Medical science on the frontier

Miss Hanzo has brought Akilah Nichelle to watch a full-body transplant, to reassure her that it really does go fine.

Miss Hanzo's mind is more on a future with additional Warhol nut benches.

Basically, I got home and decided it was time to rip heads off fashion dolls. Fashionista Artsy is the body donor, as she's a generic shade of tan. After I swore up and down that Rebecca Essenath Chavez was not a keeper, just a temporary project... she's the body recipient.

This process did not go as smoothly as I'd hoped.

Body donor looks vacant. Body recipient looks terrified.

I brought out the blow dryer and proceeded to soften Artsy's head. Now, I'd swear that back when I was a tot, Barbie heads came off fairly easily. There was just a nob, and the head would come off with gentle pulling. Children were even encouraged to swap heads, thanks to Hair Fair Barbie. (While searching for her, I determined that my childhood "rock star in rehab" Barbie was Live Action Barbie. The Skipper with developmental challenges was Living Skipper. The "living" articulation was clearly primitive and unsatisfactory, compared to today's pose-ability.)

Fashionista Artsy's head nob was topped with a sort of plastic fish hook. I'd been warned about this by numerous doll-modding sites, so that wasn't a shocker in itself. But the full impact of "I am trying to get a soft plastic head off a hard plastic fish hook" is not felt until one is prying vainly and, in an effort to get some sort of traction on the damned thing, sticks a seam ripper in the head hole and breaks the seam ripper.

Dammit. It's not like I never need to rip seams, either.

Artsy's head finally came off.

Akilah Nichelle reassures Rebecca that everything will be fine.

When it came time to get Rebecca's head off, it turned out that her neck seam was splitting, with the result that her fish hook came off in her head. It required squeezing, pliers, and a certain amount of walking around muttering to get the fish hook out, and I still don't know where it flew across the kitchen counter or what condition it's in.

I used the Easy Cutter to trim the spiky protruding fish hook edges on Artsy's neck stem, as I had no faith in my ability to wedge them back in a head and was fairly sure the rest of the fish hook would be sufficient to keep Rebecca's head on. She's not going to see rough play.

That's my head... but is it my hand?

Rebecca emerged from the anesthesia with her head firmly attached -- but her hair wrecked by the heat of the blow dryer. She'll need another round of boil-washing. 

Knees and elbows both bend.

Wow, Rebecca! You have knees.

Sitting is now a thing she can do. So, possibly, are jigs.

The club can't even handle me now.

Pleased with the success of the operation, Rebecca and Miss Hanzo exchange high-fives.

With proper medical treatment, anybody can become a Person of Articulation.