Happy Birthday, Majokko Shop! TINY PANTIES GIVEAWAY!

The Pure Neemo girls' blog over at The Majokko Shop is turning two!  To celebrate two years of magical cuteness, they're giving away some very special underpants :3.

Tiny pantsu!

These ridiculously cute doll panties are only available at special gashapon machines located within the Azone shop in Japan.  You can check out the details for the giveaway over on the Majokko Shop's blog.  Good luck with your entries and a special thanks to Heather!

New girl! Pure Neemo Mami from Puella Magi Madoka Magica

I've waited patiently (against my will) for almost two full years trying desperately to find an Azone Pure Neemo Mami from Puella Magi Madoka Magica.  I kicked and kicked and kicked myself after I missed out on her during the Hobby Link Japan sale and I couldn't bring myself to pay scalpers prices.

Lo and behold, a week or so ago, my dear friend Heather of The Traveling Twig and The Majokko Shop sent me a link to an auction for Mami!  She was very reasonably priced, but had no buy it now option so I bid and crossed my fingers that I was the only one desperately seeking this girl.

Azone Pure Neemo Tomoe Mami from Puella Magi Madoka Magica

I haven't even finished watching the show, to be honest, but I fell in love with Mami and Madoka's characters.  I've been a fan of magical girls since I was a little girl myself, back in the days when Sailor Moon was my favorite Saturday morning cartoon.  Without going into any spoilers, though, the reason I love this show so much is that it takes the idea of a magical girl to an entirely new, incredibly messed up level.  You see these sweet girls with cute faces and expect another sugar coated pastel love story.  Oh, hell no.  Mami's story in particular is very tragic and the brutality of it all is probably why I latched onto her character so fervently O_O.  I just want to save all the Mamis T_T.

There are no demonic little rats or witches here, just tea and sweet things and puppies and kittens and fluffiness.

 I daresay Madoka looks excited to be reunited with her friend :).  I hadn't seen one of the Large size Azone bodies before, either, and I like that they used the body with a more mature bust to match her character.  Her torso is quite a bit beefier than my other Azone girls, but luckily she still fits into most of the clothing (except for the ones specifically made for S and XS size bodies).

The Mami and Madoka Army!  Cu-Poche Mami is still making her way out of Japan :3.

 Hehe, Madoka looks so tiny next to Mami, even though she's kneeling.  Madoka is on a S Flection Advance body. The Pure Neemo girls I had before Mami arrived all recently got updated to the new bodies, and I'd still like to order one for Mami.  The extra poseability makes such a huge difference, but I still want her to have a Large body :3.

Mami and Mini (Figma) Mami <3.

 I'm so happy to finally have this adorable girl in my collection.  She was definitely well worth the wait!  Thank you all for reading!

Custom Monster High CAM Vampire Repaint, Tess

Tess is a custom repainted Monster High CAM Vampire girl.  She features a custom made dress by DollsAhoy! and Tibetan lamb's wool hair.  She's available for purchase over here in my Etsy shop.

I wanted to try a few different stylistic techniques with this girl.  I usually draw a much bigger, darker, and solid pupil, but I've recently become a fan of more softly blended eyes.  I think it gives them an almost glowy, dreamy look :3.

I also tried a softer look for her lips.  I gently blended the lines up and out and added soft, subtle touches of darker pigmentation.

The Vampire mold is usually harder to work with for me.  Once you remove the default paint, the sculpted eyes underneath are farther apart than the paint indicates.  In the past, my Vampire girl repaints ended up looking angular and harsh, but I wanted a much softer, sweeter look for this repaint. What do you think?  Did I manage to make her look sweeter than my other vampire girl repaints?

I'm working through a backlog of base-color painted dolls at the moment so I can get on with the newer goodies I've recently found (Clawdia, Elissabat, Gigi!).  A lot of times, to optimize my airbrush usage (since it can be a pain to clean), I line up about five or so blank girls and give them their shading, eyeshadow, and lip colors so that I can come back and add the details when I'm inspired :).  I hope you've enjoyed this girl, I really love the way she turned out.  Thanks so much for reading!

