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Does practicality influence your doll choices?

Apr 21, 2010

    1. Basically, what the title says.:sweat
      I've heard some doll owners praise the portability of tinies and I recently found myself wishing I had a doll that I could take out for spur of the moment photoshoots - However I don't personally like tinies. I like SD size dolls and while I never say never, I can't see myself ever branching out into another size.

      However my Zaoll is an awkward 52cm tall so some SD clothes are just too big for her, although it's something I only worried about for about a split second before I got her. I don't think I'd ever have a tan doll because I'd be scared of unevenly coloured resin or seams that can't be sanded. Luckilly I've not fallen in love with a tan doll yet, because I'm not sure what I'd do.

      I'm sure there are lots of practicality issues that could make a doll more or less appealing to different people, I'm just wondering if it's something people consider?

      :chocoheart
       
    2. Oh, there are issues of practicality all the time. First of all there's financial practicality (I can't get this doll! I'm broke!) but I don't think that's what you were going for, as we've all bemoaned that before. For me, my main concern is having enough stuff for them, since I already have so many different sizes of dolls. I like for them to be able to share clothes, so I've basically placed a block on new sizes of dolls. That basically means no 30-ish cm dolls, and no SDs above the size of my souldoll gisele (~55cm).

      I've also been held back from buying cute colored dolls, like pink and blue skinned dolls. I'm mostly worried about... Well, placing that blue doll next to the others and going O__O ??? I also try to resist SOOM and other dolls with parts that you exchange by restringing, because frankly I don't like restringing and I know I wouldn't use the cool animal parts.
       
    3. Hehe, ah yes, your post immediately made me think of Soom.
      I have seen some of their MD that are quite beautiful, but that I would never be tempted to purchase simply because I know they wouldn't physically be able to do anything but stand somewhere and look pretty...and since I live in a rather small apartment...there really isn't any room for that kind of doll.

      ...Or rather, there isn't any room for another one of those dolls...since I have an Amber. ^.^"

      But back on topic, and for a specific example, take Galena. I thought her wings were lovely and ogled the translucent resin for a while. But the thought occurred to me that in winged form...she would have no hands! O.o
      My dolls like to sit around said small apartment and have tea and smoke cigarettes...you can't really do that if you have no hands. And what is the point of beautiful fantasy parts that you never intend to use? Hehe.

      On the other side of the argument, I have no qualms about buying large dolls that I fall in love with. I have an EID man on layaway right now, and plans for two EID women.
      I guess that is to say that when it comes to practicality, I'm personally more interested in the function of the doll and how I use them. I will find someplace to put a big, beautiful doll if I set my mind to it! ^_~
       
    4. I was held back from tanned dolls for practical reasons: Don't they turn green? Aren't they more delicate/sensitive to light? They can't be sanded? etc. Now that I have 2 tan girls, it doesn't seem to be so bad, but I've still owned them for <1 year so there's plenty of time for something to go wrong. But similar thoughts affect me when considering any doll in French resin.

      Iplehouse EID knees really annoy me though. I want another EID woman but really don't want to deal with the additional set of knees. And since I started on vinyl Volks DD, I actually find that I prefer vinyl girls for both the reduced weight and extra resistance to impact (bend rather than chip/break).
       
    5. The longer I'm in this hobby the choosier and pickier I get. I have less patience for things about a given doll that bother me, and I buy very seldomly. If I'm not absolutely crazy about the doll 24/7 it's very likely to get sold.
      Is that practicality? I don't know, very little about dolls is practical to begin with!! XD

      Portability is another issue, and I'm definitely after something portable for an upcoming trip to Europe, I don't want to look like a weirdo carting around some big doll. I want it to be discreet. Fun for me, and unnoticed by the muggles, win-win.

      Raven
       
    6. I have to really consider practicality when it comes to my dolls for another reason: living space! I live in a small, one-bedroom apartment in NYC, and it'd be really unrealistic for me to get a bunch of SDs (even if I could afford them, which I can't, lol) when finding space for my tiny cadre of MSDs is difficult, and I have to keep them away from the cat's reach, and so on. Also, my MSDs just barely fit on my computer desk, so I'd have trouble letting an SD "hang out" with me while I do my homework and stuff...

