Withdoll Taren’s Box Opening!

So, my Taren arrived somewhat unexpectedly today. I knew from tracking that he had landed in Chicago and I figured that since it was a holiday that I shouldn’t expect him until Monday, but lo and behold he suddenly appeared here today and on Black Friday no less, haha. Anyway I shall now dispense with the photos.

tarenshipbox

Well hello there shipping box. 😉

tareninnerbox

And the actual doll box. Withdoll has a nice simple box with their logo stamped on top. For some reason a simple brown box is always appealing to me. Maybe it’s because it has a eco feel, or maybe it’s because The Sound of Music taught me that brown paper packages tied up with string are good times. XD

tareninnerboxopen

And inside the box is the funny doll shaped foam cut-out, heehee. He also came with an extra set of hands (in different poses) and a nice pair of acrylic eyes by Glib in a hazel color.

tarenfirstview

And removing the foam we get the first view of Taren snugly packed and without eyes lol.

tarenface-up

Here’s a shot of his default face-up…this is the softer type A face-up on realskin UV. Overall it was what I was expecting, though the lower lashes are a bit more subdued, which is perfect actually. The brow is a bit lighter and the lips a bit less pink, but it is ok and really it’s a quality face-up. The eyes are the Glib ones I received with the order since the aqua colored glass eyes I selected for him were too large despite being 12mm. TAT I may experiment with 10mm eyes for him, since I think the 12mm fill up just a bit too much of the eye for me.

tarenlulu01

Here he is next to my Lusis. I like the way they look together, I think their scale is perfect. I’d also like to point out that he’s wearing M3 studio jeans that fit him well. Unfortunately I do not have a shirt for him yet. ^^; I intend to make a t-shirt for him soon. I’m not sure what I think of the wig I bought for him. I still have to mess with it some more. I am thinking though that he might look a bit better in black.

groupshot

And here’s a group shot of him with both of my MSD sized girls. You can kind of see how the realskin UV compares tone wise with Dollmore resin and Unoa resin, though both my Sona and my Lusis have some yellowing.

I’d also like to mention that I am really pleased with how my Taren poses. He is not strung super tight like some companies so he can hold half bent arm poses without slapping himself in the face. His knee joints too are well constructed as he can stand with one knee half bent in a very natural pose. The upper torso joint is also very smooth working and I like how the hand is magnetized and you can twist it off for an easy changeout with the spare hands. Now I hope that they come out with more option hands to buy like fists and pointing hands because I would have a lot of fun with it!! Overall I have to say that this doll is exceedingly well constructed, especially for the price. I have not had a doll who posed so well out of the box without needing sueding. You will wait a good 3-4 months to get a doll from Withdoll, but when it arrives I think you will be very pleased.

Finished a Unoa/MSD denim jumper set. :)

So I finally finished that denim jumper set I was talking about earlier in the month and I’m super happy with it. 😀 Also if it is now available for sale in my etsy shop! The full set includes: denim jumper, t-shirt, over knee socks, legwarmers and a flower brooch. Anyhoot on with the preview pics.

jumperset05

jumperset03

After finishing this set I kinda started becoming obsessed with making little fabric flower brooches, lol. They are so tiny and hard to make, but in the end you have something really pretty so all the time is worthwhile. 😀

https://www.etsy.com/shop/tsukiyono

Incoming dolls and other nonsense.

So, I decided to go for it, Taren’s sweet face and the sale compelled me to splurge on him. My order went in on August 18th and according to the forums the wait time for Withdoll is 2-3 months. Hopefully he will be in my hands before Xmas, and I really hope he arrives before I go out of town in January on a family vacation. I ordered him in the realskin UV as I decided it was time for me to branch out beyond all of the “normal skin” dolls. 😉 The idea of the sunscreen in a resin with translucence is what sold me though. I just hope it is as beautiful in person as I have seen in photographs. Taren will also be my first MSD boy, and he is filling a space in the collection that sorely needed filled. This means of course that I will need to shop for MSD boys clothes in the meantime so he doesn’t have to sit around naked. If anyone has any suggestions on which brands fit withdoll boys really well I’d love to hear them.

Aside from Taren, I’ve decided I am going to give it another try to order a Mio head. I will be participating in a new Dollmore GO that the same organizer is handling. I figure if I will ever be able to get a Mio head from a group order, it is going to be with this person! Haha, thankfully they have a good humor about it.

