Saturday, July 5, 2014

Organizing/Modifying Thrift Store Dolls

The last step of my Spring Cleaning was to wash and weed through all the thrift store dolls I had boxed away. I finally had to tackle them when they wouldn't fit in their box anymore. It took 8 hours to wash the dolls, their clothes and condition their hair. Never again will I let them pile up like that. From now on, when I buy a bag I'll clean them that same day. Pinkie swear! *crosses fingers behind back*

First I washed the clothes and hung them to dry.

Next the males got placed on the bottom racks,

and the ladies got the top.

There are a lot of dolls without bodies because if they were unarticulated and I knew I wasn't going to keep the body, I removed the heads right away. Once they were all washed though, I did go through and remove every head that would come off so that I could remove prongs and let the dolls dry fully inside and out. I left the dolls on the rack for 3 days. In the meantime, I did some modifications:


A while back, Jay commented that Krud Kutter might be good for opening doll bodies since I had tried in the past to get them open easily and couldn't without cutting them apart. I purchased a large bottle from Walmart and finally tried it.


Krud Kutter can be diluted with water but as I never tried it before I wanted to test the full strength to see what happens. I popped the legs off the doll and placed the torso in the plastic cup. I then put the plastic cup in the plastic bowl. I didn't know if the cup would melt and if it did I wanted it to melt into something else so I would have time to run it to the dumpster.


Unlike Goo Gone which has a orangey smell, Krud does not have a discernable odor. I still wouldn't sniff it though. I checked every hour for 4 hours to see if anything was melting or if the seams were opening. Nothing was happening either way so I went to sleep and the torso was left in the solution for 10 hours.


The Krud did loosen the outer seam glue, but not the glue where the inner pegs are. I had to apply pressure and break those pegs. Only the pegs circled in red are intact, but they may not have been glued shut anyway. Perhaps a longer soak time of 24 hours would weaken the peg glue?


Because I had to use a butter knife to open the body, there is some damage to the seam. It's not that bad, but it's not that cute either. 7 days later and the body and arms don't appear to have suffered any discoloration or chemistry change. I'm not going to close this body, but if I was, super glue would do the trick. I would wash the body the first in a mild detergent and let it dry for at least 10 days to make sure the Krud had dissipated.


The next modification was to these male bodies. Top guy is a Prince Charming body with no arm articulation and bottom guy is Ken with no leg articulation. Let's merge them together! Their torsos are not the same, but who cares? Lining them up at the arm pits, I put a mark across the middle of their chests.


I clamped the bodies into a vise and used a hack saw to cut them in half. Vise came from Amazon and is currently $25.77 with Prime. The saw is from the Midwest Easy Miter Box w/Saw set from Joann's for $14.99 (I used a 40% coupon, naturally.) It's $11.34 at Amazon if you have Prime. I recommend them both.




I smoothed the edges with a metal nail file and then used super glue to merge the halves. Look at all that sweet articulation! Again, not a perfect match, but good enough for me. I'm not going to grind down that slight over hang or fill it with putty because he can just keep a shirt on.


I had previously modified one of my Power Team bodies with a Ken neck. This time I went ahead and outfitted all my Power guys with new necks so I could give a new body to this guy:


Blasian GI Joe! Originally I was just going to whittle down his molded clothing but that was going to be way too time consuming. Trying to use my Xacto was too hard and sanding it with my Dremel would have been more plastic dust than I felt like dealing with.


I tried hard to remove the neck base but then I was all, "eff it," and just ripped his head off. Using the method in this old tutorial, I hollowed out his head with my Xacto and added a cardboard disc to the new neck peg.


Done! Look at all that sexiness. His old body did have some great kung fu grip hands so I tried to salvage them.


It was easy to lop them off with my Easy Cutter and then snip away the rubber. I carefully chipped away the rings on the bottom so I would have a longer peg to insert into his arms.


Knowing what I do now, if I come across anymore kung fu hands, I know not to cut away all the rubber around the wrists. Still, just put a watch and a man bracelet on him and it'll look fine.


Last modification was to this Jasmine. She had purple earrings that were molded to her head. I though they looked like creepy fat ticks so I wanted to get rid of them.


I cut off the backs of the earrings, making sure that I cut below the ridge that formed the mold. It's cool that it left a hollow opening because it will make the flap lay down better.


I super glued the flaps down and held them for about five minutes each. She wont be wearing her hair up any more, but it's still an improvement over having a tick on your face.

That was all the modding I did so now it was time to pack the dolls away. Dolls with bodies will live standing upright in boxes.


I put a cardboard insert between each row of dolls so it will be simpler to take them in and out and they wont fall over. Girls get their hair put in a ponytail 'cause I don't like it when they are messy and unkempt. Tall bodies in back, short bodies in front. I turn their heads to the side so I can view them easier.


I have way less boys so they get to be spaced out and staggered instead of one behind the other. The boy heads without bodies will be stored in their box.


There are way too many girls heads without bodies so they are labeled and will get their own little storage box. One day I hope to find for real cheap, one of those lateral file cabinets that are used to store poster boards. I think that would work great for storing dolls.


This bin in my closet will now house all the extra bodies. The top bin is for dolls destined for the thrift store or for experiments. Second shelf is female articulated bodies which are mostly all Liv. Third shelf contains old Mattel articulated male bodies that don't have any wrist articulation. Articulating those wrists are still on my to do list.


I only kept a few unarticulated bodies to use as mannequins. The rest I made into display torsos in case I ever make a clothing shop. I also kept a bunch of arms to use as display models, for articulating wrists and to use as stunt arms. Stunt arms come in handy when your dolls arms don't bend as far as you want.

"Put Tre-tre on the phone. Who am I? Trick, who is you?!"

For example, let's say you want to have your doll on the phone in a much more realistic pose, instead of how they usually awkwardly look.

"So you just let anyone answer your phone now, huh?"

Rubber band a stunt arm to their real one or to their body and position it how you want it.

"Boy, don't nobody want to hear about your baby mama. Just bring me my money."

Then zoom in or move closer to cut the extra appendage out of view and the pose will look much more natural.

I still have some more mods on my list of a thousand things I want to do, but going through the thrift dolls was the last organizing I needed accomplish. Whew!

Edited to Add:

Thanks to this comment by Jawn Pickles my doll heads are now fabulously housed on a cool spool rack. Behold!





I LOVE IT SO MUCH!!! *twirls*

Thank you very, very much Jawn! As soon as your comment hit my phone I rushed right on over to Joann's and picked one up. I even had a 50% off coupon from AC Moore so this 120 unit only cost me $15 bucks! When I get another coupon I'm going back because they had a small 30 unit one for $9.99 that will be great to house repaint heads that are being worked on. You, Jawn Pickels, are the most awesome person ever!

77 comments:

  1. Now I understand why it took 8 hours to tackle this job. You had a ton of dolls and clothes to clean and organize.

    You have such superior organizational skills. I love the clothes drying and doll storing apparatus and the head storing and labeling method. Slick!

    The modifications were pretty cool too. When I saw the hacksaw, I thought, "What in the world is Muff up to now?"

    Love the stunt arm trick. She definitely needed to have the phone in the proper position to get her point across to Tre-Tre and that trick who answered. :-)

    This was some good Saturday evening reading.


    dbg

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    1. Debbie, I love organizing things! When things are out of place it really bugs me to no end.

      I started storing heads separately because since all my dolls are play scale, I have multiples of the same mold. It was silly of me and used up so much space to have 4 bodied Nikkies. From now on, just one mold type will get a body and any multiples get bagged. Dolls will be sharing articulated bodies as well. Not like I'm ever going to put every doll I own in one photo so why waste space.

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    2. I meant to share my plans for the blonde Delta GI Joe I found with Model 17 (the brother) at the thrift store. Instead of re-shirting him, I am going to paint over the white lettering on his molded-on shirt to make it all black. Then he will just need pants and shoes.

      dbg

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    3. LOL, Debbie! Now that you say that, I'm thinking to myself, "Why didn't I just paint over Blasian Joe's lettering or acetone it off?" Oh well, I like to do things the hard way, I guess.

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  2. Wow! That's a LOT of dolls! I'm interested to know how future experiments with the Krud Kutter go. That might work for the repair attempt I need to make to poor Anna. I've been putting it off out of fear of slicing my hand open. ^^;

    Out of curiosity, why did you decide to just slice and stick the two dolls together, rather than try to remove the arms and put them on the other doll? Did the shoulder/sockets not match up size-wise, or was it just a time-saving maneuver? It would be really cool if you could add a torso joint somehow when putting two bodies together like that!

