Any silly mistakes you're embarassed by/frustrated about?

Oh that really sucks! Maybe you can disguise the Resin mismatch with certain clothes? But I suppose that limits what they can wear.

Well, I've made a mistake recently. Last year I joined a pre-order for a doll I really loved despite her being the polar opposite of the dolls I collect. And despite dolls that are different to what I collect never lasting long. I even bought 2 of the same sculpt in different skin colours.

I have both dolls now. I sold my soul to release them from customs. I've already put so much money into them and they don't even have face ups yet... and I'm just not excited to do anything with them. But I'm going to persevere and hope I'm not just making another mistake

 

I haven't really been active in this hobby for long enough to make many mistakes, but I can say this: my first doll was a complete panic buy. Bluefairy was holding a 'lottery' you could enter where if you won, you could buy any sculpt in any size, regardless of the time of year. I had always wanted a pocket fairy, for the last ten years I'd been fantasizing about all the things I could sew for her and all the nifty little roomboxes I could make for her. So I entered, figuring 'if you don't ask, you don't get.' Well, I won. And I had 3 days to decide what doll I wanted or they would go to the next person. In such shock that I'd won, I picked the first head sculpt I could remember the name of, placed the order, and paid for it in full. It wasn't until the order had been confirmed and it was too late to cancel that I realized - letting it go to the next person would have been the smarter choice, as I basically forced myself to commit.

Luckily, I'd picked the exact right head (Fei is my favourite, followed by Rascal Jimmy and Daram), and the moment she arrived I was in awe of how perfect she is. I haven't made her clothing yet, and a room box is a long way away, but there are moments I look at her and just think 'You are so lucky this turned out perfectly.'

 

I have silly wig mistakes.

When I ordered my MoYu (Ringdoll) 72cm I also went and bought him a wig. I went by SD-wig instead of checking the guys head measurements. The wig was way to big, and I had to reorder a wig in a smaller size.

But, I did not learn my lesson, nope.

When I ordered my Lucifer (Ringdoll) 72cm I went by the head measurements on MoYu instead of checking the website. Why? I don't know. So when he got here I had to stretch the wig to make it fit. I finally used an older larger wig on him, that fits great.

What did I learn? Don't shop for wigs according to doll size, measure their heads!

Also sometimes dolls that take a size 8-9 wig, might fit a size 9-10 or a size 7-8 wig better. It might be better to wait for the doll to get home and measure them for the wigs, because even dolls from the same companies can be vastly different in head size.

 

Had an embarrassing resin slip-up last year. Dollits re-released DKD heads and bodies for a period, and I had always liked Eunsu. So of course I added that head to the shopping cart, then went to add a body. Before adding the body to cart, I decided to change the resin colour. Hit checkout, happily waited many weeks... and realized I did not update the resin colour for the head to match the body . Entirely my fault (don't shop uncaffeinated, kids). She arrived even faster than expected, in all her mismatched glory. Still love her though!

 

I have made this mistake, and probably will many times over. Every time I do it, I end up really annoyed with myself.

My dolls are old, some of them really old at this point because they were sculpts that I wanted when I first started collecting. I'll often buy an old doll head, paint it and buy it a body in that order.
I cannot for the life of me, understand why I see a yellowed WS doll and will immediately think "Oh, it must be NS!' and buy the wrong colored body. I wish that I could say that it's only happened once, but nope! I currently have a floating WS head, and a NS body that I bought for it.
Thankfully, I've made this mistake enough that I eventually will get the right colored doll head and the bodies will be used. Maybe...just not for the doll I originally bought it for.

 

I started on modding one of my boys to give him elf ears. I thought I'd just whack off some resin to make his ears a bit smaller first/I might be able to shape them well enough without any additions. The first ear went great. The second ear I was made to realize that I forgot to close the door of the room I was working in, and my cat came in and grabbed my bare leg with claws and teeth. For fun. I fumbled the Dremel and gouged a big furrow behind his ear.

You can't see it unless you're looking for it since it hides under the wig somewhat, but I'm still distraught. He needs more mods and I'm still anxious about continuing.

My cat is a demon, a lovable one, and my mistake was not considering his perfectly bad timing.

 

Recently had maybe my biggest dolly mistake so far, though luckily it didn't cause any damage. My shelf is a tiny bit wobbly when you stomp on the floor, and it makes my dolls on stands noticeably wiggle. One of my dolls is also barely able to be forced to stand upright when he naturally wants to lean forwards at the waist. Well, my mom was in my room, tripped over something, and nearly fell. She saved herself, but the door catapulted forward from practically the top shelf and landed face-first. I almost had a heart attack! It knocked off his wigcap and wig, but luckily there were no chips. He's now off the stand and sat in the shame corner.

 

My usual and frequently repeated lapse of judgement is based around the ‘they can share a body’ school of thought. I do it time and time again, never learn.
Either it’s heads that I think ‘meh, the resin colour is close enough’ or it’s ‘I’ll not use the head that comes with the body and instead I will use this other head’ ……. is it?…….do I?…… nope!

 

I bought a beautiful Volks outfit set and I got water on the suede skirt. I bought suede cleaner but it just made it worse.

