By David on November 2, 2008
The Anime Blog reader and contributor Liz Ohanesian has a great article in L.A. Weekly about Elfdoll, a series of customized, ball-jointed dolls made by hand from high-quality materials. Here’s an excerpt:
“Other companies, when they market the dolls, they actually create characters for them,” says Chris Holz of Melbourne, Australia, a collector who happened to arrive in Los Angeles just in time for this event. “The Elfdolls don’t have a background. They’ve got a name, but that’s tantamount to just identifying the doll. When people buy them, it’s whatever they want.”
Liz Ohanesian is a Los Angeles-based journalist covering music, media and club culture. She is a staff writer for Club World and her work regularly appears in such publications as the L.A. Weekly, Razorcake and Outburn. She has written for such publications as Punk Planet, PopMatters, Santa Monica Mirror and others.
Do any of you collect ball-jointed dolls? If so, let us know!
Posted in Japanese Culture | Tagged anime dolls, ball jointed dolls, la weekly
I love anime. Specifically, series involving any of the following things: weird fantasy elements, super-powers, robots, aliens, wicked humor, crazy villains, horror, ninjas and samurai. I guess that means I like a lot of anime. I am pretty particular about the quality of animation and voice acting. If the character designs and animation quality aren't of über-quality, I quickly loose interest.The first anime-related series I ever watched was Battle of the Planets - otherwise known as Gatachman. The first true theatrical anime feature film I saw was Akira. My first exposure to manga was later in life when I read Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy.There are so many incredible elements of Japanese culture. Some of the most exciting to me are the style of design and storytelling. I'm a web designer & illustrator, and I find myself looking to Japanese design for inspiration all the time.Anime blogging has taught me even more about Japanese culture and anime than I ever expected, and I continue to learn more every week. In fact, I'd love to travel to Japan. Rachel and I hope to visit sometime within the next few years.
Thanks for pointing out the article, I love reading your blog but was a lurker until now… Sorry!
I’m a recently addicted BJD collector living in England, It’s an expensive progression from anime figures! I’ve brought three dolls from Iplehouse (a korean BJD company) so far and haven’t regretted a single purchase.
With the attention to detail and the price it’s better to think of them as art or collectables than toys. That’s how I manage to justify spending so much!
Cool and creepy at the same time…
Finalheaven – Thanks for reading our site and congrats on your first comment! Do you have any photos you’d like to share of your BJD collection?
Hieronymus – Yeah, the ‘blanks’ can look a little creepy, but once they’re all decked out, they’re pretty cool!
May be they are creating anime character for all the dolls that they are seling so that thier product will be more popular to the public.
Hey thats great. I just found this place and reading around, thanks for posting this. I have been collecting dolls for a couple years now, But only have one (for lack of money) But my sister has several, they are beautiful dolls. (Mine is a Luts limited elf chiwoo boy)