Adventures in Doll Customising and Collecting Part 1: Monster High Frankie Picture Day

Hello everyone! Welcome to my blog!~

I'm Mimo and I love dolls! My collection so far consists of Monster High, Lalaloopsy, Nendoroid, Ever After High and Zelf. I'm also hoping to buy a Pullip Pere Noel soon (OMG). On this blog I'm going to do photo reviews, post my thoughts about dolls and also share my adventures and mishaps in customising. I'll begin with Monster High so as not to ruin anything expensive, but I'd love to try a MIO kit by Pullip one day...

The Frankie in question, nicely framed by a carrier bag

So which doll am I going to customise first?

I had a Frankie Picture Day which I thought had a little fault on the eye, although on closer inspection it turned out to be a piece of cut hair that hadn't been brushed off.  But I'd already pushed my mind into the customisation-acceptance-zone so I decided to use that doll. I want to redo her face in blue and pink tones, and reroot her with blue and pink hair. I've decided to use watercolour pencils and pastels mostly because I think I would make it look sloppy with paint. Fortunately for this endeavour, my youth up until this moment was mis-spent drawing millions of anime girls, and as a result I am well practised at drawing faces and eyes for girls. Hopefully this will translate well onto a 3D surface. 

Unfortunately however, I am extremely incredibly awful at sewing so I don't think I'll be doing her any clothes any time soon. Perhaps I can find some to buy online instead... 

I imagine that before long I will become someone who moves heaven and earth to get the perfect pair of dolly shoes. 

I haven't taken any photos yet, but when it gets to the interesting stages, I will take plenty!

~Removing the hair~

I followed online tutorials to remove the hair, it's actually arm numbingly hard unless you use hot water to melt out the glue. I couldn't believe how much glue came out. It was strangely satisfying pulling it all out, but I promptly threw it away since it was very sticky, like tree sap, and it seemed as if it never fully dried. (Guess that really does explain the long-term case of greasy-head that so many Monster High dolls have)

This is what I did, step by step, for your reading pleasure! 

1. Once I'd removed the head using hot water to loosen the plastic, I cut the hair as close as possible to the scalp. I kept cutting pieces off until it was very closely shaven. 

2. Felt totally icky because there's actually loads of glue everywhere and it's hard to wash off

3. Then I dug around inside with some tweezers and pulled the glue and hair out. I did this stage in a few parts, but it probably took me about 30 minutes >O<! I think next time will be quicker because I didn't heat it right away originally.

Later on I will do a post about how I removed the factory make up, but at the moment the remover I'm using isn't very good so I'm going to try some others! Haha

My Robecca says goodbye~