I've been mulling over this idea for awhile now, but I really liked Vicky Schmidt from Monster Prom! I think she's really, really cute! I usually play as her.
Vicky is a Frankenstein's Monster, so her resemblance to the Monster High's lovely Frankie Stein is unsurprising! While Vicky involves a lot of blue (Vicky is Jewish and it's a bit of a nod to that, blue is a sacred color to Judaism and Frankenstein's Monster is technically a type of golem), her skin color is definitely reads a lot closer to "green" than Frankie's new blue skin color.
I really like the G3 bodies though, so I am also considering Ghoulia Yelps as a base!
Ghoulia has blue eyes like Vicky, so I wouldn't really have to repaint her, just reroot or make her a wig to have accurate hair, but I was wondering... how similar is Ghoulia's new skin tone to the OG Frankie's? Frankie had one of my favorite G1 face molds, so I am not opposed to doing a body transfer. It would probably be simplest to just use G3 Ghoulia or G1 Frankie, but I am really curious about the possibilities...
I’ve been thinking of making a custom marcille doll, especially since if Delicious in Dungeon DOES get any official dolls it might be a… dollfie, Azone 1/3, or Azone 1/6. I’d probably get an Azone 1/3 Marcille, to be honest, but a 1/6 Azone might be a difficult buy since even re:zero Emilia just had normal human ears. Poor half-elves being relegated to just the human half, lol. If Dollfie Frieren and Sailor Moon are any indication, I might not be super keen on a Dollfie Marcille — even if I was, though, she would probably be like $800+ usd and I am not sure if I would want to drop that much just to have a little Marcille.
Which leaves me wondering… if I do make a Marcille, what would be the best base for her?
So far I’ve mulled over the following: obitsu fairy (inset eyes only, unfortunately), big headed Barbie fairytopia elf fairies, momoko, or a “generic Bandai 90s doll”
Photo is pulled off of eBay but occasionally I see these fairytopia elf-eared fairies for reasonably cheap secondhand. They have elf ears already and I think they could probably be repainted with a “anime influenced” face up pretty well, and the blonde one would be a good candidate for a reroot or wig for Marcille. Purple is a little too fantasy pink and I’ve noticed a lot tend to age weird, sometimes like old G1 Draculauras.
Which… ok, on that note, Draclaura wouldn’t be terrible either? She would probably need a body donor and painted to a light flesh color, but Lala’s G3 dolls are really cute with prominent pointy ears.
Obitsu fairy is my next candidate and probably my most promising, but I wish I could find some without the inset eyes. They’re long discontinued, though I can stalk Mandarake.
A blonde momoko might have potential if I keep her in the normal momoko style, and don’t try to replicate the anime’s style. If I got a My First Momoko, who has a different face shape, I could maybe see about her getting a repaint.
Photo is from plasticyears on dolldreaming and my goodness are the marmit elves cute 😭 this would probably be my ideal base for Marcille, but I can’t seen a Marmit Rurufi or Rarafi go up for sale on Mandrake, so I won’t hold my breath getting one for Marcille.
Most 1/6 azones have really sweet, round babyish faces which I don’t think would be my preferred for Marcille, but some of the character dolls like Emilia have more pointy heads, which might be worth it depending on how hard this head sculpt is to find secondhand. (In general - not Emilia specifically). I already have an inset-eye’d Emilia and while I do like her, I wish Azone made the original sculpt with inset eyes too, since like 90% of their new inset-eye dolls use the same base sculpt which I think it’s a tad too round and I don’t like my dolls to all have the same sculpt… but if I do get Marcille a head without elf ears, I can probably easily enough print some off on my 3d printer and then attach them.
I recently bought an Imomo doll Miko! If everything goes according to plan, I plan on making her into a mini Frieren! I think her serene or somber sculpt, with a rounder face, will lend well for Frieren. I really like the Volks Dollfie for Frieren, but I think a rounder face would have made her a little bit more on-model, annnnd... well, Miko was about $100 shipped, which is quite a bit cheaper than the Volks Frieren price tag, ahaha. :'D
I've read that vinyl Imomo doll bodies can be kind of floppy, so I am prepared to stabilize her with teflon tape, wire, and even hot glue if needed. If I like her well enough, I am planning on ordering an Apsu. More anime-elf doll talk below the cut, ahaha.
I think Apsu would lend well to be a mini Dungeon Meshi (Delicious in Dungeon)'s Marcille!
I think if Volks was to do a Dungeon Meshi collab I probably wouldn't be able to resist getting an official Marcille doll, but at least they would be in different scales and probably have different hairstyles anyways!
