BJDs and Yellowing/Mellowing

Note: I plan to update this post when I can with some examples of yellowing from my personal collection.

You can't reverse yellowing. The good news is that yellowing is very, very gradual. You're not going to see severe yellowing in your doll just from walking to your car and back. They may mellow within a year or so, but you will not see severe yellowing for the most part until after many years of love and play.

Most people find they barely notice the yellowing, because it is something that happens so slowly you often don't notice until you compare the inside of a doll's headcap or a newer doll from the same company to an older one.

Is Yellowing Damage?

In most cases, yellowing should not constitute damage. What yellowing can indicate in a newer doll is a lack of care and preservation for the doll itself. Blotchy yellowing, or the yellowing equivalent of a farmer's tan could be considered damage in most cases. You're obligated as an honest seller to disclose any yellowing. Personally, any doll at least a year or more I always note that it probably has some yellowing.

BJD Photography Tips and Tricks Part 1: Basics

Upcoming:

Part 2: Editing Photos

Part 3: Working with a Cell Phone Camera

My photography has improved over the years I've been in this hobby. Witness this monstrosity from early in my doll collecting career vs this more recent photo:

On the left is a photo of my first doll, Poe. On the right is Peregrine, who I acquired last year.

So what improved? How can you kick your photography up a notch? What if you only have a cell phone to work with?

Well, read below for help editing photos in general. A follow up post regarding tips and tricks for cell phone photography is upcoming.

The Dangerous Decline of the Secondhand Market- What that means for the future of the hobby.

There has been a decided decrease in the purchasing power of the average BJD hobbyist thanks to the decline of the secondhand market. We can no longer purchase a doll knowing we cannot recoup most of our costs and turn around and reinvest the money from that doll back into the market.

The large majority of doll collectors, I'd wager, do not have the financial freedom to just purchase full cost dolls willy-nilly. Sure there are some people, perhaps those with large incomes and/or no dependents to care for who can buy several full-price mid or high range dolls a month, but they're uncommon. I'm not qualifying this or saying those with more purchasing power are better or worse than someone with less.  It's simply a fact. It's a fact that most of the doll collectors I know depend on their ability to sell a doll to buy a new doll. I know only 3 doll collectors on a personal basis that do NOT have to sell to buy. They may choose to do so, but they're not required to do it. The point is they're honestly a minority. This piece is concerned with the purchasing power of the average doll collector and what the reduction of that power is doing to the market and thus the future of the hobby.

There is this sense of haggling and deal making in this hobby that has gone beyond respectable. People are wanting top of the line dolls for Walmart prices- and they're wanting them now. No one wants to pay $450 for a minifee, so they begin to search secondhand. They hope that they can snag a good deal- maybe $350 with no long wait time….. then they begin to search for one for $250 because it's not mint in it's box… because another human touched it…. because how dare the original owner hope to get $400 for that minifee?

Iplehouse B.I.D Review and Posing

Hi again everyone! I realized I never did a post on my lovely little BID Anne, Pearl Kingston. (I made the little lady a DoA doll profile though!)

Basic Review:

I purchased her last year on impulse. I wanted a little YoSD and fell in love with her because A) my name is Ann, and B) teefs. I love dolls with teeth! I bought her in their white skin, which is a lovely rosey-pink white that almost looks like a very, very pale normal skin.

She shipped very quickly, and arrived in what's probably the cutest doll box I've ever owned. Thankfully, it was spared along with her paperwork when my basement flooded.

As far as criticisms, sad to say but her acrylic eyes sent with her from Iplehouse cracked, so I never ended up using them. I'm not a fan of lower-end acrylic eyes, so I swapped her out with some blue Makos I had laying around. I'd much prefer more realistic eyes in her, but I'm lazy and have yet to do so.

Also, she does have rough seam lines, nothing I couldn't fix myself, but they keep collecting dirt and color from her stockings which is a little inconvenient.

All in all, 10/10 for quality and service.

Info: Though she calls for 14mm eyes, I prefer 12 or 10mm for more realisim. Her head is a little smaller than a 6-7, so I'd guess she's almost a 6" exactly.

Clothing:
The little chubby thing is big, like all Iplehouse dolls are, and a lot of YoSD clothing runs small. Any YoSD shoes I've tried fit her fine. I can force a lot of stuff onto her body, but then her limbs have reduced movement. Promise of the World clothing is the worst offender. It's cut really, really small. Some of the more generic stuff on taobao fits her as long as it has a little stretch, and she's never without this little bear jacket:

Posing:
Note that she has not been sueded, and has not been restrung so she's like ridiculously floppy. Most of these pics were taken at night by lamplight when my kids were asleep, so pardon the gross flash.

First let's start with some head movement. The head has limited range of mobility for up and down movement. You have to use the torso joint to really give the illusion of more movement than is there. This is due partly to the way they sculpted the slope of the BID neck as well as the way the faceplate and head back meet.

Iplehouse EID Woman Review and Poses

[As an additional note, Lahela is for sale. If you're interested in adopting her shoot me a messaged on facebook or tumblr. Due to her damage and Iplehouse's shittastic resale value, I'm asking $600 plus shipping.]

Mold: Iplehouse Lahela, Light Brown Skin, large bust option, no mobility legs

Note: Lahela is only available through Iplehouse's Full Custom System, which is available the first ten days of each month I think.

Site: www.iplehouse.com, however I received her in a trade.

Clothing Options:

The Iplehouse stereotype is that they all end up dressed like "sluts" (I hate this word) or look like Barbie dolls. That's a sad circumstance largely based on the fact that there is very, very little in the way of custom clothing for these dolls unless you want fantasy or evening gowns. Casual wear in the affordable price range is hard to find, and mostly only on Iplehouse's site itself.

I am working on a What Fits thread which will be here when I get it done.

Taobao Agent Review: Final Notes

I absolutely cannot recomend Taobao Ring enough. They are my agent of choice from now on. My order arrived quickly (as quickly as possible once the USPS got ahold of it anyway) and shipped quickly from China. Everything was accurate, or as much as I cared.

There was one mistake: the rose leggings were supposed to be 1/3 but the seller sent 1.6. It wasn't worth arguing, as I'll just do it again for the larger size too because they're that cute.

When your order arrives, there is an option to click "arrived" and move the order to your past orders list. They also immediately ask you to provide feedback on the order, which I did.

On selling your first doll- I finally understand....

I sold the very first doll I ever purchased in the hobby this morning. I have some surprisingly mixed feelings about it. I never saw myself as attached to my dolls; I've never  really given them any kind of emotional value. I'd always kind of knocked and joked about the sentimental sales posts I'd seen on the marketplace, but now I understand why they do it.

I have empathy for those posters now.

My first doll was an Iplehouse JID Tania, legit. I didn't even know about recasts at the time I bought her, not that it matters.

I chose her because she was the closest match I could find to the then-unobtainable Luts Delf Spica and because I couldn't bear to spend money on an SD or a minifee. I've seen Spica a few times since, but I'm not sure she's (yes, she; I had planned on mine being a girl) my grail any longer. I found a good deal on her and a seller willing to do layaway.

I made things and bought things in preparation for her arrival…only to find out how oddly sized she was.

The Big Mnf vs JID Comparison

I see this question happen so often, I decided to do a post on it. This is just my opinion, so feel free to take it for what it's worth. Some people won't be bothered by the proportions, so I'll leave it to you to make up your own mind!

The cast:

Poe, a Legit JID Girl (based on my JID legit/recast comparison thread there is little shrinkage between legits and recasts). She has a pretty bad tattoo from when I first got into the hobby as well as a broken elbow. Poor neglected thing really needs some love. She also has the old style large bust, not the new glamour bust (the body S/L have). She desperately wants that new body….

Snow, a recast mnf Rheia: she is a bit smaller than a legit body but not by much. The size comparisons should still be accurate. She has her heeled feet on, so I had to support her in a few pics.

Conclusion:

• The Mnf is obviously the better poser for the dancer-ish poses, but the JID is more sturdy.
• The JID has a more useful mobility joint, and she can almost hug her knees.
• The Mnf body is better sculpted. The new JID body, the one L/S have, is much better, imo. This body is supposed to have additional posing modifications, but JID still can't compare to Mnf.
• If you're going with this hybrid, you will need to mod the mnf neck shorter to accommodate the JID.

I had some serious formatting issues, and I don't know why. Something was up with Blogger I think, so I could not rearrange pictures, nor could I add text between them. Weird!  In any case, I hope this post is useful. Let me know if you need more pictures.

Thank you for reading, and happy collecting!

Recasts and Fake Certificates or Headplates

Recasts sometimes come with fake certificates or headplates. The recasts that do, that I know of offhand, are Iplehouse, Soom, and Volks dolls. This is not a legal discussion, but just a helpful guide.

*new info added at the bottom of the post*

Volks are probably the number one recast doll, perhaps possibly tied with Soom. The recasters often include fake plates with Volks dolls. The metal plates can be determined as forgeries fairly easily (though I don't have access to a legit Volks for further detail this should help):

Plate reads: 1012/DP24

• Plate is ill-fitting
• Plate is of low quality
• Plate lists a Dollpa that never happened or won't happen until a future date
• Plate lists a Dollpa that does not correlate with the Volks doll (a year when the doll wasn't produced)

Here is a pic of my fake Volks' plate (I did not make this plate, nor do I even know how to find them).

Slim Mini Shoe Review!

I adore shoes. I love them in my size, and I love them miniature. I'm especially a sucker for adorable heels. I'm making a list of different shoes and brands that fit minifee, Unoa, and JID girls (and similar sized minis), where I got them and what I thought of them. I will update this as I get more shoes to review. Hey, I need an excuse to buy more right? Check back for updates.If you have Den of Angels access, be sure to view the shoe thread for slim minis there as well.

Iplehouse JID legit vs recast comparison

I wanted to do a comparison between recast and legitimate JID girls from Iplehouse. For those who don't know, JID are the 42cm-sized range from Iplehouse. The sculpts currently available as recast in the JID line that I am aware of are: Asa, Tatiana, Benny, Daniel, Jerome. (Don't contact me about buying them, and I don't own recast JIDs.)

Since I don't own my own recast JID, a friend over at AtticFlowers has graciously taken some photos of her recast girl, Kourin, a JID Asa.

Our Guests:


(legit)

And Kourin:


(recast)

Here are some pictures of the recast girl. Where applicable I will provide pics of the legitimate girl or give my commentary.


AtticFlowers says her recast girl has a tendency to fall out of joint a lot. This does happen with my legitimate girl, but only when she is strung loosely. Once she's strung super tight (which is hard to by yourself) and with thicker elastic (I use a thickness best suited for SDs because she is so heavy), my legitimate girl doesn't have this issue.



Here the body overview of both dolls. The recast is on the left of the screen, the legitimate on the right. As you can see, both dolls' joints are very flush.


(recast)


(legit)

AtticFlowers says she, "sanded out most of her [the recast girl's] seam lines. They were BAD, and the sanding done by the recaster was sub par. You can see where the aggressive sanding by the recaster left a gap in the shoulder, the drill hole was also partly to blame."




(both pics are of the recast girl)

The legitimate girl does have some obvious seam lines, mostly on the back of her legs, but nothing too major.


The head cap seems to fit very well on the recast. Note that it does not have an Iplehouse plate in the back, where the legitimate does. Note the sticker on the Legit girl's head. It is thick, blue, and slightly domed rather than a flat, matte sticker.


(recast)


(legit)

Here is the inside of the headcaps. Both headcaps have the JID mark inside, but where the legit girl has a serial number (I assume this is for the sculpt, not the specific doll), the recast just has the doll name.




(legit, placeholder pic until I can get a better one)

Important note: If someone knows if other legit JID sculpts contain names rather than serial numbers, please let me know. I could not find any information on this. It is possible that some legits just have names as well, rather than serial numbers like the Tania sculpt has.


(recast)

In this recast, the string channels are actually drilled really well.




(both pics recast)

Yet, the insides of the recast remain messy. Legit insides generally do not like look this, and do not look like this in my legitimate girl.


(recast)

AtticFlowers says, "The C shaped pieces on the wrists are very fragile. This one was miscast slightly and broke when I tried to fix it. It's actually in two pieces, but stays in place well. Gluing didn't help, as its a high stress area."




(both pics recast)


(legit)

The legit girl lost her wrist pieces long ago. >.<

Well I hope this helps!  As always, don't judge a second hand doll as a recast too quickly, do your homework and shop safe!

Oh and be sure to check out my friend's tumblr, Flowers in the Attic, here!

Happy collecting!