In which it’s the end of Anneka as we know her.

Comments: Anneka tells how Dom killed her. Velvette is unimpressed.

I made up a delicious drink yesterday. The ingredients are plain seltzer water, raspberry syrup and frozen mangoes, in whatever quantities you desire. You can also use any type of fruit syrup for the Italian soda base and any type of frozen fruit for the ice cubes.

Basically you make an Italian soda by combining seltzer and syrup. Then use some frozen fruit for ice cube substitutes. You can pour some more syrup directly on the fruit for an interesting flavor. As you drink your Bloody Sunset, the seltzer will partly melt the fruit, making it edible by the time your Bloody Sunset has sunk to the bottom of the glass.

It looks kind of like blood and is therefore favored by silly vampires who are sick of drinking things at 98.6. Continue reading Sunset, Bloody Sunset

I used to have a 14cm Elfdoll tiny BJD; she was the early form of Geordie. You can see her with Dom and some other dolls here. I sold her because I really didn’t like her and she wasn’t very posable. Now that everyone and their friend is joining the LHF universe, I want to add a 14cm Elfdoll tiny back into the cast, not as a young child, but as an adult with achondroplasia. This form of dwarfism, which Davry has, usually allows people to top out at about 3.5 to 4 feet [e.g., Davry]. However, in some cases, it results in very small people, such as Jyoti Amge, a teen in India who recently broke the record for world’s smallest person. At 58cm and 11 pounds, she is just about the size and weight of an average 1:3 BJD. If you look at photos of her, she’s also incredibly charming and beautiful. She appears to be extroverted, friendly and welcoming of attention.

Given the exemplar of Jyoti Amge, I have decided that I’d like another person with achondroplastic dwarfism to join the LHF cast: Waverley Parker. Continue reading Waverley Parker

Pay attention to the Clash City Rockers in case you need a little jump of electrical shockers:

You see the rate they come down the escalator
Now listen to the tube train accelerator
Then you realise that you got to have a purpose
Or this place is gonna knock you out sooner or later

So don’t complain about your useless employment
Jack it in forever tonight
Or shut your mouth and pretend you enjoy it
Think of all the money you’ve got

http://oddpla.net/lhf/?p=381

EDIT: Link now works.

In which Absinthe tells Margie how went her trip up to Salem. 

Comments: In the previous ep, Absinthe headed up to Salem to visit Ethan Stuart and Tituba Salem. She respects Ethan as a father figure, so she sought his advice about what to do with her thoughts about Will. Now she’s back.

Absinthe and Margie are hanging out in the room of Junior, Margie’s grandson. He’s between 2 and 3, so I created the impression of a toy-filled playroom with my small stock of 1:12 figs, small stuffed animals and small Rement storage units. Junior himself, who appears at the end of the ep, is a repainted Kelly doll with sculpted hair and pipe cleaners for upper arms to increase posability.

…Absinthe always rebelled with her tendencies both bluestocking and tomboyish.

In my search for appropriate clothing for Absinthe, I pillaged the Victorian Lady Barbie dress that originally was destined for Leonora. Even though it doesn’t close all the way in the back, Absinthe wears it better, I think, though clearly with an unladylike air. Continue reading Scornful of Victorian dictates of propriety…

Shirt from a Hi Glamm doll, pants poorly modified from a pair of My Scene guy’s boxer shorts. Dunno what to do for shoes yet. Hair made of the standard boiled Sculpey painted black. Continue reading Junior completed

From Strapya. I want several for LHF!

I will use the technique that I tested out on Junior to make an Elfdoll tiny [14cm Kai, my current lust object] more poseable. These little dolls are sweet, delicate and beautifully sculpted, but they have notoriously poor posing because their limbs like to fix in cock-eyed positions. Substituting pipe cleaners for an Elfdoll tiny’s upper arms would greatly improve the expressiveness and desirability of the doll.

In which the much-hated Sibley plays nice.

Comments: While Anneka is busy recounting the dramatic story of her death, what’s Will doing? He’s having dinner with Sibley, despite the fact that Sibley makes him queasy. Poor Sibley. No one likes him. Could it be because he abuses his sexbot Viktor? Or that he chases college boys? Or is it his nonexistent taste in modern art? Is it because he is way too enthusiastic about creepy-crawly things? Or could it be because he acts like the world revolves around him?

I have obtained a squirt bottle. That is all.  Continue reading *ffft fffft*

I’m poking around on www.cowasuck.org, reading past issues of the Aln8bak News, the band’s quarterly (?) newsletter. Each issue contains a column called "Say That in Abenaki." Here’s a few things that I’m picking up from the January 2008 issue about greetings and good wishes:

Haaw (haa-oh): A general greeting, equivalent to "hello."

Kwai (k-why-ee): A more informal greeting or recognition of people nearby, equivalent to "hi" or maybe even "hey there."

Pedgi mina (pit-gee mee-nuh): Equivalent to "return again," maybe even "goodbye."

And my favorite…

Paakwin8gwezian (paa-kwe-n8-gwe-zee-ann): Equivalent to "long time no see," a greeting specifically for people who haven’t been seen in a while.

The 8 is a nasal long o ["oh"] sound.

"Paakwin8gwezian" is what Absinthe says to Will after 100 years of separation. 😀 All things considered, such a greeting would probably come a bit more readily to her than "long time no see."

Over in the word search from the same issue, I find the following:

Yahi [yah hee]: An exclamation of joy, equivalent to "yahoo," "yay," "hooray," "yippee," etc.

There is a pronunciation guide in the October 2007 Aln8bak News.

I went to Downtown Crossing today and, yet again, coveted the selection of meretricious jewelry holders at the cheap jewelry stores there. For some reason, there’s been a fad for the past few years in which 1:6 accessories serve as places to store jewelry. There are 1:6 dress forms to drape necklaces across, 1:6 vanities to hold rings in between folds on their little counters and, best of all, 1:6 overstuffed chairs, fainting couches and love seats. Unfortunately the small vanities are $20.00, while the overstuffed chairs are $45.00, and there’s no way in poop that I’m going to pay that much for a doll chair unless it also converts into a bed, a toilet, an armoire and a Cadillac convertible.

I’m trying to find links to example pictures, but I’m not having much luck.

EDIT: This site has a whole selection of miniature furniture as jewelry displays, including a great work desk! The chairs are similar to those I saw downtown.

Also this site has another selection with tackier designs, including a leopard print mini armoire.

In which we meet, through flashback, a cross-loving vampire. 

Comments: Anneka continues her flashback to how she died, telling how she received help from Michaela, a sweet little Catholic vampire with a tendency to talk like the Bible. But she’s really a nice girl! Watch for Michaela in future plot lines.

Here’s a better view of the chair/end table thing that Kinjou sent me, as well as my newest lazy bookcase. No particular reason for the photo. I just like Anneka’s casual and interested stance here. She is watching Will [not shown] clowning around with a parasol. I also like her outfit. It mismatches well.  Continue reading Anneka hanging out

Kim Graham, sculptor, artist, inventor and creative genius, has invented digigrade stilts with spring-loaded hooves. Wow. Look at her other works as well, especially the large "silk mermaid," the process of which she details with a magical combination of good sense and maestro-like creativity.

• Out in the Mountains: "Pulp Fiction and Lesbian Rights." Published October, 2004.
• Tangent Online: The Fair Folk, edited by Marvin Kaye. Reviewed August 17, 2006.
• Trends: "Alternatives to Fossil Fuels." Published January, 2008.
• Sociological Images: "Teddy Bears Substitute for Emotional Work." Published December 18, 2008.

Kinjou, who, along with Andrea, is also God, sent me many wonderful 1:6 things, which I received today. Various LHFers immediately claimed some of the clothes. Here they are:

Will’s sweatshirt and skirt come from a Takara Jenny doll. Stupendously, he fit! Davry and Sarah both have goggles from a Takara Jenny friend doll. Gemini wears an overshirt from a My Scene Masquerade boxer outfit and My Scene male shoes. Sibley wears a nasty jacket from a My Scene Masquerade rock star outfit. Dom’s white shoulder sash is a scarf from a Takara Jenny friend. He also is wearing a strap on his leg [not shown] from some belt. Sarah is sitting on some sort of dresser/chair convertible plastic piece of furniture from a dollar store. Continue reading Goodies from Kinjou’s package!

Forthwith I present an example of my creative process.

Premise 1: I have already established that Justine, head of Will and Absinthe’s former clan, fled to Sunnyvale, California after the death of Will and his parents so she could avoid prosecution.

Premise 2: I have also already established that Gemini, Velvette’s girlfriend and the person who vamped Pippilotta, has a distorted view of herself and her sexuality wherein she sees herself as a fat, sloppy slut.

What if Gemini was on a diet in an attempt to make her body conform to her supposed ideal shape?

What if her diet’s mainstay was skim blood [on the same principle as skim milk]?

What if the skim blood originated in California, a state with known hotbeds of health fads and image obsession?

What if the skim blood had, as most diet drinks do, a sprightly, misleading name like Sunnyvale Lite?

What if Sunnyvale Lite was invented by my only Californian character, Justine?

What if Justine wanted to spread the success of Sunnyvale Lite from California to the East Coast?

What if she chose Boston as a new market because she wanted to prove to her old hometown that she had reformed and become a better, successful person?

What if she befriended Velvette and Gemini and witnessed Gemini abusing Sunnyvale Lite out of unhappiness?

What if Justine seriously questioned her status as a marketing guru who sells superficial fixes and preys on people’s insecurities?

What if she began to suspect that she was still ambitious, impulsive, manipulative, callous and not really that different at all?

I finally got around to taking a photo of the complete Little Will. Clearly he has not had a good night’s sleep, a solid 8 hours of exposure to sunlight or a happy time ever in his childhood.  Continue reading Unhappiest kidsy ever

I went to Foxwoods Money Toilet Casino this weekend. I was very close to the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Library, but did not go. I obviously need to investigate it further, as well as its blog. I wonder what resources the Pequot Museum has online. Absinthe is not a Pequot, but an Abenaki [Cowasuck], but I bet there’s a lot of information in the Pequot Museum and Library about tribes of the Northeast, including the Abenaki.

In which Anneka tells the story of how she died, despite sarcastic remarks from the peanut gallery Velvette. 

Comments: When we last peeked in on Anneka and Velvette, Anneka was trying to tell Velvette how she died, but Velvette kept butting in with a) tales of her own demise and b) smart interjections. Here Anneka finally makes some progress with her own tale as she narrates how a stupid grudge against Will caused her death.

This episode introduces two of my favorite LHF characters: Dom and Caveat. Though quite influential in Anneka and Will’s recent history, Dom and Caveat haven’t come up yet. They’ll rejoin our main story later on, but, for now, we learn of their effect on Anneka and Will solely through flashback. I particularly like the juxtaposition between Anneka’s bitter, flippant delivery and the obvious agony that Dom and Caveat are suffering.

Despite my earlier exhortations, it has come to my attention that everything is not copacetic.  If it helps, you may think of the following:

• Rement Pink Market
• Rement Pets
• 1:6 fireplace
• small shojo screens
• bamboo placemats
• foamcore in white and black
• velvet drapery tied back with sequins
• small netsuke shelves
• Kwanzaa Barbie
• Mixis

In any case, continue to hang in there. It is the best way to get stuff done.

Now back to work. Remember: short and sweet, but not dense. Also remember: polite and persistent.

• United Parenting Publications/parenthood.com: "A Sensational ‘Seussentennial!’" Published March, 2004.
• Out in the Mountains: "Pulp Fiction and Lesbian Rights." Published October, 2004.
• Tangent Online: The Fair Folk, edited by Marvin Kaye. Reviewed August 17, 2006.
• The Fix Online: "Petits Fours, Scrimshaw, and Training Bikes: Metaphors for Short Stories, An Interview with Ellen Klages." Published March 15, 2008.
• Trends: "Alternatives to Fossil Fuels." Published January, 2008.
• Sociological Images: "Teddy Bears Substitute for Emotional Work." Published December 18, 2008.
• hasbro shoezies: the definitive resource. Published February, 2010.

Will pay!

In which Absinthe goes up to Salem.

Comments: When we last left Absinthe, she was down in Franklin, Massachusetts, talking to her foster mother, Margie. Absinthe was reflecting on all the people in her life that she has lost, chief among those being Will. She feels that she betrayed Will and broke him by changing him into a vampire under duress and by contributing to the deaths of his parents. Over a century later, these events still weigh on Absinthe’s mind. For advice, Absinthe travels up to Salem to see Ethan Stuart and Tituba Salem.

The exterior of Ethan’s house is played by the Witch House, the only extant structure in Salem with ties to the witchcraft trials of 1692. It’s also a great example of 17th-century architecture, befitting the oldest and most powerful vampire in Massachusetts.

Side stories done and in progress

• Janet, Velvette and Viktor
• Absinthe [and Margie]

Side stories planned

• Susie
• Little Anneka
• Little Will

Side stories that would definitely be really interesting!

• Dom [and Geordie!]: how he got to Newton
• Zinnia Pascale: how she became a zombie
• Janet: how she got disgraced

In which Will looks for help, but doesn’t get nun. 

