Ball Jointed Dolls Found at Tuesday Morning

Tuesday Morning happens to be one of my favorite places to search for dollie treasures because you just never know what you are going to find there.  My oldest daughter stopped by Tuesday Morning a couple days ago, and she was so excited to call to tell me that she had found some Ball Jointed Dolls.  They were Ai Ball Jointed Dolls from Jun Planning, which is the same company that makes Pullip dolls.  She brought home one of each of the two Ball Jointed Dolls that they had in stock.

If you've ever been interested in Ball Jointed Dolls, but were put off by the price, you may want to check out your Tuesday Morning for these little cuties.  Ball Jointed Dolls can be very expensive, easily ten times what these little dolls cost or more.  Tuesday Morning's price is just $29.99, so it's a very affordable alternative to ordering an expensive Asian Ball Jointed Doll if you'd like to give BJD's a try.

The dolls come packaged in a lovely white storybook style box with an embossed vine border around the edge  and gold foil writing in the center that says Ai Ball Jointed Doll.  Underneath, is the doll's name, "Thyme", in blue.

When you open the cover of the book, inside is little Thyme and her accessories.  

 

There is a clear protective cover that lifts up to access the satin covered cushion.  

Simply untie the satin ribbons to easily free Thyme from her box.  No plastic ties to cut and no cardboard or rubber bands.  I wish all dolls were packaged like this.

Thyme can stand well on her own, straight out of the box.  She stands about 14cm. tall or about 5 1/2".  She has blue eyes and platinum hair with ringlets styled in two ponytails. 

Her accessories include a blue and white gingham dress with black lace trim, a white lacy petticoat, white tights, black mary jane shoes, a furry cowprint collar, a cowprint hand muff, and a cowprint hat with gingham lining.

The back of her dress has a little furry cow tail.

Below are some pictures of her undressed to show her ball joints, her posability, and how she is put together for anyone new to BJD's. 

She is jointed at the neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, knees, and ankles.

Like other BJD's, she is strung, which means there is elastic which runs through her body holding her together.  BJD's are strung, which is one thing that makes them different from other dolls like Barbie, Monster High, American Girls, etc.  BJD's are more posable than other dolls. 

Here, I'm pulling on her foot to show the elastic that runs through her leg so you can see how she is strung.

 

Here you can see how her arms are strung the same way.

If I pull up on her head, you can see the elastic that runs through her body and into her head.

Her wig is attached to her head cap with Velcro.  It can easily be changed to a different wig, since BJD's are designed to be customized.

This shows the Velcro on the top of the head cap and the inside of the wig.

The headcap comes off easily, and is attached by a magnet.  Inside the head, you can see that the elastic is attached to a ring.

By pulling the ring out of the way and lifting out the part underneath, you can see the back of the eyes.  BJD are designed so that the eyes can be changed for customizing.  This doll is no exception.   You can easily change her eyes.  Her eyes are held in place by the little part you see in the picture below.  She also comes with a block of eye putty, which can be used instead to hold the eyes in place. 

I hope seeing inside the head and the stringing doesn't creep you out too much, but those are the mechanics of a Ball Jointed Doll.  I just wanted to show this for anyone who is new to BJD's.  Now back to cute little Thyme.  She has the most adorable little hands.

My camera just can't capture the amazing sculpting of her little feet.

She can touch her face, and she can hold whatever position that you put her in pretty well.

Here she is dressed back in her complete outfit that she came with.

Here is Thyme with Rosalee, my Fairyland Littlefee.  Rosalee is about 10 1/2" tall compared to Thyme's 5 1/2".

 Thyme could be Rosalee's little sister.

The other Ai Ball Jointed Doll that my daughter found at Tuesday Morning was Leucocoryne.

Here she is in her storybook box.

She reminds me of a little elf.

The details of her outfit are amazing.  She wears a green and yellow striped top with a scalloped hem that is decorated with tiny red beads.  She has a separate ruffled collar with bead details.  She has forest green knee length pants and gold stockings.  Her green shoes are decorated with ruffles and a gold trim.  She has a tall green elf hat.  She has red hair, green eyes, and a sprinkling of tiny freckles across her nose.

How do these dolls differ from other expensive Asian Ball Jointed Dolls?

1.  One of the differences between these BJD's and a lot of high end BJD's is that they are made of plastic, possibly ABS like the Hujoo Ball Jointed Dolls, instead of resin like other very expensive BJD's.  I can't tell the difference actually, but I found this information out from researching these little dolls online.

