Princess of Power

So I’ve been meaning to get to this post for a while, and I managed to get the photos taken before I started working on the photos for June. (I’ll explain in my first June post as to why I have a special theme for the month.) It’s not that I want to show off my She-Ra collection, it’s that I’ve got two big purchases I want to squee about. 🙂

And here’s the first one:

Sadly, there’s only one half of the front door (and it doesn’t actually stay in place, due to broken hinges) and only one window pane, but still! She-Ra’s Crystal Castle! 😀

And it has pretty much all its interior accessories:

(Though from looking at a list I found online, it turns out the purple fur thing I put on the bed as a comforter is supposed to be a rug. Oops. 😛 )

In order to show off the rooms more closely, let me give you a tour accompanied by the She-Ra dolls I still have from my childhood. (Only the dolls, though; I didn’t think there’d be any place in the castle to accommodate Storm, Swift Wind and Clawdeen. 😛 Pegasi and pink lions are not always housebroken, either…)

Peek-a-blue gets to stand on the throne because she’s so very complete: she can still wear her tail (most of the others who have things that plug into holes in their backs, the plugs broke off) and she still has her skirt, too! The shield she’s holding isn’t hers, but it does date to my childhood. 😀

Frosta’s only missing her staff and her shield, and at least Mermista still has her tail. 😉 The flowers in her hair were originally Perfuma’s, I think.

The shield Flutterina is holding is also from another doll line, and the sword she’s holding is actually one of those sword-shaped toothpicks. 😛 But it was in the same plastic tub with all my She-Ra dolls and accessories, so I figured it was fine to use it here. 😀 I think what happened to the one side of Sweet Bee’s headdress is that it accidentally got put on a radiator and started to melt. Or rather, that’s definitely what my memory tells me happened, but I can’t remember ever living anywhere that had a radiator. *shrug*

Angella can only use the bed because her wings broke off. 😛

Catra has so much that’s not, you know, original. It’s not a She-Ra shield, and that skirty thing she’s wearing? I made it back around the time I moved here. In the late ’90s, Mattel put out device where you turned a crank and it knitted Barbie tube dresses, yeah? So I used that to make this replacement skirt for Catra. It’s got a loose end that’s supposed to be her tail. 😉 Her hair’s been put up in a loose bun and bound with a “pearl” necklace, which probably came from one of the three or four reproduction Bride Barbies I bought back when I had access to a Mattel Outlet Store. And all her silver paint was rubbing off, so back in the ’80s I tried touching it up…with a silver paint pen. Not a good idea. 😦 Also her gem had fallen off, so I clumsily glued in a replacement, which looks all messy close-up.

I was so proud of myself for figuring out what this was for that I had to photograph it. 😀 The little square hole hold a shield (Sweet Bee’s being the only one I have left, sadly), and then the area below it holds a sword…only all I had available was that toothpick. 😛 I wonder where lost She-Ra accessories go? Maybe to the Biro Planet… (Obscure Hitchhiker’s Guide reference, that…)

How’s that for cool? The table has a map on it of She-Ra’s world! Pointless, maybe, but still cool. 😀

Double Trouble’s missing her skirt and the tuft of hair that came out of the top of her helmet, but at least she’s still got her cape. 😀 And again, she’s got someone else’s shield. :p Castaspella’s hair has been done up in that beehive bun because it’s so matted and frizzled. (And it’s been that way for at least twenty years, so it’d probably stay in that shape even if I let it out of the hairband…) She’s still got her skirt, but her spinny thing’s post broke off, so she can’t wear it on her back, even though I still have it.

Okay, so those are all the dolls left over from my childhood (though I still have my original She-Ra around here somewhere, but I don’t know where. I took her out for a photo years ago, and didn’t put her back in the right place, and now I can’t find her.) But I’ve also gotten “new” ones from local shops and Etsy. (Mostly local shops, though.)

Bow’s excited because a recent purchase gave She-Ra a new skirt. (Wait, shouldn’t he be displeased by that?)

