Pullip Princesses - Belle

Hmm. My rant of last week seems to have turned off a few folks, and to that I say oh well. I’ve been aware of the ridiculously homogenized standards of beauty in fairy tales from a young age – I remember reading the foreword to The Ordinary Princess and thinking “…wow, she’s RIGHT” – and I mentioned my enthusiastic reception of Belle as a Princess Like Me in that last post.

Of course, as my life has taken me beyond the small, 98% white Indiana town where I grew up, my worldview has expanded to demand not only more princesses who look like me, but also more princesses that look like everyone else. It took me an embarrassingly long time to become aware of the fact that the vast majority of mainstream entertainment (and I’m lumping in toys with entertainment) focuses on a small minority of features, and anything that goes beyond that small minority is prodded off into a corner and labeled “niche” or “special interest.”

This isn’t to say I didn’t enjoy Frozen – I did, and “Let it Go” is the best Disney song in years, and Elsa is another of My Homegirls and she is definitely joining Team Pullip at some point, and I might be considering making her coronation gown for GenCon, despite the nagging feeling that I’ll look awful in a platinum blonde wig – but I know that I was able to enjoy it as much as I did because it’s part of a centuries-old status quo that is designed to appeal to me while excluding others. And I get frustrated and lash out when I see people who seem determined to remain oblivious to that status quo, or determined to preserve it, because it doesn’t have a negative effect on them.

And now, back to dolls. Team Pullip is growing by leaps and bounds! I’m stoked about this addition – she’s one of my favorite Princesses, and her base is one of the prettiest Pullips I’ve seen. So, without further ado, let’s welcome:

Pullip Belle!

My Christmas Doll - Howl v. 2.0!

My Christmas was nice, but rather chaotic. My husband and I are naturally quiet people, and Pieface (while she has her moments of hyperactivity) is a fairly low-key kid, and the three of us are usually spread out through a two-story house. So to visit my parents in their one-story ranch, with my oldest brother and his family also visiting, and everyone talking, at high volume, nonstop, is a minor study in culture shock.

But I did get to finally meet my second brother’s new son, so adorable chubby ginger baby makes the rest worth it.

My Christmas haul was fairly small (and I think I may have finally reached the age where I’ve stopped caring), and there was only one doll item! But it was a doozy, so I present to you…

Taeyang Tantus, soon to be Wizard Howl v. 2.0.


After struggling with Howl v.1, I finally admitted defeat and realized that it would take work far outside my abilities to make the doll match what I was imagining. So I went searching – for clothing, at first – and stumbled upon Tantus on PullipStyle. After some browsing of pictures, I realized that it would be easier just to make Tantus into Howl. He has the unnaturally-yellow-blond hair, a less severe faceup than Howl v.1, and (most importantly) a lovely blue brocade suit of clothes, with lacy cuffs, puffy cravat, and a fairly ridiculous hat. (He's also reasonably priced, at $65 on PullipStyle.)

His stock picture on the back. DAT HAT.

Deboxing. I am already in love with his clothing.

His hair is slightly different from the stock photo – instead of hanging down straight, it’s slightly crimped at the ends. I’m going to see if I can coax it into neater curls.

Prepping him for customizing (on my icky stained ironing board) – an eyeswap to green, and he’ll get Howl v.1’s Obitsu Slim body.

His coat is tacked shut, and needed some seam ripper work to open.

Once again, Pullip lives up to my expectations on clothing. The coat is fully lined, aside from sleeves.

This coat is awesome. I want one for myself.

Under the coat, he has his frilly shirt and cravat, pants, vest, and cummerbund.

The vest closes with tiny hook-and-eye closures. And, at the risk of overstating my love of Pullip clothes, it is a full vest – not just a false front, like a lot of 1/6-scale tuxedo vests. I am fond of the “shirtsleeves” look (dress shirt with vest/waistcoat, no jacket), and having a full vest is necessary to pull it off!

The shirt front has itty-bitty seed-bead buttons.

The cravat is a separate piece, and closes with a snap.

Doll transplants are all done, and Howl has his green eyes and Obitsu body. Taeyang clothes are slightly too big on the Obitsu Slim Male body – the shirt sleeves hang over his hands, and his pants and cummerbund are both too wide in the waist. It’s hard to tell when he’s in a stand, so I’m rolling with it.

(Speaking of stands…the Tantus stock stand SPARKLES. It’s midnight blue and glittery. It’s so perfect.)

More Howl...

And, of course, Howl is off having a field day among all the pretty ladies of Team Pullip...

…Until he meets the only girl who’s completely immune to his charms. It’s hard to dazzle a girl with your beauty and fashion when she’s blind, a tomboy, and likely to earthbend you face-first into a wall if you annoy her!

Toph's work here is done.

Pullip Princess Customs - Merida

When it came time to customize Merida, her eyes were by far the most challenging.

