Sylph's BJD Blog

Hass Idriss, fall 2019, “Burning Shadows” (click to enlarge)

M0nkfish’s dolly ramble- toys in general, also BJDs. Solid 10/10 would read again. Mostly Resinsoul BJD. On Doa. aka purple monkfish. Not the hero we deserve but the hero we need. Actually financially responsible, but still has fun. Not stuck up. Sense of humor. Open about what dolls cost and how they did it on a budget. Does faceups.

Missy’s !maginings- Lovely personality- very sweet. Puts some personal stuff on there, but keeps it nice. Basically free printable pattern central for msd (mnf), sd (like Resinsoul proportions, not really curvy), And that in between size if sd and msd had a child (50 cm- like Evangeline Ghastly). Much more fashion doll than realism. Also has “basic” sets you adapt to make your own patterns. Or sew to get a dress form pre dolly arrival. It makes more sense when you look at it. Just saying.

Antique L!lac- my sewing grail, tbh. Canadian, used to take commissions Former costume sewer or something. Anyway, free patterns/tutorials and creative journeys. Variety of sizes. Fantasy/realism aesthetic. Tons of Iplehouse, some Kay Wiggs, and a Updates almost daily. On Doa. Also has a Facebook page. Photography is breathtaking. Sewing is breathtaking. Tutorials are great. Interacts with commenters.

Amaranthz’s Castaways- I hesitate to add this one. Keep it nice, okay? She’s ex-prorecast, and doesn’t update anymore (2016). Great personality, has some useful comparisons so people don’t get scammed. Some identifiers as well. She’s turned herself around so don’t go crusading. She’s got some useful stuff and it’s great for newbies because you can actually see the recasts in pics without getting banned off a forum… Mentions being on DOA in the past but haven’t ever found her.

In th3 glade fantasy dolls (in and around the glade)- this one is part of a family. The person running it has several blogs across different doll universes. Just go into the blogger profile to find the rest. Mostly photos and story telling. Good read. On Doa.

DollzArtCats- not really much to say. They do whatever they feel like doing. Some pics, some gushing on new releases.

As the resin w0rld turns- Really good at crochet, some mini reviews? Idk what to call them. Just commentary on new dolls. On Doa

R3sinRapture- another hobby blogger. Does their own face ups, some sewing. Also on Doa

0rchiddolls- photography, tricks and tips. Some general advice. Anime styled dolls, so not really my thing but still really well done.

My Dolly Adv3ntures- great at sewing. Come for the crochet stay for the bilingual interviews with artists. Sculptors, faceup artists, wig makers, etc. Spanish and English. Also has an Etsy shop for patterns. Used to have an Etsy shop for crochet but has since closed down. Andr3ja commissioned her at least once, for a cardigan. The review’s still up on YT. Aka Musame. Updates pretty often.

Jade pix3l doll lab- anime face ups, some photography, anime eyes. I think on Doa? Not quite my thing, so unsure, but great at styling dolls.  

Ros3intea- mostly YouTube videos and eyes for sale. Great unboxing. Not filmed with a potato. Respond to comment section. Main content is unboxing so not too active, but so worth it. Although I prefer the YouTube channel over the blog. Great quality.

There b3 dolls- I honestly have no idea what’s going on here. I found it trying to find Musame, lol. Anyway, interviews and at least one eyelash tutorial. Appears to be run by El!sa. In my five minute scroll, I also found Iza’s Faceups and Peppermint Pocky. Iza’s on DOA. Peppermint Pocky’s also on tumblr, apparently. Idk, I just read. Maybe forum, maybe blog. Can’t tell.

In conclusion- yeah there’s actually a lot. It’s just harder to track one down. Please don’t go crusading, especially on Am4ranth. I put her on for informational purposes. Like it or not, actual recasts v. legit comparisons are hard to find for that many different dolls, and very valuable if you’ve never had either recast or legit. Especially from someone with both experience and photos. She doesn’t support them any longer, I believe. Don’t go hate on her.

