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want some dolls with your coffee?
Coffee tables can be anything from boring, too big, too small, painful corners, great storage, running all the way to unusual. But for families, coffee tables become even more: game time, train table, Lego central, movie night meals, etc. etc. But I’d never considered using one as a dollhouse before. Designed by Ulyanov Architects, this beauty of […]
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Monsterloons
The Legacy Collection: Fantastic Mr. Fox
Gotta Love Mixed Media Victorian Collage & Paper-clay Art Dolls

It should come as no surprise to all of you that I LOVE dolls of every shape, size, medium, type, season, and holiday, but Victorians have always been my favorite - especially faceless ones. Over the last 5 decades I've made all sorts of dolls and woodcraft's. Some were cloth only, some were wood only, some were a combination of cloth and wood, some were paper, some were even terra-cotta. Some had faces, some didn't.
It should also come as no surprise to all of you that I LOVE taking online classes - especially those offered from Artful Gathering. In fact, over the last three years I've taken 5 different kinds of classes at Artful Gathering and have written about all of them in the following Linda's Blog posts:
I've wanted to make some Victorian mixed media collage and paper-clay faced art dolls for quite some time. So, combining my love of dolls with my decades long experience with sewing and crafting and utilizing everything I've learned in my classes I decided now was the time to make these dolls. I tend to favor stump dolls and shelf sitters and knew these would be no exception.
I also wanted to utilize some of the molds I had bought several years ago when I was enthralled with goddess dolls. Given I never seem to have enough time for doing what I want to do right then and there my goddess dolls have sat on the back burner for several years - that is, until recently.
I decided this was the perfect time to make some Victorian wooden dolls - some with paper-clay faces, some with paper-clay mannequin faces, some with paper faces. Their outfits could be a combination of fabric, lace, paper, creative embroidery embellishments, ribbon silk floral, beads, etc.
I also wanted to utilize some of the alpaca yarn my sister, who is the owner of Rock Garden Alpacas Fiber, had given me for their hair. I had some alpaca yarn fiber from Cosmo, Zinnia, Sunflower, Ivy, and Masquerade. All was hand-spun, but some she had single plyed and some she had Navajo plyed.
When I was doing a little cleaning of my craft area several weeks ago I found some 3/4" wood shelf sitter shapes that my husband had cut out for me a few years ago. I had intended to make a painted figure of some sort out of them and decided to create two witches with paper-clay faces which I wrote about in a post entitled " Who Doesn't Love Witches? My New Hildegarde Ann and Hildegarde Brie Mixed Media Collage Art Dolls With Paper-clay Faces."
I was happy with the way my shelf sitter witches turned out so I decided to make a bunch of templates of different shapes and sizes that my younger brother and husband could use for cutting the wood dolls that I wanted to make. Since I never do anything in moderation I ended up with several templates - okay, make that lots of templates utilizing different lengths, widths, and depths of wood. It took us a long time to draw, cut and sand the wood pieces. By the time we were finished I had 41 dolls to make. I told you I never do anything in moderation!
After working on my dolls for what seemed like weeks on end I'm happy to report they are done. It took a long time and was a lot of work, but I'm happy with the results. I'll be posting about them over the next few days so stay tuned.
DST's final Select Universal Monsters possibly at a Toys "R" Us near you
Diamond Select Toys recently released packaged images of its Toys "R" Us-exclusive configurations for its Select The Creature from the Black Lagoon, Son of Frankenstein, and Van Helsing figures, all of which may be at your local TRU at this very moment.
As with previous TRU versions, the exclusives have fewer accessories than the specialty shop configurations and are (in theory) sold at a cheaper price point. The Gillman, for instance, has a smaller base that doesn't facilitate his swimming poses (as does the normal version). Frankenstein's Monster loses his large laboratory base in exchange for a fake arm prop. However, Van Helsing probably suffers the most for losing that wickedly awesome vampire grave base.
All things considered, if you want a Van Helsing you're much better off with the comic (and specialty) shop version. The same might be true for the Creature since the mountable swimming base is pretty awesome (and shows off all that additional swimming articulation), but both versions of Frankenstein's Monster are about equally solid. It really comes down to a matter of preference.
These figures *should* have a US$15 MSRP but your Toys "R" Us may vary (I know mine always does). This puts them US$10 cheaper than the MSRP for the comic shop versions although, in most cases, the online shops never charge that full amount anyway. As such, the difference between the TRU version and the comic shop one could be as little as US$3 (and the fact that one is already out). Given that these aren't currently listed on the TRU website, you'll need to check your local retailer.
set database: LEGO 301 curved road plates
set name: curved road plates
theme: town, baseplate, basic
year: 1978
pieces: 2
price: us$na
minifig: none
nice town set.
the baseplate size is 32x32 studs.
released similar as 552 curved road plates by LEGO in 1979.
overall design is great.
must have for town lovers.

Skylanders Mini Clay Buddies
ToyTalk - Toy news, reviews and buying advice
Giromax has extended its range of Mini Clay Buddies by jumping into the world of Skylanders.
Bob Conge’s Toxic Candy Vertebrata
Tokyo Photo Walk 2014/09
Calling all Frozen fans
ToyTalk - Toy news, reviews and buying advice
New from KDUK, fans of the hit Disney film, Frozen, can now call up their favourite characters for a chat anytime.
Lego Jurassic World sets might be coming in the near future
Chris Pratt does a pretty good job of bringing joy to people's faces, whether it's rapping Eminem's part from "Forgot About Dre," his on-screen roles in Guardians of the Galaxy, The Lego Movie and Parks and Recreation, or apparently, leaking that we might be getting Lego Jurassic World sets. The latter of those three happened during the recent Empire Film Podcast episode, where Pratt revealed that his Jurassic World character, Owen, would be getting a mini-figure, too.
Specifically, Pratt said he had approved the look for Owen's mini-figure recently, but didn't have any other info. As the folks at BrickFanatics.co.uk noted, Hasbro currently has the Jurassic Park license via their Kre-O line, but the license is supposed to expire at the end of this year. It's all a bit of speculation at this time, as Lego could always decide to scrap the project, but I'm curious to see how they'll handle the dinosaurs myself. How about you?
[via BrickFanatics.co.uk]
Toys “R” Us Bolsters Leadership Team to Drive TRU Transformation Strategy
The 2011 Thundercats were better than we deserved
A lot of discussion in regards to action figure presence in a retail environment these days operates off of a common theme of “missed opportunities”. Either retail shelves are flooded with an early wave of undesirable product, key characters are missing, toy design itself is compromised, or distribution can’t get the figures that collectors (and kids) want. […]
Action Figure Fury - Action Figure and Toy News, Reviews, and More!
The 2011 Thundercats were better than we deserved
The 2011 Thundercats were better than we deserved
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Reprolabels September Update - Movievese, Generations, MMC Predacon, Steecore, and Giveaway!
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a new way to shop for everything
I’m excited about today’s feature, because I think it’s a sign of things to come. As bloggers we’re always looking for the next wave, and when it comes to shopping through blogs, I think I may have found it. Today I want to introduce you to Bringhub, and a couple of perfect fashion picks from […]
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