Technologies and materials
The magnetic system is a shaft with a magnet on the end and the other polarity of the magnet mounted in the head. The system uses a small diameter neodymium magnets. The head of the doll is very firmly attached to the system due to the lightness of polyamide and strong adhesion of the magnets.
For the first time we used this system in April (May) in 2014 for the doll Mr Tarsier. Practical experiments revealed that the system not only allows to change heads easily, but it also allows to turn the head of a doll without any effort. This is very important for BJD dolls. And another advantage is that there is no friction between the surface of the head and surfaces of the other parts. This prevents scratches on the surface and extends the life of the dolls.
Polyamide
We use white durable plastic PA 2200 (from German EOS) in our products. At the beggining it is white powder, granular nylon. The SLS (selective laser sintering) method is used for printing and the durable plastic is obtained by laser sintering of the powder.
Polyamide for ball jointed dolls has several major advantages:
1) It is very durable. It is stronger than porcelain and polyurethane, and is unlikely to break if you drop the doll. But you shouldn’t do it on purpose.
2) It has a slightly rough surface, which is very pleasant to the touch. It is particularly suitable for ball jointed pets.
3) It provides ample opportunities for post processing. Polyamide can be painted, varnished, sanded, and undergo other operations of the post processing.
4) A polyamide doll is put in the right position easily and it keeps the pose.
A printing step, which looks like a “fir tree” pattern, can be seen on the details. This is especially noticeable on the rounded parts such as heads.
Polyamide absorbs moisture. After prolonged exposure to moisture, the plastic changes its properties. Polyamide cannot be subject to secondary treatment.
There is no elastic in these dolls at all. The attachment is possible thanks to small but powerful magnets. So dolls become a little bit less poseable (comparing to BJD pets that have elastic) but more playable. Magnets keep poses well and they make a pet doll poseable enough for playing. Simplicity of design makes assembling process very easy and fast. But it has another soft spots such as magnets can rust and when you play with several dolls thier magnetic fields can affect each other (so the dolls can strive to each other or run away from each other).
You can see how strong magnets are in this video:
