#Mattel repaint

[acousticinsect]

The found footage

[teatime-tangents-and-toys]

In 2023, I did a project called DIFFUSION where I took three (or six, rather) of the fused ghouls and reinterpreted their monster blends as a single original character concept through doll restyles. Dracubecca became Tinny Tinkerpins, a clockwork tin toy robot, Cleolei became Maupet A'Duat, a reincarnated Egyptian cat given humanoid form (also wasn't altered as a base, and merely redressed), and Clawvenus became Dendrea Barker, a haunted dogwood tree. I didn't work with Lagoonafire.

Read their posts here:

Intro

Tinny and her finalizing second pass

Maupet

Dendrea

[ultrabrite-dl]

"What if I made the 1959 Barbie with a 2003 Polly Pocket?" I said,

"I can repaint her whole face, that definitely won't hurt my eyes!" I said.

Yeah, I really like the 1959 (first) barbie doll design, so I decided to have fun by making a tiny doll of it, rerooting her hair was surprisingly easy! I think I'll do more Polly pocket customization in the future...

If I ever find one with hair again!

Barbie doll size comparison below:

[hellafluff]

if i had a nickel for every time there was a fashion doll from the 2010s that was a pink and black colored cross between a skeleton and a moth id have 2 nickels. which isn't a lot

BUT ITS REALLY WEIRD THAT IT HAPPENED TWICE

I NEED VERA SHE BELONGS NEXT TO BONITA THEY ARE SISTERS TO ME

[the-enzyme]

Here's my sealed work on my repainted Ken Looks number 5! I'm super happy with him. The only problem is his under-eye area turned out shinier than I was hoping. It was already like that before I sealed the repainted work with a few layers of MSC matte, and a single layer of MSC gloss. Otherwise, I am happy with all other areas of his face after sealing. I like using a light layer of gloss in-between, because it adds a nice "dewy/human-flesh-like" finish to my more "realistic-ish" repaints. However, I am not sure why it looks hyper shiny at the chin and under the eyes. Although, it was already like that before I sealed the work, as I said. I didn't expect to look like that after the layers of MSC matte. I don't mind it IRL too much, particularly the chin. But those under-eyes...

I might have to mask-off all other areas and add a layer or two of more matte fixative. I don't want to completely dull all the rest of the face, as I am happy with how it looks IRL otherwise. Just not super excited of how those two areas photograph. We'll see...

I took a lot of crappy repetitive photos of him; I am super happy with him now. Not the repaint work as I always feel I could have done a better job. I'm just in-love with how he looks in general, now. I like more realistic-ish looking repaints, and this is definitely a lot less cartoony than my last repaint work on him. So, I am happier for that reason. I do find this head sculpt extremely beautiful, otherwise I wouldn't have purchase one, let alone two (to customize one). I wasn't happy with the default chin, brow-bone and lips sculpting, so I modified the brows and chin a bit during my first repaint on him, back in 2022. I forgot about those when I repainted him a few days ago, so I just did a quick softening of the chin once again, but I thought I could have sanded even further. However, now that he is sealed and "finished," I feel like I don't mind the chin so much anymore. It is a pain to have to paint it to look the way I want it, instead of it just being the shape and size I want it to be. However, I don't mind it anymore. I am happy to leave him like this forever!

I say that now, watch me redo his face paint and mods once again in a few years. Lol! (; I am in love with this Ken, even if I am a crazy old fart who wants to mod and repaint things a million times over! I only wish I knew how to re/style hair a tiny bit, so I could try different hair styles on him. Or, that I was willing to re-root or shave him. I hate re-rooting dolls, and I like his hair style as is, a lot. I only wish I could restyle the hair, from time to time! I'm also petrified of doing anything because his flocking keeps falling off all over the place! That's what's on his face on some of these photos at his chin and lips. In case some of it is visible, I kept blowing it off his face, only to find more a few seconds later. I keep his hair in a plastic wrap "hat," to keep the hair from getting messy, but I don't know if that's the reason for the flocking to be coming off all the time, or if it's just a natural thing with flocking. I don't own that many flocked things that are unboxed -- or that I handle at all! Last four are from my older than dust phone, because it takes slightly better, hyper-washed-out photos, the newer likes adding a pound of noise and they are always dark as the dickens, which I would love, if it wasn't for the extra-crispy pixels. DX

[mazovshanka]

Several days ago I found my very first doll I bought as an adult. That was the beginning of my doll collection. Back then I wanted to buy a Monster High doll but I missed every single one I really liked. So I ended up with Ever After High Cerise Hood in its basic version. Some time later I thought I'm not fond of that doll to the extent I want to keep it, so I sent it to a friend who was making OOAK dolls. I was very surprised when she sent the doll back to me but it was now completely different. She made a lovely OOAK doll - did the repaint, reroot and even sew the clothes. I really like the new look of that doll. It had a black faux leather jacket but unfortunately the leather started to peel over time and moreover it stained the doll's forearms. I really don't know what to do about those stains, I tried acetone but it didn't work. I suppose I should sew some kind of mittens. Anyway, I'm not gonna get rid of that doll because it reminds me how my collection had started.

