SAILOR MOON WANDS CAN GASHAPON SET REVIEW

Finally completed the Bandai Sailor Moon Wands Can Gashapon set so here is my review! I bought them from Ebay in sets of 4 over several months.

They came in opaque pink plastic bags without the cans. These wands are also repackaged in boxes sold individually in the US. I'm pretty sure they are the exact same thing.

I paid about US$26 to $29 per set, including shipping. They originally retail for 500yen each in the machines.

These are miniatures, not life-sized. They are made of lightweight plastic and are inexpensive display toys which require simple assembly and come with a transparent stand each. They contain small parts.

Set 1 includes Sailor Mars & Mercury's Transformation Wands, Sailor Moon's Moon Stick and the Cutie Moon Rod. They were released in Nov 2014.

Closeup of Mars and Mercury. The bottles are just sitting in the holders and will certainly fall out if you decide to do some twirling! They may also slip out when tilted.

The bottles are filled with coloured water and glitter. The caps do not open and are glued shut, the glitter tends to stick to the walls of the bottle. The stars slide over the caps with a C-shaped fastener. These are not tight and will remove easily.

Back view. They don't look as nice as the fronts and are no frills.

The stands are a nice addition for displaying the wands, however they are quite flimsy! Most of the wands tend to fall off the stands when wobbled or held, as they are not tightly secured or heavy enough. This may seem trivial, but I've toppled the wands many times which is very annoying to say the least.

The Moonstick is my fave. However, the lousy stand came loose again and the stick fell onto my floor and badly nicked the crescent's gold. The gold does not hold up well and is very thinly applied. These are just gachapon standards so keep in mind they are like children's toys grade; kitschy, and for fun only!

The faceted globe on the top has an iridescent coat. It looks to be glass. Good thing I didn't crack it!

The goldtone plating on the crescent was not perfect when I received it initially. The surface was scuffed and dull on some areas, and a gold-polishing cloth did not buff it off. It could be from shipping or the packaging process so that is another thing you should expect, unless they were in the boxed form.

Back view.

The nicks on my moonstick... sigh. Keep them in a cabinet and don't ever touch them again and they'll be alright.

For some reason the gold started wearing down at that corner (left side) of the Cutie Moon Rod, revealing white!

I really don't know how that happened, so that's another piece ruined!! You can't see the flaws before unpacking as they are in opaque bags. Maybe you will have better luck!

Set 2 includes Sailor Jupiter and Venus' Transformation Wands, Sailor Moon's Heart Moon Rod and Moon Kaleidoscope. They were released in Feb 2015.

Venus and Jupiter's wands are similarly made to Mars and Mercury's except the bottles are filled with coloured sand.

Again, the caps are glued shut. I noticed the goldtone on the symbols tend to scuff and are a bit patchy.

These are cute.

Back view.

Heart Moon Rod (Spiral Heart Moon Rod).

A size comparison.

The translucent pink wings can be moved a little bit manually. The 'buttons' don't actually press.

The kaleidoscope effect part is made of prism stickers sealed behind the plastic.

Set 3 includes Sailor Neptune, Uranus and Pluto's Lip Rods and Sailor Chibimoon's Pink Moon Stick. They were released in April 2015.

I prefer they include Saturn! Apologies to Chibiusa's fans but yeah give me Saturn anytime.

Obviously this set would appear more coordinated if it was all the outer senshis, but I guess Chibiusa is more popular than Saturn? Or Saturn's lip rod is just too obscure it doesn't deserve a release?
So will there be a Saturn wand after all, since the set is incomplete?

Back view.

I like the planets they are nice, fat and shiny. Sorry I separated Neptune and Uranus lol. Pluto's wand is the silver one. Some fan-made cosplay Pluto wands are painted purple or gray, possibly due to the anime.

This set has no major problems except for this FINGERPRINT on the glaze! Someone at the factory didn't wear gloves hmm?

The lipstick is made entirely of plastic. It retracts, but is a bit stiff and wobbly.

Chibimoon's Pink Moon Stick is okay, but pales in comparison to Sailor Moon's.

 

Very tempted to get the compacts now! I do not have space for the entire wands set so I only put the Sailor Moon ones up.