This is actually the second new Perfuma I’ve gotten, ’cause this one still had her back flower and shield. Okay, actually, the shield didn’t matter in the least. ;P

Again, the second replacement Glimmer, too, but look at her! She’s almost MINT. And because I found her at a local store that didn’t know or care, she was CHEAP. (Though admittedly her staff was actually in with the castle’s accessories rather than with her, but who cares?) Her paint’s fresh, and her hair’s in nice shape, and still shiny. The one drawback is that her former owner smoked on her. 😦 She and the other three dolls I got in the same haul as the castle. (Perfuma 2, and the two I’ll show you next.) And I’d left them in their individual bags until it was time to photograph them, so I had to photograph them still stinking. 😦 I’ve got them airing out in the basement now, so they should be okay in a week or so. Maybe less time than that, but I’m not likely to remember to check on them sooner than that. :p

I’m sure you’re wondering why I’d get another Castaspella when I still had mine, right? Well, it’s not because her hair is in better shape. It’s because she came with a garment that didn’t belong to her…which I’ve put on the next doll…

My hands were literally shaking as I picked up Entrapta. She’s one of the very rare dolls of the second year, and one of the few I never had as a kid. But stupidly I put this cape on her so you can’t see her long purple and pink hair. 😦 After she’s been de-stunk, I’ll have to take some more photos. Normally, I’d be reluctant to buy a doll in this bad shape, but with such a hard to find doll, how could I not? (Especially considering they were only asking $3.99.) Anyway, the cape there came on Starburst She-Ra. And why was she called “Starburst”? Well…

That’s why. 😉 Sadly, the snaps on the waistband for the cape came unsewn on one side, so I can’t fasten it until I have the time (and inclination) to sew the other half back on. (Fortunately, the snap that came unattached is still snapped to the other side.) I think the cape’s metallic underside goes well with Entrapta’s metallic body. 😀 (Which, it turns out, is entirely of the metallic plastic, and the skin colored portions are just painted on. There’s a scratch near her collar bone, but it doesn’t show up very well in the thumbnail, unfortunately.)

Now, one last doll, this time a vintage purchase from Etsy. She’s not Princess of Power, but she’s close…

This is Jade, from Galoob’s Golden Girl line. (Quite some time ago, I posted a photo of the boxed Golden Girl I found at an antique mall about 20 years ago, if you’re interested.) She came with almost all her accessories (including her sword belt, which looked like it had never been used) but for some reason she’s literally covered in gold glitter. The one thing she didn’t have was her sword. That one she’s got in her sword belt right now is one I had left over from my childhood. Based on the photos on the back of the box, I think it was Onyx’s. (BTW, as you’ll have guessed, all those other shields in the above photos are from the Golden Girl line. And they’re all die cast metal! Those shields are totally sweet.) You’ll notice the green discoloration on Jade’s knee? I think that was one of the typical ways this line quickly experienced damage. Looking at photos of other dolls from this line on Etsy, I noticed some with detached legs, and on getting my hands on Jade again, I noticed that you can easily see the very thin red connection between her leg and her hip, and suddenly remembered why I didn’t have any of these dolls anymore: they’re nowhere near as well made as the She-Ra dolls, and broke easily.

Yes, I said “again”. I had Jade as a kid, and I still have several of her accessories. Let me prove it…

My (first replacement) Perfuma is modelling Jade’s helmet, shield and cape…as best she can, considering one of the cape’s snaps came undone. 😦

Anyway, Jade here came with one of Onyx’s fashion packs. And since I don’t have Onyx anymore, I had a She-Ra doll model it:

I don’t have Netossa either (like, duh: she can’t be found for under $100, if even that cheaply), so I put the outfit on the earlier replacement Glimmer, since she hadn’t been photographed yet in this session. ;P I’m actually quite glad I’ve got the two Glimmers: this one is clearly first wave, and the other second, because they changed the way they painted the faces between waves, and the second wave wasn’t as pretty. (Heavier lines around the eyes, mostly.) I had replacements for Flutterina and Peek-a-blue as a kid, because their scalps were detaching (the plugs were too close together), only I kept the originals, too, because their faces were prettier. Though I seem to have lost the originals along with Glimmer, Bow and Perfuma. 😦 (It was when I was moving…back in 1999.)

Okay, so that’s the end of the vintage Princess of Power stuff for this post.

So now I can get to the other big purchase I mentioned at the start of the post! A while back, I went to Mattel’s online shop, and lucked into an incredibly awesome purchase…

No, it’s not an art print. That’s the front of a box. And the picture continues all the way around…

On the back, the forces of the doll line fight against the forces of “just who the flying f*** aret hose people?!” (Okay, actually, I do know who Hordak is. But he was never a doll. For obvious reasons. Not a clue who the rest of those people are.)

The mural-like box art even continues onto the top of the box!

Poor Swift Wind. Someone covered him in bleach! :O

Okay, anyway, so what’s inside the box? It’s….

