Getting that Dream Doll

I've had a few dream dolls, with varying feelings on them.

I've had a couple of grail dolls, one of them I enjoyed for a few years, but my tastes changed and I sold him. I was never satisfied with the other. He was a hybrid and I loved the head, but it was a horrible match for the body, finding the very specific style of clothes and accessories was impossible and I just ended up being so disappointed in every attempt I made to get him "right" that I sold him.

But the best love story I've had was with my first doll, Angel of Dream Chen. When I very first started seriously looking for a first doll, I fell in love with his default photos. I asked around for owner photos and he was so beautiful, I cried. When he finally arrived to me, I was overwhelmed with good feelings for him. He is the only doll I've never considered selling, and he just turned 14 this year! While he's not what I'd pick out for myself now, I can't see myself ever parting with him. There are just way too many memories attached to him! I actually plan to bring him out tomorrow and give him a new faceup.

 

I first wanted a Luts Dark Elf Soo, but with the event that came along, I ended up getting a Juri 06 (no regrets, I LOVE my Juri 06). I kept putting off getting my DES, cause she was a normal doll, and I got bit bad by the "limited bug". Then Luts announced they were stopping production on the Delfs and I was not in a spot to get DES right then and there. Sorrow!
It took me several years, but I finally got my DES from the secondhand market with her default face up. Years after that I was gifted a Vampire version of her and then was able to get her in tan skin as well! And then their came the Fairyland Little Fee versions of her... which I have two... and more planned.

 

I feel like considering how long I've been in the hobby (almost 14 years), and how many dolls I've bought, sold, traded, won or been gifted, it's only natural that I'm not going to be over the moon for every single one. Maybe the doll looks different in person, maybe I just accepted a random trade for a doll I hadn't considered before and didn't research, maybe hybrids don't work out, or a doll doesn't meet my standards for posing--there are all sorts of things that can lead to disappointment in a doll, and it's just the nature of the hobby that if you buy a ton of dolls, especially impulsively, you will occasionally get one you don't love once it arrives. I have accepted that no doll is going to be absolutely 100% "perfect", even though some will come very very close! Unless it's a major deal breaker, I just kind of think of minor flaws as that doll/character's imperfections. We all have flaws, and like us, dolls do too sometimes. As an example, Pepper, my Dolkot Bera, has extremely long narrow feet for a small 1/3 girl (she's about 54cm, compared to the usual 56-58cm girls in her size range), to the point that SD girl shoes don't fit her, yet boy shoes look like clown shoes on her tiny frame. She's also an old doll from a defunct company with small ankles, so buying her smaller feet isn't really an option either, at least not without needing to mod or color match her. It drives me absolutely crazy to try to get shoes on that girl, but she's otherwise so cute and perfect for her character and easy to clothe, I just kind of roll with it.

 

I had admired Unoa girls for a while, but in 2010, my dreams were cemented when one of the girls in my extended meetup group brought her new Lusis to a meetup. I was quite smitten! Right now, Unoa 1.5 girls are pretty easy to come by and a fairly reasonable price but this was not the case at all 10 years ago! I was not willing to spend around $700 on an mini girl at the time either.

Around 2012, I figured out I could buy Japanese dolls for reasonable prices on second hand Japanese sites like Mandarake or Dollyteria so I spent a good amount of time watching the new arrivals. I think I got a bit impulsive because I bought a listing for a 1.0 Sist girl kit despite wanting Lusis. I spent what would probably be considered too much for one today, but I was more than happy to spend it after seeing the aftermarket prices here. The listing came with 5 faceplates which I assumed were like Sist oyasumi, bully, wink, etc. I opened the box and found a Lusis faceplate inside! I was ecstatic! My dream girl was home sooner than I expected and I didn't have to hunt down a 1.0 Lusis faceplate after all.

I'm still in love with her to this day. I consider her to be my most beautiful doll and I think I'm extra attached since I built her from the kit. It was such a great feeling to finally get her and I hope everyone will be able to obtain their dream dolls as well. It can be difficult and/or take a long time, but it's worth it to finally hold that doll you've been searching for!

 

My dream doll was also my first, a FCS Volks girlie I'm sure I'll have more down the road, for now I am more than happy with her

 

I don't know that I've come across my dream doll yet, but there is a face sculpt that I really like. I have her in different hair, eye and skin tones. I love how one sculpt can be so different based on hair, skin and eye color. It's really fun!