Comments: What has Will been doing since his breakup with Anneka? Well, as you can see from the chyron, he’s moved into his own apartment. And he’s still going to Rocky Horror in Harvard Square to keep his spirits up. He does face a few problems, however….

This ep is dedicated to D7ana, who supplied the fetish nun wear for my LHF characters’ use.

I just figured out that, in Manga Studio, it’s much easier to put in the word balloons FIRST to measure how much action can realistically fit on a page…THEN put in the panel cuts. With Comic Book Creator [good riddance to bad rubbish], I had to put panel cuts in before I could put in pictures or word balloons first. As a result, I always felt kind of squished with my layout. Now, thanks to the high-powered capabilities of Manga Studio, my true layout genius [?!] can reveal itself.

In which Anneka and Velvette are in bed together.

Comments: In the previous episode, Velvette reports the ambivalent news about her social life. She enjoys spending the weekends with girlfriend Gemini in Provincetown because of the freedom that it affords her.  But Gemini’s anxiety about her body and her sexuality piss the impatient Velvette off.  Concluding that all vampires are “idiots,” Velvette wonders how Anneka got mixed up in such a dysfunctional crowd.

I originally planned this season to be a flashback about how Anneka died, but Velvette insists that her past is equally important. Here she hijacks the story of Anneka’s death with the tale of her own demise. Oh yes…didn’t you know that Velvette died too? She tells part of the story here.

Originally I wanted a Notdoll Lucy for Little Anneka, but I don’t have the money to buy one right now. However, I do have an extra Elfdoll Kathlen awake plate and a sleeping plate. I decided to use Kathlen’s built-in smirk and create a mischievous younger version of Anneka on a cut-down Obitsu body. Here she is, waiting for her hair. Apparently, before she grew curves, Little Anneka was quite the androgynous little squirt! Tune in later when she gets a shock of spiky brown hair.  Continue reading The new and improved Little Anneka

Felix Doll’s Calix looks very much like Geordie’s current plastic form. Since it’s more accurate and cheaper than a Fairyland Pong Pong, I will probably go with Calix for her.

I got my Planet Doll Mini Riz today! I chopped a bit off the neck and narrowed it with the help of an Xacto knife. I also removed the disturbing cone-like breasts. Then I fit Absinthe’s head atop the body, which is much yellower, but I don’t care. She’s about 10.5" tall, and I think she’s beautiful! I may paint her neck and breast to blend with the pallor of her head, but, other than that, I wouldn’t change her. Now she just needs some clothes, since her Planet Doll body is much more robust than the Obitsu body. All she currently has is her nightgown.  Continue reading Absinthe has her resin body!

Associated Content

• Labyrinth Special Edition DVD: Worth $50? Published October 27, 2005.
• Film Adaptation of C.S. Lewis’ Narnia A Pleasant Surprise. Published December 8, 2005.
• Asian Ball-Jointed Dolls: Collecting These Dolls Is a Great Hobby. Published January 18, 2006.
  

Clarion Reviews

• Camille Claudel: A Novel, by Alta Brown. Reviewed winter, 2005.
• Past the Line, by E.T. Milligan. Reviewed winter, 2005.
• An Unchaste Life: Memoir of a Tudor Queen, by Anne Cato. Reviewed spring, 2006.

Curve Magazine

• Page Turners [various short book reviews]. Published April, 2007.
• Page Turners [various short book reviews]. Published, May, 2007.

Dollicieux

• Dolls With Souls: The Power of Asian Ball-Jointed Dolls, Part I. Published January, 2006.
• Dolls With Souls: The Power of Asian Ball-Jointed Dolls, Part II: Published February, 2006.
• Dolls With Souls: The Power of Asian Ball-Jointed Dolls, Part III. Published April, 2006.

The Fix Online 

• So Fey: Queer Fairy Fiction, edited by Steve Berman. Reviewed October 13, 2007.
• Heroes in Training, edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Jim C. Hines. Reviewed October 21, 2007.
• Inferno: New Tales of Terror and the Supernatural, edited by Ellen Datlow. Reviewed December 7, 2007.
• Petits Fours, Scrimshaw and Training Bikes: Metaphors for Fiction — An Interview with Ellen Klages. [Includes discussion of Portable Childhoods by Ellen Klages.] Published March 15, 2008.
• The Duke in His Castle, by Vera Nazarian. Reviewed June 15, 2008.

Out in the Mountains

• Spring Fire, by Vin Packer. Reviewed October, 2004.
• Girls Who Bite Back: Witches, Mutants, Slayers and Freaks, edited by Emily Pohl-Weary. Reviewed January, 2005.
• Light Before Day, by Christopher Rice. Reviewed April, 2005.

Sociological Images

• "Race, Class and Gender in the American Girl Empire." Published September 8, 2008.
• "Teddy Bears Substitute for Emotional Work." Published December 18, 2008.
• "Only Hearts Club Dolls: Alternatives to Barbie and Bratz." Published December 30, 2008.

Tangent Online

• Fantasy & Science Fiction, February 2006 issue. Reviewed December 29, 2005.
• Fantasy & Science Fiction, March 2006 issue. Reviewed January 30, 2006.
• Modern Magic: Tales of Fantasy and Horror, edited by W.H. Horner. Reviewed June 25, 2006.
• The Fair Folk, edited by Marvin Kaye. Reviewed August 17, 2006.
• Escape From Earth: New Adventures in Space, edited by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois. Reviewed November 15, 2006.
• North of Infinity II, edited by Mark Leslie. Reviewed November 15, 2006.

Trends

• "Alternatives to Fossil Fuels." Published winter, 2008.
•  "Guest Editorial: Will a $900 Million Shot in the Arm Make the Environment Any Cleaner?" [co-written with Kurt Herman] Published spring, 2009.

United Parenting Publications / parenthood.com

• "A Sensational ‘Seussentennial!’" Published March, 2004.
• "Mommy, I Want that SpongeBob Macaroni and Cheese!" Published December, 2004.
• "Family Fun When the Days Get Shorter." Published winter, 2005.

Reshot for my upcoming LHF book [BUYBUYBUY], it’s 1.1: Domestic Vampires, in which our fair protagonists get off to a rollicking sarcastic start. I think Anneka’s dildo is about as big as her bedside lamp.

I just figured out how to change the default font in Comic Life. For a program that is universally hailed as easy to use, it sure has obscure methods for doing important things like getting rid of the nasty default font. I hate the program a little less now…I think…

Requiem aeternam,
dona eis, Domine,
et lux perpetua luceat eis.

Grant unto them
eternal rest, O Lord,
and may light perpetual shine upon them.

Michaela in a Lady’s Mission nun’s habit lent to me by D7ana.   Continue reading …Et lux perpetua luceat eis.

Terror is the abject, anticipatory dread you feel before something awful happens. Horror is the abject state of shock and disgust you feel after the awful thing occurs. Well, I’m glad we cleared that up.

He will help her lead a more independent life [she has Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome], but she has trouble affording the cost of him and training and all, especially since her car needs a lot of repair. Story here with Paypal link.

Righty-o, so I’m reshooting all the eps of LHF that were done in digital renders because digital renders are ugly and impersonal compared to the warmth and flexibility of my dolls. I can approximate almost every digitally rendered ep without trouble, except for 2.1, "Homecoming Costumes." It’s basically a joke ep in which Anneka and Will wonder how to cover themselves up so they can drive to Vermont without sunlight hitting them and burning them. They consider options from their huge stash of kinky roleplaying stuff:  Continue reading Brainstorming sources for unusual 1:6 accessories

It is compact, portable and perfect for removal from my desk so I have more room to take pictures. Also it weighs less than a gallon of milk. Also it was disgustingly inexpensive, insofar as these things are quantifiable. It should be here by the end of this week!

Previously on LHF: Anneka explains to Will that the guy who felt her up in the Nightcrawler is her abusive ex, Thomas Fell. At first he seemed glamorous and sexy, but soon his nasty temper and manipulative behavior showed through. Even now, Anneka gets bad memories from his ill treatment of her. She goes out with Pippilotta, Rori, Davry and Andrew in an attempt to escape her flashbacks with karaoke, but she feels smothered by their insulting solicitude.

Meanwhile, Will consults Mark for advice. He tells his best friend that he’s worried about Anneka, but somehow the conversation gets derailed. Will ends up professing his love for Mark.

Anneka decides that she needs some space. Though Will offers himself for her to do whatever she wants with, Anneka declines. Instead she wants to head to her parents’ house in Vermont.

With Anneka gone, Will bemoans his "sorry relationship" with Velvette and Viktor. Each of the three friends has their own troubles. Velvette wants to move to Provincetown with girlfriend Gemini, but she feels tied to Cambridge by her obligations to take care of Janet. Viktor has been programmed to be Sibley’s sex slave, but Sibley has banished him, leaving Viktor unable to perform his duties. Will feels increasingly estranged from Anneka and knows that he should probably break up with her, but he’s wallowing in too much self-pity to do so. Velvette and Viktor give him a metaphorical swift kick in the butt and tell him to stop whining and do something constructive.

Up in Vermont, Anneka spends time with her family. Her grandmother Mamie interrogates her about her "queer" nocturnal habits, which Anneka excuses by saying that she has anemia. Anneka asks Mamie what she does, now that her wife has died; Mamie talks about staying busy managing the estate and photographing sunsets. Despite Mamie’s curt exterior, Anneka sees that Mamie is greatly devoted to both her and Minerva.

Anneka dreams that she and Minerva are in a fall cemetery. She does not want Minerva to leave, but Minerva says it is time for her to go. They sing Gaudeamus Igitur, a rather morbid song by which Minerva taught Anneka Latin. Anneka finds herself alone in her dream.

Anneka swaps stories about Minerva with her parents Alexandra and Max. She feels happy to share in-jokes with them, but Will, over the phone, worries that Anneka is spending too much time up during the day. Anneka argues that her time with her family is necessary and therapeutic, especially since Will can’t understand her grief the way that they can. Stung by her self-conscious separation between him and the rest of her family, Will says to Anneka that he thinks they should break up.

In which Velvette wonders how Anneka got so dumb.

Everybody slurs their stilted speech as if they’re all tranqed, at least until the last half-hour, when suddenly a chase occurs. The viewer realizes suddenly and irrevocably that no one has any talent in this movie except Billy Burke as Bella’s dad and Robert Pattinson as Edward. The viewer ceases to be intrigued by the murky, pretty colors of the depressing, pretty scenery and falls asleep, despite the pointless chase scenes trying to compensate pathetically for the complete lack of plot. Danger and death do provide a certain illicit thrill, a primal libidinal allure that we cannot distinguish from fear because, at base, all our emotions are a type of arousal, but viewers will certainly find no exploration of the allure of the deadly in this movie. The vampires are not deadly in this movie; boredom is.

I bought a Planetdoll Mini Riz off of DOAer tinybear. She will supply Absinthe’s body, with a few minor complications.

• First, the body is in normal skin [which has a peach undertone], and Absinthe is bleached white, so I’ll have to paint the neck or something.
• Second, the body’s neck is thicker than Absinthe’s neck hole, so I’ll have to aggressively sand down the neck.
• Third, the body has tiny, conical, disturbing breasts, which need to go the hell away. More sanding. I do not understand the presence of breasts on this doll. All other cues of proportion, body shape and fat placement suggest that Mini Riz represents a child or young teenager who has not yet pubesced. Why does she have breasts?!

Anyway, I got my Riz for $200, which includes dolly, eyes, wig, faceup, dress and insured shipping with tracking. That’s an unbeatable price. Ideally, I would have liked a white one to match Absinthe’s head, but I couldn’t resist the tinybear fur wig, which will be repurposed for Little Will. This Riz also comes with a charming, lightly done set of freckles that I really like. She also comes with this white shift that tinybear made, which will be very helpful as an interim outfit [and old-fashioned nightgown!] as I attempt to find out what clothes will fit Absinthe’s new body.

I’m eagerly looking forward to the Mini Riz body for Absinthe. From what I can tell, it will pose expressively, even without wiring. [Look — she’s touching her face!] I really hope so. As a bonus, the body comes with an adorable headsculpt full of character. The head is currently unassigned, but I am sure I can make good use of it…..

After the great success of its original and striking series of monthly dolls inspired by zodiacal symbols, Soom has now created a mythical world with different zones pertaining to different elements and different doll characters as representatives from each zone. In practice, this means more dolls with limited, androgynous headsculpts, weird, fetishy outfits and therianthropic parts.

March’s issue, Cuprit, illustrates Soom’s smart capitalization on the most popular aspects of their previous monthly dolls. The Ice Queen character has pointy ears, horns, wings and hooves. The only thing that could make her even more desirable would be vampire fangs.

Though I hear some people grumbling about yet another doll with hooves, the majority of people interested in Cuprit are gushing with enthusiasm, even though her therianthropic parts have appeared on previous issues. Bravo, Soom. You know what sells, and you’re making money while making a lot of doll owners very very excited. Continue reading Savvy Soom knows what sells.

Now I know why Will has his eyebrows painted into such exaggeratedly happy upward curves. He’s compensating for a childhood during which during which his eyebrows were exaggeratedly depressed downward curves.

