Works in Progress: The Unfinished Dolls

SDC Miko in his default look

Some people never buy a doll without a plan for what to do with it.  I am not one of those people.  Naturally, that means that my collection is sometimes a little less cohesive than some, but it also means that it's full of unfinished projects, and I thought it might be fun to share a few of them.

WIP #1 is my Volks SDC Miko.  I'd been eyeing the SDC line for years, but had never had the opportunity to pick one up (at least at a price I was comfortable with) until coming across this guy whilst browsing Mandarake late last year.  I was surprised to find him at all, but to have found him with his complete fullset was even better, so of course he landed in my cart.

But when he arrived, I realized that while he's a fabulous doll, I don't actually like his default look.  So the first thing I did was put his head in the freezer and take out those big blue eyes (if you've never taken the eyes out of an older Volks doll, tossing the head in the freezer will make it easier - although the newer ones seem to use a freeze-proof glue, so the newer your doll, the less likely it is to work). 

SDC Miko and Fdoll Charlotte
in their most recent styles

I replaced the eyes with some brown glass ones, but felt like that wasn't enough of a difference - unfortunately I didn't have any flashes of inspiration, so the poor guy ended up in cast-off wigs and clothes.  I'm thinking that a faceup with darker colours may be in his future now, but we shall see!

In his most recent photo (there on the right), you will also see WIP #2, a Fantasy Doll Charlotte.  I ordered her last year, when rumours that Fdoll was discontinuing their dark tan started circulating.  I didn't have a plan for her, but I'd been thinking about picking up one of their tinies for years, and had a good experience with sister company Angel Street, and had always wished that I'd picked up my Angel Street doll in dark tan.

So as with the Miko, this girl came home without a plan.  She also (unexpectedly, since I didn't do much research) came with a free faceup, which I believe may be one of the barriers to knowing what to do with her.  I should wipe it, because it's not to my taste, but it's just cute enough that I haven't done it yet.

Fdoll Charlotte in looks that just didn't quite work.

I will say that one great benefit of not knowing what do with with a doll of this size is that it's so much easier to find clothing for them since they can share with standard size fashion dolls.  In these photos she's wearing a Liv and Barbie outfits (and even a Liv doll wig in the pool photo), and another taken from an anthro doll.

Li Shang's default look

Lest anyone think that it's only BJDs that end up in the unfinished pile, WIP #3 is a customization project built around a Disney Classic dolls - Li Shang from Mulan. 

Years ago, I had a plan to turn the old McDonald's Li Shang (more an action figure than a doll) into Sky from Jade Empire.  I never got around to it. In part that was because I lost the base figure during a move (although he would have been easy enough to replace), but primarily because I was getting away from working on smaller action figures in general.

Jade Empire's Sky

But then I was wandering through a Disney Store last week (looking for a t-shirt for a nephew), and the "Sale! $10!" sign caught my eye.  And remembering my old plans for the figure, I thought I'd give that project another go, doll scale this time.  We'll see if I actually get around to it this time! ;)