Doll marketing photography: Do Companies Confuse or Mislead?

I'm not really sure I have the experience to throw my two cents in here, but here goes. I have been devouring pics from owners on this site for the Kalix and Delphine dolls I am dying for. I have noticed a bit of a difference in the actual doll. I think that the pics are definatly best case scenario, and definatly the dolls are going to come in a state that needs some primping, but I think it might be helpful to shoot the dolls in their un-retouched state on the site. Maybe a link to the doll as it comes? I don't feel like there is outright deception, but maybe a little...over glamming? It really hasn't put a damper on my interest in any particular doll, just something I noticed...

 

1) Do you feel that some companies mislead, exaggerate, or confuse through their use of photos in advertising their dolls?

I dont think companys mislead, they just show people how you can customize your doll.


2) Have you ever received a doll that you felt was not as shown in its photographs (aside from resin color or obvious defects like breakage)? What feature(s) was/ were misrepresented?

Truthly, on my Tintan I hate the eyebrows for the life of me, that was one thing I didnt like about the faceup but the company did show her with a faceup so I shouldnt have complained. For my Megi, welll... the hair he came with is extremely difficult to work with and play with, but thats just the kind of wig it is and I knew that so yeah. I shouldnt complain.


3) If you answered "yes" to (2), did you tell the doll company and were you satisfied with the response?

Well no, cuz I knew that thats what I was going to get so there just doing there job.

4) Do you feel that misleading photographs are a serious problem, or do you feel that companies aren't to be blamed for wanting to make their product look good ? Or, alternatively, do you think that there are plenty of other places to see different photographs of a doll (or even the doll in person at conventions, meetups and so forth) and therefore buyers should simply educate themselves more before they buy? Other thoughts?

....Wow thats a biggie queston. Anyways well no, the pictures of the dolls being all dressy and there faceups done beautifuly.... well the point is to give the buyer ideas of how to make there dolls. What to do with them. Theres nothing wrong with that. and with most doll sites ive seen they have pictures of the dolls with and without faceups


5) Do you think it would help to have a standard format of photos that would be shown by companies in addition to their pretty advertising photos - for example, pictures of unfaceupped heads taken from the front and side; body comparison photos showing unclothed bodies in a few established positions, like sitting and standing) or do you feel that enough companies already offer these?

Like I said before all the sites I've been to have had pictures of dolls with and without faceups, and people should do a lot of research before owning a doll anyways ( Know this was in the last queston ) cuz the dolls are really a lot of responsibility.

 

I personally find it frustrating when dolls are really heavily faceupped without any blank photos of the heads available... This and also when they sometimes wash out the features of the doll to make the photos really pretty and dreamy... It makes for really pretty photos but when I'm spending so much money I want to be able to see the doll I'm buying. It's unfortunate because there are a few dolls out that I'm still waiting to see owner photos of ((Dolkot Model Adam... if you know of owner pics anywhere I'd appreciate a link!!!)). One company that I really have a gripe with is Luts... So many of their photoshoots are soooo washed out especially on their Senior Delfs. One interesting thing they've been doing lately that has been helping is featuring different faceups for each doll...

I know this isn't the companies trying to trick me... but I've seen dolls that I had on my wish list at meet and realized they looked much different in person and had to remove them. I felt really lucky I saw them before hand.

Either way, I think companies should at least try to take pictures of their dolls in lighting where the sculpt can really be seen well or where they show the blank head.... at the very least they should make sure to take pictures from various angles. Some companies forget to do that too I've found. XD

Luckily for me, I've only bought dolls after I've seen just about a million owner pics and only by that time. I may not be the first to get the doll but then I'm sure I know of what I'm getting. Unfortunately not all of us can do that because someone needs to buy the doll first to take owner shots to begin with.. (x_x)...

