The history of ball-jointed dolls dates back hundreds of years ago. At that point, European and Egyptian articulated dolls are only made of wood and other materials. Then it was in the late 1800s when the modern era of ball-jointed doll actually began in Western Europe.
And from the late 1800s until the early 1900s, French and German doll manufacturers produced the initial ball-jointed dolls. These dolls have bisque heads and strung bodies made up of a mix of pulp, sawdust, glue and other similar materials.
German artist Hans Bellmer created dolls with ball-joints during 1930s and used them in taking photos and other surrealistic artwork. He established the idea of artful doll photography, which actually goes on up to now with some Japanese doll artists, as well as with some BJD hobbyists.
Then it was in 1999 when Volks, a Japan-based corporation created the Super Dollfie line of dolls. Thus, the history of commercially produced Asian resin BJDs began. Actually, it was the anime aesthetic that largely influenced the earliest Asian ball-jointed dolls.
Nonetheless, various South Korean companies started creating and producing ball-jointed dolls around 2002-2003. Among those first Korean BJDs companies were Customhouse and the Cerberus Project, and since then the Korean market has got bigger with a lot more.
The initial Chinese produced ball-jointed dolls were knock offs. Some were direct recasts, while others were minor modifications of Super Dollfie or Korean ball-jointed dolls. These knock offs were made of plaster, poor quality resin or polystone, a mix of resin and a filler material like sand. Although they were inexpensive, yet they were not extraordinarily long-lasting.
In 2005, Dollzone was the first Chinese company to release an original ball-jointed sculpts in premium polyurethane resin. And in the late 2005/early 2006 their dolls were already on sale. Since then, several other Chinese companies followed suit, putting their own BJD creations on the international market.
And finally in 2007, the Goodreau Doll was the first American company to produce a BJD with more of an American aesthetic influence.
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