Dolls Ahoy!

So, some more of those recently-thrifted pink-haired cheapy-possibly-knock-off dolls got recapitated.  Yes, it does amuse me immensely to put heads from small dolls on larger bodies.  It’s amazing how often it looks much better than expected.  The paint quality on these was pretty horrible, so I spent some time touching up their eyes–which are still pretty horrible, but improved.  For now, I’m just calling them The Twins.

still thinkin bout these outfits 🤩

Surprisingly, I do still have the clothes and shoes XD (although the dress has been on the same doll for probably six years)

I made these custom action figures right around 10 years ago, thought maybe some people here might like to see ‘em.  (They’re long gone.)  It all started when I saw the Lanard Ultra Corps guy who looked very much like like Teal'c.  A Meryl Silverburgh figure became the base for Carter, X-Files Ken and Jewel Secrets Ken, with a few extra lines carved into his face (thanks to Zeo for that one!) on new bodies became Daniel and O'Neill, respectively.  I sculpted Carter & O'Neill’s hair, and I’m pretty sure I had to sand off the hair on Teal'c.  I repainted everybody and made their shirts and pants, using standard action figure stuff for everything else. (I made only one jacket, scanning some 1:1 patches my dad had and printing them to scale on opaque iron-on film.  I also printed them full size and ironed them onto a t-shirt for Dad…)  The staff weapon and zat were scratch built; I remember finding some perfectly-shaped beads to stick onto a bamboo skewer as the base for the staff weapon, covering it all with epoxy putty (and, ultimately, acrylic paint), and I think the zat was built entirely from epoxy putty.

(Yeah, the quality of these pictures isn’t the best, but, like I said:  10 years ago.)

(the above post is itself from over ten years ago now)

A discussion of Rocker Ken made me think of these customs, which were as close as I ever got to being in any kind of fandom

Taking a moment to acknowledge the efforts of the Goodwill employee(s) who staged this XD I see you, friend.

I thought I'd post some detail photos of the old Halloween Patchwork Projects. This is the first one I did, in 2020

I chose the fabrics from what was in my stash, initially going for things that had similar feelings, then refining the print selection by color. I am still caught by (delighted) surprise by the color combination.

Someone just reblogged this allowing me to only just now catch a typo in it (now fixed)

Hello! I don't have any new designs prepared for today, so I invite you to have a look at what I've shared so far. Thanks!

Some examples of what you'll find ✨

I know nobody has any money, I'm just still really happy with these designs

Custom airbrushed by @dollsahoy 💜💚

Palace Pets head on Breyer horserider body

I was looking for my hot glue sticks, instead I found my catwalk kitty heads. Which you know, is nice because i've had a spare Shadow High doll laying around from a bundle specifically FOR this catwalk kitty head.

So Jet got a body at long last.

I ended up cutting the neck hole a little larger so it could go on better but I still had to really shove it and fight it to get it to sit properly.

Im still not sure the neck isn't too wide for the head but eh, it's good enough and she gets a fabulous wardrobe of clothing, shoes etc and articuation so it's a tradeoff i'll accept.

I will need to get bodies for the other two heads at some point.

Jade has spent days with peroxide on her yellowing and sitting on a radiator. I tried a window but the sunlight wasn't doing much and heat seemed to be far more effective. Something i've also found with zit cream. It's not fully gone, but it's good enough for now.

Her hair has been pretty savagely cut and it's bizarre because her hair wasn't long to begin with. But some "little darling" has hacked it really badly, especially at the back where it took quite some finessing to cover the bald patches.

I feel she'd benefit from at the very least getting the back of her head rerooted but I don't wanna right now. Also her rooting pattern is very complicated and unusual. She has multiple thatched part lines, for each pigtail. I fully understand why they simplified her hairstyle in later editions because it's a really odd way to root hair.

This hairstyle makes me think of Cynthia from Rugrats hahahahaha.

I feel like she needs a punky outfit so i'll have to have a dig through my stash.

I also re-repainted Dayna a while back but never took photos. I'm a lot happier with this attempt. I used some special sparkly paints for her eyes and makeup which gives her a lovely subtle shimmer in the light.

And I found the brown cat fox thing.

Interestingly, they actually have different faces. Brown has freckles and a wider face while orange's face is slimmer. Orange's head doesn't sit at quite such a sassy angle either. Which is curious.

