Doll Company Photos, What Makes You Nervous?

Have you ever bought a doll that only had company photos available, such as limiteds, new sculpts, or unpopular/overlooked dolls?
I generally buy dolls only after I've seen owner pictures and owner reviews, but my Aria Doll Isabel was on sale for a special price for only a limited time, so I took the plunge and got her. Even though the company was relatively new and not that popular, I have previously read good reviews on their other dolls and the quality of their resin.


If so, was the doll what you expected?
The doll was actually better than I expected. Her packaging was simple but sturdy, which is what I expected from looking at box openings. But the doll itself was gorgeous; she was surprisingly heavy for her size, and the head and body sculpt more detailed than I expected. While Aria Doll's pictures were professional looking, I really didn't like the face-up, and they didn't offer pictures of the blank sculpt, so I had to assume that I had a good idea of what the sculpt looked liked.


Do you find it exciting or nerve-wracking to be one of the first to order a new/unpopular sculpt?
I was pretty excited because I had good impressions of the company from others, so I knew at least that even if I didn't like the sculpt, the quality would at least be high.


Any advice for taking the plunge?
I wouldn't place an order of more than $50 from a company that's new and has no reviews, no matter how tempting, but I would order a new time-sensitive sculpt from a company that's well established and has a good reputation. With the long time it usually takes between pre-ordering and the actual delivery, it would be nerve-wracking if I don't receive my order after a month, because I'd wonder if it'll simply take more time, or if the company isn't going to honor my order. If I'm confident in the company, however, I can wait over a year for my order, because I'm certain that I'll receive it.

 

At the end of the day all doll companies are vying for your money. While there are companies that sell exactly what is in their photo, there are others that photoshop. It's the same with any advertisement of any product. Models don't look like that. Not all products look the way they are photographed. Fast food is a really good example of how people photograph and manipulate to create the most ideal version of the product.

Owner photos are important. I go by them for the most part. If what they give their customer isn't good then it's not something I'm willing to consider.... unless it improves the item which is rare. Iplehouse recently lost my trust with Isar. The head and neck don't match and the head pops to the side. Not something shown in the promo pics and not something they offered to fix for those effected. I was considering the new YID Erica but not any more.

Someone on the thread also mentioned getting skeptical over not seeing the nude body. This is another thing I agree with. If I can't see the body I don't want the doll. The body esthetic is very important to me. I want to see the joints and the range of motion of the doll. If I can't see that I can't be guaranteed a good poser...

You're not alone in feeling that way. I get nervous and I tend to take the photos with a grain of salt.

 

They make me very nervous. I assume they have trained photographers taking the pictures, so that's a person who knows how to work the light to make something look better than it really is. Then there are the ones that are oh sets that make them look amazing, plus the fullsets that not everyone wants and lack of pictures of naked dolls...

You never really 100% know what you're getting I guess unless you know someone with the doll you want.

 

One company-- I can't remember which, because it wasn't one I was looking to buy from, just one I stumbled across from someone else's link-- had no body photos. They weren't just a head maker, they sold whole dolls, but I couldn't find any pictures of the body, AT ALL.

=^__^=
Anneko

 

I didn't look up owner photos when I bought my first doll, and I regret it. I've since read that the particular company I bought from has a bit of a reputation for completely un-realistic photos, so from now on whenever I consider buying a doll I make sure I have a look at any owner photos I can find.

 

Maybe it's just the companies I look at but I HATE HATE HATE when the FULLSET images aren't very good at SHOWing what comes with the Fullset! I had to ask to see 3 different items individually because NONE of the photos showed the dolls shoes or pants. I guess it's a problem I won't run into often but I just bought 2 clothing sets that I needed to probe for answers because nowhere on the site had good photos.

Regarding the actual DOLL/everything I understand they are trying to advertise the doll by making it look pretty. I'm not bothering by the photoshopping and unique angles I just REALLY wish EVERY company would also take SIMPLE photos with a blank background and items lying flat too.

 

By the way the company I bought the clothing sets from has no reason to NOT show the clothing. They are absolutely beautiful but when taking 'artsy' photos they just seem to FORGET to show us how the darn clothes looks! -__- Praise llamas for owner photos.

 

I hate when the companie only take a bunch of pictures with the doll only staring at the camera with a bunch of photoshop filters,I don't remember which company it was but there was no profile pictures or pictures of the doll's head without make up.

 

Agreed!

Either you are a risk taker or you're not. I always go with my gut, and as far as dolls are concerned, I haven't been disappointed yet.

