What is a Dollfie
Often misused to disrobe The word class of Asian Ball Jointed Dolls. The word “Dollfie” ( doll figure ) Is a trade mark. Owned by a company in Kyoto, Japan named Volks inc. Much like Barbie created the 11 inch fashion doll Volks, INC. Created the ABJD class of dolls.
What does Dollfie mean?
Volks ,inc. Who at the time specialized in Model kits. Released Their 1st Doll. It was a barbie size plastic doll , with joints like the original action figure, Gi Joe by Hasbro 0r Palitoy’s action Man in the UK. It is common now for dolls like Monster High to have Action Figure bodies. But in 1998 it had never been done before . Volks, inc. Needed something to call this new doll . As a doll and an action figure combined the words “doll” and “Figure” were combined to form Dollfie. Creating a new kind of doll designed to be customized. It was a doll but, with the characteristics of a model kit.
The Supper Dollfie
Around 1997 Akihiro Enku who worked at Volks,inc. Sculpted a doll for his wife. That used the 1800s German and French style body. But made some major changes to it. The arms , legs and body were of more natural proportions. Moved the neck from the head to the body added a skull cap to the back of the head. And they have all the parts (anatomically correct) . With the biggest change being a semi anime style head.
When the owner of Volks,inc. saw the doll they very quickly commissioned a prototype. for production as a 60cm doll hand cast from resin that can be sanded, milled, drilled and generally customized. To distinguish the doll from the Dollifie already in production the word “Super” was added to the name. Volks,inc. Released 4 Super Dollfie from the same mold. With wigs , make up and eye color being the only difference. The dolls were a big hit in Japan.
By 2002 Smaller sized “mini SuperDollfie” (MSD) and more adult doll “Super Dollfie 13” (SD13) had been added to the Supper Dollfie Line Now commonly referred to as SD.
Shortly after the Mini Super Dollfie was released. A Chinese companie know as Forever Doll came out with the first Dollfie knockoff. A doll made by slightly modifying a Volks,inc. Mini Super Dollfie, recasting a new mold from the slightly modified doll. With the most noticeable modification being the chest was enlarged.
The Forever doll recast was fallowed by a 60cm doll that may are may or may not have had a recast body also with an enlarged chest. And what may have been a recast Volks,inc. Head.
The Forever Doll knock off of the Super Dollfie and the Mini Super Dollfie had started showing up for sale on Yahoo Japan and sold for half the price of a real Super Dollfie. Volks,inc. Was not happy about the knock off dolls. Witch lead to Volks,inc. Taking legal action that ended in Forever Dolls being closed with no more Forever Dolls being made. Because the resin used to make the Forever dolls was very fragile it would be very difficult to find one intact today.
Soon , word spread to the United Stated. Were Americans could only buy Dollfie on the secondary market.
By 2002. Both the real Volks,inc. Super Dollfie and the Forever Doll knockoffs had started working their way to the United States via shopping services.
Doll collectors In the United States didn’t like dolls to be changed. Because, The collector value is based on how close the doll is to its original conduction … As such a doll made to be changed didn’t go over very well. Luckily, The Supper Dollfie had started to became popular with Lolita fashion enthusiast and cosplayers . Who would dress their Super Dollfie up for anime conventions. Unfortunately none of the US doll clothes or sewing patterns would fit.
Undead Threads comes in
On Friday Feburay 14th 2003 I was at Kasucon with 2 of the 4 girls that I often traveled with. We were in the hotel room getting ready when we heard a knock at the door. Looking throw the peephole we could see that no one was there. So we went back to getting ready. Hours latter we were on our way out. When we opened the door this big pink box fell into the room.
As soon as she saw the box, The younger of the two girls immediately begin screaming things that I didn’t understand at the time. Things like olly it he wasn't kidding, I cant believe he got one , dollfie, volks, 4 sisters and so on.
When she opened the box I saw a big Super cute doll dressed in a slip laying between to pillows in a box. That was the 1st time that I had seen or even heard of a Dollfie. Fallowed by the 1st time I heard how much they go for. 800 Used for a basic model .at the time.
The girl that I travel with had been talking to a guy who was traveling in Japan and had been joking about getting her a Super Dollfie. Turns out he wasn’t joking. Although I still don’t know why he left it leaning against the door . In a busy hall, at a popular convention.
Around 3 months later I had one. She is one One of the 4 sisters. I still have her today .
It was not long before . Dollfie Meet up groups had started to form in the US but, clothes that fit were still hard to find. We were having one of the early meetups on the east coast . AN idea poped in my head. I had went to school for CAD and learned to make cutting templates, ( a sewing pattern basically a template) I could make a set of Patterns to hand out at the Amazement meetup. The !st pattern was an Easy to sew shirt for Super Dollfie.
With in months , I had drafted a set of basic patterns for SD , SD13 and SD13 boy. They were Printed on 11”x17” paper, and began handing them out at meetups and cons. I used the name Undead Threads for the patterns. A web site was made to host the patterns and all was well.
Around 2008 I had Joy take over the Day to day running of the site. And well that didn’t work out. I fixed up the site a bit and parked it on a new server. Then life happened. But the Undead Threads site was still up and going. Unto 2021 when Adobe disabled Flash. The site was gone.
As it turned out Adobe had done me a favor by disabling flash. Having to rebuild the site has given us the chance to update the old site. With a more user friendly layout. And a stream lined design. With new patterns added monthly Wile keeping the look and style of the old site. of the old site.