Japanese Fashion Dolls

NOTE: Bold, green/blue font are links to what I reference.

I found these fashion dolls by accident. My original search started with Kokeshis, a Japanese wooden doll I had seen at our local Cherry Blossom Festival. Among the images of wooden dolls stood a petite, plastic fashionista dressed in an elaborate outfit. I clicked on her and discovered that there is an entire collection of these dolls!

The company, Jun Planning, who had designed them no longer exist. So, the only way to attain their dolls are through online sites like Amazon and Ebay. Two types of their dolls that I have become acquainted with are…

J-Dolls are close to a Barbie doll’s height ranging up to 10″ tall. They’re more petite than their western counterpart and much more fragile. Note: the Japanese fashion dolls are not for little kids; their joints can be easily broken and their small accessories (shoes, etc.) can fall off. The way they’re made gives off the impression they’re meant to be handled like a porcelain doll.

Their faces are fair and heart-shaped, expressions lingering in surprise as if they just spotted someone familiar, and their eyes, which are what draw me in the most, are richly painted within glass. Fun realization: they’re all named after streets and places around the world.

The Ai Dolls range from 4″ to 5″ in height. They have bigger eyes reminiscent of a Japanese anime character and have baby-like bodies. I haven’t actually bought one since I’m not as taken with them as I am with the J-Dolls, but they look very delicate and I find of few of them to be quite adorable.

The only off-putting thing about these dolls are their prices: starting from $45, which is doable, to $300+, which is crazy! The designs and details are great and you can tell right away that the fabrics they use aren’t cheap. But, if I’m spending anything past $50, I would hope that the body is strong enough to be moved around for posing (especially if it’s purposefully made to do so with jointed limbs.)

I bought my first doll on a whim. I had been only perusing the different dolls that existed but kept telling myself not to waste my money. I caved after seeing Gran Via. I felt she looked just a little similar to me minus the green eyes. She was $49.99 at the time but her price has risen since. It took about a week to receive the package and when I did, I was excited and very nervous; she looked so fragile. Even when I took her out, I was afraid to hold her too long.

I had to release all her accessories from the box they were tied to and carefully put each item onto her. Everything was going great until it came time to put on her short jacket…I had heard a snap…

…a heart-wrenching snap.

Her hand had broken off at the wrist as I was pulling the coat around her and trying to get her other arm into the sleeve. I muttered a curse and angrily thought “Is this why the company no longer exists?!” I tried gluing the hand back but it was broken in such a way that one little push would break it off again.

I spent 50+ to get this doll, lol, I wasn’t going to just let her sit in the corner hand-less. The only sturdy parts are her torso and legs (though the knees seem questionable.) I quickly began a search for a replacement hand.

This search led me to Obitsu, the plastic manufacturing company that brought these sturdy headless doll bodies to the market. They were made and designed to out-do their predecessors with stronger materials and joints. The bodies (all parts except the head) can range between $20 to $27. When purchased separately, the arms, legs, hands, and head can range from $6 to $14 depending on which part(s) you’re getting. I purchased the body without a head through Amazon from the following vendor.

The package was delivered earlier than the estimated time and everything looked pristine. The hands and torso are made out of vinyl; everything else is ABS and PVC (both strong and lightweight plastics), which [unlike the J Doll bodies] don’t make rickety noises when the joints are moved. Not all torsos come in vinyl; I’ve seen ones made only in the ABS and PVC materials. My package also came with three extra neck attachments that are different sizes for the different types of Japanese doll heads (i.e., Pullip, Blythe, Momoko) that exist.

After researching the Obitsu dolls, I decided I would perform a doll head transplant, lol. It seems crazy that I did all this to save a doll but I liked the dang thing. Once the transfer was complete, the doll now had a strong body that could pose much better than the first.

The only downside is the skin color is lighter than her head. This isn’t going to always be the case with all J Dolls, my J Doll just has tan skin. Though it is highly not recommended, I’ve been using the sun to lighten the skin tone of the doll’s head. I don’t leave the head out all day, just an hour or two whenever I get the chance. So far, it’s lightened decently. I figure it’ll be okay since her skin is pretty tan but if you were to do this with an already pale head, it will start to show a yellow tinge.

I have changed her clothes since the bra and shorts don’t fit well and having her dress on alone was a bit too scandalous since it’s made out of see-through material. To see all the types of clothes I have purchased and how I transferred the doll parts, I have made a page called: “Customizing J-Dolls”

Anywho, you’d think I’d be done with the matter after all that mess but nope. My over-imaginative brain that had been too affected by the Toy Story movies felt that my poor doll looked so lonely in the corner. So, I got her a friend.

I bought the doll I had lingered on before deciding to buy the brunette, J Doll DE 9 STRAAJES; Hair as red as my best friend’s and eyes a dark blue. What really pulled me in though was the outfit! I found her for $45 on Ebay (direct link active in the image to the right) though with shipping it went up to $52. Unfortunately, the price has been slightly raised.

