Just For Fun Den of Angels Mods: Ask Us Anything!

This is for all the mods who want to answer:

What did you go to college/university for? Is that what your current job relates to?
If not further education (past high school/equivalent), what did you decide to do instead? Military? Technical/trade school? Self-employed?

 

I went to school for Computer Science & Engineering, but I dropped out with about a year left before getting my Bachelor's. I was struggling really badly with depression and couldn't make myself go to class. I worked in a call center for a while doing technical support, then joined a friend's video sharing startup that didn't go anywhere because we were beaten to the market by Youtube by about a month (plus Youtube had way more money than we did. We were all working on it for free in our spare time). Then I joined Grooveshark.com as one of its earliest software engineer hires. I worked at Grooveshark for almost 9 years, until it was shut down. Now I'm still doing software, but for a marketing automation company instead.

 

Computer graphics, like for games and visual effects in movies and stuff like that ^w^
I'm nearly completed, I'm just waiting for the librarian(s?) to get back from vacation so that my thesis can get published, and then I'll be able to get my bachelor's degree in art. Yay, soon! ~

Currently I'm doing a lot of other stuff, they are art releated, but not so much 3D or compositing. I'm hoping to work with art for games in the future, but I'm not really in a hurry at the moment so I'm thinking of applying as a substitute teacher in the meantime

 

@Wolfie Pie I actually went to college for Spanish, and what my school called "Digital Media." It was basically a combo of graphic design, web design, and digital animation, but with the ability to be an Arts or CompSci kind of major. I went with the Arts side, although I never was really any good at drawing things from scratch. :P I was better at the coding kinds of things, so I thought I'd end up doing Flash websites for people. Of course, shortly after I graduated, the web design bubble burst (and now, Flash-based things are not terribly popular anymore), and I moved into an area where Spanish wasn't really a needed thing. So...yay retail?
Right now I am trying to run my own business (doll-related), but it hasn't really taken off much, and I haven't been able to pay myself yet. One step at a time though!

 

@jade-eyed-cat I think if you want to learn to sew then there's no time like the present. Plenty of people have become marvelous at sewing after learning as adults, so if it's something that interests you it's worth a try!

@NekoNyanMew I haven't gotten to travel much, so first I think I'd like to do that for a while if I could. And I'm not sure about a particular country but I'd definitely like to settle down somewhere with a sub-tropical climate. I get cold very easily and feel best in the warm wet weather.

@Wolfie Pie I went to school for Fine Arts majoring in Watercolor Painting. I attended for 6 years but was one (non-art) class short of graduating, and didn't ever graduate because my mental health deteriorated and I wasn't able to do what I needed to do. (Pretty depressing.) I'm currently unemployed, in that I don't have a "job" and I don't make enough to support myself. But I do earn enough right now through an Etsy shop to keep on top of my bills while I try to seek treatment. I'm very thankful for that.

 

@Wolfie Pie I got an AA degree from my hometown City College because I couldn't afford art school. My focus was oil painting, but I wandered into bookbinding and printmaking and geology and archaeology too. It took me four years to graduate and by then I'd given up on trying to get a BA. I went back a few years later to study architecture but decided it wasn't for me. Long after that I poked around on the edges of Astrophysics, but I had skipped a lot of math and science back when I expected never to need it, so...
I was a bookseller for many years and the bookbinding and printmaking experience certainly made a difference there. Now I am a buyer for a hardware/lifestyle store. I still deal with paint and construction and electrical and landscaping stuff, but more on an individual problem-solving level and less on an arty level. My etching tools have been repurposed as silversmithing tools and my paint brushes sometimes get used for dolls. I didn't really get to the places my professors hoped I would, but I'm not very good at focusing on one thing for a long time. There are too many subjects that catch my interest; being told I had to focus on only one thing as a career path sounded like hell.

