Barbie - the Icon exhibition

A temporary exhibition in the National Museum of Finland.

From 27. April  till 26. August 2018

I was looking forward to visit this exhibition, but I had a hard time finding the time to do so! Finally, when I found the time and energy, I dragged my mom with me to the museum. We went there on the 18th of August (Saturday) which is to say one week before the exhibition would end.

I don't know about you, but when I think about a museum, I don't imagine there being big crowds and waiting in line involved that much, rather almost empty rooms and a quiet place. Once we stepped through the main entrance  we were in for a shock. There was a huge damn line of people going across the room! The cost of the entry tickets (which are stickers actually) was 15€ per person, we got them without having to wait for too long.  We asked the cashier if there's been this kind of crowd here before and she was like "I've never seen anything like this" and she also told us she had to give a refund to someone who got tired of waiting in line and left the museum without seeing the exhibition. Yikes! Never expected to hear something like this happening in a museum! My mom and me ended up waiting around 20-30 minutes before we got inside the exhibition hall. Little did we realize our waiting had only just begun!

Obviously the dolls where inside glass cabinets so people wouldn't be able to touch them. There were literally queue's of people to every glass case in sight! If you tried to free roam your way through the exhibition you were without exception blocked by a wall of people. If you wanted a chance to actually SEE the dolls you had to get in line, otherwise the best view you were going to get was a peek.

Maybe they designed the show with mainly children in mind, because there is no other excuse for the display cases for being so damn low. If I wanted to take a closer look at any doll's details, I had to bend half way over to be able to see anything. I can imagine a person with any sort of back pain trying to enjoy this exhibition.  For f*ck's sake at least few of the dolls could have been placed closer to the eye level of an adult person.

And then there were the children..... the place was swarming with them. And not with the good mannered -kind of children. I lost the track of time, but I think we were in the museum something around 1,5 -2 hours, and for that ENTIRE TIME  there was this one kid crying and screaming her lungs out. I can tolerate babies and toddlers crying, but this kid looked like a six year old and she was screaming that she's hurting the ENTIRE TIME and (I'm assuming) the mother did absolutely nothing. Based on the lack of any reaction from the mother, maybe then the kid was just having a tantrum of epic proportions, but for common decency's sake I wish the mom could have at least tried to calm her kid down.

And then there was this other little girl who banged her hands against the display case with this single wedding dress doll inside it till the point the doll was shaking and I was afraid the doll was going to fall over. Again, the kid's mother stood right next to her and did absolutely nothing.

On the brighter side of things, while we were still waiting in line for the entry, there was this young boy with his mother and grandmother standing behind us. Now that kid was really nice and calm! He seemed to be actually interested and didn't appear to have been dragged there against his will.

As I mentioned before, I imagine museums to be these quiet and peaceful places, but hell no, that wasn't the case this time. There was this constant background noise of people talking VERY LOUDLY and I could still hear them even if I covered my ears. I swear, I have been to anime conventions quieter than this zoo!

Despite that the whole experience was very uncomfortable to say the least, what did I think of the exhibition itself? The dolls they had on display were really beautiful, but overall I think it was pretty small and (in lack of a better word) shallow and not worth the price of 15€ entry fee. I've only recently gotten interested in fashion dolls again, and even I know that too many things about the history of Barbie were glossed over or nonexistent in the exhibition. All things considered, I was expecting more and this particular museum trip just felt like a let down. Still.... I'm still happy I saw the exhibit and all the pretty dolls, despite everything I just said.

I definitely liked the modern dolls more! I didn't really feel anything towards the earlier Barbie dolls, most of them just look a little creepy to be honest! It's hard to pick one favorite above all the other dolls, but some of my favorites were the dolls based on paintings and real life people/movie characters. Oh! And the "Goddess" dolls with their extravagant costumes were a real treat for the eyes! I really loved the designer illustrations on the wall also, shame there were so few of them.
I did try to snap a photo of any doll I really liked or any with details I found interesting, but there was always this feeling that I need to hurry up and move along because there was always people behind me waiting in line.

random little details

Flea market findings 7

Bought during a longer time period and not in one go and from separate places.