 

This is probably the thing that frustrates me the most when looking for clothes. A company takes tons of shots of basically the same pose, and don't show the back or even the entire outfit. Annoying. >:C

 

I get nervous if there aren't clear shots of the body,joints on the torso legs, etc. And also if there aren't close up shots of the face. o.o;

 

The angles are the worst, they usually use the best angle to make it look ''better'' so they would catch the buyer's attention. In my opinion they should have made front and side pictures of the doll too to be sure. Though, I'm glad that my doll looks better in real life.

 

Well it is true with what you are saying, but not all the companies are like that. Many companies have their dolls naked and take photo, in many angles. Also, one of my friend is a face up artist in one of the BJD company, and she is doing the default make up which is on the website photos.

 

I recently bought an Iplehouse Carina, after looking at her on their website, DoA and Flickr, I thought I knew what she looked like. When I got her I was very suprised by the shape of her nose. I had only seen full face and 3/4 face shots, and I thought her nose was nice and straight, but it has a fairly pronounced dip in it. I wrote to the company and explained this and requested that they start to show profile shots of all of their dolls. I explained that I wanted more of their dolls, but wanted to know what they look like from all angles.
I IMPLORE EVERYONE OUT THERE READING THIS TO DO THE SAME: WRITE TO THE DOLL COMPANIES! LET THEM KNOW WE WANT PROFILE SHOTS, BLANK FACE SHOTS, AND FULL BODY SHOTS FROM MULTIPLE ANGLES!
If we don't let them know this, they do not know what we want and they aren't going to give us the multiple shots needed to make an informed purchase decision. Thank you. Oh, and I would also like to request that people please post shots of their dollies in profile here on DoA, again thank you!

 

Yeah, I agree, there is a lot of covering up involved, but sometimes you just have to take the risk. otherwise you won't learn from your experience.

 

It always makes me nervous when there is no blank photo of the head and I can't find any on, for example, flickr or here. :S

 

For me the dolls profile is most important, if there isn't a profile shot I won't buy the doll! I might buy child dolls without knowing what the profile looks like, but never SD dolls or "less cute" MSDs!

I was thinking of buying an Iplehouse lady for a character, but the site doesn't offer any pictures of their profiles After days of searching on google, flickr and so on I'd finally found pictures of all the girls profiles. Turns out I hate all the Iple women noses (except for some of the ethnic sculpts, but the character is going to be "european looking", damn)! Glad I didn't buy any of them before checking

So, not seeing what the dolls nose looks like in profile makes me really nervous and suspicious. It matters less if the dolls face turns out to be ugly from the front, because I will probably cover half it's face with the wig anyway

 

Ah, but the thing about looking up owner photos for reference is that somebody has to be the first to take the plunge. Somebody had to buy that doll and hope it looks like they thought. And then if they're nice enough they'll post pictures and even video reviews. But they probably didn't have those resources when they bought, so better company photos would still be a plus.

 

I agree with you about the face-ups. It should be more closely done to the promotional photos.

I recently bought a Ddoll Airi from a DoA member. The face-up on this doll shows the black-dot-corners-on-the-lips which seems to be prevalent among many manufacturers. I don’t particular like that style so I will get Airi’s lips redone. However, the promotional photos of Airi don’t have those black dots. Her lips are full in those promo pics. At least buying second hand you can see better what you are getting or ask the seller for more pics, which the actual manufacturers won’t do (at least none that I am aware of).

Still, all companies put a (sometimes) large sum of their capital into promotional pictures so the BJD companies aren't really different. It’s not right, but as with any popular item, companies know we will buy regardless how much its customer base complains. It’s only when they realize they aren't generating a profit that they will change their business practices –or go out of business.

 

I learned the hard way that company faceups do not turn out as pictured. I've had a 50/50 chance of getting something that looks absolutely nothing like pictured - in shape, style, and color. I do not trust company faceups!

On the other hand, yes, photoshopping can be an issue, as can lighting effects. I was browsing a Ringdoll thread the other day and someone said they'd changed the tan resin so they were afraid if they bought jointed hands they wouldn't match their doll. Coincidentally, I had been wanting jointed tan hands from Ringdoll, since their regular hands are so flat, plain, and lacking in detail that I call them 'pancake hands.' I got worried and went to Ringdoll's site to check them out. Sure enough, the bodies they have for sale looked so dark they seemed more black than tan (which had looked more orange than an actual tan, anyway).

I panicked and emailed Ringdoll asking if I could still order the old hands, prepared to spend all the money I'd earned on overtime the weekend before to get the hands while I could. Turns out they never had changed their resin tone! The rep told me that was a photoshop issue. I'm telling you, orange resin looked coffee-brown! Lovely color, but who wants mismatched hands on their doll? Luckily there's nothing to worry about, but it's definitely a problem when photoshop makes things look so drastically different.