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nickle4apickle) wrote2022-08-25 07:47 pm
A New Rainbow High Doll, Plus Some Old Friends
Another blog post with a bunch of photos incoming! (a.k.a. this post is very media-heavy!)
You may want to skip this post if any of the following bother you:
- Dolls
- Eye contact (from the dolls)
- Doll nudity
- Doll... body horror? (accidentally showing the inner workings of a Ball-Jointed Doll because his head and chest are not held together very well anymore by his very old elastic cord)
- Capslock text
Post Contents (use ctrl+F or your browser's Find feature to skip to whatever section you want if you're viewing the full post without cuts/"Read more" links)
- =RAINBOW HIGH=
- =BALL-JOINTED DOLL=
- =WINX CLUB=
=RAINBOW HIGH=
I was lucky enough to win a Phaedra Westward doll new-in-box in a largely uncontested auction! Including shipping, I paid ~$25 for her, which at the time of writing this is ~$7 cheaper than she sells for in stores! :D (As a reminder, I'm still not buying Rainbow/Shadow High in stores anyways because the company that makes them, MGA, makes [en-eff-tees] of another of their properties.)
August 22nd, 2022
Phaedra's arrival! :D
I had heard a tip about opening Rainbow High doll boxes from the bottom, and HOLY CRAP that's by far the best way to do it! My experience unboxing Phaedra was sooooo much better than with Krystal! The only upside to Krystal's unboxing was that I didn't miss any accessories; I very nearly threw out Phaedra's stand, extra legs, and leg-changing instructions because they were taped underneath a part of the box I hadn't needed to remove. ^^;
Upon inspecting her, I noticed that I couldn't move Phaedra's wrists at all. I removed her hands and found that on both of them, palm side, she had so much flash (extra plastic from the molding process) that it was making those joints unmovable! D: I asked my husband it use his trusty razorblade to remove the flash, and he graciously did. <3
Phaedra's hands before removing any of the flash. The wrist joint of the top hand (palm-up) is just about flush with the rest of the hand because of the extra plastic in the joint well. The bottom hand is palm-down, and there is a visible gap between the back of the hand and the wrist joint (vertically/depth-wise); this is how the other side should be!
Once the flash was taken care of, I had fun posing her with (what I thought was) all of her accessories!
Phaedra relaxing, posed on her Malibu Sunset towel, with her sunglasses and beach bag next to her. She's smiling sweetly at the camera.
Goodness, I just adore the colors they used for her hair (I mean, it's why I wanted her, so this doesn't surprise me. But seeing her in-person is even better)!
A close-up of Phaedra's sunglasses. They have gold-painted frames and sunset-colored lenses. The plastic of the lenses is actually partially see-through!
Phaedra's beach bag. It's wider than it is tall. The whole thing has a metallic look to it, and it's made of a somewhat hard plastic. The main body of the bag is a gradient of sunset colors with a gold stripe around the top. The straps are almost rose-gold, and are only long enough for her to carry it in the crook of her elbow (or maybe over her shoulder). There's a gold rectangle on the side with a black checkerboard boarder and "RAINBOW" printed in the center.
A close-up of Phaedra's head. She's got gold and black scrunchies in her hair (which is in pigtails), and a clear purple visor rests on her forehead. She's still smiling at the camera!
I panned the camera down to her outfit. She only comes with the one - a 1-piece bathing suit with a sarang around her hips. The bathing suit feels like it's actually made out of bathing suit material! It's printed with a snakeskin-like pattern in black and sunset colors, and features a non-working gold zipper running down the center. The zipper pull is a gold lowercase "r." The sarang has a false knot on one side (it actually closes with velcro under the knot). The background is - once again - sunset colors, with various little images in white over it (4-pointed sparkle-stars, 5-pointed shooting stars, "RH," and hearts).
A view of her shoes. They have chunky heels, and are mostly purple and black. They each have one thick strap that goes across the top of her foot, and that strap is clear purple plastic. The same "RAINBOW" rectangle from her bag is on the shoes, but in black and white. The printing is honestly fairly low-quality. The heels themselves are decorated with a snakeskin pattern in purple and black.
