Christmas money dilemma

Being a former educator, I feel safe in saying that you hit the nail squarely on the head, ForestGreen.

I think it also reflects a certain desire by advertising executives, and society in general, to make anything pertaining to womanhood all bright, and beautiful, and rosy-posy wonderful.  

Just take look at some of the ads for tampons, pads, etc., that we've been subjected to over the years.  

My mother was an RN, she had everything needed tucked away in the linen closet, and when it happened she just laid all the information out in a matter of fact manner, the bad as well as the good.

It might not have made the debilitating cramps and emotional havoc, not to mention the gender issues and body dysphoria I was already experiencing, any easier to deal with, but at least she didn't try to sell me a load of that "menstruation is wonderful and beautiful" codswallop.

oh man, those adverts just anger me. No I don't shed flowers and sparkles from my uterus thanks, stop telling me to have a happy period or i'll rip your damn jugular out rargh.
The again,  I suffered and still do suffer with hormonal issues that make the whole thing extremely awkward and frustrating. *sigh* It's not all sparkles and rainbows and honestly i'd rather live in a world where it didn't happen because it's painful, it's messy and it's not fun. My ex flatmates can testify to it being messy and not fun, given they took me to A&E at one point because I "had gone white, were shaking and looked like you were about to collapse"
Oh yes, i'll have SUCH a happy period. -_-
Even now, all my health issues are directly related to, you got it, being a girl. Ooo extra X chromosome, you got a lot to answer for. 
So I get a bit pissed off whenever anyone tries to make menstruation anything other than the pain in the freaking arse it is. I'm all for it not being "shameful" but celebrating it makes me want to punch you repeatedly in the face till you stop gurgling. No it's not wonderful to be a girl, it fricken SUCKS. It's not beautiful, it's not special, it's an annoying thing we have to do, like pooping. Do we throw a party when we go to the loo? No we do not, so don't treat periods as anything other than a natural but irksome inconvenience we ladies just have to suck up and deal with.

I wonder if period party (ooo the term makes me mad) Lammily comes with painkillers and a hot water bottle too for extra realism. Perhaps a skirt with a blood stain from where she misjudged flow and it bled through. Comfort cake? A towel to sit on? (ok so most girls don't have to sit on towels, but for those of us who to this day still sometimes have days where we'd really be happier to wear black and have a towel to sit on? Yeah... ) oo ooo can she have bloating action? PMS Lammily? wouldn't that be FUN to roleplay out huh?

Period parties... find me the person who came up with that idea, I have a brick just itching for their face. -_-

and parents, if you can't talk to your kid about periods, you shouldn't have kids. If you lack the maturity or level headedness to actually PARENT get yourself out of  the genepool and stop expecting toys and tv and other damn people to do your job for you. It's YOUR job and your responsibility. You took that mantle the moment you found out you were having a kid, it's nobody else's responsibility, it's YOURS and if you can't do that, you're a terrible parent who doesn't deserve the title. It's part of your job as a parent, part of the whole raising them aspect to explain basic facts of life. If you can't do that, what the hell are you doing having kids?

Dolls and prettifying stuff (omg pooping dolls, do NOT get me started on pooping toys. They're just disgusting. They EAT their poops! they eat it!) should not be necessary, it shouldn't be a thing. Maybe just.. just have a book or a pamphlet or something for parents who are super poopy at talking but oh my god if you can't discuss periods? How have you had sex? How have you reached a point you've had children if you find periods so gross and disturbing and embarrassing to talk about?