Assuming I really like the Imomo dolls to justify getting a third 1/4 scale girl, I think I might get a Mie to shell Elf (or Sui) from Ojisan Isekai/Uncle from Another World.
I think Mie looks a lot like Miko - I think the biggest difference might be in her ears? - but I think Sui's design looks distinct enough from Frieren that it won't be a problem.
I love Uncle from Another World but I find it highly unlikely that there will be much in regards to new merch for the show (especially since season 1 has caught up to the manga already...) and getting a Sui dollfie would probably be highly unprobeable (lol), but I look forward to getting a little Sui. :)
Until I started thinking about which doll would suit which character, though, I hadn't noticed all three girls have green eyes. I think I've found reasonable eyes for all three on etsy already, so now I'm just on the hunt for a wig and stockings for Frieren. All of them will be getting removable elf ears but I am not sure if the 1/3 DD scale ears by GoldDin (recommended for their head size) would be too big for my tastes.
I think it looks really good on @catfishy2u's custom MDD Frieren, though! So I am probably over thinking it, ahaha, since I tend to veer towards smaller elf ears for my bjds... so I think that's messing with my perception a little bit. I did buy some elf ears secondhand for dollfie by B. A. F. Studio (unsure where they sell their products but I think they're Japanese) potentially for Marcille or a future dollfie.
I'll be testing the fit on Miko when both parts get here. Supposedly Miko will be here tomorrow, but I think Tuesday/Wednesday is more likely, but we will see! Although, seeing all three girls together, I think maybe the BAF ears would be better for Sui - Marcille's ears seem to be bigger like Frieren's in comparison. We shall see!
So... I got the notification a few days ago that my 1/4 DFH girl body shipped! So I should be getting the body for my Souldoll Aehael soon! It's been about six months, and the body is a custom resin match to Switch Milktea Rose.
I'd like to get a body for one of my other floating heads, too, and I am heavily considering the 1/4 Sprouting Dragon girl body. Rambles photos etc further under the cut.
I wish I had some larger, high-res images offhand, but I don't. It's been hard finding references on instagram (thanks insta for killing tags, makes your platform so useful), but I think this body might be a good fit for my Souldoll Junia or Logandolls Peregrine. What I do know is that Jane's Doll Land is a US-based dealer for a lot Chinese companies, though, and I can get the body in light tan (soom tawny) for $121/$141 shipped from her, so naturally my interest has been piqued. According to Jane's, the neck is ~6.7cm, so I think it should work well for Junia or Peregrine. Both have pretty small necks; Peregrine was sculpted with a minifee body in mind, I believe? I was previously considering a Loongsoul body for Peregrine but unfortunately Loongsoul seems to offer tan very infrequently, and I'm not interested in dyeing a bjd body unless it's the absolute last choice.
Either 1/4 Huajing girl bodies are still in consideration for Peregrine and Junia, but the Magnolia body (or Luts model delf) may ultimately go to my Souldoll Calia... we will have to wait and see. Honestly I am anxious what might go on in regards to the impeding discussion about US tariffs with our trade partners, so I'm not exactly excited at the prospect of ordering much else overseas right now, especially since some of these companies are easily a 5-6 month wait time.
Regarding the last point, I've also been trying to decide what I want to do in regards to Xagadoll's Mizzle.
Mizzle has... kind of sort of been a grail doll of sorts? I remember first seeing her on Mint on Card but I wasn't sure who she was. :v Things never quite panned out when I have wanted to order her in the past, so she simply... just never got here. If it wasn't for the fact she would take months before getting here via preorder and me being impatient, I could have seen Mizzle as being a contender of being my first ball jointed doll. I'm not exactly sure what is the estimated wait time of Xagadoll/Asleep Eidolon is right now, but I imagine it's in the 5-6 month range.
One doll I think might well be a very, very strong contender for my first 2025 BJD purchase though, is Logandolls' curvy elf girl!
Photo from Logan’s instagram! It’s showing off the new hips he sculpted, just in a far smaller scale. She’s absolutely adorable and I think she would be the absolute cutest doll ever. I wouldn't mind adding a tan Logandolls Lark to the crew, either.
But... Unless something big happens like Legranddoll or Summerbird making a come back, or I finally find some of the souldoll heads I am looking for (clodia, please come to me), I think this is a sold, though probably a bit overzealous, “2025 bjd goals/wishlist” of sorts. Besides maybe the sprouting dragon body - I may submit that order still in 2024 😂 Otherwise my other bjd goals are the same they are every year: get more clothes, shoes, eyes, wigs, and faceups done lmao. It would be nice to fit a smartdoll pear girl in there somewhere, although since she would warrant a new wardrobe due to being a new size, I... don't know if I will be fitting her in 2025, but I do hope to (eventually!) get her. Maybe I can justify her if I can get some more sales moved. Who knows, we shall see.
