need for a new abjd category

so i was just looking over the new tin man po-11 from pipos and realized that it's part of a still emerging trend in bjds: automatons.
there are various dolls already out there and established - such as batchix's machinas - but it is still such a small group so far that it is not yet recognized in the community as a whole. most people seem to be struggling with this little one to define him as either humanoid or anthro when he doesn't really fit into the criteria for either quite so well. there is already a precedence set for dolls that have (or have potential to be) enhanced with cybernetic type sculpted bits in addition to the few robots that are already around. for some reason it just seems to me that there will be more and more that we seen in the coming years that have potentially robotic parts that are sculpted as either part of or the entirety of the doll. i don't think that this would make them any less worthy of fitting into the aesthetic, just that we need to, as collectors and artist, expand our accepted definition of what makes a doll an abjd.

on top of this, i've been hearing the terms "ebjd" and "western bjd" thrown around a lot of late and it has me thinking. there are already dolls that are made outside of asia that are accepted as "asian ball jointed dolls" despite being made by european or north american artists and companies. now, however, there seems to be a trend of labeling any doll that is made by a "western" artist as not being an abjd simply because people either don't like it or deciding that it doesn't fit in with established abjds. this trend is even extending to the more realistic looking dolls coming out of asia as well. do we even really need the "asian" part of bjd? if so, do we need to expand upon the definition? do we need to add in "wbjd" and "ebjd" to the world of bjd to go beside abjd?

ten plus years ago this was an easy hobby to define, now not so much.

my own personal thoughts are constantly changing depending on trends being established and dolls that are coming out. i think that, in the end, my choice is simply to call them bjds (though i do use the term abjd especially when describing the hobby and dolls to others) and have a simple set of criteria for the top level of definition: changeable eyes, jointing that resembles ball and socket in some manner, made of resin or vinyl, and customizable. after that i go into more defined categories such as realistic, non-realistic, fantasy, anthro, animal, etc. and, yes, as part of my definition i do include dolls like pullip and monster high. however, they are not in the same categories as resin and vinyl bjds as they are mostly plastic and come completed and not really intended for customization. (monster high dolls, obviously, are consumer grade toys, but still a type of bjd.) i won't go further into those two types and similar dolls at this time, but that is my own personal determination for things that likely isn't shared with most people.

anyway, what are your thoughts? please comment! if you feel like writing your own blog about this in response, please leave a link for me to see. :) i really would love to hear what others think about all of this!