I did the faceup with chalk pastels, sealed in matte and satin varnish. To prepare the surfaces I wanted to paint, I gave them some tooth by laying down an initial coat of matte varnish. I know that my results do not achieve the delicately applied, gauzy, symmetrical, subtle effect idealized by so many painters of Asian BJDs, but I don’t paint my dolls for perfection. I paint them for character, in all its asymmetrical, messy, uneven, unpredictable forms. My stylized paint job quickly communicates personality and expression, which is what I want it to do. Why should I waste time with meticulously presented layering if I can achieve my desired effect my way?

Little Will is my saddest doll ever.  Continue reading Little Will 3.0 with faceup

I got my Notdoll Miriam head in today. It was going to supply the head back for Little Will, but, on a whim, I put the whole Miriam head on his 20cm Elfdoll body. It looks much more suitable than the custom painted Kathlen head. While Kathlen has a large head with a smooth facial sculpt and a small smile, Miriam has a smaller head with a built-in pout and bags under her eyes. Miriam’s brow ridge is also slightly more prominent. She’s sculpted to be unhappy. Here’s the latest Little Will, a Notdoll Miriam head on a 20cm Elfdoll Kathlen body. Needs eyes, faceup and hair. DANG! Just when I thought I was finished with him….  Continue reading Little Will 3.0

My wife showed me this Jinx T-shirt, which is almost worthy of purchasing. I had a good laugh.

So I watched the first 30 minutes of Twilight last night before my copy crapped out. It was so boring. I liked the pretty colors on the screen, very gloomy, dense and rainy, but the stupid, empty script, combined with the endless staring, drove me up the wall. Kristen Stewart may be hot, but she apparently has Jennifer Connelly Syndrome: an inability to keep her mouth from hanging open. Rob Pattinson has a fascinatingly angular profile, and his acting is a damn sight better than Stewart’s, which, in this film of feeble performances, is not saying much. The movie Bella has all the personality of a piece of uncooked tofu, while the movie Edward is prickly, insulting, pissy and completely unattractive. I don’t know what these characters see in each other.

In which Anneka and her parents reminisce about old times, but are interrupted by Will on the phone.

Comments: Hooray, a reappearance of Anneka’s mom and dad! I don’t think Anneka gives Alexandra and Max enough credit.  I know she thinks of them as demanding, perpetually unimpressed and kind of condescending, but it’s very obvious to me that they love her very much and want her only to be happy.

It may be difficult to see, but Will has an array of food around him in the kitchen. There’s a fruit tart over to the right of him when he first appears. On the table he has potato chips, some sort of huge drink and meatloaf. Here we have more evidence that vampires eat food for nostalgic and comfort reasons.

LHFers as of 3/22/09, all 42 of ’em. Continue reading All my LHF dolls, 3/22/09

Geordie: 6 in., 15.24 cm.
Little Will: 7.8 in., 19.81 cm.
Susie: 7.8 in., 19.81 cm.
Little Anneka: 8 in., 20.32 cm.
Margie: 9.4 in., 23.88 cm.
Davry: 9.8 in., 24.89 cm.
Absinthe: 10.4 in., 26.42 cm.
Chow: 10.4 in., 26.42 cm.
Tituba: 11.3 in., 28.7 cm.
Continue reading Small dolls comparison…the short characters of LHF.

I have 3 Elfdoll Kathlen faceplates [no thanks to the USPS, which ATE my fourth >: ], but only 2 head backs. In my search for a third [for Little Will so that Submit can have hers back], I noted that DOAer misa1 was selling a Roxydoll Miriam head. The head back of the Miriam head resembles the head back of the Kathlen head, so I think that I can jam Little Will’s face plate and the Miriam head back together to create a better head that the squishy plastic head back I currently have for Little Will.

That leaves me with an unused Miriam face plate.

In other BJD news, Little Will still needs an appropriate wig, and Absinthe still needs an appropriate body.

In BJD wishes, I’d really like to get a Fairyland Puki Singing Piki faceplate for Geordie. Hell, I’d really like to replasticate her as an entirely resin BJD, Fairyland Puki Singing Piki…

…And, while I’m REALLY dreaming, I’d also like Elfdoll’s Doona Ryung just because she looks so mature and pissy.

I feel like I’m starting a Home for Unwanted 1:6 BJDs here. I started off with my 2 cut-rate Kathlens from Dolls and Friends’ going-out-of-business sale, then continued with a tanned Lucy who’d been on the DOA marketplace for a while. Now here comes the Miriam head, which is one of maybe 3 Miriams on DOA, and I was the only one who showed any interest in her.

After being commissioned about 2 months ago and having his open-eyed plate eaten by USPS 1 month ago, Little Will has finally gotten his free faceup from tiffanyjbt, and he has successfully returned to me. Hooray! The faceup is pretty much as I requested, and it does a great job of making this otherwise perky and cute headsculpt look weary and worried.

After 2 months of annoyance, Little Will is STILL not finished. As you can tell from the flyaway mess on his head now, he needs a real wig, one NOT made by me out of spare Barbie hair….probably a mohair one.

When Little Will gets his little hair, he will finally be done. Then I want him to earn his keep, so he’ll pay me back for all the cost and aggravation associated with his creation by getting his own side plot.

Speaking of side plots…

• Absinthe currently has one running, although, at the rate she’s causing me grief and money as I seek a resin body for her, she’s either gonna get ANOTHER side plot or be incorporated into the main cast a lot more quickly.
• Susie has a side plot coming eventually. I have its arc sketched out, but I haven’t written it yet.
• Little Will’s gonna get one.
• If Little Will gets one, then Little Anneka gets one for parity. Also I’ll take any excuse I can to use Alexandra, Max, Mamie and Minerva.

Wow, it’s BUSY in LHF land!!  Continue reading Little Will doll is back after much travail.

She might, according to DOAers. If that’s so, then that’s an even greater incentive to get such a body for Absinthe, since I really like the Agnes Dreary clothing.

• Minor Conundrum outfit [unfortunately comes with doll] has a bit of a fetish edge.
• Dreary Dinner Doldrums [unfortunately comes with doll as well] looks like it’s made out of spider webs spun from dried blood.
• Recess in the Cemetery is nice and serious and subdued, but I think that the lace collar and cuffs detract.
• Naughty or Nice [dammit — a doll] would be great formal wear.

While I’ve got an interest in Tonner 12-incher clothes, I might also note that Marley, Alice, Lyra, Dorothy and Gerda are the same size. Do they have anything interesting??

• Alice’s Victorian Stripes [unfortunately comes with doll] is just beautiful.
• Marley’s Upstate Weekend is good for climbing trees.
• Lyra’s Lyra at Oxford outfit is simple and practical.
• Lyra’s Svalbard outfit contains a glorious clash of patterns and textures, not to mention an awesome parka.
• Gerda’s outfit is simple and practical and subdued.

Well, somehow the French buyer for the Dollshe body argued her way out of paying customs fees on the full insured value, and she only ended up paying them on the postage and a nominal value. So, anyway, she’s happy because she got the body parts [and some extras] in perfect condition, and I’m happy that this needlessly complex transaction has completed…also that I have half a thousand dollars heading toward my furniture bill!

Sardonix’ Thaasa body is still up for sale, but no one wants it, so she’s staying. In yet another sure indicator of economic crap-out, the DOA marketplace has slowed considerably. In fact, I see on the DOA marketplace some interesting trends that show anecdotally how shittily we are in the economic shitter:

• I’ve seen a spike in the number of dolls on the block because people need the money for various reasons [job loss, mortgage payments, car payments].
• I’ve seen a slight increase in rare valuable dolls on the block, such as Dollshe Bermanns. In an illustration of this point and the previous one, my friend actually sold her Bermann late last year because she and her husband needed the $$$.
• Dolls remain unsold for longer periods.
• Many sellers are lowering prices. Some really want or need to sell their dolls so badly that they start dropping prices by $25 or $50 after a few days or a week of no responses. Others offer free insured shipping, usually only to locations in the same country where they live. I’ve also seen many people selling "regular" dolls [e.g., not limiteds or highly coveted ones) at a 15-25% loss.

All of these indicators prove advantageous to buyers, but there aren’t as many buyers these days as there are sellers.

…If you hang in there until the end of the second week of April, and everything’s copacetic after that, you will be rewarded with many beautiful things…such as, quite possibly, a 1:6 spray bottle [see bottom of the page] and a body for Absinthe [with bonus head!]. Now go back to work.

Support 2 great causes: AIDS advocacy/research AND foiling homophobic bigots!

Westboro Baptist Cult protesters are scheduled to protest for 50 minutes on March 20, from 11 AM – around noon, in Harvard Square, Cambridge, MA. Pledge a set amount for every minute that the WBC dingdongs hang around, and, after they leave, your pledge will be multiplied for the total number of minutes that they stayed, and the total will be donated to Cambridge Cares About AIDS, a local organization for AIDS education and advocacy for PWAs. Go to the CCA Web site to pledge. Then go here and enter your donation information so that the amount that you pledge will be added to the total tally of money that the dingdongs are raising.

Some people look really good in them! Obviously our good friends at ugly_crap are unimpressed, however.

Will, however, is VERY impressed.

In which Will tries not to feel sorry for himself.  http://oddpla.net/lhf/?p=323

Comments: Here’s the conclusion of the My Sorry Relationship show.  Watch out, Will. Velvette’s obviously sick of trying to teach you some sense.

Well, he sure gets points for consistency. I suspect he’s constantly baffled and frustrated by the failure of the world to live up to the gendered scripts running in his head. I mean, for God’s sake, HE’S following them! He attempts to be the dashing, noble, protective, dominant, aggressive, macho, sex-obsessed dude that he’s scripted to be, so why aren’t the women he’s interested in adhering to their proper submissive, passive, biddable scripts? Continue reading What the hell is up with Thomas Fell?

I used my magnifying glass and my macro setting on my camera to take a portrait of Absinthe. This is how she sits on my desk, her head bent, her voluminous hair obscuring her closed, inward-turned face and shy, thoughtful smile. She turned out exactly the way I wanted her to [except for her damn plastic body]. Continue reading Absinthe in my latest lazy lens experiment

In which Absinthe demonstrates to Margie that real life does not follow romance. http://oddpla.net/lhf/?p=316

Comments: Previously in our side plot, Dead Girl’s Diary, we were following the adventures of the person who vamped Will, his ex-girlfriend Absinthe. She was writing, with great sadness, about the pivotal events in her 200+-year life, especially how she loved her Native American grandfather and also Will.  Her “foster mom” Margie then interrupted her, announcing to Absinthe that she had mail. It was the Metro Moonlight, which Absinthe now reads.

…Obviously she’s reading the gossip section. Actually, I imagine the entire MeMo to be written in the same nosey, sensationalistic tone; it reinforces the concept I have of the vampire clans as citizens of a very invasive small town. :p

Franklin, Massachusetts, is on the coastline south of Boston called “the South Shore.” Salem, being north of Boston, is on “the North Shore.”

melopoeia advertised LHF in general on March 8th, saying:

D7ana and I have been talking about the magnifying glass "lazy lenses." On March 10th, she posted about her own experiments with magnifying glasses, but she started off addressing her entry to me:

Thanks, guys. 4.8 has been extremely well-received by all readers.

This Family Fun project could be adapted for use in 1:6.

Earlier I mentioned the possibility of using a magnifying glass as a cheap telephoto lens. In today’s ep of LHF, you can see the results of my experimentation. All close-ups of Anneka and her grandmother were taken with me holding the magnifying glass right in front of my lens with my camera on the autofocus for close range. The magnifying glass, which has 2x power, allows me to get a bit closer to my subjects and fill the frame with super close-ups. I’m pleased with the results. I just have to remember to angle the glass correctly so that it does not catch glare from the lights.

My shitty temporary one, a 27cm Obitsu with hacked legs, barely fits her old-fashioned bloomers. She looks fine with clothes on, but the poor quality of her plastic body underneath her clothes bothers me.

We went to Salem, ostensibly to take LHF photos and wander in cemeteries. We ended up capturing thrift horrors in Witch City Consignment and Thrift Store, displayed here for your delectation. Continue reading Horrors from Witch City Consignment and Thrift Store, Salem, MA

1. Joss Whedon. Just because he was behind a clever movie [BTVS], a generally awesome TV show [BTVS], two better-than-average TV shows [Angel and Firefly], an acceptable movie extension [Serenity] and an intermittently witty but mostly flaccid Web movie [Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog] does not mean that his latest outing, Dollhouse, is automatically wonderful.

• In point of fact #1, his quality has been going downhill ever since BTVS.
• In point of fact #2, Dollhouse so far is a silly TV show on par with Fringe in that both shows contain silly premises, unconvincing, murky universes and leads with all the acting ability of lukewarm tap water.
• In point of fact #3, Dollhouse so far is actually worse than Fringe because it lacks the emotional warmth and accessibility that major players John Noble and Joshua Jackson bring to Fringe.

2. Alan Moore [and Zack Snyder]. V for Vendetta is overrated; for a comic book, it has art equivalent to the poorly mimeographed ads in the back of my childhood Archie serials that wanted me to send $1.25 to a PO box in New York so I could get a box of "hilarious" practical joke devices. Watchmen is overrated; for a story about a whole world on the brink of collapse, it conveniently disregards the female population, except insofar as they are defined by sexually abusive relationships with wankers. And both Alan Moore and Zack Snyder are overrated; both of them are too busy staring at the magnificence of their own egos to register the fact that the world contains individuals besides tragic, conflicted, chisel-jawed men.