These days I have no time to take decent photos so I just took those snapshots on my way home from shopping. That colourful graffiti simply caught my attention, finally some nice art instead of just random scribbles. And since it's spring I took a photo of blooming white lilac.

[iodoesdolls]

Really struggling with this thing where so many dc characters have blue eyes and black hair, and also there’s only one main face sculpt for dcshg.

Huntress/Helena Bertinelli is on the left - I repainted the lips and just added a little purple to the eyes for variety. She started as Wonder Woman. I picked the blue strands out of her hair and filled it back in with black, too.

Madams Rouge/Laura de Mille is in the right. Started as a supergirl head, repainted eyes, lips, and eyebrows. Rerooted. She’s on a Blackfire body - the Blackfire body is the whole reason I’m making a Madame rouge:

It’s all about those arms and legs.

[thelivesofourdolls]

Trying on a new wig.

[mortaljoy]

ouughhh i wanna jump on the gyaru lagoona trend so bad i fear she’d eat

[dolljunk]

So for my trade for the Creature of the Black Lagoon was a repaint of the Mattel Dr Who Barbie, aka Jodie Whitaker as the 13th Doctor. I was given free reign on what to go for so I figured I would opt for a faux collector Barbie style paint from the late 2000s since I don't think the original paint was doing anything for the doll. I also did end up saturating the colours a bit as I felt like the original paint was super muted and I wanted her to be versatile as well for restyling. Big thanks to @jackdkay for this trade, I was excited to try a Barbie repaint after so long.

[teatime-tangents-and-toys]

Thronecoming Cupid with slight face repaint!Read her full review here!

[ultrabrite-dl]

Polly Pocket customization 2: Electric Boogaloo

And this time, it's Allan!

I decided to torture my eyes once again to turn an (hilariously ugly) polly pocket into the one and only Allan. I thought about making Ken first, but honestly, his first design wasn't that interesting and iconic, and the polly pocket I found had a face sculpt closer to Allan's than Ken's. And I really like that Allan and barbie are matching with their stripes.

Btw, check out what the polly pocket looked like before, I wheezed so hard when I found him:

He look like he's high on glue

[cherry-purple]

I keep forgetting to post my dolls lmao

A Draculaura I customized some months ago.

This is the Latin America super duper budget Draculaura.

How she originally looked.

The hair she comes with is the fucking worst, Mattel really outdid itself here with how cheap it feels. it’s a pain to handle even after boil washing and conditioning. The upside though is that at least this meant I felt no guilt experimenting on it with hair cuts and styles lol.

I gave her asymmetrical kinda choppy bangs? And then proceeded to make hair extensions for her and braided them into an attempt at butterfly buns.

I also repainted her eyes and lips. I miss her G1 purple eyes and I also wanted to give her more visible fangs over dark, glittery lips. Glued lashes on but her bangs cover the lashes of her right eye.

Bonus:

Used pastels to try and make the pink in her hair a bit more vibrant. The dresses I got at the flea market! The first one is a bit loose at the chest but this second one fits like a glove.

Those shoes are LOL OMG shoes! I managed to get them to fit using hot water.

[ladyyatexel]

Okay so day six of @look-back-month-challenge is toys you are thinking of getting rid of, and when I recalled The Bin, I thought it might be a good source for this and yesterday's Regrets.

The Bin lives under my bed and is storage for dolls not on display for one reason or another. There are many awkward doll stories inside it. Let's have a sampling.

Two Ariels. I think this is a result of thrifting. One of these was bought for me new but there's a better one on display now so. The Bin.

Nothing else I have is this size, the line gave some Issues and I don't think I love the face as is. But she was part of my very last purchase at a Toys R Us before they shut down here and so it's a bit attached to that. Could be repainted in a cool way, neat hair, but just kinda Eh and thus. The Bin.

When I was working on The Gay Agenda, I thought I could use this Jasmine's face for it. I didn't want to use MY Jasmine because she'd been bought from the park at my first time there and she's special. Turns out the Disney Store didn't do whatever Mattel did to make their heads shrinkable. Can't be on display because Special Jasmine is, but I always like Jasmine and there's nothing wrong with her so. The Bin.

I didn't watch this show, I just liked how stylized and articulated these are. But since I didn't watch the show, they filled me with weird guilt at being a thing I Didn't Really Know. Plus I already had a Rapunzel on display that I repainted so they have been in, say it with me now- The Bin.