And lastly, does any kid genuinely want their dolly to have her period? I mean, playing with my toys I cannot say at any point, even though I was an early bloomer (I was 10, it sucked) did I think "oh yes, I want my toys to go through this too" no. I wanted ESCAPE, I wanted a magical fantasy world where there was no painful cramping and illness and bleeding from the crotch. I wanted a world where characters could get on with having adventures without having to reach for the painkillers. Playing a game of "barbie sits on the sofa and whimpers while watching a marathon of the Addams Family " isn't a fun game. Barbie kicks butt alongside Action Man and saves the day and gets the treasure is fun. Periods are like bathroom breaks, they ruin the flow of narrative, it gets in the way of the story, it interrupts your good time. Even if it's only a minor annoyance, it's still something in stories you'd rather just not have to be mentioned because it's irrelevant to the story and only waylays the interesting bits. Kids aren't playing with dolls to have realistic adventures, they're playing out soap opera melodrama and fantastical adventures! Kids don't make their dollies go take a piss or detail wiping their butt, so why would they bother having their doll change her tampon? It's just... it's not something I think a kid will do. It's not something they'd want to play.
By all means discuss the facts of life with your kids, but don't try to make it fun or cute, it's neither of those things and let kids just play, enjoy their fantasy world because once real life hits, they'll be thankful for that escape. Honestly? The less realism the better as far as i'm concerned. Life is crappy, but my dolls? they can be freaking superheroes and that's awesome.
I bet supergirl never stopped saving the day to change her tampon, I bet wonderwoman was never "oh sorry, i can't rescue those orphans today, i'm feeling super bloaty and crampy." and you can bet your arse none of them ever bled through their tight spandex uniform and had to tie their cape around their waist and run away before the press snapped a pic.
In an idealised fantasy world, there are no periods because periods aren't fun. nobody LIKES having them, they're just annoying and stop you doing things. Let kids have their idealised fantasy play world, they deserve to have something that isn't poopy.

My mother seemed pretty irritated that she had to teach me how to take care of my period. I think she was hoping that I would have my very first period at school and one of my teachers would take care of it for her. I could have benefited from period party Lammily. It might have been nice to know why I was bleeding every month, and why it felt like being torn apart from the inside out. That would have led to the "sex talk" though and Mom never managed to have that one with me either. Luckily there was still decent sex education when I was in school and I learned where babies come from and how to prevent them.

I figure that if you have to make it fun or cute in order to be able to discuss the facts of life with your kids then by all means do so. It's better for kids to hear it, no matter how it's packaged. I would prefer to have adults just suck it up and be adult about discussing the facts of life with their children though. Period Party Lammily is for the adults who can't be adult about the facts of life, not for their kids. I wouldn't buy the doll for my kid and would only give it to her if she asked for it. It's not a birthday or Christmas present, it's a teaching tool.

Of course Supergirl and Wonderwoman never showed signs of having a period. They were created by men, for men to fantasize about. No man is going to want to fantasize about the mess of a period and a woman telling them "not tonight". Personally, I wouldn't mind a superhero who gets bloaty and crampy and still manages to save the orphans. Or one who, after a long night saving the world, goes home to sit on her couch and eat a pint of ice cream while watching a good movie.

The pms avenger? lol.

I dunno, I prefer my superheros not to be bogged down with womanly times. It's inconvenient damnit, and if I could magically make it not happen I so would. Sadly I can't take the pill, and any other options may make things much worse. Still gotta go chat to doc about that one. Boo hisss.

Ooo can I justify a "I had to have a coil inserted and it sucked and now i'm sad and feel violated and hurty" doll? hmm. how much is that sort of internal worth... *ponders* I think I can totally argue a Makie out of it, might make the whole thing a little less awful if I have a prize at the end lol.
You know how some women get those "push presents" for squeezing out kids? I want a "gyno appointment" present. I think those should be a thing, even if they are just a hug, hot water bottles and chocolates.

Back on topic, i'm SUPER tempted to just say "screw it" and order Matthew from Angelesque. Hujoo themselves have no stock of him. Weird.
Haven't heard from them about Arthur yet either, but I assume they're still on holiday.

Makie labs being closed till the 4th does make it much easier to resist that temptation too heh.

I'm just sick and tired of society just trying to ignore women's health issues unless someone is trying to sell us stuff.

I'm with you all the way on the presents for gynecologist appointments. I detest going and I got out of the habit when I lost my insurance a few years ago. I should probably go back now that I've got insurance again but I want hugs, snuggles, and lots of really good chocolate, for having to endure the pap smear.

I had no idea that women got "push presents". That seems really odd to me.

Back to the topic now:
It's your money, do what makes you happy.
I haven't had an easy time resisting buying another Makie. I'm trying to be good and wait to see what happens with the boys and whether or not they will offer 3DP bodies again. I'm 99 percent certain that I would be severely disappointed with the IM body so I don't want to risk buying one. There is a lovely girl in my account that is begging to be made real though.

yeah it's a modern posh celeb thing. I didn't get no stinkin presents after almost dying having second, boo. I want presents hahah.
I don't really, feels a bit... entitled and materialistic to me.

