Changing your mind because of owner pictures?

Very recently I got an Angel Fantasy Vent head from the market here. Looking at his official pics I'd have never known he was the same doll. Vent looks very little like his AF promo pics. In those pics he's got eyes that seem larger, longer and almost anime looking and his nose looks much smaller and less defined. The couple of things that had me hesitating on buying him turned out to be almost a total non-issue with the actual head I bought. I saw some owner pics on here and I kind of wondered if the person who had him had altered the doll, particularly the nose. But when I got mine I realized that that person probably hadn't. He just looks totally different from his promo pics. He's a much more attractive sculpt in person actually. Promo pics I think can misleading. Ideally I like to see the promo pics, pics of a blank head, and pics of the doll faced up by several people before I buy. The latter is by far the most important though I almost never buy a doll head unless I can see it sans face up too.

 

My most recent doll, if I'd been browsing the Luts website I would have completely overlooked her because there were only like 2 promo photos of her, and neither bothered to show her gorgeous face! It's like they didn't care and just wanted to sell her outfit. Owner pics weren't MUCH better but there were a couple that definitely made me optimistic. Of course she's gorgeous in person, but I wouldn't have even CONSIDERED her.

 

Sometimes I have difficulty seeing a doll's true potential until I see some customs.

 

Yup. I never rely on the company pictures alone, they usually fail to show the sculpts in all of their glory so I wait until I see some owner pictures to see if there are some faults that you can't see otherwise.
Sometimes the opposite happens and owner pictures make me lose my interest in a doll, too.

 

I've been swayed both ways by owner pictures. Some dolls looks really great in the company photos but after watching box openings or looking up pictures, something about them seems off to me. On the other hand, I'll often find a doll on someone's Flickr that I find really beautiful, and then go to the company's website and realize that it's a doll I've overlooked/found ugly in the past! I can't think of any specific examples atm, but maybe I'll think of some later xD
I can say that there's a doll I seriously want (she's off topic unfortunately ^^; }, but she's fairly new so I'm waiting to see owner's pictures before I jump on her!

 

I was initially pretty lukewarm about Soom Arkose as it appeared on the website, but when I saw owner pics...oh man, so much love. The opposite's happened too, far too many times for me to count.

I think it all boils down to the versatility of different sculpts. It's a matter of figuring out whether or not a sculpt will work for you the way you want it to. The same sculpt can look vastly different depending on faceup alone! That's part of why I didn't fall for Arkose at first: Soom's faceup was too bold and dark for me, whereas the owner pics that made me fall head-over-heels for Arkose featured much lighter, natural colors and contours...which fit my character Takeo to a tee.

That's why I've made a new habit of searching for owner pics whenever I'm considering buying a new doll. I like seeing what other people have done with theirs, because it gives me an idea of what I can do with mine!

 

Most def. I have been on the search for a Yosd AGAIN! I had been turned off by them because of fairylands hands. (Too pointy for my liking. I owned a littlefee for 5 years trying to bond with her. I hated her so much by the end of it that I kinda swore off Yosd size) then I saw a volks Yosd. It was love at first sight... Which scared me, so I searched through hundreds of owner photos of Yosd volks. I came across a company called be with you. I thought they were so cute in the company photos then I came across owner photos and ended up hating the company! Which was scary to realize... But for some reason I can't get over volks Yosd.
Which has now led To me buying one.

 

I really liked Doll Zone's Annie, when I first saw her company promo pics. However, when I looked up owner photos, I discovered I didn't really like her nose or profile. I generally find it really helpful to look up owner pics, when deciding which sculpt to buy.

 

I totally agree that I need to look at LOTS of owner pics before I decide on a sculpt.

But the really weird thing for me is, a couple of sculpts I have, that have custom faceups and came to me second hand, I have loved in owner pics, the seller pics, and my own pics, but when I look at them IRL, like, I just hold them and look at them, I feel like, meh, cold, nothing. And I think, but I've taken pics of you that make my heart flutter! What is going on? And that's when I realized, just because I love a sculpt in photos, even my own photos, doesn't mean I need to actually have one. It's like, yes, you are very beautiful, but you are not part of my family.

And on the other hand, I bought a Nanuri 13 head off eBay right after I saw the listing. She was beautiful! It was very impulsive. But she was coming from Norway to Texas, and it was basic shipping, so it took over a month. And during that time I kept finding more and more owner pictures, and most of them were making me not like her anymore. And I hated her blank pictures. Really hated! I had actually started thinking I would probably sell her as soon as she got here. And then one day the mailman brought me several packages, and I saw the one from Norway, and I thought, oh, that's the Nanuri 13 head, whatever. And I opened that package last. And when I saw her in person it was just like when I first saw her on eBay and had to buy her right away. She was beautiful and I was in love! And I can't imagine not having her!

So for me, owner pics can help a lot, but they still don't help 100% in deciding if I like the sculpt enough to actually have one.

What has helped is that now I have several MNF sculpts at home, and I understand better which ones I love enough to be part of my family, and luckily there are certain things, patterns, that make them feel like a family, that I now feel more sure of myself.

 

YES. At first, I wanted a Resinsoul Mai. As I was about to send an E-mail to Resinsoul, I searched on the web about Song. When I saw bulletsbanq's Lexington, I quickly changed my mind. Resinsoul's promo pics are not good, but their dolls are much more beautiful in person. I never regretted it.

 

Several times I've been put off a sculpt by seeing owner pictures of that sculpt posed smoking.

Teddy

 

Oh yes, it's encouraged that you check owners photos before buying a doll to see the the potential for said sculpt. BUT there have been times I have seen a sculpt I considered but only with the face up a specific way that I know I couldn't replicate without it looking to close to another doll. So I pass on those dolls since I am very particular about the originality of my dolls.

For me too what sets apart a pretty doll from a great sculpt is not just the face up but also the expression and "character". I've seen plenty of dolls that have gorgeous face ups but still feel...hollow. Mostly is that they lack more than one expression or feeling to me and instead look pretty, but empty.

Actually Volks dolls are a great example of extreme versatility, and honestly the best example of owners pics winning over company. I've never seen such versatile molds where really they are all unique to the owner. School A ended up being one of my favorite sculpts after seeing the potential in them (and those cute chubby cheeks!). Soom Hyperon was also a great example of a doll that I now absolutely adore that I passed on before. Now I desperately want them both. ^^;

 

Totally agree. I always search for owners pictures when I begin to be interested in any sculpt and this has happened to me in both directions:
- I didn't like DollShe sculpt, but an online friend collector got a Saint and turned him into the most gorgeous boy and I suddenly became interested, keep seeing lovely guys in flickr and here and I even thought about having my own xD
- I liked a lot one of DikaDoll dolls, but I started searching and I noticed there were some features of her face that I couldn't see in company pictures but could be seen in owners pictures that I didn't like at all.

 

I most certainly have... I like being able to see all the possibilities and then wonder whether I'd be able to accomplish the look I want with the mold I'm considering. Sometimes it can really push me towards a certain mold because I've seen other possibilities.

 

It's happened to me a few times now... Other people's dolls are why I have my Soom Heliots (I really wasn't impressed by him in Soom's original God Master pictures, but ended up liking his face a lot after seeing it "live" when one of the locals brought hers to a meet.) and my Volks F-31s (Again, I wasn't impressed by the company pictures, but ended up really loving the sculpt when I saw what other people had done with him-).

Doll companies don't always have the best photographers (Volks, I'm looking at you- ).. and even those who do manage to find or hire a decent one sometimes go so heavily into elaborate costuming and "artistic" photo-shoots with copious post-production special effects that their pictures are useless for judging the real appearance of the doll. Owner snapshots and seeing the sculpts at meets and other gatherings become absolutely invaluable for making an informed choice under those circumstances.

 

I ALWAYS go and check owner pictures before purchasing ANYTHING and numerous times ive changed my mind.

 

One of the main reasons for purchasing my dolls was from browsing owners pictures everyday on different social media, including videos on YouTube. I usually have to do tons of research for anything I consider worth my time. I probably wouldn't find DOA unless it was for browsing owners pictures and being amazed at all the creativity that goes into this hobby.

 

I had that happen with the Fairyland LittleFee Reni boy. I thought the official pics of him were super adorable and I was interested in getting him. When I saw some user pics though, I ended up not liking it that much anymore.

 

I did when I saw owner photos of Danube from Soom's Idealian line. He just had a more western face than I wanted in the end. He's still beautiful though lol.

 

Currently I'm looking into a 2nd hand littlefee doll and I was pretty sure i wanted her because of the sculpt. After looking at the owners photos the eyes looked very spaced apart. Like it was almost bizarre. I couldn't sworn they weren't that far apart. I'm alittle iffy about it now.