... And Another Incident

OK, so an online seller invited me to join a Monster High and Ever After High Facebook group, and I'm like, not again... but maybe it's fine after two times of being alienated from my previous groups.

Today I shared these photos I took at the mall:

Lorna McNessie and Marisol Coxi have been marked down to P599.75. This is the lowest price I've seen yet.

Budget Ashlynn Ella's old and face sculpt.

So I shared these two things, and someone even liked my post. But now I went back to the group and my posts are gone? What the heck. But other new posts are still available. What the double heck. What did I even do this time? I stayed on topic, I was sharing information like the other people. These are even my own photos that I'm sharing without any concerns about copyright or whatever, and this is what I get in return. I checked the admins and moderators of the group, and I have a feeling it's one of the moderators who removed the post because of their abrasive personality, but there's no need for me to point fingers anymore because I was then ready to leave the group.

I'm done. I'm so done with Monster High and Ever After High Facebook groups. I'm so done.

/I talked to the administrator of the group. It turns out their moderators don't even know what "double posting" means because they thought I was double posting, lmao. Just because they already know about the reboot dolls and the marked down dolls, and somebody made similar posts about those topics as well, it doesn't mean that my posts are duplicates. Redundant? To them, yes. Duplicates? No. And my age was even asked. Um, what does my age have to do with incompetent group moderating? They must have thought I raised this concern because I'm a child. Right... this coming from twenty-something people who took up moderating roles but did not even know what double posting actually means until today. Try to make sense of that. /rant

Snubbed

So it happened again.

I saw someone selling a certain doll sweater in an online selling group, and they said in the description of their post that the sweater is from an unknown source. I then left a comment saying it's the quidditch (a wizard sport) sweater worn by Mattel Harry Potter to help identify the doll that owns the sweater. I mean, sure, they didn't ask help to identify the sweater, but they did write in the description that it's from an unknown source. If you felt the need to mention that, doesn't it mean you are at least curious about where the item came from?

Well, I went back to the post because I wanted to look at the sweater again, and I found out that my comment has been deleted. Plus the description of the item being sold was not edited even though I've already identified the doll.

I would have been their potential customer had they struck a conversation with me in the comments, because I have a Mattel Harry Potter doll that could totally wear that sweater, and I don't mind getting an extra piece of clothing bundled with the sweater because it might fit my other dolls. But no.

Well, that sucks.

I don't know what's the deal but this is the second time I felt alienated from a local Monster High/Ever After High Facebook group. I mean it's nice to see all the photos, and it's definitely normal for the members to fawn over them. That's probably the reaction the owner of the post is expecting from their photos. Doll news and other discussions about dolls though, they seem a bit allergic to it? What gives?

One time I left a comment on a doll. In my comment I was able to identify the doll, then said the doll's hair and lips look really nice. Pretty short and generic for a comment. But I got a cold "Ok" from the owner. Huh?

Then today I posted the news early morning that EAH dolls are finally at Toy Kingdom. I got one person asking me about them, so I gave them more information. After a few hours though, the post is gone. What is the admin's problem? Do they not want other people to get their EAH dolls locally?

Even though I wasn't banned at all, I decided to leave the group, and that marks the last time I join a Facebook group dedicated to MH and EAH.

I think my kind of people would be over at Tumblr, who is open for news sharing, inquiries, and specially sharing their own toys. Next would be the ones with their own doll blogs. The ones I meet on Facebook are normally purists: those that buy dolls brand new and keep them in their original outfits and hair styles. That's totally fine. I mean, MH and EAH styles are normally colour-coordinated because of their skin colour, so it figures that some owners just stick to the doll's original appearance. From my experience though, I rarely saw people there who share their work on their rescued dolls, like there's an invisible cloud of shame for doing that, which I do not get at all. 

That's really it. I'm done. I'll stick to the local selling Facebook groups because at least I can ask questions about some of the dolls, and I get to see many types, and if I get lucky, I can score some dolls for a very cheap price. But if my experience there turns into crap as well, ah then bless whatever that made that possible.

Fixing Monster High dolls with no arms

A while back, I joined a Monster High / Ever After High group on Facebook but for some reason I got kicked out and blocked. I don't know what I did wrong. I'm guessing it's because I mentioned a non-MH or -EAH doll in one of my posts, but my goodness, there was no warning issued to me. I just got blocked right away. I don't even know how I could make amends or whatever. Oh well. It's no big deal. I still get my doll news on Tumblr.

Anyway, I just want to share the tip I posted on that Facebook group. I thrift Monster High dolls and usually find them with no arms. I don't have the money to buy Create-A-Monster packs to get extra arms, and buying extra arms off of the Mattel website or from online sellers is quite a hassle for me. So I thought of a solution. Behold:

These are plastic coffee stirrers with a hand design on each end. I thought of hacking these and turning them into replacement arms for my Monster High dolls.

Note that the following pics I'm posting were taken back in April, when I was just starting to build up my doll collection.

A pack of 5 stirrers can cost from P40 to P65. I can find these at Landmark department store or Office Warehouse. So far I've bought four packs on two different occasions.

I had to cut off the hands, then the thin part of the stirrer (which is in the middle) so that the width of the hand and that thin part would match when I glue them together.

I used tape at first to put them together and see how they'd look like on a Monster High doll.

Not bad. This was my first try on my first Monster High doll ever, Operetta, and the length of the arms I made for her was quite long. I have to shorten the hands a bit. Since then, I thought of making better replacement arms and using better tools.

I figured that I needed a hand saw for the job because using a craft knife was just time-consuming, so I bought one at Daiso for P88. My sister also gave me a few rolls of wire she used back in her college days so I also used those for this project.

I asked for my brother to buy me a good quality glue gun in America, then I forgot that the voltage in America and in the Philippines differ, so I have to use a transformer to operate the glue gun. It's all right because when we cleared out my late grandfather's and aunt's estate from their house, my dad found a transformer. Yay! I used the hot glue and it worked for a while until some of the hands I stuck together started to fall off. It seems that I should use super glue for this project instead. I'll think about it.

The wire really did come in handy because I can pose the new arms of my dolls much better.

Here's a naked Clawdeen modelling her new arms. Too bad her wrist is not articulated but I can deal with it. This is one of the pics I shared in the MH-EAH Facebook group.

And for fun, here's Frankie wearing a Daiso school uniform, a jelly bag, and CDR-King shoes. Her chair is by Mattel. This is the other photo I shared in the FB group before I got kicked out. BOO.