I don’t care if “it gets heated” it should help weed out pro-counterfeiters!

That’s like the #1 place people SHOULD talk about it!!

I know a lot of people call bjd collectors in general elitist but I think it’s DOA’s FAULT that myth persists.

They’re SO hostile and honestly rude to any new person asking a question and will dismissively direct them to “use the search function” or link an old thread that’s long since become redundant rather than just answering the damn question or having a regularly updated “faq” or something

A lot of the old guard flat out IGNORE people they don’t know and your question on the appropriate forum will go completely disregarded, it’s like you’re invisible so you never get an answer.

you cannot talk about recasts AT ALL

You can’t have conversations that stray “off topic” for even one post or a mod stomps in and scolds you and deletes everything so there’s no way to really interact in a meaningful way at all. I find the facebook groups manage this a LOT better, allowing people to have conversations that are about dolls but permitted to flow naturally.

Newbieland posts don’t count toward marketplace access but you MUST provide useful contributions for posts to count or they’ll be deleted. So how the fuck do new people participate in conversations in a productive manner when they’re not allowed to ask a lot of questions outside of newbieland, have no doll to post pics of or talk about and aren’t able to verify the legitimacy of stuff found outside of DOA?

It feels like a catch 22. You can’t get marketplace access but you also can’t get peace of mind that something bought outside DOA is legit and if you mess up you’ll be blacklisted for life for an innocent mistake because fuck you, you should have magically KNOWN because everyone’s born a goddamn expert. -_-

can you tell i’m salty?

to be frank, i feel like DOA’s “don’t talk about recasts” policy is a big reason as to WHY it’s such a huge proble. Ignoring a festering tumour allowed it to grow and making it increasingly difficult for new people in the hobby to find information, to make friends and to feel included with a very hostile and rude environment hasn’t helped either.

DOA put me off buying a bjd for nearly a decade because they were SO abrasive and SO unwelcoming to little teen me.

and it pisses me off to know they’re still doing that to people.

I read posts from newbies and I see a lot of the “old guard”‘s replies and I have to bite my tongue because last time I told them not to be so rude and to watch their tone a mod scolded me, deleted my “please be nice to newbies and watch your tone, it could be read as very dismissive and rude” post and kept the rude ones intact!

(that newbie actually pmed me to thank me and then left DOA so yeah, well fucking done guys, you drove a new person OFF and I dread to think how many you’ve done the same to over the years.)

DOA is thankfully not the be all and end all of the community these days but the pedestal it’s been put upon as “the place” for bjds when it’s such a hostile and cliquey environment cannot be helpful at all.

Recasts are an issue that needs to be talked about, maturely, like the goddamn adults we supposedly are. but DOA doesn’t want to. They’d rather look away and keep silent, not giving new people any help in avoiding being scammed.

-_-

And like… we’re so far beyond burying our heads in the sand and pretending recasts don’t exist.  It’s very “There is no war in Ba Sing Se” to just… not talk about them.  Instead, there should be resources to educate about recasts, lists of dolls that have been recast, how to spot recasts, and help identifying and verifying recasts.  It’s BIZARRE that “no discussing recasts” means “militantly pretend recasts don’t exist.”

I’ve also experienced some… just straight weirdness around recast identification? Like, Minifee #8 hands were never made with hooks, and I still had someone argue at me that #8 hook hands didn’t make a Minifee clearly recast. I can imagine that the dark side of group identification is that there will always be some people who are confident but wrong. It also opens up a lot of spurious “well this many people said my doll isn’t recast so it’s not” type claims, potentially made in bad faith.

Little MiMi doodles. I’m always surprised that her poses tend to end up so “genki”… I don’t know where that comes from. (Dom? It sure ain’t the other two…) I figured her personality would be quieter and more reserved, but she uses that pointing hand pretty darn well.