Males of different types

It was challenging fun looking for male donor options in Greenhills.

I found another body like Arch’s (which I couldn’t help purchasing simply because I know these male bods are great at posing, with very realistic musculature, and they work as partners for Poppy Parker), and also an intriguing brandless made-in-China piece that seemed to be made of brittle plastic like Obitsu, but which I couldn’t help buying because it was impressively taller than the others, and it was only ₱400, complete with hands, feet and stand. (This was the body used to complete Josh, the guy in the blue shirt. Notice how he towers over Arch and even over Legolas, who seems to be a taller-than-usual Ken.) I think I’ll try to get more of these, if I can…I was impressed at how this body could be used to make partners for the tall Nuface girls (Chiara stands respectfully near enough to Josh to show the height.)

I had actually ordered a “taller” body from Hong Kong, together with a Daniel Craig head, and when the parcel arrived, I wasted no time in putting him together…

He’s a great height, and admittedly has better musculature than Josh does…but at ₱400, Josh’s body can’t be beat in terms of a couple of spares to have around.

I suppose I could fall back on keeping my eyes peeled for CI Hommes…but I prefer the more realistic facial expressions of the action figure heads, which are great for making stories, coupled with the realistic hand attachments.

 

It’s a Guy Thing…

I like the idea of being able to “put together” guys who look the way I want them to look.

FR Hommes are in short supply (and good luck getting them at a pocket-friendly price if you missed pre-orders…) and a lot of them look – uhmmm – like they are modeling, to put it politely 🙂 (in short…staring at a camera or off into space.) Ken variants are often too smiley for me…and they have one major disadvantage: they are kind of short compared to most FR ladies (except Poppy Parker, who is blessed with the ability to go down on flat feet. So Poppy gets her pick of the guys, if not of the shoes…)

I love the faces of the 1:6 action figures (so realistic!) but sadly, the 1:6 action figure stands 12″ or slightly shorter…not too convincing next to a nuface girl.

I need my guys to be tall…sometimes extra tall, as in the case of Josh, who is supposed to be a basketball player (the shot above was fudged; he is standing on a suitcase that’s lying on its side, but he makes the shot work because he has a rather large head…)

The hunt was on for body donors other than Ken!

 

And a new story begins…

I was so excited about Hippie Dippy Poppy Parker…and when she finally arrived, I was stunned to find that my initial reaction was not awe but of course one-step-back variety.

She just seemed to come across a bit too “strong”, her features seeming almost mannish from some angles and under certain lighting conditions. I wasn’t sure what kind of story I could weave from her, much less find a partner. She didn’t look like the type who’d hang around with with best friend or soulmate.

Then a Legolas Ken happened to come my way, and the minute I saw him, I realized that that perfect Tauriel was standing placidly in the display cabinet. Up until that moment, all I knew w that I wanted to give Hippie Dippy a good hair treatment because she came with her flaming tresses “bent” (I figured a hot water rinse would relax the strands.) It’s funny, because Evangeline Lilly, who played the written-just-for-the-movie character Tauriel, is known to be be very feminine actress, and yet to me Hippie Dippy seemed to give off the same kind of vibe as the lady elf born on the wrong side of the tracks (or whatever it is Elven transport goes on…)

The two met for the first time today:

He is “Legg”, for Michel Legrand (his parents are music buffs.)

She is “Tauri”, for Centauri (her parents are astronomy buffs.)

Both do archery.

This could be interesting.

The Right Type of Model

A couple of years ago, while purchasing items from an online store in China, I spotted these inexpensive white parachute pants that I figured one of the resident guys could use as pajama bottoms. I thought the drawstring detail was cute, just like some actual pajamas have.

To my disappointment, the pair that arrived looked nothing like the way they had in the picture.

Elegant Lady, sans Bump

I had Chiara go through a second round of treatment with hair conditioner and hot water, with even prettier results:

She looks positively regal, like a modern-day princess or queen in more relaxed attire.

Now I really must get her out of that pretty display-cabinet attire and into real everyday clothes.

The last time I got a pretty doll into the perfect attire, she went into the display cabinet and stayed there…and stayed there. I couldn’t make stories with her because I didn’t want to touch the perfect attire…so she became a victim of her success, to to speak, and ended up getting adopted out 😦

So it’s into more casual attire for Chiara…but she always looks perfect, anyway!

Bump Begone!

Wouldn’t It Be Loverly Eden, the first IFDC convention doll revealed, drew mixed reviews.

On one hand, her face mold is the much-coveted (and not often seen) Eden: a sure winner.

On the other hand, there was that too-tall hair 😦

I remembered reading then-Priscilla Beaulieu’s account of how the hairdresser Elvis Presley had hired created young Cilla’s new look, teasing and spraying her hair into an elaborate beehive but leaving a long curl that went down her front. That was the way Elvis liked Priscilla. I suppose this might have been the inspiration for Eden’s rather impractical hairstyle.