Pullip Princess Customs - Rapunzel

While I love my custom Pullips dearly, only one of them had the correct eye color. Rapunzel, while beautiful, had big brown eyes instead of big green eyes. Merida’s eyes were flat green instead of blue, and Howl’s eyes were grey-brown instead of flat green.

So, after consulting with one of my more knowledgeable Pullip-collecting friends, I went off to CoolCat, the leading online store for Pullip eyechips. CoolCat has an enormous selection of chips – flat colors, matte colors, double-colored, you name it – and most are only $3.50.

I was a bit leery of ordering at first – they’re based in Taiwan, and the last time I did an overseas transaction (my very first eBay auction, poor newbie who didn’t know about the AG grey market), it never arrived. But CoolCat was great at communication, shipping was only $3.00, and the package arrived safely and well within the estimated time.

Now, I had some experience opening up Pullip heads and poking around. Merida’s head had been opened when I installed her Obitsu body, and Rapunzel had some eye problems from the start. Whatever had crushed her box and smushed her nose had also damaged her eye mechanism. One eye had been jammed closed, the other wouldn’t close, and the lever that controlled her eye direction had a broken piece. The night I bought her, I spent a fair amount of my evening bent over my worktable, painstakingly repairing the eye damage. I spent a lot of time not breathing, and mentally repeating “I only spent $40, if this goes pear-shaped, it was only $40.” The good part is that Pullip eye mechs are pretty self-explanatory, so it was easy to tell where things were supposed to go.

Just as a note – Pullip eyemechs, when out of the head? SUPER CREEPY. Like, these two huge staring lidless eyeballs attached to this hellish plastic contraption. I have a pretty high tolerance toward creepy doll stuff, but I did my best not to look at those eyes until they were reinstalled.

Another Photo Dump

Just a quick update and photo dump this week! I've been busy trying to plan out all the doll and sewing things I need to get done this year, and then plan out how to spread out the supply expenses over several months!

Robin gave me a not-so-subtle reminder that badge registration for GenCon opened last Sunday. The husband and I had a few weeks of woe where we thought Pieface's school schedule would conflict with the con (boy howdy, my child starts kindergarten this year, such things are not allowed), but the calendar worked out. And now we are all stoked - him, me, and Robin.

But I have so much sewing to do before then! I need costumes! Robin needs costumes!



I spent a good amount of time on Thursday doing something I would never have dreamed of five years ago - performing minor nose surgery on a doll. (Okay, I was just sanding down the worst bits of Rapunzel's dented nose, but still.)


Speaking of noses, I also gave Rapunzel her freckles, and darkened her eyebrows just a bit. I cannot wait until her eyechips get here!


I also finished the third part - the silver brocade waistcoat - of Howl's blue-and-silver suit. Can I just take a moment to bask in the squeeful feeling of seeing an outfit I dreamed up almost seven years ago become a physical object? Howl seems pretty chuffed, too.

Now on to his jacket, which will be the crowning glory (if I can make it to match my imagination!).

Hoping that my next update will be some big steps forward!

Edited to add: The Saga of Marie-Grace has reached it's conclusion. I decided, after a month of keeping her in her box (and, quite frankly, forgetting she existed half the time), to sell her. One of my friends from the AG>18 community expressed an interest, and was quite happy to get her at the sale price. So I passed on a good deal to a friend, cleared up some space in the Dollcave, and started my "AG Place Columbus" fund. :D

This Week's Photo Digest

Howdy, all!

I'm just coming in here to dump some of my favorite photos from this week. For the complete funtimes, do drop by my Doll-A-Day set on Flickr. Doing pretty well with my aim - there are some days I upload multiple  photos!



Robin called shenanigans on the bit where she's stuck with a 1/3-scale coffee cup, so she stole mine.

Pullip Customizing Bonanza!

Okay, I KNOW I said that I was going to slow down on the buying and appreciate my collection.

I KNOW.

But, like I said in the Cecile post, I am easily snared by a good bargain. So when Beastsbelle of the adorable Never Grow Up blog posted a picture of the beautiful Pullip Peter Pan she found – for $40 – at Tuesday Morning, I couldn’t let that pass without at least investigating.

I went to two Tuesday Morning stores in two days (ah, the advantages of living in a metropolitan area), and found not only the Peter Pan Pullip, but the Taeyang Captain Hook! They both came home to join my customization to-do list.

Christmas Catchup!

Aiiieee, why is it so hard to put together a post? Photos to take, then edit, then upload, text to write, HTML to code...Anyway, I'm finally making headway.

Another Christmas has come and gone at Casa Nachos. This was probably the most doll-tastic Christmas I’ve had yet! I had a lot of stuff that I’d bought on sale and stashed away, and then my husband provided a few surprises as well! (I knew he was a keeper!)