Friday, January 23, 2015

BJD Loot Part 2: 3 Heads



Last summer, Doll Family-H discontinued most of their old molds.  I assume most weren't selling, and many were pretty rough looking.  I'd had my eye on this guy, but was cautious, so I split the doll with another collector.  I had three reasons.  First, if he showed up looking wonky, I'd only be out for a head.  Second, the body was 70cm tall, and that's just too huge for me.  Third, I was hoping they would have some updated smaller bodies after their revamp--they didn't.  The order was placed in the middle of August, it didn't ship until the middle of December.

Julian

He showed up looking fine, just as good as the pictures, maybe even better.  I ordered a 65cm body during their Christmas sale, hopefully it will come in a month or two.  He has sad eyes and a contemplative expression.  He looks quiet and a bit lost in thought.

I didn't want another large doll, but I also didn't want to let him get away.  He's not a popular sculpt, and since they're made to order, only a handful exist.






An Ping
I'm not sure what to do with An Ping.  I like the head, it has a soft Mona Lisa-like quality to it.  Unfortunately, it is also really tiny.  It was designed to have adult proportions on a 60cm body, while all my other dolls are 60cm bobbleheads in comparison.  It won't fit on the incoming 65cm body at all, and I don't have the space or budget to order a 60cm body just to match it.



Practice Head/Zhuang Qi
I bought this just for practice, before the first one I bought had even been delivered.  I finished a rough faceup on the first one, and completely fell in love with it once I put the eyes and wig on.  I'm glad to have it in Normal Pink tone as well.


Quality-wise, I think they're all OK.  The sculpts aren't as skillfully done as my Delf or Dollstowns, but IMO they're better than the Domuya and possibly Dollcatch/Customhouse ones.  Two have some superficial scuffs from the factory that I need to buff out.  Oddly, I think they sandblast or matte sand the entire head when they take off the seam lines.  They don't get the crevices, though.  That's my only real complaint.  It's sort of bizarre.

Monday, January 5, 2015

BJD Loot part 1: 3 Eyeball Grab Bags

I ordered some glass eye grab bags from Alice's Collections.  I don't know if they're all supposed to be B grade goods, most were a little asymmetrical in some way, but none were so bad they couldn't be used in some kind of doll.  I kept the colors I wanted and tossed the rest on eBay.

14mm Bag #1:


14mm Bag #2:

16mm Bag:

These are the ones I kept.  I especially like the spiral blue pair and the glittery green ones.  I don't think either are available on the usual websites or eBay, so they were a complete surprise.



Here are three pairs I really considered keeping, but I just don't have a doll for them.


The lovely pale blue pair has a spiral of fine white threading, they were so similar to the colored spiral pair that I didn't need both.


It was a great and inexpensive way to sample colors and learn what I don't like.  I don't think I'll do it again, at least not for a while.  The 14mm bags had too many duplicates and similar colors.