Hi there! Happy to be here :3

🌸HELLO!🌸

Stoked to be here! I've been wanting a BJD for a long time. I've never owned one myself and I've always admired from afar, the closest I've come is owning Figmas, Nendoroids, and Real Action Heroes Dolls. 

A little bit about my collecting; I'm a collector of (mostly) one character; Matou Sakura. I have a very large collection of her merchandise and since i started collecting in 2017 I've had my dreams set on the Volks DD Matou Sakura. I'll get her soon enough. 

As I'm new here, I have a couple inquiries for you all;

1. Where do you like to browse/shop for second hand or older out of production DD products? 
2. Do you have any recommendations for safely storing your BJD while traveling with them? 
3. How fragile are BJD or DDs & does age effect their fragility? 

As I'm well versed in hunting rare/old merch already i have already been browsing the usual suspects - Mercari, YJA, YJF, Mandarake, Surugaya, etc. My fragility question is mostly because the DD doll I'm looking for is already 14 years old at this point, will she be brittle? I'm unfamiliar with their durability. 

Thank you all for your time and hope you are all doing well 😎

Welcome to the forum, and congratulations on getting your dream doll soon! (I nearly said "grail doll," but that would be a rather terrible pun to make given the context...) 

I don't have any good suggestions for your first question, but hopefully I can help with your others. I have the original version of Tohsaka Rin, who (appropriately enough) is slightly older than Sakura, and I haven't had any issues with her being fragile. One of her hips was very stiff, and I recently had to disassemble her in order to fix a loose screw, which was pretty difficult. The DDII body, which both of them have, seems to be pretty sturdy. Staining and outfit deterioration tend to be the main concerns. For Sakura, her shoes are the only part of her default outfit that are likely to have issues. Rin's were fine, but the pair with her school uniform were pretty battered.

I have one of the official Volks bags that I use for traveling with my dolls, and that works well. I would recommend wrapping her up in a cloth, especially if you use a different carrying bag for her that doesn't have straps to hold her in place.

35 minutes ago, Tira said:

Welcome to the forum, and congratulations on getting your dream doll soon! (I nearly said "grail doll," but that would be a rather terrible pun to make given the context...) 

I don't have any good suggestions for your first question, but hopefully I can help with your others. I have the original version of Tohsaka Rin, who (appropriately enough) is slightly older than Sakura, and I haven't had any issues with her being fragile. One of her hips was very stiff, and I recently had to disassemble her in order to fix a loose screw, which was pretty difficult. The DDII body, which both of them have, seems to be pretty sturdy. Staining and outfit deterioration tend to be the main concerns. For Sakura, her shoes are the only part of her default outfit that are likely to have issues. Rin's were fine, but the pair with her school uniform were pretty battered.

I have one of the official Volks bags that I use for traveling with my dolls, and that works well. I would recommend wrapping her up in a cloth, especially if you use a different carrying bag for her that doesn't have straps to hold her in place.

Thanks for the welcome!! I can appreciate a pun no matter how bad it it xD.

oh okay! Definitely great to know that fragility *shouldn’t* be an issue. Oh okay! The staining issue is something I’ve read about a little bit. Do you have any favorite practices when trying to prevent staining?

 

I’ve seen those bags from Volks! I was curious about those because they looked a little cramped and that brought into question the fragility a little bit for me. But okay cool! I’ll have to look into those more! As for like the wigs, any tips for keeping those in good shape while traveling? Just from experience with cosplaying traveling with regular wigs can be a nightmare 😅

I would recommend a bodysuit to prevent staining. Rin's wig has also stained her head pretty badly, because it has a dark-colored cap, but I found the protective head cap I got from Volks to be too visible, whereas the stains are hidden while the wig itself is on. Staining is unfortunately somewhat inevitable, but I know the Q&A boards have some informative threads on fixing it.

The bags are actually pretty big, and can comfortably hold two Dollie Dreams. Rin has the most elaborate hair of any of my DDs, and I usually find that it will travel nicely if I wrap her in fabric (which I do anyways to prevent any cross-doll staining). It's definitely more of an issue with longer wigs, though... My fiance's Miku wears a shorter wig instead of her default because it's so difficult to manage.

Edited Monday at 08:05 PM by Tira

3 hours ago, Tira said:

I would recommend a bodysuit to prevent staining. Rin's wig has also stained her head pretty badly, because it has a dark-colored cap, but I found the protective head cap I got from Volks to be too visible, whereas the stains are hidden while the wig itself is on. Staining is unfortunately somewhat inevitable, but I know the Q&A boards have some informative threads on fixing it.

The bags are actually pretty big, and can comfortably hold two Dollie Dreams. Rin has the most elaborate hair of any of my DDs, and I usually find that it will travel nicely if I wrap her in fabric (which I do anyways to prevent any cross-doll staining). It's definitely more of an issue with longer wigs, though... My fiance's Miku wears a shorter wig instead of her default because it's so difficult to manage.

Oh okay! Bodysuit is a goood idea!! Yeah I’ve been reading a bit up on it but it was kinda lost on be due to lack of context! Thanks for the explanation!!