The people who need to be notified of these not-God individuals — namely, the Whedon wanks on Television Without Pity’s Dollhouse forums parsing every moment of dialog looking for "Jossian greatness" and the Moore/Snyder posse who seriously believes that the Watchmen movie is on par with The Godfather trilogy [seriously?!] — are not going to listen to me. However, if you happen to be of reasonable sanity and you wonder what all the spooge in a teacup is over these not-God individuals, rest assured that you are not missing anything in avoiding either Dollhouse or Watchmen. I’ll keep you updated on the off chance that Dollhouse improves. Anyone associated with #2, however, is a lost cause.

To conclude, the following people are God.

1. David Bowie…or, more precisely, his Area. That is all.

Because I am notorious for wanting the best results with the minimum amount of effort, I pass along this possibly intriguing tip, which D7ana alerted me to.  Apparently an easy way to increase the macro function on one’s cheap camcorder is to put a magnifying glass in front of the lens. See video by k6yarddotcom for proof. Because I do not feel like dropping huge amounts on extra super special lenses [and because I am too lazy to learn how to use them], I shall try this with my digicam and report on the results. I just need to find a magnifying glass….

Apparently good for sticking Rements in dolls’ hands or eyes in dolls’ heads WITHOUT leaving nasty residue or stains. Clearly, it is a Miracle Substance. Only $5.75 plus shipping and handling from Aftosa.

Round 1 was when she was an action fig head on a cut-down Toy Biz body. Round 2 was when she was an Elfdoll Kathlen head on an Obitsu 27cm torso with Obitsu 23cm legs. Since the large torso and the small legs didn’t fit together very well, I got her a whole new Obitsu 27cm body with the intent to cut down the legs to an appropriate length. After all, I have experience doing so in the form of Geordie.

I’m currently stumped, though, since the Obitsu 27cm, despite its appropriate scrawniness elsewhere, possesses comparatively thunderous thighs. But Absinthe, being 13 when she died, is not supposed to have any curves. There’s no way to get rid of the thunderous thighs unless I swap out her pelvis and legs for those from ANOTHER doll. Maybe a Volks EB Dollfie boy? Part of me just wants to get her a resin body, preferably Planetdoll Mini Riz’.

Right now she’s in pieces as I try to construct a body for her. I am unhappy that one of my favorite characters is in pieces. After the many frustrations I am going through to make her, I am making her a primary character, just to get back as much blood, sweat and tears as I put into her.

I now post LHF eps on this blog, on MWD, on FN, on OSAFB and, when I remember, on Facebook. Comments and praise have spiked recently, especially for Will’s My Sorry Relationship plotline, universally hailed as hilarious. People also really like Anneka’s plotline about going back up to Vermont and seeing her family; apparently this is sad, emotionally engaging and compelling.

As measured by sheer volume of comments, my most popular eps are:

• Meanwhile 7: When Zombies Attack! (16)
• Meanwhile 8: Zombie in the Diner!! (12)
• Meanwhile 9: Zombie in the Library (12)
• 4.5: My Sorry Relationship I (12)
• 4.6: Gift of Sunsets (12)
• Meanwhile 3: Yummy Summer (11)
• 3.9: The Revenant (10)
• Meanwhile 13: Materyllis’ Pesky Pussy (10)
• 1.1: Domestic Vampires (9)
• Meanwhile 4: The Vampire FAQ (9)
• Dead Girl’s Diary 1: Irredeemable Mind (9)

I’m not sure that I can draw a lot of conclusions from these, but I do see some interesting trends.

• Zinnia Pascale [directly responsible for the success of Meanwhiles 7, 8 and 9, as well as 3.9] is the most popular character I have ever created. There’s just something about a crochety, ass-kicking Fruits zombie….
• Light, humorous interstitials inevitably garner the most positive response.
• That said, the popularity of Irredeemable Mind and Gift of Sunsets shows that a majority of the audience appreciates introspective, emotionally charged eps full of character development.
• Most of the most popular eps are from recent seasons, suggesting that the dolls are much more liked than the 3-D models and also that LHF is gaining readers as it goes.

Go me!

This tutorial on how to make a late-Victorian pompadour, created for 1:12 dolls, looks perfectly adaptable to my method of gluing 1:6 hair on people’s heads, if only I can figure out what’s going on in the step where she turns the doll upside-down.

If this works, I can take that horrible bun off of Leonora’s head and replace it with something more realistic.

Aria, from the Dynamite Girls’ Electropop release, has pink hair and fabulously mismatched clothes. She’s almost LHF-worthy in her default state. I would be more impressed if I couldn’t cobble together a similar doll for much less from my existing hoard. I do like her, though, but I think there’s a distressing lack of neon in a series supposedly based on fashions of the 1980s.

The US does not charge customs charges on incoming international packages. Apparently, this is not standard practice; most countries do charge customs fees on incoming international packages. I just sent Jareth’s body to France, for example. The buyer wanted me to mark the package’s value at $75.00 so that she would have to pay only a small amount in customs fees [25-30% of marked value!].

However, I wanted to adequately insure the package in case it got eaten [as Little Will’s open head was], and the amount insured for had to equal the stated value. So I had to state $675.00 as a value and insure for $650.00 [the max allowed on international priority]. Now the buyer is distressed about having to pay customs fees.

Overseas shipping is just a huge, anxiety-producing, expensive hassle, even if the recipients aren’t trying to avoid high customs charges.

PBBBBBFFFT.

That package had better arrive promptly and in excellent condition. I am never going to sell dolls out of the US again.

She’s wearing hacked-down Only Hearts Club clothes. I was saving the hat to use on some of my pink-loving adult figs, but, once she had it on, she wouldn’t give it back. Sigh…

Note: Pink Squad now has 13 members!!   Continue reading Geordie is done, with hair and shoes! Pink Squad +1!

In which Viktor and Will compete on My Sorry Relationship. http://oddpla.net/lhf/?p=308

Comments: As you may recall, Will, Velvette and Viktor are bitching about their relationships: Velvette’s with her sister Janet, Viktor’s with his owner Sibley and Will’s with his girlfriend Anneka. Will thinks that the whole conversation sounds like a competition, so he’s imagining the three of them on a TV show of disastrous relationships, hosted by the current bane of his existence, Thomas, Anneka’s psycho ex. Since this whole game show scenario represents Will’s interpretation of events, we can gather that he has no patience or sympathy for anyone, including himself, as evidenced by the derisive words he puts in others’ mouths.

It is interesting to note that Thomas appears less perturbed by Velvette’s gun at his temple than by Viktor’s threat to disintegrate him. It is also interesting to note that Will pays no attention to this scene occurring behind him.

Here is Geordie in her current state with no shoes or hair. She is 5.5" tall! I ended up using a pelvis and legs from the same 21 [?] cm Obitsu doll. I took 2.5 cm out of the thighs and approximately the same amount out of the calves. I sacrificed ankle articulation, but the double-jointed knees and all thigh articulation remain functional. Oh yeah, I also hacked at least 1.5 cm out of her torso and fused the pieces so that her torso is not articulated at all. I’m sure that, if I had been neater, I could have retained at least all the articulation from her arms and legs, but, as she stands, she is good enough for me.

To finish, she just needs hair and shoes. I do not know where I will get shoes…  Continue reading Geordie needs shoes.

I had an extra Obitsu upper torso and arms from a 21cm [?] doll, so I tried to create a torso with more toddler-like proportions. The first photo shows what I started with: the default. The second photo shows what I ended up with. I don’t know what brand the head is, but I amputated 0.5" in height off the scalp and altered the paint job by Andrea. I removed the eyebrows, recolored the eyes green with black pupils and gave some more definition to the lower lip. I do not know how tall Geordie will end up being. 6" would be acceptable, but I would like to get in the 5" range, perhaps even 4". It all depends on the legs. I wonder where to get some.

Need to sand the chest.

EDIT: I should mention that, in order to get Geordie’s arms short enough, I had to sacrifice the upper arm swivel. Thus her elbows will always be pointing toward her back. But, since she still has all original shoulder and wrist articulation, I felt that this was an acceptable trade-off. I do, however, regret her loss of ability to put her arms akimbo, a characteristic pose for almost all of my characters.  Continue reading Geordie [toddler doll] in progress

Now that I have my Dom doll back in commission, I’d like to get a doll of Geordie, his niece. She was originally an Elfdoll 17cm Jin dal Rae, but she wasn’t very poseable, so I got rid of her. As much as I’d love to get a 1:6 toddler BJD, I don’t have the money for that right now, so I’m brainstorming alternatives.

Obitsu 21cm with reduced arms, legs and torso. This body would satisfy my need for articulation, but I’m looking for something about half this height, 5" at max.

Mattel Kelly/Tommy doll. These are the appropriate size, but their articulation is crap, and they all have disturbing smiles.

Sekiguchi Mame Momoko. These dolls are the right size, with minimal articulation like Kellys, but their clothes can be realistic [see the Street Kids Mame for example], and I find their simplified faces much more charming than Kellys’.

The last time I took pictures of Frank was in September, 2007. Since I’ve been thinking about my BJDs recently, I took out Frank, removed his eyelashes and changed the position of his eyes. Instead of looking sideways to the right, he’s looking diagonally upward to the right. While he used to look mischievous, now he looks downright evil. >:} Continue reading My bad-assery knows no bounds!

At 27cm, with a proportionate head, she is perfectly 1:6 for a prepubescent or barely pubescent girl. The sculpt is full of character and delightful details, such as the protuberant ears, the serious mouth, the swayback spine, the chubby legs and slightly oversize hands and feet. I wonder if Absinthe’s head would fit on that body?

That’s My Face constructs 3-D likenesses of people with the help of 2 photos [front and profile] and a bunch of data points about the boundaries of certain features. One use for the likenesses is that of 1:6 action fig heads. I’m not impressed for several reasons.

• The software best captures "neutral expressions," meaning that the resultant likenesses lack the recognizable expressions that give people so much of their personality.
• Because the likenesses are based only on front and side views, they completely neglect the width, depth and subtleties of the chin and jaw, not to mention the cranium.
• On a more personal note, the likenesses require entirely too much fiddling to establish boundaries and then wait for the effect of those boundaries on the finished sculpt. I would much prefer working directly with material that I can touch.

Computers might be very capable, but they are not as awesome as people think they are for capturing vivid, lively, nuanced likenesses.

Looks like I’m selling my BJD Jareth’s body at least for sure. Hooray! This will help to pay off my our new dresser, couch and chair! If this all works out, I’ll be able to use a bit of tax refund money on another tiny BJD myself!

In which Mamie, Anneka’s sort-of grandmother, finds out the truth behind her granddaughter’s “queer” behavior.

Comments: If you don’t remember, Mamie is Anneka’s grandmother’s widow. Minerva [Anneka’s grandmother] had two partners at the same time: her husband Isaac and Mamie. All three of them raised Max, Anneka’s dad. Mamie used to be headmistress of the Endless Lake Boarding School in the Adirondack Mountains of New York, but she has been a nature photographer for some time now. She lives in South Burlington, Vermont, which is near Maple Corners, where Anneka’s parents live.

I really enjoy writing Mamie’s dialog because, as brusque and uncomfortable with emotions as she is, she really does love her family.

Pink yarn wrapped around wire and jammed through two holes in her head. Scalp covered with Sculpey, dried with hair dryer, then painted orange with pink and white highlights. Continue reading Pink Squad +1: Pippilotta

Marabou, on the left, epitomizes fabulousness with hair newly painted pink, accented with white and purple Prismacolors. Dom, on the right, epitomizes silliness. Boxers with red race cars on them not shown! Nice pants, Dom. Do you have to wipe the crotch on the doormat before you go inside?  Continue reading Pink Squad +1, Loser Legion +1

Watched the premiere of Dollhouse just now. I’m very curious about the concept of programmable people, but, so far, the show itself is rather dull because the trite script allows no development for sympathetic characters and also because Eliza Dushku has even less acting talent than Anna Torv on Fringe, which I didn’t think was possible. [However, watching Anna Torv kick ass is ALWAYS entertaining.] Besides which, the show was much more interested in establishing that Eliza Dushku, in fact, does have boobs and less interested in delineating the rules and hierarchy of the programmable people project. As much as I think the backstory on Fringe is a steaming heap of vaguely crapped-out doo-doo, I find the characters’ personalities and pasts entertaining enough to watch the show so that I can learn more about them. I do not give two shits about anyone in Dollhouse yet.

This weekend, I removed ZaeZae’s original brownish hair and gave her a braid of purple and pink yarn attached to a new scalp of pink pulled-back hair. I also made her spectacles out of 20 gauge brass wire.

In other pink news, the pink count should eventually increase by 5:

• I still need to remove Pippilotta’s current hair and replace it with a sculpted scalp and wired yarn braids…pink, of course!
• Come to think of it, Marabou would look fabulous with a really deep magenta hair color similar to Andrew’s!!
• If I give Janet pink hair, then a majority of the core cast and most frequent secondaries will have pink hair. ^_^
• UberBarbie is making me a fabulous teen boy with pink hair.
• Susie was supposed to have pink hair, but I had such a fight with her current red wig that I have temporarily given up on changing her hair.

Pink Squad as of now.

Standing, back row, L to R: Davry, ZaeZae, Andrew, Anneka, Will, Rori, Sibley.

Sitting, second-to-front row, L to R: Baozha, Sarah.

Lying, front row, L to R: Zinnia Pascale.
Continue reading Pink Squad +2

Kristen Stewart as Bella Swan from Twilight. The usually round, foreshortened and bland Tonner default fem sculpt yields to the slightly long and bumpy lineaments of Stewart’s sexy features. So cute!

Anne Hathaway as Agent 99 from Get Smart. Again, the actor’s salient features — a long face and plushy lips — escape through Tonner’s regimented blandification. Looks like Frank.

Re-Imagination Star-Crossed. A Romeo doll. Needs a repaint and a rehair to become a Jareth doll!!

Eva Green as Serafina Pekkala from The Golden Compass. HOT…except for the painted toenails.

LHF is definitely an ensemble performance, so it’s hard to determine who the main characters are, beyond Anneka and Will, of course. There is, however, a core group who get most of the plots:

• Anneka
• Will
• Pippilotta
• Mark
• Velvette
• Janet
• Viktor

Outside of this group, there are secondaries who appear frequently, but don’t really drive the story:

• Rori
• Absinthe
• Sibley
• Davry
• Andrew
• Chow
• Materyllis
• Zinnia Pascale
• Anneka’s family
• Will’s family
• Thomas [boo hiss]

For sale: NS SA Dollshe Hound, modded by Armeleia. Make me an offer. [Keep in mind: Bought at end of 2005 for $650.00, paid ~$100.00 for modding. Now out of production. Also unique head.]   Continue reading For sale: NS SA Dollshe Hound, modded by Armeleia.

I sent Little Will’s face to tiffanyjbt on DOA to get him repainted. The mail ate him, even though he was priority. He should have taken only 3 days at max to go from MA to IN, but he still hain’t arrived yet, and it’s nearly Commercialized Hearts Day. >: I hate you USPS.

In progress

–Ethan [needs breeches, banyan and cap]
–Leonora [needs invalid chair]
–Susie [needs restringing]
–ZaeZae [needs haircut or new hair]

Out for work
–Little Will [needs new faceup]

Incoming
–Alicia
–Dom
–unknown UberBarbie club kid

Another trade with corsetkitten yields a bad-ass doll [photo by Mick Balte] done by Character Options with no designated character…although I suspect she will become Alicia, Janet and Velvette’s mom, an ex-feminist porn star turned evangelical Christian and writer of devotional poetry.

After college, Alicia and friends moved out West to start their feminist porn company. Alicia had her kids with some of her fellow start-up dudes in the business, then moved to her hometown area, Boston, to escape the volatile world of Californian porn in order to raise her daughters.

She has a long history of disappointment in her daughters because they appear to take after her own sexually adventurous tendencies. She kicked Velvette out of the house when Velvette started her fetish modeling and fashion designing. Velvette went to live with Janet, who was the exemplary, smart, overachieving, successful, sexually repressed daughter, until the sex scandal that brought her dismissal from MIT. Fearing their mom’s disapproving wrath, Janet and Velvette stayed far away in Cambridge, pissing each other off instead of dealing with Alicia.

Like I said, Alicia turned her considerable zeal into evangelical Christianity. She got saved and convicted. She may be an ex-masturbator.  Since both Janet and Velvette are queer, with heavily kinky associations [Janet with robo-sex, Velvette with BDSM], they both pretend that their mom doesn’t exist. It’s a protective measure because they are sure that she will condemn them. She keeps sending them books of her devotional poetry, which they keep ignoring. It’s obvious that the daughters still love their mom and the mom still loves her daughters, or at least they all WANT to love each other, but they stay apart because of painful history.

There are definite class tensions between Alicia and her daughters because Alicia was indoctrinated with the concepts of assimilating, overachieving and being an outstanding representative of her race. She not-so-secretly thinks that Velvette and Janet are not being a credit to her because their behavior reflects a reversion to the "black woman as oversexed slut" stereotype. "I wanted you to work hard and make something of yourselves, not sleep around and ruin it!" Clearly there’s an element of bitterness and possibly self-hatred here, since Alicia had kids, which interrupted her hard work on the porn co.

Clearly I’m not going to explore all these tensions in depth in one side story, but, if I can at least allude to them accurately to make a rich, believable portrayal of my favorite secondaries [who are also characters of color]. [I’ve been thinking a lot recently about, as a white writer, writing believable, convincing, non-stereotypical characters of color, which is hard.] Yay more plots for Velvette and Janet! …Especially Janet… I think everyone dumps on her, but she has a really interesting inner life and motivations and past [what was that scandal at MIT????] that she never divulges. It’s always the quiet ones….

Well, anyway, the Martha Jones doll obviously needs her hair painted grey and her face lined to show age.

One of my longish-termish goals is to sculpt a DECENT 1:6 head. While poking around to see whose friends lists I’m on, I found this page of eBooks on how to sculpt body parts with polymer clay. Could these be useful? Well, they’re unquestionably cheap!

In which we learn that drag queens aren’t on all the time.  http://oddpla.net/lhf/?p=277

Comments: After karaoke, the gang repairs to the Nightcrawler. Even when Anneka’s gone [she’s up in Vermont, as you may remember], the conversation is still entertaining. As a friend of Rori, who knows everyone in the universe apparently, Marabou the karaoke emcee joins ‘em. I like her. She’s sweet.

In which Will, Velvette and Viktor compete on a game show. 

Comments: As you may recall, in the Tale of Two Sisters side plot, Velvette was caring for her sister Janet, who suffers debilitating migraines. Despite Velvette’s best attempts at patience, Janet’s demanding, short-tempered behavior pissed her off, so Velvette sought comfort with her new girlfriend, the undead Gemini, creator of crocheted roadkill. At the same time, Viktor, an eternally frustrated sexbot created by Janet, was rejected by his owner Sibley. Viktor approached Janet for help, but she rebuffed him. This storyline now overlaps with our main storyline in this ep.

I just realized that we’ve never actually seen Janet working in her lab. Hmmmm…

Please note that all events in My Sorry Relationship are Will’s interpretation of events, not actually accurate representations of each character’s voice. That said, he does have a certain vulgar knack for getting to the root of others’ problems….

It’s hard to add healthy amounts of fruit into your diet when the fruit is actively out to get you. One of my favorite bits from Eddie Izzard.

…comes home after an extended sojourn in the UK, along with Caveat 1.0 and a pack of spare Obitsu hands for my body-hacking needs.

\m/ ^_^ \m/

I finally got my Tanned Roxydoll Lucy after she took an unexpected detour, temporarily lost in the post office. I stuck her eyes in her head [the worst part of BJD ownership for me] and replaced all her stringing with pipe cleaners. Then I rustled up an outfit for her. That’s a Barbie short-sleeved shirt and a pair of Barbie jeans over 8" tights. Her shoes are Rement rubber boots from a Storage Beauty set.

Lucy is such a delicately sculpted doll, very light and highly jointed. I love the little open mouth and the combination of chubby cheeks and pointy chin.

Ergh…now that I see the photos, I recognize that her eyes are wonky. I’ll deal with that later. I may just give up and push her left eye in toward her nose and say she’s blind in that eye. I HATE adjusting eyes. Continue reading Susie 2.0…now with misdirected eyes!

corsetkitten linked me to an Ebay auction where the seller is selling the original Dom and Caveat dolls. I got rid of them during my Denial of Dolls phase. I wonder how they ended up in the UK. I hope to win the auction and get that little bastard back here for good.

Remind me never to get rid of dolls so cavalierly again!

Angelie, Korean-American fitness nut, got new hands from a Hi Glam Girl that I had lying around, gaining an axis of rotation, and Obitsu flat feet instead of high-heeled Barbie feet. I don’t care about the small size of the Obitsu feet because she is wearing high-tops, in which she can now stand unassisted.

Marquis, debauched consort of the evil Justine, got a vest from Andrea’s 75-ton gift and bloodstains thereon. I also aged his clothes with a seam ripper.

Teodora, leader of the Portuguese Irmas de Maria and also Pippilotta’s great aunt, upgraded to her final headsculpt, a Toybiz Xena from Andrea’s 75 tons. I weathered her face with brown colored pencil and gave her a haircut. She is now complete.

ZaeZae, a young Irma, some time ago, got big stompy boots from my War Toys order. More recently, she got hands from the DiD boy body, thus gaining two axes of rotation.  Continue reading Angelie, Marquis, Teodora and ZaeZae upgraded

…parts out Rements. That is all.

Appearing some time in Q2, it’s a Hot Toys 1:6 version of Scarlett Johannsen as Silken Floss in the silver screen turd known as The Spirit!!! You are probably wondering why I care, given my aversion to The Spirit, Nazis and Scarlett Johannsen [except in her capacity as inspiration for really awesome dolls like Elfdoll Ryung and Tiny Ryung]. I am interested because, first, it is a pretty doll and, second, it is sculpted by Hiroko Hayashi!

Pretty dolls are pretty easy to come by, but not ones by Hayashi [especially if one is in the U.S.]. This Japanese master of small-scale sculpture first came to my notice because he did the CG02 headsculpt on A.J., Shadow, Blaze and Destiny. It is my favoritest fem sculpt ever because packs a wealth of detail and character into the normally soft medium of a vinyl head. Even though CG04 has sharply defined, recognizable features, it can still look drastically different depending on paint and hair. I have 3 CG02s in my cast — Pippilotta, Tituba and Leonora — and they all look like distinct people. Anyway, I do not doubt that Hayashi’s work on Silken Floss meets or exceeds his work on CG04. His work on this doll makes it more attractive to me than it normally would be.

I also like her cat’s-eye glasses!  Continue reading Hot Toys The Spirit: Silken Floss

Andrea sent me 75 tons of 1:6 clothing, food, heads, bodies, body parts, furniture and accessories, which arrived yesterday by priority mail. The following are from that package: Will’s stockings, Pippilotta’s new body [hooray!], her blazer, her shorts set, her stockings, her legwarmers and Anneka’s dress.  Further photos of the booty later.  Continue reading Blame Andrea for these outfits.

http://oddpla.net/lhf/?p=273

In which Anneka can’t stand it any more and Will falls to his knees. 

Comments: Anneka is pondering with the help of her Jareth doll, a representation of her favorite movie character. Apparently this movie always gets her thinking about dominance and submission.

Will has quite the appetite. Besides orange juice, he also has a plate full of a pig in the blanket, a gyro, a slice of pizza, a bowl of pasta salad and a banana split.

Let’s see…what’s the recipe for this doll?

1 Triad Otaku head
1 standard Barbie torso
2 CG 1.0 arms
2 CG 1.0 hands
1 27cm Obitsu pelvis
2 27cm Obitsu pelvis legs
1 repaint by Corsetkitten
1 head of hair from fake pink fur wig
1 Flavas baseball cap
1 set goggles from some war dolly
1 Uneeda sweatshirt
1 Antique Dreaming Momoko apron
1 pair Yu Sai Wa Wa capris
1 pair Medicom Fujiko bootfeet

Stylistically, Sarah is obviously related to Pippilotta and Rori. She’s not mismatching enough to launch into fabulosity the way that Zinnia Pascale is, but she has enough unusual elements to her outfit to make her look decidedly odd.

I don’t really like Sarah’s shoes; they don’t go with the rest of her outfit. I also need to weather her face.   Continue reading Sarah, now with pink hair and an updated outfit!

For sale: ShinyDoll first ed. Thaasa body, modded by Elisa_Maza.

Continue reading FS/WTT: 60cm ShinyDoll first ed. Thaasa body, modded to accept CP etc. heads, $350.00

Sarah is an experiment in doll Frankensteining. She has a Triad Otaku head, painted by the lovely and talented Corsetkitten, a Barbie upper torso, CG 1.0 arms and hands and Obitsu legs, all held together with my trusty friends hot glue and electrical tape.

All I know about her so far is what I see. Given her expression, she is shy, anxious, inquisitive and very soft-spoken. Given her very broad shoulders and narrow waist and legs, she is a no-op trans girl. Given her barely matching outfit, she has no fashion sense, but that’s not really a character trait because almost no one in the LHF universe matches. She reminds me of Jennifer Connelly from the movie Labyrinth; Connelly played a character named Sarah, hence the name.

Sarah, Sarah
Storms are brewin’ in your eyes
Sarah, Sarah
No time is a good time for goodbye
–Sarah, by Starship

Nothing to do with Sarah here, but I’ve been singing it to myself as I’ve worked on her.

I call her a work in progress because I need to replace her hair with pink awesomeness…or add pink awesomeness to the existing brown. A character this beautiful needs pink hair!!!  Continue reading Sarah, shy trans girl in progress

Concept: Will is a young boy, between 6 and 8, growing up in the 1870s. He is a semi-invalid, due to chronic, acute asthma. He also squints a lot because he’s really near-sighted. He worries excessively.

Execution: Faceup should be done with a light touch in "nude" or "natural" shades, nothing too heavily applied. Slight shading around bridge of nose to make it appear narrow. Slight shading also in hollows of cheeks. Shadows around eyes to indicate fatigue. Worried eyebrows, high as if raised, pale in color to match hair [pale yellow]. Mouth should be pale pink, either in a neutral, slightly open expression or a small frown. No blushing on cheeks, nose or ears.