2.  The only other difference that I've been able to find is that these little dolls come with clothes, wig, eyes, and a face up (their face paint).   BJD's usually do not come with clothes, wig or faceup, because they are designed to be customized.  When you order a BJD though, you do have the option of paying extra for a factory faceup, and you can even order dolls as a "full set", so that they come with clothes and a wig which costs more too.  These little dolls do come complete so that you can enjoy them just as they are, but they are still made to be completely customizable just like any other BJD.

I would recommend these adorable little BJD's, especially if you are looking for an affordable way to add a BJD to your doll collection.  Check your local Tuesday Morning to see these sweet little dolls in person.  If your Tuesday Morning doesn't have any in stock, search for Ai Ball Jointed Dolls on Amazon.  Amazon has many of them at the same price as Tuesday Morning, $29.99, although some are much higher.

Since this post is already so long, I'll tell you about the other adorable dolls that my daughter brought home from Tuesday Morning in the next post.

Update 

Thanks to Barb for posting a comment below to ask about their eyes.  Their eyes can be adjusted or completely changed out for different eyes.  The manufacturer also provides eye putty with each doll.

I had not tried to adjust their eyes or use the eye putty in any of the previous pictures, and they looked a little cross-eyed.  So today I decided to adjust their eyes.  When you remove the head cap (held on with a magnet), there is a plastic cover that holds the eyes in place.  I removed that plastic piece, and used the eye putty to hold the eyes in place.  Their heads are small, but it was still pretty easy to do.  I used the rounded end of a paint brush to push the eye putty in to hold the eyes in place.  Here is what it looked like on the inside of the head after I got the eyes adjusted.

Here are Thyme's before and after pictures.

Before adjusting eyes

After adjusting eyes

Here are Leucocoryne's before and after pictures.

Before adjusting eyes

After adjusting eyes

I'm happy that I took the time to adjust their eyes.  They still might not be adjusted just right, but I think they look better.  What do y'all think?

Dr. Who and Dolls

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a wonderful blessed holiday season! 

I wonder how many Dr. Who fans there are out there in the doll community?  We are Dr. Who fans here and our dollies are too.  I don't have any actual Dr. Who dolls, although I'd like to, but I do have a few Dr. Who related doll accessories.  I though it might be fun to combine them all into a Dr. Who and Dolls post.

Before all the busyness of the holiday season got into full swing, I was having fun sewing and made a few doll t-shirts.  I had some printer iron on transfers left over from another project, so I was able to print out some designs to transform these homemade t-shirts into Dr. Who shirts.

American Girl Kit's shirt sports Hello Kitty as the Doctor wearing a fez with the caption "Hello Doctor".  Kit likes to dress up and pretend to be Rose Tyler (played by Billie Piper), the traveling companion of the 9th Doctor, played by Christopher Eccleston and the 10th Doctor, played by David Tennant.

I love the quote from 11th Doctor, played by Matt Smith, from the episode titled "The Big Bang".  When River Song asks him what he has on his head, he replies "It's a fez. I wear a fez now. Fezzes are cool."  Here's a clip from that episode.

Hearts For Hearts Girl, Lauryce, likes to pretend that she is River Song, since she says she has hair just like River's.  Her t-shirt has one of River's famous quotes, "Hello Sweetie!"

 

Ellowyne Wilde likes to dress up as Amy Pond (played by Karen Gillan), the 11th Doctor's traveling companion, when she wears her red wig.  There is a picture of the TARDIS on her shirt.  For anyone not so familiar with Dr. Who yet, TARDIS stands for Time and Relative Dimension in Space.  The TARDIS is the Doctors time machine and space ship all rolled into one.  It can transport the Doctor and his companions to any point in time and any place in the universe.  It is disguised as a Police Box on the outside and it is "bigger on the inside".

Mini American Girl Felicity also likes to pretend that she is Amy Pond and that the TARDIS takes them into the future and back to the 1700's, which she is from.

Felicity's TARDIS is actually a cookie jar that I found at Books A Million.

 

Another Dr. Who find from Books A Million was this Mini TARDIS building set.  The blocks and mini figures look like Lego, but the brand is actually Character Building.  Here is the box.

 

The girls couldn't wait to get started building their very own TARDIS, and the 11th Doctor and Amy Pond mini figures.  

 Kit loves the Doctor.

Now on to building the TARDIS.  The set has 53 pieces. 

All done and ready to play!

