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

This is me!!!

This is also me!!

My first doll holds the highest place in my heart. My CP/Luts Lishe, all yellowed with age and mis-handling (didn't know what I was doing way back then!!!) is the doll that hangs out with me by my computer. She is the one who started the bjd ball rolling with me. However, as I am getting back into the doll scene (can I say that after spending the last year- maybe it's been two... buying dolls?) I find I have bought based on what catches my eye at the time. I have mostly realistic sculpts, a few stylized, and definately different sizes, ranging from 70+cm all the way down to a little Doll Chateau Larry (anthromorph snail - he's so cute and is my Lishe's companion). I don't have any doubles from any company except one body and 2 heads from an independant artist whom I don't think is approved to be posted here yet (these dolls would rank as my second favorite). I really love Iplehouse (wishlist only so far...) and I really really like SartoriaJ (one head that desperately needs a body!). But I recently got sucked into the Luts site and am pondering a purchase there. So I'm all over the map...and I enjoy it!!

 

so far it seems like I only want dolls from dream valley but occasionally dolls from doll chateau will tempt me and I have a few in mind i might get.

 

Different. There's so many gorgeous dolls out there. With that said, certain companies have multiple dolls I like, so I'll buy from them more just because of the dolls. But it's not necessarily because of the company. I also like to hybrid.

 

It's definitely a mix for me. I do love adding all kinds of different companies to my collection, but I also find myself going back to companies where I particularly liked something about their dolls.

To illustrate, I have 23 different companies in my collection, and of them, 11 have more than one item representing them (counting dolls I have on order), ranging anywhere from just two to 20!

 

All of my dolls are from different makers! They are all so diverse that I have absolutely no theme happening LOL

 

Already when I started out in the hobby I didn't go for one single company when looking around for the next. I have from some 30+ different companies, some companies I have more dolls from than others, but they're still a varied bunch. I love the diversity it creates, that it isn't a sea of sameness all around. But people should do what they feel for, if they want every release from x company, I say go for it!

 

I've been in the hobby since 2012, and I only have two [technically off-topic] full dolls, and two heads, that are by the same companies. The off-topic boys are Granado, and the heads are Dollshe. Though, I'm looking to shift one on to a new home this year, as he's not fit in and doll plans are changing. And, I have six full dolls and... several floating heads.

As for loving a particular company, there are a few. I've always admired Iplehouse and Soom, though I own none of theirs, as well as Switch, Migidoll, Crobi; to name a few! I love Resinsoul for their customer service. The aforementioned Dollshe does have some beautiful sculpts, but their wait-times are horrendous. I'll always have something of an affinity for Ringdoll, as I got my first from them, although their own wait-times are almost in the same league as Dollshe presently. Another company I've had good dealings with is Impldoll. My only girl, so far, comes from them, so I feel I need to show them some love. She's an awesome doll. Doll Family-A are always good, too. I've had several of their practice heads come and go, because they're great even for simple practice heads. One sits as a permanent fixture, because he's just too good to be a meagre 'practice head'. Even if he is presently blank! Oops...

But, no, I don't tend to stick with one company when purchasing. My newest layaway is for a BJD Gravity boy. And, I keep browsing the other companies, with Loongsoul and DollZone being recent interests. There are just too many to stick with one company.

 

I tend to browse around a lot, but I have a few companies I consider my "main" ones that I'll always go to first, and dolls from those companies will usually take priority over other dolls I'm considering - especially when the character is related to/in a story with dolls I already have from them. I think because I try not to make impulse purchases unless the doll's from from a well-established company I trust and I have the money to do so.

Out of the 9 dolls I have right now, 4 are Volks, one is a Volks body with a Luts event head, one is an Iplehouse, and there are two Resinsouls and an Island Doll I brought at Dragoncon basically because they were right there. I'm also waiting on two more Luts and a Pipos. It's pretty much all older companies that were around back in 2006-2010 when I originally got into bjds that I ended up going back to when I returned to the hobby last year. I also prefer dolls I can easily get from dealers or secondhand - the only ones I've ordered direct from overseas are my Iplehouse and one of the Luts I'm waiting on.

There are other companies I'm looking at right now (Granado, Switch, and some of the indie/anthro/pet doll makers out there), but I still have an Iplehouse-possible hybrid and 3 more Luts dolls I definitely want before I consider anything else.

 

I do try to match aesthetics and I like more young adult dolls in msd size. I have some dolls that do not belong to my group of oc that I have in mind, because I just liked their look. I have made some mistakes though, where I like the doll but they so do not fit the rest of the dolls I have. Maybe I will sell some of them eventually, but there was still a reason for me to buy them. I guess you have to try a few to see what you really like. And I am sure after my first Ldoll this year I will have a better idea of what companies I need some more dolls from. Pictures can be deceiving, a doll you like from the pics can be so different when you actually hold them in your hands or you hate the way they pose. Enfin, its going to take time I guess to find out and decide what route my group will take. I definetly like the more mature and realistic route, but they still can look young and cute. For now my favorites are some minifee sculpts -definetly not all of them and I tend to like the smaller eyes- youpladolls alize line ( i do like my ophelie but she is a bit small) and maybe iplehouse yid (i do not own one yet but do like their aesthetic), I do love the face sculpts on sd dolls, but they are just too big for me to handle. (And also house..)

 

I have only one doll, but my plans are all from different companies. I love the different art styles in many companies and want to have several to look at.

 

I prefer getting dolls from different makers, but of the same proportions. I deeply regret those times when I wasn't paying enough attention to how my dolls are gonna go together in the end proportionally, and now I have a lot of "mismatching" dolls that I feel too bad about selling.

Also, I prefer different makers because most manufacturers have very similar idea behind their sculpts. I recently ordered MYOU and Rosenlied dolls, and while I love their other dolls, I can see that owning more than one from each will be like owning two identical ones.

 

I originally bought dolls from different companies... but my last six dolls were all Fairyland, which is funny because when I started the hobby I didn't even LIKE Fairyland

 

This is actually a problem for me because I do like variety, but I'm also picky as heck. I like realism, but at the same time, I don't like every single company that makes realism.
Of the companies I love, I can mention Iplehouse, Dollshe, Supia, LLT, Souldoll, Black Cherry, Argodoll.
I have an exception to this rule. My character, Gerda, is gonna be a Volks SD13 Elena, but she's the only planned Larika character, who will be non-realistic.

 

While I have a few dolls from the same companies (Souldoll, Soom) I love buying a variety of dolls. It is always exciting to see how different companies resin feels and looks like, how differently they pose... I do not care for the dolls to all match each other in size and proportions, so this gives me freedom in experimenting

 

I like the idea of trying new things but clearly I haven't so much as ventured into different sculpts from the same company yet so...
In my defense, I finally did get a F-01 that's not a Megu-type so baby steps I guess

 

I love to purchase from many different artists. Because I want to tryout many brands as I can.

 

I somewhat unintentionally ended up with a lot of the same maker because I just love the aesthetic, FL. But I only have one of each size and I love them all dearly. I'd like to branch out, however, and I've got two Resinsoul/Bobobie girls, a MYOU, a Raccoondoll, and a Doll Chateau (granted the DC is away getting some serious work done to her).

There have been plenty that have caught my eye (there's an Angell Studio doll that I really want but just haven't hit the buy button yet), but I just haven't been able to afford because of other things.

 

When I first started this hobby and before I got a doll, I originally wanted to get a different doll that I liked from any company so I could have a nice variety of dolls. After getting my first doll, I really liked the quality of the doll, eyes, wigs, clothing, and accessories from that company (Volks USA) as well as their customer service. I was still interested in other dolls from other companies so I attended some meet-ups. However, once I went to meet-ups with other owners that had dolls from the companies I was interested from buying from or even the actual dolls themselves, I realized there was such a big discrepancy in all the companies. Like, I love Iplehouse and will probably buy a lot of Iplehouse in the future (nice heavy resin, great sculpts and face-ups, costumes, etc), but the smaller sized dolls were too small compared to my SD10 and the larger sized dolls were massive. I felt like I had to get a batch of dolls from each company so that way my BJD collection was balanced out. Like, here is the Volks section, here is the Iplehouse section, here is the Dollshe section, etc. I guess a better way to put it would be more like, "Here's the Volks familiy, now here's the Iplehouse family, and there's the Dollshe family..." Hahaha. Or maybe there is an aspect of the other doll companies that I didn't like that was a personal preference to me or an inconvenience to me. Like, there were a few dolls that were proportional to my Volks doll, but the resin quality was not as good or they didn't come with face-ups and I am definitely not artistic enough to do a face-up. Stuff like that. On the other hand, my best friend has dolls from different companies that are all around the same size/proportion and her collection looks great. It just depends on personal preference, research, and finances I suppose.

So as of right now, my husband and I ended up getting more dolls in different sizes from the first company I started with (Yo-SD, SD10, SD13, SDGr, DearSD) and even branched out to their other dolls (ICON, DD). I think once we run out of dolls that we want to purchase from them, then we'll finally branch out to other companies and start that batch of collecting from there as we also have a few wishlist items from them.

 

So far (for my human dolls) it's been the same maker, but that wasn't especially intentional - it was just that the first BJD I fell in love with was hers, and it turned out I love her style. I wasn't trying to shell characters for scenes or stories so it's not like I needed them be in scale with each other (and actually, I have three of her six sizes and I don't think the ones I have work that well together).

I'm apparently really picky with human dolls because most I'm not interested in. Some I like, but I don't get that "must buy" feeling, or there's one detail that puts me off. I've recently fallen for Dust of Dolls though and have one on preorder and one coming to me second hand.

For my little creatures and animals, they're mostly from different artists. I just buy what I think's cool.

 

As my favorite phrase suggests: variety is the spice of life. Thus, I like having a variety of different bjds from different artists/companies. Since all my bjds are either based off my personal OCs/existing characters, they can't all look too similar. I also like having bjds from both more popular companies and individual artists in order to support a wider spectrum of creatives putting their heart and soul into these resin creations. I like having a variety because I don't personally like having too many bjds with same-face syndrome, as each of my OCs is different and unique in their own capacity (outside siblings, especially twins, where similarities are just inherent).

On another note, though—if I had to say there is/are a company or companies I do repeatedly go back to...well, there's Impldoll, Dollshe, and (maybe to some extent, body-wise anyways) Resinsoul. Resinsoul has a couple of different SD bodies I wouldn't mind getting eventually, plus—affordable jointed hands. Dollshe's resin is absolutely superb in texture, and really fun to work with—plus, his male sculpts, especially the more masculine ones, are delicious.

Impldoll—besides having such a wide variety of custom colors on offer—their darker resins are modifiable without the worry of discoloration/color-lightening, they have a variety of different body types in the SD range to choose from, and they've gotten very creative with the sculpts that they offer. Impldoll also takes customer input for body/sculpt ideas, and they are a pleasure to work with. On top of that, their dolls are just top-notch in my opinion.