 

@Wolfie Pie college was kind of an interesting time for me, I look back now and I don't entirely know that person. I got all the way up to student teaching before deciding that I didn't like kids that much, I really didn't want to teach, and I had no desire to be miserable as a result. (I had been pre-law (until I met some of the law students at school, all of whom were miserable) and religious education before arriving at speech/drama ed; I was a little too practical to justify the performance major I really wanted.) Some shifting around in courses and I graduated a semester later with a degree in applied communications with history and theater minors. There was about five years of attempted adulting beyond that (in which I got married) before I settled into my current job, which is a combination of office management, executive assisting, bookkeeping, HR, IT and technical support for a family-owned energy consulting firm (of which I am a part owner). I'm stupidly well-paid and most days I enjoy my job a lot.

 

I was hoping you wouldn't notice.

 

I've mostly done customer support/tech support or retail jobs. I didn't get any college until after the kids were grown. Unfortunately, I had to quit due to LIFE. But I hope to go back to taking classes eventually.

 

I...have the two most important questions for you all!

1. What is your weapon of choice?

2. Spiders or cockroaches?

 

BA, English Lit (Mt. Holyoke College, MA).
Jr. Year Abroad at Edinburgh University, Scotland, studying English, History, Archaeology--was in the EU Theatre Co. & in the Fringe.

BA/MA, Modern History, St. Hilda's College, Oxford University. (There were lots of brilliant folks there--I wasn't one of them. Barely squeaked by with a Third--although I had to do it in 2 years instead of 3.) I played a lot of rpg with the OU D&D Soc.

BFA, Illustration at Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA.

Jobs related to that last one, although art has been big all through my life (and English Lit and History are good for a lot of things, really). I did art for the OU D&D Soc, and for fanzines all through my colleges/unis. Was already showing and selling art at SF and Comic Cons for a good decade before. Although I studied traditional Illustration, that was before digital art was around. I was interested in the very primitive computer art and animation programs (I remember when you could just make shapes out of letters and numbers printed in scrolls out of terminals!). Anyway, I learned digital art and animation and 3D modeling on the job as I was hired on by computer game companies desperate for artists. Worked 10 years or so in-house at various companies, most notably on the "Heroes of Might and Magic" and "Might and Magic" series (way back in the '90s-00s).

I also have done free-lance illustration while I was in-house working on computer games (not an easy feat! They work you like a dog and make you sign your life away), also before and after... I have worked mostly on collectible card games (fantasy themes), mostly on Legend of the Five Rings, but also did a few Magic: The Gathering cards. And continued to show and sell at various conventions like GenCon and San Diego Comic Con... but I've taken the last few years off due to health issues.

Lots of art-related folks all through DoA... and polymaths who can do all kinds of things!

I took fencing in college once, but suck at it. I was OK at archery in HS, but can't pull a bow of any weight... I've got some swords and katanas and knives--for art purposes! But probably would go for a very light bow.

UGH. Not a spider or cockroach fan, but probably spiders because at least they eat the bugs and aren't totally disgusting and germy... but spiders love to bite me... like all biting bugs... So I'm not very nice to them. (All cockroaches must die, though! Sorry... I have bombed them and enjoyed it when I lived in apartments.)

@Amet -- I think Dreamhigh Studio's Feilene came in glow-in-the-dark. And Nympheus Chou-chou.

 

@Akara I don't know how to use any weapons. I have fired a BB gun like, once, when I was maybe 10, and a small kids' compound bow, also when I was little. Sooooo..... Considering my strong points, it would probably be a drone, that I could control from my computer. :3 Although, if it was a case of automatically knowing how to use it, then definitely a bo staff. They look so coooool!

Also, I don't really like bugs. I /suppose/ if someone forced me to choose, I'd go with spiders, since outside they do eat other nuisance bugs. I just hate when they surprise me inside and are crawling near my feet unexpectedly. x___x

 

Funny you should ask, just last week I decided that my weapon of choice in a zombie apocalypse would be a 24in pipe wrench. I can use it as a mace and take stuff apart with it.
Other than that, I'm not much of a weapons person although I have owned a gun and know how to shoot.

