ShinyDOLL Discussion thread II

I only managed to find one photo hit on Flickr from someone who seemed to owned the same doll in 2014, so that sounds probable. How intriguing! I happened to buy her on Mandarake...oops! I shall report back when she has arrived. I suspect she needs a good scrub and restringing, judging by the photos.

This is the only owner photo I found. I hope it's ok that I link to someone else's photo.
Shinnydoll by blytheboy77, on Flickr

ETA: Finally found her on the Shinydoll website in the owner gallery! Thank you for the name, that made it a lot easier to search.
I downloaded the photos to my own Flickr for future reference. Here is one of them.

Spoiler: image 2

 

I'd love to see photos when you get her! I always found the sculpt appealing, but it just never seemed to suit any of the doll characters I had in mind, so I never bought one.

 

I think the default face-up doesn't do her justice at all, especially the eyebrows. So it will be interesting to just wipe that and try something else.

Lol, I feel like an archaeologist now, buying the very first sculpt! I wonder how old it actually is.

 

She's certainly one of his earliest sculpts. I'm not sure when he started making dolls, but he joined Den of Angels in around 2005. I'm guessing your doll is older than that, and I think he probably did the face-up. He offered face-ups with his dolls at first, then stopped doing them.

 

Eeep! She's arrived in my country and customs are inspecting her...

 

How exciting! Post pictures when you get her.

 

She's here!
And she's just precious in person. I will admit that her face-up looked terrible in the photos from Mandarake, but in real life it's not that bad. She still needs a good clean and maybe restringing, but look at her!
Out of the box and with the wig that she was sent with.

I tried on a Leekeworld 8/9 wig and it fit very well, so her head is smaller than Akali's. (Or Leekeworld wigs are off in size these days.)

Spoiler: image 2

The inside of the head says "SN23 Thaasa ©2003" and further in "Shin's pathway".

Spoiler: image 3

Sisters!
My Akali is probably white skin, while Cocone is both very old but perhaps also normal?
Her skintone looks very warm and natural, though.

Spoiler: image 4

Toesies! You can tell she is a little dirty.

Spoiler: image 5

 

Your Conone is beautiful. I think she's normal skin. I bought my first Shinydoll in 2005, and I don't think white skin was offered until a little later. It's possible yours has yellowed a little, but she still looks great.

 

I honestly can't believe my luck.
I will be giving her a bath and wiping the face-up today. It will be interesting to see if her stringing is as old as she is, which I doubt. But I have ordered new elastic, just in case.

 

Cleaning day!
I found some interesting details on the inside.
Her eyes were hot glued in place!


There were no knots on the elastic, but instead they were wrapped with metallic thread. Seems sturdy enough and the elastic doesn't need to be replace, so I'm keeping them as is.

Spoiler: image 2

But boy, was she dirty!

Spoiler: image 3

You could really tell which parts had been exposed to daylight also, but overall I think her yellowing look natural. Some of it also seemed to be just general dirt. There's no smell on her, so not from smoke, but perhaps from being in a house with less good ventilation? This is a before photo of her headcap and a hand.

Spoiler: image 4

All of the pieces, except the head, drying after the first bath. I might give some parts another go and use magic eraser on them also.

Spoiler: image 5

 

It's me again!
Sorry for all the spam.

I wiped her face-up yesterday and started on a new one today.
Because her eyes are very slanted, I am trying to compensate that a little bit by adding more eye-shadow and eye-liner at the outer edges. I also want to make her eyebrows are little more realistic.
But the interesting thing is that I think she's meant to have teeth showing. I have never done a face-up with teeth before, so that will be a challenge!

Spoiler: image 2

 

@toveb I love following your journey with Conone- what a fabulous find! Esp. love your "parts" pics of the Thaasa body, I remember taking Tuyen's body apart and marveling over the beautiful sculpting of all the pieces...it was also the first doll's stringing I had seen that was held together with metal clamps. Do you by any chance have a link you could share to Shin-san's owner gallery? I can't seem to find it anywhere. Do you think you will keep her sculpt name or choose another?

 

Thank you!

The site is still around, although I suspect inactive and may go down soon-ish if Mr Shin isn't able to keep the domain up and running, other than for historical reasons. The latest activity seems to have been in 2014. Here it is: http://shinydoll.akiba.coocan.jp/ShinyDoll/
I think that if you want reference photos of all his sculpts, it's probably a good idea to save those from the gallery while they are still there.

Her name will be Etsuko, btw. I prefer giving my dolls their own name once they join my household. I'm considering getting her a different wig, but we'll see once I finish her face-up.

Interesting details about her head: the face was full of tiny scratches. I am unsure if it's from being old and her previous owner wasn't careful with her, or if it's from sanding her during production. She also had one chip in her left eye, but I don't think it will show that much eventually. I didn't notice it until I removed her face-up.

 

Not entirely happy with this yet. And also, she has no eyebrows or eyelashes, but you get the general idea.
I think I will redo with more brown shadow instead of the black, which seems a bit harsh to me.
What do you think?

Spoiler

 

I like Etsuko's look- the smokey eye softens her, very nice! And I like black, Shinydolls tend to be dramatic (well mine does lol). But I'm sure brown would look sweet also. Thanks for the link, unfortunately it doesn't work for me, maybe because I'm Down Under? I do remember coming across a link to his owner gallery somewhere...*goes off to search*

 

Sorry, I seem to have forgotten or missed that I could only post one visible image per post!
Also to say that work on face-ups has been stalled because of weather and work load (irl, blah blah). I hope to finish her soon, though!

 

@toveb, what an exciting find, can't wait to see more

I'm still not happy with the faceups on my dolls either..
but right now not ideal to send any doll heads anywhere :/

 

Finally got around to upload these,
Aya back from the resin spa!
Arigatou gozaimasu, Shin-San!


2019-06-14-DSC09430 by miravisu, on Flickr

The rest of the album can be found here,
with some closeups of the new tabi feet

They did differ slightly from the rest of
her body, but no wonder since the doll
is some years old, and I was pre-warned
the new tabi feet (and legs/knees) could
have a different tone due to this.
But no biggie, especially if she
wears tabi and/or clothes.

 

@miravisu I loved looking at your album, a Shinydoll box opening! They are a rare and valuable occurrence *sigh*. The Dandelion head looks great on that body, and I like the look of her ball jointed neck- does it give her mad pose-ability?

 

@Saba, thank you, and indeed,
given that Shin-san retired this was
something that was worth waiting for.
I do hope he and his family are ok
in these pandemic times!

I actually had no box for Aya when I sent
her off to Shin-san for a resin spa visit.
So he was aaaamazingly kind not only to
help with new parts, but also adjust stringing
to compensate for non-Shinydoll head etc,
and send me her back in a box

I do like her pose-ability, yes!
But can't vouch for how mad it
is just yet.. hehe!
I hope to get around to doing some
more proper photo shoots..
once I get more clothes done

I almost wish I had kept my Shinydoll
Fragille now. Seeing a Pricco, Fragille
and Thaasa is really wonderful sight.
And age-wise they could make a nice
Shichi-Go-San photo opportunity...

Now to try and hunt down some tabi
socks and/or get feet, or make them
myself, hmm! Or start on kosode..


What are yours and anyone else's
Shinydoll related doll projects right now?