| APRIL O'NEIL
(FASHION DOLL)
PROJECT #252
CLASSIFICATION: KITBASH/REPAINT
BASE FIGURE: BARBIE BOUTIQUE (BRUNETTE)
MATERIALS USED: ACRYLIC PAINTS
FIRST CARTOON APPEARANCE: "TURTLE TRACKS" (TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA
TURTLES)
"I sat under a hair dryer for three hours
to get this look!"
Preamble: Back when I was trying to inject
some much-needed life into the minimal-traffic Ninja Turtles newsgroup, there
was a discussion concerning the action figure with rooted hair called "April,
the Ravishing Reporter" and whether it was a little too doll-like for male
collectors. I'm a huge fan of April O'Neil, but even I deliberately
passed that one up, back in the day. The discussion planted the seed,
however, of an idea of mine to customize a Barbie doll into April O'Neil,
an idea I found sufficiently perverse enough to actively pursue a few months
down the road.
Construction: For this project, I ended
up picking up a very basic Barbie for about three dollars at Wal-Mart. (I
looked for a cheap doll on eBay, but after taking shipping into consideration
and the fact that I'd still have to buy boots for the doll, this seemed
the best way to go.) This doll's hair was more or less the right color,
but it needed to be shorter, and I needed to style it somehow to more closely
emulate cartoon April's hairdo. I managed to find a doll customizing
site with tips on Barbie hair styling that did the trick rather nicely.
(After cutting and styling the hair, I ended up painting it with clear
gloss so it would permanently retain its shape.)
Before I created the outfit, I studied some of
my daughter's doll outfits to see how they were put together (I've made outfits
from scratch before, but I saw no reason not to take advantage of the resources
available to me). I decided to craft the pants and shirt separately
instead of trying to construct a one-piece jumpsuit, reasoning that this
would make it easier to test-fit parts of the outfit as needed. The
process went surprisingly well, considering that I made the entire outfit
by hand, despite being a novice with a sewing needle. I cheated slightly
in places by adding some stitching to serve as fake seam lines, and cheated
horrendously by wrapping the add-on elements (the hip pockets, knee pads,
and breast pockets) in thin cardboard before sewing the material in place,
thus helping those tiny little pieces of fabric retain the desired shape
while I attached them.
Then it was time to accessorize. Her watch
is actually the landing gear from a knockoff Aerialbot that's held in place
with a piece of rubber band. Her belt is also a rubber band with a
paper clip belt buckle and fabric belt loops attached to it. I
wish I had a video camera or something for her to hold, but none of the TMNT
accessories I have are big enough. (Besides, it's not like she can
carry anything with those useless little Barbie hands of hers.)
Comments: Like pretty much all Barbie
dolls, this one doesn't stand up too well unsupported, so I had to buy a
doll stand for her to put her on display. (Initially, I considered
painting a turtle shell deco or something on the base of the stand, but that
would require more effort than I'm willing to expend.) |
 |
