davidd’s A DOLL A DAY 2022

[davidd]

Oh boy, more figures.  Do you have characters in mind for them?  Hope we'll get to see them.
I wonder how weird Pullip heads would look on these bodies.  The flexibility would be nice.

I had characters in mind for the TBLeague male body and for two of the female Jiaou bodies. The third Jiaou female body was, if I recall correctly, intended to be a costumed alternate body for an existing character to reduce the necessity of costume changes between photostory scenes. The TBLeague female body is a new release, and I was curious to see how it compared to a similar "anime style" body released a couple of years ago, but I had no specific purpose for it in mind.

Pullip heads on seamless bodies look surprisingly not-weird. They can even look kind of elegant. Of course, they can also be used for... ermmm... questionable content. There's an Instagram account with a specific focus on Pullip heads on seamless bodies. Be advised, some (most) images posted to this account are Not Safe For Work (NSFW) and feature 18+ scenes of dolly nudity. If you scroll past that stuff, you can find some pretty pix. It will give you a good idea of what Pullip heads look like on seamless bodies, both clothed and unclothed.

To reiterate: potential dolly nudity in the following link:

https://www.instagram.com/delicieuse.alicia/

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15 September - A Doll A Day 2022:
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15 September - Drawing a Bead

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Better head positioning this time.

[Alliecat]

Bah, I can't see instagram anyway on my laptops since they locked me out for my crummy internet service. And the tiny phone screen is most unappealing.

Good use of DOF on this one!

[davidd]

Bah, I can't see instagram anyway on my laptops since they locked me out for my crummy internet service.  And the tiny phone screen is most unappealing.

Good use of DOF on this one!

Have you ever tried using your phone as a "mobile hot spot" and tethering (linking) your computer to the Internet via your phone? The technique uses phone data, so you have to be aware of the data limits of your plan if your plan has limits. Sometimes I have to resort to phone tethering when my almost-as-crummy-as-yours rural Internet is not up to the task. It's kind of absurd that mobile phone data transmission can be faster and more stable than a hardwired Internet connection.

The image, with selective focus on the firearm, was inspired by a conversation on an action figure forum about "trigger fingers" on figures. Some of the newer military figures are being released with the trigger finger in what is called a "trigger discipline" position, with the finger straight and alongside the trigger guard rather than curved to loop through the trigger. For myself, I want my "action figures" to be ready for action, and if they have "gun hands" I want them to have their fingers on the triggers and ready to rock and roll!

Speaking of rock and roll, "gun hands" also make good "guitar playing hands" for music scenes.

I'm tired of political correctness infiltrating everything, even the position of action figure gun-holding hands. Another issue with more and more new figures, even detailed military figures, is the lack of an opening in the barrels of miniature firearms. I want the toy guns to have holes in them, like this one! Or at least a tiny dab of black paint. Many miniature weapons now lack this basic detail.

Plus, the "trigger discipline" position is not historically accurate. It only began to become a widespread practice in firearms training in the mid-1990s. Back in the "cowboy days," Sexy Cowgirl would have had her finger on the trigger.

Having "real action figure gun hands" with a "trigger finger" is another factor that has me leaning in the direction of keeping this figure around.

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16 September - A Doll A Day 2022:
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16 September - Unfinished Doll Chair

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As I'm clearing up piles of clutter, I keep running across bits and pieces of unfinished projects, like this chair in "Barbie scale" (1/6 scale) that I started... when? A year ago? Two years ago? When I find something like this, it brings me to a complete halt as I try to decide what to do with it. Since the priority is no longer there, do I toss it out? Since I already invested a fair amount of time in it, do I stop everything else and finish it now? Do I set it aside to finish later, which is exactly how it ended up unfinished and buried among the chaos in the first place?
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Cleaning off the "craft table" which was set up "temporarily" two years ago was intended to be an early summer project: dive in and get it done in an afternoon or two. Here we are, summer is over and autumn is upon us (in the northern hemisphere), and after failing time after time to get back to clearing off the table over the course of the summer, I'm trying, really trying, to get it done, but each layer I excavate reveals things like this that bring me to a physical and mental standstill. What should I do with it? What was I even making it for in the first place? How long would it take me to finish it? Do I need or want it anymore?
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This is just a little chair. I have two more chairs, bigger ones, in 1/3-scale "Smart Doll" size, out in the storage shed that I never finished.
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The Smart Doll chairs can wait. I mustn't allow other potential dilemmas to overwhelm the immediate dilemma before me at the moment.

