Reynardine Dolls

It's been a long while since I updated, and even longer since I posted photos. I plan to change that this year, although the photos will be a challenge. Our house is being remodeled so space is at a premium and my dolls have mostly been in storage.

I'm working on a better organization system, although my doll spreadsheet does at least help keep me up with what is on hand.

More later--I just got out of the hospital!

Just had a lovely transaction through Facebook and got a SDMidi Standard Momo at a good price. I took about an hour to pick out a pair of eyes for her (Volks HG Glass, cadet blue with white lines, 16mm). I think 18mm might look better on her but her eye sockets just aren't big enough. Her name is Cecilia.

No pictures as yet, I don't have a place to take them right now because of moving boxes. She is a cutie, though. Very anime feel to her.

Well, that was an unexpected delay. A big freeze in February ended up doing some significant damage to our ceilings. Very long short: insurance claim, roof repair, mold mitigation in attic, ceiling painting on our top two floors that forced us to move out most of our stuff from the first and second stories, either into the garage or a storage pod. Since we were having to pay for that move, we decided to go ahead and repair the drywall and paint on the top two floors. Then a deep cleaning and all our stuff will be moved back in, although I will be doing some unpacking and rearranging.

We lost little Shigure, my odd-eyed Japanese Bobtail kitten to a viral disease in March, and that was horrifying. At the same time, I was doing battle with the insurance company for repairs on our house, and honestly, I just didn't feel like talking about dolls just then.

SDMidi Eric did arrive and is lovely. He will be a great match for my SDMidi Tenshi Mamu. I can't wait to get them dressed up and take pictures with the two of them! I picked up a used Luts Kid Delf Maska Romance--needs cleaning and restringing but has an interesting face-up. I had sold my Maska years ago and always regretted it. This "Romance" Maska has half-closed eyes. If Luts offers the open-eyed Maska again, I will jump at the chance, but it doesn't seem likely at this point in time. I think it has been nearly 7 years since Maska has been offered? Not a popular sculpt, alas.

Got an unusual Dollyteria find on the way...a Yo-Midi Cyndy on a SDM body. The original Cyndy (an SD-13, a size I don't collect) was lovely. The Yo-Midi dolls (Midi-sized heads on Yo-sized bodies) never appealed to me, but one of my friends took a Yo-Midi head (one of the boys, not sure which) and put him on a SD-Midi body and that worked out fine. Turns out someone in Japan had the same idea--there were all of the Yo-Midi dolls on SDM bodies. I wasn't interested in the boys, but Cyndy is a gorgeous sculpt and I jumped at that. My husband was kind enough to indulge me. He rather liked Cyndy's design, a throwback to Volks old anime-styled dolls.

I also took advantage of Volks' preorder, so at some point in December (maybe?), an SD Charlotte will be coming my way. I was so disappointed when they released Luna with Liselotte rather than Charlotte, but this opportunity came up (through Volks USA even!) and I went for it.

No pictures right now as everything is packed away, but I am rearranging areas so that I will be able to more easily work on the dolls and take pictures of them! I've got several projects I want to try, and just haven't had the time due to the pressures of real life. I'm really itching to getting back to my dolls, especially the ones that needs some TLC. There's something really satisfying about taking a doll that is not pristine, and working to make it "whole" again. Nothing against pristine dolls--I love my gorgeous girls, but bringing new life to an old doll is a passion.

My Volks SD Rose did NOT arrive in time for my birthday, but it looks like it'll be here Thursday or Friday. She'll be unstrung, so I can go ahead and clean her up first before stringing her.

Because it was my birthday and my husband spoils me, I have another Bluefairy on the way. This is a Xiao 1st sculpt (the more smiley one) from 2007. I actually inquired about it some time ago, but the gal didn't see my message until today. Since she put it up in November, I had no idea if the doll was still available--turns out she is and will come in her box with extras.

I'm so pleased that my husband agreed to let me get her. I absolutely love the Xiao sculpt and this doll looks to have been well taken care of. Not sure when she'll arrive yet, waiting on shipping details. But super-excited! Xiao 1st is a very rare sculpt, they only had her for a couple of years then replaced her with the 2nd Xiao, who looks more serious.

I did hear from the Volks Lottery and SDM Eric will be coming home sometime in March (depending on shipping). He's very cute and would be a nice partner for my SDM Mamu Tenshi.

I have to be good for the rest of the year, though. Although I did reserve the right to do a FCS with Volks if they offer a SDM F-57, which is the sleeping head of the F-33. I actually wrote Volks USA about whether we might have a chance to get this doll in the US, and they wrote me a nice letter back. They usually only offer 1 FCS for the mini sized dolls a year, so it may not happen for awhile. However, I figured that it wouldn't hurt to let them know that the sculpt might be popular. SDM F-33 is a very popular sculpt, and they have offered it a couple of times in the US, so the sleepy version probably would do well here, too.

