[TOY] Dr. Mixup's Laboratory

[skinstealer]

they say that in the depths of a gay toy apartment, there exists a small dragon, made of socks and full of...something....or other. his name is Dr. Mixup, and legend has it he and his twisted assistants are capable of bestowing incredible changes upon those who truly need them...


.... as long as they're okay with going under the knife.


A HOMEBREW DEVIANTS HOLIDAY SPECIAL

DR. MIXUP'S LABORATORY

BY MORTIS VELASQUEZ
ft. COMORANT and KNUX400


CONTENT WARNINGS
while mixup's laboratory is meant to be a fairly lighthearted affair, it delves hard into toy destruction (and somewhat slapstick descriptions of toy gore/surgery to match), discussion of toy origins and extrapolating that into character studies, and existentialism. also, knux's plush is based on a beastieball design (radillo) so if you do not want to be spoiled via a plush that does not hit the actual design of the beastie enough to be a true spoiler, keep that in mind. there may also be eyestrain-heavy images, and image descriptions will come later on, when i am less exhausted. enjoy!





ohhhh hello. it's halloween, isn't it? yes, i think so- i would know, because it's my special discount week, and the patients are lining up.

what's my business? i grant wishes. toys of all kinds come to me to have their dreams made true...even if they don't fully know what they want.  i'm good at figuring that out. haha.

yes, my methods of achieving this are often called extreme. those with faint hearts should look away from my dark machinations- but for those interested in a truly transformative experience, one where toys become their true selves...and get a history lesson in the process- you may want to take a seat and get comfortable. you're on my wild ride now.




my first patients of the week? why, Wally the Walrus and Carl Ripken Jr., of course. They came to me as a pair, having only been friends for a short while...but knowing that the two of them may be able to work together to fulfill their dream- with my help, of course.

you know i cant release all of the patients' information...but i like to do a little interviewing here and there. you'd be surprised at how much people are willing to share in the name of furthering SCIENCE. let me take you on a little journey.




carl ripken jr... well, i suppose that's a name familiar to some out there, maybe. he's a baseball player, a human one too. non-toy! what's this beanie baby doing walking around with a human name? well, you see, my fair reader, this man is not a beanie baby. he is a Salvino's Bamm Beano's plush, specifically the Carl Ripken Jr. plush from 1998.

from what i can tell, these are a MLB-related knockoff brand from the peak of beanie baby hype- and boy, did they sell, if the tripod site i found is to be believed. supposedly, this plush retailed for a whopping 25 dollars back then, and sold out near-instantly. that's almost 50 USD in today's economy! don't you love inflation?!




he looks near-identical to a beanie baby aside from his face, and a feature i'll note later. honestly, the longer snout makes him quite distinct! his tag doesn't feature a poem, instead featuring a fact about the real-world player. such a thing really has to give a guy a complex...and well, as you'll see, it did.

when he came to me, his tag was still encased in its plastic collector's protector, and utterly immaculate, not a scratch or stain to him. oh yes, dear reader, he was a shelf bear. no doubt about it. many of the toys that come to me truly cannot remember their lives before arriving at the gay toy apartment, but the two of us can only assume he belonged to a baseball superfan in the 90's, and arrived at the thrift store he was shipped out from due to either being a hand-me-down or possession found and donated. sad, but very likely.




as for wally the walrus- wow, it gave me some trouble to look this guy up. his tag says that he is a "charter club" plush, along with his name- and charter club wasn't turning up anything on wikipedia. with a little bit of sleuthing, i was able to find out that Charter Club is a brand associated with the Macy's department store- so once again, we find ourselves with a (shockingly authentic looking and feeling) beanie baby knockoff, likely from the height of the craze. don't believe me? look up the Paul the Walrus beanie baby. it's incredibly close, enough that i'm startled macy's didn't get sued. perhaps they were a bigger behemoth than TY, back in the day...

either way, i wasn't able to find an original price- and the singular one on ebay was listed for a whopping 25 USD at some point. granted, i don't think it ever actually sold...perhaps we will never truly know the fate of all of the Wally the Walruses out there. either way, old, the 90's likely for a production year, and similar to ripken- pretty dang good condition. no hang tag, but a collector is equally likely, if not someone who just took damn good care of their stuff.




