Tuesday 30 November 2010

Appi-Moon

She’s yellow as the moon and face round as an apple. She’s taught me to see past her bald spots.... broken knee and bitten off foot. I did not dare ask how it happened in fear of hurting her 1972 ole heart.

I patiently cleaned her the best I knew how then, and gave her a partial saran reroot that was a shade darker than her original kenner frizz, it was really hard to find the exact shade back then! and I was desperate to cover her bald patches. She also lost her cliff chin from my lack of knowledge in sanding dolls some 8 years ago, but still continued to smile.

Appi-moon beside Padmini's perfect Blonde
Appi-moon before

I gave her brighter pink lips to ‘brighten’ her up only to realise it made her look tranney-ish when she yellowed again in later years. But she still continued to smile the best way she knew how.

As all Toy stories are told, they were played with, then stored away. Often forgotten as new toys came in... am guilty of that with her.

2 weeks ago, a close dolly friend of mine brought me her Blonde Kenner for a touch up and that made me take Appi-Moon out. Sadly, she had yellowed AGAIN.
Appi should really stop trying to turn chinese like me... hmmmss....

Anyway, for 1 whole week... I tried the simplest to the most completed methods of de-yellowing treatments on her... from using pearl drops... to using the good old novus polisher on her.
But alas.... she was in her terminal stage. :(

With other kenner gals... all yellow in sorrow (after 1.5 weeks of toothpaste n novus treatment)
Appi-moon before


Then it occured to me... why not give her a surface/superficial facelift.... yes kenner lovers out there.. you may hate me for what I’ve done to her... but like a comment I read from a restorer mentioned “just follow your heart in how U feel your doll should look.. ignore the negativity of the community” with that, I finally decided to match her to her very pinky original plastic like the Aiai-chan’s.... the only thing I decided to take the risk with was to give her pale lips ... like the Kenner prototype I lusted for online.

the 2 attempts for her new colours
Appi-moon's spray tan

Appi-moon's journey

I’ve also give her back her cliff chin and rerooted a little more blonde hair into her scalp. This time the colour & texture are loads closer to her original as it was from a clip of blonde hair purchased from a wig shop

So here she is.... again..... as fresh as she cld be from 1972..

Finally, Appi-moon

4 comments:

MartianMermaid said...

you did a great job on her. I love that you followed your heart.

frigginfuchsia said...

Thank you MartianMermaid, I do need to go get a semi-gloss finishing spray to finish her off though... she's loooooking tooo matte currently.. :(

Dollybird said...

She looks worlds better in my opinion and you should be proud of your work on her. I've never understood the whole reluctance to customise Kenners that are in a bit of a state. After all, they were originally dolls for children! Giving them a new faceup or a reroot if their own hair is a horrible mess is nothing to be ashamed of.

frigginfuchsia said...

Hi DollyBird... am glad I followed my heart too... I can't wait to tart styling her for shoots...

ps... I've finally got some semi-gloss spray over her and she seems to have gotten her little kenner glow back... : )