Hey what’s up! I’m Rose— I collect toys and dolls. I also frequent estate sales online and off— which means that SOMETIMES I find dolls (specifically BJDs) of mysterious origin. Join me as I catalogue each unknown item and try to determine its validity.
Because I like estate sale shopping on and offline I sometimes find ball jointed dolls that, if genuine, are a hell of a find.
However; without paperwork I cannot prove they’re legit. So I begin to research! I’ve spent hours looking for reference photos for diff dolls— inside the joints and parts, heads, markings that aren’t shown in company photos— just to turn up with very little. I will be posting my dolls and their various bits and bobs for cataloging purposes. Hopefully, the photos here will help YOU, stranger, in your own “hold up is this legit? What company made this?” Quests.
As time goes on and I (maybe?) discover more about the dolls I’ve found, I will update this blog with info. :)
WHAT ABOUT RECASTS??
I do not go out of my way to purchase any recast dolls— I study the doll or doll photos as throughly as I can and check for obvious signs of recasting BEFORE purchasing. Because I’m aware the doll will likely be without its papers, as such I will never sell it unless I can prove its legitimacy. Throughly. All dolls proven to be recasts will live with me forever and suffer my modification practice.
WHY NOT BUY A NEW ONE?
You paying for it?
Jk jkjkjk. I own newer dolls, if I buy a new doll it’s always legit. I’ll post them for reference pics too, probably once a week with a title like “PEDIGREE DOLLIES WEDNESDAY” or something. I dunno it’s 4AM.
TLDR: Unless stated otherwise, all dolls here are second hand lucky finds. I don’t (purposely) buy recasts but seeing as these dolls are second hand, I might end up with one. I’ll keep its photos up and weird details listed here as a comparison tool. Message me if you got leads on any DOLLIE MYSTERIES I have.
Bluebonnet season is upon us, so ahead of our traditional photo road trip, I thought I would make an update on the Louisville doll theft case since it's been a while.
Nobody has contacted us about listings since Jim's arrest, but given that, and what we now have confirmed about their operations, that's not entirely surprising. I expect most of what's left is now across the border in Indiana, so we do still need eyes on Cowboy Auctions on hibid, its owner Ernie, and trade_nation on ebay. There is a chance that Barrett, as the B in the ebay jbwholesaleeverythingatoz, may be able to operate that account, since we've had no confirmation of an arrest for him and it's unclear whether law enforcement has elected to do anything about his involvement in Jim's operations.
(It's impossible for me to confirm anything about Barrett 100%, as he had his public records scrubbed a year before the theft. All we know is that he wasn't mentioned in the paper re: the Wholesale Jim Silk Road on Dixie Hwy. And that he's made a whole bunch of runs between KY and IN on Dixie Hwy, since he didn't turn off his location function on FB.)
Brother is finally having some positive experiences in the hobby again, and is in a rebuilding stage, both with his collection and life in general.
Money is tight right now, so if anyone finds the dolls listed below, we will need to do a layaway, but I would love to be able to surprise him with a long-lost fave.
Most Missed Dolls Still Missing:
- Minimee heads of all members of The Gazette. All NS. Unique traits: The missing Ruki head has fang mods. (We found the regular Ruki already thanks to @adotonawalk / @dollieroulette )
- Especially Reita. Brother used to be in a tribute band and held Reita's position (bass guitar.) Reita's death hit him pretty hard. Recovering Reita would mean so, so much to him.
- Ringdoll K fullset (minus clothes, those are with me), NS, LE with attached hair and company faceup. One of his head magnets is in backwards and the headcap does not stay on.
- Ringdoll Quiz LE with brain headcap and grey skin
- Volks Free Choice girl, either WS or NS at one point, she was a secondhand purchase so I'm unsure of her original color, but is fairly yellow now. Unique traits: Gothic horror vampire faceup and outfit. Holes in the sides of her head that used to house long-gone elf ear parts. (Yes, this is Carmilla, the doll who had already been stolen, and luckily returned, from her original owner 3 times across different conventions.)
- Custom House Mina, zombie mod. (Mina was his favorite non-RD sculpt, as he loves The Doll Master. He had 3 total, we've found one. We're missing the zombIe and the LE Sad Mina, NS.)
