Review: School Girl Ddung

I got a new dolly in the post this week :) I ordered her a while ago when Luts had a sale on, along with another one but that one hasn't arrived yet which is actually quite nice as it means I get to enjoy two new dolly days instead of one!

This little cutie is a Ddung (pronounced Doong) doll and actually, they were the first dolls to start of my official doll hobby :) I had the smaller key chain size ones when I originally collected them, and one full size doll of Ddung's little boyfriend Bong-gu who I still have as he was too adorable to part with; but I sold the small ones when I got into BJDs. However, I picked up full size Ddung secondhand a little while ago and felt the time was right to start introducing them back into my collection again.

Ddung's are vinyl dolls produced in Korea that are meant to depict a cute little 4 year old girl. They come in varying sizes and many different outfits and themes etc. You can read more about her at Cute in Korea. You used to be able to pick them up fairly cheaply but they seem to have increased in price since I originally collected them and the keychain size dolls seem scarce to find now which is a shame. However, you can find a decent variety on Ebay and its worth keeping an eye on places like Luts when they have a sale on as this girl and her boyfriend who will be arriving soon, were a brilliant price :)

 

This is School Girl Ddung and she is 18cm tall. Most the standard sort of dolls come in these cute red boxes adorned with sweet little cartoon pictures of Ddung on the outside but some of the special edition or themed dolls come in different themed boxes.

 

 

She is held in the box by plastic tabs affixed to a cardboard inner which is done to look like a little dressing room type thing with "mirrors" (mirrored card) on the walls. She was nice and easy to open and release from the packaging; however I was a little disappointed that she didn't come with a stand because my Bong-gu I kept from before has one so I assumed she would too.

 

School Girl Ddung has long brown hair which is nice to touch and not oily or greasy. She is dressed in a red beret, a white top with red spots, a denim pinafore dress, a cardigan/jacket, a brown satchel bag, white socks, white panties and white mary-jane shoes. The shoes are not totally flat however so it took a while for me to get her to stand in them which was a little frustrating and in fact, she is propped against a tube of glue in these photos!

 

She can sit without any bother though as her legs and arms move at the hip/shoulder. Her head also turns from left to right but that's as advanced as her movements get.

 

 

It is much easier to get Ddung to stand without her shoes on which also revealed that her socks are fakes :) They are more like leg warmers which I guess makes it easier to get her shoes on and off. All in all I am very happy to add another Ddung to my dolly family and she looks very sweet with her pink haired sister who was waiting here for her. I will take a picture of them all together when my Prince Bong-gu arrives. I added a quick photo of Ddung with a Blythe below also to give an idea of size. I think they look really sweet together. almost like sisters!



 

Kidz 'n' Cats "Kiki"

So lets take a more detailed look at the Kidz 'n' Cats doll that arrived here last week. She is the "Kiki" mould (but has been renamed to Lily) and she arrived brand new from My Doll Best Friend (you can read my review of them here).

I already talked about her box and the booklets etc. that she comes with in this previous post, so we'll skip past that and start by talking about her stock outfit. It consists of a floral underdress, a long yellow drawstring side vest with a "Hawaiian Island" print, yellow capri leggings, blue espadrilles, white undies (which I think are standard for all the dolls) and a flower hair-clip to match her cat's. I haven't got a picture of it here on Kiki/Lily but you can see all the components of it in the photo below. It is very well made, but unfortunately not the style I like to dress my dolls in so it was taken off pretty quickly. Kiki/Lily is wearing an outfit made by Gotz instead at the moment which is also nicely made, but the Kidz 'n' Cats outfit is definitely superior to it in quality, if not style.

Her whole body is made from vinyl and she has 11 points of articulation which is one of the things that appealed to me about Kidz 'n' Cats dolls and something we will look a bit more closely at in a minute. Her torso is fairly slender but her shoulders are fairly broad. She has a belly button and a defined bottom and her tummy is slightly rounded which you can see when you look at her from the side. Her knee joints are quite visible from behind but the rest of her joints blend in fairly nicely.