That said, I think my only 2024 purchases are the after-mentioned Doll Family H body (bought ~5 months ago), my almost paid off Littlefee Chloe + tan Vampire Minifee Chloe head, my Magic Mirror Sinead (old promo model, bought from Nanyalin's personal collection), as well as two outfits from Cloversinging from independent artists, and... random clothing bits and bobs from Aliexpress/Ebay/Etsy/etc. I traded for my Calia head from a friend and I bought my Junia head secondhand. Definitely a good amount of things but (probably?) significantly down from 2023 and earlier...
Granted, I did sell a bit of my collection to lessen the financial burden of some pretty big things (ie, wisdom tooth removal, car repairs and ultimately getting a new car), but it's been nice outfitting dolls I already have. The decrease probably has a lot to do with instagram removing recent tags and when facebook sales groups were easily navigable. Truthfully when it comes down to it, though, I think my biggest "bjd-adjacent" dolls is probably getting a nice set up to actually display them. 99% of my bjd-related stuff honestly chills in a box when not getting photos. I kind of want something like an IKEA Billy Bookcase with doors but my house is honestly quite small so I am not sure where a new piece of furniture like that would go right now.
Thanks to the fantastic aestellica on DoA, I can now say for sure that the Doll Family H Yao Tiao body will look great for my Souldoll Aehael! After the blunder with my miracle doll body and my souldoll vito yola hybrid that I attempted previously which was... a hybrid of horrific proportions, I didn't really have the energy to try to buy another body and go in completely blind on if the hybrid has any hope. :'D
Photo belongs to aestellica, but judging by the Souldoll Kuu head, this will be amazing hybrid.
Considering the current "hybrid minifee moe body" Fairyland event, I will be putting a moe minifee on layaway with DDE. I originally wanted a moe with a cutie bust for my Logandoll Pim anyways (...but couldn't find anyone selling just the bust, boo!), so I will be left with an "extra" moe body soon...
Which considering I will have that extra body... this seems like an excellent opportunity to finally get the xagadoll mizzle that I meant to get in... ehhh, 2017? 2018? She was one of the first dolls I considered buying, I remember first finding her on Mint on Card's website, back when they still were around.
I think she would be really cute on a moe body! It's too bad Xagadoll doesn't sell heads separately, though. I think the v3 body would work well for some of my floating heads though (...I need to figure out my plans for my souldoll vito kate, after all), so that's always something worth considering. If my harucasting big geuru sells soon, I should be able to afford paying for the mizzle and yao tiao body nearly in full.
I still need to decide what body I'd like to get for my Logandolls Peregrine, though. Originally I'd have liked to get a Dream Valley B4-19 body, but considering getting it in light tan will run me $375, I... think I'm good, even if it would be my first pick. I wish I knew why light tan is a $110 upcharge for this body. Even the other msd bodies is $80 extra which, while IMO quite steep of an extra charge, is still $30 less.
I think once I square away the moe body, mizzle, and the yao tiao body, I will probably focus on my vinyl dolls again for awhile - I really need to get my Dollfie Dream Karin some proper clothes! It seems it'll be unlikely for me to source an outfit like the Volks Lady Wizard set for her anytime soon though, so I might just buy her one of the Volks "Folklore" sets.
I put them both on a massive layaway with DDE that’s been paid off for awhile now, which I originally placed late last July. I wrote to DDE on the 12th of this month, and they said souldoll has been behind so it will probably be a “couple of months, if not more” 😭 It looks like my wait time might be hitting a year for these two.
It makes sense there is a delay, especially since I know their faceup person was injured so they stopped offering faceups in the interim. I was only expecting 4-6 months + “dealer delay,” though. I love souldoll and they’ve made great strides to reduce their production times in the past to be closer to ~4ish months (sadly by discontinuing a lot of sculpts I love though lol), but I worry other people will not order from them at all because they’re put off by the wait times and souldoll will continue to take hit after hit. Souldoll is really cool and they’re one of my absolute favorite BJD companies but their dolls can be pretty niche so it’s a big risk when they make new doll releases.
On the bright side I have more time to consider what clothes to get them, as… I have not gotten them, well, anything. :’D I think Kyron should be about the same size as my other boys (Luts mdf, withdoll), but I know Devonia will need really stretchy bottoms due to the last time I owned a souldoll new-double kids body. I think I might order a dfh body or maybe the smartdoll pear that I can’t get out of my mind in the meantime and then start hunting for more bjd clothes as I list up parts of my collection to cull the herd the a bit and downsize. This summer I am hoping to get and set up a Billy Bookcase for my bjds.