    I got a giggle out of the ladies all with their heads turned to each other. They look like they're animatedly chatting about how happy they are to be clean and organized. XD Oh my gosh, I know exactly what you mean about Jasmine's big honking earrings. They really do look like huge gilded ticks! XD

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    1. Presto, there were a couple of reasons I merged the two dolls instead of trying to Krud them. Number 1, I REALLY wanted to try out my hack saw. ^_^ But beyond that, these were not good candidates to open. I didn't want to use Charming's upper body because he had a twist and turn neck. I didn't want any of Ken's lower torso because then I couldn't use Charming's swivel waist. Charming has string hips and Ken has plastic socket hips. It's a simple matter to pop Ken's legs off, dip him and open him. I've never strung a doll's hips and didn't want to try it on a perfectly fine doll with excellent legs. So cutting them in half seemed the better solution to me. But yeah, I really just wanted to cut something in half.

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    2. Ah, that makes total sense. I didn't even notice the twist and turn neck for some reason. And just cutting stuff up is fun, lol!

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  3. I have GOT to get me some Krud-Kutter. I've been debating Frankendolling to the extreme (sorta like the caterpillar that wigged you out ;) but with articulation this time) but being able to pop them open seems like it'd save me SO much hassle.

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    1. Tina, if you are smell sensitive, then I definitely recommend Krud Kutter over Goo Gone. Even so I did leave the solution outside the entire time in case there were some hidden odorless fumes wafting about. I would test a torso or a leg for at least a day or more to see if you get the results you want.

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    2. I hadn't tried Goo Gone to open their bodies; I didn't think it'd do anything on the seams since they're all glue/heat molded and Goo Gone's only so viscous. But good ideas; those "invisible" fumes get me into MORE TROUBLE.

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  4. Muffenstein indeed. You are brilliant! I love the stunt arm thing and she is absolutely gorgeous! I hear her talking about needing her money, lol. Excuses are like....well, you know where I'm going. ;-)

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    1. Tracy, the doctor is in... or mad scientist rather, lol. No more dolls with awkwardly held phones!

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  5. Whew! A lot of work, and well worth it! You inspire me to be more organized with my stuff, and to be more adventurous with doll modifications. I like the blended Kens and the Blasian dude. Nice tip on using stunt arms.

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    1. Thanks, Roxanne! As small as my space is I have to stay organized or the dolls and crafting products will overwhelm me. I know I'm just shy of being a hoarder so staying neat helps.

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  6. Hey Muff girl, you really make a girl look at her doll stuff. Love the order. I almost got rid of all of my articulated dolls because of storage problems! I have a cool idea for all of them in the distant future so glad I didn't get rid of them.
    Now, do you do things on purpose or do they just turn out funny? Like...the hands sticking out of the cup like somebody trying to get out. LOL or the girls chatting to one another, but the men looking straight ahead trying not to look at each other's junk. LOL I wish I was skilled enough to do all of the body swapping stuff cause your guys look down right dangerous (that's good lol)
    Thanks for taking those things off of Jazmine's ears. They looked a lot like keloids to me. LOL I am so glad I saved body parts...pretty much arms which I planned to use for my jewelry shop. But the fake arm thing...priceless. My dolls be talking on the phone with their arms in the air looking crazy. Other times the phones are stuck hazardously under their chins.
    I have truly learned a lot tonight thanks for sharing, lady!

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    1. You're welcome, Grandmommy! Just this year I stopped actively trying to stock up on articulated bodies. At one time I wanted every single one of my dolls to have an articulated body and I realized how ridiculous that was. By removing the neck prong there is no reason my dolls cant share bodies and I have plenty of articulated dolls still in boxes. I can always use more than the than the 2 black male articulated bodies that I have, but those are the only bodies I'm lacking.

      Some stuff I do on purpose, like intentionally not having the guys look at each other because it seemed to make them uncomfortable. At first the girls were looking away from one another and I thought they might like it better if they were chatting so I paired them up. The hands in the cup, well yeah, that doll wanted the heck outta there, lol

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  7. Very cool post Muff! Great suggestions for customizing dolls and bodies. You explain everything so well, and the photos really help too!

    I have a tip for doll storage boxes (and they're free). The last time I moved, and had bookcases full of loose dolls to pack and move, I got the idea to use wine bottle shipping boxes! They work great! I went to a local wine store and asked for their empty boxes. They were happy to have me take them off their hands :) Each box holds 12 dolls upright. After the move, I kept them to use as storage boxes for the dolls. To make them look nicer, they could be covered in pretty contact paper.

