15th Anniversary as an Anime Doll Collector (2001/2016)

[Tasuke]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenchi_Muyo!

http://tenchi.wikia.com/wiki/Ayeka

http://tenchi.wikia.com/wiki/Ryoko_Hakubi

http://tenchi.wikia.com/wiki/Tenchi_Masaki



hello, all.

just realized that it has been a full decade and a half since i bought my very first Anime-based Character Dolls,
the very same ones that had inspired me to learn how to sew, so i could make them the custom outfits i'd desired to see them wear,
a skill that has been refined through the years, and has come to serve me well indeed in keeping my ever expanding 1/5 and 1/6 Anime Harem well dressed to my personal tastes.

these are the three-doll "Tenchi Muyo!" 12in. Chara-Doll series
that the U.S. TOYNAMI corp. made for the U.S. Comic/collectors' shop market in 2001, when U.S. PIONEER ANIMATION was pushing "Tenchi Muyo!"
it's most successful Anime property in the U.S. throughout the 1990's, via the aid of CARTOON NETWORK's "TOONAMI" Anime CATV programming block,
and several small time U.S. toy companies producing merchandise, arguably the best of which being these 12in. Character Dolls
of the main protagonist and the two primary Alien women romantically interested in him.

i was very much into "Tenchi Muyo!" at the time, a budding Anime fan without internet and only the occasional trip to a comics/collectibles' shop
to satiate my growing, burning Anime passion. these dolls, at $27.99USD each at one of my favorite shops in 2001,
were something i never even knew i wanted until i stumbled upon them. the moment i did, however, i HAD to own them all.

they have not aged well, and i had retired them to storage back in 2008 or so, after finally joining the 21st century with my own Internet at home,
and finding out about the great many Japanese market Anime Dolls in 1/6 that made those old Tenchi dolls look like a proverbial Joke.

a good half-dozen years on, with a lovely covey of 1/6 Anime ladies all in an exact size parity thanks to their uniform OBITSU doll bodies,
i pulled out my old Year-One Girls (and Guy) to commemorate Fifteen entire years worth of creative Anime Doll fandom.

all three of them are wearing custom outfits;

the "Ryoko Hakubi" (Turquoise Spiky Hair)
wearing a Miko-styled costume hand-made in entirety,

the "Ayeka Jurai" ( Dark Purple Helmet-Hair)
wearing a heavily altered porcelain Victorian Doll dress,
(and quite out of scale with the other two, thanks to
a different Doll body added by me)

the "Tenchi Masaki" (The Guy, Duh)
wearing clothing aped off of a Barbie Ken doll,
save for the blue T-Shirt, hand made.

i've hung on to these goofy U.S. market Dolls for so long now, that i figured they might as well take their honored place
among the superior individuals of my modest mini-Anime Harem...

[Tasuke]

new "Faceup" for Ryoko, about as good as my current state of detail-painting skill will allow...

[Tasuke]

this was how the dolls came originally,;
"Princess Ayeka" with her Juraian ceremonial cloak, reasonably accurate to the one seen early on in the OVA,

"Tenchi Masaki" with his STAR WARS Lightsaber-like "Sword of Heaven and Earth" (with a stupidly under-length transparent-blue-plastic blade)

"Ryoko" (Ryoko Hakubi) with a goofy-looking hard plastic Ryo-Oh-Ki in general scale to the dolls;








again, quality is decidedly sub-par, with weirdly-proportioned fleshtone-hard-plastic poseable doll bodies
with hollow vinyl heads and hard plastic hair pieces for both women, (Tenchi's head/hair is one hollow vinyl casting)
Ayeka's solid hair has twin tails that reach to her ankles and severely limit her range of attainable poses (no sitting)
and Ryoko's hair is a solid heavy chunk of plastic that makes her unreasonably top heavy,
and prone to tumbles if not carefully stood and supported.

further, the hip joints on these dolls can be fragile. my first Ayeka suffered a fall that broke her leg at the hip joint.
i bought two more Ayekas off a net seller for $15ea. about 8 years back, both new in sealed box,
one of which arrived with a broken leg in the very same fashion.

i had found methods to fix the legs, allowing them greater range of motion in the process,
but honestly, the bodies are so goofy looking that i just decided to source alternative doll bodies in their scale.
this project began and ended with Ayeka, as i decidedly lost interest in trying to rend a silk purse out of a proverbial sow's ear
after finishing work on her.

i am feeling rather sentimental about these dolls of late, however, so i might just pick up where i left off,
finally giving Ryoko a makeover, so she too can be even more wildly out of scale with Tenchi than she was originally...

[Jobee]

Happy anniversary! May you have many more dolly years to come.

[Tasuke]

Thankies~

[Aurea Arleigh]

Congrats! Pretty cool collection! I have a Meer Campbell in one of those older sets, I used to try and find Megahouse Moonphase Hazuki. Gave up due to crazy prices. I also wish I was that lucky person that has the super rare Angelic Layer doll of Hikaru http://myfigurecollection.net/item/40364

[Tasuke]

[RainZombie]

These are so cool! Ryoko's faceup looks great!

[Dark Angel]

I remember that show. I was pretty young when I first saw it and didn't really like it. I did, however, like the little animal thing that I think turns into a ship????

It's been a long time.

Nice collection, and great outfits! I'm interested in what you do with them.