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Unoa and Dollmore Kid Comparison

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Someone on DoA requested a comparison shot of a Dollmore Kid with other MSD sized dolls, particularly how the slim MSDs like Narin and Unoa looked together, and I was happy to oblige. I thought I would go ahead and expand on the comparison shot a little bit for my blog though in case it might be helpful to others.

So first of all you can see how my Lusis has a slimmer waistline and is more in proportion with an adult female. Overall the bodies are nearly the same length, Sona just has a slightly longer neck which makes her appear a tiny bit taller than the Unoa. However Sona’s arms are a bit longer than the Unoa and her hands are definitely larger. Overall these two girls as they are can share loose fitting clothing like dresses and shirts.

Unoa has a larger bust, but Sona makes up for that in overall girth. Basically all of the Dollmore kid is just a little larger in girth than the Unoa, but this goes doubly do for the thighs near the ball joint. Dollmore kids kind of have “thunder thighs” lol. Anyway because of the differences in the thigh and hip area, they aren’t particularly suited to share pants, but you can get away with some skirt sharing, and possibly even loose short sharing if you are into that kinds of look.

Lastly, Dollmore Kids have huge feet. You can clearly see the size difference in the picture. Really I think Dollmore Kids must have some of the largest feet on an MSD because it is not uncommon to buy shoes that would work for an SD or SD13 girl and have them work on the kids.

Well I think that’s about it for my comparison chatter. I won’t discuss resin comparison because A) My Unoa is blushed, B) My Unoa has some yellowing and C) My lighting blew out Sona a little bit because I don’t consider her that white!!

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BeYours SD13 Girls

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While I was researching SD13 girl bodies to come up with a plan for Mio, I happened upon a company called BeYours. They appear to be a small doll company who at least to the English speaking community are fairly new. As of right now it looks like you can either order via TaoBao or Sunny’s World (the English site) also carries them. They also have their own website, but it seems as though it’s very new since it’s half finished and is a bit difficult to navigate due to dead links and such. Also I still haven’t figured out how you would order from their main website. I suppose you could always contact them directly though.

Their face sculpts are rather pretty, and for some reason they remind me a little bit of SupiaDolls style wise. They have fantastic face-ups which really brings out the beauty of the sculpt, however as of now I am unsure if you can order a doll with a face-up at all since I’ve only seen blank dolls on TaoBao and Sunny’s world. It would be a shame if you couldn’t order one with a face-up as they really are quite beautiful.

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The thing that first attracted me to these dolls however was the body sculpt. The sculpt is reminiscent of Volks SD13 girls, but is a bit taller and at least to me seems to have a sleeker design. BeYour’s “white” resin color is also this very pale beige that is very appealing. Their normal color is more pinky, but also pretty. As far as jointing goes she is double jointed and I particularly like how the “knee plate” of the double joint in the knee blends very nicely with the rest of the leg. Sometimes I feel that the doublejointed knees sacrifice too much in aesthetics for function for my taste. Overall the body shape is also appealing and she appears to have graceful hands. She is a tall one however, so I think for my needs I will probably stick with a Zaoll body.

Since they are a newer company though it would probably pay to research and keep abreast of any reviews coming out. A number of people on the forums have stated that BeYour’s resin is thin in places, while others claim there is no problem. BeYour’s did redesign the body so it could be that the older design may have had some thin areas while the newer design has fixed any flaws. I have heard reports that they pose very well though.

At only around $350 though, this is an economy priced BJD, especially for a 60cm doll. I do have to point out though that the doll is around $40 or so cheaper on TaoBao compared to ordering from their English site or Sunny’s World. As I’ve already stated before, I do not like this practice of increasing the prices for Western customers, so that makes me a little grumbly. $350 is a reasonable price to be sure, but I still feel less valued or respected as a customer, when better deals are given to people in their own country.

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Rejuvenation and Redesign Planned. :)

I’ve decided I’d like to try to be a little more serious about my little doll and toys blog here. I’m not sure if I will be able to manage it with all of my comic and illustration work, but I literally am looking at, enjoying, or doing something related to dolls and toys every week so I don’t see how I should fall short of material!

With all of this said, I will start with a re-design to make this place look a little more attractive and I’m probably going to try to suss out the categories and make them more organized. So please excuse any mid re-design ugliness and construction dust while I work on the new design (^_^;). I am also still considering a name change for this blog. Originally this started as a craft blog idea back when I made my own handmade paper and such, but now the name “Paper Stars” I feel just isn’t reflecting the content of the blog any more. ^^;;

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The Dolly Wishlist – Dollmore Mio

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I’ve had my eye on Dollmore’s Youth Eve Mio for quite a while. I love her sweet face and distinctly Asian look. I’m also a bit of a sucker for dolls with open mouths and teeth parts as well. What has prevented me from buying her in the past has been the fact that she is a 60cm doll, and as much as I love my MuDoll Ash, the big dolls are a bit too large for my tastes. This being said however I have always wanted to have a male and female pair of that size, sounds crazy right? XD

Another doll I had taken an interest in on the Dollmore site is Zaoll Luv as I find their body sculpt fantastic and there has always been something about the dreaming love sculpt with the purple eyeshadow and pink hair that has drawn me to it. Also interesting about the Zaoll is the size of the doll. They don’t have the impossibly long legs and have more human proportions. This got me to scheming then of possibly creating a hybrid of Mio on a Zaoll body. I’ve researched the topic and was pleasantly surprised to find that there are others who have already done the very same thing I want to do but with various other Dollmore heads and non Dollmore heads. The only roadblock is that apparently Zaoll’s resin is supposed to be a little pinkier than the Eve heads, but that seems easily remedied by a good face-up.

All this being said, I am strongly considering a Zaoll/Mio hybrid for what will probably be my one and only SD13 sized girl. This will probably also be the first doll that I order blank without face-up since I have a specific style of make-up in mind. This probably won’t be happening for a while though as I just bought my first DSLR (yay!) and there are a few other things I want to get squared away first. So for now Mio is just high on my wishlist. 🙂

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A Dolly Rant.

So, I’ve seen a few things that have irritated me lately related to dolls, and I figure this is probably the best place, my personal blog, to rant about it. Rest assured though this has nothing to do with fandom.

I’ve noticed this for a while now since I’ve spent some time on TaoBao, but it’s only recently come to really bother me, and that is the fact that sellers on TaoBao jack up their prices in their English language shops. Take for example this skirt and top set in a Taobao shop (whose name I am witholding for search reasons but you can find out easily enough on your own). The list price is 88 Chinese yuan as you can see below.

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88 yuan is roughly $14.19 based on the last check of the exchange rate, which you can easily find out by just googling “_insert number_ yuan to USD”. Google actually has a built in exchange rate calculator that pops up that will even show you the exchange rate trends from the past few years.

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Now above we have the exact same item in this particular seller’s English language store and it’s listed as being $39. ( ಠ ಠ ) Yeaaaaah….Now I will give them the benefit that they offer “free shipping” on all their goods. Usually this just means they have calculated the price of shipping into the goods, and this is fine, I have no problem with that, but we all know that a small mailer packet for two pieces of doll clothes is not going to be $25.

Now I am willing to pay good money for quality goods, but I am going to have to say that I had purchased from the above seller in the past and for the quality of item I would have been better off to have bought from an independent crafter on etsy who had a better quality product at a better price.

So now that I’ve had it out, I hope you will be a smart shopper and stop patronizing stores who jack up the prices for Western customers because they think they can get away with it. Go buy instead from independent crafters or doll companies with with good customer service and fair and equitable pricing globally.