[Alliecat]

Ah, it sounds like all my efforts… Think I’m going to clean something up and then get stalled. Maybe you could put these unfinished craft things all in a box together so you can move on to the stuff that is easier to get rid of, and then you could go back and address the box. You’d have got rid of the rest of the stuff and felt like you accomplished something. I ought to try that.

Um... Instagram locked me out, not the laptops themselves. Instagram doesn’t like the way the Internet works here which makes it seem like a different location every time I sign into things. Also, I’m only using Wi-Fi with them anyway, as well as on the phone. It doesn’t even have a SIM in it. It’s just for quick Internet at home or Wi-Fi when traveling. Well, back when I was travelling

[davidd]

Maybe you could put these unfinished craft things all in a box together so you can move on to the stuff that is easier to get rid of, and then you could go back and address the box. 

I considered that approach, but I've tried it in the past, and I end up with a box of unfinished projects and related clutter that "I might need for one of those projects." Another challenge I'm facing is thinning down my boxes of random junk -- literal junk, like bits of plastic and string and drinking straws and plastic lids from juice bottles -- that I have accumulated "because I might have a use for that later." I forget what's in the boxes, of course, or I can't find what I think I remember tossing in to one of those boxes when I need it.

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17 September - A Doll A Day 2022:
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I don't usually do "flashback" pics for A Doll A Day, but today I'm making an exception.
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17 September - Mattel Barbie - The Look: City Chic

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The reason I'm posting a "flashback" pic is because I just happened to look up this 2017 Barbie release, which I no longer own, on eBay today, wondering if the after-market price has softened at all.
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The after-market price has NOT softened.
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I got greedy and sold this doll after having it for about a year when the price for a loose, unboxed figure reached nearly three times what I originally paid, or around a hundred bucks. Today this doll sells for between $200 and $300 for a loose nude doll without clothes, around $300 to $500 for an unboxed doll with clothing, and $700 and up for a mint-in-box example!
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I think I'm gonna cry now.  
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Okay... posting a "throwback" pic for A Doll A Day doesn't really count, so here's a real pic:
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17 September - Action Figure Chair

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I finished up the chair I found on the clutter pile. The cord trim could have been done a bit better, and I should have used a thinner type of cord, but it's just a piece of background furniture, and now it's functional rather than being half-assed-finished, so there ya go. This is the action figure the chair was designed for in the first place.
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Trivia of zero interest: the feet of the chair (which are largely invisible from most photo angles) are made from actual empty shell casings... from .375 Holland & Holland Magnum Ex-press cartridges, if such picayune detail is of any interest, which it shouldn't be. The metal casings make solid, stable feet for miniature furniture, though, so there's that.
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And hey, the Barbie who is worth a small fortune may be gone, but think of all the money I save by making rather than buying my doll furniture.

[Alliecat]

She is very pretty -- how come she is so pricey? I saw a couple on Mercari & eBay for $1000

Yay for finishing a project. It is kind of a fun detail to make the chair feet out of something like that. Peeking out at the bottom there, they look good. Your model looks rather critical though

[davidd]

She is very pretty -- how come she is so pricey?  I saw a couple on Mercari & eBay for $1000  

Yay for finishing a project.  It is kind of a fun detail to make the chair feet out of something like that.  Peeking out at the bottom there, they look good.  Your model looks rather critical though 

I had no idea when I purchased, and then sold, the City Chic Barbie that she would end up being an extremely limited edition and in high demand. I should have known. The sweater-dress is one of the nicer Barbie outfits I have personally seen. And the doll itself has a very pretty head sculpt. I do recall, now, that one of the reasons I sold that Barbie is that she was difficult to photograph. The screen-printed eyes were extremely reflective, in that flat, fake, obviously painted sort of way. I just have to tell myself that I invested the proceeds from the sale wisely and generated far more than $500 in value over time... although the reality is probably that I just pissed it away.

Yeah, I think my thinking was that the empty brass shells, in addition to looking pretty cool, resembled miniature cannon shells, and seemed like the kind of thing this Old Soldier might have in his office to remind him of his younger days in the trenches with an artillery brigade. Plus, as I mentioned, they make stable, weighted feet for miniature furniture.

