#bjd review

[peepersponies]

Ok so yeah, 10k Escape Plans. Ruh roh!

I got the angel version off of KikaGoods because I absolutely adore her design and generally I do not fw blind boxes. I don't personally regret buying her buuuut.... They weren't kidding about those quality control issues.

Pros: Her design is just beautiful. I love that her corset actually laces up. Her clothes fit her nicely and look lovely. The sculpting and painting of her hair are gorgeous. All of the extra hands look great, AND there is a set of pegs to hold the S hooks in the wrists while changing clothes, which I greatly appreciate-- I was dreading putting on her arm warmers until I saw those.

Cons: The aforementioned arm warmers prevent you from posing her elbows or wrists because they're so stiff. (Also they're made of that plastic faux leather that is going to degrade and disintegrate and permanently crease in about 20 minutes. The leg warmers, bodice, and corset are the same.)

Also, the wrists can't be posed anyway, they just flick right back to the default position.

This MIGHT be because the stringing of her arms is WAY too loose, to the point where if you pull one arm, the wrist will just hang limp when you let go. But I haven't been brave enough to restring her and check, and I don't know enough about BJD engineering to say for sure. Either way:

Hey, that's not how that's supposed to work!

There's staining/embedded dirt in her left thigh, and the design on her right leg warmer is misprinted.

This isn't a quality control issue and more of just a general design critique but... the wing accessory for her waist just kind of.... Sits there? And it falls off if you breathe too close to it. I'm not really sure what to do with it, despite it theoretically looking really cool.

Overall, I'm conflicted. Part of me thinks "she's only 35 dollars and has so many details and individual pieces, shes probably being made on a shoestring budget as is! It's wrong to complain about flaws." But at the end of the day, other dolls are coming out at equivalent price points and detail that don't have all these issues. And if a company is advertising a product, it's their job to deliver on that product as promised. If they can't do that for the stated price, they need to sort that out internally and either raise the price or simplify the product.

Buyer, unfortunately, beware.

[aliendollien]

Theyre finally here! I've named them Nicky(left) and Minnie(right). Not the best photos as I just got home, but I did wanna do a little review, so I'll put it under a read more.

These dolls are soo cute, but I did have some critiques. Some of their accessories, mostly Minnie's were held together with glue. Minnie came with a little syringe with a bow glued to it which fell off before I even opened her, along with a pink choker that had a dog bone on it, which also fell off shortly after opening her. Both of them are so minor that I'm not really mad, just a little disappointed.

Another thing I noticed is they're not stringed tight enough, and as a result, one limb is always much looser than the rest. I originally thought it was just Nicky, but Minnie has it too, just less obviously so.

Also they're tops do not fit with their hands on, so I had to take them off and then put the hands back on once the tops were on. This was fairly easy to do with a paperclip so it's minor thing.

Now things I LOVE about these dolls. Both come with a blank face plate with eye holes so you can potentially customize them, along with TONS of hands. A minor thing that's more just good customer service, is that I was notified before they were shipped that, do to the material they were made from, the socks, specifically Minnie's, would more than likely fade over time. I was fine with this, but I am glad they let me know beforehand. They're supposed to be semi animal themed, but to be honest I didn't really care for it so I'm happy they look good without the animal themed accessories. All in all, I'm pretty happy with them and I do love how big they are compared to my other dolls. :)

[finnieforkys]

My first bjd yippeee

I was so worried when i heard how many defects and quality issues these girls have from reviews but mine don't have any at all, beside the loose joints and wonky bows on her dress. I'm not brave enough to attempt to restring her yet so i'm gonna leave her be for now

[alanaartdream]

Hello I’m Alana the artist and creator for Alanaartdream that’s on YouTube (this here) TikTok tumblr instagram and whatever the heck twitter is now

So I got a come 4 free (come 4 arts) blind box doll and a cute kitty cat maid out from ​⁠ so had to make a little blind box doll review as well as a little fanart drawing before heading off to work today

[tiffyfoundsomething]

Lady Doolli

I’ve mentioned before that I like blind box toys and ball jointed dolls and now I’m in trouble because there are blind box ball jointed dolls out there.

Lady Doolli is blind boxed but is NOT a BJD though she’s in a similar style. I’d seen these on Amazon for a while and was curious but only recently decided to give one a try.

There is 1 skintone, 6 different hair styles/colors, and it looks like maybe 2 eye colors.

There are also 6 possible outfits.

