Captain Sofia joins the PrettyTiny pirate crew! (new July 7)

[Alliecat]

Probably the second-most-frequent thing I say about the doll community, after "It's such a nice friendly community" is, "Dolly people are nothing if not enablers."  So today the PrettyTiny Film Company & Modelling Studio would like to give its Enabler First Class Award to davidd, as well as announcing our Badassery Quotient has levelled up, as we introduce our newest member. 
It has taken me ForAbsolutelyEVER to get this photoshoot finished because Adult Life Stuff kept interfering.  Then it took even longer to sort the fazillion pictures I took.  I'm squeezing these in before another major project devours the rest of my week.  Anyway, here she is!

Introducing Captain Sofia (her stock name) ... she came from Giantoy, who were very good to order from. 






They seem very close to copyright infringement with the title, but oh well...?




The box is very nice, and came with a "Mint Condition!" label on the outer brown box.




"THIS IS NOT A TOY!!!"
...this becomes apparent when you see how many little pieces she comes with... and also when you try to dress her or change her hands.  WHYYYY do these figures come with such impossible hands?  It shouldn't take 5 minutes with a hair dryer every time you want to change a hand.  The peg seems fragile, I'm not sure if it's supposed to come out of the arm, and this is why I don't think I've ever changed Jake's hands.  Maybe once.  Same deal.







She comes with lots of little pieces -- teeny compass, 2 guns, sword, dagger, spyglass and 8 hands in all.



"Whoaaa..."



"Um.... hi...?"



"YAY!  We have a real pirate!"
Our president and CCO* is impressed.
(*Chief Cuteness Officer)



She found some treasure waiting for her.
















The articulation is nice.  Her elbows bend well past 90 degrees; her head tilts; her feet swivel, and her knees bend pretty well too.  Aside from the hand pegs, she seems pretty sturdy.



Having seen a movie character portrait with this kind of lighting just after she arrived, I kinda got obsessed with doing it with her.  The disadvantage of shooting with a black background is all the dead pixels.  This is about 1/3 of the pictures I took, and man am I sick of painting out dead pixels!!!!



It took about 20 minutes to get her coat on.    "This is not a toy!"



It has nice details.  There's a wire all around the bottom so you can bend it out to make it look like it's windblown.
The sash was all wrinkly from the box, and I ironed out the kinks, but then it looked much too neat for a pirate outfit so I had to wet it and scrunch it around a little 
I couldn't figure out what the little tab-thing sewn on the bandanna was for, but they actually thought to make a little loop to pull the other end through, to make it easier to tie.  That kind of detail makes me wonder why they went with man-hands and the weird sword holster, and that hat.



Detail of some of the... um, details.  The scabbard looks like it should fit in a couple of little rivet holes in the holster thingy, with a couple of little points that should hold it, but it does not.  I suppose I'll have to glue the edges of the holster together, because it just kind of wraps around the scabbard.  The compass doesn't fit in the teeny pouch, but the pouch has a teeny magnet to hold the flap closed, which is neat.  (Could've put one on the holster thingy?)
I am not sure how agile one would be with all this stuff stuck in the belts and sash, but, there's the classic pirate look, and considering you'd get one shot from each of the guns, I guess it's worth carrying it all? 



Her spyglass is very heavy and solid -- not cheap plastic -- and has little blue "lenses" in it.



Look me in the eye and say that again.



The only real fail is the hat, which will NOT stay on, no matter what you do.  With the bandanna, without the bandanna, just nope.  You push it down and it goes *pop* right off.  Maybe gluing some fabric inside would help, but I don't want to mess up her hair anyway.  (It's very nice too.)  For now, the only thing I can do with the hat is have her hold it or make it look like she's just taking it off.



The faceup is gorgeously detailed.  How did they DO that...???






"Tell me a story!"


She came at the wrong time of year for outdoor photoshoots.  It's been too cold to take her out... maybe just as well as I'd have to leave most of the little pieces at home.  They'd be far too easy to lose on the beach.  I hope to get a few outdoor shots if it gets warm enough. 
I usually try not to photodump with a ton of similar photos, but... oops 
Thanks for looking!