I am pro-spider and anti-cockroach. I am willing to share my home with spiders as long as they stay away from my pillow, I haven't enjoyed sharing my home with cockroaches. I suppose if spiders were interested in my food, I'd clear them out too.

 

1. Eleniel
2. Spiders

 

Well, I also fenced (foil) in college, but that was a long time ago and if it's life or death, I'd take my dad's pistol over a sword.

And 100% spiders. I put up with the occasional roach because it's inevitable in Florida, but I am totes cool with spider-bros, with a similar caveat of "but not in my bed please".

 

@Wolfie Pie
I went to school for psychology and then school psychology. I teach children with behavioral needs, so it's tangentially related.

@Akara
My best weapon is words, like the Doctor. I wouldn't mind a sonic screwdriver, though.

Spiders don't trip my fear response the way most insects do, so they have my vote. All bets are off if they try to crawl on me, though.

 

My turn to ask a question.

Which one of your dolls is your favorite, and why

 

That's easy. Pocca is my favorite because she's my first doll. I tend to choose things and then decide that they are the most special to me, I did that with Pocca. It probably sounds weird...but I tend to trick my own brain like that That's not to say I wouldn't have considered her a favorite anyway but yeah, I decided she was going to be my favorite and I stuck to it so much that she is my all-time favorite. I can't imagine ever changing my mind on that now.

However, from time to time of course some of my other dolls take up all my attention, but overall I'm always going to consider her my favorite and she's the only one I wouldn't sell unless it was a matter of life and death. She's the most precious to me


Pocca by Akara, on Flickr

 

@CathyM
Currently this guy right here, my Little Rebel Sarang.



LOOK AT THAT FAAAACE.

 

More questions:
1. How long does it take to plan each year's anniversary event?
2. What was the last good book you read?

 

1. I can't really say for sure what the typical timeframe is since this is the first time I've ever been part of the anniversary celebration planning. Someone who has been on the staff for longer than me may be better at answering this x)

2. Howl's moving castle is my most recent book (it was quite some time back, many months ago...I don't read books very often). I liked it

 

Some things about the anniversary are done a few months in advance - we usually have some idea of the theme by then - and staff assignments are done a month or two before. Negotiating the prize donations from doll makers is the most time consuming part, and @idrisfynn sometimes secures promises a year in advance.

I'm currently reading a collection of Silvina Ocampo's short stories called Thus Were Their Faces. Really eerie and unforgettable! Kind of reminicent of M.R. James. Most recently finished The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate – Discoveries from a Secret World which I highly recommend.

 

Uhhhh finished reading? I've been trying to start and finish about 5 or 6 books lately. I am on book 6 of 7 from a series called Keys to the Kingdom, and I want to start Leviathan Wakes, and I want to re-read American Gods, as well The End of the Soul (which was actually a Christmas gift from my father to my husband lol ), among other things, but the thing I most recently actually finished (which was actually a long while ago) was Redshirts by John Scalzi.

 

Dear Mods, who do you think will end up on the Iron Throne?

 

Well, question 1 has already been answered, so I will skip to #2.

I've been re-reading books lately. I re-read American Gods, and I am now reading The Handmaid's Tale. It was interesting to watch the shows they made from the books.

I've read some of the books, but I don't watch the show. I am hoping one of Dany's dragons get the throne.

 

@brighnasa I'm working my way through House of Leaves actually. I haven't picked it up in a while, I should go ahead and finish it.

@suppi I haven't read the books and I'm somewhere in middle of season 2 in terms of catching up with the show. So far my opinion is that they are all horrible people (except for maybe Ned and welp... seems like being a decent person is bad for your health around there). So I don't know who will/should get the throne but I'm just going to throw my vote to Littlefinger because he's so charismatically slimy that he's a joy to watch. Still a horrible person though.

 

@cowpewter Ooh, House of Leaves is a favorite of mine! Best use of footnotes ever.

@suppi I am assuming everyone will end up dead, or Jon Snow. I only read the first half of the first book and got tired of rolling my eyes. Sometimes I just prefer the TV version of a thing so that it takes less time and I can still be doing something with my hands.

 

I have over 70 and I love them all so much, I can't really pick!!! But I'll usually just SAY that my favorite is my first--
CP Delf Elf El, "Elurin"--
11-06-Fairy-Elurin_7491 by aprilllee, on Flickr

1. I'm a newbie mod, so I only got involved a few weeks before. But it's definitely a LOT more busy for everyone during the contests and events!

2. Black Wolves of Boston by Wen Spencer. I love Fantasy and Werewolves, and it has a bit of m/m in there, too, which is also fun.
and
We are Legion by Dennis Taylor, 1st of a trilogy. SF about a dystopic future, where a guy who had his head frozen is awakened and his brain is uploaded into a computer and shot off into space... darkness and humor!

I stopped reading the books early on and haven't been keeping up with the show (a bit too violent and bloody for me!). But I've always been a Jon Snow fan, so I hope it's him.

 

Next year or even if it's not too late this year can @St. James make more of those fake doll sale listings like she did for the reopening of DoA when the marketplace needed to be tested. Or maybe we an make a contest to make our own?

Those were hilarious and kudos to you guys for always being such funny doll people! Also whoever it was to add the 'crazy pants ' idea to the MP listings, you are a genius!

 

@AnnoDomini HA! I love the idea of member-made fake listings. Testing that stuff was no joke so I had to make it fun. I think I had to hide them all eventually because newbies kept reporting them as "suspicious" listings.
Every time I see someone actually use @Dezarii 's Crazy Pants options it makes me happy. "My doll begged me not to sell him, but I know he'll love you." is definitely the most popular.

 

LOL! Aww I wanted to go back and read them haha! They were hilarious! Some of the prices though xD

I always use "I will hound you for positive feedback when this is over". It always cracks me up!

Ah so you wereally the mastermind but St. James is the mischievous one! Haha it's good to get a laugh in sometimes! Especially doing such extensive work! Great job keeping it fun guys!

 

Dear Moderators,
What is the weirdest on or off-topic bjd you've ever seen? xD

 

Dang those are freaky!! I love it

 

I've always liked the thread that asks something like - What do your dolls look like right now? So, I'd love to see pictures from the mods on the state of their dolls as they look at this moment!

Mine are a mess and I have a bin in my IKEA bookcase that has about six headless dolls sitting in it. I am Wednesday from the Adam's Family for sure.

Are there any other Wednesday's among the Mods?

 

Dear mods: My question is... WHY WON'T YOU GUYS DO ANOTHER DOLLISM IN BUFFALO!? ;0; WE'LL HELP /from Buffalo
xD No, really though--

Do you get annoyed by repeat questions? --- Not in this thread, but say Newbie topic posts, or General discussion questions? (This stems from a pokemon group Im in, where if people just scrolled a few posts, they'd see the very question they already asked, had been answered. ) Lol

 

@Akara Weapon of choice: Maybe a knife? I know it's not the best weapon but I've begun to notice I do a lot of knife killing in my dreams. . . *begin creepy music* After much deliberation I choose spiders. That's a hard one though because roaches are disgusting but some spiders are venomous. However all spiders are very useful, and therefore they win this round. (I'm sure roaches are useful too. . . but really they are so gross, except for the huge tropical ones, they seem neat).

@CathyM I have been pondering this answer the whole time and I think I am finally ready to say my favorite doll of all is Sven, my Doll in Life Rydel. I really love his big eyes and wide smile. I feel very comforted by his expression.

@brighnasa It's a private shame of mine that I find it almost impossible to finish a book. I seldom read at all but I particularly dislike fiction. I genuinely can't remember the last full book I read. I always attribute the hangup to a traumatic period when I was a child where the optometrist told my parents that I was going blind and would be blind by adulthood. Before that I read non-stop, but I stopped reading for fun at that time because I was scared it was ruining my eyes.

@suppi Sorry, I haven't read the books or watched any of the show and I don't plan on it. From what I gather I think I would find the content pretty upsetting.

@stormi I personally found Dollzone Star and Moon super weird and didn't like them at all. But there are so many odd dolls out there (in pleasant and unpleasant ways) which I think is just great!

@Pony Sorry, I don't want to document it in a photo but my dolls are almost all out on various shelves in one room, mostly nude. Floating heads are kept together in a plastic box. So it's uh, not that pretty and definitely a little weird.

@Fate I'm not at all bothered by repeat questions. Honestly this forum is huge and questions are often asked more than once. I understand that when a person is still getting familiar with the site it can be a little hard to find where those answers already are. So it's nice when people do a little looking before posting but I always feel understanding about these things.

 

@brighnasa

Honestly, I can't remember the last time I finished a book unless you count like, the Mo Willems picture book I read with one of my students a couple of weeks ago.

Right now I'm halfway through The Hotel Under the Sand, by Kage Baker, The Creative Spark: How Imagination Made Humans Exceptional, by Augustin Fuentes, and the last Trials of Apollo book. I've been easily distracted lately.

@suppi

I am not into GoT, so I don't have an opinion there. HBO shows go too far for my taste in several areas, which is a shame because the concept sounds cool.

@AnnoDomini

I think the Crazy Pants options are cute, but it throws me a little when someone ticks one off sometimes in a sales thread. Like, do they mean it as the tongue in cheek joke they're supposed to be, or are they serious?! Are you actually too cheap to buy bubble wrap?

@stormi

How can I pick just one to outrank all the weird dolls? DC's little centaur creatures that still have human feet, maybe? I long to see one of them in tiny heels.

@Pony

Here's a terrible iPhone shot of the state of our IKEA shelf this morning (top and bottom shelves, not the messy storage in the middle, haha), which houses our complete dolls. The blonde girl on the top left is hiding her headless friend, whose faceup I'm about 75% done with. Please excuse the scattered OT dolls that are in with the resin to protect them from my marauding cat.



(I also have a chest full of extra heads and hands, and a shelf inside my armoire for all the heads who are in various states of faceup progress, but they're both in disarray at the moment.)

@Fate

I feel like sometimes people panic when a thread gets merged or moved because it's a repeat thinking we're annoyed, but we all had to ask those beginner questions once. I have a whole folder of replies I've written in the past on my iPad to modify for basic questions like, "How do I post a picture?" so I don't have to type it all out cold every time.

 

I've got a Doll-Chateau Alberta (with the 4 human feet)... probably one of the odder dolls that I've got... But D-C has gotten much weirder since her release, I think!

The Nefer Kane dolls can be pretty out there. Particularly the one with all the eyes in the head...
Kameko

There are weirder dolls, I'm sure. It's all very subjective, I think. Someone's weird is someone else's normal.

Not a Wednesday, I think. maybe when I was younger (and watched the original series). I think I've gone through Morticia and Grandmama stages...!

I NEED to buy ikea book-cases!!! Until I sort that out, I have a folding table and the rest are just sprawled around...
Here are 2 of my dolls flopped down in outfits from a convention that happened 2 years ago. One will be changed soon for the L.A. Dolpa... if I can find her wig...!

(room kept dark... ha!)

I'm a newer Mod, so I don't get tired of the repeat questions at all. At least I can usually answer those. Other things, not so much!

I wish there was another Dollism!!! Doesn't have to be in Buffalo! (Although I liked it there... I got to try Buffalo Wings from the source and go see Niagara Falls. I was kind of hoping MOC would try and host one in the Midwest or around the Chicago area, just for a change... I'm way in the West, so it doesn't really matter to me, I'd have to fly no matter what.)

