Christmas money dilemma

Oh man, i'm so at a loss here.

So I got some money for christmas from inlaws and dad, meaning I have cash burning a hole in my pocket.
Problem is, there's a VERY long list of things I would like and I just cannot decide which to prioritize.
HEEELP!

Ok, so


Monster High:

I collect Monster High and the new mermaid dolls are available on Amazon. I could order all three for about £20 each which isn't too bad. But i'm not sure I shouldn't just wait till they end up on sale here in the UK.
I only want the three new characters:



Total cost: about £60

Makies:

MORE makies, MORE! I already have like over 20 of them but i'm a wee bit addicted.
Things stopping me? Boys aren't available atm, IM bodies and the fact that while I have a few girls I like the look of, none are really leaping out with characters saying "buy us"



This wee girl is the only one really leaping out at me right now. She'd be heavily modded into a sort of dragon girl (wings, tail, horns, interesting facial markings)
Also the postage adds like £8:60 onto the cost which is a bit prohibitive imo.

Thinking I should wait till the boys are back.

Total cost: £58.59 with postage.

Hujoo:

Oh goodness Hujoos. I've always liked the LOOK of bjds but found the price really eye watering. Hujoos are an affordable middle ground between playline doll and bjd, which is really appealing.

I already have a minipin rabbit who I love, but i'm tempted by a few of the larger dolls:

 

Hujoo Freyr, a male anthro cat doll. Reason I really kinda want this guy is because I happen to have an old anthro cat character who i think I could probably mod this into. It would involve a LOT of milliput to do various cybernetic bits but pretty sure it's doable.

Cons here are: Are my modding skills up to the challenge? Is this the best face sculpt for the job and SHIPPING. Being exclusive to a US store means shipping is crazy high (almost as much as the doll itself) and i'm not sure I won't get hit with a customs charge too.

Total cost: Somewhere around £50 IF not hit with customs.



Hujoo nano freya. It's a teeny cat doll, come on it's stinking adorable!
Same problem with previous, huge shipping costs and potential customs fees.

Total cost: about £30



Hujoo Arthur

Ok this guy I CAN get in the UK. He's a big doll, much bigger than any I own (except Lorifina, she's crazy huge). He classes as "MSD" and has odd gear joints that are apparently a bit annoying.

I like his face sculpt, it's unusual with the really long nose, pointy ears and tusks. I admit it, it's the tusks. I LOVE the freaking tusks.
I'd make him into a proper little savage troll boy complete with tribal like markings on his face and dreadlocked wig etc. I think he'd be super cute.

Cons here: Clothing. I'd have to probably sew some simple basics till i could afford to buy stuff. He has... boy bits, laughably small boy bits which may irritate me (he'll need underpants forever lol) as i'm not used to dolls with genitals. I'd need to buy eyes and a wig, he takes size 20 eyes and a size 7-8 wig, neither of which I currently own. I can make wigs and he might be able to get away with 18mm eyes for a short while but that does mean more expense.
Also, can I give him a really nice faceup? I've only really faceupped Makies who have moulded guides for stuff like eyebrows heh. I'm scared i'll not be able to get him as pretty as i'd like.

Total cost: Around £85



Hujoo Matthew. Same as above but a different face sculpt. Again I think he's pretty. He has pointy ears and narrow eyes.
Same cons as above.

Total cost: Around £85




As you can see, it's a bit of a list and i'm so torn.

I have around £200 to spend, but i'm just not sure what to get. Anyone with any experience with any of these or with experience with stores like Junkyspot can give me some tips and advice?

Help me spend money guys, you know you want to heheh.

I ordered a Hujoo, some eyes and a wig from junkyspot, and I got it in two days. So if you want it quick, junkyspot is the place to go. Then again I'm in the US and it might be different over here. 

Also, they are super nice, so if you have any problems at all they are really good about it, at least in my case when I didn't get a conformation email.

I gave in and bought Arthur from Hujoo themselves, they had free shipping. No idea if he'll show up or how long it'll take though. But paypal protection is nice, so I should if it doesn't work out, be able to claim a refund anyway.

Worked out like over £10 cheaper than ordering from the UK dealer, go figure.

So we'll see how that goes.  But what else do i want? Mmm.

Thinking I might wait on the kitty dolls because the shipping is so eyewatering, maybe they'll have an after christmas sale or something.

