The heebie-jeebies

This week has been one of the stormiest I can remember.  After the scare on Wednesday it rained and thundered all day yesterday, and then this morning we woke up to a surprise tornado threat for this afternoon (right now, in other words).  And guess what?  More rain is predicted after that!  Every time we get some sort of watch or warning my phone beeps, and if it's not beeping for tornado warnings it's beeping for flash flood warnings.  I usually love splashes of inclement weather, but four tornado scares in one spring (hell, one MONTH) is too much for me.  I'm ready for sunshine.

Now that that's out of the way, I'm giving my Living Dead Dolls some attention.  Yeah, I know that these guys have popped into So Random posts over the past couple'a months, but killecrankie, how long has it been since I honest-to-God talked about Living Dead Dolls?  Five years?  Six?  Not recently, I know that much.  Beauty and the Beast were the subjects of one of my first posts, clean back in 2012.

They've long since been joined by Andras (left), Milu (right), and Spring-Heeled Jack (bottom), and I know they've popped into the blog once or twice.

Oh yes, Milu's face.  Masked Living Dead Dolls are not uncommon, but according to her wiki Milu's mask is the biggest.

Doll collectors have an interesting relationship with Living Dead Dolls, I've noticed.  Some devout dolly lovers find them WAAAAAY too creepy, and then folks who don't like dolls at all freaking love them.  My sister likes Living Dead Dolls, for example; I'd almost give my right arm to find Toxic Molly for her.  As for me...well, obviously I'm a fan, but my favorites are always the glass-eyed Resurrection dolls that are RIDICULOUSLY expensive.  Most of 'em, anyway; my unicorn isn't a variant, though she does have Resurrection variants.

Yes, my unicorn, whom y'all will soon meet.  Y'all might think I'd name one of the more over-the-top dolls as the one that scares me, right?  Someone like Bloody Mary (left) or Schitzo, the latter of whom looks like John Wayne Gacy.

I admit that they're freaky, but they don't make my skin crawl.  Indeed, I admire Bloody Mary's detail; the cuts on her face remind me of the Beast's stitches.  Schitzo is also a favorite of mine since I'm a true crime enthusiast, though the saga of John Wayne Gacy is one of the sicker ones I've heard.  Seriously, clown by day, serial killer by night.  How sick is that???  Anyway, for reasons I've never been able to figure out, the Living Dead Doll that's always given me the heebie-jeebies is one of the tamer ones, Alison Crux.  My unicorn.

I think it's her eyes.  They're dark, they're shadowed, they're mysterious, they're...sad.  

Sadness is actually an emotion that a lot of Living Dead Dolls show, so I shouldn't be too surprised.  Interestingly, though a lot of these dolls are sad, only four of them are shown crying:  Elisa Day, Rain, and ironically, two variants of Alison Crux herself (see below).  Lamenta may also count, but the tears she cries are tears of blood, and she feeds off sorrow rather than being sorrowful herself.  Anyway, like my other dolls, Alison is beautifully painted, but unlike some of them (the Beast in particular) her details are more subtle.  Her vinyl is blue, like she's been deprived of oxygen, and she's also covered in what appear to be skid marks.  Both of these details are relevant to how Alison died.  As for her eyes themselves, they're a very, very dark blue, with red rims and blown pupils.  Alison is undoubtedly dead, and she's not too happy about it.  So compared to Bloody Mary and Schitzo Alison is pretty tame.  Probably the scariest thing about her is her hair, and even that isn't as bad as I was expecting.  I'd envisioned a curly, coarse, tangled nightmare that rivals the hair of Kikki and of Meygana Broomstix.  Alison's hair is uneven, thin, and admittedly a little tangled, but I've seen much worse.

Alison's cause of death is also freaky; she got caught in a revolving door and subsequently got trampled (hence her skid marks and blue coloring).  Also of note is her time of death:  April 4th, 1944, at 4:44 p.m.  A lot of fours.  The number four symbolizes completion for me, but in other cultures it symbolizes death.

That's a pretty grim fate, but to me it's not as bad as that of Sunday (she fell out of a tree and hit every branch on the way down), of Gypsy (her heart exploded due to a bad spell), of Frozen Charlotte (hers was a combo of drowning and freezing to death), of the Unwilling Donor (she had a kidney removed without consent), or of poor ol' Toxic Molly (she suffered from radiation poisoning).  Having kidney problems of my own, the Unwilling Donor also makes me cringe, though out of pain rather than out of fear.  Nothing, repeat, NOTHING has ever physically hurt me as badly as a kidney stone, and I'm willing to bet that having one removed is no picnic either.  Even breaking my ankle wasn't as bad.

