The other day I found someone selling a hybrid with the DT15 boy body. I've always wanted that body, and now that the old version is sold out, I was really excited to see it for sale. So I actually went ahead to contact the seller and now I've paid and I'm just waiting for the body to be shipped out. Gahhh. It's gonna reach Singapore before I'm even back. And I want to see if it'll fit Joe (cos no one else would really need that body). And whether Joe might need to be reblushed or something to fit the skintone, lol. Joe's too pink, I think (I'm guessing). But, I'm not gonna see it for...at least a month. No wait, longer. Ahhh :/

Support BJD Artists

Support BJD Artists

Appreciate that each doll is the result
of their creativity, love and hardwork.

#ProBJDArtists

***

This idea was initiated from a tumblr post here by Saskha, and I thought that I should do this, especially given how I was actually initially recast-neutral (more of that later on), but I'm now anti-recast (or more specifically pro-artists, since this is why I am against recast). Also, do note that I'm going to be using both terms (anti-recast and pro-artist) interchangeably in this post, although I'm aware that there are subtle differences between them.

First of all, I've not really been too vocal, so to speak, with my stance on recasts before this. To begin with, when I first heard about recasts, I wasn't too informed about what they were. I'm mostly on deviantart and DenofAngels, and specifically DoA is firmly anti-recast, and all I "learnt" was that recasting was not supported by the forum, and instances of recasting tends to be pretty old ones (back when recast dolls were poorly made and with toxic fumes etc). I pretty much keep my dA watches to people with legit dolls (since I usually come across them from DoA), so you can imagine I wasn't too informed about recasts, nor did I want to make a stand on how I felt about it.

After a while, the Castaway forum was made, and I think I came across it from confessions on Tumblr, so I went to check it out. For the most part, the forum was friendly, and I learnt more about recasts there. For one, I know that recasts are no longer than kind of health hazards they used to be (at least, no more than legit bjds), so the "health" argument wasn't valid. Nor were recasts so badly casted that they look bad. In fact, they were as well made (or more well made, as some may argue) than legit dolls. At that time, most people who were for recasts presented their main reasons as:

1. Recasts allows them to buy limited dolls who are no longer sold and are rarely found on the secondhand market. When they are sold secondhand, the prices tend to be much too high as a result of scalping, which they felt benefited someone who was not the artist.

2. Recasts allows them to buy dolls in colours other than the ones which are offered by the company, in particular, the preference for tan. (Fantasy colours became more popular afterwards, I believe, but I seem to recall the inital reason stems from tan resin not being offered by most bjd companies).

3. Recasts allows them to buy doll parts to replace broken ones that the original company does not sell (e.g. elbow peanuts or a single left calf). In some cases, the company flat out refuses to sell the part, but in other cases, the replacement of parts may involve buying more parts from the company than is actually needed, which leads to an unneccessarily larger price tag.

At that time, I thought these seem like rather understandable reasons for people to buy recasts. I say "understandable", because I can see why these reasons might be valid, and even if I don't agree with them, I don't think they are completely unreasonable (more of this later, when my stance changes from neutral to anti-recasts). At the same time, the hate that recast owners seem to be getting (I say "seem", because I've not seen hard proof so far, but I'm not going to assume that there isn't either) appeared disproportionate to what they have done. Disproportionate because hate is never really a good option. I believe we can agree to disagree, and even if I vastly disagree with you, I believe everyone should still behave in a civilised manner, and perhaps debate over it, and so on. But hate? No, I think hate, especially in a personal, targetted way is not to be tolerated. With both these reasons (the seemingly reasonable reasons why people get recasts, and the seemingly unreasonable reasons why recast owners get hate), I was a bit more alright with recasts then. This was when I was recast neutral. In fact, I did browse Castaway threads and commented positive things on gallery threads with recasts in the photos, as I would have done while browsing similar threads with legit dolls.

During this period when I was recast-neutral, I actually thought about whether I might want to own a recast because of the arguments (in particular no. 1, about limited dolls). I'm not going to lie - I have thought about it. and contemplated for a while whether this means I can finally buy a Volks Amelia boy (a recasted one), at a reasonable price. But, the thing is, no matter how attractive it seem, I could never get past the fact that this doll, this doll that is recasted, is just...wrong. I cannot in any way feel justified enough to buy a recast, no matter how much I could "understand" the reasons why people buy recasts. At this point, it is a emotional reflex. And as Armeleia points out here, although those of us who are against recasts tend to present logic to argue for our stand, there is definitely a very personal (and which I'll call emotional) reason why we are against recasts. Let me just say that even if at this point, I did not understand why I was anti-recast, but I was surely, turning away from being recast-neutral.

