Before I jump right back into the life of my failest doll I figured I might try to explain the number system....It has to do with when my five (technically four, but I'll explain that too) Kara Klums exist in the timeline that is Alex, not with when I bought them, though up until 2.5 I was lucky in that they were bought in that order anyway.
Alex I (1 - I use Roman Numerals because I can) Plain, normal Dollmore Kara Klum NS, Blond - the only version available to me when I bought him: Happens to be my first doll but is the youngest of the Adult Alexes. In my head he would be Alex from about his early 20's to 200.
Alex II (2) - Thinking Kara Klum NS, Blond: 200 – maybe around 300ish. He almost dies and ends up...not so healthy. Which is why this one gets the sickly face...
Alex 2.5 - Thinking Kara Klum NS, Blond: 300ish – 497 (which is when he dyes his hair green/purple): Zombie Apocalypse, other stuff, bad things. Yeah. This one gets a lot of crap...but doll-wise I consider him almost interchangeable with II which is why he's 2.5 and not III or V....
Alex III (3) - Cold Heartbroken Kara Klum LE WS, Green/Purple: 497 – 500. Which is the end. What I consider to be the "Current" Alex as this is the time when Forgotten Children takes place.
Almost all of my dolls "exist" in this span of time, so in the profiles, he's Alex, the others are listed separately as the Past.
Alex IV (4) - Cold Heartbroken Thinking Kara Klum LE WS, Long Blond: This is the complicated one as it's not really Alex, it's Azrael who I think should be the same mold because I say it's so. But as a Kara Klum he automatically is Alex. I call him both. I never said I made sense.
Alex II and 2.5 are in a state of transition right now, but they all have their numbers on their left hands....The reason I started this numbering thing, wasn't for me at all, it was for everyone else. I know, who cares, right? Believe it or not, people care. :|
As I started accumulating Kara Klums and calling them all Alex I got a lot of comments from people in the area. Mostly "but which one
is this?" There were actual arguments and whining and I got a little tired of trying to explain myself....and so Alex II (the concept, since at the time he was the one that is now III) was born. There was more confusion after I switched II to III when The Head got his own body, so I started numbering their hands.
As I (1) will demonstrate for you in this craptastic photo taken when he turned 3 years old....
They all had them, til the recent body mix-up. Now 2.5 is labeled as II. GOOD GOD THE CONFUSION!
The sad thing is,
I don't need the numbers. I know
when they are, and that's what matters....but try ignoring questions asked face-to-face as opposed the internets and you'll see why I differentiate.
And still I have people looking at Alex III and trying to tell me "
That's not Alex!" When he's really
the Alex because 11 and a half years ago when I thought him up he had green and purple hair!! The blond came later *bangs head against the wall*
This is all Dollmore's fault btw. If they had released the WS version a year earlier, III would have been my first and possibly only. But what can y'do? :\
Now that you've all died from the insanity and/or boredom, I'll pick up where I left off...with stupid Doll Chateau.
So after 3 months (not a bad wait at all) my DC Youth body showed up. Originally I thought I'd put 2.5 on it, but the more I thought about it, I decided Alex II should be on it, as he's the sickly(est) of the Alexes. When it was FINALLY delivered at freaking 8 pm the night before I left for Austin, I did a quick head switch...I'm not sure what to think about it.
First, the measurements are epically wrong. I mean for real.
Doll Chateau's measurements
Height:60cm(include head)
Shoulder width: 9.7cm
neck size: 7.4cm
Arm length: 20cm
Breast size:21.8cm
Waist size: 18cm
Hip size: 25cm
Leg length: 32.5cm
Thigh width: 12.6cm
Feet length: 6.8cm
Dollmore Adam measurements (as taken by me)
Waist: 19
Low on hips: 21
Leg (all the way from foot to hip ball): 33
Largest part of the thigh (circumference): 14
Chest: a smidge over 24
Shoulders: 12 across
Torso:18 (tall)
Neck (circumference): 9
arm from wrist to shoulder: 19
and height: 58cm (or possibly 57.5, I like to round up)
Going by these, I thought I might have a problem with him being bobbleheaded, since DM has very broad shoulders for his size. I figured he'd be way skinnier too, given what I read...and only about 2cm taller than the usual Alex, which could be dealt with if he never wore boots....
Yeeeeah. DC will give DM a run for it's money as far as crappily measuring their dolls goes.
This guy is a giant.
Omg look how skinny his legs are!! He makes the Dollmore legs look chunky XD
As you can see, without a head, he's damned near 58cm tall. WITH a head...I have no idea, because by the time I measured him at 62-63 I'd taken a significant amount off his neck, which is super-long. You cannot tell me that DC heads are 2cm big. That's not remotely possible.
again, before I did any mods.
