50–65cm Dolls Here there be dragons (Dream Valley 1/4 Griffin Dragon)

Nine months of waiting, four weeks of shipping, one hilariously badly timed delivery attempt and my dragon is finally here. I got a dragon for Christmas, fulfilling one of my childhood dreams.

The package was massive. I am generally bad at computing numbers to actual reality and I knew it would come in two parts with a lot of padding but I was not expecting the overall package to be that big (that's A3 paper). I don't know how you folks who get the big big dolls do it. I was startled.



I also massacred this unwrapping. I was the kid who would carefully open presents at the taped up bits, I still have pretty much all the wrappings for my other human dolls intact, just in case, but this guy was already poking through his before I got him fully unboxed. I was very impressed with Dream Valley's commitment to the mummification process, because it was thorough.









Initial impression, he's a chunky boy. An absolutely solid bit of resin. Even the spikes, which I was worried about, are pretty solid. He stands very well and I completely understand the back legs having a number of very set positions so moving them is very clicky, because they have to be rock solid. Also his little moving claws delight me



My only tiny tiny nitpicks are that I think I would have liked his head's faceup - as it were - to be a little more detailed. His teeth being red bugs me a bit, and it might have been nice if the brow ridge and nostrils were a little more detailed to make them pop. So I'll have to bite the bullet and do a little additional faceup work.



I am super impressed with the engineering of the wings. With the way they chose to do them, I do not think they could have been done better. But I also really want to make him a second pair of wings which are a bit more movable - he can't really tuck them low and close to the body, because of how the wing body joint works - and also lighter, with fabric for the membrane. I'm going to have to wire or something the wing joint closest to the body, which is just a tad floppy.

Naturally after such a long hard journey, he felt the need to curl up with a good book.



Overall, he's brilliant, I love him, I am ridiculously happy to get a dragon for Christmas and I am going to make him a Santa hat just as soon as I can. Now if only he would tell me his name.

 

A story in three photos




I hope this amuses you @cobaltconduct @Cryptid. I suppose I should be glad, the tag on the fabric said 'keep away from fire'

Thank you all for the congratulations. It was absolutely worth the wait

He's going to need a custom piece of furniture to sit/stand/lay in (not that I don't trust him to stand, but I'd rather be safe than sorry). It's going to be a hoard and I was thinking of traditional gold and gems but now I think it might be a book hoard - which also means I can make it more modular to reshape it as needed. They'll be fake books with foam instead of paper and leather scraps for the covers so they should be a nice balance of firm and soft.

This was legitimately like being a little kid on Christmas again. The past four weeks have draaaaaaaagged counting down to when he was going to arrive, trying to go to sleep the night before was hard and then I spent the entire day of his arrival getting steadily more and more excited (because when he shows up five minutes after I left it's at 10am, but when I'm at home sitting waiting for his redelivery attempt it's not until 4pm). Then I was left with a pile of wrappings and my newest possession.

The engineering on him is just stunning. He's my most expensive doll by far but honestly worth every penny and even with the needed touchups (I am currently debating between black teeth or white teeth), I'm glad I spent the extra to get him painted.

I've also had an idea for how to make the lighter fabric wings so they look similar to the current ones and I think it will work. I am going to experiment with that in January.

 

His purpose was mostly 'dragon, must have dragon', since he's a bit too small to work as a high dragon in that setting - although I probably will do some commemorative funny pictures once my Dragon Age BJD's are actually really done.

Since I got him, I think I want a 1/12th scale BJD to make him look appropriately massive. So I might find one that can be a mini-Lisette to take dragon fighting photos.

 

If I had the money and space, I would have got one of each and probably two or three blank ones. Still kind of hoping for a lottery win so I can have All The Dragons.

I'm sorry you were disappointed in your 1/6 blue/black, the company photos looked beautiful and picking between them was a nightmare. Best of luck in your search for a blank 1/4 (DenverDoll have some if you're in the US).

One weird thing I'm impressed with. Whatever glue, paint or sealant they used is very good at keeping the glitter in place. I was sort of expecting glitterpocalypse but that didn't really happen.

 

He really is, even if he is stubbornly remaining nameless as yet.