Has a Doll Ever Failed to Live up to Your Expectations?

i get those jitters, often still when looking at new dolls. one thing i find that helps is to check out owner pictures of the doll rather than just company pics if the dolls been released already. (if not i just check out similar sculps)

it helps me figure out my expectations that way since professional cameras and editing tend add a special glow (not a bad thing, butight help with the worry about being too hyped)

i picked that up from my experance when i first started getting into dolls, my first doll ended up on a long wait list. i hadnt realized at the time that the company was notorious for long waits, so i decided to order a random blank doll that was in stock with a dealer and feel in love with her.

the doll that i had ordered tho ended up disapointing me quite a bit cause the face up was lack luster compared to how the company photos were. it lacked the grunge and eye bags i enjoyed from the photos. learned that the company only did those for the photoshoot and not the ordered dolls after i did some digging around. so i put him up for sale with no hard feelings.

 

hmm not a proven fact, but with my experances with dz's face ups, they tend to be lighter than they appear in the photos. think the only one that came close to company was an anime styled one cause hard to go pale with black paint. (might have shifted cause last time i got a company face up from them was in 2020)

little snow is such a sweet sculpt.

 

For me, it is usually the factory face ups that have been disappointing. Ringdoll's pale faceups didn't match their stunning promo photos. TD dolls have also been unreliable.

 

I would say there are three points to the "magic" of dolls: face-up, posing and photos.
On photos dolls always look so big and dramatic, every detail really pops, light paints every feature on their faces just right etc., but in reality they are just small dolls, most of the time existing and looked at in some muddy room light.
Face-ups also look completely different in real vs on photos. I struggle a lot with that when taking commission photos. For my own dolls I know that, which is why I sometimes paint them more dramatic so they look right in photos.
Proper posing and framing makes a hell of a difference too. Ideally you want to destroy most of the stuff that makes a doll feel like a doll (like the mentioned "they look way bigger on photos than they are in real" thing), to really pump up the drama.

But all these things combined can yes, lead to one unpacking a doll and being a bit "this is it?". Especially when one is not used to looking at things with photography potential in mind, knowing fully well already how it will present itself on camera.

Also what others mentioned re: face-ups, there is the big issue that some companies have a main artist that will take care of the promo looks, but then have other artists that actually do the customer copies. Often times these artists are less skilled, or they are purposely asked to dumb down the original concept to something that can be easier produced "in mass" (what counts as mass producing with BJDs). It's so easy to do a super detailed face-up ONCE, but not a dozen times with a tight deadline.
That can add to the whole failed up to live to expectation thing.

Personally I think though you just need to be prepared to the fact you unpack a doll. That already helps a lot to ground yourself. Do not expect something more than that.
It will still be a great and magical feeling, because there's just something very grand about these dolls that I personally never had with any other dolls, but it's still a doll.

That doesn't mean you might still be a little "meh" about that specific doll. I had dolls I fawned at forever on photos from the company/other owners, just to see it in real and be all "oh...hm...not feeling it...". Just happens, I think it's more important to see whether you enjoy the hobby overall. There is definitely a doll for everyone out there

 

My (technical) first doll did. I ordered a Doll Leaves Lan and then promptly found a SartoriaJ Jarrad on ebay.

It's not that I was disappointed in Lan because I felt like the pictures I'd seen were wrong or anything. I'd just learnt that I prefer more realistic and less stylised dolls. I suppose part of the problem is that because I got Jarrad (and then Doria), I've been more interested in handling them, making stuff for them etc etc than doing anything with Lan.

Also it probably didn't help that I then found the ideal body for the OC I was sort of noodling around using Lan's body for. I'm not quite sure what I'll do with her but at this point it probably will be let her pass on to a home that can enjoy her more than me.

