Jump to content

puxlavoix

Politely Nefarious

AnnaNeko

Xiongmao

Mandie

BeyondTime

DesertPhantom51

F-15

sunlightandtea

ateliervanilla

The Ecchizonans

Zoom Meetup

Tierparkzone

Frollywog

Veravey

MagicalRozen

Baldylox

ragnamuffin

Dollybird Tyrol & Ribbon

Recommended Posts

ragnamuffin

Meet Tyrol and Ribbon, two OB11s by Dollybird/HobbyJapan who appeared as models in some books on how to sew outfits for 1/12 scale dolls. The eyes and faceup were designed by Out of Base (DONO-RE!), and they come with clef wigs by Calico wig and dresses by Sawako Araki, who authored the sewing books.

F6DEBA3E-680A-40A7-A22D-FC038A9873AD

Like most Dollybird collaborations, they were made to order, and unfortunately I only discovered them long after the preorder period was over, so I had a lot of “fun” tracking them down on the aftermarket.

To commemorate the release of the Chinese and Korean language versions of the sewing books, these dolls were released in alternate colours (which were also a nightmare joy to track down), but my collection is finally complete so now I can share pictures of them with you.

Korean Ver.:

B77F8EF9-F3FA-4550-BB37-3EC89A13C445

Taiwanese Ver.:

9B2AA33B-2084-4F39-94A2-83E20DB03369

I still need to get some silicone caps for them because their wigs keep slipping off, and after that I plan to style their hair a bit and take better pics with alternate hands, but for now I just want to share them with you guys. Enjoy!

Edited by ragnamuffin
  • Like 7

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
MagicalRozen

Oh my goodness they are all so adorable! I'm so happy you were able to track them all down too! That must be a fantastic feeling <3

  • Like 1

Khepra, Ginkgo, TamakiDelilah, HimikoRin, And Others That May Come And Go.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
ragnamuffin

A small update on these dolls.

I was going to take more pictures (and still plan to, eventually!), but got annoyed with the magnets in their shoes not cooperating with the magnet stand, so I put them away and haven’t made time to pull them out and properly take pictures.

But! For anyone interested in these dolls, Dollybird dropped some posts this week about new additions to the lineup.

The latest versions have super whitey skin and come with bear and bunny kigurumi. It’s hard to see from these photos, but the eyes have tiny bears and rabbits in them, and the wigs look to be by Calico wig again.

These babies go up for preorder on Hobby Japan next week on April 18 and are only available to order for three weeks (until May 9, 2022). I don’t know if they’ll be available on AmiAmi, but from their latest tweet it sounds like they’re on a tight production schedule, so it doesn’t seem likely. Credit card is the only accepted payment method, so if you want them and you’re outside Japan, you’ll need to find a proxy.
 

I’m not sure why they decided to rush these dolls to production, but I’m glad I found out in time. From how rushed everything about this release is, I’m guessing they’ll be ready by the end of the year… 🤔

Edited by ragnamuffin
Added another tweet

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
ragnamuffin

Decided to finally post the follow-up to this since I had them out recently, so here it is. For readability, I'm going to separate them by set, which means making several posts in a row, so if that goes against the forum rules, please merge them.

0D3FF451-153D-42D3-9761-187D2B36DC0F

The original two are the baby pink (Tyrol) and mint green (Ribbon) ones. They were available for preorder at HobbyJapan, which publishes the Dollybird magazine these are from, for three months in mid-2019 and were released in early 2020. I got mine secondhand from YJA since I only found out about them last year. They do show up on Mandarake from time to time, but overall seem to be quite rare.

D4C33F16-97A7-4E0D-B259-58E704EBBC57

As per the op, they were first featured in two books on how to sew clothes for ob11 (one for boy clothing and one for girl clothing). The dolls come in relatively plain dresses with some tyrolean ribbon (hence the names). The idea was for the reader to decorate the dresses to their liking—an idea that was scrapped in later releases, probably because they realized that most readers would prefer a finished product 

FF9100D7-47A6-43AD-8B5C-778FF5319846

The dolls come in these adorable pink and blue pastel boxes with gold inscriptions. Each box has three layers—a top sheet with the doll and wig in separate packages, a white layer of cardboard that holds the extra hands and shoes in place, and the dress, packet of ribbons and a booklet detailing how to assemble the doll at the bottom. To save space and bandwidth, I've hidden all the pictures in a spoiler tag below:

Spoiler

AEE25F15-0792-4E12-A193-E39E1F8DF49A22FD28C6-364B-4E05-BEA7-4EB48BC51A37
BD2F7E41-6FD1-4FD0-A2D9-9925AEE075FE
D87CF5DB-3D19-400F-83CF-D7B724CAA159

They also come with white stockings and shoes with gold clasps painted on. As to be expected of an Obitsu doll, the shoes have magnets in them to help the dolls stand up on magnetic surfaces. Unlike the Desktop Dolls I wrote about previously, these ones don't come with their own mini stands, so I borrowed Alice's and also bought a second one to fit them all on.

Spoiler

ABB82BD6-F2D1-4C12-82E1-F0E8CDA1C5B0
8D3D8C2A-0568-411F-99C7-B8F6A38FDABC

Also unlike the Desktop Dolls, these ones have changeable eyes and wigs. I don't have any other ones in their size (8mm eyes and 4 inch wigs) to change them out with, but their default accessories are really pretty as they are so I'm probably going to keep them like that. The clef wigs come with tiny ribbons that unfortunately keep coming undone, but later releases thankfully included an explanation on how to tie them properly and the wig maker (Calico wig) has a video on Twitter showing how to tie them. The other problem with the wigs is that they keep sliding off. I picked up some silicone caps from Dolk that keep them in place, but also make the wigs sit funny and make the dolls look a bit cone-headed... 🙄

Spoiler

A1868E61-8CA9-4D97-BDAD-A93C9A0776D9
4592DA4F-96BD-462A-8D77-1046DD3DD61C

My only other gripe with them is that their heads are quite heavy (heavier than later releases), making them difficult to stand and pose because their center of gravity is thrown off from the weight. They also seem to be a bit loose at the neck and the frame keeps popping open. They are the only ob11s I have that do this, and they both do it. I don't know if I just got really unlucky with the bodies or if it's design issue with the heads—these heads were new Out of Base molds at the time so maybe there were design flaws that have been ironed out in the time since—or maybe the neck screws just need to be tightened idk. Maybe I'll open up their heads to see next time I take them out.

43D84BBE-C6EF-43A4-90DD-E4AAC46B7014

All in all, I think they're super cute and I'm really happy with them.

Edited by ragnamuffin
Formatting

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
ragnamuffin

To commemorate the publication of the Chinese and Korean language versions of the sewing books that Tyrol & Ribbon are originally from, special alternate colour versions were released. These dolls were initially made for the Taiwanese and Korean markets and weren't meant to be sold in Japan at all, but I guess some people were upset and so they were made available for preorder for a grand total of THREE days in April last year 🤷‍♀️

Needless to say, a lot of people missed out on them, including yours truly. I didn't even know Dollybird had continued the series until they popped up on YJA in the fall. Very few were scalped at all, and the ones that were sold out pretty quickly, never to be seen again. No joke, I have legitimately never seen these alternate versions on the Japanese aftermarket anywhere.

Korean Ver. Tyrol & Ribbon:

895FFF32-653E-48F2-BD25-761B12A994DF

The biggest difference right off the bat is that they came with finished outfits. No more tyrolean ribbon for you to play with! Instead of a pink/blue colour scheme, these two have a burgundy/deep green colour scheme going on. Although they come with the same white stockings and shoes as the original two, their dresses are flower-patterned with ribbons in each's respective colour, including the ones in their hair. I'm not sure why they chose these colours, but I'm assuming they must be culturally significant to Korea somehow, and I guess the ribbons on their dresses are meant to make them look a bit like hanbok. If you look closely, you can see their eyes have flowers and butterflies in them.

Taiwanese Ver. Tyrol & Ribbon:

0273B4C2-22D2-4344-9C6F-BCBFCBE5834C

These two have a red/blue/white colour scheme, which I read somewhere is meant to pay homage to the Taiwanese flag, but I suspect caused some trouble (more on that later). Interestingly, although they come with the signature white stockings that all the other have, these two have black ribbons and shoes with painted silver buckles. Their eyes have tiny stars in them, and as you can see in the photo, Tyrol's eyes have a pink shine to them while Ribbon's eyes have a green shine.

D1599CEC-FB35-427C-B598-92722734F5A7

Since these dolls were made to be shipped overseas, they come in significantly smaller packages to save on shipping. They're super compact, being slightly larger than half the size of the original boxes. If they decide to continue this series, I hope they continue to sell them in these sleek containers because they really do save space!

E3FE6FB6-5A98-41C1-B0AF-B4E31747EA102AE56882-3BB3-44F2-9013-32BE54C08F5F

All came with the same instruction booklet, this time with surprisingly grammatically correct and natural-sounding English! No Chinese or Korean to be found, though. As mentioned above, these ones come with instructions on how to tie the bows on their wigs correctly (and in case you're wondering why I'm making a big deal about this, yes, I can tie a bow normally, but these have to be tied a specific way to look nice 😂).

9DB23BE7-4D8C-4DFA-9C94-1A07B43DB928

Back to the 'trouble' of sorts—although these dolls were made for the Taiwanese and Korean markets, they are also being sold in mainland China. Both the official Chinese and Taiwanese retailers simply refer to them by their colours (i.e., 'red', 'blue', etc.) and do not mention the fact that they are the Taiwanese and Korean versions, probably to avoid sending a political message. I don't know this for a fact, it's just conjecture on my part, but I found it interesting.

For anyone interested, you can still buy these 'babies' (the word for 'doll' in Chinese supposedly also means 'baby' as I learned while trying to track them down) from HobbyJapan's official retailers in China and Taiwan, but be warned that they cost nearly double what they sold for in Japan and if you live in a country that charges customs fees for dolls, it will be a veeery expensive purchase 💸

Taiwanese retailer: North Star Books

Taobao retailer: Model Workshop Online [HobbyJapan China]

Edited by ragnamuffin
  • Like 2

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
ragnamuffin

As mentioned above, two more of these babies were rushed to production earlier this year. The preorder period was only for three weeks, and for the first time ever, they were available for preorder on AmiAmi. These ones have super whitey skin and come with bear and rabbit kigurumi (the patterns for which are in the sewing books that spawned this series to begin with, above):

Tyrol the Baby Bear

Ribbon the Bunny Rabbit

I still haven't received them or heard anything about when they'll ship, but once they arrive I'll post another review. Now that Obitsu is producing tan ob11 bodies, I hope the next set have tan skin. Anyway, for now enjoy another picture of all the girls together:

85C89C24-B639-4848-A06E-44B7B957A475

 

Edited by ragnamuffin
  • Like 6

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Jezrah

Cute! I had that neck issue on one of my OB11s, and she has a Parabox head and original neck connector so I wasn't a third party issue. What fixed it for me was gently prying the halves of the chest piece apart, adding the barest amount of super glue to the very edges, and then putting it firmly back together. If you use the right amount of glue the neck won't work open at the top. This does make it harder to be able to purposely take it apart in the future, but if you don't have plans to change the head I don't think it would be an issue.

  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1

32717445532_3aa446bd94_m.jpg

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
MissLadyBossy

Love this article, I did not know there were so many versions.  I ended up getting the bear and bunny girls from AmiAmi.  I also have the first pink and mint girls.  Thank you for the great post!

  • Like 1

Home: Alter (Anya), Sakuya (Layla), Extra (Sasha), Aoko (Nadia), Beatrice (Sophia), Alice (Elyse), Mariko (Madeline), Sailor Moon (Serena), Mercury (Ami), Mars (Rei), Jupiter (Lita), Venus (Mina), Transcendence Gray (Lexa) and Tea (Sloane)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
ragnamuffin
On 12/23/2022 at 2:51 AM, MissLadyBossy said:

Love this article, I did not know there were so many versions.  I ended up getting the bear and bunny girls from AmiAmi.  I also have the first pink and mint girls.  Thank you for the great post!

Thank you for the kind reply! Your post reminded me that I needed to make a post about the bear and bunny versions of these dolls.

These babies arrived at the end of November last year, but I hadn’t had the chance to do a write up since didn’t want to take them out and get them all dressed up without buying them silicone wig caps like I did for all my other girls. It took a while, but they’re finally ready now.

27147355-FE4A-43C4-8A4E-9934E5CB6034

For better or worse, they came in these large boxes again. They’re still tiny compared to Dollfie Dream boxes, but I would have preferred if they had kept to the smaller ones they used for the Korean and Taiwanese versions above to save on space.

Below are the outside and inside of the boxes:

Spoiler

19960050-4D79-47C7-9A7D-EC9D8B9568E55A0E67A3-4C9A-46F1-960A-9E3487F268C3

And the instructions:

Spoiler

0785C486-54C8-4211-9359-02C7E52535826FCF81DA-F7C1-4CB1-9A4F-F54894EB13E2

The first thing I noticed is that the plastic looks noticeably cheaper with this release. It’s similar to the body of a recent Pureneemo I bought, which I just assumed was Azone cheaping out, but apparently the issue is actually with Obitsu and whatever changes they’ve made to the formula. It’s a little disappointing.

4A02FDE7-2791-4B84-922D-6EA56F21B24F

If you zoom in, you can see little bears and bunnies (and stars and moons) in their eyes. This series of dolls has always had interesting eye designs, but these ones really take the cake for me.

1BAF9F60-6394-4E66-89A6-A56F83CB675D

The outfits are supposedly made from patterns you can find in the books these dolls debuted in. Surprisingly, the bodysuit and hood are two separate pieces, and there are no openings for the hands.

27A3C1DD-92A9-4D77-B37C-699284D07391

The boots mix up the colour scheme a little—the bear cub has a light brown/pink scheme going on, but she got the dark brown/grey boots. The bunny rabbit has a white/grey scheme, but got the light brown/pink boots. They’re fully plastic with magnets on the bottom, and needed to be heated to get on the feet properly.

960FAF5D-589F-4C91-A05D-794698F7199A

Their wigs are the slickest (and shortest) yet. Very few flyaways, and despite their small size, they were easy to get on and don’t look cone-headed even with a wig cap underneath.

2D6846EC-CFD1-414F-B0DE-1DDD5A435830

Hoods on.

932569F7-309C-4B32-A938-C520E99AF857

Hoods off.

Edited by ragnamuffin
Formatting
  • Like 7

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

I have read and agree to the Privacy Policy.