Would a mass-produced BJD be negative or positive for the hobby?

I'm just a little confused because there ARE slightly more mass-produced vinyl BJD's that are strung, they're just off-topic here. I guess . . . I'm trying to figure out exactly what makes this new, hypothetical doll any different from the actual ones that already exist . . .

I think that, being vinyl and less expensive it would be a way to get people interested, but on the other hand, if they're seeing these dolls for a cheaper price and start to look at the on-topic dolls here, they might be a bit sticker shocked that they cost so very much and never start collecting, opting to stick with their vinyl!

 

it depends. there is a chance that more and more weeabos and 10-years-old kids got in the hobby spamming everywhere, but most likely it would have the same effect of a big barbie, and wouldn't become as famous and part of the "elite" as the other dolls.

 

If they were to mass produce the quality wouldn't even be on the same level as our bjd's. I wouldn't even think about buying. With this hobby you pay for what you get. Because if they had to bring down the price that much materials would be cheap, face would be cheap and you would most likely tell that it's not the same. It's like a painting. You can tell if someone hand painted a painting or if someone photoshoped and printed a painting. Which one would you buy? Yes the printed one would be much cheaper but the quality is nothing compared to a hand painted one so you would most likely want to buy the hand painted one. This being said I really don't think it would effect the bjd market in any way shape or form.

 

But if you do mods and your own faceups, it would still be a really nice piece of art. It would just be the difference between using the cheapest paper in the art store to make your print and purchasing Archer's.

 

If there was a pretty looking, blank (ie, customizable) BJD-styled doll in the 1/3 scale available in this country, mass produced, that would be the single coolest thing ever.

Even if you didn't want the doll, the outfits would be a boon.

 

^ THIS.

Personally I could care less if they released some mass-produced BJD's. Perhaps I'd get less frumpy looks when carrying one around in public.

 

Ah, Fraid not. What I cannot comprehend about the American attitude to alternative cultures is as such: The same way Naruto is on Fox Kids (Despite being an ADULT anime - nudity, dismemberment etc.) people would still consider BJDs a child thing. Stupid, but likely.

 

This is a bit off-topic, but... Naruto is not an "adult" anime, it's aimed at kids and adolescents in Japan, it's just more acceptable in Japan for children's and young adults' media to include violence, nudity, etc. than it is in the US.

As for the audience.... there are plenty of dolls in the US that are aimed squarely and solely at adults, but they tend to be more collectible dolls which aren't as mass-produced as play dolls. However, there are collectible dolls which are still "mass produced"- Barbie and the like are insanely popular but something with a much lower production run can still be mass produced... it's just that there are a TON of Barbies out there and I think it skews our perception a bit.

 

I think it would change the "specialness" of the dolls. This is a bad example probably, but when Bratz came out, I thought they were really cool and different dolls, and I enjoyed them with my daughter. But then they just exploded --movies, every imaginable theme....they were everywhere, and they just changed my opinion and I no longer enjoyed them the same way. My daughter got tired of them quickly too.

It'd be nice because the price would probably go down, but it's nice to have this little "secret" that you can share with people you think would enjoy it.

 

...my gut reaction is "ick" and after trying to think it through rationally it's still "ick." I don't think it'd kill the hobby for me immediately. But eventually as the fandom's overall quality standards deteriorate. For me, mass production (and the n00b-explosion that'll come with it) would turn me off the community.

 

I don't really think it will effect the current BJD lovers and companies too much. Those who are already in the BJD hobby are drawn into the hobby because of the delicate craftsmanship involved, its potential to be customised and most of us would rather buy a exquisit, high quality resin doll that's more expensive than a mass produced product.
To these people, BJDs are collectible items, not really toys as such

I think if a range of mass-produced vinyl BJD dolls are actually manufactured and marketed, it would probably appeal more to the Barbie collectors or people who just want a big fasion doll.

Regarding public perception of BJDs....
I do think if a company start mass producing BJDs as if they were Barbies, it wouldn't be a good thing for public perception to the resin BJDs as it would just reinforce the perception that BJDs are nothing more than Giant Barbies.

 

I really like when my hobbies expand and I can help new people out.

I think shunning new people is what creates such a "elitist jerk" stereotype that people have about doll owners(or people in the gothic community). It's not right, but there are people out there that perpetuate it.