 

Because of the customization possibilities with these dolls, I’ve never been disappointed with a sculpt initially. There was one time when the doll’s arrival made me realize immediately that it just wasn’t my aesthetic…but that was simply a necessary lesson in honing my personal tastes, and nothing having to do with the quality of the doll. And of course, I’ve occasionally lost interest in a character, thus loosing interest in a doll…but that took years, and again, the doll was not at fault. Once, after a decade, I decided I just couldn’t take the lack of pose-ability of a doll anymore (but that’s probably because I’d found a better shell for that character anyway, so I was willing to move on from her.) But pretty much, if a doll wasn’t exactly what I’d hoped for in anyway, I simply cusomized them until they were, so any initial disappointment was slight to nil, and easily overcome.

 

I can definitely relate to that feeling. It doesn't happen often with many doll purchases for me but since I normally always have a specific design in mind for my dolls, if they come in and the sculpt isn't how I wanted in person, I try to shell them into something else. With the one doll I have, it was just far to child-like for me so I did end up adopting them out and honestly, that felt right with me and the loss does suck, but I was glad to have someone who wanted her and knew she'd be loved by them instead of spending her days in a box with me.

 

I have had some disappointments but they were mostly in the earlier days for me, and I think that makes sense because I was kind of wandering around trying to figure out what I liked and didn't, and I think my eye was less trained to spot potential dislikes in photos online. As I've had more experience handling dolls in person I've become more able to predict if a doll I see for sale is likely to be something that misses the mark for me or if I will love them.
Some of the dolls I hated at first I sold relatively quickly (for me, so in like a year or so) but a few of those sculpts I did repurchase later when I felt more able to work with them and I was able to iron out the issues on my later attempts. My taste also changes and things that bother me change too and sometimes that will make me appreciate something I didn't years ago. But at the same time I also know now that some design aesthetics and sculpts are not for me and probably never will be.

 

I've had a few that were instant "Nope"-material right out of the box, but it's pretty rare. It usually just came down to something about the features that I didn't like when I finally saw them in person. Odd placement, proportions that looked "off" somehow, no chin, serious duck lips... Things like that.

One of those Nopes was saved by minor mods (My School A), but the others just got sold on to people who... hopefully... liked them more than I did.

I'm really not convinced that every Nope *can* be saved by mod work or a new faceup, though... The doll I unboxed yesterday is definitely in that camp. I haven't decided yet what to do with the body (It's got some awkward-looking bits and is made in a very nice, but also pretty difficult-to-match color. It's a good poser, though, and a height I like. So... yeah. Tough choice.) but there's no saving the head. Apparently it offends the doll's fans that I think that, but he's just 122% Not Going To Work over here. No amount of modding can fix his particular issues.

 

I bought an Iplehouse "The Addictioin" JID Violet.
I did everything wrong. The default for this character was tan and I bought mine in peach gold.
When I got her the face up, designed for the darker resin was way too intense for the lighter
resin. I never bonded with her and when one of my friends called her scarry I knew that I needed
to do something to fix her or sell her on but who would want that doll so I sent her to a marvelous
face up artist and had her wiped and a new face up applied. Now she's magnificent!

 

I received my first 1/4 doll a couple months ago. I received my first two 1/6 resin dolls last month. It took me a couple months to actually place the order for resin dolls and I ended up buying two at the same time (on layaway)
I did not instantly love the 1/4 doll. I instantly loved Alexander. Roux I did not, but I think I will with some changes.
The biggest thing I don't like on Roux is the eyes, which I can change, which I think is going to make a huge difference. The other thing that bothers me is the yellow tone in her resin which really isn't that yellow, it just seems that way more next to Alexander. The wig I got her really helps, and I think once I get them both dressed and her proper eyes I will love them both.
The 1/4 doll taught me I do not like that big of a doll and I have already traded her for a 1/6 size doll instead.
However I wouldn't know my preferences for sure without having gotten these first three dolls. I know now I definitely do like anime style and "animal" a lot, brown/tan skin tones, and 1/6 size best. Company face up worried me a bit which is one of the reasons I went with Luts, I am extremely happy with both of the faceups.

