Inspiration is a funny thing. When you're working on something that you'd rather not be working on (a motorcycle, for instance), all you can think of is being finished so that you can tackle all the projects that you really want to work on. Well, eventually you will be finished and then you'll be forced to face all your supposedly big plans... and you might discover that you really have no idea what you want to do next!

Yep. I have a long list of stuff that I want to make, but when the opportunity presented itself, I felt only lukewarm enthusiasm, and couldn't muster the energy & drive to start any. I wracked my brain thinking of interesting things to make--genres, personalities... The fact is, I've already made much of the stuff that I'm interested in. A good project is one that draws you in. A good project is one that will wake you up at 4 am, just so you can get in a few licks before work.

Fortunately, we're born with a powerful motivator which kicks in 'round about puberty and continues until it peters out (if we're fortunate, after we're dead). It's got it's own mind, so no brainwork on your part is required! Isn't that great?

Mine knows what it wants: More well-endowed female figures. It doesn't care if I have no particular use for them, or about any of that advance planning for costuming & genre rubbish...

This is an early shot down at the Hofbrau; her real boobs aren't even pinned on yet. You'll notice that she is rather full-bodied in comparison to Hasbro's GI Jane. While this runs counter to some contemporary definitions of beauty, it was unavoidable. When you let your libido do your thinking for you, it knows best, and mine prefers rounded fullness and robust, child-bearing hips.

The brain did kick in long enough for me to know that I wanted to do something slightly different with this figure. With all the other transexualizations I've done, I've never liked the way the hip section looked-- it was too long, and the articulation seam cut right across the tummy, close to where the belly button should be. This was okay for figures which wore traditionally-styled ladies' underwear or tights, but really didn't work for lower cut bikini style bottoms. So this required more radical hip reconstruction than usual.

The other imperative was to create the upper torso articulation. The problem here, as with all articulation, was the creation of a new seam to hide. I saw this as a worthwhile trade-off, since the articulation allowed a lot wider variety of poses. From the front, most of the seam would be hidden by pendulous boobs (bigger ones would hide more, right?). A properly-designed brassiere maybe could take care of the rest?

The main problem in revising the articulation is the fact that people aren't shaped like cylinders. This means that the hip ball joint can't be round, unless you're going strictly for articulation and graft a ball onto it. In my opinion, that's great for robots but looks crummy on humans. I'd rather have the figure look good in one particular position, than funky in all positions. So although the hip is articulated, it really only looks good within a small range of poses. The upper articulation was more accommodating, since the cross section of that area is more circular.

This is the second head sculpt (with a kinda long neck). I sculpted the first one based on a standard Joe head, but it was too large since the figure turned out to be shorter than a standard ME Joe (which is already pretty short). After trying a variety of boob styles on her, I decided to go with an intermediate "torpedo" look-- somewhere between silicone inflated balloons and the 10x gravity effect. (See notes.) Pictures of the Outfit

Tony DiTerlizzi sent this photo of nekkid Leia & Jane, and it's interesting to note the differences. First off, ol' Leia needs to get out in the sun some more! Of course, humans vary a lot in their shape, but Leia's shoulders seem sorta broad-- making her look manly. Maybe I'm being misled by her haircut? She definitely has some ugly arms though, and you've gotta wonder why they didn't spend a little extra whatever making them look better. Her legs seem a little short (and Jane's seem a little too long), and if they're articulated, they're covered with that rubbery material. From my experience with other figures: That improves the bare naked look, but the knee articulation is usually pretty limited by the click-lock stops they use to overcome the rubber's resistance to being bent. Between that and the feet articulation, it's usually nearly impossible to pose those figures standing any way but straight-legged. By the way, Tony is a professional artist whose fabulous work has appeared in the Dungeons & Dragons books, and probably lots of other places too! (I'm basking in the reflected light of his fame... ;^)

Here's proof that with a new doo, some makeup, plastic surgery & the right clothes, even sweet Jane can be made to resemble a hot Jimbob tart! Hey...what the @#%???... that's just like the real 1:1 world!!!

This picture is from an old issue of Hobby Japan and I don't really know much about the figures themselves. However, I've included it here to illustrate the trade-off between articulation and looks. As you can see, the one on the left looks much better, but doesn't have half the articulation of the one on the right. Notice how something as simple as a kneecap loses lots of its sex appeal when you throw articulation joints around it? Anyway, according to hints at their web site, Dragon/DML will be coming out with a female figure sometime in the future, so maybe they'll have some slick new designs for us?