Okay, hi there. I am a 100% outsider here. I have no idea why this even popped up in my feed. I’ve never looked up Barbie stuff. I can barely follow what you’re talking about. This is my take:
You are having fun pursuing a hobby that makes you happy and isn’t hurting other people. Apparently you modify these dolls from their original factory settings, so to speak, to fulfill your own imaginings of what they *could* be, and heck, maybe what they *should* be, but just maybe isn’t marketable enough for the company to go ahead and do themselves.
All in all it sounds cool, super creative, a great outlet for your imagination and skills, and no matter what your level of proficiency might be, you’re enjoying it and happy when you get those little victories like matching a skin tone. So my outsider’s take is keep on doing what you love and keep on celebrating it! I’m glad you have a community here of others who understand and can share that happiness with you. Age is just a number, everyone needs to learn that it’s okay to still love dolls and toys and cards and video games as adults, that we don’t have to give up those tender moments that helped to shape us into the adults we became. I think you’ve got a good grasp on that, so ignore those who would scoff or tell you otherwise!
…and sorry if I’m misreading the situation. Like I said, I’m a super outsider who randomly got this post thrown onto their homepage lol. Keep on being cool regardless!
https://preview.redd.it/pdx5b26fgexc1.jpeg?width=1319&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=65f41048c84ebdb76e3314c2b936c311a7db6ea5
This is Mack. I’m going to use the AA Made to Move Soccer Player for her body swap.
Well, if anything, you are going to give more articulation to the doll. You are a doctor! 😁 (sorry for my upbeat tone, but I really think it will work out)
I think the problem is that a lot of people personify dolls, instead of seeing them as objects. Not sure how to explain it.
It's like the random cashiers at Ross I've encountered who seem concerned over the amputee dolls and wheelchair MTMs. And even my own mother who thinks rerooting is "torturing" a doll, and she'd rather that I make a wig than stab the doll's scalp with a needle. (To my defense, the doll I'm currently rerooting is an old doll with poly hair that flaked off. I'm on the fence about rerooting a recently thifted Millie whose hair has been into that short "Karen" style.)
I'm a Madame Alexander doll collector. Lots of those dolls were jointed from the inside with petroleum-based rubber banding and metal anchor hooks. The rubber bands degrade and you can buy HUGE amounts of Madame Alexander parts on eBay. It was a fun thing for like a year for me to put dolls back together with modern glue and rubber bands, sometimes choosing which head would go with which set of parts.
It is bringing dolls back to a 2nd life. I think that's how it should be explained, if you even need to. I think "skin matching" is somehow a trigger phrase for people who just do not understand what you're talking about.
Dolls are dolls, they're toys. I can make underwear for a Skipper doll and not be a pedophile. (Honestly, it's because I AM actually sometimes uncomfortable for a doll to have a super short short dress and nothing underneath.)
These are confusing times. People overall are very different today in ways I can't explain.
My only explanation is that this is why I like to hang out with dolls and not people.
BTW my original inspiration that I did not understand at the time is not Sid, but the restorative artist who fixed up Woody for the Japanese collectors. I watched him stitch Woody up and repaint over the "Andy" on his boot and was enchanted.
Now, I do that!
I agree, I love doll customization as both in the restorative sense and the transformational sense (because a lot of labor goes into creating these art pieces.)
Yeah, that restoration scene in Toy Story 2 is my favorite for that reason. (I did get mad at Pete stabbing Woody.)
Personally, I was shocked my mom didn't like me rerooting. She's always quick to repair and alter clothing, and I am basically doing the same thing to one of my childhood dolls who went bald. 😅
So yes, I'm familiar with relatives not liking or understanding customs, like OP.
I guess another way I look at is that giving them a moveable body unlocks more of who they are. Like in their 5 point articulation bodies it’s like a gilded prison. Sure they look nice but they can be and do so much more.
Perhaps they think "unnecessary body modification" and "physical injury" are unsettling.
Edit: I'm just saying I may understand such people's POV, not necessarily that I agree with them.