 

It's happened a few times when I bought heads...

Dollstown Lucille - didn't hit right because the eyes were too big
Sio2 Bailu - once I put the doll together I realized the head was too big for the largest body I could tolerate
Kanadoll Jupiter - I had a doll that was actually extremely similar but hadn't realized until they were side by side
Impldoll Dabria - didn't hit right because head was smaller than expected

When it's happened with full dolls I think it's way more heartbreaking, and after nearly 40 dolls only 8 of which have stuck around it was probably just inevitable. Usually, though, there's someone out there who wants to buy that doll that you found disappointing. Or you reinvent it in a creative way. Or it grows on you.

I know the collection I have now is not the collection I thought I would have a couple years ago, and that group is totally different than what I had five year before that.

I also know that after owning and handling a lot of dolls I've learned a lot more about what I like and what I don't and what's reasonable to expect per company and what's not, and that also frames my reaction to a doll.

 

Uhhh... sorta.

My first doll was an SD sized Obitsu, and I took to her so well, that when a previously owned one came up for sale with a head and faceup and an outfit, and a significant discount, I went for it. When she arrived, it was an instant feeling that this doll wan't for me... I just didn't take to her. I sold her on to someone I was friend with and she took to the doll quite well and all turned out alright.

On another occasion, I bought a head to go on a body I already had, only to discover a fatal flaw. The head was way too small for the body and wouldn't work no matter what I could try. I managed to get what I'd paid for the head though, and found a head that would work soon after.

Point being though, these things do happen from time to time, but don't let that put you off to taking a chance.

 

I ordered a Volkd FCS doll alongside my mom. The choices were a combination of what she and I wanted in a doll, but when the girl arrived, she moved into my room and I wasn't keen on how she turned out. After I customized her and swapped out her wig and eyes, I felt much better.

 

Having had my first doll for just a little over a week now, I can say...it's a mixed bag!! I still very much love him, and think I got the right head for him but...he needs tweaking! I got what I thought would be the perfect wig for him, but once I got it on him it just screamed "no!!!" at me (even after some fixes suggested by a lovely member here, which helped immensely but it's still not "him"), so he's in a backup wig while I wait for one that I'm hoping fits him better (I got that "oh!" moment looking at it, so here's fingers being crossed lol).

I also didn't buy eyes for him, as I was waiting for the random pair that came with him. I have this thing where whichever random color he came with would be his "chosen" eye color and I'd buy a pair for him after learning what that was ^_^ Well. I ended up getting two pairs xDD One a very pretty green but they're small iris and overall they didn't look right at all! Another pair with....well, it's not something I've ever seen before but a light pale gold iris and a darker brown ring around the pupils. When they're on him, they look a solid, very dark brown. They have the regular, less realistic, iris size. They gave me another "oh!" moment when I put them in, but I personally prefer the green color. So I compromised and got a pair in green and a pair in brown, both with the "standard" iris size <.< We'll see which one he tells me he wants when they both come in.

But I can already say that these two tweaks (switching out to a wig that's more "him" but not perfect, and the brown standard iris eyes) have helped IMMENSELY with my happiness/enjoyment of him and I'm looking forward to getting him styled exactly the way I want him to be!

Lastly, regarding company faceups not matching exactly what they have in the promo pictures. One of the reason I loved and went with the company one is it was very subtle and things like eye makeup and lip color were downplayed. The promos were even on white skin, and I got pink, so I thought it'd be even more subtle (which I wanted!). And when I got him, while I loved how they did his eyes (perfect!!) they...did not go subtle on his lips. They're not *bad* in real life, pinker than I'd like but they still look good. BUTTTT.... in pictures it definitely looks like he has lipstick on. I'm going to see how much the new wig and eyes help, but I may eventually end up sending him off to get a new faceup.