davidd's A Doll A Day Challenge 2020

[Lejays17]

The perspective of Clawdeen in the dungeon is neat.

And. Comment on the cicada pics on IG already, but they’re great

[Alliecat]

WHAT a cool bug. Cicadas are the sound of summer childhood for me... very uncommon where I am now though. Was it just-hatched, making it easy to handle, or are they just cooperative anyway?

[Elfy]

We get the cicadas in summer and they are very much the sound of an Aussie summer. The hotter it gets the louder they seem to be.

[werepuppy]

Such wonderful shots!

[davidd]

29 May – "Where's My Lando?"

I'm not supposed to be "collecting" (or "hoarding") dolls and toys anymore... because of this guy and his Power of the Force pals.

Some years ago now, Star Wars figure collecting became a huge fad, like Beanie Babies and rare Magic the Gathering cards. A friend and I fell in to the profit-driven madness, and spent many an hour scouring department stores and toy stores looking for "rare" figures, like Lando Calrissian and Princess Leia and some version of Boba Fett with... I don't remember if it was full circles or half circles on his gloves. We spent a lot of time and a fair bit of money acquiring and hoarding these figures, planning to cash in big.

Crash big, more like. Yes, the original 1977 era Star Wars figures were becoming valuable because kids bought them to play with them, and relatively few remained mint-on-card. Not the case with these Power of the Force figures. Instead, it seemed that the only people buying them were collectors and speculators, so almost all of them remained mint-on-card.

Years later, both my friend and I looked at the several large storage boxes of virtually worthless Star Wars: Power of the Force figures we had each been lugging around and storing and said to each other, "never again!"

As I mentioned, the Lando figure seen here was, at the time, considered a comparatively challenging figure to find. My friend, living in another state, found one for me, I sent him the money for it, and he was supposed to drop it in the mail to me. He claims he did, I don't recall ever receiving it, and for a number of years a running gag between us was the question, "hey, where's my Lando?"

Today you can find Lando, mint on card, on eBay for two bucks. Less than original retail.

For a long time I managed to avoid "toy speculation." I began to waver when Monster High was released, and began buying multiples of some of the releases I liked, but those have nearly all since been either opened or sold. I still sometimes purchase multiples of certain figures – hello, Pullip Amelia – but now it's because I like them, not for hoarding or speculative purposes, and most of them get opened and the packaging is discarded.

I mostly learned my lesson with The Power of the Force.

Mostly.

My friend and I were chatting about this misguided time in our lives today (oh, what rebels we were in our younger youth, hoarding Star Wars figures), and he sent me this picture of a Power of the Force Lando figure that he has hanging on the wall of his garage as a reminder.

That's probably my Lando figure. 

At least now I know where it is!

[werepuppy]

Ahhh, the collecting boom... I think that really messed up a lot of people in a lot of different hobbies, toys and comics being the big ones.

I vaguely remember seeing these figures, and I always thought they were decent enough for their scale. I can see why you'd think of them as the next big thing collecting wise, especially since Star Wars fandom can be quite... devoted.

But I agree with your current thinking - multiples only of things you really, really like.

Still, a fun glimpse into your collecting past!

[neon_jellyfish]

Well, at least the Lando mystery is now solved

You can say that your collection stretches over multiple states

[davidd]

Well, that was a staggeringly unpopular post yesterday! Let's see if we can lower the bar yet again:

30 May – Where Student Bodies Lie

These poor Monster High ghouls... Frankie and Ghoulia, I believe... lost their heads back in lucky 2013 or so, unfortunate victims of a ghoulish head-swapping eggsperiment involving Novi Stars dolls. Unfortunately, fitting the Novi Stars heads on to the Monster High bodies required severing the neck ball joint. The final result was interesting, but not long-term engaging, and the Novi Star heads eventually migrated back to their original bodies.

I'm hoping I still have the Monster High heads around here somewhere. If I can find them, I may try to reconstruct the neck ball using... I don't know, bolts and screws and epoxy putty or something. The necks were severed somewhat low, so I do not know if an aesthetically pleasing reconstruction is feasible.

Also, and unrelated: I was just looking around on eBay. Why is the Monster High Draculaura Newspaper Club costume so ekspensive on the secondary market? I wish I had stockpiled those instead of Star Wars figures!

[Alliecat]

Wouldn't it be funny if you really did get the Lando and forgot about him, and then it turned out you found him along with those MH heads in the bottom of a box somewhere
I am curious what figures or dolls, if any, were really worth stockpiling with profits in mind. I mean, once in a while you come across an article about how some vintage toy is now selling for tons of money, but isn't that rather the exception? I guess I've never thought toys were a good investment for profit. Even with the current financial trainwreck, I might still prefer some (relatively?) solid stocks over toys if I wanted to make some $$.

[davidd]

I am curious what figures or dolls, if any, were really worth stockpiling with profits in mind.  I mean, once in a while you come across an article about how some vintage toy is now selling for tons of money, but isn't that rather the exception? 

The Monster High SDCC (San Diego Comic Con) exclusive Frankie Stein was available online after the Con for as low as $40. I think I bought five of them. A few years later, they were selling for $250 to $300. I sold all of mine... even though it is the single coolest MH figure ever released... because I did not want to open them if they were worth that much money, and I did not want to hassle with storing them while trying to keep them in pristine mint condition. I think that was the only time I turned a profit buying and selling toys.

[Elfy]

I’m sure some of your dolls with heads could have ghoulish fun with the severed heads if you can locate them.

[neon_jellyfish]

Those are Skull Shores Ghoulia's and Gloom Beach Frankie's remains, but I don't recognize that blue cardigan thing Frankie's corpse is wearing. Is it MH stock (I'm not sure, but I don't think it is...)?

[werepuppy]

It would be interesting to see how to manage to rebuild the neck joint.

[Lejays17]

Why is it not surprising there’s decapitated dollies in the Dungeon.

I hope that you will be able to re-head them - assuming you find their heads of course!

[davidd]

... but I don't recognize that blue cardigan thing Frankie's corpse is wearing. Is it MH stock (I'm not sure, but I don't think it is...)?

I believe the cape may be a Bratzillaz costume piece, but I'm not sure, and the tag is missing.

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31 May – New Bratz (Bratz 2.0?) Study Abroad Sasha among the storage tubs