With sales volume "second only to" Pop Mart, has the BJD industry ushered in an explosive growth?
Last week, the Cultural and Creative Trend Weekly reported that the top five best-selling blind boxes on Tmall's list were the CRYBABY Vacation Mode On series, the DIMOO Secret Drama series, the DIMOO New Diary series, the Fengyue Qiannian BJD blind box, and the MINISO YOYO Cute Tilting Head series.
The top three all came from Pop Mart, but right behind them was a brand called "Jidong Shunxi" that was established two years ago. The listed product is a poseable doll figurine in a special six-body type (with a bare body height of 22.6 cm), a blind box of Chinese-style female dolls, including designs from multiple dynasties ranging from the Warring States to the Republic of China.
Fengyue Qiannian Special Six BJD Blind Box
In an article a year ago, the Cultural and Creative Trend mentioned that more and more trendy toy brands were exploring "BJD" products and achieving some results. For example, a 12-inch BJD blind box called "Sugar Index 100%" raised 8.7 million yuan on Modian.
From 2024 to mid-2025, on the Modian platform alone, 9 BJD/MJD products raised over one million yuan. In addition to Magic House Art, the brands included COME4FREE, Freedom Advocacy, Jidong Shunxi, Zao Ciyuan, Hewan Culture, Wanle Xunchao, Inedible Dolls, etc., mostly startups.
In the past year, the BJD/MJD track has become even more "lively". On Modian and Xinwuji alone, about 30 projects raised over one million yuan, and there were also 3 projects that raised over ten million yuan (Mix Angel | Special 6 Proportional Hair Transplant Poseable Doll Blind Box, [Mystery Tower] 8-inch BJD All-Male Character Blind Box, Mian Guang MOFU | Special 6-inch Hair Transplant Boy BJD Blind Box).
Beyond crowdfunding platforms, some brands have also started to break into new markets. For example, COME4FREE, Wanle Xunchao, SIMONTOYS, etc., which emerged through crowdfunding in 2024, have collaborated with well-known film, television, and anime IPs in the past and this year. On e-commerce platforms like Taobao and Tmall, as well as offline channels like Ji Mu Stationery and The Green Party, poseable dolls have also shown more prominent performance. For example, the new products of Jidong Shunxi made it into the top five of the best-selling blind boxes.
Today, let's talk about the evolution happening in this category.
The Explosion of Startup Teams
Comparing the "Million List" of BJD/MJD crowdfunding from a year ago and two years ago, we can see obvious differences:
Most of the companies corresponding to the popular products in the past year were registered in 2024 or 2025, and some were even established in the past few months.
Meanwhile, most of the rising stars from two years ago have basically stopped focusing on crowdfunding recently (or are busy with product delivery) and have disappeared from the list of new projects.
Regarding the popularity of "BJD", Modian believes that it is suitable for small and medium-sized teams to start with and has less dependence on IP. Modian, which has gathered a large number of trendy toy users through years of development, has become a good platform for "nobodies" to launch crowdfunding projects.
This characteristic can also explain the changes in the crowdfunding "Million List". Due to the high aesthetic and craftsmanship thresholds of this category, large companies cannot crush startup teams with their scale advantages like they do with regular figurine blind boxes or vinyl plush toys. Therefore, new players are constantly joining the track.
For example, the "Mix Angel | Special 6 Proportional Hair Transplant Poseable Doll Blind Box", which raised over 16 million yuan in crowdfunding, was founded by the well-known BJD doll artist "No. 9 Babel Tower" (also known as "Capybara Driving a Tank"), who has over 100,000 followers on Xiaohongshu and 100,000 followers on Weibo.
No. 9 Babel Tower had several pre-sold products before. After the great success of "Mix Angel" in 2026, the team expanded.
Today's senior BJD players may become the managers of a new brand tomorrow.
Crowdfunding has greatly accelerated this process. Crowdfunding is essentially a process of "collective pre-order + creative incubation". It allows creators who originally lacked funds to obtain a relatively large amount of capital based on their past endorsements (or project promises) and enter the IP incubation stage full of uncertainties.
