Doll Faux Pas

. . . which makes me want to at least ask what the heck an architectural model doll even IS. Never heard that term before, but it sounds interesting. /nerd

I think probably my most idiotic mistake was thinking that Dollfie Dreams and Dollfie Pluses were the same size. XD For the life of me I couldn't figure out why the DDs cost ten times as much! I didn't figure out the difference until literally years later when I saw Danny Choo's photos of his DD Saber next to his Figma Saber, the latter of which I actually own. So I looked at my little 15cm high Figma Saber, grabbed a ruler and extrapolated. . . then it finally clicked: "Ah! High detail plus huge size plus complex internal skeleton equals expensive doll! Okay, I get it now." Which is also the real point of no return, since that's when I started wanting a big honking 60cm doll of my own.

 

It's very fun to laugh at your n00b self

When I was first learning about BJDs I thought they were measured in inches instead of cm.... That didn't last long but I almost ended up with a 1/6th scale...

Another mistake (slight) that I had that I though DOD H. Ducan was named Duncan. Yeah... That didn't get correct for a while.

 

I dunno, I was really excited to take my boy's head off the first time, though it took me a week to find a legitimate reason to ^_^ And then I got super excited to restring him, and that went well, except for the always ending with not enough elastic for a leg That's probably the only n00bish thing I've done, really. Other than figuring out what all the acronyms are and the difference between CP and Luts and Fairyland and all that, too.

 

My first was at a meetup when I asked to hold the Blythe someone brought, but it was actually a Pullip xD I couldn't tell the difference at first since I was BRAND new. Oh, and also, at a meetup, a friend and I were posing all the dolls without asking anyone without knowing that's a no-no. << We were careful, of course. Doll newbies, but experts in common sense. Luckily, no one was mad (that I know of...) and one of the older members gently corrected us and I never did it again. I was quite embarassed both times...

 

My first faux pas was buying a doll from a seller without any searching before. And thinking she would exactly look like shown in the promo-pics...
But the biggst mistake I made was not joining DoA before I bought my first doll...

 

My biggest faux pas was actually with my first vinyl doll...

...involving eyebrows drawn on with an ultra-fine sharpie...

Poor Kyosuke. His eyebrows get larger by the day. XD Needless to say, I did a loooooooot more research before even attempting anything on my resin doll!

 

When I first got Nicolai, I would carry him around like he was made of glass. XD

I did all my research before I got him in my hands though. Buying something so well made and expensive, it'd be stupid not to know how to take care of it.

Oh and I also ran over my finger with the sewing machine I used for one of the first times. That was a blast! 8D

 

putting one too many coats of Plaid Spray MATTE on my practice porcelain statuette. : For Matte spray, it was waaaay too shiny! I still haven't figured how to make LIGHT sprays all over even though I'm doing this in 'short bursts'. Also, thinking that the 'SD13' meant that the doll came from San Diego. =_=" *hide me! XD*

 

I did that too!

On Ryuichi's current faceup, he has a smudge by his left eye where Gennifer Bones tried to fix his faceup, and she did a REALLY SUGOI job of hiding it. I learned the hard way its best to let faceups dry overnight!

Ryu

 

I'm so bad with numbers that I don't know how many times I've asked "What size (wig/eye/clothes/etc...) does my Lati Green take?" I know I can look up the measurements, and I know it can be figured out by myself, but it took me FOREVER to learn to look for LF or YoSD sized items... /facepalm.

That's why I love DoA, no matter how many times people who have been here forever have seen the same stupid question, they are always ready with answers and links to direct you to the right place!!! *DoA Luv*

 

When I first got my girl - I had absolutely no idea how to paint her : what materials, what techniques, nothing (and this was also before I had seriously looked through DoA). So...I used nailpolish (for gloss) and nailpolish remover on her! Both contain acetone, and if applied quickly enough - may be OK - but seriously, some people have had their heads dyed the color of their nailpolish remover, or had their heads suffer permanent damage from the use of acetone (used for prolonged periods of time - if used quickly, it may be fine, though I would not recommend it). I'm just grateful that she didn't suffer any lasting damage (though I suspect her lips eroded ever so slightly, since I applied gloss and removed it so many times)!

