davidd's A Doll A Day 2019

[davidd]

He's your second Elvis, right? I seem to remember Elvis making an appearance in the Dungeon... Which reminds me, how's Frank?

Yes, this is the Second Coming of Elvis.

Frank is busy planning his comeback.

Maybe Frank and Elvis could do a duet or perform on the same bill.

Frank and Elvis appeared together last Christmas season.

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OH, THE HORROR!
25 August – A Doll A Day 2019

Well, perhaps more embarrassment tinged with disgust than actual horror.    In this post I offer a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the current state – a state of utter chaos – of The Dollie Dungeon.

The idea behind this shameful reveal is to inspire myself to clean things up, repair what needs to be repaired, discard what needs to be discarded, and in general get things back to some semblance of not looking like a complete pile of rubbish. Obviously this attempt is doomed to failure, because while I could be cleaning things up this very moment, instead I'm sitting here in front of the computer screen wasting time.

Ah well. Such is my penchant.

My figure hobby shares space in a storage shed with garden and carpentry tools and supplies as well as general household storage. There is usually quite a bit of overlap; that is, a literal, physical overlap, with tools and paint cans and electrical cords and garden hoses piled on top of storage tubs heaped among empty and not-empty cardboard boxes. It's a total mess. Among my summer project plans was to construct another small shed for garden tools, but money, time, and enthusiasm (not to mention ability) have not yet propitiously aligned in a manner for that to happen.


My most recently constructed set, and currently the least cluttered, consists of two walls and a door. I was going to need a door for a photo-shoot that I was planning, and this was the result. The door frame is already falling apart and the posters are falling off the walls. The Elvis figure is a recent arrival - two dollars on eBay. He is a Hasbro figure, but lacks the articulation of Hasbro's GI Joe releases, and the quality and detail is not as good as the Mattel "Barbie Loves Elvis" figures. The motion picture camera is from the Bratz Movie-Making Set of several years ago.


This cluttery mess was slapped together for a quick one-off photo three years ago, and I ended up keeping it. It has served as a backdrop for a variety of scenes, including a well-drilling platform (its original purpose), a gallows, and a sailing ship navigation deck. Anything vaguely nautical in nature (meaning, mostly, random bits of string) ends up piled here. A lot of other stuff ends up piled here, too, but I managed to clear most of it away to snap this photo.


I tried to construct a 1:6 scale biplane a couple of years ago, using random cardboard boxes. There's a top wing around here somewhere, and some extensions for the lower wing to bring it up to a satisfactory width. It really looks like utter rubbish, but I put so much work in to it that I have not been able to bring myself to throw it out... until now. Shortly before I sat down to post these images, I finally tossed this project in to the car with other bags of rubbish and hauled it to the dump. I have seen plans for 1:6 scale airplane models for sale on eBay, or there are 1:6 scale kits available, although they are pricey (US $200+), and apparently do not include various essential parts like propellers or wheels or material for covering the frame. At some point I shall revisit this project. I do not require total realism, but I want an airplane that doesn't look like a bunch of cardboard boxes taped together.


The broom closet set is sitting in a corner, ignored, but has largely escaped being filled up with unrelated clutter.


The submarine conning tower, scaled for 3-3/4 inch (Pinky Street) figures, is all that remains of a larger submarine prop that I disassembled and discarded when I moved to Utah nearly four years ago. Considering the abuse it has gone through it is holding up fairly well. I hope to restore the submarine model at some point.


I salvaged this interesting piece of styrofoam insulation during my recent bathroom remodeling project. This will be the basis of a "dual scale" steampunk backdrop designed to work with with both 1:6 and 1:3 scale figures.


The 1:3 scale (Smart Doll size) room set has largely avoided being buried in unrelated clutter, other than now hosting a full-size manual typewriter. But then, the set was built on top of my writing desk, and now I do not have a place to put the typewriter. A new ribbon is on order for the typewriter, by the way. Once the ribbon arrives I hope to clean and lubricate the typewriter and get it back in to working condition. Of course, then I'll have to find a place to put the typewriter that is not in the Smart Doll living room.


I found this partial Monster High castle toy at a thrift store / charity shop for one dollar. I couldn't pass up a deal like that, now, could I? In itself it isn't much to look at because it is missing so many parts, but it works well for casting shadows and creating mysterious backdrops in atmospherically illuminated close-up photos. I should probably try to disassemble it, since it takes up a lot of space and I do not really need it to be assembled for the manner in which I use it.


The "hippie bar" room box set in 1:6 scale was originally intended to be a quick single-use backdrop, but it has taken on a life of its own and refuses to go away. Anything "bar" or "restaurant" related ends up being piled in here. This box is presently sitting inside a larger box that houses the "new and improved" tiki bar version. (Those are "lab tables" constructed from cardboard and fast-food burger wrappers balanced on top of the set.)


Here's a glimpse of the tiki bar as it currently sits behind and beneath the hippie bar backdrop. Notice the random notes about ideas for future photo-stories.


The 1:6 scale spiral staircase was a challenging project. It could stand a bit of maintenance. I used a low quality styrofoam for the structure which is beginning to soften, sag, and crack. I'm not yet sure whether to attempt a refurbishment or to try to build another one. I actually did build another one, but it doesn't look as good or work as well in photos.


The second spiral staircase prop can be glimpsed at the left of this image, in the chaotically cluttered "Paris apartment" set. The Bratz dolls and their horse have been sitting there patiently since last Christmas. As we approach the end of August, next Christmas is less than four months away, so there's no point in putting things away now, is there?


This 1:6 scale room box was originally a dungeon-esque living room or parlor for Bratz dolls in their photo-story, but it has become my most frequently used "general purpose" room box. Currently it contains the scattered remnants of the "Bob Hope & General Patton" photo-story shoot and a couple of the Pullip Amelia flight crew (see, I really need that airplane).


This is another Pinky Street scale set, a "surfer bar" for Pinky Street figures that never got finished. My enthusiasm was high when I started, but I lost focus, and this has been sitting here untouched for over two years. I should either finish it or tear everything out and forget about it. Chances are, however, that I won't do either, and it will just keep sitting here.


The steampunk dynamo room was constructed specifically for a photo-story that has now been "on hiatus" since... hang on a sec, gotta go look it up... ah! Since August 2016! Three years ago this month! That's long enough. I really need to get back to that story. Or just admit to myself that it's done, it's over, it ain't gonna happen.

So there you have it: the current "real world" behind-the-scenes status of The Dollie Dungeon.

"But wait," you say. "Where are all the dolls? All the action figures? All I see are a couple of Bratz dollz and ol' General George. And Elvis. What about the Pullips and the Monster High and the Novi Stars and the Emilys and everybody else? Where are th Pinkys?!" Yeah, well, the dolls are currently scattered across several storage tubs. The tubs sit below the shelves on which these sets are built. My next order of business is to clear enough floor space by getting rid of empty cardboard boxes and packing plastic and what-not to set up a folding table on which I can start sorting toys and figures. I actually started on that a few days ago, not by choice, but because I discovered that some of the plastic bags were melting.