#dollpa

[tiarasnteakettles]

Time for a little controversy.

One thing I'm starting to realize is not everyone is like me. Not everyone reads a post fully for context, or pays attention to when and what and where. Most people don't assume that they don't know the entire picture when reading things online.

Worse still, sometimes they don't do these things simply because they would rather believe you're a bad person in some way.

I realize now that no matter how hard I work to be transparent, to show receipts, to prove I am not spending my money on dumb things. No matter how much I try to present as this perfect poor person who never takes a day off nor ever spends an unnecessary dime, people just don't care.

They will barely scan over your posts and make their negative assumptions because they WANT to. They don't care enough to read. To check other posts. To pay attention or investigate something. Or hell, to just ask. They are dedicated to viewing you as wrong, bad, lazy, or stupid and they don't want to make any effort to correct it.

The eureka moment here is that I'm tired of being a victim. I'm tired of being disrespected.

You think Patreon is just me sitting on my ass and begging for handouts while refusing to work a REAL job?

Fine.

You think I spend all my money on dumb shit and that's why I can't pay my bills?

Fine.

You think there's nothing wrong with me and I'm a fraud who doesn't want to work?

Fine.

I realize now that no matter how hard I try, there are still going to be people who don't care enough to understand a situation. They just don't.

If I do the things they think I do, they will hate me.

If I am the most frugal person you know, they will still hate me.

Nothing I do matters because these people will always think the worst of me anyways, so fuck it!!

I'm not staying home wallowing and wishing I was allowed to have nice things for myself anymore. I am no longer going to abstain so these people have no criticism. I'm getting criticized all the same.

So sure Jan, I'm always going to cons constantly.

I'm always taking vacations and buying things I don't need.

Whatever! Make that shit up and then choke on the turds.

Anyways, I'm not cancelling my trip. Fuck it. --

And just to be crass here's the fuckin link to chip in on my trip (if you want)

[dolly-birdi]

Ok I don't know why I feel so sus about this, but my Lucia is legit right? I got her secondhand without a certificate, but both of her previous owners were very anti-recast. Her makeup looks exactly the same as official photos (which would likely be too hard to replicate so perfectly) but the fact she came on an sd13 body and that her headplate is much smaller than the hole for it is weirding me out (but the year and dollpa on it are both correct)....

[ginwilliamsart]

Felix is finished!

I wanted to share a little gallery of his process. His wig arrived today and, after fighting with it I managed to do an okay-ish job.

He is a Volks YoSD Chika (Dollpa 23, 2009) and I did his face-up using Munitorum Varnish, Mr Hobby Thinner, Rambrandt oil free pastels, liquitex acrylic gouache and tamiya X-22.

Great improvement in his face-up details by using nail art brushes! 100% recommended

[hatsunemimikyu]

Tfw Tumblr doesn't save stuff as drafts before posting so you have to do it all over again... 😅

1. Got in 2017, but I had known BJDs for a while ever since I read an anime magazine article about them when I was in HS in 20...10-ish?

2. I remember after reading this article I'd go into Soom's website to stare at the dolls for hours! Never thought I'd actually have a doll in my life, they seemed very out of reach!

3. I'm a variety bitch but I tend to like cute, less realistic dolls. And girl dolls, I don't have a single boy doll.

4. SMALL IS ALL! I def enjoy 1/6 size more, it's easier to handle and clothes are a bit cheaper haha.

5. I think just in dolls owned I'd put Dollzone and their subcompanies there (Tinyfox, Dollyzone). I enjoy their variety and relative affordability.

6. I prefer resin as vinyl/abs makes me paranoid af abt staining.

7. Nope, I traded it away, it was my first and only boy doll 😅

8. I'll gush about my Morningstar Francisca, she's stunning and she's all done up by brazilian artists!

9. I prefer just dolls, I just like to play with them, photograph them, change their clothes and overall vibe with them.

10. Never, but I'd love to! They're all so far away from me 😔 From the ones I know I'd love to go to Dollpa and Resin Rose.