    Thanks for your great blog :) Zoila

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    1. Hiya, Zoila! I have heard of people using wine boxes before, but I'm not a drinker so I've never actually seen a wine shipping box. I might have to have my sister go pick some up in case they refuse to give you any boxes unless you buy something, lol.

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    2. Ah, okay, Zoila! I thought that maybe it was like Costco and you have to go in and buy some junk and not just walk out with the packaging boxes.

      Agreed, the thread holders are the best thing since sliced bread.

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  8. Many thanks for the detailed account of your doll modding experiments. Can't wait to get home and try some of the techniques you shared (11 days and counting). Like Blackiegracie I use empty wine case boxes for storing my dolls upright but I hadn't thought of standing them upright to dry.

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    1. Limbe Dolls, I'm looking forward to your return! I hope you have been able to add to your collection during your travels with some interesting dolls.

      Usually, I actually put dolls/doll clothes on a clothes line to dry them. This time I just had to much stuff and my clothes line isn't that long so I had to bust out the rack.

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  9. For the spare head nonsense I have a huge amount of them but don't want to put them away since it can damage the hair/faces, so I use a wooden cotton spool rack like one of these: http://www.puff.com/forums/vb/attachments/general-pipe-forum/64321d1326342932-pipe-rack-making-wood.jpg

    You can see my one on my Flickr here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/kd_230692/14495132504/

    I really feel inspired seeing all of your spring cleaning and modding now. I'm a bit better with redonating unwanted dolls nowadays since my Savers offers discounts whenever you donate like 5%-20% off your next purchase so yeah lol.

    Also Krud Kutter sounds like the best thing ever so I can take apart even more dolls :O

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    1. Jawn, you wonderful, wonderful person! After seeing your photos I went immediately and purchased myself one of those units. I updated my post to show you some pics! Thank you soooooo much!

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    2. I'm really happy you like that idea haha. I got the idea from one of Flickr friends and its been incredibly useful and keeping my doll heads organised. Also congrats on getting the rack on sale, that always makes things a lot better haha :D

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    3. Also whats your method for articulating wrists with spare arms? I am tempted to hear what you do cuz I got so many unarticulated dolls lol

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    4. Jawn, I've only attempted to articulate male hands for Power Team guys and it's posted here. I haven't tried it yet on Barbie/Ken bodies. It's on my long list of things to do.

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    5. I completely forgot about that. Between that and the adding a ken neck to a Power team body I can start putting to use some broken Power Team bodies missing hands back into action :D

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  10. Loved seeing how you did that hybrid male body with the differently articulated halves! Impressive!

    And I'm awed by how organized you are with all the parts - Inspiring!

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  11. Hello from Spain: congratulations. You make a lot of cleaning clothes and dolls. You have too many. Great organization. I like your way of ordering. I also like your idea of ​​saving the dolls. I will copy your idea for a phone arm .... I'm surprised your work with the bodies. Awesome! We keep in touch

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    1. Marta, I do have too many, but I can't seem to resist them, lol.

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  12. ooo I like what you do here!
    I have that weird jasmine as well... I didn't realize the "earrings" were part of her head when got her online -_- maybe I'll try your trick, if I dare.

    And the arm! I just disembodied one barbie, that had her other arm and legs chewed off, but the other arm was intact. I almost threw it away, now glad that didn't, great idea on photo prop

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    1. Same here, Merineiti. When I found her in the bag at the thrift store I didn't really pay attention to her ears. Only when I took her out did I see how freaky they were.

      You gotta keep those doll bits. Never know what you might use them for. ^_^

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  13. Muff, you are amazing girl! : ) I always love it when I see a post from you. I know it will be good, comical and a lesson to be learned. I love love the stunt arm part....cool! I must try this one. I just have thrown out dolls when I want domelike like the head and the body was bad. Now, I have to start looking at saving the body parts. : ) Great post!

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    1. Hiya, Georgia Girl! I never turn down a broken thrift store doll, especially if it's articulated. That's when you'll be able to get some stunt arms with articulated wrists. Broken legs can be used as displays for stockings or whatever. Save that head hair to cut up and make "real" mustaches and facial hair for your dudes. Good stuff can be done with the broken bits and pieces. ^_^

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  14. Stunt arms! I'll have to remember that! :D

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  15. Omg that was like a part time job but at least you are organized. It does take hours to clean and dress everyone in one setting so now I will make sure to plan ahead, lol. I do love the stunt arm, that is ingenious.

