Blog Challenge 15: Stand up!

So today's question is whether or not they can stand on their heads... well, I had to pick someone unafraid to look completely silly in a photograph (and yes, that is a VERY hard thing in this household.) Ares volunteered, so here he is!

Pax and Nox

I have just seen the photos of Pax and Nox post face up!!! Andrea has done a fantastic job - I can't wait to see them on a body with their outfits, wigs and eyes!

Blog Challenge 14: Family's thoughts?

My family accepts that I collect dolls - my parents despair of the money I spend and the space it takes up; and whether or not they're insured. They except that I'm old enough to make my own decisions- it might have been different had I been a lot younger when I started collecting. But then I have always had dolls and a lot of them, and they have never been my only collection or user of money.

My brothers accept it to - probably think I'm a little strange, but then one of my older brothers has more than one car - he has 2, a motorbike, a parts car and a couple of engines... ;) (My father has also had a number of cars, the most we had at any point at our place was about 9). While my younger brother doesn't collect things, he is strange in his own way, so my dolls don't make me much stranger or more unique than the rest of my family.

Blog Challenge 13: Heads and Bodies

So have I had any headless bodies or bodiless heads... oh yes... most definitely. My only rule is that if I purchase a head or body, it needs to be completed by the next year, which I have managed to keep to so far!

I bought my first head within 1 or 2 months of getting into the hobby and it was Bellona Lua, my MNF Lishe. Since then I've had a number of floating heads and even a couple of headless bodies. So to make it practical... here they are:

Floating heads:

1. Bellona Lua - MNF Lishe*
2. Sirona - Delf Lishe*
3. Vulcan - MNF Scar BA*
4. Multihead Cupid x2
5. Multihead Ante
6. Caesair - Delf Elf Lishe*
7. Arawn - Feeple BA*
8. Poseidon - LTF BA*
9. Zeus - LTF BA*
10. Hades - LTF BA*
11. Delf Juri 2005*
12. Veja - Puki Sugar*
13. Pax - MNF VE Chloe*
14. LTF Shiwoo*
15. Nox - MNF Eliya*
16. Various Event Heads - LTF/PKF Duck heads, Multihead Cupid... etc etc

Bodies:

1. Fairyland Feeple70 body
2. RealPuki body

Blog Challenge Day 12: Dollie shoes

So all of my dollies are now without shoes! - and this was not all of them, as some I suddenly have only one of! But there they are all... ironically it seems I have more shoes for my Pukifee and LittleFee than I do for any of the others (most of whom have only one pair each).

Update:

1) Why do you like BJDs?
2) Do you own any? If so how many and if not, do you have any plans to at the moment?
3) Post a picture of all your dolls!
4) What/who was the first BJD you ever owned? Do you still own them? (Who is your planned first?)
5) What/who was the very first BJD you saw?
6) Biggest size you own? (Have held/seen/like)
7) Smallest size you own? (Have held/seen/like)
8) What is your favourite size?
9) What is your least favourite size?
10) Post a picture of a doll and an animal!
11) What do your friends think of your dolls/dolls in general?
12) Dollie shoes! Show us how many you have!
13) Have you ever had a floating head? What about a headless body? (What do you think you would do if you had either?)
14) What do your family think of your dolls?
15) Can any of your crew stand on their heads? (Show us~)
16) What is your favourite item of dollie clothing?
17) Do you have a favourite company?
18) A least favourite company?
19) What is your dream doll?
20) One doll you love, but will never (probably) buy?
21) What’s your favourite doll scale prop?
22) Is there a part of the BJD hobby that you dislike?
23) What about your favourite part of the hobby?
24) Have you ever modded a doll? (Do you think that you would?)
25) Done your own faceups? (Again, do you think you’d do that?)
26) Do you have a favourite out of your own dolls? (Don’t worry, we won’t tell the others ;D)
27) Post a crazy/silly pose!
28) Post a picture of your dolls exploring the outside world!
29) Have you ever been to a doll meetup? Did you enjoy it/do you plan to go to one in the future? 

