Trick Or Treat, Dig Six Feet: Living Dead Dolloween 2024 Finale

Phew. That was a lot!

Read the first part here, the second part here, the third part here, the fourth part here, the fifth part here, the sixth part here, the seventh part here, and the eighth part here.

This was a massive deep dive, and it's now my longest contained blog series. I think that makes for a pretty excellent illustration of my passions! 

This idea went through a lot of calculation and rethinking regarding who I would spotlight from LDD's Halloween history, and how much from each group to select, though some of my choices were made early and I've been acquiring for this series since May this year to ensure I'd have all the dolls secured and worked up in time to publish tidily during October itself. None of my art photo sessions were done beforehand, but I did the review portion of several dolls I already had during September to have more prepared. Still, I had a significant burst of spontaneity in October itself when I threw together the roundup of non-seasonal dolls that fit the holiday, and grabbed the two variants to complete the spotlight of variant dolls, which I hadn't committed to making until the Halloween month itself. 

While I heavily thought about my formatting and doll choices for this project, wondering what to select and how many dolls from each category was feasible and made sense, there was one nice pattern that emerged entirely unintentionally--in each of the three main series spotlights, I selected one more shocking and one more tame doll, exploring both the horrific and spookier sides of the holiday pretty evenly. 

There are no favorites since I got great work with everybody and had so many dolls to work with. I suppose the closest any of these dolls came to earning mainstay shelf display status outside of Halloween might be Lilith, but that doesn't say too much because she was never sold as a seasonal item. I'd be close to extending Isabel that honor if I felt good about her initial quality or super proud of my customization, but the better Isabel to display as a staple is also the one who's more seasonal--the variant. But the dolls going out of sight until next Halloween is no indication I dislike them--it's just proof they're doing their job and serving their aesthetic target right.

I mentioned after making Butcher Boop's face pie accessory that such a piece would also suit Madame La Mort from the series right after, since the face she's wearing has clearly been severed before and she's based on a musical featuring cannibalistic meat pies, so I decided to make a pie in Madame's aesthetic, going for a more Gothic eerie look with a bloody pie and a serene pretty skin face on top. I cut a notch to store her razor in, making like the cheek of the face is being slashed, and this time, made sure the cut would line up with her weapon hand when she faces the pie. Boop's didn't.

I wanted the pie to reflect her own disturbingly beautiful pale face splattered in blood, so kept the pie very light. Either it's quite floured or hasn't been in the oven yet. Or else it's just stylized. I wanted it to match Madame better regardless of realism.

This was my second take on the pie, since I ran out of the lighter oven-bake clay I used for Boop's pie and attempted an air-dry clay rendition instead. While I got that dried and painted, it proved too fragile when the rim of the pie broke and I couldn't glue it without further damage, so I gave up. That material is really not very good, and the only places it's done me service have been the giant basin I first sculpted for Lamenta and the sink basin I made for Bloody Mary. I just used the heavier oven clay for the final Madame pie...though the rim on that broke too. I was able to glue that back together and put a big blood patch over it to disguise the crack. On either rendition of the pie, the tin it's in was not the piece the pie got baked in, unlike Boop's. The fit is worse after sliding the pie into a new tin and gluing it in, but it looked cleaner with none of the paint from the pie getting onto the metal.

The razor doesn't actually stay in the pie very well because the cut didn't get deep enough and it's more precarious for Madame to hold it with her two flat hands, so this ended up more as an experimental piece than a staple add-on I'm keeping on the doll. I'll keep the pie around, but maybe not in her coffin or on the shelf. Still fun to make.

I love the lighting here.

Back to Halloween.

As a witch enthusiast, I've eaten well under this brand. 

Both Embers, both Salems, Oz Walpurgis, and Holle Katrina are all the classic Halloween pointy-hat archetype, but Lamenta feels incredibly goth and Gothic and witchy in her own right. If I wanted every LDD witch, I'd also need Tenebre and Sospirare; Beltane, Lammas, and Samhain; original Walpurgis (not gonna even try for her Resurrection), and Asa. None of these dolls are my kind of spooky witch, though. Tenebre looks more like a dark angel and Sospirare is more eerie and Victorian--their sister Lamenta is the most obvious "witch" archetype among the triplets. Lammas, Beltane, Samhain, and Walpurgis are more paganistic and arcane in a way that honestly doesn't interest me much, though Samhain is a pretty awesome doll. Asa (Italian, pronounced "ah-za") is more of an "occultist" or Satanist witch of comparatively more modern times--a woman who took up the craft of the Devil on her own. She's cool, but not an aesthetic standout to me.

What hasn't been done in the Halloween mood? Well, the Halloween releases, including Series 6, have covered zombies, Gothic gore, ghosts, witches, black cats, Frankenstein monsters, creepy children, scarecrows, pumpkins, serial killers, poisoned candy, skeletons, vampires, werewolves, jesters, and bats. But there are some classic spooky gaps left over that no LDD release has invoked. 