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    1. Brini, it sure felt like a job. It actually took me 3 days total, including finally organizing and filling my clothes binders and I didn't even dress anyone back up. They are all going to be nekkid from now on.

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  16. Where to begin? Super impressed with your cleaning, organizing, and kitbashing techniques. My favorite organizing tip is storing the dolls in those wire bin things: good for air circulation and convenience. And I like the air drying both the clothes and the dolls on the dryer racks. Neat!

    The extra arm for phone connecting - cool. Thanks for sharing. Seems like Tre-tre better pay off his debts ASAP soon.

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    1. D7ana, I'm thinking that High Society Barbie just might be a loan shark or something. Hope that Tre-tre don't get hurt.

      My drying rack is almost 20 years old and it's holding up with the help of some cable ties and the occasional masking tape, lol. I think those black bins were originally to put potatoes or something in. I used to keep old scarves and socks there 'til the dolls took over.

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  17. ok I am back. Inspired by you I went out to my studio to sort my Barbies et al. Then I got to thinking...do I really have to take them apart to clean them? What the heck is in there? I started of thinking of spiders and other bugs living in there as well as other ilky things. Please tell me why the dolls need to be opened up to clean. I thought water always got in there anyway.

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    1. LOL, Grandmommy! I hope there are no spiders in your dolls! The only reason for me to want to completely open a doll's body is to take the limbs out to exchange them with articulated ones. I find many dolls that are articulated at the legs or the arms but not both.

      The reason I remove heads when I wash dolls is for two reasons. One is because I live in a very humid climate. If I washed a dolls head and didn't get it completely dry and then stuck it in a box or plastic bag, it would mold inside. The second reason I remove the head is so that I can cut down all the neck prongs so I'll have an easier time exchanging heads.

      If you're in a dry climate and you let the dolls stay out for a few days, there is no reason to remove their heads at all, even if you submerge them in water.

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  18. Whew! Thanks for that response! I think your doll heads look superb on their new rack! I agree...Jawn is awesome!

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  19. Your thrift stores have a great selection. What do you do with all those dolls? Aftrr reading this, I cleaned my thrift store dolls. I had a few in my closet I didn't feel like dealing with. Thanks for the motivation. Those dolls may have sat in my closet for five years. This is a great blog. I enjoy seeing what you're doing with your collection.

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    1. Hiya, Robotica. You know, I kinda have to say that at this point I don't do much with my dolls. I just enjoy finding new faces and cool clothes at the thrift store. I also like to find cheap play sets and boxed dolls. Basically, I stare at them and admire their designs, packaging and functionality. When I have time, I like to build furnishings and dioramas. I stay too busy with work though to build stuff or tell stories like I want to. I think that's why I'm so over run with dolls now. It's easy to slip into a store for 15 minutes but much harder to set aside hours and days to build a set. If I had more time then I would be using my collection to tell all the stories running around in my head.

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  21. Muff, this post was priceless! You are mega organized and as always, your doll modifying techniques are amazing too. I have added articulated bodies for most of my Ken and Ken type dolls that didn't have it using your technique for converting the stiff neck head to the rotating one.

    Now go take a look at my first doll blog post and see why I desperately need you to come over and help me organize my dolls! The URL is adayinthelifeofmydolls2.blogspot.com.

    Hmmm, now where did I put my hacksaw???

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    1. Holy wow, Phyllis! I think it would take me a couple of months to organize all the dolls you have... but I sure would have fun trying!

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  22. I loved this post! Inspiring and useful as always :)

    The second picture reminds me of Prison Break tv show

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  23. Idk where to start Muff!!! This is all so awesome!!! I guess i will start with the Krudkutter, im glad it worked for you and all your brilliant ideas. The organization is on point here as well and I live the hybrid ken/charming body! If you were to fix the seam on him what kind of putty would you use? Im curious to know. also if you are interested I have a few extra AA male articulated bodies such as HSM chad, AA gi joe(face has been altered), and 2 Kenya Tj's also willing to give away a moxie teenz body, sis grace, and a unarticulated AA ken.

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    1. Jay, I think the Krud is good if you give it a much longer soak, but it would be interesting to see if a longer soak changes the dolls body since 10 hours didn't do any damage.

      To fix the seam, Magic Sculpt or either Apoxie Sculpt is probably best. I don't have either so I would use Liquitex Modeling Paste which isn't putty-ish at all.

