Did your "Grail doll" remain your grail doll?

This is sort of a "yes" and sort of a "no" for me. On another thread a while back, I put Dollshe's David Kuncci as my grail, because I wanted him and thought I could not get him. I wasn't ready to sacrifice, to scrimp and save, to get him, so it didn't feel like a real "grail." I just thought that since everyone has a grail, I should have one, too. I was very new to the hobby.

My real "grail" was a doll that belonged to a friend, and I did not want to admit it to myself or to them because I was afraid that I would hurt their feelings somehow, though I was not jealous or mean in wanting it. But now that Soom has re-listed Cheshire cat, I can finally admit that he is my grail. I was so excited to see him come up! Sadly, I am unemployed (I have a job interview tomorrow), so I have had to put him on layaway and will be sacrificing quite a lot to get him. Ramen dinners, here I come! But I cannot wait to get my grail, and for him to hang out with my friend's Cheshire. They'll be like cousins!

In short, it was not really my grail that changed, but my perception, ha ha.

 

My grail doll is the wonderful Loki of madam-B, but I think she not sell him T_T
Anyone have informations ? (sorry for my english^^'')

lien : http://madam-b.tumblr.com/

 

Yes and no. My grail was/is Soom Amber since I came into the hobby much later than her release, but since then they've released so many other beautiful dolls that I now had the opportunity to own and I feel like each one became a favorite in their own way. Amber was the second doll I purchased (first to arrive to me), and she is amazing in every way, but I love my other dolls just as much.

 

Nope my first doll IS my holy grail. And I told myself no other doll before her and ai managed

 

It was a chalco from Soom but it's hard to obtain this doll for me because Soom doesn't release yet. I only want a emerald King in White skin

 

Pretty much this. A "grail" to me is something rare that you have to actively quest for, something that isn't easily obtained. This applies to more than dolls. It can be cars, antiques, baseball cards, books, etc.

My "grail doll" is a Souldoll Jinwoo. He took me 7 years to get. Every time I look at him, I still feel so lucky and amazed I finally managed to bring him home. He holds a very special place in my collection. So yes, my grail remains my grail. But that's not to say you can only have one grail. There's a few sitting on my wishlist that I look at longingly and hope that I can find one day.

 

well... it depends
over the time I had 4 'major' grails (so, there were many 'sub' grails too
Two of them I still love, one of them I still have, and it's curious, because on the one hand he's the most perfect among the realistic sculpts that I know but nowadays I'm back to the big-eyed, cute, dolly dolls So, i'm keeping him out of sentiments only The fourth of my grails didn't work out. he was cute and all.. but terribly sculpted. I mean, he was one of those one-face models. No profile, no enface photos, only those... from the angle. Really, not cool :3
All in all, the stuff's worked out 50/50

 

I feel like "Grail Dolls" are a tricky thing.. When I first became interested in the hobby a couple years ago I was totally in love with DollZone's Yue, but time passed and I kind of forgot all about it. It was only recently when DollZone was going to discontinue the sculpt, that I was compelled to buy one. I still find the doll beautiful, but now that I have it the character I assigned to it doesn't seem to fit and now I don't quite know what to do with it... So you could say my relationship with my "Grail Doll" is complicated.

 

I completely agree with this. It is actually a slight pet peeve of mine when people throw out the term 'grail' all willy-nilly. Now for the actual question. For me, my BJD 'grail' would be the Popovy Widow Sisters. As I am not even 100% sure they can be bought in their entirety and, if they can, are so beyond my price rage for even one of them, I will never be able to get them.

 

My Delf Lishe (still remain nameless til this day, can't seem to find a perfect name for her) is and will forever be my "Grail doll"! She is the very fist bjd I fell in love with and wanted so bad. I waited 3 years for her and she is worth the wait!

