#bjd information

Beginner Information: "Ball Jointed Dolls" and Blind Box BJD

Dear DD anon:

The customization market for D0llfie Dreams is… incomparable to other brands in all honesty, people on Yahoo Japan Auctions practically make a living customizing and selling one-off DD heads for anywhere from $50 to $10,000 if an auction gets particularly heated, and there are literally pages of heads available on any given day of the week. DDs on the V0lks store are basically the equivalent of a blank doll as far as most people are concerned, branded collaboration fullsets (ala Hatsune Miku) aside. Even dolls that come directly from V0lks’s Doll Point stores with a complete faceup are often going to be customized down the line.

DD customization tends to be more extreme than you typically see on the resin side of things as well. While resin collectors are able to hybrid all kinds of amazing fantasy parts together to make something new via additive modding, vinyl’s softness means it’s perfect for subtractive mods- hence why so very many DD heads have open mouth mods despite V0lks not manufacturing an open-mouthed head. For DD collectors the face is the soul of the doll, and so an incredible amount of attention is paid to the faceup and any associated sculpting therein, as well as to the eyes and wig which complement them.

Conversely the body matters less to many people (though some do care an equal amount about the body style and spend a great deal of time modding and hybriding parts between brands to achieve a desired look.) V0lks sells a variety of differently-sized bodies, from the ¼-scale MDDs to the curvaceous 1/3-scale DDdy, but many collectors look beyond V0lks to find a body for their dolls. Before the 60cm line was tragically discontinued, many people would purchase 0bitsu bodies for their dolls instead, especially as, for a time, 0bitsu were the only ones selling male vinyl bodies at all. Even now male dolls are a contentious issue in the vinyl world- 0bitsu discontinued everything above MDD-scale, V0lks only sells their male bodies through Dream Choice (aka ‘physically haul your ass to Japan to buy one,’) and Sm4rt D0lls… SmD is going to get their own paragraph.

Of the many vinyl brands (V0lks, 0bitsu/P4r4box, 4zone, V1suad0ll, 4ngel Philia/Qu4rant0tt0/P1nk Dr0ps, SQ L4bs and more I’m forgetting,) Sm4rt D0ll is a notable entry for being quite well-known and popular, but also quite divisive and even controversial in not just the vinyl side of the hobby, but in the BJD hobby as a whole. Much of this controversy relates to the actions of the brand’s owner, D4nny Ch00, such as his tendency to publicly harass those he doesn’t agree with on social media, weaponizing his not insignificant fanbase to attack those people on his behalf, some off-color remarks about race and other social issues, his disparagement of other doll brands, and most notably, his habit of cancelling the orders of, and subsequently banning those who publicly discuss issues with his products (including manufacturing defects) from continuing to purchase from his store, as well as a general habit of complaining, at great length, about purported 'haters’ towards his brand in almost every single post made on the official SmD social media accounts and product sales pages. On top of this, many of the SmD business tactics are controversial as well, including the selling of dolls in blind boxes (which appear to be weighted towards repeat customers,) the complete and utter inability to buy spare parts for Smart Dolls without engaging in blind box mechanics, and the generalized frustration even from devout fans of SmD’s tendency to trot out new and upcoming dolls that either never get released after the fact, or only see release as a one-off prototype sold at a significant mark-up, as well as the fact that a significant portion of the brand’s catalogue is locked to blind-box availability as well, including their entire lineup of male dolls. Many also cite problems with the brand’s community culture as well, including a tendency to exclude and berate those who have legitimate concerns or issues with their purchases, and the almost deification of D4nny Ch00 himself as a figure beyond all reproach. Proponents of the brand, meanwhile, tout the fact that SmD is the only brand that actually reliably sells vinyl in different colors, as well as the fact that the brand offers a host of inclusive designs to customers who request them including prosthetic limbs, representation of various skin conditions and, recently, ostomy bags.

Generally, however, it is the unavailability of parts that has lead to the SmD customization market remaining quite small compared to those of other vinyl doll creators, as well as a belief by some in that community that changing a Smart Doll’s faceup is an offense to D4nny Ch00 himself. This is slowly changing, but customized SmD are still quite uncommon in the hobby overall, and those who have performed more extreme mods on their dolls (such as dyeing them or doing subtractive mods) have even faced social media harassment for doing so. This, as well, has lead to the relatively slow growth of the custom SmD market compared to that of other brands.

In summation, the V0lks store is a store of blanks and all the adorable DDs you see on social media are customs that someone most likely bought from a big-name creator in Japan or on Etsy, or else customized themselves. There are other vinyl brands as well which you may want to investigate to find your own aesthetic interests. Happy collecting!

These days there is not a single piece of information on DoA that can’t be found on the internet, but if you wish to be part of that specific community, DoA has a rule against people showing their recasts inside their forum, but not against owning them. Unless they’ve change the rules recently, or you cross paths with a Moderator or Admin that just “doesn’t like you” (DoA is much like high school), then, as long as you don’t post pictures of your recast inside that specific forum, you can lurk and participate and they have no legal ground to ban-hammer you other than “we make rules and then we break them because we’re elitists”.

And then you need to start wondering if that’s the people you want in your life as friends. But that’s a different discussion.

Directory

What is a ball jointed doll?

Abjd or bjd?

Why are bjds so expensive?

List of bjds under 300 usd.

Bjd sizes

Bjd skintones

What are recasts?

What can you do with bjds?

Where do I buy a bjd?

Bjd maitenance

Face-ups, mods, and restoration

Summer pictures

Old msc and new msc warning

Bjd posing

Starter dolls

Bjd community

How NOT to photograph bjds.

Wigs.

Things that are normal in the bjd hobby.

Dolls for 300 usd or less.

How to hand wash bjd clothes.

Dark-skinned BJD Masterpost.

Post Chinese New Year Slow Down.

Reasons NOT to buy recasts.

How to pick your first doll.

Hybrids.

Single Jointed vs Double Jointed.