Among those floating concepts that have not yet grounded in the form of dolls, I have long wanted to do a dryad [doll concept from May, 2013 linked here] or human/tree hybrid. Now I believe that I may have found the ideal base for one.

Ringdoll, best known for making gleefully grotesque designs, will soon come out with a female counterpart to their very popular Zombie Sol: the also-decaying Lora. Though she hasn’t officially debuted yet, here’s a picture from the Ringdoll FaceBook page.

 

My interest in this sculpt does not contradict my earlier stated distaste for “guts” dolls in favor of “bones” dolls. That’s because I see this sculpt less as an opportunity to throw some red paint and high-gloss varnish around and call it a day and more of a challenge. It’s kind of hard to tell beneath the distracting splatters, but the photo of Lora shows a head and body with stylized pitting, corrugation, and lumps. Guess what else is pitted, corrugated, and lumpy…besides decomposing corpses? Trees!

 

So, instead of having just a fully alive human/tree hybrid character, I think that the best way to make use of the Lora sculpt would be to combine the concept of zombie and dryad. Basically we’d have a dead person, but with moss, dirt, leaves, bark, and humus instead of red paint. Any sculpted wounds would become places where bark and moss were overtaking her skin. She’d be dying as a human, but growing as a tree. And there would be a seedling growing out of her empty eye socket, and her hands would be turning into branches with leaves at the ends of her fingers, and it would be disgusting, but also amusing and awesome!