Doll Stuff, part 3

I mentioned two posts ago that I had sort of gotten into barbie doll customization, where I made up a bunch of barbies to look like some of my original characters from my book, and I was decently satisfied with them, and although, as detailed in my previous post, I was going through a bit of a rough time when I made those dolls, I wasn't scared off and decided I wanted to make even more of my characters as barbie dolls.

As mentioned in that previous post, I am still not satisfied with a lot of the existing barbie face sculpts and body types, so none of these dolls really look exactly like my characters... but it's okay... just not perfect.  

I actually started working on these dolls pretty shortly after I shared my barbie post, but a specific doll I wanted wasn't out yet and I had to wait forever for a release date, and then for the doll to be available on amazon for me to be able to purchase after selling out so many times, and then I didn't even end up using that doll for the one I had in mind, but I did end up using it for a different doll, so all is well.

I'll start with Stevie's friends - Rosie, Hailey, and Shannon.  Honestly one thing that really bugs me is how Mattel makes the playline barbies' heads so freaking large, and they look honestly atrocious compared to the more expensive dolls, like I used for Steve (left) and Rosie (middle-left)...  I know there are ways to shrink the doll heads using acetone, but that would require completely repainting the whole face and then rerooting them all again, and the repainting the whole head is a little bit more than my painting abilities can handle... so I will have to suffer. >:(

This is Rosie.  She's one of my character Stevie's good frei.  I used one of the Tris from Divergent barbies head, and repainted her eyes to be brown. Her hair is original, I just tied it into space buns at the front.  I used the same made-to-move doll as I used for Stevie, the redheaded Barbie Looks Petite one, for her body.  It's not an exact match but it's good enough for me. I was too lazy to make her anything new, so she's wearing the t-shirt that the barbie I used for Shannon came with, and the original pair of overalls I made for Stevie. Stevie's new overalls I actually bought from a lovely store in Vietnam, https://huonghandmadedoll.com/

 Next we have Hailey, another one of Stevie's classmates and also Rosie's best friend.  I used the barbie fashionista that's inspired by the 1973 Quick Curl barbie, I apologize I don't remember the number, and she's on the Kristi Yamaguchi barbie body.  I really don't like how bright her lips were, so I repainted them to be a little darker, and because her face was mega pixelated, I used a Deco art Matte top coat to try and counteract that.  I made her entire outfit myself, which is why the top is fitting funny hahaha.

Next is Shannon.  I used Barbie Fashionista #155 for the head, and the Ruby Sunday barbie doll's body as it's petite.  I repainted her eyes to be brown, but apparently forgot to try and dull her neon pink lips...  I'll try to get around to it because it bothers me a ton.  The shirt is one my older sister gave me, I think from a non-mattel fashion pack on amazon, and I made her shorts myself.  I also trimmed her hair to give her bangs, but they're not sitting right at this moment.

Next we have my character Shaunelle.  She's not a bully per se, but she's not necessarily a nice character and is a little mean.  I used the Racquelle Deluxe Style Doll's head, and she's on the Petite Barbie Looks doll with a short black pixie cut body.  I added some highlights to the front of her hair as sort of a money piece I guess it's called as I didn't feel like buying more doll hair and rerooting it to a dark brown, and curled her hair.  It doesn't look that great in pictures, but it looks nice irl. I also dulled down her lipstick, but it's already peeling off so I'll have to fix it again at some point.  Her skirt is the one I previously made for my character Laurel, and her top is from that lovely store in Vietnam I mentioned earlier.   I don't really know where the boots are from - I got them from a lot on ebay. 

Next we have Wilson. I spent too much money and bought the BMR 1959 Ken with a man bun because he was the closest one I could find, but I honestly don't like him all that much still.  I just cannot stand how angular and extremely stereo-typically-masculine kens tend to be, and he simply does not look like my character, and I don't even know why I decided it would be fun to attempt to make him despite really not liking how he looked.  Anyway, the original Ken head had an undercut made of flocking, so I had to peel it off and make my own holes to reroot his head with and his head did crack in the back so I had to superglue it back together.  I think I repainted his eyes but I can't remember, and I repainted his eyebrows.  Someday if I can ever mix together the right lip color I might try to repaint his lips.  I used hair from ShimmerLocks on Etsy.  I probably should have used one with a tighter curl pattern as the curls all kinda disappeared, and the only way to get the hair to not be extremely thick was to put a ton of gel in it.  I might reroot him again someday, but I just don't feel like it.  I hate making collared shirts for any of my dolls no matter the size, so the idea of making them in ken size sounded stressful, so I bought a 3-piece suit I found on ebay, and the same seller also had a nice pair of glasses.  I made his sweatshirt myself, and his shoes are a pair of ken boots that I painted brown and are already peeling. Great. :D:/  My character is supposed to be quite tall and slender, and unfortunately the ken body is quite muscular, so that's annoying. 