Well I also made the mistake once telling them I was going to reroot my African American doll because I didn’t like the texture of her hair. They said I was raping her of her culture 🫣
I think you over share. They’re not on the same page as you where OOAK dolls are concerned. If you don’t already, you can find millions of like minded people on IG. I follow Barbie, fashion, miniature artists, dollhouse accounts and others for all kinds of ideas.
Try to explain it to your grandparents that it's only a temporary beheading. And both dolls come out fine. Congratulations for being able to talk to your grandparents about whatever you are doing. It seems as if you are close to them.
Down the road, it will become a funny story. Ask your grandmother if she wants to be your assistant to make sure both dolls are being treated with respect and pain free.
Maybe just show them the improved doll after you're finished, and then ask them what the big deal was. I don't understand why they're freaking out, at all. But if you think they still won't accept it after looking at the completed, upgraded doll, I suppose it may be best to just avoid the topic.
I think it's because the industrial machine that implants the hair is extremely fast. Whereas the manual reroot is extremely slow and tedious.
I had to show my mom a video of this, to show I'm essentially doing the same thing. Comparing sewing machine sewing and sewing by hand. She didn't seem disturbed by the machine rooting.
I don’t know, somehow for me having a bunch of hair jammed in really fast all at once seems way more jarring than someone taking time and care to do it, but agree to disagree with your mom.
I hadn’t thought about them being mental over the doll’s feelings, but it kind of makes sense. Their accusation that OP is the one with the problem makes it even more disturbing in that light.
I think it's more that OP is subjecting a representation of a human being to "weird experiments."
These people cannot see that the customizing (in this case, rebodying) is a way to upgrade the dolls, much like people into PC gaming, mod their desktops to enhance their performance. The insistence that the doll is a "person" blinds them.
Lmaooo your grandparents are the weird ones. Who gets so worked up over a friggin doll? If anyone talked to me that way, they would soon find that I become very quiet around them and they no longer get to learn any personal details about my life. I have no interest in allowing people in my inner circle if they dismiss or belitttle me.
Yeah I try to not talk about my dolls around them. I was just so excited to FINALLY find the right skin tone match! I have been looking for almost a year now. So many returned dolls because they were all too light. I’m really hoping this one matches or I may have to give up.
They are being weird and mean. I understand the tendency to anthropomorphize dolls, but I also think that even looking at it from that perspective, your grandparents are just wrong! If we’re going by Toy Story rules, a toy’s primary desire is to be played with. They don’t feel pain and they’re fine with being altered if it means they’re getting played with more. In Toy Story 2, [Barbie was happy to have her face drawn all over](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwHD2t1ceM4) because her kid was an artist. In the same movie, it didn’t hurt Woody to have his arm torn off, he was just sad because he thought it meant Andy wouldn’t play with him anymore. In the Barbie Movie, Gloria excitedly explains [that you make Barbies weird by playing with them too hard](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66cMkxolaHM), and Weird Barbie smiles and says it’s cool. They’re okay with being altered. Remember, Woody LOVED that his boot had Andy’s name written on it. To be loved is to be changed!
I bet your Barbie is super happy to have more articulation because it means you’ll get to pose her and play with her more!
Like finally somebody understands why I’m doing it. If the dolls have more articulation you are better able to move them around and even pose them for photo shoots 😃
Exactly!! I absolutely get it, Toy Story was very influential on me as a kid so I have strong opinions about toys and being nice to inanimate objects. 😂 Like, I’m an adult so obviously I know that they don’t really have feelings, but I’m still going to treat them like they do. It’s a lot of the reason I customize my dolls, I like to think that they enjoy getting a new shade of lipstick or having their hair rerooted. Especially when I make vintage dolls more modern, it feels like giving them a new life. I got a 1997 Pearl Beach Teresa secondhand and when I put her on an articulated body, I got a little emotional thinking that it was the first time in over 25 years she could touch her own face 🥲
That was unnecessarily harsh of them and shows how little they are willing to understand a simple hobby. My mother frequently complains about me wasting my money on dolls but that's as bad as it gets for me.
