Chinese BJD companies disappearing lately?

I imagine it's a mix of supply chain issues (including resin), higher shipping costs due to COVID, increased overhead, and less orders. It's such a shame.

 

I follow Guard Love's sculptor on weibo and I gather they just moved offices and have had some trouble with having their designs stolen lately. I don't think the company is disappearing (since their newer bodies are incredibly popular hybrid options in China and their new anime dolls were very successful) but I do think it's likely they're sorta "cleaning house". I loved their old big baby body, I regret not getting it while I had the chance.

 

@Cap'n I know what you mean I know GL had announced on weibo that their 1/4 body was being discontinued (the newish one) but it didn't register that all their old bodies would be discontinued. To be honest I think there wasn't really an announcement over here because GL doesn't really have a lot of dealers.

I'm not sure what's happening with Doll Legend, though. This is the message they left on their weibo on 9/30 (automated translation):

Spoiler

"DLD-Humanoid Legend Suspension Announcement
Friends who are following DLD humanoid legends
National Day is approaching, I wish you all a happy National Day in advance
Due to company development and adjustment
And production line upgrade
DLD Humanoid Legend from now on
In addition to [joint hands] maintaining normal sales,
All other products on sale are closed.
Today’s precipitation is for better meeting in the future
Thank you for your continued support. "

Maybe they were having production issues and couldn't take any more orders? It's hard to say.

I'd be willing to bet that covid does have something do do with it, though. Or maybe other companies are following in the footsteps of Dollzone/Doll Chateau and other companies that have had large discontinuations lately?

 

Not entirely sure this is related, but if it is it isn't helping matters: One of the big https certification services had it's very popular free certificate expire on September 30th. That means websites that were using this certification no longer read as fully legit websites to certain browsers and won't until the businesses that own them, and other places update their stuff -and- of course there's a backlog right now.
So not the cause, but could be contributing. There's a lot of supply chain stuff not working very well : ( I understand why some places would be making choices to scale down or pivot to something else. Still sad about not getting more of a chance to buy from Legend Doll and the sculpts some other companies stopped carrying.

article on tech stuff: Top websites see outages as Let's Encrypt's CA certificate expires

 

'Not sure of the reason, but FectDoll seems to have pretty much vanished, too. Not that they were ever very well-known or popular in our part of the hobby.

 

Oh that's interesting, about the website certificate, that explains why so many places have updated their websites in the last few months

 

I dunno if any of you are following Chinese news, but there's laws condemning the "feminine man" aesthetic. In entertainment media, portrayals of men that seem to have any sort of femininity whether in looks/aesthetic, speech or mannerisms, have been outlawed. I don't know whether toys, figures, dolls, and other collectables fall into this category or not. If they do, many Chinese companies are going to have to take a step back to restyle and photograph a lot of sculpts.
Their internet access is apparently affected as well.

 

Wow. I hadn't heard this, but this is just upsetting on so many levels. I would really hope this wouldn't affect the production of so many beautiful dolls, but even more so, it makes me worry about living people more.

 

From what I've heard, this 'effeminate men' ban seems to be mostly aimed at the entertainment industry for now. It's part of the Chinese government's overall crackdown on 'celebrity worship culture' as they are afraid of celebrities gaining more power and influence than the government. Some famous celebrities (male and female) have already been affected and scrubbed from the media. Then the government decided to extend this crackdown to 'effeminate men' which (for now) refers to male celebrities and idols that model themselves after K-Pop because China now apparently views K-Pop as a 'corrupting Western influence'... though K-Pop is from well, South Korea...

But with how fickle and paranoid the Chinese government can be, who knows when it might suddenly decide to extend this ban to other areas... Not long before this, it did suddenly decide to outlaw all private tutoring without warning after all.

 

This is something that I had to very quickly educate myself on; so please forgive me if I missed some pieces.

