Tag Archives: Marvel Legends diorama

Christopher Street Day in Berlin: miniature rainbow ice cream party collab with Littlest Sweet Shop!

Rainbow CSD party Littlest Sweet Shop custom rainbow ice cream collab with Suzanne Forbes June 2020It‘s Christopher Street Day and Germany is celebrating Gay Pride🌈 !!

I am so delighted to share the incredible artisan miniature cake and ice cream I commissioned from Littlest Sweet Shop for my New Mutants and X-Men Marvel legends figures !!!

Rainbow CSD ice cream party collab Littlest Sweet Shop x Suzanne Forbes July 25 2020I wanted to do something special for Germany’s big Pride day, even though I couldn’t go to an event.

So I commissioned an array of gorgeous miniature ice creams and cakes from Nadia of Littlest Sweet Shop. She is a superb creator of artisan mini food, and she really pulled out all the stops!

Rainbow CSD jelly roll cake by Littlest Sweet Shop by Suzanne Forbes July 25 2020Look how exquisite and beautiful they are!!

Every detail is perfect!! Including the tiny rainbow sprinkles on the Choco-Taco!

Rainbow CSD ice cream party collab Littlest Sweet Shop x Suzanne Forbes group shot July 25 2020

What a wonderful party!

I included some of the gay X-Men and New Mutants, including Rahne and Dani who are now CANONICALLY GAY in the New Mutants movie, and the lovely trans lady action figure customs I recently made. Northstar is chilling with ally Puck!

Littlest Sweet Shop Pride rainbow ice cream and cakes July 2020This was my first time making a good-sized commission from a miniature food artisan, and I was so lucky to work with Nadia!

Although I had the idea at the last minute, Nadia graciously accepted the commission and was an absolute dream to work with.

Rainbow CSD ice cream party collab Littlest Sweet Shop x Suzanne Forbes beautiful trans ladies July 25 2020Nadia committed to the Pride theme 200%!

She carefully matched the colors from the Trans Pride and Bi Pride flags, as well as making all the foods from the same color “batches” so they would match. She sent me photos as she worked! And she took a lovely photo series herself, where you can really see the details.

Rainbow CSD ice cream party collab Littlest Sweet Shop x Suzanne Forbes July 25 2020 Shan has a tacoOf course I had to order some of Nadia’s miniature ice cream tacos, or Choco Tacos, for the lesbian mutants!

Xi’an Coy Manh (Shan to her friends) holds a nut decorated Choco Taco – you can choose whole or with a bite out from Nadia!

I took over a hundred photos for this shoot.

Between lighting and editing, I feel I have graduated from a person who should never touch a camera to a poor amateur photographer.

Rainbow CSD ice cream party collab Littlest Sweet Shop x Suzanne Forbes Rahne and Dani gay mutant love July 25 2020It’s actually a big achievement and I am proud!

I will never buy or learn the equipment to become a real doll or toy photographer like the ones in my post on Action Figure Activism, but at least I am improving.

Danielle Moonstar action figure custom with Littlest Sweet Shop mini foods for Pride by Suzanne Forbes July 2020For this shoot I used the Marvel Legends Danielle Moonstar/Mirage figure head, even though she is a bit grouchy.

I finally found one in the UK, got it and quickly customized it to try it out. (My mom has one found for me by the lovely fellow behind She’s Fantastic Made of Plastic, but who knows when it will get to Berlin.) Honestly I like my own custom Dani Moonstar figure (last year’s Pride post) better for tender domestic teenage mutant love, but this sculpt is beautiful and fierce.

Marvel Legends Danielle Moonstar custom by Suzanne Forbes July 2020I had two of the Hasbro Marvel Legends Juggernaut Series Kitty Pryde bodies.

For this one I sculpted Dani’s fringed boots with my beloved Apoxie Sculpt, then painted them with regular artist’s acrylic.

I sealed them with “Matte” Mod Podge which is reading really shiny so I will probably mask off Dani’s body and spray them with Liquitex Matte Varnish, which is what I use instead of Dullcote.

Anyway a quick version that looks ok! I wanted to use the “official” movie tie-in Dani Moonstar figure’s head on the weekend when the director and all the cast of the New Mutants movie were doing a panel talking about the film’s amazing queer love story.

Littlest Sweet Shop shop imageThe real stars of the shoot are the rainbow treats from Littlest Sweet Shop.

Shop TheLittlestSweetShopUK on etsy here for ready to ship treats in 1:12 (dollhouse) and 1:6 (fashion doll) scale, and visit the Littlest Sweet Shop website to buy exclusive items (Slushy!!) in the online store, enjoy the blog, and see all the possible items you can commission if commissions are open! Or just enjoy the photo gallery!

Nadia is truly an incredible artist who is dedicated to making the most lifelike and beautiful miniature food.

thanks so much for your beautiful work for my Pride feast, Nadia!