Her wig/hair is absolutely beautiful which was a brilliant surprise as I had already half started planning removing it and getting a different one, but she'll be staying as she is. Its lovely and soft and shiny, though I have noticed a couple of strands come off when I've been posing her etc. Her eyes are quite detailed but I do wish I could alter how they are set a little as they are slightly starey depending on the angle you get her from. I noticed that some of the Kidz 'n' Cats dolls look like their lips have been stuck on with a sticker or like they are wearing lipstick but Kiki's don't look too bad. As you can see, Kiki has nice tan skin which is a really lovely colour and is complimented well by her hair and eye colour. Her hands, feet and cheeks are slightly blushed too which gives her an even more natural look.

Her range of head movement is pretty good; she can look in all directions and it holds its position well without tipping backwards or forwards. She can look quite far up but not as far down. However, I think I may be able to improve on this with some modifications I have planned for her.

The range of movement in her arms and legs is a little disappointing for me, but I am used to very highly articulated ball-jointed dolls so when I remind myself that she is a vinyl play doll, I can't complain too much =) She has joints in her elbows and wrists and her range of wrist movement is very good but the elbow movement is quite restricted. Her left arm/elbow also doesn't seem set correctly in comparison to her right. The only way it can't comfortably bend and hold its position slightly is to the left, as shown in the photo, which is ok but I would prefer it if both elbows could move and hold their positions in both directions. However, I don't know if this is intentional and the same for all Kidz 'n' Cats dolls, or just a flaw with my Kiki. Its something we can work around though and again, I am hoping I can improve on it slightly with some modifications I am planning for her. 

Her knees do bend but not very far and they don't hold their position well. She stands well and I can get her to stand with one knee bent as shown to look like she is walking etc. but if you wanted to sit her on a wall or something, they would not bend and hold very far so they would stick out a bit. As I said, she stands well but if you notice in some of the previous photos, if you don't position her well she can look a little bow legged. At first I thought a joint at her ankle would be nice too so you could position her feet, but unless they improved her knee joint I think an ankle joint would make her too unsteady and difficult to stand.

She can sit straight with no problems and her legs go fairly straight rather than in the wide V shape that vinyl dolls often default too. You can bend her knees slightly when she is sat down but not too much. However, sitting on a chair or wall or something, is not quite as successful. Her knees don't bend and hold their position enough so they end up sticking out quite a bit. When I have issues with my ball-jointed dolls holding their poses, I glue suede them by putting glue around their joints which means they don't swing about so much. However, this is not sensible to do on a vinyl doll but a friend has told me about some adhesive suede discs that you can buy from a BJD company called Dollmore which I am going to order and try and see if they make a difference. I'll report back when its done ;)

Overall, I am really impressed with the Kidz 'n' Cats dolls and Kiki has been a great introduction for me into the world of vinyl dolls. I am positive that I will be adding one of the boys to the family when they are re-released again soon, but that is as big as my Kidz 'n' Cats family will be. To finish off, here are a few extra pics of Lily, as she is now named, exploring the garden.

Miss Kitty!

I wanted to write a quick post to tell you about my new dolly who I am super excited about! A while ago on Flickr I saw some awesome hybrid dolls which were made using the heads from the large Littlest Pet Shop animals that were released a few years ago, and the bodies of fashion dolls such as Blythe. I thought they were super cute but by the time I discovered the idea, the big Littlest Pet Shop animals were really hard to find.

Here are a few examples of some from Flickr. The sleepy bunny belongs to Fae, the brown bear and the pink ladybird belong to jeds123; and the red ladybird and black kitty belong to guilietta degli spiriti. There are also some really cute hybrids to be seen using the regular sized Littlest Pet Shop animal heads and petite Blythe bodies so make sure you do a quick search for those too! Beware of some extreme cuteness though! There is even a LPS Hybrids group ;)

American Girl: Available UK Alternatives

I have been toying with the idea of getting an 18 inch play doll for a while now for a few reasons. They don't particularly appeal to me if I am absolutely honest, but I want to branch out with The Little Cupboard and start featuring other kinds of dolls here and this type of doll is clearly very popular.

However, probably the most recognisable of this type of doll is the American Girl doll which is unavailable for purchase here in the UK unless you buy off ebay or something and pay extortionate shipping and customs fees. Not something I want to do when I am unsure as to whether I will even like the doll when it arrives.

Therefore I have been looking for some alternative similar sized dolls that are readily available in the UK and thought I would let you know about them too. I am yet to buy any of them, and maybe I won't, but if any of you have any of these types of dolls, I'd love to hear your feedback as to what ones you prefer etc.