now we get to their requests. our meeting was brief, but we talked shop about their truest desires...and if you couldn't guess, both of them had some capital-F Feelings about being knockoffs meant to cash in on the biggest toy craze of the decade. we get a lot of people in the same boat in my business, though these two had much more specific issues than you'd expect.

wally here was made to be a fascimile of a mainline brand, produced by a juggernaut of a department store and nearly exactly-replicating an existing pattern. while knock-offs are a storied tradition i still need to look more into to fully, entirely grasp the depth of...there's a sense of "i can do whatever i want with this, because i'm Macy's, and there's nothing you can do to stop me." for fuck's sake, these people run the stupid thanksgiving parade no one shuts up about. they've got their fingers in a lot of pies. while i'm pretty sure they've gone downhill in a lot of peoples' eyes...from a cursory glance, in the 90's? oh, yeah, no, i don't even know if TY, with all their punching weight, could have done anything. which...with our dear patient here today...leads him to wonder what more he truly could be than a power stance, a threat display to the fad to end all fads- that didn't even work in the end.

ripken was also equally a cash-in design, but in a whole other twisted way. celebrity and entertainment tie-in toys are nothing new- and boy, what a way to get an identity complex- but they're especially painful when they ride trends for the sole sake of "well, someone will pay us for this, right?"

if i remember anything about growing up in the 90's/2000's in this department, it was that there were a lot of people who were obsessed with baseball, and even from my limited, sheltered perspective- i had an elderly family friend who was fuuuucking obsessed with both that AND beanie babies. i wouldn't be surprised if that venn diagram was a lot more overlapping than you'd think. just think- those MLB fanatics were already all over baseball cards! what's to stop them from going ham over baseball bears? according to the tripod site i found...nothing at all. bamm beano's were crazy, even if you've likely never heard of them today. to say that ripken (bear edition) has an identity crisis, well, that'd be an understatement.

even with their exact wishes unknown...the two of them struck a bond over not having identities to call their own, thrust into a world without guidance, and further sheltered by existing on shelves for likely nearly three decades. whatever i could do, they wanted to be a new, distinct person... no matter what that entailed.

i asked if they had ANY further requests beyond that, and they stated that they wanted their minds to be together but separate- though they had long since deliberated and decided that ripken should bear their majority of the speaking power. an interesting choice- usually people go for all or nothing, especially when they haven't known each other for a long time. i get the feeling that wally wants to take a backseat...and ripken has ambitions. suppose it makes sense, in a way!




ripken was the first one under the knife. i decided that everything from his waist upwards would be preserved, allowing for a centaur...mermaid...thing-like body plan. ohhh, i've been wanting to do something like this for so long. seeing as both of them wanted to be prominent in their final form, using most of both bodies felt apt- and they were perfectly sized and structured for the job. his tag was removed, his seams were ripped, the works.




wally was next- a proper chunky bastard (his own words!) with a wrinkly body and surprisingly nice fabric. certainly the standard for beanbag plush at the time- but still, rather quality stuff, and such a fetching red color. TY never made any fantasy-colored walruses to my knowledge, and he is a lovely ketchup color. the vast majority of his body was to be preserved, with only his face removed- and his tusks kept. we couldn't deliberate on whether they'd be ideal tusks or horns for the final form...but they trusted me to make the right move.




extra materials were decided on as well...not every case requires this, but they're free with my halloween discount- or they would be, if i even charged money at all. isn't that great? in these two's case, we picked out fuzzy sock material that would be ideal for easing the transition between body sections, some orange ribbon meant to bring a sort of halloween-meets-nautical feeling to it all, and green embroidery floss that i would inevitably replace with orange. my vision was to stitch both parties together with a fuzzy torso blender, using the extra section to help make their new body more structurally sound, and give them that truly unique identity they both so craved. as mentioned, the ribbon was for thematics- and the embroidery floss was on hand in case a face felt right.

gutting the two of them was fairly straightforward, the seams ripping easily enough- but not too easily. it's clear that whoever made these did care about materials and construction, at least enough to make their manufacturing quality comparable to the OG beanie babies. interestingly enough, ripken's front panel included the inner legs, as well, with some gussets to provide shape- i haven't actually operated on an original beanie baby to know how legit this construction is in comparison, but my dear friend Scapula was made with a knockoff pattern that had the legs entirely separate. curious stuff! either way, ripken's polyester pellets were entirely loose, and boy, i'm glad i had a bag to capture all the guts. not a whole lot of stuffing in there, so that stuff went eeeeeverywhere.

