A lot of BJD collectors tend to gravitate towards one company more than others, even if they have a multi-company collection. The four big ones that seem to attract the most repeat customers/admirers are Fairyland, Soom, Volks and Resinsoul. These companies tend to have the most enthusiastic (and sometimes, on the negative end of the spectrum, rabid) fans.
I have a number one favorite company as well, but I often feel kind of weird about it since it’s not a popular company so far as actual dolls goes (from what I’ve seen anyway). Most people seem to like one or two dolls from them, but prefer to buy clothes and accessories from them instead. However, I love Dollmore dolls. I love their sculpts. I love their body designs. I love their faceups. I love their resin. LOVE!
Dollmore Youth Eve Fine - my dream girl <3
Over and over again I find myself drawn to their often unusual looking dolls. But what I love most about their face sculpts is that they tend to look like real people, but still have that distinctly BJD-ish quality to them. Some of them look like traditionally beautiful models or movie stars, while others remind me of some of my favorite celebrities who have a more distinct and strikingly unconventional beauty.
Dollmore dolls keep finding their way into my heart and onto my wishlist. And I love more of their dolls than I’ll ever own from them – primarily because I don’t want to collect larger dolls anymore and their MSDs aren’t slim minis (which I prefer in a general aesthetic sense). Most recently I’ve fallen hard for another Dollmore Limited Edition doll -__-;
Dollmore Kid LE20 Snow Blossom Vian - image by Dollmore
Vian and Shiloh are my two favorite “girl” DM Kid sculpts, and this version of Vian is especially gorgeous in the limited pink skin color – a lovely dusty rose hue. I love everything about this LE! Her resin tone, her faceup, her eyes, wig and clothes. Even her black nails, offsetting her pink outfit and hair, are awesome! I’ve been stupidly searching for a doll to be Damien’s biological mom, a succubus who doesn’t even have a name. In Damien’s world, succubi/incubi are shapeshifters who can change their appearance to that of any humanoid which helps them best target any prey (they’re not violent or anything, they just want your sexy energies!). So his mom could really look like anyone and be any shape or size. But I really want her to be a 1/4 representation of a more human version of herself – a default “human” look that she uses as her primary guise while on the mortal plane. Vian would be perfect <3
I’ve also been doing more thinking about what to do with my Loongsoul YeSha. There has been extremely minimal interest in him so far as sales go and it’s been very disheartening to think I’ll be stuck with a doll that I no longer want when he could be in a loving home instead. He’s gorgeous, he really is! But I can’t have two different size versions of the same character. It’s just weird to me. Two different age versions would be another story, of course, but I digress!
I’m going to try to just sell the YeSha head instead of the full doll and get another head to put on my LS body. A head that I should have got as 1/3 Jace in the first place: Leeke Mihael.
Leeke Mihael - image by Leeke World
Mihael was the second BJD that I fell in love with (after Saint), but I was cautioned against doing a hybrid (Leeke bodies = not for me on so many levels) as my first doll by pretty much everyone I spoke to in the doll community. It scared me away from the idea. I gave up on Mihael, and right as I did Loongsoul released YeSha. And so Yesha became doll Jace and Mihael was admired only from afar through photos.
I won’t lie. I am not in love with the Loongsoul 1/3 boy body. I love the way it looks, certainly! It’s very handsome. But the weight of the resin combined with joint locking mechanisms that don’t work in several places (most notably the torso and shoulders – though the knee locking mechs work great) and the infamous and awkward butt joint that has to be manipulated just to get the body to sit have been a key point in me wanting to move it to a new home. The body can pull off some truly amazing poses! …But it struggles to hold the most natural looking “simple” poses, like standing with one hip cocked and a knee slightly bent with naturally hanging arms. I also hate the old default hands. There are all of 4 poses you can do with them that look natural: hooked in a pocket, smoking a cigarette, brushing hair out of face, giving the peace sign. I had planned to get the relaxed pose hands but I don’t even know if they offer spare hand parts after they broke one of their molds. Coupled with wanting to downsize to 1/4 scale and, well, it was obvious to me that I should sell it.
But I’m willing to give it a second chance. Maybe the arms are strung too loosely or too tightly? Maybe I could wire the arms and legs to get more natural looking poses out of the body? I’ll give it a go at least :) And if it doesn’t work out for me, back on the market he will go. There are plenty of people who are in love with the LS bodies – but I’m just not one of them. I prefer slightly more simple and elegant looking/working jointing – like those of Dollmore and Fairyland.
And that’s one thing I love about this hobby: the variety! There’s something for every BJD enthusiast out there. Though sometimes it’s a real pain finding what works best for you XD
