EOSdoll (formerly Limhwa) Discussion

@Mandagore, they are all very similar, or at least all these sculpts are very much a signature of Jung Ji Youn style. Even the girls all tend to have very similar features, that become more blurred when faced-up (or depending on the face up!). Although, that might be true of all other companies with a single sculptor making all the faces, as opposed to having many artist making them.

I never intended for my Mano to be OOAK, but it did get to that point, somehow, somewhere through his time with me. My one and only regret is not being wealthy enough to have gotten a second whole doll just to own his unmodified head. I don't regret modifying mine to death, but I do regret not owning an unmodified version (one of the very few regrets I have within this hobby). Just because I am weird, outside these customizable dolls, I usually get multiples of toys to open and modify a few (I'm a stereotypical MISB nerd anime-toy collector, I can't help myself but hoard multiples of toys under $200, if I love the toy/character enough). (:

 

@Enzyme That is true. I did wish for a Limhwa Human girl because I felt with her the style present in her later dolls was not yet as set, but I do like them all. Off topic in this thread, but I also have Mono, and I feel his head sculpt is also a bit different, though he is undoubtedly Mano's little brother. A paradise for people creating doll families, really, and I do like the fact that you can always see it's a Limhwa.
I can relate to your wish for an unmodified Mano beside your modded one, as you must have also liked the sculpt as it was enough to get it. I thought that they crop up on the second hand market quite seldom, but T4124 was able to find one - so maybe one day a head will still come your way and the regret is gone^^
(I really suck at MISB, sadly, but I have seen some of your work on 1/6 collector's figures in Brigadoon and it was impressive, btw.)

 

@Mandagore, I love the Mano sculpt, without a doubt! I wish I wasn't as big of a germaphobe as I have become with old age. I would hunt one down second market in a heartbeat. If I was still avidly collecting BJD now, I would also get myself a Mono, he is indeed an undeniable Mano sibling, as are the other Limhwa/EOS sculpts. I agree with the notion that it is great to see resemblances, for people looking to create families. I enjoy it mostly due to my love of art, and being able to see an artist signature, but without the brush-stokes in this sense, being able to see them due to the facial features! (Thank you so much for your kind works on my OT customs! I'm in-love with being able to customize just about anything I can get my hands on, thanks to BJD, that I kind of lost interest in resin dolls. Or at least, getting more BJD that are cast in resin, I have no problem with ball-jointed-dolls, just don't need more expensive "self-deteriorating-plastic" toys. Lol!). (:

 

@Enzyme I couldn't agree more about an artist's signature style. And I do not want to step on anyone's toes here because everybody appreciates different things, but to me signature style does not mean being repetitive in what sells. There are other doll companies whose dolls you can recognise quite easily too, but only because they keep repeating the features that made them popular in the first place, with little variation. Nothing wrong with that, but that's a total different ball game from having an artistic signature.

If your hands and eyes are still good enough to do customs on 1/6 dolls, you really can't be as old as you say, because I could not do it anymore Still, "self-deteriorating plastic" brings to mind my vintage vinyl dolls whose discoloration is in no way less dramatic than that of some resin dolls, and the vinyls do shrink and crumble with time which I will very probably not live to see in my resin dolls^^ I love them all!

 

@Mandagore, well, I've been complaining about old-age since I was in my early twenties, so it's probably just me liking to complain about everything (which probably means I am, just actually old, Lol!)! I am lucky that I've always had great eyesight, however, I suffer from shaky hands since I was very young. It never bothered me, until I started painting small headed dolls, and that also includes my Mano! Lol! He's too big headed for his own body, but too small for my shaky hands. I do understand what you mean with repetitiveness, vs signature styles. I feel like it's easy to step over the line, and also not be able to see a clear line. It might also depend on the artist and the viewer/customer. I recall in video games, a lot of "fans" of Mr. Tetsuya Nomura (Square Enix lead character/game designer), being harshly critical for his seemingly repetitive character designs. But that's another story for another type of forum (also it's anime, he is well known but he works in an anime style all the time. Which I feel can be pretty limiting to work in as far as facial features, without seeming repetitive).

I don't enjoy soft plastic dolls/toys, such as vinyl (or silicone) because of how badly most of them tend to age as well (although it's hard to avoid all, due to my love of anime-aesthetics). I prefer hard plastics all the way, and if resin didn't loose its pigmentation as "quickly," I would probably love it as much as I do (certain kinds of) ABS, because of how easy resin is to mod and work with in general. Soft vinyl on the other hand, is a pain in the gut-hole for me to mod, and I wouldn't own any if it wasn't a preferred material for most OT fashion doll heads. I'm trying to avoid full-vinyl bodied dolls at all costs, but OT Dollzone sister company TinyFox are really tempting. Soft plastics seem to be getting more popular, sadly for me, even within 1:6 action figures, but hopefully I will not see any of mine decay in front of my eyes, before I go senile. (:

 

Hope y'all don't mind a bump. I could use a little help with my 57cm Half Elf. Specifically: what are the recommended lengths of both her elastic strings?