But def want a pap pressie *snort*

I know what you mean, maybe that's why it annoys me. Because it makes light and fluffiness out of something I personally find so awful and unpleasant. I really doubt at 10 i'd have been particularly happy to be given a period themed doll, i'd have probably cried and taken it personally. I SOOO didn't want to be grown up, I fought till i was about 15 against the idea of puberty and adulthood, I was like "nope, strapping everything down, not dealing with it, not doing it. Screw growing up, it hurts and I dun wanna". I still sometimes resent my gender, it's caused so much misery and pain. 90% of my health problems are completely the fault of that extra X and the complex hormonal system that is female. I resent my stupid not working hormones. Man bodies are so much simpler, there's less to go wrong.

Re Makies, the IM body isn't too bad. I need to play with husband's doll a little more as I only have two IM hybrid boys (which isn't a good idea, they can't sit, their legs pop off as soon as you start to bend them) but he has a proper IM girl. I wasn't hugely unimpressed with her when she arrived. I prefer the 3dp body and it's ability to hold a pose but the IM body can pull more poses in general. Some people have reported that the doll won't hold the pose as well though, and that feet and hands pop off too easy. I hadn't noticed this with the one we have here so it might be one of those variation things.
Colour match isn't too bad to my eye though. Looks way worse in photos.

I added more toys to my pirate crew last night and Husband pointed out I just need a quartermaster now. Because they only have one girl I think they need another for balance heh, but I can't decide whether to use a Makie or some other sort of doll. They're aliens so scale to one another doesn't matter so much, and i'd kinda like something I could make look inhuman. I was considering if it was possible to spraypaint the new IM Makies, as we can't dye them. It's a bit much money to spend on an experiment though, but i'm curious. I mean, i've spraypainted MH dolls before. The bodies take spraypaint really well but the soft vinyl heads go sticky so you have to hand paint those with regular acrylic. Given the Makies haven't got any soft vinyl parts, they might tolerate spraypaint pretty well. I dunno. Of course you'd still have chipping issues around joints if you posed them too often and so on which might really irritate me.

I believe Hujoo do a doll with similar proportions to Makies but in different coloured plastics. You can get blue and purple and stuff. Dunno if they're readily available though. I've seen blue ones for sale recently but not the other odd colours so I think they might only do limited batches.

I am really happy with the IM body on Nari Kim. She can move so much better than Brenda! I also sanded seams and magic erased the shine so she looks really good. The match of body to head (caramel) is much better than I expected. I am glad I got her.

Well Makie labs just made my decision so much easier.
No sign of when they'll reopen, a super shitty redundancy poopy plus the whole move to the us leading to very likely high shipping costs and customs fees... yeah...
No more Makies for me unless they sort their poopy out or second hand ones come up for sale.
I can see the price sky rocketing though. *sigh*

So i'm gonna order Matthew from Angelesque heh.

Thus far I have ordered:

Arthur from Hujoo themselves, which may take months to actually ship.
A fluro orange Berry from Mimiwoo which should take a few weeks to arrive.
Matthew from Angelesque who should arrive by the end of the week.

Now I need to find wigs and eyes. 20mm eyes are a pain. I ordered 2 sets from mimiwoo but they had nothing appropriate for Matthew. I'm undecided about wigs. they take 7-8 size, you think Makie wigs would stretch to fit (being size 7) in the interim?

You're probably better off with a 7-8 size, unless you happen to have a real generous cut 6-7, like one that is super stretchy and actually baggy on your Makie's head.

Also, you'll definitely want to do your balloon head cap thing, since that will give the wig something to grab onto and should help keep it from "popping" off his head.

I'm really looking forward to your review when you get your Arthur or Matthew.  I'm really kind of tempted by tusky little Arthur myself, but I don't know that I want him if he feels as fragile as the 1/6 Hujoo boy I got.  

I'm also not terribly impressed with the quality of my smaller Hujoo's joints, either.   They just don't seem that well made, especially his knee and elbow joints.  

Arthur being from one of their other doll lines might be better made, considering he costs a lot more than the little guy I got.  He does look like he's well made, so I'm eager to hear what you think of him, and their larger BJDs in general.

One thing I do like about my 1/6 Hujoo is the way his eyes are held in, so I'm curious to see if they use the same method in their larger BJDs too.

Btw:  I don't know if it would help purple_monkfish, but I'd be happy to act as a sort of free of charge middle man for stuff from Junky Spot, or other U.S. Dealers, since I have a U.S. Address.  I've had lots of experience with packing stuff for shipping too.   Same goes for Makie orders, if and when they get their act together.

