Revisiting 13 wishes for 2013....

So it comes the time to go back over my 13 wishes for 2013...

1. Mor Mumain and Nic Naomhim's bodies came in and they're complete now.
2. V has had his make over and he looks fantastic - just ask him... or his girlfriend!
3. Well, Arum didn't go to AT, she went to Krowbar instead, but she looks fantastic. The job that Krowbar did was just simply epic!
4. Inuus is home and fantastic
5. Iana is also home.
6. Well, this is kind of both a yes and a no - I have two of the Ital heads - the Eye Scar and the Nose Scar, but I have yet to purchase a basic OE. Possibly he will come home in tan...
7. No Anhur, not yet anyway.
8. Neith did come home, I stumbled across a fullset Sweet Bunny and couldn't help myself!
9. Helios came home, in tan, just last week and he is the most beautiful boy!
10. No MNF Seorin, although considering my year, I'm not surprised!
11. Krowbar was wonderful enough to sell me her wonderful Delf Tan girl... and then I got skittled by more tan!
12. No F60 boy this year... I will admit I have still be eyeing off an F60 El.... I almost got an F60 BA... but he turned into an F70 instead!
13. No F65 Lishe... :(
14. And that question mark was more than filled with quite a few surprise purchases - tans and a Mini Machina... and all sorts of different things!

Ianthe

I have wondered how to tell this story, since it's not a particularly nice story and the conclusions I have come to in response to it aren't all that pretty either. But I will offer it up for everyone else's thoughts. (I did also debate whether, since this is about one of my Lishes, whether it should be on my Lished blog, and even started typing it there, but I thought it would be better here in my more general one.)

I have owned my Fairyland LittleFee Lishe, Ianthe, for 4 years - I bought her new and blank from Fairyland and received her in August of 2009. She was one of my very first dolls - I'd purchased her and Isis from Fairyland before I received any dolls. Technically, not including purchase order, Ianthe and Isis were my 3rd and 4th dolls. I was a newbie and had only just started collecting at this point. Not long after I received Ianthe, I handed her over to a friend of mine to get a face up. By the time this story begins in 2013, Ianthe had been faceuped twice (to compare, by the same point, Isis was up to face up number 4).

I was slowly going through my dolls to update old face ups - I had my MNF Scar BA, Vulcan done; my Delf Lishe, Sirona; my VE Lishe, Nemain; my Tan MNF, Magna Dea; my F70 BA, Aeron; and because my favourite face up artist AngelToast was having a tiny face up discount sale, I decided that it was time that two of my tines - Ianthe and Isis, had their face ups renewed.

I sent them off and settled in to wait for the unveiling, I will admit to feeling a considerable amount of trepidation since I knew I would be experiencing some Ianthe and Isis-withdrawal, simply because they'd been two of the dolls I'd had since the beginning and had often been my companions when I went out.

When I received my photos from AngelToast, she included a comment which I found rather strange, particularly because I wasn't expecting it.

Here is the direct quote: "Little Lishe’s faceup is not quite as smooth as I would like it, since she’s been heavily modded and the resin is a bit uneven in places. But I did my best!"

I admit to reading that comment about three times. Heavily modded? My Ianthe? She'd never been touched. I wouldn't have had her modded, hadn't had her modded, and I could think of why she would be even considered to be modded. So I asked the question, since I'd bought her new...

AngelToast then replied: "And yeah, there has been some work done to little Lishe. There are dents on her lips and the tip of her nose, and what looks like sanding around those areas as well as on the brow area between the eyes and nose. I’ve seen a lot of dollie faces, and if I had to make an educated guess, I would say she took a nose dive onto something hard at some point, and was possibly sanded to mitigate the damage. Did she ever fall?"

I read this a couple of times too. I could not remember a single time when Ianthe took a dive onto something hard that had damaged her that badly in my presence. This is something I would have remembered, especially since I was a newbie at the time I got her, and I'd had her for 4 years. It would not be something I forgot happening to one of my oldest and first dolls.

AngelToast was fantastic enough to have a look at some old shots of my girl and after I'd commented again (basically outlining that I honestly couldn't remember her taking a dive at any point), with this: "I had a look at some of your pictures of your LTF Lishe – I think the flattened/white nose tip is evident with the first faceup, if you compare her to the blank head. The lip dent is harder to see with the old lip paint, but I think I can pick it out in a few pics. Overall it’s not terribly terrible, I just see those things at first glance these days and thought you would have been aware that she’s not completely mint. >.<"

Ianthe blank - and with face up 1 (bottom right) and 2 (top right)

I would have thought I would have been aware she wasn't completely mint too. But unfortunately I wasn't, and I think I can explain why - I hadn't owned Ianthe very long before I handed her over to have her first face up. I was very new to the hobby and very new to my Lishes and honestly, when she came back, I wasn't experience enough to notice damage through a face up and I wouldn't have had enough experience to see it in photos from before she was faceuped. She was first faceuped in 2009 and since then she has been my only LTF Lishe, so since the damage has been there I wouldn't honestly have ever noticed. Now that it's been pointed out I can spot it in photos. 

