I mark the beginning of my doll customizing career with my first 1:6 scale Jareth doll, which I created in November and December of 2001 as an Xmas present for Jill. [After all these years, she still has him! He hangs out with her 1:6 scale dolls who use wheelchairs.] Let’s see how far I’ve come….
Base figure: 12" Beka Valentine [from Andromeda] figure, made by BBI’s Blue Box line.
When I was documenting this doll’s creation, I did not have a digital camera [?!], so I resorted to the scanner [at work, I believe]. The dot on the nose is where it comes into contact with the scanner glass. I originally wrote that this was a "passable likeness to David Bowie," but I think it’s passable only if you’re a desperate Jareth fan who has been yearning for a 12" version of him for decades.
Yoink! Removed the molded ponytail.
Ah yes, the infamous [to me, at least] STEAK KNIFE SURGERY picture. I really did hack off his breasts with that very steak knife, cutting myself badly when the knife slipped. After that, I invested in appropriate tools.
At one point, I planned a Web site under the name Steak Knife Surgery, with the photo below as the header, that would have showcased my customizations. That idea never went online, but I have always retained a fondness for this photo, the phrase and the concept. They capture the insouciant, experimental iconoclasm of my customizing style.
Yes, iconoclasm. You should have heard the shock when I consulted the Men With Dolls membership on the best tools with which to remove a female action figure’s breasts. The straight cis dudes who formed the majority of MWDers failed to comprehend why anyone would wish to masectomize the action figures whose curves they celebrated. They supported my adventures all the way because, after all, I was a fellow customizer, but they never quite got it.
Cotton ball bulge secured with hot glue. I had tried foam earplugs on earlier customs [like my doll of myself], but they did not stay in place as well as hot-glued cotton balls. These days, I’d probably just slap some Aves Apoxie Sculpt on there and call it a day.
I sanded down the breast holes, but did not fill them. [I’m all about expending the minimum amount of effort!] This was also before Takara, BBI and other companies issued gloved hands for femfigs, so I painted my own. That’s a bodysuit from a BBI Cy Girl Blaze chopped down to make pants.
A Jakks Pacific Girl Force Creanna supplied hair.
I thus inaugurated my time-honored tradition of messily hot-gluing new hairstyles to heads.
I think I also gelled the hair to make it lie down.
Other outfit elements come from Andrea [handmade blouse and cape], BBI Cy Girl Jet [boots] and BBI Cy Girl Shadow [vest, from a cut-down bodysuit].
Jareth’s pendant, a stunningly reproduced masterpiece of cardboard, paint marker and embroidery thread!
Eyebrows painted by toothpick with undiluted acrylic. Lumps result from uneven paint application and from the fact that I did not sand down the original molded brows on the sculpt. Too afraid to mess up his eyes, I left them brown instead of blue.
In conclusion, not much has changed. I still make Jareth dolls. I still specialize in transgender mods and messy repaints.
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