A Male Dominated Dollfie World?

I think companies release male dolls because that's what most people want and that's what most people buy. At first BJDs were very female-dominated but there's a LOT of demand for male dolls, so companies are catering to that now.

And I say this as someone who owns all girls!

 

I notice this too for some companies. Luts in particular heartily disappointed me with their most recent Junior Delf releases, bringing out such gorgeous dolls with beautiful and detailed fullsets, and putting them on male bodies. Being that JDs are of that particularly tricky 50CM size, them refusing to make girls disappoints me, since a company the size of Luts has the means to release items for them.

Anyway, on topic and as Chibaki stated, it's simply demand. Boy dolls sell. Simple as that. I, personally, really don't find the abundance of males overwhelming, since the vast majority of companies release both genders.

Honestly, though, I think it's as much a preference of the sculptors themselves as it is demand, since there are a handful of companies that only release girls, but more that only release boys, just like a few focus on tinies, or SDs, etc.

 

As my Horde is female dominated, I know what you mean. There are some options, though. Angelheim just released a girl, Zena, with two varietys of option parts. Souldoll has in the past, as well.

 

Weslie, thank you for making this thread. These issues are ones that have bubbled up in my mind also from time to time and I couldn't figure out a means of presenting the topic.

I don't know if it is entirely 'what people want'. When I look at the base SG series body sculpts from Soom, for instance, I see an enormous amount of detail in the entirety of the male body, but considerably less of it in the female body sculpt. In this way, it almost seems like the sculptors are demonstrating a preference rather than the market, but by extension, it is entirely possible that the items that the sculptors have poured more attention and care into are going to be better received by the public. As such, it is hard to say if this is 'what the market wants', 'what the sculptors want', or some sort of self-perpetuating cycle.

I notice, too, that the male sculpts of many new lines will appear first from certain companies.

I notice a lot of... well, there is no more tactful way to put it than 'abusive yelling' at times on company boards when a female sculpt is released by fans of male sculpts. (Note: Not saying everyone who comments about thinking a head would look better as a boy is doing this, I'm talking about people screaming up a blue streak on company boards about 'how dare you release a girl I only want boys!')

I wonder, too, how this breaks down by sculptor's gender? From what I recall, the sculptors behind Supia and Limhwa are female, and both make primarily female dolls. I believe one of the founding sculptors at Soom (responsible for the Gem and MiniGem lines initially?) is also female, but the sculptor who created the Mecha Angel series is male. I don't know if there is a major correlation here or not, but in a (not doll-related) art field I'm a part of, I do often see a fairly pronounced split with male artists preferring to work with male figures, female artists preferring to work with female figures, a lot of customers who simply enjoy both, and an incredibly vocal minority of customers from each gender that only has an interest in working with the opposite for a variety of reasons.

I have both male and female dolls, for the record. If the doll world is at all like the customer base I deal with work-wise, I'd be in that 'simply enjoy both' group, but I certainly have observed something of a disparity at times. That said, over the whole of the hobby, I think it balances out to some degree. Not completely, but to some degree. There are artists that create female sculpts only, or predominantly female sculpts -- again, Supia and Limhwa come to mind as great examples of artists creating predominantly female sculpts with extraordinary talent and attention to detail.

 

Really? I only buy girls and I seem to see a lot more female dolls, on the whole, than male dolls. Sure there are some companies that tend to specialize in one thing and sometimes that thing is boy dolls... but there are also companies out there that only sell girl dolls (just as there are companies that only make tinies or only make 60cm dolls or what have you). And companies like Soom... they seem to be pretty even with their MDs at least, switching off male-female-male-female for the large dolls and offering the teenies as either boy and girl at the same time or on unisex bodies.

Of course, companies will make more of what they most enjoy making, and more of what sells well. So for some particular artists they probably find that boy dolls are the best best for them. But at the same time, there are artists who lean heavily toward girl dolls- take Gentaro Araki's Unoa series as an example, he's done three male dolls and nine female dolls and the female dolls are very popular. I think it just depends where you look and what you look for. : )

 

It's also worth mentioning that there's a great balance from Iplehouse and Fairyland on male and female sculpts.