I like the shadows under the eyes on Planetdoll Riz [below Unoa Lusis] and the lips on toydogz4’s Planetdoll Roseanne.

Pictures of Little Will before he became a doll below.  Continue reading Faceup instructions for Little Will doll

Can’t you tell?

Currently waiting for his vest and bloodstains to be added thereon, after which point he will be finished.  Continue reading Marquis hates Justine.

Susie Langdon, minor LHF character, is currently enplasticated by an Only Hearts Club head with a 23 cm Obitsu body. She will soon be upgraded to [yet another] 1:6 BJD, a tanned Roxydoll Lucy. As you can see from the photo below, taken by DOAer cerisey, the seller, she’s an innocent, serious, soulful doll with impressive posability for such a small [20cm] creature. She looks more serious than Susie’s original enplastication.

Anyway, because I’m paying $175.00 for her, Susie 2.0 will, like Absinthe 2.0, get a whole side plot devoted to her in my feeble attempt to justify spending that much for a minor character.

I notice that several of the young or young-appearing LHF characters are BJDs now: Absinthe, Little Will and now Susie. Michaela, however, is an action figure, as is Baozha. So is Little Anneka; well, more specifically, she’s an OHC doll with a haircut. She may upgrade to a mini BJD or BJD hybrid [as Absinthe technically is].

Also I have an extra sleeping Kathlen faceplate to work with…Hm….  Continue reading Tanned Roxydoll Lucy = Susie

http://oddpla.net/lhf/?p=261

In which Will catches Mark in a compromising position and they have a serious talk. 

Comments: This is the first ep filmed with my new camera, a Kodak EasyShare Z712. Certainly, I could have purchased an even more expensive one with many special features for super close-ups and sensitivity to light, but this mid-range, slightly outdated model serves my needs well. I don’t do a lot of fussing with the focus, so I like its macro auto-focus feature, as well as its image stabilization, since I can never hold the camera completely steady. The higher pixel count in my photos results in greater sensitivity to light, more accurate color representation and finer detail. Hurrah!

Marquis in progress. Painted hair black. Darkened lines on face. Need to add vest and bloodstains on everything. Continue reading Marquis [Charlie Innis] hates you.

Even with high EMS shipping rates, Japanese BIC Co.’s prices on parted out Momokos are very reasonable.

Continue reading Do not want, part 2

Continue reading Don’t want, part 1

All LHF characters as of January 23, 2009, taken with my new camera.

Continue reading All my LHF dolls as of 1/23/09

Not that I need any more miniature oranges, here is a tutorial from miniaturist Angie Scarr about how to make miniature unpeeled, halved, peeled, even sectioned oranges! She writes a whole book about making miniature foods, for which she relies heavily [and cleverly] on caning, or making a tube of something to cut into slices of fruits, vegetables, eggs, etc.

The Clay Store has a bunch of tutorials, which can be modified and refined to suit my capabilities. Those that catch my interest are:

• PB&J sandwich
• Popcorn for Pippilotta
• Tacos [hmmm, that "beef" looks like crap!]
• Bacon and fried eggs
• Layer cake
• CACTUS FOR MARK!!

HLJ has really slashed prices on some of their items. Though I probably won’t get any of these because shipping from Japan is prohibitively high, here are those that tempt me the most:

Medicom made a 1:6 Jack Sparrow from Dead Man’s Chest before Hot Toys started putting out their figs from the same license. This dude originally ran about $200.00, but now he’s down to $82.62, which is a steal considering the beautiful outfit [I always like historical clothes] and the lifelike headsculpt. Even with EMS shipping from Japan, he’s almost affordable…or at least more justifiable to me than he was at his original price.

All the Aoshima Girls’ Mission dollies are on sale too for 40% off at approximately $58.00 each. I like Rei’s outfit the best, but Miki’s open mouth gives her a cuteness not seen in the others.

Meyrin Hawke, who I think is on an Obitsu body, is 80% off at approximately $28.00. I don’t know who she is, but I like her because she’s a cute anime dolly with bouncy hair.

Cheaper than Daz’ stuff, but also of lower quality. Could be serviceable.

Assembled room 3, $9.90, http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/index.php?ViewProduct=61941&Start=211&TopID=11219.34536.36591.

Old England Room, $6.50, http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/index.php?ViewProduct=32346&Start=661&TopID=11219.34536.36591.

New Boudoir Furniture Pack, $5.53, http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/index.php?ViewProduct=21194&Start=721&TopID=11219.34536.36591.

To soften the light from my desk lamp, I put fabric softener sheets over the bulbs…not because they are supposed to soften things, but because they were the only appropriately translucent papers I could find. [I wonder where the tissue paper went…] Not only are the results much easier on my eyes for all desk-related tasks, but they also produce photos with lower contrast and better, unwashed-out detail. As a bonus [?!], my desk smells like a dryer sheet. I deem this experiment successful!  Continue reading MW’s photos, now with silky fresh scent!

So Doctor over on MWD picked me up some $5.00 Uneeda fashion dolls from an Indianan clearance store. He had previously posted pictures of the outfits from said finds. Amazingly enough, all pieces fit CGs, except for shoes and underwear. Attracted by the neon colors, I sought the Uneeda outfits for those characters of mine without fashion sense. Results are shown below.

Oh yeah…and a note about light. As shown in this photo, my spiffy full-spectrum lights are much too harsh, focused and intense, creating dramatic shadows that I don’t need all the time. I must figure out how to diffuse my light sources. And now back to our show.  Continue reading Rockin’ the ridiculous clothes [and a note about light]

I found some more Victorian sets on Daz’ Web site. Continue reading More Victorian sets on Daz’ site

In which Margie gives Absinthe a package, but it is not as exciting as anticipated.  http://oddpla.net/lhf/?p=258

Comments: Introducing Margie Lafayette, a marked contrast with Absinthe. After Dead Girl’s Diary 1, an entire episode of serious moping, I enjoy writing about Margie because she’s so cheerful and insouciant. She knows that Absinthe is a vampire burdened with painful memories, yet she still treats her with the same casual tenderness as her other kids.

The Undead Unitarians are Davry’s clan.

On a nostalgic trip, I was poking through Daz’ Web site, and I realized that a few of their sets would be good for any flashback eps to Will’s past. Continue reading Victorian sets on Daz’ site

I am playing more with my new camera. I learned how to turn the autofocus off so that it loses battery power more slowly. I also note that my new camera does much better in low light than my old camera. Both of these pictures are taken with my desk lamp pointed up at the wall to the far left of Anneka and Will.  Continue reading Anneka and Will in low light

Since I have finally figured out how to force my new camera to default to memory card use, I hereby present the Pink Squad [not actually a real group] of the LHF cast. Continue reading Because pink is the awesomest hair color

Marquis will be enplasticated by DiD’s Ultimate Realistic Head 30003. Marquis has a very angular face, a large nose, full lips and an expression of disgusted cruelty that the aforementioned head captures.

Dom 2.0 will be enplasticated by the DiD scowling Timo Ducca sculpt [the top large picture on this page]. If this head reminds you of Davry, it’s no coincidence, as the Timo Ducca doll comes with three heads, one with a squinty expression, one with an open mouth and one with a scowl. The open-mouthed sculpt is the base for Davry. I selected the scowling Timo head for Dom because his salient characteristics are a round, soft, childish face and a conviction that the world is out to get him, both accurately transmitted in the sculpt. I’ll need to strip the paint, sand off the hair and repaint, but the essence of Dom is in there.

Why are the obnoxious characters — Dom, Marquis, Zinnia Pascale, Justine — always my favorites?

I am much more interested in getting Marquis, a member of the Sods implicated in Will’s ruination, and Dom, a member of the ‘Bloods implicated in Anneka’s vampirization, in plastic than I am Teodora and Dowager Lily. Hmmmm…

I ended up getting not a Kodak charge and spare battery, but a generic charger and generic spare battery. The charger is charging the battery as we speak. This had better work. I’d like to really use my new camera in the next few days.

I just bought some boring clothes for my dolls from War Toys, my preferred loose parts dealer. The damage was just around $54.00.

• Carl Hages jeans: a baggy pair of blue denims with silly paisley accents. For Will and Anneka.
• Attila the Hun shirt and pants: a simple loose white shirt and baggy black pants for figs who don’t care about fashion. Pants possibly for Gemini.
• Roscoe shirt and pants: light brown long-sleeved shirt and dark brown pants for conservative figs. Shirt possibly for Max. Pants possibly for Mark.
• Dr. J. shirt: blue/grey long-sleeved shirt for conservative figs. Shirt possibly for Max.
• Det. Chow outfit: light blue T-shirt and blue jeans for anyone that fits into them. Pants possibly for Sibley.
• CJ7 shirt and pants: white long-sleeved shirt and black pants for slender, smaller figs. Shirt for Mamie. Pants for Chow.
• Mme Marie skirt: a long black skirt for a conservative female character. For Teodora.
• 4 pairs of cheap, nondescript boots. Slip-ons for Chow. One pair for Max.

Kotobukiya sells a series of several styles of eyeglasses for figs. Each set comes flat-packed and cut out of a sheet of very thin metal, ready to be removed with wire snips and bent into shape. Hobby Search appears to have all styles in stock.

I swear Volks made some for Dollfies [27cm ones], but I can’t find a link. EDIT: Andrea, who is God, says that these no longer exist.

Forever Virginia sells sunglasses and eyeglasses at about 5 pairs per sheet of transparency plastic. You cut these out and then hook them around your figs’ ears.

Toymania has a tutorial on creating your own 1:6 glasses using wire, a paintbrush and wire snips.

A suggestion on MWD says that Toybiz Xena might be a candidate for Teodora’s headsculpt. Wow, that takes me back. When those dolls were still on the shelves [2000/2001], I used a Warlord Xena head on an original character, Patti, the gruff, Red-Bull-swilling junkyard owner. Incidentally, she was trans. I still have photos of her somewhere with her custom Red Bull can, painted sloppily by yours truly…. I always liked the sculpt for its no-nonsense, pissed-off expression. Maybe this shall be my choice for Teodora, if only for nostalgic reasons; she has the same imperious front that Patti did.

I should post some pictures and descriptions of my first wave of figs, their names, personalities and relationships. I had quite the soap opera running on my desk, pictures of which can still be seen in my photo album [before the advent of my digital camera]. As I recall, there were lots of queer characters, drag kings and queens and BDSM aficionados. And who could forget the hard-rockin’ band Flaming Hot Pussy? [As I recall, Patti was the drummer, and Velvette was a guitarist.] Obviously I translated most of these concepts into LHF, although FHP never made it.

Surprisingly enough, I’ve had lots of luck jamming wide-assed Cy Girls into clothes from collectible Barbies. Today’s successful experiment shows the outfit from the Avon P.F.E. Albee Barbie on a CG 2.0. The dickey to which the ruffles are attached fits with no problems, as does the bodice with train attached. The hobble skirt, a separate piece, did not fit over the CG butt until I ripped the seam a little bit, then pinned it back up after I hauled it over her hips. The train covers up the quick fix on the skirt, so the overall result is a historically approximate outfit and silhouette from the mid-1880s.  Continue reading Justine in P.F.E. Albee Barbie clothes

…and the cities were barren of purveyors of playthings. The people were sore afflicted, and great was the wailing and gnashing of teeth.

This call of distress has been brought to you by the fact that there is a toy store in Fall River, MA, Tony’s Toys, where I would like to browse. [I would like to purchase ZC Girls Janice there, actually.] However, public transit does not extend to Fall River, and I feel ridiculous purchasing something from this store and having it shipped from so close [yet so far away].

In the past 10 years, opportunities to buy toys have really dwindled around Boston metro. There used to be an FAO Schwartz in the middle of Boston, but that closed in 2002, I think. There used to be a Toys R Us by Alewife in Cambridge, but I think it might be closed. After years of financial hardship, Kaybee Toys is going out of business, which means that its location in the Cambridgeside Galleria is closing. At this rate, there are no major toy-focused retailers in the area!

One can purchase one’s toys from mega department stores such as Walmart or Target, but the selection there tends to be haphazard and disorganized. One can also purchase one’s toys from comic shops, but their selection tends to be small and marked up. One can also purchase one’s toys from small independent retailers — I really like Henry Bear’s Park, especially since they started carrying Iwako erasers — but small, independent retailers shun fashion dolls and action figures.

I get a lot of my toys online now.

In which Absinthe, the one who vamped Will, reflects on the pivotal moments of her life.  http://oddpla.net/lhf/?p=242

Comments: Welcome to another side plot for Love Has Fangs. Like Tale of Two Sisters, Dead Girl’s Diary follows the story of certain people who have fascinating adventures in the LHF universe outside of the main plot line. This particular parallel adventure concerns Absinthe, a vampire who died at the age of 13 and the one responsible for turning Will undead. What has she been doing in the century after biting her boyfriend? Find out here.

