Scribble Stuff Pencil Stacker Erasers

  I found these clearanced at Walmart recently.

I got two packs so we could mix and match.

They aren't dolls, but they can turn any pencil into a 'doll' of sorts.

I thought they were really cute. Ivy and I had a few minutes of fun playing with them. Kids would love them. At least, kid-me would have.

Plus you can erase stuff with them. Not that anal retentive kid-me would have actually used them.

Apparently we got the Steven Spielberg pack.

They remind me of two things from when I was a kid. The one thing was a frame tray thingy that had changeable face parts that moved when you turned the dial. The other thing it reminds me of is Creeple People.

 Creeple People were rubber parts you made with the Mattel Thingmaker set. That was one of those sets with the amazingly too hot for child play hot plate that melted rubber goop that came in a bottle. When it cooled you had rubber parts which you then slipped on to a pencil. I still have one in a box somewhere that one of my sister's friends gave her. He's a head, arms, and feet on a pencil. He's also wearing a felt poncho thing with a belt, with hippy phrases written all over it. It was the 60's, ok?

A Gift From Germany: Miniature Steins!

 Well, I'm officially old now. According to the rag magazines at the grocery store, Cher and Bill Murray are having their 'Sad Last Days'. I'm sure they'll have them a few more times, but still...
  I know I have a couple of new followers since the last time I welcomed some, but I'm having a hard time figuring out who one of them is. I know one is Louis Sapphire, so welcome Louis. But the other one... Once Upon a Doll Collection? Anybody know if you are number 57? If so, consider yourself welcomed.
  While I'm thinking of it, has anybody ever realized how much 'Frozen' Olaf's head looks like a toilet?

It first occurred to me when we found these candy holders at Target around Easter. Olaf looks a little 'flushed'!

    Recently I received a package from my friend Birgit in Germany. Inside were these cool miniature steins!

There's a size for 18" dolls.

The lid opens.

And there's a smaller one that's a bit big for 1/6 scale.

It's hollow metal and the lid doesn't open.

There are these beautiful 1/12 scale ones.

The ones on the left are so pretty, but the lids don't open. :(  My favourites are the ones on the right.

You may remember my little old man. He's around 4 inches tall. I made him and he had his own post on Doll-a-Day 93.

These tiny ones in 1/12 scale have opening lids!

Yay! Just what I wanted!

  I love my little steins! Thanks Birgit!

A Body for Hot Toys 'Michael Caine' as Alfred from Batman: Dark Knight

  Waaay back in January I showed you the Michael Caine head Ken bought for me. It was my alternative to the VERY expensive Michael Caine as Alfred from Batman: Dark Knight, made by Hot Toys.(Makes me feel old that Michael Caine has been playing Alfred!) There's no way I can afford the entire Hot Toys Michael Caine doll. So Michael didn't have a body at the time.

 

The Hot Toys dolls are amazingly real looking, but also amazingly expensive. The Batman armory set with Batman and Alfred sells for between $350 and $700! 

The Batman: Dark Knight armory set. Lots of spare hands and weaponry.

The Michael Caine alone sells for over $100.But the head was only $30.
  This body was even cheaper than that. I think it came to $15 with the shipping. Ken bought the body for me for my birthday. I just never got around to showing it to you. I think it's worth seeing, because the body is a really great articulated body, and was really cheap too! I was a bit afraid it would be too cheap and would fall apart on me, (Or at least on Michael!), but it turned out to be pretty good quality.

Michael is enjoying it.

The body came with spare hands...

a couple of different neck knobs...

Sorry about the Blu Tac on the little one. It's the on he's been using.

and leg faulsies!

That's in case Michael wants to impress the chicks with his muscular thighs.

Here is is with a jointed Ken doll, so you can compare their flexibility.

And the skin tones. These bodies are much less pink than regular Kens.

Here are some more pictures to show you what this body can do.

He can tell fishing stories...

He knows karate, jujitsu, and seven other Japanese words...

He can throw his back out. Just like me!

Ok, what else?

The arms look too long here, but it's just the camera angle.

See?

Hear no evil...

Ok, maybe a little...

See no evil...

No peeking...

Speak no evil...

This move causes a little weirdness in his mid section...

Which is ok if he's clothed.

                                                       He's all worn out from all that posing.

Here are some close ups of the jointing.

As I said, the set of extra parts comes with two different neck knobs to accommodate different heads.

Here's a look at the body's neck knob.

I couldn't use Michael's head on the bigger one since his head already had a neck of it's own.To use the shorter one I had to remove the very inner ring from the inside of his neck.

The problem with this arrangement is that the head won't stay on. I watched a tutorial where the guy used Blu Tac/sticky tac, but it's not working for me. Also,the neck looks too long.

Maybe he could wear an ascot...

Yeah, I wonder why it looks like that...

 

Although as long as he wears a shirt with a collar it looks ok.

Hey! How about this one?

That's better. This shirt works pretty well, apart from not being his style AT ALL.

Way too young for him. Maybe the Happy Family Grampa shirt will fit him.

  

Finding clothes is proving to be a problem, since this body seems to have longer arms and legs than your standard Ken body. Most of the sleeves and pant legs are too short. There are other problems too...

While these pants looked ok from the front, there are real problems going on back here. He has wider hips than Ken too, apparently.

I also tried the shoes on him, but even thought there was the split up the back I was afraid to push them on any farther in case the foot got stuck in there.

I think the original Alfred shoes are the entire foot and you just change the whole thing.
He is limited to this outfit until I find him something better, and no shoes.

  I'd love to get him a suit, but the real one would put me back up over $100, and I don't sew well enough to make him one. I put the idea to my sister the ex-seamstress, but she said Michael Caine would have to cough up a lot of money for her to sew him a suit.
  The body is super poseable, and holds a pose well except for his toes always wanting to curl up. The various hands are nice too. I do worry that the little posts attaching the hands and feet to the body might break with a lot of use. For such a cheap, (as in 'low priced') body it seems pretty sturdy. It came a long way and they only put it in a plastic bag for shipping! But it didn't break, which may have just been luck. It's always a  little risky buying the cheap stuff that ships all the way from Hong Kong or China. I'm also not sure how they can sell what seems to be the exact head and body from the Hot Toys line for such a cheap price. I'm not sure I chose the right body for this head. Maybe there is another one. Since this was my first experience buying this stuff I may have just gotten the wrong body. There are people out there who are experts know exactly what to buy. I'm not one of them...yet. Have you seen these Hot Toys sculpts?!