Wednesday 22 December 2010

Eos the Steampunk Pullip

The Steampunk Pullip I won in the Pinky St Gothic-Noir-Steampunk contest (warning: image heavy) is here! Well, actually she arrived about a week ago, but I hadn't been able to take photos due to the weather. It was unexpectedly fast shipping from Hawaii!

Photobucket

The box was so pretty and pristine I didn't want to damage it, but with so many of the doll accessories taped so strongly to the insides, I ended up tearing parts of the interior in order to get them out. Boo...

She's a limited edition of 2000 (that means she's really not all that limited :P) and the little slip of paper in her box informed me that I got no. 1181/2000.

Eos 01

My first Pullip ever! I've seen Pullips all over the internet and never really thought I'd own one. For one thing, I could never afford one (due to spending all my monies elsewhere cough *Sylvanians*cough*Pinky St*cough*clay* and the Pullip aesthetic never really appealed to me. I mean, I thought some of them looked very nice but I was thinking I'd get a blank obitsu head and body to customise and make my own doll with at some point instead of getting into Pullips.

Eos 02

Then Eos arrived, and I'm absolutely amazed by how ethereal her face up looks in person. I'd picked her mainly because her face up looked pretty in the pictures, but it's even more amazing in person. Now I'm tempted by other Pullips. I like Shinku... and a number of others...

Eos 03


Eos 04

Her steampunk gear is amazing too. She has a gun and a staff. The staff seems to be part iron rod and part shower head. The gun has faucets on it too. I love that attention to detail, it implies that everything's been bashed together from junk found in the trash heap into something useful.

All the clothing is extremely detailed, when I was taking off her clothes so I could wash and condition her hair, I kept looking for the velcro fastening her clothes, like with barbie clothes. She had no velcro, it was all nicely done metal clasps and hooks. She also comes with a pair of black gloves and some elbow guards, but they're not pictured as I don't like the gloves and the elbow guards don't look very good without them.

Photobucket

She also comes with a hat studded with random bits and bobs, an eye piece and wings. I don't actually like the way her wings fit onto Eos, it sticks straight out from her back. I would have preferred something that spread out more to the sides.

As lovely as this doll is, it suffers from some quality issues. Eos is notorious for having a bad, frizzy wig and having bits fall off her stock. Her wings are fragile and easily breakable, and her left arm tends to pop off.

I've washed and conditioned the wig for about two hours, but her hair's starting to get stiff and frizzy again. I think I may have to condition it some more. Or get her a new wig. This South Australian dry weather probably doesn't help much.

This is the bit that I'm quite annoyed about--after deboxing the Pullip and not having stock bits fall off her, I thought my dolly had escaped that particular fate. Then parts started to fall off her eye piece on the second day. Well, I'd been warned to expect that, so no biggie, I glued them back. Then I noticed this:

Photobucket

Two of the screw on thingys had disappeared!!! The bit at the top is what it's supposed to look like. I hadn't even noticed that they'd disappeared, so I have no idea when they dropped off. I don't even know if they were even there in the first place! I've looked everywhere for them and I'd only taken Eos to my room and the lounge room when I noticed they were missing, and they are no where to be seen.

I wonder if Groove can send replacement parts? I have no idea how to contact them though... :( I may have to just find something else to put on there.

I still think Eos is a gorgeous doll and I'm happy to have her though :) I'm also kinda tempted by the rest of the steampunk gang...

Tuesday 14 December 2010

Another post office building

This little thing just arrived today! I Ordered it from Sylvanian Heaven some weeks ago. I may have overpaid again -_- Anyway, I'm actually pretty happy with this one. The condition of the items in it were much, much better than I thought they'd be. I even found a surprise stack of mini postcards and letters in the mailbox!

Photobucket

This post office is definitely in a far better condition than the previous post office I got from them. I think I paid about the same price too -_-;; The downside is, while I'm perfectly willing to wreak nasty experimental modifications upon the other one, I'm a bit reluctant to touch this one. Guh...

Here's how the other post office looks like now. I've stripped off all the paper and stickers and am considering the best way to make roof shingles.