Absinthe ain’t your typical action figure. Her head is actually from a small Asian ball-jointed doll made by a Korean company, Elfdoll. The sculpt’s name is Kathlen, and it comes in open-eyed and close-eyed versions. I chose the one with closed eyes for Absinthe since it seems to give her a dreamy, thoughtful air appropriate to her character. Because the resin body that Kathlen comes on is just 20 cm high and not well-articulated, I put Absinthe’s head on an Obitsu body, a masectomized torso from a 27 cm Obitsu with a pelvis and legs from a 23 cm Obitsu. Her hair is a wig made of white mohair.

Oh yeah, and the snowy forest backdrops are from the Winter Wonder set of textures for Daz3D’s Woodland Realm Playset One. I would use actual forests, but I live in a densely populated suburban area and do not have any woods to take pictures of, so these graphics will have to suffice.

I’m going to do some more work on Ethan’s hair and possibly on his face, adding wrinkles, but here’s what he looks like in a very cadaverous, cold purple. He’s waiting for his pants, but I opted to save him the embarrassment of showing him breechless.Continue reading Ethan painted

Corsetkitten and I are doing a trade in which we each think that we’re getting the better end of the deal. She’s getting some stuff that she wants, and I’m getting Birthday Party Fun from the Re-ment American Kitchen set and a beautiful Otaku repaint by CorsetKitten. The default Otaku looks stoned, but CK’s repaint gives her an inquisitive look with expressive eyebrows and a slightly open mouth. She has loads more personality. She has no planned character in the LHF universe, but I couldn’t resist her charm.

Looking for a better head for Teodora.

Pippilotta needs a better body. Her left arm is kludgy, and her ankles are loose and weak.

Sibley’s default paint is wearing off his hair. I am dismayed because I don’t use him strenuously. I guess I’ll just have to paint his hair pink and induct him into the elite club of awesome dudes with pink heads.

Teodora, Pippilotta’s great aunt, is not a Colonial type of vampire the way that Pippilotta is. Pippilotta is an immortal, undead, sterile vampire, while Teodora is a bruxsas, a long-lived member of an exclusively female clan of Portuguese blood-drinkers who live for up to 300 years, interbreed with human men and work magic with gardening, cooking and fertility-related arts. I’m looking for a head for her because my OK Girl head, a soft, dirty copy of CG01, doesn’t really resemble her. I think Triad’s brunette fem sculpt might be good, as might their auburn sculpt, which has a rounder face. Below are front and side hairless renders of Teodora, then the headsculpts from Triad. What do you think?  Continue reading Teodora’s head? Opinions, please.

In the summers between college, I worked at the Bailey Howe Library for the University of Vermont along with my sister. I got paid to be surrounded by the largest collection of books in the state, and I enjoyed myself immensely. Besides the scholarly titles available, the library also offered a selection of casual reading, which was displayed prominently, along with other new acquisitions, at the back of the lobby on the first floor. I found many books to consume by sorting through the returns, stumbling upon them in the stacks when I was ostensibly making sure books were in call number order and, finally, picking them from the new acquisitions shelf.

During the summer of 1997, I saw a book on the new acquisitions shelf called Daughter of Darkness by Steven Spruill. The cover and title showed all stereotypical signs of being a thriller, possibly with some supernatural elements. As I enjoy thrillers, suspense novels, mysteries, etc., I picked it up. I saw that it was a medical suspense/vampire novel about a hospital intern coming to terms with her peaceful vampirism in opposition to her father’s murderous bloodsucking and picked it up. I read it quickly, liked it, then forgot it.

As soon as I forgot all the key details of the book, I wanted to read it again, primarily for the convincing biological interpretation of "hemophages," but I couldn’t find it anywhere. It didn’t help that all I remembered was the key invented term "hemophage" and the subtitle, "A Novel of Unearthly Thirst." Typing either phrase into search engines did nothing; neither did skimming my local library’s catalog of vampire fiction or even that of Amazon. Rather frustrated but not obsessed, I thought I would never figure out what book I barely remembered.

This morning, though, someone requested a Paperback Swap book from me, so I sent it off, then poked idly around the site, looking for a way to use my remaining credits. Seeking an anthology of vampire viction, Blood Thirst: 100 Years of Vampire Fiction, that contains my favorite story by Tanith Lee, "Bite-Ne-Not, or, The Fleur de Fur," I didn’t find what I was looking for.

However, I did come across what I wasn’t looking for. A keyword search on Paperback Swap for "blood thirst" brought up tangentially related titles…one of which was Daughter of Darkness. The cover seemed familiar and the date, 1997, was approximately right for when I first read the book that I couldn’t fully remember. Before my prefrontal cortex registered the title’s significance, I felt a familiar rise of anticipation because the rest of me realized that I had been looking for this book for 12 years. Curious, I clicked.

Hooray! An end to my quest! As soon as I saw the subtitle, I knew what I had found.

In any event, I ordered Daughter of Darkness from Paperback Swap, then discovered that it was the second in a trilogy. I just now ordered the first book, Rulers of Darkness. When I get another credit, I will order the third book, Lords of Light, even though it sounds silly. I’m so very gratified to have found Daughter of Darkness, a gratification made stronger and more pleasing by the element of surprise, since I wasn’t looking for it in the first place. Serendipitous discoveries make me bubble.

I pulled out Zinnia Pascale’s dull default molded ponytails and bangs. In place of the ponytails, I glued two buns from some Bratz doll. In place of her molded bangs, I glued doll hair bangs from the same Bratz. Zinnia Pascale may now legitimately be counted among my pink-haired dolls. Furthermore, she has crazy hair to match her crazy outfit. She is the awesomest zombie I know!
Continue reading More pink hair, or, Zinnia Pascale! Now! With 103% More Awesomeness!

Well, I just paid for Ethan’s clothes, so he will have a complete outfit of shirt [which I have], breeches, stockings and banyan [last three commissioned]. A banyan is a loose robe-like housecoat for men, often with Chinese- or Japanese-inspired designs. Popular during the 1700s and 1800s in Europe, the banyan reflected a fascination with "Oriental" culture and motifs. Don’t tell me you didn’t learn something today.

I was talking to cobroldy, who did Ethan’s outfit for me, about doing a dandy outfit for Will largely copied after the affectations of Oscar Wilde. I’m not doing it right now because I don’t have the money, but I do want to record some ideas and sources of inspiration. Will’s Wildean suit will be in shades of purple, most likely aping the style of Wilde’s suit shown in these photos:
Continue reading Ethan gets clothes; Will goes Wilde.

I love spiders, and I especially think tarantulas are pretty cool because they are hairy, so they look cuddly. Therefore, I found this story heart-warming. Basically the writer rescued a little tarantula from a swimming pool, where it was suffering brain damage and partial paralysis after being stung by a wasp and also falling into the water. The writer and friend nursed it back to health, even feeding it by hand because it couldn’t jump on bugs and catch them. It still moves slowly, but it can catch its own food now. Isn’t that great?

Incidentally, I’ve always suspected that, the smaller something is, the shorter its lifespan, true for birds, bugs and small rodents, for example. Tarantulas go against this principle, however. Though they are really big for spiders, they’re still small in the grander scheme of things, but they can live for decades. Longer than dogs and cats even!!

Who pays attention to this shit anyway?

Hair Color
Black: 9
Pink: 6
Brown: 6
Red: 5
Blond: 4
Grey: 4
Blue: 1
White: 1

I want to paint at least Zinnia Pascale’s ponytails pink. Then pink will be firmly in second place.

…for the overwhelming price of $2.99 + free shipping from Ebay. Why didn’t the seller just pay me to take it off their hands?

Still needed: A battery charger and a backup battery.

Davry now has pink hair. Unfortunately, that doesn’t make him any less self-righteous.

I finally got a passable close-up of Will. Unlike other dolls of mine, his face is done more impressionistically, with fewer definite borders. My new camera picks up details such as this that I don’t even notice in real life. Also please note that the Cy Girl relaxed hands may not be the most detailed out there, but they are the most graceful and elegant. I think they work equally well for male and female figs. Will looks very amused by something in this picture.

In other news, the battery charger + battery that I ordered is out of stock, so I have to get one somewhere else. I also need to get an SDHC card reader. Fleargh.     Continue reading Pink hair count +1

Taking my numbers from this summary of the LHF cast, I figured out some interesting stats about them. Continue reading LHF character stats

Little Assistance makes custom, functional wheelchairs in a variety of styles for 1:12 dolls. I really wish they made 1:6 wheelchairs.

EDIT: They do custom wheelchairs in 1:6! For hundreds of dollars!

Scratch that. I don’t have a dock for my camera. Ergo I ordered a camera charger and another battery. Continue reading Next! On the Cavalcade of LOLs! Also pictures with new camera…

Despite the fact that most of my dolls are queer and completely lacking in fashion sense, I’m attracted to Earring Magic Ken, a gay fashion disaster doll who appeared on the mainstream market in disastrous state. He would be entirely redundant, though, as I already have a character named Ken [Kenneth Sibley] and clothes that are even tackier than his default outfit.

After learning that the auction for the Momoko I wanted was pulled, I entered a Paypal claim for the full amount of my payment. This weekend, after the seller did not respond within the allotted period, I got a refund of the full payment, thanks to the Paypal Protection Policy or whatever it’s called. I’m annoyed that I did not get the doll, but grateful to have the $82.00 back to put toward my credit card, which still has an outstanding balance because of last month’s doll-buying orgy. I’m not sure I’ll be trying again for a Momoko, unless someone’s just selling her head.

In which Anneka’s karaoke buddies pave the road to Hell. http://oddpla.net/lhf/?p=240

Comments: Introducing a minor character, Marabou Fandango, a 12″ Playalong Lt. Uhura doll! With hair that fabulous, she had to be a drag queen!

So I finally found a use for the Mikelman Candi head that I bought from Andrea a while back. I had intended her to be Cory, but she did not resemble my earlier 3-D renders of Cory, so no dice.

A few days ago, I got into my head that I would like a doll of Justine, the evil leader of the Sods, Will and Absinthe’s former clan. I rendered some 3-D pictures of her and, lo and behold, saw that she looked approximately like the aforementioned Candi head, which, conveniently enough, even had the overdone makeup required for her character. I popped her on to a spare CG 2.0, and she looked convincingly like the portly and powerful Justine.

I then confronted another obstacle: Justine’s hair. I identified some wigs that could be historically passable, but I didn’t feel like paying $15.00 for some hair. So I poked around online, looking for information about historical hairstyles, finally discovering a small collection of photos at Shooting Star History ranging from the 1860s to the 1890s. Of all the styles roughly contemporary with Justine, the so-called "up twist with Spanish comb" looked simplest and most achievable, so I tried to push Justine’s original black rooted hair into a French twist. I failed because it was too slippery.

I ended up sculpting a French twist out of Sculpey directly on to Justine’s head. Then I dunked her in boiling water for 60 seconds to cure the Sculpey. [Note: This is an appropriate amount of time to cure a sculpted hairstyle, even with delicate parts, without it pulling away from the head.] Then I painted it a light turd brown, then scribbled all over it with Tuscan Red Prismacolor, then sealed it with matte varnish. The addition of a few loose hairs around her hairline effectively concluded the sculpted suggestion of hair.

Below are the renders of Justine’s head which I studied in order to find a headsculpt for her. They are hairless to better reveal the shape of her face and skull. There are two of them because the left represents her in Victorian times, when she was arrogant and evil, and the right represents her now, when she is less evil. Below that is a picture of Justine in plastic with her French twist, waiting for her P.F. Albee Barbie walking suit!!
Continue reading The story of Justine and her hair

…I found one in my doll drawers…and it’s explicitly a school uniform from a Catholic school, even! Said clothes came with Sideshow’s Dead Babysitter, whose head I used for the indefatigably fabulous Zinnia Pascale. Pictures and 1:6-related blather below.
Continue reading After all that piss about 1:6 Catholic schoolgirl uniforms…

That’s the kind of offer I can get behind. Amazon keeps offering me a $30.00 credit if I get an Amazon.com Visa card, so, since I was feeling like acquiring things without spending money today, I tossed a P.F. Albee Barbie and an Only Hearts Club outfit in my cart. With shipping, my total came to $29.09, which means that these purchases will end up not costing me anything.

The P.F. Albee Barbie commemorates a door-to-door Avon rep precursor who was active in the fin-de-siecle period. She comes in a beautiful lavender walking suit for respectable sales calls. Into this outfit I intend to jam the portly Justine. Wish me luck.

The OHC outfit, a blindingly pink jogging suit, will be divided up among my small characters, such as Susie, Little Anneka and Absinthe. Poor Susie…Her lightweight and very slender Obitsu body makes her look hunchbacked and cadaverous, despite her chubby little face. Maybe she needs some plastic surgery this weekend. I tried to bulk her up with a turtleneck under her sweatshirt, but she still looks fragile.

YAY FREE CLOTHES!

• Ethan’s knickers.
• Little Will’s hair. Clarissa, size 4, $13.95, pale blond or light brown.
• Leonora’s hair. Martha, size 4, $13.00, pale blond or medium blond.
• Michaela’s hair. Penny, size 4, $13.60, red.
• Justine’s hair (Victorian). Nicolette, size 4.5, $13.25, black.
• Justine’s clothes (Victorian). Pillage Victorian Elegance Barbie, Victorian Barbie with Cedric Bear or Victorian Tea Barbie or Albee Barbie [Avon]?
• Dowager Lily’s clothes (1910s). Pillage Gibson Girl Barbie?

