To Dream or Not to Dream?

Hello all! I just joined this forum and have a question. To dream or not to dream? Dollfie Dream of course! I currently have a custom Monster High doll, my first resin BJD on the way, and seven more resin babies planned. I've been considering getting a DD or an MDD for a few months now (I hope I'm getting my lingo right. Please correct me if I'm wrong). I have a few questions.

 

Is their care any different than a resin doll?

Are they more or less cost effective (Read: Cheap. I'm a highschool student into Lolita fashion with a horse. I don't have much money) than a resin doll?

Which would be better for a beginner with weak arms who likes to carry and cuddle her dolls? A DD or an MDD?

Is it easy to find them nonsexual clothes? Of either the gothic victorian or pastel cutsey variety?

Are they easy to bond with?

Are they fun?

 

Feel free to add any great or not so great things a beginner in these girls should know. PLZ HELP DA N00B!

Hello!

 

There is a section for newbies that has a lot of topics covered, but ill also answer your questions

 

Care is more than resin. Because theyre vinyl theyre more prone to staining from clothing, props and just general wear. There are ways to remove stains though so dont let it deter you too much

 

Price varies. Basic models can go for 300 -500 odd, more if its a character doll. Parts are replaceable if they happen to break, and there are additional cost for example - the option hands, changing eyes or hair

 

I have a DD and a MDD theyre both fairly light in weight so It depends on your prefence which you like, both sizes have their ups and downs

 

Theres lots of places you can buy all sorts of clothing, you can find them in the clothing and accessories thread

 

Bonding is different for everyone. Id suggest buying a basic doll you like the best and see how it goes. You wont spend a lot of money so if you dont end up liking vinyl doll/DDs and decide to sell her you wont be out of pocket too much?

 

And lastly are they fun? Oh yeah! I waited 4 or so years before getting a DD, now i have gotten 4 within 6 months (and one pre ordered for the end of next year) i re-learned how to sew, and sew most of my girls clothing. I also make jewelery for them, cuddle them talk to them and love them so much!

 

^v^ hope that helps

Hello ^_^

I'll try and answer some questions for you as best I can but I'm kind of new still myself.

 

I don't own any resin dolls but I don't think the care is the same at all. With resin dolls you have completely different issues than vinyl. Resin is brittle and heavy and yellows easily. But it doesn't stain as easy and even if it does you can normally get it off with a magic eraser.

Vinyl is sturdy and pretty difficult to damage. In contrast, vinyl stains pretty easily and needs to be treated with acne medication in order to be removed. Overall, I think vinyl is easier to care for and less fragile but it is a different game.

 

As for cost, that is completely individual. They can be reasonable or they can be very, very expensive. The standard models are a reasonable price, but they don't come with a real outfit (just a slip nightgown and underwear) and if you don't like the wig or eyes then it would be easier to buy a head and body separately.

If you want one of the limited models the after market price will be high. But if you are patient and want to enter the lottery (and win) then you can purchase a limited for a much more reasonable price (around $650 US plus shipping).

 

MDD or DD is personal preference. They are pretty much the same sizes as MSD and SD if you are familiar with those. They are both very light in comparison to resin. They only weigh a pound or two versus 5 or more (for the same scale).

 

With the clothing preferences you listed, the only one I like is pastel cutesy clothing. I haven't found it impossible to find some, but I do find a lot if DD clothing to be geared more towards sexy clothing instead of cute but it's not impossible to find some. MDDs tend to have more cutesy clothing options so that would be one point for them in their favour.

 

Bonding is a completely personal experience. I don't think you could know whether you will bond with a doll before you get one. For me I didn't expect to bind with mine because I never did with any of my smaller dolls, but it was love at first sight with my Nova. So I think the only way to answer this is to get one and see.

 

I think they're super fun! I love mine so much, I play with her all the time and I love the community. I like to read about other peoples dolls and look at awesome pictures. Your experience may vary but I would say they are easier to play with since they are lighter and less fragile.

 

This is only the surface of all the info available but I hope it helped >_<

If you can customize your DD yourself, it can be cheaper. A standard head and body would be around $300-350, plus eyes, wig, face-up, and clothes. More expensive than some low end resin dolls, but I think the price is reasonable (the trouble is if you start to fall for limited girls!)

 

I find them easy to bond with myself. And they are fun! Before I got into DDs, I mostly had male BJDs, so DD girls were a new dynamic for me.

 

Volks makes lot of non-sexy clothes for their dolls that fit DDs. Many other company clothes can fit DDs too. I don't think it'd be too much trouble to find cute clothes for them.

 

Hello ^_^

I'll try and answer some questions for you as best I can but I'm kind of new still myself.

 

I don't own any resin dolls but I don't think the care is the same at all. With resin dolls you have completely different issues than vinyl. Resin is brittle and heavy and yellows easily. But it doesn't stain as easy and even if it does you can normally get it off with a magic eraser.

Vinyl is sturdy and pretty difficult to damage. In contrast, vinyl stains pretty easily and needs to be treated with acne medication in order to be removed. Overall, I think vinyl is easier to care for and less fragile but it is a different game.

