History

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The modern BJD market began with Volks line of Super Dollfie in 1999.

The name Dollfie comes from joining the words Doll and Figure.

The first Volks "Super Dollfie" (SD size and style) was designed by the sculptor Akihiro Enku. Enku sculpted a one-off doll for his wife. The doll used old stringing and ball-joint techniques that were developed at least a hundred years ago in Europe, but the doll had a very expressive look and a bit more developed ball joints.

An executive director at Volks noticed the doll and wondered if they should be made in larger numbers.

Volks "Super Dollfie" was released as four different models, Kira, Nana, Sara and Megu, which all shared the same head mold, the standard SD Four Sisters head.

The first generation SD bodies were highly detailed, but had some difficulty remaining standing, and their ball joints were very prominent.

All "Super Dollfie" dolls were female, until 2001 when the first boy doll, Licht, was released. The first release was a limited run of only 50 dolls, but sales were so successful that the doll was re-released two times, and many other male dolls followed.

Following the introduction of the Volks "Super Dollfie" line, an increasing number of Asian ball-jointed doll companies have been established.