Big ol bundle of bjds

 now this is a different one. 

See, i've mentioned before how big job lots of dolls are a weakness for me right? Especially tlc job lots. but usually that means playline dolls, cheap old toys that are only like ten to twenty quid for the lot.

Buuuut... well... 

I stumbled upon someone in the UK selling a big lot of Dollmore bjds for a really good price. She'd inherited them and wanted them to just go together for simplicities sake, which isn't an easy ask when selling high ticket items like bjds. I mean even selling ONE bjd can take forever.  As a result that "quick sale" ended up taking several months to happen. 

So along I came all "oo dolls?" 

And I fell in love with one of the sculpts which I then learned was discontinued. So then I was like "WANT!"

I also had been eyeing one of the other sculpts  for a while because she was dang adorable. 

Anyway, 

It took weeks to organise. 5 msd sized dolls aren't a simple thing to package up and post and the seller had just had a baby which of course meant she was exhausted and distracted and I didn't want to nag her because damn, let the poor thing sleep when she can! Babies are hard work. 

But we eventually worked stuff out and I arranged a courier for her to collect. She was very nice and packaged them up beautifully for me. 

And after weeks of discussion and planning, suddenly I had a courier going to pick up these dolls and a lump sum to send to the seller and it all stopped being an "if" but "it's happening" and panic set in. 

"Did I really just spend that much money in one go?" I thought.

But you know... YOLO or whatever. 

Biiig box. ehehehe.

So what's in box number 1?

It's Torrie! 

Specifically, it's Sweet Wind Memory Torrie (A name i'm sure sounds substantially nicer in Korean) 

This girl was made in 2007, making her pretty damn old for a bjd. She was sold as a full set with an outfit, special eyes, shoes and wig. I don't know how unique the faceup is compared to regular Torrie but I do know that this set was limited to only 40 worldwide. 

So yeah, a rare set there.

Torrie would have originally been stark paper white, like the pillow she's laying on, but the years have yellowed her quite severely to a sort of magnolia tone. What's interesting is that in isolation, that is, without any pinker skinned dolls around her, she ALMOST looks like a pale flesh tone, but as soon as you put her against anything pink you realise that's not the case. 

I wonder if adding some light pink in a dye bath might help there. It's something to consider anyway. 

The Dollmore girl body is nice, it has a small bust and a bit of hip. The arms are double jointed while the legs are only single jointed. They stand really well. 

Torrie is interesting in that she comes with four different sets of ears. She has a gap in the side of her head that the ear pieces slide into, then her headcap keeps them in place. They wobble a little if you prod them, but they're secure enough. 

Her ear pieces are not yellowed, probably because they were kept in the box for the past 15 years. So you can see what colour she was originally by looking at the ears. 

She has a long elf ear set, a short elf ear set with earrings in, human ears and some finned mermaid ears. Quite cool. 

They would be fairly easy to switch out were it not for Dollmore's old fashioned way of attaching the head cap. I don't know if they've changed this since 2007 but certainly back then the head caps weren't attached by magnets like modern dolls but rather were held on with the S hook. So the S hook is hooked into the elastic that holds her whole body together and then that's hooked into a resin hook piece that is molded as part of the cap. 

this means the tension holding the cap on is A LOT. You can't just pop it off to swap out eyes or ears, you need to really YANK that thing and then fiddle around removing the S hook from the strings so you can get proper access to the inside of her head. It's a pain in the arse. 

reattaching it is even worse. There were several risked pinched fingers involved in the process. 

DO NOT LIKE. 

And speaking of stringing, she also doesn't have S hooks in her hands. Instead they too have a molded resin hook that the strings loop around. 

Her feet have inset metal hooks, which is far more normal for older style dolls. But none of these make unstringing the doll easy. 

Torrie's wig is this pale blonde one. The fibre of it is quite dry and it doesn't stay on without velcro. Sadly the velcro has lost its stick so I could only get a couple of the velcro strips to stick to any doll heads. I should buy some new stuff. it works pretty well IF it's sticky. 

It's an interesting wig and surprising as Torrie's sale pictures imply her wig is more white, must be the contrast. 

This also shows how WHITE she once was. LIke daaaamn, that's very very stark. 