I do hear a fair bit about the internal frame breaking in DDs, though (enough to bring up, at least). With resin dolls, there's chipping, and with vinyl dolls there's cracking frames...

I don't have much experience with resin myself, but hopefully I can add to the aggregate info.

 

Care is a little different. With the sole exception of the DDI body, the DD bodies are *not* strung. They have a complex armature instead, a bit like a stop-motion puppet. Here's the DDII frame and the more recent DDS/DDIII frame. So there's no restringing involved, unless you get the archaic DDI body. Every once in a while they may need screws tightened instead. While in more recent girls this issue seems to be resolved, early DDS and DDIII shoulder and hip joints cracked, so be sure to ask about/look for that if you get one of those used. The cracks can be fixed with glue and/or the Coolcat reinforcement rings.

 

You will have to watch out for staining more than with a resin, but you can lessen or even completely remove them with benzoyl peroxide zit cream. (I really want to know who figured that one out and how, since that leap isn't intuitive at all. XD) Staining is usually an issue with dark colors, so if I have a dark fabric or dark outfit I'll sometimes take a spare hand and bury it in the folds for a while to test it.

 

I'm not sure about more cost effective, really. The standard models I think fall in the same price ranges as many similarly-sized standard resins; the prices Oni-Chan gave sound about right. Limited girls are a bit more at retail due to coming full set and often being licensed from games and/or anime, but depending on the individual doll they tend to appreciate on the aftermarket--sometimes just one or two hundred bucks, and once in a blue moon by several hundred. Thankfully there aren't that many that end up in that last category! I'd say on your budget try a standard girl first, then if DDs turn out to be your thing save up to go unicorn hunting.

 

DDs are crazy light compared to resins, so MDDs aren't significantly lighter in my experience. I've carried a DD around a convention all day before with little trouble--I got more of a cramp from picking a weird way to hold her than from her weight, really, and a lot of that was because I had to accommodate her big ol' Dynamite butt. If you do go for MDD, I recommend getting MDDIII or an Obitsu/Parabox 40cm body instead of the original MDD, as I've heard they pose significantly better.

 

MDDs can wear MSD clothes and shoes. DDII, DDIII, and DDS can wear SD13 girl clothes, though they may be a bit loose in the waist. DDDy can wear SD13 boy clothes and SD16 girl clothes, again a bit big in the waist but usually it isn't hard to compensate with belts, ribbons, or just clever clothes arrangement. DDII/III/S/Dy have 7cm long feet, so smaller SD shoes (6.9cm-7.5cm inner length) fit them fine. DD and MDD alike take size 8-9" wigs.

 

I've bonded really closely with both of my girls, but I was the type of kid who would even find personalities in fallen leaves and perfume bottles. I bonded more slowly with Agatha, since I had to change/customize so much of her to make her feel right, but that made me very close to her. Nanoha I somehow fell for the second she came out of the box.

 

Are they fun? VERY YES! They're lighter weight than resins and the outer vinyl is harder to damage permanently, so I personally feel very confident and comfortable taking them places for meets and/or photos. They also hold poses quite well, without the "mind-of-their-own" snapping resins are prone to, which makes them excellent for photo stories as well. Personally I also love that you can get alternate hand poses for more expression. (Though it bugs me you have to buy each pair individually. If you're going to get just one pair, get the 06 or 08 hands--those are the two gripping hands, and are very versatile.)

People have more or less covered the care aspects. They're easyily stained that's true, so you have to be careful, but it's dead easy to remove.

 

DollHeart recently started doing DD clothing, and a lot of their clothes aren't sexy. I think this one is closest to what you want. They're the same price as other outfits as well, the only downside is that they're for M-bust and Dynamite only. I think the M-bust ones would fit an S or L-bust though. It would depend. Good places to look are Yahoo Japan Auctions and Taobao. I know a few good stores on Taobao that sell lovely clothes. Not all the clothes out there are sexual, it's just looking for the ones that aren't.

 

Cost effectiveness depends entirely on the girl you want. But I believe that they're still cheaper than Volks SD. Both limited and standard. The only issue is the after market prices of some girls sky rockets because of the demand and their popularity. But you can find some good deals here and there. In my opinion it's a lot easier to build a custom DD because you can buy all the parts separate and interchange them. For example you can buy your 07 head in say January, then you body in March and there wont be much -if any- difference in colour. If you want a specific anime character and you're going the custom route it can be more expensive than a limited girl. But if you're just looking to get a girl and customise her for yourself then it's certainly more cost effective.

 

Are they fun...? HECK YEAH! I love my girl to bits. For me personally, I watch a lot of anime so it's fun watching them and thinking to myself "I bet she'd make a good DD" and then googling to find someone already beat me to the punch. Even looking at less anime style things like Disney films and thinking if they'd translate well. The community is great as well because there seems to be a lot less prejudice here than there is in the resin world. I think it's mainly down to the fact that DDs are manufactured by Volks only, so you can't have a 'cheap' DD like you can a resin girl. Since there's also a relatively small range in comparison to resin, it's interesting to see how owners have customised their girls to show different personalities. The 01 head is really good at this. You can have a cute little girl, a mischievous girl.

