Mattel mystery item repaint

For a while, I had been looking for a big beautiful picture, only so that I could cut it into small pieces!

I finally found what I was looking for at an elementary school's yard sale. The school was closing down for good and they were trying to get rid of all the remaining excess stuff. There were piles of kid's magazines laying on a table, I looked through a few and notices some of them still had folded up posters inside. A poster would be perfect for my intended use! I searched the magazines for more posters, and the one I finally picked up and brought home was this beautiful picture of the Orion Nebula. And I got it for free! :D

Some time earlier, I found this thing..... a screen, room divider, triptych? whatever it is, at a flea market for 0,50€. I'm guessing it belongs to a Barbie doll, because it is Barbie sized and it says "Mattel, 2005" on the backside. I tried looking it up on google, but I must be using wrong search words, because nothing even remotely resembling this came up. Well, anyway, I bought it because I thought it might work as a good background for some figures too, but first, something needed to be done about those awful colors.

I removed the original, all buckled up cardboard from the frame, spray painted it black and lastly, I dry brushed it with some dark red.

I used the old riverside view card boards to trace the shapes onto the nebula poster, which I also laminated. Then I cut out the pieces and put them in back in the frame, which wasn't as easy as it sounds. I tried my best, but the pieces I cut still wouldn't fit right. In the end, the nebula pieces also buckle a little, although not as much as the original cardboard pictures.

mandatory before & after picture

Crystal T-Rex

I was visiting the first time the  Science Center Heureka's small shop in Helsinki and there I saw these beautiful crystal 3D puzzles for sale. I walked out of the shop without buying anything, but I decided that next time I was visiting Helsinki that I would come back and pick one up. Some time later I did it! I had to decide between getting the T-Rex or a human skull. It's pretty self explanatory which one I ended up buying. I didn't really like the color choices for the skull, either black or clear.  The king of the dinosaurs won in the end because of the more vibrant color and the dynamic pose it had.

After I opened the package, I found this two sided paper describing many other puzzle models available. THERE'S A DARTH VADER!! OMG!! But of course, there was none in the shop's limited selection. Dangit.

"It would be very interesting, challenging to one's mind if it is fixed randomly"
If not downright impossible! I had a hard time putting this together, even with the instructions! As I started putting this Rex together, I was wearing cotton gloves, because I didn't want to have fingerprints all over it.  Bad idea! The puzzle pieces were more slippery than a wet bar of soap in my hands. So the gloves had to come off.

Through steps 4-44 there is nothing holding the pieces together, you just have to carefully balance it like I'm holding it in the picture. BTW, it was not a very good idea trying to take pictures in the midst of building it. I was focusing on the camera, and didn't really pay attention to my other arm which was holding the puzzle upright, I tilted my hand a little bit too much and all the pieces come crashing down! I had to rebuild it once or twice, just for wanting to take a picture. Thank goodness for the plastic screw on step  45! I could finally put my headless T-Rex down!

The last piece...

It is a little disappointing that the arms, legs and tail are so see through. They stand out a bit too much from the rest of the body. Otherwise it's awesome! I like the sculpt and pose, even though the pose might not be scientifically accurate, being too upright and the tail dragging the ground. My pictures are lying about the color too. Seeing it live, it's far more orange-y or almost like bronze in color. (Depends on the genius in charge of the lightening,  I guess.)