1. It has come to the attention of forum staff that Dollshe Craft has ceased communications with dealers and customers, has failed to provide promised refunds for the excessive waits, and now has wait times surpassing 5 years in some cases. Forum staff are also concerned as there are claims being put forth that Dollshe plans to close down their doll making company. Due to the instability of the company, the lack of communication, the lack of promised refunds, and the wait times now surpassing 5 years, we strongly urge members to research the current state of this company very carefully and thoroughly before deciding to place an order. For more information please see the Dollshe waiting room. Do not assume this cannot happen to you or that your order will be different.
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  2. Dollshe Craft and all dolls created by Dollshe, including any dolls created under his new or future companies, including Club Coco BJD are now banned from Den of Angels. Dollshe and the sculptor may not advertise his products on this forum. Sales may not be discussed, no news threads may be posted regarding new releases. This ban does not impact any dolls by Dollshe ordered by November 8, 2023. Any dolls ordered after November 8, 2023, regardless of the date the sculpt was released, are banned from this forum as are any dolls released under his new or future companies including but not limited to Club Coco BJD. This ban does not apply to other company dolls cast by Dollshe as part of a casting agreement between him and the actual sculpt or company and those dolls may still be discussed on the forum. Please come to Ask the Moderators if you have any questions.
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Whats changed?

May 24, 2021

    1. From when you first started in the BJD hobby, to now, what's changed the most? Do you like it or dislike it?
       
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    2. I got my first doll in 2008, so a lot has changed!

      The good:
      -SO many more companies, literally hundreds more than there were back then
      -So many more sizes, not just SD, MSD, YoSD, but all kinds of in between sizes and different proportions
      -More styles of clothing and shoes, back then it was mostly J-rock, fantasy, lolita and mall goth
      -More skin tone options from many companies, as well as resin matching and custom color services
      -So much more information out there for customizing and shopping, there was only DoA and a couple of other small forums back then, no social media!

      The bad:
      -So many more recasts. They were nearly unheard of when I was new.
      -Wait times seem to keep getting longer
       
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    3. I got my first hybrid BJD in late 2003. So many things have changed since then, like hybrids were not very well liked nor were Volks Dollfie Dream (if I recall correctly most people thought of them as "hentai" dolls). Now those seem to be both very popular amongst all collectors. My first hybrid BJD was a Volks DD, I felt particularly like an oddball (not like I'm not a huge weirdo already), for not having a CP or a Volks doll, ever in my collection during those earlier years.

      More recently, I like that there are a larger range of aesthetics and styles available. Although, there's still a large preference for longer than life legs and tiny-tiny torsos for most bodies, along with slimmer necks. I find there is a wider variety of aesthetics to chose from, when it comes to facial sculpts and also sizes! When I first got into these dolls there were no mature tiny BJD for example, or mature minis. The tiny sizes are not massively popular today either, but there are a few popping up. Which might mean my doom, if I ever get into collecting those; I tend to favor 1:6 scale action figures and 12" fashion dolls outside of these particular dolls, so mature tinies scare me at the same time they put a smile on my face (because I am a weirdo).
       
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    4. I first got into BJDs back in the late 2000s after seeing them in some Japanese Gothic Lolita magazines.
      There wasn't a lot of companies (IMO) at the time and the dolls I did want were hard to obtain or out of my budget.
      I did manage to get a few dolls with Doll Family H Nangong being my first doll.

      I took a break from the hobby I think around 2013 to 2019, and BOY when I came back so much has changed.
      When I logged into DoA the list of doll companies EXPLODED. There are so many artisan dolls as well!
      I noticed that current dolls were not as thick as my early dolls. Also, the esthetic turned to more realistic dolls.
      I WAS SO SHOOK lol

      When I went to look up my old doll sculpts, it seems they were discontinued. Which made me a little sad.
      Most of my early dolls do not have a COA or anything so I think it will probably be difficult to sell them.
      But I'm glad COA are the norm, I noticed a lot of recast dolls on the market :< More recently, I noticed recasters modding and Frankensteining dolls together, which makes it so difficult to ID dolls.

      It's crazy how much the hobby has changed when I came back. I love how big the community has grown.
       
