A (relatively) short history of the modern (A)BJD

While the story of dolls with ball-joints goes back to the start of the 19th century, ours begins a shorter while ago, in 1986. In Japan hobby-shop Volks is taking steps to attract more female customers. Executive Director Setsu Shigeta get sin a conversation with one of the company's designers, Akihiro Enku, and he shows her a present he made for his wife; a 57 centimeters high doll with the ball-joints of antique dolls, but a more modern and "manga-like" design otherwise. An idea is born...

After a long period of development "Dollfie" hits the market in 1998; it's a scale 1/6 vinyl doll with a high level of articulation that's sold entirely blank. The owners can customise the doll to their own wishes using separate heads, wigs, decals and their own artistry. While the initial popularity amongst existing doll-collectors is low, the many possibilities, and a line of pre-made characters, make it a popular product overall. Only a year later, in 1999, the next step is taken and "Super Dollfie" is put up for sale.

At 57 centimeters and sporting ball-joints the design stays with Enku's original doll. She was sold as a building kit with parts made of polyurethane, which were to be strung together with elastic cord, and a choice of four base models, whose heads were based on the same master-model. Grouped as "Four Sisters", Sara, Nana, Kira and Megu each had their own face-ups and matching wigs and eyes. They were sold with underwear and a nightgown, but any further work was up to the owner. The sisters prove popular, and later on they are also sold as completely assembled dolls, ready to be loved without all the crafting. In 2001 Volks releases their first male doll, Licht, alongside his twin sister, Leona. Lichts becomes incredibly popular, and in the years that followed the Super Dollfie line in developed further not only with new faces, but whole new sizes of dolls.

In 2003 Volks brings something new to the table; a BJD like Super Dollfie, but made of vinyl instead of Polyurethane. The brand new "Dollfie Dream" is available in two models, Mirai and Candy. Unlike the semi-realistic Super Dollfies these ladies are styled as "anime-style" women, and Volks hopes that this will pull a primarily male audience into the world of Dollfie.
Again, a successful release. Dollfie Dream too sells well, with the only complaint being a problem posing them; as it turns out vinyl is smoother than resin, and does not posses the necessary friction to keep poses under the tension of elastic bands.
Volks starts working ont he problem and within two years the solution is presented; an internal frame instead of elastic holds everything neatly in place without worries about friction or tension.

"Hang on," you may think by now, "is this still a "ball-jointed" doll?"
Strictly speaking no; while the joints certainly contain round shapes they are a far cry from being balls, and that is of course part of the name. That said; because the first version of Dollfie Dream very much was a BJD, the newer versions and other derivative dolls are generally accepted within the BJD community, even if they aren't the main focus of a forum or group. You can think of them as a kind of once-removed cousin of BJDs; they're family, but whether they're invited to the birthday party depends on the organiser.

So! That was a lot of information about one company, but what about all those other companies you keep running into?

Well... those are too many to list by this point. I think we can confidently say that Volks is the Ur-company of the ABJD world, but competing companies appeared as early as the year 2000, when LUTS enters the market in South-Korea. Just to throw out a few other big names; in 2003 Gentaro Araki founds his company Alchemic Labo in Japan, and Dream of Doll appears, again in South-Korea. In 2005 DollZone and Angell Studio appear as the first companies in China to produce fully original BJDs.

And the numbers have only grown. At the writing of this article, in April of 2025, the Dollmakers List on Den of Angels counts 647 dollmakers; companies and individual artists, young and old, active and long gone. And that's just the makers that have been added by Den of Angels members; companies like UFDoll, Azone and Smartdoll are also out there, not to mention all the wonderful creations that have been rolling out of people's 3D printers in the past couple of years.

From four sister in Japan modern BJDs have grown to a global population full of variation. Whether it's a matter of form, size, or materials, odds are there’s a doll out there that fulfils your desires. Ready to find them? Then take a look at our Community page, or visit the BJD hashtag on your favourite social media platform!

In either case I wish you a ton of exploration-fun!

Written by: Isabel

Sources used for this article;
"L'art de la BJD" by Nathalie Cortinovis, ISBN:979-10-310-0307-8
"La Carte d'un Ange" by Volks, ISBN4-257-03686-9
Wikipedia: Ball-jointed doll
Wikipedia: Super Dollfie
Volks 27cms Dollfie sales page
Volks Dollfie Beginners page
Wikipedia Japan: ドルフィー・ドリーム]
Dollmakers List on Den of Angels