Incomings and debates

So I really need to find something that will help me to keep this blog ticking over! I'm getting awfully slack both with writing blog posts and taking photos. So if you have any suggestions for how I can get this to work, please feel free to share.

So what's happening you ask? Well, after the arrival of Lir not so long ago, I had a bit of a pause in my doll collecting. I'd collected my last Lishe and had her faceuped and I was feeling happy with not much happening in my collection.

Well, now Lir is on his way back from the Spa, he's been stuck in a depot somewhere in Melbourne or Sydney now since Tuesday, so I'm not particularly impressed since he was placed in the post on the 1st of November. 

Other than him, I was buying a body for Aera Cera, which I've paid off, so she will be getting a WS A-line with the glamour (I think!) bust from the M-line body. It will be fun, I've been trying to find her some clothes to wear that will suit her faceup and general look.

Unfortunately while I was moving her the other day, one of her eyelashes fell off, and I can't find it. So I need to decide whether or not I'm going to send her back to get them replaced! I have to ask, as I don't know if AT will do that for me. I have something else to send her at the same time, so maybe I'll get lucky!

Anyway... then I saw a shot of the Withdoll Werewolf Babies on Tumblr and they were so cute. So I headed along to the Withdoll site to take a closer look and that was where I discovered that they were half a centimetre taller than a Pukifee... too cute.

So, I've purchased a little guy, default as he appears in the promotional shots and his name will be Samhain. Isis is very excited to have a little bity friend heading in - particularly as he could end up being a minion for her.

Currently he's due 8 weeks after the payment, which puts him around the 13th of December. Apparently, according to his makers, he could come early, so that is exciting.

As well as that, an old friend of my collection, and particular friend of Vulcan, is moving in with us. Elliot is making her way over from the UK sometime soon and V is extremely excited and planning all sorts of naughtiness. We have a few plans for Elliot our selves, and she might take a brief visit to the spa to refresh her tattoos...

Which comes to the current temptation.

There is this Feeple70 male body on the MP which I have watched a little since it was put up quite a while ago. It's a very reasonable price and I keep thinking of buying it. What currently stops me is the lack of head to put on it!

I do still have my sleeping BA, but I kind of like not having him on a body and I'm not sure that I want another BA (plus it would mean eventually I'd probably open his eyes, and I don't want to.).

I do have a floating set of Riff heads, but I don't know about that either.

I've kept a look on the MP for El heads, but there's nothing really viable at the moment. An F70 El would be fun - I even looked at Moons, and that's very different for me!

But I suppose the lack of a head might actually stop me buying the body.

Maybe.

Entries and Exits

I think I need a new list of things to write about on my blog? Anyone got a convenient list that I could use? Perhaps I need to have a few more rants in here to keep my eye in...

Anyway... perhaps an explanation of what has been happening with the collection at the moment - there have been a few comings and goings recently.

I have said goodbye to:

• Pax - MNF Vampire Elf Chloe
• Persephone - Puki Flora
• Nic Naomhim - F60 Nanuri A

I have also had a big think about who is left who could go. Vesna is on my list, although I have made a few changes to see if she could stay around - she has a new pair of feet (Nephelin feet) which have shown me how yellow she really is, and then I got her a new outfit. But I don't know.

Cassius is up for sale, but there aren't any takers at the moment, so I might put him on Ebay or something. I'm considering letting go of Ares as well, although it feels strange to put him up for sale - given how long I've had him. But considering the person I'm giving him to has wanted him forever, it doesn't feel so bad.

Otherwise, on the list is Arum, who I always kind of knew possibly wouldn't stay around.

On the entries list... more of my favourite two sculpts.

1. I finally got a Elf Lishe 05 OE, called Beira.
2. My two tan Chiclines have shown up, finally, after 6 months of a wait. The boy still hasn't named himself, while the Lishe has called herself Roma.
3. I capitulated for a Delf Dreaming Lishe, unmodded on the marketplace - her name is Damara (now she's named herself) and has asked for an interesting face up - more of that on my other blog.
4. And in getting a body for Damara, since my F60 doesn't match, I might be picking up another Lishe head... no sure what to with that one.

14 Wishes for 2014....

Epically late... but oh well... still relevant!

1. That I get Anna Perenna and Selene's heads back before the end of January! They took so long to get to AngelToast that I was getting very worried about the possibility of them getting lost in the mail! Luckily they're there now and I really can't wait to see what she does with them!
2. Receive my Tan Feeple60 Lishe and find out what her name is!! (hopefully she'll arrive in January, although I'm probably looking more at Feb!)
3. Order my new F65 Tan Ital - He will take the name Lir and take the place of the NS OE version that I was going to get. 
4. Order the other two tans - my Chicline Ital and Lishe; Fairyland has been a bugger by releasing everything in tan!
5. Buy a body for Aera Cera - since she's so demanding about it! It will probably be a M-line, although I find it a little abhorrent, although I might see if anyone wants to split with me, and get a hybrid, extremely large busted A-line. Apparently the hybrids currently for sale won't be for sale after the event, and I can't see myself being able to get one before the end of the Event!
6. Get a faceup, probably by AngelToast for my unnamed F60 Lishe, and refresh the faceups that Morrigan, Caesair and Sulis currently have, again, preferably with AngelToast, as usual.
7. Pukifee WS Zoe, Anhur - he's the last Pukifee on the roll call for the Army. Once I've gotten him, then Isis can stop complaining!
8. Pukifee Sweet Bunny Bonnie - I know I have one already, but the poor girl is very green and it's very distracting - the poor darling needs someone who will really appreciate it! I think I may sell her and replace the poor girl with a new one!
9. The MNF Seorin, Apollo - the boys are getting rather more outnumbered by the day! Plus I want to know if he'd stay!
10. MNF Mirwen - Pellonia Maia, who will be my slightly nuts girl... although that doesn't sound too different from the rest of my mob!
11. I'm still dreaming of an Feeple60 boy... I almost managed it when I bought Aeron - he was meant to go onto an F60 body, it never happened though. I've been eyeing off an F60 El on the MP.
12. A Pukifee Lishe, I've always wanted one, and while I know it's not much of a chance; one can always wish, yes?
13. And the final one - a Feeple65 Lishe... I'm still waiting...
14. .. and this one is always for all those things that manage to happen... in 2013, it was Tans! Hopefully there won't be too many extras this year!

Mini update on the 14 Wishes (since I did actually write this in January, just forgot to publish it!)

1. Anna Perenna and Selene are back, and looking ab-fab, as per AT's usual! (I'll go on and on about them on my Lished blog, which is seriously due an update)
2. My Tan F60 Lishe arrived and named herself Etain. as per no.6, she's currently off with AT for a face up.
3. Lir has been ordered, but is still on layaway.
4. the two Chiclines have also been ordered, though they haven't named themselves yet. (for some reason the girl wants to be known as Cuba.)

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!