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    5. Mobility is one of the things I notice. Before 2010 it was pretty rare to find double-jointed doll bodies. 90 degrees in elbows and knees was about all you got. The dolls that did show up that were double-jointed were a big deal. . . And did not actually pose well, especially compared to dolls today.

      3-D printing/digital sculpting was not a thing. At least 90% of all dolls were originally sculpted by hand then cast.

      Themes, outfit choices, and resin colors like noted above.

      More fantasy type dolls. I remember loosely that we had vampires, angels, and elves. . . When Steampunk became really popular mechanical/clockwork dolls were everywhere. Cyborgs followed after that. I remember being flabbergastedwhen I saw my first centaur! Now there are so many options of all kinds of fantasy creatures.

      Social media (obviously). I felt much more isolated in the hobby back then. I did not know how to get on DOA (for awhile did not even know what it was, just saw it mentioned in blogs sometimes). Going to Doll Conventions or even doll stores were a big deal to me because I could meet people and gush about dolls to someone other than mother (also a doll collector).
       
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    6. Changes I don't like:

      - Favourite compnaies like Custom House, Elfdoll, and Real Missing Link no longer being around.

      - The whole CoA thing - I can understand perfectly why it's happened but to those of use who were buying (and buying seocnd hand) before recasts and the importance of CoA, it's brought a lot of off-putting "admin" into an otherwise enjoyable hobby.
      A few of the dolls I have from back than that might have come with CoA's, but I didn't I didnt bother keeping them (except, I discovered recently, occasionally by accident), and I also didn't bother keeping track of when I bought the second hand dolls, or who I got them from (the very first one was from an eBay sale about 16 years ago, and I have no idea who the seller was).

      - Monique closing down (Waaah! All those wigs and shoes I relied on them for!!!)

      - Snobbery over particular makers/companies an/or materials ("Oh! You use cheap acrylic eyes! I always buy glass.")

      - Wider range of resin colours* - which makes hybrids a pain.

      Changes I do like:

      - Wider choice fo sculpts and companies

      - More people offering faceup services

      - More people making/selling clothes and offering custom order services.

      - Wider variety of wig makers and materials

      - Wider range of resin colours* - which makes getting more variety in the skintones of my collection easier

      Teddy

      * (Yes, I know this one's on both lists, but it's for two different reasons)
       
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    7. This is a good summary of everything XD

      When I got my first doll (Dollmore Model 68cm) I could not find any outfits for her except for Dollmore website, or I would have to place a custom order with seamtress from Taiwan (that was back in 2006, it was more popular in Asian country.)
      Now it's much easier to find clothes for her and many more can take custom outfits orders for her size (and that can fit her well!)

      The wait time now though is getting pretty ridiculous lol
      Back then 3 months ~ 4 months wait was considered a very long time, and now you can easily wait up to a year from China based company, which is pretty mind blowing lol
       
    8. .
       
      #8 Gintsumi, May 24, 2021
      Last edited: Feb 28, 2024
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    9. I really agree with this, the only other thing I don't like is like the BJD elitists, it has nothing to do with the dolls, themselves just the people, sometimes. like people who look down on others because of may have a cheaper doll or look down on others because they didn't spend over $1,000 on their dolls. When I first started out, everyone was just happy to meet other collectors. Ive met people who literally go on witch hunts, to research, and shame other people's dolls.
       
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    10. I’ll agree with the elitism, though oddly enough, I’ve also experienced the opposite end of this—I’ve had a couple of people who owned exclusively cheaper dolls make nasty comments about me and my expensive dolls, saying I was ‘wasting your money on a status symbol’. I own dolls from basic ResinSoul to limited Soom, I bought them all because I loved them, and I think that’s how this hobby should work. So I’ll agree and add that I wish people would just enjoy their dolls and let others do the same.
       
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    11. Aww that sucks. Bjd collecting is just personal thing, everyone does it for their own reasons. I don't think its anyones business where people get their dolls. We get what we want, because that's what makes us happy. It was simpler in that sense like even 10 years ago.
       
