Unboxing Princess Malucia

I've been transporting dolls to my new place and I am not yet done. There are still a lot of dolls to fix, clothe and style. I know it looks messy up there right now, but I'll think of a better way to display all of them when the whole gang is already there.

Anyway, if you notice, Princess Malucia (holding up a scepter in the photo) is already out of the box. That's because I unboxed her there.

So here's Malucia still in her box. I've hung on to this box for so long, and thought it was about time I open her box.

The back of the box. You can see Malucia's true form in Barbie and The Secret Door movie, but for some reason, they designed her doll to look sweeter and less mean looking. I don't mind. I think she's really adorable this way, but maybe if Malucia also had a movie accurate doll, it would be fun.

Malucia's character in the movie is pretty cool, too. I didn't really enjoy the whole movie that much, but I was really looking forward to her scenes because her character is what I find the most interesting.

Sides of the box.

Box art. Her art form looks cunning, doesn't it?

Then compared to her doll form, Malucia as a doll looks so innocent.

Oh god, it took me a while, but I finally unboxed her. !!!!!!

She's finally out. I couldn't get to balance her on her own. Sad.

Her dress. It's so magical girl anime. The fabric of her skirt is really pretty.

Her shoe sculpt looks pretty ornate, but the lack of colours dulls the effect of the shoes on me.

Her face. She really does remind me of Ever After High dolls.

Her crown. Again, another pink thing with no definition of the sculpt because of the lack of paint.

Her scepter would look cool too if it has paint in different colours other than pink.

Here are Malucia and Maddie, who I thought would look cute as sisters.

Malucia: Oh big sis, don't worry that you can't bend your left leg. I can't bend my legs either. Look!

Maddie: Thanks, Mal. But I have two right feet, too. You don't.

Malucia: If only I could fix that, you know I would. My scepter can only suck powers from other people. :-/

I decided to put Malucia and Kitty together for a photo, too, because they're pigtail buddies.

Kitty: Don't drain my power, OK.

Malucia: I'm a changed girl. I don't use my scepter anymore. I just hang on to it because it's pretty, that's all.

Beanie, Balloon Dresses, and Bait Doll No more

So I tried the Toy Story 3 beanie I thrifted on Maddie, and it is snug on her. I guess I spoke too soon when I said it might fit a La Dee Da or Pinkie Cooper.

I borrowed Kitty's stand for Maddie, then I realised that I want to photograph two of my Monster High dolls as well. I haven't talked about their outfits at all. They're actually made of balloons! I got the idea from here:

I really like the orange pants on simplekidscrafts' Maddie because the silhouette is nice.

I saw the video two months ago, so a few days after, I got some balloon supplies and tried it myself.

The heart shaped balloon I got is too small, so I just made some sort of leotard for Clawdeen. The green sleeves and bracelet are just a leftover balloon material that I didn't want to put to waste. 

Her hands are from an online seller, and I think her forearms are donated forearms from my other Clawdeens.

So yeah, Maddie wore this beanie. Funny how her hand is looking like it's doing a Vulcan salute.

I made a dress for Cupid with a sweetheart cut. It's not a clean cut because balloon material is pretty challenging to deal with. The strap around her shoulder and her hairband are also leftover that I didn't want to discard.

Cupid is actually using one of Draculaura's arms and an Ever After High hand. She now has two right hands, hahaha.

A closer look on Clawdeen's outfit.

A closer look on Cupid's outfit. I still plan to make a better outfit for Cupid, possibly a custom Queen of Hearts dress that I've been longing to make but could not find the time and motivation to do. These balloon outfits are quite delicate and tender now because it's been more than a month since they have been stretched on the doll bodies, so I don't want to remove them yet and end up ripping them apart in the process.

Meanwhile, the hair of this Barbie head I recently acquired and was keeping for bait has been washed and dried, and her curls came to life, and I thought, wow she's something, isn't she. So I decided to keep her. I put her body on a Fashionistas body that my rebodied Hawaii Midge came with at the thrift store .(She originally has a belly button body, but I guess her previous owner didn't want that body for her either.) I also thought she could use a hair restyle so I did her hair that way, and it somehow reminded me of Darling Charming from Ever After High. Then I thought I could style her like a princess with armour, so this is what I came up with.

It just so happens that I got a sword from a lot of doll toys I thrifted before, and John Smith's helmet, his morion rather because that's the correct term and I just found out, in another lot of Pocahontas related toys. I didn't think they'd be useful someday, haha. Then the dress is from an old Barbie fashion pack, and the shoes are from a pack of shoes I bought from a seller near Vivo Citi. Her belt, positioned backwards so that the cherry decor is hidden, is from my reissued Candy Glam Summer doll.

I don't know what kind of face sculpt she has, but it has grown on me specially with that makeup on. Mackie???

Her half bun is secured with a hair tie and a dressmaking pin.

Her curls came to life, and that saved her from becoming bait.

From the side. I actually have John Smith's sword as well, but that's too big. This one will do.

So you're still thinking of keeping me as bait?

I will cut you.

I really hope my streak of posting photos of dolls as I play them (dress them up, style them, give them new clothes, fix their broken parts, etc.) would continue because I know should do this more often than getting more dolls. In fact, I have an incoming Kira doll. I hope she's the last Barbie I get EVER. Easier said than done. :-/

On a side note, some of my dolls have been transported to my new place. It's still a mess up there.

My childhood yaya posed for this photo, and I hid her face because... privacy. Hehe.

