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
