Ball-Jointed Dolls
Ball-jointed dolls (BJDs) or Asian Ball-jointed Dolls (ABJDs) are realistically proportioned dolls, usually manufactured in east Asian countries (for example in South Korea, Japan and China). These dolls are fully articulated with ball joints at the appropriate locations on their bodies.
These dolls are fully posable and customizable, with removable wigs, eyes, hands, feet and heads. Millions of variations are available. Clothing, shoes, jewelry, and other accessories are also available.
Ball-jointed dolls follow a traditional Asian view in their aesthetics. The designs are diverse and range from anime-inspired to the hyper-realistic.
The modern ball-jointed doll market began with the Volks line of Super Dollfie in 1999. Super Dollfie, or just Dollfie, are sometimes incorrectly used as a blanket term to refer to all Asian BJDs regardless of manufacturer. However, Super Dollfie is a registered trademark for Volks' line of BJDs and Dollfie, the trademarked name of their line of 1/6th (Barbie sized) scale vinyl dolls, are not proper ball-jointed dolls.
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.
Most BJDs are hand-cast from polyurethane resin, resulting in a doll with luminous skin tones and a similar appearance to porcelain while 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 less expensive 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 because they are relatively more cost effective and their greater range of movement.
Tiny (9"/23cm) to MSD(17.5"/47cm) sized dolls range in price from $175 to $600. SD sized dolls are can be sold from about $250 up to $1,000. Prices often include eyes and occasionally a wig, but do not usually include face-up, or clothes. Second hand SD doll prices can range from $500 to $10,000 depending on the demand for particular head or body molds.