[....Oyaji? The Old Man] (mature, older-looking head sculpts)

I have often mused over the idea of getting a MNM of an elderly woman-like face. The reason is because frankly, I do have a strong love for a certain One Piece character who while extremely old has a very young body and a well-aged face. With a house full of handsome male SDs in their 20's-30's, I can't help but think it would be hilarious to have an elderly woman doll who "enjoys the view" as it were. XD

 

Love johnny depp style~ I reckon now you can find some of the 70cm male quite mature in the age. Like the up-coming doll Ludwig from LLT (did I just get the right spelling?), or some of the zenith dolls from soul or the idealians from soom. They are not 30+, but I guess if you try, you can definitely make them kinda late 20s from face up and clothing etc.

 

It's a shame that Unidoll doesn't seem to be in business anymore. They're the one company I always recommended when people were looking for more mature male sculpts. I think Minimees are a good option if you're not into modding though.

I always felt like Happydoll Margo (with some modding) could fit such a role quite nicely.

 

This is really funny because I tried to get people interested in getting a Minimee head of Sean Connery and there weren't any takers!

There's also a thread for a Ron Perlman head if anyone likes him. I do!

 

I find that some of the 70-80cm BJDs look older, but not always in a sexy way. And... what company was it... They have SDs and Elder SDs, or something like that, and I think they look a little older. I know their bodies look older, if I remember correctly. Oh this is going to drive me crazy now. But I think there are SOME dolls out there with a little older look. Mainly in the 70-80cm range.

 

Maybe Iplehouse's Elder Iplehouse Dolld (EID)?

 

Maybe that's what I was thinking of... I don't know. It was a really long time ago that I was looking at the site and I don't know if I've ever looked at Iplehouse before. But that very well may have been it.

 

I really wasn't sure weather this should be in the general discussion or the debate, I decided debate because it allows more back and forth, but obviously mods do as you will

I've been working on modding a zaoll into a character that is very important to me, he's in his late 60's. The reason I'm modding him is that after much searching I couldn't find a bjd that would fit him, not even close. There were a few heads that might have fit with some minor mods, but I couldn't find anything body wise.
The mod I'm doing is my most important older character, but I have plenty of others I would love to have in bjd form. Modding is a lot of work though, and it can be costly (I don't just count the supplies and time into modding, but also write off the cost of the dolls since they're resale will definatly go down).

It got me wondering why older dolls don't exist?

I don't see it as something we can write off as easily as the companies don't make them. These are small companies we're talking about, even the largest ones are smaller, and they listen to us. We cried for heeled feet for 1/4 bjds and now both Fairyland and Iplehouse have given us some.
I also don't think it's a technical thing. I don't know from experience, but I've heard that some of the soom dolls have finger prints. If they can put finger prints on a doll, they can put wrinkles.
There are also the custom order companies. Why hasn't there ever been a order for an older bjd? (not a specific character or person, but a generic older bjd)

I just don't know why they don't exist.
So I'm asking, why don't they?
If you wouldn't order one, why not?
What if a company just released an older body?



(In case anyone is wondering, I'm 21, so I don't think the age of the collector factors into it)

 

To tell you the truth (as I see it), I don't think that many people would buy and older looking doll. Therefore I can't imagine that any company would make enough money to warrant the time, expense and effort it would take to make one.

Although I would buy one, I think I'm in the minority. There have been some laments from people who are wanting older looking dolls, but I don't think the doll companies are interested. They will only consider making dolls if the interest is high enough.

As of now, the only way to get an older looking head is to have one custom made. There's a Ron Pearlman thread going on in the custom manufacturing thread, but not many people are interested. I also tried to start a Sean Connery thread, but there was no interest. Of course neither of these heads would be generic.
They would both be older though.

As for a body, that would cost at least twice the price of making a head, so no company is going to do that either.

I'm with you. I wish there was an older looking male doll, I'd buy one in a minute! At this time I'm not interested in an older looking female doll.

I guess people who want an older looking doll could band together and ask various companies if they'd be willing to make one, but I doubt they would agree.

 

John Martson...

But honestly, that would THE greatest! Then my teeny bopper Marcus could have a dad...

