When Moose Toys came out with Real Little shuz wave 2, there were funky roller skates as part of the offerings! I immediately became obsessed with kitting out all seven dorklets in roller skates. They’ve been sitting on my shelf, waiting for an opportunity to skate, for about a month, however. Today one of the dorklets, Little Allison, and her mom Elva got a chance.

Little Allison [who grows up to be the Allison in my recent Allison in Wonderland photoshoot] is a Jakks Pacific Juku Couture Kana head, repainted and rehaired by me, on a body that is Spin Master Liv from neck to waist, Obitsu 24 from waist to upper thigh swivels, and Spin Master Liv from mid-thighs to feets. This seems to be the best compromise I have found for kid bodies in other colors besides extremely white and slightly peach. Unfortunately, the Liv arms only have single-jointed elbows, but the tight, flexible Obitsu abdomen/pelvis allows for very expressive bending, curling, and crouching poses. This hybrid body can also wear shorts and teeshirts without showing any mismatching skintones. Plus the double-jointed knees are pretty decent.

Elva, Little Allison’s mom, is the black Curvy BMR 1959 head, aged, de-glammed, and given locs by me, on a Mattel Made to Move body that doesn’t fully match but I don’t care. She used to be the standard height, but I shortened her. I’ve finally found the secret to shortening MTMs. Instead of hacking through the thighs [which are solid and therefore composed of the thickest plastic on the doll], I now remove excess length from the hollow middle section of the abdomen and then from the ankles. You can significantly reduce the doll’s height this way with no harm to general proportions. In fact, the shortened waist helps the elbows and the hands to fall at more realistic places.