In conclusion, the pros are: they are affordable and cute, and for someone who wants a wand set in a good display size. The cons are: the quality is lacking, and a serious collector may not like the cheap plastic material and accents.

COLLEEN COLOURED PENCILS REVIEW

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year! What did you do on New Year's Eve? Well I made a short video demo with Colleen coloured pencils if you ever wondered about how they perform. Yup while the fireworks were going off in the horizon lol.

Colleen pencils are considered student's grade within the low price range, and are mostly used by childen in Asia. Since colouring books are quite popular now, adults and even artists worldwide are starting to discover them. They used to be made in Japan but are currently based in Thailand, of which the quality feels the same. You can get them on Amazon or Ebay.

They are much waxier, smoother and softer than my other pencils like say... the Luna Staedlers which I had as a child. I don't know exactly how good they are for professional work, because colour pencils are not my forte and I have never tried out professional grade pencils. I DO know I have a soft spot for them as they had the cutest, prettiest packaging back in the 70s-80s and all the cool kids had them in school because they were pricey back then, even the ones in default orange cartoon cardboard packaging. My absolute faves are the ones with shoujo illustrations on tin.

https://www.etsy.com/sg-en/listing/215603558/vintage-1984-little-twin-stars-sanrio
by Lemonshortbread on Etsy


Takahashi Macoto's shoujo girls were featured on many of the boxes. Can you tell why I am biased much?!

https://www.etsy.com/sg-en/listing/247546167/vintage-colleen-japanese-makoto-1980s
by PreppyPastel on Etsy


One of my fave shops on Etsy!

https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/240463119/vintage-cute-japan-rare-macoto-t-art
by GGdolls on Etsy.


This was the one I've used before in kindergarten or sunday school, unfortunately it wasn't mine but school property. All I did was stare at the packaging, I am not kidding.

This is a very cool site if you love vintage shoujo!
http://www.harapekodoggybag.com/vintage-macoto-takahashi-makoto-lady-12-color-pencils-colleen-stationery-retro-girl-big-eyes-1970.html

Think I've strayed off topic, anyhow I will post another more in-depth text review. Hope you enjoyed the video anyhow, 'like' and subscribe on youtube if you wish!

WINTER SNOW MUFF SHOUJO COLOURED

Here's wishing everyone Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy New Year and a better 2016 ahead for everyone!

I finally coloured this older digi stamp image titled 'Winter Muff Shoujo' from last year, she is one of the more popular images - though I am not sure why. Anyhow, this shoujo is coloured with markers, coloured pencils and pastels on normal cartridge paper. The trees are coloured pencils and the pink sky is an overlay in Photoshop.

She is available here: https://www.etsy.com/sg-en/listing/210116641/winter-snow-muff-shoujo-digital-stamp

Everything is currently backlogged as I have an infected finger since months ago, and it seems I am allergic to my cellphone or the phone case too (recurring blisters on my fingers and palm) so can't work as fast as I should with listing items on my vintage shop. And I am helping out a friend with selling, and my aunt as well. And I had a nasty flu that put me out of work for over a week but thankfully it is almost gone now.

I will be working on an Autumn Shoujo series after some occasion-specific themes. Also *maybe* a youtube vlog; except editing videos takes a lot of time and my computer does not have space for vids nor do I have proper setups for shooting videos. So I may end up sticking to traditional blog tutorials. We will see.

And yes, I have an anonymous youtube channel since several years ago (list types), I made it for cataloging and to test out iMovie. Don't ask which username, I prefer to keep it anonymous and don't really care for it lol. Yes it is very nerdy, everyone thinks the channel owner is a he for some reason. Maybe I would have continued if the vids were not automatically taken down even though they were under 'fair use'! I am sick of disputing that with youtube so yeah let's just leave it at that.

2 MERMAID ON ROCKS DIGI STAMPS

My second mermaid shoujo-styled digital stamp or colouring page titled 'Mermaid on a Rock'. I made the background plain so you can either have her sitting out of the water (like at a beach or surf) or have her under water by adding seaweed and sea elements. By decorating her tail with some embellishments like sequins or glitter, I think she might turn out quite a stunner for your crafts.

