Death Drops on the Runway: Living Dead Dolls Fashion Victims Wave 2 Complete

I never thought I would have this group. How did it all turn out?

Aesthetically, the Wave 2 Fashion Victims are a delight, and a vast improvement over Wave 1. The art style and facial/body designs add a great deal of spooky goth character to the dolls while making their bodies more artful and less leery. I think the design reinterpretations are also overall more interesting than Wave 1's shared sex-shop aesthetic, and the pairs of outfits are better...to a point. 

When I got Hollywood reviewed, I was mystified as to why this line didn't last longer, but I picked the wrong example if I wanted to see the cracks. The other dolls showed me some issues in design. 

The paint is the most glaringly messy aspect, with the non-Hollywood using spray paint to color their heads rather than the vinyl being cast in the correct color. This can create blemishes, bumps, and blobs, and while the paint is remarkably adherent to the vinyl underneath, surviving heating and deformation of the vinyl with no damage at all, the spray paint doesn't look very professional or clean. I truly can't think of any justification for not simply casting the dolls in the correct color each. Hollywood being airbrushed into her color instead left much cleaner results and a very artsy look, but even she is subject to unfixable blemishes as a result of her coloring being paint instead of casting. I feel like Hollywood's blushed style going across the board would still have been better than the spray paint, because at least the paint itself has no texture. Inferno's spray paint had the worst texture flaw, but the tip of Sybil's nose is a bit smushed too. I Sybil alone while I attempted to fix Inferno...and it's hard to say which was worse--Inferno's factory state or my patch attempt. The body painting on the dolls also has its flaws, and possibly doesn't suit the bendy articulation.

The costumes do have some manufacturing flaws and concerns, too. Inferno, again, is an object of concern with her leather pieces, while Lulu and Inferno both demonstrate unfinished fabrics which aren't apt to hold up. Sybil's neck joint was also too tight and less mobile, while the limbs' rotating hinges are variable in terms of tightness. The articulation is more versatile than Wave 1 in some ways, but the armatures are restricted in range by the better plastic casing and the legs are still not that useful. 

The last concern I found was the eye alignment, where the eye pieces, which include the dimensional lashes, might be placed so the lashes have a gap below the eyelid. I found these to be pretty easy to adjust, though. I fixed Sybil's eye with heat, and Hollywood's without, using my fingertip to push the eye in position. Since the alignment is easily remedied, this is less of a critical problem.

These are the only LDD dolls that feel like they call for doll stands across the board. Classic LDDs and Minis are variable individually on how well they stand in their shoes, but largely are able to stand unaided. FV dolls want for a doll stand, and I wish they were included. They have that art-doll flair that demands a secure shelf display!

Now, for ranking. Best-to-worst, left-to-right.

Character design:

I was somewhat surprised to find Hollywood and Sybil in competition after I was sure Sybil would be an uncontested victory, but Hollywood is a really beautiful doll, and her airbrushing and level of facial detail like the pink eyelid interior and droopy right lashes all make her exceptional. She's attractive in both costumes and she's just so pretty. Sybil, though, is also wonderful with her quintessentially goth aesthetic, crazy straitjacket, and dynamic energy. I was exceptionally prolific, artistically, with Sybil, while Hollywood was my second-most inspiring doll. It was a super narrow edge between them, but Sybil had to win out for the work I got with her.

I also thought for sure that trashy, off-puttingly Southern Lulu was going to be my easy least favorite, but Inferno had so many problems and Lulu, in the right costume, ended up being so oddly captivating that she takes the spot above Inferno. Lulu's manic messy-girl style is a lot of fun, and wears much better on a clearly adult model. Her cowgirl outfit is dull and feels random, the top aged badly, and the Confederate belt is completely unacceptable, but strictly in her S4-based outfit, she's actually a lot of fun. FV lends Lulu an appeal I wasn't able to understand before. Inferno was worse quality in my batch and is less interesting, for better and worse. Even a pristine Inferno would bear concerns from her leather material and still might not end up as uniquely odd as Lulu at her best, though. Getting such a bad deal with my Inferno, and doing her no favors myself, definitely dropped her in my estimation, though I have to tip my hat to the doll I find more compelling as well, and that's simply Lulu. Inferno does the familiar well, but she doesn't intrigue me.

Classic-style outfit design:

Sybil comes first because how can she not? The striped straitjacket and ultra-long sleeves are incredible.

I put Hollywood next because the outfit suits her, though not as well. It's a little spare and not optimized to her haircut, but with the nets and pearls of outfit 1 added in, I like it, and I think it's just as useful. 

Inferno came third because I like the outfit but not the leather, and it's not hugely exciting to me.

While Lulu's outfit makes the doll and the character click and has a lot of fun energy, it's not really my taste personally.

Original FV outfit design:

Hollywood comes first because the flapper look is built for this doll's haircut and looks really nice as a reinterpretation of time period and aesthetic for the doll. 

Inferno comes second because I really applaud the success in a sexy costume design, and like Hollywood, find it just as good as the other costume option, but the quality has concerns that knock it down. 

Sybil comes third because the Clockwork Orange look is successful but not super useful or equivalent to her classic-look option. 

