tikistitch

Once upon a time, actually, round about 2002, McDonalds did a Happy Meal promotion featuring Lilo & Stitch bobbledyheads. And, we got a couple, and Boneboy gave us a couple, but really, we never bothered to pick up an entire set. They're really easy to find on eBay, but we just never got around to it.

So, then, Mr. Tiki found the guy who actually sculpted the bobbledyheads, and he sold him the stuffs. Which means, we now have these insanely rare approval HCs, but we don't have a full set of the ridiculously common production items.

Which is what sometimes happens when you share a house with a Collecting God.

So, as you may or may not know, action figures are often sculpted out of wax. But, because wax is terribly fragile, and will basically disintegrate if you look at it cross-eyed, they go another step and make copies out of a sturdier material. We're not sure exactly what these are made of - if you're interested in the chemistry, you can read chris g.'s series of terribly obsessive posts about it over on Gus's site. If you're gonna collect this stuff, it's good to know, so you'll know what you're looking for.

One reason action figure collectors are utterly mad for these things, other than the scarcity coolness factor, is the amazing level of detail. They're not quite as detailed as the original wax, but still, you usually see a lot more than in the completed figure.

The other bit of cool, if you can get early protos (and these, which are dated 2001, before the film was actually out, are definitely early) you get to see the changes made before the actual toy went into production.

Like Lilo. Usually, they tell actresses to go on a diet before the movie. It looks like, in this case, someone asked Lilo to put on a few pounds!!

You can also see that some of the detail has been omitted from the final toy, for instance, the actual Lilo bobble doesn't have the little bracelets around her ankles.