So, the doll world has been kind of busy lately, which is always great news. I thought I’d give you a run through of some of the activity that has been of interest to me lately.
Dream of Doll
DOD has released two new limited SDs. They are elves, and are wearing pretty awesome clothes. I really like the dreaming one! So handsome. I’m not sure how DOD is limiting them, so keep a close eye on them if you’re interested. Check them out!.
PIPOS
Pipos released some fullsets yesterday. These fullsets are, from what I can tell, re-releases of some of their older ones. The catch is that there is only one of each available; they probably sold out already. Additionally, they released the 2010 basic versions of their Pi line, which includes the cats Baha, Heero, and Chesire, the fox Bao, the rabbit Curo, and, my personal favorite, the dog Mac. These dolls were unavailable for a few months while they did some tweaking to the molds for this year’s release. I’ve been toying with the idea of getting a Mac ever since the mold was released about two years ago; he is so cute! Anyone who has been waiting for these cuties to reappear should head over to Pipos right away!
Fairyland
Fairyland introduced an a la carte for their new chic line today, which is great news for anyone who was frustrated over the lack of choice concerning bust, leg, and body types in the initial release. Unfortunately, this a la carte does not include the pieces and options needed to put LTF and MNF heads onto the chic line body. The options are strictly for the chic line head sculpts.
Blue Fairy
Blue Fairy recently added a Shiny Fairy choice system, so each doll is available in its opposite sex. They are all adorable! You can even order the standard uniform for the opposite sex with the choice menu! I wish BF would add this option to their tiny fairy choice menu… I would love to get my hands on a standard tiny fairy female uniform.
And that’s all for me now :)
She’s really cute, but I need to get her new eyes ASAP. I really don’t like the ones she came with, they have no depth and are very hard to get into a natural pose. I’m fairly sure I wasn’t able to make them look natural :/ But that is easy enough to fix!
Her name is Epiphany, or “Piff” or “Piffle” for short.
~Jen
So, I plunged into the world of Azone dolls by ordering Mugi, a character from K-on that I love. She’s super cute! My only complaint is that her elbow joints are stupid and allow the arm to fall off at the elbow if you bend it too much :/
She’s a fashion doll, meaning that she’s designed to wear a bunch of cute, relatively inexpensive outfits. Think Barbie dolls, only nicer. She’s not made of resin, so she’s much more affordable than my other girls. I don’t plan to collect these girls; I just love this character and was fascinated by all the clothes options available. Some day I probably will get her a friend, just so she has some company of her own kind, but I doubt I’ll ever have more than two or three of these cuties.
But she’s a joy to have around <3
So cute!!
Here’s a quick size comparison, showing you how big an Azone doll is standing next to a Fairyland Littlefee. She was bigger than I expected!
She is so cute and sweet that she won my mom over right away, which is darn right impressive.
Also, have some random pics of Nora, who is gorgeous and deserves camera time.
And that’s all for cute dollies today! Soon I’ll pop in with some pics of the new faceup I gave Binya.
~Jen
Hey guys! I just gave Himeka-chan her first face-up. I’ve never worked with vinyl or acrylic paint before, so it turned out pretty sloppy, but she’s naturally cute so she still looks nice. I wanted to show you :) I will redo it better ASAP.
A problem I had was the paint getting clumpy and sort of solidifying on the brush… I wonder if using thinner would help? I don’t know squat about acrylic paint. All I know is you can’t erase like you can using watercolor pencils, which I use on my resin girls :/
~Jen
Man, it’s been a while since the last post, sorry everyone. Tony and I have had awful, hectic semesters… But two more finals and I’m free (1 more for Tony). Well… by free, I mean free to then start working fulltime at my old lab job, which of course is both good and sad.
But enough about me! Sadly, I have fallen completely out of touch with the world of dollfie dream shortly after getting Himeka-chan… I fell out of touch with a lot of stuff this semester, but I did manage to keep tabs on my more main-stream resin girls. Anyway, I just got wind of the fact that Volks is planning to celebrate it’s 7 year anniversary of making dollfie dreams with “seven projects.” Pretty mysterious, but a combination of the announcement image and the rumor mill supports the idea that, for one, the Natsuki/Moe head mold will be made a standard. If that’s the case, I might have to switch Himeka-chan’s head… I really love that sculpt.