'Mermaid on a Rock' is available as a digital download in my Etsy shop: https://www.etsy.com/listing/224383753/

This full-bodied one is called 'Mermaid Glance'. I had fun drawing her. Likewise you can place her outside the water or undersea. She has a cuter vibe than the other two mermaids!
https://www.etsy.com/listing/225039402/

If you like my mermaids, you can purchase the Mermaid Shoujo set at 3 for $10!
https://www.etsy.com/listing/225040726/

My first Mermaid Shoujo and another one in chibi-style can be viewed in this post.

ACEO - BLUE SUNDAY BEST

Finally came up with something coloured! Titled 'Blue Sunday Best', shoujo-styled, made with pen, markers and pastel, and then sprayed with fixative to keep the pastel on. She is already sold to a friend, just as I listed it. Thanks Kei!

This ACEO was sketched back in April 2014, while I was still in the US. Never got to complete her because I forgot about it and she got buried with my other prints. Also bought some new pastels lately and tried it out on this because the paper (Canson mixed media paper) has some tooth to hold the colour. I like the effect, the pastel colours are limited and a bit messy to use, but at least there is an additional source of colour in case I don't have the right shade of marker inks to do those graduating tones.

MERMAID SHOUJO DIGITAL STAMPS!

Just finished 2 mermaids, this first one is in a pretty shoujo-style, although the title is predictably called 'Mermaid Shoujo' lol. I spent some time on her and she has been in my sketchbook for quite a while. The lineart is 8 inches height, 300dpi jpg, and can also be used as a colouring page as it is quite detailed.

Digital download is available in my Etsy shop: https://www.etsy.com/listing/222592277/

There will probably be other mermaid shoujo coming up - I prefer to do themes in sets of three!

This cute little mermaid titled 'Mermaid Wave'. 7 inches height, 300dpi jpg. I can imagine her on just about anything, hope she brings a smile to your face!

Digital download is available here: https://www.etsy.com/listing/222883462/

NOUVEAU FLOWERS SHOUJO DIGITAL STAMP

"Nouveau Flowers" digital stamp, shoujo-style, dreamy and versatile, easy to colour! This one has been in my sketchbook for a long time.... over a year, maybe more.

I never finished it because I was too hasty to ink without making sure her profile was correct (one of those days...)! Also drew it too close to my sketchbook's binding so it was trashed. So a few days back, I thought a face-only digistamp will be nice as the collection needs some variety. Re-found this and made her hair all wavy and nouveau-ish, scanned it and redrew her face in Photoshop. My linearts nowadays are all redone in Photoshop.

'"Nouveau Flowers" by Lemon Shortbread is available as a digital download here:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/220494440/

HOW TO FIX LICCA DOLL'S HAIR

If you ever had a Takara Licca or Jenny doll with bad hair or in a frizzy tangled mess you might like to try out these quick steps to tame it. Note this may not work as well on hair that is very curly. It would be better if you don't mind the hair being straightened out after the treatment.

This pretty Licca doll wasn't in that bad of a state but I didn't like how her hair ends were all over the place and well, it looks used and combed to death. The first thing I did was to wash her hair with shampoo and condition it, no special products used.

Avoid scrubbing or massaging her hair or it'll just end up more tangled, swipe the shampoo lengthwise. Rinse well, skip the hairdryer and let it air dry after drying with a towel or paper towels. While the hair was drying,  I used some detangler in it. I don't recommend the one I used (Victoria Secret's one) although it is effective at removing tangles; there is an overwhelmingly strong scent in it and I didn't like it on my dolls.

On a side note, if you wanted to know how to take Licca's head off on the non-tilting neck type, all you do is remove earrings first, squeeze her head like a pancake and pluck her head off like pinch it off to the side, try to slip it past the locking mechanism. If you are afraid that you'll break her neck by using too much strength, you can use hot water to expand the latex first then try prying it out. More details below.

I popped her head back. Remove clothing and earrings.

Even after fiddling with her hair for some time, it was still messy looking. If you inspect closely you would notice the filaments are 'crumpled' and not synchronising in their perm, thus giving the frizzy appearance. To recalibrate the fibres you can use some boiling water to soften and straightened it out.

Boil the water in a kettle, lay Licca's hair on a plate, and pour the boiling water into the plate. It doesn't matter if it touches her hair while you are pouring it but watch your hands! Do not use a direct fire close to her hair or you will end up with a bald Licca with balls of hard plastic stubs as hair lol.

As you can see her hair automatically finds its way. Also the original waves are not straightened out, which is fine by me, I wanted to keep it anyway. You can smell a plasticky smell when doing this treatment, at this time you can make use of the hot water to remove her head if you want to. If you don't want to wet her hair you can use a plastic bag over her head and pour it over the face to soften the latex. Watch your hands though! I let her hair air dry standing up. Did not run in cold water after the hot water.

This is the next afternoon when the hair has fully dried. The crimped waves are neater and the ends are more defined. It tends to revert after some combing so you might like to do it a second time. Also the detangler I added before remained on the hair so it is quite soft.

She looks happier now and ready to go!

BABY THE STARS SHINE BRIGHT JENNY DOLL

Oh yes finally here! I purchased the Baby, The Stars Shine Bright Jenny doll from Ebay and it came in time for Christmas! It took 2 weeks for it to arrive in Singapore from Japan. This is a collaboration with Takara Tomy x Baby, The Stars Shine Bright; a Japanese sweet lolita clothing brand. It was released mid-June 2014, retailing at 2,800 yen.

Off from the plastic sleeve photo. The box was slightly dinged from being shipped in an envelope with lots of bubble wrap but that is ok, as I was meaning to take her out from the box. As always I carefully undid the tape and wires. Baby The Stars Shine Bright Jenny comes with a pair of shoes and lace wristies. Unfortunately she does not come with a doll stand. That is quite a pet peeve as older Jennys had stands.

Once released, her hair is a matted mess! I saw from other photos of products and had worried about it and was right. It is so totally not like the advert they used:

She had hair falling out as I was separating the curls (gently), this was under half of what came out and I haven't even touched her hair yet. I didn't use a comb, just my fingers to gently spread out the hair so be warned.

However, she does have the cutest shoes! The heels are heart shaped, and her ring and earrings are also heart shaped in the same colour. They fit her feet with her socks just fine, although the socks tend to bunch up at the ankles as it is not really stocking material but like a tricot knit fabric.

I wish I had better colours in the photo but this is what she roughly looks like, with brown eyes, rose pink lips under the glare of the afternoon sun!

She can stand on her own but will need some trial and error to balance her weight out, and since she is wearing heels she isn't very steady and is best left leaning against the wall. I prefer to have a doll stand included, so if Takara Tomy can bring that back, pretty please? Or at least allow her legs to bend at the knees, older Jenny dolls could snap at the knees, so this is rather annoying since the balance is even harder now. She has one bent fixed leg like she is walking.

The articulation in the hips allows her to spread her legs lengthwise a bit, she can also do the normal splits. She looks better with the dainty closed legs. Her arms are bendable at the elbows but not much, so the range is quite limited to the standard lolita model pose. Her head can tilt left and right.

Her headband has an elastic band underneath. A little bit of shorter hair goes in the front! One side is straying in the other direction so I'd need to do some serious styling later, also I don't know if I like that her hair is so fluffy and curly all over with one particular ugly long curl at the bottom. It does have its own charm but I've always liked neatly curled hair - you know, like in that promo they showed??

The main dress is velcroed at the back, the pink and white are one whole piece, it'll be nice if it was a separate pinafore but that would cost more money to produce I guess. It appears to be a cotton-polyester blend or maybe cotton. The candy pink fabric (sorry for the bluish tint) is thin twill fabric, with strawberries, floral prints and the Baby's logo. The lace is generic and inexpensive type.

So that sums up my review of the Baby's Jenny doll, I recommend it if you don't mind the curly floofy hair, she is pretty cute as is, and will be hanging around my work desk for now. Also I think I might fix her hair and tame it somewhat so she can model other lolita clothes!

***

Edit: I fixed her hair to make it more organised and she looks much better! Using my fingers, I grouped small bunches together and twirled them in the right direction. I have further rearranged the curls after these latest photos to make it more evenly spaced so she is very pretty now! A lot more hair came out and I trimmed the stray flyaways in her hair fringe.

Have a very blessed Christmas folks!