Am I the only one who think company produced is enough?

My most intact fullset is my Latidoll Largo. He has the default face-up on both heads, and is wearing default eyes, wig and one of the fullset outfits without the shoes. I was planning to make him some fur legwarmers or something since I didn't care for the sandals he came with. I enjoyed getting him with everything because it meant I didn't have to search for hours to find the right thing for him to wear, pay $50 in shipping to get pieces from 3 different companies just to have it not fit right. But I have to admit, I do enjoy shopping for my dolls online. Sometimes it's nice not to have the extra hassle though. I will probably get him different eyes in the near future, but otherwise I don't see myself changing anything else about him. I love him the way he is! He is an exception to my crew though, most of my others are more customized. I think getting fullsets and making customs are both fun in their own ways

 

Not when it comes to BJD's no. I don't usually want a company face up when it comes to a BJD. I prefer to custom BJD's. That's the whole point of having a BJD for me. I do rather like the company face up on one doll though, the RS Dai and I just might have that one done by them when I get mine. But usually not. I like to face up and make my own clothes and stuff. It's most of the fun for me. I don't want the company doing that for me.

 

For me, it depends on if the faceup matches the character I have in mind. The company I usually order from has really nice faceups, so it usually works out. Otherwise, I would order the doll blank and figure it out later. As for full set outfits, I never get them because I'm super picky about outfits and they never match what I have in mind. For some reason, I always have to hunt super hard to find any outfit that fits my characters! About half of the outfits my dolls wear are commissioned. Oh wait.. I did get ONE full set outfit.

 

I believe that is the specialness of the BJD hobby--we purchase in of themselves, works of art. They are created by sculptors who are passionate about their art; and yet they know and encourage new owners to change the dolls. (Who would even consider painting over a da Vinci or a Monet?)
My crew is made up of dolls that have never been modified, and others that have.
As BJD hobbyists, we have CHOICE! And either way, original or changed, the dolls are wonderful and reflect the tastes of their owners.

 

My first doll I got as a fullset, but within the first hour of having him home I'd changed his eyes, and changed his wig as soon as the new one arrived! He still wears his fullset pants and has the default faceup, but that's pretty much it. Now I would only buy a fullset doll if it had a really special unusual faceup that I loved and wanted to keep. I much prefer buying dolls blank and customizing them myself, a big part of what makes BJDs special to me is how different the same sculpt can look with different faceups and styling. Even one doll I bought with the fullset outfit and wig, I got without the faceup so I could paint him myself! I could see maybe getting the little Soom fairies and keeping them fullset, but those are about the only ones I've seen that I wouldn't want to change something about.

There's no wrong way to do this hobby, though, really. I much prefer to customize mine. Some people only ever buy fullsets and never want to change them. It's fun that there are so many different preferences and styles in this hobby.

 

I think to a lot of people (myself included), the draw is that they can have a 3D representation of their own character(s) that exists outside of their head. So... it's not that we're not okay with having a BJD exactly as it's styled by the company, but that companies rarely style their BJD's the way we envision our characters. ^^

I mean, it happens. Iplehouse recently released another limited doll of Claude, whom I've been eyeing for a looooooong time to be a half-demon prince of hell character of mine (pretty much since his release way back when during the Elemental Guardian limited release). And suddenly Iplehouse releases a 1. Demon Claude with 2. Curved, ram-like horns, 3. Demon Teeth, 4. That beautiful armor-like outfit that very closely resembles (in form and colour) my own take on Vincent's hellish duds. I was all when I saw it. If I had $1100 (which I do have, but I need it to move out...), I'd be jumping on that and looking high and low for a 1:3 scale pitchfork to go with pretty much the whole fullset.

On the other hand, I got Soom's TG Lami during the limited release (yes, it seems like demons are a theme here...) and he's not styled anything like what Soom intended. I still have all of the fullset resin pieces (horns, pitchfork, tail), but I never use them because the character is actually a tiny god, who wears antlers instead (he's also got a pair of resin wings kicking around, but I don't actually think he needs them anymore). He also got painted completely differently by another face-up artist, got dark hair instead of white, and is waiting on a pair of green urethane eyes, because that's closer to what I wanted the character to be.