- Ringdoll Chen
- Bobobie Apollo, heavily mellowed, almost tan.
- 2 Resinsoul Dais, similarly aged. Unique traits: was wearing a red medieval outfit and blonde wig when stolen. One is strung well, the other is floppy af.
Signs A Listing May Be His:
- Partially/inexpertly removed faceup
- Random, unrelated pieces in box
- Mismatched outfits on fullsets
- Box does not match the company
- Chips on joints, finger damage, scratches in blushing/faceup. Barrett and Jim handled these quite carelessly before they realized how much they're worth, many of the ones we have recovered had this sort of damage.
- Seller in KY or IN. (Like I said, I think IN is more likely.)
Outfits I Made
(Please contact me if you spot these, regardless of which doll they're on, as they're explicit confirmation the listing is one we're looking for. I'm an extra layer of pissed because these mfers made off with some of my best work!)
- Pastel brocade double kimono set sewn from MHD's Orientale Moderne, SD
- Black and red cropped jacket with black sleeves and black sequin lining, SD
- Green pajamas with brown airplanes, MSD
- Blue and purple galaxy print blazer with pearlized buttons and dark blue jeans, SD
- Will add more as I remember them, I didn't get a lot of sleep last night so my brain's not entirely online
As always, a massive THANK YOU to everyone who has helped us so far. It has been a long, rough road, and we wouldn't have come this far if not for the massive support we've received from the community. God bless.
[update: 3/22/2026]
Relevant Photos:
The galaxy blazer and jeans, as well as the Apollo and one of the Dais:
Ya'll of course recall the BJD I bought that turned out to be a stolen doll? Yeah man that was a wild ride. Anyway looks like an arrest has happened! Fascinating! Color me unsurprised.
As always, let them know if you see any of the dolls mentioned in this post, if you don't mind. :)
SECOND HAND RECAST ALERT-- Mystery bod, Messed up Lati Yellow (?) head. (POST 2)
HEY. I'VE RETURNED.
I'm 6 days post spine surgery and ready to get THIS SPECIFIC story wrapped to the best of my ability.
So lets continue right on to where we left off, shall we?
Happy new year! More under the cut.
So, refresher-- after looking over the deeply bizarre 3D printed head of mysterious origin, we moved on to the rest of the body...just to find that although SOME of the bod felt like cast resin, the PEANUTS...
Well, they're also 3D Printed. Sure.
Here you can see the ridges from the printing process.
Whatever. I don't even- whatever.
Looking at the arms I can see and feel some similarities between them and the legs. Like the legs, the peanut joints are also 3D Printed. The upper and lower arms along with the hands SEEM to be cast resin. Fascinating. Fascinating decisions were made with this doll.
Here he is with some quickie faceup. The material he's printed out of doesn't take the materials I have for faceup very well, but, eh, I'm not all that well practiced either.
His eyes are weird and rubbery-- I believe they're usually meant to be used in reborn style silicone dolls. The outfit you may recognize from my Autna CCTV doll; the black overalls were staining the original doll the outfit came from so I figured, if it fits this one, why not?
AnyWAY. There you have it! I've left this with more questions than answers. At the very least, now I know what to avoid in other dolls in the future-- AND SO DO YOU.
Important note: I would not buy a doll like this had I known from the start he was...like this. Again, because I feel it bares repeating, I also do not go in wanting/trying to buy recasts. This guy came from Shopgoodwill and honestly? If you're buying dolls from there you ARE RISKING a recast/fake/badly cared for doll. They're notoriously bad at photography and research into the items they list and sell-- also their shipping is ATROCIOUS. Buy at your own risk! Let me be your example!
SECOND HAND RECAST ALERT-- Mystery bod, Messed up Lati Yellow (?) head.
God. Here we go.
What's GOING ON HERE. Who DID THIS? Why DID THEY DO THIS?
The head is 3D printed-- it feels lightweight, not badly made, and is well sanded. The back of the head has a Lati doll emblem (Metal, embedded.) Do not be fooled by this, it is a lie. It is a fraud. Fascinating.