I think the thing that sealed it for me, and made me anti-recast, was how, really, the reasons for buying recasts stems form a sense of self-entitlement. I think we forget how BJDs are in fact works of art. The creativity and thought process behind the conceiving of a sculpt, the actual technical skills involved in sculpting (be in by hand or digitally), and the amount of hardwork one has to consistently put in over a long period of time to actually complete a doll. (This is essentially what I summarised for the message my doll, Cypher is holding above. The Creativity, Love and Hardwork). As someone who dabbles in drawing, very very infrequently sculpting, and who is an architecture design student, I feel like I should mention that all 3 elements, creativity, love and hardwork are needed in making something (which is, in a very basic way, the definition of an artist, I suppose). Leave creativity or hardwork out and the final product may never be produced (in this case, I can state that my inability to put in hardwork means my few attempts at doll sculpting never came into fruition). Alternatively, leave love out, and there is usually no motivation for any bjds to be sculpted, especially when most bjd artists work independently (I'll go ahead and compare this to when I have no love lost for my design in school and the only reason why I complete the project is because it's school work. Leave me to do it alone without school deadlines and it'll never be done.).

With this in mind, reexamining the reasons pro-recasts give for their stand then seem very selfish and self-entitled. I mean, to begin with, we should all realise that dolls are non-essential goods, which means that we only really *want* dolls, we never *need* them. Think about it. No matter what kind of arguments you give, chances are, look at it again, and you'll see that dolls are *wants* and never *needs*.

As such, with regards to the pro-recast arguments 1-3 mentioned above, here's why I think they really stem from being self-entitled:

1. Limited dolls: No, one one *has* to own them. If the prices are too high on the secondhand market, one need not pay such a price, which they might find unreasonable. To *have* to get this limited doll, by hook or by crook, stems from being self-entitled. No one owes anyone any limited doll.

2. Tan/Fantasy colours: Again with 1 above, no one *needs* a doll in some colour the company doesn't offer. Also, if anyone wants it enough, dyeing and airbrushing have been done way before recasts were a thing, when people wanted such coloured dolls. Yes, they chip and rub and are sometimes uneven. But, such an inconvenience is due to your *want* to have the doll in another colour, and if *you* are unwilling to pay the price, how does it make it right in any way to make another (the BJD artist) pay this price by buying a recast? (There is honestly, no logical logic - repeating the words because sometimes people forget, for some reason, that logic stems from logical reasoning - involved in this line of thought).

3. Replacing parts/getting just a part: In terms of replacing parts, chances are if it's the company's fault to begin with, you can find some way (whether through contacting them and providing evidence, or in some cases, having to argue with the company, perhaps?) to get it from them. I'm aware that there are exceptions, however, and to be honest, if this is the case, this is probably the most likely case where I would be more sympathetic to getting a part recasted to replace. However, if it's for some reason, one's own fault for damaging a part to the point of needing a replacement...it's hard to say, and I'm sorry but there was likely a chance of preventing that from happening to begin with. Again, I'm likely to be sympathetic because damages are often unpredicatable and not always due to the owner's fault, but I am of the belief that owners should do what they can to prevent damages or live with the damages that are the result of their negligence. That might be a bit harsh, but that's my own policy, at any rate.
In terms of getting a new part, often it is because some form of hybridization (fantasy parts etc) is involved, and when there is a secondhand market out there for parts, no matter how strange (for example, a doll with company x body, but company y arms), and the only drawback is the price (e.g. buying bodies from both company x and y just to make 1 doll), the argument that one can buy just the part one needs for cheaper from recasters is really being selfish and self-entitled. No one says anyone needs a hybrid doll in any way.

In addition to the original 3 arguments, there seem to be more arguments for pro-recast, which I also find stems from being self-entitled:

4. Recast dolls are cheaper and poor owners cannot afford legit dolls: I will be brief here, because many others have written about it, but dolls are luxury items. There is always an option of saving and to use the poor card is to ignore the fact that dolls are not necessities, while pretending that just *wanting* a doll entitles you to owning one, for a price you find "reasonable" in the form of a recast.