I admit, I don't particularly LIKE white resin, it just feels too cold.

Unfortunately, those really pretty pale pink Glib eyes were damaged. At first I thought they'd been dropped or something, but the cracks were mostly from INSIDE the eye, not outside, like the whole thing cracked from within. 

I later learned ALL the dolls barring one have the same damage and asked around. I was told it was the eye putty. Apparently old companies used polymer clays as eye putty for... reasons.. and that was a bad idea as it reacts with the acrylic of the eyes. Something about leeching the plasterciser out causing shattering of the hard plastic. I don't fully understand the chemistry involved, but this is what happens if you use polymer clays like sculpy or fimo as eye putty. Don't do it.

Box number 2 contains... Sweet Wind Memory Isaac!

Isaac is actually a discontinued sculpt, I don't know when they discontinued it, just that they did. 

Anyway, she's the same yellowed white resin of her sister. Same body too. Same annoying head cap. 

This is what she would have looked like originally.

All of these dolls came with a set of magnetic cat ears as well. They are all as yellowed as the dolls suggesting they were all displayed wearing them. 

But none of them have magnets inside their heads. Instead, the way Dollmore did it was to slip two thin coin magnets between two pieces of velcro and stick that to the head. 

It's... not that secure honestly.

Isaac's certificate says that she was made in April 2007. Four of the Five have the same birthdate, suggesting they were all ordered together. 

Sweet Wind Memory was a limited release, so that would make some degree of sense but dang that's a lot of dolls to buy at once (says the guy who just bought 5 dolls at once hahahahaha) 

Isaac's wig is too big for the doll, which is odd. It also looks to be sun faded as patches of it are darker pink than others, in a way that doesn't feel intentional.

Like Torrie, the eyes have shattered from the inside out. 

A pity. Though these were kinda odd eyes anyway. They are purple with a dark purple pupil which makes the doll look kinda unfocused.

Isaac has an odd impish little face with long sticky out ears. She's an odd looking little thing, kinda cute but also really inhuman looking from certain angles. 

Next up is Sweet Wind Memory Asha. I don't know why I didn't take any nude photos of her. Go figure. 

Her wig is a darker blonde than Torrie's but the same style. It's just as dry too. 

Her red eyes are also cracked and you guessed it, she's also yellowed. Her lips appear to have lost all their red pigment too. Interesting. 

I suspect these dolls were proudly on display for many years. 

She's also lost any hint of the purple around her eyes. Interesting. 

My doll has lost her little crown thing but otherwise appears to be complete. Cool. 

Most of them in this bundle are almost complete to be fair. Lost hats being the primary missing piece.

Just like her sisters Asha comes with cat ears and the same birth certificate date. April 2007.

Asha here is an interesting one because while he sculpt is NOT discontinued, she's usually released like Torrie with interchangeable ears. This edition doesn't have those, she just had regular human ears which is a bit bewildering given Torrie still has her extra bits. Like.. what? 

I think they offer both versions on their website which is.. uh.. okay? random.

I really don't think red is helping Asha's complexion here.

She has a jowly face like Torrie, they make quite believable siblings to be fair. I think I prefer Torrie's sulky face though. 

Doll 4 is Sweet Wind Memory Momo. 

I LOVE this sculpt, it's absolutely adorable. She has this cute little broad nose and downcast eyes that make her look perpetually slightly worried. I just wanna squish her little cheeks. hehehe.

Her wig is a gorgeous shade of blue that doesn't photograph true to colour. It's more of a cerulean shade than the much purer blue it seems in pictures.

You can see she's lost her hat. She has the arm band things, but they were made of pleather so have perished. More on that later. 

Like her sisters, her eyes have cracked. They're wierd eyes though, kinda.. beetley.

and finally doll number 5. 

Who is different to the rest for a few reasons.

Firstly, she's actually "normal" skin coloured. 

Second, she's not one of the Sweet Wind Memory set. her certificate in fact lists her birth date as Febuary 2008, so she's a year younger than the rest.

and Thirdly, her eyes are the only ones that are NOT cracked. Why you ask? well the answer is simple it turns out. Her eyes have back pieces on them making them full round eyes, so the polymer clay was wrapped around those stems, NOT the front of the eye itself. As a result, her eyes have survived intact. 