 

Yep. I have yet to hear of anyone so much as owning a particular doll on my wishlist, never mind owner pics. Souldoll apparently has quite the reputation for taking misleading photographs of their dolls that hide casting flaws (such as crooked facial alignments). Since they're one of the more expensive lines, this is very concerning to potential customers.

 

I have recently come across a real life instance of this.

Souldoll recently released a sculpt called Liddell, but the company refuses to show pictures of the doll with out its horrible and whorish company face up. Because this is such a new dollie and only one member of our community has one it is hard to fully appreciate the fine details of such an adorable sculpt, and seeing souldolls attempt at a face up is really quite terrible.

I bought a Liddell for my baby girl Naurhen, and we are both hoping that an artists face up will truely show the absolute beauty of this sculpt, which the company its self will not demonstrate.

 

I've come across the exact opposite. Bobobie's official photos are terrible! They are either too small or the hair covers half the face, especially the eyes. It's hard to figure out if you want a doll if their face is only shown from the nose down. Let's not forget colors... Lilac looks TERRIBLE when it's photographed. Both officially and in amateur photos. It always comes out dark grey. But if you see it in person it's actually a nice shade of purple.

 

i just bought a dollzone reiko.loved the production photos looked exactly like the sculpt i wanted for my character.so i decided to try it in yellow skintone.i saw the photos the shade looked light and creamy.but when she arrived her shade was incredibly bright.and i'm unsure how to do the face-up the way i wanted for my character.the sculpt also seemed like it no longer fit what i was trying to make.
don't get me wrong i like dollzone dolls.but i'm usually not satisfied with the way they arrive.and i end up buying an option head from the junkyspot.and then i'm satisfied because i can see the actual naked head sculpt.
who knows maybe a skillfull paint job can change my opinion of reiko.but her color is so dark it resembles closer to tan then what i was expecting. i hate to think how yellow it will be when its old it'll probably be flurescent yellow from the concentration "laugh".
i've bought sculpts that i've seen naked and they arrive and there huge like my dollzone yi head.he looked like an asian male sculpt and painted he looks more like a white girl.so yes i to am frustrated with the difference between photos and the piece that arrives at the door.sometimes i have to buy a new body just to fit my doll heads look.-sarah

 

Let me put it this way; I made a typical newbie mistake. If I'd known about DoA and owner photos back then I wouldn't have a Elfdoll LE Vampire Red living in his box in a closet now. He cost me what I thought was a huge amount at the time and almost put me off BJD altogether. I was so excited for weeks and weeks then He arrived. I opened the box and took one look at him and closed it and shoved him into a closet. At this point I don't even remember when I put him in there. His ad photo showed this pale ethereal beauty with a just fed light rose blush to his cheeks and ruby lips with gleaming white fangs. What I got was an ordinary looking doll with brown lips, off white teeth and ugly black accent lines outlining his fangs. And yes, I contacted the seller over the radical difference in the face up and was told basically that the photo you see on your monitor may not be the face you see on your doll. Ya, whatever, he's living in the closet.

Yes, I think the companies do present their dolls in a rather unrealistic way; and the majority of the photo ads that I've seen don't show you the faces clearly at different angles and without face ups. Seeing box openings and owner photos here has saved me a huge chunk of change. I'm constantly falling in love with the 'perfect' photos on some doll seller's site. Now finding owner photos here first has snapped me out of a lot of stupid spending on dolls I'd hate when they arrived. A big thank you to all the photo posting doll owners!

 

Perhaps you can find someone to do a faceup for you? They would be able to wipe off what you have and give you something better.

 

I have a flickr buddy that bought a doll that had VERY vibrant coloring in the marketing photos....when the doll arrived it was a washed out, pale version of what she thought it would be. It was cute but not what she expected.

