Balthazar Wears His Feets

Balthazar is a survivor from when I had "Eight Tiny Reindeer", aka Sphaler heads, in time for Christmas 2012. I still have 3 of them, Balthazar, Fu Bai (because he has a yellowing problem and no one would want him but me) and Zinnober, the ginger kirin nerd. (I also had Caspar and Melchior, in keeping with the Christmas theme). The Sphaler thing happened because I just liked the sculpt, there were a lot of them, and because I was graphing a "price vs time" for Soom releases so I could see when the optimum time and place was to buy Soom parts on the secondary market. The answer seems to be "wait two years and buy it from someone in Texas". The price of a limited Soom (and maybe a Volks, I have no idea) climbs up steeply after it's release, then gradually sinks down to a low after two years, and then levels off; or if it's a very pretty but rare sculpt, climbs back up. (This also is influenced by Soom's re-releases, which can depress the price back down to around 600.00 regardless of sculpt). The "Texas ideal location" is linked to the price of oil--when oil is high, Texas has an economic boom as an oil producer so collectors there have more money in their pockets, and it's a cultural thing too--Texans like new things. And they are fabulous, professional, expert sellers. I'd say most of the "best" dolls in my collection (from a collector's standpoint) were purchased from The Ladies in Texas. Long may they prosper :D

Anyway, Balthazar started out as a head from Davineurinvega, and I quickly got him on an old Impldoll Star body, and then found out the legs were cast by Impl to accommodate Soom fantasy parts, so I have had fun with that:

He's also worn Simply Divine Hooves, and very briefly, some Galena claws that now live in Malmo, Sweden. But now he has his very own..duck feet. Mostly they work well, but my desire to have him be able to point his toes (why?) makes it more likely that he will tip over backwards--something that I did not consider at the time I was making them. I also need to make a neater transition between the feet and the shin in the next pair I make. (These were a hot mess). Here's the feet, painted:

And yes, standing!

And sexily pointing his toes. With duck feet.

Four toes might look better.