 

Another: When his foot fell off and that making his whole leg fall apart when I was changing his pants. xD

Mom said my face resembled this --> OAO
xD

 

Oh man. When I saw this thread bump, I had to throw in my own LOLz. XD

When I first got my first doll, Tameron (Volks MSD Ken), I was afraid to get him a faceup. I didn't want to do it because I was afraid I'd stain him, because I couldn't figure out where to get MSC, and I thought that was the only thing you could use to protect the face. XD I didn't want to mail him out either, because he was precious, and I didn't want to risk anything happening to him or not be able to play with him for a while. It wasn't until I got my second doll, Mason (BF Tommy), who also needed a new faceup desperately (he came with a half-assed faceup that wasn't even sealed and rubbed off more and more the more I played with him), that I was finally convinced to send them both off to Sour_Dotz for real faceups. XD I've since gotten over my fear, bought some Testors (which hasn't failed me yet except in bad weather), and learned to do half-decent faceups myself. And I've mailed heads out to be painted a few times, too.

Setting aside the fact that the first 100 or so pictures I posted to DoA were of scary, faceless dolls XD, the pictures themselves were also HORRIBLE. I look at them now and wonder how I could have EVER thought that they were ok to post to the internet, where anyone could see them. Bad lightning, blurriness, and just...ugh, lack of knowledge about anything photography related. lol I don't claim to be an expert now, but I at least make sure my pictures are focused and well lit (unless it's for artistic reasons) before I post them. If a picture is just a little blurry and not able to be saved by editing in GIMP, I won't even bother posting it.

 

Hah, I don't even think I could list all the noobish things I did way back 7 months or so ago (I got over most of it pretty quickly with alot of research...) I was one of those ones who bought a vinyl doll (a year ago or more) because some small part of me thought it was a really affordable BJD. I still like her, but shes pretty much a shelf baby now.

There's also the fact that 3/4 of my 'full' dolls have fallen off things (no damage at all luckily) because at one point they were standing unattended or my brother posed them when I wasn't there... They're noob mistakes I'll never make a gain and I'm so lucky they're unscathed. I still say sculpt and company names the way I think they should be, it's always funny at meets, since everyone seems to do that...

 

The only n00b thing i really did was when I was pulling Julien's arm into a shirt and I ended up popping out the joint for his wrist... I put it back in but I got a fright..
Yeah I'm still a n00b in theory but I've never done anything daft like "where's the cheap ones?" haha. I knew what I was getting into..
oh...and I didn't stand Julien up properly and he headbutt the coffee table...he has a bump on his head I'm not brave enough to recoat yet...oh well, adds character? >.< For the meantime his hair hides it >_<

 

When I got my first doll, I used to leave him standing without a stand on a flight of stairs, three steps up from the bottom. I thought it was cute to look up every so often and see him peeking out from between the stair railing (my downstairs living area is open, and you can see the stairs going up to the second floor from pretty much anywhere downstairs). Now, I realize that it was a miracle he never fell over and went bouncing down three stairs. I don't know what I was thinking! Even if I had seen him start to fall, there is no way I would have reached him in time to catch him. I consider myself really lucky that nothing happened as a result of me being silly enough to leave him standing there.

 

I really don't have any newbie mistakes with my doll, I researched so much before I got her. However I don't take her anyplace for fear she'll be damaged (need to get over that fear)

However my newbie mistake in the hobby itself... hehe.. I made some pretty foolish choices in the MP: not asking the right questions about something, not researching prices, etc..luckily I only did that once. You live and learn

 

I've done one or two things that could definitely be considered faux pas but I think the one I most regret is getting into fiery "discussions" on the forum. It got to the point where my posts were turning into one big disclaimer because I thought someone somewhere was bound to be offended but then I thought aw forget it, it's so pointless to argue over some poxy words written in the heat of a moment, or a differing viewpoint, especially over dolls, and I'm way, way more chilled out and tolerant these days. I think that was my own phase of being an obnoxious n00b.

a more lightheated faux pas is mixing up all the names because of bad contact lenses/sheer idiocy, such as "Oh yeah Noctana Circus, lovely" "Is that FeePie or FeePle?" I'm still not sure heh, all the different Volks/Soom MD names might as well be in Aramaic to me as well, then again my alliegience lies more with Iplehouse ;P

 

To be honest, I don't think I'd consider calling every doll a dollfie a faux pas; we know they're not, but it's so much easier to call it a dollfie than anything else. If someone asks what kind, then I'd reply with where the doll's from. But I find this easily understandable. I still do it, even though I know the difference.

 

I think the biggest n00b faux pas I've committed is to mistake the gender of another owners doll. Fortunately most owners were patient when they had to correct me. But it was still a little embarrassing. Luckily I got better.