Changing your mind because of owner pictures?

That's been the case for me more than once, and with dolls that eventually became grail dolls that it pained me to live without. Volks Suzuna and Yuu Morisawa looked so odd to me in company photos that I completely dismissed them as dolls I'd like to own. It took me years of looking at owner pics of Suzuna to fall in love, but as soon as people started getting their Yuu Morisawa girls home and putting different wigs and outfits on them, I was entirely overcome by the cuteness of her face! I really regretted not trying to get her firsthand (though I doubt I could have afforded it then), but after a year of tireless searching I managed to piece her fullset together (mostly). The same thing happened to me with my second-ever doll, Volks SD13 Isao - though it's really more his faceup that I'm in love with, I think (even though I don't think it's a very wise thing to do in this hobby, I SERIOUSLY could not help myself). I was never impressed by company pictures of him or even owner pictures until I saw Satoko Ohno's eBay auction for a custom Isao head. I fell so hard that I couldn't sleep, eat, or do schoolwork because all I could think about was him. Had I not won that auction, I think even now (9 1/2 years later) I would be sad about it.

It's harder for me to pinpoint sculpts that have been taken off my wishlist because of owner pictures, because I can't look at my list and see them anymore. :P But it happens pretty frequently that I'll fall in love with company pictures of a sculpt and then come across a sea of owner pictures that are nothing like what I expected the doll to look like in real life. Sometimes I go back and forth on those a little bit because it's so tempting to think that I could make my doll look like the company photos, but that's a pretty expensive risk to take.

 

It's nice to see this thread and not feel as if I'm the only one who lacks vision when it comes to seeing potential in some dolls. This has happened to me many times, seeing owner photos, or the doll in person has made me want them when I initially passed them by. Most notably I passed on Volks SD16 Ruby for years until seeing in person the way my friend mclamm7 changed the lip color and eye color on his girl. Same was true with Volks Rose, except this time it was The Beautiful Doll's photos that made me fall for her. Last time this happened was with Volks SDGr Belle...when she was released, I only had eyes for The Beast, and thought that Belle was too childlike. My friend Invisible Wings convinced me otherwise, and even brought her Belle across the country so I could see her in person! I immediately realized she possessed a delicate beauty that was hard to see in the promo photos and that Belle(my "Song") really belonged with my handsome Volks SD13 Heath much more than my beloved Volks Sizu/Madoka "Passion" did. Don't feel bad for Passion though, she's happily stuck in a love triangle between Yukinoko "Joe" & Ryoma Sakamoto "Romeo Saki".

 

I completely agree about too much character. Some of the realpuki photos hide the possibilities in the sculpt, and I had no interest until seeing owners' shots.

 

It happened to me with my Feeple60 Mirwen. The company photos were a little weird but when I saw owners photos I changed my mind. My Mirwen is on her way to me right now so I hope she will be as beautiful as all the photos

 

Yes...all the time. When I decide on a doll, I try to look for as many owner pics as possible. Some promo pics make them look really good but owner pics show aspects that I dislike, such as the really pointy chin, the weird nose, or the weird mouth.

The problem with some companies is their propensity to ONLY shoot with a REALLY dark background and then photoshop the hell out of them so you basically can't see anything. (coughSoom&Souldollcough) So that's when the owner pics come in handy.

But some companies are good in that they show you many angles as well as the blank sculpt (Iplehouse & DollClans, we thank you).

 

Oh yeah. I never buy hardly without checking out pics of the doll I'm thinking of online. Some dolls just don't look very impressive sans face up. It really helps to see what people are doing with a particular sculpt. I'm always amazed actually at how different the same head can look depending upon how the artist does a face up. Some heads they don't even look like the same head when they are done.

 

I always search for owners pictures before I decide to add any dolls to my wishlist so...it happens a lot.

The only guy that can't make me change my mind after seeing so many real-life pictures is DOD Ducan :3

 

I looked at tons of owner pictures before ordering my first doll (I'm still waiting on her to come in the mail).
The owner pictures actually made me love her even more! I wondered why they made her look worse in her stock pictures than she actually was...

 

All. The. Freaking. Time.
The first I ever saw of BJDs were owner pics, and whenever I managed to find the respective sculpt's sales page I was like "What the ... ? That's the same doll?!" By now I find that most companies' sales pics rarely do their dolls justice, and consequently my #1 doll-buying rule is "not buying anything without having seen owner pics".

 

This is her official stock picture. (Kids-Sky Moon Stone)




This is a picture from a doll owner on Instagram, unfortunately I didn't catch her username.

 

Yes, it has happened to me before. Migidoll owner pictures bring out the best in their dolls. I don't feel the company faceups do the sculpts justice. Same with Dollshe (before they started using SDink's faceups on their promo pictures).

 

A lot of the time, actually! If I find a sculpt I like, I immediately look up owner photos to see how I like the actual doll, as opposed to the stock photos which are edited and well-lit to make the doll prettier than it might be. When I was looking at Bambicrony, for example, I loved the Charity sculpt on the website. But when I looked at photos on Flickr, I was put off by her odd head shape, asymmetrical eyes, and overly defined eye wrinkles. If I didn't look at photos of her, I would have waited three months for a doll that I hated instead of getting the beautiful Bluefairy doll I got to fit the character I'd made.

And with my first doll-love, Angelregion Cien, I loved her photos but when I saw real-life pictures of her, I found her hideous.

 

Most of the time I will look for owner pics to see if I would like the doll or not. I did that for one of the Luts KD I thought that I wanted, but came to find I couldn't stand the owner pics.. Oh well lol. XD

 

Most Minifee dolls look nicer in person, I think... The fairyland site has a way of depicting them that seems a bit oversexualized to me... Plus the colours are saturated so you can never know what to expect (the latter applies to a lot of companies)

 

Owner pics definitely have changed my mind about getting a doll I didn't think I was interested in. Iplehouse Leona is a case in point. The real skin version on their website looks nothing like the beauties in owner pictures.

 

I was going to get a SoulDoll Lampard for my first doll. Once I looked at the owner pics I realized he looked literally nothing like the character I was thinking of.

 

I said just today that looking at millions of owner photos is the only way I can really be sure that I want a certain doll. Even if you love the company pictures I think it's important to find owner photos to show you what can be done with that doll.

 

Absolutely. I thought this cute little fairy YoSD sculpt was boring until I saw it in an owner's hands. the factory pictures were ust too overdone and flowery. Seeing her by herself she looked adorable!

 

Volks for some reason, their old face ups look terrible. I thought people must have been stupid to buy their dolls, but then I realize that Volks dolls are actually the best stuff you can get.

I heard that they had horrible face ups to encourage the owners to do the face up themselves.

 

I love looking at owner pics of sculpts. They show the dolls in much more diverse settings. Like "How does this company's tan color look in natural light with a not-so-fancy camera?" or "How does this sculpt look with a more dramatic faceup?" etc. I'm in love with Peak's Woods at the moment, so I don't really require owner pics to know if I'll like a sculpt, but I still LOVE looking at how other owners style theirs and such *^^*