Breanna, curly bangs, sausage curls in back, size 4.5, $13.50. Victorian child.

Clarissa, bangs, side curls, ponytail w curls, size 4, $13.95. Victorian child. For Little Will.

Erika, curly bangs, two bunches of curls on sides, size 4-5, $12.50. Victorian child.

Martha, updo with curly bangs, size 4, $13.00. Victorian/Edwardian woman. For Leonora.

Nicolette, updo, curly bangs, sausage curls in back, size 4.5, $13.25. Edwardian/Victorian woman. For Justine.

Penny, bangs, shoulder length flip, size 4, $13.60. 1950s/1960s girl or woman. For Michaela.

Crappy pictures from crappy camera showing current cast.  Continue reading LHF cast as of 1/1/09

Now that I’m at home and staring at everyone, here’s a list of who needs clothes:

1. Teodora needs jeans.
2. Gemini needs jeans.
3. Mark needs pants with longer legs.
4. Will needs jeans.
5. Anneka needs jeans.

Apparently a majority of the crew wants denim!

Looks like AJ Clothiers may be my best bet for getting all items from one place.

I would like, in no particular order…Continue reading While I’m dreaming…

H2 Creative is I think where Will’s head originally came from. I think he’s HH042. If so, then this is my reaction: right here.

LHF characters dress in one of two styles. Some wear subdued clothing, either historical or utilitarian. Others wear mismatched flamboyant disasters. See chart.Continue reading Finding dull doll clothes

In which Mark’s New Year’s party ends up being the wildest yet. http://oddpla.net/lhf/?p=204

As much as I think that ZC Girls are cheaply made, overpriced, microcephalic Cy Girl knock-offs, I rather like their recent release Janice, who seems to be some combination of a magician, a witch and a Playboy bunny. She comes with a plethora of accessories and 2 complete [although skimpy] outfits INCLUDING BOOTFEET, which almost makes her worth her $90.00 price.

Hmmm, I see that Dark Figures is trying desperately to get rid of its less desirable BTVS figs at $20.00 a pop. Must resist the temptation to buy Liam/Angelus for historically approximate clothing…

Well, I can’t find the "before" pictures of Ethan’s head, so you’ll just have to feast your eyes on this progress picture, with wiggly arrows indicating most of the places where I gouged a lot. Fascinating. I need to gouge his nostrils deeper. Continue reading Ethan in progress

…a time when Web sites were characterized by multicolor walls of cheerfully misspelled text, uselessly animated buttons, blinking banner links, spasmodic mouseover animations and obscure Web rings! Case in point: Men Without Hats’ site. Despite the simplistic design, I actually love this site. It was clearly made without a designer [or any sense of design principles] by the hatless dudes themselves, who are just bubbling over with an infectious enthusiasm for the music. That’s one of the things I love best about this band: From their music videos and concert vids, it’s obvious that they’re having so much fun, grinning and singing and flailing wildly.

Anyway, from what I can unearth, Men Without Hats has a NEW ALBUM OUT, No Hats Beyond This Point, marking a return to their synth pop roots after a few decades away. I’m going to get it when I’m not hemorrhaging money in the direction of dolls and doll supplies.

Please excuse me. I need to drool over Ivan Doroschuk listen to more MWH music vids now.

EDIT: Okay, it’s not new. It came out in 2004. Well, it’s new to me.

Turns out that the $25.00 price on Triad’s site for Cadence is the after-Xmas sale price, while $37.00 is the regular non-sale price. Deciding that $37.00 was too much for one outfit, I sprang for the sale price, which means that Michaela’s clothes are in the mail, so I will indeed be remaking Michaela [YAY!], but will not be getting any Ladies’ Mission fetishwear [DAMMIT!].

Anyway, shipping from Triad was $2.99 for normal USPS first class. They must make their killing on shipping bulky items like dollies.

NOTE: Tonight I will post pictures of the apples I made this weekend and of the progress that I have made on gouging Ethan’s head.

Nouveau Toys, which specializes in Aoshima’s Ladies’ Mission dolls, has limited quantities of these Japanese imports, some with schoolgirl outfits! I like the ones without the scarves around the necks, Ai and Yui. I’m also very interested in the nun ["Street Corner Princess?!?!?!?!"] and the maid for fetishwear purposes, also because they are endlessly amusing. Anyone wanna split some LMs? :p

In other options, Triad has some possibilities. There is the New Skool outfit, but it has that stupid neck scarf which is more appropriate to Japanese school uniforms than U.S. ones. Cadence could work, as it is conservative and kinda girly.

As much as I like the Aoshima fetishwear, I think buying just an outfit would be better than buying a whole damn doll + clothes + guns when I am only going to use the clothes. Now the question is…where to get Cadence? It’s $25.00 at Triad, but they’re known for their naaaaaaaaaaastry shipping costs. Alternatively, it’s $37.00 at Good Stuff to Go, but why the $12.00 markup?

Oh, the weighty questions that plague me….

…My innocent vengeful Catholic schoolgirl vampire with a cross burning into her skin and a red ’50s flip. The best thing about her is her absolute seriousness about all matters of life, in contrast to her casual, chatty and very personal relationship with God, mediated by the Archangel Michael, who she firmly believes in, but who we never see. She has no designated role in any upcoming season, but I would like to bring her back. Here she is in (Un)Real Life, the previous incarnation of LHF, writing her column Dead and Devout for the vampire newspaper. The best joke of this whole episode is that I used a font called Catholic Schoolgirl for her handwriting! ^_^

Well, anyway, I have a Kisaragi Honey head that I could use for her; I just need to get that red flip and a schoolgirl outfit…something very demure.

Flirty Pink Going to the Pink Market contains cleaning products and a spray bottle!

Flirty Pink Sundays are Pink contains tools that are probably the right size for light crafting, rather than minor carpentry.

While I’m poking around on the site, I notice these that I like as well, but may not be able to get, since they are older:

American Kitchen Mommy’s Breakfast has cereal and a milk jug.

Elegant Sweets Girls Like Tarts reminds me of the fruit tarts I love so much.

In Fun Meals, I like Waffles because of the waffle iron and Eggs Etc. because of the eggs and bacon!

In Mini Sweets, I like Happy Birthday Surprise because of the balloons and the blowers and All-American Apple Pie for the beautiful pie!

Iwako interests:
Continue reading Notes to myself: Rement wants and Iwako interests

In which prep for Mark’s New Year’s party ain’t going so well. http://oddpla.net/lhf/?p=190

I won’t have everything set for an Xmas party, so all decorations and festivities you see below will be formally presented on for New Year’s Eve. I just wanted to show off my work early. I was able to find 1:6 balloons at a party store; they were called “balloon picks” and were sold as cake toppers. Garlands are from 1:1 garlands, snowflakes from copier paper and Post-Its, banner from wrapping paper, party hats from origami paper and pompoms, noisemakers from origami paper and slender dowels. Why yes, I do spend way too much time on these things…

Holiday cheer to all!

Previously on LHF: Will pleads with Anneka to take some time to grieve in the wake of her grandmother’s death, but Anneka goes to work in the day, protected by the impenetrable leopard print coat. At work, she finds no respite from her sadness; instead, she uncovers a book by her grandmother Minerva and her father Max, with pictures by her grandmother’s partner Mamie. Mark tries to comfort her, pointing out that vampires’ long lives mean endless loss. He counsels her not to despair, saying she should remember who she has left.

Meanwhile, at home, Will fights with asinine lesbovamps.com freelancers and wonders what to do in Anneka’s absence. He reads some Baudelaire, but this just reminds him that his relationship with Anneka is in the shitter.

Determined not to wallow in sadness, Anneka goes out for karaoke with Pippilotta, Rori and two new members of the crowd, introverted carnivore Andrew and obnoxiously eco-friendly Davry.

On location in Janet’s lab for a lesbovamps.com shoot, Will tries to work with Velvette and Gemini, member of the Provincetown clan the End of the World, but Gemini keeps falling asleep. Despite Will’s warnings that Gemini is a dangerous ladykiller, Velvette and Gemini flirt outrageously, leaving Will pissed off about getting no satisfaction.

Then Will initiates a late-night conversation with Anneka about her avoiding him; she agrees to pay more attention to him, then suddenly falls asleep unreassuringly.

Home alone yet again, Will tries to mope, but Velvette, Gemini and Janet, all garishly and scantily clad, accost him. Velvette tells him to dress up and cheer up; he somewhat reluctantly accompanies them to a midnight showing of Rocky Horror.

Later, Will takes Anneka to the Nightcrawler, in the hope that she will get slightly drunk and reminisce therapeutically about her grandmother. She does so, but her catharsis is interrupted by Thomas Fell, her ex who’s back in town. He puts moves on Anneka, while Will calls the police. Meanwhile, Zinnia Pascale gallantly steps in to physically subdue Thomas. The evening is derailed.

In which Anneka tells more about Will and his cheese weaselly behavior. http://oddpla.net/lhf/?p=176

Comments: We know things are bad between our fair protagonists; they’re not even sitting on the same piece of furniture. Incidentally, Anneka’s chair is one of my favorite recent acquisitions; it’s actually a pin cushion in the shape of an overstuffed chair. Will’s cosmetics and Anneka’s computer both come from Rement. Accessories make the scene, baby!

Speaking of accessories, they sure have a lot of sex toys, don’t they?

Labyrinth is my favoritest movie ever, and David Bowie as Jareth is my favoritest movie character ever. That said, Will’s right — the movie is rather creepy.

Professional toy sculptor turned freelance Chris Howes does beautiful 1:6 work. I’ve seen commission threads for him on various 1:6 boards full of members testifying to his greatness. He doesn’t have a storefront of completed sculpts the way that Wanted Action Figure does; instead, he works on commission, producing at least 10 of each likeness at a time. Therefore, his likenesses require more of an outlay; however, from what I’ve seen of his work, he has greater accuracy and more suppleness of curve and musculature than Wanted Action Figure.

If I was ever going to have some rich, obnoxious, vain, preppy characters in LHF, they would be enplasticated by Fashion Royalty Homme dolls, assuming that I could get one nude for <$100.00. I really like the body sculpt, but I don’t think that any of the headsculpts are attractive; because all their lines are sharp and stylized, the FR dudes look as if all their features have been squinched to the middle of their faces. They are, however, hilarious, perfect for bombastic characters, but too expensive for me to indulge them merely as tertiaries.

I rescind my earlier guarded compliments in favor of Moonlight, the canceled CBS  weepy vampire detective drama. In case you missed it, this show concerns Mick St. John, an undead PI who stalks and romances Beth, an Internet reporter that he rescued from his nutso [also undead] ex-wife 20 years ago. In every episode, Beth starts to cover a crime for her news organization; Mick pokes around and discovers vampires behind the scenes. Beth gets herself in distress; Mick saves the day, and the viewer’s skull becomes dented with the falling anvils that are driving home the parallels between the murder du jour and Mick and Beth’s relationship.

The tedium is lightened only by the moments in which Josef, Mick’s slick, rich, mischievous friend, slides on scene and smirks around. As Josef, Jason Dohring, with his curling lips and casual air, seems to be the only person in all of Moonlight having fun with the hammy proceedings. He’s like a dignified comic relief character. I found myself fast-forwarding to scenes in which Dohring was on screen.

Blaaaaaah.

Ebay says:

What does that mean? Does that mean I’m not getting my dolly?? 🙁

Here’s a photo of Berry Hunter Momoko, the one that I bought. Of all the Momokos I’ve seen, her outfit and hairstyle seem the most practical. Her appearance communicates to me that she is a slouchy, carefree nerd concerned more with comfort than with stylishness. She is recycling her dad’s old hat, her mom’s old eyeglass frames and her younger brother’s rugby shirt. I bet she likes music and books that were popular 25 to 50 years ago, not because she’s a vampire from that period, but because she is not in tune with modern pop culture. She did not grow up with a TV or a computer. She likes big band music! ^_^ Her name is Parker Stanley. People who meet her often think she is a hipster, but she has only a vague idea of what a hipster is. She is a shy, smiley person with a great fascination for the physical artifacts of modern technology. You can often find her staring at cell phones, mice, remote controls and calculators with a dissective, curious eye. Continue reading Berry Hunter Momoko official picture

Today we’re talking about Misaki! This is another "useless" [i.e., non-LHF] doll that I would like to have, even more expensive than the average Momoko, but around the same price as today’s average Cy Girl. Continue reading Integrity Toys’ Misaki

I ordered a Wanted Action Figures Hugh Laurie head for Ethan. Woo hoo!

I also ordered a Momoko, after weeks of shopping around to discover the lowest price at which I could get a complete doll + outfit that I actually wanted [as opposed to the cheapest possible doll + outfit that I wasn’t necessarily interested in]. Answer: I found a complete Berry Hunter on Ebay for $82.00, $20.00 of which is shipping from Japan.

Unlike Ethan, the Momoko does not have a name or a personality, but, given her shorter size, she is either a mortal teenager or someone who died <21. She might be a member of Cory’s very new clan of displaced, mixed-race vampires, the Half-and-Halfs. She may also be a member of the Chinese vampire clan, the Hun. She may be one of those "hot Irma girls" that Pippilotta flirts with. Or she may be a character whose role I have not thought up yet.