 

That's my thinking exactly. The MNMs are really cool on their own, but they have a certian asthetic to them, and it usually clashes with other bjds.
I want more of a 'regular' bjd who is a bit older, is that so much to ask

 

I don't think it's possible to have a "regular" BJD that's "older". Mostly because the ABJD aesthetic caters to the idea of "perfection" and simplification of features, and this ALWAYS = younger-looking doll. It's a well-known phenomenon, especially in the comics world, where the character's age can basically be accurately gauged by the number of lines and details on their face. Decrease in lines = decrease in wrinkles and furrows and sags = will always look younger, no matter what. I mean, even Iplehouse's big guys - they can barely pull anything over 30, because they don't have the small wrinkles around the eyes and forehead that comes with any age over that (now, if you draw it into a face-up it's of course a different story, then they can look older).

Basically, any older BJD that, heh, looks it's age, will never look like a regular BJD because the features that depict age are the ones that are most commonly diminished/omitted while sculpting them.

 

After a long search, I guess I found a head sculpt which looks pretty mature: Leekeworld's Lionel.

Here he is on the company site: http://www.leekeworld.com/En/Product/p_view.asp?it_code=2936&B_catalog_num=11

In another thread, I found some more close-up pictures and one where I could see at least his blank face:http://www.denofangels.com/forums/s...d-Picture-Request&highlight=leekeworld+lionel

This nailed my decision to get this head. For a BJD, he has quite a lof of definition in his face. I like that a lot, even better than EID Arvid (please do not shoot me for this). With the right face-up, he can look very mature, I think.

 

I'll have to respectfully disagree with you there.
I'm familar with the lines = age rule, but there are older anime characters. There are ways to show those lines while still keeping the simplified aesthetic that bjds have. Sorry to keep bring my mod up, but people keep mentioning how realistic he looks, he doesn't, not really. I think what they mean is that the aging I'm doing on him looks good (which makes me really happy to hear) but if you were to put him next to an actual old man you would never have to guess which one was real
I still don't see why a company couldn't release a sculpt with crowsfeet, or undereye bags, and still keep their simplified aesthetic.

He is a handsome one isn't he
I definatly see how he could pull off an older look.

 

A couple of my characters are older and as I hit the big 30 this year I'm beginning to see beauty in maturity! XD Gimme some wrinkles! XD

There's some things you can do with faceups. One of my younger dolls has a crease near his eye and its amazing how it looks like a wrinkle in many photos and gives him this age.

 

Probably most lack of demand.
I mean sure, we have maybe 40 of us who like the idea of dolls who look older than 25, but that's about it. And most of those 40 would say, Oh, I can't afford a new doll/head, or Oh, He doesn't look enough like my character, or just Oh, it's not how I was imagining it would look, and there you go- from 40 possible buyers, which is tiny, to maybe three or four actually committed customers, which is ridiculous, and no company would sculpt and cast for three or four except as a custom service like Minimees.

 

That's true. I hadn't really thought about how easily people back away from bjds they've previously said they would like.
But then, there is that fat bjd (I can't remember her name) she was obviously worth the artist's time and I wonder how many people have bought her

 

My favorite example is Souldoll's The Hermit Lemkin http://souldoll.com/shop/step1.php?number=1964
I thought he was pretty fabulous....unfortunately he was only a mask! If he had been an
actual head I likely would have tried to get him.

That said I don't think the actual problem is lack of interest in an older looking doll with wrinkles, I believe it's the problem of "what body do you put this mature head on?" that might stop companies from creating a mature sculpt the same way most companies would not create a doll head in a unique color without an accompanying body to match?
Can you put a 50-70+ year old looking sculpt on a very fit/thin/muscular 20-30 year old doll body?
I'm sure many here wouldn't have a problem with that, figuring it would be clothed, but most companies focus on the entire look of a doll when creating it. And obviously if they don't see an interest in an older sculpt they likely won't attempt creating it.
I wouldn't use MNM's as an example only because most of them are for a specific Actor, and there has to be interest in them at the time. The Hugh Laurie MNM comes to mind, which I liked

Personally I'd love to see a mature bjd, male or female, with sculpted wrinkles, and I think an older body would be really interesting but a lot harder to accomplish successfully..still it would be nice to see.
More and more I feel there are new and creative ideas being seen, so I don't think it's impossible that one day there WILL be a mature sculpt & body to match.

 

I prefer the older looking lasses and males and it might stem from my love of Barbie's when I was little girl. Barbie & Co. is not a group of pre-teens but really mature men and women. However I also love the very baby-like dolls and my other SD is a teen-like doll. I wouldn't want a 50 or 60 year old BJD but I think having BJDs in the 30s or 40s range would be great. A lot of people have dolls that are parents or grandparents in their stories. I would imagine it would be easier to mod a doll to look older on a 40-year old scult than a pre-teen one.