 

DDs and MDDs are both light because they're made from vinyl and plastic. So it really is personal preference. The MDD body is a lot more childish though. A lot like a Volks MSD.

 

Bonding again is personal. I bonded a lot easier with my Medea because I planned her for literally years (she is a custom DDH-07) whereas I found that I didn't have as strong a bond with Hinata because I bought her as a fullset and I didn't really know about her character. So it was kind of like "Great, she's gorgeous. Now what...?" with her. I think once you start customising your girls though, whether it's from buy them clothes or replacing eyes/wigs then you really bond with them. Alternatively, if you see a character from an anime you know and love and you have her in Dollfie form, she's easier to bond with than if you buy a doll just because she's pretty.

 

Other things that you should know... Hm... I guess from personal experience, shop bit by bit. The hobby isn't going anywhere and it's not like Volks will be going bankrupt or anything, so don't be worried if you can't afford her all at once. Parts are available all year round from the website, and there's also the marketplace here.

If you see an limited girl that you love I'd say go for it. But maybe watch a bit of her anime, or do a bit of research if you don't have plans for her. Going against that, spend wisely and shop around. Mandarake, Yahoo Japan Auctions and here are the best place for second hand girls in my experience. But there are plenty of other places.

 

Speaking of which. Here's a list of places I've looked for things.

Volks, for obvious reasons.

Mandarake, they are based in Japan but ship worldwide.

http://ekizo.mandarake.co.jp/shop/en/

Figure.fm, they have a lot of dolls and a classifides section.

http://www.figure.fm/

Yahoo Japan Auctions, they're like eBay but Japanese and the page is in japanese. But a translator can help there. You'll also need to use a proxy service to order from them, which will incur extra fees but sometimes it's just worth it for the deals. The URL is long, but the page is all DD bits.

http://category.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/list/%E3%83%89%E3%83%AB%E3%83%95%E3%82%A3%E3%83%BC%E3%83%89%E3%83%AA%E3%83%BC%E3%83%A0-%E4%BA%BA%E5%BD%A2-%E3%82%AD%E3%83%A3%E3%83%A9%E3%82%AF%E3%82%BF%E3%83%BC%E3%83%89%E3%83%BC%E3%83%AB-%E3%81%8A%E3%82%82%E3%81%A1%E3%82%83-%E3%82%B2%E3%83%BC%E3%83%A0/2084241345/?p=%E3%83%89%E3%83%AB%E3%83%95%E3%82%A3%E3%83%BC%E3%83%89%E3%83%AA%E3%83%BC%E3%83%A0&tab_ex=commerce&slider=0

Twin-snow do excellent eyes. They are absolutely gorgeous, but I believe they're having issues at the moment. They have a feedback thread here that is up to date.

http://www.twin-snow.com/shop/

Cool Cat do a lot of DD stuff. Their replacement parts and what not are very handy.

http://us.sk-coolcat.com/front/bin/home.phtml

DollHeart that I mentioned earlier do some DD clothes, and some BJD clothes. But they also do shoes, wigs and accessories.

http://www.dollheart.com/

Dollfie World have some nice things at a slightly elevated price, but they are worth it. The owner Natalie is also very good, she's answered more than one question for me.

http://www.dollfieworld.com/lang-zh/18-dollfie-dream

SQ-Labs do resin heads that fit DD bodies (but the heads are off topic here) however they also do anime style eyes which are nice. If you've seen Black Rock Shooter, they do a range of eyes that are very similar to the Other Selves.

http://www.sqlabdolls.com/

Miruya. Wigs. That's all there is to say about them really. They have a really good range of wigs in anime colours and lovely styles.

http://www.miruya.com/goods_list.php?Index=1

Air Castle on Taobao, they do clothes is a wide variety of styles, but they are all cutesy and non sexual so you might like them. They do reuire to use of a proxy though, so bear in mind that you will incu extra fees that way.

http://air-castle.taobao.com/view_page-305513430.htm?spm=a1z10.3.w1032171708.5.3FX0LV

San-Heart do amazing eyes. They do character eyes as well which is amazing.

http://san-heart.taobao.com/category-539069383-8067110.htm?spm=a1z10.5.w76694261.78.LfFrrD&search=y&catName=DD%D7%A8%C7%F8#bd

TATA's Paradise do DD clothes.

http://www.tatabjd.com/en/category.php?id=40

[sEN]? I'm not sure what the shop is called, but Cosplay! So so much DD cosplay. They look to be very good quality as well. They also do other outfits. Some Lolita style.

http://wawadexiaowo.taobao.com/search.htm?spm=a1z10.3.w1006-2230240359.9.APLfA1&scid=361048212&scname=BJD%CD%DE%D2%C2&checkedRange=true&queryType=cat

Last but not least, JUNGLE. They do some DDs and are set up like Mandarake I think. I've never orderedfrom them so I can't say about that, but their prices seem okay for some things.

http://jungle-scs.co.jp/sale_en/