Lol, that was my first choice vote!
Arthur is delightful.    

I think I saw somewhere that Hujoo made MSD sized dolls, but I've never seen them, (that size), before.  

Lol, probably because my exposure to Hujoos has been limited to what's listed for sale on eBay from Mimiwoo, and junky spot.

I didn't know the company had an accessible website.  I'll have to check it out!

Well, if it was me, I'd shop around on eBay and places, for stuff I needed and/or could use with Arthur, and pick that up first while I had the money.

Maybe check out some of the people who do custom doll clothing and commission a really nice, fancy, troll outfit for him.  Nice and fancy in a troll-ish way of course.

Then, depending on what was left, I'd probably treat myself to a shopping day at Hamley's, and/or a really great bookstore.
For a little instant gratification, if you know what I mean. ^_~

Heheh Jryu, sensible as always.
Now what would a troll wear anyway? A loincloth? *snort*

Hmm.... Guess that would depend, on what type of troll he is, and where he comes from.

Most Tolkien trolls I've seen appear to wear good sturdy homespun like most common folk, only more tattered and raggedy.

Japanese Oni wear a tiger skin loincloth. They also usually have a horn or two. Technically they're ogres, but I suspect ogres are similar or possibly even closely related to trolls.

Lol, the Norwegian trolls seem to have the most diverse clothing.
From what I remember of my childhood troll dolls anyway.

If you want a UK opinion on Junkyspot: They're good! I bought the tiny Hujoo Freya from them via ebay. Shipping was around £10 I believe, which meant the doll cost about £30 in the end. Not that much more than my Minipin which I got for £20 from Angelesque (who I'm assuming is the UK dealer you have in mind?).

I didn't get charged any customs. That isn't to say you definitely won't be, but I personally had no trouble with that, nor anything else I've bought from the US that's along the lines of toys and merch. The junkyspot doll arrived perfectly.

So for future, if there's anything from junkyspot you want, I've had no trouble with them as a fellow UK resident.  It was a very smooth process.

As for advising you what to get though: Gosh I have no idea. XD There's a big difference in purpose between Monster High dolls and blank BJDs. I guess it depends what you feel most into currently? That, or a practical thing. Junkyspot dolls have limited runs, so that might be better to get than MH dolls which will still having a buying window of a fairly long time. Perhaps?

Good to hear about junkyspot and uk, I almost always get stung by customs, it's like they have it in for me and Royal Mail's bloody "handling fee" (read: Ransom charge) is just highway robbery. Makes me want to smash someone's head in every time I get that  letter with their added £8+ fee.. ooo I see red.
no way does stamping something take £8 worth of time, they do it purely because they CAN. It's legalised extortion.

Still really tempted by the hujoos. I kinda like the idea of blank dolls because I can turn them into something unique which is the appeal of Makies too. Playline dolls are starting to lose a bit of their appeal to me as I get more into the whole custom thing. I like MH and I like Bratz etc, but they're kinda... not so inspiring as they're already fully what they are, they're not a blank canvas on which to put your own stamp.
I'm leaning toward the more expensive stuff solely on the grounds that MH stuff will shelf sit for MONTHS. The current wave has already ended up in B&M for £17 less than "retail" (stores were massively hiking the prices because it's popular and they're greedy) which doesn't bode well for sales numbers. I mean the current wave was released literally 2 months ago and it's already being clearanced in B&M??! I think it speaks volumes of how UK consumers flat out refuse to spend much more than about £20 on a doll

But shipping from junkyspot for the freyr is $42 which is mental! I'll have to sit down and work out some more maths on it all. But in the meantime, I gotta get me some eyes and a wig  once Hujoo send me a notice to say they've processed my order.

Purple_monkfish, I was wondering if that picture of your anthro cat character is one of your drawings? I can't quite make out the signature.

Yeah it is, it was a doodle I never got around to finishing because the anatomy and details were ticking me off hahah. I got mad and rage quit.
That seems to happen a lot with my arts.

Well, it's pretty darned good for a doodle, and an unfinished one at that! You've got real talent, so keep on "doodling"!

I do understand though, about anatomy and details becoming frustrating to the point of getting in a snit-fit (rage) and quitting.

My personal button pushers are proportions, mostly with humans and real animals, and shading/shadows.

