Back then and now...(Nostalgia Thread)

Ahh, nostalgia. When there were fewer companies it was easier to focus on what was out there. I'd visit Luts and DoD and drool over their dolls all the time. Now I have to ignore so many pretty dolls because there's no way I can go for them all. Or even keep up with them all. At first I was really impressed with the more realistic dolls that started coming out, but now I miss the more stylized trend. Of course, stylized dolls are still around, but the realistic ones are everywhere I look.

I don't know exactly when Soom came around, maybe I was inactive or just not paying attention... I missed that bandwagon at any rate.

Ha ha, that kind of thing is still going on at Volks with some of their releases. Dollfie Dreams are really popular now and they put the lottery extras on the site to buy. There was one I really wanted, but by the time the page loaded, she was gone Now her market price is, like, $1500.

 

I did, of course, have to look this up; I laughed diet coke out of my nose. Thanks for that! You know, didn't Dragon Doll's (ominously named) Uncle body come with multiple, interchangeable magnetic dangly bits too?

 

It makes me happy to see old familiar BJD talents pop up in new contexts . . . like the Mink/Lovelyhouse morph into DollTi, now morphed again (somehow) into Leeel. And I noticed on Freedom Teller's "About" page, just the other day, that FT was involved with the Memories photobook, back in the day.


*lalalalalala, not thinking about the Uncle body OR the press-papilla-feel-good* *am not even sure where I put my Unoa B-El's option part*

 

Yes. Yes he did.

And I remember at least one person mentioning that she planned on using them as refrigerator magnets. Which was brilliant.

 

I haven't been in the hobby too terribly long, but I remember that doing a search for "bjd" on ebay a few years ago brought back a few hundred listings at most - now the same search brings up thousands and thousands! I also remember there not being a lot of clothes and accessories available, and almost nothing for bjds on etsy.

 

I am stuck on the companies that I enjoyed, not being around any more: Unidoll, Notdoll, Glorydoll.

 

I remember that almost all clothes for girls were some form of Lolita style, which none of my dolls gravitated towards and finding clothes was really difficult. Once I obtained some male dolls I found getting clothes for them was worse than the girls! Ebay was far easier to search through and if you looked up bjd or something like that ALL the items were appropriate for that category - now it seems that every doll type gets listed as a "bjd" - barbie, monster high, bratz, tonner, ashton drake etc, makes me want to scream!

I still lament the passing of some of the earlier companies - Unidoll I'm pointing my finger at you! Oh and Hypermaniac.

 

Ah yes, I remember fondly looking at Afghan on their website all the time. By the time I had enough saved up to buy my Afghan, the website shut down. I was so upset. Luckily, I found one on the MP a few years ago and got the head. Now she's a beautiful hybrid, and I'm so happy to have her.

I remember seeing BJDs for the first time ever at Otakon 2003 or 2004. I have no idea what company they were and the only English site I found was Volks.

 

Okay...I wasn't in the hobby during the period you guys are talking about but I saw pictures of BJDs in 2000~2003 which were Japanese-made. They were all OOAK and my head exploded when I saw their price tag. And because everything was in Japanese, I didn't even know what they were called in English and searching in google didn't come up with any results.

That actually sounds early...okay..I'm old.

 

My first BJD was (and is) Volks Link, and I remember choosing him because he was the most masculine standard sculpt Volks had back in 2005. There wasn't a Volks USA when I bought him, I got him from the Volks International website. It was an adventure buying him!!

I remember that so many of my friends had ElfDoll girls, Soah and Sooah and Ryung. And Luts girls were popular too, Soony and Soo (in all her variations) and Lishe.

And I am so glad I got my two standard SoulDoll boys (Paris and Lune) right away, because they were discontinued not long after. They were some of the very first BJDs I KNEW I wanted someday. I would have regretted missing out on them. SoulDolls are very different now.

Linda S.
galatia9

 

I actually prefer Souldoll's older body. There are some boy sculpts I like, but everytime I'm thinking: if only they were on the older body. DIM sure has changed as well. I loved their Persia.

The first meet-up I went to had only three or four other people. They were about the only collectors in the Netherlands back then. I was a complete n00b, didn't even have my own doll yet and the first doll I saw in person was an SA Bermann and I felt sooo small.
Today we have hundreds of collectors in my tiny country. In a few years time, this hobby has exploded.

 

I do love my old SoulDoll boys. They stand like rocks, and hold poses very well, though they are single jointed. Remember single jointed dolls? (Actually, most of my BJDs are still single jointed, only my boys over 68cm are double jointed.)

