Are "Fantasy" dolls more attractive to you?

I'm usually drawn to fantasy dolls first. There's just so much more you can do with them, and I lived off fantasy books as a teenager. But sometimes I want human ones too.

 

I dont have a preference for the pop-culture equivalents of vampires, angels, demons and etc. simply because it's a popular fad, and has nothng to do with what these creatures are actually supposed to be, as per their canonical representations (elves are just... elves, i dislike them in _any_ shape, form, or presentation). And the snob in me that actuall has some knowledge of what these creatures are supposed to be, takes such... violations of their original image quiet personally. Though i do welcome and admire a proper representation.

 

I swing both ways. Really for me its all about the facesculpt. Anything else can be modded, added, subtracted, stuck on a different body all together... but the face has to grab.

Most of my dolls look entirely human barring odd eye and hair colors, but character wise not a single one is entirely base line human. Fantasy elements are either an added bonus (my Sard) or an annoyance (everything about Heliot except the human-ish head). I have dolls that whose look comes entirely comes from the character I've given them or the characters have been built around the sculpt because I was so in love with it.

Soo... both? My brain has been steeped in fantasy and sci-fi practically since before I was born so it seems so natural to me to have both hanging about.

 

Yes, in every way possible, fantasy dolls appeal to me more.

Firstly, lets start with my obsession with the mythology of unfamiliar cultures which began at age 4 when my Nana bought me a picturebook about the Greek gods. It's never let up. In one form or another, my personal study of the creative efforts of peoples from around the world has been a unifying constant throughout my whole life. I even did five semesters of an ancient history and archaeology degree under the mistaken impression that all I'd do would be study dead languages and think about mythological art and artifacts. Now I (rightly) study art instead. *L*

Next, we'll bring in the fact that I planned to design all of the dolls in my collection after mythological beasts, in one large story arc connected around the fact that I am a diehard collector. In the story, I collect legendary monsters, like a living bestiary. This plan came before any of Sooms MD's were released... I intended to make my own 'myth parts' for my dolls. (Still will, but rather for my own LINE of dolls which I hope to release soon.)

Well, then Soom came along and it was a match made in heaven. It was like they reached their grubby fingers, still sticky with silicone residue, directly into my brains. I have been following the MDs since Sard, and though I have only been able to afford two MDs so far, my niche has been found. Checkmark on the Souldoll Chiron centaur too, by the way.

So it's come to be that I have little to no interest in human dolls aside from various face or torso sculpts that I can use to make my characters come better to life in hybrid form. I also mod and paint dolls, so any 'normal' parts that come my way will inevitably be altered, such as the Domuya body I modded to be hermaphroditic.

As to elf ears.... not for their own sake. I will have three with sort of 'elfISH' ears by the end of the month... but there is nowhere in my storyline for elves themselves. And vampires? Maybe. I will definately mod one of my own designs to have REAL vampire teeth... none of these sticky-outy-lip-pokey things that other companies are so fond of. But when the owner is a vampire, there isnt so much need for a resin one, is there? X3

Moral of story: Fantasy sculpts all the way.... IV directly from Soom to my veins, plz!!!!

 

I for one am not a huge fan of "high fantasy" dolls. While I do LOVE me some high fantasy, for some odd reason owning a high fantasy doll does not appeal to me. I guess I just like messing with extreme now fashions with my dolls, and doing such on a centaur or some such just doesn't work so well. XD

 

I'm more attracted to fantasy dolls. I just love them! But I do like human types to. I just prefer elf ears, horns, wings and stuff.

 

I kind of like giant spiraling ram horns and wings, but elf ears, vampire teeth, and rainbow colored skin just doesn't do it for me.

 

I like the fantasy sculpts, but really the one I'm madly in love with has human ears, and I'll be modding them to be elf-pointy. That said, for her kids, I'm buying ones with pre-done elf ears. I'm all about the doll-stories, so that's where I'm going with my dolls.

 

From the doll sites i have looked through, id have to say yes.
I am far more attracted to the dolls with fangs rather than not.

But really the fangs and small details like that are what attract me.
The hooves and such arent that special to me.

 

I prefer human looking dolls, because I can always make them more than that with subtle changes-so that they appear human but are in face something different which is less in your face than fangs and hooves and such.

*edit to add* When I see a doll I like and it has fangs or elf ears I go like 'oh..so it's an elf' or 'oh, it's a vampire' the company already decided for me what the doll is. But when I buy a human looking doll, I can make him into anything I want. That too for me is a big part of the appeal of human looking dolls, I like the versatility. Though even with that versatility, they often stay human or humanlike XD

Not to say I don't like fantasy dolls, I do and I like that I have friends who have them so I can drool over them and take pics, but in the end I prefer my 'normal' dolls

 

*thinks*
I'll just go for a doll I like. My dolls are humans, elves of vampires.
The MD Soom dolls are fantastic but I do not really feel the need to own one myself.

