Almighty Hat (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
hat_plays_dolls) wrote2016-05-27 12:35 pm
hat_plays_dolls) wrote2016-05-27 12:35 pm
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Picspam: Monster High dolls at Disneyland AGAIN
By request (by Celaeno), I brought Neighthan. He's a favorite of mine for several slightly stupid reasons-- somehow Mattel managed to make a monster doll who passes as the alternate-universe offspring of my favorite character and a twenty-year-old OC from an entirely different toyetic fandom.
So here's Neight's trip to Disneyland-- with a special celebrity guest star! Because I had fun writing Abbey and Heath's captions in character, so I'm going to do that again.
Hi, Mom! Everything is extremely sparkly for the anniversary, and people are really nice about taking pictures for you, especially if they see you fall in the flowerbeds trying to take selfies. I'm fine and the jacket's really sturdy, but I've startled several ducks.
I promise I'm wearing my hat to keep the sun off, just... not for photos.
As you can see, it's windy. Also, this is the best picture of me that has ever existed, I'm replacing all my profile pics with Windblown Disney Neighthan.
Not that I wanted to go visit Tom Sawyer Island (it's mostly an obstacle-course style playground, I think), but it's closed. The trains are closed, too, so no terrible dinosaurs. They're putting in a new science fiction attraction. I heard a LOT of people complaining about the no-trains thing.
That's it from my first day!
My second day was much more exciting. I bought an eclair and met a real live undead celebrity.
"Oh my ghoul, you're Veronica Von Vamp."
"Only when I'm working! But it's always nice to meet a fan."
Then she asked me where I was from before I could do anything stupid like ask her to sign my hat. Turns out we have a mutual acquaintance in Draculaura, so we hung out for a little while.
She asked me to call her Elissabat, and was super-nice about everything, including the fact that this was the best selfie I could manage.
She had her personal assistant take this one. I don't think my hat photographs well on anybody. (And I sort of forgot to put it back on after that.)
The ride Elissabat really wanted to go on was closed on account of bees (seriously, it was surreal and sad, there were dying bees and no one knew why. The ride was closed for two days to keep anyone from getting stung), so she asked if I wanted to ride the teacups, since we were right there.
I mean I'd tripped a few times while we were walking, but this was the first time I'd managed to go backward over a railing in front of Elissabat. She was still super-nice about it.
"Point taken! We'll stick to rides with seatbelts."
"That's a very good idea."
Pirates of the Caribbean doesn't have seatbelts, but it's got oh-crap handles and I sat between Elissabat and her assistant in the midde of the boat, so I miraculously didn't end up shipwrecked. (The ride is under that building.)
And then I've just got a bunch of solo shots of Elissabat:
Selfie in front of/over the flowerbeds in the plaza in front of the castle, because the colors were pretty.
Because I like taking pictures of and/or in front of the castle.
I like that a lot. Usually people are too busy getting where they're going to wonder what the weird lady with the dolls is doing, unlike the Teacups shots. Those were fun-- and only possible because Alice in Wonderland really was down with a case of Covered In Bees-- but I did get some weird looks from passers-by. Protip, if you're doing ANY weird-but-harmless thing in Disneyland involving taking a picture of your weird-but-harmless thing, and someone is staring, you can usually get a chuckle and they move on if you tell them, "I just won a bet!"
This doesn't always work. Sometimes they ask what the bet was.
I don't feel like the train station was far enough away from Elissabat to look like a second focal point of the picture. Macro mode made it a bit blurry.
This bit with the fountain is, however, one of the prettiest spots in New Orleans Square. It used to have benches in it, but now they use it as line overflow for the Haunted Mansion most of the year, and the meet-and-greet with Jack and Sally through the entire holiday season.
Elissabat is a joy to photograph, she lights beautifully. Also, I don't know if this holds true for EVERY Elissabat (my girl is Ghoulebrities in Londoom Elissabat, wearing her own headband and the 60th Anniversary doll's shirt over Ghoul Fair Elissabat's dress, topped with her original headband), but my Elissabat's hair is excellent at staying put, either in a stiff breeze or packed in a backpack.
Neight is also pretty good to photograph! His head doesn't tip downward as well as some of the guys, making doll-selfies tricky, but his textured skin looks great in the sunlight and he looks great against most backdrops. I wish I'd taken off his jacket once in a while, but I didn't get the opportunity. For the record, Neight's wearing his own pants, the Gargoyle/Vampire CAM shirt, the 60th Anniversary doll's jacket (fits guys nicely!), and sometimes his own hat.
Lessons I learned this time: Kaiser stands stand better than MH stands, but only work for MH guys. I need to paint more than the inside of Neight's hat (painted flat yellow so it doesn't look like it's made of weird jelly). It's harder to find places to pose two dolls than one, especially if you aren't posing them tucked tight together (like I did with Abbey and Heath). Before deciding to take doll-selfies, take test-selfies at home, because I think the difference in how Neight and Elissabat's pupils are painted is what really made it hard to get them looking into the camera together.