That, and the fact that when I try to draw humans, a completely made up person....not from a model or a photo, they all tend to look related, as in too much intermarrying related......


Oh, and NOSES, I hate trying to draw human noses! They just never look right.
Hands and fingers too, human ones!
My father used to tell me I needed to loosen up, and just have fun with my sketching and drawing! Not to be all worried and stressed about not making it perfect, and/or potentionally doing something that would screw it up.

I know he knew what he was talking about, because like all artists he fought those same problems.

Lol, he used to hide all his finished paintings that he wasn't happy with in the back of this tiny little under stairs cubbyhole in his studio. His intention being to either eventually rework then, or totally paint over them with a different picture.
They wouldn't be signed and dated either, he never signed his work until it was finished and he was completely happy with it.

I knew where they were hidden, so when someone was interested in his paintings, and he didn't have many around his studio. I'd dig out his "rejects". Invariably, the person would rave about them and want to buy one, which my father would, after much coaxing and cajoling, finally date and sign.

Btw: I don't think you'll have any problems giving your troll boy the perfect face-up. You do fantastic face-ups!
Plus, I think you'll find that most BJDs have just as many "guidelines" in their face sculpts as Makies have in their printed faces. ^_^

aww thanks. I know what you mean about the problem of characters looking a bit the same. I have particular traits I really enjoy drawing (large noses for instance heh, I LOVE drawing noses, i'm strange) so Ihave to make really concious efforts to differentiate characters.
I had a laugh a while ago because I sat down and categorised all my many rp characters and started to notice certain similar traits in several of them. Like all my werewolves (tbf there's only two of them) are gay lol. A fluke that, but it made me giggle. I was all "omg I can't deal with straight werewolves can I?"
I also have a heck of a lot of redheaded characters. Oops?

All my art is pretty static atm. It's all like, portraits because i'm lazy and it's a safe zone. Every time I try to get out of that rut I get all discouraged and upset and stop drawing for months so meh.


And aww thanks for the support re faceups. I'm gonna make him a wig too, i'm thinking like green and brown dreads and such. havm't decided on eyes yet. hujoo seem to take a while to process orders, presuming it's because of the holidays but i'm not sure if Korea does christmas breaks. I can't find much info online about how long they usually take as almost everyone seems to buy from dealers. hmmm.
Was tempted to order the two faced cat doll they have but there's no indication of when they'll have stock of them.

Haha yeah, art is... well, hard, to put it very simply. I find I experience long periods of being disheartened and wishing I'd never gotten into it, but yet keep returning because I'm so passionate about it.
I hate to fuel the 'suffering artist' stereotype since it's so narrow and outdated haha, but in terms of mental anguish, boy do I know what that means!

I hope you'll post pictures of your Arthur when he arrives P_M!  I like Hujoo's stuff, but having never seen any owner photos of anything other than the minis, it's hard for me to tell how their bigger dolls (even things like Hujoo Berry which are still classified as small dolls) would actually look in real life.

Good luck with his face-up too! I think the good thing about the Hujoo is that you know you'll be able to wipe it should it go wrong! I've never tried wiping my makies face-ups - despite having parts I want to redo - because I'm terrified I'm going to accidentally lift or sand the dye off them, with the surface being so rough. I think the ABS will give you more breathing space in that regard.

I've wiped Makies, the pigment can sink into the "skin" so it doesn't always come off. You're left with like... ghost stains which is pretty annoying. Chalk comes off better than paint or pencils, paint really sinks in.
I scrubbed the hell out of the head I was sent for frankenmakie, nope, faceup wasn't coming off lol. I got maybe 75% of it off and that was using a rough scrubbing brush for pots. I didn't want to risk throwing it through the dishwasher but apparently you can.
Jian i've just gone over her faceup because it is NOT going to come off without smearing and staining. She has a smear up by her temple that i've just accepted. Freckles hide many.. many sins bwhaha.

ABS is really smooth though. I did the faceup on my hujoo bunny and it's quite different to work with than Makies, or indeed like the soft squishy heads of fashion dolls. I think my biggest problem with him, aside from him being teeny tiny was that I didn't really  have a clear plan of what I was doing when I started. I'll have to draw something up for Arthur, get a solid design in mind before I start. Also buy some new brushes. All my small brushes are pretty uh...  damaged now. I need to get some new ones.

