For the Love of Old-School

It's not exactly the old-school aesthetics that I like. What does fascinate me is the age of those old-school dolls. It's like owning a piece of BJD history. That's why I'm so torn about whether or not to get my Volks Licht a different face-up. On the one hand, he could look so great and I really don't like the overly pink lips. On the other hand - it IS the original default face-up ...

 

Old school here, 90% of my collection is original Delf and similar era sculpts! At this point, I'm just carefully collecting all the ones I still don't have and honestly haven't bothered buying much that doesn't match that look new for many years. There's something very charming about their oddly proportioned selves that just makes me love them all the more as the years go on and the style du jour moves further into realism.

It does also mean you can grab previously out of reach dolls cheaply now because the majority of collectors are into the newer sculpts and sell off the older models, so it's pretty good, being old school now I think!

 

Oh! I am totally into the old-school aesthetic! I've been in this hobby for 12 years and it's those early dolls that still capture my heart! I have a real weakness for old Iplehouse oYIDs, early Dollzone, and CP/Luts.

Im so nostalgic for the older sculpts, I keep cruising the MP and looking for older sculpts.

It's kind of weird. I feel sort of redundant. Like the hobby has passed me by some how. I know the newer sculpts are lovely, but I just can't really get excited about them like I did the original, older sculpts. I look at the new Iplehouse boys and they are beautiful (there is no doubt about that) but I look at an old Iplehouse sculpt like SooRi, Lion, or Barron, and my heart melts.

 

I like plenty of new head sculpts just as much or more than old ones, but I do really like older bodies! I don't do a lot of complicated posing with my dolls, so double joints don't mean that much to me, and I like the aesthetic of a lot of older single jointed bodies. I also prefer slender boys and a lot of the big muscular types that seem to be more popular now aren't really my thing.

My oldest doll is a Volks F-20, who definitely has a bit of a melon head. I love how solid and substantial his body is!

 

After owning both old-school and newer sculpts, I've definitely found myself enjoying the old-school dolls in my collection more. I adore the big head and simplistic bodies from my 8-10+ year old dolls. I'd much rather own an older single joint body that looks good and compact than a newer double jointed realistic one with extra posing haha! I agree with most liking the older Volks and CP delf dolls.

 

@Rabbit-moon I've admired your Soo Ri for a long time.

My favorites are my old Elfdolls. My Soah will have her 13th birthday this year. Seems like only yesterday-- and a long time ago!

IMGP1579 by TFAsiduri, on Flickr

 

Old school all the way! So sad that when i first learned about Customhouse, they were already gone . I really love Cp luts as well as illusion spirit dolls!

 

I've been in the hobby for 13 years now and my dolly collection is a mix of VERY old sculpts (such as the old discontinued Volks F-07) and new, very realistic sculpts (Bimong Dandelion etc).
To me the old sculpts often have a unique charm to them that many newer ones are lacking...imho. But it's interesting to see how this hobby has evolved over the years and I'm curious to see where the hobby is going in terms of sculpts and styles :3

I do think my dolls, new AND old, look good together :3 I don't think my big eyed ol' skool sculpts look odd next to my newer ones... but maybe that's me being weird :3

@Silk ....congratulations on getting that dreamy Kanon doll- I was drooling over him when I saw him up for adoption! Please be kind and post MANY photos of him!!! ._.

 

I have 3 customhouse 1/6 doll, oldest from 2004. Love them so much but other than posing, i dont think they are much different from newer dolls.

 

Wow! Alewife, your Soah is beautiful! I have a Soah, too. She was the first girl I got back in 2006. Elfdoll/Rainman did some gorgeous sculpts back in the day. Its such a pity that he's not doing bjds anymore.

And, thank you for remembering my old Iplehouse SooRi (George)! That was so sweet of you. He turned 12 years old this month! And, I still love him like crazy! (Talk about old skool! )

Thank you Silk! I'm so glad I'm not the only one who feels strangely out of place sometimes. I also sort of feel a little overwhelmed by all the BJD companies that have sprung up over the past decade. Holy Cow! There's like a bazillion new companies, now! I can't keep track of them all.

