dolljunk

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This basically rounds out my project of making G2 exclusive characters more G1 in style since I think G2 had potential to serve as much as G1, it was just hampered by really bad face deco, and fashion choices and style.

I do hope we start getting new G3 characters in doll form since collecting the characters is the main appeal of Monster High for me, not having variations of the same 3 dolls.

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I honestly thought my Dayna Jones had chew marks on her but it turns out they were really tiny sculpted stars all over her body. When G2 rolled around, I've noticed that all the sculpted details got significantly softer and details were a lot less crisp. It's why I stopped buying Barbie dolls in general since the quality dip didn't make it worth buying anymore to me.

I tried doing a paint wash to bring out the details but it was such bad casting, I ended up taking several hours hand detailing the constellations and going over that with silver paint.

It's a neat concept but definitely needed a bit of detailing.

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Dayna Jones being a brand new character but having sculpted on clothing and a fashion gimmick was my last straw for G2 since she never got any other release without this gimmick, which probably added to my resentment since sculpted on clothes makes a doll less doll to me.

However since she did have this gimmick, I did end up detailing her sculpting and making a skirt to go with it.

I won't display her like this but having the option to do makes it a bit more bearable even if I hate gimmick dolls.

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I genuinely don't understand what Dayna Jones was even trying to be. She had several concepts interwoven like her being treasure themed, pirate themed and map themed, and her outfit change gimmick was trying to be something, but she genuinely stumps me in what her original vision would be as a doll. I feel like even with other Monster High dolls, I can tease out what inspirations and concepts they were trying to be but Dayna feels like she was redesigned and budget cut so many times I had no idea how to feel about her.

Since my one was missing almost everything I opted to go in a more nautical direction rather than pirate themed and simplified her concept to be star and treasure themed.

Her skirt was pretty big so I knew I wanted to make a proper dress to cover up her sculpted top. I was able to eek out a sleeved bodice while still maintaining enough fabric for a full skirt so I'm pretty proud.

My housemate had these star earrings and suspenders he got secondhand so I added them to Dayna.

I'm really happy how she turned out considering my very mixed feelings about her.

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I was kind of dreading this repaint because Dayna Treasura Jones is such an esoteric concept for a doll that I didn't really know how I would have approached her base doll. I did play around with the idea of using a Cedar Wood's body and having her be either a ships figure head come to life or she's the literal treasure chest, but when I was doing my G2 customs I was using the base dolls so I figured I would use hers too.

Since she's vaguely treasure and star themed, I decided to make her more treasure like. I hated how the gold skin looked with the blonde hair, so I used silver synatra from @customdollhairAU to add some contrast while keeping the metallic nature of her concept.

I also painted her eyes to be faceted gemstones, and omitted the stars on her face as the sculpted constellations clashed with them.

I went with a monochromatic dark look for her since she's such a saturated and bright colour scheme for me.

Probably not in my list of favourite characters but she's more my taste.

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There's a local charity shop that sometimes sets aside things for me cuz they're unsellable, and among them was this Skull Shores Abbey missing her arms and a leg. But she had a very nice screening and no glue head so she got a new body and fixed up awhile ago.

I don't wanna customise every Monster High doll in my collection, but making everyone one I get "complete" is really not feasible either so she's been fixed up for awhile.

It wasn't until I got these boots and saw @ayrtonschmidt put his Abbey in a Bratz 2015 Snowkissed Cloe that I had an idea on what do with my one.

Not only did I pair it with my custom boots but my housemate put a pair of Mermaze earmuffs on her and I'm really loving all the soft colours together.

It does make me sad Monster High G1 never got a proper winter line of dolls because of how much I love Abbey, and seeing Abbey dressed like this is a look into the potential of what could have been to me.

For a simpler project between my bigger ones I'm really happy how she turned out.

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I have been amassing bits and pieces from second hand shopping and bundles, and I recently came across these Ever Ater High boots I thought were really cute for an Abbey doll. Of course I didn't realise they belonged to Crystal Winter long after I started painting them, but I liked the crystalline texture paired with the fur. I thought they looked really cute so I just wanted to bring out the details in them.

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I was playing around with my housemate's Sirena Von Boo since he didn't care for her, and I put her on a Haunted Spectra body. I was playing around with her tail cage and for a lark I flipped it around and turns out it fits perfectly if you boil it to lay against the body.

I ended up using her original top and wrap, but since she didn't have a lower half, I made her a new skirt and even found this fringe trim that matched perfectly to her wrist accessories.

