What do you mean, "iz ded"?!

My winter hat, which I bought just a year ago, expired this morning. It is [or was] an acrylic knit shell with an inner fleece lining around the ear area. Strangely enough, the top was not stitched together. Instead, the loose acrylic was just cinched with a piece of yarn acting as a drawstring. This yarn was then attached to a multi-braided decorative string off the top of the hat. The drawstring yarn wore out, causing the decorative braid to fall off and the top of the hat to become ungathered.

I'm so infuriated because I paid ~$30.00 for that hat, and it is not functioning as durably as my simple knit caps that I bought for $10.00 apiece from Duluth Trading Company. I'm just gonna go to Etsy and commission a hat to my specs and measurements. >:(

Stalking the elusive 1:6 scale wheelchair

According to this infographic, there are about 54 million people in the US with disabilities. Of these people, about 10 million use mobility aids, such as canes, crutches or walkers, while about 3.3 million use wheelchairs. This abstract suggests that the vast majority of wheelchair users use manual wheelchairs, with only a small number using electric wheelchairs [also called power chairs]. Given the sheer number of wheelchair users, wouldn't you expect there to be 1:6 scale wheelchairs for your dolls and/or action figures?
( Read more... )

Thinking about Anna

Action figures I will not spend $200.00 on: a sexy, hyperrealistic, 1:6 scale version of the best character in an otherwise rather dreary movie I saw once in the theater [ = Hot Toys Selina Kyle].

Action figures I will spend $200.00 on: a cute, stylized, 1:6 scale version of some character in a media franchise that I have no clue about [ = Medicom Jolyne Cujoh].

I poked around yesterday afternoon online, looking for Jolyne Anna at the least unreasonable price possible. Hobby Search put her list price at 17,800JPY [or about $216.00] when she came out in January, 2011, so that was my basis for comparison.

Ebay yielded a bunch of entertaining results, ranging from $210.00 [acceptable] to $500.00 [NO!] to $879.99 [NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!]. I declined to purchase any of these.

I found her on some Japanese toy dealers' Web sites, like JapanToYou, where she was a mere $190.80 + $25.00 s/h = $215.80. Even better! But I still kept looking...

Amiami eventually revealed a pre-owned Jolyne. Given that both the box and doll were listed in excellent condition, I presume that someone bought her, stored her in their toy closet for a while, then sold her to Amiami. Because someone else breathed on her, she was marked down to 12,980JPY [or about $156.00]. With EMS s/h [no way was I gonna leave Anna to the vagaries of airmail or, worse, SAL!], she set me back $197.51. Woo hoo!

I was thinking about Anna today, and I decided that all I really want is her body and her pissy head. The neutral head, outfit and accessories I'm really not interested in. I wonder if I could sell those... Someone out there must want to kitbash their own Jolyne, but not want to pay full price for the scarce fullset fig.

I was also thinking that her bangs annoy me because they obscure her eyes in profile view. I'll have to remove them and sculpt new ones or carve down the existing ones.

Blah blah blah!!!

Stalking the elusive 1:6 scale wheelchair, part II

In my previous entry, I discussed the paucity of commercially produced 1:6 scale wheelchairs, all of which are out-of-print manual chairs. While manual wheelchairs are much more common than electric ones, I, as a bourgeois person in the United States, see many more electric wheelchairs [and their cousins: scooters] on a daily basis than I do manual ones. And I'm extremely irritated that there are no 1:6 scale electric wheelchairs!!!

Therefore I decided to make one.( Read more... )