The thing is, organizing and running a big convention is a lot of work and money and time. It can go badly, too, so money can be lost and people can go into debt. I GO to conventions a lot, but I usually avoid actually working on them because they are so much trouble. (I wasn't involved with Dollism and wasn't a Mod during Dollism Plus US.)

I do wish people could get together again and make a Dollism (DollHeart, MOC, DoA, etc.)... I think it could be successful and that there are people who would be interested in a national convention with international doll companies represented... but it looks like that isn't going to happen anytime soon. People really have to get together and be prepared to dedicate a lot of time and effort for that to happen... and they have to really WANT to do that. It seems that the will isn't there with any major groups, so far.

 

To all mods: What is your favorite off-topic doll you own?
Bonus question: Do you have pets, and if so, can we see pictures?

 

@CloakedSchemer I have very few off-topic dolls; I only ever had one Barbie growing up, and that ended up going to one of my younger sisters when I moved out of my parents' place. :3 And I never ended up getting any others after that point. I have some like, Pop figures, but no Monster High or Pullips, or anything else. :3 But I gots these cutie pet dolls from Sakura and Paper! :#
Instagram post by Lydia • Aug 14, 2017 at 4:05am UTC

And I has two kitties!
Instagram post by Lydia • Apr 14, 2016 at 8:50pm UTC
Instagram post by Lydia • Jan 20, 2016 at 8:02pm UTC

 

Lol! I think I've only seen the 'bubble wrap, one once and like you I was a little worried haha! I have gotten dolls in the mail where that option should've been ticked off though, but that's another story XD (like a 1/3 head in a bubble mailer)

 

Dear Mods,
What are your grail dolls? :3

 

@CloakedSchemer I also have very few off-topic dolls. I do have a shoe box full of Barbies, but other than that I only have BJDs and a handful of vinyl (DD and Obitsu). My favorite off-topic doll is Tammy my Obitsu Designer 60 head on the 48cm body. (She's off topic because even though I've opened her eyes so that she can have interchangeable eyes there is no open eye version of her head, only the one to paint the eyes on.)

I have one cat and I love him very much.

@stormi I'm honestly not sure that I have a grail right now. I'm at the point where although there are some really beautiful dolls that always make me swoon (like Volks Shiro Tachibana or Nabarro Cyril) I'm okay with the fact that I'll never have them and I don't think about it very much.

 

I'm terrible with picking favorites. Something that I think of as equal to my other bjds is my Hujoo Azela, which is ball-jointed and strung, but made of ABS plastic. I also have an original fairy sculpted/made by Wendy Froud that I treasure.

I have non- bjds-- Japanese gofun and silk dolls, kokeshi, Genes, Barbies and Kens, Pullips, Dollfies and Obitsus, hand-made dolls soft and sculpted, some porcelains, some vinyls... I tend to have a wide variety of things, but only a few of each.

I have been lucky and have pretty much been able to get all the dolls that I want. Most of my dolls were grails of a sort... I try not to buy anything unless I want them more than anything (although I do have a number of impulse-buys, too). And with a collection as big as mine, it's kind of crazy to want more at this point... But dolls I've wanted and missed out on seem to just pop up ALL THE TIME (seriously-- like arriving on my doorstep without any warning (Volks Cyndy2), going to my first Volks Tea Party and getting a Shirou One-Off). I try not to have grails... for pretty much the last decade or so!

 

So...many...questions to catch up on!

Alright then, current state:

Just a mess on the other bed in my room! (I have two beds in my room, I'm sort of currently living in a guest room which means one bed for me and one for the dolls!)


The poor twins are without face lying in a purple plastic bag! >.<


Bits and peices n___n'


Lana is chillin' by my sewing machine ~


Most of my dolls are in a box under my bed. I had them on the bed but then we were going to get visitors and one of them was supposed to sleep in the doll bed but he never came and since then most of my dolls have been staying under my bed. Oh hey, there's Nellie too in my small bag!