5. Certain BJD artists are assholes, and deserved to get their dolls recasted/Certain artists are recast owners themselves, so they should be fine with or they deserve to have their dolls recasted anyway: For the first one, any person's opinion on the artist should not be reason to recast their dolls. As I mentioned earlier, I think people should behave in a civilised manner even if they disagree, and no matter the attitude of any person, even if you feel like they behave like assholes, is no reason to do something else against them in the form of recasting or buying their dolls once they have been recasted. There is no inherent logic (stressing the logical part of logic again) in this argument either, and it is mostly emotional. To wish bad on someone (the artist) for whatever reason is really, being self-indulgent. With regards to artists who have recasted dolls themselves, I believe their actions should never dictate how the rest of us acts. (I should mention that I do believe this makes such artists hypocritical. And I should also note that I do not know of any artists who do own recasts, but then again I could be uninformed, so I'll go ahead and assume such a scenario exists because it has been brought up in recast confessions). Again with the attitude bit, another person's actions may not sit well with you, but that does not mean you have any right to do wrong by them because of that. Doing so is being self-indulgent and self-entitled because you think your opinion/stand matters more than theirs.

And being self-entitled, in particularly as a consumer of bjds, really means neglecting and ignoring the artistic endeavor and sacrifices bjd artists make to produce the dolls you like. If as a consumer you are not willing to "sacrifice" (by this I mean paying the original retail price, or waiting out on the secondhand market for a legit limited doll etc) to get the doll you like, then you are not compensating the artists, the people who have sacrificed their time and effort to make these dolls. You are not supporting the very people who are the reason why there are dolls for you to enjoy to begin with. Without BJD artists, where would these dolls come from?

I think we should show our appreciation: recognise that each and every doll out there is the result of someone's creativity, love and hardwork, by only buying legit bjds. Support BJD artists.

***

P.S.: I realise that this post is long, so kudos to anyone who read this far.

Also, if I have made any points you do not agree with, feel free to present your own opinion (whether you support artists or recasts or are neutral) if you want to, because I think logical debates help to inform everyone, but I won't tolerate personal attacks.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. :)

Fall

I had time today since my class ended early, so I finally got my lazy self to photograph Elly outside. This is some area behind my dormitories, and it's actually nice and quiet there, so I could sit on the floor and take photos (while looking strange as hell because I was using a 50mm lens and I didn't want to be too far from Elly in case she fell, so I was lying back to take photos ._.). I do have some full body shots of her but they didn't look too good (gosh, her legs are soooo disproportionately long, especially with heels and high waisted shorts), so nahh.

I like her beanie with the wavy hair. Not too sure what's her style but she might be the kind who switches between girly and somewhat street-style? And she's a girl with a bit of an edge. That's about how much I have with her personality so far, which isn't much, to be honest.

Also, in a not particularly related note, I miss Joe, my Esthy Peroth. I realise my photos of him are so few (I didn't take any of him when I was home during the holidays, even though he was on Nat's body for a while), so I dug around and found a photo to edit:



Oh man, I miss him. I think I miss the dolls I don't have at random...sigh. But it's not like I can bring them all around all the time. I kind of switch between which dolls I want to play with so it's hard to decide who I want to bring around. :/

Taking old photos and editing them. Sometimes going through my old photos lets me see the way I took them in a different light. I almost always choose a different photo to edit from what I had edited immediately after the shoot. I guess my preference changes?

Things that could have been done better:
1. Nat's face positioned so the shadows are in a more defined fashion (like Dennis's)
2. Dennis right arm repositioned to be more relaxed
3. Tilt the camera for better composition (rule of thirds maybe)

I still quite like the photo, to be honest. Haha.

Also, have some photos of Cypher:




You can probably tell it's just my laptop behind (and my earphones, and my phone...whoops). The thing with LTFs is that they're small and they encourage my laziness. Haha. But then again, I've not taken much photos of Elly... Ahh well. I can blame many factors but to be honest I'm not particularly in dolly mood recently, since there's so much to see in Korea when I'm free, besides just playing with my dolls. I still like to pat Elly on the head though, sometimes. X3

Visiting Ninestyle Cafe | 04.10.14

I realise I forgot to post this, haha. I went to Ninestyle cafe last week to get Elly her wig and clothes since I wasn't too happy with the default from the SDGr. Lovely Dress ver. of Tae. The black wig was just too ...uptight/good girly for her? Yeah. She's a fun loving kind of girl, a bit more carefree and spontaneous so the colour was really not right.