The nose damage (I still haven't quite located the lip damage, although it looks present in this shot.)

I also now have another LTF Lishe and it's more than obvious.

Selene and Ianthe

I suppose there is a chance, small as it is, that I may have dropped Ianthe onto tile or concrete or something and forgotten that I'd damaged her to the extent that she now has a snubbed nose. It however seems slim - I can't quite figure out if I was the culprit, how I would have forgotten something as dire as dropping one of my dolls like that, face first onto a hard surface.

That's not to say I've never dropped my dolls - I have, frequently, onto carpet. Occasionally I've had a few that have taken a dive when I've been doing full lineups, but I always carefully check them and have mini freak outs until I can see that there hasn't been any damage to them.

Newbie as I was and meticulous as I am to track the dates of arrival and carefully charting in as much detail as possible lists of wigs, face up artists, eyes - with details of styles, companies and all the rest, and I keep careful track of mods that I have had done - how would I miss damage like this? It would have been written down from the moment it happened and every other description I would have done would have noted that Ianthe was a "modded/damage" LTF Lishe.

But I haven't done that anywhere. So what other choice can I make about the circumstances of when the damage happened? What other choice have I got than to come to conclusion I did? What I can't quite understand is, that if what I think happened and someone else had my doll when she took the fall that damaged her face, why did I not know about it?

Something to think about.

People may not realise my opinion on recasts as I have yet to make it public (I'm against it, in case you're wondering.)

I was reading my way through one of Melbourne's newspapers when I came across this article. I read it, the topic is on illegal movie downloads, but I think what is being said needs to be considered in relation to the recast argument in our doll collections.

I think everyone needs to read this article, I know most who are pro-recast will probably dismiss it with a comment along the lines of "but this is movie downloading". Sure, if that's the way you think, I'm not going to be able to stop you. However, the same attitude which is employed to justify illegal movie downloads is used to justify buying recasts.

And the other thing to keep in mind is that while there are some simply enormous companies which make movies, there are NO simply enormous companies who make BJDs. Most of them are small companies and quite a few of them are tiny companies.

36,000 Bloody illegal downloads

And really... what excuse can genuinely make buying an illegal copy of something and undermining the hobby that we all love right?

oh CP, CP, CP...

I'm amazed I haven't posted before now, considering the epic release that Fairyland has managed to make explode into the dolly collecting arena.

For those who don't quite remember - Fairyland first announced that they would be releasing two secret LittleFee. When that happened, it turned out that the new LTF were in Tan skin... and they would be also releasing the LittleFee in al a carte, allowing people to put the sculpts on whichever body they wanted... PLUS - they were going to release the Pukifee in tan as well.

Well, at that point I knew I was sunk. Ianthe was going to have to climb down from her perch as the only female LTF and welcome a sister in tan and the two Pukifee I had on the list which I had been facilitating over quickly became yet another couple of Bonnie and Zoes, just this time in Tan.

To buy list 1:

1. LTF Tan Lishe
2. PKF Tan Bonnie
3. PKF Tan Zoe

I briefly wondered if Fairyland was really going to completely do me over and release the limited LTF heads as well (which could have meant another new LTF, cause I'd then love to have a tan LTF BA, although I knew that would have meant I was more than nuts).

Luckily they didn't, so my to-buy list remained at 3.

Then Fairyland went one better... Minifee in tan.

... Minifee in Tan... OMG.

To buy list 2:

1. Minifee Tan Lishe
2. Little Fee Tan Lishe
3. Pukifee Tan Bonnie
4. Pukifee Tan Zoe

Luckily no BAs appeared to scupper my plans for a second tan MNF, so I was left with just four. It took some juggling, since I was due to leave the country and I didn't want to have a layaway payment come in when I was away, but I put the four of them on layaway with DDE.

Then of course I sat in for the wait.

As I finish this off, I am sitting with a view of the road (since my doorbell doesn't work), waiting for them to turn up! While I do, I am also contemplating the second curve ball Fairyland has thrown recently.