It comes apart in 3 pieces. It has 5 magnets. It has another Lati doll emblem (metal, embedded.) inside of the head. You can see for yourself..UNDER THE CUT!
(NOTE: My fingernails are super gross. It's oil ink. I'm a printmaker. They just look like this sometimes.)
This bottom part slides out..
At first I thought this was an interesting way to take a head on and off without having to futs with the S hook and elastic. I am a fool and that was foolish. It is instead an interesting way to make everything harder for no reason. (one magnet)
You can see a bit of the signs of it being 3D printed here in the cap. (Two magnets.)
(Two magnets. Lati emblem.)
This entire three piece head thing was way more cumbersome than it was helpful. I do not understand why the person who printed this went through all this effort to fake a head in such a way. A head that costs.. (checks notes..) $80 bucks brand new.
I'm gonna' be honest, though, I don't think this IS a Lati doll head. I mean, it says it is-- twice-- but...?? I'm having trouble finding this specific sculpt. That AND the doll is bigger than any doll offered by Latidoll currently. (1/6 in size!)
That's it for the head. It should be noted that I contacted a local doll store (The Doll Peddlar.) and had a short conversation with the owner. I asked if I could compare their Lati dolls in person with mine-- there were no openings for an appointment so she offered to look at the pictures. She confirmed it was a recast...which I didn't need help confirming. I already knew that because of the everything wrong with it-- I just wanted to look at a real head to see all the ways this one was wrong.
You know, besides the obvious. (Three parts, five magnets, 3D printed, wrong size.)
We may have to continue into a second post..but let's move onto the body, shall we?
I have to destring this thing. Again. I did it once-- and then restrung it again for mysterious reasons. It was a pain. I am not looking forwa- oh hang on.
This needs cleaning, haha. What's that? No. No. I am NOT procrastinating.
I have NO idea who or what this body is. I mean, I know it's gotta' be a recast-- more on that later-- but like..who is this? If you have ideas, feel free to tell me. It's a 1/6 sized doll. It stands and poses nicely.
Alright, here we go.
Eugh. Destringing. Ok. Foot off. String to follow....
Hm.
String got stuck inside the body. Fine.
WHATEVER. Here's the torso.
Feels solid. Different from the way the head feels, although the color seems correct. Nothing super interesting so far.
Notice the weird little dip in the neck hole there? I'm guessing a slot for an S hook to sit. Weird, considering how the head makes that useless.
The legs stand nicely. There's still some remnants of body blushing between the toes despite my efforts.
The feet are cute and fairly simple. I'm not confident in that resin bar's ability to hold without suddenly snapping in half. We'll see.
Here's the lower legs. Helpfully labeled parts. Small and irritating holes. I like the lil' knees, though.
Leg joint peanuts. Left and (squints) Pight.
Hang on a second. Why does it feel different..? How come there are..weird lines..?
Are you telling me that the PEANUTS ARE 3D PRINTED TOO?
But it is AN INTERESTING recast; I will update with pics, point out the big tells (and little tells, once I learn them,) and I’m going to try and get some real Lati doll detail pics to compare. This one was, at first glance, sneaky!
Lets just keep this thing rolling, huh? On to the accessories!
More under the cut! Be mindful-- doll nudity!
Her head dress is spooky-beautiful! It can be slightly adjusted for posing and the magnet is plenty strong enough to hold it; so strong, in fact, that in an attempt to remove it I accidentally removed the headcap along with it!
It sits low on the head so you only see the wings from the front, and not the top of the skull-- although it can be set a little higher up if you want to.
Along with the head-dress are her forehead wings-- which are very cute! The magnets aren't on the surface of the resin like the head dress magnets are, however, so they don't stick as firmly in place.
They were, as previously mentioned, marked up slightly from shipping. I was able to clean them up nicely using a magic eraser. :)
The last of the wing accessories are made for her ankles! These are very pretty but frustrating in how finicky they are. They're made so that they snap in place, like so-
But they fall off easily AND leave rub-marks on her legs. I would've appreciated a magnet with these, I think-- or at least some way to secure them.
They DO look pretty once you get them to stay in place! They also included some lovely silver wire ankle bracelets but..well..I couldn't figure out how to get those on alongside the shoes and the wings.
