Arthur Weasley
Series 1
Finished : 29.October.2004
Original Identity : Action figure from the Power Team Elite World Peacekeeper’s collection
JKR’s Specs : balding older man, tallish & thin, wears glasses
Choosing a Weasley : I never knew why I picked up this action figure. I saw him in a store long before I ever considered doing Weasley dolls and was compelled to buy him. The thing is, you rarely see solider figures with kind faces yet here was one. Also, Barbie deals in the “unrealistically beautiful” category so one always ends up going to other figures if they want their 1/6 world a little more rounded out then the boring old generic Mattel Brand. I went back and forth on this figure becoming Arthur only because I had already introduced him as the father of an original doll character of mine (Sophia, if you want to know more about her read the Kelley Ave pages). But there simply was no one else who worked better than him. He HAD to be my Arthur Weasley. So I “re-cast” Sophia’s dad (with another action figure who looked nothing like this one, oh well). I realized I could live with re-casting Sophia’s dad, but not one other doll I had ever seen worked as Arthur.
Making a Weasley : {view before Image}
Making this solider into a balding wizard wasn’t really very difficult. He originally had blond painted hair, including facial hair. Most of which was removed during the transformation. To give his hair definition, I added a layer of molding paste over the remaining hair to create a more defined hair line around the bald spot. I thought about giving him facial hair, but I decided his face was better bare (and the books never mention facial hair that I can remember, so why add it?). I gave him a pair of glasses from the Happy Family Grandfather and his face was done. The last step was to dress him. His Wizard robes (which look a bit Monk-ish in style) were sewn by me. I don’t claim to be a great seamstress, so I know it’s not the most amazing job, but at least he looks like an adult wizard and not an adult Muggle. For some reason I kept seeing Arthur in green robes (which seems odd to me as Green is Slytherin’s colors and Arthur’s a former Gryffindor). Well, the reason I kept seeing him in green robes was clear after I finished I went back and read Arthur’s intro in ‘Chamber of Secrets’:
Mr. Weasley was slumped in a kitchen chair with his glasses off and his eyes closed. He was a thin man, going bald, but the little hair he had was as red as any of his children’s. He was wearing long green robes which were dusty and travel-worn.
I was so glad I went with the green robes then, as I was done when I looked up the quote. Of course, he has a wand (made by me). It was at this point, in fact, that I began making wands for my Weasley Clan. The wands were made by reshaping and painting toothpicks. (A rather simple method of making 1:6 scale wands thought up by a web pal and 1/6 scale ethusiast of mine named Jenn – I’m not taking credit for an idea not originally mine :~) Thanks for that idea Jenn, whatever you’re doing with yourself now. )
My Thoughts on the Result : I was always super pleased with how Arthur turned out, down to his dusty travel worn green robes. I think his face had just enough age to it to work. And he had EXCELLENT articulation as an action figure. The toughest part of most of the project was knowing sometimes the face I wanted may not be on the ideal “body” I wanted as I was determined to get as close to JKR’s book description as possible. Arthur’s body required no upgrade or changes..
