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Lina

Lina is a Realdoll made by Abyss Creations of California in 2006, but I had to replace her body in 2011. Nowadays she time-shares her body with Kylie.

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This sequence for a National Geographic documentary in 2009 was not used. Lina at this time was a large doll (this was her first body — much too heavy) but she looks small here only because Steve is a large guy. He had some great experiences to relate, including filming with a hand-held camera under severe G-loads in an aerobatic airplane.

When I leave vehicles in the street outside in everyday life, such as to load or unload hang gliders for a group trip, we risk a fine for unauthorized parking. In contrast, film makers confidently stop traffic and draw small crowds with no problem.

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Lina is named after the maid in Down the Amazon (La Jangada – Huit Cents lieues sur l’Amazone) by Jules Verne (1881). Although in principle a slave, this part Portuguese and part Amazon Indian girl is treated as a much loved member of the family that embarks on a voyage down the Amazon river on a giant raft.

With her, and more specially attached to Minha’s service, was a pretty laughing mulatto, of the same age as her mistress, to whom she was completely devoted. She was called Lina, one of those gentle creatures, a little spoiled perhaps, to whom a good deal of familiarity is allowed but who in return adore their mistresses.

— from Down the Amazon by Jules Verne, 1881, translated by I.O. Evans, 1967

Those two woodcut engravings (or whatever they are) are from the web page La Jangada (1880) 84 illustrations by Léon Benett (linked farther down).

This is Lina’s newer, lighter, and smaller body, made in 2011.

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Rebecca and Lina are both Realdolls of body type 4 (discontinued) but Lina’s body was made 11 years after Rebecca. Lina’s face is detachable whereas Rebecca’s face is moulded in with her head, which is not detachable. In addition, Lina’s skeleton can withstand tensile stress and she can adopt a standing pose with the aid of a doll stand, as here, whereas Rebecca cannot.

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When Benita photographs your dolls, you can only watch in awe and try to learn as much as you can.

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Here, Lina is dressed up to resemble Amber in the 2011 musical action fantasy Sucker Punch. (See my review; Stairway to paradise.) Amber was played in the movie by Jamie Chung. The flight simulator was built by automotive engineer Bob G, who founded the UK Love Doll Forum.

This photo was taken just as the sun was setting into haze during the 2012 UK doll convention in Herefordshire.

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Lina found this orphaned bunny squeaking and lost on the slopes of a volcano in Mexico. She brought it home and asked if we could keep it with the other new bunnies. (See Miscellaneous photos, home 2.) We said she is a bunny mum now. Coming from an age when dark-skinned folk were thought of as inferior, she is hardly able to believe that she has her own bunny to keep forever.

External links

Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon: English Wikipedia entry for La Jangada – Huit Cents lieues sur l’Amazone by Jules Verne

La Jangada (1880) 84 illustrations by Léon Benett

Volcano rabbit Wikipedia entry