Like what I do and want to help me feed my cats, but don't need anything I have for sale on eBay? You can always support me on Patreon or throw some change in my tip jar.
So here's Neight's trip to Disneyland-- with a special celebrity guest star! Because I had fun writing Abbey and Heath's captions in character, so I'm going to do that again.
Hi, Mom! Everything is extremely sparkly for the anniversary, and people are really nice about taking pictures for you, especially if they see you fall in the flowerbeds trying to take selfies. I'm fine and the jacket's really sturdy, but I've startled several ducks.
I promise I'm wearing my hat to keep the sun off, just... not for photos.
As you can see, it's windy. Also, this is the best picture of me that has ever existed, I'm replacing all my profile pics with Windblown Disney Neighthan.
Not that I wanted to go visit Tom Sawyer Island (it's mostly an obstacle-course style playground, I think), but it's closed. The trains are closed, too, so no terrible dinosaurs. They're putting in a new science fiction attraction. I heard a LOT of people complaining about the no-trains thing.
That's it from my first day!
My second day was much more exciting. I bought an eclair and met a real live undead celebrity.
"Oh my ghoul, you're Veronica Von Vamp."
"Only when I'm working! But it's always nice to meet a fan."
Then she asked me where I was from before I could do anything stupid like ask her to sign my hat. Turns out we have a mutual acquaintance in Draculaura, so we hung out for a little while.
She asked me to call her Elissabat, and was super-nice about everything, including the fact that this was the best selfie I could manage.
She had her personal assistant take this one. I don't think my hat photographs well on anybody. (And I sort of forgot to put it back on after that.)
The ride Elissabat really wanted to go on was closed on account of bees (seriously, it was surreal and sad, there were dying bees and no one knew why. The ride was closed for two days to keep anyone from getting stung), so she asked if I wanted to ride the teacups, since we were right there.
I mean I'd tripped a few times while we were walking, but this was the first time I'd managed to go backward over a railing in front of Elissabat. She was still super-nice about it.
"Point taken! We'll stick to rides with seatbelts."
"That's a very good idea."
Pirates of the Caribbean doesn't have seatbelts, but it's got oh-crap handles and I sat between Elissabat and her assistant in the midde of the boat, so I miraculously didn't end up shipwrecked. (The ride is under that building.)
And then I've just got a bunch of solo shots of Elissabat:
Selfie in front of/over the flowerbeds in the plaza in front of the castle, because the colors were pretty.
Because I like taking pictures of and/or in front of the castle.
I like that a lot. Usually people are too busy getting where they're going to wonder what the weird lady with the dolls is doing, unlike the Teacups shots. Those were fun-- and only possible because Alice in Wonderland really was down with a case of Covered In Bees-- but I did get some weird looks from passers-by. Protip, if you're doing ANY weird-but-harmless thing in Disneyland involving taking a picture of your weird-but-harmless thing, and someone is staring, you can usually get a chuckle and they move on if you tell them, "I just won a bet!"
This doesn't always work. Sometimes they ask what the bet was.
I don't feel like the train station was far enough away from Elissabat to look like a second focal point of the picture. Macro mode made it a bit blurry.
This bit with the fountain is, however, one of the prettiest spots in New Orleans Square. It used to have benches in it, but now they use it as line overflow for the Haunted Mansion most of the year, and the meet-and-greet with Jack and Sally through the entire holiday season.
Elissabat is a joy to photograph, she lights beautifully. Also, I don't know if this holds true for EVERY Elissabat (my girl is Ghoulebrities in Londoom Elissabat, wearing her own headband and the 60th Anniversary doll's shirt over Ghoul Fair Elissabat's dress, topped with her original headband), but my Elissabat's hair is excellent at staying put, either in a stiff breeze or packed in a backpack.
Neight is also pretty good to photograph! His head doesn't tip downward as well as some of the guys, making doll-selfies tricky, but his textured skin looks great in the sunlight and he looks great against most backdrops. I wish I'd taken off his jacket once in a while, but I didn't get the opportunity. For the record, Neight's wearing his own pants, the Gargoyle/Vampire CAM shirt, the 60th Anniversary doll's jacket (fits guys nicely!), and sometimes his own hat.
Lessons I learned this time: Kaiser stands stand better than MH stands, but only work for MH guys. I need to paint more than the inside of Neight's hat (painted flat yellow so it doesn't look like it's made of weird jelly). It's harder to find places to pose two dolls than one, especially if you aren't posing them tucked tight together (like I did with Abbey and Heath). Before deciding to take doll-selfies, take test-selfies at home, because I think the difference in how Neight and Elissabat's pupils are painted is what really made it hard to get them looking into the camera together.
Like what I do and want to help me feed my cats, but don't need anything I have for sale on eBay? You can always support me on Patreon or throw some change in my tip jar.