I repainted Wonder Woman 5000 years ago and I want to just redo it. I looked for this one specifically because I liked the gladiator skirt and sandals better than the default design, but I've felt clunky since the paint job.

I don't have an attachment to this version of Uhura, she never stays on her fucking stand, she has the model muse body which I hate and my abusive dad sent her to me in an attempt to get me to talk to him again. But her face is beautiful and she could be rebodied. So.

The Bin.

[therobotmonster]

Guys I think should be in MOTU: Origins

My love of MOTU Origins is not very hidden, and they've hit tons of great points, but there's so much further to go. So, here's my rundown of what I'd want to see joint the MOTU Origins lineup.

Section 1: Give it the Sun-Man Treatment.

Blackstar

The proto-He-Man of yore, Blackstar as an IP is probably well within the price range for Mattel to sweep up to sprinkle into the line the same way Sun Man's universe was.

For advantages, it's VERY aesthetically compatible and has several strong character designs. It's no more obscure than Sun-Man, and I want hordes of those imp-demons, damnit.

BraveStarr

Again, a no-brainer. Find the character rights holders, get the rights. New Texas is out there in space, use it as an excuse to do MOTU:Origins versions of the New Adventures designs ("space travel" He-Man) and Rio-Blast. If they already own all the rights then them not having already done this is toyetic malpractice.

Advantages are obvious. BraveStarr rocks. You have a POC lead hero, Tex-Frickin'-Hex, and Thirty-Thirty, who would be well worth the extra tooling to make a deluxe figure of (you can always do an upgraded Stridor repaint). You would scatter them through waves to keep from overloading with the Space Cowboy thing, but def a winner.

Also, Rio-Blast. Rio-Blast, Yo.

Skeleton Warriors

It was never strong enough to stand on its own. Give Skeletor some friends. 'Nuff Said.

One-Off Guest Stars

This section is a little different, as these wouldn't be permanent integrations, but more fun crossover one-offs rather than being a whole theme. Characters pulled from other Mattel-owned lines of the past:

Mojo Ken and Thunderpunch Barb-E

Here's the thing. This line is dead stupid, and should remain that way. Give Ken two heads (one 'bad' Mojo head and one 80s toy Ken style one) give Barbie weirdly plausible MOTU gear, the joke alone is worth the parts reuse. Best if nestled in with some Princess of Power characters.

Lets give Captain Power a hand, folks.

Its that live action TV show that interacted with the vehicles that landed in the uncanny valley between family TV and advert-traintment that never quite works!

Captain Power and Lord Dread are pretty much the only ones you'd want to hit, maybe the Soaron Sky Sentry. And really, they're not that hard to do. Captain Power could easily be made with Roboto legs and upper arms, any number of gloved hands, a new chest armor and a new head.

Any newly tooled pieces would be useful in MOTU movie and new adventure characters.

The Construx Alien demands your respect.

I know it makes no sense, I don't care, it's my list. He's amazing and needs to be big and buff with a weird hand.

Major Matt Mason has nothing better to do.

This set's a stretch, as it would require a chunk of new tooling, but again, maybe worth it for the New Adventures and She-Ra applications, plus hey, Astronaut prequel Biff Bestman, Evelyn Powers, and Captain Marlena parts!

He-Man's space-man friend is a role that could still be filled.

Next Up... Crossover Potential.

[an-aspiring-jester]

So... Ever since I became a fan 10+ years ago, I've always wanted to have Wicked dolls but could never find any at a reasonable price. Now that the movie came out I was lowkey debating making an unwise financial decision, but then it hit me: my doll-modding skills developed enough to attempt making my own, the way I want them, and they probably won't be terrible! And I already had some old barbies in a dire need of makover (I'm talking stubborn pen-stained vinyl and missing hair level) lying around! Perfect! So, here they are. G(a)lindas are just Sharpay dolls from High School Musical with a haircut (fun fact: I initially bought one years ago to turn it into one of my OCs, since I needed a smaller body, but I always hated the facemold, it didn’t fit the vibe I was going for. Short time later mattel introduced petite body type, so I quickly found something more suitable and lowkey forgot I had this Sharpay - but when I found her while digging through my spare dolls box I decided it's a perfect face for Galinda! And since OBC is always in my heart, the height difference doesn't hurt either. Luckily finding another second-hand Sharpay for cheap wasn’t a problem), Elphabas were evidently more work. I've never done a full-body repaint before - mistakes were made, lessons were learned. It was also my first attempt at the barbie-like make up, I don't think I've succeded, but I'm pleased with the result anyway. For their Shiz outfits I modified dresses I already had, the gowns I made from scratch. I obviously wasn't going for the exact replicas, I just had fun with designing something reminiscent of the musical, but easier on my sewing skills. I'm quite happy with how they've turned out!