Choosing dolls vs choosing doll makers?

It's... complicated.

Sculpt, of course, is the most important thing when making a decision on a doll. If I weren't head over heels for the sculpt, then I definitely would NOT consider buying it.

However, I pay close attention here on DoA on reviews of companies, regarding their customer service, packaging, and how the dolls look when you receive them (versus how they look on the company webpage). A company with a history of bad packaging, bad CS, or over-photoshops their dolls won't be getting an order from me.

Also, if the company web site is atrocious and really hard to navigate or order from, then that is a turn-off. Or if one has to wait a REALLY long time to catch a pre-order, or have to jump through hoops in one way or another just to have the CHANCE to order a doll... yeah, I have better use of my time than that.

Soooo... there are some companies out there who have nice looking dolls but I won't order from. Luckily, there are lots of other companies out there. Also, I guess many companies have a certain 'look' - meaning one company might have several dolls that appeal to me, while another companies' dolls don't appeal to me at all for one reason or another.

Right now doll companies that I like (and would order from) are BlueFairy, CustomHouse, and Bambicrony.

 

I actually do return to doll makers alot. I'm very strict in that sense.
I like a certain "formality" within my collection, and a certain look I suppose.

 

I usually go for the molds, b/c that's what I look for most when dollifying my characters. But I also consider doll makers for their services.

 

I don't have companies I favor exactly, but in the past, the actions of a company/representative toward someone I know may encourage or discourage me from checking out their dolls in the future. I don't stay loyal to one company when it comes to looking for new dolls either, as I tend to look at new dolls in general than new offerings from one company in specific.

 

I like a gazillion dolls well enough to own, though I have my favorites, which is the order a I go in ordering, but I do like to know what I am dealing with a long the lines of waiting time and CS.

My favorite companies are LUTS! since all my dolls are Luts, so far and Iplehouse, as I love all their boys to bits and they have my dream doll - Lion.

 

When I bought a doll, I done it because I liked its face, not because the sculptor that made it; I had seen sculptures from the same sculptor and I don't like all of them.

 

i fall in love with a doll, the face mold, the body mold, and that's how i choose (or they choose me). i don't have plans to stay loyal to a company, it's more that i do like a certain company if i hear nice stories of them, of people who were happy with their service for example.
so then if i fell in love with a doll, and the company happens to be nice aswell, that's ofcourse wonderful.

i have to say though that to me Limhwa is special, the company has a special feeling to me, as if you can feel that they really love what they are doing, and i like that. and then i do find their face molds and body molds very beautiful.

i have less of that special feeling with Elfdoll, but i still fell in love with their MinDelRe, so that shows it's the doll that decides, and then it's kind of a nice "add on" if i like the company too.

 

hmmm yes and no. I like a lot of BJD but to protect myself(my wallet actually) I just try to stick with a certain type. I've had so many different BJD and because they were so different I ended up treating them different.
I noticed that I have most fun with the large BJD because for some reason they are so big you can't really ignore them and making pics of them is in my opinion easier(especially iff ye have a crappy or medium good camera). At the moment I am trying to buy only Volks dolls I got a SD13 Kun girl and I'm waiting for a FCS tan skin(FCS is also 1 of the reasons they are favorited by me) and I got a Shou-ryu head which was made to match Volks SD13 boy body. And too be honest so far I like the SD13 boy body best so that was another Volks plus point.

I had a time I only bought BF, Elfdoll or Gentarou Araki dolls and since the hobby is expensive and I was only able to buy dolls by selling the current ones I had. It made it difficult to buy many different ones.
Off course I could have bought more affordable ones but after awhile I realized it's best to spend more money on a doll you really want with the right face-up than spending less and not being able to bond because of that.

I don't think I'll be buying any dolls after these 3..I am only gonna wait for Araki's new Unoss iff she is as pretty as I think she can be she'll be the one I still want. But I don't want any other boy dolls and Kun is my favorite volks headmold and the new F-34 is also a new fave of mine although I wanna see her in person first ^_^!

So I have chosen to go for the doll but also for a certain dollmaker/company.

 

I buy for the sculpts rather than companies, but... Ideally, I'd like to have dolls with a wide variety of body sculpts rather than a bunch of them made by the same company. To me, having two dolls with the same body sculpt would be like having two dolls with the same head - I wouldn't mind it, but I'd rather they be as different from eachother as possible.