Wow, Bermann was the first you saw?? No pressure! The first BJDs I saw in person in 2004 were some Volks and a Lishe. It was at a shop for teddy bears and mostly vinyl dolls. The Super Dollfies were laid out nude on a table, and their owner was showing them and explaining about them. I was too shy to go closer and look, so I didn't give them more than a couple of glances. I was SURE they were too large for me to start collecting.

Boy, was I wrong! LOL!! Now they're virtually the only dolls I have.

Linda S.
galatia9

 

Oh those heady early days! I remember back when Oskar Kokoschka was running around with his Alma Mahler doll taking it out to the opera! What great fun! How we all loved Lotte Pritzel's dolls including Hans Bellmer. I remember how after she got him to read Rilke's essay on dolls Hans took his brother Fritz to see those 16th century medical dolls in the museum. That's where Hans fixated on the genius of the ball joint. Great times, those days, when dolls could strike a blow against fascism, annoy Freud and have all the surrealists agog at Bellmer's photographs! Remember those days in the 70's and 80's when Ryoichi Yoshida, picked up those exalted threads and started a whole new scene of BJD madness!? After all the ball joint was more than physical articulation, it was contextual, conceptual and psychic articulation, the point of connection between often dispirate ends. Those dolls in that Japanese scene sank deep into the dark unconscious, often in gauzey pieces they were truly works of art and inspiration. Then Volks came around and turned them into consumer products and it's all been downhill since then.....but oh, those early days!

 

Most of my dolls are single jointed too. I don't really like double joints; I prefer the sturdiness of the single joint and they are more aesthetically pleasing to me. Unlike the common opinion today, I also don't believe that double joints are better at posing than singles. If you look at the old Dollstown bodies: They are great posers with hands that can touch the face and legs that can bend way over 90 degrees, and yet there is not one double joint to be found.

 

I just spit tea all over my laptop.

This is a post for the ages.

 

@Dollhausen: It's true that this hobby hasn't been around that long, no one has to tell me that . Still, it is surprising to see how much has changed in less than a decade. Scuptors have gotten much better, aesthetics have changed. Last year I held a meet at my place and there were dozens of dolls. It was really weird to see dolls from new companies sit side by side to dolls from companies who no longer exist. It was like looking at a completely different type of doll. Like comparing a Barbie to a Blythe.

Not to mention the amount of people who collect these dolls now!

 

Dollhausen's reminiscences were certainly well before my time...but then again all of the other reminiscences here help to educate me as well. I stepped into the middle of this madness late in the game. Although I did have the opportunity to choose "papillon or not" when ordering my Nobility doll...
It is fun to hear the recollections of enjoying the good old dolls, & finding that I must be a nostalgic at heart as my collection leans towards dolls of yore like Delf & Elfdoll, I really love those early sculpts. If it weren't for the falling prices of second hand dolls & easy sales accessibility, there wouldn't be said collection at my house. I can't imagine surviving the trauma of wiring money & trusting to delivery from a country far away. The closest I got to that was ordering my Rosy from Supia & that still involved a pp payment. I was just trying to explain to DH last night some of how the doll production has changed over the last many years. This was part of a discussion of how I thought I had gotten a great deal on a Shiwoo on Ebay while he was sputtering at the price...like I said, at original market price there would have been no BJD's at my house. I am another of those joining the Rescue Society for previously loved dolls. That Shiwoo, I needed his body in order to give my first & only El a neck to rest upon...
My big eyed Volks Nono doesn't stand around with the SD's as they just make her look silly. But she and the Kaye Wiggs girls play nicely. Even my KW's are from "back in the day" when Kaye only made heads & finding a body to match was the challenge.X0

I'm so glad you all are enjoying sharing recollections as I certainly am learning a lot here!

 

Yes! DIM Persia! Even nowadays I still keep a lookout for that sculpt, in case one might pop up in the MP.

And I have very fond memories of the Luts craze. Oh, all those sleepless nights spent trolling their site and constantly hitting refresh. And in the morning off to school and sleeping through first and second class...

 

NOSTALGIA I remember back in 2005 you can count the number of BJD companies on one hand. Anyone remember the customizer who only painted School A heads? They were the first BJDs I ever wanted and was just mesmorized by this artist's work. I tried doing a google search but didn't find. This person painted mostly School A's (she/he had some F-16s and I think a Schulze) I feel like it was "Venus" something? I think Venus was in the name. Anyone still look at this site XD ? http://www.gigglegeek.dk/bjd.htm

I remember Denny had a site with his old works and gallery; I'd watch it all the time. He had the coolest doll works, one-of-a kind pieces. I don't think he has it anymore though. Really pity, I always felt inspired by it.

 

It was Caress of Venus. Remember when they sold their one Hyde based School A for $20,000? Those were the days.