wally on the other hand didn't need a whole lot of work. i considered leaving his body stuffed, but ended up gutting him regardless. into the bag with your organs, sir. more stuffing ratio than ripken, but still- lots of pellets spilling everywhere. while his seams ripped make him look rather...suspicious, i ended up just cutting off his whiskery face instead of bothering to rip it, because boy, under that kind of dense faux fur, good luck finding the seams easy. it was all going to be torso anyway.

the construction of the new body...well, it wasn't too bad. from conducting the initial interview to finishing the entire procedure, it was about 3 hours, give or take. longer than my other clients- but this case was going to be a large body, and the actual stitchwork was easy peasy. open and shut!

and, wow....the results!




presenting Shipwreck, a SPORTS TAUR after my own heart. just look at them! the two of them make for a lovingly bonded whole...they fit so well together, don't you think?

the extra segment allows for a lovely color transition, and also allowed me to make a perfect S-curve to their body- waaaay more stable structurally, and what a killer posture! the ribbon made for a nice "netting" vibe as planned...and the embroidery floss was properly utilized to make a happy smile, something that delighted the two of them to wake up to. ripken's back embroidery was maintained at his request- for reasons he said he'd rather keep to himself. i'm not one to pry!




all in all- what a START to my halloween event! i'll likely need some additional help for the next jobs...please feel free to leave any comments or questions about history, my process, the works.


you never know what else will come up, in a spooky season like this... :)

[knux400]

What's your background in the medical field? What made you decide to perform operations specifically on toys in need? How do you keep your facility funded if you don't charge your patients?


...And not to be rude, but you do have a medical license, right?

[Lilium Mortem]

Dr. Mixup, what's life like in THE GAY TOY APARTMENT? Got any hobbies? Horse racing perhaps? What about your love life?

[ThreadLurkingComorant]

Dr.. Mixup, who's on your mixttape?

[skinstealer]

ahhh yes....halloween. what a day i had! i got such an exciting request... this one will be one to remember!

oh, this guy? they're my assistant. trust me, they're needed for this one.

...the gore? well, you know- cleanup's a whole affair. not like there's bacteria for toys!



today's patient is a nameless little cat plush- nameless and brandless, no tag to be found. no matter how many searches we did, we just could not find its source...though, i have my suspicions. a small and low detail plush like this without a tag smacks of a cheaper plush being sold in an assortment- the kitten-like design being indicative of it maybe being in a "family set", either a la kitten surprise or a pet store collection. never sold alone, always in a group...



and, well, this was of course the crux of its issue. it had no name, no story, no nothing- only to be donated in the end, and separated from any family it once had...and can no longer remember. and to boot- it's small and defenseless looking, some would even say childish! it wants a life beyond that, to move on and seek a new adventure...to embrace its new status as a lone wolf, so to speak. it craved a journey. to draw eyes whenever it entered a room- to be unmistakable. i can't help but obsess over such prospects...to take on a case like this, it's why i do what i do.



enter the donors. in the gay toy apartment there are a VAST number of toys that seek to donate themselves to the cause of helping my patients find a new life- often allowing their own consciousness to be transferred into new bodies when the time is right. none of these four sought a life with our nameless patient, but were ready and raring to go on helping out. let's go into their details, shall we?

from left to right...

first off we have Puffer the Puffin- a TY Beanie Baby from 1997. this one is likely recognizable to the beanie baby fans in the audience- she's a classic. Puffer here is a fairly standard beanie secondhand price-wise, and falls firmly in the 5 to 10 USD range. beanies may have a high status among toys, but the classic ones are generally very cheap, due to just how mass-produced they were. here's puffer's poem, for posterity:

What in the world does a puffin do?  
We’re sure that you would like to know too  
We asked Puffer how she spends her days  
Before she answered, she flew away!

next up is Stinger the Scorpion- another beanie, this time from 1997 as well. this one may be less "marketable", but i've known plenty of people to clamor for this guy. how could you not? with the flat construction making his weight feel so much more notable and stimmy to play with, along with the fact that he's such a niche little animal when it comes to representation in the plush scene....you can't beat it. 2 to 10 USD on ebay, just about what you'd expect.

his poem!

