How to turn Barbies into Doctor Who Weeping Angels
July 2, 2014 2:40 PM   Subscribe

"Six Barbies, two cans of primer, two cans of Stone paint, four bags of feathers, less than half a yard of fabric, (a Dremel), miles of hot glue, and a shit-ton of patience." The result: Weeping Barbie Angels.
posted by DarlingBri (42 comments total) 30 users marked this as a favorite
 
The finished product: amazing!

The steps to reaching that finished product: disturbing indeed!

Now I wish I knew where all my old Barbies are.... I could have a complete army of Weeping Angels.
posted by meese at 2:44 PM on July 2, 2014


Don't do it, for god's sake. Maybe that's how they came to be!
posted by infinitywaltz at 2:45 PM on July 2, 2014 [1 favorite]


First thought: Those aren't Barbies.

Second thought: For someone who "hates Barbies" she sure did take a lot of joy in playing with pseudo-Barbies (you know, dressing them up and posing them).
posted by sparklemotion at 2:45 PM on July 2, 2014 [1 favorite]


Those are cool, thanks!
posted by Mrs. Pterodactyl at 2:46 PM on July 2, 2014


Wonderful, thank you.
posted by CBrachyrhynchos at 2:49 PM on July 2, 2014


First thought: please god, don't let the boyfriend see this because he totally would do this shit.
Second thought: .. thank god, my Barbies live at my mum's where they're out of harm's way (apart from the punk mohawk I gave one of them when I was 9)
Third thought: jesus, these are going to be at every theme party from now on end, aren't thedy?
posted by kariebookish at 2:50 PM on July 2, 2014 [1 favorite]


Excellent, completely excellent, my sister!
posted by Anitanola at 2:51 PM on July 2, 2014


This reminds me of a Barbie DIY project that I want to do someday:

1) Get a whole bunch of dead Barbies. Pull the arms, legs, and heads off of the torsos.
2) In my garden, in between the tomatoes and the zuchinni, "plant" the parts of the Barbies, so that I have a row of arms, a row of legs, and so on.

Yes, my neighbors DO wonder about me sometimes.
posted by dfm500 at 2:57 PM on July 2, 2014 [5 favorites]


"she's lying! - whatever she says it's not true!"
posted by pyramid termite at 3:01 PM on July 2, 2014 [1 favorite]


This is fractally awesome and disturbing. There is no aspect of this that does not make me want to befriend this person... from far away.
posted by Etrigan at 3:05 PM on July 2, 2014


The photos of the dolls with the arms cut off and hanging on the pincer-things are kind of disturbing. Then the angels themselves...disturbing. And the guy in the Sherlock hat...also disturbing.
posted by xingcat at 3:11 PM on July 2, 2014 [2 favorites]


This person has the most fascinating bio at the end of the blogpost.
posted by infini at 3:18 PM on July 2, 2014 [1 favorite]


Oh man, I totally want to make one of these and stick one, in the reaching position, on my daughter's nightstand while she's sleeping. After she opens her eyes and starts breathing again, she will think it's the most awesome thing ever!
posted by Ruki at 3:40 PM on July 2, 2014 [4 favorites]


Wow, this is awesome and makes me wish I was remotely crafty.

But what was up with the Barbies (or not-Barbies) wearing underpants? Is this a new thing, to cover plastic non-genitals with plastic underpants to hide the plastic non-genitals? Inquiring minds want to know.
posted by sfkiddo at 3:41 PM on July 2, 2014


dfm500: please, please plant your Barbie limbs and post pics. I need this to happen.
posted by sfkiddo at 3:43 PM on July 2, 2014 [2 favorites]


But what was up with the Barbies (or not-Barbies) wearing underpants? Is this a new thing, to cover plastic non-genitals with plastic underpants to hide the non-genitals? Inquiring minds want to know.

It's Weeping Angels, not Peeping Angels!
posted by Celsius1414 at 3:44 PM on July 2, 2014 [1 favorite]


Possibly the most intriguing thing for me is I have pretty much all the stuff I'd need to do this; texture paint + suitable brush, plasticard and milliput (and greenstuff) and sculpting tools for that 'carved' look on the wings, airbrush, thinner, grey primer and plenty of other paints to get that mottled stone effect - I'm sure some brown and oily styled washes would add a nice streaked weathered look - various cast off bits of cloth for the robes, I could even steal a few feathers from the cats' feather boa to help get the wing textures right; Dremel, bits of dowel, clamps, modelling saw, plenty of glue, I'm even pretty sure I've got that same magnifying glass & croc clips stand somewhere....

Do you think my wife would react badly if I added 'knock off barbie dolls' to our next shopping list?
posted by ArkhanJG at 3:45 PM on July 2, 2014 [2 favorites]


Forget math, not blinking is hard!
posted by dr_dank at 3:49 PM on July 2, 2014 [1 favorite]


Aaannd found a guide using greenstuff + milliput + plasticard for making great looking wings.

"Hon, I've found this really cool idea for a project on mefi. Please stop giving me that look, it's awesome I promise..."
posted by ArkhanJG at 3:57 PM on July 2, 2014 [3 favorites]


But what was up with the Barbies (or not-Barbies) wearing underpants? Is this a new thing, to cover plastic non-genitals with plastic underpants to hide the non-genitals? Inquiring minds want to know.