And the bigger part of Emilia is on my desk right now because I was working on clothing for pukipuki.


This is sort of a mess right now. Usually they are whole...and with clothes on and everything but it's pretty normal for me to spread them out like everywhere around me x)

Not really, and I've got a lot of patience so it doesn't bother me if people keep asking the same question over and over again. I'll just try to explain it further x)

Wait whaaat?! ....

 

I'm pretty sure this is the closest to off topic doll I own. Say hello to Nellie, she'll STARE INTO YOUR SOUL and be cute and guard my bag. If you look closely you can see me in her eye.


Well....well...I have cute pet spiders all over my window! *w*

Spoiler: Say hello to Börje. He's shy.

But then of course this house is owned by four cats.


Fluffy the FLOOF!


Snorkfröken, the adorable treehugger!


Winston, daughter of Fluffy. She's the funny one.


Then there's the black one but he's usually like a shadow. (this is like the only photo I have of him as an adult)


I used to have a cat named Nike, but unfortunately there was an accident and we had to put her down three years ago. She's the sister to Fluffy and like Fluffy she would have turned 10 years old 30 September this year if she was still alive. But she's my little angel cat now

Pocca. I already have her
On a more serious note I don't really have a grail doll. I want a fairyline body for my incoming centaur and a few pukifees, but other than that I don't really have any grail dolls ~ I kind of wish there was a BJD spider like Börje though. That would be my grail (I know there are spiders but I want them to look just like Börje and his family. Or like a sand spider, I like those too. I like spiders.)

 

@Akara I have some kind of nightmare disorder and a lot of really horrifying things happen regularly in my dream world.

 

Huh...I never ever dream stuff like that. My dreams are mostly just funny ones Unless I'm looking for something. I can never seem to find what I'm looking for. Those happen now and then, and when I wake up I'm all frustrated because I couldn't find what I was looking for

 

Chokolate or strawberries? Of course I'm thinking the best strawberries and the best chocolate.

Dustbunnie

 

@CloakedSchemer

I have Blythes and Kikipops and an Eve Pet doll, but I used to be an action figure collector before BJDs (most of the cast of Buffy is boxed up in my attic, haha), so my favorite off topic doll is a nerdy 1/6 scale figure. This is Ankh, from Kamen Rider OOO. (And a pretty old picture, but this is apparently the only one I've taken of him by himself. )



And I have two ragdolls and two westies. The cats are photographed more often because they'll sit still where one of my dogs runs from the camera like it's going to steal her soul and the other rushes towards it because he can't seem to understand that us trying to get him to look at it isn't us asking him to come over.

This is Sasha, our old man cat. He moved across the country with us!



This is Chloe, queen of the world. She wakes me every morning by stomping all over me.



Daisy, who did not realize the camera was there so she looks happy.



And Winston pretending he is a calm, majestic dog. That is a lie.




@AnnoDomini

I've gotten some terribly wrapped (or not wrapped, really) dolls over the years too. Plastic shopping bags or newspaper can flesh out a package, but they don't replace bubble wrap, people! But I also think anyone who should tick that box isn't the type to even realize it's an issue, so you can never tell. (I do believe anyone who says they'll hound you for feedback though, haha. )

@stormi

I consider a grail doll to be one that you have to really "quest" to obtain, so I don't really have one. I had a doll that I considered my grail because I waited for the company to release a mold in tan that I wanted for his character for years, but I recently fell completely out of love with him and sold him so I hesitate to label anything else a grail. (Although if Little Rebel hadn't taken pity on me and let me jump onto Sarang's preorder at the last minute back in the fall I'd probably be desperately searching for a Sarang right now, so maybe that's all circumstance.)

@Dustbunnie

I think they're best when they join forces!