where do you see BJDs in 50 years?

LOL, I don't think this will ever be the case! I just think about my grandparents and the things they save and collect. Even if they do turn yellow, I have a feeling these things would either be locked up in collector's cases or stored in an old attic, just waiting for the magical moment when your granddaughter or great granddaughter stumbles upon her own little treasure. And maybe when you store it, you can leave a little message behind so your little ancestor will know who your BJD was.

Heehee, that made me smile. =)

 

Quite frankly, I don't expect BJDs to be around in 50 years. They are a petroleum-based luxury product. Climate change will be busily wreaking havoc, and since the world is being so slow to respond the transition to alternative energy sources will not be smooth. I frequently look at my dolls and wonder why I've sunk so much hard-earned cash into something that isn't even physically stable enough to survive long periods of time, much like the celluloid dolls from the early 20th century - seen any of those lately? I expect that by the time I'm desperate enough to sell them, the market for them will have evaporated because everyone is too broke from trying to pay their pharmeceutical debts. You know, like trading all of the family heirloom jewelry for food from the Russians when they come to visit Cuba, except they have no standardized market value and can't be melted down.
I am a Despairing Environmentalist Hypocrite, however, so my view of the future is a little dark. In the meantime, I plan to contribute to global warming by spraying more Mr. Super Clear into the air and flying to Tokyo...

 

Made me smile too X3


I see them on my shelf as usual, begging me to take more photos.

In terms of money, I think they've be worth quite alot if the resin stays together. I hope... (this sounds weird) but I hope they don't lose their 'hidden' culture. I like it how no-one knows about them, and no one wants one unless they REALLY want one. I like paying lots of money for something I really love. I don't want the market to change. But eh, what can you do..?

 

You know, when I first got into BJD I had major misgivings about the "durability" of resin.

I consulted Nick Hill of Twin Pines of Maine, who is a chemist that makes cleaning and restoration products for plastic and vinyl dolls and figures. He also has a column in Doll Reader Magazine called "Ask Nick Hill".

He said that resin is Inert, impervious to microbes, oils and even acetone, temperature and humidity extremes will have no effect on it, and that basically you could drop a nuclear bomb on it and it would be fine XD

So 50 years from now, were we to stumble upon the following two kinds of dolls in a given attic, here is what you'd find:

Doll A (vinyl): The plasticizer will have migrated to the outer surface. The doll would be sticky. It may have warped due to temperature extremes or spending too much time in one position. The rooted hair might have all fallen out, dyes from the clothing/shoes/box might have absorbed into the vinyl. It's likely that it'd be covered with mold, as mold loves vinyl plasticizer!

Doll B (resin bjd). It will have yellowed. The rubber elastic stringing will have deteriorated. The faceup may be scratched or worn away.

So Doll A would need heroic efforts to get it to look vaguely human again...

Doll B would need a bath, restringing, and a new faceup. Yellowing can be camoflaged to great extent with clever blushing. Of course we don't know exactly HOW YELLOW these dolls are capable of getting.. ^_^

But still... I don't worry one bit about their longterm existence. I don't buy vinyl at all any more.

Raven

 

Well, since most of the companies are small, run by individuals or families (Even Volks for that matter, but really I was speaking to the smaller individual companies that are so reliant upon one or a few people/artists) when those individuals become too old or disinterested or whatever, the company will likely cease to exist. Think of Dollstown or Hypermaniac that are more reliant upon individual artists. Or, think about Antique Rose, which used to make such fabulous eyes, but because it was reliant upon a particular artist, when he/she became ill, the company could not continue.

I am sure there will still be BJD companies around, but I doubt they will be the same ones in 50 years. The smaller individual companies are just too reliant upon individual artists and personal circumstances will dictate the future success of the companies.

My hope is that young sculptors will see the success of BJDs and will spend at least some of their time creating even more varied and individualistic doll art. If the costs of production could be brought down, making truly one-off or very small run dolls could be the wave of the future.

Addressing the environmental impact, I really don't see BJDs as being nearly as guilty as, say takeout containers or plastic cutlery (or baby diapers), because they are rather limited in volume (relatively speaking... by volume the action figure market seems to have much greater environmental impact). I suspect that as petroleum products become more limited and expensive there will be other resins invented to take their place. Perhaps even recycled resin! Finally a use could be made for all those broken parts. They could be ground down and reformed into whole new dolls!

H
(ever the optimist)

p.s. Or, we'll all be too concerned with food and shelter and survival to worry about the loss of our dolls.

(Ok, not ALWAYS an optimist)

 

The costs of clothing for these things scares me so much. I LOVE shoes. Yes, I do, I would buy them all day long if I could afford them. And by afford I mean, I see a pair I like and they are more than $30 and I go "Nope, too expensive."

Shoes for these dolls are more than that!!!! I am so utterly scared of what my future holds, because the obsession has taken hold of me, and it wont let go...

 

That is very cool to know! But I'd prefer to skip the nuclear bomb, thanks!

 

LOL St James you crack me up!
Is Mercury in retrograde or something?
Everyone seems to be in a dark mood lately... me included!