11. Very important! Photographing my dolls is one of the main ways I engage with the hobby.

12. Yes I did! Mainly with the cheapest doll in my collection, through the only time I damaged one, it was a new one 😭😭😭

13. My grail list morphs with times, but a constant is the Miku Dollfies, especially Sakura Miku.

14. VINYL/ABS THAT NEVER STAINS! I'd also take the opportunity to ask for resin that doesn't smell so I can finally have a resin printer 🤣

15. Don't rush things out! It's easy to want to cause of FOMO, but everyone has their own pace to get things done.

That was fun to do!

BJD 15 Questions

I remember these were popular on tumblr a while back but since I haven’t seen one in a while I decided to make my own. I made them with BJDs and similar dolls like DDs in mind but feel free to use these prompts to talk about any type of doll! You can also skip any question you don’t have an answer for.

If you post on your own blog please tag with ‘BJD 15 questions’ so I can see your answers! You can also do it on Instagram or Twitter if you like.

1. When did you get into the hobby? Do you remember the reason?

2. Related, what was one of the first dolls you remember seeing? (A photo or in person)

3. Do you have a ‘type’ of doll you gravitate towards or do you like a bit of everything?(ie general look, size, ambience)

4. Do you like bigger or smaller dolls? How big/small is your limit?

5. Do you have a favourite company? What do you like about them?

6. Do you have a preference for resin, vinyl or other?(ie ABS and other plastics)

7. Do you still have your first doll?

8. Gush about your favourite doll.

9. Do you prefer dolls based on existing characters (official or custom), dolls based on your original characters, or dolls that are just dolls?

10. Have you ever been to a doll/BJD focussed convention (eg Doll’s Party, IDoll, Doll Show, Resin Rose, L Doll, Dollism, PNW BJD Expo, Melbourne BJD Emporium etc). Would you like to? Which seems most interesting to you based on what you know?

11. How important is the photography side of the hobby to you? Do you enjoy photography and sharing photos or do you like to keep things to yourself?

12. Have you ever travelled with a doll? Would you like to?

13. What’s your grail doll? If you don’t have one, do you have a ‘bucket list’ hobby wish - something you really want to be able to do/make/experience one day?

14. A magic doll fairy appears and decides to grant you a wish. She can make the type of (non-existent) doll you wish existed finally exist in reality. What is it?

15. What’s your piece of advice for a newbie?

[homeglue]

Dolls Party 2015 by Hannaku Kyrie Via Flickr: QUE-PA-SA-DA!

[montydollcrew]

Doll’s Party 36 Photos and Stuff Part 2

geez this is really late because I kept trying to make it but tumblr often does this thing where it wont let me upload any images from the computer unless they’re in an image post so I haven’t been able to, but its finally letting me again.

Anyway, now I’ll share the photos of other peoples dolls. Dolpa (as well as I-doll and presumably other doll events too) have many tables available for rent where people can display their dolls for everyone else to marvel at. It’s really fun looking at them all, and at Dolpa there are a LOT. It just kept going and going so I couldn’t take photos of every single one I saw, just the ones I found most interesting. I was also surprised to see non-Volks dolls amongst them cos I always heard that Dolpa was for Volks dolls only, but if that rule did exist it wasn’t exactly policed. Obviously Super Dollfies and Dollfie Dreams still made up most of the dolls though. Sometimes the owners would be sitting nearby but sometimes they were nowhere to be seen. There must be a high degree of trust cos sadly all I can think of is how if this happened in the west there’d be a lot of thefts.

Look how cute this Len is? Wow.

More:

A whole load of cute lil MDDs. (And part of a Mini Sweets Doll at the end thats cut off there.)

Cute witches! I love the Kiki. Plus even more Mini Sweets Dolls. Those little guys are enormously popular in my local doll group in Fukuoka (as well as everywhere else in Japan it seems) and its getting harder and harder to resist the urge to get one.

A very cute Rin. I really want those stockings.

A game of pingpong going on over here...

Which sculpt is this?! She’s so cute!

A christmas party was happening over here.

Another angle, and I just realised the little ones seem to be drinking beer lol.

i have no absolutely no idea wtf is going on here

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah (anyway after wanting an MDD more and more every time I see one IRL I’m finally going to get one ; I have the head but can’t buy the body for a while longer though)

good gracious there’s some adorable sculpts here ;-;

I wish I’d gotten a closer pic of her, but on the right there’s one of the elusive tanned D’Coords (the DDH09 one). I also should have taken a photo but someone else had the DDH06 one out too. I didn’t get a photo because I thought I was buying one after Dolpa as I’d seen her in the Akiba Volks store the day before, but we got back there literally right as someone was buying the last one. They were legit boxing her up when I approached the counter. It’s been two months and I’m still salty.

