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Ermagerd, SD roombox is DONE! O:

I finally finished the roombox today!!! Yay!! I thought I was finished yesterday and then I realized I totally forgot to add the back wall’s baseboards and I was like (⌣_⌣”) *sigh*, but I quickly cut and painted them last night so they would be ready to be glued on today. Anyway without further ado, here are a couple shots…(yeah I need to get better at photography, that is the next goal along with making props).

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Here is a shot of the whole room with Mio sitting in it. The chair is a little doll chair I found at an antique store. It’s a bit shabby and probably needs a bit of washing, but it’s cute and the perfect color for the room! Actually Mio sits on that very chair on my nightstand in my room. 🙂

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And here’s a zoomed out shot that better shows the scale of the room. Please ignore some of the junk in the background. I still have a few things to clean up now that construction is done.

Well, I’m really happy overall with how it turned out and I hope I get a chance soon to take more photos with it and improve my photography skill. I also want to make a little fake backdrop for behind the window so it looks like there is some nature out the window. I was thinking I could make a large print and pin it to foam core board or alternately I have some inkjet transparency paper left so I could experiment with printing greenery on that and then shine a light through it to see how that looks….Definitely got to get better with lighting overall though.

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Hybrid Fever.

After putting Mio’s head on a Zaoll body I’ve become A LOT more open to hybrids, especially since I’ve become a lot more fussy in terms of body sculpt both in aesthetics and functionality of joints. Also I’ve surprised myself and I’m finding out I really do enjoy owning the big dolls, though Mio is a shorty, but still. So in a flush of new found love for 60cm dolls my brain decided to hatch a plan as to what sort of companions she needed. XD

I think I have wholly decided on Supia’s Zion sculpt for one of her new companions, but Zion is also a 65cm doll, which means Mio will look very tiny next to him. Then I thought perhaps I could find a slightly shorter body to put his head on so the size difference won’t be so great. This was when I discovered both Spiritdoll and Dollstown, who both have extremely lovely body sculpts with nice jointing systems. Unfortunately it’s been difficult trying to find information as to whether any of the Dollstown or Spiritdoll resins will match, but overall it’s not looking good sadly. However I am not letting it deter me because……

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I ordered Mio the Dollstown Elf girl body in freshkin! You may wonder how I arrived at this since I was all about Zion a moment ago, and it was a long chain of events let me tell you. So to begin with I knew I wanted the elf body when I saw it, because the sculpt is just really beautiful, not to mention it has double jointed knees and arms, AND it’s another shorty girl coming in at the same height as Zaoll at 52cm. 🙂 After researching potential resin matches with Dollmore resin, and double checking measurements, I came to the conclusion that I could upgrade Mio’s body and then I would be able to give my Zaoll Luv back her body. So then I can have two girls instead of one now. 😉 On top of this I will then have a sample of dollstown freshskin resin to do comparisons with for future hybrids. I just have to hope now that since the elf body is in stock that it ships soon and arrives before my vacation in late January. I probably should have waited to order until I returned, but then that would mean I would have had to force myself to wait for nearly two months before ordering and then knowing my luck it wouldn’t be in stock anymore and I’d have to wait another 2 months production time XP. So I’ll be keeping my fingers and toes crossed that she ships within 2 weeks and arrives here in early January. Annnnd I’ll be keeping some extra fingers and toes crossed that Mio’s head will fit well on the new body. The Dollmore Eve neck circumference is around 7.5 and the elf body’s is 7.8 so it should work in theory. I also hope the resin match is close….it does look close from the comparison shots I found and that people shared with me, but it is still probably going to require some blushing.

As for Zion….well I had remembered my original idea that the size difference between a tall boy and a short girl is part of what makes it interesting, so I am considering ordering him as a whole doll with the supia body. However, the boys are out of stock on the Supia site and I read where they won’t be available until early 2014, because their bodies are being re-worked. It was also added that when the new boy bodies are ready they will be having another event as well, so my plans for ordering Zion will wait. To be honest, at this point I hope it will be a spring event this way I can stockpile my money until then, lol.