Well, that's a very happy ending! Good for you!

Oh, I wish I had the talent to do faceups!! It must be so much fun.

 

It's less about talent and more about working hard to get there! It took a lot of time, patience, materials and practice to get where I am now, and I still don't consider myself a professional. I only do them for myself, my sister and occasionally friends, I'm not anywhere near the skill level of professional artists, but I do have fun with it! I'm not so good at getting an idea out of my head and into someone else's, so often commissioning someone doesn't get the results I want, even if they're very good at what they do. By learning to do them myself, I can usually get what I want pretty easily (and redo it if I fail). This has been a huge advantage when it comes to getting that dream doll as I envision them!

 

Uhm, I did; and then I sold it?
Not that it was a bad decision, I just wasn't as in love with the doll as I was the thought of owning the doll (as cliché as it sounds). I had seen several owners with the sculpt that I religiously followed on DOA 13+ years ago; and I pined after it until I found one about 5 years ago. It didn't live up to what my standards had become, and I sold it only after a year of ownership.

After being in the hobby as long as I have, I don't feel a sense of being overjoyed at getting a doll like I once would have. I'm happy to have the dolls that I do, and there are more that I plan on buying and will be excited to have them as well. But the obsession, pining, and craze that I once felt is over. Even after ordering a doll, I sometimes have to remind myself to check in on the status every once in a while because I don't always think to look if it's shipped.

However, I do have dolls that I wouldn't part with. One of those dolls is not something that I would choose for myself now, but he stays because he has been through most of my young adulthood with me. He's been through me getting my first car, all of my breakups, moving and getting married. He is a big part of who I am and has been with me through it all. --He ugly though (but I still love him).

 

This is the kind of mindset I'm trying to have while waiting for my first doll, who I think could be considered my dream doll. I've wanted her for a year now (give or take a few days) and I can't imagine getting anything else as my first doll. She's a hybrid, and I'm trying to keep in mind that the head and body might not perfectly match right out of the box, but it's kind of difficult. Both parts match the semi-realistic style that I want (both for dolls and for my drawing art style) and they're kind of perfect together in my mind, which makes it difficult to manage my expectations. The way I've been trying to think about it is that if the pieces don't match the image I have in my mind, then making them match is just another part of the customization process and it's going to be okay, what matters is that I have the pieces I need and I can still make her my dream doll. I've been telling myself that there isn't any significantly noticeable flaw or disappointing feature she can have that's too big for me to fix or look past. I have to keep repeating this to myself because I don't want to feel let down or regretful when I get her. I want my first doll unboxing to be as magical as it seems to be for other people.

 

I think the biggest issues with hybrids are proportions and color. If you've done your research and know the head should fit the body, then that's one major thing you don't need to worry about. Even if they're not a perfect fit, it's possible to sand or suede the neck hole as needed to fit the neck better, and wigs and clothes can make a big difference on head-to-shoulder ratios. Color is probably one of the simplest fixes for hybrids. Most faceup artists will color match a head for you, or you can do it yourself with airbrush or chalk pastels. Though if the color is very close but not perfect, I usually don't even mind that much. Real people don't match perfectly from head to toe, it's not that big of a deal to me if a doll is just barely off. Or you might get lucky and the color could already be near a perfect match, that does happen too! Regardless, if both the head and body are your dream doll, I think you can make it work! She might need extra help or she might be ready to go straight from the box, but the end result is what matters most. I wish you the best of luck with her!

 

I am having a hard time articulating how I want my doll pained. The artist has her right now and I need to figure out what I want and then be able to let her know. It is hard!

 

Thank you! From everything I found, I think that the size will be a pretty close match (the head should fit just fine on the neck, the only real concern I have is about proportions, because their head sizes and shoulder sizes are slightly different, but like you said, wigs and clothes should help with that), but I couldn't find a recent color comparison for the companies. The only one I found was comparing resin colors from a few years ago, and that looked pretty close, but I'm still expecting at least a subtle difference. I'm planning on trying to do her faceup myself, and I have both an airbrush and pastels, so I'm not too worried about that right now. My single biggest concern is mostly about the head and body potentially having significant differences in stylization that become obvious when I actually have the parts together, because I don't know if I'm very good at determining whether or not parts have the same style. I think that the faceup and maybe body blushing could help with that, though. I'm just afraid that I might feel differently about small flaws several months from now when I finally get to unbox her and see that she's not perfect. I'm trying to keep the long wait from raising my expectations.

 

The first doll that got me into this hobby was 2DDoll Berg. but after weeks of contemplating, I ended up buying Ringdoll Apprentice Hui. My grail doll is IG wolf bane but by the time I joined this hobby, I was too late for their ordering period and IG prolly won't rerelease them again soon. So I was so happy when I finally got him last month (even though I have to fork out quite alot, but hey, that's what a grail is, amiright?)

 

A few years ago I posted in a thread about the first doll I fell in love with - Unidoll Ark. I really wanted him, couldn't afford him back then, and Unidoll disappeared a year or so later.
A few weeks after I posted somebody sent me a PM about an eBay auction, and I managed to get him for a very reasonable price - not much more than I would have had to pay for him new.
He's still the one who gets the most "creepy doll" comments of all the dolls in my house, but Iove him to bits, and even now looking at him still makes me happy.

My other wishlist doll was BBB Charisma on a RS body in grey skin. I managed to order her through Resinsoul (who have an amazing customer service). They even included some jointed hands from the event they had going at the time, so she's even better than I ever dreamed of.

I'm sure that for most people neither of these dolls would immediately leap to mind when talking about 'dream dolls', but I'm really, really happy with the pair of them.

 

For me, my dream doll was Dollzone Anson. At the time, I had a decent sized collection that I was having a lot of fun with. But I was longing to do something more intense with my BJDs…an “art doll”, where I could have enough space to really express myself artistically. Dollzone put up preliminary photos of their flower dolls, Anson and Moment, and it was a dream come true! I kept stalking their website, looking for any information I could, and began selling some dolls to quickly raise funds in preparation. When the “buy” button finally went up, I pushed it so fast I swear smoke was rising from my keyboard! Anson wasn’t supposed to be limited, but after only 3 months, they were suddenly discontinued. I was so happy I’d purchased her when I did because many people who wanted these dolls missed out. When she arrived, she had a couple of broken petal tips but I absolutely didn’t care! She was truly magical in my eyes and thoroughly eclipsed every other doll in my collection. I wound up selling the rest and completely restarting my collection, building it around this one magical doll. Best decision I ever made because I now have the collection of my dreams. It took me an entire month to do all the artwork on this doll but she truly became my personal masterpiece.

 

The doll of my dreams was from an edition of 2 dolls and a combined either 20 or 50 of them. She was made only once because she was a collab between two artists, and she was released in 2014, which was a year before I was in the hobby, and I couldn't have afforded her if I was in the hobby then (I'd have been 16 and working part-time). I got her this year, when someone very kind, in my own country (so no customs!) offered me hers for a really reasonable amount. I honestly didn't think I'd ever have her, and it's still kind of becoming real to me.

I can also say shipping her was the only time (other than when a large box of dolls went missing!) I've ever been anxious about a doll shipping--there was no reason for this. she had to travel a flight that's about 1.5 hours, from a province beside mine. She was shipped so securely, and with a courier for like 1-day speed-shipping, so I didn't have to wait long, but I've never refreshed tracking that much before.

 

The doll that got me into the hobby was Dream of Doll Camine. When I was on the DoD website, I saw the Elf Ducan but he was a sold out limited so I kinda crossed him off my list and got Camine, who I still love to this day.

I didn't give up on getting an Elf Ducan and trawled the Marketplace for years hoping he'd turn up and that I'd have the funds to pay for him when he did. I was very lucky and eventually, there he was at last. An Elf Ducan (almost) full-set. He didn't come with his boots, but they were easy enough to order since DoD was still around at the time. The only problem was his wig. The one he came with was a bit ratty and discoloured, and I couldn't find another one, so he had to make do with another one. But, I loved him and was so very happy to have him at last.

 

I had darak I remy girl I noticed someone selling and fell In love with her. I kept looking at her photos every day but couldn't afford her at the time. Later on when I had funds I noticed someone else listed her in light tan colour so I grabbed her and couldn't wait for her to come. But... when she did come I opened her up and immediately had a feeling she isn't the one.... im not sure what was so different I absolutely loved the 1st one I saw but just can't bond with the one I ended up buying has anyone got the same feeling? Am I being crazy?