Stinger the scorpion will run and dart
But this little fellow is really all heart
So if you see him don’t run away
Say hello and ask him to play!

so many shy ones today! well, in poem form- we all know how things can vary, don't we?

our third donor comes with no name, but has been a friend to the gay toy apartment for a long time.... history-wise, this is one of our older residents, and has traveled with the group for over 20 years. he is a GMA Access Floppy Friends Tiger, priced at 15 USD on eBay, and usually comes in a pair- hugging with their long, long arms. i've actually never heard of GMA access before now, but wow, they sold some incredible looking toys! this guy's from 2002, and what a lovely style there is to him!

this specific tiger was one of three pairs purchased by a certain mother figure for valentine's day...all of the others long since gone to various other homes. no, this man rides alone, and seeks a new life away from the pressures of a partner set. perhaps this is what drew him towards helping our little feline friend...

our last one is a sight those frequenting carnival games might recognize, Brody the Sea Turtle, from our good ol' friend Fiesta. fiesta primarily produces cheaper plush for arcades, carnivals, etc- the kind of stuff that businesses can buy in bulk and find ways to make people pay enough to profit for them. they're about the Experience of getting one moreso than the quality, some would say. our brody here seems to have ended up in the thrift store...but no trouble to him, really. he's pretty excited! you can find brodys of this size (there are a whole lot, in varying levels of detail!) for less than 10 USD, and the best date i could find is 2015- though frankly, i'm not sure how accurate that is.

what a lineup! onto the event!



my assistant and i disassembled the donors to their necessary levels, working with all five participants to determine the plan of action. everyone was very cooperative, with basically no issues during seam ripping. the only trouble really given was some light tearing of brody's fabric- well, he is Fiesta brand!- and a more intensive job with our GMA friend taking a good bit longer. even so- easy.

into the body pile with the remainders. don't worry- they'll be given plenty of refreshments and nice music.



our full lineup of parts for our darling cat is simple. we don't actually need a lot of editing to the cat itself- this will be a fairly noninvasive procedure to its body. the only actual removal needed will be its ears and tail, with the rest being completely additive. we won't even need to unstuff it! the parts selected are as follows:

the shell and flippers from brody for an interesting back piece...with wings!
two pieces of flat fabric from the GMA tiger for ear construction
the tail from stinger
and the beak from puffer!

easy peasy! the goal: a chimera! that'll DEFINITELY turn heads!



as for bonus materials...well, we actually didn't end up using any of the extra fabric here- we had plenty going on. but, the notions- oh, those we used. two kinds of green ribbon for vines, red embroidery floss for accents, and oh-so-beautiful plastic gems, hot glued onto the shell. chef kiss. we were going for a sort of ethereal elegance, something you'd see in between the trees and chase for more.

did we pull it off...?



YES! yes we did! our end result is a new identity for Brushfire, an incredible fairy chimera who frankly, would turn any head! look at it! look at it so! it's completely transformed! we've done a perfect job of it, i'd say! the detail work- how can you even stand it? we added embroidery around the eyes to add a distinctly bird-like look, as well as floppy ears, extra embroidery on the shell- and oough, the gems. you cannot understate the gems. and wavy vines that trail behind it as it walks? mwah! mwah! chef kiss!



brushfire was very pleased with its new form, pacing around and feeling the sheer POWER of its body. yes, to become a monster- there would be no finer fate. it felt so powerful, so beautiful....and i must agree. we shared our excitement-



-and off it went, surely ready to explore the Gay Toy Apartment and have those adventures it so craved. incredible stuff, and another case closed.


...and, ah, yes! the bonus questions. i have not forgotten.




>what's your background in the medical field? what made you choose this?

i was sewn less than a month ago during a mental breakdown and sought peace and fulfillment through solving the wishes of other toys. sure, there's a lot of gore involved- but look at those happy faces! while some may be squicked by my methods, the results don't lie.

>do you have a medical license? where does your funding come from?

ha! who needs a license to use a seam ripper? get real. funding comes from...places. this isn't a free operation to run, but the love of it all keeps me going. perhaps i'll find a way to open donations...

