Almond AI Ball Joint Doll From Jun Planning

February 18, 2014 | By fitzcharming | Reply More

Meet the newest member of my doll collection, the Almond version of the AI doll by Jun Planning. She's a wee little Ball Joint Doll that stands just 5 1/2" tall. Jun Planning is the same Japanese doll company that makes Pullip Dolls. I've read several online accounts of AI dolls being available at Tuesday Morning stores, but the stores in my city are barren when it comes to dolls. I make the rounds to all 5 of them frequently and almost never find a thing. So I broke down and bought my little Almond doll on eBay. It's okay she was just $5 more than the ones for sale in the stores. I just like the thrill of finding a gem when I'm out shopping. Maybe someday I'll get lucky.

Back to my AI doll. As I mentioned, she is called Almond. In Japanese the almond tree flower stands for hope and love of cordiality. All of the AI dolls are named for flowers. She came in this cute white box made of hard cardboard that is designed as a great storage container.

The back is in Japanese and English.

And the spine has the brand name. The whole book is embossed with little vines on all sides.

Here she is tucked in the box before she was unboxed. There is a thin sheet of clear plastic covering everything.

And when I took the contents out it's easy to see where everything fits back in for storage. Look at those ribbons that hold her in place. Aren't they wonderful? No plastic ties, wires, tape, glue, just soft satin ribbon. Whoever designed this box "gets" it.

Besides the doll, you get little accessories and also a box of eye putty. Evidently this is used to reposition her eyes if you want to make her look a different direction. I'm not quite up for that so I didn't open it.

I love her little hands. She's got molded fingernails and her hands are posed in a cute little girl style. You can see some of her joints in the picture below. She's got joints at her neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, knees, and ankles. Her joints are held in place with elastic string that is tied into place inside her head. That's a characteristic of Ball Joint Dolls, which I really know very little about. They are a bit intimidating to me but I've always been anxious to know more. This little doll is a very inexpensive way to get acquainted with this form of doll.

Her outfit is very detailed and well made. The blouse opens in the front and closes with Velcro. It's got a little metal star sewn on the front.

And cherries on a star on the back. The red and white stripe theme reminds me of an old fashioned soda shop uniform.

I didn't quite get the hang of how to keep her visor on her head. She stands easily alone and even balances on her skateboard. She can't hold her own ice cream cone though.

A close up of her pretty face. She's got dark blue inset glass eyes and a porcelain like complexion. She's got sweet two toned lips and delicately painted eyebrows. I really like her facial features. She's made of plastic and the more expensive Ball Joint Dolls (BJDs) are typically made of resin. That's one reason she's so affordable I suppose. She looks resin-ish to me though.

Under her dress she's got cute little red bloomer pants.

And quite detailed little girl parts under everything. Cute little toes too.

I took off her wig to see how she's made underneath. It's very nicely rooted so the hair is nice and thick.

Her head has Velcro strips to hold the wig in place. The Velcro pulled some pieces of hair out of her ponytails when I took it off.

I found the best way to get the wig back on is to take her head apart and put the wig on the back section. You can see that the front and back of her head is held into place with a magnet. And see that metal ring? That's what holds her joint strings all together. If I pulled on that peg I think it would allow me to see the back of her eyes if I wanted to reposition them. I didn't do that today. This is as "apart" as I've ever had a doll and I was afraid to go any further this time. I had to take her ponytails out and re-style her hair. The ribbons were sewn into place so I had to cut the little string that held them together. I may never get them tied back the same way. Also her hair was held into place with string so I cut that too and replaced it with little rubber bands. Her hair was pretty easy to finger curl back into the original style thank goodness.

Here my Almond AI doll is standing up next to a Littlest Pet Shop Blythe doll. AI is a little taller.

But she's still small enough to live comfortably in the Rose Cottage dollhouse.

And sit in the Mini Groovy Girls patio furniture.

My son's dog is always ready to pounce on my dolls. I was more careful with my Almond Ai doll after what happened to LPS Blythe back here.

Doggie was very sweet this time and just wanted a little sniff. You can see I didn't position dolly's knee very well. I am new to the string joint thing and it seemed like her appendages just kept going around and around and around. I had a hard time figuring out which was top and which was bottom.

Here's little Almond Ai Doll next to the pool in our warm Florida February sunshine. She's sitting in a Calico Critters chair in this picture. Another good alternative for dollhouse accessories for her.

I'm very happy and excited to welcome this little cutie into my collection. I've got to think of a name for her besides Almond. I really like her so much I may have to buy her a sister. There are lots of choices on eBay and Amazon. I hope you have enjoyed my Almond Ai doll introduction. If you want one you can purchase her at Amazon too using the link below.