 

I've decided that I'd prefer my dolls to all come from the same company. It's very important to me that my dolls look like they 'fit' together, which means they need to match in both scale and aesthetic. Buying from the one company also simplifies a number of things - I know that that company's eyes will fit all my dolls (and which sizes fit which dolls). I know that face-ups and resin will be of a certain quality. I know skin colours will match (to a degree - Soom's NS can vary quite a bit, unfortunately). I can purchase company face-ups and be assured that they'll share the company aesthetic and thus match each other.

It also makes buying multiple dolls cheaper, since I can combine shipping

 

This is a very interesting topic To be honest, while I try to support certain companies / artists, I don't limit myself. I like having a lot of different dolls, or else it gets boring! Even with bodies, when I order from the same company, I sometimes try to find other bodies for the heads so they won't be exactly the same!

 

Really want everything from Doll Chateau right now. Part of the problem for me is that I need matched couples. I want the male and female. Or 2 females so they can share clothes. Then I want 2 iplehouse...

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I'm not one to go for one or two different companies, but I do have my favorites. Like, I have a lot of dolls on my wishlist from a variety of companies, but I clearly like Doll Chateau, Dollshe, and a few others more than the rest.

 

I buy my dolls for how they appeal to me emotionally and artistically. I like certain doll makers but I'm not going to buy dolls all from one company, no. A lot of my dolls are very different from the mainstream actually. I tend to pick odd sculpts and/or bright colors. Most of my dolls so far have a very distinctive personality in terms of that. I have a deep green girl, a bright blue girl, and a white boy with a very unusual face. I have a RS vampire sculpt that's offbeat to say the least. When I am done I think they will be an interesting collection but they definitely won't look much like each other. To me, that would be boring.

 

I would say, I have grown a "fondness" to Fairyland. I love their bodies and their sculpts. But, I wouldn't say I am "loyal" to them. I'd buy dolls from outside that company. They are just my favourite

 

I definitely consider the company I'm purchasing from on whether to buy a doll or not. If the company is known to have lower quality and I don't think their prices are justified I would pass. I'm not loyal to any particular brand though, I just want to make sure I get my money's worth. Plus I need to be picky or dolls would take over my house!

 

For me it is about the individual sculpts but do like several dolls from the same company, but I am still not exactly loyal to a particular company...

 

I am definitely partial to some companies (Crobidoll, Doll Chateau, Dollzone, Luts, Fairyland...) but I strive to have as many varied dolls as possible. I often get heads only and seek different bodies to make hybrids with for the sake of variety alone. For example I decided for my minifee Shushu to go on a withdoll girl body, and my minifee Juri to go on a luts girl one, I also picked the two different minifee boy bodies (normal and muscular) for my Luka and Woosoo so they won't be exactly the same and I'll also do something similar with my Little Monica little Kliffs (one will keep the LM body, the other I'll have to find something suitable for).

 

Generally, I'm all for variety. I like having different body types (with similar enough features to look like they live in the same world), different "skin tones," and the like, and I also enjoy experiencing the differences in different companies' construction and resin.

That said, my YO-style tinies have all ended up being from one of two companies (FairyLand and Soom), with two of each at home; I fell in love with FairyLand's engineering, so, while I did look at dozens of other sculpts for the new tiny family I decided to pull together, I ended up sticking with FairyLand for all of them (ultimately five when I "finish" the set). As much as I would have liked to play around with the other companies' dolls on the list, I know without a doubt that I'll be happy with LittleFees for all of them, and at the investment of money I'm putting down, I definitely want to be happy with the entire set.

 

I tend to stick to brands that I know and trust. Plus, I like the look of certain brands over others. My first was a bobobie, and I've had a great experience with him. So, when the time came for number two, I bought another bobobie. I love her as well. With my third, I went looking for yet another bobobie, but decided on a dollzone. I had gotten a little more adventurous when it came time for the third doll. My fourth was unintentional, but also a dollzone. I was talking to my dad about wanting to buy a dollzone sculpt that I had immediately fallen for on-sight, and my parents bought it for me (sadly though, it'll be a while before I get him- he was a preorder!). I really like bobobie and dollzone, because I've had great experiences with them and because I love the way that they look. When I go searching for the fifth, I will probably stay in my comfort zone. Part of it is definitely the style of the doll, but I also shop around in companies that I've had dolls from. I'm still pretty new to this, so my comfort zone isn't very big. Price is also a factor, and I find bobobies and dollzone dolls to be within my range. So, my method is to usually look through the sculpts of a company that I know that I like when I'm searching. I suppose for me, right now, I'm going for the company. However, if I found a doll that I absolutely loved and had to have, I wouldn't say no if it weren't from a company that I knew.