Spectacularly, seemingly minutes after finishing the tan MNF/PKF and LTF event, they announced another - this time an F60 tan event, with a tan release and a body release, as well as two new Nanuri heads and some Pukifee items. But no new dolls (which seems strange considering the Pukifee items available - flippers and goggles and the like); or new F60 heads.

So of course a new an F60 tan Lishe has made its way onto my wishlist, but along with everyone else, I'm waiting to see the new Nanuri heads before I make an order.

Now I just want my dolls to turn up already!

The blog has been slipping...

This always happens to me! I let the blogging slip and it's really hard to get it back again! It also didn't help that I went away for 2 weeks in the middle! (but I've been back for three, so that's not really a good excuse!)

I do have several blog posts which are sitting in draft heaven, so I'm going to have to go and finish them (and possibly combine them both to make it easier on me!)

The reason I blogged today and it reminded me was because I was amusing myself by reading the "confessions" on tumblr, which for the most part mainly consist of people just bitching about things they don't like or people they don't like, or people justifying when they bought a recast. (I'll talk about recasts another time, I'm still planning a blog post on my stance on recasts.)

and I came across a post about me. I'm not quite sure why, since I was attacked for daring to not like the Juri heads last year (which also prompted quite a spate of hate on tumblr) I don't tend to comment on threads anymore because it's not worth expressing your opinion.

I was vaguely amused though, apparently it's not because I take bad photos, annoy people with masses of the (same!) photos of BAs and Lishes, or that I have a "bunch" of dolls, but rather than I'm a know it all... hmm. Strange, I would have considered myself the opposite really. That and apparently I drive people out of threads with my opinions. Wow. I didn't realise one person had enough power to "drive" someone from a thread... especially since I'm not a mod.

The other thing this reminded me of was this student I have at work, who is never happy unless she is complaining (and she complains about everything... I don't think I've honestly heard a positive thing come out of her mouth for over 6 months). Even though I'll probably be blamed for "forcing" my opinions on people again, seriously, get a life. If one dissenting opinion to your own dire held beliefs is enough for you to run to the hills, you need to grow up. (And I'm shaking my head and thinking "teenagers, no maturity", lol.)

Anyway, I'm still giggling over it.

And I'll go back to my current problem - figuring out a way to photograph all of Arum's tattoos.

PS: If you haven't seen the box opening thread on DoA for the tan PKF and you're waiting for one, go check it out. They're looking good (and lighter than old tan, but as CP said, darker than the CL release).

To Mod or not to Mod....

That is the question, isn't it?

I have been tackling with this question for a while now in relation to a particular head of mine. I owe a Feeple70 Sleeping Breakaway head and have for quite some time. I never took photos when he arrived, so I can't date him properly, but I have owned him since approximately 2009. Originally the plan had been to mod this head to an Open Eye and use him as my SD/SSD Breakaway - instead of spending even more money and buying a Luts released Breakaway. (this is the root of my obsession with only collecting Fairyland released BAs.)

I was saved from this dilemma when I spotted the head which is now Arawn's, an F70 head with a default Midnight Blue faceup. I snatched him up and he arrived in head form in May 2010 - he didn't get a body until 2011, as is my strange way of doing things, and the sleeping head was placed into a box with the rest of the sleeping heads and other paraphernalia and essentially forgotten about.

I accepted that I was unlikely to own a 60cm Breakaway, since all of the releases are Luts releases in that size and quite happily continued collecting BAs on a smaller scale. I had an F70 BA and considering the similarities between the F70 body and that of the now F60 bodies, I was quite content with the situation as it was. (Even though there was always a little gap called "SD BA" and I kept looking at the Vamps and other 60cm BAs which came onto the market.)

My desire for a SD sized BA seemed like it would be fulfilled when CP announced that the event head for their F60 event was going to be a popular scarred MNF head - that could of course only mean one of two things - a Scar Shiwoo or a Scar Breakaway. I figured it all out, counted back and discovered which of the two would be a "Juri" and which was a "Nanuri" - in case you're wondering, the MNF Scar Shiwoo is a Nanuri, and the BA is the Juri.

And then there was the issue that all those people brought up - the Scar BA was NOT the most popular MNF event head (although how would anyone but the maker know that I don't know). And somehow they convinced CP to make a resculpt of the Juri 05 Delf - otherwise known as the MNF Juri 08. Ironically enough, while I watch BA sales on the MP (currently there are aboout 4-5 BAs in SD size available on the MP) I also occasionally count the number of Juris. I counted the other day - for such a popular SD size, there are 18 Juris - both original 05s and 2012s for sale at the moment (mostly unmodded - and 05 Juris are rare unmodded... not). That is not what I consider a popular sculpt.