Other speculations include that Volks will re-release some of its more popular fullsets. I’d only be interested if this included Escalayer, Nia, or possibly Sasara… But Sasara seems the only likely one of the three, due to her stunning popularity. I like Sasara a lot, but her expression is so distinctive that I get kind of tired of seeing her around… Anyway, this would cause massive “rage-quits” for people who paid inflated prices for sold-old limiteds on the second-hand market (sometimes over $2,000!). So… who knows?
Personally, I’ll be beyond happy if they make Moe standard, and if they make some cute outfits I want. I never seem to want what they make, or at least what they make and release in the USA (I really wanted the K-on summer uniform, sob!). I really hope they release some fanciful street clothes, sort of the stuff girls wear in “slice of life” anime when they’re out on the town. Instead they make maid dresses and miko outfits, which, while cute, are not what I want for Himeka-chan. But no matter what they make, I’m super excited to see it!
Unfortunately they didn’t even say WHEN this is going down :/ AND I can’t find the original announcement! But here’s a link to the figma.fm announcement of the announcement: Dollfie Dream Announcement
Now, on to Fairyland’s chic line. Let’s see. The chic line is a line of 40cm dolls (MSDs) and… Well, of course this is very close to the MNF size (42cm) so people were kind of scratching their heads over it. Turns out that, as their name implies, they are very sleek dolls with bodies that are thin and curvy, essentially like fashion models. People sort of… flipped out over it on DOA when the first teaser images went up. They have a very adult aesthetic, and people were calling them “fashion dolls” because of it, and the DOA mods even froze up the discussion over them because they were not sure if they were “on-topic.” Frankly this annoyed me… They are resin, ball-jointed, and use an elastic skeleton… Why should having small facial features make them off-topic?
Anyway, apparently FL sent the DOA mods some pictures of the chic line bodies in the nude, which they should be posting for the rest of the world tomorrow, when the dolls go on sale. These pictures convinced the mods of the chic line’s on-topic…ness, so now we can discuss them again on DOA. Sadly, this isn’t exactly a good thing… People really seem to be disappointed/looking down on them! I admit that I’m not into the adult aesthetic in dolls, but FL is going to release more heads for the body that will be more like those of MNF and LTF, and you will be able to put the heads of MNF and LTF faces using a special neck piece. I am super excited to see these bodies, because I have a suspicion that FL somehow pulled off even greater and more innovative construction than they did for the MNF A-line body.
Anyway, I feel kind of sad when I imagine the Cerberus Project sculptors being like “…What? They hate the chic line?!” after all of their hard work. :< But not really because once people look beyond their oddly stand-offish first impression, they'll probably buy them in droves like everything else FL makes! :D
Link to images of Chic line:
Chic-line faces: Here
First L-line faceplate Ruru: here
~Jen
My dolls finally received their new glass eyes. Glass eyes are typically very expensive, running roughly $50 per pair. My friend Mendokusai on DOA pointed me in the direction of a very talented artist who makes pairs for $10, and I got some pairs for my girls. It’s really fulfilling to have the last piece of their appearance in place, and they’re so much nicer than the acrylics I used to have. Check them out!
Nora
Kail
Arlet
I’m happy that they finally came in the mail.
~Jen
So, Minoru World and Blue Fairy are owned by the same person. I adore everything they do, which is…unfortunate in a way. Today they released three limiteds, and I am smitten with two of them. The outfits and accessories are gorgeous too. I wish I could get them, but alas, enough is enough, at least until an interval passes! O__O
Valentine May
Somang
Seriously, Blue Fairy people. Stop making stuff I love so much.
~Jen
I caved and preordered this cutie, Shiny Fairy Hana. She is one of the first of her kind, yo-SDs from Blue Fairy. There was a really great sale price on them to celebrate their release, and…well.
I can’t wait to get her. She should be here sometime in May.
Check her out, and the other two shiny fairies, on Blue Fairy’s website.
~Jen
Introduction to BJDs
History and Basics
A BJD, or an ABJD, is an Asian Ball Jointed Doll. These dolls are usually made of resin. The resin is hollow on the inside, and the pieces of the doll are connected by elastic. This elastic works like a skeleton, allowing the doll to make and hold a large number of poses. There are many companies, and each one has a different style. Most BJDs are either quite realistic or influenced by the style of Anime. ABJDs typically come from Japan, South Korea, or China.
ABJDs originated in 1999 with Volks’ Super Dollfie. Many people mistakenly call all BJDs “dollfies,” even though this name specifically refers to dolls made by Volks. The dolls have come a long way since then, and modern doll companies offer expanded posability and fantasy options such as wings, animal ears and tails, vampire teeth, and hooves.