One thing I knew: that beehive had to go! I wanted Eden to live her everyday life like real women do…not be forever stuck in an evening gown and standing on display on a doll cabinet shelf, which is pretty much what her ornate hairstyle dictated.

I set to work studying how the hair had been crafted and put up in order to figure out how to take it down. After I got over the shock of discovering that she’d had dressmaker pins stuck into her head to hold that hairstyle in place (I counted four…), I was momentarily intimidated by the evident amount of work that had gone into getting that hairstyle together: did I even dare to take it down?

The “long pony” is actually a very small percentage of Eden’s hair: most of it is wound into a knot pressed against the back of her head…

At the crown of her head: a brioche! No wonder that hair stayed up forever!

One can just imagine the volume of styling gunk that went into keeping every strand of hair in place…it took more than 1.2 liters of very hot water to get most of the stiffness out.

I don’t think I got her hair totally gunk free, but the results so far have been totally worth it…and I don’t know why, but her face seemed to get even prettier!

Mood-Changing Redhead

Despite my resolve to stick with one redhead Poppy after missing pre-orders for Mood Changers Poppy, I dove right for the redhead after she started turning up new/nude on the Bay.

The combination of comic-strip red hair and grey eyes is sheer perfection:

A friend pointed out that she looks even better with her hair down…so it was a quick trip to the salon for Redhead, for a much-needed shampoo :

When her tresses dried, they were in gentle springy curls that hinted at a beautifully untethered sort of spirit:

Forgive yet another reference to Agent Scully…the resemblance was a bit too striking:

Shortly after, her raven-haired sister arrived, and I thought she looked like Miss Scarlet from the Clue board game, so I decided to name her Scarlet:

And that’s when Redhead’s perfect name came to me: Ravenna…Raven for short 😉

Baby It’s You to…Bad As I Wanna Be!

Never really looked at Baby It’s You Poppy (she’s cute, but with that immovable flip and bump, she seemed like just another cute face in the group scenes from the movie “Grease”)…until I saw one with her hair down.

Oh. My.

No, she hasn’t had her makeup redone: that same stock faceup that worked so well for Baby It’s You’s sweetie look goes inexplicably well with the loose (rather wild) platinum waves (now who would have thought that possible?)

Just a generic black jacket over a minidress and high boots, plus big hoop earrings, and Baby It’s You turns Bad As I Wanna Be!

I wish they’d release a Poppy who looked like this…

Visual challenges

Occasionally, a dolly friend and I will get into a serious discussion about how to execute a certain pose using a doll or two. I told her about a pose I envisioned which had the guy sitting or kneeling in front of the girl with his hands on her hips, and she split her sides laughing because it might look rated PG.

Challenged, I tried my hand at it. Arch’s articulation doesn’t allow for the kneeling to look natural, so I put him on one of the military folding chairs instead (it seems to suit him; bet he was a Marine in his past life…) I was surprised and pleased at the honesty that seemed to flow between the two…the expression on Arch’s face is so earnest. He admittedly emotes better than Jordan does, so she stays midway between profile and back view.

Apart from one picture where (a friend remarked) Arch seemed to be talking to Jordan’s chest, I think the photos pretty much said what I wanted 🙂

Youthquake Poppy Parker

Okay…so it started when I decided to pass up on Mood Changers Poppy Parker because the only head I wanted was the redhead (without having to pay for a three-headed doll with three outfits) and realized that I wasn’t qualified to get Hippie Dippy Poppy (lovely redhead…) at release price.

My friend remarked that Hippie Dippy looked like Youthquake, so I googled Youthquake, ogled at all the gorgeous owners’ pictures, fell in love with the owners’ pictures…and that’s why I almost didn’t recognize the used Poppy Parker identified only as “LE 400 redhead Poppy Parker.”

It turns out Youthquake Poppy disappointed a lot of excited collectors because instead of the layered red hair her promo pic had, the actual doll came in an extremely stiff bob.

Happily, letting down her bob, insisted those who owned her, involved just undoing the elastic under her hair and brushing all the red locks down. I happen to love this shade of red (the too-red-to-be-real cayenne shade that I saw a lot of women in the 70’s sporting…), and I was sold. So I bought the used doll, asked the seller if this was Youthquake, and she checked the doll’s stock clothes (not for sale) and replied, yes, she is…just forgot her name.

Last night I had the joy of welcoming her into our home!

She arrived so late, though, that there wasn’t much time to choose an outfit.

Luckily, Gillian isn’t a fussy one: denim vest, Licca tennis shoes, white shorts (one of the guys lent her his boxers…) and she settled down without fanfare.