General 10-20cm Blind Box BJD Discussion

@Idoru Thanks so much for this rundown! I've seen so many cute owner pictures from people who have been happy with this order, and lots of glowing reviews over on the Ali sellers, so it's been real strange to also see the extreme opposite end with the Chinese forums and Discord messages with reports as dire as insect eggs being in the box.

It's good to hear a firsthand account in this thread.

 

I'm behind on posting a bunch of news, so here's a bunch of news!
Mostly from Kikagoods, some from Hermeow.

Previews of the new Antu beast series by Penny's Box
Previews of the new Antu beast series bodies by Penny's Box
My thoughts: I'm utterly in love and nothing will stop me from buying at least one of these.

A new UFdoll fruit themed series
My thoughts: I find these painfully generic compared to what amazing innovations have happened in this space in the last year but... that's just me! I'm sure they'll have their fans.

Ziyouzhuzhang Electronic Pet Game World preview
Preview 2
Preview 3
Preview 4 (full doll)
My thoughts: Also utterly in love with, and also nothing will stop me from buying at least one. I suspect these are actually for the other thread though, so I might move this mention.

Ninizee Dream Town series by SIMONTOYS
My thoughts: Continuing to hit it out of the park by making some of the best quality and well-scaled clothing for this size, I almost feel bad I always redress. Picking just one will be hard!

Letsvan Kilikili Millennial Cool Girl Series preview
Technically no confirmation of size, but from this artwork I suspect they'll be in the bracket for this thread? Love the art.

Edit: almost forgot!

Inedible Doll Bunny series, which we have already seen but these normal ones have painted eyes. There are confirmed styles which have inset eyes!
Design 1: Picture 1 | Picture 2
Design 2: Picture 1 | Picture 2

 

Oooh, nice find!

The print/paint doesn't surprise me. Disney would have had final say on these and they often do sculpted/painted on details. They probably either don't realise or don't think/care that part of the appeal of BJDs is customising, so to them the dolls being stuck as one character is a feature, not a flaw.

This will be an easy pass for me though, as cute as they are. None of my favourites are here. I won't start posturing about skin tone, that's too big and nuanced to be boiled down to one sentence lol, but they've picked all light-skinned princesses and I'd want Mulan, Pocahontas, and Raya, and given blind box BJD trends, I'm not sure we'll see those (probably not Raya especially. Criminally underrated.). Money saved for other blind box BJDs I suppose!

 

Concept art for two new lines, which I'm currently assuming fit into this thread but may end up being taller.

Cute Tea Party Series by MOYUYU
(these artworks are so cute and I want more animals!)

Qingqiu Fox Series by FREEDOLL
(also very cute)

Preview of Street Sweet and Cool series by CHUZ
It's hard to tell from just a picture, but I feel like this might just squeeze into this thread, at the top range of 19-20cm-ish.

I think it's safe to say that 10,000 Escape Plans, for their flaws, really started a whole movement in blind box BJDs of this size range. Almost every single line, without fail, is now going this more mature style with slimmer taller bodies and smaller heads, and often with urban/streetwear styles. I think Simontoys is the only company recently to show an upcoming BJD that's more traditional 14cm Ob11-style with Ninizee. Everyone else appears to have left that behind.

I'm not sure how I feel about that. The 14cm chubbier ones were so versatile because they can share ob11 clothes so easily. Taller and slimmer becomes significantly more limited when looking to redress them. As much as I think all these taller dolls are really cool and stylish, I really don't think any of them will really go well with my short squat original Penny's Box Centaurs, the aesthetics and style are too different. I hope we don't leave 14cm squat chubby dolls behind for good.

 

I think those are the statues though, right? Not BJDs. At least, I feel like I remember seeing them say that in a previous post with these artworks, but Kikagoods seems to sometimes delete insta posts and now I can't find it.

If that blueberry kitty is a BJD though, I'll want her so badly!

 

I meant to comment earlier today, but yes, the new Penny's Box are adorable and exactly what I want to see!

I recently got UFDoll Mi, from the DoReMi line, and I feel a bit better now but I had an initial negative reaction. I was already not personally enjoying the new thin bodies trend, because it's stylistically moving away from what my collection started with, but getting one in person cemented my annoyance as the head is far too heavy for such a flimsy thin body to support.

That's some preamble to emphasise just how glad I am to see a chunkier body again! These little cuties may legit be able to stand. At the very least, they shouldn't be trying to immediately nosedive by default. I'm absolutely getting the sheep, I've been zoned in on the sheep from the very first reveals. However I may get the cat too? It's nice to see Antu get some different expressions finally!

 

Separate from above post; some news!

Preview of Heart of Creation 1/12 series by Meki (art)
(Personal thoughts: I think the artworks for these look so generic and so much like the other however-many series we've had previewed recently, I didn't even realise this was news at first. That aside though, obviously they're still cute. I'll probably pass personally, unless photos of the real thing are exceptional.)

Preview of the clothing for Electronic Pet Game World series
(Personal thoughts: This series is the one I'm ignoring my misgivings over mature/thin styles for, I love it and think it's awesome! It's amazing how far we've come from those very simplistic early Penny's Box dresses to outfits as complex and varied as this. It seems like there's some back and forth over whether this character will keep her darker skintone or not, unfortunately.)

Preview of ???? by Taowu Studio (art)
(Personal thoughts: None yet! There's just not enough to go on here lol.)

Preview of ZACK Event series by ZACK Event (art)
I think these are the scale for this thread, I'm sure I remember these being teased ages ago, with a nude body prototype. I might be misremembering though.

Some news about the Minty Fantasy Forest series by Come4free
They've had issues with their factory and the clothing has had to be sent back for repair. There's a big delay in these. Their Modian says October 20th-30th will be when they start shipping, but the place I bought from says they don't expect it until nearer the end of November. There's pictures on the post but you can't really make-out any details.

 

Not everyone has had such a negative experience, so there is hope. There's some positive-ish feedback in this thread from @Idoru, and I don't know if @MaleficentMrsofEvil has received theirs yet, any thoughts Maleficent?


~~


Some more looks at the IRL Penny's Box Antu Cute Beast Magic series! Just cementing how in love I am with all of them, lol.
I know the whole Antu/unicorn horn thing is very important to Penny's Box, and they've been asked about not doing the horns before and they put their foot down that the horn is integral... buuuuut I do wish they'd do a series without horns!

I'm getting the sheep, no question about it, but if I get a second, I might mod it and remove the horn. I'm... a little tired of the horns.

 

@JoutasDolls I don't have one, so others would be better to listen to than me, but from what I've read, there are some extreme negative cases (seemingly mostly in China), but the majority of people have found them to be acceptable enough, but not exceptional. It sounds like it's best to only buy them if you have more experience with BJD and you're prepared to potentially put in effort to "fix" them yourself, like using heat to reshape limbs, etc.

But honestly, having sat and wired the UFDoll Mi doll so she wasn't a total disaster at standing, and having hot-glued Penny's Box Adou Long so he can do anything other than flop from his plastic being way too smooth and frictionless, I do think a certain degree of DIY is necessary for blind box BJDs anyway to get the best experience from them.

Sorry, I think this is three posts in a row where I've said something negative, but owning a good chunk from different companies, I can also say that most of them have terrible elbow engineering! Wiring and hot-gluing is necessary for basically every single one of them, if you want them to be able to actually use those double-joints.
So... aside from the worst cases where something was clearly going very wrong with the factory, I struggle to imagine that the 10k Escape Room dolls would be that much worse than any other doll of this type. Maybe they need a bit of extra work, but I've not met a blind box BJD yet who doesn't benefit from a bit extra work done.

 

I got Mi all dressed and wired, and I feel much better about her. The clothing helps bulk out her body a bit and also covers... the ridiculous breasts. I don't think I mentioned those. I knew the DoReMi line had two bust sizes, but I expected "flat" and "a-cup", not "a-cup" and "massive moe water balloon jugs" hehe. I thought I had a pair of shoes ready for her, but sadly I seem to have misremembered and I've had to order some.

I also did some modifications on the Adou dragon. Sorry, the quality is awful on the below picture, but we're entering the cold seasons and it's really dark during the day already, nothing much I can do about that.
I've been on the fence about what I wanted to do with him for ages; I didn't like the proportions of the legs so I removed the legs. I then found it a little frustrating that the tail isn't long enough to coil on the ground without dragging the wings. I thought about buying a duplicate to make the tail longer but for me it felt like it would be just so wasteful - both in terms of money, and all the leftover parts. I just kept going in circles, always finding something about the proportions annoying, but struggling to put my finger on it other than knowing it was something to do with the limb length ratio between his arms, wings, and legs.



Finally I had a breakthrough! The solution (for me) was to remove the two sets of limbs that bother me the most and let him have wings for arms! I'm so much happier with this. Removing the wings at the hips also means he can bend and pose much better there, and without arms or legs, there's no proportion mis-match among his limbs. He's so sassy and fits his expression now!

