ShinyDOLL Discussion thread II

@SFC Marti, true, but a good height
to fiddle with things in the house since
it's a bit upraised in style, and one won't
need to crouch down so much.
But indeed, perhaps buy a new house
or garage or two to keep it in..


btw! Anyone with tabi feet for their Thaasa..
Do you have any photos of regular feet
next to tabi feet? Or just plain measurement
differences? Because the tabi feet should
have slightly wider toes, if they are more
"fanned" out?

I guess an alternative is to make tabi socks
that have fake split does in the front,
and then place those in suitably sized
Japanese footwear.. I think I saw something
mentioned about this before, but unsure
if I ever saw photos.

Or, that one attempts to file a tabi sock split
in the normal feet.. but potentially very risky :/

 

I was prowling the web for Shinydoll Thaasa bodies..
and contacted Obiedoll shop, and was told Shin-san
has retired

I just mailed back to ask when exactly this was,
but her mailbox seems full at the moment.

Because this not something I was aware of
since before.. or has it been posted elsewhere
on DoA and I have missed it?

Has anyone else heard anything?

This is the notice on the Oobie Doll webby:
"It is with a heavy heart that I must let you know of Shiny Doll's decision to close his doors. Shiny Doll will no longer be partnering with his dealers, but I am hopeful he may continue to work at a pace of his own. He will be missed and I wish him all my best, xoxox."

 

No, I had not heard this miravisu but thank you for sharing. I also hope Shinydoll will continue to make dolls- they are so unique in the bjd world!

 

After only being able to envision Tuyen with clear irises for years, I finally took the plunge with some new steam punk-y eyes:



They turn her eyelashes gold

 

@Saba, wow! She certainly looks out of this world
What size/type are those?

And good news from me too,
my Thaasa is back from the resin spa

 

thanks miravisu! Her eyes are made by Fairy BJD I purchased them from the Seller at a local doll meet, they were 12mm low dome urethane if I remember correctly. Yay for your girl being home from the spa^^!

 

Sadly, an acquaintance of mine died awhile back, and her BJD collection is being liquidated on eBay -- including a Shinydoll Youki (whom I bought back, since she had originally belonged to me), Akali with faceup, and blank Feefee. I know a lot of DoA members automatically distrust eBay, but in these particular cases, the dolls are definitely legit and the seller has proven to be trustworthy.

I hope it's okay for me to mention that the auctions are up, since I have nothing to do with them except feeling sentimental about the dolls and the lovely person who owned them. It would be nice to see Akali and Feefee go to good homes. I'm enjoying having Sumie the Youki home again!

 

@Saba, thanks for the info!

I want to try and make older style kitsuke outfit
for my Thaasa doll. Like an Edo travel outfit.
So many projects, so little time though, as usual!


@Cynthia in FlintHills, I'm so sorry to hear about your friend

The Doll Chateau Olivia head (I think at least) with the really
slantered eyes, on that Thaasa body that I see up on eBay
now, was a really lovely combo.

And hello there, Sumie!

 

@Cynthia in FlintHills I'm very sorry about your friend. Thank you for the mention of the auctions, though. I was able to buy both Akali and Feefee. I hope I can give them a good home.

 

Oh, how fantastic!! I saw that Feefee sold (I was a tiny bit tempted by her myself, so I watched the auction), but I wasn't watching the Akali auction. Hooray for good "old" dolls finding a new home!

 

They're beautiful girls, I was so happy to get them! I was originally just going to get FeeFee, but I thought she might want her sister. Thank you again for mentioning them!

 

My Akali, Kikuno, would have been terribly hurt if I had forced a twin on her, so I stuck to just re-buying Sumie the Youki. I think Leslie would have been glad to know that her dolls were getting a new lease on life! I don't know why I hadn't remembered it until today, but her DoA username was (well, is, since DoA doesn't delete user accounts) ltbeeswax.

 

A friend who has Akali said the same thing, that her Akali refused to have a twin. Akalis are apparently strong-minded
I'm glad I can give the girls a home! First up is putting a faceup on Feefee.

 

@Alewife I hope you share your new girls in the thread, congratulations!

@Cynthia in FlintHills how sad the circumstances for you, but lovely that you were able to re-welcome Youki.

My Akali Tuyen tried to have a twin sister once:

It didn't last very long (Tuyen is on the left with what I think is the Akali 'A' head, her 5 minute twin on the right had the Akali 'B' head).