The dolls and clothing are separate, but are each $26 and both are in the same listing here: https://amzn.to/3OrhHsk

The box is small and cute with a lot of pictures and writing on it, especially making a point to let you know there’s no second outfit in here and they must be bought separately.

The outfits are packed in a little paperboard box shaped like a garment bag. It says 2022 Spring, so I wonder if there are many other outfit sets that have been released.

To be honest, I don’t care for any of these outfits, really. Figured I should get one to review, at least.

Both the doll and outfit are packed in these silver foil bags inside the boxes. There’s no plastic shell or anything to hold their position in the packaging. They’re just loose in there.

I got dark, long hair with a side part with blue and purple eyes, and almost missed the tiny little bag of extra hands inside the silver bag. She does come already dressed in the pajamas.

I tried to get a good photo of the face screening but my phone is a potato. There’s a good amount of detail with a simple layout. She has eyeshadow, blush on the cheeks, chin, nose, and brows, a little lip line to separate her lips... It’s a cute face, but I do prefer my dolls to not look sad or startled.

She does have rooted hair which is silky and smooth. It’s a little stiffer than Kiwi nylon (Rainbow High) while still being soft.

She also has a couple paint spots on her face that look to be from the eyebrow paint.

The rooting isn’t super dense in some areas.

Her head is harder than a Barbie’s head but is squishable to a degree so her eyes could be removed and replaced with some heat and her hair could be rerooted if you wanted.

Hair drop on a new doll head is normal. This looks like a plug or two which didn’t get anchored.

I’m impressed with the posing. The joints are stiff enough to hold a pose but easy to move other than her hips which take a little bit more pressure, and have a high range of motion.

The torso joints aren’t as mobile as the arms and legs, though.

Her head can look up and down or tilt left and right depending on how you turn the neck joint which is a simple hinged ball.

The backs of the knees...

All of the jointing reminds me of Figmas.

Honestly I feel like the body alone is worth the $26 price tag, AND you get a rooted head with quality hair and inset eyes, a pair of pajamas, and an extra pair of hands.

-

Neither outfit that I have has any sort of closures or openings so you do need to remove the head and hands to dress her.

Getting the hands on and off is difficult

Turns out there’s a LOT of flash on her wrist pegs. I did go in and clean that off. There was a good sized bit on her neck ball, too.

Heat up the hands, though, and they go on and off pretty easily.

-

As for the outfit.

Silver bag again.

I couldn’t get this headband to stay on her hair because it’s satin and her hair is satiny smooth, but it does have a wire in the ���ears” so you can pose it as you wish.

......

LOOK AT THESE TINY LITTLE SHOES!

They have stitches, laces, tongues, glued on rubbery soles with IN SCALE texture on the bottom...

They went on a lot more easily than I expected them to OVER her socks. I did need to get a little stick to pull the back of the heel out and over the doll’s heels. Other than that, easy-easy.

I also didn’t even try to extract and tie the laces. They looked really short and I have poor motor control, so I opted to just shove her feet in there with the laces tucked inside.

The outfit came with shorts, a one-piece sweater and shirt combo, and some long socks. The socks aren’t hemmed but everything else is. Again, no closures, not even an elastic waistband on the shorts. The shorts were a little difficult to put on.

All of the fabrics are soft and despite the sweater having a feelable texture, it’s not rough or scratchy so it’s not kicking off my texture-BAD senses.

Action pose! FWIP!

She can’t quite pull of Sailor Moon’s signature pose.

Here she is next to some other blind box BJD (the others really are BJD). They all could certainly share clothes despite Doolli’s longer, thinner body.

From left to right:

Penny’s Box Antu Natural Wonderland - https://amzn.to/3IqKfOz

SimonToy Teenar Campus Series - https://amzn.to/3IlnGLl

Lady Doolli and outfit pack - https://amzn.to/3MiOflA

Come4Free Bonnie Journey of Streets - https://amzn.to/42QlMKG

-

While I do feel that the quality of Lady Doolli is in line with the price (all together she costs $52), and am impressed with, basically, everything about her, I don’t feel a need to buy another. Out of all of the blind box BJD I’ve tried (not pictured here is the Penny’s Box centaurs), the only one I’ve wanted more than one of was Bonnie. I have three.