 

Of course, the flip side of that is that it's aimed at adolescents in Japan...adolescents here, as well as in North America, are different from kids. Most young (i.e. pre-adolescent) kids that I know in Japan are watching Doraemon and My Melody, not Naruto. So while it's not totally accurate to describe a darker anime as "adult," they are also not aimed at what most Westerners think of as "kids."

Actually, a great many people do quite happily buy prints of paintings. No doubt in some cases people actually wish they had the mad sacks of cash to buy the original, but I think your simile is off.

For me, I think I would be sad if a mass-produced BJD started taking off, because, yes, I am Too Cool For School. But it wouldn't completely stop me from enjoying the hobby, it would just be a little blip of "aww, too bad." And in fact, I think it might encourage the longer-standing "Art BJD" companies we buy from now to put some fresh ideas out there--kind of like the fashion industry. Without generic knock-offs, there is no strong reason for designers to keep pushing the envelope and trying out really new things. Similarly, I think a mass-produced BJD could see more innovation, both mechanically (like what's going on with Dollshe and Fairyland) and artistically (like what Soom has been doing).

 

Yes. Fight that Elitism. I'm not only a vinyl doll owner, but I'm more than used to those damn elitist Goths. I think it will always be special for us, and if it becomes popular, we can tease the softcore. That's always fun. And hypocracy. Hypocracy is great. ^_^.

Okay, Naruto may have been a bad example. It happens all the same. Plus doll collectors are all either cabinate collectors or also viewed as wierdos. Or both.

 

I would think it would be a nice side niche to the industry.

An example would be casual photographers and professional ones. They sell little Kodak and Samsung digital cameras for about $100 more or less. Now, if you want a high-end photo, you're better off paying for the $1000 or so for a Canon 5D or Nikon D200 with a nice lens. Both are digital cameras, but depending on what you're going to take pictures of, and how serious you are in the hobby, you have a choice.

Also, it would help people give a "stepping stone" to the hobby I think. First they would play with those, and then move onto the high end BJDs if they feel they're ready for it.

 

I think that the mass produced would be negative, and I will take into example...A cell phone.

Now, if there were all these mass produced dolls that anyone could just pick up, do you think that they will necessarily feel the same way about these BJDs, or would they just set them aside as show and let them collect dust, and when they would yellow or break, throw them out and get a new one? This is just like with cell phones, I have to pay for my own and take care of it and fix it myself because I do not have the money to just get a new one.

Now, I know of one girl in particular that has had 7 in the past year. Someone stepped on it and broke it in half. She snapped the battery. She broke the end call key. She told a friend she was getting a new one so he took it and snapped in half for the hell of it. Dropped it in her hot tub. Dropped it down a flight of stairs. And then left it in the rain in her car.

Now, it is not that I expect everyone to treat something so badly, but I don't particularly feel that....today's generation is ready for the responsibilty that BJD owners face. :/ I mean, you don't have to be a pro, but you need some general knowlege about sizings, stringings, and care. I can't imagine the same girl getting rid of a precious BJD everytime a finger broke or the back of their leg chipped. Something so trivial to another that can easily be fixed.

v-v Just my opinion

 

Perhaps a cheaper doll would be great for people like that

 

xDD Oh, that's true, but still. Those going to waste would be so depressing to me.

 

Sadly, with the consumptive society we have today, most people are of the mindset of "ending is better than mending," and are conditioned to believe they should just throw things away if there's something even a little wrong with it, instead of fixing it up. (Even friends of mine who are normally rather thrifty, will sometimes encounter something that they'll just want to throw away until I fix it for them.)

(That girl you mentioned with the cell phones disgusts me, though... an old cell phone can be donated to different charities that get phones to people in need, but instead she just breaks them. Absolutely disgusting.)

 

i'm glad they're not mass produced and sold cheeply. if they were, when i started getting into them, i might have bought one. but i'm glad i saved my money and waited and looked around at all the dolls untill i found the bubble doll (i picked a name now... hir name is sidi, it's tibetan for peace)
i'm very happy with what i bought and the way i went about buying it and searching for hir.

now if she would only arrive on my doorstep, i'd be a happy Pax