variety of accounts. Yet my pix are largely overlooked. Instagram bugs me because I just can't figure out what that audience wants. Today I was looking at some dude's account. He has only posted like 60 or 70 images, mostly little "Star Wars" toys standing in the lawn in his back yard, yet he has over a thousand followers already. Other action figure and doll photographers also have thousands of followers, and they get dozens or sometimes hundreds of comments, although the comments are usually pretty repetitive and dull, like, "great shot." I'd rather have fewer interactions but with greater substance. As for that other forum, yeah, well, I don't wanna risk interacting with anyone I shouldn't interact with because their "significant other" might blow a gasket. Plus, I don't take enough Dal photos. And my Doll a Day pix were often of little interest over there as well; except, you were usually kind enough to comment. No point in posting twice and having you feel obligated to comment twice. Speaking of which, I hope you don't feel obligated to comment every day here at DMF. I appreciate it, but I don't want you to feel like it is a chore. I know I've come close to abandoning ship here at DMF, but I'll probably keep plugging along until the site sinks slowly in the west.

TL;DNR - sorry.

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2 June - A Doll A Day 2024:

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Hasbro Equestria Girls Twilight Sparkle

[Alliecat]

Were they derived from MLP?  I know, I could google that...  My first thought was that she looked more like a bug 

217 is a lot of releases. 

Comparison and trying to produce stuff for other people is an invitation to be disappointed.  Look at the BS on Tiktok and FB... this is the state of humanity... is this the society from which you want an audience?
Srsly, do what YOU enjoy.  Appreciation of your own creative fun is the reward; otherwise you're giving everyone else power over whether you enjoy what you're doing.  Whyy?

I want to keep Dolly Market alive.  I do look in once or twice a day.  As for the other venue, you could just do your thing and who cares whether someone wants to engage or comment or not.  If they have to worry about their SO then maybe they won't anyway, and you can talk to the rest of us.  It's OK to let things go.

[davidd]

Were they derived from MLP?  I know, I could google that...  My first thought was that she looked more like a bug....

Comparison and trying to produce stuff for other people is an invitation to be disappointed.  Look at the BS on Tiktok and FB... this is the state of humanity... is this the society from which you want an audience? Srsly, do what YOU enjoy.  Appreciation of your own creative fun is the reward....

I want to keep Dolly Market alive.  I do look in once or twice a day.  

I, too, want to keep Dolly Market alive, so here I am... for whatever that's worth. Seems like the forums at which I continue to post are the ones that die the fastest. I still post weekly at Figurvore, as an example.  https://milkshakemelody.com/figurvore/

Yes, Equestria Girls was a My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic spin-off. The dolls went through several iterations over the course of a few years, ranging from bizarre bug-looking creatures like this one (yes, I agree, it looks like a bug, which is part of why I like it) to more human-cosplay versions.

I'm not on FB or TikTok. I created a new X (formerly Twitter) account several months ago because some of my doll/toy contacts on Instagram were tired of the one-sided political slant (and outright filtering) and the vax-pushing on Insta, and wanted to try to create a "doll community" on X, but then hardly anybody posted doll stuff. It's too easy to get pulled in to the brain-killing political stuff on X, so I stopped looking at it. 

I was looking at Instagram posts and comments again today, and yeah... I don't really want to be part of a toy photography crowd where the action figure dudes all call one another "brother" or "bro," or if they're being dismissive then the term is "bruh." And every comment stream that goes for more than a few posts turns in to a one-sided political rally or promotion of the transgender agenda. Like, WTF, bruh? I guess we can't even post toy photos on Insta anymore unless we're leftist vax-pushing trans activists. Which probably sez more about Instagram than it does about the toy photography hobby; although considering my eksperience at that other forum you allude to, maybe it doesn't.

What you said got me thinking about when I first got in to toy and doll photography; and y'know, my original intent was to do something outside the mainstream. I started out by putting "cute li'l dolls" in "action figure scenarios." I don't take "doll pictures." I don't take "action figure pictures." I eksplore the void between the genres... and it's not a popular position. After coming up on two decades of toy photography, I'm still an outsider. Which, I suppose, means I'm still a rebel! I'm still messing with the boundaries between acceptable genres.

Or my pictures and approach suck and nobody likes 'em.

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3 June - A Doll A Day 2024:

Ever After High Cerise Hood

I found an online resource listing all the Ever After High releases:

www.eahmerch.com/dolls/all/

I suspect this version of Cerise Hood is the 2016 Wave 2 Core Character re-release.

[Alliecat]

She looks like she's hoping to see a way out. 
Boy, do I feel that. 

I can't see the Figurevore page without an account.
I find it hard to imagine a "community" on Twitter in the same sense as other forums.  I get sucked into looking at it now and then, and it's basically a hash of brainfarts and insults, so, meh.
The trouble with all these social media platforms is it leads us to think everyone needs to know what we think about everything, and, that they care.  ...yeah, nope.

my original intent was to do something outside the mainstream. I started out by putting "cute li'l dolls" in "action figure scenarios." I don't take "doll pictures." I don't take "action figure pictures." I eksplore the void between the genres...

That's an interesting insight, and it sounds like those "artist's statements" -- although not nearly so obscure and uppity as most of them.  It is actually a cool idea. 
Carry on 

[davidd]

That's an interesting insight, and it sounds like those "artist's statements" ...

Exactly the intent: an attempt to use fanceh wordz to justify something that's meaningless, pointless, or a waste of time. 

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4 June - A Doll A Day 2024:

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Moesephine and the Tamae Twins

[Alliecat]

Are they ex-ploring the shed of doom?

[davidd]

Are they ex-ploring the shed of doom?

Hmmm... little mouse-like creatures scurrying around in the Shed of Doom would account for the copious amounts of tiny black pellet-like debris that has accumulated in every crevice and cranny.

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5 June - A Doll A Day 2024:

Revoltech Fräulein No. 002 Tohsaka Rin