Do you prefer to buy dolls from the same maker, or a lot of different makers?

I really love Ringdoll so I have two from them. They keep making awesome sculpts and I'm considering getting a new doll this year but... I want it to be a different company because I actually like the variety. XD

 

I have so far always gone for a different company because there's always been something in the previous doll that I want to be different in the next one. But now I'm running out of companies and starting to go in circles since the types of dolls that have rather non-realistic facial features (large eyes etc) or baby/child dolls/mini dolls don't interest me for now. I bought my first doll from Dollshe, but the doll left kind of a negative impact on me because he was a fashion-size doll with SD measurements. I was a newbie in the hobby and nothing I found seemed to fit him, which was frustrating. Next I went for Ringdoll, but I kind of missed the attention to detail in Dollshe sculpts and didn't like the basic-ish resin selection... So I bought a Venitu which is cast in Dollshe resin. Then I wanted an Iplehouse girl. And now I'd be back for Dollshe if it weren't for their terrible wait time.

The bad thing about different companies is that if you want to be precise when photographing your dolls together, even two same-size same dolls from different companies can look off-scale when put in the same photo, because simply the head sizes, foot sizes, leg length etc vary so much. My Ringdoll grown K looks like a long-legged giraffe with other dolls sometimes, but his head is much smaller than Venitu's, which surprised me. But I've learned not to be picky about it, they're dolls after all.

 

Lots of makers! XD a lot of my dolls are hybrids because I buy heads randomly.

 

My first.... seven dolls were all from the same company. XD;; I figured, why mess with a good thing... I was very happy with my first purchase, the quality was great and I really liked the look of the sculpts they were releasing.

Lately, though, I've been very interested in trying out different companies - my recent few purchases have all been made by companies that I've never owned a doll of before. My most recent interest is "indie" Chinese sculptors, and my latest doll will be a hybrid of two such sculpts. ^-^ I guess my preferences have changed over the course of my time in the hobby. I still really enjoy my older dolls, though.

 

Being a newbie, it would be preferable to also have a good doll from a different maker. I admire ringdoll but then others have gorgeous dolls/ head sculpts as well. It is really nice to hear from experienced doll hobbyists. We get great ideas ^^

 

My collection is a pretty big mix of companies although I do have a few that I go back too more than others. Example: I've got 6 dolls from Fairyland, 4 from WithDoll and 3 from DollZone but other companies I've only got 1 from like Iplehouse, Asleep Eidolon or Mystic Kids to name just a few.

They all hang out in different groups depending on their story/universe and I tend to keep their styles similar. When I say that I mean I wouldn't put my Iplehouse girl in a story with a Fairyland girl because they're too different aesthetically to look good together in photos

So yeah, to make a long story short I'm definitely a fan of buying from lots of different companies. It's fun to have so many different aesthetics to look at; from the realism of Iplehouse to the more stylised sculpts from Fairyland and DreamOfDoll. I love them all~

(Someone take me away from my computer so I can stop rambling on like a loon. it' far to late here for me to be typing coherent sentences xD haha~)

 

Generally, I would say different companies, especially since I love hybrids and a good number of my dolls are not from one company all on their own. Once my latest head arrives the hybrid count will be up to 8. But there are also companies that just generally make things I like, so I do come back to the same artists a lot too. I have two heads that are not only the same artist, but the same sculpt. And three dolls in dramatically different sizes by the artist who made Zaoll. So I guess the answer is, I buy whatever company's doll meets my most recent vision, whether it's a company I've bought from already, or not.

@Magical Rin Same. My MSD dolls are Unoa/Fairyland hybrids and a Supia, so they look like weird mini teen/adult characters next to my SDs and have to have their own separate world.

 

A little from Column A, a little from Column B. I have dolls from multiple companies, including several from Volks, Iplehouse and so on. Some companies have one mold which catches my fancy, while others have quite a few.

 

I choose a doll by the look of the OC I'm going to create. I always read the company feedback before I decide, but even if it's good, I would hesitate if I wasn't able to order through a dealer I know and like (I had it with Spirit Doll), mainly because of the language barrier. BJDs aren't cheap and I feel more comfortable if there is somebody who is my representant.

 

I tend to use the same dealer over and again, but the doll company is prettymuch always different... i tend to only want the "best" sculpt i see from any one company, or i fall for a head, but hate the body so have to plan for a hybrid

 

I have a few companies my dolls are from. I own the most from Fairyland and Luts, but I also have Switch, CustomHouse/Aidolls, Soom, Aimerai and a DollFamily A (technically he hasn't shipped yet so he'll be home some time next month). And I have plans for a few other company dolls too. Dollzone, dollits, myou doll and a couple of others. It depends mostly on the doll sculpts and bodies rather than the specific company.

 

My bijd collection is from multiple companies. One here, one there, whatever catch’s my eye. Now that my collection is mostly anime styled dolls, I would love to have at least one from every company that makes them, just for fun. Ha, yeah, my wallet says otherwise.

 

I personally enjoy variety, and owning dolls from multiple companies has taught me what I like and what I ought to be looking for in the future, but I have learned the importance of looking at all of the doll's measurements if I want them to look at least somewhat similar in proportion to an existing doll.

 

I like love variety but I also like some form of uniformity. In other words I own from several companies but there's some that I can't bring myself to own because the aesthetic would not fit into my crew. For instance Limhwa is beautiful but just a tad too realistic to fit in with my other dolls which is entirely my own fault to be so stubborn.

As for doll bodies, I hate the idea of owning 2 of the same body. I've been hybriding a lot lately to avoid having twin bodies.

 

Different makers! Because I want to collect variety of sculpts, styles, height and body types. I still have my favorite makers that I would buy again from them!

 

At the beginning, I was used to buy from different makers, showing lot of variety in their dolls. But now, after several years in the hobby, I'm focusing on just few companies that I like both for their aestethics and good engineering of their bjd bodies ( a 'must' ).
Anyway, experimenting is the best thing to do when you are new at the hobby

 

Love the variety, so most of my dolls are hybrids or small artist sculpts like Meeky bjd or Minsterminou. I have a few others as well. I own the most multiples from Doll Chateau, but not all are even 100% full dolls. I guess you could say, I have the most pieces from DC.

 

I originally wanted Dollzone 1/3rd dolls but ended up starting with 1/4 Angel of Dream and kept going. I brancehed out a little bit into different 1/4th dolls: Boy & Girl, Resinsoul, Dollzone, Doll Chateau, Dream Valley, Dikadoll, Minifee's, Nairn/Narae, Dollshe... and some smaller 5StarDoll, Doll Family A Pet, Impdoll, Dearmine, Aileen Dragon, and Aimerai.

I have some more artistan ones too in 1/4th and smaller: Altier cynamon Hassell, Spirit Imprint - She is a Dragon, and SweetDolls/Silverbeam Fairies.

Overall 1/4 range is "my size" and AoD's are still my favorite company. I like how the group looks together even with a wide variety of sizes. I've sort of surprised myself in the past year with how different the group is becoming. I still want a few more AoD's. It would be nice to have one of every sculpt (some are retired and I may never end up with them. Others have changed the way they look over the years).

 

I started out with only Dollzone/Doll Chateau dolls, but one of my favorite things nowadays (especially since I'm sculpting my own doll) is looking at different joint engineering and styles. Different doll companies sometimes have very differently-behaving joints even if they look similar on the outside. It's just so exciting to me when I get a new joint system that I can take apart and examine.

In general I like for my dolls to look quite different from one another, so buying from a lot of different companies helps with that.