Least favorite company?

     My least favorite company, totally honest, is Bobobie. It's just that after owning and handling a few of their dolls, they aren't up to par. This is probably going to come off as "hate", but I'm being totally honest. After handling several other dolls, I don't think I'll ever buy another Bobobie. Let's talk strictly about their bodies--not the ones that were brought over from Resinsoul, either--just the ones that are exclusive to Bobobie.
 
      They're, for the most part, single-jointed. For some people, this is fine. For others, it's no good. Then there's all the problems with the hips/waist. Half of their bodies can't even sit without modification. The 60cm boy body is double-jointed in the knees and actually has a semblance of a mobility joint, but then the arms are just a joke. They have a floating ball, sure, but there's no way in hell that you'll get those arms to move further than 90 degrees without sueding or wiring or something. And even with that help, it won't look natural. Even my Angel of Dream boy poses miles better, and AOD is not too far from the Bobobie price range. The double-jointed bodies available from Bobobie (that are technically Resinsoul bodies) are a little better, but even they need some serious work.

     I've been looking for new bodies for Kiwi and my RS Li for a while now.

     I think that if they worked more on the bodies and polished up the face sculpts a little more, I'd give them a second chance. As they are now, there's no way. They're affordable dolls, great. They offer a great selection of resin colors, awesome. But there isn't anything they have to offer to me personally. If saying I don't like Bobobie because I genuinely feel like their quality is really low makes me an elitist, then I'm a super elitist. I don't even care. I'm not going around sending people messages that their dolls are crap or anything personal like that. I honestly feel like their quality doesn't hold up compared to other dolls I've handled.

     Writing this actually makes me feel anxious because I know people will take this as fuel for their "people just hate on Bobobie because they're cheap" fire, and this isn't just me "hating" on them because I've got some made-up bias in my head. I think it's silly to just label each other as "cheap" and "elitist" just because we have different tastes (and even legitimate reasons we don't like certain companies). So please, before you go and call me an elitist, actually think about what I'm trying to say, and think about the fact that these are just my experiences and feelings. You have different experiences and different feelings, so it's perfectly fine for you to disagree.

~~Aronzo~~

People want to know your favorite doll size on Day 8

     I really like big dolls. My brother and best friend both have big dolls, which I've spent most of my hobbytime playing with the smaller sizes. I've always wanted a big doll, and I'm especially excited to get my Ringdoll Frankenstein soon. I have a feeling he won't be my last big boy, seeing as I adore a lot of the Iplehouse EID guys. It's just the perfect size for male dolls, in my opinion. I like their mature, bumpy male faces. I love Iplehouse Eric's smirk and Dexter's hypnotic gaze. Don't even get me started on the Ringdoll Grown boys--they've got a special place in my heart.

     Some of them may be a pain in the wallet to dress, but they're so big and so masculine, and yet at the same time they're dolls. When most people aside from the BJD hobby think about dolls, they think about Barbies or baby dolls. These guys are like a whole different ball game from that. From something that's so stereotypically girlish and kept to smaller sizes in the mainstream, I love that these guys can break that mold. I don't even know why I'm so obsessed with having my boys so tall other than that, but after having some hands-on time with a few of them it just feels so perfect for me.

     By the way, they're frickin' huge compared to what I'm used to. Sure, I bought an SD girl a while back, but she's been in her box most of the time and she's already sold to somebody else. Here's a picture to show you how a 70cm Dollshe sizes up next to a couple of MSDs from Bobobie/Resinsoul (I used this site to make the comparison). Would you just LOOK at that height difference?

     I'm really, really looking forward to having some big boys. I know I just got a Littlefee with the money I got from selling my DL Thea, but I'm thinking it'll be great to have a big variety of dolls to choose from. I also like the contrast between heights of dolls. My RS Li looks mature to me when she stands on her own, but next to my friend's RS Dong she looks like a large doll (relative to his height) or a strange, agleless person. It really throws things off and I find that interesting.

Anyway. It's late, and I'm starting to ramble. Goodnight, with love!

~~Sleepy Aronzo~~

Day 7 is about little dolls

     Specifically, Day 7 is about the smallest doll you've owned, held, or otherwise come in contact with.

     Kiwi and Milo are both 15cm tall, but the smallest doll--who I used to own--was a Resinsoul Yu. Though still 15cm tall, the Resinsoul body is slimmer than the Bobobie body. She was an itty-bitty little thing with some pretty cute ears, but she just wasn't the doll for me. I'm still having issues with Kiwi's body that I just didn't feel like going through basically the same issues with another doll. I hadn't done any modifications on her that were all that engaging, and she just boiled down to another impulse buy. There's really not much else to say about here, so this is the last photo I took of her before shipping. I'd done her faceup, wig, pierced her ears, and that was all I'd done with her. Her name was Colette.

 

Day 4--Your first BJD

     My first BJD. It's kind of funny because when I was looking for a first doll, I was trying to go with the absolute cheapest option--a Bobobie Lucky. I was looking everywhere for one, but being the admittedly stingy person I am I never settled on one because they were all "too expensive" for me. And then I just randomly googled "BJD for sale" and this was literally the first result I got: More expensive doll.

Buying your first doll

     So, you're still bright-eyed and in wonder of all these beautiful dolls you see around. You come to admire some hobbyists, and you think you want your first BJD. 

   

I love Kiwi, but....

     I am never getting a tiny from Bobobie or Resinsoul ever again. Their bodies are just so god-awful that even me, a person who quite enjoys mobility and general ease-of-use mods, just can't handle how much work they need.

How I got into BJDs.

     When I was in 8th grade (and my older brother was in 11th) I was really set on being an illustrator or artist of some sort. I liked to draw, mostly, and occasionally put together some jewelry (and even though I've tried to pick up sculpting since then, it still hasn't happened). My brother was in an art class, and just suddenly one day he came from school and was talking about some dolls one of his friends was telling him about. Whether it was to use them for artist models or customizing, I'm not really sure anymore.

More updates on Kiwi

     Finally, I put my little girl back together. Kiwi is now a human and all the whitening trials, for the life of me, would not work.

     Peroxide, baking soda, nothing did the trick. I did some light sanding on parts of her, but the yellowing is just too deep-set to work with.

Update on Kiwi

     I may or may not have mentioned that Kiwi is currently the subject of one of my latest little tests. I've been trying to keep most of it a surprise. I'll try to keep this all in order.