Just out of curiosity I did some checking, and for someone in the U.S. to send a package weighing up to 4lbs, with dimensions not exceeding 36 inches total, by First Class Package International mail, to someone in the U.K. would be from $7.10.... And I think that's with tracking, too.

At least that's what the official USPS site says anyway.

that's not bad at all. I used to have a US contact who sent me Monster High stuff I couldn't order online and it was always pretty affordable. Sadly she and I fell out, well.. I say sadly, i'm not hugely sad as she turned out to be a vile two faced nasty person but eh... means I don't have a US contact for dolls lol.

Def better than the $50 Junkyspot was quoting. Like wth!??

Sounds like he's sending everything by global priority express mail. I hate priority express, it's worse than the old express mail.

I don't know how it is in other countries, but here anything sent by priority express is only held for pick up for THREE days, before they send it back, and Sundays and Holidays are counted!

I buy a lot of BJD and anime stuff from eBay, and when they first came out with priority express a lot of sellers started using it because they thought it was faster and more secure.

However, the stupid postal service "forgot" to mention anything about postal express pkgs only being held for three days for pick up before being returned to sender.

So I suspect there were a lot of returned pkgs in those first few weeks after they started offering that service. People found out about the three day hold policy the hard way.

I refuse to send anything that way, as I don't agree with their three day hold policy. I don't think it's fair, and I don't like the fact that they never bothered to notify/warn their postal customers about it either.

It's really hard on P.O. Box holders. Say your pkg arrives on Thursday and a notice goes in your box, but you can't get down to check your box until Saturday.

Well, Saturday the "Post Awful" is only open a half day, so they are already closed by the time you get there. So that's two days already.

Sunday the Post Office is closed, so you can't pick up your pkg that day, and Sunday COUNTS as day THREE!

Come Monday, and your pkg is out of there and on its way back to the sender with the morning mail pick up!

I don't know how it is with the Royal Mail, but the US Postal Service is always crying about how they are being put out of business by people sending faxes and emails instead of mailing letters and documents....

Plus they have to compete with UPS and other courier services for packages.... All "Oh woe is me" and so forth.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but if you want to attract more customers as well as keep those you currently have, shouldn't you be trying to make things cheaper and more convenient instead of the exact opposite?!

Anyway, I really don't mind being a "way station" or a US contact for pkgs and stuff, us Makie/Doll fans need to stick together and help (aid and abet) each other with our habits.
(Lol, for some reason the silly auto correct keeps trying to change pkgs to pigs. )

When we had our shop and sold SF and fantasy goods, we used to do something similar for our friends who ran a bookshop in East Sheen.

We'd order Star Trek pins, or merchandise for the latest SF show or movie, stuff that was hard to get in the U.K., and send it to them, or bring it with us if we were making a trip over.

They would do the same for us with merchandise and books that were only available in the UK.

They used to sell at a lot of the British Media and the Science Fiction conventions, just like we used to do at the conventions over here.

awesome heh. I might ahve to take you up on that if the us gets something we don't and i'm desperate.

RM lost a LOT of business a few years ago when they introduced these INSANE "small parcel" rules. Basically the box could only be like 18cm or something deep and most boxes are waaaaay deeper than that. They had this bizarre "x, y, z" dimension rule that was oddly specific and extremely restrictive. Meanwhile the couriers charged less and their parcel rules were generally "anything a human being can just pick up and carry"
As a result, everyone started using things like My Hermes and Royal Mail lost a lot of money.
A few months later they changed the rules again to be a lot clearer. Now it's a maximum size of some quite large number, the sum of all 3 dimensions needs to be under this amount and then it's ok. So a regular box can be sent again. Seriously the old rules you couldn't use a shoe box, couldn't use doll boxes. Basically NOTHING except maybe bloody pizza and chocolates came in a box shallow enough. It was mental.

And lo and behold, once they fixed it and fixed the price for second class parcel post up to something like 2kg suddenly everyone on Ebay uses RM again. Hermes is slower and less responsible with parcels.

Arthur Shipped! YAY!

Oh yes, hujoos and all manner of other things arrived.

http://flyingpurplemonkfish.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/monthly-roundup-january-2016.html

I blogged about it for those who were waiting for me to get off my butt.

Thanks for the awesome post P_M! I love what you've done with your Hujoo Berry.