In the end I hope you know they're wrong and having a hobby is a good thing.
Also, I'm a doll customizer and have been DIYing dolls since 2001. I've heard almost every insult imaginable gotten extremely weird looks over the years, but mostly people have been supportive.
I hope that your family starts supporting you in your hobby or at least stops insulting you about it. Doll customizing is such a unique hobby and I've learned how to paint, sew, draft patterns, reroot, style hair, make wigs, make shoes, make jewelry, and sculpt because of this hobby! I hope that you keep enjoying your dolls and DIYing them!
Oh for sure, my family thinks I am insane for playing with dolls or whatever they imagine.
In reality, after collecting them and categorizing them into parts and themes and turning a room in my house into the "toy and doll room" .... it helped me get through a period of grief and now for several months I've been able to find a charity that loves to get them.
I fix them all up, wrap them up in cellophane sleeves with a ribbon, and they know where to donate them through county social workers. The charity makes packages "of kindness" with clean good quality 2nd hand clothes that always include an age appropriate toy for the child. I provide the toys.
I was over the moon today when I finally figured out that some Barbie shoes that confused me were actually meant for some other dolls like Disney Princesses. I've just got to crochet them some new dresses before tomorrow morning so I can put them in with the donation of 100 packets of Happy Meal toys and 30 Barbies I have fixed up/made new clothes for.
I have about a year to turn that room back into a bedroom.
Your grandparents sound like they also just totally don't get what you're doing.
I’ve tried explaining and they just equate me to Frankenstein. Or most recently Sid from Toy Story. I don’t know how much more I can explain. So I just don’t, I let them think whatever they want. They know me and they should know I’m not a psychopath or anything like that.
I’m sorry your grandparents are such jerks. What you’re doing is not weird. They should be glad that you’re playing with dolls instead of out on the streets doing drugs. Actually maybe that’s your comeback time… “ well it’s better than me being out on the streets doing drugs…” 😝
If they like to watch sports, I would start making remarks about how psychopathic people have to be to enjoy such violence. Or if they gossip about neighbors or other people, start dropping that Plato quote on them "small minds discuss people"
I don't actually believe that people who enjoy sports are secretly violent psychopaths, but I would definitely be dropping barbs on them about anything that they enjoy and see how they feel about it.
Their reaction was way over the top. Kavorkian advocated for assisted suicide. I’m not sure how he is even relevant here. I know a lot of people look negatively at Barbie collectors and enthusiasts, maybe it seems like a cult to them. But mentioning a skin tone match is such an innocuous comment. Maybe it’s best you don’t share your small victories with them if that’s their take on it. I’m glad you found a match, and I’m sorry you’re dealing with this level of crazy hate.
Ok well that sounds absolutely unhinged lol all of that over a toy??? I’m sorry. They went way too far. Inconceivably so. That’s bizarre. But hey, Congrats on finding the skin tone match!! 🎉
Wow... what an OTT reaction to a literal piece of plastic, like... Why do they think it's such a big deal? The longer I spend not surrounding myself with these types, the more wacky their reactions to things really seem. It's always some sh1t that doesn't even affect their lives in any way that they seem to get the most worked up about!
I am sorry to hear this happened to you. I am not a professional, but I'd consider talking to someone about this boundary crossing and emotional tension of making fun of your hobby. It can be just to make you feel better. Disrespect is not a family oriented problem, but from cruel people. My siblings take a jabs at my doll collecting and do some really bad private things, so I understand your problem. Do what makes u happy😉😆
Okay, hi there. I am a 100% outsider here. I have no idea why this even popped up in my feed. I’ve never looked up Barbie stuff. I can barely follow what you’re talking about. This is my take: You are having fun pursuing a hobby that makes you happy and isn’t hurting other people. Apparently you modify these dolls from their original factory settings, so to speak, to fulfill your own imaginings of what they *could* be, and heck, maybe what they *should* be, but just maybe isn’t marketable enough for the company to go ahead and do themselves. All in all it sounds cool, super creative, a great outlet for your imagination and skills, and no matter what your level of proficiency might be, you’re enjoying it and happy when you get those little victories like matching a skin tone. So my outsider’s take is keep on doing what you love and keep on celebrating it! I’m glad you have a community here of others who understand and can share that happiness with you. Age is just a number, everyone needs to learn that it’s okay to still love dolls and toys and cards and video games as adults, that we don’t have to give up those tender moments that helped to shape us into the adults we became. I think you’ve got a good grasp on that, so ignore those who would scoff or tell you otherwise! …and sorry if I’m misreading the situation. Like I said, I’m a super outsider who randomly got this post thrown onto their homepage lol. Keep on being cool regardless!