Even more MDDs, these ones all have snacks. There was quite a lot of mini snack packets floating around the event and a lot of the dealers were including them as freebies.

The first group of custom ToukenRanbu dolls I saw, but not the last.

It was a big group. Those YoSDs are so damn cute.

MORE CUTIES, I love the dripping chocolate sweater. And the Arale!

I dont know what’s going on here but it looks like fun.

Certainly one of the more creative MDDs I saw lol. That hair.

Some Precures. There’s usually a bunch of them every year judging from photos I’ve seen but there seemed to be less this time.

aaaah I love the Disney ones!

Especially these two...

EVEN MORE CUTIES,  Including one of my fave twitter celebrities some people may recognize. I saw her at I-doll in Tokyo too.

Its the Sepang Racing Miku! A custom dye job.

There was a whole table of different Project Diva Mikus.

It was the most Mikus I’ve seen in one place...

I really like this one cos she reminds me of Tharja.

I was happy to see a Meiko too, in one of her Project Diva outfits.

The second of the custom Touken Danshi, which is 10 times better than the last solely because...

OF THE TINY LIL HOTARUMARU...

I was kinda tired by now so I sat down in one of the relax areas to put the stuff I got for Mel (eyes/hat/cardigan/scarf) on him. There’s one of the chocolates too, it’s a real Ghana, but the size makes it perfect for doll scale.

FUN FACT as I was doing this one of the VolksUSA staff approached me and asked if I was Torino from the DD forums. Apparently I can be recognized by my dolls lol. She was really nice though, she said a lot of the VolksUSA staff were present to get experience for the LA Doll’s Party this year. I’m really curious to know what that’s gonna be like so I’m looking foward to the reports from people who are going.

Also Mel is apparently so damn cute in person that he compelled her to go pick up a Len of her own afterwards.

Eventually it was time to play Bingo - it was free for anyone who bought the guidebook. There were some pretty amazing prizes, including tickets to the next Dolpa, a whole load of Yo-Tenshis, tickest to the SD Cruise and more. 

I had Mel hold my bingo card for luck.

I got hardly any numbers called, thanks Mel.

Anyway, Dolpa was really fun! I’d like to go to another one - I was going to go to the one in Kyoto cos it’s an easy daytrip from Fukuoka by train but it’s in 2 weeks and I dont really have enough money. I might to go to the Tokyo one in May, I haven’t decided, although I heard there’s gonna be one in Osaka too so I might go to that one (especially as I’ve been meaning to go to Universal Studios again so I can go to the Harry Potter part, as it was still under construction last time I went to USJ.),

[the-bjd-community-confess]

D0lldreaming forums should add the whole "Look, V0lks hates smartd0lls and you get in trouble if you take them in d0llfie event" how DC tried to lie about V0lks dollpa event to their "what has DC done" -list.

~Anonymous

[truebjdconfessions]

I lowered down a limited edition dollpa volks head of mine (it specifies only the head and i dont even have it on a body in pics) on sale and someone thought they’d get the dress AND the full doll for like $200?!? Are you crazy?!?

~Anonymous

[dollsonmain]

Marine’s head...

I only bought it so I’d have a full-Volks doll to take to Dollpa (the majority of my collection is Volks heads on other bodies), and a friend was trying to get rid of it.

I never actually liked or wanted it. And I’ve never really liked her in my collection, either. Her head’s too small, maybe....

But I was thinking what would I do with the body if I sold the head? Buy another head? Put Gum on it?

I don’t even know.

Suppose I could sell the body. I’m the first owner (still have the boxes etc. for both head and body) and it’s in good condition, just outdated (DDII).

But I don’t know if that’s what I want, either.

[diario-secreto-bjd]

Lost in Translation:

Diary of a doll.

“Where does my story begins? How can I know..?

Have I forgotten the sweet smiles, or the blazing sun on my resin as I was sitting there?, and the smell of the grass that came trough the window..?

All I know is that my memory is shattered, and now, after a bit more than ten years, I’m giving a second chance... but I wonder what happened in my past life that got me here, to the other side of the world in only eight days.

I know I saw the light around December, 2009. Some tender hands put me together and I was adopted in Japan... although I can’t remember by “who”, or the details, it’s like knowing you were born, but can’t remember how.

Did I belong to the Katori town on the Chiba Prefecture? Have I ever visited their Shinto Shrine to see the spirits? Or the old Merchant Town near the Sawara canal? Did I ever attend any of the Festivals? Or sit on my window near the beautiful river view of Old Sawara..? Was it the smell of the crop fields filled with rise, chives, and onions, the fresh smell that I remember..?

Why I can’t remember the face of my previous owner, but I can remember the gentle touch of the hands changing my clothes? Was it my Tae..? ...and the fussy black fur wig I had on my head, hold by my velcro.., the now dried white eye putty holding my yellow glass eyes and the feeling of my own box..? Who’s box is this? Did I knew another doll..?

I remember being taken away from my home, bald and almost naked, with just my gray underwear, ...and then left at that warehouse on a buyback store, ...the endless orange shelves and the red walls...

Why my owner never returned to pick me up?

Didn’t my human had the money? or just forgot about me? ...was I ever loved and cherished? and if so, why it never came back for me? ...is it even still alive? ...how was it that I got so lost?!

I’m full of questions about who I was, and I don’t know who am I supposed to be now...

In such a short time, so much has changed... I heard of a pandemic, and the entire world closed their borders, a few days before my departure, hearing from my box comments about a cruise ship with infected people... and then arriving in secret at the last minute before the quarantine, hearing as I was carefully restored about a new Tsunami and how the Olympics got canceled in my country, just when the Sakura trees where starting to bloom.

All my body being put apart and carefully sanded back to remove my ten years of tan sunlight yellowing my resin skin, the silicone rubber circles around my joints being hold back again... and my faceup being restored, new wig and clothes. - How long did it take? How did I waited there, on a room full of other dolls I never knew..?

What is my name? ...was I ever given one? or should I just being called Minoru..?

I stayed on my new house then, waiting for my final reveal...

...was I the loving birthday gift to a seventy year old mother now?

I don’t want to be left alone again...

...I don’t want to get lost again...

...whatever it is, I’ll try my best to be a good doll.

As my new humans look at me, I wonder how I’m reflected in those eyes to them... am I really able to accept them as my owners knowing the damage old doll I am now? ...or would I be abandoned again..?

And I wonder, would my previous owner cry for me when thinking I’m gone?, would it even remember my face..?

I want to believe so... even if I never remember it.”

~ Minoru

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Original Facts about the story:

- Listed as: “Volks Super Dollfie Graffiti Boy SdGr Minoru Kamimura DP22 After Limited Edition 82”

- Value: Y$ 35,000 yen

- Original Release date: DollPa 22, 6th December 2009. - It’s part of the “Naval Academy” story arch made by Volks.

- Store/warehouse: Katori is located in the Chiba Prefecture, Japan (Kanto region)

Area known for: the Katori Shrine, the Old Merchant Town, the Canal of Sawara. - Katori is located in the far north-east of Chiba Prefecture (lower reaches the Tone River). Katori is a regional commercial center. The economy is mostly agriculture: Rise, Chives, Onions, and greater burdock (as major crops). - In October and July there are Sawara Festivals, there is a traditional river view of Old Sawara.

Mandarake stores have a warehouse there, long lines of orange shelves and red walls in the workers room (with computers and tables, processing the orders). It’s a “buybacks only” (empeños), not sales nor pick ups, set at: 4365 Sawaraha, Katori-shi, Chiba. Open from 12 PM noon, to 7:30 PM (opens every day of the year).

The doll was exposed to sunlight on a sitting position (based on the yellowing marks) near a source of light: hands, chest/neck, knees (inner joint), and feet where yellowed. He wasn’t wearing his original outfit (obviously).

Only a small set of grey underwear. - The velcro on his head had traces of a black fur wig and it came with yellow glass eyes. The doll was a “single jointed body” (long legs SD-Gr), silicon circles around the joints where added.

