For the Love of Old-School

Thank you!

Yeah, my white skin JID girl has mellowed to a really nice colour. I love it.

And yes! I think out of all the dolls I've owned my CP doll is particularly solid. She just feels really nice. Hard to explain but they definitely don't make them like that anymore.

Well, I'm in the process of buying all the Migidoll boys I used to have. I already got Miho which was my first doll. And I have a Jina on the way. And I'm saving up for a Ryu. I have a particular fondness for the older Migidoll sculpts because they were the dolls that got me into the hobby.

I'd never had a Delf before so my Delf Soony is new to me even though she's technically my oldest doll (2007). But I wanted a Soony so badly for so long (grail doll!!!), so there's a lot of sentimental value in her as well. Also, maybe it's silly, but I feel like I own a little piece of BJD history with that girl because she is a limited full set.

But yeah, my wishlist is now entirely made up of dolls that I've previously owned. It's a little bit tragic xD

 

Same! I actually count myself lucky enough to own a beauty green El and even he's gloriously character filled! Also, welcome back, I think some of my crew are still wearing things you made, I seem to remember you had a shop a long time back now.

 

I'm with @Hyzenthlay and @Rabbit-moon, I love yellowed dolls! I also think they have a creamy/mellow colour that to me looks like a "real" skin tone. I just love it.

When I got back into this hobby after my hiatus I thought I was going to all about every new doll I came across. I found that was not the case and I keep going back to what I know and that's definitely more stylized looking dolls rather than realistic looking. I certainly admire those sculpts out there that have just amazing detailed work down to lip lines but, for me, I want something that looks like it's manga-ish or video game character real looking, you know?

I really love my old Hound. He's so perfect to me and I'm half tempted to start snatching up any old Hound I see on the second hand market. I want an army of vintage Hounds. xD

 

I've found some success with tinting the torso to match the head and letting it age in with the head, might be worth a go? I tend to fade it out over the shoulders, so it's less obvious.

 

I'll admit that the reason I sold off most of my BW CP/Delfs a few years ago was because I really, really didn't like the color their resin was turning as it aged. Volks white goes ivory. I don't mind that. But my white CP dolls were turning either the color of butter or pistachio ice-cream. o_O

I kept a few favorites like Al and Ptolemaeus, who are in "pry from my cold, dead hands"-territory no matter what color they end up. and my pair of absolutely awful "beauty green" Els that I thought no one else would possibly want, and sent the rest on to other homes. I have no regrets.

I don't have the same issues with the way my NS dolls have aged. Even as yellowed as some of them are (and as yellow-toned as some of them started out, in fairness-), they don't look bad at all to me. I guess I'm just not a huge fan of the pinker end of the spectrum, so yellower or peachier shades appeal to me more rather that color is where they start or where they end up after they've aged.

 

I wish there were some way we could resuscitate the Old Dolls Watering Hole picture thread. I'm not sure if they allow chat in Photo Reference. ???

 

I don't think it's forbidden, but AFAIK it's not encouraged either -- which is making me think that maybe a regular Gallery thread would work best??

 

I suspect you're right. Like I said earlier, I don't think there's any rule that says only one person can add photos to a Gallery thread, either, so it shouldn't run into problems for having multiple contributors.

 

Okay, friends and neighbors, here we go: https://denofangels.com/threads/the...community-gallery-for-old-school-bjds.773836/ All sizes, ages, and states of yellowing or greening are welcome!

 

Woohoo! Going off to watch the thread now. Thanks for getting the ball rolling!

 

Yay! Thank you Cynthia in FlintHills!

 

Hope you don't mind Cynthia in FlintHills, but I swiped this post from the photo thread just because it's so awesome!

OMG! A Customhouse Jun!!! You lucky girl!

I wanted him so badly when I first got into this hobby. But the internet wasn't quite as friendly 12 years ago as it is today, and I just couldn't navigate the Customhouse website. I have to admit I wasn't very computer savvy back in the day. Anyway, I never got my Jun, but it's so great to see yours!

 

I love looking at older dolls/sculpts and love how SOLID they were made! Going off to look at the gallery now

 

@Rabbit-moon, I am lucky to have Flynn -- he has some pedigree, at least by old-school standards! He first belonged to pacific_rin, and starred in the article about Customhouse that she wrote for an early issue of FDQ; then he went to Karin Bussman, and then to me toward the end of 2006. After all these years, I still can't believe I have THE Flynn! (He's been Flynn ever since he left Korea -- I got Lynn's and Karin's OK to keep the name.)

It seems like forever ago that we had the luxury of worrying about things like duplicating or changing names, instead of rampant recasting. Mind you, I'm not sentimental -- there was plenty of backbiting and unnecessary drama back in the day, too (and how!).

 

There is something absolutely charming about the old school sculpts, I agree.

I enjoy realistic sculpts, but there was something about those earlier dolls that's hard to describe.

When you look at them, it's that feeling of it being a product of its time - that it couldn't have been made at any other point in time.
A 2003 Volks sculpt looks and feels like 2003, and so on - especially with their faceups! The CP Delf faceups take me back to a time when Visual Kei was extremely popular, in music and fashion cultures (and of course, BJD culture).

Part of it now is definitely nostalgia, and the fact that I find their datedness very charming; but I have always loved those older sculpts, even at the time they were new or relatively new. Even if the styles were unrealistic, they were unlike any other. They didn't look like traditional porcelain dolls, or any other kind of doll out there, but you could see the cultural influence in the sculpts. It's just so cool!

 

Hey! Check this out! Over in the Box-opening thread, someone has just brought home an old yellowed CP/Luts El. He's gorgeous!

It makes my heart happy to see a new collector appreciating such an iconic old skool sculpt!

https://denofangels.com/threads/my-first-sd-a-very-familiar-face-img-heavy.773862/unread

 

I loved El ever since I saw him back in 2008 or so, when I first got into BJD. Since I've only been collecting since 2016 I thought I'd never get the chance to own him, so I'm very excited! And I initially never expected to be okay with single joints or yellowing but I think he is perfect.

Also, there used to be this amazing thread in a deleted Gallery sub forum that has since been removed. It was called the Old Dolls Watering Hole, but it's gone now. It was this amazing thread full of owner photos of dolls, I think all 10 years old and above or almost 10 years old.

There's a similar thread that was moved to the Photo Reference subforum but it doesn't look like the Old Dolls Watering Hole was merged with it during the site reorganization. Was it just deleted? That was my favourite thread!

EDIT: Woops, I totally missed earlier mention of this in the thread! I'm glad there are others who miss it, since I hadn't heard anything about it since it's disappearance! The similar thread that was moved to the Photo Reference subforum has a lot of broken links to similar deleted threads in it, so I'm grateful for the new Old School thread. Bless this community

 

Thanks for making the gallery thread @Cynthia in FlintHills ! I hope a lot of members will feel encouraged to post their lovelies.
The sun doesn't get so intense where I live, so most of my dolls haven't yellowed thaaaat much. I do love the shade that the pink NS of some companies has become, but the YNS looks like some mature cheese …