Question On Liv Doll Skintones

[WhiteDove01s]

Ok, I'm just about set to order my first couple Liv dolls in a day or so, but I still have a couple questions...

See, I'm trying to build up a really good range of bodies and skin tones for the 1/6 Theater cast. I plan to get a Making Waves Alexis and Daniella (after doublechecking to make sure that one's supposed to have good joints). Now, I've heard the earlier Alexis dolls are lighter than the Making Waves version, but they're also already too expensive for me... so that's one skintone I'll just have to miss out on (unless I find a cheap naked and bald one on Ebay someday when I have money).

The question I have is about the other three girls. It's hard to really tell as I've seen few pictures of them really close to each other, but do they all have pretty much the same skintone? That is, could I just pick one and cover having that skintone in that body type, or is there just a little difference?

And, don't worry, I'm not forgetting the boy... depending on how my funds shake down, I might get him when I pick up the first two girls. It'll be nice to find another male body that doesn't suffer from "Ken" syndrome. Even in the Fashionista line, poor Ken doesn't have decent knees...

[maywong]

They have slightly different skin tones.

[WhiteDove01s]

They have slightly different skin tones.

Thanks. I thought they might, but couldn't be absolutely sure.

[magkelly]

Daniela= standard Barbie tan a little less bright sometimes, but it works well.
Hayden=Pale Irish type Barbie but she's not as white as the Twilight vamps...
Sophie=Pale, maybe a shade darker than Hayden, very close to the pale Fashionista body. Just a tad pinker than Hayden who is more of a pale ivory shade.
Alexis=Pretty light AA. Most dolls she is more carmel than dark brown. But the Red Queen and the Making Waves dolls are a lot darker. They not as dark as most older darker AA Barbie's though there is a SIS doll that they look like they might match.
Katie=Pinkish, still pretty pale but way more pink. She's a good match for a lot of the older Barbies who have that pinkish pale thing going on.

Best place for Liv dolls is Ebay and Amazon. Some are getting high priced now but you can still spot deals and they still have most of the Waves dolls for about $10-12.

[WhiteDove01s]

Wow, thanks a lot. That's a lot of useful info and I'll have to make me some notes. XD Placed my first order on Amazon, for Making Waves Alexis and Making Waves Sophie (as well as some other things I needed, like a new hard drive), and will work on the others as I can. I'd actually thought the three paler girls would be about barbie-tone, not Daniela... it can be so hard to tell on this new laptop's monitor. It shows pictures a lot more brightly than my old computer did.

[DollyKim]

I never would have known the Red Queen Alexis is darker, the only set I have is Alice in Wonderland. The boy is pretty close to Daniella.

[magkelly]

It depends upon the doll. I've seen some RQ and MW dolls that are a bit lighter and some that are really dark for Alexis dolls. There seems to be some variance in dye lot on those two. RQ is generally a wee bit darker than MW but they're close. But most dolls she looks far more multi-racial, rather like the one MS doll, Westley/Madison. Sorry, forgot about Jake, but yeah, he's your basic tan...

[WhiteDove01s]

There seems to be some variance in dye lot on those two. RQ is generally a wee bit darker than MW but they're close.

I hope I luck out and get a dark one... and can then track down one of the lighter skinned ones without breaking my budget (The budget for the Theater is about $15 a month, sometimes supplemented with what I get recycling aluminum cans, and money or Amazon giftcards from online surveys. I tend to save up a couple months and then 'splurge'...)

But I could just as easily go the other way, and try to track down one of the darker ones. It sounds like I'll have to just go with 'find a dark and a light' instead of trying for every variation on her skintone though. It's so hard to be sure online, most of the time. I've seen pics of the same doll in different lighting that look like totally different tones on this monitor.

Either way, the Making Waves version should be on her way to me in the mail now, and I can get a look for myself. (and so is a Sophie, and a music box sewing machine on a sewing machine table that I think will look 1/6 scale)

[DollyKim]

Mkay, let me know what comparisons you're looking for between Liv, Barbie-SiS, and Monsters. I only have the Alice in Wonderland Livs, a spare Daniella, and Jake but it'll give you an idea.

As for hybrids in general I put a Skipper head on a Sasha Bratz and she doesn't bother me. You can always blush the heads a bit. Make friends with your local thrift store, be there when they open and restock. If it's a private store make good friends and they might set the dolls aside for you to go through, a sale is a sale and most have no idea what they get in.

[WhiteDove01s]

Mkay, let me know what comparisons you're looking for between Liv, Barbie-SiS, and Monsters. I only have the Alice in Wonderland Livs, a spare Daniella, and Jake but it'll give you an idea.

As for hybrids in general I put a Skipper head on a Sasha Bratz and she doesn't bother me. You can always blush the heads a bit. Make friends with your local thrift store, be there when they open and restock. If it's a private store make good friends and they might set the dolls aside for you to go through, a sale is a sale and most have no idea what they get in.

Right now, my 1/6 Theater Project is still in the 'Casting Call' stage. That means I'm looking for just about anything 1/6 scale, provided the body proportions aren't too wonky, until I have a nice full cast with a range of skintones and body types and can start doing photostory plays. I've found so far that I sometimes don't know what character I've got until I have their head and body and just get a look. (But I have a headcast of over a hundred, so there's no shortage there XD) And since I'm still relatively new to the whole thing (not even a year yet), I'm trying to soak up all the info I can, too.

I actually had Bratz bodies ruled out at one point for some reason, and just put them back on my 'possible search' list as of last night. Care to share a pic of your Skipper head on Sasha body hybrid? I have a lot of barbies out of the back room, so I have plenty of spare heads there... but they don't always work. It's fun to use my rotary tool and all purpose caulk on them for custom headsculpts though... even if I then have to paint the whole head. I have no issues with painting a head to match a body if I have to. I'm going to need to with Angela anyway - an old Midge head on an Obitsu fleshtone body.

My current list of Possible Poseables include - Liv, So In Style (Baby Phat line only, as they're the ones I'm sure have all the joints), Bratz, Dragon, Fashionista Barbie, GI Joe, Juku Couture, Kenya, Obitsu, Power Team Elite, and Volks. If I've missed any 1/6 scale low-price vinyl/abs with decent articulation, please let me know. I decided to attack the Liv line first because I heard they were recently discontinued and I'm worried if I wait too long they'll be out of my price range. And with them being a nice range of tones and just a little shorter than Barbie (due to flat feet), I'd hate to miss them.

Sadly, I have no 'local' thrift store. I have no car and my walking distance is limited due to a lack of sidewalks and an arthritic knee. I can reach a farm feed store, and, on a good day, the bank, a Sheetz and Exxon. None of which sell dolls. I do know a charity one I went to last summer with a friend who has a car, and I'm hoping she might want to go back there this year - and I'm fixing up a box of stuff to donate to them, too, out of the back room cleanup.

As for any exact specifics, I'm hoping a Liv will work for a body for Denia. She's actually an obscure Star Wars EU chara from a tabletop game scenario. The Wookiepedia page here has the only canon art for her, in a kind of cartoony style:
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Denia

As you can see, she has a kind of coffee-and-two-creamers skin tone. I've taken a barbie head and done extensive work with a low-power rotary tool and a dremel and it's just about ready except for a little sanding and detail work and then will need painted to match the body I find. I'm thinking either Daniella or one of the light-skinned Alexis dolls might match the tone at this point. Or maybe even the darker Alexis. I ordered the Making Waves one, so that depends on how dark she is when I get her. I wouldn't be adverse to going a smidge darker than the official art, since it looks done with pastels or watercolor.

... and I rambled a bit, didn't I. XD