Soom's Northerly Breeze (the kit version)

In case you didn't know, Northerly Breeze was a re-imagining of the White Rabbit, and I was SO HAPPY when I saw the NB promo, because I was too poor to buy the Rabbit when he was first released, and I had fallen in love with his cute little face. I like antlers anyway . So I ordered him in white, in kit form to save a little money so I could spend it instead on a faceup, and I am so glad I did--his faceup is a million times more perfect than I could paint.

The kits usually come loose in bubble wrap in the shipping box; and as I had ordered an extra wig and eyes I was nervous about the small things migrating out of the box-- so I ordered a zip bag and put in the comment box the request to put his bits inside the zip bag, to keep them safe. And Soom decided to go even better--they sent him in a real inside Soom box! If you buy the kits, I recommend getting the zip bags--they are less than 20.00 and that way even if soom just includes them, instead of stuffing things inside of it, it's another layer of padding in the shipping box. Plus they are handy for storage and carrying.



He's still in pieces, but the inner box kept everything safe and together. Soom also did another great thing on this order--they gave me a heads up about 2 weeks in advance that he'd be a little delayed, but shipped on the 10th of April--and he was shipped on the 10th of April! I don't know about you, but if I have a solid date, even if it's like 2025, I can wait much more patiently. Anyway, the first thing I did was to root around for his little head and put in the eyes...



I like those eyes in him, but I wanted something that fit flush to the eyewells, and the domes on the special eyes pressed a little on the lashes, so I swapped them for some 14mm glass eyes from Denver Doll:



Yep, he's secretly a Rabbit (or a Western Jackalope, with the horns):




Then I laid everything out so that I could be sure I had opened all the little bubble wrapped pieces:




You might notice that there are no hooks anywhere--the new body uses the resin "banana" in the head, and the hands and feet have resin attachments. You get three strings: a long one to go around the inside of one leg, through the hip and down the other leg. A second shorter string for the arms, and a third one that goes from the pelvis to the head:



I have put together three of these new bodies so I have figured out the best way to deal with the leg string is to string the legs up, with the legs as far apart as I can get them, pull the string tight, then take a hemostat, clip the elastic ends together and then sew the ends together instead of knotting them. That way the knot doesn't end up above the knee or jammed in the pelvis, which makes one leg buckle. I also am willing to do this because I have extra elastic I keep here in case I make a mistake. I still had to fuss the legs, because I got one of the inside pelvis pieces in upside down and it took me a while to figure it out.

And here are the magnets for the horns. Wow, those are big. They were also hard to pry apart:



Haha and of course I glued one in backwards, in spite of marking them--you can't glue in both of the inside magnets in the headcap at the same time, because they want to hop out and glue themselves to each other, and usually I put the opposing magnet on the outside of the cap while I glue the inside one, just to keep the inside magnet in place. This time I got distracted and swapped the polarities--luckily I had used gorilla glue, which takes a while to dry, so I was able to pop it out with a metal letter opener. A sticky business. But here he is with horns, and strung together!



And with a shirt and a friend, a hybrid Impldoll/Sphaler.



Two shy guys!

I wasn't a fan of the old male body, with it's skinny arms, so I really like the new male body--as long as it has the Easy Pose piece. It sits and stands really well for me, and I love how it looks. Once I figured out to get rid of the leg knot, the legs aren't floppy, either. For some reason, all the dolls I have gotten directly from Soom have been sanded pretty smooth too--either I am spoiled or I tend to order the less-popular dolls, so they have time to finish them the way they like. In either case, I feel spoiled.

Thanks for stopping by!

 

vicemageThank you and also thank you so much for that tip! I will do that on the next one, because I have been putting off placing horns on another doll because it's such a chore. And I have painter's tape!
ShaySuger I prefer the old way of stringing because it's so much easier to get the tension right. On the other hand this method takes less strength in my arms and it's less likely to damage the head or neck, since the elastic that holds the head on isn't under much tension. So I guess there are good things about both ways. Thank you too!
AmberLeigh I'm guessing yours should come soon! And I hope they include an inner box for you as well--it seems a lot safer for the small parts. How are you styling yours?

 

derilan85 thank you! I think if this had been the first time I saw this body I would have been o.0. Luckily I bought the Tremo when the new body was introduced and I took it all apart to look at it and see how it went together. Lots of new parts. It still took a tip from nancy_schroeder_ca for me to figure out how the pin on the elbow peanut is supposed to work. Soom spent a lot of time thinking about how it could work and look better, and it definitely looks better now. The Easy Pose piece makes a huge difference in how easy it is to string, too. Sewing the elastic together I did by hand, because I have a wimpy machine and also I put the ends together like this -- , which means a lot of basically weaving the needle back and forth to grab both the casing and the inner elastic threads and do it enough so it won't pull apart...it ends up looking like a small hairball

 

Sianserais thank you! Once he has clothes I will spam him more
Sharosudo I put one down on my stove once as I was opening a box and it took me about 3 minutes to get it back up again :0

 

And he has antlers Thank you, cat^..^

 

Wade I love those lashes too-- I'm still hunting around for loose ones for another head, and thank you too!

 

Develin I liked those eyes a lot, but they didn't fit quite right--which is a first for me with soom eyes in a soom doll! But thank you so much--I love those fantasy sets too!

 

BlitheFool thank you! Yes, I wasn't a fan at all at first, but now that I have used the new bodies, I like them better than the old bodies. I think the new stringing puts less pressure on the joints.

oriscany I would love to see a Quartz in person--I didn't like the factory faceup so I passed on him and now I have a tiny, tiny regret. But Mr. Bun is such a cutie, I'm glad I went ahead and bought him. Soom can't make any more dolls this year I like, though Thank you too!

 

Xerbius thank you too!