too many ppl who know nothing about Filipino folklore n culture r talking shit about my ate. she’s based off of the manananggal, which you can compare to the European vampire, if that helps you understand it better. although, i’m reluctant to mention that becuz some ppl, who choose to be ignorant, currently hold the view that she’s just an Asian-colored vampire mishmash monster. she is not. other than the fact that she manages to exist at all, here are some details i appreciate about her.
first, she has a face that looks like my family’s. that’s my lola’s nose. that’s my mom’s birthmark. shit, those are my uncle’s cheekbones. the headpiece features jasmine, our national flower. the translucent petals are cool.
second, you can display her in two pieces, split by the torso. its not just a “cheap gimmick” you ignorant pos. at nightfall, the manananggal severs itself in two, leaving behind a vulnerable lower half while its upper half hunts for nourishment - blood, raw hearts, livers, fetuses. the red fringe represents her dangling intestines, hanging loose as she flies after ripping her body apart. the string detail is on the skirt for consistency, but also, intestines are long as fuck? why wouldn’t they also hang from the bottom, assuming they also get split in half.
while we’re on the outfit, the top is an extremely traditional (Spanish colonial, ugh) style in both fabric and shape. i have attire that looks exactly like it, minus the monster high red foil pattern. the tiny, “woven” sleeve cuffs are a nice touch. the earrings and bracelets look to be woven palm too, but aren’t as effective in plastic. the bottom half skirt is quite a bit shorter than is traditional, and the heels higher. it’s a monster high doll.
most accurate would be barefoot, tbh. but you guys would riot, and again, its a doll. actually, the shoes reference a lot from Filipino culture. the heel is a coconut tree overlooking a kubo, a one-room stilt hut built with natural materials such as bamboo and palm, and specifically made to be remade as necessary. the sole is “wooden”, also an accessible material of which some shoes were made with. it is attached by braid to what looks to be a straw strap. also not unusual for a shoe.
her fan and wings feature embroidery, and if you look closely at the latter, you will see a thin and delicate flora design in between the spider web pattern. this is extremely reminiscent of calado, a type of traditional hand embroidery akin to lace that is difficult as fuck. a dying art, btw.
i didn’t wake up looking to ride this hard for a plastic woman lmao. but if you’re gonna come for her, it better be because of the fluorescent green in her colorway and not because you don’t know what you’re talking about. honestly, a lot of Filipinos are just happy to be considered and celebrated. “wins” like this mean everything. maybe it’s not good enough for your collection, but now you know more about my culture than you would’ve gone out of your way to. and that’s good enough for me.
The shoes aren't just another example of MH object heels--it's a kind of shoe called bakyâ, with elaborately carved heels, that reached its peak popularity in the Philippines in the mid 20th century
(I knew about them from general interest in vintage fashion)
Thrifted this My Little Pony Dream Beauties Sky Splasher recently.
I'd never seen one in person before, and did a double take at the G1 style eyes. I honestly wasn't sure if she was a fakie or not, as she's not branded anywhere, but a short search later, sure enough, she's legit an MLP.
So, sometimes dolls will have eyes that discolor. (Either due to being poorly stored - in hot environments, for example - or just because they kind of sucked to begin with and time passed.)
Life of Faith was a "Christian alternative" to American Girl in the early 00s. (These spring up from time to time. Most of them only last a few years with a very niche market. I think, at the time, they had because people were flipping out about American Girl partnering with Girls Inc to fund after-school science programs and stuff, because Girls Inc was - according to the conservatives - "A pro-abortion, pro-lesbian organization".) The dolls were based around the Elsie Dinsmore books and it's all . . . big fluffy dresses on a plantation in the antebellum South. With all that that entails.
It was pretty fucking bad.