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Finally, Mio is here.

It was a long wait, but finally I got my Mio head. I was so excited to finally have her that I set about doing a face-up as soon as I could. I ended up staying up waaaay too late in the end, but I just had to finish her and get her put together. I am super pleased with my Mio/Zaoll hybrid. I love the Zaoll body and I was able to fit the Mio head right on the body without any trouble. Zaoll’s skintone is a little more pinky than the current Dollmore resin, but really it’s not by much. The first thing I did was do an all over pinky blushing to match her head with the body, and then I just started on the face-up. Really this hybrid was super easy to do and required no modding. Anyway here are a couple shots I got today

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I wanted to give her a really natural almost no-makeup face-up. I’m still really happy with how she turned out, but I’m thinking that perhaps I like her better with her brows showing rather than covered up. It’s easy enough to slide the wig back a bit. Unfortunately I don’t have any photos with her brows showing, but I’m sure I will in the future because I think she’s super adorable! I may have to tweak the face-up a bit though in the future because somehow one of the corners of her mouth that I penciled in, the pencil wiped off a bit after I applied the gloss. I don’t even know how that would happen since I sealed before I glossed. I also really like the For My Doll wig I bought for her, I think it’s a very good quality wig and I didn’t feel there were too many stray hairs I had to trim. It’s also a nice smooth fine fiber and really just excellent quality overall. Despite liking the wig though I think I still want to experiment with other wigs lol…I have an old red k-starr wig I’m going to try on her and I may order a mohair wig to see what that would look like.

Unfortunately the 16mm eyes I bought for her just look too big to me in her head. I ended up stealing Zaoll luv’s 14mm acrylic eyes to borrow for now. However when I removed those eyes I realized that somehow they had become cracked and broken. I am hiding the cracks the best I can, but the acrylic is pulling away from the printed iris which causes her to have a milky eyed look depending on the angle. I have never had a pair of acrylic eyes crack and break so badly. I have no idea what caused it since Luv was sitting in her box for the past month. In any case I probably won’t be trusting Dollmore’s acryclic eyes from now on. Their glass eyes are great, but I don’t want to run the risk of more broken acrylic eyes, even if they are cheap.

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And here’s a quickie group shot of Mio on her Zaoll body with my two MSD girls. I like how Sona’s proportions lend her to looking like she could be a little sister. Luli’s proportions though don’t suit her for that, so I guess she a “friend” doll, lol….

Well, that’s it for now. I actually have other dolly news and dolly finds to share, but sadly I just haven’t been able to find the time to blog much this fall…been super busy! D: It’s ok though, I’m kinda happy to be busy, especially where it involves incoming dolls. 😉

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An update on the Mio situation

I heard back today about what can be done in regards to me receiving the wrong head in the group order. It’s not an optimal solution, but it is not a bad solution. The group order organizer said she would buy the head from me and then I could try to order the Mio head again the next time she hosts a group order. In the end I’m glad that I won’t be out $100, but I am also disappointed in not getting the correct head. I really appreciate what the group organizer did for me though. I would tell you who they are on DoA so you can join in any of her group orders without worry, but I’m worried it might be an invasion of privacy so I’ll just leave it at this.

At this point I am not sure what to do about my SD sized girl plans. I already have the Zaoll body (and head) which has been in it’s box since the box opening. The thought has crossed my mind to just sell her while she is still new and forget about SD sized dolls. Though that would mean I would have a very lonely Mudoll Ash…and my Danbi rarely comes out of his box. ^^;;; On the other hand I feel I haven’t given the SD sized dolls a fair shake. I don’t have the necessary stands to display them, nor the space, which is why they hang out in boxes. To compound issues I just found some more lovely and mature looking MSD sized dolls at Withdoll. So now I’m feeling even more than I should just stick with MSD and round out my ranks there…As you can see, I’m just waffling all over the place, so I probably shouldn’t make any dolly decisions for a while.

