Monday, May 15, 2017

The Inquisitor's Office

Settling in and ready to seek out heresy.
Celestine Greyfax lasted as her canon 'Z' self for approximately one week before all hell broke loose.  The brand new cabinet desk was trashed (and scrounged by Nellie for her new sewing cabinet, which looks almost like the human's antique sewing cabinet), and new bookshelves and an actual roll-top desk brought in.

Properly steampunk.  Still needs the proper hat.
Contents of her office so far include:  glassware, a large metal cauldron, 2 cameras, a drone, an abacus, a laptop with extra monitor, a smart phone, an Egyptian cat statue, a deck of tarot cards, a Sherlock Holmes book, a Ms. Marple book, and a cup of coffee.  Oh, and far too many crystals and rocks stolen from the human's rock collection in the specimen cabinet.

The brand new steampunk gear is courtesy of Carpatina, whose clothes quality is far better than AG these days.  (As a note for anyone who's buying their AG-sized steampunk gear:  the belts are all too wide for Mattel AG dolls.  You have to take in 2 1/2" tucks, one on either side, for the belts to fit.)  The chatelaine was a purchase from a doll show last year and just plain fits the steampunk look.

Still being set up, but the bones and the furniture are there.
We, uh, don't talk about the cat or the strange blue starfish-octopus creature that calls itself 
Karl-the-Kr4k3n.  That's between Celestine Greyfax and the human.

(Content Note:  Celestine Greyfax is named after two characters in the Warhammer 40K universe, Saint Celestine and Inquisitor Katrina Greyfax.  The Warhammer 40K universe is about as grim-dark and unfriendly as it gets.  Celestine Greyfax is going to offend someone's sensibilities by being a WH40K Imperial Inquisitor.  Just saying that now.)

Sunday, May 14, 2017

Introducing Celestine Greyfax

This setup lasted all of a week before the human got tired of her bookshelf
looking like an American Girl catalog spread
Having survived taking an EMT class and passing, the human decided to introduce someone new to  our already somewhat non-standard and slightly (very) geeky crew.  Meet Ms. Celestine Greyfax, would-be Imperial Inquisitor.  We're in the process of setting up her office and getting her some more suitable clothing.

And now for some thoughts from the human.  But first, some pictures from the AG Boston Bistro.




Some things about the new Z doll and permapanties and what-have-you
  • Surprisingly, the permapanties did not bother me too much.  The 'just slightly softer than I'm used to' vinyl I can live with.
  • The fact that the doll's measurements are different enough that I'd have to play shenanigans to get older clothing to fit right is a royal pain.  The waist size is about the same as my other slimmer AG dolls.  The chest is about half an inch smaller.  Right now, this doll needs to wear a full undershirt + panties on top of the permapanties to get the sizing right for some older clothes.
  • The plastic accessories look adorable and feel like very light very cheap play items, not nice collectables.
  • The shoes that come with her official AG outfits are AWFUL.  I can't stand the white plastic soles.

Lunch at AG Boston
 Do I have anything good to say about this doll?
  • AG actually honest-to-god made an Asian-American character doll that wasn't someone's sidekick.  I have a character doll that (vaguely) looks like me.  I didn't think it would mean a lot but it actually does.
  • As long as you don't put her entire collection into one shelf, it's adorable.  The camera actually plugs into the usb drive of her laptop.  When you put everything together, all the colors are actually too matchy-matchy.
  • She can hold her phone and her camera.
  • Her collection isn't pink.  Her clothes are actually cute and good for mix-and-match.  (Which, of course, does not stop me making a whole new wardrobe for her.  Or buying her one from Carpatina)

More lunch at AG Boston
That said, I did have to think long and hard about returning her, but in the end decided to keep her as is.  I did, however, warn a friend off from buying Z and had her buy #54 for her Korean-American character doll instead.  I will probably not be buying another doll from AG until they fix the sizing issues.  8 dolls is enough for me, and I'm now officially out of shelf space for doll displays.

After a week, I'm liking this doll more and more, but only because I've moved her away from the AG collection and more into a steampunk-detective style.