I faced new issues with this doll, lol. She arrived unscathed just like the doll before her and her body had more maneuverable joints but they creaked like an old ship. Her hands sadly are the same flimsy sort that the first doll had. Another peeve is that her shoes fall off, her jacket sleeves are a bit too long for my liking and her blouse a bit too loose for her petite chest. I guess the best part of her outfit is the skirt, crinoline underskirt and knee-high tights, lol. The hat falls off too since there’s no ribbons to keep it on but I could always glue on little ribbons later.

She received a change of clothes. I will also be giving her Obitsu arms and legs to replace the rickety, delicate ones she currently has.

If you would like to see the complete list of J-Dolls wandering out there, you can find them at this link: http://pullipsandjunk.com/pullips-company/j-doll/j-doll-release-list/

My Lego Phases

NOTE: Bold and green/blue font are links to what I reference.

When I was an iddy-biddy, accident-prone toddler, I remember the first day I got to play with a Duplox set. I stacked them, knocked them over, and all that building block jazz. Their appeal quickly diminished the moment I saw a big kid play with a much cooler yet smaller building block set comprised of tiny, move-able happy people and colorful vehicles with adorable rubber wheels; from that point onward, I wanted my own big kid Lego set.

Of course, I didn’t avidly search for ways to attain my own set. I got caught up in the wonders of childhood such as socialization and overcoming all things brat-related. Despite these regular, more important happenings of my childhood, the longing from my unsatisfied toddler-hood was strong enough to simmer unseen within the depths of my mind.

It wasn’t until junior-high that the longing resurfaced twofold. My parents had gifted me a Windows ’98 computer. Not too long after receiving said computer, I bought two memorable games: one was Petz, which I LOVED to death, and the other was Lego Creator.

Lego Creator actually came as a bonus extra with a different PC game I can’t recall. But as soon as I saw it, I installed that sucker into my computer and spent countless hours building lopsided structures, creating the most illogical vehicles that still managed to run, and causing my Lego minions to befall horrible and sometimes unintentional explosions…
*sigh* I really wish that game would’ve been re-released or something; I had so much fun with it, lol.

Fast forward to 2013 and I’m with my friends at a giant shopping mall. You would think that a 27 year old had more important priorities on her mind than entering a giant Lego store…..
Screw more important! This one entered that store like a June bug into a bug zapper.

I scampered to the minifigure section, intent on creating mini-mes of myself and my bestie who I had dragged in with me as well. I picked my pieces and then profusely scrubbed my hands with Purell after a kid beside me sneezed into a pile of Lego heads. I then let my bestie pick her pieces and we both shuffled to the front, bought the 3-in-1 deal they had and got the heck out before anyone realized two adult girls were buying minifigures for themselves.

Then came the Lego phase of late 2014. ThinkGeek is the culprit of this particular phase. They had released a blue Build-On Brick Mug that kept making me think of Doctor Who which then led to me wishing they had Doctor Who Lego pieces (they’re actually developing this, by the way.) I, like so many other adults who had purchased it, felt compelled to get prized Lego pieces to decorate it with. I had lost my 2013 mini-me so through Pick-A-Brick I bought pieces for the 2015 mini-me, lol. Here’s her base that I got on Amazon:

Clicking the image will bring you to the page you can get her on. I was taken in by the Lego Galaxy Squad series and bought a few of the smaller set pieces. For my mini-me, I had bought a brunette hairstyle [from Pick-A-Brick] to replace the blonde hair the Intergalactic Girl came with. I then bought a minifigure for my husband:

The image above also links you to where you can purchase him on Amazon.
Note: Buying them through retailers on Amazon sometimes comes with the occasional goof up.
For me, the goof up was that my Intergalactic girl never came with her blue ray piece, lol, and her helmet was dented, but I really didn’t give a hoot. I just had fun modeling them on my mug and placing the *cue deep, echoing voice* EPIC SPACE SCENE ON A MUG atop my desk.

Soon after the space project was completed I tackled another series, Lego Pirates. I bought one set, Soldiers Outpost, at the store in person. I stood there for a good minute soaking in the cover. A young man who worked there asked if I needed assistance. With dazed eyes full of imaginary twinkles, I said “I’m goooood. I got this.” After that awkward moment, I decided it’d be best if I just purchase the next set online, Treasure Island, via Amazon. This set allowed me to dress my mini-me up as a pirate. I combined the two sets into one long scene with me, my husband’s and friends’s mini-mes. 🙂

Unfortunately, during our move we had to box it all up and I have yet to rebuild it. The last image I have of the set was when I set up the Soldiers Outpost and my friends and husband messed with it. At the time, I had not yet gotten Treasure Island and my Bestie’s boyfriend had not yet gotten his own minifigure made:

At some point, I may get another set like the Soldiers Fort but that’s about it. The ship, The Brick Bounty, and Chess Set is too expensive for me to buy just for completing the series. And the smaller pack called Shipwreck Defense is a bit redundant since I already have the pieces from the sets I bought.

I will probably continue to have these crazy random spurts of LEGO MANIA. But it’s all good, because it’s fun. 🙂