Obitsu dolls

The first "sort of ball-jointed doll" I ever owned was a 60 cm Obitsu Haruka. I bought her on ebay, from a nice man in Kyoto who was a Obitsu dealer, and I paid around 175.00 for her. She arrived in four days direct from the Kyoto airport, in a long box, with a stand and a metal plate, and "directions for some assembly", all in Japanese. (Luckily there were photos with the directions). Violet is the dark-haired doll with bangs peering into the box here:

The good thing about Obitsus is they are light, and when you pose them, they stay in that position. They can even hold moderately heavy things, including their more floppy strung companions. The downside to them is that they are made of vinyl (like Barbies) so they stain from clothes or package labels (you have to be careful where you put them down) and when you move their joints, they squeak. Loudly, and painfully, like a sound effect for arthritis. Since I can duplicate that effect with my own joints, I ended up selling Violet to someone else who didn't mind the noise.

If you are in the United States and want to check out more obitsus, go to the Junky Spot (www.junkyspot.com) or elsewhere to the site in Japan where Parabox is:

Parabox's Obitsu Info Page