      Thanks so much for making that offer but I don't want to take you up on it because I'm too stingy to give you anything back. I was going through my stuff thinking, "Now what can I trade to Jay? No... I want that. No... I might be able to use that. Oh! I'll just make him something, maybe a wardrobe or lots of book. But wait, if they come out really nice, I'm going to want to keep them." So no, as much as I do appreciate the offer I'm going to trust my luck at thrift stores.

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    2. Oh Muff its probably a good thing you turned me down! Because I was looking at my HSM Zeke(not chad) and decided to put him on a Barbie basic/texas a&m body. If you shape the HSM head like a BBasic head it will turn out so good. I'll try to post a pic soon to show what I did.

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    3. See Jay, that's why I don't like to part with stuff. The second it's gone, you're like, "Dangit! I could have used that." I'll keep my eye on your Flickr to see the when you post the newly bodied Zeke.

      Your Marisa's Beyoncé hair makeover is amazing! She is working it!

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    4. https://www.flickr.com/photos/juskidding09/14641886081/

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    5. Fantastic job, Jay! He is working that swag.

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  24. Another successful operation for Dr. Muffenstein. Absolutely fascinating and I love the idea of stunt arms (and legs presumably). Your reorganisation looks like it was a huge job but well worth it and I really like your storage solutions.

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    1. Hi, Carrickters and thanks! Yes, you can use stunt legs which would come in handy especially if you shoot "live" videos and want to take a thigh level shot of your doll walking. It's a lot easier to stick your fingers in the legs and "walk" them than it is to move legs actually attached to a doll.

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  25. It's always wonderful to see natural born organizers at work. It gives us unorganized people a glimmer of hope. lol. Then we quickly realize no matter what we do, we will never be that organized, so we start saving our pennies to hire a natural born organizer. It would be like me thinking I could paint a Picasso style piece of art. NOT! Let us know if you ever decide to hire out your services,

    I think my favorite part was your twirl after finding the thread spool holder. Lots of great tips. Thanks.

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    1. Vanessa, I may be on the butch side but I twirl with the best of them, lol.

      I can see me being the Doll Organizer. I would be like that creepy little lady from Poltergeist. I would go in, do my stuff and then stand back and say, "This doll space... is clean." I do that when I finish cleaning my place, lol.

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  26. This post released an animal in me, I never before felt such urge to cut and break dolls bodies.
    I need to look for polish version of Krud Kutter now. Thank you for such educational and helpful post!

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    1. LOL at your inner animal, Jewel Snake! I hope your doll urges get satisfied and I'm glad you enjoyed the post. ^__^

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  27. Such great work organising!! Give yourself a pat on the back that you got it all out of the way! Christine

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    1. Thanks so much, Christine! *pats self on back* ^__^

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  28. You amaze me! That was an utterly fantastic read. I am so getting one of those bobbin holders!

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    1. Roville, those holders are the best! I've even bought a second smaller one to keep on the corner of my desk.

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  29. you are so organized and creative...you blow my mind everytime:-D nyw*,*

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  30. I have not been brave enough to take a doll apart but kudos to you! That head rack/tower is pretty great though I'll miss the jars :-)

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    1. Valsays, I ran out of jars because I had way too many heads. And now I've almost filled up my head tower as well, lol.

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  31. Hey muff thnx for the reply. Didn't know you will reply this soon. Actually i don't have much time so its hard for me to store or organize my dolls every day. I dont know how do i show you my hand modification. I do have this ken doll with non articulated legs. I like that idea but somehow i am little hesitant with that because it was lil expensive for me......... :-/ lol
    but m also willing to try this and share my experience here, and btw i have learned a lot from here,

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    1. Hiya, Teady! I travel a bit for my work but I do try to reply as soon as I am able. That also means I totally understand about not having much time to devote to crafts and dolls. I just thought you might have a blog yourself to showcase your work when you get to it but it's okay if you don't. Please stop by anytime with your comments or ideas!

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  32. Muff, Just found your blog, and you have a lot of neat techniques for modifying dolls. I am a man and do a lot of 1:6 modeling, so I know my way around some body modifying.

    You may have learned this already, but when it comes to most GI Joe, you can dip heads and hands into boiling water to warm up the vinyl, and remove them without cutting. Just try to grab the wrists down on the peg and pull, otherwise you will stretch out the circular part of the wrist joint.

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    1. Joe, all these years later and I have not tried boiling/heating to remove GI Joe parts so thanks for that info and for stopping by!

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