I was also worried about increasing the chances of marking up her legs, so I decided to keep those in her box. They're pretty-- but not necessary for the outfit's cohesion.
Onto the shoes!
They're so strange! They look like they popped straight out of a Salvidor Dali painting. They came with some pretty white ribbon to lace them up with.
This doll does NOT want to stand on her own, however, so I had to MacGyver two different stands just to get her upright. (She is, as of now, sitting in a case till I can get a stand that feels sturdy enough for her.)
Anyway! Clothes!
A beautiful dress and underskirt.
Lovely black tutu.
The little white dress has small pearl bead buttons along the back (fool that I am, I forgot to snap a pic of those.) that are VERY cute but like to come undone. The black tutu slips over part of the underskirt to stay in place. There are also four little lace sleeves and a fluffy collar.
Which. Uh.
Parts had to be removed in order to put these pieces onto the doll.
Alright. Yeah. That's fine.
I can do this I'm an experienced doll owner! It doesn't matter that it's so tightly strung it feels like a spring coil ready to burst! It's totally FINE that another collector in the BJD discord once mentioned DV strung their doll so tightly that the resin bar inside it's foot snapped in half! I'm FINE I'm BRAVE. I'm POWERFUL.
I took a moment to go and look at my cats.
Great. Ok. Thank you, Frankie and Pluto. My strength is renewed.
Continuing on.
I started with the head-- which was easy to remove and tough to replace.
See the plastic wrapped around the S hook there? Yeah? It split under the pressure.
SCARY.
Removing the hands was actually way easier than I had previously thought.
There's a little slot the S hooks can turn into, so they just stayed in place as I slid the little lace sleeves over.
Also, let me get a good look at the hands alone.
So pretty!
Afterwards, FINALLY, I could behold my girl in her full glory!
All in all? Worth it. Worth the wait, worth the struggle getting her all in one piece, worth all of it!
There are a few flaws that I would like to see avoided in future dolls from DV-- in example, her flat feet's scuff marks could've been easily prevented had they been wrapped in a way that kept them from rubbing up against each other-- but other than that I'm perfectly content!
Now I just gotta get her a proper stand and maybe I'll just take her out for some real pics! :)
Thanks as always for reading! See ya'll next time.
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
Ya'll I'm in love-- she's BEAUTIFUL. After nearly 10 months of wait time my Moth girl has finally arrived! She's my first fullset doll-- and the first new (big kid) BJD that I've received in a very long time.
I've named her Isolde! She was a combo birthday/Christmas present by my darling wife, Misha. :)
Photos of her unboxing and details below the cut! Be aware: Nude doll pics!
Lets start with a bit of the packaging-- I won't lie, I was a little too excited to go for the full "unboxing" experience; so there aren't too many photos of this part of the process.
Her company box is well made! She was sandwiched nicely inside a foam form, and all her pieces (Headress, forehead wings, shoes, extra feet & ankle wings.) Were carefully wrapped. Her clothes were separated into different bags with the DV branding logo printed onto them.
I did have SOME issue with the way some of her parts were packaged, unfortunately--
The top of her left foot has a mark in the body blushing..
And the top of her right ankle is also scuffed/scratched--
Although this may be less of a scuff and more a result of how she was cast.
Her forehead wings were also marked but this was removed easily using a magic eraser.
At this point it became pretty clear that I would need to be extra precious with Isolde; her pretty cocoa resin scuffs easily, and so many of her accessories rub against her in such a way that scuffs or shine marks were going to happen not matter what I did. Thankfully, once fully dressed up, these small marks are difficult to see and I don't believe they make her any less appealing.
Lets continue!
Here she is all unpacked! As you can see, all four of her arms are magnetic--
(Ignore the 'scratch' on the knuckle of the hand at the far right. It's a bit of fuzz!)
The hands are lovely; very delicate. In some spots you can see the powdery texture of the spray sealant they used. I figure this is par for the course when it comes to dolls with darker resin, so it doesn't really bother me.
Close up of the magnet mechanism on the arm. Works VERY well!
I like how the arms move. They feel very sturdy-- of course, they were also VERY tightly strung. More on that in a bit.
