The Doll Shelves in June 2026

I've been lazy about blogging updates during the summer, and now I have a bunch of them! So I'm just putting everything into one Big Doll Shelves Update post. Could be fun, and it continues my monthly update habit. 

Here it is, my crew as is - no tricks, no preparation.

First of all, my current display setup:

For most of my dolls I use an Ikea MILSBO display. It's simple, minimalistic and reliable. I've left just two shelves and added custom LED lighting. The top shelf floor is double glass, and the last one is the metal bottom of the display itself. I have some reinforcement ideas for the top shelf in the future, but it has been in this state since 2023 and has served me nicely. I still try not to overload it, even with the double glass.

Ikea MILSBO

For the rest of the crew, I have a "Limbo Shelf". It's a closed wooden shelf in my bedroom and part of a wall closet, also updated with LED lighting. I can open it or hide it behind the mirror if I wish. This shelf mostly served as a temporary place for unfinished doll projects, but as more dolls joined my crew during 2026, I've decided to make it a permanent display as well - it gives me the freedom to clutter my MILSBO less.

Display stands in my bedroom, the darkest part of the apartment.

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Top Shelf

This shelf mostly serves as a home for my small dolls and 2-3 SDs. Nothing changed here much, besides we now have Senia here (previously I thought to call her Robin). I finished Senia's faceup in May, and she has proudly left the Limbo Shelf, where the poor girl spent almost a year, to join the display. (Her outfit is still a work in progress, though, but I want her to be there anyway.)

Left to right: Sorren, sitting with Osa; Sioryn and Ao next to Sorren. 

In the center: Llin and Senia. 

On the right: Morein, Ilven, and Ruth.

Senia

 

Usually Erin is also standing here, but now she's unassembled for maintenance. I'm on a fence about having her, because her character somehow intervene with another one and i feel urge just to join them to one character and leave just one doll. So my Zaoll Luv is on a testing point where i thinking about her place in the crew.

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Bottom Shelf

It's home to most of my big and heavy 70–75 cm dolls. I usually rotate them once or twice a week at best. The shelf can fit 3–4 more, but I prefer not to stack my dolls like sardines in a barrel. It's already a bit cluttered for my taste. I like to see some "air" and have space for interaction.

Left to right: Thaire, Einar and his brother Aneirin.

In the center: Ashrian and Nox. Yes, Nox is new! More about him below.

On the right: Dietrich, Brannin and Norra.

All my central characters are here. Interestingly enough, I always prefer them to hang out together. 

But Ashrian will soon depart to the Limbo Shelf because, unfortunately, old Soom Cream White resin is really sensitive to light, and she began to yellow very quickly. I guess old Soom resin didn't have any UV protection back in 2006–2011. It upsets me, but there's not much I can do about it anyway. She also doesn't have any suitable shoes right now.

Nox

Nox is Fox Nine by Miracle Doll. He isn't technically a new doll. I bought him in 2025, I guess, as a body donor for Ivar. I only used the body and stored the head away. Later I put him up for sale, as Ivar doesn't use this body anymore. But nobody claimed Fox Nine, even at a low price.

Then a thought came to my mind: why had I never actually tried to play with him as a full doll? Well, because he's a fox, obviously - and we don't really do overly beast-like or non-human characters here, right? 

But I tried anyway, and I like him! I named him Nox. I didn't even need to make any lore changes or additions, as I already have a class of characters with non-human features or abilities (one of them is Morein with her small fangs). So Nox fits perfectly. 

I've been having so much fun playing with him lately. It's nice to step outside your own strict rules sometimes, if it brings you joy.

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"Limbo"

And the last one, and maybe the most interesting shelf - the project shelf, a.k.a. Limbo. This is where all my unfinished dolls (and a few other inhabitants) chill. Let's take a look.

One thing that annoys me is how easily doll clothes wrinkle. Most of my outfits are made from natural fabrics, and after a while they just don't look as nice anymore.

I'm thinking about buying a tiny garment steamer. Hopefully it will help clothes look more presentable.

Anyway... new faces, right? I think some of them have never been shown here.

Left to right: Alberic and Kieran. A new doll, yes!

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Kieran is an Elvish from Dream Valley. He's a doll I gifted myself after achieving something important in real life. He's my second attempt at shelling Kieran as a character.

Kieran is Alberic's younger brother, and I really like the similarities I see between them. I have a feeling that Doll Chateau and Dream Valley may have shared the same sculptor for some period of time.

Love his face. So interesting. And I absolutely adore the Dream Valley body mechanics - it makes me want to change Llin's body as well. It's amazing how elegant and effortless Kieran's posing feels compared to my other MSD dolls.

No clothes for him yet besides pants. He borrows Ilven's cloak. I've kept the faceup he came with for now. It's a bit more intense than my usual taste, but it's okay for now.

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Center group: Ivar, Conrad, Valia, and Fairy. Mostly my older project dolls, except for Ivar.

Every time I show him, Ivar is different. Right now I'm working on his dreaming face, and he's back on his old default 18M body. I'm okay with it. I guess I did a lot of hybridization work last year, and I don't feel any urge to do another round so soon. So Ivar is a classic Old Saint from top to bottom, which is fine for now. 

This body also serves three of my four floating heads - Kai, Har, and Drazen. I highly dislike having floating heads. I hate it. And I don't have the room, purpose, or desire to add more big dolls to the crew. It's kind of a dead end. I'll probably part with the floating heads sometime in the future, except Ex Machina ad Drazen. 

