General Curiosity with Companies

Nope, most of them are pretty small, actually, either one man companies or only with a handful of employees. The "richest" doll company out there is probably Volks - and that's very likely only because they sell other stuff, too, not just BJDs and Dollfie Dreams ...

 

Nope, no silly little language barrier is ever going to keep me from getting my grabby hands on a doll that I've fallen in love with. The funny thing is, the longer I'm in this hobby, the easier it becomes for me to understand garbled English; compared to my complete bewilderment when I first entered the hobby, it's rare these days that I can't figure out what they're trying to say. It's almost like learning a second language, lol.

 

@Khell has a good point. Resin dolls take a lot of handwork which can limit production and profit. (Think "cottage industry", not a massive factory.) I noticed production problems in the porcelain doll industry years ago. Several small companies went out of business in part because porcelain dolls are labor intensive, too. I am hoping like crazy we don't lose any more bjd companies, but the recast problem could drive some out of existence.

As for language barriers, broken English is better than no English at all! Where there's a doll, there's a way!

 

Thanks. Now I'm feeling even better that I bought a legit doll.

 

Language barrier doesn't bother me, as long as we can get key points across. I agree with you that there are a number of companies with not that great English. But I don't think English is the main market, so of course it takes a back seat. Not that this bothers me. Most companies do a good job.

 

Not remotely not that I know of, no. You do not make very much profit selling dolls. Most of the cost goes into production. Volks Soom and Luts might make enough to keep their people well-paid, as opposed to just paid, but only Volks has more than 20 full time employees, I'd guess.

Most doll companies are ten people or just one or two, barely making enough to keep producing. All the doll artists I know who are teams of two or three people all have to have other jobs to keep doing this. No one is getting rich off dolls, except possibly Volks/Soom/Luts bosses and other people, who might be making a decent living. Rich? I very much doubt it.

 

I usually don't care about this. English isn't my first language either, so I know it must be difficult for them to use it. BJDs are an "online hobby" (the community mostly buys online and is popular only online, at least here in Spain.) and the language for opening shops online right now is English. They try their best to translate everything into this language, and most of the times they do a good job! xD I mean, sometimes you come across weird sentences, but everything you need to know is clear enough.

Also, even though I wouldn't use them, I find it cute that they create backstories for some dolls.

 

When I was new to the hobby ten years ago, I was worried about the language barrier. That actually put me off buying for awhile. At the time, I was so new to online transactions, I was even worried about buying within my own country, so the thought of giving money to someone halfway around the world who couldn't speak English and trusting them to actually send the doll several months later was terrifying to me. I bought my first doll in stock from a US dealer, and that's the only way I bought dolls for the first couple of years, until I fell for a doll I couldn't get in stock and I had a friend help me order him.

Now, I'm so used to buying internationally, I don't really even think about it! I buy things from TaoBao using Google Translate, and compared to that, most doll companies are basically fluent! haha (example: "fat explosion underwear" instead of "Large DD Dynamite Undershirt" was the most recent one Google Translate got wildly wrong!) I've found the best way to communicate and get the answers you need is to keep your messages simple. Leave out all of the fluff and only use what is important. If they're using a translator, "How tall is X Doll? Thank you!" is much easier to translate than "Hello, I love your dolls, they are so pretty and I really like X Doll, but I couldn't find her measurements, can you tell me about how tall she is? It would be very helpful!" Compliments and being friendly is nice, but it can be confusing when it doesn't really have anything to do with the question at hand. It may also help to do bullet points or a numbered list if you have multiple questions instead of one big jumbled paragraph.

I really don't mind that doll companies aren't fluent in English. I am not fluent in any other language (though I know a very small amount of Spanish), so I really don't expect anyone to learn my language, if I don't know theirs. I know most of them are 1-3 people, and I've heard from a couple of doll makers that they barely make any extra money on dolls, plus sales are sporadic, so they almost always do it as a side project, along with their regular jobs because a doll company alone isn't nearly enough to feed themselves and pay rent and utilities. I wouldn't expect them to hire a translator when they're not even making a living wage themselves.

My biggest complaint about doll company information is not having it all on the doll's sales page! I hate when they show only the dressed, painted fullset doll in sales photos....then I have to look in "parts" to see the blank head and body....then I have to search FAQ for measurements...then somewhere else for resin colors...I really wish all doll pages showed exactly what you're buying: full doll, both in fullset (if available) and totally nude and blank, a list of measurements, wig size, eye size, and a photo of the color options, plus any other options (bust size, extra hands/feet, fantasy parts, sleeping head, etc.). I don't mind if their English isn't the best, but please show me the basic stuff I need to know about the product I am buying!

 

Honestly language barriers don't really bug me. You make do with what you got and if I can decipher something from it, great!

I've ordered from companies because I wanted my doll to be a specific way. And the only way to do it was a custom order. Both ironically are Yo-SD's. Still waiting on one, the other I've had since 2013. It's honestly not a barrier issue for me. If I can make by with rough translations and the sites that offer english variations, then it's all good.

I think honestly what'll make me choose ordering directly from the company in most cases is the possibility of custom orders. Resin color, option parts ect.

 

Back in the olden days, my first small Japanese dolls were a pair of 1/6 Volks Dollfie Plus, (plastic with resin anime style heads that take eyes and wigs). They had to be ordered from Volks Japan via their webshop using a shopping service...with no handy google translate to help! The joke was that things were delivered over the ocean on the backs of sea turtles, it was so slow. I was fairly late to the game in customizing and buying the larger resins but I watched the hobby with interest and enjoyed smaller dolls.

So after that experience, I'm really fine with the ease of ordering and the communication these days! It was good to learn how to purchase through a shopping service because a lot of goods are easier to order that way. People who take advantage of Y!Japan and know how to navigate Japanese websites often find really good things!

Also, I find a lot of the ’engrish’ very charming and hilarious and I like to be greeted with ’Hello Dear’ in my emails. People don't hesitate to try to puzzle out vague things from the sites though so if something seems confusing, it's always good to run it by us on a thread here, someone will know. Almost always.

My favorite company, Alchemic Labo has one sculptor, he is the owner, and I don't think he does it full time. He has a very small part-time staff. He still doesn't take direct overseas orders except through UnoAlchemy, who thankfully are super-helpful and very nice.

 

Many BJD company sites have very clear English versions, with only longer backstories and detailed written descriptions oddly phrased or with missing words. I have never used a shopping service and tend to order through American dealers. But if I can mostly understand the website and figure out how to order from them, it's all good. I only speak English, and really appreciate that so many doll companies have employees who speak this language or translators.