 

This is an adorable mini set and works great as a doll accessory.

The doors really open and close and the mini figures can fit inside.  The Doctor has a mini Sonic Screwdriver that fits in his hand.

With the doors open here, you can see that the TARDIS is "bigger on the inside".  :)

We found another fun bookstore called 2nd & Charles, that is a subsidiary of Books A Million. 

Inside we found a huge life size 3D TARDIS display.  So cute! 

My girls had fun hugging the Doctor and shaking his hand.

 I found a charm bracelet with a little red telephone booth at Claire's.  It reminded me of a TARDIS, so i decided to make a doll necklace with it.  I painted it with blue craft paint and sprayed it with sealer.  This is what the charm looked like before painting.

Here is Ellowyne modeling the new TARDIS necklace.  A true Whovian!

Lastly, Kit is back to show you her "Trust me, I'm the Doctor" pin with David Tennant as the 10th Doctor.  We found the pin at Hot Topic.  

I hope you enjoyed seeing our Dr. Who fan doll accessories.  It is so much fun to find cool doll accessories and props.  I'd love to hear about your finds too.  What do your dolls collect?

Meet My First BJD, A Fairyland Littlefee

Merry Christmas!  I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season!  I'm sorry there haven't been many posts or updates lately, it's been so busy here with the holidays.  Our extended family spent Thanksgiving at our house, and it was so lovely having everyone over and visiting with them.  We spent at least the whole week before cleaning and getting everything ready though, so there wasn't much time for anything else.  After Thanksgiving, I began working on my first ball jointed doll (BJD).

In my last post, I told you about her.  She is a Fairyland Littlefee, which is a YOSD size BJD, so she's around 10" tall.  She is the Juri 2013 sculpt from Fairyland, which is a special edition faceplate from an event.  I ordered the blank Juri faceplate first.  Next, the body I found came with her original box, the Leah faceplate, a wig, and a pair of acrylic eyes.  I sent my Juri faceplate to Delicate Reflections to have her faceup painted.  While she was away getting beautiful, her body arrived and I had fun playing with her (with the Leah faceplate).  I am planning to sell the Leah faceplate, her wig and her eyes to help recoup some of the money that I've  spent.  

These dolls are so customizable that you literally choose everything to make them unique and individual.  There are many different companies that make BJD's, then there are different sizes and lots of different face sculpts to choose from.  Once you choose a company, doll and face sculpt, you can customize their faceup, change their eyes, and you choose their wig, clothes, and their accessories.  With all this customizing, no two dolls will look alike, even if they are from the same company and have the same face sculpt.

Friday was like Christmas, I opened the mailbox to find that my Juri girl had arrived safely back home!  Yay!!!  So, without further ado, here she is.

Introducing Rosalee...

Here'a a closeup of her precious little face.  Trinity did an awesome job on her faceup.  I love her little freckles and her long lashes.  I ordered two sets of glass eyes for her, one purple pair, and a pair that is half blue and half green.  I've never had a doll whose eyes could be changed before.

She's finally all put together.  Even though I didn't paint her face myself, I've had so much fun customizing her.  I made her super soft pink wig from a piece of Tibetan Lamb Mohair.  I knitted her sweater and sewed her leggings.  I even made her hair clips and her strawberry necklace.  I have plans to make so many more things.  Still in the planning stages is her room diorama.  I have thoroughly enjoyed the creative side of BJD's.  I would recommend to everyone, even if you don't have a BJD, pick your favorite doll, and get creative.  It makes the hobby even more fun and helps you to bond with the doll and make her even more special to you.

Rosalee is fully posable with joints in her neck, shoulders, elbows, wrist, chest, waist, hips, thighs, knees, and ankles.  Her range of poses is incredible.  She can stand alone without a stand.

She can kneel.

She can sit like a little girl playing with her toys.

I find it pretty amazing that she can hold a pose standing on one foot.

My favorite pose is lying on her tummy because it looks so natural.  Because of the joint in her chest, she can slouch forward or arch backward.  This arching backward pose makes it possible for her to lay on her tummy and arch her top half up so she can pose leaning on her arms.  She is laying on her lovely book style box here.  Her box is navy blue linen with iridescent silver foil lettering.  It opens like a book and has a magnetic closure

Rosalee wanted to show you her favorite dollie.

She is very interested in the tiny Crystal Red Shrimp in my shrimp tank.  Can you find the tiny red and white striped shrimp she's looking at?

Until next time...

Have a wonderful weekend!