I honestly hated Sirena's mermaid tail for having zero articulation and that it suffered from Mattel's weird obsession with pre-posed mermaid tails from the mid-2010s. It really made me overlook some really interesting aspects of Sirena including her saran hair, and ghostly aspects.

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So saran is a bit tricky to hold a curl since you can't exactly dip the hair into boiling water and then toss it in the freezer to hold its curl. I ended up slow-cooking it at a very low temperature (under 60 degrees Fahrenheit) for an hour or two, and then I left the whole thing to dry for a week since it held so much water.

The bobby pins ended up rusting since I guess Poundland bobby pins are bad quality and can't hold a candle to Australian Reject Shop bobby pins, lol.

I did like the pin curls so I photographed them before I split the curls for posterity.

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I was a bit stuck on what to do with Sirena Von Boo as her face was interesting, but it didn't feel quite right to me. It wasn't until @monsterhighprototypes posted a 3d printed prototype of Sirena with Spectra-like ghost eyes and more dramatic makeup, including pearls across her eyelashes. 

I really liked how it looked, so I finally had a spark of inspiration to go off from.

I didn't go with black sclera, but I did follow the logic of Spectra having her sclera be the same colour as her hair, so it's what I went with for Sirena.

I did paint the bubbles in Sirena's eyes but it seemed too busy and distracted from her eyelash details so I simplified them a bit too.

Not a perfect recreation of the prototype, but definitely a bit of personality added to her face, I think.

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I probably won't be seeing an Official Little Shop Of Horrors Skullectors set any time soon, so I am proud I finished my own version. I probably wouldn't have done these dolls in any other form factor, but learning to filter it through the Monster High style has been a fun creative exercise for me.

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Part of the reason why I went with Audrey's wedding dress is because it's the only time in Little Shop Of Horrors where Audrey interacts with Audrey II and I like having a cohesive reason to display those three together.Even though Audrey is on a tall Ever After High body I am happy Audrey II manages to be taller than her.

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I really went out of my way to shorten Seymour because I always saw him the smallest of the group, and I'm really happy how much Audrey II towers over him.

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My Audrey II with my Audrey II.  I really love how these two are custom Monster High pieces but also how well they look with each other.

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I debated how complicated Audrey II's outfit should be, but since Skullector dolls have pretty simple outfits, I had to stop myself from making it overly complicated.

It took several tries, but I really wanted to make her a leotard with an Audrey II design on it, as well as to make her look showy and flirty. I ended up putting a wire around the edge to help hold its shape and cover her chest.

I actually got a Posea skirt piece from Great Scarrier Reef in a doll lot. I really liked how it looked with Audrey II, so I cut off the hip-hugging section of it, and it just clips on nicely onto her hips now. I really like how it looks like an official accessory for her.

Since the Posea skirt piece was translucent, I ended up giving her Zombie Shake Venus' vine pieces to match as well.

Audrey II is on the big sister body, so I didn't have many shoe options, but luckily, Hairmazing dolls have compatible shoes, so I gave her these studded black boots with green heels.

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So, what spurned me to start this whole project was the idea of Mattel doing Skullectors of other movies and I wanted to make my designs of Little Shop of Horrors.

Since Audrey II is such an abstracted design from a humanoid, it gave me the freedom to do what I wanted. I went with a drag queen-style look, which I feel would be perfect for Monster High's aesthetics.

I went with Clawdia as a base sculpt because she was the only open-mouth sculpt and I thought it would be a fun base to work with.

She's rooted with nylon hair from @customdollhairau I custom dyed for some other dolls but ion streaks to mimic the plant design as well.

I initially chose a Gasglow-style mouth full of teeth, but after sitting with the face for a bit, I decided to draw it back a bit.

Since the original design didn't have eyes, I went with desaturated tones for her to mimic the look of plant markings. Instead of eyelashes, I went with teeth designs, as that was fun and made her eye makeup look like lips. I also went with desaturated tones for surrounding her eyes.

Her eyebrows are in reference to Uma Thurman's Poison Ivy look, and painting all those leaves was a bit hard for me.

She's so outside of my usual custom set, but I'm really proud of how she looks now.

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I'm really happy with how Seymour looks next to Audrey since I went out of my way to make sure Audrey had the tall Ever After High body while I modified Seymour's body to be shorter so there could be a noticeable height difference. I've been playing around with the idea of making my own Skullector set, but the only horror movie that I feel would fit perfectly was Little Shop of Horrors, so I'm proud of how they turned out.