I grew up on a farm. At some point I decided to do scale modeling and maybe some stop motion videos. One of my first videos was done with a video camera and video tape. Hold the record button for only a few seconds and then set up for the next shot. That was done with Mego star trek dolls, and the bridge play-set. The biggest problem was nothing else was to the same scale. Due to the type of articulation in the dolls, the male Mego dolls (Type One) would stand with the legs spread.
Barbie size would be better and there was a lot of accessories. The disadvantage with Barbie size was the lack of articulated female dolls. I later learned some of that was due to the local stores not carrying brands like Cy Girls. I got my Cy Girls through the internet. My Laura Croft doll is a tomb raider head on a Cy Girl body.

There was someone on the internet named Jim Bob Wan who ran into the same problem. His solution was to take the GI Joe dolls and turn them into female figures. I think his website has been gone for a few years now.

One Idea I had was to go through the house and get Barbie size versions of everything. I think I ended up with folders on my computer for all the farm machinery, tractors and wagons. I was thinking of a barbie sized farm with buildings. Unfortunately, a lot will have to be custom built.
Michelle

That is a great idea.

My father enjoyed woodworking and made dollhouse furniture for many years. Things were in a variety of scales because as you pointed out, dolls come in all sizes. If you do make some pieces, I would love to see them!

About 25 years ago, I happened to see a barbie doll my eldest son played with and dumped away. It was worn and naked. Suddenly I realized that the body figure of the doll resembled mine, albeit unrealistic. This was why I choose 'barbie'as my nickname.

There are some discussions on how realistic the barbie figure is. For example,

If Barbie were an actual women, she would be 5'9" tall, have a 39" bust,
an 18" waist, 33" hips and a size 3 shoe!

Barbie calls this a "full figure" and likes her weight at 110 lbs.

At 5'9" tall and weighing 110 lbs, Barbie would have a BMI of 16.24 and
fit the weight criteria for anorexia. She likely would not menstruate.

If Barbie was a real woman, she'd have to walk on all fours due to her
proportions.

https://www.chapman.edu/students/health-and-safety/psychological-counseling/_files/eating-disorder-files/13-barbie-facts.pdf

My BMI is 18.9 (64 kg with 184 cm height, or 141 lbs with 6 feet height), but sometimes downs to 18.4 (below 18.5 is categorized as 'underweight'). My waist is 27 inch, and I usually wear US size 10 shoes.

My goal is maitaining my body weight of 63 kg (139 lbs), but it changes by 2 kg (4 lbs) even within a day. I believe below this is unhealthy.

Cheers,



barbie~~

I collect HotWheels  made by the same company as Barbie - but just wanted it out there that hobbies do not a gender make..


*I actually collect the 'Batman' (tm) HotWheels cars that they have made and still make - Batcopter being a present from my hubby a few months ago!..

Quote from: SoupSarah on August 31, 2024, 03:02:15 PMI collect HotWheels  made by the same company as Barbie - but just wanted it out there that hobbies do not a gender make..


*I actually collect the 'Batman' (tm) HotWheels cars that they have made and still make - Batcopter being a present from my hubby a few months ago!..

I collected Hot Wheels too. I had over 400 unique cars. I had a lot of '57 Chevys (my birth year). I sold the entire collection to a kid who was just getting started collecting. He bought 20 - 30 cars each time, but eventually had the whole collection. It was fun to show him variations and explain how they happen, what makes them valuable, etc. His mother and grandmother helped finance his new addiction, and I often threw in a few extra cars with each purchase. He was thrilled and it made me happy to see his excitement.

I went to the storage trailer. I haven't found my skates yet. I did find a box of Lego trains. Only thing was, it was just the top layer that were trains. The rest of the box was my custom Lincoln Logs, made Barbie size. They are made from 2" x 2" lumber. I should finish them so I can build Barbie's log cabin doll house.

The Ford tractor above is 1/8th scale. The dolls are 1/6th scale, the same size as the Barbie dolls. I have a John Deere tractor, wagon, and spreader that are also 1/8th scale. Somebody had watched the Cars movie where tractor tipping was done. Unfortunately, the John Deere was hooked to the wagon or spreader, when the kid decided to do tractor tipping. The hitch on the back of the tractor got broke. I now need to make a new hitch and attach it to the tractor.
The front of the John Deere spreader is also broken. That means a new front end on the spreader, and I'm going to repaint it Ferguson gray and put the Ferguson name on it. Repainting it is not going to affect the value as the front is already broken.
Michelle

I had the wheels off of my 1/8th John Deere tractor. That allowed me to tighten the screws holding the fenders on. While the wheels were off, I drilled out the pin holding another broken part. The upper link for the 3 point hitch was broken. Some time in the future I may replace the upper link, but for now I'll just leave it off. The other part that is broken is called a draw bar, on a car the part is the trailer hitch. I know how I will repair it, and I should have done it before putting the wheels back on.