 

Reviving this awesome thread with my Akali and Hikali sisters: Chihiro and Jin-ri.

 

They're both so pretty! I'm so sorry Shin-san isn't making dolls any more.

 

I adore my ShinyDoll Yakki. I really like that she can wear Robert Tonner's 22" American model clothing and Dollmore's MSD shoes.

 

Yes, I read about that and it made me so sad, although I had suspected it for a while.
I vowed to try and buy any Shinydoll I see on the market in the future.

 

Speaking of which, does anyone know which sculpt this is?
It looks like a very early one. I haven't been able to find her anywhere, but she looks similar to Youki.

 

I'm not sure, but I think it's a Conone. As I recall, this was one of the earliest, if not the earliest, of the Shinydoll sculpts. It was discontinued a long time ago.

 

I only managed to find one photo hit on Flickr from someone who seemed to owned the same doll in 2014, so that sounds probable. How intriguing! I happened to buy her on Mandarake...oops! I shall report back when she has arrived. I suspect she needs a good scrub and restringing, judging by the photos.

This is the only owner photo I found. I hope it's ok that I link to someone else's photo.
Shinnydoll by blytheboy77, on Flickr

ETA: Finally found her on the Shinydoll website in the owner gallery! Thank you for the name, that made it a lot easier to search.
I downloaded the photos to my own Flickr for future reference. Here is one of them.

Spoiler: image 2

 

I'd love to see photos when you get her! I always found the sculpt appealing, but it just never seemed to suit any of the doll characters I had in mind, so I never bought one.

 

I think the default face-up doesn't do her justice at all, especially the eyebrows. So it will be interesting to just wipe that and try something else.

Lol, I feel like an archaeologist now, buying the very first sculpt! I wonder how old it actually is.

 

She's certainly one of his earliest sculpts. I'm not sure when he started making dolls, but he joined Den of Angels in around 2005. I'm guessing your doll is older than that, and I think he probably did the face-up. He offered face-ups with his dolls at first, then stopped doing them.

 

Eeep! She's arrived in my country and customs are inspecting her...

 

How exciting! Post pictures when you get her.

 

She's here!
And she's just precious in person. I will admit that her face-up looked terrible in the photos from Mandarake, but in real life it's not that bad. She still needs a good clean and maybe restringing, but look at her!
Out of the box and with the wig that she was sent with.

I tried on a Leekeworld 8/9 wig and it fit very well, so her head is smaller than Akali's. (Or Leekeworld wigs are off in size these days.)

Spoiler: image 2

The inside of the head says "SN23 Thaasa ©2003" and further in "Shin's pathway".

Spoiler: image 3

Sisters!
My Akali is probably white skin, while Cocone is both very old but perhaps also normal?
Her skintone looks very warm and natural, though.

Spoiler: image 4

Toesies! You can tell she is a little dirty.

Spoiler: image 5

 

Your Conone is beautiful. I think she's normal skin. I bought my first Shinydoll in 2005, and I don't think white skin was offered until a little later. It's possible yours has yellowed a little, but she still looks great.

 

I honestly can't believe my luck.
I will be giving her a bath and wiping the face-up today. It will be interesting to see if her stringing is as old as she is, which I doubt. But I have ordered new elastic, just in case.

 

Cleaning day!
I found some interesting details on the inside.
Her eyes were hot glued in place!


There were no knots on the elastic, but instead they were wrapped with metallic thread. Seems sturdy enough and the elastic doesn't need to be replace, so I'm keeping them as is.

Spoiler: image 2

But boy, was she dirty!

Spoiler: image 3

You could really tell which parts had been exposed to daylight also, but overall I think her yellowing look natural. Some of it also seemed to be just general dirt. There's no smell on her, so not from smoke, but perhaps from being in a house with less good ventilation? This is a before photo of her headcap and a hand.

Spoiler: image 4

All of the pieces, except the head, drying after the first bath. I might give some parts another go and use magic eraser on them also.

Spoiler: image 5

 

It's me again!
Sorry for all the spam.

I wiped her face-up yesterday and started on a new one today.
Because her eyes are very slanted, I am trying to compensate that a little bit by adding more eye-shadow and eye-liner at the outer edges. I also want to make her eyebrows are little more realistic.
But the interesting thing is that I think she's meant to have teeth showing. I have never done a face-up with teeth before, so that will be a challenge!

