Asian Ball-Jointed Doll Meet-Up at
The 2006 Doll & Teddy Bear Expo
Washington, DC
August 19, 2006

(Originally written on August 20, 2006)

Yesterday I went to the 2006 Doll & Teddy Bear Expo for the first time since the late 1990's. (There was a three or four year period when I attended this event every year until I grew tired of it and I stopped going.) I'll have to admit that things have changed from the time when there was nothing but porcelain Victorian dolls and bears dressed in frilly Victorian-style outfits. Don't get me wrong, one can still find such stuff at this expo but there are some more variety than there used to be. (For example, Jun Planning, the distributor of Pullips, had a booth this year.)

The bad news is that this expo is much smaller than I remembered it. At first I thought my memory was faulty until I overheard some people mention that this expo is much smaller than it used to be in the past. I can remember when there used to be a giant exhibition hall where the big names in dolls and teddy bears (such as Gund and Ashton-Drake) would have booths that packed the entire large room with the show spilling over in the smaller conference rooms where the smaller doll and bear companies would have tables selling not only dolls and bears but also dollmaking/bearmaking equipment like eyes, furs, and wigs.

This year's expo was limited to just the main exhibition hall which seemed to have fewer tables than I remembered. While the big names like Tonner were there, there were other notable absences (like Gund). I don't know whether the rise of Internet selling in recent years or the current bad state of the U.S. economy (or both) had anything to do with it but I felt kind of disappointed by what I saw. At past shows I used to literally wear my feet out because there was so much to see. This year I was able to leave the show with my feet still in good shape, which is kind of sad in a way.

I also remember at past shows that I would get plenty of freebies like buttons. (I still have those old promo buttons lying around somewhere in my home.) This year the exhibitors gave out far fewer freebies, which was kind of a shame.

Well I arrived at the show around 10 a.m. because I wanted to check it out before seeing whether this Asian ball-jointed doll meetup that someone was trying to organize through the Den of Angels forum was going to happen or not. There wasn't much response in the Den of Angels forum so I decided against bringing my Dollfie Dream. I packed my two smallest Asian ball-jointed dolls (my 12-inch Soom Mini-Gem Uyoo and my 3-inch Orient Doll Ji) along with my 3-inch Little Pullip Alice Fantastic since I knew that Jun Planning was going to have a booth there.

Here are the photos from this day. (Click on any of the photos in order to see a larger version open in a new window.)

Jun Planning was the only Asian doll company present at this expo and they had such a big booth. The employees were very friendly and helpful even if there was a little bit of a language barrier. At one point I pulled out my Little Pullip Alice Fantastic and the Jun Planning employees were thrilled that I was already a fan. In fact, I ended up buying a new Little Pullip on impulse for $15. (She was so adorable that it was hard to resist her.)

Jun Planning displayed a line of Pullips and Little Pullips based on The Wizard of Oz. This set was display only, which was just as well because I would've been so tempted to pull out the credit card and purchase these dolls.

They not only had lots of Pullips and Mini Pullips on display but they also had the newer Hestia dolls as well. Hestia is a line of articulated dolls that look very gothic.

Jun Planning also had its new line of ball-jointed dolls that are about three or four inches tall called Ai. These were for display only (they haven't been released for general sale yet) but they were the only Asian ball-jointed dolls present at any vendor table.

There was another vendor that sold ball-jointed dolls but these dolls were made out of wood and they weren't made by any Asian companies.

Wilde Imagination, a new subsidiary of Tonner, made its official debut at this expo. Their first doll in this line, Ellowyne Wilde, is about 16 inches tall, made out of vinyl, and has several points of articulation. I read about this doll in Haute Doll magazine where Tonner said that they got the inspiration for this doll from anime and Asian ball-jointed dolls. I fell in love with that doll based on what I read so I was looking forward to see what they looked like in person. Those dolls are far more awesome to see in real life than what these photos suggest. At $69 for a basic doll (which means a doll clad only in lacy underwear), it's far more affordable for me than a Volks Mini-Super Dollfie. (It looks like she would even be able to fit into the Teen Trends clothes that I have at my home.) Even though the dolls had price tags, the woman at that booth said that she couldn't sell them to anyone yet because she didn't have the equipment to make any kind of sales transaction. But she got me to write down my name, street address, and e-mail address in exchange for a free present (which was a set of three gorgeous postcards of Ellowyne Wilde dolls wearing different outfits tied together with a burgundy ribbon).

