Sooo Myrretah and I did a trade - the first of her production run of her absolutely gorgeous and unique sculpt Cain for my Ai. Seriously thank you Myrretah!!! I hope Cas settles in happily amongst your wonderful group!And he arrived today - so here's a not-quite box-opening because I was too excited to take proper shots of everything!
If the weather holds up he'll be face-upped tomorrow so expect more photos soon - including of him on a DZ65cm. He's finally shelling my idea of the brilliant Pratchett character: Sir Samuel Vimes, His Grace the Duke of Ankh, Commander of the City Watch, Blackboard Monitor and River King.
(Not that most of Sir PTerry's characters aren't amazing and all - but Sam and His Lordship hold a special place in my heart) When I saw that Cain shared Vimes's scar... Well it was pretty much settled who he was then and there!Right anyway photos! ...The rest of my blank head collection chimed in that they hadn't been photographed either so they turn up about halfway through...
Box! Artwork! Cert of Auth! (All very nicely printed/drawn)
Gods this thing was well taped up - the shipping box had padding, and Cain is in there looking all mummy-like
Headcap! (I know I know weird thing to get excited over - but look at the super-cool seal! It's got a dual-purpose of practicality and awesomeness - mostly it's just cool. It's difficult to photograph right but the things that look like cake frosting due to my inept camerawork are actually really nicely sculpted feathers)
Cain! Free at last from customs and vans! (For about 10 minutes after I opened him he was still warm from being in the hot hot courier van all day - poor thing) Hrnn I should really start referring to him as Sam - but I'm very very used to typing his sculpt-name at this point! And dayum is that an expressive sculpt. His resin is pure-white great for matching and blushing purposes though I think it will also mellow down nicely.
With a pair of eyes in - now sadly they're not his pair, since I can't quite decide on grey or hazely brown for Sam. But they're the right size - I think 14mms work wonderfully for being on the less-stylised end of things.
That profile! Seriously loving his (relatively) huge nose and general strongly defined features. Those sunken cheeks! That chin!
3/4 beauty shot, I really do love everything about him. He's got such an expressive sculpt even when utterly blank like this the angle you're looking at him from can alter his expression from sad to pensive to downright angry in a snap.
(Showy-offy slightly silly collector in me going woo! He's no.1! Woo!
)
And super-unglamorous shot up his nose - damn he has actual nostrils!! And I'm going to have to learn how to paint teeth!
At this point the other guys butted in. 2 of them are new arrivals like Sam/Cain here (dayum 3 heads in a week - though to be fair only 1 of them was actually serious cash
) and the other is my sad and perpetually boxed Bowie MNM who's been here for months and will likely remain bodiless for a while...The next arrival is my IOS Jaguar, or Mephistopheles Smith. He's a character from a Richard O'Brien musical. I ordered him in WS and was slightly dismayed to discover that IOS's new white is actually a very very pale pink. It's light - but that undertone of pinkness is going to make resin-matching a tad awkward.
Anyhow here he is - with his devilish smirk the Evangelist for Hell himself!
(Was v.v.glad that due to Mr Bowie I've ended up with a bunch of silicone eyes - seriously The Thin White Duke is picky... Cos these eyecos were the only pair I've got that looked remotely right - and even then I'm not sure the irises look slightly big and even with eyecos infamous excessive whites there's a teeny bit of gapping. Grr at IOS's tendencies to super-super-narrow yet really elongated eyes!)
He's a lovely stylised sculpt - slightly sinister, but hopefully I'll be able to make that expression more playful/suggestive with his face-up. He will eventually end up on a body with hooves.
The Thin White Duke!
His resin is a "normal yellow" colour - it's similar, but noticeably a bit darker than Dollshe Fresh in tone, so I'm sort of hoping that Oriental will be closer if not a good match.
(Ugh it took far too many rejected pairs of eyes to get to this stage - and even now the OCD in me is pointing out that his irises should be the same size dammit! But this is as close as it gets. He's got in an eyeco 11mm eye and a Soom 12mm)
Very slight brow furrow that is oh so very David Bowie
Even blank the resemblance to the man is striking
And these two profile shots - showing off both Bowie's facial features here and my issue with this sculpt...
Note the way the head doesn't sit flat?
Unless I lift him up?
That chin is a hell of an issue - beautifully sculpted and accurate to the man himself as it is, it makes even the most giraffe-like of necks look squat. It eats up a huge chunk of neck, and I really dislike the feel of jamming a donut up there. I'm seriously contemplating a Dollshe DSAM32 for this guy at the moment. It's big enough and elongated enough that I think it could look great with this rather large (beautifully sculpted) head.
And finally my bargain-basement Akagi-Ban head. He's around the price of an obitsu 1/3 head right now since he's been relegated to "practice head" status by Akagidoll - god knows why, but I'm not complaining!
Ironically he's the only one of the four heads listed today who actually contributes to my internal plotline for my dolls - being one of my original characters rather than a representation of something that I love.
As you may be able to tell from his eyes - this kid loves rainbows. Loves them. To the point of gene-therapy. I really do like the boyishness of this sculpt - and the subtle way you can tell where his eyebrows are supposed to be even when they aren't actually there. I went for 16mms for him even though 14s would probably work with minimal gapping and more realism since I want this guy to look innocent/young.
The akagi "normal" resin is a lovely peachy tone - that midpoint that doesn't quite veer towards either yellow or pink. His head is surprisingly heavy, and the resin lovely and thick. (Unlike Mr B - who has relatively thin resin)
I really do like his surprisingly pointy nose, from his face-on shots you'd expect something stubby somehow!
...Now the only thing is to work out who he's shelling - there are two candidates, a spoilt, naive little rich kid, who is actually an innocent despite the dystopian world he lives in. Or a darker more psycopathic character, who uses his innocent looks to his advantage - and leads a cat and mouse game for the resident detective, Szesil. But somehow truly believes that he is innocent in all of this - in spite of the very literal blood on his hands. I'm beginning to wonder at this indecisiveness - I'd thought he was the innocent but when he arrived the psycopathic mass murderer started chattering!
Unusual Suspects:
So I shall admire the fantastic artisanship from afar. That Jaguar sculpt is GREAT! IOS makes some fantastic "evil" faces, like the Infernale. There's someone out there who painted their Infernale's tongue green, which looks awesome. 