[davidd]

Ahhhh, this looks amazing! I am happy to take Influencer Credit for this one!

The "Whoooa" picture, where Sunsette first meets the new crew member, is hilariously awesome! I LOL'd!

I shared a link to this post on one of the Action Figure forums, and at least three or four people have already stopped in to take a look. Sadly, none have ex-pressed interest in the Dolly Market Forum as a whole, but your ex-cellent and thorough photo documentation was appreciated, and there will be a number of people searching for parted-out heads, boots, and other accessories online.

Those heads, the face-ups, the eyes... yeah, how do they do that? Amazing, huh?

To my eye, the hands do not appear disproportionately large in any of these photos. I mean, you could say the same thing, only in reverse, about the unnaturally small, paddle-like hands of Pullip dolls, I suppose. The large appearance could be a result of being more familiar with "playline dolls," most of which, even non-Pullip types, have disproportionately large heads and undersized hands and feet.

Possible alternative for changing out the hands: use hot water instead. I've never used a blow dryer. I usually just tug until they pop off... which probably isn't a great idea. If hands or feet seem inordinately difficult to remove, I heat up a mug of water in a microwave oven and dip the appendage in for 60 seconds or so. I also do this to soften up hands to put on to figures. I drop the entire hand or foot (or plastic shoe or boot -- I wonder if it would help with that vinyl hat?) in to a cup of super hot microwaved water and leave it for a couple of minutes.

I love the photos with all the gear! But I bet it was a chore to put it all together. I have had to seek out Youtube videos on a few occasions to figure out how to assemble some pieces -- belts and straps in particular.

The accessories look like fun. I like it that the pistols do not match. They seem more like "spoils" from a pillaging raid that way!

The pix with the treasure chest are nicely staged! That treasure box has been needing a pirate to go with it.

The pic with the dagger tipping back the hat is particularly jaunty!

The final pic is sweet - The Scourge of the Seas regaling little Sunsette with tales of derring-do, and Sunsette looking appropriately wide-eyed in awe!

I wonder: will the PTFCo crew be a mellowing influence on Cap'n Allie... I mean Sofia? Or will the Cap'n inspire the crew to even greater mischief and tomfoolery?

[Alliecat]

I shared a link to this post on one of the Action Figure forums, and at least three or four people have already stopped in to take a look.

To my eye, the hands do not appear disproportionately large in any of these photos. I mean, you could say the same thing, only in reverse, about the unnaturally small, paddle-like hands of Pullip dolls, I suppose.

Possible alternative for changing out the hands: use hot water instead....(I wonder if it would help with that vinyl hat?)

The accessories look like fun. I like it that the pistols do not match. They seem more like "spoils" from a pillaging raid that way!

The pix with the treasure chest are nicely staged! That treasure box has been needing a pirate to go with it.

I wonder: will the PTFCo crew be a mellowing influence on Cap'n Allie... I mean Sofia? Or will the Cap'n inspire the crew to even greater mischief and tomfoolery?

Ha, I saw that.  The reaction to the figure in general seemed notably lukewarm.  I mean what's not to like?? 

It's funny, if you look at your hand next to your face in the mirror, it is quite large... maybe the small hands of other dolls are a factor.  Maybe also just the way these are designed; instead of on a smaller peg they have a really noticeable joint.  Also they're a different colour than her body 

Hmm, never tried hot water.  Then you've got water inside the hollow hands and up the arms.  Not a big deal for the plastic I guess, but potentially drippy?  Nope, won't do anything for the hat; it's too slippery to stay on.

Good point about the guns 

Several of the crew have posed with that jewel box, including Dawn, Daesani & Petra digging for treasure, Dae again in her pirate outfit, Taryn on the beach, Victoria on another beach, and various minis!   

Mellowing?  Nah... our new Public Relations Specialist is here to make sure the crew doesn't take crap from anyone 

[Alliecat]

Happy New Yaarrr!
This was absolutely not the sort of day I'd envisioned taking Sofia out, but, I needed a pic for the newspaper and decided to take someone along for my pic-a-week... so there we were. It had to be at least (at most?) -10 with the wind chill. Bits of me wanted to seize up in the cold. Not to mention extra layers making it hard to move and frozen toes because I didn't think there'd be snow out on the point right by the water so I just wore shoes. That's how cold it was; it didn't even melt there. A couple of poses in a couple of spots and worrying about losing her accessories, and that's it for this shoot!