There hasn't been an LDD take on the Boris Karloff Frankenstein's Monster in the LDD original cast, though that leaves a wide space for me to contrive a custom Valentine's Monster doll to pair with the LDD Bride of Valentine. The closest to the archetype overall is the Scary Tales Beast, who looks more Victorian Gothic and more like an attempt to interpret Mary Shelley's novel than the Universal film. LDD hasn't done a Phantom of the Opera, Gill-Man, or Invisible Man analogue (the closest to the latter is Soot in Series 34, implied to be an invisible spirit made visible by clothing and coal dust). Most astoundingly, they have never done a horror Egyptian mummy in any form. The Monster and his Bride and the Gill-Man have all had licensed LDD Presents dolls, but I want original takes too!

I threw in the Halloween moon icon myself. 

Here's how I decorated this year. LDD were major players, and I put all of Series 6 out to honor their seasonal basis. Most of my Dolloween dolls did not get put into big tableaux just for lack of ideas, but both Embers, Gabriella, and both Salems found a proper spot.

The three dolls from the honorary-Halloween roundup ended up without much arrangement on top of a drawer piece.

To their right, on the dresser, was an orange-and-black corner with warm-toned pieces including Jinx, Isaac, variant Ember, and Sweet Tooth's coffin.

Next over is a more colorful/poppy setup with a mix of LDD and some of my Left Out Dolls customs from previous 2023 posts, as well as the Traveler Trading Co. Dracula.

The wooden witch wall hanging, the pumpkin lantern under Walpurgis, and the Baba Yaga matryoshka are all things I made.

On my desk, I made the "creepy doll corner", featuring another Left Out Doll and several LDDs who fit the "haunted antique cabinet" aesthetic.

The painting is my work, too.

On the bars, I hung Faith (my first LDD), Helen DesTROYed, and Dottie Rose, and I used a display cabinet with a drawer as the centerpiece. Series 1 Sadie stands next to the Return tombstone depicting her, while a prized three-faced porcelain baby doll sits next to her, bonnet down to reveal the bizarre head sculpt.

Inside the cabinet, I thought the two sizes of Lottie made a compelling bizarre display. 

Some creepy parts stuff the open door, while Hush sits on the floor. Return Sadie presides in a chair which Alison Crux hides behind. To the right, I've re-staged the creepiest antique-iest dolls of Series 23 in a mini tea party, while Evangeline stands behind and a music-box doll I dressed in a witch costume sits on a coffin lid. The music box doll rolls her head around while the music plays, which is really just awful in the best way.

Most of the Dolloween gang chilled on the shelf.

And one last group--Scarecrow Purdy, Ember, Wizard Dedwin, Angus Litilrott, and Chloe formed a pack of spooky dolls who needed to be displayed.

Outside of my room, a couple more dolls hung out. Revenant went in a bucket on the stairs.

I painted and modified the bucket, as well as the witch behind her.

And the Salems went in another display.

The skinless-lady doll was one of my pieces modifying a shelf-sitter witch, and the witch between the Salems is a custom built on a Rainbow High Junior High doll. The painting in back was done by my mom.

Lastly, I composed a summative image of my project, using the dollhouse I have and numerous edits and cutouts to compose silhouetted haunted house on a hill with the dolls at hand all featured. I replaced all of the doorways and windows of the house with flat graphics and used silhouette edits of clipped photos from each doll. I put the series dolls and Sweet Tooth in the haunted house to fill the windows and doors, using the bag mask I made on Sweet Tooth because it makes her silhouette more distinct. Eleanor's silhouette got eyehole cutouts to make her visual clearer. Hemlock and Honey are the first marching up to the house, and only aren't in it because they're a duo and it looked cleaner to have a solo doll in each window and door of the house. Behind Hemlock and Honey are the three extra dolls I roped into this project, and my custom Rip Van Twinkle's face is on the moon. I love the look of this image, and it's a perfect closer...and a perfect cover for the imminent re-cut post. 

I'm almost certain to do another Living Dead Dolloween project next year, since there are more series Halloween dolls to go through, and that project could end up larger (seeing as I left a slim majority of each Halloween series unexplored by picking just two from each). We'll see. 

I don't necessarily have to keep the Halloween dolls cordoned into a seasonal blog schedule, though I waver on whether I'd want any of them "out of season" or if I'd be unable to muster the mood. I was disappointed to not be able to fit Ye Ole Wraith into this season, but my initial determination to get her regardless of season is wavering now. While these dolls certainly got me in the Halloween spirit, it's possible I overdosed, since a few days before the 31st, I was already a bit done with the season. I may be ready to let Halloween rest, and it certainly helps a lot for photos to keep these subjects in their own season. The only Halloween doll who would make sense after October is Calavera, due to her doubling for Halloween and Dia de Muertos, but there'd be no way to get her in time this year since Dia de Muertos is directly after Halloween, so it's a very narrow window. Or maybe Ernest Lee Rotten, since there's something very Scooby-Doo about him and of the S32 dolls I don't have, he's the least restricted to a Halloween theme. It would be hard to justify a doll to get "out of season" for all three Halloween series, though, even if achieving that would lighten the pool for a 2025 Dolloween project. I'll keep thinking about it. There's definitely more I want to explore, but I'm ready to move forward through the rest of the year. 

There's a whole LDD winter celebration to prepare!