[fulgurbugs]

home stretch, doll unboxing… 5! double doll special

as you can see, i’ve already opened these. these are the come4free series 2 dessert bonnie bjds, which come on blind boxes

here’s all of the versions they come in. i’ve seen the secret one, since she’s not hidden in promo pics or anything, but they’re all dessert themed this time, unlike series 1 which was streetwear themed

well, cutting to the chase, i pulled these two, matcha fufu and seasalt sisi. personally i’m very happy with these two, as they’re two of my favorites out of the available options

i don’t have my series 1 girls to compare to, but i think they have quite different bodies this time, with larger hands and more paw-like feet, and overall cartoonier proportions.

another difference with this series is that the ears are magnetized, rather than pegs with joints. while this makes the connection more seamless, i think i prefer the jointed peg ears as they have a greater range of motion. the magnetic ears can only rotate.

here’s the girls all dressed up! i think i might get some kind of ribbon to waistband seasalt sisi, her dress feels a little loose around the waist. matcha fufu’s apron has a clasp in the back, but it was unfortunately not clasping for me so i’ll probably sew in a new one when i get back to my studio

offending plastic clasp.

obligatory .5 shots. with their inset eyes, then look a little idk… angry? i’m a big fan of inset eyes though. they look really good on these

and that’s the series 2 dessert bonnies! they’re super cute, and i think i’ll give them some new names soon when i think of good ones.

[bon-bon-blog]

Unoa Freak 1, 2 and 3 [Review]

Summary

The Unoa Freak series is specifically written to celebrate and discuss Unoa dolls. Created in 2003 by Gentaro Araki, founder of Alchemic Labo, they were one of the first BJD available on the market. They are not as popular as they once were but Unoa dolls come in many common sizes, making these books a great resource to this day. The books also contain tutorials on face-ups, manicures, modding, stringing and more.

These books have been created with so much love and creativity, from the beautifully illustrated covers, to the fashion editorial style spreads for the patterns. They are one of my favourites to take off the shelf just to flick through the pages.

The number of patterns varies by book and each one has been created by different artists, so do take a look at the tables below before purchasing.

Details

Language: Japanese Author: Graphic Sha ISBN-10: UF1-4894253720 UF2-4798600261 UF3-4798609021 Patterns UF1: Pirate set,Mod set,Country set,Babydoll,Punk dress,Traditional fabric set UF2: Freie Shirt, shorts, socks. Honeymeryl corset body and skirt. Silver butterfly Jumpsuit. Elolita jacket, dress and bloomers. Dollsdrugkingdom Blouse, skirt, petticoat. Atri corset, garter, skirt, bustier, bra, stockings and miniskirt. Sekiguchi uniform set for girl and boy UF3: FLC shoulder bag,FLC Pants,FLC Socks,FLC Beret,FLC Suspender pants,Poupee Mecanique pants,Poupee Mecanique shirt,Silver butterfly jumper skirt,Hanon onepiece dress,"Galum shorts, sailor shirt, socks, beret",FLC Blouse,FLC Tunic,FLC ruffle shoulder blouse,FLC piping shirt,Atri bustier,Atri tutu skirt,Atri Skirt panties,Atri Panties,SilverButterfly sleeveless dress,FLC Cropped Pants ,FLC Denim pants,Poupee Mecanique pants  Sizes included: Unoa sister, Unoa boy, Unoa Zero, Unoa Fluorite, Unoa azurite, Unoa Ani, Unoa chibi

Visual pattern list

UF1

UF2

UF3

Pros

Gorgeous cover art with a partially transparent layer

A real must if you love Unoa dolls

The photography is superb

So many patterns for any size of Unoa doll

Includes a few accessories 

Tips and tutorials for common doll styling and mods

Cons

Minimal instructions for the patterns, sometimes just a couple of drawings

The patterns in the book don’t work for every size of Unoa doll, usually each pattern is designed for a particular body sculpt (cries in Unoa Zero)

My copy of UF2 had a few pages come loose from the binding - not sure if it's a common problem but something to keep in mind

Final thoughts

I don’t think I would recommend these as pattern books for beginners, as the patterns are sized so specifically and the instructions are quite minimal, but if you are an experienced sewer I think you will enjoy the variety of styles here. My main reason for recommending these books wouldn't be the patterns though - it's the peek into BJD history that make them special. I think they are a great addition to any bookshelf. 

[furanetio]

Link leads to a more detailed review.

1/3 heads sizes with 1/6 bodies are becoming more popular, and I got Kiki due to the sculpt being unimaginably smug.

She arrived in a duffel bag and her head was shipped separately, which was weird. I ordered her in yellow, but it doesn't show up well in my photos.

First picture is her compared to other 1/6 dolls and the second picture is her next to a 1/4 doll with the same head circumference.

Overall really cute doll! I wish I got the extra set of hands for her, but I didn't see the listing until it was too late.

Doll: YY Doll Kiki

[emmrakul]

New girl alert!!

My Tinyfox Macoco Fluffy came in today! :D

I told myself I’d wait on getting a macoco until they made a full set that strikes my fancy and, well…just look at her! Adorable!

Changing out her legs is surprisingly easy! Which is a good thing because I definitely don’t have any shoes that fit her chunky feet right now ^^;

I love the possibility, though! The double joints in her arms are much easier to pose than those in the original 1/4 body, and the mobility joints in the upper arms allow for a huge variety of poses. She’s also quite good at standing on her own.

Unfortunately, I did get the infamous eye well cracks, in both eyes too. I set her eyes pretty far back to compensate, so fingers crossed. You can’t tell from the front, though.

With her, I have 5 1/4 anime girls. (No, I don’t have a problem.) I’ll probably post them all together for a height comparison at some point!

[blunderpuff]

@jmtorres not that I've seen, because I think there's too much accountability-- you have to make an account, and then you have to populate your pattern page with information (yarn weight, gauge, pattern description, yarn specified, etc). Plus, with the comment feature, people can (and do!!) ask questions like "how much yarn does this require?" and "Is this top-down construction?" etc. I think an AI pattern posted by a scammer would be spotted very quickly.

There are tons of legit patterns on Ravelry that have zero projects, because Ravelers now are expecting new patterns to have been tested-- when a designer posts a new sweater pattern, Ravelers expect to see 8+ completed projects with pictures and notes on the day the pattern is released. So a new pattern with minimal information and zero test projects? Is going to be skipped by the vast majority of people. There might be a few people who fall for it, and in the "fell for it" group, there's likely to be someone who tried the pattern and realized it's AI, and will then post their project notes about it for everyone to see.

Hey, if you do crafts (especially things like crochet, knitting, embroidery, etc), make sure to look up how to identify when a listing is AI generated. You do NOT want to waste money on an incredible looking kit or pattern that is physically impossible to make, especially if you're on sites like etsy hoping to support an actual artist.

[artsysister]

I reviewed some old games. #game #review

Game Reviews: Dragon Age 2, Divinity 2, Kingdom of Amalur, Tropico 5 By Teresita Blanco (artsysister.com)

[otterloreart]

Wee bjd: why havent you painted me?!

Bunnyjd: it could be worse, ive been here for months

I finally put fabric between the joints of the bjds to reduse rubbing. I need to trim it off wee takara so its not noticable but its really improved her balance and posing.

Reading toyboxphilosophers toy reviews has really made me want to play with my bjds >0 unfortunately many of them art unfinished!!

One huge thing i want to focus on with my art dolls is making them sturdier so its easier for me to take them places. This isnt something yall would know but many of my early art dolls actually have broken or wonky bits or even dents from falling over (because several of them art made of air dry clay). I think as ive improved artistically i have wanted to create sturdier projects as well

[hatsunemimikyu]

Electric angel~

Bunch of photos of new UFDoll TV head girl! I was expecting this one eagerly and it. Did. Not. Disappoint! She's bigger than I expected, I thought she was going to be the same scale as their Fruit Tea series, but she's proper YoSD scale! Here's her in the BJD crew shelf!

Her outfit is adorable (I got too lazy to put on the socks), she has a posable tail and a key accessory for her back, held on by magnets, she comes with the cat paws and socks AND regular hands and feet, her body almost feels like resin, it's insane how much value you get for ~50 US bucks! (Also a good reminder how you *don't* need to buy recast if you're on a tighter budget!)

My only complaint would be the safety pin acessory in her ear, the thin part is a bit too thin and I broke it while trying to attach 🥲 But at least I could still attach it! And the ears have magnets so they're super easy to place 🙂 And yeah, I know the ears are backward, I was dumdum and put them wrong 😅

This ended up turning into a mini review but yeah, this one is a hit for me! I can't wait to see what UFDoll puts out next 🥰 (Through at the same time I don't, the dollar is super high rn and I need to save money 😅)

[alanaartdream]

Hello I’m Alana the artist and creator for Alanaartdream that’s on YouTube (this here) TikTok tumblr instagram and whatever the heck twitter is now

So as some of you who’ve seen some of my doll/toy videos/ TikTok’s

I like to collect the penny’s box antu bjd blind box dolls

So of course I had to add one of their latest doll series the Antu China Dunhuang Nine colored deer series