X-Men and Action figure dollhouse projects and action figure customs:

Danger Room work in progress!

My first action figure dollhouse.

Laboratories underneath it.

My action figure subway station.

Projects for the X-Men Dollhouse – a blackboard for the library

The X-Men Dollhouse – nearly finished, and the goddam lighting

The X-Men Dollhouse – stairs and lighting

The X-Men Dollhouse – wallpaper and assembly

The X-Men Dollhouse – getting started!

Lila Cheney and Lilandra customs.

My Rahne and Dani lovebird action figure customs

Douglock custom

X-Men Dollhouse- Danger Room buildout!!

Danger Room X Men Dollhouse build Bishop by Suzanne Forbes July 2020Damn, dioramas are hard!

I have been obsessed with dioramas since I was a child in the Museum of Natural History, and the obsession has only deepened. Of course I had to build a Danger Room underneath my School for Gifted Youngsters, and of course I’ve been planning it for almost twenty years. Nearly as soon as I was thinking about a dollhouse for action figures, I was thinking of underground spaces underneath it.

Danger Room X Men Dollhouse build test by Suzanne Forbes July 2020I didn’t figure out how to do it until after I finished my first dollhouse, and by the time I started putting underground laboratories and medical rooms and gymnasiums under the first dollhouse, it was obvious that I was gonna need a second dollhouse.

Danger Room X Men Dollhouse build with Lila Cheney posters by Suzanne Forbes July 2020The X-Men got their own entire dollhouse, last year.

(It’s finished except for the front yard and the stairs to Ororo’s attic, both of which are in process!). I had a system at this point, and built the base for the X-Men dollhouse with the intent of putting the Danger Room, stables and Morlock tunnels underneath it.

Danger Room X Men Dollhouse build with thumpy by Suzanne Forbes July 2020During the third month of self-isolation, I found several of the critical pieces for the Danger Room in Europe.

It was never feasible to ship these large, heavy things – the Art Asylum Broken Bow Enterprise Bridge Playset and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Secret Sewer Lair Playset – from the States. And it is even less feasible, or ethical, to ship anything from North America now.

Danger Room X Men Dollhouse build with Sentinel by Suzanne Forbes July 2020But I found them, for great prices, in Germany!

In the five years we have been here, Germans have gotten better at eBay. And incredibly, I have gotten even more amazing at buying used weird stuff!

Danger Room X Men Dollhouse build with figures by Suzanne Forbes July 2020I’ve been on eBay since fucking 1998, I am a power user.

I have had the Iceman figure and Sentinel Marvel Legends Build-A-Figure (BAF) since 2005, and the Pyro since 2006. I bought them during the horrible, agonizing, dragged-out end of my second marriage, and they were in storage for years. But I knew they had a purpose.

I never gave up on the idea that somehow, I was gonna do something fun with them, something that would make me happy.

Danger Room Suzanne Forbes July 2020I don’t like building interiors, or dollhouses for that matter, at all.

I don’t even like decorating them with wallpaper and trim. I just like having them, and collecting the stuff that goes in them! However, since my funds are limited, I have to build dollhouses in order to have them!

So I ordered foam core board and acid-free adhesive-covered board from an excellent German company, and set to building around the bridge set and the Sentinel. I used my usual intuitive casual building technique, and I did it as fast as I could, because cutting things with an Xacto knife terrifies me.

Plus, the long arm movements for handling the large panels now exhaust my limited upper body strength. Physical construction has become even more of an ordeal as my Hashimoto’s and fatigue have gotten worse. I am really glad I splurged on the adhesive-lined board, as it made sticking the embossed brick dollhouse paper to it a breeze!!!

Danger Room X Men Dollhouse build booth test by Suzanne Forbes July 2020I built the windows of the booth out of plexiglas, which I am never working with again.

Cutting it oneself is a nightmare. Unlike styrene, which scores and then breaks crisply! I used panels of balsa wood covered in dark grey selbstklebefolie to cover the ragged edges of the plexi, which totally worked.

I like to cover panels of balsa, illustration board or board with German selbstklebefolie (contact paper) to make flat surfaces in the labs and underground spaces. It gives a clean, tech-y finish and is so much faster and easier than paint. No, it’s not archival, but it’s looking like I’m not either! The booth is held together with scraps of wood trim, some twenty years old, spraypainted silver.

I would like to talk more about this whole project, but I am completely exhausted!

X-Men and Action figure dollhouse projects and action figure customs:

My first action figure dollhouse.

Laboratories underneath it.

My action figure subway station.

Projects for the X-Men Dollhouse – a blackboard for the library

The X-Men Dollhouse – nearly finished, and the goddam lighting

The X-Men Dollhouse – stairs and lighting

The X-Men Dollhouse – wallpaper and assembly

The X-Men Dollhouse – getting started!

Lila Cheney and Lilandra customs.

My Rahne and Dani lovebird action figure customs

Douglock custom