Poor G1 My Little Pony named Sand Digger cost me only 0,50€. I don't think this one is salvageable, I've heard those pen marks are very hard to remove and this one has them all over.

Spirited Away No-Face/Kaonashi phone charm with one of the "Heads".  I think I'm remembering I paid 2€ for this. Aside from the movies, this is the first Studio Ghibli merchandise that I own.

These Mega Pokémon figures are still sold in stores, so someone got tired of it really quickly. I was lucky to find this Mega Absol for only 2€, while if I bought it new from a store it would cost about 12€.

Score! It is so rare to find any Dragon Ball Z figures for sale, so that's why I have to feel extra happy whenever I find such rarity. Vegeta, Trunks, Goku and Gohan all came in the same plastic bag with a 10€ price tag slapped on it. It bothers me a little how Gohan isn't quite the right scale compared to the rest of them. He should only reach up to Goku's shoulders and not stand as tall as him.

These ceramic dogs cost 0,80€ each and if I ever find the time again, I'll use them for my Ginga custom project.

This 1997 Kenner AT-AT pilot has been through tough times and cost me only 0,50€.

The small plastic bag Eevee, Buneary, Piplup and a Nendoroid I do not recognize all came in, cost only 0,50€! Fifty cents! This has to be the cheapest Nendoroid ever! Maybe it's one of them good bootlegs, I dunno. Probably missing a lot of additional parts as well. Who are you, pink nurse?

The odd bunch containing Grievous, super deformed Kenobi and a Lil' Chewbacca. I bought them separately and can't remember what I paid for each one.

Operetta, Gigi and Clawdeen cost together 3€, that's one euro for each doll! That's crazy cheap considering they have most of their clothes and no missing limbs. Although Gigi's hair looks and feels very dirty... I'm not complaining!

These mini horses are super tiny and cute! And I can't remember what they cost me. I'm thinking of repainting the two on the right.

 Yet another Chap Mei Dilophosaurus for the collection <3

 Can't say the paint job is that accurate on the foxes, but the pup and parent are cute nonetheless.

Bootleg Pokémons. Aside from Absol and Darkrai, I don't think the sculpting is that bad, mostly is just the paint job. Fennekin, Braixen and Sandshrew look pretty good! Poor Eevee has a slightly deformed head, otherwise it looks pretty okay too. Something went terribly wrong with Darkrai, I can't stop laughing! XD

Hallå, Stockholm

Me, my mom and brother took a short trip over to Sweden. It was fun. We were really lucky with the weather, the sun was shining the whole day we spent in Sweden, while in Helsinki it was dull and gray. I specifically wanted to visit the Disney Store in Stockholm and a few comic book shops. I thought the Disney store was a little disappointing, or maybe I had too high expectations. I was hoping to find Star Wars Tsum Tsums, but to my horror, there was barely anything SW in the shop. I had to take a train to reach the Mall of Scandinavia where the store is, and all I have to say about the effing train station is that it was a complete nightmare. My visit to the Science Fiction Bokhandeln didn't go so well either, they didn't have the things in stock I specifically came there to buy, so I left without buying anything. Although I was very close to buying two Blu-rays, but I changed my mind at the last second and saved my money. Which was good, because when I got to Comic's Heaven I almost found too much to buy! Considering I would have to carry them for the rest of the day. I also dropped in real quick in a shop called Rockzone, they mostly sold clothing, bags & accessories either themed with music bands or other pop culture series. Their action figure selection was pretty good too. I wish I'd had more time to look through them, but I was already in a bit of a hurry. It would be fun spending a few days in Stockholm and visit these shops again without having to worry about the clock. Overall, it was a really nice visit to Sweden again after so many years, hopefully it won't take 10 years before I get the chance to go there again.