So with all that, I have to say this must end my doll purchases for 2013. I forbid myself from purchasing any more dolls until after the new year. *sigh* there are just so many pretty dolls and so little time and money to have them all.

Mature MSD – Withdoll Boys

I’m always on the quest to find more MSD dolls that are more mature in looks and less child like, even moreso now that I have my Unoa Lusis. Of course my small MSD collection is lacking in males, because whereas it’s fairly easy to find female sculpts that are more mature looking in both body and headsculpt, for some reason the majority of boy sculpts remain too young looking in the face but often will have a mature and buff body (which is just odd if you ask me). It seems like only within the past couple years that more male sculpts with a more mature looking face have started to be created.

I only recently discovered Withdoll within the past week or so after having followed a thread on DoA about mature MSD that had a link to the withdoll website. I was really pleasantly surprised that they have quite a selection of Mature minis annnnnd mature looking male face sculpts! Of course they have some lovely girls as well as guys, but this posting is going to focus on the boys.

AIDEN_01

The first doll on the site that I was taken with was Aiden, who is in the pic above. Of course I am a complete sucker for dolls with dark hair and dark eyes, so naturally his picture would attract me first. 😉 His default face-up is quite lovely as well, which always helps for first impressions.

You can order their dolls in normal skin, white, skin, rosy white (which is pinky like Zaoll resin), and last but not least realskin UV. The realskin UV has special sunscreens inside the resin that helps belay the “yellowing” or discoloration that happens over time and with exposure to the sun. Other colors are also available, such as tan, gray and etc…but those specialty colors are only available during special event periods. Another thing that is really nice about Withdolls is they come with an additonal set of hands. All of the hands have really beautiful poses and the sculpt has really lovely details.

20121229093836cont6

The second doll I found myself taken with was Taren. You can get him in your choice of two different default face-ups. The face-up above really impressed me as it makes the doll look really soulfull. I’m not sure I’m fond of so many lashes on the lower lid, but it’s still a very beautiful face-up. I also really like Taren’s narrow eyes which depending on face up can be relaxed, sad or even angry.

Currently there is a sale even going on at Withdoll. You can purchase dolls until August 31st at 20% off! It’s quite a good discount really for dolls, and it’s made it really tempting to order. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t seriously considering Taren or Aiden right now, lol. I think I probably would have already ordered one if it weren’t for the fact that I just can’t seem to decide between them. ^^;; It doesn’t help that there aren’t a lot of owner pictures of these dolls yet since they are relatively new.

Well, until I can make a decision I will probably be haunting the Withdoll discussion thread on DoA for a while. And now I will leave you with the link to Withdoll so you can check out all of the beauties for yourself. 🙂

http://www.withdoll.com/index.php

New Face-up for Luli

My Unoa Lusis had been in need of a new face-up due to the fact that somehow I had managed to accidentally chip off some of her blushing under her chin. I imagine it happened when she was being changed in and out of clothes. In the future I am going to have to be more careful, and I should probably remove her faceplate before fitting new clothes on her. Sadly her body blushing is much worse for chipping, so eventually I plan to just remove it all except for non-problem areas like the bust and tummy. I’d really like to have some blushing on her hands and feet though so I guess I’ll just have to be sure to topcoat it really really well.

Anyhow back to the face-up….I wanted to keep her similar to what she was previously, but I ended up lining her eyes a little more darkly, and I don’t think I got the blush vivid enough this time, but I still think she looks very pretty overall. Below is a shot of her faceplate before I glossed it and put it back on her head.

lusisnewface2013-02

And here she is, all ready to go….

lusisnewface2013

While I was doing her face-up I also thought I would try to do my Zaoll luv’s face-up as well, but I ended up screwing up the lashes, so in the end I decided to wipe Zaoll’s face. Actually I felt that working with the Zaoll Luv sculpt to be kind of difficult, and it made me realize just how much I enjoy working with the Unoa sculpt. I’m not giving up on my Zaoll Luv though, I will conquer her sculpt eventually! Though I need to get some more sealer. I think I may try to go see if my local Hobby Town USA carries MSC, if not I’ll probably pick up some more Testor’s Model Masters. I’m really curious to try MSC though since everyone raves about it.

lusisnewface2013-comparison

Well here is a comparison shot of the two face-ups, the old one on the left and the new one on the right. I kinda miss her lazy looking eyes in the old one, lol….but I do like her new face too. 🙂