A while back, I acquired a cast iron child’s toy stove that would have worked well for 1:6 scale, except it was too short. I recently purchased a beautiful Little Maid pressed tin, lithographed toy stove from the 1930s with the same problem — too short. I justified this purchase by saying that I have three currently active characters who like to cook [Amish, Night, and the Magister], and the Magister is exactly the sort of person to have different cooking places for different foods.

Incidentally, I did some research, and apparently stoves really looked like that in the 1920s and 1930s. Little legs were common, as were multiple ovens, often set side by side with the burners.

I’m surprised that toy stoves running on electric current were so popular for decades. As far as I’m concerned, that sounds like second-degree burns or a house fire just waiting to happen.

Anyway, shortly after I acquired the Little Maid stove, I found Sixth Scale Studio on Etsy. Besides furniture, this shop also makes risers for kitchen furniture so that it’s a more realistic height for 1:6ers.  Huzzah!Continue reading Toy stoves as pieces for dolls

The kid-sized bunkbed is finally complete! Continue reading Bunkbed for the Little Dorks!

About a year and a half ago, I got some 1:6 scale candy house replicas made by BC Mini. This is what they looked like:Continue reading At long last, the 1:6 scale gingerbread house project is complete!

I finally upgraded my flat produce display furniture to appropriately slanted furniture. The frame of this piece is an unfinished wooden box from Michaels. Base is a wooden crate from packaging for some candy. Bottom shelf is just box lids glued side by side and also glued into frame. Top shelf has a support framework made with dowels, balsa wood, and hot glue. I ended up removing the shim under the front edge, and I put my mini pumpkins and mini squash on the top of the frame, but, other than that, the pictures show how it looks now.

Continue reading Behold, for I have made a two-tier produce shelf!!!!!!!!!

Zuru has come out with 5 Surprise Mini Brands miniatures. Like the Australian Coles Little Shops minis, the Zuru minis are small representations of familiar branded items one can find in a grocery store. Unlike the Australian Coles Little Shops, the Zuru minis feature United States brands. There are various sets of 5 apiece. I bought a bunch already opened off Ebay because I only wanted certain ones of each set. Below you can see pictures of various minis with a variety of 1:6 scale dolls for comparison. Overall, I’d call these minis a consistent 1:4 scale [unlike Coles Little Shops, which really vary in scale]. Nevertheless, since foods and drugstore products can come in so many sizes of packaging, I think these can easily work for 1:6 scale too. Continue reading Zuru 5 Surprise Mini Brands miniatures — a little big, but they work for 1:6 scale

Coles, a grocery chain in Australia, ran a promotion in August and September. People purchasing $30.00 AUD received a blind-boxed miniature of a product sold at the store. There were 30 miniatures, plus rare accessories like branded baskets, aprons, carts, etc. People went wild for the minis, not only in Oz, but around the world, and Ebay sellers did a brisk business in secondhand minis.

I, of course, being an aficionado of small things in the 1:6 scale range, perked up when I heard about Coles Little Shops. The inclusion of Nutella in the minis sealed my interest. I’m not really a fan of particular brands, but Ferrero Nutella is one of them. I have not acquired any Nutella in 1:6 scale, however, mostly because I didn’t want to sculpt its distinctive jar shape. When I saw that Coles had reproduced the iconic Nutella container and the packaging label in minuscule detail, I jumped on it.

In comparison to the premier 1:6ish scale products made by Rement, which are meticulously molded and painted, often with openable packages, Coles Little Shops are simpler. As duplicates of exterior packaging only, they are either paper or plastic packages filled with foam for shape, or they are single-color pieces of stiff, brittle plastic. Scale varies wildly among the 30 products. Daily Juice, eggs, Leggo, for example, are good for 1:6 scale, while Nutella, Milo, and Colgate look like larger 1:6 scale containers you’d buy at a bulk store…or 1:4 scale. Vicks and John West seem closest to 1:3 scale. It seems very strange that the promotion didn’t just pick a scale and go with it.

The advantage that the Coles Little Shops have over Rement is the fact that they’re officially licensed by certain brands, so they look exactly like the real things sold in Oz. For example, if you squint hard enough at the Colgate, you can see the toll-free informational hotline number for Australia and New Zealand if you want to call someone up to talk toothpaste!

My favorites are Nutella, Colgate, Daily Juice, Mount Franklin, Coles eggs, Pantene, Leggo, and Chobani. These all work really well with the solid, simple design of the minis. Colgate, Daily Juice, Mount Franklin, Coles eggs, and Leggo are all instantly identifiable, even if you don’t know the brands, so they’re very satisfying aesthetically. As for Nutella, Pantene, and Chobani, they’re recognizable as branded products that are either never produced in 1:6 scale form or are produced rather unrecognizably. When was the last time you ever saw decent yogurt in close to 1:6 scale?! Continue reading Coles Little Shop branded miniature food and products

I want to show off some of my cool sweets, so I arranged a display of my favorites. Hey, who put that Cyber helmet there?! That’s not even remotely close to edibility! I need a sheet of clear plastic to cover the front…Continue reading Bakery cooler in process