Now, with at least a cm off his neck, he's as tall as
David. I can't have that. I'm taking another cm at least off his neck again, and hopefully that's enough to make some kind of difference...Otherwise...I'm not sure what there would be in "otherwise" tbh.
Oh, and I need not have worried about shoulder width...
9cm my ass. Try 12. The same as Dollmore...which is good for proportion, but still really wrong. His waist is bigger too, and chest about the same. SO at least he can wear Alex's wardrobe with no issues...actually most of the clothes fit him better =_= though because the pants don't hang on him like on Dollmore, they're too short. I cannot win.
His hands and feet are tiny (again, compared to DM which is what I'm used too, they aren't too bad otherwise), he's wearing MSD shoes atm, the hand thing may bother me in the future (I draw hands and feet big so to me Alex should have larger hands and feet) but right now I'm trying not to worry about it...I'm more concerned about his legs which will not spread at all. When he sits his knees stay together and that's pretty much it, he can't spread them apart. It bugs me. Sometimes it's cute, but srsly, Alex is a man (even if he doesn't look like it) and does not sit like a girl. I took the ledge off the hip sockets, making them rounder, but that didn't do anything (positive or negative, so I didn't lose anything at least). I'm not sure what to try next.
Oddly enough, with all my whiney complaints, I
like it. I don't like it next to my other dolls, but for a stand-alone Alex, it's perfect. I mean, this is how I draw him! Hip-bones sticking out all over the place, kinda pathetic and girly-looking. It's perfect! It can't pose like DM does, which to me = bad, but that's because I am used to the natural grace the Adams have...and once I restrung his arms which were so tight I couldn't get his hands off and had to cut the string, they pose
so much better...so there's that at least. The lock on his chest is useless so he can't slouch (which must be fixed, I don't deal well with non-slouchers) but I haven't tried sueding him yet. I think it just needs some getting used too.
But he's still too tall. Which brings me to my newest Alex II dilema.
Since the color diff between my ancient DM heads and the new DC is so huge, I new I'd have to give II a new faceup...Instead of diving right in I did something Ive never done before and drew a mock-up.
Yay! I liked it, and so attempted to recreate it on Alex II
I gotta say, it might be my favorite one so far. It's super-pale and the color just won't show up perfectly in photos (at least not the ones I took today) but I think it works. He looks awful, which was the goal, and kind of
real which is creepy and the more I look at him I find things I hate, like how I drew the lip lines crooked, or the line that appeared at his eyelid crease, or the fact that he needs new eyelashes because these are bent up like a mother! AND I am totally stupid and got so into the faceup I forgot the most important thing, which was to freaking blush the head to match the body!!!! So he STILL does not match!
UGH BE RIGHT DAMN YOU! but for now I'm good with it....
Except that he's so freaking tall.
My first thought was, switch heads again, put II back on the old body and 2.5 on this one to be a new Alex that does not "socialize" with my other dolls. Which would be great if I didn't already do this faceup I like and
in my head - which lets face it, is not a right place - belongs on the skinny Doll Chateau body.
So now I don't know what to do with him. He's lucky he's so cute, cause otherwise there is a box with his name on it that he could go in until I forget I own him (literally, I recently labeled all my doll boxes with their names X0 here's hoping I never sell any of them!). I'm hoping I'll magically figure it all out when I mod more neck off, but for now he's not going near the others. Which is sad because he really looks...well decent.
I might sand the chest a little too....why the hell not, I'm already modding it into nonrecognition!
Now I need to clean the other Adam body (the one in the above piccies) and get to opening mouths, and hey, if I kill that KK head trying to open its mouth, I can buy a new one who might possibly match the DC body, so I'll get the stress of messing with them again :D :D :D
D:
Dear god lets hope not. As if I need 6. Because you know I'd never get rid of the one I ruin, I'd just mess with it more until I decided it needed a new body.
It's an addiction. At least I know this.
Kind of a bleh end to my craziness, but this is the doll-drama I like to deal with, as opposed to the kind that makes people "leave the hobby". I guess my brand is a little less stressful. Though more frustrating because knowing Alex II, I have a good month or so out of this faceup before it starts to flake or crack or just fall off of him.
Actually, who wants to take bets that I'll change his eyelashes and ruin him myself? Because that's totally the pattern.
Well, to those of you who actually followed this nuttiness, thanks! :D I hope you at least managed to get a good eyeroll out of it!