Spoiler: image 2

 

@toveb I love following your journey with Conone- what a fabulous find! Esp. love your "parts" pics of the Thaasa body, I remember taking Tuyen's body apart and marveling over the beautiful sculpting of all the pieces...it was also the first doll's stringing I had seen that was held together with metal clamps. Do you by any chance have a link you could share to Shin-san's owner gallery? I can't seem to find it anywhere. Do you think you will keep her sculpt name or choose another?

 

Thank you!

The site is still around, although I suspect inactive and may go down soon-ish if Mr Shin isn't able to keep the domain up and running, other than for historical reasons. The latest activity seems to have been in 2014. Here it is: http://shinydoll.akiba.coocan.jp/ShinyDoll/
I think that if you want reference photos of all his sculpts, it's probably a good idea to save those from the gallery while they are still there.

Her name will be Etsuko, btw. I prefer giving my dolls their own name once they join my household. I'm considering getting her a different wig, but we'll see once I finish her face-up.

Interesting details about her head: the face was full of tiny scratches. I am unsure if it's from being old and her previous owner wasn't careful with her, or if it's from sanding her during production. She also had one chip in her left eye, but I don't think it will show that much eventually. I didn't notice it until I removed her face-up.

 

Not entirely happy with this yet. And also, she has no eyebrows or eyelashes, but you get the general idea.
I think I will redo with more brown shadow instead of the black, which seems a bit harsh to me.
What do you think?

Spoiler

 

I like Etsuko's look- the smokey eye softens her, very nice! And I like black, Shinydolls tend to be dramatic (well mine does lol). But I'm sure brown would look sweet also. Thanks for the link, unfortunately it doesn't work for me, maybe because I'm Down Under? I do remember coming across a link to his owner gallery somewhere...*goes off to search*

 

Sorry, I seem to have forgotten or missed that I could only post one visible image per post!
Also to say that work on face-ups has been stalled because of weather and work load (irl, blah blah). I hope to finish her soon, though!

 

@toveb, what an exciting find, can't wait to see more

I'm still not happy with the faceups on my dolls either..
but right now not ideal to send any doll heads anywhere :/

 

Finally got around to upload these,
Aya back from the resin spa!
Arigatou gozaimasu, Shin-San!


2019-06-14-DSC09430 by miravisu, on Flickr

The rest of the album can be found here,
with some closeups of the new tabi feet

They did differ slightly from the rest of
her body, but no wonder since the doll
is some years old, and I was pre-warned
the new tabi feet (and legs/knees) could
have a different tone due to this.
But no biggie, especially if she
wears tabi and/or clothes.

 

@miravisu I loved looking at your album, a Shinydoll box opening! They are a rare and valuable occurrence *sigh*. The Dandelion head looks great on that body, and I like the look of her ball jointed neck- does it give her mad pose-ability?

 

@Saba, thank you, and indeed,
given that Shin-san retired this was
something that was worth waiting for.
I do hope he and his family are ok
in these pandemic times!

I actually had no box for Aya when I sent
her off to Shin-san for a resin spa visit.
So he was aaaamazingly kind not only to
help with new parts, but also adjust stringing
to compensate for non-Shinydoll head etc,
and send me her back in a box

I do like her pose-ability, yes!
But can't vouch for how mad it
is just yet.. hehe!
I hope to get around to doing some
more proper photo shoots..
once I get more clothes done

I almost wish I had kept my Shinydoll
Fragille now. Seeing a Pricco, Fragille
and Thaasa is really wonderful sight.
And age-wise they could make a nice
Shichi-Go-San photo opportunity...

Now to try and hunt down some tabi
socks and/or get feet, or make them
myself, hmm! Or start on kosode..


What are yours and anyone else's
Shinydoll related doll projects right now?

 

Hey everyone! I‘m coming slowly back from a very long doll hiatus and I‘m finding myself gravitating towards my first bjd love, Shinydoll! I love seeing this thread still active as it seems most doll people have migrated to facebook which I boycott. I ADORE your Cotone @toveb!! I love old sculpts and I love watching people restore older dolls.
As I said, I‘m slowly getting back into dolls so I‘m not burning myself out again and getting frustrated with too many projects (I have quite a lot of dolls...) so I took some pictures of my favourite girl to this day, my Shinydoll Feefee. I’ve had her for 9 years now. Her name is Feefee because I am not creative lol. Anyway, I hope you enjoy her as much as I do, I‘m really happy I‘m taking pictures of my dolls again, I have had some dolls for years now that I have never taken any pictures of.



