Attention All Unit Commanders! Your HQ Location is requested.

I know that lots of people don't like them, but Barbies are always an option. Sometimes the stock paint needs a change but barbie has the diversity.

Barbies are kind of on the small side....and tend to all have smiley heads. Mind-you, I am seriously considering getting one of the TBLeague Anime figures that were released not too long ago, owing not coincidentally to my extreme fondness for the "Girls und Panzer" anime series.

They are slender and they do have smiley heads yes. But I think they have come a long way. I have a Barbie called Tess. She was on a very stiff body but I moved to a made to move. Inthink she has a nice headsculpt, but I can see how their faces might detract from realism.
Tess is the one in blue and pink.

Some time ago, I was thinking of doing a SCI-FI spoof where my Kimono Troop Phicen girls have to deal with an attack of mutant Barbie Vampire-zombies. The gag is that they look just like normal Barbies, but if they manage to hug and kiss a seamless doll the seamless figure becomes a jointed one and looses much of its articulation. Naturally, Kamiko and Kimono Troop would go on a shoot first and ask questions later Barbie hunt.

I think that would be funny!

BUT!

You cannot use Made to Move! I honestly believe for the price, there is no body that beats made to move in terms of articulation. All made to moves Barbies I've bought cost me less that 15 dollars.

Then again I'm a loyalist for jointed dolls. Since getting back into this hobby in April I've bought probably 25 or more figures, male and female. I finally ordered my first Phicen in December. The S39A curvy body. For a character in my story that is my Mums mini me. I cannot lie, I am really, really impressed with Phicen. The curvy body is beautiful, but I'm impressed with the heft and solid feel of Phicens. But I still love jointed bodies. Like Very Cool for example.

I have the female Spetsnaz fogure coming to.me when she releases. I personally feel that this figure, with all.of the gear needs to be, skinny and jointed.

Then again on the flip side, I was showing my figures to my Mum and she thinks mini Sarahs legs look scrawny. Mini Sarah is on the Very Cool body. The thing is I picked that body for the height.

But here is Tess doing a pose. I realize Phicen can do this, but I like that this doll was like 20 bucks. Tess head and outfit was from 7$ barbie the made to move was the soccer player.

I'm a Phicen Phanatic myself and love them not only for the looks, but for their heft which really helps the stability. I have only two jointed bodies...both disappointing because they're so unstable, and I've just ordered a third because I need some inexpensive "extras" or cannon fodder to serve as expendable bad guys. I think that after this however, I will probably stick to Phicens, despite the cost.

The Phicen S33B I ordered from China a month ago has finally left Vancouver after three weeks and is somewhere between Mississauga and Montreal as I write this. Maybe it will be delivered this weekend. The last two I got from them were delivered on Sundays, which blew my mind.

I will then have:

3 x S22A
2 x S23B
1 x S24A
1 x S28A
1 x S32A
1 x S09A (modified with rigid feet)
1 x S33B

Honestly I don't know all of the different codes for them. I wish that there was a dummy chart for people like me.

I honestly think my favourite brand is World Box, but to my knowledge they only do male bodies.

I think that the whole jointed versus seamless thing depends on when people got into the hobby. I mean, I've been with onesixth since I awkwardly arranged dolls as a child and never played with them. For me ill always prefer jointed just because it's ehat I'm familiar with. (How close minded is that for a millennial)

But really, I do like seamless. I'm not totally sold on the male bodies yet. I've seen a seamless fat male body on ebay, which looks ridiculous. I suppose i like the texture of hair and vein on the World Box man bodies.
Girls, don't (typically) have body hair so the smooth of phicen is good.

yeah...I'm thinking of ordering a World Box body from Urban Samurai in Vancouver.

My logic about the Phicens is that I mostly do female figures...my original concept for my little Mad-Maxian universe was that most of the world's male population had died in during the great anarchy and that women now outnumbered men about ten to one. Yeah...okay, I admit that's like a typical male fantasy but my female characters are tough, resolute, and take on the roles once traditionally held by men.

Since the other part of this little fantasy was to dress them in somewhat sexy and skimpy (by some standards) outfits, the Phicens just seemed a better choice than jointed figures. The look of most of my K-Troop ladies is at least in part inspired by the look of the old Rhodesian Army who often preferred to wear running shorts and T-Shirts in the field. I'm also inspired by the 60's TV series Rat Patrol, and by the film "Dark of the Sun," set during the Simba Rebellion in the Congo in the 1960's.

I can point you to someone on Flickr who does impressive Phicen lineups for comparisons of body types if you like.

I have had three types World Box bodies so far. I bought the AT025 for a custom punisher I made for my brother. Showing skin won't look good with this one, but if he is clothed the articulation is brilliant.

Then I have two AT027, the hugest one, which is awesome if you have good heads to fit it.

And the AT018, the plump/fat body. It's really cool but you have to get a head that can accommodate the necks thickness. I guess it depends on what you're using it for but I think they have something for everyone.


Haha, fantasies are okay, I mean, I have a drawer full.of small beautiful people that I've collected just this year. My mini me has perfect blonde hair, and no glasses. Fantasy is the best part of this hobby right?

I had to Google Rat Patrol and Dark of the Sun but I feel you're nailing the vibe! So good work!

Yes please! I'll take the link for sure! I mean, I got my first Phicen but she isn't a one and done deal for me. Just the start.

