{PhotoStory 1} Welcomes and Introductions to the Family

 

"Hello! I am Aurora. I am the new member to this family and I thought I would introduce you to everyone. I hope you enjoy!"

Aurora is a Lilac Bobobie Ariel. She is a 43 cm Resin BJD. She is wearing a long white wig and has brown eyes.

"First I met Gardenia. She is the eldest member of our family. She has been here for a few years now. Apparently our mother-"creator" had chosen her look to match that of her human baby. Gardenia is very out going and funny, she kept telling me about all the silly things that happened in the household. Apparently she spends many days people watching. She says it's her favorite hobby."

Gardenia is a Volks Dollfie Plus. She is a 27cm vinyl doll. She is wearing green/blue eyes and has on a long blonde wig.

 

"While I waited for Ilia to show up, she had to get her new dress on, I met William. Apparently William is the only boy in our family right now. He doesn't really speak much, I had to practically beg to get him to talk to me. It seems that although he looks rather young, William is actually close to my own age! He was telling me about his and Ilia's adventures since they had joined this family. He seems to have quite the soft spot for little Ilia, even if he never seems to show much expression. While we talked he also introduced me to his large black raven, Vivi. Apparently Vivi is very attached to William, always watching over him."

William is a Hujoo Wings (closed eyes).He is 26cm tall, made of ABS plastic. He has silver eyes and a short blonde wig with two longer bits tied back.

"After Ilia showed up William refused to leave. He wanted to be with her, I thought it was rather cute. Ilia told me about her life with the family so far. She was designed by our mother-"creator"'s daughter. She has a habit of copying some of the things that William does to bother our mother. Such as climbing trees. Ilia says that mother constantly tells her to get down, even using her full name Iliana. But it's usually all in fun. Ilia also told me of the little ability she possesses. She has the ability to see and communicate with spirits. I have to say that it seems like an interesting ability and I am curious. But she is such a nice girl, very talkative though, especially compared to William. I can tell the way that Ilia blushes that she like William, though I don't think he has noticed yet!"

Iliana is a Hujoo Berry. She is a 24cm ABS plastic BJD. She is wearing a short brown mohair wig, and big brown eyes.

"I also met mother's human daughter's friends. It seems that there are tons of these little ones around the house. Recently they have been coming around while mother takes our pictures. I couldn't help but invite one over to visit me. Her name is Rainbow Dash and she gleefully told me all about life as the child's pony. Though she talked so fast I really didn't get to memorize much of it."

 

"Well I am off to try this "Karaoke" that Gardenia has been telling me about. Apparently it's part of my welcoming party! I hope you all take care until next time!"

All dolls are owned by Melz. All clothing the dolls are wearing is hand created by Melz. Please don't still my pictures <3 thanks!

Hujoo Wings {Closed Eye} - Information and Review (Picture Heavy)

Hujoo is a Korean brand of BJD.
I have also received two of them in the past month. They both came from the lovely website, The Junky Spot.
I am relatively new to this brand of doll, but I have very quickly fell in love with them. I am going to do a review of the dolls and show off some of the photos I have taken.

My Hujoo Wings is named William.

The Hujoo Wings closed eye !! I have the Factory Face-up on this doll !!

Front of Hujoo Wings closed eyes

Back of Hujoo Wings Closed eyes

• He is made completely of ABS Plastic.
• He is an elastic strung BJD.
• My Hujoo Wing's color is WHITE (though they do come in different skin tones)
• His Height is 26cm
• His Head girth is 19cm - Fitting a size 7 or 8 wig
• He fits a size 20mm pair of eyes
• His Neck girth is 4cm
• His Chest girth is 10.5cm
• His Shoulders are 5.5cm wide
• His Waist girth is 9cm
• His Hips girth is 10.5cm
• His feet are size 3.5cm

 My Hujoo Wings is currently wearing a DollZone 44cm wig in Light Blonde, and a pair of Hujoo Animetic 20mm eyes in Silver.

Hujoo Wings sitting with arms behind back and legs out in front of him. He has his silver eyes in and his light blonde wig on. He is wearing a pair of handmade pants.

As with my Hujoo Berry I have no purchased any clothing for my Hujoo Wings. I prefer to make his clothing from hand also. So I cannot honestly say what brands or size clothing fit him the best.

The Hujoo Wings has the same internal eye system that the Hujoo Berry has. The same two rubber holders that attach to the posts inside of the head.

The rubber eye holders

The inside of the Hujoo Wings head. The posts are similar to the posts of a Hujoo Berry. The eye system is held in identical, on the two smaller posts and the two larger posts behind the elastic. But you can see one of the larger posts inside of the Hujoo Wings head actually has a metal post coming up from it. The head also lacks the smaller alignment post at the base of the head that the Hujoo Berry has.

I have found it much easier to install the eyes by putting them into the rubber, then attaching the rubber to the small bottom post then putting the bigger post in. I hold the elastic on another finger while I am installing the eyes.

You can see that the eyes inside my Wings also has the posts to allow me to move the direction he is looking easily.

Posing with the Hujoo Wings is very similar to posing the Hujoo Berry. They are strung very similar. The biggest difference I have noted was where the elastic was tied inside of the doll. On the Berry the knots were above the eye posts. In the Wings I have noticed the knots are inside of his chest area.

The knee joints of the Hujoo Wings are the same as the Hujoo Berry.

The hip joints have the same locking notches as the Berry has.

Here you can see the small locking mechanism inside the hip joint. This allows them to stand easier.

The arm is strung the same as the Hujoo Berry. As you can see the shoulder does actually move (it does on the Berry also.)

Again the elastic is run through the wrist and back up.

The elastic runs down to both legs in the Wings.

Here you can see the actual difference in knotting area of the dolls. The Wigs has all it's knots inside of the chest.

The head still has the elastic going straight into it before it loops on the eye posts.

The back of the head has the same locking notch system as the hips have, allowing the Wings to look up, down, and straight forward without the head moving.

The front of the neck also has the notch locking system.

The Hujoo Wings seems to pose in many of the same ways the Hujoo Berry does. They hold their poses about the same.

Hujoo Wings stands well on his own, while one hand is hooked in the pants and the other is outstretched.

The Wings can also kneel and sit up on it's own.

Where the Wings is actually tilted at the waist joint to look downwards, while his legs are crossed in a meditative position. He sat very well like this without much difficulty.

Standing on his own and using both hands to hold up a rather large item. (The Raven he is holding is named Vivi and is his personal "pet", this was also entered in a contest)

Standing with head tilted upwards slightly while one arm is behind him and the other is reaching upwards.

This position took a while to get him to stay in but eventually it worked. He has one foot flat on the ground the knee bent, and he is sitting on the other knee. He has one hand on the top of the Raven's head and the other under his beak. He is sitting without support.

The Wings is standing without support with the waist joint bent downwards while his arms are crossed in front of him. He also has his head tilted slightly down. (The Rat's name is Umbra, he is one our family pets, he wouldn't let the doll sit on him)

As you can see the Wings doll even holds it's pose while on a moving creature. (This Rat is Okami, our other family pet, and he didn't mind the doll on him)

Laying down both dolls are able to remain posed without issues, you can see the similarity between their joints

Again both dolls kneeling without issues and obviously easily staying posed here as well. Wings is holding the rake with both hands, but it is not supporting him in any manner.

As for the Hujoo dolls, these are the two that I own and can give a personal review about. I think they both are easy to pose and extremely enjoyable.

BJD - Ball Jointed Doll

Here is a bit of info about this hobby before I start blogging about mine. For further information there are many other places to research BJDs.

BJDs are Ball jointed dolls which are dolls that have ball and socket type joints. Usually they have jointed neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, knees, and ankles. There is even the option of buying jointed hands for your doll for further abilities to pose the doll.

The most common (and the ones I own and know) are “ABJD” or Asia Ball Jointed Doll. When referring to the ABJD they are usually created in Japan, Korea, and China. There are American made ball jointed dolls, but they are less talked about and I don’t know much about those.

Common Asian brands you will most likely come across are…

1) Volks (people usually recognize their trademark “Dollfie” derived from the word doll combined with the word figure) {Japan}
2) Obitsu {Japan}
3) Hujoo {Korea}
4) Elfdoll {Korea}
5)Doll In Mind {Korea}
6) Dream of Doll {Korea}
7) Dollzone {China}

There are many other brands and types, but these are a few that I come across most often when dealing with BJDs and BJD forums.

There are two popular types of ball jointed dolls. One has a hard plastic “Skeletal” system (Volks and Obitsu supply some dolls with these) and the other (more common) is an elastic stringing system. 

 

They come in a variety of sizes, ranging from baby/tiny 11-16CM, 20-26CM, 40-47CM,  Mini-SD (MSD) 60CM, and Super (SD) 70CM doll. 

BJDs usually wear wigs, but they can be hand-rooted with hair (depending on what your doll is made of.) Each size doll wears a different size wig. There are also many types of wigs. People do make handmade wigs from anything from yarn to mohair to “furs”. I personally have used a wig tape to help hold the wig in place on some of my dolls (sometimes wigs do slip.) There are many different tutorials online for creating your own doll wig if you are interested in being extra crafty!

BJDs usually have interchangeable eyes. The eyes are usually held in with “eye putty” but some people do glue the eyes in if they don’t plan on ever changing them. Hujoo has an eye system that allows you to keep the eyes inside the dolls head without putty or glue and allows you to move the eyes once you open the head. There are different types of eyes for the dolls also. Glass and acrylic are the primary materials. They have anything from realistic eyes, animetic eyes, animal looking eyes, even just a solid color. Some dolls do not need eyes as they are created with closed eyes, and really all that is needed is a little paint (to draw the eye lids and eye brows) and some eye lashes.

It is important to note the size eyes your doll will need, much like the wigs each doll has a different size eye they will need to use. Eyes range in sizes from 6MM-22MM (they go up in size by two mm increments.) Some dolls also use decal eyes. Many dolls created to look like anime/manga characters use a decal eye system (sometimes they are painted on by hand by the owner.) It is just another way to customize your doll to your taste.

BJDs are also known for their interchangeable heads, hands, and feet. Interchangeable hands give you the ability to change your doll’s hand from a fist to pointing. Also some collectors also make shoes for their dolls, but take off their feet to make it easier to fit a shoe onto their doll without worry of the foot becoming stuck in the shoe. Also if you install a magnet into the shoe it makes it possible to pose your doll easier. Some dolls come with the option of putting on feet with magnets in them already. But having the ability to take off the magnetic feel makes it safe to keep your doll around those electronics too! The ability to switch heads between your dolls and sometimes brands allows for ultimate customization. When the collectors do use a different head and body brand the doll is called a “hybrid.” (Example an Obitsu head on a Dollfie Plus body would be an “obitsu-volks” hybred.)

The dolls are generally made of a resin, there are also dolls made from plastics, such as some Volks, Obitsu, Hujoo, and more. Sadly some people refuse to acknowledge any doll that isn’t resin. My personal opinion is that they are (for lack of a better word) racist against other dolls. I believe it doesn’t really matter what the doll is made of, it is the feeling you get when you find that doll that calls to you. The resin dolls and the plastic dolls both have the ball and socket joints, they both bend and pose much like a human body, both wear wigs and have interchangeable eyes. The realities of the differences are price and body material. People may refuse to acknowledge the plastic dolls but in reality with today’s economy the plastic (more affordable) dolls are easier to acquire for some people.

My advice? Buy that doll that you can afford and calls out to you! Recently I have been looking into the resin dolls (oh I drool over the beauties) but in honesty the ones I wanted to own…plastic. And I am happier than ever with those!

When referring to the faces of the dolls the details done are called a “face-up”. The face-ups consist of usually hand painted or drawn eyebrows, lip colors, eye lids, blush, bottom eye lashes, and even tattoos. Some dolls come with the option of buying them with a face-up already done. A lot of people decide to do their own face-ups on their dolls, that way they can give their doll the feeling they get from it, and create their own character from their doll. Also when the face-ups are hand done they can be easier to remove to do a new face-up at a later date. Others like the “factory” face-ups because they give the doll that character that sometimes is the reason people are drawn to that specific doll to begin with. Also with a factory face-up the doll is more “ready to go” when they receive it.

A few hobbies to do with your BJD…
1) Posing for photos – BJD Photography is a big thing and fun too!
2) Making clothing for them – The crafter in all of us knows this is fun to do! And the possibilities are endless! I personally like to crochet my dolls clothing.
3) Making items/furniture for them – Again the crafters are happy! It is also an endless adventure to create their homes and lives!
4) Giving them a character – For that writer in us, BJDs give us the perfect embodiment of our characters and let us “act” out our stories. Giving your doll a history (and name) makes them that much more alive. Some dolls are even the reason some characters in stories are born!
5) Doing face-ups

But really, do you need a reason to love these dolls? I know I don’t “need” a reason, though I do all the above reasons! 

The reality with BJD collecting is you need to keep a few things in mind…
1) It’s addictive to collect these dolls (once you buy one, you dream of buying more)
2) This isn’t a cheap hobby, even though some dolls are affordable for every price range
3) There are many types of BJD, researching the ones you like will help you out in the long run.

And always remember… Find "your" doll, relax, and enjoy!

Iliana, my Hujoo Berry BJD