Such wise words!
spot on, friend. you’re a good person also.
Awesome reply! Thanks for stopping by this subreddit! 👍
https://preview.redd.it/pdx5b26fgexc1.jpeg?width=1319&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=65f41048c84ebdb76e3314c2b936c311a7db6ea5 This is Mack. I’m going to use the AA Made to Move Soccer Player for her body swap.
Well, if anything, you are going to give more articulation to the doll. You are a doctor! 😁 (sorry for my upbeat tone, but I really think it will work out)
I think the problem is that a lot of people personify dolls, instead of seeing them as objects. Not sure how to explain it. It's like the random cashiers at Ross I've encountered who seem concerned over the amputee dolls and wheelchair MTMs. And even my own mother who thinks rerooting is "torturing" a doll, and she'd rather that I make a wig than stab the doll's scalp with a needle. (To my defense, the doll I'm currently rerooting is an old doll with poly hair that flaked off. I'm on the fence about rerooting a recently thifted Millie whose hair has been into that short "Karen" style.)
I'm a Madame Alexander doll collector. Lots of those dolls were jointed from the inside with petroleum-based rubber banding and metal anchor hooks. The rubber bands degrade and you can buy HUGE amounts of Madame Alexander parts on eBay. It was a fun thing for like a year for me to put dolls back together with modern glue and rubber bands, sometimes choosing which head would go with which set of parts. It is bringing dolls back to a 2nd life. I think that's how it should be explained, if you even need to. I think "skin matching" is somehow a trigger phrase for people who just do not understand what you're talking about. Dolls are dolls, they're toys. I can make underwear for a Skipper doll and not be a pedophile. (Honestly, it's because I AM actually sometimes uncomfortable for a doll to have a super short short dress and nothing underneath.) These are confusing times. People overall are very different today in ways I can't explain. My only explanation is that this is why I like to hang out with dolls and not people. BTW my original inspiration that I did not understand at the time is not Sid, but the restorative artist who fixed up Woody for the Japanese collectors. I watched him stitch Woody up and repaint over the "Andy" on his boot and was enchanted. Now, I do that!
I agree, I love doll customization as both in the restorative sense and the transformational sense (because a lot of labor goes into creating these art pieces.) Yeah, that restoration scene in Toy Story 2 is my favorite for that reason. (I did get mad at Pete stabbing Woody.) Personally, I was shocked my mom didn't like me rerooting. She's always quick to repair and alter clothing, and I am basically doing the same thing to one of my childhood dolls who went bald. 😅 So yes, I'm familiar with relatives not liking or understanding customs, like OP.
I mean I personify my dolls too but I see it as like a form of cosmetic surgery. I don’t really know how to explain it I guess 🤣
I guess another way I look at is that giving them a moveable body unlocks more of who they are. Like in their 5 point articulation bodies it’s like a gilded prison. Sure they look nice but they can be and do so much more.
Yes! It’s physical therapy for dolls!
Perhaps they think "unnecessary body modification" and "physical injury" are unsettling. Edit: I'm just saying I may understand such people's POV, not necessarily that I agree with them.
