Cheaping out

My favorite company has started doing kind of a weird thing... they no longer include eyes when you get a doll with a faceup. But the weird thing is: faceups now come with eyelashes. To be honest, I much prefer the perfectly applied eyelashes, and NOT having to throw away a pair of acrylic eyes. It’s just a little strange, because eyelashes have never been an option or part of the faceup until the last 2-3 years.

There has definitely been a downgrade in packaging, too. The dolls used to come in a beautifully constructed box, sometimes with the doll’s sculpt name on it... then they started sending the dolls in pleather carrying cases (soooooo hard to store— the boxes you can stack!), and now they just send them in a regular cardboard shipping box.

They used to have an option where you could ask for the doll to be sent unassembled (lower shipping!), and they would send the elastic and S hooks and doll parts in a smaller box, but they don’t do that either. If they’re trying to cut costs, I don’t understand why they would nix this option. Big shrug!

 

This isn’t a major one but DikaDoll when I bought from them sent me huge 20mm plastic reborn eyes for dolls whose eyes were like 12mm-14mm size… it made me LOL!

However DF-H sent me a pair of cute little cat paws with one of my recent purchases which made me

 

The only time I noticed cheaping out was when I received a doll body brand new from the maker. The doll box was a plain white thing that didn't have the company's logo or name. Completely barebones, though there was a CoA and postcard inside to identify what I got.

The doll was secure inside the foam insert, but instead of the parts being wrapped in bubble wrap or similar, the whole body had been placed inside a plastic bag and put into the insert. When I got it out, the resin surface felt weird, like it had a residue on it -- from the silicone mould? whatever was left after seam sanding? who knows, but this was the first time I've unboxed a brand new doll and its resin felt grimy. But I wiped everything with a damp cloth, which took care of it. (But now, the first thing I'm gonna do after unboxing a new doll is to wipe it down...)

So the "cheap" part was the whole presentation. If I'm to judge this box opening experience, I think it'll feel the same as if a factory worker picked the doll off the assembly line and plopped it into my arms. Thankfully the body was excellent quality and I was so excited to receive it, that it more than made up for the barebones box opening.

 

I hate to say this, but I kinda get that feeling about Dollfie Dreams sometimes. Not the dolls themselves, but the accessories Volks releases for/with them.

It seems like some Volks outfits (especially ones that come with expensive licensed character dolls) are notorious for staining after only brief contact with the doll. While I understand that vinyl is just finicky, many independent clothing makers on taobao take great pains to stain test and/or line everything they sell that is intended for MDD/DD so I know it's possible to work around.

Also from what I can tell they only offer Acrylic animetic eyes, which are among the cheapest (and imo worst looking) types of anime eyes on the market.

Usually though with my resin dolls I much more often have the opposite experience! Especially with Chinese artist dolls, sometimes it really seems like they try to wow their customers with fancy boxes and lots of extras.

 

I would agree with this sentiment. I remember how the Saber maid dress that Volks released was an infamous stain monster. While I recognize the challenges that come with large-scale (for the bjd hobby, anyway) manufacturing of doll clothes, I still find it horribly disappointing that they aren't at least stain testing clothes in-house for their IP crossover releases.

My Dream Valley Gru came to me with the magnet in his pumpkin stem turned the wrong way, so now his head repels the stem entirely. I haven't worked up the courage to try and dislodge one of the magnets in order to turn it around yet. It's not even necessarily "cheaping out," but it feels careless for doll companies to not even double check that the magnets work properly before shipping out a doll.

 

I had a secondhand seller send me the doll in a plastic envelope. The doll was wearing a plastic mask and had a layer of bubble wrap, but considering he came from the other side of the world, it was a miracle he was in one piece. A box isn't that hard to find or purchase, so I don't know what they were thinking.