This is the guy you want to follow

https://www.flickr.com/photos/edwicks_toybox/

He does quite a few comparisons at various places in his massive photo collections and also reviews figures and accessories

Kimono Troop Command wrote:

This is the guy you want to follow

https://www.flickr.com/photos/edwicks_toybox/

He does quite a few comparisons at various places in his massive photo collections and also reviews figures and accessories

This is brilliant!

https://flic.kr/p/2keNQeF

Now I can see that the S39A is smaller than the others!

Yeah, there are plenty of other comparisons scattered throughout. If you take the time to look through them, you can learn a lot. Also...a great thing about his guy is that he answers questions that you put to him about the figures or head sculpts.

On the issue of Rat Patrol, I don't know if you know the German-American Actor Eric Braeden, who's real name is Hans Gudegast, and has played Victor Newman in the soap opera "Days of our Lives" and played John Jacob Astor in the film Titanic...but he had a recurring role as Captain Dietrich--an honorable German officer-- in Rat Patrol.

Kimono Troop Command wrote:

On the issue of Rat Patrol, I don't know if you know the German-American Actor Eric Braeden, who's real name is Hans Gudegast, and has played Victor Newman in the soap opera "Days of our Lives" and played John Jacob Astor in the film Titanic...but he had a recurring role as Captain Dietrich--an honorable German officer-- in Rat Patrol.

I'm not familiar with him but I'll be looking into Rat Patrol. I'm wondering if I saw it when I was little as I grew up with Dad's Army. I was overjoyed when I found Dad's Army on Roku.

Have you seen The Man in the High Castle? I think you might enjoy it.

I've never seen The Man in the High Castle. Rat Patrol was on TV for two seasons in the late 60's when I was a kid. You can find all the episodes on YouTube. It's pretty corny and laughable by today's standards, but was very popular in its day. It was on TV in syndicated reruns for many years, so it's possible you've seen it.

Kimono Troop Command wrote:

I've never seen The Man in the High Castle. Rat Patrol was on TV for two seasons in the late 60's when I was a kid. You can find all the episodes on YouTube. It's pretty corny and laughable by today's standards, but was very popular in its day. It was on TV in syndicated reruns for many years, so it's possible you've seen it.

It sounds like Rat Patrol might be a little similar to Dad's Army.

The Man in the High Castle is about an alternate outcome to WW2. The Japanese occupied the American west and Germans the east. I'm only on the beginning of season two and trying to avoid spoilers but it is pretty cool so far.

Dad's Army was a comedy. Rat Patrol was a drama.

Wow, I didn't expect a photostory in response to my figure's call in!

Following the conversation afterward, I found this on ebay:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1-6-Scale-Female-Headsculpt-Head-Super-Duck-SDH013-B-for-Suntan-Phicen-Body/184548626418?hash=item2af7f48ff2:g:VIoAAOSwYxFfuws1

This head has a bit of a Native American look, especially the long black hair. And considering in your world Kimono Troop Command,
current and future Native American women don't exactly look like they did back then, not the ones I've met anyway. The Navajo
Code Talker is based in WWII.

This head is marked as being for the suntan Phicen bodies. However, the seller says they ship in the US and Australia, and have a list of
exclusions where apparently they don't ship. I looked it over and didn't see Canada listed. But you might need to ask them.

I saw a few Barbie Native American figures, buy it now for pretty cheap. There are several versions. The northwestern head looks
the best in my humble opinion. I agree, I don't like the Barbie heads with big smiles. The three I have don't have smiles. I have them
on Obitsu bodies for articulation. Of course I put them together years ago, when Cy Girls were first coming out and seamless bodies
hadn't even been thought of yet.

And I agree with you and Sarah, not enough diversity in female figures.

Daryl

The purpose of the thread is to get people involved and not only to post a photo or to, but to let them express themselves creatively and if it also starts a discussion, then so much the better. One of the delightful things about this particular forum, when you compare to some others, is that when you start a thread here, you are basically inviting people to show off their sense of humor, and some will jump at that opportunity, and you never know where it will end up. I had could never have predicted the Navajo Wind Talker figure or the discussion in prompted, some of the discussions I had with Sarah or that I would decide as a result of all this that it would be nice to have a head sculpt that looked liked s Native American woman.


As to the sculpt you suggested, I had previously seen the short-haired version of it on Giantoy and thought the face looked promising, however the short brown hair looked wrong. They used to have long haired ones also, but they are all sold out, so I'll see about getting it on e-bay. Thanks for the tip.

Gary

Hey Gary,

Thanks for the explanation on the humor that was expected with the post. Considering
other posts, I was surprised that my post prompted a photo story.

I can only hope that you find the head sculpt you are looking for. I hope it works out.

I think a Native American member for your team would be really great. Despite the
old western movies we have here in the US, I have a great respect for Native American
people and their customs. I actually have a tad bit of Cherokee in my family tree, although
my namesake is Irish.

Daryl

Your posts are not expected to be anything other than what you want them to be. The purpose of the thread is merely to get people tp participate, show off their figures and to allow them to be as creative as they want to be, so your code talker with the jungle background completely qualifies. Plus it prompted some discussion. There are some like Dave as SCHQ for instance, who if you give any chance to respond humorously, will. If you look at the thread in its entirety, you'll see what I mean. If people make a post that gets a good laugh, that's great. If it prompts discussion, that's even better. If you can do both, then we're all having fun as well as learning something.