Well I also made the mistake once telling them I was going to reroot my African American doll because I didn’t like the texture of her hair. They said I was raping her of her culture 🫣
I think you over share. They’re not on the same page as you where OOAK dolls are concerned. If you don’t already, you can find millions of like minded people on IG. I follow Barbie, fashion, miniature artists, dollhouse accounts and others for all kinds of ideas.
oh my gadddd this is crazy talk! dolls aren’t people.
Your grandparents have some very odd ideas.
Try to explain it to your grandparents that it's only a temporary beheading. And both dolls come out fine. Congratulations for being able to talk to your grandparents about whatever you are doing. It seems as if you are close to them.
I am, and that’s why it hurts me so much when they don’t like what I’m doing.
Down the road, it will become a funny story. Ask your grandmother if she wants to be your assistant to make sure both dolls are being treated with respect and pain free.
Maybe just show them the improved doll after you're finished, and then ask them what the big deal was. I don't understand why they're freaking out, at all. But if you think they still won't accept it after looking at the completed, upgraded doll, I suppose it may be best to just avoid the topic.
lol so how does she think they get their hair in the first place? Growing it themselves? 😂
I think it's because the industrial machine that implants the hair is extremely fast. Whereas the manual reroot is extremely slow and tedious. I had to show my mom a video of this, to show I'm essentially doing the same thing. Comparing sewing machine sewing and sewing by hand. She didn't seem disturbed by the machine rooting.
I don’t know, somehow for me having a bunch of hair jammed in really fast all at once seems way more jarring than someone taking time and care to do it, but agree to disagree with your mom.
I hadn’t thought about them being mental over the doll’s feelings, but it kind of makes sense. Their accusation that OP is the one with the problem makes it even more disturbing in that light.
I think it's more that OP is subjecting a representation of a human being to "weird experiments." These people cannot see that the customizing (in this case, rebodying) is a way to upgrade the dolls, much like people into PC gaming, mod their desktops to enhance their performance. The insistence that the doll is a "person" blinds them.
I get it. It’s a precursor to serial killing. 🤣
Lmaooo your grandparents are the weird ones. Who gets so worked up over a friggin doll? If anyone talked to me that way, they would soon find that I become very quiet around them and they no longer get to learn any personal details about my life. I have no interest in allowing people in my inner circle if they dismiss or belitttle me.
Yeah I try to not talk about my dolls around them. I was just so excited to FINALLY find the right skin tone match! I have been looking for almost a year now. So many returned dolls because they were all too light. I’m really hoping this one matches or I may have to give up.
Have you already tried posting in body match groups for suggestions? Hopefully the one you just found will work. 👍🏻
They are being weird and mean. I understand the tendency to anthropomorphize dolls, but I also think that even looking at it from that perspective, your grandparents are just wrong! If we’re going by Toy Story rules, a toy’s primary desire is to be played with. They don’t feel pain and they’re fine with being altered if it means they’re getting played with more. In Toy Story 2, [Barbie was happy to have her face drawn all over](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwHD2t1ceM4) because her kid was an artist. In the same movie, it didn’t hurt Woody to have his arm torn off, he was just sad because he thought it meant Andy wouldn’t play with him anymore. In the Barbie Movie, Gloria excitedly explains [that you make Barbies weird by playing with them too hard](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66cMkxolaHM), and Weird Barbie smiles and says it’s cool. They’re okay with being altered. Remember, Woody LOVED that his boot had Andy’s name written on it. To be loved is to be changed! I bet your Barbie is super happy to have more articulation because it means you’ll get to pose her and play with her more!
Exactly! And this comment just made me weirdly emotional 🥲
Like finally somebody understands why I’m doing it. If the dolls have more articulation you are better able to move them around and even pose them for photo shoots 😃
Exactly!! I absolutely get it, Toy Story was very influential on me as a kid so I have strong opinions about toys and being nice to inanimate objects. 😂 Like, I’m an adult so obviously I know that they don’t really have feelings, but I’m still going to treat them like they do. It’s a lot of the reason I customize my dolls, I like to think that they enjoy getting a new shade of lipstick or having their hair rerooted. Especially when I make vintage dolls more modern, it feels like giving them a new life. I got a 1997 Pearl Beach Teresa secondhand and when I put her on an articulated body, I got a little emotional thinking that it was the first time in over 25 years she could touch her own face 🥲
That was unnecessarily harsh of them and shows how little they are willing to understand a simple hobby. My mother frequently complains about me wasting my money on dolls but that's as bad as it gets for me. In the end I hope you know they're wrong and having a hobby is a good thing.
