davidd's A Doll A Day 2019

[davidd]

Does anybody remember the "Monster Scenes" plastic model kits from Aurora Plastics? Decades prior to the "monster craze" in the 2010s spawned by the success of the Twilight Saga, which contributed to the development of the Monster High line, there was a "monster craze" based on 1930s and 1940s Universal Studios horror films in the 1970s that led to the release of a variety of monster-based toys, including a line of plastic model kits.

Today it occurred to me that the TBLeague 1:12 scale seamless figure I purchased a few months ago reminded me of a somewhat notorious figure from the Aurora Monster Scenes line: The Victim.

(That article is well worth a read, for nostalgic purposes if you're familiar with the Aurora Monster Scenes, for pop-cultural elucidation if you're not familiar with that classic line, and for self-indulgent social outrage if that's your thing.)

In homage to the Aurora Monster Scenes, here's the 1:12 TBLeague gal hanging out in, appropriately, The Dollie Dungeon:

23 May – TBLeague (Phicen) Seamless Figure

Now, there's a very good chance this is the last we will be seeing of this particular figure in my Doll A Day photos. While I purchased the figure a while back, and I believe her head alone has appeared as a previous daily photo, today was the first time I have taken her... it... whatever it is... out of the package, and it, or she, or whatever it is, is creepy!

The first thing I noticed was the texture! It was enough to make my skin crawl, because her skin crawls! Like, the thin rubber skin that is stretched over an internal jointed armature sort of slips and slides around like... I guess like earthworms on a fishing hook would be the closest analogy I can think of. It's totally fingernails on a chalkboard level cringe-inducing.

In addition to being slithery, the weirdly textured soft rubber is an absolute stain magnet. The Dollie Dungeon, being very authentically dungeon-like, is not exactly the cleanest of diorama room boxes. I think it was soot from the real fire that I sometimes use in my photos that almost immediately stained the figure in several places. She... it... had barely touched anything before I noticed several dark stains. They kinda-sorta-mostly buffed off with a damp cloth, but if I'd waited even a few extra minutes I think the dark spots would have been absorbed. The surface of the figure seems... porous or something.

The almost sticky rubber also attracts dust: dust out of the air, dust from whatever it touches, dust it summons from some dark Netherworld... I dunno. I had to edit a thousand motes of dust out of today's pic.

The wrist and ankle seams have big, hideous gaps where the soft rubber body attaches to the hard plastic hands and feet. The neck seam where the head attaches is similarly distracting from certain angles.

I was curious about "seamless" figures, hence the purchase of this figure. My curiosity has been satisfied. Based on my ex-perience with this relatively inex-pensive (about $30 USD) 1:12 version, I shall not be adding additional seamless figures to the cast and crew here at The Dungeon... even if they are reminiscent of the old school Aurora models.

As for this one, she may find her way to eBay, although for the fraction of her original purchase price that she... or it... would bring, I don't think an eBay listing is worth the trouble. Perhaps her/its little storage box will be relegated to the bottom of one of my big storage tubs, and when I pull her/it out again in a few years it/she will likely have disintegrated into a sticky mass.