But yeah, I wish I knew what the hell these little guys were because they're really cute but also extremely strange. Their shape reads more fox to me than cat, but then they have that single coloured sock and whiskers which reads cat and they have this strange moulded section on the top of their head which seems to encourage their hair to be braided into three sections, one for each channel.

They are weird and cheap little bootleg toys but I love them.

I would very much like to find my damn glue sticks though.

If anyone is wondering how the 14 inch Mego Creature of the Black Lagoon looks next to a Barbie sized figure I definitely think it works for 1/6th scale. Since I have plans to customise this figure I wouldn't use it for my Barbies, however I think it would as is.

Also just some pics of the Creature's body, how his feet detach and what comes off of him. He definitely has that Mego feeling to his design, which makes me glad I can convert him to a fashion doll styling as I fully intend to make him new clothes and fit my aesthetic better.

Surprisingly, his head, chest plate, hands and feet DO match his body but all of the paint has made it mismatch.

Part of the reason why I pass up on most Skullector releases is because I like to ruminate on more expensive dolls and I find the idea of FOMO as a selling point to be super unappealing. So while I wasn't gearing up to get the Skullector Creature of the Black Lagoon, she did end up on my wishlist after seeing others reviews of her due to how unique she looks.

It wasn't until @jackdkay offered a trade for her that I even thought she was gonna be in my hands. But I'm really glad I did though as she's a lot more breathtaking in person.

While I do love the sculpting on the accessories I really am sad that Mattel couldn't have tooled a new body for her since I find them reusing the Jinafire body to be a big slight against the doll overall. I'm also sad the doll is so limited otherwise I would have sliced off the fins and attached them directly to her body. The sculpting on both her head and hands arte incredible, especially since the hands are larger than a normal doll's finned hands, so the lack of body detail extra sucks.

Her bodysuit and train are playline fare so there's not much to say except it's there.

I have no idea what quality control went into this doll, but her crown was broken in half and the tips of her elbow posts were snapped off inside her body but I was able to repair her crown by drilling three holes in each side and gluing in three pieces of wire to reinforce the joint.

All in all, I'm definitely going to redress and play around with this doll but I'm glad to have added this doll to my collection.

Here's my Lagoona with her Black Lagoon counterpart. Since Creature of the Black Lagoon has a lot more legal stuff tied up compared to the other classic Monsters, Lagoona is at this weird impasse with her design but I always feel like her dad IS the Creature because I refuse to acknowledge the ugly ass Great Scarrier Reef designs.

I think it's funny that the initial reason for Lagoona's appearance is the fact her mum is a sea nympth and I assume that's to explain why she looks a lot less like her dad. Eventually I would love to make her mum but that requires some careful thought about it.

I know doll companies don't wanna make green dolls but I do love how saturated and intense the Skullector doll looks next to Lagoona.

Here is the dress I made in the video. After a day of evaluating it, I realized that the amount of fabric at the hip seam did end up making that area just a bit too bulky and small, and that's forcing the whole bodice up so that the shoulders want to hover a little. Still, it's good enough.

I also forgot to mention that I painted over this doll's (Fashionistas Blue Brocade's head) original yellow eyes

which 1:6 dolls have smaller hips? lord knows I don't know hah

not lol omg surely 😆

that pink streaked eyelet really is the perfect material for this flower petal lookin dress 😍 though I don't see bright dots of green peeking through like I thought we might. surprising amount of coverage for something with holes in it

I have loosened the hook and loop tape overlap at the bottom and it fits better now XD

I hadn't, as I'm sure will surprise no-one, put much thought into which fabric I'd use for this project. "It's pink" and "I have a decent amount of it" were the main factors for the outside, and the lining was pretty much "oh, green is a good contrast to pink, if it shows through the holes" and "I could probably use up almost all of this green"

I did think of making the bodice green (maybe not the lining green), but decided to keep it simple...relatively

The more I plan a project, the higher my expectations are for it, and the less fun I have making it. I know I need to get over that XD

Here it is, the one hour and forty minute video of me mumbling along as I try out an idea I had for a doll dress

As always, my long, rambling videos like this are meant as background noise, to keep you company while you do your own doll and hobby things.

But! If you do want to try making something like this, I think there might be enough actual information to help!