Phaedra's towel. It features a simple, yet very pretty image of a sunset and palm trees, and the world "Malibu" is written in white text. It feels like it's made out of real towel material!
This was taken before I realized she did actually come with a stand! I'm holding her steady with 1 hand as this pose does not lend itself to stability! XD She's got 1 foot crossed over in front of the other like a model, with 1 hand up in the air and the other at her hip. It's almost as if she's saying, "Heeeyyy~ I'm heeeere!"
Much more stable this time. She's standing on her own, with her feet a little wider apart than shoulder-width. Her hands are still in the same pose.
A top-down shot of Phaedra laying on her towel. Her hands are (almost) behind her head, and her feet are (almost) crossed, like in the photo where I was holding her.
A close-up of one of the side cut-outs on Phaedra's bathing suit. The other side has a matching one.
A close-up of her face again, this time showing off her glittery make-up and red-brown eyes very well in the light.
It wouldn't be Rainbow High without some mistakes, would it? ^^; On the left side of her head, her baby hairs (which are sculpted-on and painted over) are quite far away from her rooted hairline. :( There's also some white stuff on her skin and in a couple of her hair plug holes that I couldn't get to come off. o0;
The sculpted baby hairs on her right side are placed much better, though! Too bad the printing is off... At least the printing being weird isn't really noticable when you're just looking at her normally! (and while making this post I just noticed the purple paint spots in her make-up and brow... *sighs*)
All 3 of my Rainbow High dolls! From left to right: Krystal, Phaedra, and Skyler (wearing a hat I crocheted!). :D They are all looking at the camera~
They couldn't even wait for me to finish taking photos before starting in on the gossip, smh.
Friends~ Krystal and Skyler with an arm each over Phaedra's shoulders, and Phaedra has both her arms behind their backs.
Unpictured: my tiny hands cramping up from trying to hold all 3 dolls and my camera at the same time. XD
Phaedra wearing her sunglasses and waving to the camera.
Phaedra without all her head accessories (scrunchies, visor, sunglasses). I didn't pose this one quite right, so it looks like she got distracted by something happening right behind the camera. XD
Aaaaand here's where my troubles with her hair start. ;-; 3 photos. Circled in red in each image is a section of hair right next to her thatched hair part that's coming loose. The hair is making little loops.
I'm pretty bummed about that. The only way I'd be able to truly fix that is to take her pigtails down, comb her hair out, and re-do the pigtails, but I don't wanna risk loosing the thatching (crossing the hair strands at the part to the opposite side so there's not a huge bald spot/line for her part), plus I just know that trying to get her pigtails even would be an absolute nightmare. D:
What I ended up doing was something that I really hope I don't end up regretting: I cut the little loops out. >< Since I never intend on taking her pigtails out, it should be alright, right? ;w;
If the loose strands are hard to see in this pic, there's a better one later on in the washing section. But basically, there are multiple yellow hairs that just never made it up into the pigtail. They did not get snagged, and I did not pull them out of the hair tie. They were just hanging there. :\
Speaking of the washing section, it was about this time that I was like, "OK, girl needs her hair did." The colors they used for her hair are gorgeous, but the styling gel was not. XD
Before I even starting washing proper - just rinsing! - a huge chunk of hair came out! ;A;
Phaedra getting a conditioning treatment~ There are many longer hairs sticking out of the ends of her pigtails, but they did not fully come out.
Here's the photo I mentioned before that shows the loose yellow hairs that just got left out of the pigtail. I ended up cutting them off.
A Before and After collage of trimming the scraggly ends of Phaedra's pigtails! Much better~
Phaedra's hair all up in flexible foam rollers!
I'm so glad I got these, plus end papers! The roller set process was so much easier this time! I used 1/2-inch rollers. If you don't wanna buy a box of end papers, you could probably use tissue paper; it certainly feels like it. But a box of end papers is only a couple of bucks, and they're already pre-cut!
