Mature 1/6 Dolls - part 3

You could use thread. Put the thread though the elastic loop and thread the two ends into a needle to pull it though the resin piece. You can also use very fine wire.

 

It took some patience, but I used a pipe cleaner to restring my myoudoll bettina with thicker elastic than the original one, and it went well (the doll stands like a rock now, too)
I'd just say to be careful though because those small dolls are a bit delicate. While restringing I noticed a crack near one knee, and I'm still not sure if that happened during normal play or during the restringing

 

That's one thing that terrifies me about smaller, more delicate sized resin-strung dolls, that they will potentially crack or chip somewhere due to the continuos tension. I've wondered since I got my mature tiny, if Myou, did any quality assurance testing before releasing the mature tinies. Simply because the Myou tinies are so delicate, and thin, like the tiny little fingers despite them looking sausage-y in photos -- I was incredibly surprised when I got my boy, because none of his fingers were broken yet they are so tiny and thin. I know they are not Mattel and probably can't afford to do as vast QA as a mass-producing/large-toy company can (and even they suffer from quality issues somewhere along the products lifecycle). However, I did notice that my Bettina male is also a bit more loosely strung than I remember any of my much larger dolls were. I am wondering if it's specifically due to avoid cracking or chipping in the long run, and that's why they picked such thin elastic rather than going for a thicker one, and seem to string them so loosely. I wondered if it was to avoid damage and not just because they thought a thicker elastic wouldn't fit/work in the doll's smaller limbs. I am not looking forward to restringing my Bettina anytime soon (I don't really feel I need to so far), but I know that I'll need to eventually and I'm a bit scared of doing it so tight, it chips or cracks his resin as a result.

I haven't restrung any of my BJD in a decade or more, but I was never scared of any of them getting damaged, because none of them feel as delicate as my Myou (not in a negative way, more like he is very thin and kind of tiny compared to most of the other BJD I own, except for my SoulDoll Bebe, whom I've also never restrung but he's kind of a chubby marshmallow cat baby). DX

 

I'm very close to being afraid of bringing my DC Clemans anywhere as his fingers are insanely delicate. There's also the edge detail of his tail fin that I'd be worried about but it's his fingers that concern me the most. Oddly, I'm not as worried about my Granado 15Lucent even though he's got even smaller fingers (he's only 15cm). He feels surprisingly sturdy though.

The needle and thread method may work for my Akhmel Nathan. I hadn't thought of doing that. Thanks @nancy_schroeder_ca for the suggestion. Still not sure when I'll be brave enough to actually do it. Poor guy has been languishing in his box in several pieces since the elastic broke in his hands months and months ago.

 

@Iron_Dog I would recommend getting some beading needles for those hands!

 

@nancy_schroeder_ca I actually have some! His hands are jointed but it's only the first joint where fingers meet palm. The fingers themselves are one piece, thank the gods. I'm still dreading having to string them.

 

Do you remember what size elastic you went with?

Yeah I literally just had an incident last night restringing an SD13 where she chipped (luckily very small and on an internal channel, so no visible or structural damage) because my partner who was helping me did not realize that even the larger dolls can be damaged pretty easily if you’re not careful, so he let go of a metal wire that snapped back with a lot of force. It was an accident- he didn’t have a great grip on it, but he would have been more cautious had he known. It was fine, I just sighed, explained that they’re more brittle than they appear, and we finished stringing her, but that would have been a lot worse with one of the tinies.

 

no idea, sorry orz I have several sizes of elastics around so I just went by eye to find something that could fit

but yeah, accidents happen. Resin is both a very strong material, and very fragile at the same time, you just learn to deal with it

 

I'm struggling to find a wig that fits well for my Gina, they seem either too small or slightly too big. Anyone have brand suggestions for myou 1/6? Along with size?

 

Mine are using artist made wigs for popovy! Expensive but awesome! I will try to get a picture.