Iplehouse is a great example, though, of releasing the male sculpt long in advance of the female -- look at the EID series. I'm not sure how long the wait was between Akando and Jessica, but there was one of note. It's also worth mentioning that a lag between one or the other isn't necessarily indicative of a specific preference; it's a reality of business that dolls like these require a lot of development time, and if the same sculptor is doing both, they're probably not going to be doing both at the same time. Releasing one helps recoup costs while the next is developed, or provides the funds to allow them to develop the other. With Soom, there's a similar pattern. We had MA and SG males well in advance of the females. I think this is what is happening more often than not, really.

On the masculine/feminine issue, though, I think there are some very... well, I think everything is pretty skewed toward the feminine. A lot of the male sculpts have very feminine features to my eye, and to those outside the hobby. That tends to make the line for what counts as a truly feminine-looking female as compared to the somewhat feminine-looking males a little different than where it might rest in the day to day world. When the majority of boys are pretty boys, that becomes 'what male is' within a certain context, and 'what female is' has to go much, much farther to register as feminine.

 

There certainly are a lot of girl heads put on boy bodies or girl-to-boy mods done.

I'd say, yes, there are a lot more boy sculpts made, but it's not like there are hardly any girl dolls out there. I have a lot more boy dolls than girl dolls, but I'm very picky when it comes to buying a girl doll. Yet I managed to find a few that I found charming. One of them is from Limhwa.

 

Hm... I guess I never noticed-- probably because I'm usually drawn to the guys! But there are some beautiful girl dolls I have on my wishlist, too...

I guess it varies by company. And it looks like someone's already mentioned mod-ability.

=^__^=
Anneko

 

Please do not forget Elfdoll who have only few boys and a hordes of girls! There are more soft types like Soah, June, and more strong types like Bambu, and a variety in the middle.
Souldoll has girls in grey skin, with optional parts etc. like Shiva with 4 hands.

Yes, it's true for Soom females, but this is how females are praised by sculptors - smooth-like porcelain skin. Look at the i-Doll body sculpt though)) The best female back I've seen so far, with LOTS of details. Spiritdoll female body has a lot of details too.
Hope this info helps)

 

This is a tough one: I can't say that I'm bothered by some companies releasing more males than females since the realm of BJD's was pretty much dominated by female dolls for a looong time. Of course, this is just my opinion from the standpoint of someone who has been eye balling the world of ABJD's for around 7-8 years.

The proliferation of female dolls is also apparent in other categories of the doll realm, beyond BJD's, since female dolls traditionally had better sales than male dolls.

I have a theory that the increase of men in the ABJD hobby has spurred the rapid release and increased sales of male dolls too and BJD companies are going to make creative decisions based on where the increased sales are coming from especially in an economic climate that's a bit on the sluggish.

Since many BJD companies alternate/balance out the gender of the dolls they release, its hard for me to be "bothered" since its not like you can't find plenty of female BJD's on the market from many companies.

Now if I woke up tomorrow and suddenly only one company offered only a handful of female dolls I might feel differently...i.e. shocked, appalled and more than a little worried and maybe even a little pissed off. But until that time, I think the increased release of male BJD's isn't anything to be worried about. If anything, I think its kinda cool because we now have quite a selection of male BJD's to choose from, where as a few years back, the selection wasn't all that and many male BJD's looked pretty similar to me.

 

As someone who has mostly boy dolls, I've always liked that so many boys are available. Nicely sculpted males in the doll world in general are uncommon.

Perhaps the greater attention to detail on males is because there is more detail to be had? The ideal female form is smooth-skinned, even when well-toned. Bust size is really the only variable, aside from high-heeled feet. Male dolls, on the other hand, can have a wider variety of muscle tone in the body and arms. They also have more contoured hands and knuckles, where females have smooth hands. And the details of veining on SD sized girls, I think, would look kind of gross... on boys it looks, well, manly!

Face sculpts for boys seem to be more varied, as well. Differences in jaw line, large or small nose, feminine or masculine features, and so on. There are "manly boys," and "girly boys." But you don't see the opposite with the females (I don't think I've ever seen a "butch" BJD girl!)