The legs work similarly to the arms. They reminded me of prosthetic limbs-- there's a cup that clicks into place onto the peanut joint, via magnet.
The legs can be a -little- finicky. You have to be mindful while posing her, or else you might accidentally knock her legs clean off her torso.
Speaking of her torso!
I really love the way her arms lock in here! There's a piece that can be switched out-- in case you wanna make her two-armed instead of four armed. You coward. (jkjkjkjkjkjkjkjk)
Here's what the regular arm piece looks like--
Here it is without the piece locked in place-
I like this! It holds well, looks nice, and lends to some interesting customization options.
Three arms! Four arms! Two arms! We can do all kinds of arm configurations! Neato!
The sculpt is lovely. All the lines of the body look lovely-- including those created by the removeable parts.
My one issue here, again, is with how easily scratched she is. There's a fine-line scratch above her right breast that I couldn't wipe away with my thumb. Shame. Thankfully, again, it's hardly noticeable.
Lets take a look at her pretty face!
Her face is downright precious. The eyes look so wide and expressive! Dream Valley's faceup looks beautiful, as well. Look at those fine lines! Everything about her is delicate.
The silver is subtle and very slightly metallic. I love how her lashes match.
She looks so soft!! Losin' it over here. I will note that one of her ears has a weirdly sharp quality to it? Like, you don't SEE it so much but you can feel it when putting her wig on. I thought it was chipped at first! Thankfully, it was not.
Here you can see that sort of powdery look I mentioned before.
OH. It should be noted-- I had the head cap on backwards during most of her head photos. Uh.
It's fine.
Here's what it looks like when it's on properly-- also, where the magnets for the headress sit!
Again, you'll see where her resin has been rubbed. No big deal, but something to note if you plan on owning one of your own someday.
Inside of the head has two magnets mounted in the forehead for her head-wings. They're a little weaker than I'd like--but, I mean, I feel like if they were any stronger the head wings would mark up her forehead so...trade offs, I guess!
The Dream Valley emblem is pretttty pretty! Love it.
OHP. I've hit my image limit! We'll end this post here!
Here shortly I'll share pics of her accessories and outfit. We'll discuss a few other quirks of hers in that post, as well, alongside some final thoughts!
Ya'll lemme' tell you-- life and living isn't always as easy as I'd like it to be. I've been dealing with some pretty intense pain spikes since feb/march of this year and I'm working towards getting that -handled- as best I can, haha. THAT SAID
GOOD NEWS.
Back in October of last year my dear and lovely wife ordered me the full set Dream Valley Moth-- and she's recently been SHIPPED!!!
She should arrive by/around the 24th of this month! I'm feeling energized and excited by this! Expect an unboxing post!
HEY how ya'll doin? It's been a hot minute-- I realize because of how I last posted I may have given the impression that I was so deeply disappointed in my unfortunate re-cast discovery that I'd given up! NO. That is not the case. I am unshakable.
I am not, however, uh-- able bodied. I suffer from chronic pain (among other things,) which makes it hard to do things I like consistently sometimes. Most times. All times.
That said, I'd like to get some more posts out soon as I enjoy keeping this blog updated. :) Bare with me, if you don't mind.
Thanks to the helpful folks over at the BJD Discord-- I'm now no longer so convinced that the Luts bod I just received is legit. (Thankfully, your girl only spent...33 bucks.)
This was bound to happen eventually-- I try to be careful but look man I'm a big dork goofus and sometimes I mess it up.
I'll work on a post to discuss the things the others pointed out later, but the dead giveaway-- the big "Oh no," was the head he came with.
See that weird resin block there? Yeah. That's likely because the recasters made a mold of the head without removing the metal plate on the original. A Luts metal plate is red and silver-- it's kind of pillowed up just like that resin spot is, and has their emblem on it!
Like so.
AH well. I guess now I have a fair-game head to futz around with, now. I may make him into a lil' wall hanging ornament. The bod-- mmm. I dunno yet. Will probably use it to practice body blushing/painting. I'll make a post tomorrow to discuss the weirdness that had folks uncertain. It will, obviously, never be resold. That's dark sided, ya'll.
