Bfc Ink Doll YUKO

As promised, today I'm going to show you YUKO, my Bfc Ink doll!

Isn't she pretty?  I've come across many BFC Ink dolls at the thrift stores over the past couple of years, but they are usually "Addison" or "Kaitlin".  I was lucky to find Yuko at a local doll show for only $10.  She came with her original clothes and even some accessories.  Originally, I was going to sell her, because she can command higher prices on Ebay.  But then, as sometimes can happen, the more I looked at her, the more I liked her!  So she is staying in my collection for now.

Bfc Ink Dolls first came out around 2010, I believe, and were discontinued a few years later. 

Here's a picture I pulled from youtube that shows eight of the original dolls:  Back row, left to right:  Noelle and Aleisha (twins), Kaitlin, Calista

Front row:  Addison, Yuko, CJ (the only boy!) and Gianna

Later, "Pen Pal" dolls were introduced:

"Britt" from England, "Elsa" from Sweden, "Carmen" from Mexico, and "Nicolette" from France

Interestingly, this stock photo shows Nicolette with blue eyes, but all the Nicolettes I've ever seen on Ebay (and the one I actually owned and sold) have had brown eyes.

The very first run of Bfc ink dolls did not have all the jointing like the later ones; they had straight arms and legs, with the exception of joints at the knees and chest plate.  My Yuko has the 15 point articulation that makes the later dolls so popular for their posability.

Just look how pretty she can pose!

She can even stand on her own

The one major flaw with these dolls was their hair--the quality was just not good enough to stand up to even minimal play.  And since these dolls were sold for children to play with, you can just imagine how the hair suffered!  Yuko probably had the nicest hair of any Bfc ink doll I've found, but it was still frizzy on the edges.  I keep it pulled back in a braid to keep it from getting tangled and matted.  It's really a shame that the manufacturer didn't give these dolls better hair, since everything else about these dolls is such nice quality.

Since they have been discontinued, the only place to find these dolls now is on the secondary market.  So, check your thrift stores and Ebay!  Unless you are trying to get a rarer model (like one of the Pen Pals or CJ, the boy) you can easily pick one up on Ebay for usually under $20.  I find them at my local thrift stores occasionally for around $2-3!  Just be prepared for bad hair--but I have seen wonderful transformations online where people have rewigged them.  I am tempted to do this myself when I come across the next waif that needs it.  Since none of the Bfc ink dolls came with red hair, I'm thinking a wig with long, red ringlets might be kind of fun...!