This is U-jee, another discontinued sculpt and the one I absolutely fell in love with.

I mean look at those nose! And that eye shape! she's got a facinating face and I love it. 

She has the WORST head cap of the lot of them. It's not a cap, it's a lid. It's very very thin and very small and just a nightmare to remove. WHY DOLLMORE!?? WHY? 

She came with a full outfit as well, and a wig and shoes. 

So it's time to get dressing!

- Asha's outfit consists of a black dress with off the shoulder sleeves and a lot of ruffles on the skirt. Under that she wears a black net petticoat and over the top there's a corset/waist cinch made from red seudey feeling fabric with a shiny animal print that looks pleathery. I don't know what the heck this piece of made of honestly. 

Under all that she wears a pair of platformed boots with a jeweled buckle. 

She is missing her crown. 

- Torrie wears a very frilly cream coloured dress (maybe it was originally white, I dunno) with off the shoulder sleeves. Under that she wears a high/low net petticoat. She also has a pair of white pleather sleeve cuff things that are deteriorating. Plether does this, it decays and the top layer sheds off. Unfortunate, but it's just the nature of the material. 

She also wears a pair of white over knee socks with a lacey top with a bow and a pair of white Mary Janes that, like her cuffs, are deteriorating. 

She also wears a crochet looking choaker with a cross attached and she DOES have her crown, it's a white plethery thing but I couldn't get it to stay on with her wig. *shrug* 

 - Isaac is wearing a very lolita-esk short dress with a white bib and corsetting down the front. It has long layered sleeves with a lace trim. The collar/choaker piece is attached to the dress itself and has a little cross pendant.

Under the dress she wears a pair of bloomers with black lace cuffs. They're a bit too big for her, I wonder if the elastic has perished or something. 

She also has a pair of mesh stockings with a white lace top to them and a pair of black Mary Janes that are holding up a LOT better than the white pair. 

A lot of this outfit doesn't quite fit correctly and I can't quite work out why. The collar is too loose, the pants are too loose, the stockings are baggy and the wig is too big. What the heck? 

She should have a little mini top hat facinator thing, but that's missing. 

- Momo is wearing a black lacey dress with a complicated ribbon design at the collar that ends in a thick lacy choaker.  The ribbons on the front of the dress spin on their stitching for some reason. Lol. 

Under the dress she wears a pair of bicycle pants, no seriously, that's what those are. They have mesh/fishnet panels up the side, little rivet designs at the cuff and then a lace trim but they're definitely cycle pants. They're quite tight and a bit of a challenge to get over her butt. 

She has a pair of boots identical to Asha's. 

She also has a pair of little armband/cuffs made of lace trimmed pleather but like Torrie's cuffs, the pleather has disintergrated off of them. 

- Finally U-jee is wearing a pleather dress which miraculously is NOT peeling (maybe because it's a matte pleather rather than shiny? The shiny pleather seems to deteriorate a lot faster) It has a corset effect front and a lace trimmed tiered skirt. There's a little cross attachedat the bust.

Under that she wears a pair of fishnet stockings that come up to the upper thigh and a pair of boots identical to Momo and Asha's. 

Also in the box were a few parts I couldn't identify and which seemed to be for larger dolls. A pair of bloomers and a pair of what I ASSUME are lace gloves/cuffs but neither piece fitted these dolls or looked like it was ever supposed to so... I dunno. Random. 

Torrie also came with an extra set of eyes, they're green.

As I mentioned, all five came with a set of cat ears. Dollmore still sells their magnetic cat ears as a separate addon and while the Sweet Wind Memory girls all came with them as part of their full set, I suspect U-jee had them ordered as an extra because I can't find any U-jee full sets. 

After I swapped out Torrie's damaged eyes for a glass pair in a rich purplish pink, I wanted to see how she'd look in U-jee's outfit which I suspected would work better against her yellowed skintone than that rather unflattering cream colour of her original dress. 

Much as I like that dress, the colour doesn't work when the doll is so yellowed. 

I also swapped out her ears for the biggest pair because YAY ELF EARS lol. 

This girl has potential. A fresh faceup, maybe a little pink bath and I think she'll be pretty awesome. She is very sulky with her square jowly face.

