Azure Mischief

Nota bene: unless otherwise stated, all photos in this post are courtesy of Julia Romanova (altaimishka on IG \ altmishka22 on VK) and posted with her permission. The watermark on the photos is of her workshop.

 Part 1: The Creation

It started two months later after I actually discovered DHMIS and liked it enough to want to adopt Red Guy – on December 4th, 2021.

Long story short: I really, really felt for Reddo. He deserved better after everything he’d been through. Like being hugged, held and scratched all over that mane and fuzzy body. Having a little cousin (of his favorite color, no less) to play “plane goes wrrroooom” with, carry in his arms and being just as awesome protector and big brother as he’d been to Duck Guy and Yellow Guy.
I love mop cubs. Really wonder how it must feel to hold one in your hand. That’s what inspired me to fanon Red as having a little brother who’d look up to him and learn how to protect their home town from nightmares and fears.

An accidental recommend IG post led me to a profile of an amazing toymaker and toy doctor – my namesake, Julia Romanova, who lived in Barnaul. Love and care about her patients and creations were radiating from every post. So yes, I messaged her about a 30-ish cm tall Red (turned out 33), 9-ish cm tall Little Blue (turned out 10) and their price right away, with sketch refs attached (and their faces under the manes were purely my fanon, loosely based on others’ wild guesses): 

…I did not even expect her to fall in love with them right away, let alone give Red a lovely nickname “Moppykins”. She was kind enough to add checkered scarves for each to the order. And started working on the cousins in February 2022.

Both cousins were supposed to be poseable with a slight difference. For Red, the maker used a flexible plastic module skeleton for body and limbs, and disc joints for attaching legs and arms, which meant he could bend them and his neck just fine, but couldn’t stand by himself once ready. The head with eye sockets was made of polymer clay, with fabric glued over it later.

In general, he turned out just like his webseries self: soft, calm and lazy like a well-fed cat. During most of the session, he preferred just laying around, “bathing” his little cousin in his rich mane, and letting Bluey rest on his soft belly.

“Come on cuz, get up, let’s play a little!”

Being a brother is about always having your brother’s back. ^_^

More scarves and cuz cuddles:

Session’s over; it’s time to go. Why not take a minute to sit down and say goodbye to the workshop before hitting the road:

Part 3. Enter Chibi Moppies!

If it hadn’t been for incredibly cute fanarts and chibi Red plushies of my Twitter acquaintance YagiYagi, the Chibi Moppies would never have appeared. Besides, the maker still had those hand-painted glass dome eyes laying around, so I convinced her to put both the eyes and the fabric scraps to some more good use. And so were born Chibi Red and Blue. ^_^
My sketch for the maker:

Eyes were supposed to have a thick fabric base (ended up the base being polyclay); paws (arms) to have thread joint at the shoulders; fangs ended up being also polyclay, like on their original selves. I wanted Red to be 8 cm tall, and Bluey 4 cm. Pelt, of course, wouldn't be as baggy due to tiny size.

In a while the maker sent a photo of a test neoprene paw for Blue:

And a couple more days later…

Blue’s head was so teeny tiny that the maker had to set his eyes a little more apart so they would look more natural. Don’t know, for Red eyes being close look pretty good and fit the chibi style, but okay.

Behold the tiiiiiny fangs ^_^ :

Part 4: Word from the maker. Mop Care and Mane-tenance

Before mailing Red and Little Blue to me, the maker recorded a couple short videos on how to handle them. I’m sharing them here for anyone who also would love themselves a living fluffy mop. 😌

Behold also a brief view of her workshop, a few of earlier creation in the background, and a cameo of my large vintage Applause Elmo (who was next in her queue and, besides cleaning and other treatment, got a fully posable skeleton and separate fingers on his hands).

Styling the mane

Better done with an awl or a thick needle to keep the yarn structure. For me, a thin paintbrush with a lacquered handle will do.

Cleaning the pelt

A lint roller and / or a wet wipe should do fine. Moppies aren’t your average toys and can’t be machine washed, or soaked too much. But if, for whatever reason, their pelt needs a better cleaning, a combo of wet wipe and foam from a soft cleaning detergent should do.

Red’s skeleton flexibility test on arms, legs and neck:

Bluey’s skeleton flexibility test on arms and legs:

Congrats, you made it to the end! 🫶 Head to the #DHMIS tag for even more moppy stuff!

Summary:
"And where did YOU come from, Zeliboba?" the children from the Playground once asked.
And I wonder just as much where, was it another dimension, galaxy, or some other unexplored space, where your soul had been resting before it was summoned to our world.

Characters: Zeliboba the Dvorovoi and me ^_^

Side note: Like most of my fics about and for Zeliboba, this one is part my dialogue with him (parts written in italic), part my own thoughts about him (parts written in plain font).
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Author’s note: This 2017-2020 collection of small cozy (Gemütlich is a German word for just that) drabbles and arts about none other but Herr Drosselmeyer himself and his beloved Frau Martha. Martha is in no way my own OC. She’s from a steampunk adaptation of Hoffmann’s tale, created by a Russian theater (“S.A.D. Theater”, to be precise), but blends into the story so well that I no longer can imagine the old Godpapa unmarried. :) The actors who play Drosselmeyer and Martha do not mind about her being used in fanfics at all, and even liked my stuff - EVEN this cycle’s Russian version.

Moment 1. Uhrmacher Knurrmacher

Sep 10th, 2016 (illustration drawn in 2017)

It's their fourth Christmas together; for the fourth time, they are invited to the Stahlbaums, and here they are, Carl Stahlbaum himself greeting them in his mansion. Once more, a "Drossel, old boy!" and a hearty pat on the back – for her husband; and a "Martl, dear", followed by a small peck on her hand, – for her.
Once more, a Christmas feast – the one Mr. Stahlbaum had always been known around the town for – accompanied by a long talk, a few gentle "just one more bit, for me, Christian…" Martha manages to slip in as it lasts, and just as many slight nods and radiant smiles from Christian, meaning if this makes you happy.

Moment 2. Almondous Pair

July 6th, 2017

It was hard to believe. Had Drosselmeyer been a regular human, it would seem absolutely foreign and strange to him. But with his current, magic-enhanced, semi-toy body, it seemed only natural that it had just fit in about a couple jugs of almond milk, and that Martha, admiring him with utmost delight and love, strokes soothing circles on his middle – which, by now, was nearly resting on his lap, almost like his cousin's, the velvet waistcoat stretched over it.

She'd been admiring him like that since the moment he knelt by the Lake of Almond Milk and tasted the first handful of it. She handed him a wafer lily flower that would serve as a cup and would be more comfortable to drink from. She didn't say a word after the flower melted in his mouth after all the milk, – only planted a kiss just under his sternum, at the very beginning of the soft, velvet-clad curve.

Moment 3. Pearl / Alchemy

"...you are becoming more beautiful than the world,
and I become a dragon."
– Ivan Davydov, "The Other Tales" / "He tells Her"

May 28th, 2020

It was even better that both the Lake of Almond Milk and they themselves were mercifully hidden by the fog.

For some reason, Martha's own fingers felt cold – just enough for her to touch her husband's hands, long used to cold, and his face, but not under his shirt; how could she even think of touching the living warmth with hands that cold. Touching that fire magic, separated from the outside world by only a thin layer of flesh. How could she disturb it – not having warmed them with her breath first.

A colorful page of the book of Chinese legends floated up in Martha’s memory — she read it when she was ten years old, and this particular legend was especially memorable to her: a scarlet and gold dragon guarding a large pearl. Of the same pinkish color.

Moment 4. Through the living mirror

October 29th, 2020

* No illustration for this one yet.
Martha's love for her husband goes deep. So deep that not even he can resist.
Drosselmeyer's heart sounds like this.

“So many times I've already seen you... from the outside,” Martha whispers. “Maybe if I in fact were made of marzipan and if you ate me, I’d so be living inside you."

Drosselmeyer's face feels unbearably hot – as if it wasn’t him who had just shrunk his wife to the size of a marzipan figurine. At her own request, temporarily, for sheer fun of them both – just so he would hold her close to his heart as he was resting by the window. He didn't even expect her to wish for something like... this. After all, a figurine made of almond paste is one thing, but Martha – half a doll herself, yet living, with a body of soft silk cloth, skin like light wax, and a love for him much bigger than she is – is a different one.

“Martchen, I…”
(how will you breathe – won’t you melt?! – the fiery magic – I don't even know what I’m like in there – aren't you afraid?! – what if my heart deafens you – what if-)

“...I don't know how you'll like it. I...” He stumbles. “...I'm not a mechanism. I don't know... how do I even work now. I don't want to... hurt you”.

"Don't be afraid,” Martha winks. “Just remember…”

She lightly, even more gently than being her usual size, touches him right under the arch of his ribs – watching as her beloved husband begins to glow in response. Magic; a warm wave through his body, and the wave of anxiety ebbing away. Back then, in the place where he was given this magic to drink after his transformation, Drosselmeyer realized – the liquid fire caused no harm to its host. It could turn food into life, to help life flow through him – but never dissolve a living creature.

“Here I go, Willow,” Martha finally calls him. “I am ready. Wait a moment – lift me up…”

Summary:
A short drabble about Zeli and me - kind of messy and pretty tangled one, because ran purely on love to him and the amount of pure serotonin that an image of his belly suddenly being part sentient gave me. But if you get it, you get it.
Feel free to skip if you aren’t into belly noises. If you are? Welcome~

Characters: Zeliboba the Dvorovoi and me ^_^
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In August 2018 I’ve managed to contact none other but a puppeteer, a voice actor and an advertiser Stanislav “Stas” Klimushkin himself. As well as got to know his point of view and the story of how “Ulitsa Sezam”’s most known character, Zeliboba the Dvorovoi (spirit of the playground), had been brought to life. Although Stas works only as a voice actor and an advertiser at the moment, he shared a lot of warm memories from his days in the Russian “Sesame”.

Julia K., yours truly: In your CV on the voice actors portal you mentioned that you got a part in Russian “Sesame Street" thanks to an accidental casting. How many more people were on the casting besides you? What exactly got you interested in the opportunity to cooperate with “Sesame”?

Stanislav Klimushkin: In 1993, having graduated from the Gnessinka (Gnessin State Musical College - J. K.), I, along with other students, was taken to MOGTYZ – Moscow regional theatre of the young spectator. Three years later, having played their whole repertoire, I started to feel that I was reaching my professional “ceiling”… Until one day, when one of the actors rushed in our dressing room, shouting, “Guys, there are Americans casting actors for a new TV project!” So I thought, that could be it.