      For those reasons, I've decided to limit myself. I'm hoping to get one SD for Christmas (a DollZone Orlando). Until/unless we get a bigger apartment, she'll be my only one, though - I'm getting my third and fourth MSDs soon anyway, so I'm running out of what space I have~ xD
       
    7. I'm like Raven in that I've become choosier and choosier as time has gone on. I started off by buying dolls that grabbed my attention and discovered I didn't like having a large collection, having WS dolls, the weight of SDs or the supertiny Pukis. I liked them for other people, I just found they didn't suit me. The practicality of keeping a large multi-size collection got me down, being so cautious with my WS dolls that I didn't do anything with them made me question why I wanted them at all, and carrying around the SD and the Puki became stressful because the SD weighed a lot and I was scared the Puki would get lost :roll:

      At the moment the dolls in my collection conform to my ideas of portability and poseability, I chose them for practical reasons as well as aesthetic ones. My latest purchase though, doesn't fit with my practical plans :lol: I have an SD Megu head who will eventually have her own body, but will be sharing my DDII body for now. I suppose I'll just have to get used to the weight of a resin 60cm doll eventually :) Most of the time my practical sense wins out over a doll, but occasionally I have to bow to the *want*!
       
    8. Same here, I've got a shoebox of a room in a tiny flat I share with 2 other people. I've just bought a new shelf for my incoming doll, after that, I'm kinda running out of ideas. The boxes alone are a headache!
       
    9. I've resisted the idea of ever getting another EID (have an Akando Superhero) Just because they're so darn BIG. I mayyyyy in the end have one more, but it's not likely. (Sorry Donovan, honey, but your cute Akando butt is heavy and you are a beast to clothe)

      I have one LTF now because I wanted someone cute and less fragile than my puki for carrying around with me as a companion.
       
    10. Yes, I definitely considered portability, space, (I live in a small apartment too) sun-related stuff, (I always keep the shades open, and usually the windows too.. and I'd love to take my doll outside on sunny days for photos) money, sewing concerns (picking a doll that wasn't TOO small so it wouldn't be too hard to make clothes..) posing ability and other practicality factors when I picked out my first doll. >3< Fortunately, I was able to find a doll that fit all the factors and was also gorgeous! (Minifee, aaaaaaaaawriiight.)
      I would love to get a big Dollshe boy with the craaazy joints, but I don't see it happening any time soon because it's just too big, not to mention expensive. The size is a deal-breaker for me right now, and so Minifee instantly won the fight even though I love the look of the dolls themselves equally.
       
    11. I'm the type of person who weighs pros and cons very pessimistically. So any doll I get is for practical reasons just as much, if not more so, than aesthetic reasons. And if I don't go through these motions properly, the doll is shipped on out to a new home very quickly. :sweat

      I've discovered YoSDs are my size doll for the practical reasons.
      1. The characters in mind for my dolls are supposed to be really cutesy, and no doll does cutesy better than a YoSD!
      2. Portability, I love being able to take my dolls with me easily. They fit in my purse and away we go!
      3. Potability, YoSDs seem to be the best posers in the Volks family. And I like that since they're so short they're not very top heavy and don't blow over easy in the wind.
      4. They're easy to find props for. I've found a bunch of great things for cheap at Wal-Mart and other such places on the Barbie aisle.
      5. They're the easiest for me to hand-sew for.
      6. They have a lot of easy to get optional hands. This isn't important to most people, but is it very important to me.

      There are a lot of things which make other sizes a lot less practical for me, which I don't run into with YoSDs. So I guess you could say getting them is based on practicality.
       
    12. The longer I tinker with my collection the more I discover what I do like and what I don't, and sometimes the reasons behind the don'ts are practical ones.

      I'm less and less fond of BW dolls, for instance, because (as Jescissa says-) you have to be so much more cautious with them as far as staining and exposure to light and heat is concerned... and even if you're very careful, they still tend to yellow (or green o_0) in ways that I don't find at all attractive. So, these days I tend to think long and hard before I hit the "buy" button on a new BW, and I've slowly been phasing out some of the white resin dolls I already have.

