I recently introduced my young children to the original He-Man and She-Ra cartoons over this summer, thanks to the network Qubo. The 3 younger kids really enjoyed the show but the youngest became instantly hooked on it. His fascination with Orko and his efforts to do the right thing but failing any way became his identifier this summer. In a swap for previous work I obtained several vintage MOTU figures and even a nearly complete Castle Grayskull. Finally the kids understood what was cool about the castle and the figures. In a discussion with my 10 year old daughter who asked if we could get her a She-Ra figure, I explained we already had one in that big ol' box and she looked shocked. I showed her and then she asked if Swiftwind had been made. I explained he had but that the way she was made didn't allow her to fit on him correctly. Disappointed, she decided she only slightly wanted the horse then. I explained that a newer version had been made that could in fact sit on the horse AND had better articulation. This drew the attention of the 7 yr old who immediately needed to hear more about these improved figures.

And that was how the obsession got started. For his birthday in August, the number 1 and 2 things my then 6 yr old wanted more than anything in the world were an Orko action figure and a Cringer action figure. Well, thanks to Big Lots, we made the first dream a reality. We found him an original Battlecat, near mint complete for only $10.00 and scooped it up, too. He was thrilled...until he realized his He-Man was just too big to ride Battlecat correctly. No problem, though, we'd just have to suck it up and find him the right one eventually. Well I found out Hulu had all of the He-Man and She-Ra episodes available for watching via XBL so we spent the last 2 months watching the entire original He-Man series. Aeden found his first cartoon crush: Dree Elle. When she kissed Orko you'd have thought she kissed him! He turned to me and asked "Do they make her?" I said no, not yet. He said "Well, we could make her, though, right?" And that's what I did.

I bought an extra Orko from Big Lots, and removed his hat. I sanded down the entire head, leaving a blank sphere with a neck hole. I sculpted the entire head except for the ears which were transplanted from the hat back to this fully sculpted head. As this was intended for my child to play with, I couldn't simply give him a sculpted and slightly fragile custom. So I molded and cast the head and made him a fully playable Dree Elle fit for a little boy to increase his collection. Some folks requested castings of the head so I supplied a few until the mold simply wasn't producing them so well any more. This left me with a finished Dree Elle custom NOT for my son. So here she is: