Toy Fiend Friday: Kotobukiya CuPoche Tomoe Mami from Madoka Magica

By now, you should know that I have an insatiable obsession for all things Tomoe Mami.  What you might not know is that I'm also a diehard fan of Kotobukiya.  I've been collecting figures by them since I was a weensy teenager.  When they started releasing their CuPoche line, I was ecstatic!  I can't really get behind collecting Nendoroids because of their horrendous posing, but these little figures are amazing and run in the same super deformed, sugar dripping sweetness aesthetics.

Even the CuPoche packaging is super cute :3.

Mami arrives with three faceplates, several sets of differently posed hands, her guns, a magnetic (!!!) stand and a miniature Witch Charlotte, in her first form.

NO SAD FACES FOR MAMI.  She's suffered enough!

She also comes with a variety of clear plastic clasps and hooks to display the guns and Charlotte.  These can be placed into the pegs surrounding her stand to create different scenes.  Her faceplates are very easily removed, but don't fall out or become loose without a bit of pressure to release them.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH MAMI NO

There... that's better.  Pardon me while I go cry myself a river into my pillow T_______T.

As I mentioned when I reviewed Madoka last year, I absolutely LOVE the magnetic stand.  It's easily concealed under a backdrop.  The magnets in her feet are very strong.  Perfect for say...

Later, dude!

...Punting a particularly evil little witch into the corner where she belongs >_>.

I ordered CuPoche Mami from my favorite figure store, Hobby Link Japan.  She's still available and in stock :).  If you haven't had a chance to check these adorable little figures out, you definitely should!  If you're not a fan of Madoka Magica, there are also several other characters to choose from.

Thanks for reading!

Workspace Wednesday! Three new Monster High Repaints, Modifying Clawdia Wolf's Toothy Grin

I usually post an update every Wednesday over on Tumblr, but I've been so busy the past couple of days, I wanted to take a moment to go a bit more in depth with the new doll projects I'm working on.

NO PICTURES D:!  We haven't got our faces on, yet!

You might notice that Clawdia here is looking a bit different.  That's because I wanted to try removing her teeth with the cut and superglue method which has always been popular with Barbies.  I loved Clawdia's character and her doll is absolutely fabulous, but dolls with perpetual open mouth smiles are unsettling to me O_O.  Speaking of Elissabat and Draculaura, I posted a comparison video between the two over here on my Youtube channel, confirming that they are two different sculpts.

THE STUFF OF NIGHTMARES

NO, NOT EXACTLY, BUT EQUALLY TERRIFYING O_O.  This was a moment in the removal process that I found particularly hilarious.  I was laughing so hard, I messed up the first time trying to bond the lips back together with glue.  Sorry, Clawdia.

This is the video I posted for the method I used, though there are plenty of other tutorials available on the web:

Basically, you're just cutting out the teeth with an exacto blade, evening out the opening, adding a few drops of super glue, and then pinching it shut until the glue cures.  Then, you'll end up with how she looks in the first photo above.  One thing I need to recommend is that you use a craft blade instead of the straight blade I had to make do with.  I've lost my darned Xacto and have NO idea where it disappeared to.  It was too late to go out and find a new one, so I grabbed the blade from my scraper.  Kids, please don't ever use sharp objects on your own, always get a parent to help you!

I'm very happy with the way she turned out and can't wait to finish her makeup.  As I mentioned in the video, I ended up with a bit of discoloration from the glue (turning white as it cured) because of her dark skin.  This didn't matter to me, as it was painted over, but if you're planning on keeping her lip color, you might want to think about touching it up afterward :).  Thanks a bunch for reading!  Clawdia and Elissabat's customs will be available in my Etsy shop a little later this afternoon!

Toy Fiend Friday: Revoltech Hello Kitty

My love of all things Hello Kitty is rivaled only by my love of coffee.  Seriously, come have a look at my apartment sometime.  The amount of Hello Kitty related paraphernalia borders on ridiculous, my friends and relatives only feed my addiction.  When I read that Revoltech would be releasing a tiny, posable version of Sanrio's princess, I completely lost my sh-... Er, I was super excited >_>.

Revoltech Hello Kitty

I mean, holy cow, just look at it.  It's friggin' adorable.  I preordered her with the speed of a thousand grabby fists. 

The little playset is pretty cute, if a bit lacking in accessories.

The set itself is pretty simple.  She comes with an easel, crayon, apple, stand and an extra winking faceplate.  The articulation is there, but I don't expect any dynamic posing capabilities here.  Of course, given her dimensions, how flexible could Hello Kitty possibly be?  The little crayon is magnetic, so that she can hold it in her hand.  You could also use other similar scale magnetic accessories.