Next we have Michelle.  I used Ruby Sunday's head, where I repainted her lips and eyebrows, and put her on the curvy made to move barbie with long brown hair, bangs, and a shiny pink dress.  I made her whole outfit myself as well.

 

 Next we have my character, Mariah.  I wasn't intending on making her, but I ended up with Kristi Yamaguchi Barbie's head, and I decided instead of just leaving it with the rest of my discarded doll heads, I'd turn her into Mariah.  Mariah is actually based off my mom, haha, and she's a Chinese Jewish lady, like my mom, and myself. I didn't really have to do anything to customize her other than remove her beauty mark, and I made her clothes myself.  I might try to tone down her lipstick someday.

 Then last but not least, here is Amber.  She's supposed to be my character Anna's identical twin sister, and I can't say their faces turned out 100% identical haha.  She was actually a bit of a last minute addition. I mentioned a bit about this earlier - I really wanted to use Barbie Fashionista #249 initially for Laurel since her face sculpt looked like her, but I had no idea when she would be coming out, so I used the Dreamtopia mermaid barbie with pink hair instead.  I still wanted to use that barbie tho, so I decided she would make a great Rosie, but yet again, the doll wasn't out, and then my older sister wanted to use the clothes from the Tris from Divergent barbie which is how I ended up using that barbie instead for Rosie.  However since I was planning on getting #249 for Rosie, I had gone ahead and bought another Ruby Sunday barbie for her body, and I was a little disappointed since I happen to really like Ruby Sunday and didn't like that I kept on having to sacrifice her for her body (and also her head for Michelle).  Finally, I decided since I also used an Odile sculpt, which is #249's sculpt name, for my character Anna, and #249's hair was pretty much the right shape, I decided she would be Amber.  I added some roots to her hair with a brown alcohol marker, and repainted her lips, eyes, and eyebrows, and made her outfit as well.  And her body is one of the new barbie basics dolls, the one with the curly blonde hair.

Apparently my camera just didn't want to focus lol

 

And since I ended up not having to sacrifice the second Ruby Sunday I bought, I now get to keep her whole and I'm quite happy with it as I think she's super cute and an awesome Doctor Who companion.

 And lastly... if you recall, i've mentioned it a few times now, I used to have a barbie when I was a kid.  It was my first, and for the longest time only barbie, and she died pretty early on because her neck head broke when she was intentionally dropped down the stairs.  I couldn't for the life of me remember which barbie doll she was other than she was given to me in 2005 or 2006, and I ended up going on a search for her just because, and I ended up finding her, the 2003 Fashion Frenzy barbie doll.  And funnily enough I still have my original large blue purse or hat box that came with the set, as well as the shirt, but I have no clue where in the house they are haha. Now if I'm being very honest, I never actually liked her, partially because I hate the body that the early 2000s barbies used to come on.  Prior to the introduction to the new body types in whatever year it was, I actually really disliked barbies.  But I had an idea - what if I bought her and rebodied her...?  So that's what I did.  I went ahead and ordered her, and thankfully she is a perfect match for the same body that I used for Amber.  However, since the new body was designed to easily swap out doll heads, ironically, the Fashion Frenzy doll's head kept on falling off.  So I decided to swap her body with my Anna doll, which ended up working out anyway since I seem to have accidentally broken Anna's elbow.. so now Fashion Frenzy Barbie's elbow is broken...  Anyway, surprisingly, despite how insane the original body's proportions were, her clothes fit the new body quite nicely, and it is honestly quite nice to have this doll back in my collection again, with a little more appreciation as well.

 

So that's all for my barbie doll updates.  Honestly, even though I had fun customizing a lot of these dolls, this is a crazy expensive hobby and in many ways wasteful since I've now ended up with a bunch of unused heads and bodies that I don't know what to do with, and I think I'm over it haha.  I'm happy to have these dolls and fully intend to sew more clothes for them, but I don't really see myself making more custom barbies in the future, but I'm not saying never, just right now I don't really feel like it.