FANGORIA® - Celebrating 30 Years of Horror 1979-2009 - Horror Movies, Music, Comics, Books, and more. Dedicated to the Preservation of All Things Horror...

History can be scary. Beheadings, burnings, and torture fill our history books, and now collectors of the macabre can have another piece of horrific history; historic, headless dolls. Although historic, these dolls are not for the child’s' play as HeadlessHistoricals.com states on their site, "Headless Historicals are reworked dolls that were inspired by people throughout history who died in rather horrible ways. Each doll is dressed according to how they might have appeared during the peak of their success, while their bodies display the manner in which they died." With just a brief glimpse on their website and immediately you can feel the dedication that owner and creator Shiva Rodriguez has put into this educational line of horrific dolls.


Begun in 1998, Shiva Rodriguez developed the doll after working at a Florida haunted attraction in the wardrobe department. After noticing the benefits of designing outfits on dolls, Rodriguez decided to build her own fashionably replicated doll of historic figure, Marie Antoinette. After her inner child came to play, she suddenly popped off the doll's head and begun to paint a bloody stump, due to the fact that Marie Antoinette was guillotined in the French Revolution. Immediately causing a laugh among her coworkers and friends, she began to tweak the ordinary doll to replicate all the morbid facts that surrounded the historical figure. Jumping forward a few years, after the horrific Marie Antoinette doll sat proudly on Rodriguez's mantle, she soon began to brainstorm ideas on how to raise money for their Florida based entertainment production company, Siren Productions.net. Teaming with FX artist partner Garith Pettibone, Rodriguez was able to find a way to help Siren Productions' funds by Pettibone’s suggestion of "Headless Historicals" and the ingenious project was born.

Not only highlighting the decapitations of historic figures, the team also started doing life-size replicas of historical characters and a few functional pieces as well, i.e. a figure of Joan of Arc at the stake. Besides hideous decapitations, the production team has branched out featuring other infamous deaths presented in doll form. In a recent interview with Fango, Rodriguez notes, "We found that just sticking with decapitation victims was very limiting, so we decided to branch out into other methods of demise to include some other historical periods. Among a few others, we've done Mata Hari (who faced a firing squad for espionage during WWI), Gaius Julius Caesar of the Roman Empire (who was stabbed to death), and Queen Brunhilde of Austrasia (who was tied behind a wild horse and dragged to her death in 613)". Applauding this brave departure automatically opens up the already brilliant doll line to a broader audience that is interested in seeing other deaths replicated into doll form.

Receiving your newly bloody friend in the mail, the customer can also expect a letter of information to be included with the doll. The letter features interesting information about the historic figure's death as well as a detailed biography of who he/she represented in their area of the world. Rodriguez notes, "I also spent several years studying historical executioners and a few of them had published memoirs that offer a very unique firsthand look into the last moments of a character's life." With first hand detail like this, I immediately enjoyed reading the information provided as it began to educate the "horror geek" out of me, allowing for a genuine, brief understanding of each historic figure. As each doll is made by customizing recycling old doll forms that are found in auctions or thrift shops, Rodriguez makes every attention to detail as she now has brought her husband aboard on this historically bloody journey. In regards to the creation process, Rodriguez states, "Then we research the method of death and try to recreate the injuries on the doll with as much detail as possible. For example, Anne Boleyn always has a clean and slightly diagonal neck stump because she was beheaded by sword, whereas all other decapitations in the Tudor period have crushed vertebra poking out of their neck stumps because a heavy heading axe was used during their executions."

Not only featuring dolls from centuries' past, Headless Historicals features more recent deaths including the half decapitation of American actress Jayne Mansfield (available in two versions pictured left and below) from her notorious 1967 auto accident. Also having items other than historical dolls, Headless Historicals features pencil holders of bloody stumps from Burgundy Countess and Lacy Duchess. As the team at Headless Historicals keeps gaining publicity and fame, Shiva Rodriguez notes that Madame Elisabeth Helene, who was King Louis XVI's sister and guillotined during the French Revolution, is her favorite doll creation. With possible works of Sir William Wallace of Scotland (drawn and quartered in the old English style) and Bridget Bishop (Salem witch hunt hanging victim) this company is sure to remain in the spotlight of historical and horror aficionado’s radar. So Fango readers jump on over to Headless Historicals and order a piece of history today, because no matter what - remember... history is violent.

http://www.headlesshistoricals.com

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