Darker Skin Tones?

I love dark skinned dolls: I have many African American Barbies and tanned Takara Jenny friends, and I adore African American porcelain baby dolls!
I wish some day Volks could release a tanned Captain Cecile...
The only reasons why I haven't bought any tanned dolls yet are : 1) they're rather expensive and hard to get, 2) there aren't any optional parts in that color!! >_<

 

This line is what I was talking about. Just because there's a demand for something doesn't mean that everyone is going to jump to make it. How would you know if it's racism? You can't know if they're racist or if they just don't want to make dark dolls. The point wasn't that you were saying anything was racist, it was that even if someone thinks that a company is racist, they won't actually know, because they can't read minds.

 

As other have pointed out--making dark skinned dolls is very difficult, so even if there is a market it may not be practical. As for the price--they are very high quality--resin isn't cheap and they aren't mass produced like the dolls found in toy aisles in US stores. A lot of care goes into them, and you get what you pay for. Believe me, they're well worth it and not unattainable--it may just take awhile to save up.

*edited for clarity because my brain is dead today*

 

Wow, Nabee, calm the hell down o.o;

I agree with omichao, that's what I was working off of, too.

 

While there are options for tanned dolls (which could possibly serve for lighter-skinned African American dolls), what about those that would be interested in darker skin tones, like, say... the darker varieties of African American tones or even a dark Egyptian look? I have a friend who would kill for an Egyptian-type tone (not just 'tanned' or 'sunskin') and I know that if the option were available she would flip.
I wish there were opportunities for more varieties in the skintones, other than 'pale' and 'paler' and 'not quite so pale' (that's a joke, people) but I understand how hard the companies are working, and how much work goes into something like changing resin color.
How does dyeing vinyl go, by the way? Would it be possible to dye an Obitsu or DD body with RIT or some other kind of dye so it's not quite as expensive as dyeing a resin doll? Would the vinyl react differently? (I assume it would) Maybe then someone could find some kind of balance between errors and perfection and offer a nice alternative to pale dolls... for those who are interested.

I just babbled.

 

Why do you keeping posting several posts in a row saying basically the same thing?

 

We have to remeber that we are infact not the intended audience for these dolls, and that these dolls do not reprecent real life, they are art peices ^^

What I mean is I highly doubt that any BJD company intentianly decides not to make a certian skin colour because of personal views. It has been discussed many times, and it is simply impracticale for unlimited tanned dolls to be made and to still be affordable, despite the large market there seems to be for them internationally. Also, the customs that have been made usually involve actually dying the peices like fabric using rit dye. As these dolls are art and are extremely high quality items, I doubt any BJD companies are going to turn to such measures.

P.S. This topic really has been done to death. I suggest the search engine. Unfortunatly, no matter how much this is a very valid subject, they usually end in flame wars some way or another...^^;;;;;

 

Ditto'd on Ashlyn's question <<

 

From what my grandfather told me when he was in the Korean war, there are not that many African Americans that live in those Asian countries to begin with, so they are never exposed to being around them in everyday life. You have some mixture but it is not a dominant trait. Paler skin is more accepted so they tend to make the dolls according to demand. The resin is harder to make more evenly when you go with darker shades, and the rule is the same with porcelain dolls as well. Luts has found a little secret to getting the resin a nice black color far more darker than Volks and Narin Doll. Custom House tanned skin varied a lot from batch to batch, the bottom line, the darker the resin the more the cost for it and the more mistakes the dolls could have in final production. Sad but true.

 

I would love there to be more dark-skinned BJDs.

Some of the Customhouse tan dolls are really dark...but sadly they are limited or unique and not widely available.

I did try getting a Philip Heath doll which is about the same size as a 60cm BJD. They are vinyl, however, not resin - and they have cloth bodies, so not quite the same degree of posability.

I'm not sure about the ethos behind the appearance of the dolls, but I'm not sure that they are meant to look European.

I wish they ran the full gamut of colours, from white through to really dark.

But my understanding is that it's very difficult to produce consistent batches of dark resin.

The tan and dark-skin dolls seem to be extremely popular and sell out almost immediately.

But Hound is dark skin and unlimited and ditto the 43cm Narae (as mentioned above).

This is a gap in the market! We need someone with a knowledge of doll-making and the materials to experiment.

 

woah! nabee!
ok ok

I dont think it's about racism, it's just about what the doll makers like and want at this point.

Like I said, Luts make pretty good tanned. The Tanned Lishe is lovely ^_^

Check them out.

 

I agree, I also get the impression that there are not that many dark skinned people in asia. Well...and artist will paint what they see, right?

This is only in my opinnion (please don't get offended!) but I think people look into the matter a little too deeply. T.T

 

I don't know about dying, but I believe his name is Paul(?) that painted his DD bodies really amazing colors, the two I've seen were paper-white and red ^^ So I don't see why you couldn't do the same thing with a natural color

 

There's someone here who has a DD painted to be a Drow elf, (who's darker than any african I've ever seen), and they used something called vColour and there's a tutorial around somewhere. I'm betting that stuff would work to make an Obitsu/DD African looking, and several people have told me the Obitsu Haruka head looks African-American. (I don't see it myself, but I thought it more had a "Jewish" nose...) You might be able to comission that nice person to make you a darker doll. That stuff binds to the vinyl so that it _won't_ come off, it's part of the doll. (I want to commision them to paint a little Obitsu into a Drow when my NDR order comes in)

Sorry for the longish post...(I still think Obitsu would be our best bet for different skin tones, since as Barbie=vinyl and Obitsu=vinyl, and Barbies come in like every skintone known to man, so could Obitsus...)

 

Okay everyone, let's all stay calm.

derilan85 makes some very good points. I think the key issues here are:
- little or no market for them in Japan/Korea
- darker resin is hard to get even and prone to faults, plus it is problematic to sand
- the dolls are (in general) made in a stylised way, either derived from manga/anime or from the Oriental features (I believe the sculptor of Bermann made the doll in his own image, even), so their features are unlikely to be similar to those from other countries

 

As Derilan mentioned, there is a similar issue with dark porcelain. Since porcelain is basically tinted clay, it is difficult to get uniform color, and most dark dolls (in my experience) ended up with "swirl marks", a marbelized effect of lighter and darker streaks. The only solution is to paint over the entire surface with a color "wash" to achieve a more uniform color. Also, the finished product can look "ashy". I know that resin dolls are made through a different process, but I wonder if the issues that the manufacturers have are similar?

 

Ooh yes, Paulkaijukuu (I htink I'm spelling that totally wrong) airbrushed his DD-lishe hybrid a bright red. Quite the she devil! >:3 It worked really well.