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Zaoll Luv Box Opening

So color me surprised when I woke up Friday morning, but my Zaoll had arrived! \(*0*)/ Because I never received a shipping notice or package tracking from Dollmore I just assumed my doll had not shipped yet and I would have to wait until at least their summer vacation was over to hear anything. It was a pleasant surprise though and I’m definitely not complaining about getting my doll sooner rather than later. Anyway on with the pics! Be warned this is going to be pic heavy!

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So….BOX! Of course my cat is ever curious. 😉 I love it when cats show up in other people’s box openings, so here’s my contribution, lol.

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And it’s open….I ordered a few clothing bits from Dollmore as well since I didn’t want my Zaoll to be completely clothes-less before I get a chance to make her anything.

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Here’s the freebies this time around. Looks like I got a little mesh shopping bag a couple of doll headbands with bows and a pretty decent pair of brown glass eyes that have a little bit of shimmer about them. I’m not sure what size they are though, but if they are the right size I may wind up using those instead of the black eyes I selected in my order.

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Wooo~ the gold Dollmore box. 😀

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Any removing the top cushion reveals the mummy inside! I kind of felt like I was tomb raiding or something when I saw this, especially with the gold box and a mummy shaped figure inside. Ha, that might be a funny idea for a photoshoot…but gods I would need more space before I could pull that off.

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And here we have the first glimpse of the girl. 🙂 Dollmore really goes out of their way to pack their dolls. I’m going to have to say that this Zaoll was by far the best packed doll I’ve ever received.

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One of the things I really like about the Zaoll sculpt are the hands. I always like it when there is a little bit of fingernail tips sculpted at the end of the fingers. Plus these hands also have a nice graceful pose. Unoa’s hands are still by far my favorite in terms of female hands though.

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Ok, so now it’s time for comparisons and such. Here she is between my Sona and Unoa Lusis. I am actually really super happy about the size of the doll. When I originally saw the box I had a little but of uh-oh feels because I thought she might be too big of a doll for my tastes. Really I think I am an MSD girl, but I really loved Dollmore’s Mio sculpt so I thought since the Zaoll body is smaller maybe I can have my Mio and a smaller doll. So far it looks like I can! I’m still waiting for my Mio head to arrive and then this Zaoll is getting hybridized.

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So, resin comparisons…On the left is my Dollmore Kid Sona, and Zaoll on the right of course. So, it is true, Zaoll has a pinkie tone to her resin. My Sona though is maybe around 4 years old now, so it’s possible she could have some yellowing, but in all honesty I don’t feel her resin has changed in color since the day I got her. Overall I think as far as my hybrid goes, I will just blush my Mio’s head a little bit to match the pink tone of the Zaoll skin. To be honest, after you get a doll fully clothed I don’t think most people would half notice the difference in photographs…especially since the shadow that happens between the head and the chin is enough of a demarcation line. I’ll take plenty of photos of course for reference once I get my Mio head. 🙂

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So, as far as single joint dolls go, I’m inclined to be of the mindset that she is very well designed because as you can see I was able to make her touch her face. Of course her hand is resting on her chin which helps, but I also had her with her hand in her hair and a finger to her lips.

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Her torso joint is very stiff right now, but you can make her bend forward a little. I don’t mind a stiff torso too much, because lately I’ve noticed that my Sona’s torso joint has been slipping a bit much. I have some cold temperature hot glue though so a bunch of my dolls will be getting hot glue sueded soon.

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Here she is again, this time with her torso turned a little bit to the right. So far she is a pretty good poser and stands and sits well. I haven’t had too much time to mess around with her yet since I have so many other things to do right now, but if I have any other reports to make I will definitely blog about them. 🙂

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So, lastly I’ll say a few words about the clothing I bought for her. To begin with the SD girl’s raglan shirt I bought her fits her well. They say that Zaoll loses more of her height in her legs which are a bit shorter it looks like than most SD dolls. I also bought a vrilla skirt, and a pair of white shoes, all which fit well. The Justo pants however, which are the jean pants in the picture, well they are a bit long, which is fine if you are looking for a longer sort of boot-cut style. All in all they fit well around the waist, but length wise if this is not what you are looking for then I probably wouldn’t bother with these pants.