Statements regarding potential similarities between 1/4 Pidgin Doll and FairyLand MiniFee

Statement from Pidgin Doll

I've been asked to prepare a statement regarding the similarities between my new 1/4 scale Pidgin Doll and Fairyland Minifee:

1/4 Pidgin was digitally sculpted using my previous 1/6 scale Pidgin sculpt and tweaking her proportions to be a littler fuller and more youthful (less fashion), and more like my early soft-bodied dolls. She was then digitally printed as a solid sculpt, cast in resin, and her joints were then cut by hand. Here are some photos of this process.

I do admit I was inspired by the Minifee, a great doll design that I admire, and that I wanted 1/4 Pidgin to be compatible with her and other slim minis. I did NOT however do any sort of recasting and in every way 1/4 scale Pidgin is a unique sculpt.

If you'll notice in a side-by side comparison to Minifee - Pidgin's head is smaller, her face is larger (in proportion to her head), her inset eyes are a smaller gauge, her neck is thicker, her shoulders narrower, a smaller bust, smaller waist, wider hips/buttocks, longer legs, shorter torso, shorter arms, smaller hands, smaller feet. In literally no measurement is she a copy of a Minifee. Some of her joints may be visually similar but when you look at each one in a side by side comparison they are obviously different and suited to each of the dolls sculpt. Pidgin parts wouldn't fit into a a Minifee and vise versa.

Art is not created in a vacuum. It is part of the creative process to be inspired by the world around you and to take a good idea and apply it to your own work. This is how all art and technology move forward. That said, I respect the Fairyland Minifee and I did make an effort to make sure literally every element of my doll (while still compatible) was my own expression.

I would also like to submit this side-by-side comparison of the Pidgin doll's aesthetic consistency from 2013 - 2017.

 

Statement from FairyLand

Dear DoA Moderation team,

Thank you for taking time to bring this matter into our attention and giving us a chance to share our opinion about the matter.

I am Kim SunHwa, Chief Producer of CP/FairyLand.
All picture files have been closely inspected along with G. O(Il Hyung, Cho) who is behind doll designs and joint engineering of all CP/FairyLand dolls.

We normally do not object to the idea of bjd dolls out in the market with similar characteristics of FairyLand dolls. There could be many reasons behind why some dolls may resemble our dolls more than any other dolls including; having a similar view on human anatomy and its body engineering, or could have been influenced by FairyLand dolls and might even use it as a visual aid during hand-sculpting stage.

However, we want to put an emphasises on the fact that there are limits on what is acceptable and not when using our doll as a reference. On most of instances, these ‘similarities’ were regarded as acceptable and have not been challenged. And what if our customers were not satisfied with our own design? So far, we endeavoured harder and tried our best to deliver the most optimal design that pleases our customer.

Although we can understand that there could be genuinely legitimate reason of overall similarities of Pidgin Doll’s body design with our FairyLand MiniFee for the reason stated above - ie. sharing similar view on human anatomy and etc -, it seems probably undeniable that MiniFee joint engineering system has been heavily borrowed in creation of Pidgin Doll. And I have a feeling that this was intentional rather than just using our doll as a visual aid at hand-sculpting stage.

Attached are comparison pictures of Pidgin Doll and FairyLand MiniFee.

I would like to thank you for taking time to read and should you require any further comment / information regarding the matter, I will try my best to respond as soon as possible.

I would also appreciate how this email will help DoA and bjd community.

Any information that can be shared would be appreciated.

Thank you very much.

Kind Regards,
Kim SunHwa

 

@jdavidmckenney originally sent us images showing the joints of 1/4 Pidgin Doll compared with those of a Fairyland MiniFee (A-line renewal). As jdavidmckenney himself provided these photos, and since the links were publicly accessible, we thought it would be fair to include them here.

However, after viewing this thread, reading the statement from Fairyland, and admitting that Den of Angels staff 'did what [we] felt [we] had to do' in banning Pidgin Doll, he has asked that we remove what he now calls the 'ugly, "nit picky" photos that don't present either doll flatteringly.'

Fairyland has seen the images and have not objected to the way their doll was presented. However, we fully understand why jdavidmckenney would not want these comparison photos to be public and have removed them in accordance with his wishes.

Update:
@jdavidmckenney has told us that some (not all) of Pidgin's joints have been changed as a result of the negative response to the doll as it was initially promoted.

However, @jdavidmckenney and his dolls will remain banned on Den of Angels, regardless of any present or future alterations made to his dolls.