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Conrad

Conrad is my Soom Mecha Angel Rex, which I've talked about some time ago. Bought out of collector curiosity and a desire to reshell Ivar, he's staying as his own character. As I said before, I like having one of the Mecha Angels represented in my crew.

(Conrad currently still has the unwashed faceup from my first attempt. I hope to redo him soon.)

He's big - 80 cm, old, and clunky. I've given up all my expectations about his mobility and posing, as he's a doll from 2008, and it shows in both his engineering and design. To me, he feels like a relic from my very first years in the BJD hobby, when I saw a few Mecha Angels at my first doll meetups and was totally blown away. He's also a very interesting doll.

Despite all their constructional flaws, I think the Mecha Angel line was a bit ahead of its time. They were huge 80 cm dolls with relatively realistic sculpts long before that became the new standard. Jointed hands were also something unusual in the early 2000s, as far as I remember. And I just love the overall vibe around them. Even the name - Mecha Angels -has always captured my imagination.

I think the Mecha Angel line had already been discontinued by 2011, when I entered the hobby, or was very close to discontinuation. Anyway, having a big Mecha grail on my shelf - achieved.

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Valia? Erin?

Valia/Erin is another old project doll. I bought Ringdoll Zombie Amy, released in 2014 and now discontinued, last year, and since then I've mostly just been admiring her and thinking about her character. What happened is that her character feels so similar to Erin that sometimes I think I'll just reshell Erin as Ringdoll Amy and call it done. I don't like having characters that are too similar - it feels repetitive and boring to me. 

That's fine, though, because I'm attached to Amy and not really attached to Zaoll Luv, no matter how beautiful and perfect Zaoll is. Sometimes I think all my dolls must have some kind of oddity in their design for me to feel a connection. Very lovely, conventionally cute dolls usually don't catch my attention. My dolls needs to have something a little strange about their faces (or bodies, or both). My Erin has a modded face that gives her the kind of oddity I like, but still...

The other option is to develop Valia's character further and see if I need to keep both her and Erin. I think I need to paint her first and spend more time playing with her before I decide.

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Fairy

Fairy is my Chibi Moon by Lillycat. I always wanted Ombre, and Chibi Moon (a 1/6-scale version of the Ombre sculpt) was an affordable option. Another grail doll checked off the list.

She doesn't have a name yet. All I know is that she and Osa are from the "small folks," a.k.a. faeries. I don't need any more small dolls, but a few of them feel like a nice addition that doesn't break the consistency of the collection. 

Lillycat dolls are addictive. My Moon is made from very nice, smooth, heavy resin and feels wonderful to handle and play with. She can stand on her own without any wiring or hot gluing. Her hands, face, and body are all designed so beautifully and really feel like an expensive work of art. 

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On the right: Björn and Miel.

While Björn is the same as always, Miel has undergone a reshelling. I did it because I was bothered that her previous version looked way too young for the character, almost child-like. 

The updated Miel fits my vision much better. She's a Supia Heeji, my second Supia - and I love them. 

Miel

Miel is waiting for color matching and a faceup.

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UPD: What's on sale

Just for the sake of keeping track, here's what I currently have up for sale. Who knows what I'll end up doing with these dolls in the future?..

- Heads: Souldoll Juana and Domuya Faith - listed in early spring. I'll probably add two more floating heads as well. I'm not in a rush.

- Dream Valley Ruby. Still on sale. I've been trying to sell her for more than two years now and have almost given up.

- Dreaming Doll Lia. She's a smiley MSD girl that unfortunately didn't work out as an Enid reshell (what was I thinking, again?). But the doll herself is lovely, and I appreciated her for a long time. Who knows, maybe I'll keep her. I need to think about it.

Dreaming Doll Lia

 

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That's all the changes.

To summarize, I've reached my limit of 25 dolls. It happened much faster than I expected when I started all over. I don't plan to add any more dolls, even though there are still a few I'd like to have.

(Exceptions: I want to finish Echo, my cyborg from Yuyudoll. I don't know whether I'll buy him a full body or just the bust option, though.

Also, Lillycat dolls are really nice, and I already know I wouldn't mind having another one. But that's more of a possible wishlist than an actual goal.)

My crew isn't compact. It's probably medium-sized, or maybe even large, so I can't really think of myself as a minimalist - but I do think of myself as a meaningful collector. I don't collect just to raise the numbers. Every doll has to have a place, a character, a purpose, and a meaning to stay. For now, there's no room for new additions. Otherwise I'd have to trigger the purge, and I really don't want to do that. 

I'm comfortable with my collection of 25 dolls (even with 26 dolls, if i'll keep Erin). It doesn't feel overwhelming because they're all different, all have a place to be displayed, all represent a character, and - most importantly - all of them mean something to me. Some are long-time companions, some are grails and treasures from the past, and some carry memories of something special. No random resin here.

Plans? No real plans for now, really. Just to chill, play with dolls, enjoy the summer, and touch some grass.

 

UPD: June 29 – Shelves after rearrangement

After I published this post, I cleaned and rearranged my shelves. As I mentioned, I decided to make the Limbo Shelf a permanent display, so there's no need to separate finished dolls from unfinished ones anymore. Instead, I focused on grouping them by some meaning -companionship, aesthetic, and character relationships.

Final look of my collection on June 29, 2026:

Not even close to perfection and way too cluttered, but better. I'm happy that I'm still able to have and enjoy my hobby despite everything that's going on in my life.