My Shiwoo was at first a normal Shiwoo, then I ended up with a Vampire Shiwoo head. After some time I didn't want him to be a vampire anymore, but I still wanted to keep the head. So I decided he is a human with catlike features. Cats have the same little fangs.
I love round (human) and pointy (elf) ears. My elves are older than my human dolls but I don't give them typical elf-backgrounds.

 

Nope.

Actually, I like fantasy tinies, but that's about it.

My dolls aren't meant to be human - and for the most part, I don't think that some of them look quite human, due to their facial features and hair/skin/eye color - but I really don't care about elves and stuff. The recent trend for fantasy dolls seems kind of gimmicky to me, but they seem to be pretty popular and sell well, so hey.

 

I'm less attracted to fantasy dolls than human looking ones. That being said, if the right fantasy doll comes around and I can fit the character into my stories, the fantasy aspect won't stop me from buying one such as what happened with Elfdoll Polaris and the Soom Amber I have on order. I never was able to figure out a character for grey Onyx so as much as I wanted her, I didn't order her.

 

To some extent, I do understand maybe where you're coming from, because I can have moments watching tv or whatever when I think "gee, that's not right, how hard would it have been to do a little more research?" However, when you're talking about things whose images and traits have been slowly evolving over so much time, it's hard to find fault when people diverge from the original idea, especially when they never tried to claim adherence to the original mythology anyway.

I really don't see the way elves and vampires are depicted as part of a pop-culture fad, because the more romantic view of vampires is nothing remotely new, and there have been many takes on elves by many different authors for quite a period of time now. It's not just a trend that will quickly fizzle out. While this might vary from some of the folkloric/mythological descriptions of elves and vampires, there is no reason why the idea of them can't evolve and grow as it catches the imagination of other people, and it's one of the things that can make such a character really interesting--that there are different interpretations of them. You don't have to like them by any means (I can easily understand only being interested in certain interpretations or just not being into fantasy dolls period), but I'm not sure why it's something to take personally. Stories get reinvented over time--it's what humans do as culture, society, and our understanding of the world around us changes. Something about beings like elves and vampires has the ability to really catch and work on the imaginations of a lot of people which explains their continued popularity.

 

I adore fantasy dolls. I don't necessarily want all of them; as much as I love looking at the fabulous stuff Soom has been doing, some of it is too elaborate for me (think: spazzmeister. I'd break them in an instant). But I own lots and lots of pointy-eared critters

Do I love them more than human dolls? Not in the least. I have some of each.

What does bug me to bits is the idea that slapping a little piece of resin in the corners of a doll's mouth makes it a vampire. Even my very favorite sculpt, as a vampire, just doesn't work for me at all.

It always comes down to what works and what is appealing to you, individually.

 

None of my dolls are quite 'human' in character either. Most of the time though, the molds I choose for the characters are more human than anything. Rem's a homunculus of sorts, Afina and Lucis are alchemists (now non-human), Libra and Caym are demigods... I could go on. While I do love pointy 'elf' styled ears and sometimes the little fangs on vampire dolls, I think my favorite would have to be Soom's new trend of different feet and hands. If anything about any of my characters is non-human while they're still in their human 'form', it'd be those. =)

So I suppose what I'm trying to say is that I don't find either type of mold more attractive, I find molds attractive based on the characters I already have, and the characters I already have tend to be nonhuman and belong to some sort of fantasy world.

 

Fantasy dolls tend to draw my attention first, but as others have said, it really comes down to the face sculpt. If I don't like the sculpt, it doesn't matter how many intriguing fantasy elements/parts there are, I won't buy it.

At the moment, my dolls are fairly evenly split between fantasy and human, although the Soom monthly's are playing havoc with that balance.

I have a few of the Soom MD. I prefer female over male dolls, and while I like the concept of the hooves/paws, I don't find the extra joint in the leg aesthetically pleasing, so I'm self limited on those I'm willing to consider purchasing. Which isn't to say I won't go against this, hence Euclase and Chrom are in my collection .

So I guess the answer is yes I am attacted to fantasy more than human, but just because something is fantasy doesn't mean I will buy.

 

All of the characters that I'm getting dolls for are non human. I guess it's because I'm more interested in non human fantasy races that I'd rather have dolls of those instead of human dolls. I'm going to start modding Schimmern in a few days because the character that I got her for is a Frost dragon.