One of the greatest charms of BJDs is that they are highly customizable. You can change their clothes, of course, but you can also change their eyes and wigs. Doll owners can even paint on the faces and bodies of their dolls to achieve the perfect look (more on this later). More adventurous people modify dolls by giving them realistic scars, adding webbing between their fingers, changing their ear shape, etc.
BJDs come in three basic sizes. The largest dolls are about 1/3 scale, standing anywhere from 55-90cm tall (typically around 60-70cm). These guys are called SDs and usually have an adult aesthetic. MSDs or “minis” are roughly 1/4 scale (about 40cm) and typically look like children ranging from about age 8-15. Slim MSDs look more like young adults. Finally, any doll below roughly 33cm is known as a “tiny.” Tinies range from about 8cm to 33cm. Tinies that are about 25cm tall are specifically called yo-SDs. This name comes from the name that Volk’s assigned to its 25cm BJDs (although you really should not call all BJDs dollfies, calling 25cm dolls yo-SDs or yos is the norm).
These dolls are not intended as toys for children. They are expensive pieces of art and are fairly easy to damage if the owner is careless. Unfortunately, because each doll is hand made and constructed of resin, they are suprisingly expensive. Their accessories are also pricey, typically because they are hand made too.
What can I do with a Doll?
Most doll owners enjoy customizing their dolls, as mentioned above. Users also sew for them and take photos of them. These photos are often elaborately planned, and the dolls are sometimes set up in a lovely display of doll-sized props and accessories, resulting in realistic and artsy photos. Some people write photostories involving their dolls, where they take sequential pictures showing the dolls interacting together and “living” out a scene.
Because the dolls are very realistic, many owners develop an emotional attachment to them. Dolls often receive a name and a personality. Users may assign the persona of one of their invented characters to a doll (these people may be writers, D&D fans, or simply imaginative), which sometimes deepens this sense of attachment. There are some users who treat their dolls like real people and openly admit to preferring their resin companions to their human ones; however, this group is a minority. Most users do agree that their dolls are special posessions.
What is the BJD Community?
The BJD community is a group of people who love dolls and love to talk about them. This community is mostly found on the internet. This is probably due to the fact that most people can only buy dolls and accessories for them online, and because BJD enthusiasts are very difficult to find without the aid of the web. The online BJD community is very active and large. The biggest forum for BJDs is called den of angels, which has over 25,000 members.
Owners love to share their pictures, speculate over new releases, and chat about dolls. Community members plan meet-ups to see each other in real life and sometimes form strong friendships through the forum. Some people complain that this community has recently become infested with people who brag about how many dolls they have and people who treat the hobby either like a fad or their reason for existing. I find that it’s a lot of fun. Besides, what community doesn’t have some annoying people in it?
Anyway, you can meet a lot of people through your doll!
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Hope that was informative for anyone who is like “what is this girl talking about?!” with the dolls and such.
~Jen
Wow, my head is swimming from that episode of Gundam, a History!
So, I noticed that I spent a significant amount of time in my previous posts doing what this blog isn’t meant for, namely blabbing about every day stuff when I had nothing doll/anime/projects/whatever related to discuss. So, here’s my livejournal, where I can get that out of my system and focus on posting properly here: my LJ. Maybe I should make it public, it’s not like I say anything too personal.
Now, on to the latest and greatest in Jen’s doll discussions! Sadly, the Yui and Mio Volks dollfie dreams that I mentioned earlier are NOT available in America, supposedly due to a licensing agreement. Well, at least that ends my temptation, right? I don’t feel like bothering with hiring a Japanese person to buy it for me, or dealing with the Japanese mail forwarding system.
Of course, something bright, shiny, new, and limited strolled along to take Yui’s place almost at once. I was planning on asking for this doll for Christmas, but now he’s available in tan resin until March 12th, and the tan is PERFECT for the character he will be representing. Check him out!
I’m at a loss here. I really want him to look just like that (well, with red eyes and gray hair). Nnnnnnngh. What to do?
Then there’s this beauty who came out recently, Pipos Noel. She is yo-SD sized and perfectly adorable.
I am such a sucker for sad dolls! But luckily she’s not limited or anything, so I can take my time in getting her. Which, given my “doll to-do list” will…uh…take a while.
Now for some pics of my own girls! :D
Also note that I’ve put picks up of all of my girls under The Doll House tab :3
I think I’m gonna work on a “what are BJDs” type of post for the next one.
~Jen