…another box!

Seriously, that elaborate box was just the shipper box. Wow.

This is the back of the box…which is sadly out of focus. 😦 I could have sworn it was in focus when I took it. *sigh*

Opening the box, this is what you find!

Wrong castle, guys: this one is He-Man’s. She-Ra’s is pink. (Look, it’s right there in the corner of the photo! See? Pink.)

So, yes, Mattel has finally given us a new She-Ra doll. (As opposed to those ugly action figures under the Masters of the Universe line, with their horrible faces and molded hair.)

Yup, she’s full 1/6 scale! 😀 And she’s fully jointed! But let’s worry about her clothes for now. They’re super well made, leather(like) dress and boots. And yet…they just don’t look right…

Yeah, they included multiple outfits, including one that more closely approximated the original dolls! 😀 (The shield actually goes with the cartoon look, of course, but I had to at least show it.) In case you’re less familiar with She-Ra than I am, here’s what a fully equipped doll looked like:

(Photos from He-Man.org. Click for link.)

Like this, she really looks like how I think of She-Ra looking. 😀 Though the face could be a stronger likeness:

It doesn’t help, of course, that this replacement She-Ra wasn’t very well painted. (Is she a chameleon? One of her eyes is pointing in a different direction than the other!) Still, it’s a pretty face, so that’s all right. (The doll-style outfit doesn’t fit her as well as the cartoon-style outfit, though.)

Oh, yeah, there were two spare outfits, btw. But I didn’t bother with the Princess Adora version, ’cause it’s not really one I know, as they never made a doll of her untransformed. Check out what’s above the princess’s (startlingly revealing) royal garb, though: spare hands! She can change her hands! How awesome is that?

BTW, the princess has been hitting the gym:

I don’t think I’ve ever owned a doll with abs before. Mattel has got to keep using this body! It’s freakin’ awesome. This is totally a warrior’s body. They could keep going and do all the rest of the She-Ra characters, and then branch out into other warriors. Superheroines, Red Sonja (and others of her type), maybe they could even make a deal with some game companies and do game heroines with this. This body would be supremely perfect for Tifa. (Well, okay, yeah, technically it would need a larger bust if it was going to be Tifa, but…considering she can suplex an entire wall, she really ought to be this buff, no matter how scrawny her arms and legs were drawn to be in the character design art.)

As to how this doll is jointed, it’s mostly the same joint structuring as the Made-to-Move Barbies, but She-Ra has one extra joint that Barbie doesn’t have:

Jointed toes!!! Is that awesome or what?! The weird thing is, her boots don’t even allow her to use her toe joints.

Oh, and that seems to be the last of the photos. But that would be a weird place to end the post, so let’s dredge up couple of older She-Ra photos…

(Hey, I managed to get Storm in here after all! 😛 Pity I didn’t have any photos on hand of Swift Wind or Clawdeen…and Arrow’s still in his box…)

Okay, so you may have noticed that none of these photos (other than the two that aren’t mine) have any links attached to them. That’s because Dropbox just made its photo section useless. They made it super-hard to navigate, added about three extra steps to the process of sharing a photo, and completely removed albums. So that’s a thing that is no longer going to be used by me. I have to find a new way to store and share the full size photos, and either transfer them all over or…ugh, I don’t even know. But all the old gallery links are no longer functional. 😦 If worst comes to worst, I can use my other blog to provide a little bit of free storage, since it’s not photo-heavy. I need to look into Google’s options, since I recently had to sign up for a GMail account for school anyway.

I’m more glad than ever that most of my June plans only involved a single photo per post….

EDIT – Okay, so Google will definitely work, but I just checked out how the sharing format works, and it’s a pain, not so much on my end, but on the end of the person trying to look at the shared photos. So I’m going to start just using album links at the end, rather than links for each individual photo. I apologize if that’s a pain in the ass. (Speaking of PITA, I am so not going to go in and remove all the links on the old photos. Unless I come up with some huge need to use my Dropbox space for something else (or unless they start charging me) I’m still going to leave the pictures up, even as I start adding them also to Google Photo, to create albums for each post. This will be a super-long process, and I cannot even begin to guess how long it’ll take. (If there are any posts whose albums you want to see restored faster, let me know, okay?)

Anyway, long story short, here’s the link to the album for this post. (Oh, but a few of the pictures were so badly taken that the thumbnail version on here is all there is. Because I was still thinking in terms of “saving Dropbox space.”)