 

I have my Bettina in a 5" Parabox wig & it's a cute, affordable option. The downside is that it doesn't really behave realistically, at least for the long, straight hair styles. Instead of flowing/draping over her shoulders/furniture/etc, it just sticks straight out at an angle. It's not too hard to hide that if I keep her hair behind her, but it makes it less versatile. Other Parabox wigs I have (long wavy & pigtails) on my Obitsus are better, though. My Gina & Reid are in 4-5" faux fur wigs that look cute enough, but also have issues. I'm honestly just planning on trying to make my own for all of them, because the other brands I've tried (jusuns & DollandCraft) were waaay too voluminous and while their currents are cute, they're not what I want long term.

edit for photo:

 

Wigs for the smaller heads are a pain to get right. I find that many are just too pouffy when made with sewn wefts (especially if it's a size 3). I saw a cool video on YouTube for making a ventilated wig and the person who showed how to do the ventilation also showed how (in another video) how they make their caps without the use of elastic (or very minimal elastic) and it didn't appear overly complicated *she says before actually attempting this herself*. I'm leaning toward giving this a go for my smallest noggin guys (Batchix Clever Littles at 2.75" & Granado 15Lucent at 1.25" heads) as a friend of mine gave me 1/3 of a grocery bag of various coloured hair for wig making (she doesn't make wigs and was given the hair by a friend of hers).

Ventilated wigs are time consuming to make but I'm assuming the overall time would be reduced by quite a bit considering the size of the wigs I'd be making. I believe the person who did the video on YouTube said a typical minifee sized wig (7") takes about 30-40 hours. I'm also thinking that ventilating a wig for these smaller heads would/should solve the pouffy issue *fingers crossed*. I just need to purchase a ventilating tool as the one I currently have is a bit too large and not comfortable for prolonged use.

 

I have a 12cm Mettis Cliff that now has a faceup and needs a wig! I am going to try to make one also. I think I will try gluing the hair directly to a head cap. I have wigs made this way and they are lovely.

 

If the ventilated wig(s) don't work out, I may give the hard cap a go. Just gotta find the time to do it.

 

Time to do something is always a problem for me too!

 

Making my own hard cap wigs has been my way of addressing it, personally. Finding wigs that work otherwise is such a pain... And the small ones really don't take TOO much time. Good luck with the ventilated wigs, @Iron_Dog you're a braver soul than I.

 

It looks like the ventilation is basically latch hooking but you only use like 2-3 strands of hair per hooking. The method/hand movement is not hard but because you use so few (thin) strands, it is time consuming. But hopefully because the wigs I'm intending to make are quite small it won't be so bad.

I have some netting I'd bought previously but I may need to buy some with finer/smaller spaced holes. The netting I have is small but maybe not small enough? I'll need to test it out I think.

 

Has anyone ever restrung a tiny from Lumedoll? Their legs are strung separately, so restringing them might improve their posability, or at least their ability rTo stand. They came with thicker elastic than my other tinies. And where do you get elastic from?

 

I've got 3 of them (Koit, Blaze & Zero) but I've been fortunate enough to not have messed with their stringing. I didn't even realize their legs were strung separately. I got a lot of elastic from a local person when they closed their shop. Aside from that maybe Amazon (so shipping doesn't totally kill you)? I think I remember hearing some people use shock cord (from like Home Depot/Lowes/Canadian Tire) but I don't think it comes in the thickness you'd use for a tiny?

 

I think you could use beading elastic for tinies! Which you should be able to get at most craft stores IRL, if you want to test the tension/see the size for yourself (which I like to do sometimes when I'm unsure), but also online quite easily. I think the round elastic for bigger dolls is harder to come by, actually, in stores--although I've never looked into shock cord and I probably should have done!

 

I think only for the smallest of tinies the beading elastic would be appropriate. I have to use it for the Akhmel Nathan's fingers as they are that small. My Granado 15Lucent has round corded elastic (probably 1mm?) and he's literally 1/2 the size of my Akhmel. Although, to be fair, the Akhmel has very, very narrow/slim limbs and I'm not 100% sure I'll be able to get even 1mm elastic (doubled) through his channels.

 

Does anyone have any of the Limhwa ToYou tinies? I’m curious about how their posing is & how they’re jointed.

 

I do! I have two of the original ToYous from 2005 and then a Sara from 2010. They all use the same body, which is single-jointed all over and not very good at posing - they do that T-Rex arms thing where the slightest touch makes their arms snap bent at the elbow and their hands poke straight out in front of them.

The actual shape of the body is lovely, for what that's worth, but I have never had much luck making them do anything but flop stiffly on a couch with their forearms up like a begging dog. I tried restringing one back in the day and it didn't help. Actually wiring them would definitely help - when it comes to mature tinies, small pipecleaners make excellent joint wires - but it's one of those things I've never gotten around to trying.