 

sweet! I’ll grab one of those bags once I get Sakura! 🌸💞🌸

If you keep them out of sunlight they'll last for ages.

My oldest (Towa) is now 4 years old and looks brand new. They're very robust too - Towa has had several bad falls (usually cat related).

Staining can be an issue but a bodysuit and wig cap help. I've had amazing results destaining using human acne creme containing benzoyl peroxide.

We have the Volks carriers - the Miku one is very iconic. We also have doll sleeping bags which are on AliExpress. They're better if you want to put your doll inside another bag.

Wigs do not like wind, so for this reason it's best to have some cheap wigs just for travelling around.

1 hour ago, Xiongmao said:

If you keep them out of sunlight they'll last for ages.

My oldest (Towa) is now 4 years old and looks brand new. They're very robust too - Towa has had several bad falls (usually cat related).

Staining can be an issue but a bodysuit and wig cap help. I've had amazing results destaining using human acne creme containing benzoyl peroxide.

We have the Volks carriers - the Miku one is very iconic. We also have doll sleeping bags which are on AliExpress. They're better if you want to put your doll inside another bag.

Wigs do not like wind, so for this reason it's best to have some cheap wigs just for travelling around.

Thanks so much for your reply! Great to know that fragility isn’t an issue in most people’s experience. I was just worried because Sakura (the doll I want) released in 2010 so every one on the market is 14 years old. 
 

oh okay! Acne cream! I’ll make note of that if I have any staining issues! 
 

OOOOOO I’ll have to look up those sleeping bags!! 
 

thanks for all the info :3

Doll sleeping bag... Uzuki says it's super comfy.

30 minutes ago, Xiongmao said:

Doll sleeping bag

OMG that looks so cute! 100% have to get one of those!!

5 hours ago, lewdstv said:

Great to know that fragility isn’t an issue in most people’s experience. I was just worried because Sakura (the doll I want) released in 2010 so every one on the market is 14 years old.

If she comes with broken parts or you don’t like the DDII, you can always just buy her a new f3 2.0 body. I don’t think Sakura Matou had anything (skin colour, tattoos, unitorso) that make her body unique, so you could easily upgrade her to a new body. The most important things with these dolls is almost always the head/face.

4 minutes ago, ragnamuffin said:

I don’t think Sakura Matou had anything (skin colour, tattoos, unitorso) that make her body unique, so you could easily upgrade her to a new body

I agree with that - the only thing I can think of is the wig. (Although I haven’t been looking long) I haven’t seen a wig that is similar in cut/color to hers, let alone finding her wig by itself, I doubt many sets were broken up like that. 
 

but that is certainly an option and I’ll be keeping it in mind if she becomes somehow unobtainable.

4 minutes ago, lewdstv said:

I haven’t seen a wig that is similar in cut/color to hers, let alone finding her wig by itself, I doubt many sets were broken up like that.

True, purple wigs are comparatively harder to find, especially if you’re particular about the specific shade, but there are some wig makers that sell unstyled wigs in purple that you could cut and style yourself. It’s an added hassle, but on the flip side, those ones are less likely to stain than a Volks wig. I usually source another wig for all my dolls so I can leave the original in its packaging, but I’m a bit weird like that when it comes to fullsets… 😅

57 minutes ago, ragnamuffin said:

you could cut and style yourself. It’s an added hassle, but on the flip side, those ones are less likely to stain than a Volks wig.

Do you have any recommendations for favorite aftermarket unstyled wig stores? I do have a fair amount of human size wig experience I’ve done a lot of wig builds for cosplay so maybe I’ll try my hand at that. 
 

do people sell doll sized wig heads and tripods? 👀

 

44 minutes ago, lewdstv said:

Do you have any recommendations for favorite aftermarket unstyled wig stores?

There are a few sellers on Taobao. I’ve never used them before but this one’s been on my radar for a while:

七彩星空假发加工厂

If you search bjd假发, you should be able to find a whole pile of styled and unstyled wigs.

44 minutes ago, lewdstv said:

do people sell doll sized wig heads and tripods? 👀

Yes, but they’re usually wooden balls on a stand. Some sellers have a bust part that they stick a head on for displaying wigs or accessories.

Edit: This listing has a similar colour (深紫色) to Sakura’s default.

Edited yesterday at 02:48 AM by ragnamuffin
Added Taobao listing.

2 hours ago, ragnamuffin said:

There are a few sellers on Taobao

Ahhh okay, yeah - i actually found a Sakura DD on Taobao last night, ordered thinking internally "my proxy allows PayPal so if it shows up busted or i get scammed easy money back" but my purchase was refunded. quoted as "Refund reason: Item is out of stock." 😭
 

3 hours ago, ragnamuffin said:

this one’s been on my radar for a while:

七彩星空假发加工厂

If you search bjd假发, you should be able to find a whole pile of styled and unstyled wigs.

Thank you for this though! Don't mind me, ill be over here indulging in browsing for the next few hours xD

3 hours ago, ragnamuffin said:

Edit: This listing has a similar colour (深紫色) to Sakura’s default.

YES IT IS! well, good to know i have that as a backup option thank youuuuuu!