Well, the Volks SDC Arashi on the MSD boy body was delivered the day after Xmas. He was in better shape than I thought, although he definitely needs some TLC. I'll take him apart, take out the glue sueding (hate that, drives me crazy), sand the seams, and restring him. He needs some cleaning up. There's a few marks on the face-up, but if I'm careful, I think I can preserve it? We'll see how it goes.



I was going to name him Rory, but he's definitely not a Rory. I named him Jasper instead, after my 2nd favorite character from Twilight. (Bella's dad Charlie is my hands-down favorite, but I don't like the name Charles.)

Jasper came without eyes, but I have two sets that might do for him. A Luts blue glass 16mm and an Enchanted Eyes urethane (Milky #6) 16mm. I got the brown eyes for another doll (Kaj, my Luts Kid Delf Almond) and I need to pull him out and check to see if I changed the eyes out already.

The story with Kaj was one of those learning experiences. Several years ago, when Luts introduced their Yuz Kid Delf sculpt, I wanted to get a pair of Kid Delfs to be brothers. At the time, they were offering cat ears/tails, so these two were going to be the Malachy brothers, a pair of mischievous cat boys. However, when they came in, it didn't work at all. Kieran (Yuz KDF) had a much smaller head that Kaj (Almond KDF). So Kieran kept the Malachy surname and I gave Kaj a Swedish surname, Utne. No particular reason, I just thought Kaj Utne sounded cool.



Kaj and Kieran. The vampirish red eyes are Enchanted Doll urethane Milky #19) So much for my cat brothers plan!



Kieran did still do the Cat Boy thing, though.



Kaj had brown eyes for awhile, but they ended up going to Bryony (Bluefairy Kate) because I wanted a brown-eyed blonde girl. These are Enchanted Doll Milky #31 and Milky #4 (half-graduation) with Milky #6 rim (variations of brown) urethane, 16mm, low dome.



So Kaj got Blue eyes (these are Droprop Cobalt Blue urethane). But I think I switched him back to his original Enchanted Eyes Milky #19 (red) and gave the blue to Jillian (Dream of Doll DOC Tender Too girl). But she may have to give them back.

So this eye thing can get complicated, but this kind of customization is what makes BJDs so fun.

But back to Jasper. His eye choice will really depend on what wig I chose for him and his style of dress, which I won't know until after I clean him up a bit and try things out.

Well, Mother SD did not smile upon me for the lottery, but I did find a lovely SDMidi on Mandarake, which I bought instead (and was half the price of what I would have had to pay for a lottery doll). She's an SDMidi F-42 Coordinate Model.

F-42 is the "Sweet Dreams" versions of the MSD F-20 head, which means she has barely-opened eyes. And honestly, I wasn't a fan of that F-20. It was one of the ones you could easily find in the US (I guess Volks USA had it as a FCS option a few times), but I didn't like her expression, which looked a bit derpy to me. But the situation is like the standard SDMidi Noa. I didn't care for her in Normal Skin, but the White Skin version was gorgeous. And the face-up on this one is phenomenal. They even went to the trouble of painting the teeth!

Due to the pandemic (and mismanagement of our US Postal Service), Mandarake only ships DHL to the USA now. Ouch, that was more pricey than I liked, much more than EMS usually costs, and it irritated me that they shipped the doll in a SD-sized shipping box. DHL prices by size, not weight, so if Mandarake had just packed the doll in a proper box, it might have save me some money. On the plus side, there wasn't the anxious wait for the doll to go through customs. DHL has some kind of deal with customs and their packages speed right through.

I flip-flopped on the names. I originally was going to call her Bianca, but once I saw her, the name just didn't fit. Catherine sounded good, but that name is just everywhere now. I went with Harper instead, because I've taken up playing the Harp lately. Gorgeous doll, in perfect shape. The photos online did not do her justice at all.

Someone had changed out the eyes at one point (they weren't glued in as is usual with Volks), and they looked to be Volks HG eyes, but I can't be sure. They were light grey and nice enough, but with a narrow-eyed doll, I've found you need light, bright eyes in order for them to show up properly in photographs. I had some extra urethane eyes I'd gotten for sale a couple of years ago from Lemon Jelly Eye Shop (are they still open?), and found a nice pair in light blue that show up well.

The doll came with the box (that's a big deal with me, I store my dolls in their boxes), part of the default clothing set (missing undies, stockings, and shoes), all the paperwork including the certificate, and the default wig, which actually goes perfectly with her. I have a number of these MSD/SDMidi Coordinate Model dolls and absolutely love them. While I have a few SD-sized Volks dolls, I really prefer the mini size (MSD/SDMidi). They are easier to store, easier to handle, and easier to photograph.

It's raining today and is very dark, so I can't take decent pictures, but Harper is a lovely doll and I'm very pleased to add her to the collection. I need to do some furniture rearrangement so that I can set up a light box and get back to doing my doll photography again.

Still here, still in the BJD hobby. Unfortunately, between the pandemic, handling my father's estate, and adding three cats to our family, I have not had any time with my dolls at all. Probably won't have any free time for awhile. We'll see how things progress in the new few months.

Just out of curiosity, I was trying to see if my Volks dolls finally had outnumbered my Bluefairy krewe. I pretty much stopped buying Bluefairy when they went to the double-jointed bodies a few years ago and devoted my attention to Volks after that, although I have picked up a few dolls from other companies. I also want to note that ALL of my dolls are legitimate dolls. I don't support recasts.

I have a few DOA off-topic dolls not mentioned here, a couple of Hujoo Freyas and a mini-Freya, some of the old 1/6 Volks dollfies that I picked up cheap when they were discontinued, and a Scary Godmother from Jill Thompson's kickstarter a few years back, as well as 2 Hujoo pet dolls.

At this point, I have

38 Bluefairy Tiny Fairies
7 Bluefairy Junior Shiny Fairies (I prefered the Junior size to the regular Yo-SD Shiny Fairy size)
2 Bluefairy Pocket Fairies, both sugar-sized.

So a total of 47 dolls from Bluefairy.

From Volks I have

35 Mini-Super Dollfie/Super Dollfie Midi sized dolls
12 Super Dollfie dolls
8 Dollfie Dream (vinyl) dolls

So 55 from Volks. Volks wins!

So at this point Volks outnumbers Bluefairy. I sometimes wonder if I should have just gone with Volks to begin with, but when I started, Bluefairy was much more accessible and cheaper. However, they've become more exclusive and upped their prices, and truth be told, I just dislike their new body designs. But I do treasure my classic Bluefairy dolls.

Over the years I have picked up a few dolls from other companies:

2 Angel Region
7 Luts Kid Delf
2 Dream of Doll/Dream of Children (MSD size)

So it's quite a large collection. I have bought several dolls directly from the companies, but more than half of the collection is second-hand, usually from others getting out of the hobby, or adopting dolls that need a little TLC. DOA is still one of my favorite sources for 2nd hand dolls, since I know I'm getting them from other collectors. However, Mandarake and Dollyteria (both in Japan) have some good legit finds. You used to be able to get some real bargains on there, but I think since they figured out there is a market they can access in the US, they've upped their prices. Still, if you're willing to put in some work, bargains can still be found. I enjoy finding dolls that need a bit of work, taking them apart, cleaning them up, sanding their seams, and giving them a new lease on life. I still want to learn to do decent face-ups, so that I can truly customize my dolls.

At first, I tried to keep the male/female ratio even, but I found that for the most part, I preferred female dolls, although I do like the young boy sculpts. My taste tends towards the ordinary, Victorian or Edwardian style dress, or for Japanese, Meiji or Taisho styles. But I do have some more modern doll clothes that I picked up early in the hobby and sometimes it's fun to dress the dolls up with them.

My favorite size is obviously the MSD (mini) size. I do like my Super Dollfies and they certainly make a big visual impact and are impressive dolls, but they can be difficult to handle for photography. Easier to sew for, though.

I absolutely love being able to customize eyes and wigs, although once I find a combination that works for a particular doll, I tend to keep it like that. I used to do group pictures, but that got to be too time-consuming and difficult (since I store the dolls in their boxes), so usually I won't have more than 3 out at a time.

My first doll was a Bluefairy Tiny Fairy Emilie. My latest is a Volks SDMidi F-46 Coordinate model. At this point, I'm not sure if I'll add more to the collection, unless I manage something on a Volks lottery.

I dearly want to attend a Volks Dolpa someday, even if it is one in the US, but right now it's not practical.

Not long after I did my last post, my little black cat Tsuki was diagnosed with liver disease, and died within a month, so I was spending most of my time with her in her last days. No time for dolls.

My SDMidi Una Sweet Dreams did arrive nicely. From Japan did a good job. She's absolutely gorgeous. I've been cleaning up my library area, hoping I can get set up to take some pictures.

There's a new girl on her way as well. Found her on Dollyteria, a SDMidi Coordinate Model F-46 girl. I've wanted an F-46, but that is usually a boy model and Sato-only. However, I have seen on some Volks announcements that they did make a few F-46 girl coordinate models. Fair price, although she's not coming with eyes, wig, or clothing. That's not an issue as I have enough to customize her. She should arrive next week. I decided to call her Prudence, after my favorite character from Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. (I do love the name Sabrina as well, but that one is taken by a Bluefairy Tiny Fairy Jasmine!)

Oh, good heavens. This one is huge. 9 pages of items?

The Icon dolls were a pass. They are beautiful but not my style at all. And I don't like the Dear SDs, so safe from them. But the clothes! This was like four months of releases all at once?! I wish they had spaced them out and made it cheaper that way.

I put in for the ones I liked and hoped maybe there might be enough of my favorites, but dang, it's gonna be pricey. I really, really want the Ash Rose School Girl outfits. I missed them when they came out a few years ago, then wonder of wonders, they were re-released for the 20th anniversary! They're extremely popular, so I'm not sure if I'll get lucky enough.

It looks like they're holding back some of the Ash Rose outfits for the click-war later in the month, so I may have another chance if I strike out (or maybe I can get a second one so I can have two girls matching?).