Raven

 

i see a lot of people talking about yellowing..
but i guess like we humand get grumpy and wrinkeled your dolls get yellow...maybe even green XD
Thats just they're way of getting old...

 

I think that in 50 years, new BJDs will still be produced but in a more evolved form suited to the people of that time. Will the hobby be more or less popular, I , would guess after experiencing a popularity peak in the near future, where people are buying them because their friends have them, it would certainly die down to only the true collectors who are truly interested. The dolls we have now will have yellowed but there will always be people who are interested in owning antiques.

The thing I've been observing is that people tend to lose interest in things after about 10 years- like the sofa you've had for 10 years you just get so tired of you want a new one even though it is still fine. Fashion trends and other trends become completely disgusting after 10 years. Many people who were into the collectors Barbies in the mid ninties have been getting rid of the collections as their interests have moved on to newer Barbies, or other dolls, (like BJDs hehe). Some of today's BJD collectors will stay with us decades later, but I suspect some (perhaps the younger ones) will abandon it completely especially after growing into an older adult with a different set of responsibilities and priorities.

I say now that I will keep my BJDs until I die because I truly feel that way. And I think I will. I love to look at my things from 25 years ago and think about the past. But will I feel as passionate about BJDs in 15 year or 50 years as I do now? I doubt it. But the important thing is SOMEONE WILL! Someone will love my dolls that I have now when I am dead in 50 years. I think I am depressing myself......

 

lol, this made me laugh XD

Honestly, I don't want to think about the future, I'll just enjoy my dollies in the present

 

Still around, possibley, I mean people are still looking for old style ball jointed dolls from earlier last century right?

As for the yellowing thing... Anyone own a Breyer horse model? Those are resin, although a different kind then our dolls. They started making those in 1950. Now, I don't have any from quite that long ago but I've seen my cousin's from the late 60's, early 70's. The yellowing really wasn't to bad. The horse in question is supposed to white but is more of medium creamy yellow color. It hasn't really gotten any darker in the past, lets see, I was 8?... nearly 20 years either. It hasn't been sitting in sunlight the entire time but still. If you take care of it well I think eventually it ought to reacha point wear it stops yellowing.

 

Breyer's are tenite plastic tho - but I agree, resin will only yellow to a certain degree. I am personally wondering if it can 'go out the other side' and the bleaching effect of sunlight would eventually lighten the resin up? Wouldnt want to try it tho.

I have fond thoughts of finding a bjd long abandoned in a junk shop fifty years from now and being able to find online an old back story and identifying the doll as one I knew from now......

I think they will become more commercialised unfortunately - as more companies cotton on to how popular and collectable they are we will see clones all over the place I reckon. Sad but possibly true.

 

I think it would be cool to find an old forgotten Aya abondoned in some store
somewhere, after all the hyp over resin bjds had passed. She'd have alot of
years on her, and that would make finding her all the better.

"....that place between sleep and awake....."

 

Stupid internet, said they were resin! *beats the internet* ah well its all plastics in the end.

 

I'll make no guesses about BJDs in the future as a whole, but I hope that my own will be appreciated by my children, but more likely by my grandchildren (I hope to have those, at least). The idea of burying my dears with me is romantic, but I could never bear to have them underground in the dirt. I'd like to pass them on to someone who's curious, interested, and sure to treat my "babies" with the love they deserve. I can easily see BJDs becoming a cross-generation fascination within families (as it already is now in some cases! ^^), or a gaudy retro thing grandma/pa used to do with her/his friends.

The anime phenomenon is nearing that age, maybe we'll experience a similar thing with BJDs as we are now with anime... although I shudder at that thought.

Interesting thought... imagine finding a time capsule 200 years from now with a BJD inside. XD Vaccuum sealed, et cetera... I wonder what they would say. And I wonder how people 50 years from now will interpret this movement, if it ever gets better-known.

 

I think yellowing will play an important role in the future value of BJDs. I don't think it will totally destroy the value, but it will impact it greatly, especially in dolls that have been damaged. (Everything yellows, and plenty of people still love and collect very yellowed vintage dolls.)

Important factors will be the original cost of the doll, the number of each doll produced, and most importantly, the desirability of the mold and each overall doll. Just being rare doesn't guarantee value.

Companies that are still around in some form will likely produce reproductions of high-demand vintage dolls, or sell another company the license to do the same. This won't shatter the value, but it will lower it slightly.

As BJDs continue to grow more popular, more bootleg companies will pop up, and in the future it will be harder to determine the authenticity of a doll. Even a legitimate doll won't sell for much if the potential buyer(s) have doubts about whether the doll is authentic.

None of this will even matter if people decades from now don't have as much free time and money to spend as we do today. The modern economy runs on cheap energy, and that probably won't be there in 2050. I hope somehow it is, but I'm not going to bet on it.

 

I can so see that!

 

I don't know about 50 years from now. I mean the current versions of ABJD are a new thing. Yes, they are a twist on the old german BJD's, but Personally, i think it is still too early to see if they are more than just a fad. I certainly hope that they stick around for years to come! I'd like to have something when i'm 90 that i can show someone as a hobby.