Ever since I made a DA account and started posting my dolls I've gotten questions about them. While I love talking about my dolls I tend to sound redundant saying the same things over and over again so I'm going to make a little entry about my boys and hopefully that will help people out if and when they stumble onto my journal and wonder what the heck I'm taking pictures of XD;

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Ball-jointed dolls (BJDs) or Asian Ball-jointed Dolls (ABJDs) are resin dolls, usually manufactured in east Asian countries. They are fully posable with ball and socket joints in neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, chest, legs, knees, ankles and sometimes even fingers. The dolls are totally customizable - wigs and eyes can be removed and replaced, as can heads, hands, and feet, so your doll can even be a 'hybrid' of parts from many different companies. (taken right from Wiki because I couldn't say it better myself)

Most doll owners will refer to their dolls as BJDs. The term Super Dollfie was coined by Volks, a Japanese based doll company, whereas a good number of BJD companies are located in Korea or other Asian countries.

I will never say that I know much about these dolls since I'm more of a collector and not AS hands-on as you can be, i.e. painting faceups, restringing, sueding, etc. My boys mostly just sit and pose and look pretty.

Where can you find them? Pretty much by searching. There is a good forum that I'm a part of called Den of Angels [link] that's very informative but to really find what you're looking for you might need to know exactly where to look. I started out just going through the numerous, (and I mean numerous) companies that were out there, trying to find what I like. Different companies have different styles and it helps to get a taste of all of them to really find what you're searching for. There are various skin tones and sizes, all of my boys are 60cm with the exception of Dai, he's 70cm.

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Companies:

[link] - Luts
[link] - Volks
[link] - Dream of Doll
[link] - Dollshe
[link] - Soom
[link] - Elfdoll
[link] - Dolkot
[link] - DIM
[link] - Iplehouse
[link] - Dollmore
[link] - Leekeworld

There are a lot more than these listed, these are just the ones I'm familiar with the most. Most of them have pretty good customer service but there have been cases here and there of problems, mainly just communication and language barrier issues. My two favorite companies that I've dealt with and were the nicest were Dollmore and Iplehouse. 4 out of my 6 boys are from Luts, though only two were ordered directly from them, Leekeworld and Dollshe are notorious for being slow and the rest I've never had first hand experience with.

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My boys (in order of purchase)

Kera - [link]
Luts (CP) Normal Skinned El. He was my first doll that I ordered in May '06. He used to have a default faceup but he was repainted by Lynsey on Den of Angels. I won't disclose prices or anything like that but if you visit the sites you'll get a good idea of how much he was.

Suna - [link]
Luts (CP) Normal Skinned Harang. Ordered in September of '06. He's limited to 200 in the entire world but he's yet to sell out. He has a default faceup from the company and he was one of the first dolls that came with the newer body type, which makes him a little shorter than the rest of my boys.

Cahal - [link]
Volks Limited Cecile the Scarface Ocean of The Deep Black Version. He has a default faceup but is no longer fullset with his original eye and wig. I'm unsure of exactly what number of limiteds he is but I do know the original way to purchase him was to go on a Volks cruise that set sail out of Kobe, Japan. I bought him secondhand from a seller on Den of Angels and brought him home in April of '07.

Kaiya - [link]
Luts (CP) Normal Skinned Limited Breakaway Vampire, modded.
Breakaway is a highly sought after doll and I was lucky lucky to get one. The first released was limited to 200. He is a altered version of El and the biggest difference is that his mouth is open. This doll also comes with an extra "sleeping", (basically meaning eyes closed) vampire head and that is what my boy is, only his eyes have been opened. He was bought secondhand from a friend in July '07.

Dai - [link]
Dollshe Normal Skinned Hound. Hounds seem pretty popular and I had always wanted one since I got into the hobby, I was just afraid of the size. I try to keep some sort of budget by having all my boys share clothes but that doesn't work for him because he's bigger, but I love him all the same. He was ordered from Iplehouse with their default faceup, who I don't think carries them anymore in August '07.

Kin - [link]
Luts (CP) White Skinned Dreaming El. Can you tell I like Els? XD Kin is my only white skinned boy and my only dreaming boy. He is over two years old but I've only had him since December '07, before then he was owned by a friend of mine. Because of how old he is he had a custom default faceup; when the company was smaller and had less customers they did extra things. Instead of the regular face up they give now to everyone with the exact same colors, Kin was given a blonde face up because he was ordered with blonde wigs. I think that's pretty awesome.

Taiji - [link]
Luts (CP) White Skinned El. Oh yeah, I like Els. I honestly think that if I could own 20 of them I would and be completely happy with it. Taiji was bought secondhand from a friend in June of '08, but he was originally ordered in August of '06. He has a custom Luts faceup and pierced ears.

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Wow, if you got through all that I commend you. Any other questions or if I didn't cover enough, just let me know~