That sort of staining with makies is exactly what I'm worried about! I'd really like the lab to eventually offer buying spare faceplates for makies, because I'd really like several make-up configurations to choose from with my two girls that wear make-up. Their face-ups are too heavy to ever come off I'd say. I do like them, I just wish I had more freedom (freedom that spare faces could allow for).

My little hujoos though are great, I did and wiped several practice face-ups directly on them before the real thing, because the ABS easily allows you to do that.

Funnily enough, since having coughed up the money for quite an expensive resin BJD because it's a sculpt I really like, my entire perception of makies has changed. Paying £50 for a head alone is very normal in the BJD community, so I find myself considering buying duplicate makies just to get the spare faceplates. However, the likely extreme dye mismatch is enough to scare me away from that idea, at least for now (I'd ask them not to dye the head so I could do it myself, but I think they're finding it hard to honour requests right now). I really hope to be bringing in more money later this year, because one of my makies and my two hujoos can't be complete until I can afford to commission their clothing. Having them sit around incomplete is actually quite disheartening, because I can't enjoy them so much. D: The same will go for my poor resin doll when she arrives!

Rambling a bit off-topic there, sorry. XD

I hope your Arthur arrives soon, I have no idea how long things take directly from Hujoo themselves, because yeah I've only bought from dealers. We have the same minipin don't we? I think my major issue is that the posing isn't great, though I'm probably asking a lot of a 12cm doll there. It's not really a stringing issue either, since my mini freya is strung more tightly and has all the same limitations (actually she probably poses slightly worse due to the tight stringing). It's just that the body shape and size limits them quite a bit, so I can't really get any photos of them in more interesting/narrative set-ups. I hope the bigger hujoo will be far far better!

(edit: *feels guilty and immediately has to reassure their two minis that they love them despite the posing problems*)

heh their posing is still better than most playline dolls though.

I think the larger ones have weird gears in their arms that limit their movement a bit. I'll do a review for my blog as and when he arrives. But strung dolls can move in ways regular articulated dolls can't. My old 70s Action girls can pull poses modern articulated playline dolls can't hope for, but it does come at a cost of super ugly hips and a tendency for the legs to pop out of the socket. I had one explode on me a while back lol. The elastic failed after 40 years and she just fell to bits. I had to completely restring the poor old girl and she's a little floppy now. Ahh well.

I admit, I like at least SOME articulation. I don't mind limitations but I like to be able to at least get some movement, it allows for some personality when displaying them. Static dolls just drive me nuts. I can forgive it in vintage dolls because they're old but my bratz are irritating me with their stupid sticky out straight arms, they just look SO awkward.

I think my minis could do with some clear elastic bands so that they can hold their poses better.

Yeah I agree about articulation. I'm okay with statues, but if I want a statue, I'll buy a statue not a doll. However, every playline I've enjoyed has always had a lot of articulation, so I haven't really properly experienced static dolls (actually, my Novi Stars are an exception to that, but their arm/body sculpting tends to be so expressive that I barely notice). Jakks Pacific, Mattel, and Disney Store are the makers of most of the playline dolls I own, and while they could all definitely be improved in terms of articulation, they have just about the maximum amount of articulation you see play dolls with these days. Because of that, most of my play dolls hold a pose better than the mini hujoos!

Ahhh Bratz! I'm so disappointed actually, because despite that it could be improved, I LOVE the Bratzillaz line! Not the best articulation in play dolls, only one face-sculpt, but the poseability and the inset eyes makes them really beautiful to me. If regular Bratz had a release like that, I'd be very interested. As it is, I've just watched the new Bratz from the sidelines and felt fairly disappointed that all the promise of the Bratzillaz line seems to have just been left behind. At least I have my customised Meygana from that line though. Still hoping to pick up an Illiana Honesty at some point. XD

Illiana is beautiful, so beautiful. I liked the zillaz, despite their flaws. They scrubbed up great.
their ann summers outfits though.. *snort*

The new Bratz have jointed knees but static arms, it's baffling. Why half arse it? I don't get MGA sometimes, they make some really weird decisions.

Yeah, I wonder about doll companies sometimes, even the BJD companies do things that leave you going "WTH?....Why are they doing that?!?!