Arrived from Japan to Argentina in only 8 days (with a different box from another Volks doll), just the right time in the midst of the (Covid-19) pandemic, a day before the packages transit was closed and it was retrieved by me around 26 hours before the obligatory lockdown was established by the Argentinean government.

Days after, during his restoration, there was a 7.8 magnitude earthquake and tsunami (11:49 JST 25 Mar 2020 - Northwestern Pacific Ocean - M 7.8) that triggered volcanic activity in the American continent. Japan Olympic games where postponed from 2020 to 2021 due to the Covid-19 worldwide outbreak.

This doll had such a ride, such a past, and such a present, that deserves to be told as much as possible. It’s not maybe the object itself, but the story, time and places it has endured to being here right now.

[tiarasnteakettles]

To help with the fundraiser, there will now be a limited (only 10 made!) acrylic standee featuring Cammy in her Dollpa LA 5 competition outfit!

If you love vintage showgirls, neon lights and everything Vegas - this one's for you!

[clairintr]

Dollpa 

Well yes this my Ocs

Name:Dollpa 

Age:43

Gender:Male

[ginwilliamsart]

I needed a break and fiddle with my hands today so I recycled some old children socks and made some cozy hats for the boys. Made them pompoms too.

I am happy to see that I did a good job restringing them as they can stay still on one foot! Apologies for their creepy eyes, they have washi tape to cover the inner part of their head to avoid staining. They both have two layers of sealant and they're ready face-up process.

Sylvain: Volks YoSD Kun (2009)

Felix: Volks YoSD Chika (Dollpa 23)

[real-bjd-recast-community]

Hello. I'm a neutral, and to some extent I agree to the stuff that is being said here. I have friends who have recasts and are open to recasts, although I only have legit dolls (because I have the means to get them), I am actually considering getting a doll that has long retired from a recaster. I just have a question. A famous recaster is now facing legal battles with BJD companies. If it truly does not affect the artists and the companies, why do you think they are pushing for this?

Because the lawsuit is for the use of the name of the brand, NOT for the selling of the doll itself or the profits generated by it. 

Imagine Coke, McDonald’s or Starbucks had a guy who does the same food, calls itself with their names, but they have no control over the quality, distribution or decisions taken on the company offering such products. Then, let’s say, something happens and a person might file a lawsuit against the REAL brands (Coke, McDonald’s or Starbucks).

Maybe you’re just too new to this hobby, but I’ll say this for a +100000000 time. Big companies pay artists ONE time when they deliver the sculpt. Then the factory (Soom, FL, Iplehouse, etc) reproduce that sculpt on resin as many times as they see fit. For instance, if this was about “earnings”, then how come long time discontinued sculpts are included on the lawsuit list? (that, truth to be told, that lawsuit it’s just for show off, it will get no one nowhere, like, EVER…) The original manufacturers have no intention to sell this dolls anymore, and they will never get anything from the second hand sales antis defend so much.

There was ALWAYS a certain “niche air” around legit expensive BJDs [niche meaning: denoting or relating to products, services, or interests that appeal to a small, specialized section of the population.], the idea that those who had certain doll where “better people” than the ones owning a cheaper legit (bobobie, mirodoll, etc) or a less limited sculpt. For those sculpts to basically be able to reach every person that wants them is to loose that exclusive air of “I’m better than you because I have this” that came implied with the owning of this legit BJD.

Now a costumer it’s not “special” (take Volks for example, you can NOT, literally, enter ANY of the Volks facilities and official stores, events, Dollpas or centers if you’re with ANY other BJD that isn’t Volks. Even if it’s legit, even if you got a SuperDollfie on one hand next to the other doll, if they catch you with a ResinSoul on a Dollpa, they will kick you out “japanese politely style” but still kick you out. Only stores that are OK with this are “third party stores” such as “Mandarake”), everyone can have the doll of their dreams now. So the people acquiring this dolls for thousands of dollars, might consider themselves “less happy” if a guy can’t pay $700 to $2500 for a doll, and will never have enough time in their entire life to save for it, so he go and buy a $150 recast THAT LOOKS JUST THE SAME, and this niche clients might get disappointed in the company don’t doing anything to keep “poor people (literally) unhappy”, and stop buying out of spite. So sure, at least it has to look like the companies are making something… (let’s face it a “counterfeit pop up” on a website hasn’t ever stopped anyone from buying a second brand or a copy or a knockoff of every other product, from art to toys).