 

Got a bunch of nice fancy shirts for my 1/3rd doll thinking that because they were advertised as that scale that it would fit only to realize when they came in that none of them could even be put on because his shoulders are too broad! Poor guy's just got a coat and pants at the moment. I hope that if I end up getting another at such a big scale that maybe it'll fit that body instead...

 

when i first got into bjd i spent so much time reading this forum and literally anything i could find anywhere on the internet while i was saving up for my first doll. i felt super prepared and not even a little intimidated, so much so that i made my first doll ever a hybrid. and it came out really well, too! i also restrung her body as soon as i got it, despite it being the first time i had ever handled a bjd-- also a success!

so, looking back, with all that research and prepping and confidence, i am STILL not sure how i had the idea in my head that eye sizes were specific to doll sizes, as in: SD take 16mm eyes, MSD take 14mm eyes, and tinies take 12mm eyes. based on that (WRONG) idea, i had picked out a really pretty pair of 16mm ice-blue eyes and had them waiting when my first doll's head arrived. boy was i disappointed and confused when i put them in my brand-new Elfdoll Rita and she looked like an alien creature that was staring into my soul. (she's a very realistic sculpt, so she does not have large eyewells and looks best with a 12mm eye.)

and that was how i learned that you have to choose an eye size based on the individual doll's features, NOT which size category the doll is in.

 

This is seriously the easiest mistake. Want a NS doll? Just buy a WS doll and wait 15 years! You'll never know he wasn't that color starting off!

 

I tried to clean stains off a new doll body. I used a magic eraser. It left some scratches on my girl’s chest. I dress her to hide it now

 

I made that same mistake on my second doll! I got her head third+ hand and no one was sure what resin color she was. She was pretty pale, so I assumed she was in white resin and ordered an AOD body to hybrid her on in WS. It's not a match at all, so I tried to blush her to match but I couldn't get the pastel to take well enough. I probably should have just powdered her face whiter now that I think about it lol. I just dress her in high necked stuff so you can't see it as bad.

My latest mistake though is I accidentally stained my favorite doll (my MYOU Dietrich) with a pair of black fishnet tights and a black mesh shirt. Most of it was just the sealant so I was able to scrub off the worst of it (sacrificing her very nice body blushing) but I scrubbed too hard and now her arms and legs look weirdly pale and almost green? (She is originally coffee resin). On top of that the top of her thighs have patchily dyed lace patterns in them that I cannot remove despite all my best efforts. Lesson learned everyone is getting anti stain clothes now.

Tbh, I think a lot of this hobby is just making mistakes of varying caliber

 

Most expensive stupid mistake I made was buying not one, but two dolls in the wrong color. I wanted twins, and they needed to be tan or brown. The dealer didn't list the resin color sample photos, and I assumed "light tan" was a typical tan color....spent over $1000 on the order, then a couple of months later, saw owner pics of the light tan....and it was basically normal skin with the slightest brown tone. I panicked. I asked the dealer if I could cancel the order. No. I asked if I could change to a darker color my dealer hadn't listed but another dealer did. No. The dolls arrived and just did not work at all for the characters I had planned with that light color. I tried to use them for other characters, but that felt wrong too, so I listed them for sale. One sold, at a loss. The other didn't budge. Bumped him for months, no luck. I ended up taking him down and turning him into a character I had years ago. It works, but I still feel that whole mess's negativity and mistake every time I look at him. Then on top of all of this, I had also spent about $300 on clothing for the planned characters, and most of it was so uniquely specific to these characters that I couldn't even use it for any of my other dolls and ended up just gifting most of it to my friend. It all just left me with so much regret. I'm not ever buying another doll without clear pictures of the color I think I want!

 

Yikes, the first time I bought shoes for my slim mini doll, I did *not* think there could be *that* much difference and ended up with huge shoes on tiny feet I'm so glad I could sell the shoes after but that was a shocker that made me delve into measurements a lot more. But if course it happened again I now just have both slim and regulars minis so no shoe goes unused hahaha.

I also didn't research enough and didn't know Dollmore had changed their NS at some point so one of my dolls now has super pink hands and feet that don't match the rest of the body. Sure, the body is also massively yellowed but the starting point was not... the same Do your digging kids!

 

I feel your pain on this one. Sometimes there are stitches in the back of the shirt making a pleat. I let the stitches out on a shirts that came like this, and they actually fit my guys now. Tightly, but it works, the backs just don't look as tailored as they originally did.

 

Luckily, I've never messed up as big as whenever I buy clothing for my MSD dolls.
For starters, I've got a Souldoll Vito, which is a pain to find a good fit of anything for, so it's always a lottery when I shop for him, but also for my MSD girl. I've spend good chunks of money in clothing for her and when it arrives, the fit is... less than desirable. It's my fault, mostly, because I keep convincing myself that, as she is on the bigger side of the scale, MSD boy clothes will fit her nicely, but I'm wrong every time and I don't seem to learn my lesson.

 

Wig sizes.

In 2005, 2006, when I first started collecting, I assumed wigs labeled "SD" fit all SD-size dolls. Took me years to understand not all SD size dolls wear SD/8-9 wigs, and now I'm stuck with a lot of too-big wigs. If I was interested in making my own wigs, I'd have plenty of fiber to experiment with, lol.