The number of supporters of the projects counted by the Cultural and Creative Trend shows that if a BJD project can attract a thousand core fans, it has a chance to raise one million yuan; if it can get the support of five thousand people, it may receive ten million yuan in startup funds.
[Mystery Tower] 8-inch BJD All-Male Character Blind Box Project
Mian Guang MOFU | Special 6-inch Hair Transplant Boy BJD Blind Box
Therefore, we can see a large number of new BJD brands. Just in the past year, the initiators of million-level projects included MixAngel, Mystery Tower Cat Box, Mian Guang MOFU, OIOI, Sunless Studio, Mushroom Mogoo, Hexagonal Box, Creation Heart, Yucheng Culture, Sakura Painting Collection Studio, Tianxi TENCY, Dark Side of the Heart, Floating Mortal Realm, Unopened Door, Banxia Cultural and Creative, Fruit Hard Candy Research Institute, Towards the Shining, Vision Paradise, Sparkjoy, Mystery Tide Gravity, Heart Studio, Xu Mengting, Miaoao Universe, Daydream Mansion, Sleep with You, etc.
The explosion of BJD (old players would insist on saying "MJD") startup teams will, on the one hand, make users more valued by brands and enable them to buy products that better suit their preferences. On the other hand, chaos is inevitable.
Due to the relatively limited capabilities of startup teams in supply chain quality control and confidentiality, internal team management, and external anti-counterfeiting and rights protection, people often see various apology statements, postponement notices, and even condemnation statements about the factories they have cooperated with.
Statements of some million-level BJD projects
Top Brands Seek Breakthroughs
In the "chaotic battle", some teams calmly adhere to the "small and beautiful" model and can live a good life relying on their private domains and "craftsmanship". Some top players hope to take it to the next level and have deployed a combination of secondary creation, pop-up events, and co-branded collaborations. They not only launch new BJD products but also sell accessories such as doll clothes.
In the million-level BJD projects counted by the Cultural and Creative Trend, most brands have no financing history. A few companies such as Yanchuang Culture and Future Cultural and Creative have received investments and are actively exploring ways to break into new markets.
The representative BJD product of Yanchuang Culture is "Lulu Ling's Story", which raised over 5 million yuan in crowdfunding. The company was registered in 2017 and received financing in 2018. It owns original IPs such as "LUCKY EMMA", which had an annual income of over 100 million yuan. Data shows that its self-operated factory in the Dongguan Trendy Toy Center covers an area of 8,000 square meters, and the annual output value of its joint-venture cooperation is 200 million yuan.
Product line of Yanchuang Culture
After the successful crowdfunding of "Lulu Ling's Story", Yanchuang Culture quickly launched products and increased the exposure of the IP. For example, it participated in exhibitions such as the Shenzhen Toy Fair and the Hangzhou Trendy Toy Fair. The second-generation products covered more than a dozen offline channels such as KKV and X11. Recently, the IP also held a birthday pop-up event at the Guangzhou Animation Star City.
Offline channels and pop-up events of "Lulu Ling's Story"
The Mi Tian [Fantasy Forest] BJD, which raised over 4.5 million yuan in crowdfunding two years ago, belongs to COME4FREE, a brand of Dongguan Future Cultural and Creative Co., Ltd. The company was established in 2020 and received financing in 2022. The team has accumulated years of experience in the field of poseable dolls.
Now, COME4FREE has two major original IPs, "Mi Tian" and "Bang Ni", with a total sales volume of over 500 million yuan.
The Cultural and Creative Trend noticed that in the recent Tmall BJD best-selling list, "Mi Tian" products occupy three of the top five positions; in the top ten BJD sales on Douyin, COME4FREE takes the 5th - 8th positions (the 1st, 3rd, and 4th are accessories, and the 2nd is Jidong Shunxi's Fengyue Qiannian).
In addition to steadily promoting new products and fan secondary creation, COME4FREE is also holding pop-up events and participating in exhibitions for its original IPs. For example, it held a three - month event called "BJD Dolls - A Little Time at Home" in Yongqingfang, Guangzhou this year, and recently participated in the 22nd China International Cartoon & Animation Festival in Hangzhou.
