Adventures at MakieLab

These Makie dolls by the British company MakieLab have been on my radar for over a year, only I never bought one before now.  These are the dolls you design on their web site with an adorably-cartoony make-a-doll program, and they then custom-make the exact doll for you right there in England.

I just found out they've lowered the price by 35% over what the prices were mere months ago.  They're now $75 in American currency.  Apparently, the Makies now have a new plastic body that's enabled them to reduce prices.  The new body reportedly has even better posing than the old, although I've seen people lament that with the new bodies, people can no longer dye their dolls different colors, possible with the older bodies that were fully 3D printed.  There are some really nice customs out there in shades of blue, green and purple, all done with the older body.  Anyway, I saw MakieLab was offering free shipping this week, so I took the plunge and created a Makie!  Actually, I created two.

Violet and Winsome, otherwise known as pouty and happy.  I would have LOVED to have gotten both and declared them twins, but I could only afford one this time around.  I ended up choosing the smiling version for my first Makie, in the medium skin tone.  Here's the final girl that I ordered:

The sliders on the web site were so fun to play with!   I took screenshots of my messing around with the "Attitude" eyebrow slider.  The "Ferocity" slider changes the thickness, and there are also two other eyebrow types in addition to this one.  (Click on the graphics to see them larger.)

If you choose one of the other eyebrow styles, it's possible to make a really angry face.

I also messed with the eyelid sliders.  These narrow the eye to change the facial expression.  It's really pretty brilliant.  I think the wider eye makes her look sweeter, while the narrower version makes her look slightly condescending.  Between this, the various eye types and an eye tilt feature, there are a lot of options.  You can change her nose and jaw/chin shape as well.

I tried some different hair on her.  The immediate issue I discovered with their newest version of the make-a-doll program is that it's extremely difficult to figure out which hair is supposed to be a natural red.  There's a fire engine red, and there's this.  It's impossible to tell whether this is supposed to be a medium brown or a shade of red, or something in-between.  There are some other shades of brown in there, but no other shades of red other than the unnatural, vivid fire engine red.  I didn't order this wig because I wasn't sure what color the actual wig would be, and I had a suspicion it wouldn't be quite THIS color.

Tried a few more wig choices.  It was pretty fun to mess with.

I loved the white hair as well, and ended up ordering a separate white wig in addition to a black one and the purple.  I also ordered an eyeglasses set that included three pairs of eyeglasses in different colors.

I gave her small elf ears.  On the site, when you click on the "Ear Shape" button, the hair turns transparent so you can see the ears underneath.

The outfits are (with a few exceptions) different than they were a year ago.  I don't have very high hopes that the outfit will be a great quality, but I don't plan to keep her in this for long, anyway.  I know I'll be sewing for her soon.  The parrot top made me smile, and I thought the blue leggings might be useful for other outfits.

So, when it was time to check out.  I got this window, showing the price in American dollars.

Here's the weird thing.  As I was checking out, I decided to add the two extra wigs and the eyeglasses set, and the prices suddenly switched to British pounds.  LOL.  The currency switched back and forth a couple of times before I was done.  I wasn't too concerned about it, since I knew it wouldn't matter when I paid.  I'm just mentioning it in case someone else buys from them before they can fix this.  Don't panic!  It'll work out fine.   Other than that, I had no problems checking out and paying.  Order came to $95.66 total with the three extra items added, still less than the original price for the doll alone, which would have been $115.

I'm so excited!  I've heard it's a two-week wait while the doll is custom-made.  I'll certainly post a million pics of the actual doll when she arrives. 

See ya!

EDIT:  She arrived!  You can see her real-life pics here.