I really like Momo's original outfit, but her eyes needed replacing. So I picked out a pair of greyish hazel eyes. I also removed her very damaged lashes. I'll replace them at some point.  

I quite like her faceup too, but she definitely needs new lipstick and some blush, she's lost any original reds or pinks she would have had. 

I swapped U-jee's wig with Torrie's and was shocked how good she looked in it.

Initially I was anticipating turning U-jee into a boy, the body is androgynous enough to get away with that, but as soon as I put the pale blonde wig on I knew this was THE LOOK and I had to just lean into that. 

Funny how that happens sometimes. 

Her lips need repainting too, they're just too severe and too orange. It's hard to tell in photos but the way all these dolls had their lips painted involves some quite dark and very obvious lines. I think they're more obvious now because some pigment has been lost but they just kinda end up looking chapped as a result. 

I also learned that U-jee has a separate tooth piece, so their little teeth actually come out so you can paint the lips and teeth separate. I've never had a doll with a tooth piece before. I've seen them, but never had one. It was a surprise. Nothing mentioned this about this sculpt when I was researching.

These three will probably stay with me, at least for the time being. I love U-jee and Momo's sculpts and Torrie is very much growing on me. 

 I've scrubbed the hell out of these dolls now. Momo even got taken apart completely and scrubbed for a few hours, but even taking sandpaper to the parts doesn't make enough of a difference to make sanding the whole doll worthwhile. 

In some lights they look fine, a sort of ivory tone, but in others they look VERY yellow. I'm not sure if it bothers me yet. 

Ultimately, there are options. People on DOA mention using denture tablets to counteract the yellow (I think it tints things slightly blue) or oxy ten (can damage resin so yeah...). Others swear by using a diluted bath of Rit dye to add pink tones in. 

Now originally I had thought I might dye Momo a darker tone anyway, but I kinda like her pale with the gothy look she's got going on so I dunno. We'll see. 

I also would usually wipe factory faceups and do my own but I can't quite bring myself to do that with Momo or U-jee. Their factory faceups are really nice with beautifully neat eyeliner and decently defined eyebrows. 

I can't say as much of the other three who I think are really suffering from losing the red pigments, but also, they all seemed to have paler brows that were far less defined in the first place. 

While Momo has quite dramatic eye makeup with a thick purplish black catseye going on, the others have far simpler, more subdued looks. I don't feel as bad wiping Torrie because to be frank, her faceup has lost so much of the original detail and colour in the first place i'm not really losing a lot. 

Also I really think she'd benefit from a softer look. 

 

Dollmore dolls sell for around $250 each blank, so they're not exactly cheap. That's about £190, a good £75 more than a Doll leaves or Resinsoul.  I definitely wouldn't put them into the category of "affordable bjd". They're more.. mid range. 

The Sweet Wind Memory dolls were around $380 new, that cost included their faceups (which in themselves are charged at $70 by the company), full outfits (doll clothes aren't cheap), wigs and eyes. 

We can actually cost a lot of this out. 250 for doll, plus 70 for faceup = 320. 

Eyes are about $10-12 for the "deluxe" eyes. 

Wigs around $25.

An outfit of similar complexity? Dollmore lists similar dresses at between $50-60

They still sell the same Mary Jane shoes for $28, similar platform boots are about the same price.

 So around $430 for all these pieces if you were to buy them all separate.

Costing it out like that makes the $380ish (478,000 won)  feel far less painful. 

Originally this whole bundle would have cost somewhere in the region of  £1380 (around $1800usd) give or take. 

As it was, I paid less than £500 for the 5 dolls. (so around about the cost of two dolls new) A bargain if you ask me. 

I got three dolls i'll keep (two for certain) as well as several outfit pieces i'll likely use. 4 pairs of useable shoes. Five wigs. Two sets of really nice eyes and a large pile of magnetic cat ears (LOL) 

Asha and Isaac will end up being rehomed once i've given them a really good scrub to get them as clean as possible.

I'll sign off with one final picture of U-jee after having her lips repainted and some blush added to her cheeks. 

Damn she's adorable. 

I legitimately love this dang doll. 

even if her head cap drives me insane.