I've had her since 2013, so she could really use a restringing, but finding info about these lovely but forgotten dolls is very hard.

 

@ChristinasDream I have found that string length really is a very variable thing because due to thickness, quality and even the age of the string used, your results will vary. People sometimes recommend 4 x two thirds of the length from top of the neck to the ankle joint, but due to said variables I have sometimes found 4 x a half of the body length is better. And also not every body needs the same tension. Especially the old body Limhwa girls can be a bit difficult, as they need good tension, yes, but too much and they will kick and twitch. After 17 years of restringing dolls I am still going with the "cut the string a bit longer and then find out by try and error" method. Let me just add that our old Limhwas all got (pliver) sueding, because with stringing alone they would just not become manageable enough for my tastes But these bodies are so very beautiful...

 

I've already applied slip resistant tape to her most problematic joints (the clear 3M kind; was already awesome for wigs, but turns out it's an awesome sueding alternative, too). While she's never been a great poser, it's extremely obvious in both feel and appearance that the elastic is on its way out.

While there is variance and subjectivity, pretty much every doll maker has a baseline length to start with, and in this case, short of measuring what the current ones are and subtracting maybe a centimeter to account for stretching over time, I have zero point of reference to even tweak from.

 

Has anyone been in contact with Eosdoll recently?

 

@sahoma Sorry to say I have emailed her twice with no response this month She has always responded to me before this.

 

Update: I did hear back from Limhwa/Eosdoll! It just apparently went in my spam folder which had never happened before Anyway I asked when the next preorder might be and if the new doll they've been working on would be shown. Here is the reply:

"Hello ~

The release of the new doll has not been decided.

Several situations are being considered.

Someday, I think there will be a time when things get better.

Thank you for your inquiry."

 

@T4124 I didn't realize you can only buy through Eosdoll during preorder periods. I really want to own a Limhwa Half-elf again in the future but have only ever bought them through Junkyspot.

 

@GoodbyeYouHelloMe I'm not entirely sure they've always had preorder periods. I know at least once I ordered direct and didn't have to wait, but maybe it was just lucky timing and it was during a preorder and I didn't know it? But lately yeah I've asked and had to wait. It's always possible if you just email when you're ready, they'll let you go ahead and order.

At least you are after a Half Elf; I think those are the most popular of all the sculpts and often pop up on the secondhand market.

Please do let me know if you contact them and hear anything about an order period back.

 

Limhwa BJD Comparison: Elly & Iris by t4124, on Flickr

Iris has a raised "i" inside her faceplate and headback. Her eyes are bigger and her face is narrower.

 

This is a great comparison of the two heads! I really love the beauty of Limhwa dolls, and I am glad I own Nina (named Holly in my household), though I admit the blank pictures aren't very flattering of these dolls. I still need to figure out a way to get Holly to behave when posing, and paint her hands one of these days. The nails are just begging for a pretty manicure!

 

hi- does anyone know if eosdoll is still in business?

 

I sent an email to Eosdoll asking if they plan to release any dolls this year, and they replied within a couple days:

 

I don't know why I immediately got so excited and thought she was releasing a new male head sculpt... there's absolutely no mention of the gender anywhere, yet I assume that could possibly mean a new male head, meaning new male body sculpt as well! DX

I guess I am still waiting for Jung Ji Youn to release a new double-jointed male doll, despite her working on a much smaller and slimmer body for ToM, which I believe was never actually released. Not a larger broader one like I wished for (my Mano's huge noggin needs a larger broader body, but I would prefer a Jung Ji Youn created one, for aesthetic reasons). The girls got a broader, larger, double-jointed body, so I was always a bit sad that the males never got an "upgraded" body. Although, I know the males were never popular enough, for her to probably put the time and effort into a new body for them. It's good to hear she'll be releasing something new this year nonetheless! I hope she'll someday make a 30cm-ish male too, although, I would much prefer a broader/larger male body (I could use for my Mano, with a 14cm-plus neck, and similar proportions to OG Mano's body but broader!), before I go senile. (:

 

@Enzyme I followed up with a question about what type of head and if she'd share progress photos and here is the reply:

 

@T4124, thank you so much for doing that! I am super excited to see anythign new from Jung Ji Youn, even if it's not a new large male or a 30cm one. Her work is always beautiful, I hope she does decide to make more head sculps and not just the one she's working on right now. Thanks again, for sharing your follow ups with Jung Ji Youn, with all us! (: