Has anyone ever done business with Tokyo Doll?

[Calivano]

I was looking at getting into seamless Ball Jointed Dolls and came across Tokyo Dolls. Some of their stuff seems a bit racy, but I still think some of the models look cool. But they are so expensive! It looks like they only accept Yen for Payment, but I think they accept paypal. Has anyone ever been brave enough to buy one? How are seamless BJDs?

http://www.tokyodoll.biz

[K2!]

I've never had one (I've had several bust parts made out of the same stuff), but there are some things to know. They are "seamless" as the body (except the head) is molded in one piece. There are however "parting lines" from where the different parts of the mold went together. Since the material is soft and rubbery it doesn't really sand. The material cuts with a very sharp knife but such trimming may leave worse scars than original mold seam. Unless there has been a break through in the materials they are using, the skin has a certain "tack" to it that never really goes away. The body requires the application of a talc-like powder to temporarily remove this stickiness. I don't know how often this has to be done, but one application is not a permanent fix. After a while the skin becomes tacky again. Also I don't know how this affects the practicality of wearing clothing long term. This tackiness seems to quickly attract dust, lint, and debris like you would not believe. The good news is debris will come off easily by washing the doll under running water, but then you need to reapply the powder. You will not be able to do any body blushing yourself. Blushing this material requires special paints ($$$), which are more toxic than our normal paints and spray sealers. If you want blushing have the factory do it. The internal skeletons are much better now than some of the original ones, which had tiny wired joints that weren't very robust. But unlike traditional strung BJDs, where you can just grab a body part and move it any which way, you will need to pay attention to where the joints are and how they hinge or twist. Breaking a joint on one of these is near fatal. While the skin material is very flexible it can tear if stressed. I think there are adhesives you can use to repair any tears but it will remain visible and be a weak spot prone to continued failure. Some joints will look unnatural when bent towards the extreme (the Gumby look).

But the up side is seamless joints.

[MeltedCaramel]

I've never had one (I've had several bust parts made out of the same stuff), but there are some things to know. They are "seamless" as the body (except the head) is molded in one piece. There are however "parting lines" from where the different parts of the mold went together. Since the material is soft and rubbery it doesn't really sand. The material cuts with a very sharp knife but such trimming may leave worse scars than original mold seam. Unless there has been a break through in the materials they are using, the skin has a certain "tack" to it that never really goes away. The body requires the application of a talc-like powder to temporarily remove this stickiness. I don't know how often this has to be done, but one application is not a permanent fix. After a while the skin becomes tacky again. Also I don't know how this affects the practicality of wearing clothing long term. This tackiness seems to quickly attract dust, lint, and debris like you would not believe. The good news is debris will come off easily by washing the doll under running water, but then you need to reapply the powder. You will not be able to do any body blushing yourself. Blushing this material requires special paints ($$$), which are more toxic than our normal paints and spray sealers. If you want blushing have the factory do it. The internal skeletons are much better now than some of the original ones, which had tiny wired joints that weren't very robust. But unlike traditional strung BJDs, where you can just grab a body part and move it any which way, you will need to pay attention to where the joints are and how they hinge or twist. Breaking a joint on one of these is near fatal. While the skin material is very flexible it can tear if stressed. I think there are adhesives you can use to repair any tears but it will remain visible and be a weak spot prone to continued failure. Some joints will look unnatural when bent towards the extreme (the Gumby look).

But the up side is seamless joints.

Welp, checked out this thread on a whim, got excited, got disappointed, and then K2 made me laugh my ass off. This was not productive but it sure was fun.

[K2!]

Welp, checked out this thread on a whim, got excited, got disappointed, and then K2 made me laugh my ass off. This was not productive but it sure was fun.

They are different animals than what most resin folk are used to. I'm not trying to discourage anyone from getting one, I'm just trying to head off some of the surprises. I considered getting one when JS carried them, but the high price put me off.

[Trethowan]

I'm Gumby, dammit!

I remember when JS carried these. They seemed to me more like the kind of doll you just set up somewhere.

[MeltedCaramel]

Welp, checked out this thread on a whim, got excited, got disappointed, and then K2 made me laugh my ass off. This was not productive but it sure was fun.

They are different animals than what most resin folk are used to. I'm not trying to discourage anyone from getting one, I'm just trying to head off some of the surprises. I considered getting one when JS carried them, but the high price put me off.

<----Oh, I quite understand, it was just pretty hilarious to see a wall'o'text of problems and then:

Seamless joints.

I'm easily amused? The high price combined with the problems of posing/showing them off seems a bit labour intensive even for those used to babying their resin. Somehow that talc powder application reminds me a little too much of a recalcitrant toddler, except you get frustrated and try and force a sleeve on and hear *crack* and then suddenly your doll has an ER worthy fracture going on. They are stunningly gorgeous dolls, but the maintenance and high price just...yep. Can't think of the company, but the sculpts remind me an awful lot of "Something Or Another Angel", the sculpts are quite racy but they are ultimately jointed, it just doesn't show as much. I wish I could think of the name, I see them up on Y!J all the time! They might be a nice happy medium for someone who likes Tokyo Doll's sculpts?

[mochi.kochi]

This got me interested and frightened me at the same time xD I never went to check the price but I did look up videos of the moving the joints. The cracking... terrified me. I kept researching and I saw hot toys has a similar line(?). Basically seamless jointed 1/6 bodies. So I showed my brother too, he said a down part is that the material hot toys used tend to crack upon age, so I was thinking this might be similar so I wanted to leave it here for added info Link to cracked picture http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QruLwaYi42c/Tm4X5OlUwMI/AAAAAAAArSg/u7uOS8v5Mis/s640/852_devgru.jpg.

The cracks made me stop searching lol -,-

[MeltedCaramel]

This got me interested and frightened me at the same time xD I never went to check the price but I did look up videos of the moving the joints. The cracking... terrified me. I kept researching and I saw hot toys has a similar line(?). Basically seamless jointed 1/6 bodies. So I showed my brother too, he said a down part is that the material hot toys used tend to crack upon age, so I was thinking this might be similar so I wanted to leave it here for added info Link to cracked picture http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QruLwaYi42c/Tm4X5OlUwMI/AAAAAAAArSg/u7uOS8v5Mis/s640/852_devgru.jpg.

The cracks made me stop searching lol -,-

Oh my....yeah, no amount of glue is gonna put that boy back together. His arm looks like terraforming!! I believe the material may be a little different on Tokyo Dolls, but I can just see so many pitfalls with that....plus they sound like you're breaking bones when you pose them. Ickkkk. *Shudder*

[mochi.kochi]

This got me interested and frightened me at the same time xD I never went to check the price but I did look up videos of the moving the joints. The cracking... terrified me. I kept researching and I saw hot toys has a similar line(?). Basically seamless jointed 1/6 bodies. So I showed my brother too, he said a down part is that the material hot toys used tend to crack upon age, so I was thinking this might be similar so I wanted to leave it here for added info Link to cracked picture http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QruLwaYi42c/Tm4X5OlUwMI/AAAAAAAArSg/u7uOS8v5Mis/s640/852_devgru.jpg.

The cracks made me stop searching lol -,-

Oh my....yeah, no amount of glue is gonna put that boy back together. His arm looks like terraforming!! I believe the material may be a little different on Tokyo Dolls, but I can just see so many pitfalls with that....plus they sound like you're breaking bones when you pose them. Ickkkk. *Shudder*

*joins shudder*

[MeltedCaramel]

This got me interested and frightened me at the same time xD I never went to check the price but I did look up videos of the moving the joints. The cracking... terrified me. I kept researching and I saw hot toys has a similar line(?). Basically seamless jointed 1/6 bodies. So I showed my brother too, he said a down part is that the material hot toys used tend to crack upon age, so I was thinking this might be similar so I wanted to leave it here for added info Link to cracked picture http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QruLwaYi42c/Tm4X5OlUwMI/AAAAAAAArSg/u7uOS8v5Mis/s640/852_devgru.jpg.

The cracks made me stop searching lol -,-

Oh my....yeah, no amount of glue is gonna put that boy back together. His arm looks like terraforming!! I believe the material may be a little different on Tokyo Dolls, but I can just see so many pitfalls with that....plus they sound like you're breaking bones when you pose them. Ickkkk. *Shudder*

*joins shudder*

<-----XDD, maybe some people would enjoy it, like constantly cracking their knuckles? But for me...no thank you!! I find that *RATCHETCLICKCLICK* noise to be just a little too creepy.