'◕ ᴥ ◕' Petworks Usaggie (Usagii) Kuma-Bolo bear doll '◕ ᴥ ◕'

This little cutie ( Kuma - Bolo) stands eight inches tall and is ball jointed... The ears are removable and the doll has a head cap, although I'm not sure why!

There was no way I could resist her beautiful big eyes and "teddy bear" like appearance... I bought her in the Summer and sadly have only just got around to showing her off!

`I really don't know much about these dolls, when they were released etc as I had never seen one before I fell for this little girl, but I do know that there is also a rabbit version ( Usagii ) and that they come in a variety of colours, although this little lady is the only version I have seen with big coloured eyes, they mostly seem to have small dot like eyes...

While I was searching for information on these dolls I discovered that they are available (smaller eyed versions) from Mimi Woo on Ebay - Good old Mimi! - Did I mention I absolutely adore Mimi Woo? ... Anyhoo, here's some links for Mimi's Ebay and Website posts for Usaggies...

Mimi Woo on Ebay:  Usagii - ( Mimi Woo) on Ebay

Mimi Woo on the web: Usagii - The Mimi Collection

Below is a sale photo from Mimi's stores, as you can see the eyes are a lot smaller, which seems to me to give them a rather cute grumpy expression. The other good thing about this photo is it allows you to see what these dolls look like under their clothing. _ When bought new, they do not have clothing, but they do have a sweet little box with a peekaboo circle on the front, so he/ she can see where they're travelling to!

They also don't come with their ears already attached so you will have to do that yourself once you unpack your new baby.

Another place you can buy them from is directly from Petworks and of course they have several different types on their site... Here's some links to them:


Kuma - Bolo:  http://petworks.ocnk.net/product-list/63

Usagii:  http://petworks.ocnk.net/product-list/61

And here's the only other titbits of info' I could find on them:

- Ears and a head cap should be jointed to the head by yourself.

- Size: 20cm tall.

- Doll is made of PVC, made in Japan.

- Mold: by Yukari Kawamoto

So if anyone has any other information, they'd like to share with me I'll be happy to read it!

Hugs,

 '◕ ᴥ ◕'   '◕ ᴥ ◕' '◕ ᴥ ◕'      UPDATE 17TH MARCH 2014'        ◕ ᴥ ◕''◕ ᴥ ◕''◕ ᴥ ◕'

For anyone interested in owning a little girl like mine, I've just found this listing on Ebay:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Petworks-KumaBolo-Bear-Odeco-Doll-NRFB-20cm-tall-/111606395787?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19fc42738b

*Grin*

William Blake "To See a World..."

This is one of my favourite poems, by William Blake.
Enjoy...



(Fragments from "Auguries of Innocence")

To see a World in a Grain of Sand 

And a Heaven in a Wild Flower, 

Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand

 And Eternity in an hour. 

 A Robin Redbreast in a Cage 

Puts all Heaven in a Rage.

 A dove house fill’d with doves and pigeons 

Shudders Hell thro’ all its regions.

 A Dog starv’d at his Master’s Gate 

Predicts the ruin of the State. 

A Horse misus’d upon the Road 

Calls to Heaven for Human blood.

 Each outcry of the hunted Hare

A fibre from the Brain does tear. 

 He who shall train the Horse to War 

Shall never pass the Polar Bar. 

The Beggar’s Dog and Widow’s Cat, 

Feed them and thou wilt grow fat.

 The Gnat that sings his Summer song 

 Poison gets from Slander’s tongue.

 The poison of the Snake and Newt 

Is the sweat of Envy’s Foot. 

 A truth that’s told with bad intent 

Beats all the Lies you can invent. 

It is right it should be so; 

Man was made for Joy and Woe; 

And when this we rightly know 

Thro’ the World we safely go.

 Every Night and every Morn 

Some to Misery are Born.

 Every Morn and every Night 

Some are Born to sweet delight.

 Some are Born to sweet delight, 

Some are Born to Endless Night.

Dr. Who 12 inch Dolls aka "The Ood Makeovers"!

I recently got my hands on two 12 inch Oods from Dr. Who (10th Doctor (David Tennant) Era)  and was absolutely amazed by the amount of detail they possess.