I'm so disappointed with Volks, and the direction they seem to be taking the dolls.  Like apparently discarding what was, in several people's opinion, the best articulated body out there.

Instead they opted to give their new SDM, supposedly a slightly older version of the MSD, a less articulated body, for "aesthetic reasons"....

Only to then turn around and give it one of the ugliest versions of that awful lozenge style knee joint I've ever seen!   When you sit the doll down with it legs bent, you get this hideous black gap at the top of the knee where you can see up inside the leg!

Volks' SDC boys, their original version of a more grown up MSD, have a perfect knee joint, with a "floating" knee cap that gives the knee a very beautiful, more realistic look, even when the knee is fully bent so that the doll can sit seiza,   The lozenge or peanut joint looks like this--->  [   SQUARE! UGH! o_0  

Honestly Volks, what the heck is so aesthetic about a knee that either has a big black gap showing the inside of the leg, or looks like the side of a box when fully bent!?

There's more, but I'll stop now, as I doubt anyone wants to read five hours worth of my angst aimed at Volks.  

But yeah, doll companies can often be very disappointing and even baffling.  

Hey I have a love/hate relationship with MGA. their decisions are baffling but almost always hilarious to riff on. They're like a bad b movie, you know it's terrible but you have a fondness for it because of the terribleness. MGA products are generally like that. Thisis the company that gave us a unicorn that pooped rainbows. Ahh MGA.

Lol, yeah what is this obsession toy companies have with bodily waste elimination functions, and the byproducts that result, anyway!? o_0

I've seen dolls that poop, dolls with pets that poop, fake vomit in a can to play with, baby dolls that eat and spit it back up, and now a doll that comes with pretend menstruational pads and an activity book.

A book of menstruation related play activities for little girls!?!.....

Seriously!?? o_0  

Oh, and my personal favorite.......

Candy dispensers shaped like Santas, Easter Bunnies, Snowmen, Holloween Monsters, etc. that "poop" out the candy!  

What's next, edible candy vomit, or maybe dirty diaper surprise candy?  

oh god, period party Lammily. I wrote a looooong rant about how periods are so not fun and shouldn't be treated as fun and omg dolls don't need pads stop it already. *gag* No.. just.. no.
Dolls are awesome because they don't HAVE gross inconvenient bodily functions. In movies and books nobody has to stop to go poop or to change their tampon, why? because it interupts the story and escapism and whole fantasy element. In fantasy land, nobody poops, nobody bleeds, everything is wonderful damnit.

Dude... have you seen Diaper Surprise lalaloopsy? I was like "oh yea, there's a surprise in there, but it ain't cute plastic charms. Ooo no it's definitely NOT cute plastic charms."

You can get chocolate poop and i'm pretty sure i've seen gummy puke.

I don't get why they even had the idea the making a doll period kit and information thing was a good idea! Dolls DO NOT have periods. They are plastic for goodness sake! Though on another note the new photographer Lammily looks pretty cute...

She'd be ok if she didn't have a potato body. Seriously, Lammily's body looks like someone shoved a doll head on a spud lol.
Poor girl. She has no natural waist and it's so unflattering. Even the teeniest little dip just to give her a natural waistline like a regular human being... hard plastic isn't squishy like flesh, you can't cinch it to create attractive curves.

Anyway, on the money note:

Mum randomly gave me £50 Sweet.

Also, I bought some stuff today on impulse because it was there and it was cheap and i'm not feeling well so i'm gonna just claim I deserve pretty things. I got 2 zelfs and 2 monster high dolls, because B&M are crazy cheap heh.

But i'm not counting it, i'm bad like that.

Anyway,

I asked the uk hujoo dealer about the janus dolls and she's gonna look into that. They're so messed up I kinda want one heh.
Meanwhile no word from Hujoo who i presume are still on holiday. I'm at "payment confirmed" and it could take a while.
I hate waiting, so I may end up ordering more stuff heh.

I actually understand why people would think that making a doll with a period kit and information about the menstrual cycle would be a good idea. It's so all those parents out there who are squeamish about talking to their daughters about it won't have to, they can just buy the doll for the kid and think that they are done with it. I'm sure that the doll is actually meant to help them have a conversation with their daughters about these things but some people are lazy or just don't want to talk about it.

And Purple_Monkfish.... everyone deserves pretty things.