Byul the Diva

I was trying to figure out a good name to give to my Byul Insane Humpty Dumpty.  I came up with some names based on the blue of her hair–Glauke, Hyacinth–and the entirely inappropriate Eglantine, to tie into the egginess of her original incarnation, but those were thoroughly rejected.  (Though Glauke and Hyacinth are both good names for Pullip-type dolls.  Eglantine is suitable for a more old-fashioned type of doll, I think.)

Anyway, I also wanted to keep trying some new clothes on her, and see what clicked personality-wise.  So I tried this dress on her that came off a rock-themed Bratz doll, and borrowed Pyrrha’s car for the photo shoot.  The idea was for Byul to be sitting in the car.  That wasn’t what happened.

Posing for the camera

Then I realized the truth.  This girl’s a diva!

More than that, on thinking about it for a while, it dawned on me that she wasn’t just any diva.  She wanted to be a Vocaloid.

She wanted to be Kaiko.

Kaiko, for those less obsessed with Vocaloid than myself, is the gender-bend of KAITO.  Now, Byul here does not actually look much (or, in fact, anything at all) like the Taeyang KAITO.  Her hair’s a different shade of blue, her eyechips are totally different, and her skin tone is probably different, too.  (Haven’t seen him in person (yet) so I can’t say on that part.)  But I just couldn’t shake the idea that that’s who she wants to be.  So I thought I’d let her test out some Kaiko-like clothes.

Now, as a gender-bend, Kaiko isn’t an official Vocaloid.  She’s what’s known as a fanloid or a pitchloid:  her songs are created by recording KAITO singing something, and then the recording is manipulated into a girl’s register.  (Or something like that.  I don’t know how it works; Vocaloid voicebanks cost at least as much as a full-size Pullip, so I don’t have any, and don’t know the detailed intricacies of the software.)  As she isn’t official, she doesn’t have one official costume, but is generally depicted in a feminine version of KAITO’s outfit, the major feature of which is that big, white leather jacket.

So I thought I’d put her in the white leatherette coat off the Scarah Screams TRU exclusive, but she’s sewn into that thing, and I don’t want to cut it off her and wreck it up, so I put her in Ghoulia’s lab coat instead, which is the same size, except having shorter sleeves.

Kaiko outfit test run 1

Of course, this test run photo is so chaotic that you can’t see a darn thing other than her new guitar.  (I went back to Toys R Us, and they still had some of those Beatrix Girls things on clearance, so I was like “heck, yeah, I’ll get another guitar!”  And this one’s a good color for Kaiko, so it doesn’t need to be painted if she is, indeed going to be Kaiko…which she pretty much is, at this point.)

Anyway, I took another shot, without the guitar, and without the scarf (KAITO is also known for his scarf, though his of course is blue, rather than stripey, but I didn’t have a blue one handy, and I did have a stripey one), but it was naturally made awkward by the fact that she needs a shirt to go under the jacket.

Kaiko test run 2

Looking at her this way, she almost looks born to the part, doesn’t she?  It’s eerie.  Well, to me, anyway.  :p  (I had her borrow Len-kun’s headphones, to complete the illusion, naturally.  Not sure where the heck I’ll get her some headphones of her own, though…)  So I’m going to have to buy another Scarah–fortunately, though TRU no longer has her, she can still be had at a decent price from Amazon, as of last night–to get another of those lovely leatherette jackets, though I don’t know what she’s going to wear under the jacket.

I’m worried I’m about to start sliding down a slippery slope, though.  Not only are the other Vocaloid Pullips now hard to come by–apart from KAITO himself, and I think Pullipstyle may still have regular Miku–then there’s the fact that what I really want are the other Vocaloids.  Other official Vocaloids like Gumi and Gackupo and Lily, and other fanloids like Neru and Haku and Zatsune.  Yikes.  I mean, some of those wouldn’t be too difficult.  Zatsune is just a palette swap on Miku, after all.  But Gackupo?!  OMG, no freakin’ way.  I would have to pay someone a lot of money to make his costume.  It is seriously complicated.  Lily’s is also pretty complex…and probably wouldn’t actually transfer very well to Pullip anyway, being rather risque.  Oh, but there’s Iroha!  She’s super-cute and would work well as a doll, and I’d much rather have her than Lily anyway!  And, of course, then let’s not forget UTAUs like Teto and Defoko and Ritsu and…ugh, the list could go on forever.  Seriously, one could have an entire doll room just of Vocaloid and UTAU dolls.

For the moment, I’m just going to give in to Byul’s desire to be Kaiko, and order that Scarah to get her the jacket (it helps that I have the perfect outfit to put that Scarah in to make her fit into the Freak du Chic line-up, making it a more appealing purchase overall) and try to tell myself that she’ll be my last Vocaloid Pullip purchase.

Except maybe KAITO.

Meanwhile, Pyrrha is feeling neglected.

Pyrrha’s sad face

But I had some spare time at the museum on Sunday, and I was looking at Etsy–which I have so far tried to avoid, because do I really need yet another place I can spend money?–and saw tons of gorgeous eye chips, so I’m thinking of getting her some replacement eye chips soon.  Not sure how many, though.  I mean, the pink ones with the B in the middle are definitely going.  Really don’t like those.  Actually, I think the question is just if I’m keeping the violet ones, or if I’m going to replace all four.

Of course, I’ll need to find some tutorials about how to go about replacing eye chips, and how best to sand off the shine on the face plates while her head’s disassembled–I’m assuming re-painting the face is the same as re-painting any other doll’s face, which is something I’ve done before–and how best to give her a good hair cut.  But…yeah, it needs doing.  She’s been languishing in factory state for too long, and I think it’s really annoying her.

(But at least this gave me an excuse to post that Cinderella picture!  I’ve been waiting for a good excuse to use that for quite a while now! 😛 )

(Oh, if you want to see them, there are about four other versions of the “diva shot” on the car.  They’re all in an album on Dropbox here.)