I do admit that I got overzealous with my rolling and completely forgot that I had only intended on curling the ends of her pigtails. ;A; I was just so happy that this process went so much smoother than when I did Skyler's hair with the straws, I forgot my plan! ><
August 24th, 2022
I let Phaedra's hair dry overnight, and the next day thought it was dry enough to let everything down. I took one curling rod out, and felt that the ends (which didn't really have air touching them) were still a weeeee bit damp, so I left the rest of them in till just after midnight.
Here's the results! Honestly, I'm not loving it. I'm probably going to boil wash her and try again, this time hopefully remembering to only curl the ends! XD
Phaedra's hair with the curlers taken out. Minimal to no finger-combing here. There's a lot of height near the hair ties! o_o The ringlets look really neat with her hair colors, though!
Her left pigtail. The ringlets look so good from this angle!
The back of her head. I feel like the difference between the two sides is pretty evident here. ><
The difference in the appearance of the curls is due to how I took out the rollers. On the right side, I fully unrolled each curler. On the left, I just loosened the hair, then slid the curler out. No amount of finger-curling nor twisting helped the right side, sadly. ;o;
The right pigtail. Not nearly as uniform as the left.
Here I've finger-combed Phaedra's right (viewer's left) pigtail, but her left (our right) is still untouched. At least the difference is intentional in this pic! XD
Both pigtails have been finger-combed. I didn't want to risk her pigtails getting super poofy like Skyler's hair did, so I only used my fingers and the end of a rat-tail comb to break up the curls. Still not liking the volume at the top of the pigtails. :\
Back view of the pigtails. It's also clearly visible that the curlers + boiling water left dents in her hair near the part, especially on the top-right of her head. ;A;
Regardless of the outcome thus far, Phaedra seems happy to be with her new besties. :D Here are all 3 girls sitting on a doll-sized picnic blanket I crocheted~
And a kinda-silly shot of Phaedra's voluminous curls overtaking the other 2 on either side of her. XD Skyler in particular looks like she's being swallowed by hair!
Skyler's semi-relaxed curls are growing on me so I may not completely re-do her hair, but I think I'm actually going to re-style Phaedra's hair at some point. I felt like an idiot once I realized my mistake after I poured the boiling water over the curlers and she'd been cooling off for a while. D: Regardless of that oopsie, I still think she's wonderful and I'm very happy to have her. :D
A couple of notes before I forget:
- Her head is weirdly loose. The other two girls can basically only move their heads from side-to-side, but Phaedra's can move all around.... and doesn't always stay where I tell it to. It tends to list slightly to her right. D:
- On a positive note, she has a different face sculpt from the others! Her nose isn't as pointy and her nostrils are wider-set; her eye shape is slightly pointer in the corners; her top lip has a different cupid's bow shape and her bottom lip is bigger! I really like these changes! (I also like the lack of the weird white line highlights on her lips - they look like awkward teeny-tiny moustaches on the other girls in my opinion. D:)
=BALL-JOINTED DOLL=
Back in June of 2007, I ordered my first-ever ball-jointed doll! He's a Camine model from the now-defunct Korean brand Dream of Doll.
When I was trying to figure out what doll I wanted to get (there are soooo many pretty ones!), I saw that basically every site I looked at had a drop-down menu on the dolls' catalogue page where you could choose from various options; like if you wanted, you could pay more for an outfit, extra wig, extra pair of eyes, or the default face-up (paint applied like make-up and sealed with matte varnish to mimic skin) to come with your doll. I did not see anything like this on Dream of Doll's site, so when I decided on the Camine and went to order, I just wrote in the Notes text field that I wanted the face-up as pictured in the catalogue photos. They must have thought me an idiot. While I was waiting for him to arrive, I looked at the site almost daily, just admiring the photos of him~ And at some point, I looked in a non-doll section of the catalogue and saw the separate listing for adding the face-up to your order. ;A;
Obviously, when he arrived, he did not have the face-up, and my heart sank. Like, I knew that he wouldn't have it, but some part of me was hoping they'd take pity on me and do it for me anyways. ^^;
I did my best to love him regardless, and I do still find his blank face mold very pretty and sweet-looking, but I'm still kicking myself 15 years later. (OMG, if he was a real boy, he would be in high school. D8)
A couple months after I got him, we moved, and he's basically been laying in his box ever since. It's been over 10 years for sure since I last looked at him. ^^; But seeing him again today (the day I'm writing this) honestly made me fall in love with him all over again. <3
Even though I adore his face sculpt, I actually am considering selling him. If I don't sell him, then I'm finally gonna commission someone to do his face-up! Either way, I still need to meet the requirements to access Den of Angels's marketplace first. ^^; (I know I could sell or auction him on eBay, but I just feel better about the thought of selling him on DoA.)
