I'm doing some preliminary Christmas shopping, and I'm hoping to get one friend a BJD for around/under $70 or so. Yeah, I know, I might as well get her hen's teeth and the Holy Grail, but bear with me here.

It looks like I can nab a male body (must be male!) and a rooted hair blank head within my price range if I stick with the 1/6th scale stuff... normal dollfies and Obitsu 27cm set. I'm hitting some big stumbling blocks with the head, though, and I could really use some help!

Firstly- can I use a Dollfie head on an Obitsu body? Obitsu is cheaper, but I like the dollfie heads better. (for that matter, what's the quality of the two comparitively? Should I spend the extra money on a Dollfie body?

Secondly- A lot of info sites I've been to say you can have a 'faceup' done on your head for extra money... but the shopping sites I find don't seem to offer the service! While my friend is certainly artsy enough to want to try her own faceup, I feel funny giving an 'unfinished' doll (not to mention making her buy the painting suppiles!) Where can I get a prepainted head? What's the cost compared to a blank, normally? I'm in the market for a more girly, 'bishonen'-type face.

Lastly, advice on clothes is apperciated- it's not a priority, I don't think she'd mind getting a naked boy  ... but just to be complete about the whole thing, I just wonder if I might squeeze an outfit into the whole thing.

Any advice you can give is greatly apperciated!

Hm, well, it's important to remember that obitsu is not the same as a BJD. Some of the cheapest range 'actual' BJDs I've seen are from Boboboie (I probably spelled that wrong) or  B&G (which I have one of , I really love her)

I also have a couple of Obitsu dolls I really like, and I've found a great place to buy from is JunkySpot. They may offer face-up'd heads, and I believe they also offer complete dolls.

I'm not sure of the Dolfie and Obitsu body differences, but the Pinky-Street sister forum DollieMixtures ( pullip.pinky-street.com ), should have a comparison topic - in fact, you'll find a lot more doll information there, especially regarding Obitsu bodies. =)

That's OK, really- the idea is to get something in the 'family', even if it's not the real deal, that she can wet her appetite on until she saves up enough for a proper BJD. And since even the B&Gs seem beyond my price range (couldn't find Boboboie, so it must be mispelled  ), that's what I'll go for.

Off I go, to poke around dollie mixtures and see what I can see! 

The Bobobie site is here: http://www.bobobie.com/.  I have one of their 1/4 size dolls.

Unfortunately, you probably won't be able to find a BJD for under $70.  Even Bobobie's smallest dolls start at $78.  Bobobie is the least expensive BJD company I can think of.  So you'd probably be better off with the Obitsu/Dollfie route.  Keep in mind, however, that if you go searching for 'dollfie' you'll probably get lots of general BJD hits, since that's a common (if inaccurate) term referring to BJDs as a whole category.

Obitsus are wonderful.  All of my Pullips have Obitsu bodies.  The best place to buy Obitsus is from JunkySpot: http://www.junkyspot.com/.  They're in California, so shipping is lovely and cheap.  They carry a wide range of Obitsus and supplies for customizing them.  A new head with actual eyeholes was recently released, offering even more opportunity for customization, so that could be an option.  I'm not sure about dollfie heads with Obitsu bodies.  I'm sure it could work, but you may have to modify the head or the neck piece of the Obitsu.  Volks does have a US site: http://www.volksusa.com/dollfie.html (that'll take you directly to the Dollfie page), so you could get supplies from a domestic seller.

You should be able to get most of what you need for around $70 by doing the Obitsu/Dollfie thing.  I don't think you can get a pre-painted head, however.   But Volks does sell eye decals that make adding eyes pretty easy (you might have to search a bit for them, I couldn't find them with a quick look).

I hope that helps!

Junkyspot deals some Parabox stuff too - I got my obitsu head/eye decals from parabox themselves:

http://www.parabox.jp/eng/

They sell a few pre-built obitsus as well! They range a little over $75 to just as much as a 'cheap BJD', and probably a little below $75 too!

Have you considered Dal/Pullip for your friend? They are rather big-headed compared to Obitsu though.  And are a little over the price range too.

Putting together an obitsu with the eye decals isn't hard, and turns out pretty decent. =) Parabox has a guide to applying the decals and such.