Penthesilea
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Warrior Queen, DarkLady, Phoenix, Ghostbuster
Posts: 47422
Location: The Castle.....
Joined: Jun 21 st, 2006
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Penthesilea's Favorite Hobby
Apr 14th, 2011 at 6:29pm
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Which is... collecting, redressing, restoring and generally "doing over to suit myself" Barbie (dolls) and all her kith and kin! My first Barbie (a gift from my cousin who, at the time, lived in California and knew a woman who worked for Mattel) was one of the first "blonde, bubble cut" dolls and I still have her. I've collected dozens since, mainly dolls by Mattel but if another manufacturer's product caught my eye, I bought it but mostly, my plastic clan is composed of Barbies, Kens, Skippers, Midges and all the rest of the family and in the case of Skipper, I have her at several ages as well!
My current project is to "create" as many characters from my first novel using 1/6th scale dolls (that's the scale Mattel uses for their Barbie line) as I can. The dolls that I create to represent Our Heroine's Divine Relatives will also be used in the diorama I want to build to exhibit some of my "God" dolls. Some of which I've made and some that Mattel has put out. The doll that will be Aphrodite is currently standing next to the computer. I've gotten a "Jane" doll from the Twilight movie series line to costume as Persephone, Queen of the Underworld, another doll (that I already had) to costume as Kore, the Spring Maiden, dolls for Hera and Demeter, three versions of Athena (including a One of a Kind) and a One of a Kind for Hecate in her Maiden aspect are all on hand. The guys are a little harder. I have an "Ares" from the Xena doll collection from a couple of decades back (the only one worth collecting) that only needs costuming and a little cosmetic work to be good to go. I've got two good candidates for Hephaestus, maybe three as I'm still working on the character concept (black hair, blond hair or red hair?) and Hermes isn't going to be hard either.
OUR HERO, however, AND his brother are giving me fits! For one thing, they are both brown eyed blonds, which is going to require some VERY careful eye repainting. For another, Our Hero has permanent black streaking in his hair. Because of the way that Mattel does the heads on Ken dolls, they are impossible (or nearly so) to remove for re-rooting so I need to figure out a way to add coal black streaks to the doll's hair. Another thing is that the blond Ken dolls that I have for Our Hero and his bro are several years old and lack that yummy new buff body that they created for the Jacob Black doll in the Twilight series. They are both warriors and consequently VERY fit (I go on at some length -- more than once -- on just how great Our Hero looks naked!) and the dolls "should" reflect that. I may have to put off doing the two of them until Mattel starts using that body for more dolls, hopefully some of them with "dirty" blond hair! Our Heroine and her daughters are a mixed bag. One of the new Skipper dolls will do nicely for the Lady's Firstborn as soon as I figure out how to consistently pad her bodices so that she looks like a short but womanly adult instead of a barely adolescent girl. The other daughter might be more of a trial and require both re-rooting and eye repainting unless I can find the doll that would only require her hair to be restyled. I got one years back for Moonie and I'm pretty sure I got one for myself IF I can find her in the "thieves cave" that is my basement! Our Heroine herself has been re-rooted with a luxurious mane of red hair. Styling is all that remains and the only hold up there is my need for a tube of airplane glue that I need to repair a small crack in an inconvenient place on the doll's neck. One thing is for sure. Once that head goes back on, it isn't coming off again, neither the neck nor the head can take the strain. I've also got several dolls that will be redressed to represent minor but important characters and I'm always be on the lookout for dolls that can be redone so the collection will continue to grow.
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