My favourite doll to this day by Zomboid, auf Flickr

 

@Zomboid she's so sweet and old-fashioned!

 

@Alewife Thank you so much! I love the “old school” doll look so much, I’ve only noticed it recently that my dolls are all starting to look very porcelain doll-like. I wish Shinydoll would still sell dolls...

 

They were continuing to evolve, who knows how great they'd be if Mr. Shin had continued to make them!

 

@Zomboid your Feefee looks alive, she has such a sweet face with hidden mischief! I remember meeting Shin-san when he came to Australia- he brought a porcelain creation of Akali, she was sublime! I agree with you, my Shinydoll is starting to have that porcelain type quality in my mind too. Maybe it is her age (13 years young this July), her resin has maintained it’s hard, dense quality. I think some of my other doll’s resin has become softer.

 

@Zomboid, your Feefee is so winsome I like how you've styled her, with her sleeves pulled down over her hands; very expressive!

@Saba, lucky you to meet Shin-san, and see a porcelain version of Akali I agree; their resin is holding up quite nicely.

Speaking of Akali, she was my first Shinydoll, 12 years ago. Here she is, with my more recently acquired Kasumi B. Akali's name is Yuko, and Kasumi B's is Rin. I did Yuko's face-up, and Rin's is a default Shinydoll --

Rin thinks they're besties; Yuko, not so much...

 

Hi everyone! I'm reviving the thread, because I am finally finished with the Conone I found on Mandarake last year.
Please meet Etsuko.
She is old and yellow, her resin is scratched and it quite bad shape overall. But I worked hard and managed to finish her with the vision I had. She looks so different to when I first got her.

 

I think she is lovely you did a grand job. As to scratches, don't we all end up with scars from scratches.

 

Aw, thank you! Yes, she's live her life to the fullest.

 

Oooooo!!! She is so very lovely!! You did a fantastic job of resurecting her as Etsuko!
I so wish I'd not sold all my ShinyDolls years ago. Makes me want another right now!

 

Thank you! I keep stalking Mandarake to see if another one pops up, but no luck so far.

 

@toveb she is beautiful, you did such a great job! I love the shape of Conone's eyes, she is so expressive. Her resin looks wonderful to me, did you have to do much to it to give it that creamy glow? My Akali's body needs a really good clean also, but I keep putting it off as I originally sealed her, and don't want to have to do that again *cringe*

@playdoll I'm pretty sure I received my Akali from you many moons ago, she is still my favourite:
c by whim_sy, on Flickr

 

@Saba, your Akali is a beauty! Glad to see this thread revived. Oh, I love Shinydolls. Still looking for my Hikali.

 

@Saba I basically just cleaned her. I don't think she had been for the past 15 years... Then, when doing the face-up, I used some pinkish tones. But I kind of like that she isn't sparkly white.

I don't even know what Conone's original colour was, to be honest, but my Akali is definitely white and not "normal" (or whatever the skintone was called back then). So there is quite the contrast between them, even though they are meant to be sisters. I will try to take a photo of them together soon.

 

It's WONDERFUL to see the adorable Etsuko & the lovely sweet Akali (& all the beauties, here). What darling personalities you've each given your girls!!!! There's such a delightful uniqueness to the faces & bodies of Shinydoll. For me, there will never be a body better engineered for lifelike posing while at the same time being able to pose them so easily. I adore my Shinydoll bjd bodies no matter which company's head sculpt is on the body, but this thread filled with Shinydoll faces is fantastic.

 

How hard it is to find Shinydoll Yakki at a reasonable price these days?
Thank you))

 

I'm half-stalking Mandarake for any Shinydoll and since I bought my Conone I haven't seen a single one. But maybe if you put out a wanted ad here and in some FB groups, there might be someone who is interested in selling theirs?

 

Yes, they seem really rare. There was an opportunity last year (I think) for an Akali on the Marketplace, but I haven't seen anything since. I wish I had been able to purchase one before they went Shinydoll went out of business! Akali and the smaller Hikali are my favorites, but the other heads are lovely, too.

 

I had no chances, joined hobby just a couple years ago. ((( There is one Yakki on Market place, but I don't know if price is reasonable.

 

@Dunpeald - I didn't either, really - he was closing his business just as I started looking into bjds and by the time I was able to save up, it was too late! But that's okay, I will keep an eye out and maybe I'll find the right one someday.