Seoul Doll Free Market #47 (image heavy)

 

Do you love collecting BJD (Ball Jointed Dolls) or other collectable fashion dolls like Blythe, Pullip, Etc? Well if you live or are visiting Korea they have a convention just for you~ “Doll Free Market”!   Over the summer I attended a smaller spin-off doll convention here in Seoul, but I was told that this one was the main event here so I waited till the next one came around so I could see if for myself and share the info with you guys!

  Doll Free Market has been going on in Korea since 2002 with events being held in both Busan and Seoul about 4-5 times a year total.  Location and dates seem to vairy slightly (although lately the Seoul event seems to have been held at the same spot each time) so for the best info on upcoming show dates and the location you will need to check out the official site HERE ~ or a related Naver cafe HERE ♥ sorry it is all in Korean, but just try to eyeball around for numbers, event promo images, or use a browser translater if you are stuck!

As usual, Nara was my adventure victim and dragged along to see all the pretty dollies! haha such a good sport, seriously!  Actually, he loves looking at them a lot since he is in to sculpture and fashion…just the thought of shelf filled with them staring into space in our living room frightens him a bit lol.

This was the 47th Doll Free Market in Korea, the price to get in was 4,000 won each and it ran from 11am-4:30pm

Just like I had been told, this event was about double the size of the last one I attended~ the room was a small to medium-sized hall, but all the tables were occupied with sellers and the room was filled with eager shoppers of all ages.  It was crowded, but still very easy to browse around and see everything without having to fight through people… thank goodness!  Lots of indie doll makers had booths at this event selling and taking pre-orders for figures, but predominately this event is for buying doll accessories like clothing, jewelry, eyes, wigs, furniture etc. 

Beautiful Kimonos on display! Even though this is a Korean event~ Japanese brands, themed clothing, and accessories are still very present and popular with some collectors.

One booth had a large display showing several K-pop stars in soccer gear (A tribute to the show “Idol Star” where stars compete against each other) These dolls are apparently from a group called “Shine 샤인”

and of course, the fangirls had a stand to watch the boys play!  The little signs, fans, and banners are adorable!

Beautiful doll modeling a Korean Hanbok for sale and holding a tiny pair of panties lol…eh, why not?

Beautiful Alice-inspired dresses for sale~ I love the little delicate charms that have been stitched on

I never get tired of looking at dolls shoes… I kinda want to just collect these! So many styles for sale at this event♥

One seller even had traditional Korean shoes!

This seller had dozens of bitty hand-made hats for dolls to wear!

So tiny!! They even managed to get in some itty bitty ears ♥

Of course every fancy doll needs a pair of equally fancy mini panties!

Tiny panties may be the cutest thing ever.

Bitty suitcases for your new bitty outfits

They had a seller or two that has beautiful hand-made food for sale! Most booths used re-ment since it is kind of the go to brand for fake doll food now, but these are amazing and look extra real!!

Plenty of wigs in every shape and size!

Found a cute shop with my name! ^^

Beautiful arrangement by 아토마루 Atomaru

 

“Rooms” for sale that you can connect and set up for your doll to live in!

This seller had tons of hand-made furniture in a range of sizes

This is the new set of indie dolls (mocapinoru) by the talented Kream doll!  Nara and I fell in love with them so much, we talked to some of the artists and I will be featuring them and the studio in a future post ♥ ♥ ♥

Beautiful little dresses, throw pillows, and shirts for your doll!

Doll blank bases for sale and Kewpies… because they are cute!

Putting together a new doll~ ♥

O_o

This seller specialized in painting dolls faces! So beautiful

This booth had some amazing custom sculpts for your dolls~ hoof feet, wings, ears, etc

Realistic and monster hands ♥

Eyeballs!

xxxx

All around the convention we kept seeing these adorable little frog dolls at almost every booth! Korea seems to really love animal inspired doll bases, but these have a bit of a platic toy finish and I had never seen them before!

Finally in the very back of the hall we found the vendor of the doll bases at last! These are”Wonder Frog” dolls from Japanese doll designer Studio Uoo  and come in a large selection of fun colors as well as a more realistic tree frog paint style as well, cute!!  They did not look like much in the bags, but with clothing among the other dolls they really looked so sweet and interesting.

They also had the slightly creepy “New Bone Walker | ニューボーンウォーカー” by Studio Uoo as well!

 

Time for the pretty boys!  The detail in the uniforms was so intracate!

 

Just like at the last event, everyone congregated outside the event hall to eat snacks, take photos, and play with all the new goodies they purchased!  I have a TON of photos from everyone hanging out in my last post HERE

HAUL

 So what did I end up buying this visit? Actually nothing really T_T I still do not have a BJD doll, just can’t commit to one yet!!  I did get these adorable kewpie’s for my shelf and to use in my photos though!!

I grabbed lots of beautiful business cards to hang on to for later ^^

One of the booths was giving out free paper doll packets~ the art is so sweet!  The girl is named Ellie hahaha I keep seeing my name at this expo XD  I put her in a little winter outfit and clipped her to my pin board ♥

Do you like collecting dolls? Have you been to this expo before or plan on going in the future? If you want to see more doll-related posts please “Like” or comment below ♥ Korea has lots of indie brands and a few shops I would love to feature if enough people are interested!!

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