>>9998386There isn't a US based distributor for them which is why they cost so much; the playline dolls only cost about 25$ and the "collector" Castles are about $30 if you buy them from the actual factory. The problem is the shipping and also the reseller markups, since they're so hard to get outside of Japan you have to rely on ppl buying them there and reselling and they flip them for a lot, especially castles. If the collector market for them was bigger here maybe some US based shops would start importing them and we'd get reasonable prices.
You can try looking at Mandarake, they have playline stuff for good prices, but the shipping will be high. I usually get a few things so at least the shipping cost is worth it.
As for pilling, I enjoy the personality in the sculpts and how classically anime some of them are. The couple of castles I've gotten have really nice makeup jobs (subtle with airbrushing) and their hair is incredibly high quality and doesn't tangle easily. I just find them incredibly cute and charming, whereas a lot of western dolls are trying to outdo each other with sparkle makeups and high fashion style clothes. I like some of the fashion aesthetics from MGA but their characters have no substance (RH entire premise is they go to high end fashion-based high schools) and Barbie is so desperate for inclusion that she has to be everything at once and has no personality of her own. A lot of western dolls suffer from a sort of watering down of their concepts by execs who think it'll be too challenging for little girls to understand. Licca has a lot of typical princess dolly stuff but she also has lots of styles where she looks like just a girl going to the mall with her friends, or a young woman going to the farmer's market. I really like how the fandom restyles them especially, they look very natural and alive.
