Moé Idolatry Article

Dolls

Dolls, yes, it’s one of those things where most adults would go “You’re such a child” or “you’re a boy…”
Fair enough, I am a male but I also have fairly weird hobbies and likes compared to the norm of a western world society.

Today, I’m going to discuss a lil on dolls, specifically on how I found out, and why I’m interested. If you’re already here I assume you like anime figures, if you like anime figures I assume you’ll be open minded on dolls as well :3

The Beginnings

The year was 2001, Angelic Layer was showing and I was curious about CLAMP’s latest release. At first I thought it was some sort of girly version of Pokemon, and didn’t think too much of it.

So I saw the first episode and I was already hooked ^^; So much so that I had a small fansite running for it. Perhaps you ran across it? It was called Angelic Vision. Never heard of it? That’s fine I guess~ ;_;

The main premise was an owner, or Deus, that would buy and customise their doll, or Angels. The purpose was for sporting combat via a BCI, or brain-computer interface on a specially equipped table, the Layer.

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Angelic Layer

This got me all hyper about dolls, so I did some research and found out that there are dolls out there that aren’t just for little girls. I always knew about those porcelain dolls and such, but now I have just discovered the world of ABJD, asian ball jointed dolls. At first I was somewhat hesitant to delve further since the ones I saw wasn’t appealing to me. It would be a few more years till my interest rekindled.

The Return

The year was 2004, Rozen Maiden was showing and I was ecstatic. Remembering the good old days of the futuristic setting of Angelic Layer, I had finally found a series that had dolls as it’s central plot, but this time they’re more closer to the dolls you’d find in stores and, dare I say, museums.

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Rozen Maiden

This was possibly the trigger, I was learning as much as I can about ABJD. Obsessed with them I came close to purchasing one, but opted for a PC upgrade as my logical mind decided. ^^;

The Methods

How did I start researching? Google my friend, it has the answers, and if it doesn’t, it has links that links to others for the answers. I read about them from site to site, and one of my friends also purchased a doll so I asked her quite a few questions about them.

Leya, a “Dream of Children” doll from Dream of Doll

I also looked at major doll companies to get the feel of each brand. I realised that people tend to like different dolls for many reasons, size being one of the main reasons.
A few sites I checked quite frequently in the day were:
Den of Angels, they have knowledgeable people who are also friendly. The information you can find there is priceless, from how to shop for a doll, how to care for one, customisations, new releases, opinions and discussions, photos and even services for hire.
Volks, one of the major doll companies, they’re the creators of SD (Super Dollfies) that have become wildly popular across the globe. The series of dolls I like are from their Dollfie Dream section, I’ll go more into it later.
Dream of Doll is a Korean based company, unlike Volks which is Japanese. They’re dolls are simply gorgeous, their photography is also top notch, so even if you just want to see dolls then the site will suffice. The friend I was talking about has bought a doll from DoD.

The Attraction

Ok, I’m still a lil confused on exactly why I like dolls, perhaps it’s their innocent nature, maybe their representation of artificial beauty, or perhaps all I really need is a hug ;_; whatever the reason is, I like them. But which dolls out of the many do I like~?

Kotori of Da Capo, a “Dollfie Dream” doll from Volks

The doll I came close to buying was Shirakawa Kotori, from D.C. ～Da Capo～. She’s a DDII doll, from the Dollfie Dream line of Volks. Dollfie Dreams IIs aren’t actually real ABJD as they’re not strung up like the conventional doll, instead they work on an inner frame. They’re closer to action figures than dolls in terms of mechanics. They’re also made from vinyl, a lighter material and have better retention of posability. They’re three body types in the Dollfie Dream series, DDI – the original which is strung, DDII – an improved version with the inner frame and MDD (or something) which is the new Mini Dollfie Dreams. The character Dollfie Dreams such as Kotori, or the recent Suzumiya Haruhi are limited editions and are only available through the Volks hosted Dolpa, or Dolls Party. If you want one, either get your butt to the convention, or suck it up and buy them over auction sites such as Yahoo Japan.

Shall, a “Dream of Teenager” doll from Dream of Doll

Another doll I liked was Shall, and generally most of the dolls that Dream of Doll have. Like other dolls, Dream of Doll produces strung resin dolls, their main two lines of dolls are DoT and DoC, Dream of Teenager and Dream of Children respectively. DoD tend to have a very good photo shoot with each doll that is made, it’s another goal of mine one day to take such beautiful photos of dolls (as well as my figures too!).

The Dream

At the moment I’m still planning to get a doll eventually, possibly within the next 2-3 years. Which doll to get will most likely change a lot, and will prolly depend mostly on availability and cost. Oh, I havn’t mentioned the cost have I? Last I said was either a doll, or upgrading my PC. The cost of upgrading my PC was $1400AU. The cost of getting a doll would prolly reach that in the first purchase (doll, clothes, accessories, maintenance tools) so it can be fairly expensive. Don’t think that getting a doll is a one off purchase, you’ll be wanting lots of clothes and items for the doll. Dolls will easily reach a few hundred AU dollars, possibly into $1,000+AU, unless you get those 1/1 scale dolls which are usually fully equipped if you get what I mean ~_^ The posable Al Azif (which isn’t fully equipped) from Papermoon below, will cost 330,000 yen, or about $3,175AU at the time of writing…

Al Azif of Demonbane, a 1/1 doll from Papermoon

Another aspect I might want to do is completely customise a doll to resemble a Rozen Maiden. There are a few around, one of the more popular ones are Dridoller and Sakura Color. Both have galleries of their dolls, and specifics on the parts and customisations of their loved dolls. So if you ever wanted to try to build one, all the parts are listed, though some may require customisations. Just look at the dolls!

Suigintou of Rozen Maiden, a custom doll by Sakura Color

Kirakishou of Rozen Maiden, a custom doll by Dridoller

The Reality

Right now, no dolls in my collection.
It’s all PVC love at the moment, but I do plan to get a doll, I will get a doll, in the future, just deciding which one is the hard part…

If you’ve read this far, or even bothered to skip to the bottom, I congratulate you, my writing is prolly boring people to death, but I have no idea since they’d prolly leave before telling me XD
This is the first “article” post I’ve had here, they’re basically a rant ab- I mean, a section about items of my interest. As you might know, this blog is about things that are moé to me, or things I just worship for unknown reasons, but an article post is a more comprehensive look at why I like them. Do I write too much? ^^;

Anyone like to share their doll experiences? Perhaps even own one?