Doll Materials and Preferences

You are probably referring to Dollfie Dreams and let me tell you I find them to be quite delightful! I own two lovely ladies, an SD-sized one and a mini. The vinyl is slightly finicky as it's soft and may stain a lot more easily than resin but the poseability of the dollfie dreams surpasses that of any regular strung BJD as their ABS skeleton does not allow for snapping, kicking, wobbling, or moving at all once you've put them in a pose and the weightlessness of the material makes for easy posing, carrying around and playing; so all in all I believe it's more than worth the slight danger of staining that may be avoided easily with a white bodysuit or white lining in the clothes that go on.

As for my preferences; I prefer the feel and texture of resin but I like the pros the vinyl provides, mainly because poseability is a huge factor for me and my resin ones while wonderful in every aspect, often drive me absolutely insane. c:

 

I have both a dollfie dream dynamite that I ordered from volks and painted myself, and I have lots of bjd's from various companies. I will say I love them both!!! The dollfie dreams are alot harder to paint faceups on though. So it depends on if you are wanting to do the faceup then I'd say go for a bjd first. You can buy the standard models from volks for the dollfie dreams too. They come with faceups.

 

Maniah could be referring to obitsu's as well. I love obitsu's and l have one. All of there parts can be replaced if needed. They start from 40cm to 65cm also there are the smaller ones but there OT for DOA.

 

I've seen some OOAK BJDs made out of porcelain. They're pretty but I would still prefer resin or vinyl. There's just so much you can do with resin and I love the way it feels.

 

Yeah, I was going to say that there are porcelain bjds, too. And there have been cloth/resin bjds.

DoA is only about resin, though. That's why we mostly see resin bjds.

I think I prefer resin, anyway. It doesn't stain like vinyl. It's mod-able, unlike vinyl. I like the feel better than porcelain. Porcelain isn't mod-able, either. And you can't really do faceups. And porcelain is more liable to break.

I'd be open to non-resin dolls, of course. I own vinyl dolls and porcelain dolls that aren't bjds, so I don't see why I'd be against those materials as bjds. I just haven't see any I've wanted so far.

 

Well, although I do not yet have a Dollfie Dream myself, I'd like to counter what Soenatte said.
Based on which model you get, there are a lot of problems that could happen. The MDD 1 bodies usually have trouble posing their legs, I've heard of cases where they can't even stand, and their arms can fall easily. The DD (2 i think) had mostly problems with their arms, and not being able to hold anything (or their arms would fall). The early DD3 (and MDD3) had a LOT of cracking in their skeleton, and although the later ones are better, they still have a lot of cracking problems (for which you'll need coolcat reinforcements so count that in your expenses). Also, DDs can't move their torso pieces much. As for the staining, a white bodysuit or white lining is NOT quaranteed to prevent staining. While in most cases it helps and you should buy a bodysuit regardless, know that there are still chances the dye can transfer to the doll anyway (so better wash the clothes before putting them on).

For all that though, there's a pretty simple solution and that's to buy Obitsu bodies. Way better posing and their skeleton is stardy.

 

I've owned Obitsu boys, which are made very similarly to the Volks Dollfie Dream dolls. Personally, I don't like them. I've seen quite a few vinyl dolls that were very beautiful, but in my hands, I just don't bond or really enjoy them. I wouldn't want porcelain, I'd be afraid of breaking it.

There are also plastic bjds, but they aren't fit for this forum, and are usually mass produced and sold in regular retail stores (like BFCInk, Teen Trends, etc). I used to be fascinated by them, but not really anymore. They lack the detail of resin bjds. Even if they had the detail, I think I'd still feel like I wasted my money on basically a play-line Barbie.

I like the weight of resin, the feel of it, the stringing, the texture...I just feel like I get my money's worth for resin. I'm not sure why, exactly, I feel that way, I just do.

 

There are variations in resin, too! So even if you stick to resin dolls you'll find you have preferences in different resins once you see a lot. For example, there's regular urethane resin, French resin, and environmental resin. French resin is more translucent than urethane. It has a lovely, soft glow to it but it is prone to yellowing. Environmental resin is fairly new. It's translucent like French resin but claims to not yellow as badly. Personally I like the translucent resins even if they do yellow more rapidly.

Even within urethane resins I've found preferences between different companies. Volks resin is lovely; heavy and silky feeling. ShinyDoll resin is also nice. It's very creamy in color and texture and is very stable. I have a ShinyDoll I bought in 2007 and one from earlier this year (and several more bought over the years) and they are almost exactly the same color. My older girl gets out a lot yet she's hardly yellowed at all! Soom resin seems to vary from batch to batch, but their normal skin is rather pink. I just received a NS doll from Soom and I'm hoping he'll mellow to a less pinky color. I had a Resinsoul doll for a while but though I liked her face, her resin was very light and brittle feeling. Dolls are very much a tactile hobby to me so I didn't enjoy her & eventually sold her on. You'll find collectors that love the lighter weight resins and would hate to lug around a hefty Volks doll but for me it's the opposite .

I have an OT porcelain BJD as well. Porcelain is actually a very strong medium, but it can shatter if dropped or struck sharply. You don't really have to worry about scratches or dings though. I also have vinyl Dollfie Dreams and they hold poses very well and are great for taking out on photo shoots because they're so light. The staining is the worst part but it can be avoided if one is careful.

I love that there is so much variety in the BJD world.

 

There are things I like about both heavy Volks resin as well as lighter resin like Resinsoul. My Resinsoul feels very delicate,almost like porcelain. I love that,but I also feel like I have to be more careful with her than my other dolls because she's so fragile. The plus side of heavy resin is that dolls like that seem to pose better. FantasyDoll reminds me of Volks,the resin is very heavy and the doll poses like a dream.

-Maniah,I forgot to add that I also saw a BJD made out of wood somewhere on Etsy long time ago. It wasn't just a mannequin,it was a real ball jointed doll with a sculpted face and body.