Hard at work!

I ordered her from Hobby Link Japan (of course), but sadly, she is out of stock and has been discontinued.  I'm sure you could find her from a secondhand market, though.  Mandarake usually gets a lot of like-new items in stock shortly after their release.  I don't know if the Revoltech Hello Kitty had bootlegs produced, but if all else fails, you could try eBay.  Just make sure you're buying from a reputable seller (check the feedback, if they're conning people with fakes, you'll see it there).

Winky face!

I plan on carrying her with me in my bag for impromptu photos while I'm out and about.  She's tiny and capable of standing without her stand thanks to her huge feet, which is always a good thing in my book.  I think die hard fans will enjoy this set, but if you'd like a bit more complexity in your figures, you might wanna pass.  Though... lookit that face?  How could anyone pass up on that face?! :D 

Thanks for reading!  Toy Fiend Fridays are back on schedule and I'll be reviewing a new toy each week!

Super sweet accessories and jewelry with clay molds from Padico

About a week ago, I came across the scratch building section of one of my favorite places, Hobby Link Japan.  I primarily use them for new figure and doll releases and, somehow, it never crossed my mind to browse their crafting goodies.

Air drying resin clay is something I've wanted to try creating things with for a while.  It's super soft, lightweight and dries with a hard, waterproof finish.  The two brands I picked up were Mermaid Puffy and Hearty, though there are other brands available.  I opted to get the white clay because each brand is easily custom colored using acrylics, watercolors, or inks.  I swirled a bit of paint in with the clay for the ice cream scoops to create a marbled effect and kneaded the color evenly to make solid color macarons.

Faux macarons and scoops of ice cream using Padico molds and Mermaid Puffy clay.

While browsing the clay selection, I also came across Padico molds.  There are two types: soft silicone and hard plastic.  I prefer the silicone because it's much easier to pop out the molded piece.  If you swipe a bit of mold release (or baby oil) onto the hard plastic, the pieces are still very easy to remove.

Padico Silicone and Hard Plastic Clay Molds

They have all kinds of cute molds available for making breads, macarons, ice cream scoops, cakes, and more.  They're the perfect size for making jewelry and accessories.

Resin clay Blueberry Ice Cream and Pistachio Macaron, destined to become cute rings!

Padico also makes a decoden whipped creme, but I'm using plain ol' GE white silicone here.  I like the moist look and squishy texture once it cures :3.

I've already added a lot of my recently made items to the shop, which you can check out here.  These are some of the other items I've made for myself and have yet to list:

 Chocolate creme waffle hair pins, key lime tart hair pins, miniature ice cream cone earrings, and heart macaron rings.

I'm having so much fun making these items.  If I had half as much enthusiasm about making real food as I do for faux food, I'd be dangerous in the kitchen, haha.  Thanks for reading!

Monster High Repaint Highlights of 2013, Taking a look back.

Two posts in one day!?  I know, it's craziness.  I was in the middle of migrating my files to our cloud storage and came across all of these photos of repaints from the last year.  It didn't seem like so many until I found myself staring at the hundreds of photos in my folder.

I really worked hard on coming up with a definite style this year and though I tend to deviate from the norm from time to time, I'm pretty happy with how far I've come.  In those folders, I also found pictures of some of my very first Monster High repaints...

 My second Monster High repaint and my most recent.  Three years apart.

I remember being pretty happy with this Gloom Beach Clawdeen when I finished.  She was the second Monster High repaint I'd ever done (from 2011), and the first doll I'd painted in years since taking a break from the hobby ages ago.  I was seriously out of practice, but the job market was absolutely horrible and I was grasping at straws trying to find some way that I could contribute monetarily.  So, I began customizing dolls and toys.  I enjoyed it and people were buying my customs. 

I was so elated that people out there liked my artwork enough to buy it that it fueled me to keep going.  It wasn't a fast or easy process, Monster High was quite new back then and the dolls were so hard to find in stores.  I've met so many amazing people and the community has just been fantastic overall.  Of course there are trolls sometimes, but the good infinitely outweighs the bad. 

I'm still far from finished and nowhere even remotely close to perfect, but I'm content?  I think that's the best way to put it.  My techniques have changed, my materials changed, even the way I approach a repaint has changed.  Three years can really make a difference.  Thank you guys for sticking with me through the awkwardness :).  I hope this year's repaints will be even better than the last!