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    12. Coming back from my 10+ year hiatus:

      This is what I like:

      • New dress dealers
      • New pro face up artists
      • Instagram community
      • Proxy services ( I can buy from Yahoo! Japan now!!!)

      what I don’t like:
      • prices (as usual)
      • Taobao (literally cannot navigate it due to unknown technical reasons. All attempts failed. Have to use proxies)
      • No contemporary realistic style of clothes. Everything is either fantasy, Asian/wuxia, street urban, punk/goth, lolita...(I guess my tastes are boring but would like clothes inspired by real fashion houses or Zara etc etc)
      • Also what some people mentioned above: people who have cheaper dolls who passive aggressively make underhanded comments to people who buy more expensive dolls. I work hard for my dolls and I carefully curate the ones I buy. Im not going to settle with a doll for the sake of it being cheap just to level the playing field! Learn to save your money or work harder.
      • Dream of Doll literally going defunct. I hope they come back some day.
       
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    13. As others said, more variety, which is good but also I think came with disconnection in the community. Styles are so vast and different, it can be harder to relate to other collectors. Meetups don't seem to happen as often and online people seem to break off into many separate brand focused groups and communities.
       
    14. Mmm… mainstream doll collectors and resin bjd collectors were barely overlapping communities, and now seem much more integrated with one another… that has its positives and negatives.

      as others have mentioned, choice and availability have exploded, and there’s no stigma against non Japanese abjd, and significantly less against western artists, nowadays…

      Tons more mature and male options at every size, and almost any size combination you can imagine — when I started, you pretty much had Volks in two sizes in child style bodies, and Alchemical Labo with the UNOSS.

      It was unusual (though not for awfully long) for one person to have more than 1-3 dolls.

      most of the differences don’t effect me much, but I do appreciate the availability and choice. Multiple Skintones and fantasy colors are lovely, too.

      There were copy and bootleg issues even way back then, but of course it’s so much worse now. I’m not sure I’d feel comfortable buying anything secondhand, atm.
       
    15. When I joined, Tumblr was THEE center for newbie doll collectors like me, at the time DOA seemed kind of like this scary exclusive club that was hard to join.There were also way more bjd YouTubers who just chatted about dolls in general or had general vlogs. I miss those casual chats a lot. NicollesDreams (Andreja) was the goddess of the bjd community and I still miss her BJD related videos.

      I think since Tumblr has kinda died there has been a lot less drama that circulates but there are still too many people who are chill with recasts and I think that number will grow thanks to Tiktok. I do see the tiktok bjd community growing more and more. It is sad that one of the first videos I saw though was a girl buying a recast from AliExpress and a lot of the comments were pretty ignorant of the problems recasts cause. :(

      I do love how Insta is the big sales center now, I hate that people spam sales posts but it is a lot easier to find secondhand bjds rather than waiting to be accepted into a fb group.
       
    16. Been here since 2005, so lots of things have changed.

      - Mature MSD (they used to be almost exclusively childlike, Dream of Doll started towards maturity, but Bimong with Narae and then MNF really hit with it), and also their acceptance as mature. I mean, you wouldn't believe the wank over pairing an SD and a Mature MSD.

      -More skin tones, and those tones being more stable (I was literally there when an old Luts(?) limited tan turned green over the course of hours; that doesn't happen now, thankfully)

      - More widely available fantasy sculpts (basically Soom pioneered this, iirc)

      -Acceptance of anthros, and a lot of them being on-topic here

      - Tinies. Bluefairy were the first company I recall to make tiny tinies (pocket fairies)

      - The fall of great companies like Customhouse and Dream of Doll. I was so sad when I came back from years of hiatus to find both had gone. (They were the first companies I owned).

      - The steady move away from Den of Angels being THE main BJD hub.

      - The rise of recasts. Came back from hiatus to find that not only did they exist, there are supporters (?!!!) which is total crap.

      There's so much that's changed. The hobby has been around for a couple of decades now.
       
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    17. It generally seems a lot easier to get dolls or accessories than it was back when I first started in 2007. There’s also a lot more variety in clothing/wigs/shoes than there used to be. Back then it seemed like it was just lolita/goth/scene but now there’s all kinds of things or patterns easily available for basics to DIY.
       
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