>what's it like in the gay toy apartment?

as mentioned, i'm new here. but- i can't complain. it's such a busy life, but i am truly thriving. there's this sense of love here...freedom as well. while i was created out of urgency and fear, i take my role here as a helper to the apartment's structure very seriously.

>do you have hobbies? horse racing, perhaps?

oh, please. i'm not all work and no play.

...spooky that you guessed horse racing, though. i am definitely one for the quibble bets, though...



one of our regular companions is quite the cheater. psychological warfare, even.



aside from that, i'm somewhat of a card collector. well- budding, anyhow. you'd be surprised at how much good stuff there is in these trick or trade packs. i'm a particular fan of lampent...

>what's your love life like?

nosy! nosy question! don't you know i'm busy gutting toys in the sake of personal fulfillment?

>who's on your mixtape?

what makes you think i'm making mixtapes?! this is a lot of assumptions!

....


........generator by justice is one i'd definitely include in some kind of mix. hyperdrama is so damn good.


as always- question and comment away!

[Lilium Mortem]

what do you consider your biggest mixtake? can you do a sick flip? favorite food?

[skinstealer]

a bonus update? you bet...we got some surprise new residents to the gay toy apartment, and my camera guy is telling me that my little forum thread is making some waves. i asked the new guys and yeah, they'd like to be introduced! so we're doing that now!

first off though, questions...

what do you consider your biggest mixtake? can you do a sick flip? favorite food?

>what do you consider your biggest mistake?

i came into existence less than a month ago buddy but i think if i had to guess, it'd be crawling into the sewing box after the first surgery documented here and making my assistants scramble all over the apartment looking for me. the allure of the sock pile was too much to bear...but it did cause issues later. let this be a lesson! of some sort!

>can you do a sick flip

if i try real hard! probably!

>favorite food?

kit kats. i have eaten like 3 things and this is my favorite so far by a long shot.


i also have some developments to post about, but we'll save that for later. let's get to the new guys.



aaaalrighty! this is a batch of new friends sent in from @king-clod, as part of a beautiful, effervescent, Bear Package! you see, it's like a care package- but full of bears. you may say, mixup, there are two bears here, but let me assure you that there are so many other bear goodies in the package that i will have to photograph another day because my knees hurt and the best photo area is on the floor. thank you so much to kc for such a wonderful package of little guys. we have yet to research all of them, and not all have revealed their names- but i'll share what i can.

from left to right!

first up is Parmesan, a Bear Ghost Diner blindbox plush. you can get the brand these guys are from on kikagoods and other storefronts, but i believe KC bought it pre-opened, at least to know what's inside. more than fine by me! he is technically a keychain, but i think he'll be just fine roaming around and rattling his chain completely bag or belt free. he has a "Caution: HOT" patch on his belly and even has a fork- ready for action, and by action, i do mean dinner. he is labeled as a "devil kitty", and we are happy to have him. very nice fur, and the embroidery is just right. he's even got toe beans!

second up is the blue bunny up front- no name yet, or even pronouns- perhaps because they're not my toy to speak for...yes, this one isn't in my territory to speak of at all...perhaps their soul lies with another...rabbit-like person (it belongs to como). in any case, this is a modified, clayface plush! i'm not sure what the source plush is, but the blue of this guy is so incredibly striking, and works so well with the colors of the clay. don't miss the side of its ear, either- this guy's got piercings! it looks so concerned...we'll see how it's fitting in.

right behind the bunny is a partially obscured Parker, who already seems to have a bizarre energy around it...i suspect some form of haunting or possession- with a strawberry scent to it no less. much to think about. it's shy, in any case- hiding most of its body and the fact that it is a modified, clay face Boyd's Bear. now there's a brand we want to research! our well known family member Tiffany is one of those- a true classic. i'll have to make sure her and parker meet! parker, though...when it's brave enough for a proper picture, i'll be sure to get its lovely lace ruffle cuffs in the shot...and heart buttons! that's right, it's a dainty clown!

then, the last of the handmade ones- good god, look at that thing. this is Thimble, a handmade teddy bear keychain with SO many eyes. it also has a little bow. you can't beat that. it has a very unique texture to it too....kc also said that this one was at a local fair, which is extra fun! a little piece of her area, all the way to ours... similarly to Parm, i don't think it'll be riding on a bag any time soon. at that size, though- i sense some trouble cooked up with miniatures in the future.