If you have no idea who or what an Ood is, you can find information about them by clicking this link:  http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Ood or check out these episodes of Dr. Who ( each of these titles provide links to the episode's Wiki page, so if you don't want to watch it you can read about it instead!): 

Series 2 (2006)
The Impossible Planet

The Satan Pit

Series 4 (2008)
Planet of the Ood

Specials (2009–10)
The Waters of Mars

The End of Time

Series 6 (2011)
The Doctor's Wife

Death is the Only Answer

Series 7 (2012)
Pond Life[5]

That said, I'll get to the point of this post now...

As they were both very dusty - having been displayed by their previous owners - I set about cleaning them, while doing so I began to feel the urge to "breathe a little life into them" as one of them in particular was very dull looking, having been painted in a hazy kind of way. 

I guess that doesn't really make sense to anyone else but I can't really find the words to sum up what was wrong, except maybe if you imagine viewing him through a sheet of voile, it was kind of like that - definitely in need of a "paint-job" that's for sure. 

The other one I decided I wasn't going to touch as he's paint was a lot fresher looking.

For the purposes of explaining the pictures, I'll refer to them as Ood #1 and Ood #2...

Ood #1 will refer to the "Dull & Hazy" little man, and of course Ood #2 will therefore refer to "Fresh Paint" Ood-dude, that said, I guess it's picture time now then...

Sale picture of Ood #1

The poor little guy was also covered in cobwebs, bless 'im!

Second sale picture of Ood #1

I decided I'd use him as a dummy for some "pastel practice" so that's what I did, sealing after each application of course before adding a final matt coat of sealer and additional applications of diamond glaze to give some areas a "wet look" as I felt his mouth parts, inner ears and nostrils should probably have some form of moisture within them.

Here's the before and after pic's,...  Btw, I should probably have already warned you by now that this post is going to be pretty pic' heavy, still moving on...

Ood #1 Before

Ood #1 After

Ood #1 Before

Ood #1 After

Ood #1 Before

Ood #1 After

Ood #1 Before

Ood #1 After

I have to admit, I was pretty proud of how good he looked, so I decided to compare him against Ood #2, bad move as it turned out as I realised that against "new & improved" Ood #1, he now looked really dull in comparison, so, lol, guess what? Yep that's right, I decided to give him the "make over" treatment too, below is a comparison photo, so you can see just how bad Ood #2 was now looking!

As bought Ood #2 and repainted Ood #1

So here we go again with the before and after photo's, the first one is of Ood #2 as purchased, no sale photo to use this time...

Ood #2 Before

Ood #2 After

Ood #2 Before

Ood #2 After

Ood #2 Before

Ood #2 After

Ood #2 Before

Ood #2 After

While I was customising this pair I noticed that there are slight differences between the two figures. Ood #2 is much darker in certain areas of his face, and his face shape is slightly different, it's only a subtle difference, but if you've been staring intently whilst customising any type of toy, you tend to notice and then it's all you see when you look at that particular toy, unless of course you choose to do something about it! 

I like the fact they have differences,  I guess it's probably due to one being a re-release but even so they would have used the same mould surely? 

Anyhoo, whatever the reason, I think it gives them more character and in a way a more lifelike aspect.

And here they both are side by side, so you can see the variations in colour and mould shapes...

Ood #2 came without his jacket but that's ok because it turns out he prefers to wear a kaftan anyway ... and a bandana?! 

He's also found his soul mate in "Creeping Stink Flesh", well there's no accounting for taste!

What's worse is since he is no longer enslaved and has found love, he's gone all New Age and is planning to start a commune on a farm with his beloved...

Yeah, that's really sensible, she'll most likely eat all the animals and everyone else in the commune!

The other problem I've found with him is he no longer wants to be known as Ood #2, as he informs me his name is "Delta" or "Just call me Del' as he puts it...

Gawd what a total arse he's becoming!

You'll be pleased to know Ood #1 or "Upsilon" is happy enough to be known by whatever name you wish to call him, at least that's one Ood I don't have to worry about!

Tangkou Of The Living Dead Ooak Custom - "Creeping Stink Flesh"... [¬º-°]¬ "Grr Argh"

28th May 2014

I Just had to share my almost finished "Night of the Living Dead Tangkou Ooak Custom" - I've been working on her for the last four days...

My inspiration came from images of "Bicycle Girl" from The Walking Dead , Scott H. Reiniger as Roger and David Emge as Stephen in George A Romero's 1979 Dawn of The Dead, with a bit of  Sherman Howard as Bub the Zombie from George A Romero's 1985 Day of The Dead thrown in!

I have always (well ever since I first watched Dawn of the Dead when I was six years old), wanted a Zombie doll, but alas in the 1980's Zombie dolls just weren't available to buy for the little girl in your life, or to save up your pocket money for..

Further inspiration came when I discovered a Flickr friend of mine ( blythephotos ) had turned one of her Blythes into a Zombie, so I knew it was possible if you have enough time / vision and skill to make it work,  I carried the thought with me for a few years until I found a suitable candidate for "Zombiedom".

I actually forgot about it until I got into "The Walking Dead" series, and my desire began to resurface, strangely though it took me several more months to realise which doll I could use for the experiment...
                                                     
The base doll is the France Tangkou I bought for custom work see review post here: french-girl-arrived, I chose to use my France Tangkou as a guinea pig after trying several times to customise her and disliking the outcome every time, I'd pretty much got to the stage where I didn't like her anymore and regretted wasting my money on her, so I thought, why not?  If it works I'll fall in love and if it doesn't she'll go back in my "Box of Victims" that she's been sitting in for months an I'll recycle her parts for someone else later on, so it wouldn't really be a big loss.

Here's a recap (before) photo of her before she "turned" ...

                                                              ** Update - 6th June 2014**
                                                                 Finished Girl - Woot!

I replaced her original body with a type 2 Pullip one which I received with a partially customised Little Big Eyes doll which I bought for a separate custom; as the doll's body was very stained due to the dye in her stock outfit seeping into her "skin".

The Flickr friend I purchased her from included the Pullip body she'd been given to replace the original when she bought it for custom.

I'd tried this body on several of my dolls as I didn't like it with the Little Big Eyes head, and her body stains were easy enough for me to fix, so it stayed surplus to requirements, waiting for a head to need it for a number of years.

Anyhoo, the body had been in storage for several years now and was not in very good shape anymore due to it's yellowing with age, and is quite wobbly too, but this of course makes it ideal as a zombie body!

I removed and replaced her original eye chips and eye lashes.  The "dead" skin etc, was produced by adding layers and carving / reshaping the areas I wanted, then painting and sealing, I've added glaze in some areas to make it look as though she's recently eaten too...

After I finished her face/head plates I started the same process on her head cap - with the addition of a cracked skull complete with rotting brain!  *Grin*

                                            ** Updated Update - 25th June 2014**

We went to Bishop’s Wood  Nature Reserve, Caswell Bay, Swansea as part of my Birthday "Day Out" around Swansea's Coastline;which turned out to be the perfect place to take photo's of my Zombie Girl, who oddly found her new name during our photo' session/ dog walk in the woods and will henceforth be known by the moniker "Creeping Stink Flesh"!

Btw, is it just me or does Bishop’s Wood sound like a place name from Midsomer Murders?
Anyhoo, the place is Zombie infested as these photo's will prove, so be careful if you decide to take a stroll down that way...

Something Wicked This Way Comes...

I managed to snap these two photo's before my Son stole not only my camera but "Stink Flesh" too and wandered off into the woods to take the following photographs - that's my boy!

Disclaimer:  I have been told to make it clear that my Son is not into dolls or playing with them!
I'm also not allowed to mention his own doll collection and as I have definitely not done so I can now get on with posting his pictures... Enjoy!!

For a doll that happened as an experiment, I'm very pleased with her. I will probably be changing her body at some point as the Pullip one she has is a bit of a nuisance in terms of pose and hold, aesthetically I think it's perfect - which is why I haven't yet decided whether she's keeping it or not, in terms of a replacement, I have no idea what I could use instead, so right now it stays!

I has such a lot of fun making her, and once finished, playing with her, so I'm definitely going to be making more Zombies in future - I'll probably end up with an army of them!

Here's a "Before and After" just because...

I plan to try other types of dolls though that said I really love the "Big Eyed" look on my girl and the fact that she has the ability to change eye colour from one "dead / unseeing" colour to another, so I guess I'll be using some cheap colour change eye (clone) dolls and definitely at least one Barbie and some minis too ... see what I mean about the Army?!