Custom Repaint: Stella, the Monster High CAM Ice Girl

The Ice and Blob Girl has been my favorite release in the Create a Monster series to date.  I really loved their translucent bodies and vinyl.  They are both among my favorite Monster High girls to repaint.

The wigs were even better, imo, with these girls than the previous releases.  I was a huge fan of the vinyl wigs, too, and I loved the fiber for this one in particular.  When boil straightened, they become so soft and feathery, perfect for texturing the look with a razor cut.

This girl arrived without her default hands, however.  She was part of one of the multipacks from Costco, so it's just a packaging fluke.  Luckily, I keep a stash of all kinds of different parts and gave her these awesome purple gloved hands as a replacement, since they match the outfit I wanted to use :).  The pegs for these hands are smaller than the wrist of the CAM girls,  since they were intended for a regular release Clawdeen.  I don't know why Mattel wouldn't just make them all the same, but who knows?  I adhered them with a bit of flexible E6000 and they still have their up and down motion as well as a bit of rotation when twisted gently.

Stella is available over in my Etsy shop.  Thanks for reading!

The Mushroom Girl: Kinoko Juice Kiki

A very, very long time ago when I was almost brand new to the idea of doll collecting I stumbled across one of the cutest, most stylistically sculpted dolls I'd seen so far.  Unfortunately, at the time, there was very little information about the doll, it took me a great deal of searching to even figure out what the name was, much less the maker.

Imagine my disappointment when I discovered that not only were these dolls sold exclusively in Japan, they were also hand made and sold in limited quantities at very high prices.  At the time, I gave up on ever finding one for sale in the US, much less being able to afford it on the secondhand market.

That little doll was Kinoko Juice Kiki and I'd wanted one for as long as I can even remember.  A few months back, I stumbled across a Japanese auction for a dirty, damaged, and long neglected Kiki.  I didn't care and I bid immediately, hoping like hell not to be outbid.  To my absolute disbelief I won!  Three weeks later, she arrived and I couldn't wait to get to work.

I did not take progress pictures, as there are certain proprietary aspects of the doll that I wouldn't want exposed to anyone looking to copy.  Specifically the unique, handmade eyes that a copy would not arrive with. 

She arrived with a laundry list of issues that needed to be fixed.  Her eyes, which cannot be replaced, let alone even found on a secondhand market, were my biggest issue.  The material was cracked in one eye, right through the iris.  I have no idea what the artist uses to make them, but I filled it in with UV cured resin to blend the distortion created by the crack.  I ended up with a barely visible line and a few air bubbles, but I am very happy with the result!

Her default faceup wasn't salvageable, so I repainted her as close to the original style as I could, with a few subtle changes.  Her headcap was also stained pretty badly.  When I sanded the stains away, I discovered that she had yellowed pretty badly.  So, I took a magic eraser to the rest of her body and she cleaned up surprisingly well.  One of the connections on her hand had been worn almost completely away (or it was broken and sanded, I couldn't really tell), so I had to resculpt the piece back up to fit into her wrist with epoxy.

Unfortunately, she didn't arrive with all of her extras.  Only one of the optional hands was included, but I don't mind a bit.  It's been almost impossible to find clothes and shoes that fit her, but YOSD fits pretty well, though a bit large.  The dress she's wearing in these photos was made by DollsAhoy and was intended to fit Blythe, that's how teeny she is.  Blythe pants, though, won't fit because she has much bigger hips and legs.  I had several pairs of the shoes she's wearing in different sizes (from trying to find something to fit Hujoo).  They're a bit long in the toe, since her feet are very round, but overall, it's as close as I think I'm gonna get.

I still haven't finished with her, but the process of working on her has been so fun.  Most of my BJD girls have arrived as 'damaged' or 'junk' items.  I really love restoring them back to their original glory <3.  I still have heads in storage that I've been working with on and off for a while that haven't been photographed, haha.

I'm so, so incredibly glad to have found one of these amazing little dolls.  She's definitely a grail of mine, if not THE grail.  Thanks for reading!