Don't They ALL Look The SAME? (Face Wise)

It was said that all Volks sculpts were similar. Nowhere in that post did I see anyone saying that at least the male and female sculpts looked different. But to go with just female sculpts, fine:



Twins? Nope.

 

Your point is well made. Take any head and give it to 20 different faceup/ customizing artists and you have 20 different dolls.

On a Volks thread people were just talking about how some dolls look as if to be in the same family.....like Isao, Arashi, and "gosh I forget the other guy." Yet they also have their own special feel to them. I think that the multitude of companies' dolls are vastly different, too. Most people can pick out a Volks in a group, or an Iplehouse, or a Dollshe....and the list goes on.

I was actually kind of making fun of the idea of all the dolls looking similar. If that were true, I wouldn't have so many....... I bet even a child can tell the difference between a Dream of Doll doll and a CustomHouse doll; or a Souldoll doll and a SoOm doll.
How many times have you gone to a baseball or football game and the umpire/ referee calls a play and it is obvious that the call was wrong. This happens to be the same thing, imho.

added: I love your dolls solitary agent

 

This reminds me of my sister as well! When I showed her my new doll after selling the first one, she was like.. "What's the difference?" when it was an entirely different sculpt and size xD I don't blame her, she isn't in the hobby and probably didn't even take a good long look at my first one to begin with!

 

Yeah, Doll Chateau may be DIFFERENT from other doll companies' styles, but when you look at all their sculpts lined up together, they're similar to one another. If you don't like Doll Chateau's style (It's personally not MY cup of tea) then you're probably not going to buy Sculpt A. If you aren't going to buy Sculpt A, then you probably won't buy Sculpt B either because Sculpt B of theirs, looks a whole lot like Sculpt A. Therefore raising this company above the others as "unique" and "different" in this sense may be in some cases, but really... it's just the artists' style. You either like it or you don't.

Personally, I am a HUGE Luts fan. I can look at Luts sculpts and determine which ones they are almost all the time. Fairyland, on the other hand, look mostly all the same to me. HOWEVER, I haven't spent a ton of time gazing at their sculpts in admiration. I think it's a matter of personal taste.

I think that's really all this topic boils down to: Personal Taste.

Edit: Also, isn't part of the point of BJDs to customize them how YOU want them to look??? Even if you have two of the SAME sculpt, a doll can look 100% different.

 

Oh, the ones I've posted on this thread aren't mine, they're just Volks official photos. But if you mean my dolls you've seen elsewhere, thank you!

 

Yes, I did read the replies and I think they were on the same level of harshness as your opinion post about Volks, which, to me, was absolutely offensive. If you had made a similar post about Bobobie, including the ridiculously big headline "BOBOBIE" and then started ranting about that company the way you ranted about Volks, I know for sure that DoA would've metaphorically burned to the ground.

Just because you didn't want that post to be offensive, doesn't mean it wasn't. You were negatively singling out a company and using pretty harsh words (harsher than usual here on DoA). In doing so, you forced people into a corner .
Now, I'm not angry with you, even though I do like Volks, I just don't agree with you. - You can't convince me that Williams and Cecile Scarface are lookalikes; and these are dolls from the same series. - But I'm not surprised to see that people started to defend their choices. It's just what happens when they feel very strongly about the dolls they own; it gets personal fast. Which is probably why on DoA, people are very soft-spoken and usually tip-toe around sensitive topics .

 

I don't think that all BJDs look the same at all. Usually within a company they do have a certain aesthetic style or "signature look", but I do not think that they all look the same because of that. This is the reason why I collect mainly Soom BJDs, their dolls' aesthetic appeals to me, and it's the same with any other company including Volks. I do not collect Volks, but I do agree with Silk that Williams, Cecile, Date Masamune, or the F-38 sculpt don't look so similar that they could be twins. In fact, I think they look quite different.

I actually think it's impressive that companies can create different sculpts yet have it cohesive enough with their other sculpts to the point where people can say, "Hey, that's a Volks/Soom/Fairyland/Luts/DoD/Ringdoll/etc" just by viewing a picture.

 

I agree with Chamillia that a lot of the Volks sculpts look very similar with one another, and that's why I like them so much. The difference among Volks sculpts are subtle and discreet and sometimes I feel that they are unified as result of their particular aesthetic. I was never offended as I read through this thread.

I can only hope that we as a community can be respectful of other people's opinion that may differ from our own. Its not a personal attack to not love your dolls, its a discussion. I appreciate the diversity of sculpts out there as it makes this hobby so amazing.