Anyway, I got the address beforehand and used a combination of GPS and Naver maps (sort of like a Korean version of Google maps) to get the location. It's in Hongdae, which is a more hip/happening place (so is Volks, by the way. Volks is in the active region though, while Ninestyle is not in as busy an area), but the cafe is located in a quieter area. It's almost residential/what I would see near school. Yeah. The cafe is on the 3rd floor and as with Volks, I was looking upwards for any signboards to show me I was in the right place, lol.



Found it.



This is the shop that's beside the building Ninestyle cafe is located. I mean, there wasn't much landmarks or anything special around, save for signboards.

There isn't a lift either, but the only stairs I found looked a bit...private? Like it doesn't look like the public should be venturing in anytime. But it's open so I went up. Passed by what looks like a tailoring shop's working room (thought I might be in the wrong place), but continued up the stairs and finally I saw this sign.


It all feels a bit...random? Haha. I mean, it is a small shop, so I guess the location and all isn't the best.

The door to the shop :) Also. The toilet is right beside the entrance...


I didn't take any interior shots but I saw some when googling for ninestyle cafe before going, and it pretty much looks the same. There's a cafe part of it, and a shop part. The cafe part was packed - no empty tables for me, cos I went at about 3pm, and I guess the doll owners who want to have meetups there are there early. There's display booths for people to take photos of their dolls in, but the general feel of it is kind of like how the doll meets in Singapore are (except ours are at non-doll cafes, so sometimes we kind of just invade the cafe for too long >_<)

The shop part of it was pretty wonderful. There's dolls from different companies on display. I saw BeWithYou dolls (Age27 Wood) on the cafe counter (He's so huge in real life, I totally can't imagine it. And soooo gorgeous. The body and the face and gah, really nicely sculpted. His feet are gigantic, by the way), and the doll models on the ninestyle page (The dollshe, sch A and Yeonho are the ones I remember), and the clothes are organised by sections with the dolls placed around as display (I think some in the display glass case might be for sale?). They sell wigs from Formydoll, Wig Wing, and they also have stuff from Sadol (and a little bit from Anotherspace), so it's not all Ninestyle items, like I thought. Oh, and they sell makoeyes and Enchanted doll urethane eyes at the counter too. Supplies as well (strings, s hook etc).

One thing that took me a while to figure out was the price tags. At first I thought they didn't have a price tag, but later I realised that the sticker with the long string of numbers under the barcode has the price (take the last 5 digits of the barcode number, I think). Yeah. That part wasn't too user friendly. But once I got that out of the way, I spent way too long in the shop trying to stretch my limited budget. Got stuff for Elly and I wanted to get some yosd jeans for Cypher but nope, didn't have enough money for that. I totally skipped out the SD13 and SD17/70cm boys section because I didn't want to see what I didn't have enough money to buy, haha. It's much harder to resist when the goods are in front of you compared to when it's an online shopping cart.

Anyway, for anyone who might want to know, I got a 5% discount on my total because I paid in cash (vs paying with a card, I guess?), so that was an unexpected surprise :D The lady behind the counter (there's only 1 person manning the whole shop) wasn't really able to speak English well, but she's friendly and she asked where I'm from etc. Haha. She gave me a pair of doll panties as gift after I paid (well, she walked over to the shop area and gestured to the small items, saying "gift" and asking me to choose 1, haha). Yeah. Overall, a nice experience though I totally skipped out on the cafe portion of it (too engrossed with the shop).

 Maybe next time I'll bring Elly out or something and sit around in the cafe, but I don't really want to battle with the subway crowd to Hongdae with a doll in my bag. The passengers have a habit of just pushing you out of their way if they're trying to move from carriage to carriage... I'll see how.

Anyway, have a photo of Elly with her new wig and clothes (I know the photo doesn't show much of the clothes though, ahhhh)

Visiting Volks Korea!

Actually it's more of a box opening than photos of the Volks Korea shop because we're not supposed to take photos inside, so even though I managed to take some shots before a shop assistant came by to inform me that no photos are allowed, I'm not going to be posting those photos. Anyway, the funny thing is I've actually walked past this area a few times while doing site analysis, because for some reason my site for architecture studio this semester is in Hongdae.