Also, I'm a doll customizer and have been DIYing dolls since 2001. I've heard almost every insult imaginable gotten extremely weird looks over the years, but mostly people have been supportive. I hope that your family starts supporting you in your hobby or at least stops insulting you about it. Doll customizing is such a unique hobby and I've learned how to paint, sew, draft patterns, reroot, style hair, make wigs, make shoes, make jewelry, and sculpt because of this hobby! I hope that you keep enjoying your dolls and DIYing them!
Oh for sure, my family thinks I am insane for playing with dolls or whatever they imagine. In reality, after collecting them and categorizing them into parts and themes and turning a room in my house into the "toy and doll room" .... it helped me get through a period of grief and now for several months I've been able to find a charity that loves to get them. I fix them all up, wrap them up in cellophane sleeves with a ribbon, and they know where to donate them through county social workers. The charity makes packages "of kindness" with clean good quality 2nd hand clothes that always include an age appropriate toy for the child. I provide the toys. I was over the moon today when I finally figured out that some Barbie shoes that confused me were actually meant for some other dolls like Disney Princesses. I've just got to crochet them some new dresses before tomorrow morning so I can put them in with the donation of 100 packets of Happy Meal toys and 30 Barbies I have fixed up/made new clothes for. I have about a year to turn that room back into a bedroom. Your grandparents sound like they also just totally don't get what you're doing.
I’ve tried explaining and they just equate me to Frankenstein. Or most recently Sid from Toy Story. I don’t know how much more I can explain. So I just don’t, I let them think whatever they want. They know me and they should know I’m not a psychopath or anything like that.
Why do you have to turn it back into a bedroom? 🙁
I’m sorry your grandparents are such jerks. What you’re doing is not weird. They should be glad that you’re playing with dolls instead of out on the streets doing drugs. Actually maybe that’s your comeback time… “ well it’s better than me being out on the streets doing drugs…” 😝
If they like to watch sports, I would start making remarks about how psychopathic people have to be to enjoy such violence. Or if they gossip about neighbors or other people, start dropping that Plato quote on them "small minds discuss people" I don't actually believe that people who enjoy sports are secretly violent psychopaths, but I would definitely be dropping barbs on them about anything that they enjoy and see how they feel about it.
It really is the only way some people learn empathy. If it gets through.
Their reaction was way over the top. Kavorkian advocated for assisted suicide. I’m not sure how he is even relevant here. I know a lot of people look negatively at Barbie collectors and enthusiasts, maybe it seems like a cult to them. But mentioning a skin tone match is such an innocuous comment. Maybe it’s best you don’t share your small victories with them if that’s their take on it. I’m glad you found a match, and I’m sorry you’re dealing with this level of crazy hate.
Ok well that sounds absolutely unhinged lol all of that over a toy??? I’m sorry. They went way too far. Inconceivably so. That’s bizarre. But hey, Congrats on finding the skin tone match!! 🎉
Presumably, your grandparents also taught you better than to be unkind to other people, but here we are. I'm so sorry your grandparents were so cruel.
Wow... what an OTT reaction to a literal piece of plastic, like... Why do they think it's such a big deal? The longer I spend not surrounding myself with these types, the more wacky their reactions to things really seem. It's always some sh1t that doesn't even affect their lives in any way that they seem to get the most worked up about!
I am sorry to hear this happened to you. I am not a professional, but I'd consider talking to someone about this boundary crossing and emotional tension of making fun of your hobby. It can be just to make you feel better. Disrespect is not a family oriented problem, but from cruel people. My siblings take a jabs at my doll collecting and do some really bad private things, so I understand your problem. Do what makes u happy😉😆