Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Are All the Asian-Produced Dolls Slim Like Momoko? See Lady's Mission

You’ve seen how many produced-for-Asian-markets fashion dolls have small builds. If you are familiar with MaBa’s Barbie and Takara’s Jenny, you might think Asian market fashion dolls all have small body frames.

Blant! That’s the buzzer ringing. Wrong. Some female Asian market action dolls or articulated fashion dolls have sturdy frames. The Aoshima/Skynet Ladies Mission and Girls' Mission action dolls as well as the Takara/BBi have definite weight to them. Nothing missish or delicate about them. Plus, they have poseability.

The Lady’s Mission action dolls have full names, numbers, and occupations. Their faces are usually bland. Their hair can be smooth and flat like No. 21 shown below or rough and coarse like that of Kelly Jackson, Lady's Mission Slim Body, No. 4 Basic Infantry. Let’s look at Aoshima/Skynet action doll from Madam Ryu Reika, No. 21 who is a “Street princess.”


 

P.S. Madam Ryu Reika comes with two formal dresses, one a blue print mini and the other a long red Qi Pao (cheongsam or mandarin gown) and two pairs of high heeled shoes. The "leather" underpants she wears in these photos is part of her original outfit.

Additional photos of this action doll are here in my Webshots.

13 comments:

Asrul "iLham" Sany said...

some of the asian dolls are bit busty than the usual dolls. ;)

smidge girl said...

Whoa! I've never seen her before! Love that body! She's bigger than a regular "fashion" doll, but in a less muscular way than most of the action figure girls. Very cool.

corsetkitten (aka Erica) said...

Don't forget that Takara (later takara-tomy)'s Cool Girls (CY Girls) were originally made for the Japanese market (and still are) and they definitely don't share Momoko's petite build. ;)

Just sayin' ;D

D7ana said...

Hi, iLham, SmidgeGirl, and CorsetKitten!

Yes, some of the Asian dolls are decidedly more busty than Barbie and other "standard" fashion dolls.

Oh, SmidgeGirl, you gotta have some of the Lady's Mission and Girl's Mission dolls. They are posing fun!

Oh, I didn't mention the Cool Girls (CY Girls) in this post, but yes, they are heavier than your average doll ;-) I've got to do at least one post on them.

Have to show the doll collecting world figures other than Barbie. (And I know I go on about Barbies ;-D)

D7ana said...

This collector has posts and reviews about the Lady's Mission dolls and their clothes. Additional information/view from another collector ;-D

AilanthusAltissima said...

Great post especially after earlier posts discussing the slimmer dolls. I like the Lady Mission sculpt - it is far more athletic. I also like the thematic contrasts - the nun with the assault rifle or the maid (whom I am assuming possesses a deadly characteristic). The line seems to critique the role of passivity that had ascribed to women socially an an ideal. I guess the robust, muscular build is also a social critique.

D7ana said...

Hi Kim!

Hmmm ... Lady's Mission dolls/figures and social criticism ... hmmm. That's an interesting idea. On the other hand, the Nun figure also had a pleather fetish habit that laced up the sides while some of the other dolls had "sexy" underwear. These figures strike me as "adult toys" because they have defined nipples --

-- waiting for a lightening bolt to strike me down for using the naughty n-word, not the other n-word -- oohhh sooo naughty here in the U.S. for kiddie toys. Remember the outcry about Janet Jackson's bared breasts. Thousands of children and parents swooning at the sight of a bared breast - how will they ever recover, LOL --

Then again, the strong sensual/sexual aspect can be considered critical since most fashion dolls - even the buxom Barbie - tend to have unassertive breasts (low nipple definition if any) and tiny feet and hands. (Barbies tiny feet always reminded me of the once bound feet of wealthy Chinese women.)

The large hands strike some collectors as "man-like" which which defies our Western social expectations that female hands should be small or moderate-sized.

I have this Street Princess figure, the Nun one, and the Doctor one. I like that they have heavier bodies and that they can pose well.

Thanks for sharing this idea.

D7ana said...

Additional post with LM figures.

Vanessa said...

I have seen some of these dolls, but I haven't researched them yet. Are there any Black females? Here in the U.S., there is always this debate over Black Barbie because a lot of Black women have more curves than Barbie. Lady Mission definitely has curves! I will add researching those dolls to my to do list.

D7ana said...

Hi, Vanessa!

I don't think any of the Lady's Mission or Girl's Mission dolls are Black. Some are described as being "sunburst" colored which I think of as being "suntanned." Here is Nouveau Toys' reference list.

Fuller-figured Black playscale ladies that I can think of are Bbi/Takara's CY Girl Ebony, Triad's AA, Bbi's Perfect Body AA - that's among the poseable ones.

Mixis dolls Opal and Emerald, Vanessa from the Get Set dolls, and Jakks Pacific's Valerie from Josie and the Pussycats are also fuller figured - with Black dolls - but they are closer to Barbie, limited poseability.

There is some clothing information here

Roxanne has a blog post.

Vanessa said...

Thanks so much! You are a wealth of information. I will check out the references you sent me. We'll chat soon.

D7ana said...

You're welcome, Vanessa!

I look forward to reading and seeing the results of your research. Always fun to expand our doll and action figure knowledge. Best wishes and much fun researching!

Twelvemo said...

I'm interested to know what it is about these figures that you love, what you do with them, and whether you like my 1/12th scale action doll? I made her as an art projects because I wanted an animation puppet and pocket-sized artist's mannequin. I didn't want a character based on a movie chracter or comic-book hero, or celebrity. I wanted a blank character that could be what I want it to be.
Photos here: http://www.sarahbeare.com/page2.htm
Animations here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/twelvmo1
If you like these and are an Etsy member add my figure to your favorites:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/Twelvemo?ref=seller_info

Let me know what you think!