For the time being at any rate, here's my Dream of Doll Camine, Kaedyn (KAY-din)!
Kaedyn in his box, looking kinda helpless. ^^; Such a looooong boy!
He has pale skin, a long black wig, a black button-up dress shirt, and black pinstripe pants.
Warning: the next 2 photos are the ones with accidental psuedo-body horror!
I went to pick him up and uh... It felt like he was gonna fall apart. O_O Here I have just a couple of fingers under his back, and his chest is clearly separating from his tummy (he's got a chest joint, he's not actually breaking!).
I'm really surprised that his elastic cord is loose - usually when elastic things get old, they become brittle. o0;
A similar shot, this time with just a couple of fingers under his head. I can practically hear him whispering, "halp."
End of accidental psuedo-body horror!
Even though I apparently can't take him out of his box right now, I still wanted to get some nice photos!
A close-up of his face. His grey eyes are striking against his black wig, and it looks to me like he's happy to see the light of day again!
2 photos (well, 1 photo, but the 2nd instance of it is edited slightly). I noticed a blue stain on his right hand from where it was resting against the inside of the box. :( In the second image, I edited the photo a bit to make the mark stand out a bit more. It's also circled. I felt like it was much more noticable in person than in the unedited photo.
2 photos side-by-side. I unbuttoned Kaedyn's shirt to see if it had stained his arms, and while it doesn't look like it has (though I have not taken it fully off of him), in the left photo it looks like his arm and torso/head are 2 different colors??? In the right photo, they look the same to me, though. Maybe it was just a trick of the light?
I know resin can yellow over time, but I thought that was if it's left in direct sunlight.
After re-buttoning his shirt, I noticed his wig was a bit knotted. This photo was taken after I gently combed it and put it back on. He's waving at the camera~
While waiting for him to arrive back in the day, I had bought a small, plastic, 3-drawer storage unit. In addition to the drawers, it also has a shallow section on the top with a lid that lifts up! Here are the contents of that top section.
On the left are various chains and black ribbons. I honestly don't know if they came with his outfit, or if these are things I bought or found and wanted to use to make accessories for him. On the right are his extra hands (one in a "hang 10" pose, the other giving the thumbs-up), their S-rings, and a silver cord.
The first drawer was empty, and the second only contained a small scrap of fabric left over from some arm warmers I had made. I guess I wanted to use that to try to make something for him. What, I can't remember though.
In the third drawer was his jacket! It's black and pinstriped just like his pants. It's double-breasted, with 4 buttons on each side. There's a flower accessory pinned on his left (our right) lapel.
A close-up of the flower. It's mostly black with some silver accents. The petals are made from a black leather-like material. There's a ribbon under it that's folded in an X-shape. The center of the flower has 5 rhinestones, also in an X-shape. trailing down from all that are 2 thinner black ribbons, and 2 strings of rhinestones.
My biggest reason for selling him at this point would be space. As I mentioned above, he's a loooong boy: 60 cm or ~23 inches! O_O Which makes his box over 2 feet long! And even if I keep him, I am not getting rid of his box! It's the best thing to move him in whenever we do end up moving again. Plus, since DoD went under, everything about him is a collector's item!
Even if it turns out that I sell him, I'm just very happy to have him with me at the moment! :D
=WINX CLUB=
In high school, I still watched Saturday morning cartoons. One of the ones I fell in love with was Winx Club! Bloom and Musa were my favorite characters, and when I learned that there were dolls of them, I just had to get them!