While I was unwrapping Alison, I noticed the age bracket for these dolls...and the specific type of person.

Spooky kids ages fifteen and up!  Alison is the eldest of my six dolls, and my younger dolls' boxes sadly don't have the description "spooky kids."  Or she's the eldest production-wise, having been marketed in 2007.  In terms of her chronological age, she'd probably be the youngest.  <pauses to consult the wiki>  Yeah, here's what I found.

*MILU:  She's a goddess and is therefore immortal.  She'd be the oldest by far.
*BEAUTY AND THE BEAST:  The original fairy tale dates from 1740 but is vague about the two characters' ages.  I'm just gonna say 1740 for these two and leave it at that.
*ANDRAS:  Her wiki says that she died in a fight but gives no date, so she could be as old as time or as young as her year of release, 2012.
*SPRING-HEELED JACK:  His urban legend dates back to 1837.
*ALISON CRUX:  She's actually the easiest one; her death certificate specifically states that she died in 1944.

So it's a toss-up between Andras and Alison as to who the youngest is.  Andras LOOKS younger, but being a bellicose little doll she doesn't WANT to be younger.  Alison is no fighter and is thus more than willing to let Andras think what she likes.

Alison:  I'm not having your crap, Andras.  

Not that Alison is a wimp, of course.  Her job is to guide lost souls to the other side (definitely not for the faint of heart), and according to her chipboard poem she takes great pride in that work.  The key she wears around her neck is a key to the portal for that "final resting place," wherever that may be.  Even Alison isn't sure where that is.  Maybe it's the Inbetween Place.

The wiki notes that Alison's role is similar to that of Charon, the Greek ferryman of the underworld.  "Charon" is pronounced like "Karen," so I wonder how Alison got her name?  By the way, I learned that the name for beings who ferry souls to the beyond are called "psychopomps."  They can be good, evil, or neutral, but their job is the same, to take you where you really need to be, ohhhh yeah.

Above I talked a bit about variants, and Alison Crux has variants...FOUR of 'em!  She was part of Resurrection Series VIII along with Pumpkin and Calavera, and all three of them had four variants (images of Pumpkin's and Calavera's variants can be found HERE).  These two are Resurrection (left) and Resurrection Variant...

... then these two are Lazarus (left) and Lazarus Variant.

Resurrection Series VIII tells an interesting tale of insanity, grief, murder, and bravery.  Pumpkin's mind has been corrupted to the point of insanity, and it's up to Alison Crux and Calavera to stop him from killing the other Living Dead Dolls.  The whole saga is told with each doll's death certificate, (full text can be found HERE), and the end implies that none of the trio are ever quite the same afterwards.  As to the Alison variants, they're creepy enuff, but for me nothing beats the original...and now she's mine, mine, MINE!!!  Happy day!  Now if I could only find a good deal on Toxic Molly...

For the record, Spring-Heeled Jack and Milu have variants too.  Here's what they look like.

Beauty, the Beast, and Andras don't have variants...my mistake, yes, Beauty and the Beast do.  They each got a Resurrection variant in 2017, but unlike my two they were sold in a single box.  

That leaves Andras as the odd woman out for now.  For now, that is.  In the world of the Living Dead Dolls anything is possible, and I personally am hoping for the Mothman.  Every so often cryptids join the LDD gang; indeed, Spring-Heeled Jack is classed as a demon on his wiki, but he behaves more like a cryptid to me.  I see a few similarities between Spring-Heeled Jack and the Mothman, things like coloration and an ability to fly/jump long distances.  I don't know what my deal is with the Mothman, but I find him/it fascinating and would love to see him/it as a Living Dead Doll.  That said...I think this line may be discontinued!  I'm way out of the loop, but it looks like there's been some financial dishonesty behind the scenes and the future of the Living Dead Dolls is up in the air, so I may not get my Mothman, and Andras may not see her Resurrection.  But all good things do eventually end, and I've got my small group here with me, so that's good enuff.

Today is the anniversary of Alison Crux's death, so send her a little love.  

I'm glad I have her, because my other unicorns (Elisa Day, Toxic Molly, and the Unwilling Donor) are NOT CHEAP!!!  I'm not giving up the hunt, but for now I'm gonna be realistic and just love my collection as it is.

Hugs and kisses,
RagingMoon1987