Photobucket

One of the window parts is missing from it, and some enterprising previous owner had decided to glue the remaining window part to the middle of the frame. =A=;;

Photobucket

I've yanked it out and am now trying to figure out the best thing to do for the window. Should I leave it as it is? Should I try and cast another window piece? Welp, I'll have to mull over it a bit.

I like these little buildings because they're small and take up so little space. I can make a little street of shops with these :D. I have another two on the way, and I think I'll stop with that. Won't have enough space on the shelf for more. I also really like the fact that the roofs come off, it'll be great for photographing the insides!

Photobucket

[Entering whinge mode]

In other non-toy related news, I feel so 'meh'. I've just realised that Christmas is next week. I don't want to celebrate it. I don't enjoy the santa reindeer etc atmosphere and I don't like the food. It's all alien. I want to go home, back to Brunei or Malaysia. I want to be fit again, with nice shady hills to climb and exercise on instead of these windy plains that are either too cold or too bright and sunny. There's no ozone layer here. No trees to shade me on my walking route either. I want to have friends I can go kai kai with, and have friends I can stay up all night watching reality tv and other crap with.

I have too many things I want to do now, and no motivation. My lack of motivation has to do in part with the fact that I don't know where to start. I keep feeling like I should be doing something else when I do something. There are things I want to do for other people, and many more that I want and need to do for myself. Should I start making my family's paper Christmas gifts? Or should I finally read that driving rules booklet that I've been putting off for so long? I'll need to drive in February. Hopefully. If I manage to get a job. I hate cars, gigantic trucks and highways. They scare me.

Bah...

[end whinging]

Sunday 5 December 2010

Speaking of wins...

I also won Okasaneko's 3rd Blog Anniversary Giveaway a few weeks ago. Okasaneko's a collector from the Philippines, and definitely a nice lady! Her son, Alphonse, is in hospital now for dengue fever and it's a tough time for him and his family. I've been reading updates on her blog and following her fb and praying for him to get better.

Here's a pic of the 25th Anniversary Baby Pair I got from Okasaneko:

Anniversary Baby Pair

So cute! My hubby says the little squirrel looks rather hairy chinned. The light marking around its mouth doesn't really help, it makes the baby look like it has beard stubble.

I also got some more Sylvanian stuff from the almighty intarwebs. Here's one of them, a 2nd hand post office from Sylvanian Heaven. I probably over paid for this, but I really wanted the building. I'm trying to create a street of shops and stuff on the shelf in my hobby room. Also, this means that my postman bear now has a place to live.

Photobucket

I'm going to repaint it, the bike, make some shelves and anything else that's needed. After taking this picture, I ripped off the paper on the roof, and I'm going to do that to the awning too. Nyohohoho!

Friday 3 December 2010

I won the Pinky St Contest!

Wow, I actually won the Pinky St Contest (link is really pic heavy and contains all the entries btw). My entry is no. 9, Wings aka The Flying Doohickey Contest. I really hadn't expected to win. I got really lightheaded when I saw the results...:P I really expected entry no. 11, The Printing Supply Thief to win, because I thought it was cool, had a clever story and the props were great!

I admit that I hadn't finished editing my entry in Photoshop to the extent that I was satisfied with it, but by then it was already 5 mins to the deadline... I did spend massive amounts of time and energy on the entry though, creating the props and looking for suitable textures and pictures to create backdrops with, etc. Even ended up with back pain from hunching over things for so long... but it was worth it! XD

I learned a few things from this contest. I learned that if you try to create nearly all the props and backdrops from scratch, it really takes a lot longer than you think it will take. A LOT LONGER. Like, if I think it'll take me X amount of time to finish, it'll really take X x5 amount of time or something silly. I've also learned that I'm apparently good at bashing up random objects out of paper and styrofoam if I stop thinking and let my hands do the work.

Anyway, enough rambling, here's the prize!

Steampunk Pullip Eos
Photobucket

She's gorgeously steampunk XD She's also apparently a limited edition release of about 2000, I think. And she retails on Pullip Style for USD 145, and even more on ebay. Whoa, I hadn't realised she was quite THAT expensive. Eos will be my first Pullip ever. I could never afford Pullips (mostly because I spend all my money on Sylvanian Families and Pinky St junk).

I'm so full of glee now that the shock has worn off and I also feel quite embarrassed and undeserving actually ^^;; *runs around in circles squeeing anyway*