And ​⁠ @kikagoods just so happens to be selling them atm if you’d like to grab one for yourself

[queenofsquids]

Hey, I've been curious with the recent dream besties reviews, what's wrong with polypropylene hair ? I'm more from the bjd side of doll collecting and I've never really learn about doll hair fibers beyond natural vs synthetic. Thanks for the help ♡ Love your blog ♡

Hey thank you 💚 And the short answer is that it degrades and falls apart in a couple decades, and is unpleasant to handle in the meantime but here's a good @dollsahoy video about it:

[the-bjd-community-confess]

Hello, Anon:

This is your Oldie Chinese Diaspora Anon™ This is the second part to me trying to detail Imómó’s recent troubles. Some of the issues are trivial while others are quite grievous. It’ll be a bit of a jog, but let’s take it together, you and I.

The first stop is another anonymous whistle-blower who came up to accuse Water of something that I have never heard before.

This person claimed to have worked as DZ and DC’s artistic director. He invited Water in as a collaborator before and thought very highly of her skill and her integrity. Unfortunately for him, a victim reached out to him to let him know that they have been sold the design of a body that is over 90% similar to the Mimi Dog design that’s been made and sold by Imómó (this one:

This goes above and beyond recasting and is absolutely _verboten_ since it makes legit buyers of either “sculpt” end up looking like they bought counterfeits and recasts. Ex-director had screenshots he had with the victim. This made him look like he was complicit in the scheme, and he’s really angry. Other buyers have also popped up to comment that Water had claimed that her sculpts were sold off by “Her boss” in the past (about 2-3 years before this incident) but now it looks like she simply sold the same sculpt to two different companies and tried to play the victim. She was the sole proprietor at the time (which was traced by whistle-blower #2) and there was no “boss”. This is also mentioned in the next XHS link below, too.

The second stop along the way is the quality control for Imómó. Over the last year or so, people have mentioned that the headbacks were of a different colour with a bad fit that was obviously wrong for the face sculpt. (This was mentioned in an earlier XHS post:

As Ex and the two whistle-blowers revealed, the reason why the headbacks do not fit was because they were never meant for the rest of the head sculpt. The headbacks were left overs from previous shipments and the factories were trying to use them up since they weren’t getting paid, so they did not want to make more doll parts for free. This eventually led to more shoddy workmanship because the factories were working for free.

Due to this incident, a lot of the older unboxing and reviews started to float up to the surface as well. People are trying to find out just when did this embezzlement issue really start. For example, this buyer showed off her doll’s shoddy quality back in 2023:

(video attached)

This one with the really thin vinyl happened in August of this year (but the sculpt was probably developed and made much earlier:

She also mentioned that she bought this head from SWDolls and wants people to avoid both of them. Perhaps it’s just me, but it does seem that these two entities are entangled with each other in some ways. SWDolls is an agent for many, if not all of the Chinese brands, but their names are not attached to anyone in specific like this one is.

And finally, if you have been here for a while, you may have remembered me talking about the problems with PVC as a doll material as well as some issues found on an unboxing of a larger PVC doll (found here:

This is from a different company, of course, but the same issue had been raised with Imómó’s larger vinyl dolls as well. Unfortunately, the results can be hilariously sad:

(The neck and shoulder area had sunken into the torso. This is usually due to the vinyl being too thin and cannot fully counteract the stress from the strings. I am not sure why there are marks on the skin in the neck and the abdomen area, but I think we can agree the workmanship is quite bad. Maybe this is the “revenge of the poor factories”, but either way, it’s a bad look.

Step 3 has something to do with the relatively anonymous world of the Internet. This XHS user called out a new company called “Niji Doll” for the extremely high similarities between their doll heads and the Imómó head:

Niji Doll is another “Three-nothings” stores with a lot of secrecy behind it. There are now people who think that Water is actually selling her doll designs to other brands as an exit strategy. This one is left last because there are way too many speculations involved. But I think it’s a good idea to include this for completion’s sake.

That seems to be where the story ends, for the moment anyhow. I will keep an eye out for more exposé should any arise. It’s not exactly up to me to say if I believe the official Imómó channels or a nameless, faceless (and obviously disgruntled) person like Ex here, but I do have my suspicions. Like I said at the beginning, this is a case of a “Bad business with a good product”. Should the owner stick to decent, good business practices, there is a bright future for vinyl dolls like the one he sells. Unfortunately, at the end of the day, it’s hardworking factories and their employees as well as the guileless buyers who ended up being the final victims. And this is just sad all around.

~Anonymous