A new arrival: Dream Valley Peanut

Listen, I was going to be good. I told myself I didn't need any more dolls. I had plenty of plans for Astrid alone to keep me busy for a long time to come. I certainly didn't need to spend any more money. But... well...

I was window shopping on Alice's Collections, and I kind of fell in love. And he was in stock, and on sale, and I had some extra money left over from the holidays, so... after several days of thinking about it, I placed an order for the creature.

In his natural habitat: my extremely cluttered desk.

I mean, can you blame me? Look at him! That big ol' eye, those little rat-like paws, the tail almost twice as long as his entire body, those things on his head that could just as easily be ears or horns... he's such a weird, funny-looking little guy. I'm obsessed with him.

"The creature" is better known as Peanut from Dream Valley. From what I can tell, he had a limited release in 2018 for the company's one-year anniversary, and another run for their 2020 Halloween event. I suspect mine was leftover stock that no one purchased at the time.

I was a little surprised to see that he came with the same slit-pupil eye as in his promotional pictures, half-expecting a random one like the set that came with Astrid, but for a cyclopean doll with a limited run, I guess it makes sense to just make as many eyes as you're making dolls.

That huge eye, by the way, was a bit of a pain to get into Peanut's tiny little head. It took me a lot of tries and a lot of fiddling before I finally got it to co-operate. There's no room for a brain in there at all.

It looks good once it's in, though. 

Peanut's posing ability is a bit limited compared to other highly articulated animal and pet BJDs I've seen out there, but I could tell that just from looking at the promotional photos online, and he can still strike some wonderfully expressive poses.

The inside of his head is actually really interesting - his faceplate is held on by one round magnet that goes all the way around the inside of his face, rather than just one on either side. Since the back of his head has pretty basic movement, it lets his faceplate spin around for more versatile poses. Neat stuff!

You can kind of see why I had so much trouble with his eye here.

I debated with myself how much I wanted to paint the little guy, and whether I wanted to give him "fur" of any kind. There are definitely details I want to add to his face, but with the resin my Peanut was cast in he makes me think of a hairless cat or a naked mole rat, and I kind of love it. When the weather is better I'll probably do some blushing on his body and leave it at that. 

Actually, looking at him now, he reminds me a bit of the Rat Creatures from Bone.  

Stupid, stupid rat creatures.

All in all, I'm really pleased with him. If anything, I'm even more enchanted by the little critter in person. At his size he makes a believably in-scale companion for Astrid, which is great. He's also just a really fun buddy to have with me at my desk. I'm sure I'll be posting more of him.

(This little guy actually arrived early in February, though I'm only getting around to writing about him here now. I could say I've been "busy," but the more accurate excuse is that my friends got me really into House Flipper 2 and I've been playing way too much of that. Whoops.)