The Ai : Custom House Boys and Girls

I'm adding my cheers to this CH chat revival.
so happy to see the photos & so many familiar "faces"!
St. James, in a red wig your Choa could play the role of Jessica Rabbit...we gotta get her a long red dress with a thigh high slit. :0
And yes, what I usually like about CH is their youthful innocence.

 

She's beautiful and that resin match looks really good!

My St. Mina should be here- just waiting for the post office to open (8 more minutes!).

* * * * * *
And here she is- a quick shot in my studio.

 

Where to start????

Cirquemom HUGE congratulations on your St Mina coming home at last.......she looks fabulous I'll bet you just can't stop looking at her, can you?! I am just so pleased for you!!!

And St. James I never thought I would see a Choa look like that! How amazing!!! And what a brilliant idea too!

 

Thank you Jane! GUH I AM SO IN LOVE WITH THIS GIRL!!!! We've already been to the beach. The light was horrible but I had to take her. Will get some in good light later on.

 

Oh wow!!!! I LOVE this photo of her and the setting is PERFECT!!!

Isn't it pure magic when a doll inspires you this much!

 

Thank you!
And yes, it is. After the year I've had- a little inspiration is much-needed!!!

 

St. Mina is the most amazing doll, what a face.
You are so lucky, she is inspirational.

 

Thank you! There are a few more shots of Audrey here.

I had noticed that Uyuchagongbang was doing one-offs for Switch now, but hadn't noticed that HeavyBomb was also. Everything started to go downhill when they they fired all of those artists. the first of many poor business decisions. It does make the early dolls all the more precious though!
Circquemom, I love that your St. Mina looks like the doll in the prints behind her in your studio!
And Jane, your Mori couple is exquisite!

 

Are those the artists of Customhouse? Do you know what the status of AiDolls is at this point? Are they still in business?

Thank you! That's my "real" artwork. I'm actually a woodblock print artist, but have been neglecting it for doll photography. I'm having a show at the Gualala Arts Center in a year, though, so will probably combine the two.

 

Umm, so I'd really like to talk about assembling my first-ever grail doll - a Customhouse girl Siwon. But is this the right place to do so? The thread looks a little inactive, but I can't seem to find a more suitable one... Anybody? Please?

And for pictures, here's my first-ever BJD love that I'm trying to bring to life:


It was so long ago, but I believe she was a Unique Ai from like 2004-ish... I know I'll never have that exact doll, but I want one very like her. So far I have a Siwon head and boy body, but I'd like to get a girl body for her if I can. I can't find any of my old posts on the subject, but I cried over her quite a bit as a BJD-newb.

 

You should be able to find a girl body that will match her resin- or at least be a reasonable match. You may even be able to find a customhouse body if you look in the market place. Having the head is the most important part- frankly, bodies are bodies and once they are dressed- with the exception of posability issues- they pretty much all look alike. Is this a picture of your doll as she was or one you got from the site or ???? The face-up looks pretty straight-forward and if you can't do face-ups yourself I don't think it would be a problem to get one like this from one of the dozens of face-up artists around. Honestly, I don't see any reason why you couldn't put her together. Good luck, she's lovely and I'm not familiar with that sculpt. I have three of the SD customhouse dolls- a Ceba, a St. Mina (one of my grail dolls) and another one whose name I can't remember, oops.

 

This thread has rather fallen silent....hasn't it?!

But I will happily chat Custom House Siwon with you too and as you have the head then I would put a WTB in the Market place for an older CH female body.
The earlier CH dolls are not very popular now so you might get one really cheap!
And I too think that a face-up artist from the Far East might be able to recreate a face-up really similar to that one

I have a tan CH girl Siwon from 2003

 

You guys are the best, thank you!! I'm actually trying to trade the boy body for a girl one if I can, and have a thread for that up. Back in the day (though I'm sure I don't need to talk to you guys about "back in the day") that faceup was a stunner, and though I'm horrible at doing them myself, I have hopes of getting someone to do something that would be considered pretty simple nowadays.

I bought my CH Siwon second-hand here not too long ago, and when he arrived I was so surprised - he's NS but he's so pale! I don't even know where to start looking if I don't get him a CH body, but I admit that would be my first preference if I can find one. I don't know what I'll do with the boy body if I can't trade it, I don't think it will match anyone I have! XD

 

I bet you'll be able to trade it- just give it some time and keep bumping it. It seems to me like more people are into boy dolls than girl dolls. And yes- the CH "normal" is very pale. I think *somewhere* on DoA there is a place that matches resin from various companies. Also if you use someone like Mint on Card to buy a body (but keep in mind that is almost completely pre-order, so you have to wait to get it), they may be able to tell you which bodies match CH resin.