As I mentioned in my last post, even as a kid I took good care of my toys. But even so, little accessories would still get lost from time to time. Being a teenage collector with the same "take care of your stuff" mindset, I wanted to make sure I had everything for these girls, so I kept them in a small, clear plastic backpack (no idea where I got it, though). It was just the right size for the dolls, and held all their accessories! :D
Without any further ado, here are my Mattel season 1 Magic Winx Bloom and Musa dolls!
Musa and Bloom in their season 1 casual outfits, still in the backpack. I can practically hear them begging, "Release us from this plastic prison!" XD
A close-up. "Free uuuuusssss," they say. "Of course," I respond. XD
As soon as I touched Musa, one of her red hair ties crumbled in my hand. ;A; It was a really odd texture - crumbly, yet sticky. o0;
Regardless, both dolls were freed! (Featuring hair tie shrapnel.)
Bloom's hair looks a lot worse than it feels. If a human came to me with this hair texture, I'd be concerned, but since this is a plastic doll with plastic hair, I'm actually pleasantly surprised!
As I took the accessories out of the bag though, my mood soured a bit. So many of the items have paint missing or stuck to other items - or even the bag itself! ;o;
One each of Musa's and Bloom's Winx boots. They both have spots of the other's color on them.
Musa's red and purple headphones. Both over-ear parts are missing paint, and there's even some missing from the inside of the headband.
More hair-tie shrapnel, this time stuck to the inside of the bag.
Musa's guitar strings have paint missing. Some of it is stuck to the human-sized bracelet she came with.
Some of the red paint from something of Musa's got on Bloom's human-sized bracelet.
More guitar string paint on the inside of the bag, plus a spot of red.
Unsurprisingly, the other hair tie had deteriorated as well. ;o;
Obviously the broken-down hair ties need to be removed, but should I wash her hair before putting in new ones, or just put the new ones right in so I don't loose the thatching?
After taking everything out of the bag, I looked at the instructions I kept - I had completely forgotten that these girls can light up! (The batteries are long-dead in these dolls, but I could replace them!)
Sadly, even though I was careful when trying to unvelcro Bloom's shirt to get a look at the magnets and the light, the stitching came undone; or maybe that had happened in the past, I honestly don't know. I didn't feel anything ripping today, but who knows?
Even though it only took a minute or 2 to take everything out of the bag, the hair tie shrapnel stained my freakin' desk. (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻
An overhead view of the dolls and everything they came with! Above the dolls' heads are the instructions and a DVD. On the left is Musa and all* her stuff, and on the right is Bloom and all* her stuff!
* = I thought that the blue set of headphones (which are also missing paint, by the way [upside down smiley]) went with Bloom since she's all blue-yellow-orange, but aparently they're Musa's casual ones. XD The red and purple ones go with Musa's Winx tranformation outfit.
A closer look at the dolls, instructions, and DVD.
An overview of all the accessories both dolls came with.
2 photos featuring the lenticular cards both dolls came with. In Bloom's photo, there's also a close-up look at the wings on her human-sized bracelet!
Musa's accessories and clothes. The human-sized bracelet (clear red with her Winx wings in clear blue), red and purple Winx headphones, her hair brush (in a blue that matches her Winx wings), a non-functioning bag shaped like a record (red and purple with a blue music note that matches her wings), her guitar (purple with pink strings and red accents), 2 cardboard items (a "CD" of her music and a music-themed notebook, maybe?), her red flip phone (it actually opens, and has a photo of Tecna inside!), her CD player (which matches the headphones I thought were Bloom's; a different shade of blue from the other blue items), her Winx wings, purple armband, red Winx dress, and tall red Winx boots.
Bloom's accessories and clothes. Her Winx wings, tiny gold crown (made out of clear yellow plastic), blue Winx top, pale blue Winx arm warmers, blue Winx skirt, blue Winx ankle boots, the blue headphones I thought were hers, a small figure of her bunny Kiko, a clear blue... perfume bottle? (not sure what it is, I honestly don't rememebr such an item in the show. It has a star on the top and fairy wings embossed on the main body), a cardboard picture of Sky, her orange hair brush, a translucent yellow star-shaped "bag" (non-functioning), her blue cellphone (with a photo of Sky inside) and a notebook with her name on the front. Part of the human-sized bracelet can be seen as well.
