What Happened to Cleo?

Q&A with Jawn Pickles! (love that name)

Jawn comments, "I'm really curious what became of your acetone Cleo head and such. I'm debating on shrinking an Ever After High head cuz they're so big but I dunno if the hard/huge amounts of glue in the scalp would affect it terribly or not..."

Jawn, I left Cleo in acetone for 7 straight days. Why? Just wanted to see what would happen really. But, it was rather unnecessary, because she didn't shrink anymore than if I would have left her in for 2 days. Oh well, now I know, lol. Here's what she looks like:

While there was no loss of facial screening, there was a color change. The salmon coloring around her eyes turned to yellow. She also lost her gloss layer, making her eyes and lips matte. I don't mind it, but if anyone does, they can always apply a layer of matte varnish to make them shine again. I'm attributing this shine loss to being in the solution for too long because it only happens slightly when in for 2 days or less. Another effect was that her bangs got longer because her face got smaller.

Here she models her new Fashionista body and the Walgreen's acetone I used. I don't know if it was the cold weather (I had only head shrunk in warm weather before) or because I left her in the solution for so long, but it took 14 days for her head to start to harden and another 10 before it finally shrunk to where it is now. If you want to double dip I'd wait until the hardening starts. You should also rinse out any glue in the hair before you even start or it will gunk up in the solution.

Comparison to her old body

Bangs to the side. She likes her bigger boobies.

As for Ever After High, I've started that process and round 1 has been completed. I dipped her for 36 hours and her head ballooned up a whole 1/2 inch! After drying for 2 days, so far she has just reduced back to her original size and is as soft and malleable as when I put her in. If she ever starts to harden I'll give her a round 2 and see what happens. This one might take a looooong while.

Any other questions, let me know. Good luck to you!

Ever After High's Cerise Hood

I am not really a fan of the previously released Ever After ladies (those clothes, those heads; meh). However, once the price goes down, way down, I intended to get the 2 pack that has the male huntsman in it because I thought he was interesting and I would have used the lady for her articulated body. Then I saw Cerise at Walmart.

She is not actually posed like this in the original packaging. I had deboxed her before taking a photo so I stuck her back in. And yes, I actually paid the full price of $19.97 for this doll. Shocking, I know, but I just found her outfit rather cool and I wanted it, and I wanted it now. It's got this urban, tartan, goth feel and I dig it.

Back of Box

Detail

Her story is another thing that intrigued me, but it also misled me. Based on this story I thought she was hiding wolf ears under her hood. She is, but they are the mildest wolf ears ever. They just have a slight point. Not even a Vulcan point at that. I'm not loving her face, even though it's nice and melancholy, but, if she would have had actual wolf ears, ala Clawdeen, then I might have found her head more appealing.

Love the insert artwork

The story inside of her Bookmark

Her accessories. That ring falls off easily.

Her cape is put together pretty well.

So called "wolf" ears. Pfft.

The outfit is so very well made and the materials are lush. I'm impressed with the quality, the cut, the sewing; everything. Some better detail could have been added to her boots but that's minor to me and I'll add it myself anyway.

One thing I learned is that unlike Monster High bodies, the Ever After bodies are a near perfect fit for Disney heads. I don't know why though, because the knobs and neck bulbs look the same to me. Guess they aren't though.

I plan to shrink Cerise's head and if it doesn't get as small as I would like, and I doubt it will, then I'm giving her body to this thrift store Snow. I have always intended to repaint and turn this Snow into a Neemo [visit Heather's blog for more on Neemo's]. However, this is my first time finding a smaller articulated body that Snow didn't bobble head on. I will shrink Snow's head down more, but even without doing that, like I said, it's a darn good fit.

I surprised myself paying full price without breaking a sweat, but there must have been a full moon or something swaying my usual cheapness. I'm not paying full price for those Barbie Style dolls though - I'm still mad about that.

Jackie Evancho $4.99 at TRU

Nope, I don't know who she is. The back of the box says she was "on one of America's top TV talent shows." I just got her because I could see through the box she was articulated and she was on sale for $4.99. You only have until today (Saturday) to get her if interested.

Removing her head was hard as heck. When I have a head I don't want I usually make a slice up the back of the neck and it comes off easy peasy. Not this thing. I sliced it, I tugged it, I tried to cut it with scissors and it broke my scissors! I finally had to cut her face off.

After opening the face could I see that the entire head was attached to a second neck that was adhered to the knob. It was then easy to just slice through this primary rubber but no way can you get it without opening the face.

Unclothed you can see that even though they have different manufactures, the body is the same as that of a Moxie Teenz.  For more info on Moxie's, try these other posts I've done:

• Moxie Modifications
• The Operation Was a Success
• Moxie Wear For Other Dolls

The Moxie can bend backwards farther, but I don't know why you would want her to do that anyway.

In order to house her speaker and player components, the Jackie has a thicker waist and her back isn't as concave.

I had to dig through my Thrift Store dolls to find a large headed doll that even slightly matched her skin tone and this was the only one. The others were too tan or too pink or they had normal sized heads.

The match isn't exact, but it's the best I'm going to get.

Since my doll's face is much older than Jackie's, I removed some of the more juvenile aspects of her outfit; the sash around the waist, the big bow in the back of the dress and that awful, glitter filled, purple tulle at the bottom of the dress.

Taking off the sash left a small purple section at the back, but meh, it's not worth it to get a seam ripper and take that off.

I have a very limited amount of Moxie shoes and they are mostly boots. Luckily, they can wear the [Harumika Fashion] shoes if you take off the protrusion at the bottom that fits into the Harumika doll stand.

Even if you have no desire for the original doll or don't feel like modifying her as a body donor, I think it was worth $4.99 just for that awesome microphone. That's like a sweet 1940's mic and it tilts up and down and can be removed from its base. I dig it.

I'm also going to keep her scalp because I think I can make a nice curly wig out of it one of these days.

Good shopping and good eating!