*(I still remember the times of the “price adjustment” back in the day, because it turns out someone found out that prices inside Asia where %30 of the actual american dollar price the legit companies put on their “international websites” for us, so when this hit the light the legit companies had to “adjust their prices”, and I’m not talking about ONE but mostly ALL of the big names)

But let’s be realistic here for a second, because it’s all a power game, so let me say this out loud one more time: IT’s NOT ABOUT THE ARTISTS. It’s not about the companies either.

1 - Antis want to feel better than you, and if you are poor, f*ck you for being poor, and go buy a ResinSoul even if you don’t like their particular aesthetics and will hate the doll making the hobby a very bad experience because you don’t own the doll you loved but the one someone convinced you “you deserved”.

2 - If a niche collector (an anti, an elitist, a “”pro artist””), has buoyed a doll for $1000, and now the same doll can be got for $170, first of all, the person feels stupid, second, knows that no one will be paying the $1000 this collector originally paid (6 years ago), PLUS, the other $700 the seller wants “just because he thinks he deserves it”, and most elitists don’t care much about their dolls (only their status on the BJD “legit”community), so they usually buy and sell in a never ending circle as fast as they can.

3 - They use dolls as an investment, and believe it or not, they do. They didn’t put their money on a bank or actions or a real state, no, they have forty $1500 each full sets that hope in 10 years will worth 3 to 5 times more. And guess what? RECASTS made them widely available for a penny. Thus, “angry antis”.

4 - There is no clear social distinction now if you manage to pass your recast as a legit. Before recasts there was a line of 3 sort of people in this hobby, the “niche top notch Volks elitist collectors”, the “cheap bastard collectors” (people who wanted Volks, Luts, Soom or Iple but could only buy Bobobie) and the “wannabe collectors” (who didn’t had a doll yet and where trash for customizing a barbie or a MH). NOW EVERYONE CAN HAVE A DOLL, the exact same doll in fact, and truth to be told is that “rich people”, “better people”, never likes to be lumped together with the general population, they feel are “better” and their things are “better”, so HOW DARE YOU having the same thing for cheaper?! WE MUST SHAME ON YOU!

5 - The lawsuit is going NOWHERE (regardless of what antis say), first of all, because CHINA is a communist country that gives a big sh*t about our laws, and even our president knows it. This supposed “lawsuit” has being “pending” for a NAME, this means that even if, ON A PARALLEL UNIVERSE, “legit companies win”, the ONLY difference will be that recast will be listed as: “bjd doll 1/3 scale girl one of four sisters” AND NOT LIKE: “Volks Super Dollfie four sisters BJD 1/3″. So it’s NOT like recast will not be sold, they just CAN’T PRONOUNCE THE NAME of the brand or sculpt, because that’s ALL the lawsuit includes! Nothing else than that!

.

So… maybe I’ve being here too long and I’m done with people exaggerating things and a hobby I love being turned into a second version of my high school where cheerleaders are the top girls and we’re all beneath them, but I’m seriously getting tired of people not using their common sense and Google. Please do, it’s not that hard.

Don’t let others to put ideas on your head just because “it’s easier than to think for yourself”, in fact, don’t even believe me, do your own unbiased investigation and use your common sense and past experiences in the hobby (and in human history) to realize the truth you are so eager to find on your own terms.

Admin C

has left da house!

[mandarake-en]

Now available on the Mandarake eBay store ... Volks - Dollfie Dream - DD - Mio Honda Dollpa 33 Limited Edition Idolmaster Cinderella Girls https://t.co/Q7bNOVXyHz #IdolMaster #Dollfie #Dolls #CinderellaGirls #Mandarake #eBay https://t.co/nMqEZe4G8d Mandarake Twitter: http://twitter.com/mandarake_en Mandarake Facebook: http://facebook.com/mandarake (Automated Tumblr Post)

[arisatounox]

Tea Party with beautiful dolls at yesterday’s VOLKS Dollpa LA with @princemaru. My heart is set on owning a doll one day 😄💖 Thank you @variate for inviting us!