i do believe KC is asleep at this ungodly hour of 9 pm on the west coast...i'll simply have to get artist names in the morning. for our next update!

the last two...why these, i have to research. these are plushes based on some manga characters that king clod (rightfully) thought are very cute, and while i have yet to read the actual comics yet- we will have to report back! no names for them yet, or much of a read...but they are really soft and sweet, and appear to be some kind of angelic beings. adorable!




oh! parker did let me take this image of its face! isn't it just a sweetheart?



after getting everyone out of the box and settled in, i made sure to share some candy around. after all, it was halloween yesterday! what kind of a monster would i be if i didn't share? terrible! terrible and awful, that's what i'd be.

hopefully they'll settle in just fine!




now, newcomers aside, we have some business to tend to. my little forum thread seems to be making waves in the groups it's being posted to, and there has been a good bit of buzz about Donations. it's clear that there is more of a desire to donate to our cause than i expected...so thus, i'm opening some things up. these will eventually be put on a cute little webpage (on homebrewdeviants), but for now, here's our status on donations.

DONATIONS ANYONE CAN DO

if you'd like to donate supplies to our laboratory and its surrounding apartment, you can do so at the following amazon link. this is um! it's a very big list. i asked around the entire apartment and this is what i could get from the toys milling about. make sure to check the actual listing pages for color options- some of these have tons of colors to pick from.

there's keywords listed that you can search for- otherwise, it's pretty unwieldy to navigate. take it up with bezos until i make separate ones for different kinds of things. ideally this'll let you donate to us without any ~sensitive info~ being a factor, which is fine by me!

if you donate anything at all, we will guarantee at least one! part of each listing in the order being slated for use in an upcoming project. it'll still be subject to what would actually work and look good, but this does mean you can do something like throw a pair of socks based on potato chips at us and we have to go make that work. if you have a specific thing in the listing you'd want used, let us know- though those may take longer to get around to, depending on how well they mesh with our current supplies. how much you send is up to you- literally anything at all is appreciated!

DONATIONS WE'RE MORE SELECTIVE ABOUT

 to take off the Mixup character mask for a second, as soon as people saw that we were interested in people contributing to this, there was a good amount of people mentioning they want to send plushes in. i'll be honest, this is really surprising- but really exciting! our apartment is called the Gay Toy Apartment for a reason- when us and como scored this place, we both agreed that we wanted to make our life and space embody this energy and craft. it's been a part of both of our lives that we've been unable to express until now due to god knows how many reasons, but we're doing it now- and i am realizing that a good chunk of the other people we know need to declutter, and do not have a gay toy apartment to dedicate endless space for plushes. while we will not be posting an address to send stuff to publicly, you may contact us in private if you want to organize a package sent to us. we won't say yes to this for everyone (privacy and deadnames etc etc), but there's no harm in asking, so please go right ahead.

our biggest priorities are pre-owned plushes, though we are also open to whatever fabric and crafting stuff you want to send over as well. we Really are interested in clothes, blankets, sheets, etc, that people don't want anymore, too- just get our permission first. if you do send a plush, please feel free to tell us any lore you'd like us to use, along with brands, year you got them, etc etc, whatever.

THE FUTURE....?

well, if this takes off, we'll...look into a PO box or something. our system is really surprised that people are this enthusiastic and supportive...and it means a lot. i was terrified of what the reception to us playing with IRL toys would be, even if it would be a very cute way of depicting our craft projects- and both regular forum readers and those reading from other chats have been so kind to us about it. we feel so accepted and cared about right now, which probably sounds ridiculous to some people unfamiliar with us and our deal, but i mean it. thank you.

we still don't have any plans of doing commissions or anything at this time for a lot of different reasons, but after we finish this big ass batch of plushes for friends and get through the main targets of the current Blue Box for frankensteining, we'll see if we can figure out a way to safely do some kind of trades on a bigger level. it's not something we ever expected to have on the table for ways we interact with other people, and to say it's a big thing for us would be an understatement.

so...again, thank you.

mixup mask back on: as always, i am Very up for questions and comments! anything to ask the newcomers- i can pass things on! what do you think of my wishlist- how diabolical is it? does it make you get Schemes? what are your favorite highlights? what on earth did you do for your own halloween?!

i await your responses, forumgoers!