Be Very Afraid: A Buggy CAM Custom Doll!

So here's the project that got hijacked by Marcia. 

Getting the Insect CAM pack for my Witch CAM makeover project inspired me to make an insect character that MH seemed to have skirted around in terms of subject matter with the Insect doll. 

Mattel stock photo of the Insect 
CAM pack.

While the MH character was clearly bumblebee-themed, the monster concept seemed like a loose reference to, and perhaps a legal sidestep of, a more famous movie monster-- the Fly.

The original 1958 film The Fly is the story of a French Canadian scientist who creates teleporters. When testing them on himself, a fly hitches a ride in the chamber, so the teleporter reconstructs the scientist, Delambre, with the fly DNA mixed in. This transforms him into a fairly campy bug/human hybrid, with the most famous image being the scientist with a fly's head and a fly's claw foot for a left hand.

The transformed Andre Delambre in the original The Fly.

The film is much like a lot of 1950s sci-fi horror-- highly unrealistic but striking imagery associated with impossible what-ifs in the realm of scientific paranoia. The image of the fly scientist is memorable and spooky, and it even got referenced with one of my favorite LEGO minifigures, the Fly Monster-- claw and all!

LEGO's Fly Monster from the monster-themed
Series 14 of the Minifigures line.

In 1986, David Cronenberg remade The Fly. The same basic premise of the teleporter error DNA splice occurs, but the scientist, Seth Brundle, is affected much more slowly by the fly DNA being mixed in with his, and he undergoes a nauseating, horrifying, tragic transformation of mind and body that's framed like a multitude of disgusting, slow-acting terminal diseases as he starts to lose all humanity. It's a sickening horror story, but also a story of loss of dignity and sanity due to a body betraying you. It's not as campy and iconic as the original, for sure, so only the '58 The Fly would really be able to squeeze into a toy franchise.

I decided to capitalize on the potential of the Insect pack that Mattel may not have been able to by making a direct Fly character. My plan initially was to use the CAM Werewolf as a base doll to repaint, since I needed the Werewolf and Dragon set for the red wig--the most appropriate color match in the CAM line. The pair arrived to me cared for well by the previous owner.

I have no ideas for what to do with the Dragon
body pieces at the moment.

Since the Werewolf had an earless head, I thought it would work. But the Werewolf body undressed instantly gave me classic alien energy and I derailed and made a whole separate project out of it. Eventually, I ordered a second Insect body, giving me a spare Insect head to turn into the Fly I wanted, and got a Sea Monster and Vampire set, which gave me a body in the form of the Vampire. There was no way but to use a CAM body because this ghoul needed the Insect wings. It would have been easier to get a Catty Noir body for her otherwise, for a less fragile and lower-effort job. 

Otherwise for parts, it was pretty simple. I wanted her to wear a lab coat, so I ordered Mad Science Ghoulia's. 

Cropped isolation of Ghoulia Yelps from the Lab Partners "Classroom" two-pack
stock photo by Mattel.

It has a brain pattern, but the red trim works for the color palette (I want a red/green contrast like on the LEGO figure), and the undecorated Mad Science Lagoona lab coat wasn't looking as good to me in the aftermarket options. The Fly's base clothes would be the green Dragon outfit (seen on the Werewolf doll in the previous photo), and I ordered some short boots for her to repaint for more sciency gear. She had to have the mad-science getup, which no real MH character has done as their base theme. Mad science is a background for some characters like Frankie and Robecca, and has featured as a uniform for school class, but no character has evoked the mad-scientist archetype in their default fashion sense.

One piece I'd really adore for this character, which I haven't been able to find on the aftermarket, is Coffin Bean Venus' drink cup. It's shaped like a translucent green chemical vial and it'd be absolutely perfect for a mad science character with a red/green palette. I have no need for a full Coffin Bean Venus, so it's a shame I can't find the vial being offered on its own.

