Ball-jointed doll
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Ball-jointed dolls (BJDs) are realistically proportioned dolls, usually manufactured in east Asian countries (primarily South Korea and Japan). These dolls are fully articulated with ball joints at their appropriate locations on the doll body.
These dolls have full poseablity and are fully customizable, having removable wigs, eyes, hands, feet, and heads, with many different variations available. Clothing, shoes, jewelry, and other accessories are also available. Much like collectable porcelain dolls, BJDs are often collected by adults.
Ball-jointed dolls follow a traditional Asian view in their aesthetics. The designs are diverse and range from anime-inspired to the hyper-realistic. They are often considered to be collectors items.
Many owners assign their dolls to a certain personalized character, and they are sometimes used as subjects of artistic works, such as photography. Photo stories are popular on doll web forums.
Vinyl and resin BJDs
Most BJDs are hand-cast from polyurethane resin, resulting in a doll with luminous skin tones and a similar appearance to porcelain whilst being more durable. Unlike porcelain however, resin will tend to yellow over time depending on exposure to UV light; sanded dolls will yellow faster unless protected by a UV sealant.
Some BJDs such as the Obitsu 60cm and Volks Dollfie Dream/DDII dolls are made of vinyl. This leads to a lighter doll that is often cheaper than an equivalent urethane resin doll, as resin dolls have to be cast by hand instead of machine-made as is the case with vinyl dolls. The original Dollfie Dream is strung like a resin doll; however Obitsu 60 and Dollfie Dream II dolls both have a soft, flexible vinyl skin over a hard vinyl internal skeleton. This arrangement results in a strong, resilient doll with superior posability. "Hybrid" dolls consisting of a resin head on an Obitsu or DDII body are becoming increasingly popular due to their greater range of movement and affordability.
Paper Moon dolls
The construction of Paper Moon dolls is slightly different to other BJDs due to being life-size (1:1); they are cast in resin, but have specially constructed joints that are superficially similar in appearance to normal balljoints due to the particular difficulties inherent in attempting to string such a large doll with elastic in the conventional manner.Bellmer's influence
Hans Bellmer (1902-1975), the German sculptor, is frequently heralded as the pioneer of modern BJD. Both his design and the attitudes expressed in his work influenced later development of Asian ball-jointed dolls. The female robots in the Japanese film [[Innocence: Ghost in the Shell]] are based on Bellmer's designs.See also
- Super Dollfie
- Dollfie
- Dollmore
- Hans Bellmer: pioneer of BJD.
- Doll Master: a Korean movie that sets dolls as theme.
External links
- [Asian BJD FAQ] — Asian ball-jointed doll wiki
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