 

I have a few things to say on the matter:

1. I agree forever with Tez

2. Dollpamm, Immortality of Soul, Dollzone event dolls, Akagidoll, and look at all those non-Asian companies, too. Very different than the current trends.

3. Everybody should calm down and enjoy their dolls without getting finicky about other people's dolls

 

Personally I think even similar sculpts can look very different. I have a tan Bei with the default company face, at a meetup I went to I saw a light blue Bei with this gorgeous fantasy faceup, it took me a second to recognize her as a Bei if it wasn't for the ears and Bei's innocent looking smile I would've thought she was a different sculpt. Same goes for my NS Song next to someone's tan song, they look similar yes for the same sculpt, but because of certain things, a softer faceup giving the doll a gentle look, certain eyes. It depends on the person and what they do for their dolls.

 

Here, I'll supplement this with two of my own Volks girls. Mimi13 and Emma:



Best friends, but not even remotely alike. And their sculpts were created only two years apart.

I don't know HOW many times I've seen a "What doll is this?" with the Volks Four Sisters / F01 sculpt in it.

Linda S.
galatia9

 

I'd agree with those recognizing that when you are new or newer to the hobby the sculpts can look alike. Especially some companies who do like to keep a, shall we say, "family resemblance".
Once you have been in the hobby longer you begin to look at the differences.
What is hard for me is when they are blank.
For me, it's when they have face-ups that I can recognize the sculpt better...go figure.
Being out of the hobby for a bit, I have noticed some readjustment on my part to separate sculpts out in my mind. I can tell the company by the sculpt.

I like what April had to say. When you don't care for a sulpt(s) you pass it's details over and after awhile all those not for me sculpts DO become similar.

 

There are times when I mistake the sculpts created by one company or another, but when we talk about a broader scope, meaning sculpts from many different companies, I don't see that resemblance… The dolls all look very different, to me, except when the same sculptor ends up working for more than one company!

I had never thought about this, but this might be my case as well.
I've always thought that Volks dolls "all looked the same", too (well, maybe not all, but many of them!)
This is not to say that their dolls aren't beautiful - many of the most beautifully customized dolls (and doll pictures) I have seen were created by Volks. My tumblr is filled with Volks dolls ^^" And still, I just never liked them enough to want one for myself.
Maybe that is why they seem so similar to me… I appreciate them, but not enough to keep the differences between sculpts in mind..., so in the end, I just see "pretty dolls" with many similar characteristics (meaning, the company's easily identifiable "signature look"), and they end up looking the same. ^^"

In the end, I don't really mind if the sculpts of a company are too similar - that isn't a negative point, nor a positive one

 

So my picture is kind of dark, I know, but I think the two dolls I have so far don't look anything alike? ;-)

 

Everyone is picking on Volks for having similar looking dolls.... In fact, I wanted a twin for my Limited Luts doll that I can no longer buy, so I picked out a sculpt PURPOSELY to look like her.

Luts has a similar look too. I happen to LIKE their look. So what? If we like how our dolls look, what does it matter?

 

Chamillia

I actually read my tone as really calm tbh. If you read counter points as if the person is angry well...debating will be tough. Although I can understand why you feel that way because self expression on forums is tough. Also, you skipped my reply where I did attempt to address the observations of the OP. You cut it all out. I was hoping to hear some thoughts on that.

Unfortunately, I'm confused by some of your replies. What is this about a "right to difference of opinion" and " Volks Government"? You're arguing against positions that were never taken. Also, the "casual monotone" reference was a quote from the OP not a critique of this debate. I think debate is awesome.

FYI, my mistake was not making it clear that I was only addressing you in the middle paragraph. The rest was for the OP.

I think the problem with doll debates is that it can be hard not to read dissenting replies without imagining a ranting red face on the other side. Watch a real debate and you'll see some pretty passionate people, but the face to face interaction helps. On the boards so much is lost in translation.

 

^This. I'm pretty much a hot-head and passionate, but that doesn't mean I'm angry. Dolls are not an important enough topic for me to get all hot-and-bothered about.

I've got a question though: what is it that makes you think that all dolls look the same. Is it the look within a company, a sculptor's style? Or is it an over-arching look that includes many different brands?
And if they are all the same to you, what is that you would like to see, but are missing right now?

 

I honestly don't see this. I can see consistencies in styles within shops, however, I do not see this as being doll sculpts all looking the same.

 

So many beautiful dolls here!
Galatia9: Those two sculpts represent quite a difference in Volks aesthetics. Great example!
Duskblue: I am glad you were able to find that sculpt to be a twin to your cutie. They are so endearing together.
Caroling: Hugging dolls always make me chuckle. How charming

My crew from 2010.