My online friend told me that they keep their dolls nude and bagged in clear ice bags. I do that too, but these are those dolls that don't need any more work so they were transported first. I still have with me a bunch of broken dolls at home, together with those Barbie dolls I use for modelling, and those that I have yet to photograph like Zombie Alice.

Yoga with Asha

Thought it would be cool if Asha could show a couple of yoga poses for my blog.

A tree pose. This is a bit easy for Asha though because I know she can bend her right knee even further and rest her right foot on her thigh, but she didn't go for it.

And an arabesque.

Aaaaaand she's done. That was short.

Christie and Midge

I saw Midge from an online seller's posting and thought, wow this Midge doll is gorgeous. She has the red hair that I love about Midge dolls, and of course her face is just beautiful. I found out that she's a California Dream Midge.

Then when I checked out the other dolls the seller still has, I saw Christie with pink hair, and I was simply drawn to her. Her skin tone is perfect, her white earrings are intact, and her hair... it's not neon pink. It's just a light pink, which is not overpowering her skin colour. Christie is a Fountain Mermaid Barbie. Ok, I'm not fond of mermaids, but she's adorable as a human, heh.

When I finally got the dolls, I changed Midge's body right away. I don't have an articulated body that would match Midge's reddish skin tone, but I did have a TNT body with jointed knees. And even if I've had this spare body for a while, I just found out that the arms can move up and down on their own when I turn the upper body from side to side. That's pretty cool! (/It could be a Barbie and The Rockers Real Dancing Action body.)

Christie is so beautiful!! Her skin colour is amazing.

Midge seems like a sweetheart. You can see that I really have to change her body because her old one has discolouration. Even though I don't like the bent arms, I'd rather settle with this body than the previous body.

Newly washed girls. They clean up well.

I didn't boil wash their hair because I was lazy, but of course with hot water, their hair would look straighter.

As much as I like Christie's hair down, I decided to put it up in a ponytail to make her look neater, and I thought that Midge looks chic, so she needed a bun.

From the side. You could really tell that Christie would benefit so much from a boil wash. Next time, I guess...

I love Midge's hair in a bun. I don't remember where I read it, but I learned about putting a doll's hair up in a bun from a doll blog I found online. The writer styled their Silkstone Barbie with such a hairstyle, and it was really sweet looking. I wanted the same effect on Midge so I did it, too.

Like I said, I don't remember where I read it, so I couldn't go back to the blog and read up on the instructions again, but for some reason, I still remember a few of the steps, so I just winged it. On the blog though, they cut their doll's hair. I didn't want to do that to mine because it was rather pointless. Midge's hair is perfectly fine without a trim, I thought. I was determined to make the hair bun without cutting down the length of her hair.

Success! I actually used a hair elastic, and some dressmaking pins to keep the bun in place. It felt weird poking pins through my doll's head like a voodoo doll, but it paid off because look at that hair! It's in place! I even misted her hair with hair spray to tame it even further.

I wasn't prepared for dolls with TNT bodies, to be honest, because I don't have a lot of vintage Barbie clothing that would fit their large chest and slim waist. Nevertheless, I managed to dress them up in some outfits. Midge's outfit reminds me of Made to Move, heh, and Christie's, well, it's full of pink.

I've actually warmed up to Midge's and Christie's body, so I don't plan to rebody Midge again, or to replace Christie's original one anymore. Sure, I could probably tighten Midge's knees because they're built loose like that for some purpose I don't know, but this setup works for me at the moment, so I'm not so worried about this replacement body. And even if I don't really like Barbie arms facing down like Christie's, I can look past it because she is simply adorable.

I gave Christie white Takara boots, and its colour matches her earrings so I know I made the right choice. Meanwhile, I made Midge wear pink trainers because her feet are really big and that's one of the pairs I have in my collection that fit her.

On a different topic, I thrifted a Barbie Fashionista body with missing hands for P75. I fixed it by cutting off the hands of Anna's old body, and made tiny pegs out of the cuffs that remained, then I inserted the pegs through the hole of the Fashionista body's arms. I couldn't care less about the Barbie head it came with because it's blah, but I'm keeping it as bait. I mean who knows, I might need her hair or whatever. You see, I'm not really fond of throwing doll parts when I thrift broken dolls at times. Right now, Ariel is using the modified body that I have yet to photograph. Woops, did I mention before that I thrifted a ballerina Ariel doll for like P25 because she was missing an entire leg? Oh yikes, I didn't. Sorry.

I got her at the same time as this broken Rochelle Goyle and my S.I.S. Trichelle doll. I normally do not like Ariel in doll form, but this specific face by Mattel is nice. In the photo, her head was on a Barbie bellybutton body with its neck peg missing. To fix the problem, I glued a bead in the neck hole then wrapped the bead and the top of her neck with masking tape.

I took this photo by webcam for a friend, so excuse the shabbiness, hehe.

Lottie as Kuidaore Taro

I found a Japanese thrift store near SM Sangandaan. I looked around and bought these plush toys for P30 each.

First, I found a Toy Story 3 miniature plush beanie with velcro closure.

I thought it would fit a big headed doll like Pinkie Cooper or La Dee Da. I haven't done any fitting yet on either. It looks a bit big for Monster High even though it closes nicely on the doll.

And I found this clown doll. I've seen this clown before, but I didn't know the name. It turns out that this is Kuidaore Taro, a mascot from Dotonbori, Osaka, Japan.

I only bought the clown for the clothes.

Here's Lottie as Kuidaore Taro. I had to make adjustments with the collar so that Lottie could wear the top. The shorts fit her well, so does the hat. The pair of eyeglasses on the plush is not durable so I decided not to use them anymore on Lottie. I think Lottie looks adorable in this outfit.