But anyway. That kerfuffle made me think, at least for a little while until people started complaining, that I would be getting a 60cm BA to complete my collection. I stewed over the eventual decision and am still trying to sell both the Juris I own, one of them has been up for sale for over 12 months.

Since I had been denied an F60 Scar BA of my very own, I admit I was very bitter over the whole debacle. CP rose to the occasion though and to keep BA owners and obsessors, like myself, happy - they released not one in the next event, but four all at once. I don't think they've ever released that many of the same sculpt at the same time, like... ever.

He of course came with his original name, Ital, because of a problem with Luts owning the name "Breakaway". So CP tried to make us happy and gave all of us BA lovers an F65 with three faces (OE, Nose Scar and Eye Scar) and a Chicline. I have one of my F65s faceplates and I admit I am very happy with him.

Just after this, during the rush of waiting for new arrivals and the like, I continued to think of the elusive 60cm BA and I remembered my sleeping head, lying unused and forgotten in my box of heads. I dug him back out again and instead of getting another head or another F60 altogether (I was considering an El - which is pretty close to a BA afterall...) I once again considered the idea of modding my sleeping BA so that I could have him on an F60 body.

Then I came to a quandary. My F70 Sleeping BA is one very rare young man. Breakaway has only really ever been released in a limited capacity - three times under Luts and all three of them were limited fullsets (the final release in 2008 was of course the Bloody Valentine). All of the Luts releases had sleeping Vampire heads - the first two with open mouths and the last, the Bloody Valentine, with a closed mouth. Also in 2008, CP attempted to release BA in a basic capacity through their fledgling company, Fairyland. Unfortunately, after a stink, the F70 Midnight Sun and Midnight Blue Breakaways were turned into limited releases.

The Midnight Blue and Midnight Sun were unique in two ways. It was the first time the BA had been released with a Dreaming head, and the Dreaming F70 is still one of the rarer heads (the entire F70 range are quite hard to find); and it was the only time the BA did not have a Sleeping Vampire head. The Sleeping BA is just that - a closed mouth sleeping sculpt. No vampire fangs anywhere.

So my quandary of course was whether or not to mod a rare head so that I could fufil my own desires for an F60 BA. I thought I had it down, but I kept facilitating over it. I put up a WTB for a Dreaming BA head - the only one of the F70 set that I didn't have.

And I hoped that I would find a reasonable priced Dreaming or OE head that I could buy and use that instead for my F60 rather than modding such a rare doll.

I know that everyone doesn't hold to the thing that keeps me from modding dolls I know are rare in their original state - I can only really live with certain types of mods. I know that a person's doll is their doll and they can do anything they like with it - they paid for it and all of that, and I accept that, although I may not always agree with their choice of wig... or face up or anything like that. But that is my personal taste and not theirs. Fair enough.

However, lately I have seen two poor dolls who are SUPER rare - a Dreaming 05 Elf Lishe and an Elf Shiwoo, both of whom have been modded, seemingly pointlessly. Admittedly the poor Shiwoo came out of it much better - but considering the uniqueness of the Elf Shiwoo - none of the other Elf releases have quite the same ears as an Elf Shiwoo - his have a slight down turn at the ends which is so cute and if I didn't have a thing against Shiwoos, I wouldn't mind an Elf simply because of that!

This poor Shiwoo had the tilt on the end of his ears sanded off. Why? Why ruin one of the most unique and rare features of a single sculpt (not to mention the Elf Shiwoo can be really hard to find, even though he was released twice). They'd also sanded off the end of his very distinctive Shiwoo nose. Why buy a Shiwoo if you don't like a feature so distinctive as that? (I feel the same way over people who buy Lishes, Els and BAs - if you don't like the nose, which is such a massive feature of them, why did you buy it??)

Wynn also showing that ear

Draven - showing the curled ear

The Elf Lishe, an 05 release which is rare enough in itself and not only that but the rarer Dreaming 05 as opposed to the Dreaming Elf Vampire - this particular Lishe was the only Elf release to have both Vampire and non-Vampire Dreaming Elves released with it, had been treated very badly. She had been modded - her nose, her cheeks, her eyes - almost to the point that she didn't look like a Lishe anymore. But worse than that, she had been modded badly. One of her cheeks had been sanded further than the other in and different spots. Her eyes had been opened too wide and were different shapes. It looked like someone had stuck a dremel up her nose... but only on one side. The poor girl had been so badly mistreated that it was sad.