The vast majority of my dolls ended up being styled completely differently from their company styling. To be honest, I really do enjoy the hunt for the perfect accessories/crafts(wo)men to make them (or making them myself...), though the idea of getting the whole thing in one neat box is tempting, if it was possible.

 

Most of my fullset dolls stay in their fullset form. The only two that don't are my Iplehouse Efreet and Benny because their fullset items and clothing are delicate. With Benny, I actually lost one of her fullset earrings and was lucky enough that iple replaced it. After that, the jewels and clothes went safely in a box. She's dressed in Iple clothing, wig, and shoes though. Her face up is also the same. It was absolutely perfect and I see no reason to change it. She looks excactly like what I want.

 

I don't own... ANY fullset dolls. I've actually only bought one doll with the company face-up and as soon as I felt comfortable with it I wiped her and gave her my own faceup. The customization part is most of the fun for me. I can understand why people wouldn't dream of messing with their perfect fullsets though!! (if I had a Ducan I would never wipe him or change his clothes ever)

 

Personally when I'm looking at a doll, I look beyond the clothes and face up. I want a doll with features I like, not changeable make up I like. I wish Luts posted pics of their dolls sans face ups. Though, I'm waiting for my Kid Delf Kiwi, and her face up was really nice! I didn't get it since I'm cheep, but I did get her outfit, cat ears, and wig. I am very excited about the cat ears and clothes! If I couldn't do face ups, I would have gotten the one she came with.

 

I am way too cheap for fullsets! When buying dolls that will remain nameless here, that came with "fullsets", I usually switched them into something new and dumped the clothes into the bin for all the dolls. I don't know why it pleases me more to put the dress from one doll on another, but dressing them and wig changing does seem to help the bonding process for me. It seems like the fullset doll as is, is more for display and less for play. And I want to play with my dollies!

I do tend to lean to dolls that I like the default faceup. I rarely have a character in mind first, the character comes with the doll for me. I see the doll promo pictures and fall in love with THAT doll. The clothes aren't so much a part of THAT doll to me, but the faceup is. I'm doing a little faceup work, but I don't see a blank doll and envision a face on her. Maybe that will come with time though.

 

I feel the same way to an extend. I usualy fall in love with the doll according to the faceup the company has for it. I have concidered getting a blank mold and sending it out for a faceup but it's scary.. I'm too afraid of losing it or getting damaged.

 

I only intend to own one doll, who will be my character, so he will be customized a lot. But I have to say, if I was going to buy another doll (and believe me, I was horribly tempted), I would buy the fullset Douglas from Doll Chateau, and I wouldn't change a thing! He's beautiful and perfect, and I'd love to have him, and keep him just the way he is

 

Mmm yes and no, most of my dolls fit a character from one of my stories so buying them fullset never really works for me, I'd feel like I have someone elses creation in my house that didnt quiet fit in, but at the same time I dont do a lot of customization. I love company faceup's actually and it's part of what makes me fall in love with a sculpt is if they are painted well, and I'm a bit nervous about the prospect of looking for a good face up artist that fits my style since I know I can be picky.

So to me my customization is simple, I order their eyes and wig and outfit all separtley though usually from the same company so I know it will fit, and then put them together and feel happy. If I ordered a full set clothes and all it's likely a few of their things would be changed out to other dolls.

I think the only full set I got and felt I wanted to do almost nothing to was my Merpuki from Fairyland. She's lovely and well she's not a character I just loved her pictures. But then I'm going to have her body blushed soon and since two of her fins went missing at a con I have to have those made by some body. but I feel the changes I'm going to make arent going to be to make her more unique but more to enhance what'st here.

I am actually going to start a bigger project soon. I just today settled with a seller on the market place for my first second hand doll on a layaway. I'm already picking out an outfit and aesthetic for her but once she gets here I know there is some changing I want to do like a new body blushing and probably a new face up. And because she's a fantasy doll I might have her modded in a few other ways, I need to get her first though and see for myself, but I'm looking forward to this project!

 

I think it depends on the doll and the character I want. For Guy, his default face and the blue eyes he came with are perfect, I haven't changed that since I got him. For my other ones I wouldn't mind changing their face-ups, I know I've changed their eyes many times since I received them.

