Anime Girls

By Avery Holton

They haven't hit the shelves of American stores yet, but Japanese-made Super Dollfies are becoming an online-driven hit in the U.S. With trendily refined makeup, exaggerated features inspired by Japanese animation, and unusual pliability, they are big sellers on websites like doll-hobby.com and have fetched as much as $1,000 on eBay. Last week they starred in their first U.S. convention, in Austin, Texas. Created by Tokyo-based Volks Inc., Super Dollfies (available in miniature form or as large as 2 ft. tall) resemble popular anime characters and can be arranged in various poses, thanks to a tough polyurethane-resin mix that gives them the look of porcelain but a flexibility that Barbie can only envy.

--By Avery Holton