Because our bodies are shameful, sinner.
posted by heyho at 3:58 PM on July 2, 2014 [3 favorites]


Eep. Even in miniature those things are frightening as all hell. D:
posted by sexyrobot at 4:21 PM on July 2, 2014


Maybe Barbie is part Mormon?
posted by oceanjesse at 4:33 PM on July 2, 2014


Don't blink. Blink and you're dead.
posted by zooropa at 4:39 PM on July 2, 2014


Oh hey there is a whole Flickr photo set I missed out of the post.
posted by DarlingBri at 4:44 PM on July 2, 2014 [1 favorite]


The article was great, but what make me wake the cat laughing was the comment: "I am totally making one of these and using it as an "Elf on the Shelf" for my daughter. I feel like that will be amazing, and give her plenty to talk about in therapy down the road."
posted by korej at 5:07 PM on July 2, 2014


My mother-in-law, as a little girl, took her sister's doll babies and beheaded them. She then buried the bodies and used their little heads like tombstones.

When she was done she climbed a tree and laughed manically when her sister found them.

I don't know what is more disturbing, the weeping angels or my MIL's glee over what she did.
posted by SuzySmith at 5:36 PM on July 2, 2014


This is brilliant - they look fantastically creepy.
posted by fever-trees at 5:45 PM on July 2, 2014


Underwear is important to Barbie.

Teacher Barbie Gets Her Drawers.
posted by merelyglib at 5:59 PM on July 2, 2014 [1 favorite]


This whole site it golden ... Check out this star wars Dr who harry potter rainbow living room!
posted by chapps at 6:13 PM on July 2, 2014


How to turn Barbies into Doctor Who Weeping Angels

Show them an Instagram of Skipper stepping out with Ken.
posted by Clyde Mnestra at 6:37 PM on July 2, 2014


I would so love to have several of these on my desk.
posted by arcticseal at 6:48 PM on July 2, 2014


I told my husband about this, and he says I'm not allowed to scar our daughter like that. Said daughter liked to prank him by leaving her stinky used socks under his pillow, so I'm not quite sure why he's taking her side on this, but there will be no Weeping Barbies in the Ruki household.
posted by Ruki at 7:36 PM on July 2, 2014


This is amazing. If it didn't look so time consuming, my wife and I were talking about doing this with a bunch of Barbies and arranging them around our 11-year-old's bedroom as a surprise for when he wakes up.
posted by Ben Trismegistus at 8:15 PM on July 2, 2014


A long long time ago (1983) somewhere in the San Fernando valley, there was a punk hair salon where you could get your hair cut like Joan Jett or Kathy Valentine (or Billy Idol). Hanging from the ceiling were 20 or 30 Barbie dolls mutilated, spray painted and otherwise blasphemed. Seeing it was a revelation to my little punk head.

Many years later (1994) Diseased Pariah news had KS Barbie on their back cover.

Barbie is and may for many years to come been a base from which to give a huge middle finger to society.
posted by Sophie1 at 8:22 PM on July 2, 2014


I approve of all the parents who want to make weeping angels for their kids. My parents would never have made me Daleks or something like them when I was that age.
posted by immlass at 8:22 PM on July 2, 2014


The steps to reaching that finished product: disturbing indeed!

'...A pile of little arms. And I remember... I... I... I cried, I wept like some grandmother. I wanted to tear my teeth out; I didn't know what I wanted to do. And I want to remember it. I never want to forget it... I never want to forget. And then I realized... like I was shot... like I was shot with a diamond... a diamond bullet right through my forehead. And I thought, my God... the genius of that....'
posted by Kronos_to_Earth at 9:16 PM on July 2, 2014


So, a friend was asked what he wanted for his birthday, he said "a six-pack of beer". So, an aquaintance got an empty cardboard six-pack holder and stuck a knock-off barbie upside-down in each section. When presented, the guy said "What the hell is this?". He was told, "a six-pack of Schlitz".
posted by 445supermag at 9:56 PM on July 2, 2014


My mom was SO THRILLED when I reached the "let's dissect the Barbie legs and see what's inside" stage.

Also, did you know that if you give Barbie a crewcut and then stick a firecracker inside her head and light it, it makes her hair stand straight up? 'Cause it does.
posted by Lexica at 10:15 PM on July 2, 2014


I forgot to mention: Mom carried a half-peeleddissected Barbie leg in her purse for months and delighted in pulling it out to show people.
posted by Lexica at 10:17 PM on July 2, 2014 [1 favorite]


Lexica - your mom is so great! I wonder what she'd have liked for you to have done to a Ken doll...
posted by porpoise at 11:30 PM on July 2, 2014


And, that one time, when the Weeping Angels hit MarWenCol?
posted by Mezentian at 7:59 AM on July 3, 2014


porpoise — anatomically Ken was no more interesting than Barbie (the leg mechanisms are the same, I think) and in terms of hair? Soooooo boring. (Heh. Spiky doll haircuts and Sharpie hair-dye FTW!)
posted by Lexica at 4:22 PM on July 5, 2014


« Older I Punch First   |   The Mother of Dark Matter Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments