Chatting about BJDs!

Im getting a tanned mio (Make It Own)  Pullip doll this month.

I am in a similar position to Indigo haha, I've wanted one for years, but for me I never found the right sculpt (as seen by my makies, I want them to be very specific and heavily mod them) or the right resin colour. I have very very few white characters, so the overabundance of white dolls isn't of much use to me. It always ended up being a case where I found a good colour but with sculpts I don't want, or a good sculpt but only in pure white/light pink.

However... I fell in love with Doll Chateau Agnes' face. It's close enough to my artwork that I know I can create the character I want with her. So I've got a DC Agnes on the Youth 3 body ordered. In white skin, because I finally found some good RIT tutorials for BJDs (though likely when she eventually arrives, she'll remain white and blank for a while as I just simply enjoy what she is for a bit before starting on alterations), so hopefully I'll be able to make her a beautiful light tan.

Ever since I got my makies, I declared I'd never get anything bigger. Makies are such a great portable size and easy to store. The combination of head and body I've picked out is going to end up nearly 70cm tall.   It seems worth it to create her though, it's extremely rare for me to be satisfied with BJD sculpts, so I felt like this was the chance.

@_MakieCrafter_ Oooh!  I'd like a MIO Isul, but I think I really need to limit the dolls I have to just my characters/characters I really care about rather than every doll I like. There's no-one I could turn Isul into unfortunately, so I just stare longingly at Isuls instead. XD

Lol, I've never had much success with my few attempts to impose a character of my own creation on any of my BJDs, and many of my other dolls too for that matter.

Whether brand new from the company or purchased second hand, they never seem to arrive as empty vessels. ^_^

Even the quiet ones always seem to have a strong sense of self, and a strong will as well.

Lol, I can easily count on one hand the few dolls who were actually able and willing to integrate with and assume the character I'd planned for them.   In fact most of the time, I rather suspect it was more a case of that particular character simply being strong enough and real enough to manifest themselves in the doll from the beginning. ^_~

There are definitely dolls I own that are like that.  My two novi stars that I customised, I got them and one immediately needed her face changing to be playful, and the other wanted to look stern. They weren't any characters that I'd drawn (or that I will draw), they're just the dolls themselves.

However, I need to be stern thanks to very little storage! The two little novis get to stay, but I can't keep or buy anything else unless I have a definitive art project in mind, no matter how adorable or wonderful I think a sculpt is (and I have so many on my wishlist that I have to resign myself to simply looking at rather than owning because I'll never have the space).

Dolls do so love to become their own "person" so to speak don't they?

I'm unlikely to ever own a proper bjd as the price is so prohibitive and I honestly prefer plastic to resin, I like my dolls durable as i'm clumsy as all heck and have kids heh. I'd want to be able to move and play with it without being scared of breaking it.

I am lusting after a few hujoos though, being abs and playline size or smaller they're quite a nice compromise. Also Pullip... particularly Isul because he's so stinking pretty like omg.

I'm hoping to get some cash for christmas because i'd rather like to order a Hujoo Freyr in white, to then try to customise into my anthro character Mourn (who's a cyborg sky pirate... so yeah.... ) I think it could be a real challenge, but fun all the same.
I've not really made dolls of many of my characters, mostly because finding the exact right body and sculpt is near impossible for many of mine. I recall making a Blaine doll (barbie) into my half elf once, and he looks pretty damn close hahah. I have my Makie Harris and will if the labs give me the option for hooked noses, make a few more of my human rp characters because grrr, I need hooked noses! omg so many of my characters have hooked noses and I never realised this till i had to make avatars of them and realised I couldn't lol.

But yeah i'm really particular about sculpts if i'm making a doll of an OC, it has to be just right or at the very least something I can easily tweak to be perfect.
And much like Jryu, many of my dolls arrive with characters already despite my plans. Doh

I've got two little hujoos (minipin and minifreyr), they're adorable.  Only one of mine currently has a faceup/body blushing though. I have plans for them, but I think until I'm able to afford to commission little clothes for them, they're not going to be how I want them to be.

But yeah, I really like hujoo ABS. It's a very nice surface to work with.

I didn't care for resin before either, or at least didn't like the sound of it. It wasn't until me and some friends had a doll meet and a friend brought her BJD that I became open to the idea. She has a Blue Fairy doll. Somehow I was expecting the resin to feel really cold and hard, and like it'd smash at the slightest jostle, but it turned out to be almost exactly like my makies really! The major difference was probably more that the doll was quite heavy, rather than it feeling more fragile or different in temperature.

It's not something I'd make a habit of, because haha yeah the price is through the roof, and I am still a bit wary of resin needing a bit more care than other materials, but I am never ever going to find the kind of body and face sculpts I want in play/budget markets, not without just going ahead and sculpting it myself. Doll Chateau is one of the only BJD companies that make more interesting bodies (imo), outside of independent European artists who make some wonderful chubby BJDs.

I'm massively picky about sculpts too, so I know that feeling well. That's why once I found DC's Agnes, I knew that was the one I needed. I know what I can do with her to really bring her to life, and I think it's going to be worth the investment.

If you get a Freyr, I'd love to see what you do with them! My mini is going to be a sort of tiger girl, when I get round to it.

I currently have 3 en route. I'm really not sure how I went from "I'll just get one" to having 3 ordered, but. (Well, I do - I heard about the Fairyland waiting times, nearly had a heart attack, then saw 2 on eBay at excellent prices.)

I'm waiting on my Resinsoul Ya (new), and 2nd hand PukiPuki Ante and Sugar.

Of course, sod's law... it looks like they'll arrive when I'm back at work, so I can't use my week off to sew or knit for them. Dammit!

Resin BJDs are a lot sturdier than you think. Lol, I'm not the world's most graceful creature myself, and I've yet to have anyone break so much as a finger.

Lue has had two rather spectacular falls, and came through both unscathed. His first fall was when Max, my miniature poodle, tried to steal Lue's teddy and Lue refused to let go. Max has always been a bit of a kleptomaniac, even as a puppy.

Lue was sitting on the edge of the bedside stand holding his teddy. Young Max had gotten over his initial fear of Lue, and apparently decided it would be easy to steal Lue's teddy.

Lue had other ideas, he held on to his teddy and just dropped, first smacking Max on the nose, before landing with a loud crash on the floor. He scared the beejeebers out of poor Max, which I'm sure is precisely what Lue intended to do.

Scared me pretty good too, as this was his first fall, and I was sure something had to be broken....but not so much as a scratch!

Lol, Max has had a very healthy respect for Lue ever since.

Lue's second fall occurred while I was packing for an Anime con. I was packing the backpack I use for a carry-on, and Lue was hanging out on the bed keeping me company and watching me pack. He was not anywhere near the backpack and it's straps.

This was the first con I was attending since he'd arrived, and I neglected to tell him he was going to get to come with me this time. Lue had seen me pack and leave without taking him on a trip to England, previously. (My partner had flat out said no, when I wanted to bring him.)

Apparently, Lue thought I was going to leave him behind again, and he wasn't having any part of that. So when I went to pick up my now packed backpack, Lue, in a move worthy of Indiana Jones, somehow managed to grab the backpack straps.

Unfortunately, as I slung the backpack around to take it out with the rest of the bags, he lost his grip on the straps. Lue went flying, and plummeted to the ground. My heart plummeted too, when I heard him hit, and I think it stopped as well.

I fully expected to find him broken beyond repair this time!
However, once again Lue had nary a crack, chip, or scratch on him.... Not one finger, nor pointed ear tip broken! Lol, He didn't even lose his wig!

Actually the Hujoo boy that I just got feels much more fragile and easy to break than any of my BJDs. So do my Taeyang and Isul boys.

Surprisingly, small children seem to fall easily under the BJD's spell. I think most young children tend to view them as though they are some sort of small, real live, magical person. They will generally treat the BJD very respectfully and gently, especially if you introduce them just right. ^_~

Yeah, they're much sturdier than I had imagined! Since I've been interested in them for... nearly a decade now, I've followed lots of BJD blogs and circles in that time, and the way people talked about them made me worried that it would feel like handling delicate ceramics. Cold, brittle, and can't take any knocks.

Handling one in person really couldn't have been a more different experience, and is what convinced me that if I found the right one, I'd be okay with the material they're made from! I felt that the Blue Fairy doll I handled was possibly even more sturdy than my makies. I wouldn't deliberately mishandle my makies, but their joints are already stressed and cracked from play - not horrifically so, but in only half a year's worth of ownership. I think the makie nylon is much thinner and more brittle than BJD resin - or at least compared to Blue Fairy resin. I'll retract that of course if my DC doll comes and it's like trying to handle precious porcelain or something haha.

I'm glad your dolls survived their falls JRyu! I can bet that would have been very scary.

I only have tiny hujoos, which I don't think would break even if you were cruel and threw them with a lot of force haha. The little bits of plastic are so small that there isn't much surface area, so I think you'd have a hard time breaking them without being deliberate about it. I don't know about larger dolls though. I did wonder about that with Isul (and other pullip dolls), because the limbs seem so thin, and the head so large, which some of the larger abs hujoo dolls have similar proportions.

Yes, the tiny Hujoo "baby" boy that I also ordered does seem a lot sturdier than the larger 1/6th YoSD sized one. He actually seems better made overall, with much cleaner and better fitting joints.

I haven't done much with either of them yet, except to give the larger boy a bit of a face up with watercolor pencils.

Mostly to get a better idea of what his face sculpt looked like and to see how well the water colors hold up on his plastic.

Lol, he doesn't have any eyes yet, I need to go to my eye boxes and find him a pair that will work with his strange eye-holders. At least that's what I'm assuming those two slightly stretchy white pieces of plastic are for that came with him.

ahh blue fairy. When I was at university I spent a while lusting after Louis and Olive specifically. I could never justify spending my student loan on them though heh.

I have one Hujoo, a minipin who didn't end up at all how I had planned and promptly joined Tor's pirate crew lol. I'd like a few more dolls and such for that crew, it's fun.

I've heard Pullip bodies are pretty fragile, hence why they're often rebodied onto superior and sturdier ones. The Jdolls i've seen have a tendency to break at the arms and legs, beautiful dolls but not exactly sturdy.

I love strange and unusual dolls too, so some of those really bizarre art dolls and the bjds that are REALLY inhuman do appeal. they look super fragile but so wierd, it attracts me.

Blue Fairy are really great BJDs, I've come real close to adding one to the horde several times. ^_^

There was one sculpt in particular, that I especially liked.  His name escapes me at the moment.  

Sadly, I believe his sculpt has been retired or discontinued, as I haven't seen him offered in quite awhile.  Not even in the secondary markets.

Unfortunately, that seems to happen to a lot of the BJD sculpts that I really like.  Either that, or the company decides to totally redesign the sculpt, usually changing everything I liked about it in the process... and usually not for the better either, as far as I'm concerned anyway.

I like some of the more unique dolls, while others just don't do anything for me, like the ones with the exaggerated pear shaped bodies.

Then too, they occasionally come out with one that hits a little too close to home with my.....well, I don't know if I'd exactly call them phobias.  

Doll chateau's arachnid doll is one.  It isn't that I'm afraid of insects or spiders, or don't find them fascinating and even beautiful....

It's just that I can't bear the thought of touching one, or having it touch me. ((Shudder))
Lol, when I think about any of the times when I've inadvertently come in physical contact with some bug or spider, it just makes me want to take sandpaper to that area of my skin and remove that layer.  Not exactly a normal reaction, I admit.  

It apparently has to do with them having a hard exoskeleton, and the way their body parts and joints are connected.  Also the fact that some of them then have hair growing out of their exsoskeletons too....  It just sort of creeps me out, and makes my skin crawl.

Now I love Doll Chateau's super thin, elongated bodies.  I was seriously considering getting that boy in the black Swan ballet costume, Charles I believe.   Until I saw a close up of the extra wrist and neck joints,  they were just too skeletal looking, sort of like having a completely exposed neck vertebrae or bone in your wrist joint.  I knew that those two extra joints would really bother me.  

So, I would have had to have contacted DC to see if it was possible for the doll to work without those extra joint pieces, and if they'd be willing to string him without those pieces.

If not, then I would have had to try and find someone who would remove those extra joint pieces, and if necessary, mod the neck and wrist joints to work without them.  

Much as I would still love to have him, I'm just not sure I could ever really get used to his having those extra pieces in his neck and wrists, I'm afraid they would just look too creepily skeletal.

Lol...Yep!  You guessed it, I have a problem with skeletons too.

My Ya from Resinsoul arrived! I was just about to email Sun because I hadn't had a shipping notice, then the Parcel Force guy turned up.

She's beautiful - I suspect I'll replace the eyes because they're a little strange, but her face-up is lovely and her joints are even better than I expected. As she doesn't currently have a wig (I've ordered some Makies wigs but surprise surprise, they're stuck in Processing) I've knit her a quick hat.

Yay! That's awesome to hear Indigo!  I'd love to see photos!

I'm currently waiting on my Feeple65 to get here. 

I have my two Makies, and the 17" Frankie Stein which I'll eventually get to finishing her repaint.

my sister is giving me a resin bjd not sure what she looks like but im pretty exited about it 

I've got a resinsoul body on order for trying hybriding. =O
I could have used a cheaper Hujoo body probably but... I wouldn't have wanted to keep it after the test was complete. (They're very slim and shapeless in comparison to similar sized bodies).

@IndigoAndAsh did I just see you over on the resinsoul waiting list thread on DOA posting after me?  I've bumped into a few people with makies there, its really cool considering that last time I dabbled in BJDs (admittedly 10 years ago) there was a lot of elitism going on. It was Volks or nothing with a lot of people back then! XD

My christmas present to myself arrived a week or so ago. He's a Hujoo so made of abs not resin.

I love him.

I will say that his body articulation isn't great, it's about on par with playline dolls because of the gears in his elbows and knees. 

But he has such a cute little face.

I made his wig, I can't stop myself making dreadlock wigs hahaha, and did his faceup. He's stolen some Makie eyes for now while his 20mm ones are shipped from Hong Kong.

I have a little Berry on the way too. And i've been lusting after some proper resin dolls but i'm nervous about that sort of money heh.

He looks great! I love the wig too actually, I've been thinking about getting a dreadlock wig in future for a potential doll.
Will you be putting a blog post up about him?

When you get your berry, would you be up for taking a side-by-side shot of the Berry next to a Makie too? I'm not convinced by that line's faces except maybe the wings doll Jake, but I'd like to see what they look like next to Makies since the head-to-body ratios look very similar (leading to them being able to pose together without looking too off hopefully?) Thank you if you can!

I'm also eager to know what resin dolls you're looking at haha. XD
Resinsoul actually make really affordable dolls (in terms of BJD prices). They're let down by the fact that the company itself takes AWFUL photos of the dolls (I don't understand why), but I've since seen owner photos and there are some really beautiful sculpts. My friend has a resinsoul, and before I realised that the company photos are just so bad, I wouldn't have known it was the same doll, it's so lovely. There's a lot of subtle detail in their sculpts.

He'll likely feature in my monthly "other stuff I bought" wrap up heh.

I'm pretty sure the smaller Hujoos like Berry are quite similar to Makies scale and proportion wise from photos i've seen, but when she does eventually show up i'll snap some shots. Sadly she seems to be stuck in singapore atm. Im giving her till the end of the month before I get too antsy.

and I am indeed looking at Resinsoul dolls. Their gargoyle sculpt particularly interests me. I love non human dolls.

Thanks P_M! I hope your berry arrives soon.

Which resinsoul sculpt is that? Pi? Or maybe Sui? I might be missing one of the fantasy ones.
She's not top of my priority list so wouldn't be for a while (maybe not even this year at all), but I think I would like a Resinsoul Li (MSD) myself! Just a human sculpt, but I'd be modifying her into a Miqo'te from Final Fantasy XIV (they're cat people. Kind of cop-out cat people with just cat ears and tails, but cat people all the same).

In the meantime, there's this link: https://makies.forumotion.com/t77-updates-about-miki-and-more

You can see a Makie with a Hujoo Yomi in that thread. I'm not sure what the difference is between the Yomi and the Berry, though. Of course, I think we're all hoping to see what the Hujoo Berry is like. I'm interested in seeing how you style this doll, p_m!

Still just saying "item has been recieved and has been forwarded to our international mailing centre" so parcelforce have my parcel, but are likely holding it hostage. I'm getting annoyed.

My hujoo from the company direct took ages to ship out but once it did it took literally 3 days to get on a plane from Korea, get to the UK, clear customs and get to my house.
This one from Hong Kong? Firstly they claimed they'd dispatched a full 9 days before they actually posted it (WHY??) and then it sat in Singapore for 8 days. wth? It finally arrived in the UK  on the 18th in the early morning, so should have been processed through sorting already. it doesn't take that long this time of year to clear bloody customs.
I bet they marked it with full value plus the postage on top, which you also get charged VAT on even though it's completely ridiculous to charge customs for POSTAGE, and the parcelforce ransom fee on top.  I'm not looking forward to it. I always get a bit homicidal when I get that customs demand, I don't mind paying customs but I DO mind paying £8-£12:50 for a guy to rubber stamp a form.

But tracking hasn't updated, likely won't update till a grey slip appears eventually (if it appears at all, parcelforce are stupid slow to get their demands for money posted out)
But I suspect this is going to be expensive. *sigh*

Moral? Don't import from Hong Kong. It's not worth the headache. RM stop EVERYTHING from HK, absolutely everything. Order from Korea if you have to order from that part of the world. Avoid China, Japan and Hong Kong etc. It ALWAYS ends up with a huge customs fee.

Wheras my Hujoo Arthur from Korea? No customs charge at all.

grr

I just want my damn doll.

@jupiternames Thank you! Somehow I missed that thread I think, though the picture seems familiar so maybe I didn't but forgot. The scale looks really perfect! Only the facesculpt differs between Yomi and Berry I believe. Basic, Berry and Yomi are all the same size and on the same body I believe. I think Jake is also the same size. Jake and Berry are my favourite facesculpts out of those, so I'd definitely be interested in seeing a Berry head next to a Makie head specifically. It looks very promising though!

@P_M Aw no! That's a ridiculous hold-up. I would hope they wouldn't charge you when Hujoo dolls of that size have such a low price/value to start with.
I think I tend to have very good luck from China at least, though I don't know if I condone it - almost every seller I've bought from has marked the value down loads (I don't ask them to do this), and marked it as a gift or otherwise sort of circumvented customs. I think apparently even Resinsoul (who are based in China) do this? Or at least mark the value as minimal as they can.

I hope the parcel gets through soon, and without trouble! The admin fee part is the total worst.

@nattherat, I have a hujoo berry and three Makies (duh) so if you want a picture soon, I can post one. I have a berry in white and as far as I can tell from pictures and my own berry the main difference in the sculpt is in the lips, but it's not a huge difference as far as in can tell.