      I've also discovered that there's a definite upper limit to the size and weight I can easily handle. My hooved R.Heliot is really pushing it, but his relative lightness for a "tall guy" has kept him around.
       
      #12 Brightfires, Apr 21, 2010
      Last edited: Jan 7, 2016
    13. Hmm. Yes, I would say that everybody considers practicality to some extent when looking for a new doll. (Or at least, I hope they do...)

      I don't know. I seem to have gotten myself into a bit of a yo-sized phase right now. They are easy to work with, and they take up less room than my SD-sized doll. But I'm not particularly set on just getting one size, and if I like a doll enough, it usually doesn't matter the size for me. Price is sometimes a practical issue, of course. As if it's way beyond my price range, no matter how nice the doll I don't give it even a second glance.

      But practicality, I think, is a lot like preference when it comes to dolls. Something might be practical for one person, and another thing would be practical for another person.
       
    14. I'm hesitant to get a tan doll because of the "greening" possibility. I'm going to wait a few more years and see which companies' tan resin holds up best. I've heard white skin shows yellowing faster, too. I'll stick to normal skin for now.

      Although small dolls are easily portable, I don't intend to carry my dolls around anyway so that isn't an advantage. Rather, the small size is an impracticality for me because of the greater potential to lose those teensy doll items and the greater difficulty of attaching eyelashes, not to mention restringing.

      Bigger than 65cm = out of the question. The doll I own now is 65cm, and that's definitely the biggest size I'm willing to own.

      Speaking of practicality I wish more large dolls had faceplate systems - except that I keep hearing how faceplates tend to fall off on larger dolls because of weak magnets or bad engineering or something. OTL Too bad. I think it's rather impractical to have to remove a doll's head every time you need to adjust its eyes or change its shirt.
       
    15. Practicality is definitely an issue with me. So far MSD fit me wonderfully, their size is reasonable for storage and for having out casually in my room - they fit on my bookshelves easily. As well, I definitely intend to take the dolls out for meet-ups and potentially photoshoots and public transport is my ride so dolls that are more discreet and easier to carry around close to me are far more preferable. I also find that how much area they take to 'play with' has affected whether it's a yes or no situation on keeping/buying. SD/SD13 and posing them takes up alot more room than my MSD. How much wardrobe that appeals to me in their size is a factor too. I love clothes and if I can't find outfits for the doll I like, I'm not going to enjoy them.
      Sadly this seems to have basically ruled out anything larger than MSD for me. I'm trying YOSD now and we'll see if I can handle smaller or not!
       
    16. To a certain extent, yes. It doesn't completely stop me, as considerations I make are things like the availability of clothing (I'm waiting for an Iple JID ^^;) and my rapidly diminishing lack of doll space (but I've got a Soom Chalco on the way). But it does occasionally slow me down . . . ? Heh.
       
    17. Practicality's affected the number of dolls I have. I want more, but I'm running out of space. :( It's one of those situations where I wish somebody would invent those portable capsule-things from the Dragonball series. I would build another house for these dolls, and then take the house-capsule wherever I go, heh.
       
    18. I'm practical when choosing cars or major appliances but not dolls. These dolls are impractical for me to begin with, as far as expense and upkeep are concerned, so I just save up and buy the ones I really love and don't worry about it.
       
    19. When I bought my first doll, I was convinced that I would only ever buy larger ones because that would make them worth the price. I also thought that it would be better to have larger dolls since I could get used to them. So my first Delf boy was bought for more practical reasons.

      My second and third however were bought because I thought they were beautiful and fell in love with them. One is an EID and the other is a Tiny.

      Dolls, at least in my opinion, are already not practical because of the cost that I've spent on them. Doesn't mean I will stop buying them, but I no longer see practicality as an issue.

      Also, being a creative mind, I love seeing art. To me dolls are a form of art and even if I don't play with them a lot and have them only sitting around my room most of the time, I still love looking at them ^^.
       
    20. I'm eventually going to have a giant doll house taking up half of one of my rooms. I can't say I'm really practical or that even being so has crossed my mind. Then again, I'm new to the hobby. We all have those honeymoon periods.