We are both hoping our ship comes in this year.

[davidd]

You need to get yourself a fine pair of pirate boots like Sofia has for trekking about in adventurous setting while keeping your toes dry!

Cap’n Sofia looks grand out there in the windswept wilds! Welcome to the Miserable World of Action Figure Photography, where losing fiddly little bits of kit is a constant concern and the slightest breeze brings havoc on par with a gale!

Exciting and inspiring photos, well worth the unpleasantness (at least, to those of us who did not have to directly ex perience the unpleasantness).

[Alliecat]

Thanks 
I do have some sort-of-piratey boots for my costume, although they're grey and rather "nice" 
They even added scuffs to the toes of her boots, so, unlike certain minis who always seem to need their toes touched up, I won't have to worry about that with hers.
I've "lost" (mostly temporarily) bits & pieces, and gone out in the yard in the dark to look for left-behind stands, and there was the time when a mini stand was awash with incoming tide when I miraculously spotted the black stand on the grey sand... and then there was Aloalo's adventure in Hawai'i, and then there are the freezing days and the bugs.  So yeah, I occasionally say "doll photography is not for sissies." 

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Sofia arrived in November so it was no good for pictures on the beach through the winter, and then I haven't got round to taking her till finally today.  When you spend nearly an hour assembling bits & props & cleaning the camera sensor & getting motivated to finally go because it's lovely & sunny... and then the fog line is a km down the road and -- no nice evening light.  And the tide was too far out to unpack the model boat.  Oh well.  Guess I will have to try another time.  It was nice to concentrate on photos like I used to though, and be away from my house for a while.  Getting absorbed in photography has always made the rest of the world disappear for a while.  I wish it lasted longer.





I find the flexibility one gets from yoga is often helpful when taking pictures... like this time, sprawled over the side of a rock outcrop to get the angle.












Making do with puddles cos the tide is too far out.















I was hoping for shiny treasure in the evening sun.  Next time maybe.

Thanks for looking!

[davidd]

Tide pools!
Mysterious misty fog!
The strange squishy silence of a low tide!
Crannies among the rocks!
And no people anywhere to be seen!

These pictures have me missing the too-perfect-to-be-real coastlines of my youth! When I was a kid, we did "family trips to the coast" two or three times a year. The best of those times were when we stayed in "the cabin," an oceanfront cabin owned by friends of my parents... back when "cabin" actually meant "a cabin," small and rustic with eksposed 2x4 wall joists and a wood stove, before the millionaire mansions and resort hotels had been built, when it was possible to walk down the beach and be surrounded by nothing but fog and driftwood and the surf and the sand.

It's all built up along there now. I don't know how the marshlands and forest got turned over to developers, but it did.

This action figure is amazingly awesome! Your posing is superb, and the setting is priceless.

I look at these pictures and I'm visualizing the challenge of doing up all those straps and buckles... and then hoping things don't break or fall off while setting up a picture.

How do you keep the hair from getting all frizzy while doing multiple outdoor shots? The hair of all my dolls goes "insta-frizz" no matter what I do to it.

I love that pic of Cap'n Sofia standing in the nook among the rocks, the damp sand at her feet looking like the surf could roll back in at any moment. It reminds me of eksploring among the crannies beneath the Heceta Head Lighthouse in Oregon.

[fishy]

Great photos!

[Alliecat]

Thank you both
Her hair is only not frizzy because she's only had 2 outings. I'll have to be really careful. Her 2 little braids will have to be combed around. For the others, I just wet-comb their hair now & then. Some of them are a bit frizzy, and the ringlets are just -- ugh!

Those rustic "oceanfront cabins" now cost a million bucks. (At least in the minds of some ridiculous sellers/realtors.)
And it wasn't as un-peopley as I hoped... the people walking the dog came to the edge of the beach and turned the other way, but there were a couple of loud guys in a pickup who went on down the shore probably to pick periwinkles. I was far enough away that probably no one could really tell what I was doing.
I want my own beach