Hey guys, I don't know if anyone here has any experience with ball-jointed dollies, but I'm trying to buy my wife one for Christmas this year. The only problem is I'm a little lost. She likes realistic proportions, but she's also a fan of the big Manga comic inspired eyes. After doing some research, I've narrowed down a couple of body sculpts I think she would like. One was the 3A Tommorrow Queen body, and the other was made by Obitsu. If I bought a body, from 3A could I intermix parts, from Obitsu, and vice versa? I've seen a couple of completed figures that I thought were amazing, but they're also super expensive (I mean they make nag prices look like the 99 cent store) I just want something that isn't overly expensive to start her off with, and if she really likes that we can go from there. Anyone have any good resources?

If you want to know more about Ball Jointed Dolls go to the Den of Angels forum (http://www.denofangels.com). They've been around in one form or another since the modern inception of that style of doll. While the forum doesn't discuss all brands, construction is basically the same.

I don't know anything about 3A's Tomorrow Queen series but it looks like the body is a 1:6 doll with peg/ball joint articulation? If that's the case, the Obitsu you mentioned is probably a 1:6 (27cm). DoA won't help you because those are actually custom dolls. Try Lunar Ark (http://milkshakemelody.com/forum/) instead. Just like DoA, Lunar Ark has been around since Volks made custom dolls popular in the 90s.

Good luck.

Thank you so much, this is the exact information I'm looking for... Also if she does like it, that forum will be perfect for her.
Thanks so much igirl.

I knew I should have went to the Ball-Jointed Doll panel at SDCC.

Probably not the info you hope for (quite expensive), but the guy from D.I.M. doll is really nice.
http://dimdoll.com/index.php
His dolls are quite stunning as well.
Enchanted doll is my favorite, but it's in the thousands for a doll.
http://www.enchanteddoll.com/

I did run across this woman from California (I think?), who make ball jointed dolls, that are amazing. They run around 350-500, but they look great. I'm just not sure if this will be something she's going to get into, hence wanting some sort of starter doll. In fact to be honest, I might be more into them myself.

Fun times, and getting stranger all the time.

I think for quality, posing and overall cool.
Fairyland.
http://dollfairyland.com/index.php
Same people behind the Delf from Luts. I always dug their sculpts.
Although it looks like the Chic line has been discontinued or on Hiatus.
One thing you might want to remember, if you go anywhere beyond the 45cm or 60cm range, you run into clothing and accessory compatibility issues.

Soom has some cool stuff. scorpion tails, centaurs, toothpick proportioned schoolgirls, and fantasy stuff. Weird.
http://dollsoom.com/soom/

Then there's Yamato's VMF50. 50 cm. Not many clothes options, hard to get without an agent in Japan.
Squishy vinyl with an inner skeleton by Azone, lots of kinky options. Octo rape stands by indie companies ect. Weird.
I like the pics of the Doll Holic store exhibit events. It's all middle age men with blurred out faces.

These are cake toppers with camel-toes on steroids.
http://vmf.yamato-toys.com/items/goods_list.php?gid=3

Dollfairyland reminds me somewhat of the lati's

I sent this link to Jcrazy but I thought I should share it here as well.
http://batchix.g36.net/
This lady does ball jointed dolls, makes comics, and does art.
The cyborg ball jointed doll she made and painted looks damn impressive.

No doubt

Batchix does some really great work!

I've been thinking about getting one for a long time.
I'd really like a smaller one though like a lati doll or something of that nature. like 4-5" tall or so. That'd be awesome.

I've been looking at Hujoo Dolls lately and I was wondering what the quality on them is?

Slightly unrelated note but, does anyone know where to purchase ball-joint kits? I need a few for a project I'm working on...

You could get Bionicles and chop them apart.

Just type in Ball Joint Toys on the bay, and you'll have a ton of options.

Seconding Soom. I have a few of Soom dolls and I am very pleased with their quality; good bang for your buck if you will.

Depends on how much you want to spend really. I know the Unoa kits are perhaps more "realistic" but you end up spending some serious $ by the time you are done. Den of Angels is a very good resource for research.