 

1) Do you feel that some companies mislead, exaggerate, or confuse through their use of photos in advertising their dolls?
Yeah I think they do, but in the most of the case, in a negative way for their business!
I.E. Volks, to me, has ugly pictures of their dolls, and if I'd watch just their official images I would always consider their dolls indecent compared to their prices... then I do know they're not, but just throught custom's pics...
D.O.D indeed can make great photos of their dolls, but they do really are gorgeous as they show us, so is not misleading ^^

2) Have you ever received a doll that you felt was not as shown in its photographs (aside from resin color or obvious defects like breakage)? What feature(s) was/ were misrepresented?
I don't, so far ^^

3) If you answered "yes" to (2), did you tell the doll company and were you satisfied with the response?
/ /

4) Do you feel that misleading photographs are a serious problem, or do you feel that companies aren't to be blamed for wanting to make their product look good ? Or, alternatively, do you think that there are plenty of other places to see different photographs of a doll (or even the doll in person at conventions, meetups and so forth) and therefore buyers should simply educate themselves more before they buy? Other thoughts?
I think it's obvious that they, as commercial companies, try to let their dolls look better then they really are... but still I think that they often do the opposite, as I said before, I think that official photos are usually much worse then custom's (good custom's ones, of course)

5) Do you think it would help to have a standard format of photos that would be shown by companies in addition to their pretty advertising photos - for example, pictures of unfaceupped heads taken from the front and side; body comparison photos showing unclothed bodies in a few established positions, like sitting and standing) or do you feel that enough companies already offer these?
Yes, it would be surely better if every company would show us everything of their dolls.
Many brands already do that, and that's cool, but some others are just showning us close ups of their dolls faces, and that's inadmissible!

 

OK, I feel like complaining. I'd appreciate it if I didn't get remarks about how aweful my faceup work is. Because the point I'm making is one you should all be able to see plain as day.
The Soom Spinel advertised on the Soom site looks nothing like the Soom Spinel I bought.
Soom's Spinel on their website looks like Ashton Kutcher, the Soom Spinel I purchsed does not.
Please note the Spinel on the site has squinty eyes, giving him a certain sadness about him. My Spinel's eyes are wide open, giving him a blank stare.

Yes, I believe in false advertising. I've already posted to this thread regarding a different doll.

I'm not very happy right now. I couldn't figure out why I couldn't capture the sadness in the faceup, I redid the eyebrows about six times before finally pulling up the soom site to see what they did that I wasn't doing. Well, it's quite obvious to me what they did that I cannot do! The sculpt is NOT the same.
Words cannot describe my disappointment..

I'd also like to note that Spinel is said to take 14mm eyes, my head is wearing 15mm eyes. Putting in larger eyes does not help!

UPDATE: I talked to the seller whom I bought the head from and I was informed that the head was not modified.

 

DanceCat: Did you buy him directly from Soom? If so, then I would express your concerns to them. I have found them very helpful to deal with. If you bought him from someone else, I would say that he has been modded.

 

DanceCat: Is there a possibility it could be the eye size?

 

Before I knew of DoA and even other BJD companies I bought a Domuya Zen. I jumped in to buying him knowing nothing about BJDs except a few photos I saw of someone's meetup blog by pure accident. Anyway, Zen looked amazing in his photos--this fierce blue eyed ninja. I paid a lot of money for him and I was very disappointed when I got him. His face looked nothing like the promo pics, he was so floppy, and his wig was poorly made. Also, I bought the expensive ninja outfit that he was shown in and I just hated it when I got it. Since then I bought two Fins from them which I liked much better, two years ago, but I will never buy another doll from Domuya again. I did not tell them I was dissatisfied because I read (at the time) in other threads that Domuya doesn't respond well to unhappy emails and I decided the best way to express my disapproval is to take my business elsewhere. Maybe I should have written to them. I think I will in the future if I am ever as unhappy with a doll again.

 

I agree with you that the eyes don't look the same, but by chance I was on Volks site today reading the blog about face ups. They did say that the eyelashes could be placed down to give a more shaded view of the eyes and thus making them look more serious.