It's weird, but there are some companies like Crobidoll who only make boys, and then release many of thier limiteds (recent Alice and Wonderland release) dressed in girl clothes in traditionally girl characters. "Red Queen" is a perfect example! But on the forum I've seen that, since most of these boys are soft-looking pretty boys, many people put the heads on girl bodies. Crobidoll Lance is most commonly used as a girl head, and so forth.

At least that's what I've noticed. I'm not advocating more boys over girls or anything, I'm just offering an observation!

 

I think there are plenty of female dolls, but not enough to interest me. Most are too soft, too gentle looking. As for the masculinity of female faces: I think that surreality has made a huge point. Most male dolls are so feminine it's hard to create a girl-doll that tops this (without losing any character it might have).

In the end it is all about preference. Not only preference of the buyer, but certainly that of the sculptor. The creators of Supia, Limwha, Unoa, Elfdoll and Narae clearly like to sculpt female dolls, but there are also companies out there who prefer males.

 

Well I just wish that Demon Garden would make female bodies/dolls.

 

I think part of the reason that male dolls sell well is because doll collectors are happy to finally see well-sculpted, anatomically correct male dolls out there. I grew up with Action Men and Ken dolls and male BJDs are definitely better than those. Perhaps collectors are more attracted to male BJDs in response to the lack of variety of male dolls they had previously?

I really don't do boys. I have one male doll and I'm contemplating another, but I don't know whether it will ever get off the contemplation stage. I definitely prefer female dolls, but I don't think the number of boy dolls released is disparate to the number of female dolls released. Bobobie/ResinSoul (last time I checked) have released more female sculpts than male, Elfdoll releases more girls than boys, Alchemic Labo releases far more girls than boys. Then you have Fairyland, Volks, Soom and Dollmore where the split is fairly even between male and female releases. I tend not to notice the companies that mainly release male dolls because I'm not in the market for male dolls, so unless it's a big event (like DollShe rereleasing the 70cm Pure Body), I'm not very likely to pay attention.

I would actually love it if Volks made a male Dollfie Dream. It's very unlikely since the collectors of Dollfie Dream tend to be male and tend to keep the dolls as their anime characters rather than use the dolls to embody original characters (in my experience), so a male Dollfie Dream might interfere with those sales. I still think a one-off male Dollfie Dream would be awesome though.

 

I don't really have a problem with that since the most male doll heads generally look feminine. Think of them as asexual. It's mainly preference of the doll owner, sculptor, and the market. Some companies sell the heads and bodies separately. The owners can choose whether they want the heads on a male or female body. Many artists who do face-up can make a male head look like a girl or a girl to a boy. I do like how diverse the body shapes of each company are nowadays. It's just a matter of how much you are willing to spend and if one fits the other.

 

Honestly, I'd still buy male BJDs if they would suddenly all end up looking like Ken down there. I think part of the appeal of boy and manly dolls is that they are so rare in the doll hobby in general. Most dolls are little girls. There are boy dolls, but not that many dolls that look like men. The only other hobby where I've found lots of male dolls is the action figures scene, but it's rare if you can undress an action figure completely and find a fully detailed body underneath.
I think it's not the anatomical correctness that counts (although for some it does count), but (the rarity of) the anatomical detail of the whole that makes male BJDs so popular. Underneath the clothes of a male BJD you will rarely find a cloth body or something that vaguely resembles a human body.

 

I'm not so sure on the 'not as much detail to be had on females' argument. I think, like the feminine male faces, it is what we're accustomed to seeing as part of the most common aesthetic, but I don't think it's necessarily an accurate reflection of reality. (Ideals, perhaps -- reality, not as much.)

If you look at the new SpiritDoll sculpts for male and female bodies that are being worked on here: http://spirit.getbbs.com/post/t264.htm -- you see a pretty equivalent level of detail on both the male and the female without the man looking girly or the girl looking manly (to me anyway). Both look impressively natural to me also. Though we don't see the final female sculpt in resin as we do the male, she seems to have the same level of sculpt detail as the male in clay. Though there aren't the best detail photos of them on the website, Limhwa again comes through with a stunningly detailed female body sculpt for the 57cm line. (I can't find any good pics of this one that really show it, sadly.)

 

Perhaps some companies cater towards a certain audience. it seems like DOD caters a lot towards the female audience due to many male molds than female molds and I notice the higher rate of more girls owning DOD dolls than guys.