 

I will keep a look out for you too.....good luck on that trade happening though. I think it is worth hanging out for that female early CH body. Lots of early style CH female bodies were sold as cheap kits awhile ago, perhaps somebody will want to sell one of those to you. *fingers crossed*

 

Several years ago, I fell in love with a Musedoll Ciel head partly because of the simple soft faceup that she had. It had been done by orphansparrow who is here in the U.S. & sometimes still takes commissions. If your head needs a faceup, she may be someone to look up.
I was lucky enough to find a very affordable CH Choa a couple of years ago. In fact, I originally hoped the CH body might work for Ciel. But Choa won my affection & the challenging Ciel finally went away. Every so often I see CH dolls listed fs here or on ebay, usually at an affordable price. Always tempting, but I really do have enough dolls...really! X0
Since you've found the head, you've got a good start on your project. And then you'll be able to add to the photo fun here once you get her figured out. :0
In the meantime, here's a photo of Choa for entertainment. And to demonstrate just how creamy pale her natural skin is in comparison to her antique white nightgown....

 

Thank you all so much~~ I'll keep at it and make sure (s)he gets completed! I actually got Siwon with a damaged faceup, so it needs to be redone very badly anyway. But after all this talk of CH dolls, I had to take him (currently) out and dress him.... and he wouldn't cooperate with the boy wig or boy clothes, but as soon as I put him in a BTSSB dress that's too big for my girl, he's pleased as can be. He's wearing a lovely long wig and lace socks and makes a beautiful girl. ;w;

I'm just worried that if I buy a whole doll just for the girl body, I'll fall in love with that doll and then poor Siwon will still be s.o.l. n__n; CH sculpts are so enchanting, really!

 

Have a heart, Lolita, you will surely succeed with your Siwon project in the end. I can only agree, older CH parts or whole dolls come up every so often in the MP, and since noone but us lucky few have yet realized there could come an old school CH revival , prices are still quite reasonable.

I myself loved CH from the beginning, too - but *back in the day* I only adopted a CH Ai Gene (later called Jin). He has worn different layman face ups by myself since.
Then two christmasses^^ ago I was given a Choa who still had her original, natural, subdued CH face up. Gah I love her, she's a Grail doll to me. She has acquired a Prayer Choa sister since - I seldom do multiple molds, but I guess I'm really into her! I've always been joking that the only way I would adopt a third Choa would be if a tan one came my way - like that would happen!^^

My sis, that fortunate gal, has even found a Choa on an old petite CH girl body recently, to add as a friend to her Sia girl. My ladies are all on the past-2006 newer body.

Cthulhu, Jane, Cirquemom, I so enjoy your beautiful photo spam, thank you so very much!!!
I miss those faces, it's a shame the way CH became history. Most of their popular artists seem to create for Rosen Lied now...

 

I have always gone for multiples in the CH world......I just can't help myself! LOL!

How about some random Choa photo spam from me too......



These CH are just irresistible!
And just stay focused on that beautiful Siwon girl that you will have one day Lolita

 

It's true, I bought a CH body for $88 from them when they came out with the new body. It was unsanded and in parts and I had to string it, but for 88 bucks I don't mind. It is the smaller body, which is what I wanted anyway. It seems like most people prefer double-jointed bodies- the more mobility the better- but personally I prefer single-jointed bodies because they are prettier. In fact, whenever possible, when I get a double-jointed body I often glue part of the knee joint to make it back into a single-jointed body.
I never did hear eventually what happened to Custom House. Does anyone know? When I got my Cebee, it was when they were having production issues, and I waited NINE MONTHS for her. Then for a while it seems like they got things straightened out, and because Ai dolls, but I have no idea if they are even in business anymore.

 

I have no idea at all either..........but I would like to find out.

 

I think they are still in business as AiDolls, or it looks like it from what I think is their website... but it looks like they only sell certain dolls now. It really is a shame that they aren't what they used to be, they were such a huge deal in the BJD world. I love so many of the dolls from companies that no longer exist, and a lot of them are so hard to find and most people seem to have forgotten about them anyways. I'll keep bumping my thread and hoping for my girl to be complete! I wish I had tried earlier, but when I asked on the forums people told me a Siwon girl was impossible (despite the fact that there was one) and that I'd be stupid for trying. And of course I believed them, lol.

Oh, I have a question for you all - I got a strange pair of eyes with my Siwon. They're very thin glass and completely hollow inside. Are these default Customhouse eyes, or did they come from somewhere else? I've never seen anything like them. They have hollow stems as well and I'm scared I'll cut myself on them (they're sharp!) or even break them. But they do look pretty...

And another question for Siwon owners - does the mold take 20mm or 22mm eyes? I haven't had to buy any for mine yet but I want to get that shade of pale green like the Unique one had.

 

Here is the AI Dolls page for the female body, but it doesn't show a price. If you are interested it might be worth emailing them, though, and asking if they would sell you a body, or even if they have any of the old bodies left, and how much they would charge. Looks like the SD size complete Ai doll is about $431.00, if I am converting it correctly.
http://www.aidolls.net/shop/step1.php?number=46

I don't know about the eye size, and have never heard of hollow glass eyes before! Maybe they are "old style" or something.

 

Thank you thank you! I'll see if they'll do that!

 

But if you do decide to order from them- ask them what the delivery time would be. Like I said before, I waited NINE MONTHS for my Cebee.

 

My Siwon girl is wearing 18mm at the moment.....but you are right she has BIG eyes!

And the eyes you have sound as if they are exactly the same that lots of my CH lads and lasses have.....they are most likely German glass eyes........and they are the eyes that CH used as default in lots of their dolls.
And you will need to be careful you don't cut yourself on them-just cover the end with tape or blue tack if you are really worried.

Funny how times change...........that wait time is 'normal' from some companies now!

 

Oh, yikes, it seemed like FOREVER to me!

 

The funny thing was (except it wasn't funny) at that time it was actually an unacceptable wait time. I think the lack of communication was the worst part of it.
I fortunately wasn't caught up in it but I had friends who were.

 

Oh, there was communication! Every month I got an email that said, "So sorry for the delay! Your doll will be shipped by the end of the month!" Except the end of the month would come and go...and then I would get another email, "So sorry for the delay! Your doll will be shipped by the end of the month". And this went on for nine months. I finally gave up and figured I would never actually get her. A lot of people got snippy with them and ended up finally getting their dolls poorly-wrapped, dirty, missing the free wig, etc. I stayed polite, and mine came in perfect condition, clean, very well-wrapped and with an extra wig.

 

Oh well done you in keeping your temper.......it certainly paid off!

 

It did! And in my experience, Asians relate much better to politeness that hostility, lol.

 

My CH Ai Gene came with default eyes like this in 2004 (colour blue). Looks like you've got the original eyes for Siwon, isn't that great?

Be careful with AiDolls, though, they have near to nothing in common with the original Customhouse company as far as I remember. I sadly do not remember everything, but original Customhouse was a Korean company, run by artists who are now legendary in the BJD world (Rolling Pumpkin, Heavy Bomb, Anu...).
At some point these artists were fired, the production was moved to China and it went downhill from there. At long last CH was taken over by a Chinese company and called AiDolls which retired from the international market, more or less. During those last years they have had many issues with international customers, like the long waiting periods some experienced, or not delivering orders at all, and many quality issues. It was very much hit and miss, ordering from them. On the other hand they tried to win back customers by running dumping price sales for short periods.
Being very disappointed, it helped me to remember they are not *the real thing* we loved so well anymore.

 

I'm thinking you may have better luck matching the older Siwon to an older body, when you find one...waiting for a new resin body to mellow 9 or 10 years so it matches well may not be worth the trouble.

 

Very sad, because they used to be one of the great companies. They provided the dolls in the movie "Doll Master".

 

I miss the old Custom House. I am sad this is what's happening to them

 

So glad to see this thread resurrected! I didn't have a chance to chime in until now.

These are indeed the default eyes from long ago. Both Volks and Custom House used to buy German glass eyes from Stanislaus. I do business with Stanislaus here in San Francisco, and they know the Shigeta family. They originally sourced all of their doll accessories/wig/eyes from companies they connected with at the European Toy Fair. That's why there weren't any exotic eye colors, just the usual brown and blue you found in baby dolls.

In Munich a few years ago, I visited a woman who ran a doll shop and did restoration work. She had drawers full of hollow glass eyes identical to the old CH ones. She was so old school that she had no idea that ball-jointed dolls were undergoing a sort of revival and transformation via the internet. Most of the old doll accessory companies were slow to catch on because of their business model, so they kind of got left in the dust.

My Unique Choa has finally moved on to a new home, so my Haute Doll Choa is the only CH I own anymore. It was hard to give up a doll painted by Uyuchagongbang, but somehow it was made easier knowing that she and Heavy Bomb and Rolling Pumpkin are still active in the hobby and are painting for other companies. Also, I love my new version of Audrey to bits! I did manage to make time to take some photos of her on her birthday last month though!

