This is my first custom doll ever and I love and hate it. I learned so much when I was customising this doll.
I believe this is the first photo I took of the doll when it was finished.
The face is a Barbie? I'm not sure. I just found this doll head with bad hair in our garage. The body is definitely a Barbie. It has articulation points on the knee and flat feet. Unfortunately it has bent arms so it was hard to pose her. She is also busty and we all know Hit Girl isn't busty. I guess you can say this is an older version of Hit Girl. Hit Woman??
Her Mindy stick (that's what she calls her weapon because her name in real life is Mindy) resting on her hands is just made from a cuticle pusher. I wrapped the middle in masking tape then shaded it with a black marker pen.
Her hair is rerooted. I found cheap plastic purple hair extensions for P25 a piece and I think I used up four of those, being careful not to waste anything. It was a nightmare rerooting hair. I didn't know how to reroot at first so I thought of doing it my own way. I inserted hair through a needle hole with a threader (I broke two in the process) then knotted one end of the hair, then poked the head with the needle through the neck hole. It was a gruelling process that I decided to just look up online how to do it. That's when I learned how to make and use a rerooting tool which is simply just a needle with a broken eye (purposefully cut in an angle by nail clippers) and a handle of an x-acto or craft knife. With this tool, I don't have to insert the needle from the neck hole. I just have to poke the broken eye of the needle through the holes of the head that were already there. Much easier.
The hair is just bad. It won't stay down specially the hairstyle is short like this. I had to make a plastic ring and put it around her face. It's not pretty.
For Toy Con, I trimmed her hair much shorter.
Her face mask is made from an old black shirt that I cut and wrapped around her face. The mask also serves the purpose of hiding the pink stain on her face. I chose this doll head even with the stain because of her nude lips.
Her cape is made of the same shirt fabric. Her one-piece suit is not the purple colour I wanted and the fabric is not stretchy enough but it was the closest and cheapest I could find at the time.
The doll is so busty that she's bursting at the seams on the sides. I found it hard to contour her body using this fabric. I also didn't hem the sleeves. I just folded them in and hope for the best it won't fray because this fabric frays like crazy.
Her gloves are painted on with black nail polish.
Her skirt is actually blue and white plaid, but because I couldn't find anything purple and plaid, I just decided to dip the one I found in purple stamp pad ink.
Her belt is made of silicone bracelets. I realised that glue doesn't work very well with silicone because of the slippery rubber material so eventually this belt fell apart. It only did after
I exhibited her at Toy Con last year.
Her shoulder and knee pads are actually... fake nails. I painted them black with nail polish then I glued them on her outfit.
The bands around her thighs holding her knives are just from the black shirt I mentioned earlier. Her knives (not visible in the photo) are just clear plastic that I cut into dagger shape and painted with silver nail polish, and black marker pen for detail.
Her boots are not really boots but just a feet wrap. The material is from the black shirt.
Her doll stand is just made up of a balloon stick and a jar lid that I covered in wrapping paper. However, at Toy Con, I used a paper spike as the stand and added a balloon stick painted in black to lengthen the spike. It's much more stable and presentable.
Hit Girl's bike is thrifted for P100 or P110, if I'm not mistaken.. It came in red and black. I didn't have acrylic paints at the time so I used purple and black poster colour mixed in with Mod Podge to repaint this. It took so much time because the plastic kept resisting the paint, and the mixture just came out a little thick on the bike when it dried. The bike was also missing a handle. At first I was going to leave it as it is, but I fixed it using a balloon stick painted in black just in time for Toy Con. I like this bike because the wheels do work. You can pull it back and watch it go when you release it.
This is the inspiration for my custom doll. I so love Hit Girl's character. I have Kick Ass and Kick Ass 2 in DVDs, and even a Kick Ass 2 shirt I won from an online contest. I could never afford buying her action figures. They're so expensive, that's why I thought of making my own Hit Girl doll.
For comparison, I used the pic above and the photo the Toy Con organiser took of my doll.
When I finished the doll, I felt accomplished. But when I exhibited her at Toy Con, I felt shame because I knew I could do better and I saw the other entries and they were beautifully made. This just looks so homemade. I didn't make her for the intent of entering her in a contest. I just thought it was timely that I made a custom doll months before Toy Con and I was going to Toy Con anyway, so why don't I enter her? Next time I won't do that anymore because it just spoils my experience of customising a doll. I customised a Hit Girl doll because it's for me, and not for everyone. It's a very personal choice and undertaking, which makes it painful when your work is under scrutiny, and the whole contest thing was exhausting because I had to transport her from place to place and I was worried if her accessories were going to hold up until the exhibit ended. Some people might have liked it, but I wouldn't know because I wasn't there when exhibit goers where looking at it. I wasn't there beside my doll. I just left her on the table. It's really kinda sad when I think of everything again. So I learned. It's a mistake and now I know better.
After Toy Con, I shoved her in a plastic bag and kept her in my closet for days, weeks. I couldn't look at her. But one day I was displaying the dolls that were gifts to me, the ones I "rescued" from thrift stores and those that I bought, and I thought the display is missing something. That's when I decided to bring her out again, remove her utility belt all worn out and Mindy stick, and display her together with the other dolls. She is my first custom doll. She should serve as my inspiration to do more to my own liking. This is the point of customising dolls; it's to fill a wish and fantasy that the doll market can't fulfill for you. It's an outlet to express oneself through controlling or creating a character you can see and touch with your hands.
I don't intend to remove her clothes anymore so she could play dress up and stuff. She will always be my custom Hit Girl for display. That's what I want for my future custom dolls. They're never going to get out of their custom clothes anymore.