Ohh by the way, I'm going to be something of a doll-enabler here but if you're considering a resin BJD but concerned about the price, have you seen that Mirodoll (www.mirodoll.com) have a 40% off sale? There are two MSDs for $90, or the heads and bodies individually are vastly reduced too. Plus plenty of colours to choose from including a very vibrant lilac! They don't really have fantasy sculpts - other than elf ears - much, but right now with the sale they're a very very affordable BJD.

(I'm trying very hard to not look at Lili, one of the $90 MSDs I just mentioned. I think she's beautiful but I have banned myself from any more resin purchasing for like at least six months!)

Also, yay for classic makie! There's something really special about finding a piece of history like that! His new face-up is really sweet.

Really good prices there Nat, not to my taste though. I've got a looooong list of stuff that's caught my eye recently (lol) and amongst them is that cute little gargoyle from resinsoul. I'm thinking the purple because it's a greyish purple by the look. But they also do a really vivid green and I soooo love green dolls. Oh dear.

Who else does coloured dolls?

No problem, just thought I'd mention it in case.

I think these days quite a few companies and artists make fantasy coloured dolls.
There's some cute European artist dolls (Asella dolls) on jpopdolls with blue and pink colours.

The company that makes my "grail", Dollshecraft.com do a mountain of different colours. They are on the pricey side though.

I think others who have been more into resin longer than me can probably help more. Actually, I've been finding DOA a great resource, and wish I'd joined the site sooner. XD 

I'd thought SOOM might since they're a common favourite for fantasy dolls, but from an initial glance they seem to have a fairly limited selection. If you're happy to dye resin, SOOM might be a good choice for parts.

you can dye the resin? heh. Cool.
Sounds a bit risky given the cost though.

I recall I had a DOA account many years ago, cannot for the life of me remember what the username and password were though *snort*

But first I think more plastic dolls, then i'll take the plunge. I still want that hujoo Matthew (he's cute), a few more animal ones, maybe a Yomi too.. ahem. Also Living dead Dolls which i've become a little obsessed with again.

*whistles*

Well to be fair, most playline stuff this year is too "girly" for my tastes. Except for chunky barbie who i'm delighted by and need one of heh, and maybe a couple of the dc super hero girls because... dc... *cough* but on the whole most else is going all cute and pink and expensive omg. The price of playline dolls is INSANE. like £18 for a doll in a basic shift dress with no stand or brush or purse or anything? Are you crazy? stores are taking the mick with pricing of stuff.
If a generic playline doll is gonna cost me £20, i may as well pay a little more and get something special right?

Yeah, you can use iPoly dye on resin, it's well documented with tutorials on the DOA forums. It's also reversible! I'm going to be doing it on a doll that doesn't come in dark skin (uugghhhh). I think it seems less scary than makies, since it can be removed - but I haven't tried it yet, so let's see how "not scary" I think it is when I actually have unstrung resin waiting to be dipped into a boiling pot!

I totally want a Yomi! I'm trying to force myself to hold off, because in about... probably a week, I'll be starting to hyrbid my boy makie head onto a new body (if I think it's suitable when it arrives). If successful, I'll hybrid all three, but they'll be scale-incompatible with Hujoos once I've done that. No good me buying one if I'm going to stop it from fitting into the family!

Also whoa, there's a chunky barbie? I keep up with toy news, but I still always seem to be last to hear of stuff. Looking it up, the new body types look great. As usual, I wish they were a bit more extreme than what they are, but they're a great (and overdue) start!

Speaking of price, I'm still desperately keeping an eye out for an Isi Dawndancer that doesn't break the bank. A friend of mine has a philosophy of only having ONE doll from every playline she likes in order to make sure she doesn't run out of space or money, which I think is a great idea and something I'm going to do myself. To that effect, Isi is DEFINITELY my one single MH doll I'd absolutely love as the representation of that series. It's hard to find her anywhere, and impossible so far (in my experience) to find her under £20. I keep seeing her for £26.

Haha sorry I'm kind of... monopolising your christmas thread. Maybe we should make a "doll plans of 2016" thread?

oo that sounds like a great plan! I shall make one now! I have a whole list of stuff but with Monster High supposedly rebooting to be softer and less gothy, I think i'll be moving over to LDDs instead to get my goth creepy monster fix. I've kinda lost interest in a lot of playline, i think it's just all kinda a bit.. the same right now. There's one or two things I want but not a huge amount that makes me go "OMG need" and uk stores are overpricing and getting less variety in anyway.