Lulu is last because it's a mess, the top is badly made and boring, the pants are too hard to use and an unpleasant fabric, and the Confederate belt is simply contemptible. Lulu is the only doll I consider permanently redressed. The only thing I kept her in was her hair ties and black bracelets. I have no reason whatsoever to put any of the rest of the outfit back on her. I don't know why Mezco thought a stitch of this costume was suited to this character or the brand.

Face:

Hollywood wins for having the airbrushing rather than spray-paint coloring, plus the next-level details of a pink waterline and the unique face mold and drooped lashes on the swollen narrowed eye. It's a super pretty face design with perfect art-doll oomph. I wish mine didn't get damaged in the attempt to clean a blemish on the forehead, but even with it, I don't really care because she still looks incredible.

Lulu has to come next for me, but it's a close call. I just think her funky eye design is so arresting and her face highlights the sculpt in such a way that she's got a great eerie energy. 

Sybil comes next because her face is perfectly beautiful and I love the coloring and spiral eyes. She just got a tad flawed by the spray paint.

Inferno comes last because her face was botched by the spray paint globbing up and also catching a few other motes as surface blemishes. She needed inept, insufficient repair and repaint and was kind of doomed from the start. Even pristine, though, and ranking solely on design, her face would be the least interesting of them all, and her eye design doesn't suit the iris-chip system, with the contour of the chip being too visible with a design that isn't meant to show it. I think if Mezco dared to leave Inferno stark white (the vinyl cast color), she'd become more bold and interesting against her bright warm tones and would look less homogenous next to Lulu and Sybil. I think that would make Inferno more interesting and deviated from her S4 doll while also handing me a doll who never got ruined by her own paint layering. A stark-white FV Inferno could upset the whole ranking. I don't think I can make that happen by wiping her, though, because even if I totally stripped her face paint and redid it myself, her body might not end up stark white when wiped, and her hinge joints might not either. I could try experiments to see what she looks like wiped, but only if I ended up replacing Inferno with a new copy, and I have no plans for that.

Quality:

This is hard to rank because there's not a huge difference in the issues. The dolls across the board have flaws.

I put Hollywood as the best because her biggest issues seemed to be the fibers of her sequin fabric and a blemish on her forehead which looks okay after wiping and can be covered by her hat anyhow. Sybil ois next because the only issues I know she had from factory state were the eye alignment and the nose smush. I did have to repair her neck and the seam of her jacket, but those were my issues. I guess the tight neck ought to put her down a little lower, but I thought Lulu's frayed white top and loose hip swivel were worse issues since those weren't fixable. Inferno is last because her outfit had badly-holding glue and her face had a disfiguring blob of spray paint, while her hair rooting was the worst at doing its job.

Lastly, my ranking of preference for the doll over their classic LDD counterparts. Left to right is most preferred over their original classic dolls to least preferred.

Hollywood is easy to call superior to the S5 doll. I like both Hollywoods, but I'm much more connected to the stylized absurdity and camp factor of the Fashion Victim, who makes the battered injury of the doll look far less raw and real and ugly. If S5 Hollywood had the glamor-starlet look and a less brutal injury, she might win out, but the FV doll has the right touches to make the concept more fun.

Lulu comes next because she feels like the doll medium the character's design and aesthetic were asking for. I do mourn the gimmick of the S4 doll's leg fracture, and the more tasteful tattoo design of that doll, but otherwise, FV is the right design for an adult character with childish aspects, and she has more energy.

Inferno is third. I probably would like her more than the original doll for similar reasons of the leather bad-girl look clicking more on an adult design, but I do also like S4 Inferno's design, if not her looming threat of deterioration.

This is the only category Sybil could possibly lose in, because I just can't say the S4 doll is worse. Each rendition of Sybil does her thing perfectly, and while FV Sybil is more precious and her creative session was more prolific, it would be a total insult to say I prefer her to the original. No. I love them both equally.

Overall ranking:

This is the same as my character design ranking.

Sybil has to win for being the major prize with major inspiration and creative fuel. Hollywood is next for being a beautiful art doll who gave me a lot of work in her own right. Lulu is next for getting me some fun with a character I never understood, while Inferno is last for not being hugely inspiring to me and having issues which hurt her experience.

I feel a little sorry for Wave 2 not getting any follow-up and an even better Wave 3, but the dolls still left their mark. Sybil's Resurrection borrows from the Fashion Victim, and several hallmarks of these dolls seem to have been reimagined for the design format of the Return dolls, who are even more deluxe. Return overall stands on its ambitions better and more adeptly delivers a high-end art-doll experience, though it has its own flaws and shortcuts. I love the Return line in general, but I would be happy to see a "LDD as adults" line return as well, since the Return line is anchored on a childlike look. FV Wave 2 could have continued and improved further to become a rich line of its own. It just didn't. I'm glad to have had the ability to investigate all of them, and through this line, I definitely got two treasures in Hollywood and Sybil. I'm not totally done, because when a doll wig arrives, I can hopefully share my alternate idea for a Fashion Victim Sadie design, but this is where I close the coffin now for reviews of the official Fashion Victims. It's been fun.