Our transportation

Those strawberry drinks were delicious!! *_* & view from our cabin.

Faceless Predator in Rockzone and Alien in SciFi Bokhandeln

My haul from Sweden included the following (in random order):

One of the main reasons I wanted to go to the Disney Store was to get this Disney Animator's Collection Cinderella doll. I thank my lucky stars they had it in stock because otherwise the store's selection was pretty bad in my opinion. I wanted to buy the mini doll of Cinderella as well, but they only sold Boo (Monsters Inc), Tinker Bell and Rapunzel, which was disappointing. Their selection of Tsum Tsums was laughably small (especially Star Wars...). In my eyes, most of their inventory consisted of clothes & costumes for children, school supplies and mugs. I imagined they would have had more "collectible" stuff for sale like figures, plushies and whatnot.

Since the doll is quite big I had to buy a bag to carry it in, the cashier let me choose between a Pirates of the Caribbean one and this Tangled one I ended up choosing. The cartoon Jack Sparrow on the tPoC bag looked really weird and I didn't like it. I liked the purple color on this one and thought it would look less weird to have a "girly" bag for the doll (I have never seen Tangled the movie btw!). The cashier was unusually chatty too, (in Finland, usually I never need to say anything more than the obligatory greeting and thank you) she actually asked who I'm buying the doll for and if I wanted it gift wrapped!? XD For a second I actually considered lying that I'm getting the doll for my nieces, but then I thought what the hell, and quietly admitted I'm buying this for myself. But oh no, she didn't let it go, then she asked me "Oh, you like princesses?  :) ". I was tempted to answer her "Not really", but instead I told her the truth which was "I was thinking about customizing it...". Thank God there was not follow-up question to that and then finally, I was free to leave. Of course she asked her questions in the nicest way possible, it's just me and my social anxieties that make me feel uncomfortable whenever I get asked any question in person.

 A little bit to read from Comic's Heaven! I've never felt so incomplete leaving a shop! Obviously, I would have liked to buy the graphic novel for the original trilogy, and the issues #1,#2 and #3 for the new Darth Maul comic (sold out!), but the movie trilogy books were so big and heavy I didn't want to carry two of them around the whole day, and why did I choose the prequels? Duh! Because Maul is in it! Probably for like 5 panels or something, but that's good enough for me! About the Jeffrey Brown books, I didn't realize until later that there are three books in the series and I just bought book two and book three. I simply had to place an order for book one when we got back home. I didn't expect it to happen, but the total weight of these actually snapped the handles of my bag I was carrying them in. It was a real pleasure to carry these in my arms all the way to the Disney store where I got my new bag to put them in.

The coasters were also from Comic's Heaven, they had a big selection of different series, but of course I only really looked at the SW ones. Maul was an obvious choice, but I had a hard time picking between "May the Force be with you" -Kenobi or this Jabba the Hutt one. Jabba won. I've been wanting this 2-pack for a while now and I'm so happy I found it in the Toys R Us after my visit to the Disney store in Mall of Scandinavia. Now I wish I had looked more carefully at the quality of the paint job on the figures when I chose which box to buy. My Maul's face paint is just sloppy and I think the 7th Sister is just too pale (they all are), you can barely even see those tiny dots on her face.

I found the Sackboy Kratos at Rockzone. I don't really like Little Big Planet, but I like God of War, and that was reason enough to buy this little abomination. Luckily, that little red spot that looks like a factory defect is actually on the package and not on the figure. I bought the others from the gift shop on the cruise ship. Finn was on sale with -30% off, so I saw no reason not to buy him! I like Rowlet and Litten more than Popplio, but it still annoys me that I'd have to buy a separate package to get Popplio (and get yet another Pikachu) if I want to complete this starter trio. Why can't they come in the same package!? 

***

Lastly, not related to anything above, but I'll mention it anyway. I won the raffle over at http://pastellipuoli.blogspot.fi/ Thanks for the super cute prize if you ever read this! ;3

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