So here's the character profile:

Dianée "DiDi" DiPterri

Monster Parentage: Oh, I started human. I fused with a housefly, though, so now I'm half-bug.
Killer Style: I’m always ready for the laboratory, but I always toss some fun reds and greens together, too. I’ve gotten drawn to those colors ever since becoming them.
Freaky Flaw: I...kind of tend to act without being super careful first. I just get really excited about learning and discovering stuff, but I could probably accidentally destroy a city the way I do things.
Favorite Activity: Asking questions and performing experiments. Also, mixing chemicals. Also, throwing switches. Also-
Biggest Pet Peeve: I get it, I’m hyperactive, and I’m noisy, but it always spoils my mood when people try to shoo me away.
Favorite School Subject: Biteology class. It’s a great opportunity to learn more about myself. And to promise never to put myself on the experiment procedure again, Mom.
Least Favorite School Subject: I’m awful in phys dead. Whenever we play games, my many eyes can’t decide what to focus on, so I flit around like crazy and make a fool of myself every time.
Favorite Food: I love sugary sweets and sugars and sweet sugars and-

Pet: My little baboon Eugene is my favorite lab assistant. I'd absolutely never test on him, though! I'm the only one I'd ever risk in my experiments. 

Best Friends: Bonita Femur, Luna Mothews

Once I had a body for Dianée with the CAM Vampire, I got to work.

First, I repainted the Insect glasses. I painted the textured back side of the lenses bright green and the frames black with gloss to make them look like sci-fi laboratory goggles that didn't directly copy the eyes I planned to paint on the head. 

The glasses as sold, all translucent grey.

Their fly-science makeover.

Then, I had to cut a small hole in the back of the lab coat so she could wear the CAM wings. I put it on the body and located the holes through the coat so I'd know where to cut it. Since this was a thin cotton that would easily fray, I dabbed some gloss varnish around the edges of the hole to seal the fabric and stop it from unraveling or tearing. 

Thinking about MH's winged characters, I don't believe very many of them had logistically impossible outfits like this, with wings inexplicably coming out of the backs of coats or shirts. Most of the outfits are either low-backed or backless (like the CAM clothes pieces are designed to be). I wonder if the three CAM boys had holes cut out of their shirts, since the Gargoyle Boy was winged. That must be the case. 

I had to figure out how to give DiDi  a claw hand, and wouldn't satisfy myself with a humanoid hand painted red. I knew the only course that would make sense and be functional was to modify a compatible CAM hand piece. I looked at the Dragon CAM and thought the cupped hand pose would allow me to cut out the middle three digits to create a curved two-pronged bug pincer. I first did this with the corresponding Dragon left hand, but the shorter finger ended up on top, so I switched it out with the Dragon right hand modified the same way so it looked more natural. Guided by the Fly Monster minifigure, the claw got painted dark red. 

I'm so glad I was able to give her a unique
3D anatomical feature! 

Making the claw hand deprived the Dragon CAM of both of hers, so that leaves me even less sure what I can do with her pieces. Maybe the inspiration will come.

I then painted the rest of the CAM body black, sanding the pieces of harder plastic and just layering over the softer ones. It was easy to paint because the pieces come apart, but also hard to paint because the pieces weren't always easy to grip. The hip parts were especially awkward to hold while painting. I covered the painted parts with a matte varnish to hopefully seal the paint on decently. 

The joints still rub away the paint a little, but not too badly, and her outfit covers most of them up, anyway.

She's coming together! And looking good!
The plan is working!

I then set to paint the pink Draculaura boots I ordered. I figured making them match the coat would be good--laboratory white with red accents.

I did the head at the same time. While I'd previously had a head paint job flake and lift off the head before when trying to pop it onto a body, it was in the case of a harder attachment where I had to squeeze the head on, and I didn't think I'd face that on a CAM doll. These bodies pop heads on pretty gently, so I wasn't too worried about damaging the paint.

The head got a layer of dabbed-on black paint and a faceup with solid dark red eyes to match her head and hand, and with a black grid to make them look compound and two eye reflections to make them buggier. The advantage that made it worth it to wait and get a second Insect head is that the base head was sculpted to have big, buggy eyes.

Her lips became a medium green to contrast the primary red of her coat, and her eye makeup got a white wing shape around the corner, and a medium green swoosh with a primary red band above it. She has only one lash on each eye, since the lashes needed the eye makeup to stand out on her black head, and more lashes would mean way excessive eyeshadow to backdrop them. Her lips have a pretty pinched shape to make them feel like a fly proboscis, but she has a long smile as well. Her eyebrows are dark red to match her hair and made to look like segmented insect legs. 

I took inspiration from the faceup of Luna Mothews, who had insect-leg eyelashes and antenna-shaped brows!

Mattel photo of Luna.

MH hasn't ever gone fully insectoid with its eyes before. The Insect CAM and Bonita Femur just had multiple dot reflections in their eyes, Wydowna Spider had four extra buggy eyes, but two humanoid ones underneath, and Luna up there has compound pupils, but humanoid eye structure. I think going full bug with Dianée worked out well, though, and I think MH could have succeeded with this kind of eye design...at least with me.