 

^Yeah, I'm with you. Although it doesn't exactly bother or irritate me to see people just use it for "well, my biggest priority to save for right now is so-and-so standard doll, so it's my grail", it throws me off, because I sort of still read the term as "doll I'm hunting down and possibly have been for years that's hard to find or rarely hits the aftermarket". Like the proverbial Grail itself -- something ya gotta quest for a bit! :p

Anyway. For a long time I was seeking a certain 2006 LE (the leftmost doll in my signature, WS Elf Uyoo, who was only used for a couple of Soom's older fullsets iirc), and considered her a grail - I don't think she was extremely rare, but that release of her didn't seem to show up on the aftermarket. My tastes in doll have definitely changed since coming into the hobby in 2008, but I still loved that one. The same mold in a different colored, human-eared release turned out not to bring the satisfaction of the version I wanted. But I have her now and was able to get her with the exact faceup and fullset that made me love the mold! So that was pretty great. Reading through this thread and seeing how happy other people still get about the grails they've acquired even after having had them for a while was really sweet.

 

For me, yes. My grail is still my favorite doll that I have and I don't really have another doll that I feel the same about, even though I love them all so much obviously... I think of the idea of "grail" doll as kind of like you saying, "if I could only have one single doll in the whole entire world, it would be that one." Kind of like the soulmate, or "the one" when people talk about love. Not sure if that makes sense, but that's kind of my idea of it.

At the same time, I think that the memories and relationships you build with dolls that were never thought of as the "grail doll" make them equally as special. It's an interesting question. I guess it's probably a different answer for everyone. Some people like having only a few dolls and others like to make a big family. Everyone approaches the hobby differently so I'm sure that some people think of "grail doll" more loosely than others.

 

I really don't know. I guess it really just depends on the doll. Like, I used to love the DC Y-body 02 but now I don't even like SD sized dolls so he's kinda fallen off the list. But now my grail doll is a Soom Faery, which I doubt will fall of the list because I've seen one irl and they are so perfect.

 

No and Yes.
The first years in the hobby, when I was still a noob, my first Grail was Volks Cecile scarface. But my taste changed (luckily) before I could be able to buy it.
The other one was the Soom Io scarface, wich with a couple years of patience I was able to buy.

 

My grail doll is Unoa Lusis. I am still trying to set aside some money to buy one when it appears on the DOA market place.

 

No, my grail doll changed with my tastes and with availability. My first grail doll was Soom Laon, but at the time I was in college and couldn't afford him before he sold out. Then my grail doll became Luts Senior Delf Jude. I was STILL in college and couldn't afford him either, and his big size eventually turned me off. After that my grail doll became Angel of Dream Tao Hua Dao. He had everything Laon had for about half the price. Plus, I was finally out of college. Tao is the one who came home with me (I named him "Johnny") so now my grail has changed yet again. I want Xaga Doll Apirl to be Johnny's girlfriend. Since Johnny is now mine I label him as a "favorite" rather than a "grail."

 

The simple answer? No.

I was so utterly disappointed in every way with my "grail" doll when she arrived, and she is probably one of my least favourite dolls. She's required so much work just to make her acceptable as a photographic model. She was so stupidly expensive and now I wish I'd used that money for something else. I have 'cheap' dolls that are much better sculpted and engineered and that I've come to cherish far more than this "grail" I'd coveted for so long.

 

My first "grail" doll was Soom's Labas. However when he became available again through an FCE, I realized that he wasn't the doll I really wanted, and ordered a human body with a different Faery Legend head. So I have a wingless bronze Boehm who I adore.

 

My first real grail was ringdoll's Frankenstein, then Soom Cass, Abyss rhapsody. Those are the only grails I've ever had, and I've been very lucky to obtain them. Frankenstein happened because I was checking tumblr in class and someone put out a feeler for him and I responded in about 5 seconds. A 6 month layaway later, he was mine. Cass happened on another forum. The sales thread was ancient, and a friend of mine had been in a forum I'm not on. She bought her to pay me back for some stuff (even trade, I *did* pay her rent once.) getting that body was a miracle.

 

My grail doll was my grail doll for nearly 8 years. I finally was able to purchase her last fall-- I still consider her a grail.

I have two other grail dolls that I will most likely never be able to afford, but at least I occassionally see a picture of them here on the forums. : /