 

Beautiful Choa!

 

While we're reminising...Does anyone remember when CH opened it's own version of FCS? You order any sculpt they had ever made (including uniques/one offs) in ay skin colour. It was meant to be a permanant thing but in the end they closed after about 18 months? I wish they had stuck with it a bit longer. To this day one of my biggest doll regrets is I never managed to place an order.

 

St. James, your recollections of the vendors & doll shop are fascinating. Reminds me of an out of date millinery supply store I found in KS several years ago...visiting there was like a bit of time travel!
And yowza, your Choa is nothing like my Choa! Is she on a Volks body? What a gorgeous faceup she has. The photo really sets her off beautifully.
I agree, I'm so glad to see some discussion here as I'm always happy to learn more about these early sculpts. There's a charm & style to them that I really love.

 

I remember it was a special membership program they had in 2007 or 2008 right? I remember white skin was limited edition in 2006 while regular editions were always normal skin. With that membership you could order white skin. And they had beautiful unique Ais too. There was a one-off from them that I keep looking at everyday at that time (she was available for a long time nobody bought her), then I stopped looking at CH for awhile and she disappeared and the page disappeared too (maybe sold). I still regret that to this day =(

 

That was the golden age! I never got one of the custom choice dolls or a unique directly from CustomHouse, but I got some wonderful Limited Editions and some of the special limited outfits they offered. I have gotten several Unique dolls from the secondary market. Here's my Unique Miya:

 

That is exactly what I thought when I first saw Audrey like this! I am just not used to seeing Choa with a shapely body and a bust!

 

I'm so glad you all are reminiscing as I didn't know of BJD's yet to enjoy all of this from the beginning.
Nancy, that is an amazing dress Miya is wearing & a very pretty color on her.
Jane, your Choa's are most of the reason I fell for her. And luckily one popped up in the MP so I could enjoy one here.

Speaking of Choa, Francesca got to go to the ball...


She looks much more grown up than usual from this angle.

 

Nice to have this thread resurrected. Here is one of my Grail Dolls, St. Mina. I wanted this doll FOREVER and finally found one on the Marketplace. Love love love her!


Excuse the messy hair.

 

Nancy I love that photo of your Miya.......and that dress is amazing!

Oh how kind ((hugs))
And gosh! That photo of your Francesca at the ball is wonderful

Mina looks as if those shoes have trigged a memory there Cirquemom ....have they?

 

Not for me, lol, I never did ballet (although I always wanted to and my daughter was a pre-professional ballet student). I think Mina looks like she just found out she'll never be a ballerina.

 

Awww poor her ........the Mina sculpt does tragic so well!

 

Your Mina is gorgeous cirquemom I adore my Mina !

 

And I just love that Mina nose

 

Aeryn- Yes, I used to drool over your beautiful Mina! She is so lovely, she's one reason Mina became a grail doll for me. It's just an amazing face.

 

I was so tempted by a Mina I saw for sale not long ago, but I really want to get my Siwon complete before I get more dolls~ (But then I started wondering if she wouldn't make an incredibly handsome boy... and then I could swap bodies. I'm so bad~)

Siwon's off for a girlier faceup as of today, so I'll need to depend on you guys for my CH fix in the meantime!

 

Will this guy help you? The King of Siam:

 

The King of Siam certainly suits me!!!!

 

He is /very/ helpful!

 

His majesty is astounding!

 

Love the King of Siam!!!

I'm really loving that this thread has awakened...but it makes me sad that the CustomHouse Glory Days seem to be over now.

Here is my Cebee, Nieve:

 

Thank you cirquemom ! Its nice to know you like my Mina. Mina was one of the first pictures I saw in the gallery I was just mesmerised by her beautiful face (that nose !) I was so sad when I found out she was out of production for years I guess we are both lucky to found our grail dolls

 

VERY lucky! I looked for several years and every once in a while one would be in the Marketplace, but way way above my budget. Then this girl amazingly came on for a reasonable amount, and I grabbed her. I think it is one of the most amazing faces of all BJDs.

 

nancy_schroeder_ca, your king is wonderful. He's a Jun, is he not? I love seeing all the beautiful dolls that were made by CustomHouse.

St. Mina is a classic, and I love her, but never did get her or her brother. Have you seen the movie "The Doll Master?" I believe that St. Mina and her brother were made to be a part of that movie. Not sure how good the movie was....but I remember the CH artists being so excited about it.