Don’t Blink, Ken… Or The Weeping Barbie Will Get You

WeepingBarbies
That which holds the image of an Angel becomes itself an Angel. Have fun with that.

Barbie dolls have been around since 1959, but never before have they been this terrifying. [anthropolywog] decided to kick the creepy factor up a notch by modifying some poor, defenseless Barbie dolls into weeping angels.

If you aren’t familiar with the weeping angel concept, you probably don’t watch Dr. Who. The weeping angel episode, titled “Blink“, is now considered a classic Dr. Who episode. The basic premise is that some creepy, weeping stone statues can move only when no one is looking at them. Even closing your eyes for a moment to blink is enough to get them to move. It’s actually quite terrifying, but also awesome.

[anthropolywog] started by purchasing several ordinary Barbie dolls. She then cut off all of the arms at the elbow. This is because the Barbie arms do not normally bend at the elbow, and this was required to get that classic weeping angel pose. The hair was glued up into a bun, similar to the weeping angels from the show. The Barbies were then hot glued to wooden stands to make it easier to work on them.

Crinkle cotton fabric was then cut into a simple dress shape and draped over the dolls. The entire doll was then sprayed with a mixture of Elmer’s glue and water. This stiffens up the fabric and makes the whole thing look more statuesque.

The most complicated part was the wings. [anthropolywog] hand-made the wings from cardboard and craft feathers. This process took several hours of work in order to get something that would look right.

The dolls were primed for paint separately from the wings. The wings were then attached, and the whole doll was painted with “natural stone” textured spray paint. The final touch was to re-draw the faded eyes and mouths with a fine tipped permanent marker. You can see in the photo that the result turned out very well.

[via Reddit]

43 thoughts on “Don’t Blink, Ken… Or The Weeping Barbie Will Get You

  1. Did I miss the hack here? I thought that this was an animatronic doll that would move when you are not looking at it, but I don’t see any electronics in this.

    1. I agree with TacticalNinja. At first glance before reading the article I thought there would be some electronic related component to this. Don’t get me wrong, making the Weeping Angles is really cool. I just think that it’s not quite the material for the front page without anything electronics.

      1. There’s no denying that definition of hacking. This is cool as it is, but would’ve been exceptionally cooler if it was moving. I hope they make a life-sized one that is moving, and have it setup somewhere dark.

  2. wait a minute

    so this hack is he cut the arms off of a barbie and spray painted them grey?

    no actuator or anything? the dolls don’t actually move or do anything? why is this on this site?

  3. Modifying and re-purposing. Yep, it’s a hack. Just one that’s in a different category than we are used to seeing on this site.

    Very nicely done, keep up the good work, [anthropolywog].

    1. HEY! I think you’re onto something there, BEHOLD! THE NEW CATEGORY OF HACKING! THE HACKCRAFT! OK, now everyone add it to your dictionary. Definition, Hacking something for the SOLE purpose of being esthetic and artistic.

  4. What would be really cool if someone could make an embedded gif/video that could access a webcam or front cam on a phone and use open cctv to track eyes. I think you all know where I’m going with this. Would be Scarry as heck.

  5. Quote: “Did I miss the hack here? I thought that this was an animatronic doll that would move when you are not looking at it, but I don’t see any electronics in this.”

    Hey, even nerds can have their artistic moments. This is art man. It doesn’t have to move. Just being there makes it marvelous.

    My congratulations to anthropolywog. Her weeping Barbie/angel looks beautiful.

  6. When did Hackaday get bought buy Instructables?
    What. You guys are accepting arts & crafts now?

    Don’t disillusion us guys. This is about the ONLY site left on the net that’s supposed to be dedicated to hacks ONLY!

    1. And I’m not denying that it might be cool looking but it does not belong on Hackaday.
      This is art & crafts it is not a hack. It belongs on a site like Instructables.

  7. so… hackaday now features arts and crafts? or is it only when it’s got “street credit” with the hipster nerd crowd (you know, the ones that think they’re nerds because they watch one of the most popular television series ever)?

  8. While there is a fine line, this isn’t a hack. It’s arts & crafts. A great deal of hacking is repurposing things, but just being repurposed doesn’t make it a hack.

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