I just discovered a Chinese company who makes various small Asian Balljointed Dolls with cute anime faceups and full outfits. These dolls use the Obitsu 11cm scale bodies and are fully strung and jointed. They are capable of standing on their feet without a doll stand.
The hair and eyes are all just painted and sculpted on which is different from most traditional BJD dolls. Another difference is that since it is a blind box, you don’t know which doll you will receive.
Another attractive difference is the price. I purchased mine at www.StrangeCatToys.com but I later found out I overpaid. 🙁
You can find these dolls on Amazon and Aliexpress for around $17-25 and I’m pretty sure I paid $40-50 for each. Also one of the sets I wanted was sold out on StrangeCatToys but I was able to find it on Etsy under a user called MyDollection. Again paying $50.
These dolls are fully legit and are not counterfeit or recast. I own recast dolls and see nothing wrong with it, but I know many people are anti-recast, so this is a nice cheap option – even cheaper than many recast dolls. Not a bad deal!
The user works with many small but legit Chinese artists to put together these Blindboxes. They do sellout fairly quickly. She at one point has some YOSD or MSD sized blindbox dolls – I just recently discovered them on Youtube with little elf ears – however those ones did not have faceups or come with clothes or hair.
I collect all different sizes shapes and styles of dolls. So I was able to compare my newly acquired Penny’s Blindbox BJD to my Azone Sugarcups Candy Ruru. Both are relatively 11CM in size. My Azone is not strung but instead assembled similar to a dollfie dream through a skeleton and joint system. The new Penny’s BJD dolls are fully strung with elastic and S hooks and the whole 9 yards like a traditional resin Asian Balljoint Doll.
The new Penny’s Blindbox dolls are VERY heavy. The Azone Sugarcups dolls feel like nothing, almost light as a feather. It’s a matter of preference which you prefer. Each type has its own set of problems when posing.
Penny’s Blindbox dolls are strung pretty tight and super “kicky”. I haven’t collected resin dolls for several years now since switching to vinyl dollfie dreams and smart dolls and Azones. But I remember when you first receive your resin dolls they are kicky like this, and overtime as you play with them more, the elastic will usually loosen. Alternatively, sometimes they get so loose and floppy that they can’t stand and have to be restrung.
Vinyl isn’t perfect either. My Dollfie Dream DDP Standard Model Ribbon arrived very floppy (possibly broken?) Direct from Volks Japan as my first ever Dollfie Dream and as me being her first owner – fresh out of the box. She’s the only one of my Dollfie Dreams that has an issue – she’s as floppy as a rag doll and legs fall off while dressing her. Super annoying.
But overall I prefer the light weight of vinyl and the ease of posing and assembling and etc (when needed for maintenance or dressing in tight outfits). One of the problems with Pennys BJD is I was scared to remove the hands – It comes with option hands, but I struggled to figure out how to remove the default ones from their S Hooks. This made the one I received a long sleeved tightly cuffed shirt for extremely difficult to dress. It legit took me almost a half hour.
Overall though, for the money, I love these dolls. Would definitely recommend them to anyone who asks.