With that in mind, this is perhaps the funniest toy defect I have ever seen.
reblog with one creative goal that you would like to pursue in 2025 in the tags
it doesn’t have to be ‘big’ and there is no pressure to complete said goal. but i’d love to hear from writers, artists, performers, academics, designers, coders, and so on! 🤍
if it’s a creative outlet, it’s included. let’s inspire each other ⋆ ˚｡⋆୨୧˚
@Panadaren I haven't been able to find confirmation these ever showed up anywhere except for this one catalog! although we know the baby ponies were produced, ofc. id be curious to know whether anyones ever found the animal friends.
i feel so intimidated to use my baits man. i want to be creative and make ponies but i NEED the best ideas in the world to just strike me. otherwise im like "but what if i need this bait for a better idea in the future"
currently me on the eyeless bbe bait i got
First, there were the Sea Wees. In the late 70s, Kenner made a set of darling mermaid bath toys with real combable hair! Each one came with a sponge cut to look like a lily pad, and if you inserted her mermaid tail into the center hoke, she floated in the tub or pool!
I wanted a mermaid doll so. Damn. Bad.
I got one! (Not my picture) She had dark brown hair, and a green fin! I loved her!
But they had the crunchiest, most tangle prone, coarsest hair of any doll I've ever owned. I combed her head right off of her neck. My mother's response to this was to basically tell me I couldn't have another one because I'd just "break that, too."
The Sea Wees also did a re release with babies this time, and additional characters.
Then they did a series with a Momma, baby, and mer-pet. And I managed to win one at an egg hunt!
They did two new series: the Tropi-Gals in Bright colors with suntans, and the Icy-Gals, with iceberg sponges and molded on fur wraps.
The last sets were the Bubble Ballet, which was back to the morher-and-baby set, but they had separate floating sponges and could use the comb as a stand.
As a kid, I got one original Sea Wee, one Tropi-Gals Set, one Icy-Gals set, and the bubble Ballet. I'm pretty sure I bought the last two with my allowance money. The above pics are stolen from around the internet and are not my actual pictures, but these were the dolls I had.
We were well into the 80s by this point, and Kenner came out with the Shimmers, which were similar, but more fancifully styled and including more fantasy creatures. (Centaurs, deer-taurs, butterfly hybrids, and birds in addition to the mermaids.) They came with a non articulated baby as well, like the sea wees.
By this point, I had persuaded my mom that I wasn't going to ruin my dolls. I had a nice collection, so she got me two Shimmers sets. But the hair on my Sea Wees was... Not Great. I tried to be more careful with the Shimmers but it was the same hair.
Next: satisfying my inner child, and restoring my treasures.
It was the 90s. eBay happened. In the wild west days before PayPal, you had to come to an arrangement with sellers. Once upon a time I *mailed personal checks* to my sellers and the waited for my items to ship. Soon all the sellers wanted money orders. I usually just bought them at the post office. And right as we were shifting from the 90s to the 2000s, people were dumping 70s and 80s toys onto eBay right and left.
I started picking up Sea Wees.
(ok, not just sea wees, but they became a genuine obsession.) And as much as I hungered for a MOC version, I couldn't afford them. So I opted for dolls that... Needed a little love. I picked up multiples of the Icy Gals and used them as Xmas tree decorations one year. They were very sweet on my white tree with pastel blue feather boas for garland and real seashells hanging nearby.
Since I got into the BJDs I have been neglecting my vinyl dolls. It's was time for a Sea Wee Spa Day.
The pink one was an eBay find; these had unstable paint at the worst of the hair. It was meant to be shorter and curly. They all look pretty bad these days. The one with the orange tail is my actual original Tropi-Gal. These two had an experimental soak in conditioner a few weeks ago and aside from one fuzzed out patch I actually got most of her hair softer and shiny. I may try to re set the curls on the pink one.
My only "before" pick and she has the best hair of the bunch. (I also have the red variant of this one.)
Many mermaids!their hair is curled under here, to try to set the right shape. The yellow/green one is supposed to have a center part. Not sure how to make that happen again.
In back you can see my two mermaid Shimmers; I've added to that collection, too. The pink haired one is my original, the blue haired one is an eBay find. Also, yes. I have a Sea Pony. I have the stand, too. I'd cheerfully re-home the pony; the stand stays with me.
Still soaking.
Redhead with the turquoise fin has super crunchy hair, and it hase definitely been cut. Kiddle-knockoff Mermaid was an impulse buy; maybe 90s? Her hair may prove to be the nicest, which would be hilarious. I think she was like, a dollar.