30) a Surprise!

Blog Challenge Day 11: Friends and dolls

My friends and work mates are actually really good with my dolls - some don't know about them, but most of my workmates have met some of my dolls, including Pallus, my largest. Most think its a little strange but interesting. One of my workmates collects crystals, so she understands quite a lot. Most will sound resigned when I mention that I've fallen for another doll. They marvel at the amount and one memorable time I was asked whether or not my doll had all his "Bits" didn't take me long to show them!

A lot of my friends don't know I have them if they are not a dolly-friend. I have had people surprised and weirded out by the more human ones, but mostly I get polite interest and then they leave them alone!

Blog Challenge Day 10: Dolls and Animals

This is the strangest of the questions on the blog challenge list - so here is a picture of Janus and on of my dogs, Ridley - a slightly dirty Maltese Shih-tsu who is roughly 9 years old. He wasn't particularly happy about being woken up and forced to look at the camera. (the other one is a larger - MUCH! - maltese cross who is about 12).

The doll chosen for this photo was Janus - small, easy to pose and possibly one of the least confronting dolls I have. And that's the challenge done.

Blog Challenge 9: Least favourite?

I think this question is as hard as yesterdays! As much as I'd like to have a clearly defined favourite and non-favourite size, my collecting is not as simple as that. I prefer to define it as a preference rather than a "favouritism".

My non-preference is in the bigger dolls - there are less dolls on my wish list that are in SD or SSD and while I'm not adverse to getting them, I have very few which are not part of a defined collection - for example, of my 3 current (and incoming) SSDs - 1 is part of my Lishe collection, 1 a part of my small BA selection and only one was bought on their "own merits" as it were.

Similarly in my SD collection - 3 of 7 are not part of my Lishe collection ( not that I don't like SDs other than who are Lishes) and bought "on their merits". Or simply because I liked them, or had a particular idea for them. I have also sold one of my SDs, (and coincidentally 2 of my MSDs) who didn't fit in with a particular ideal I have.

So I suppose you could say that SD/SSDs were my less preferred size, although that's not really saying much at all - SD/SSDs is also my least populated sizes - the majority of my dolls are Yo and smaller.

Blog Challenge Day 8: Favourite...

I have been trying to figure out if I have a favourite size all day. I counted my sizes and my dolls and all that and I can't tell simply from the numbers!

I currently have:

• 2 SSDs - Pallus and Morrigan (with Arawn only 1 payment away)
• 6 SDs - Magnus, Marcheline, Sirona, Nemain, Caesair and Fea (with one more on the list)
• 7 MSDs - Corvinus, Bellona Lua, Vulcan, Sol Invictus, Janus, Mithras and Diana (with 2 more heads)
• 9 YoSDs - Violet, Emmeline, Cassius, Ianthe, Icarus, Ares, Hades, Poseidon and Zeus
• 9 Tinies - Isis, Osiris, Ma'at, Anubis, Nephthys, Seth, Angelu, Persephone and Mati (with another incoming and 1 floating head).

So even though I really couldn't decide what my favourite size is, I suppose you could say that I have a preference for smaller dolls - since those are the ones that I have more of... and I suppose you can say of those tinies I have more Pukifee than anything else (and I also have another 2 on my wish list), so they could be the doll I preferred more than anything else...

But I'll deny it... :)

As for favourite sculpt... well, that's another story.

Update:

1) Why do you like BJDs?
2) Do you own any? If so how many and if not, do you have any plans to at the moment?
3) Post a picture of all your dolls!
4) What/who was the first BJD you ever owned? Do you still own them? (Who is your planned first?)
5) What/who was the very first BJD you saw?
6) Biggest size you own? (Have held/seen/like)
7) Smallest size you own? (Have held/seen/like)
8) What is your favourite size?
9) What is your least favourite size?
10) Post a picture of a doll and an animal!
11) What do your friends think of your dolls/dolls in general?
12) Dollie shoes! Show us how many you have!
13) Have you ever had a floating head? What about a headless body? (What do you think you would do if you had either?)
14) What do your family think of your dolls?
15) Can any of your crew stand on their heads? (Show us~)
16) What is your favourite item of dollie clothing?
17) Do you have a favourite company?
18) A least favourite company?
19) What is your dream doll?
20) One doll you love, but will never (probably) buy?
21) What’s your favourite doll scale prop?
22) Is there a part of the BJD hobby that you dislike?
23) What about your favourite part of the hobby?
24) Have you ever modded a doll? (Do you think that you would?)
25) Done your own faceups? (Again, do you think you’d do that?)
26) Do you have a favourite out of your own dolls? (Don’t worry, we won’t tell the others ;D)
27) Post a crazy/silly pose!
28) Post a picture of your dolls exploring the outside world!
29) Have you ever been to a doll meetup? Did you enjoy it/do you plan to go to one in the future? 

30) - a surprise!

Blog Challenge Day 7: Smallest

The smallest doll I own fits in the palm of my hand, but not only that - the palm of my biggest doll, Pallus. She is a minion with attitude - she is Mati. Mati is a Fairyland PukiPuki Ruby faceplate (with the Dark Rose faceup) on a RealPuki body, and she stands at approximately 9.5cm tall. RealPukis have much more "fantasy" faces, none on which I was fond of, but I wanted to get my hands on a body. Originally I was going to get a faceplate with the Dark Moon faceup. Mati was born when I finally got her faceplate and put it on her body and she stared at me sightlessly for a couple of weeks. She was wigless for a lot longer, but pulled it off with a style only Mati has.

Before I got Mati, my smallest doll was my second - a beautiful WS PukiPuki Flora called Persephone. Persephone is much taller than Mati at 11cm.

Blog Challenge Day 6: Biggest??

For a long time the position of biggest size belonged to my Fairyland Feeple 70 hybrid Morrigan, who stood at 67.5cm tall. I've had her for almost 3 years now and she held the crown. More recently, that has changed and slim Morrigan has made way for a chunky hulk of man-flesh.

Otherwise known as Pallus. Pallus is a SOOM Mega Gem Shoshon, an MD, and with his elk hooves, stands at a cool 72cm (approximately). He is also a massive doll - broader and bigger than most of my other dolls with the epic sized hands (which you can see). Ironically his hooves are still smaller than those of my Chalco, Magnus.

Pallus is not the tallest I've seen - that would be LK's 80cm Mecha Angel Elf Sabik, Varius. She also owned an Iplehouse EID and a 72cm slim Dollzone Chen. But I do prefer my big man, as long as I don't have to carry him around for more than 15 mins... he's heavy!

Blog Challenge Day 5: First?

Ironically enough the first BJD I saw and touched was not classified as a BJD by DoA standards - she was my friend's Goodreau Secret, known as Sabine. She was a vinyl BJD with hinge joints and problems standing. She prompted me to buy what was to be my first doll, a Goodreau OzDottie, which ended up being a disappointing event all round.

As for "official" BJD, that would be my first, Marcheline - she was the first resin, "on-topic" BJD that me or my friend had ever seen and we both participated in her box opening. I didn't see another BJD until LK's Catsy and Resinsoul Mei had arrived, and that would be around the time that we went to our first meet up and I saw a whole heap of more dolls!

Blog Challenge Day 4: First doll

4. What/who was the first BJD you ever owned? Do you still own them? (Who is your planned first?)

My first doll is Marcheline, my Dollcatch Stella. I definitely still have her - I bought her some three years ago and even though lots of people were waiting up to 6 months for their dolls from Dollcatch (which was a sister company of Custom House and is now defunct); I was lucky and only waited 24 days. That is in total.

Marcheline was not the first doll that I planned to get - I had bought a Goodreau OzDottie from DDE before I had even thought of purchasing Marcheline. I actually had to wait 6 months for that particular doll to turn up, and once she arrived, I was vastly disappointed in the quality and structure of the doll in particular. (for more of this story read this post: http://softskintales.blogspot.com/2010/08/arum-reshelling-project.html )


I don't think I'll ever sell Marcheline, even though she is not one of my most expensive or my most flexible or posable. She's Marcheline, and I love her.

Blog Challenge Day 3 - Show them off!

Back row: Fea, Caesair, Morrigan, Pallus, Mati, Magnus, Sirona, Nemain
Second: Diana, Mithras, Janus, Marcheline, Persephone, Corvinus, Sol, Vulcan, Bellona Lua
Third: Zeus, Poseidon, Icarus, Hades, Ianthe, Ares, Cassius, Violet, Emmeline
Front: Seth, Nephthys, Anubis, Isis, Osiris, Ma'at, Angelu

 The ironic thing is I took a picture of all of my dolls not so long ago. As I said in Day 2’s post (other than the fact that I’m late, which I am again.) I currently have 33 – along with 4 floating heads, and technically, 2 and a half incoming. My dolls – in order of height rather than entrance to the house, are as follows:

• ·       Pallus – a SOOM Monthly Doll Mega Gem Shoshon
• ·       Morrigan – a Luts Delf Lishe head on a Fairyland Feeple70 body
• ·       Magnus – a SOOM Monthly Doll Super Gem Chalco
• ·       Marcheline – a Dollcatch Stella
• ·       Sirona – a Luts Delf Lishe
• ·       Nemain – a Luts Delf Elf Vampire Lishe in WS
• ·       Caesair – a Luts Delf Elf Lishe 2006 release in WS
• ·       Fea – a Luts Delf Elf Lishe 2005
• ·       Corvinus – a SOOM Monthly Doll Little Gem Tuff
• ·       Bellona Lua – a Fairyland Minifee Lishe
• ·       Vulcan – a Fairyland Minifee Scar Breakaway
• ·       Sol Invictus – a Fairyland Minifee Luka in WS
• ·       Janus – a Fairyland Chicline El
• ·       Mithras – a Fairyland Chicline Fabilis in Tan
• ·       Diana – a Fairyland Chicline Lishe
• ·       Violet – a Pipos Po11 Dark Alice
• ·       Emmeline – a Pipos Po11 Alice Jr
• ·       Cassius – a SOOM Monthly Doll Teenie Gem Silt
• ·       Ianthe – a Fairyland LittleFee Lishe
• ·       Icarus – a Fairyland LittleFee El
• ·       Ares – a Fairyland LittleFee Rachel
• ·       Hades – a Fairyland LittleFee Breakaway
• ·       Poseidon - a Fairyland LittleFee Breakaway in WS
• ·       Zeus - a Fairyland LittleFee Breakaway
• ·       Isis – a Fairyland Pukifee Bonnie
• ·       Osiris – a Fairyland Pukifee Zoe
• ·       Ma’at – a Fairyland Pukifee Bonnie
• ·       Anubis – a Fairyland Pukifee Zoe
• ·       Seth – a Fairyland Pukifee Ante in WS
• ·       Nephthys – a Fairyland Pukifee Luna
• ·       Angelu – a Pipos Po7 Baby Alice
• ·       Persephone – a Fairyland PukiPuki Flora in WS
• ·       Mati – a Fairyland PukiPuki Ruby on a RealPuki body.

My floating heads are:

• ·       Arawn – a Fairyland Feeple70 Breakaway with a Midnight Blue faceup
• ·       Pax – a Fairyland Minifee Vampire Elf Chloe
• ·       Nox – a Fairyland Minifee Eliya
• ·       Veja – a Fairyland PukiPuki Sugar

The 2 and ½ incomings are:

• ·       A body for Arawn
• ·       Thyra, a Pipos Po7 Baby Alice
• ·       and yet to be ordered: an unnamed SOOM Super Gem Clozel.

And for now… that’s all of them!

Blog Challenge Day 2 - Own some?

I'm late already! I will attempt to post the one I'm supposed to be on tomorrow.


2) Do you own any? If so how many and if not, do you have any plans to at the moment?


Yes... I currently own 33 dolls - with 2 incoming and three floating heads. I am currently in negotiations (spoiler!) to split the new SOOM girl, scary thought.


My dolls include 4 SOOMs, a multitude (25) CPs (Fairyland/Luts), 3 Pipos and a Dollcatch. I have a large number of tinies, more tinies than I have anything else at the moment anyway. I have managed to collect them over 3 years - which in some cases is even scarier.


Other than the two already incoming and the SOOM girl, I have no plans at the moment except to go as slowly as possible to save some moolah. 


I'm not sure what else to add to this blog post about this challenge... difficult question - and since I have to answer a similar one for no. 3, I'll leave the descriptions of my dolls and what/who they are until tomorrow!

Blog Challenge Day 1 - like BJDs?

1) Why do you like BJDs?


Can I number the ways?


I have always liked dolls - I had a few favourites when I was child, including a vinyl Orange Blossom whom I loved. As I got older, I got into barbies and paper dolls. As I became an adult, I added Kokeshi, some porcelain dolls and various other country dolls and figurines.


I didn't find out about BJDs until 2 years ago. They are easy to customise, even for one who does very little and the thing I like the most about them is that you can make the same doll look completely different simply by changing a face up/wig or eyes. I have 8 of one sculpt and none of them look the same - in fact I often have to tell people they are the same sculpt.


They also encourage characters, fun and are not just to be left on the shelf as many of my other dolls have been.

Blog Challenge

I though, while I was stuffing around with my discussion on Bodies (which has been taking me a while and is currently stuck on my work iPad) I would have a go at this blog challenge for something to do.

I will apologise for a lack of blogging - some real life non-dolly crap has been taking up my time at the moment and has made me not in a very nice mood. Anyway... the challenge is as follows:

You answer one of these questions I believe every day for a month (or so). I might not quite manage that, and I could very well add in my body discussion, but it will fill in quite a bit of time.

1) Why do you like BJDs?
2) Do you own any? If so how many and if not, do you have any plans to at the moment?
3) Post a picture of all your dolls!
4) What/who was the first BJD you ever owned? Do you still own them? (Who is your planned first?)
5) What/who was the very first BJD you saw?
6) Biggest size you own? (Have held/seen/like)
7) Smallest size you own? (Have held/seen/like)
8) What is your favourite size?
9) What is your least favourite size?
10) Post a picture of a doll and an animal!
11) What do your friends think of your dolls/dolls in general?
12) Dollie shoes! Show us how many you have!
13) Have you ever had a floating head? What about a headless body? (What do you think you would do if you had either?)
14) What do your family think of your dolls?
15) Can any of your crew stand on their heads? (Show us~)
16) What is your favourite item of dollie clothing?
17) Do you have a favourite company?
18) A least favourite company?
19) What is your dream doll?
20) One doll you love, but will never (probably) buy?
21) What’s your favourite doll scale prop?
22) Is there a part of the BJD hobby that you dislike?
23) What about your favourite part of the hobby?
24) Have you ever modded a doll? (Do you think that you would?)
25) Done your own faceups? (Again, do you think you’d do that?)
26) Do you have a favourite out of your own dolls? (Don’t worry, we won’t tell the others ;D)
27) Post a crazy/silly pose!
28) Post a picture of your dolls exploring the outside world!
29) Have you ever been to a doll meetup? Did you enjoy it/do you plan to go to one in the future? 

30) a Surprise!