One misconception is that a male automatically knows everything about cars and trucks and farm machinery. My dad was a mechanic for Green Giant, and would repair their harvesting machines. At home he would rebuild the engines for the farm tractors. I would assist him in repairing the Ferguson tractors, so I learned pretty much everything about the Ferguson tractor. Working on the farm, I also developed welding skills.
Michelle

After the military, I ended up working at a furniture company. The company built chairs, loveseats, sofas, hide-a-beds, and ottomans. I ran the band saw, and cut the curved parts for the furniture, At times I would run the drilling machine and did some furniture assembly. I think I worked there for 13 years. Sometimes I think I should make miniature models of the furniture we made.

At the end, we knew the company was in trouble. Trying to contact the owner went nowhere. The embezzler was part of the chain of command, and had already told the owner the workers were stealing products. It was at a point where the employees health insurance was not paid, and checks were bouncing.
One day we came into work, and everybody walked out before noon. That got the owner's attention.  When we got to work the next day, new checks had been issued and the embezzler was fired. Unfortunately the damage was done, and both companys went bankrupt in just a couple of months. It turned out the company was a tax write off and had not made a profit in years. (His other company overcharging our company for the mattresses in the hide a beds, and then loaning money to our company)
Michelle

At one point after high school I ended up  with a job welding hinges for tip down tail equipment trucks. It was one of those jobs where my dad handed me the application and says fill this out, you start work in the morning. At that time I was skilled enough to do welding jobs with an arc welder (now called a stick welder.) I was also skilled with welding using an oxy-acetylene welder. I will admit that I did not have the skills to weld on a pipeline. Having skills to arc weld, it didn't take much to learn how to use a wire feed welder.
The challenge now is to build a 1/8th scale loader to fit on the 1/8th scale Ford tractor.
I also have on order a 1/8th scale Farmall M, I will fabricate a corn picker for it later. That will require making a cardboard mock up first, then sheet metal.
My uncle had the ford tractor with loader, and the Farmall M and the mounted corn picker.
Michelle

That sounds like fun!

I worked in my stepdad's welding shop during my senior year of high school. I was good with the oxy-acetylene torch, but never got good with the arc welder. My brother was good on the arc but couldn't cut a straight line to save his soul. So I did the cutting, and he did the welding.

I can't wait to see the corn picker you make!

Today is Friday the 13th of September, 2024. I had already spent 2 days this week looking through the storage trailer for my 1/16th farm machinery. I have found another big box of clothes, two boxes of photographs, and a small box of sex toys.
 Today I stopped first at the storage unit. Looking way in the back with a flashlight, under the racking was a wooden box with the 1/16th farm machinery. In the box was one in particular, a Massey Ferguson 65 narrow front with a mounted Tru-Scale corn picker. 1/16th is half the size of 1/8th. I should be able to take measurements from the 1/16th scale corn picker, double the measurements, and then the measurements should be proper for the 1/8th scale corn picker. Another thing is I can look at the 1/16th scale corn picker and see how the picker is mounted to the tractor. I can look at photos of the full scale pickers and decide how much detail I want to put into the build.
Michelle

I have received my 1/8th scale Farmall Super M. And I have also ordered a 1/8th scale John Deere B. The 1/8th scale is a little small for 1/6th scale dolls, But then Barbie vehicles have the same problem. Barbie in her RC Jeep or the 57 Chevy, looks over the top of the windshield.
Anyway, Looking at the pictures of the corn picker, the back of the picker is very different from the 1/16th scale model. Now that I've seen the photos from the internet, I can recall a little more, as it has been decades since I last saw the picker on my uncle's Farmall. I have found two videos where a new idea picker is mounted on a international tractor. they are made by the same person about a year apart, and is very detailed in prepping the tractor, and mounting the sub frame. Then comes the rear part and finally the front part. The video shows how everything is attached, how the hinges work and how it is raised.
My uncle grew seed corn. During the summer, some people would go out into the field and remove the tassels from certain rows of corn. My dad once drove a machine that would pull the tassels out. In the fall my uncle would pick only the rows that had the tassels removed. The wagon would be pulled into the yard where it was unloaded onto a special belt, where someone would sort out the undesirable ears. It would then be loaded into the truck and go to the seed plant.
I once heard that a girl on the detasseling rig lost her bikini top and the boys tried to help her put it back on.
Michelle

My brother and I worked detasseling in Oklahoma one year. I don't remember how much we got paid but we were kids so we thought we were rich!