 

I have one as well, and I agree with Gallye--they are beautiful, but not great posers. I did wire mine, and she's still not what I'd call a champion of steadiness... But it did improve things! I could probably get even better results with more careful wiring, I was trying it mostly to keep her from collapsing at the knees constantly (mission success).

I still love my girl a lot, she was the second mature tiny I ever got, but phew is she not without her quirks.

 

Oh that’s good to know! They’re so pretty & I’ve been interested in them for a while, so when a couple popped up secondhand I started considering them more seriously. I’ll probably hold off for now & admire them from afar.

 

Long time no see... My Ancient tales Rachel.

 

My Lumedoll girl has always had trouble standing, so instead of restringing her, I put some coated wire in her legs and it made a huge difference in her standing ability. Maybe this is an option for you?

Edit to add: ResinRapture your Rachel is gorgeous! She looks SD sized O_O

 

@Saba I put coated wire in my Dollzone tiny Wendy and she holds poses better with them. Good idea to do the same for my Lume dolls.

 

That Ancient Tales Rachel is beautiful!

I feel like I might have to either wire my Myou Bettina male, or "suede" him at some point as well. He definitely is wobbly, and his stringing feels a lot looser than when I got him less than a year ago today. Making him stand is getting to be an ordeal and and half now.

I enhanced his face on Saturday. I did a terrible job with his applied lashes, which I will need to fix soon. However, I have noticed that his fixative had rubbed exactly where his protective face up mask rests on his neck. It is the face protector that I received from Myou (I don't believe it was a gift from ACBJD) -- I keep my resin dolls inside their boxes nude, and wigless for my own personal peace of mind. I am hoping to find an easy and permanent solution, but also would like to know if anyone knows of a place where I can find face up protector that are smaller. The one Myou sent is kind of a bit big (for my own personal preference), I just don't want his lashes getting crushed, but also don't want the fixative rubbing off -- it doesn't look aesthetically pleasing to have that shiny-shiny area just there.

My Myou Bettina male, with enhanced face up and terrible applied lashes and rubbed off fixative on neck area.

Spoiler: Extreme Bald Close UP

The lashes, they really are something else! I mean the applied ones; the painted lower ones are also crap!

TL; DR: I would love to know where to find a smaller, more fitted face up protector that fits Myou mature tiny heads, possibly better than Myou's own face up protector.

 

@Enzyme I keep all my guys in their boxes, too. I have idiot cat and there's a few wigs he absolutely believes are his toys. Some I could see his confusion as they're made out of real fur (rabbit and fox) or mohair. But one of the wigs he loves to steal is made from synthetic hair and not flouffy at all yet he'll try to snatch it off Akusuo's head any chance he gets.

I made a no elastic ventilated wig cap yesterday for one of my Batchix Clever Littles. Holy cow was that some fiddly business. I haven't started ventilating it yet as the light was crud by the time I finished and the holes in the lace are very, very small. I also need to do some practice ventilating as while the motion is very similar to latch hooking (which I've done for years), the tool and motion is different and the holes waaaaay smaller. I'm hopeful this turns out well as wigging these boys and their tiny noggins has been a road and a half. And because I'm obviously insane, I intend to ventilate a wig for the even smaller headed Granado 15Lucent I have.

 

@SteamWitch I think either doing a hard cap or a fitted ventilated wig is the most workable thing for these very tiny headed guys (Granado 15Lucent). Anything that adds bulk like typical wefts is going to be a huge deal for them.

I had attempted to make him a soft cap with dread-like twists I made onto the cap. It was going reasonably well until I got about 1/2 way done. Then, the weight of the wefts were too much apparently and the cap refused to stay on. It's possible that the cap had too much stretch and using something with less might've helped? I used the waistband part of a pair of nylons as I didn't want to add any more bulk to his wig than absolutely necessary. The elastic I used, while not very wide, did add more bulk than I liked but I'm not sure how to rectify that aside from maybe using the type of elastic you'd normally use to make elastic gathered seams. And I don't have any of that on hand. I do have beading elastic but I'm doubtful that'll work well and it would be a straight up pain in the butt to sew a channel for it and thread the elastic through.

 

I hear you on the hand/finger mobility @SteamWitch. Fortunately for me it's mostly my left fingers & thumb that are causing me issues. But I may need to buy a hands-free magnifier to be able to see the teeny-tiny holes in the lace. This getting old thing was not as advertised and I'd like to cancel my free trial, please.

 

Having the hand strength to pull the elastic tight enough for my big boys is a day-to-day situation. I bought elastic to re-string my Akhmel Nathan last week but still haven't worked up the courage to do it. I'm hopeful that when I do gird my loins to tackle it, it'll be less stressful than I think it is. He's just so delicate looking.

And speaking of Akhmel, they've posted photos of Tomei on their Insta and he's so beautiful. 30cm but Akhmel said in the post that he may be done as a 3D print doll and it's possible that there would be a cast resin version in around the 40cm size. I do not need more temptations, thank you.

 

I also bought a very long beading needle/tool to help pass the beading elastic through his very narrow arms and legs. Akhmel suggested I use very thin wire to thread the beading elastic through those parts as the channels are insanely narrow.

 

Has everyone seen the new Granado girl Jade on the new 30Lady body? SO absolutely beautiful--and an ELF! I am super in love with her but might have to pass... Life is cruel.

 

I missed jade but I am definitely eyeing Gabriel the engineering they have done on these tiny guys it’s incredible and posing is a huge selling point for me. I’m also bringing home a magic mirror May soon.. I don’t know if anyone has both, but I’m really curious if they would look good together

 

I too missed Jade--I'm curious if the Granado boys would look good with May too, though! I can totally see it working, she's got a really small head and so do they... I haven't seen too many of those girls floating around to know for sure. Really hoping someone in here has both and can post a pic!

 

My May should be here next week and I can share a pic of her with my soom metato… which isn’t exactly the same but kind of close lol Thankfully Gabriel’s order period is open another few weeks to give me time to decide. I’m also realizing how tempting it is to make room boxes for these guys… I might have to go searching for 1/6 furniture tutorials

 

I have a Magic Mirror May and a number of Granado guys. Do you have a preference for which body you would like to see?

 

Ohh Nancy that would be awesome! I’m thinking about one of the 32 cm for my potential Gabriel, either the adagio2 or the 32 evolve but happy for any pics you have to share

 

Hi everyone! I ordered my first bjd mid January. It’s a Vieruodis from MYou. I’m expecting to receive her soon. I’m so excited! I want to dress her up like a custom character from one of my favorite games, Dragon Age, but since I can’t make clothes (yet) I’m looking for someone who does commissions for MYou adult minis. Someone who can either make renaissance-like dresses, mage robes or armor. Does anyone here know someone who can do that?

 

@Misawai That’s so exciting! Congrats! I don’t know of any seamstresses for this size, but it’s worth noting that the Myou girls can fit into a lot of Barbie clothes, so you might be able to find something/someone if you look there. Just have to watch out for things that are tight across the hips, since Myou girls are much wider there.

 

Oh congratulations! Like Keiko-chan said, I bet if you look for someone who does Barbie stuff you'll be in luck. I know Requiem Art has some fantasy type patterns you could try, if you want to dip into sewing yourself. Maybe not the PERFECT fit for Dragon Age stuff, but a good place to start (her patterns tend to be geared to beginners, too).

I think anyone who can work from measurements/does 1/6 scale commissions in general is likely to be able to help you! I'd wait until you have her in hand so you can take measurements yourself, though, since sometimes company ones are slightly off or a seamstress might want ones that aren't shown. I don't have any names to give you since I do all my own sewing, but good luck! (And if you find someone, please feel free to drop a name here--I'm sure others would appreciate it also!)

 

@Misawai Capsuledoll might be able to do something, they sew for lots of sizes. They're currently on hiatus to work on commissions but say that you can message them if you want commission them. I'll also second the suggestion about Barbie clothes, those are pretty much all my boys wear since I find that 1/6 sized clothes are often somehow simultaneously too big and too short for them.

 

I don’t know of any armor, but on eBay there are some good Barbie options for mideval and rennaissance gowns. Maybe the “Guinevere theatre” vintage purple gown or something from the Dolls of the World Series? I don’t have any armor but I’m contemplating a Granado boy who would need some so I might be in the market as well- please keep us posted if you find any!

 

Thanks for the replies everyone! I’ll look into the suggestions you sent. If I find someone I’ll post an update

 

I recently bought a Limhwa Sara off of the marketplace in this size, and I think I'm hooked I need more of them! I even am going so far as to make a dollhouse for her and everything I hope to post some photos soon but for now she's going to be off for a faceup!

 

Any chance anyone has one of the 白零 White dolls in tan and knows which Granado color might be the closest match? for some reason I ended up getting both the 白零 White 31cm male versions (in tan), and I am considering the Gabriel head for one of them. I think "amber" seems the closest in the photos?

 

Oh no, they got you hook line and sinker! This is what’s happening to me now too… I decided to grab a little Magic Mirror May from the mp and now I have at least 2 other mature tinies on my “bring home immediately” list… and I already have 2 at home! They are building an army and it’s only a matter of time before they demand a house. I would love to see progress on the different props and furniture you build

 

The Dolly Gods have kicked it into overdrive on me over the last couple of days. While not tinies, they've dropped 2 unusual dolls in front of me (because unusual/weird is my jam), thrown one of two female dolls I'd consider owning at me and tossed a sculpt I've always wanted in my current preferred size (50-ish cm boys) at me. I'm very appreciative but I can't afford all of them at once and 3 of them are 2nd hand finds so first come, first served *sigh*.

 

They REALLY do that to you! Especially the 1/6s... I have a couple of room setups for mine, too. It's just so fun! They're so small! So easy to store! And this is how I ended up with 13ish of them... Whoops.

 

I have my three boys (two from Myou and one from Asleep Eidolon) and I too keep looking at other dolls in same size wanting to add them to my collection exactly because "they're so small, few more won't matter" having a house/roombox for them would be a dream but for now mine have to settle for having two chair shaped jewelry boxes to sit on.

If Myou happened to release Delia and/or Zuzana in this size I'd pounce on them immediately but I kind of think they're done with the size, there hasn't been a new one since November 2020 and I don't think they're very liked since I often see them up for second hand sales at Instagram, I mean good for me since I can buy them if I happen to have the money like I did with my Alan, but kind of sad to know the dolls you like aren't that loved by others.

I suppose unless AEDoll comes up with more cute tinies I can't resist I'm probably going to order Xagadoll Hanami at some point. She's just really adorable to me and feels like she'd look good with the rest. There's also one(?) AEDoll Cordelia available in stock at legend doll that I keep staring at but it has the exact same expression as my boy-Cordelia so I'm telling myself I can't have her too because of that. And yes, I linked her in hopes that somebody will buy her so I can stop being tempted

 

I feel like mature tinies have a relatively small (heh) but devoted fan base. I hope they get more popular as more people see them and realize just how charming they are It is a bummer that Myou doesn't seem to be interested in making more of theirs. They are the only ones I have so far, and I think I'm going to finish slowly getting the ones I want from them (which may be all of them...) before trying out some of the other lines.

 

Yeah, I have rather fallen for 1/6 scale. Hope it gets more popular. I need to git gud and sculpting bodies and add to it myself. xD

I got my whitedoll 29cm body and I am enjoying him. my buff whitedoll body is still in transit.

 

I think it's definitely getting more popular—in the last 7-8 years since I got my first (and ESPECIALLY in the last... what, 5ish since Granado got into the tiny mans game?) the options have EXPLODED relatively speaking. There was a time when I could confidently say I probably owned at least one representative from every currently in production mature tiny BJD line on the market, and I can't at all anymore! Which I am super happy about because it's my favorite scale—although it's really expanded my collection, so my wallet is maybe less pleased.

I'm surprised MYou didn't take to it, but now that you say it, you're right—they haven't put a new one out in ages. They seem pretty popular to me, but maybe they aren't really in the home market/I'm just seeing the right corners. I guess not every company is going to end up like Granado, who is a man possessed. (Haha!)

 

I completely agree, I’m still exploring which companies are producing dolls in this size (always open to being tempted with photos! ) and it’s seems the ones who really call to me are few and far between but definitely increased since the early days of bjd. It’s exciting to see newer companies and artist dolls getting more into the mature tiny space though, and seeing how much posing is improving! One of my guys is a Soom Metato and I’m starting to think about body upgrades because of his single joints… or maybe at least wiring my tiny army are or are planned to be from Magic Mirror, soom, Noble Dolls, Atelier Momoni, and Granado… I’m curious about others favorite companies and recommendations?