• 2006-2010 a DOA post was made questioning if people would purchase from Chinese BJD companies. This seems odd now, but during the early 2000's Chinese companies were almost unheard of. Dollzone has been questioned in their legitimacy because we were so unfamiliar with Chinese companies. (Ref 1: https://denofangels.com/threads/will-you-choose-chinese-bjd-company.379973/) (Ref2: https://denofangels.com/threads/dollzone-originality-discuss-it-here.72982/) In truth, I do not know of the resolve of this particular post; but I do know that having any question of legitimacy can hurt a small company (in general).
• 2015 - A great post came up about Chinese art directors and the expectations placed onto Chinese made dolls. This includes the understanding that people expect to pay less for dolls that are Chinese made; despite the cost of living being comparable to Korean living (Ref:https://denofangels.com/threads/on-respecting-chinese-bjd-artists.680403/)
• In 2018 a post was made here on DOA that explained due to copyright laws in China were making it possible for a recaster to register trademarks and logos under their name in China. (Ref: https://denofangels.com/threads/bjd...-china-based-counterfeiter-trademarks.773791/) Naturally, if that business is already small; this could have devastating results on how people are "seeing" their company and being able to purchase from it.
• Lastly, we know that COVID has affected many things in terms of supply and demand. This includes materials not being shipped/taking longer to arrive. Companies still having employees/artists to pay. The overhead costs of making a BJD and various other intricate pieces. I know that other things were mentioned, that are incredibly valid.

In short, it seems like there have been a lot of political issues and hot subjects around Chinese BJD companies from the beginning. Unless they were one that could continue to sustain itself throughout the turmoil (or become innovative); they would dry up.

I hope that answers some questions! I'm certain that more information could be found elsewhere; but I wanted to stick with DOA.

 

@idrisfynn
That is some really awesome information. I didn't know what the outcome to that situation was, since I honestly hadn't had the time to go through and see what the verdict had been. I was thinking at the time of the accusation they were an upcoming company, and they were only bigger later. It's astounding to me that Volks did not pursue any legal actions against them; that's something I certainly wasn't aware of.

I didn't really think of Dollzone being a smaller company (now at least), I was thinking in terms of IF a smaller company had a fall-out like that, it would be hard to recover (assuming they weren't in the wrong). Thank you for popping in and filling in those blanks

 

My 50-odd year-old brain may be misfiring here, but wasn't it DollMore who copied the SD16 body for their model guys? ... Or was it Dollshe they copied? DZ's copy was, I want to say, an MSD-sized doll of some sort... a Kid Delf, maybe?

It's been a long, long time. Hopefully someone can dig up the original threads... I know we have a few real masters of the search engine in this crowd.

 

I feel like I'm getting a history lesson! I love it! I didn't know any of that happening! I have heard of situations where an artist goes to another company and that gets confusing; but I didn't realize there was so much between companies.

That has been happening quite a bit, but I also wonder how many companies close without even really becoming well known. I have seen companies on DolkUS for example that I have NEVER heard of, much less seen a sculpt of theirs.

I think Dollshe (if I'm not mistaken) frequently discontinues everything, and then suddenly pops back up selling dolls again. I know they're a huge company; but I always found that interesting.

 

I remember KDF Woori as the copied doll, but it’s been years so idk for sure and I don’t have the energy to dig around for it right now. I don’t think that has anything to do with what’s going on right now.

It seems to me that there’s been an explosion in really amazing Chinese BJD companies in recent years. (“Recent” being relative though; I just remember that when I started in the hobby there was Dollzone and Resinsoul, the end.) There’s just such a huge market over there that it can sustain a lot of variety, and a lot of new sculptors tried their luck. I would think that some disappearing occasionally when they couldn’t make it would be normal, but. There is a resin shortage and a shipping backlog, and government regulations on what entertainment should look like that keep escalating.

The bans affect actors and dramas, animation and even video games (say goodbye to androgynous male characters in Genshin Impact). It’s probably inevitable that bits of the attitudes expressed in those regulations are going to filter down into the hobby, but I would think that would play out more like maybe Ringdoll won’t release Hua Cheng to go with Xie Lian now that BL is really for real-reals banned (which is a bummer for me personally because I was looking forward to it), not take out entire companies.

It’s hard to say where the pieces of it all will fall in the end though.