Reputable Asian Ball-Jointed Doll Vendor?

May 9, 2006 8:48 AM

Asian Ball Jointed Dolls Filter -- Can you recommend a reputable American seller/dealer, and what has been your experience with them (the vendor)? It seems like the only ones I can find are foreign companies and I'd rather buy from someplace stateside if I can, unless I'm confident enough in them from recommendations..

Only just today I came across a couple of livejournal entries when surfing toothpaste that had people making fiction shorts with these dolls, posing in different ways to act out comic-like panels with a caption. I found Gigglegeek.dk that has loads of sites to buy from, but pretty much all of them look foreign and I don't know one from the other as far as reliability.

In addition (although the recommendation is what I'm really after) -- How expensive would you say they are generally? I'd like to get one just to set on my desk. Is it possible to get customized eyes? I'd rather have one with cat-slit eyes than the regular kind.

posted by vanoakenfold to shopping (2 comments total)

There is only one store I know of in the US that sells BJDs, and that is the Volks store that recently opened in California. Here is more info on that store.

Many of my friends have bought through Dream of Doll (a Korean site) without problem, some as recently as last month.

The Luts/Volks-style BJDs I've seen generally run between $300 (the smaller sizes) to $800+. It's not an inexpensive hobby!

Customisation is really popular in the BJD community, so there are a lot of places to buy extras. A quick google brought up this site selling cats-eye eye replacements.
posted by zannah at 11:20 AM on May 9, 2006

Thanks for your help, that's exactly what I was looking for (but other responses are still welcome by others reading). That's quite an investment. I didn't quite realize how tall they were -- just over 2 ft!
posted by vanoakenfold at 7:42 PM on May 9, 2006