Here are some very close-up shots of the accessories!
Musa's bracelet and Winx headphones.
Musa's brush, record bag, and guitar.
Musa's "CD," notebook, phone, and CD player.
Musa's Winx outfit.
Bloom's Winx outfit, the blue headphones, Kiko, and the perfume bottle thing.
The blue headphones, Kiko, and perfume bottle again, plus Bloom's brush, and star bag.
Bloom's Winx shoes, photo of Sky, the perfume bottle, and her phone.
Kiko, the perfume bottle, the photo of Sky, the star bag, her phone, and the notebook.
Sorry for all the overlap in those last few photos, I didn't even realize how much there was till writing this! ^^;
Just like with my ball-jointed doll, I'm very happy to have these girls with me again! ^^ The poor dears have been in that bag, inside a storage bin, under my old bed for like, a decade. D:
A few months ago, I met a new online friend via our shared interest in KPop, and it turns out she's a Winx fan and doll collector, too! (She's probably reading this - hhhiiii!) Ever since she started talking about Winx dolls, I'd wanted to get these girls from my mom's. These days, I don't really go up to my mom's house, though, so I just had to ask her to bring them down to me. Of course, I kept forgetting, so it took a while. XD But as soon as I remembered to ask, she found them quickly and brought them ASAP!<3 (I also emailed her photos of other peoples' Bloom and Musa dolls so she knew what she was looking for - not that I have a lot of dolls, but just so she could be sure she'd found the right things! Also, just in case they weren't where I remembered them being and she had to go look for them. Luckily, they were exactly where I thought! ^^)
If you have any questions or want more pics of things, just let me know! Thanks so much for reading!<3
no subject
btw to fix the paint transfer you might have luck with magic erasers? though i've heard those can damage/sand plastic so it'd be a bit of a risk. also as a heads up, mattel winx dolls use kanekalon hair so don't do a standard boil wash if you want to clean their hair - i recommend using warm water, not lukewarm but also not hot to the touch if that makes sense, that works best with kanekalon in my experience.
seeing that bjd is awesome btw!! even without the faceup he looks super pretty already, and even after 15 years the doll's still in great condition. good luck with DoA, i've lurked there a little and it seems a bit hectic but at least everyone there knows their shit lol. and phaedra is absolutely beautiful! she was one of my other options when i was getting my first RH doll at the store, and while i went with bella instead, i still kind of want phaedra because her hair and face mold are beautiful. i want so many RH dolls but i have so little space and money T__T life of a doll collector
no subject
"i have the same bloom doll but her hair's cut" Oof, that sucks. D: Not surprised on the missing accessories. If you don't store things like that in something, it's so easy to loose them!
I don't trust the dolls nor their accessories in that backpack again, so I got an index card box and it fits all the accessories very well! (Sadly I derped and only got 1 - I totally should have got one for my RH doll clothes, too! ><)
Glad you have most of Bloom's stuff, though! :D
"your dolls are super cute and i'm glad you were able to find them again <3" Aw, thanks! ^^
Not sure what I'm going to do about the paint transfers. I remember using a Magic Eraser on an old 90s Wiggytuff figure, and now it has a white patch where I was trying to get out a mark... and the mark's still there iirc. D8<
OK, thanks for the kanekalon tip! I've only been using boiling water for curl setting thus far, but it's good to know to just not use it at all on my Winx girls!
"seeing that bjd is awesome btw!! even without the faceup he looks super pretty already, and even after 15 years the doll's still in great condition." Thanks! :D I just need to do some research on how to restring him now. XD;
"good luck with DoA, i've lurked there a little and it seems a bit hectic but at least everyone there knows their shit lol." I made a re-introduction post like, a month ago and everyone's been super sweet thus far! I even had a few people comment in my thread that they too are just getting back into the hobby after many years away!
"i still kind of want phaedra because her hair and face mold are beautiful. i want so many RH dolls but i have so little space and money T__T life of a doll collector" I hope you can get her some day! She's lovely~ Yeah, space is hard. Money can always be earned and saved, but space requires either getting a new place or letting old things go. ;o;