Ladies of Project MC2
McKayla McAllister, Bryden Bandweth, Ember Evergreen
Devon D'Marco, Camryn Coyle, Adrienne Attoms
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Mermaze Mermaids factory rejects: $8 each at aliexpress.com/item/1005004823831727.html I was curious about these but waiting for them to hit second hand. $8 felt fair enough even if they end up as hair donors.
I love a glitter shaker doll like Novi Starz but $50 (45€) for a top and a jacket, a body that looks too skinny, glare-y eyes and light eyes on all the dark skinned dolls rubs me the wrong way. They’re cool but for $50 I expect swappable legs and a second outfit.
Ok where to start? Nera with the dark blue hair: she barely shed so that’s great, it’s kiwi with some bobble tinsel. She tried MC2 Camryn’s eyes which are the same eyes used on Mermaze but the eye sockets are too shallow and wide: they’ve reused their eye stock but didn’t redo the doll molds properly so that the eyes don’t bulge and glare. These eyes look fantastic on Project MC2 dolls (see review by ToyBox philosopher) and just wrong on Mermaze, I’ve ranted about inset eyes before but basically if you mess that up, you kneecap your doll line.
So I put milliput into the sockets and placed an acrylic iris in there which was actually a ton of work to get right and clean and smooth. It’s not as detailed an iris as i’d like but still SO much better than fish eyes. I removed her under eye glitter, reblushed, acetoned the sides of her brows too close to the hairline and the bottom of her lips painted too low.
Harmonique lilac got Adrienne’s eyes and I’m not sure i’ll keep them, it’s better than her pale turquoise eyes but still unfocused: the eyes need to be the main attraction. Her hair was trashed, I’m pretty sure the original has 3 lengths: 11cm twirls, 23cm main bulk and 30cm ponytails so buyer beware if you plan to restyle her. I cut mine down to 23cm.
Beyond that original photo, after i’d carefully sectioned out hair to salvage, I ended up just discovering more and more damage: hair sliced at 7mm-3cm along all three of her partings along with a bunch of rooting error knots.
That’s the risk of factory rejects. A risk I probably shouldn’t be taking with hard heads, I added ten or so knot method extra plugs to replace missing hair in front... shoulders still too fragile to do any more. She has a scar on her forehead and is light brown toned. Both should be easy to find bodies for (Nera is fakie pale pink or Cloe toned) but that neck hole will need modifying.
I’m not annoyed at paint or rooting errors, that comes with buying factory rejects. It’s part of the fun, the puzzle of repairing. ^__^
I am really put off by the decision to not invest in a better eye design and the way they’ve made rebodying these dolls a serious breakage risk between the tiny neck and very hard plastic. It seems they’re launching a spin-off line with better designed faces called Siren sisters so maybe save your money for that?
If you do want to get these dolls I recommend slicing into the back of the head above the second line of plugs and slicing out the eye sockets so you can place BJD 10mm eyes.
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Check out this listing I just added to my Poshmark closet: Project MC2 Experiment with Camryn Doll.
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Organising a destash sale is not going as well as expected - I have most reroots up on ebay bar the 4-5 latest with a bunch as bodied dolls for continental western eu only (Diva needs a 'head only plus clothes' entry on the heads listing for example, others can get neck grafts). Long rambly post ahead
But when i started pulling stuff out of the unsorted box or kon mari pile. Things got complicated fast: Trichelle 2 okay, LitDH Midge and stock: can she be sold as a head only or will people want the posable body? KawaiiQtee was put up for sale because I can't bond with her sister and I don't like lone dolls but that's a stupid rule. Same for project MC2 Camryn they can be loners together.
Rainbow high heads, i don't know if I'm going to click with them until they have eyes so that's Robin, Demaya, Gabriella, maybe custom Daria if lashes don't make us click. 4 more will have to get eyes and lashes and then I'll know.
4 skipper heads with modern fantasy hair: my modern repaint attempts are naf, do i fix their OG makeup or leave them as they arrived for others to turn into japanese prototype styles or whatever? What do you charge for a full reroot on a doll with a damaged face?
The Pinkie Cooper and fakies are over 4cm high so they can't be sent without the expensive colissimo.
On the other hand if you do get the expensive colissimo ($29 for 500g 1lb, $32 for 1kg 1.2lbs to the states, $15 for 500, 18 for a kilo to the UK) there's usually space for lots of extras.
I forgot to properly name the kon mari-ed hair photos with the saran names and put it all back (there was a good reason at the time).
I also need to make a table with the new 2022 prices in euro and dollars.
That's a lot of functions to execute on executive disfunction. Guess it'll just take time.
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