What happened to the SD range?

I'm fairly new to 65cm, so I'm not really familiar with new vs old styles, or where these might fall for you, so apologies if they're way off the mark, but I'd also recommend Supia 65 body. I have a Giyom on that body, and it is beautifully detailed, stands like a rock and clothes made for SD17 fit him like a dream. Luts Senior 65 could have good options too, they have both a slender and muscular version. There's also the Senior Delf Muse body, which is 64-65cm and gender neutral. I have that body for one of my boys, and fair warning, he is so skinny that SD13 stuff is loose on him, but he needs the length of SD17, so...that's fun. (But he's my favorite doll, so I put up with it. )

 

A bit of a postscript to my posts above...

I've been discussing this topic with a friend of mine who's more familiar with the Chinese BJD community than I am, and I was told that there's evidence of Chinese hobbyists who still play with smaller 1/3 dolls. However, since small 1/3s are not trendy and therefore don't influence most BJD development and clothing production in China, their presence on Weibo is quite small and/or doesn't rise to prominence. There may also be a socioeconomic factor to this too: at 1/3 scale, smaller 60-65s are more affordable than 68s or 75s, the owners may not be able to afford professionally made outfits that Chinese artisans usually offer (and that we in the international world end up seeing), so said outfits are not produced in smaller size.

My friend and I suspect small 1/3 hobbyists seem to be congregating elsewhere such as on Xianyu, Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book) and Lofter (China's equivalent of Tumblr). And since they're not being serviced by major artisans, they're probably servicing their own community at homemade/small-scale level, which will again be mostly present on Xianyu and Lofter and won't make it out to an international audience.

I've since done a little snooping around Weibo, and have found a bit of evidence of small 1/3 doll owners here and there. So I guess they are present in China and there's still a market for small 1/3s, but the size range is definitely not a trend driver and the community seems quite low-profile. I'm going to keep looking for them because I'm curious now.

 

I think that also applies to the Korean classic SD size fan base. Most artists doing those sizes are using witchform or email orders with bank wire payment only, something you might struggle to even find a shopping service to get in on. It's hard, there really aren't any US/EU based clothes artisans doing anything in my aesthetic. I've been blessed that one of the Chinese dealers I shop with is so sweet when I email asking if they'll be taking pre-orders for every new set I see pop up on weibo

I do hope we start seeing a bit more slender proportionate 75cm bodies instead of the dorito hunk bodies there's too many good clothes for 75cm out right now but the pinhead look just doesn't do it for me.

 

@aihre @Lauryn what about Japan? I've been looking mostly at Volks and 2nd hand stores like Dollyteria and Mandarake. They're still dominated by Volks as far as I know, although I've seen many Chinese BJDs in a Japanese context (my first contact with BJDs was a Japanese post of a Doll Chateau doll). Japan is famously insular but I cannot really seem to gather information. What's out there in public sight seems to be mostly related to vinyl BJDs like Dollfie Dream, I'm not interested in it. I know of Ayaka who sell kimono, and a few independent stores on Booth, also Melody C. and PsychoLab, but the picture I'm getting is of a much narrower scope than it should be. I'm probably missing something because I'm convinced that Japan should have a very lively environment.

 

From what I've noticed the bulk of really quality work is doll shows only. They either make small batches to sell at the show or make prototypes that can be viewed and pre-ordered at the show. Or they auction OOAK numbers on Y!JA.

A few still have webshop sales or take online pre-orders you can get in on via Noppin or another shopping service but lately more than ever artists are closing pre-orders early due to order volume so the window to submit your order request, approve and pay invoice, and get them to place the order is frustratingly small and many times you'll miss it because they only take bank wire so it forces you to go through a proxy.

Twitter/X is the best place to scout artists. I typically find a few I like then deep dive their mutuals for more. Mercari is a great place for secondhand doll goods and dealer clothes too.

 

@Lauryn Thanks! That's a really informative post. Looks like Japan is an insular as ever I know a few bisque sculptors but they seem to only do work for shows, as you said. I'll take a look at Mercari!