 

I love customizing as much as the next person, but when a company's fullset gets EVERYTHING you love right on the first try, then.... why change it? My Soom Vega Last Song is the ultimate Foxy Fantasy Merman of all time... I absolutely love him just the way he is. I fell in love with the whole package, bells and whistles and everything, so that is what I bought! If I didn't love it, I'd've bought him blank. But Soom did such a flawless job. I have often changed his jewelry, eyes, and hair, but that's it. I have experimented with changing his merman-parts out to human parts & putting human clothes on him, just for kicks, but he always goes back to being the merman I love. It's like Soom reached into my brain and plucked out the Ultimate Foxy Fantasy Merman design, and put him up for sale just for me.

I have also not changed either of my DD-Anne Lotus Nears except for changing one of their wigs, and decorating them with new shoes and jewelry.... DD-Anne's visions are so marvelous that I am always too charmed to really change anything. I love the top-to-bottom air of Purely Handmade that permeates each of her dolls. If I didn't want her own vision to be part of my collection, then I'd've ordered them blank, too.

Others of my dolls, they sure don't end up looking anything like their sales-pictures anymore. Everything gets changed according to my whims. But when I get something that's perfect just as it is, it stays.

I consider it to be collecting the artist's design, and their vision, and their paintwork, along with the doll itself. Like, I consider my collection to have 9 Iplehouse men and 12 Iplehouse faceups (option heads ^^), and I treasure each faceup separately as their own works of art. I also treasure my artist-repaint faceups, as separate Satoko Ohno or SDink works of art. And they all work in harmony towards making the collection I love. :3

 

If there was a full set that I fell for as-is, I'd probably keep it as-is. I may change clothes or something once in awhile, but if I was going to pay full set price it would likely be because I liked all the elements. Same goes on a lesser level for the face-ups, if the company offers you the choice.

 

YES. There are some dolls that are perfect as a full-set.

My first dolls, I liked to change them to suit me and whatever whims I had, so they wore different eyes, wigs, clothes, everything! That is one of the wonderful things about BJDs--that even if you like most things about them, you can still change things--eyes, clothes--and that will make a big difference. And you can go even farther with customizations and mods, if you wish.

So most of my dolls, I change at least something now and then. But some other dolls, I have mostly fullsets and keep them that way. I still often want to change clothes, at least... but I have some that stay very much the same as their fullset.

I have some Volks from 2005/6... one is a one-off. Both, I have kept their glued-in eyes, even though I LOVE to change eyes. But I have other dolls I can play around with that way, so I keep my Volks very close to the way they arrived--with same eyes and faceup. I DO change wigs and clothes, though... but I keep their fullsets.

I have DC Alberta. I like her fullset outfit... she stays exactly as she arrived.

I have some tiny anthros that are fullsets and they stay the same--mostly because it is not so easy to find good outfits to fit them--and I really LOVE their outfits!

 

The only dolls I've ever gotten that I've gone "That's it, he's perfect, I'm done!" have been Darren and Ian. I haven't had to do a thing to either but sew for them (Darren wasn't available as a fullset and Ian would have come with a dress-looking thingy that didn't suit him). Everyone else has needed restringing and sueding and new eyes. I still need to give Larten his scar and find somebody to do scales for Evra. Arra WOULD have been perfect, except her eyes were just OFF. They made her look like she didn't have any, so I had to get her new ones.

 

My Pipos Dark Rabbit is still exactly as designed. The paintwork is lovely, the colours of the fullset outfit work with that (and are good quality) - he's perfect out of the box. I think that kind of doll is more of a display piece than anything else (if I'd wanted to customize a rabbit I would have bought one of the standard run ones).

 

I wasn't happy about ordering from a company because I was worried the faceup would not please me. If I fell in love with the promo pictures, and that way lies danger, I felt I would be sad or disappointed if the doll showed up with something different. From watching the box opening thread, I've seen some that are exact and some that are so different that it made me timid. I would rather buy a doll secondhand, which is what I am doing now, because then I can see actual pictures of the actual face. OTOH I would rather buy a blank empty head than one with a faceup if I was going to have it changed because I would feel bad wiping off someone's hard work and art even if I didn't like it. Mebbe I am weird?