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18 September - A Doll A Day 2022:
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18 September – The Space Girls Found the Templates
for Rebuilding their Rocketship

While clearing, organizing, sorting, and sitting and sobbing out of frustration and rage, I found these Space Girls, and later I found the paper templates I made as the first, and only so far, step in building them a rocketship interior.

Finding the Space Girls reminded me why I purchased one of those doll bodies pictured a few days ago. I believe one of those bodies was intended to become a Space Girl, but I don't remember if she was going to be Posh Space or Sporty Space.

[Alliecat]

I don't remember if she was going to be Posh Space or Sporty Space.

Ha!

Oh boy, do I identify with the frustration at the clutter. I have a quote stuck on the fridge about too much mass making a black hole an "eternal trap". It was supposed to be motivating, but it's just kind of depressing

I noted a similar issue with my few Barbies, Glori especially. The lighting can be a bit tricky, to not get the eye glare.

[davidd]

I have a quote stuck on the fridge about too much mass making a black hole an "eternal trap"....

I noted a similar issue with my few Barbies, Glori especially.  The lighting can be a bit tricky, to not get the eye glare.

Aye, th' Black Hold o' Calcutta, it were called on an Orient trade merchantman I knew! Lubbers an' sea-dogs alike were afeared to venture in to those Stygian depths, where th' darkness gripped wi' a strength like the arms o' th' Kraken itself!

The quote itself strengthens the dismal draw of the dismal darkness, creating a self fulfilling prophecy.

Hence th' eye-patch, ye scalawag! Ye ought ter know that from yer time before th' mast!

Perhaps an eye patch would have offered a solution! It is usually only one eye that catches the light wrong! Wish I'd thought of that before!

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19 September - A Doll A Day 2022:
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19 September – Pirates & Plunder

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Cap'n Addie Tips Back a Tankard at the Admiral Benbow Inn
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[Alliecat]

Aww. She is a very cute little pirate. She's a very long way from salt water, though

[davidd]

She's a very long way from salt water, though.

Yeah, about 800 direct line miles from an ocean (that's about 1300 kilometers for those who have fallen under the thrall of the One World Cabal), but only 215 miles (350 kilometers) to the Great Salt Lake. Unfortunately, the Great Salt Lake is not deep enough for ships. In many places it is sufficiently shallow that one might walk most of the way across.

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20 September - A Doll A Day 2022:
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20 September – TBLeague "Super Flexible" S41 Figure
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The face is kind of cute, although to me that face looks more like a Goth Girl than a Bikini Babe.

Not that I have a problem with Goth Girl Bikini Babes.

This is what TBLeague considers to be a "medium bust" size, by the way.  

And yes, the pictures are a little bit blurry. Camera shake under poor lighting, totally the fault of the photographer.

[Alliecat]

She looks very sweet!
The first thing through my mind when I saw the box with "super flexible" was... "I really need to start doing yoga again!!"
Do they all have the same issues with clothes being sticky and hard to get on? I think you said something about the texture of the skin in the past?
Haha, I thought of Salt Lake when I wrote that.

[davidd]

Do they all have the same issues with clothes being sticky and hard to get on?  I think you said something about the texture of the skin in the past?

Applying a light dusting of corn starch or baby powder reduces the surface friction considerably. Some hobbyists cover the limbs with plastic cling wrap to aid in dressing the figures.

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21 September – A Doll A Day 2022:
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21 September – Another Unopened Parcel!

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It is Securely Packaged, Whatever It Is!

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Another Layer of Packing Material!

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It's.. it's... A ROBOT!

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It's... it's... a Robot with a MUSTACHE!

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THERE'S the Scary Robot Face, Hidden Under the Scary Mustache Mask!

[Alliecat]

Is he supposed to be a character from something, or a random design?
And do you actually forget what's in all these packages?

[davidd]

Is he supposed to be a character from something, or a random design?
And do you actually forget what's in all these packages?

The robot is called a Dr. X Toxic Robot, and was an "enemy" character from the 1990s Hasbro Action Man (similar to GI Joe) figure line marketed in the UK, Europe, and Australia.

Usually I have an approximate idea of what is in the parcels. I am rarely pleasantly surprised by something unex-pected, but sometimes disappointed when I do not find what I was looking for.

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22 September - A Doll A Day 2022:
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22 September - In a cabinet in the basement, Ari finds a relic from long ago