So here's the outside. The advertisement is pretty high up, and I didn't see it at all the last few times I've walked past. I'm still kind of in disbelief about that, considering that I went to search how the outside of Volks Korea look like so I would know it when I see it (which didn't work, haha).



Outside the shop, on the stairs (Volks is on the 3rd floor).




Yup, no other photos inside the shop.

Let me just say that I spent my afternoon just browsing inside the shop, and it was just so nice to see everything in person. I'm so used to online shopping for dolls that seeing everything in real life in a physical shop is a bit of a dream come true/surreal, outside of doll conventions (I've only been to the local ones in Singapore which isn't big enough to have doll companies come down, so we just have local owners selling things :) ). And Volks. I think I have a recent obsession with Volks, and seeing their dolls and items in real life didn't help that obsession, haha.

They have a whole shelf for FCS-heads, bodies, hand and feet parts. The heads are blank and you can really see the difference in head size and features etc. Unfortunately even though I'll be in Korea until the end of December with an address in the univeristy hostel, I can't order any FCS D: The shop assistants told me it'll take 2-3 months for an FCS so they can't let me order. AHHHHH Welllll D:

I then proceeded to shop for clothes and shoes, because Volks shoes are so damn detailed. And I stood there for really long, deciding what to get with the budget I set myself (I wanted to drop by ninestyle cafe as well, but I didn't have enough money after going to Volks, haha. I brought Cypher out for the ninestyle cafe but didn't really take him out in the end, because I ended up not going). Then before I left, I saw the poster they had for the current releases, and omg, Lovely Dress ver. SDGr Tae!

The shop assistant offered to show me the doll (all the shop assistants are damn nice. They came by to talk to me, and even though their English is limited, they do speak rather well compared to my studio mates, haha. And they are really friendly. I talked to another shop assistant about my dolls for a while, and showed her some photos, even though I only have 1 Volks doll, so my photos weren't usually of Volks dolls. I don't know, Volks and their effy rules about Volks only, so I didn't want to be rude but she was totally okay with photos, as long as I didn't take Cypher out.) So yeah, she showed me the box, the certificates and clothes etc. And then she took out the doll, and let me hold her (Just a note, I had to wear gloves to handle the dolls, as do the assistants. Just to be clean about it, I guess. I mean, I understand the idea of it but meh, when it's my own dolls. Okay, moving on...). Once I held the doll, I was pretty much sold. I mean, I've liked Tae and I want a girly girl doll (oh, my tomboy and boho girls. Haha.). Long story short, I caved and bought the SDGr Tae. :D

After that I went back to find my friends and we went to Namsan Tower (yesh, me with my doll...), and I was really tired, so excuse the box opening photos.

The bag of clothes I got at first, and my Tae :D


The clothes. For the boys, really. I think I'll go to ninestyle cafe for the clothes. And maybe the wig for her (I'll think of a name for her soon!)










I skipped taking a lot of photos of the different parts because I just wanted to get to the doll XD


Such a pretty face!


Her faceup looks better in person. I've never really been a big fan of Volks faceups (they're a bit soft for my taste. And I don't mean the colours, but the way they do the eyebrows etc, their eyebrows, for example, aren't the crisp kind I prefer. Too much soft blending for my taste), but she'll have to keep this for a while until I get back to Singapore where all my faceup materials are. Her eyes are hot-glued in, which I've not went to unglue either. But overall the soft dreamy feel seems quite close to whatever character she'll be, so we'll see how that goes :)


And her with the default outfit and wig (not everything cos I was lazy). I don't think she suits black, huh. I like the photo above better (the one without a wig) because she has more potential, haha. But I'm going to slowly think about it.


Also, now that I've officially taken my impulse buying to a new level, I'm most likely going to sell my LLT Roderich head. He's still without a character, and I feel like I'll rather sell him and use that money for other dolls. But it'll have to wait until I get back to Singapore because he's back home, haha. I'm sorely lacking my doll stuff here, seriously. Almost like starting from square 1. I mean, Cypher has his clothes and all, but he's a LTF. Tae is a SD sized girl. Of which I don't have much stuff for, to begin with, even at home, and of which I have NOTHING here for her.

Dreaming Ell and Vampire Ell looks much better than the regular Ell. Teeth :D Gosh, no I have enough floating heads arghhhhh :/