This is probably going to become a page where I put kind of any kind of garbage I can think of that either doesn't warrant a separate page or I just don't know how else to fit into the rest of the site. Kind of like a scrapbook if you will, where I may or may not just pour out my autism.
Here's some images I greatly relate to and enjoy
I've been interested in dolls for quite some time, but only somewhat recently (like, in the span of the last couple years) I've actually started collecting them.
My favorite brand is Azone, which is a popular anime-style doll brand that produces both original and collaboration dolls in 1/3, 1/6 and 1/12 scales. Specifically I'm mostly interested in their original doll series. They have several: Ex Cute, which is also my favorite (I made a shrine to it here!), Alvastaria (steampunk inspired style and setting), Sahra's a-la-mode (based on one of their older characters, Sahra, and her friends Lycee, Alisa and Maya with a new, modern look), Lil' Fairy (the Primure Fairy Association connects people to Lil' Fairies, tiny helpers who can help people with their day-to-day chores—I made the database entries for this doll line on Dollect myself!).
As of now I own 5 Ex Cute dolls, one Pico Ex Cute (the mini version of Ex Cute dolls, they're 1/12 scale rather than 1/6) and one Lil' Fairy.
The very first doll I bought as a collector was Ex Cute Secret Wonderland Koron (viewable on the right), and to this day she's probably my favorite out of the Azone girls I have. I love lolita fashion, so the Secret Wonderland series is easily my favorite! I would like to collect the other characters eventually too, but for the time being I'm happy with this!
My second doll as a collerctor was another grail of mine, her name is Sister Florence (or is it?) and she's a Lost Angels Story doll produced by Volks. The confusion about her name is the result of a little freestyle surgery my particular doll must have received: everything from the clothes to the box to the little leaflet inside the box and the accessories was Sister Florence's, the only thing that didn't match was her head. Someone must have replaced her original head with the head of another doll from the same line, called Angel Reika. i don't really mind, it's a fun fact more than a real grievance.
Another favorite doll manufacturer of mine is Marmit. Their dolls aren't super well known because the company is mostly known for producing soft vinyl kaiju figures, but in the early 2000s they also had a brief stint manufacturing dolls for a few years. They produced various collaboration dolls of characters from various games, manga and other media (including To Heart, Maetel Legend, and Urusei Yatsura among others), but once again my main area of interest are their original character dolls.
Of those I currently own two: the brunette in the maid dress is Etoko-chan, one of Marmit's most popular original character dolls, while the other is another Marmit original character named Rarafi, one half of the Fairy Twins pair alongside her twin sister Rurufi.
Marmit dolls are by no means excellent quality, but their unique style is extremely charming to me. Marmit dolls are unfortunately not well documented, so I don't know a whole lot about what kind of characters these girls are supposed to be, however Etoko-chan is sometimes referred to as "Lucky God".
I was at least able to extract these official pieces of artwork of Etoko from Marmit's old site on the Wayback Machine ^_^
Other than the dolls, I also own a little pin of Etoko-chan—one of my most prized possessions!
I'm unsure of when or why the one I have was released, but I was able to determine that a similar looking pin (pictured on the right) was given out to 30 customers in December 2000 as a purchase bonus for buying or preordering an Etoko-chan doll.
Rarafi and Rurufi are a whole other can of worms, I've been extremely obsessed with them from the very first time I saw them, and the search has been truly frantic and desperate. Marmit dolls are decently sought after in collector spaces, but the main issue isn't really just that they can get expensive, but rather that nobody is even selling them. I spent months upon months desperately scouring every single secondhand site I could think of looking for the fairy twins to no avail, to the point that i started having nightmares about japanese search terms, until finally miraculously Rarafi popped up and then I got locked in a horrible hour long bidding war to get her. the one I own isn't even really my preferred iteration of the doll (there are a few versions of the doll other than the blonde one with bangs that I own—a brunette version with bangs and another brunette version with a side part, the latter of which is my favorite iteration of this doll) but I am NOT about to look a gift horse in the mouth. She's my special princess forever and I love her.
On the right is pictured another promotional image I salvaged from the wayback machine, this time featuring both of the fairy twins. Other than the cheek mole, which they each have on opposite sides, the detail to tell them apart is easy: The one with droopier, more pathetic looking ears is Rurufi, aka Rarafi's younger twin sister :)
I'm just gonna put a bunch of really loose inspiration pictures for one of my characters and my boyfriend's matching OC who's his boyfriend in here just because it's funnnn
Each image links back to the source
