“I should love this BJD so why don’t I?” Anyone else think this?

I am same way about minifees. It's either the face seems to child like for the body or so mature I feel uncomfortable that it's small. Littlefees have the same vibe, I need a child like face to make it work.

 

That happened with my dream valley cattaur. I still adore her design, but once i had her, just didnt click. Part of me thinks it might be her face up, but its pretty and i hate wiping a company face up (i would've gotten her without it if I'd had the option. But i missed the order period and got her when she was in stock)

Then the other part is just, not the faceup at all, and just not vibing with her.

Other than that, i had a bit of a taste switch up a while back and shifted from anime esque to more fantasy types. So as much as i still enjoy my early dolls, they are far from my focus now

 

Sometimes it just happens, and while a doll checks all your boxes there’s still “something” that rubs you the wrong way. It’s confusing, but deep down there must be a reason…although it’s not always easy to see what that reason is. This happened to me with a Withdoll I purchased some years back. She was a great fantasy color (and frankly had the nicest and most well-posing body I’d ever seen at the time) but she just didn’t gel with me. So I sold her and moved on. Later it dawned on me that it was her more realistic proportions that had bothered me, so I simply chalked it up to developing and refining my personal aesthetic. I never brought a doll with such realistic proportions into my little fantasy world again, and it’s been smooth sailing ever since.

 

To a degree, yes I have felt this... it's something that happens when I notice I have dolls that are too similar in taste/style that a particular niche in my collection has already been filled. For me, variety is the spice of life, and I do see a lot of dolls that are beautiful that tick all the boxes of what I look for - but once you amass a larger group you find that each doll has to really shine in a special way to hold your attention.

Additionally, (maybe in your case) - sometimes you find that even though a doll is the size and has the features you typically collect, there may be an element of their look that you don't like. Maybe it's the scale and how they look with your collection? I know I have collected some weird sizes, and some work for me - others don't. Great thing about this hobby is there are always other dolls to look at and buy!

 

I've had a couple of BJDs that should have been IDEAl for me, but just didn't work.... No idea why, They just didn't.

She had a sculpt and faceup remeniscent of an old fashioned porcelian doll (I've loved them for decades). She was on a body I like (I currently have two other dols on the same body). She had a smile. She was a green eyed redhead (if I'm not careful ALL my dolls would end up as green eyed redheads). She had a character and a name... and she just didn't mesh with me or the rest of the BJD gang.

Teddy

 

I haven't had that since figuring out what my boxes specifically are, but I had a whole bunch of dolls that just felt immediately disappointing when I got them in while I was still figuring it out. That said, last month I ordered a Dikadoll Red Moon specifically because they check my boxes - size, eye proportion, nose-to-face ratio, soft jawline, slight smile - even though I don't actually feel love when looking at them. We'll see if I have that disconnect in person, but I'm hoping that it's the company face up that kills the love and when he arrives blank I'll adore him.

Dolls are a mystery like that! They're a far more emotional hobby than many people realize, and a doll either clicks or it doesn't.

 

Not with any doll I've bought, but with dolls I've considered buying. Dream Valley's Constantine for instance: he's a centaur, he's got a bone theme, he's pretty... I should've been all over him. But once he was shown fully by the company, I didn't have any interest in buying him. I did buy his outfit, but not the doll, and it wasn't entirely because of money reasons. Part of me keeps thinking "I should regret that", but I really don't.

Maybe there are like, subconscious characteristics about dolls (maybe since they're humanoid?) that cause us to not vibe with them. After all, sometimes there are people I just don't vibe with, even though there's no reason not to like them. Or I could be completely off.

 

Doll Chateau Elizabeth, for me.
I love the over all vibe of DC dolls, but I collect mostly mature minis and none of the DC faces in that size has never been quite right before her, I just really like their bodies and their over all look. Elizabeth I do like. And I love spiders, so her body should be just the right thing. Only, it isn't.
Now, I know that the main thing that bothers me is the number of legs, no matter whar sort of centaur logic I apply to it the decision on three pairs of leggs baffles me (they have opted for four pairs on their tiny spider body so I guess others have cone to the same conclusion, but that one was to small to interest me and again, no heads that spoke to me). I tried to convince myself not to worry about it, she's a fantasy creature after all, but I know I couldn't let it go.
So I never bought one.

I still like the head, and I very almost got it on one of their human bodies at one point, but something tells me I'll still be a little bit annoyed with her, because in her original form she was so close. I almost love her. I want to love her. But I don't.

 

When it's a doll you've already purchased as in your situation, I get this feeling sometimes when a doll didn't meet my expectations.
Not that there was anything wrong with them, but I got a different impression of them from photos than how they seem in my hands. Like the side profile of the nose was different than I thought. Or the doll didn't look good in the clothes/accessories/style I intended for them.
I find giving these dolls some attention to work things out with them can help you decide if they're a keeper or not. Let go of what your expectation was, since you know that's not doing it for you. And try some new things with them.

I had some dolls back in my early collecting days, that at the time were my "grails" and when I finally purchased them, I was just not feeling it anymore. But I do regret not putting in more effort to make it work with them before sending them to new homes Because that has worked out surprisingly well for me.
But I cut younger-me some slack. That chick was pretty anxious with money in general. So not insta-bonding with a doll would cause a lot more stress than it really needs to. Whether you sell the doll in a month or a year realistically is not going to make a huge difference.

There's often dolls I see and like everything about, but in the end they don't drive me to make a purchase.
I tend to put these dolls on a wishlist, and then delete them off later The doll didn't change, but my attitude does for whatever reason
Sometimes they go on and off and back on again I'm thinking of a few I took off my list right in this moment that I want to put back on. Will I ever buy them? And will I be happy with them if I do? No clue. Like you said, they check every box on my list. Maybe it's because I have other dolls that already fill those roles in my collection so there's no drive to buy.

I think it makes sense to be kind of picky about your collection. Even if your financial situation is good, some of these dolls cost as much as someone's rent, or a nice PC upgrade, or a musical instrument... When it comes to luxury items like this, you don't need a better reason for not owning them than "something feels off." So while I think if you already bought them, it's worth trying to connect with them and find the spark that drove you to buy them in the first place, sometimes it's just not meant to be.

 

I like to call it an x-factor. I have absolutely loved Black Cherry Dolls Xiao Yu for years. I've wanted a realistically proportioned Asian girl for a long time, and she ticked all my boxes. I finally got her about two years ago and... the whole thing just went nope. Nothing I have done with her over the past two years has made me happy for more than a week or two.

Then there have been other dolls that I inexplicably love. Like where I got them blank, stuck a crap wig on them and some ratty prototype clothes, and loved them to bits. And then continued to love them just as much as I slowly customized them. Actually, this is an interesting thing I just realized about myself -- if I love the doll blank, I don't necessarily love it more once it fits my vision, I just keep loving it. Inversely, if I don't love it blank, I don't think customizing it has ever created that x-factor when it wasn't there in the beginning.

I think that bjds are art, and some art resonates with me more than others. Maybe that's what the x-factor is?

 

I haven’t been able to connect with the Raccoondoll Elf Ron (50cm) I bought . When I received him I liked his body and his sculpt, even though his head was smaller than I imagined. I had difficulty getting a wig for him and ended up making one that I had to redo several times. His eye size listed on the site was wrong (they listed 6mm his eyes are 8mm minimum), so the molds I got to make eyes for him were too small. I tried to connect with him, paint his face-up and make an outfit for him; but I never could. After having him sit on my shelf for a bit I found what I disliked most about him was his small head size. I’m contemplating getting a new head for his body, like a Souldoll Vito.

 

I had the same thing happen with both of my Raccoon Doll girls, measurements seemed just ever so slightly off, heads were smaller than what it looked like in the pictures on the website. I've been making so many changes trying so hard to bond with them but it's just not working out.

 

I'm kind of having that with one of my boys. Don't get me wrong, I do love him, but I love the character more than the doll. The body is one I had before and adored and it does all the poses this character needs, the head is from my favorite company, the faceup is very "him", I got him the perfect clothes and two wigs to swap out....at first, I had the wrong eyes in him, so I fixed that and it did help! But something is still...off...that I can't figure out. I think it might be his eyes or nose, but I'm really not sure?

 

I feel this way about some of my dolls. Either because I slowly lost interest in them or the idea I wanted for them didn't fit them very well. However, there are times where I didn't like them but a few months later, I ended up regaining interest again. But if I lose interest in them again after the initial reinterest, I would move them to the sell pile since it's really not going to work out and I'm just forcing myself. Ideas and interests do change over time, so it's to be expected.

 

I have the same thing with some of my dolls it just happens sometimes is just some details that make it not work but what's done is done only remedy is to sell the doll and move on.