 

DanceCat: Assuming the seller is truthful and he hasn't been modded, this is likely a combination of faceup, eyelashes, eye placement and photography. Could you try taking a pic from the same angle with the eyes placed the same as Soom's photo? I looked at your gallery post with your collection of heads, and in the final picture of that shoot, I don't really see any difference between Spinel's head and the default.

I don't mean this in a rude manner. It's just that dolls (like anything) can look so different from different angles and with different lighting.

 

Let the poor boy out of the closet! What do you want for him? I mean, put him in the Marketplace, surely someone there will buy him!

 

I too was taken in by the pretty pictures that companies showed of their dolls and often opted for those factory face ups only to be diappointed. But then I got more anxious for my dolls to be shipped and found I could most times not only save time but money and get the dolls blank and send them most times to a friend who is not only talented but gives me what I saw in the face and body all along. Personally I wish more companies would like Dollstown and now Dollshe show us blank faces. If we can see what the head looks like front and sides we can better see in our own mind's eye what we want to see. Not a pretty face all special done but what we want in that face. I for one took on Spinel and love how my friend made him look, not like Prince but as my Haru. I try and look pass the face ups they do and look at what he or she could be.

 

1) Do you feel that some companies mislead, exaggerate, or confuse through their use of photos in advertising their dolls?

Yes. I have both good and bad things to say about Soom in this regard. I have seen several Soom dolls in real life, all of them very beautiful. However, when I see the dolls on the site, they really look photoshopped. Like, the way some of them glow? I'm sorry, but most dolls don't glow, the Soom dolls I saw in person did not glow, etc. Considering how lovely these dolls look, I don't really understand why the company would do this.

As for confusion...Volks confuses me greatly. Based on the pictures on their website, the dolls look really fugly and without personality, however, nearly every single owner picture I've seen of a Volks doll captures the very beauty that makes the company's popularity understandable.

2) Have you ever received a doll that you felt was not as shown in its photographs (aside from resin color or obvious defects like breakage)? What feature(s) was/ were misrepresented?

Yes. My doll was much curvier in person and her face looks very different. This was a Souldoll Soulkid (double-jointed body). Granted, I think that Souldoll sculpts tend to have a very versitle look when it comes to face-ups. However, I really like this because even though there is a predominant pout when it comes to Adelheid (Soulkid Katie.A), her expressions can change so much when I try different face-ups and techniques. This is great because it makes her seem to have so much more personality!

3) If you answered "yes" to (2), did you tell the doll company and were you satisfied with the response?

I felt no need to do this. I had indeed looked at owner pictures beforehand and saw the differences. Besides, as mentioned, I liked this.

4) Do you feel that misleading photographs are a serious problem, or do you feel that companies aren't to be blamed for wanting to make their product look good ? Or, alternatively, do you think that there are plenty of other places to see different photographs of a doll (or even the doll in person at conventions, meetups and so forth) and therefore buyers should simply educate themselves more before they buy? Other thoughts?

Yes and no. There is always going to be some degree of variation with anything and there is nothing wrong with a company wanting to take the best photographs possible of their dolls. However, when it comes to photoshopping them, this is really not good and completely unnecessary.

Usually if there is a doll I'd like to buy, I look at as many pictures as possible and if someone has a doll (or similar doll) and they're willing to bring it too a meet-up, even better. I had my heart set on a Unidoll Berkut for sometime, but after seeing a same-sized Unidoll Ark in person, I realized that doll was far to big for where I am in this hobby at this point. Photos aren't always the deciding factor.

5) Do you think it would help to have a standard format of photos that would be shown by companies in addition to their pretty advertising photos - for example, pictures of unfaceupped heads taken from the front and side; body comparison photos showing unclothed bodies in a few established positions, like sitting and standing) or do you feel that enough companies already offer these?

Oh definitely! I like to do my own face-ups so seeing a doll both with and without one are highly preferable. I absolutely want to see what the bodies look like as well in a variety of poses. However, I don't think that body comparisons are needed.