That knock off girl has horrifyingly awful hair, she's going to soak more than twice, I think.
Some of these poor dears may get a re-root with a felting needle and kinder hair fiber. Some of them are likely to get a repaint that will be its own art.
I wish I had more "before" pics but if you're curious, goo perk at eBay. You'll see what these little sweet dears look like after 30+ years.
Everyone has been discussing these lately! I know everyone's been sharing them on a rant post I made that weirdly got more notes than I expected, but I wanted to make one post to compile all the MLP Vintage Butterick Patterns we have to document them!
Please check it out Here on my website where I have uploaded all of the images, provided additional information, and credited every single person who has helped me by scanning or sharing their information!
You can make: Christmas ornaments, plushies, or cute sweaters and cardigans.
All of these patterns are Officially Licensed g1 patterns! Enjoy and feel free to share with me if you make any of these fun crafts!
If you've been following along you may have seen that @queenofsquids printed the Takara-inspired BJD last week, both in a "mini" test form and a full-sized one. The full-sized one was supposed to be in yellow, but the pure yellow resin turned out to be a more orangey tone. She incredibly generously offered to send me the orange pony BJD
And then
She incredibly incredibly again generously sent not only the little test takara-bjd in grey BUT ALSO printed my original takara 3D model and sent that?! This is so unbelievably kind and generous. I was so surprised when I opened them all!
I'm not sure if you were all aware but I actually dont have a print of the original "Takara duplicate" doll. I did get the seapony PLA printed at the library (and it was my first ever 3D print!).
For my second print, I got the Dollightful bunny doll printed because I wanted to have experience with jointed dolls made by other people before I put more complex models out. So I figured it would be a while before I got the chance to see my newer models printed.
So like its actually so kind of @queenofsquids to send these but also it's really meaningful to me because I started the takara project where I became obsessed with them over a year ago. It's so amazing to see this thing that frankly I spent so much time fiddling with (even if there are some imperfections; more about that later) and hold it in my hands 🥹 I just keep looking at them and smiling
Also I immediately stole the clothes off my NaNaNa dolls and put them on mini-takara-bjd. They're a little short but fit pretty well!
Some design notes/planned adjustments under cut
-The neck and arm balls are definitely too blocky, this doesn't impact the movement but it is very visually obvious
-Queenofsquids mentioned this but the arm bean is too big and gets stuck in the arm sockets.
^^ These two issues are the most obvious upon brief inspection but are also easy to fix so I'm gonna put out a version ASAP adjusting the file. Call it the version Version 1 Hotfix. Both of these should be fixed in the existing models with a bit of sanding.
-The legs are like just a touch too blocky and I think you can also see lines in the head and chest areas ;-; I think this would depend on the printer, like it might be fine in PLA due to the lower resolution. This can also be buffed out but I can adjust it with some effort
-> I think the blockiness issues come down to the fact I was trying to make the models not too high resolution because then the file size is massive, can't import into cura properly, and even slows down *my* beefy computer. that's why it might take a bit for me to adjust all of these pieces, especially the legs because they have a lot of booleans that lag blender. basically i leaned in the other direction and went a bit too far with some pieces.
-legs are very thin at the bottom (ran into this issue with the dollightful bunny doll too and had to redo quite a bit actually to make it neat)
-The bottom of the heart on the knee in particular is an imperfect fit. I was getting errors in Cura because of some issues related to the knee so I had to remesh it, if you'll remember, so I will need to maybe go in and redo that one :/
-The line around the eyes could be a touch more pronounced, its supposed to be somewhat stylized eyelashes
-I need to play with the arms/legs more to figure out potential issues with the existing joints. But they do at least work and hold poses. I'm not sure if people would prefer anything more complicated like locking joints or if this level of poseability is acceptable
Other things I want to experiment with
-hand pose variation
-nose/mouth variations? it is actually kind of funny to imagine you could switch the expression out to a little :o face or a c: or :3 type of thing
-pegasus/unicorn/fluffy hoof variants like i had planned before
so much stuff :0 and I haven't even finished bunny doll, although at least her paint job is basically done. Once I string the big BJD I can also test posing.
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