I think that if you are going to mod a rare doll, and I own one myself - a well and sympathetically modded Dreaming Elf Lishe 05 (her eyes have been opened to full OE) - I think you should get someone else, preferrably someone with a LOT of experience to do it for you, rather than just attacking a doll with a piece of sand paper and a dremel!

My own modded Dreaming Elf 05, Fea

Admittedly, people have to learn to mod things, and that's fair enough - but why practice on something so rare? I suppose that they could have bought the poor Lishe back when she was first released... but she was never released as a basic, and she was always a limited release, so wouldn't that suggest that it's probably best not to mod a limited release doll unless you know what you're doing??

Anyway. Admittedly I probably couldn't live with modding much beyond eye openings. As I've outlined I don't understand things like sanding down cheeks or chins, or snubbing noses. If you don't like the sculpt as it was when you bought it.... why did you buy it? I know that some people like to mod dolls to make them more their own and that's fair enough - like faceups its a way of customising a doll. I suppose I don't completely understand the full reasons behind it. There are plenty of dolls, surely someone will have made a doll better suited to your needs?

Anyway. The reason that I posted this - other to explain my views on modding and limited dolls (please if it's limited, limit yourself to a professionally done eye modding or something! - did I admit I modded both of my Limited Nanuri As? Only small mods... eyes and a bit of ear piercing, lol. I also had a very slight mod done on my limited SM Arkose... his eyes. I wanted to sand off his lips, but settled for having them painted so they were less obvious!)

Rasmus - my Arkose

My modded VE Chloe - Pax

My modded Nanuri As, Mor Mumain and Nic Naomhim

So anyway... I have good news... last night I came across a freshly posted F70 BA, OE of course... But of course I leapt in both feet first. My new boy will be Aeron, and I'm going to see if I can swop his F70 body for an F60...

This is the new boy... the photo is by his old owner. He'll be coming home in a month or so, I'm so excited!

Now I have to go finish squeeing over my brand new, just arrived Chiclines... excuse me!

Entries...

I have been meaning to write a blog post on the question of recasts - particularly my take, but it hasn't managed to get into a written form yet.

While we're waiting for that, I'll update myself again... I really need a few more topics really - things that I can talk about. I'll have a new set of dollies soon - so I can do a bit of posting and have a bit of fun when they turn up. Other than that:

1. V's back from the spa. He also has the rest of his outfit - a shirt, waistcoat and hat. He looks fantastic in them, but ironically not much like himself if he's all buttoned up! His girlfriend loves his tattoos, which is brilliant.
2. Mor Mumain and Nic Naomhim are complete - after a complete snafu with the eyes as outlined earlier. I got an extra pair of eyes with Mor's pair and everything worked out really well... The two spare pairs have been used - one pair for Belisama and the other is being worn by Arawn - a pair of purple 18mms which look really nice. (Nic is still missing shoes).
3. I did get a shipment just the other day - the first of my Itals has come home. The first is Alastir, the nose scar head. It's simply fantastic - the scar is part of the sculpt, very much like the eye scar MNF. 
4. The other two Itals - the Eye Scar and the still non-purchased basic OE have named themselves - the Eye Scar will be Bres and the OE, Lir.
5. My Chiclines are at DDE already, and I would have them if I'd had enough to pay them off immediately. (I didn't unfortunately :( ). However I am paying them off as soon as I get paid and they should be home next week or the week after. The sooner the better as far as I'm concerned. With them of course comes Bres. 
6. I have paid off Omega, my Batchix Mini Machina Delta. She probably won't appear until May.
7. As for the idea about the sleeping BA head... he's now taken on a life on his own and named himself - Aeron, the name I would have given the F60 Scar Juri, had it have been released. Thus he has named himself and is now demanding a body of his own... and of course being a BA/Ital, it would have to be a muscular F60. The vanity of these boys are amazing. (he has also been photobombing on the triplets...)
8. In accordance with the BA/Itals being vain and self indulgent and all the rest of it - I have this sneaking suspicion that the three F65 Itals won't be particularly happy with being forced firstly to wait for Lir to turn up to have some kind of body and secondly to then have to share that body between the three of them!
9. I have been investigating what fits F65 boys, since I have three vain individuals turning up! (I might share some of that on a page, because it seems to me that not many people actually know what fits them... unless you own one, and that's not many.)
10. Oh, and if you're wondering what the F65 Ital looks like... like a BA with a slightly narrower face, with the same nose and lips. The F65 faceplate is larger than a 60cm head only just.

So that's about it. I'll have to start working on my post on recasts and if you have anything interesting that I can blog about, please share!