Dolls that didn't match your expectations of them?

I actually had the exact opposite experience with my MNF Ante! When I ordered her, I had planned for her to be a very sweet and cute sort of character, she was going to have a neat blonde bob hairstyle and wear frilly white dresses and stuff, but then she got home and I was like "uhm excuse me this is clearly a chaotic gremlin child with anger issues". She is still cute in her own way, but it's a very different cute than what I was originally anticipating. I absolutely love how she turned out though.

 

I'm glad you got a Hewitt! I thought mine was going to be grumpy and mopey based off of official photos but he's actually quite sweet looking and a bit mischievous.

 

I don't try to give my dolls a character before I get them for this very reason.

My Narae was meant to be a super-slick secret-agent/spy/fashionista type, right up until the moment I opened the box and saw she was a sweet little hippy girl.

Teddy

 

The makeup in the pictures of many dolls differs a lot from the ones actually received. So sometimes I’m disappointed, I can only find someone else to remake up

 

This happened with my first doll. I expected him to be goth and have attitude, and he sooo did not. None of the stuff I planned for him worked. It took me about a year and a half to get to ‘know’ him, and it all started because I jokingly stuck a blond wig on him, it was perfect! He started out so shy and sweet then came out of his shell and is now a successful business owner with too much confidence. Not at all what I expected, but 13 years later, he’s still with me and I feel like I know every detail about him now, even though it’s not at all what I expected.

 

Wow, did this ever happen to me…and it came as a complete and utter shock! Let me preface this by saying that I have a fairly substantial collection of nearly 50 dolls, collected over a decade and a half in this hobby. And none of them…and I mean NONE have ever substantially deviated characters on me. But this guy…THIS guy! I’d been searching for a specific character (an over-the-top fem boy) for over a decade. And then suddenly I saw an obscure PicotPrince Makoto head in the second-hand marketplace that was perfect! I purchased it and a body (which happily turned out to be a perfect match) immediately. I was so happy, and because I’m a seamstress, I eagerly bought some fabulous and expensive fem boy fabrics to make his wardrobe. The doll arrived, I did his faceup, and all was well…until It came time to cut into the fabrics to make his wardrobe. I spread them out, placed my patterns, and literally walked around the table, scissors in hand, for 30 minutes unable to touch that fabric! I was shocked and confused…nothing like this had ever happened to me before. After 30 minutes, it finally dawned on me that this just wasn’t who he was. I put my scissors down and slowly walked away. Almost immediately I discovered that this boy, whose sculpt I still dearly loved, was a Mori boy of the forest named Hemlock. I made him a wild, tousled green wig, went to the thrift shop, stocked up on worn fabrics in natural greens and browns, and had no difficulties whatsoever stitching him up a complete wardrobe of multiple pieces in a single month’s time.

 

I have several stories. One involved me shelling a video game character I like. Despite what I saw in the pictures, her actual head is more round than oval. The wig and eyes I got are only somewhat accurate to the game character, leading to a doll that looks more like a cousin of the character. She's still fun to have, though I may tweak her backstory to make her an OC.

 

I feel like I have had too many of these. I see a photo of a doll that appeals to me in some way, then I start down the rabbit hole of trying to find any picture of said sculpt I can find to get an idea of all the different looks. The more varied pictures I can find the better because it shows me the potential there. When I love almost every photo of the doll I see I figure I can't go wrong right? Yeah, no.

Sometimes pictures cannot convey what a doll is like in person at all. Seeing a lot of variety helps for sure, but I have gotten dolls that no matter what I tried (changing wigs, eyes, clothes, even changing the faceup) I wasn't feeling it. Then there are those dolls that I liked and figured I may have to change up because the more I looked at the photos of the doll I bought while waiting for them I was thinking what did I do, I don't think I will like this doll that much. I started making plans to change them and when I got the doll I was shocked at how much I loved them!

 

Flora monkey/April story SD17 boy body, 2020 release. I always heard so many good things about them. Despite whole law suit thing. I received the body last week and it chipped. I didn’t nothing bad. Just bend the leg how it was a supposed to and bam, a leg chip came off. The peanut joint when bent put pressure on the space under leg where the joint is supposed to sit. But yeah,

 

I always wanted a Dollmore Kara Klum until I saw the sculpt in person. His nose looks higher on his face than it does in the photos on the website. After that I decided that I was never gonna buy it. In general, every time I've bought a doll and decided to sell it right away, it's been because the doll's nose isn't what it looked like in the company photos. For that reason I really only buy dolls where I can see clear profiles. No idea what is up with noses.

I also run into pink skin dolls being too pink? Impldoll's pink is super pink, as is Mystic Kids, imo. Even if you have pink skin in the photos, it doesn't look quite as pink with I guess the styling and the faceup covering a lot of it up. I bought a Mystic Kids doll and immediately gave it away. I'm sure it looks great now that it's old and mellowed (I had a Dollzone boy with a similar problem), but it was just too pink brand new.

 

When I received my Harucasting Its, I planned to make him a sweet scholarly boy. I had ordered him a cute sweater and slacks, a short brown wig. But when I got him, I put this other wig on him to just hold him over until he got his wig and that was all it took xD the wig was a cute rocker boy look and it just suited him so well. Now he's my punk rock kid and I love him.

 

Volks YoSD Mel, my YoSD grail.
She's cute, but.... Some of the pictures I saw of her seemed so much more smiley and full of personality.
I'm currently struggling a bit bonding with her, because her stare is very blank and unfocused, almost?
Maybe a new faceup or eyes could help, but right now she's just sort of staring at me like a fish.