Rarest Defunct Companies/Artists

Not an old company, but how about Light Limner? Very short-lived; a couple years at most. To-date, I have never seen owner photos beyond my own, and my Selina remains the only doll made by them listed under Doll Profiles. Makes me sad; they're beautiful dolls with very defined heart-shaped faces that you don't really see often elsewhere, but I guess Iplehouse has such a monopoly on realistic western sculpts that no one really noticed or cared.

 

I followed them for ages on Etsy, but when I went to go buy a Letisha, they were already gone!

 

Oh no. If it's any consolation, I got my Selina second hand, so there's always hope you'll find one in the future!

 

@ChristinasDream
I have a LightLimner Ciera and was just pondering if I should mention that artist as well!

Other dolls in my own collection might be Pathos Tale Pan. They only sold 4 sculpts if I recall correctly, and Pan herself was quite limited (I think 30?) but their style was amazing, and the quality was as well. I would adore seeing anything else they might have created.

 

Dream of Doll was one of my favorite companies, sadly they went defunct a few years back. I used to have a Dream of Doll Camine. I literally just got rid of him last week though, it was time he went off to a new home.

 

I have two Rasendo/Rasendou dolls, Mei and Miyu. There is a handful of really, REALLY blurry photos of Mei out there, but I only was able to find one photo of a Miyu in my research before buying the dolls. Rasendo was one of the first BJD companies after Volks and was based in Japan. You could only purchase them via a proxy (ah, the early 2000s were a joy!).

Miyu is particularly interesting to me because she is so very fragile. I wonder how many were made, and of those, how many have survived. If I even look at her wrong, part of her ears break off. They are very brittle and yellowed with age. I am sure they were gorgeous when she was brand new! Both of my girls are currently being cleaned and preparing for new faces but I will still share them:

Miyu:

Spoiler: Mei, with her single tooth

 

They are so pretty, they have little bubbles in them so I am planning to make her Koi fish themed. But almost all of the ends are broken off, and the other ear suffered a major break and repair at one point in time. It is neat though, the original owner still had the order slip certificate for the Mei. Crazy how some of this stuff survives decades! I will take them even in poor condition.

 

I also have a Kanon Yui. The two Kanon heads, Yui and Lui/Rui, only had 20 each of the head. I only know of one person who has the Lui head - prior to that, I'd only seen it once in on Y!J back in like 2004.

• Orientdoll, who made very nice mature/small-headed minis before it was really a thing. (Orientdoll Tae and Il were ones I always wanted but never bought)
• Notdoll Labs made a couple of real weird but compelling dolls, like Belladonna and I think they also made Naripon...
• Wishel, which lasted all of maybe one order period. Wishel made tinies (like 10cm, maybe?) and they came in a plaster egg rather than a box. The doll inside was random, and it had some different fantasy options like little wings molded to the back, etc. They took forever to ship out their initial order and I don't think they ever did another...
• Glorydoll, who made the still sought-after Louis and Miyuki. (I had both and regret selling them.)
• Dolkot, who is probably best known for their boy, Kiss. They had a few iterations of their bodies and a couple lines and heads, but they were never super popular and aren't around now.
• Infinitidoll, who was founded by a LUTS sculptor who left. There was some drama around ownership of their big boy body since it was similar to LUTS work and was sculpted while the sculptor was still working for them. Their work was very pretty (very much like LUTS dolls of that era for obvious reasons) but they weren't very popular and they don't have any super well-known heads.
• Everpurple, who was probably better known for their urethane eyes than their dolls. They had some pretty dolls though. They became Aria Doll after awhile, but that closed too.

 

Notdoll had a great male sculpt once upon a time... I've completely forgotten his name, but someone out there has one styled as the archetypical Snooty Waiter and he is FABULOUS. That doll made me grin every time they posted a picture of him.

Orientdoll is another fun blast from the past. I came close to buying a Tae of my own a few times, but held off because I couldn't figure out exactly what I'd do with a grumpy half-pint bad-ass.

ETA: Which company made the little chocolate-colored vampire tinies? I remember seeing them at the local doll shop (in the days when we still had one-) They were adorable, and I haven't seen one in years, but I don't remember the name of the company that made them.

 

They did indeed make Naripon! I have a Naripon Toadstool along with my bigger Notdoll girls.

Andante Espressivo! Yes, he's owned by @Poppa and photos are here: https://denofangels.com/threads/notdoll-boy-andante-espressivo-discussion-d.61703/page-2

I think this was Orientdoll too! So Ye, So Ji, So Dong, and So Ui came as vampires and non-vampires.

Edit for grammar~!

 

Blossom doll! The sculptor had originally worked for DZ back in the early 2010's and then left and started their own company. They have a wiki page with a list of their sculpts. I still regret not getting Molly or Iris, and especially the body.