 

Important notice.
I imagine a post on tumblr that's come up might start making the rounds - and for good reason. Since it's directly relevant to DOA rules, I want to get ahead of it right now.
This post is about Inedible Doll, who early on in their process worked with a known recaster factory for clothing samples. The post with a bunch of source links can be found here.

The post however, is out of date, just due to the nature of the delay in posting on a confession blog like that.
Inedible Doll's Modian confirms their search for new factory partners in this post, and confirmation of their new, legitimate, factory partner in this post. This latest update from them shows samples from the current factory.

Given that unlike Maytree (who still manufacture their dolls with DBS, and possibly even lied about it - the timeline isn't super clear but at least one line after they supposedly "went legit" is still made by the recaster factory, hence why I've put my foot down on them not being allowed), Inedible Doll issued an apology and corrected their mistake before going into production, and have since shown that they've partnered with the Emma's Secret Forest factory, I think it's fair to give them a chance to make things right.

The real point of contention was the clothing manufacturing, not the doll manufacturing, so I think this situation still needs to be monitored rather than considered "case-closed". I think discussion is still okay for now, but... this is a sort of warning post that things may or may not change, and also to use your own research and judgement if you decide to buy an Inedible Doll product.

(ok, now back to cute dolls!)

 

You're totally right, my post was full of spelling errors! I was writing it in a bit of a rush as I had other things I needed to do that day.

As soon as I saw the post, I thought it would be a good idea to look into it immediately and post about it immediately, rather than let anything get carried away. Not implying the original person who collected the original sources had bad intentions or anything, the opposite in fact, but the delay between presumably when they submitted that (before 14th September at least) and when it was actually posted meant significant new information had come to light in the meantime and now that post is potentially and accidentally misinformation.

From what I understand from Inedible's Modian posts - and there's definitely a language barrier here so take what I say with a grain of salt - they used some sort of service that a lot of small Chinese start-ups use to find a factory partner, and that's how they originally ended up getting samples from the bad factory. They weren't familiar with the history, possibly had a bit of a defensive reaction at first due to being surprised at the backlash, but then issued an apology once they realised that the factory was associated with infringement and theft and moved to find a legitimate partner - which they seemingly now have.

However I also want to emphasise that, sitting behind a keyboard on the other side of the world, the only reassurance I have of either outcome (legit or not) is "trust me bro". So whilst I don't think assuming the worst is the right thing to do, bad stuff in the hobby can be so rampant that a little caution is a good thing.

If I see anything else further about it, positive or negative, I'll relay that back here too.

 

Many thanks to @Feathered Shadows for the shoutout above that Liroro series 2 has been shown, I'm very excited for these, I love series 1. None so far stand out to me as "the one", but I'm still excited.

Penny's Box Antu Cute Beast Magic Series has released, and here's a look at the hidden style! It's very cute, though thankfully for my wallet, not for me. You can also watch an unboxing here.

In other Penny's Box news, there was a special limited version of the Antu deer, here. I guess for limiteds I should be quicker to post, but it is still available here. I really like this one, though not in the way where I want to own it.

Also going to skip straight to one of the series that excites me the most, Electronic Pet Game World. A full cast photograph has been released and my goodness I love them all. But of course my rule is only one! So I'll have to have a hard think about who makes the cut for me.

I actually thought there was more news than this, but I think I've been tricked by Kikagoods reposting older news. Checking my older news post, I think I've covered at least most things.

As for me... now there's been enough feedback on it, I've actually purchased a 10K Escape Rooms doll. If it has no issues when it arrives, I think I'll take the warning down from the front page. It appears to be issues that only affected early Chinese backers of the crowdfunding. Doesn't mean it's okay, but does mean that it seems extremely unlikely anybody will actually face said issues at this point. At least, I hope there's no issues when she arrives!

 

@werepuppy Aw no worries about the photos, but that's awesome you got the hidden! The yellow things on her ears, are they like... little lightning bolts?

and @SmoteyMote They're gorgeous! I do think I like the limited more than I like the normal designs, but then literally all of them are great.

-

Edit: I posted some collection ramblings here, but I deleted them because I basically said "I'm not going to buy Electronic Pet Game World series after all", but then Kikagoods posted this special colour version and welp. So in less than 24 hours, Kikagoods made a liar of me. (depending on price, that is)

I might as well instead say that my 10,000 Escape Plans girl arrived last night! I can concur with other firsthand accounts in the thread now, there's really no crazy problems. Mine does have the slightly misshapen leg issue, but it doesn't actually affect posing in any way and if I can be bothered, it can probably be fixed with heat. In addition, her body isn't painted, it is cast in colour plastic. Nothing's broken, she had all her pieces.

The only issue I actually had is that her skirt had so much fabric gathered that it wasn't possible for it to actually lay down. It was stuck turned inside out like an umbrella, making her perpetually flash everyone. I had to stitch-unpick it, then re-sew it. Which... I know that should be a complaint and all but I really don't care/mind. I am paying playline doll prices for these, and it's no more than I have to do on playline dolls! I unpick and re-sew Rainbow High and Monster High clothes all the time.

 

Yeah! Obviously I can't speak for everyone who ever got one but... the issues I had with mine are no greater than the issues I've had with other blindbox BJDs. The headcap of my first AIYE doll can't fit together properly, one of my Bonnie's outfits is sewn too loose, and if you'll forgive me being harsh for a moment; the earliest Penny's Box bodies can't pose for **** due to the engineering.
I dunno, now that I have one, and I've also seen a multitude of positive reviews for them, I can't help but feel like everything after the initial batch is a bit exaggerated. The response to the initial domestic batch is absolutely founded, but it seems to me that the problems were mostly fixed after that. Either way, I personally feel safe removing the front page warning now. As long as you buy from a good seller, I don't think you'll have any problems that are out of the ordinary for blind box BJDs.

 

Penny's Box Antu Beast series got a new limited version! I really like her. I'm not totally sure yet if it's a "I like her enough to add her to my collection" or "I like her and I'm content with looking at her from afar". But I do really like her!

 

Nyssa Weird Nightmare Series preview! I love candle girl so much.
I'm starting to get a littttlle confused on sizing since the whole Blind Box BJD fashion has been transitioning into the more mature look, but I think these will ultimately end up the right size for this thread, perhaps. Apparently they'll be around 18.5cm. They look bigger than that to me, but I'll take Kika's word for it.

Bonbon Galaxy's stuff is generally considered off-topic for this specific thread because they are non-blind resin dolls, but I never get fussy about the OT-ness and I do think what they make is adjacent. That's my justification for linking this extremely adorable preview of a new doll from them! She's so stinking cute. Another image.

A new series from TINKLESDOLLS, HJD/MJD style. I'm not clear on what the size will be yet but I love the two shown in this preview, even though they don't adhere to my personal collection rule of "must have inset eyes". I really like the big chunky shoes, the cat tails, and the fact that their cat ears are built in. This was teased in a previous post but they were just silhouettes at the time.

 

Oooh interesting! I have a feeling neither of those series will be for me, I'm living for the fully fantastical dolls at this point, but they look cute. I'll take a second look at Sugary Girls when the real dolls are shown, but none of the concept art is grabbing me at all sadly.

Edit:
Updating the front page post, and I've removed this from upcoming:

As far as I know, we never heard another peep about either of these, right? I don't know whether they're cancelled or just in limbo, but this is why I'm hesitant to add things to the list these days before an actual preorder happens haha.

Edit 2:
I think the front page is now up to date with things that are actually released/in the manufacturing stage. Due to the length of the list/"database" however, I actually hit the character limit for the first time! I've had to cut out anything I think isn't immediately relevant in order to make space for future expansion. However it's becoming very likely this list is going to become too long to feasibly maintain.

I haven't really seen anybody else online maintain a static list with this much information, so I'm loathe to let it fall behind. Dollect had some stuff at the start, but didn't keep up with documenting them. I'm going to have a think about other ways to both record this information, but also have it be easily browsed.

 

Preview of a new series, "Start Again", by Sakurapark!
That lost one is a devil octopus girl it seems like! That's pretty cool. I really like the fox I think. I'm not sure what the first girl is... perhaps a cow, if those are horns?

 

It's not the width of OB11 clothes that's the problem, it's the length. 10000 Escape Plans are 20cm, they are almost double the height. If you put OB11 clothes on them, they'll need to be separate pieces, and you'll also need to be ready for shirts to become crop tops, and trousers to become shorts. If you work around those limitations though, you can use OB11 clothing.

 

There's a second preview here, of a unicorn character too. I love these!

I agree with @SmoteyMote that I wish they had hooves, but I'm also not too mad because we aren't getting nearly enough actual anthro dolls! After the original Penny's Box centaurs catapulted this style of doll into popularity, you'd think we'd have a lot more cute animals, but instead we keep getting line after line where the only animal feature is a pair of cat ears slapped on top of a fully human doll. Even Bonnie started dropping the actual bunny aspects, and the whole point of that line was supposed to be that they are bunnies. I'm so so glad that there have been a couple actual anthros teased recently, as well as of course Penny's Box keeping up the beast/fantasy elements.

Edit: Also I don't think this artwork preview of Start Again has been linked yet so I'll do so here! I like the second slide a lot.