DiDi's finished faceup is a bit rough and not as tidy as Marcia's, but I don't think it looks bad or messy enough to warrant redoing. And with the base head being repainted and me not professionally sealing in layers, starting over would be starting OVER over. The face strikes me as a bit more feisty and mischievous than I had initially planned, but it kind of works for a driven and unsafe scientist ghoul who puts little between the idea and the action. Her approach to gene splicing is my approach to art projects!

Okay, here's the head on the body--peaceful attachment with no damage!

Her boots were still drying.

And with the wig....

And the shades!

Wow. Wow. 

She's so fun! And so cohesive!!!

I really love how this design came out. The color palette is driving the whole thing, with red/green contrasts in multiple hues pairing with the white/black contrast and the silhouettes and patterns to make this a design that pops and bounces your eyes all over it! It kind of makes you feel like a fly with hundreds of eyes! There's also the great visual echo of the V of the glasses antennae and the V of the black straps on her top. The red-trimmed Ghoulia lab coat was absolutely the right choice. Dianée looks right out of a hypersaturated pulp B-movie! (Thus the schlocky movie-poster cover photo!) Her long loose hair and general lack of limb coverage do not make her laboratory safe...but that's pretty darn appropriate for a reckless monsterized teen geneticist!

I think there are unavoidable comparisons to make with Wydowna, a stark black bug monster with red hair, and perhaps also with Catty Noir, the other stark black character who also had hair on the red spectrum. But I think Dianée holds her own as a unique design with her own visual identity, color palette, and personality.

I wasn't totally finished, though. She still needed her boots, which were still in the painting process, and some kind of extra thing. I dug through my Playmobil bin and I found a monkey! Perfect! This would be her pet, since Seth Brundle in the '86 film had baboons he used as test subjects. The monkey came unpainted, and I added the pink onto the monkey's face, as well as the black eyes and white brow edge. Besides his body, his colors are all on Dianée as well, more subtly tying them together. The monkey is a soft plastic piece designed to clip onto the arms of a figure.

Eugene is pretty tiny on a Monster High doll as opposed to a Playmobil figure, but he's probably just a baby.

The Playmobil Fi?ures Series 4 mad scientist with the repainted
Playmobil monkey.

Eugene on DiDi's arm.

Eugene's pose makes him only work really well when clipping onto Dianée's left upper arm, but it's a good display look.

I then got her dried boots on. They went on her feet okay, but I don't know if I'll ever take them off her, since the paint on both is liable to be damaged if I do.

Just some other notes to throw in:

Here's how her wings look from the back. They feel maybe a little low-set, but they're great pieces and it was worth cutting the hole in the coat for them.

And I have to commend the hair care on her wig, since it arrived in superior condition to how it would have come out of the package. It was soft and tame. It's gotten a little messy since I got it, but the previous owner knew what they were doing.

The Dragon outfit is two pieces that could have easily been one, with purple spots on green and teal scales on yellow forming two patterns. The top had straps that tied around the back of the neck, but they added nothing but frustration, so I cut them off. These strings are way too small to tie and never actually increase the function of the clothing.

Here's Dianée with the Fly Monster minifigure. Her claw holds it pretty nicely between the head and wings.

And I started looking for a couple more pieces she could use. 

I found this Playmobil battery pack device thing that had a loop she could hold.

And a lime green LEGO syringe she can kinda hold.

The syringe can tuck onto her waist between the stand clip and her body, but a belt would be a better long-term way to display it on her. I don't think she needs one otherwise, though.

So that's Dianée!

This is the most thorough custom project I've done so far, with a full-body repaint, parts from multiple dolls, and some from outside MH. 

A fun spectrum of my CAM projects from least to most altered!

This doll came out really nicely, though, feeling visually exciting and cohesive while getting a few nice ways to display. I'm particularly proud of myself for figuring out how to give her the famous claw hand, especially since MH dolls are so special for their freaky monster anatomical sculpts. It's great I could play into that with clever rethinking! DiDi also shows off my more poppy and fun design side, since Marcia and Alice show off more of a moody or restrained form of striking characters. Dianée has a lot of personality and visual interest, and for a fragile amateur project, she looks better than I had any reason to expect. This is what I would have wanted from a direct Fly doll from Mattel in the mainline cast.

(P.S.

I actually really hate bugs, so it's kind of hilarious to me that I found such a drive and passion for this character concept!)

Buzz.