Wilde Imagination's parent company, Tonner, had its own booth where it displayed lots of dolls based on Harry Potter and Alice in Wonderland as well as Japanese-style dolls.

Ashton-Drake had a booth but they seemed to be selling only lifelike reborn baby dolls, even though they are capable of producing other kinds of dolls. (I have an Ashton-Drake Gallery Blythe that's a replica of the original 1970's Blythe.)

There were a whole bunch of other dolls and teddy bears at various other booths. Some were for display only while others were for sale. Many of them were gorgeous. Some were small enough to fit in the palm of your hand and some of them were so big that I would have a hard time finding room for such a large doll or bear in my home.

Marie Osmond was the big-name celebrity at this expo as she promoted her line of dolls and signed autographs for fans who remember her as far back as her teenage singing days (i.e. Paper Roses) and being the star of the weekly Donny & Marie show back in the 1970s.

In addition, this doll artist who specializes in making doll portraits of living people did this one-of-a-kind Marie Osmond doll that was on sale at the expo.

After I shopped around in the main Exhibition Hall for a while, I went out to the lobby where I took a break before looking to see if anyone else had shown up for the Asian ball-jointed doll meetup. The larger doll pictured in the back is my Soom Mini-Gem Uyoo. The two smaller dolls in the front are (from left to right) my Little Pullip Alice Fantastic and Orient Doll Ji.

While I was wondering around the Exhibition Hall, I purchased two additional dolls on impulse. Both are around 3-inches tall and both were relatively cheap. (I paid $20 for the Dollceana I Love the Mouse and $15 for the Little Pullip Swan.) Here are the dolls still in their original packages next to my other dolls.

Here are some scenes from the Asian ball-jointed doll meetup itself. A few people (such as flanna, griffithm, and julidc) showed up each carrying one doll. (There was a consensus on The Den of Angels forum that each person carrying too many dolls to a doll expo would've been a bit difficult, especially if one intended to buy more dolls at that convention.) Despite the small number of ABJDs present, they grabbed a bit of attention from other convention-goers (as well as a few vendors) who are increasingly recognizing them due to numerous articles in various doll publications in the past year or two. So we basically socialized, showed off our dolls, and spoke to others about ABJDs. (It's possible we may have gained a few converts to the ABJDs.)

Here is a demostration on how a Narae doll's faceplate can be removed from the front.

One attendee brought her new Volks Sei Tenshi doll that she won in a raffle at the Volks Tea Party in New York City last month. (Sei Tenshi dolls are made by Volks but they don't sell them. The only way you can get one is by attending a Volks-sponsored event, entering a special drawing, and hoping that your name will be drawn as the winner.) That doll was definitely the big hit of the meetup, as you can see in the next few photographs.

Here's the Volks Sei Tenshi sitting next to my Little Pullip Alice Fantastic doll.

Here's the Little Pullip Alice Fantastic with the Volks Sei Tenshi holding my Orient Doll Ji in his lap.

Left to right: Little Alice Fantastic, Volks Sei Tenshi, Orient Doll Ji, and Soom Mini-Gem Uyoo.

Someone arrived to the meetup later and she showed off her latest purchase--a Hestia doll from the Jun Planning booth. The Hestia dolls are so elaborately packaged, complete with dangling chains across the front of the coffin-shaped box. The dolls themselves have lots of tiny details, including eyebrow piercings.

I got a chance to meet plenty of nice people at the meetup. Rob Ferguson, who wrote a tutorial on creating wall blocks for your ABJDs for The BJD Orbryarium book, stopped by our table. I had met him previously (before Haute Doll discovered him) at a few doll shows in Gaithersburg, Maryland where he sold his elaborate cases. He wasn't selling any cases at this expo but he was handing out copies of his new brochure and he now has a website so you can check out his cases for yourself.

I also met Teejay Riedl, who did the photos for the The BJD Orbryarium book as well.

All in all it was a pretty fun event and everyone seemed like they had a good time. The meetup broke up around 1 p.m. and I grabbed a bite to eat at the hotel. I went back to the Exhibition Hall to see if I missed anything the first time around. I purchased one book by Tina Casey called Fabulous Fashion Doll Clothing You Can Make: No Sewing Required!. (I thought that it would be a handy reference for the future.)

But that was the only thing I purchased during my second trip through the Exhibition Hall. The one doll that I was attracted to (Ellowyne Wilde) wasn't for sale yet while most of the other dolls for sale didn't really excite me enough to consider buying any of them. So I basically left for home.

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