Out of the bag: Mirodoll Lele

Mirodoll Lele.  Forgive the dress, I had nothing
else that fit him on hand.

I was away on a work trip last week, and - much to my surprise - when I arrived there was a new BJD on my doorstop.  Having only ordered the doll (a Mirodoll Lele) three weeks prior, I hadn't been expecting to see him so quickly, but I was also surprised because I hadn't received a shipping notice from Mirodoll.  The shipping surprise turned out to be reflective of my overall experience with this company: some positives, but a fair number of negatives as well.

Mirodoll is one of the lowest-cost BJD producers out there and, having not heard much about them, I was curious to see how they would stack up against other dolls.  Normally, their 1/4th scale dolls retail for just over $100 USD, but they had a sale recently and as a result the doll was offered for $90.  I think it's important to mention that up front because I do have a fair number of complaints, but it's worth noting that the doll's price was a fraction of some of the ones I'll be comparing him to.

The first surprise was discovering how little packing protection was used: inside the shipping box was a simple draw-string padded bag - and almost nothing else!

The shipping bag.

 the hands were wrapped in a little foam, but that was it.  Luckily, the doll survived his journey and still made it to me intact (and that's despite the box being slightly crushed in shipping).

The second surprise was that they cast my doll in the wrong colour.  I  had requested their "dark chocolate" resin, but the doll I received is in "dark grey".  The colour isn't terrible (and if you wanted to create a drow/dark elf character it might be perfect), and while I can understand shipping errors for off-the-shelf items, for a custom-cast item, I was surprised to see this kind of mix-up happen.

Dark grey Lele, unclothed.

Unfortunately, the dark grey shows sanding marks even more so than tan colours do, and as a result the doll is covered in lighter patches.  The faceup is also a bit on the odd side in terms of colour choices, but for something that was included with the price of the doll, I can't really complain.

Still, there are some positives:  the weight of the body is surprisingly hefty. While he can't compare with the weighty (and much higher-priced) dolls from Volks or Iplehouse, he easily outweighs even larger-scale dolls from Bobbie/ResinSoul and Angel Street/Fdoll.

The body and head also have much more detailed sculpts than any other doll I've seen at this price point.  The body in particular surprised me with its level of detail and also with the solid engineering.  In fact, while my overall impression is less than stellar, I would whole-heartedly recommend this body for hybrids.

One other thing of note:  although this doll is sold as a 1/4th scale doll, he's actually significantly shorter than any other MSD-range doll that I own.  That's not an issue if you're using him as a customization project and intend to make your own clothes, of course - but it does mean that he can't share clothes with many other dolls (and it's why he's wearing a dress here - it's the only thing I had on hand that fit him).

In any case, I think he'll make a great project doll - but if I order from Mirodoll in the future, I'll certainly be tempering my expectations.

Height Comparison: Volks SDC Miko

Height Comparison: Island Doll Kevin

Height Comparison: Withdoll Aiden

Battle of the Grey Dolls: with Monster High
Neighthan Rot.