I don't know who Kanon Louis is? I'd love to see a picture of him! I do remember your gorgeous Elfdoll K-ss! I've been in love with that boy for years!

 

Agreed, my old sculpts make me happier than new ones these days. I'm not sure if it's the aesthetic, or I'm just jaded.

@Rabbit-moon your George is the reason I got a SooRi, but I could never get mine to look as cool. It's good to see him again!

 

My collection is mainly old school, all my 1/3 dolls are earlier than 2009, most much older. I love my old dolls & haven't seen any new 1/3 dolls that really speak to me. My slim minis are also older dolls. In fact the only new dolls I have are Little Fee Ante & Chloe & those sculpts aren't new even though the dolls are.

Even when I find a new doll that I like, I think about my collection & know I have something already that I love more. It's good to know that others like the old dolls too as I thought I was collecting in a vacumn. I am hesitant about posting photos because I didn't think anyone was interested in the earlier dolls.

 

My realistic dolls seem to be way more "demanding" than my old-school ones. They need clothes that look fairly realistic too, and they are harder to handle in general.
The old-scholl dolls feel way more playful. They don't need perfection. Even if I can't pose their single-jointed bodies to look totally natural or if the buttons on their clothes are out of scale, it doesn't bother me. They don't strive to look like real people anyway, so I'm totally cool with their imperfections.

BTW I would love to see more of the older dolls in the galleries! I really miss them.
(There was this "old dolls watering hole" (?) thread some time ago when we had the "photo spam" forums, but I can't find it anywhere now)

Oh, I feel you … I'm very reluctant to wipe the company faceups of my CH Uri and my Volks Amakusa. They are not the prettiest faceups in the world, but yeah … ancient history.

 

We did have fun with the "old dolls' watering hole" thread, didn't we? But yeah, iirc it went away with the platform move, when the Photo Sharing forum was deleted.

I love the way you said that, evie the kid -- there is something really relaxed and playful about the earlier BJD style to me, too.

 

I completely agree with vicemage's explanation above when describing my own personal aesthetic. This point was really driven home when I innocently brought a gorgeous Withdoll sculpt into my collection a few years ago. I thought it was absolutely perfect for an elf character I was anxious to shell, and it had the most amazing body I'd ever owned, but it didn't last even two days...I couldn't get it out of here fast enough! So yeah, I'm definitely Old School in that I need that slight bit of an anime look to the dolls in my collection. I do have some newer companies represented in my crew, but they all still pretty much fall into that slightly anime aesthetic (like Doll Chateau or PeaksWoods.) And I jumped at the chance to pick up a pair of Customhouse Gabriel faces when Luts re-issued them with their big baby bodies. I also managed to snag a Volks DearSD 4 Sisters Megu when they were released. But other than that, I have been haunting the DoA marketplace to get my "old school fix" for years now.

 

Vicemage sums it up perfectly, I think! My favorite sculpts all tend to come from the 2008-2012 era, so just a little bit later. I loved the old YIDs from Iplehouse, and I wish they weren't discontinued (just maybe updated a little).

I think now companies are sort of polarized in their aesthetics? They tend to go very stylized/anime or very realistic.

 

I love the older sculpts too, and have a thing for the slight cartoonish proportions of the bobble-head old Volks. Bambi, my old F10, is my favourite resin girl! I do love some newer sculpts too though, and have a tan Volks Coco at home, but putting them next to each other they make one another look so weird. Bambi looks like Betty Boop proportionally, and Coco looks pin-headed. But separately they are lovely!

The hyper realistic dolls don't interest me, they are beautiful to look at, but I have no desire at all to own them. They just don't "speak" to me. I think it is something to do with dolls being totally about escapism for me, and I don't want reality creeping in at the edges!

Bow 1 by Flowergirl Fashions, on Flickr