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

I've never been disappointed with a doll right out of the box, but I have fallen out of love/the doll lost its magic a couple times. In order to avoid disappointment to the best of my ability before purchasing, I always look up owner photos and or blank head photos if they are available. I really emphasize this because being able to see what a doll looks like in a non professional setting with different lighting and different styles that people give them not only breaks the illusion of the promotional photography but also gives me a chance to see potential. I'll watch unboxing videos of the specific doll (if available) or of dolls from the same company for the same reason so I can see the doll being handled in a way I would be seeing and handling it if I bought it for myself. As a few here have mentioned, dolls look very different in promo photos vs real life, so seeing the distinction beforehand can help a lot.

Regardless, this hobby does involve taking a bit of a chance, especially if there's little to no discussion, owner photos/videos available which often happens when a doll is just released and or is limited edition. Whether you buy a blank doll, full set, or basic doll with company face up, there's always a chance you may not like it when it arrives even if you've prepared, and that's okay! If you ever do feel dejected but don't want to give up, again, owner photos are a great way to spark inspiration if they're available. I've seen a lot of sculpts where I actually didn't like the promotional photos, but seeing a different face up, clothes, etc. on them completely changed my mind! Potential, I tell you!

Learning what you do and do not like comes with experience. Some dolls cannot be saved/fixed whether it's disappointment when you first get it or a loss of interest over time. These things happen, but don't be discouraged. As long as you're enjoying the hobby that's what matters!

 

Many many times. Most times, the faceup can fix the problem, and if not faceup, then minor mods can. But sometimes, there's nothing I can do to make it right. In those cases, I either try to use the doll for a different character, or sell/trade it and get something better. It's disappointing but at this point in the hobby, I've just kind of accepted that not every doll is going to be perfect.

 

One of the things with my boy is that I didn't really have a clear idea of who he wanted to be until I got him in. At least physically. He didn't talk to me, so I was struggling and just going with things I liked, or thought might work (more my personal preferences for what he'd look like, ye?). So now he is being very vocal, which I appreciate but I wish he'd done it earlier xDDD But then a doll I'm still waiting for basically told me immediately who he was and what he wanted and I don't anticipate these kinds of problems with him lol.

I don't really see my problems with Leander as a bad thing, either! I find it exciting, finding out who he is and being able to explore this aspect of a brand new hobby for me (and for you, too!), that I've admired for years from afar! Fiddling with wigs and going "nope!" is fun! Switching out the eyes and going "OHHHHHHHH I like those!!" made me ecstatic! As many people have said on this forum, the customizability of this hobby is one of the best things about it. Discovering who the doll is (for those of us who get this sense of the doll, it's not the same for everyone), is part of the magic! There is no shame! Revel in it! It'd be boring if everything was perfect and clicked immediately and there was no evolving xD

 

Well, I just got my 2D Doll Cherry Tomato, and I'm necro-ing this thread because I am crushed. Utterly crushed. I had a very specific vision for this doll. I pored over all the pictures I could find, fretted over measurements (which should have been an almost perfect match), and then I got the doll. And it's way too damn big for my plans.

It's a beautiful doll, but the sheer disappointment of it not meeting my expectations is making it impossible to even look at the doll. I just want to box it back up and hide it away until the end of time.

Maybe I'm being a little overdramatic here, but I've been buying (and buying and buying) dolls for three-ish years now. This is my first major disappointment right out of the box. Other dolls I've fallen out of love with over time and rehomed, but this doll is the first that I opened the box and said, "Oh, NO." There's nothing wrong with the doll. It's just all wrong for what I planned.

I'm a little heartbroken, if I'm being honest. And I'm starting to get super frustrated with provided measurements on doll websites. There's no way this doll is the size the website says it is. It's HUGE.

 

I had a couple. One was a Peakswoods Sassy Rosy. She just... didn't really look anything like her photos. She was a new sculpt and I asked the company if they could take pictures of the blank head. They were very polite and accommodating but didn't have any blank photos, so I decided to take a risk and, well... turned out she didn't work for me.

The other one was an Iplehouse Bianca. Her eyeshape just did not work for me. I KNEW it wasn't going to work even from the company photos, but convinced myself that I could make it work with a face-up or a mod. Well, when she got here, guess what... I didn't like the eyes. Surprise surprise.

I sold both pretty quickly.

 

All of my dolls have lived up to my expectations, I've opened them up and just fell in love with them. All except one, she just didn't fit in with the others, I accidently got her with a smaller more realistic size head compared to my other dolls, and I just didn't like it one bit. Had to sell her on

 

my pink digidolls ponta, she was adorable dont get me wrong but i think she hated me lol i could barely get her to balance and stand and deep down i wanted her in tan so when i needed money and had to make a cut i let her go. i hope ill find one in tan someday

 

Sadly, yes. Twice.
The first time, it was with my first doll. I had chosen it because it was in my budget and I the company's pictures looked right, but I had ordered without clothes, face-up, wig... and she didn't spark any joy in me. All I could see was her kinda sad face and I quickly understood she wasn't for me. I tried, though, I sent her to a make-up artist, bought some things for her... but, in the end, I ended up selling her. I was lucky enough to find a head that was being sold by someone in my own country that I immediately fell in love with. Even if I bought it with no face-up or anything again, when this head came home the feeling was the complete opposite.
The second time, it was a matter of sizes. I bought this doll thinking to pair it with my MSD crew but the dimensions were slightly off as the head was designed to go with a smaller frame body and it didn't look right next to them, more like a teenager and that's not what I wanted for the character so it had to go.
Having this feeling is hard, specially when it involves your first doll, and you may even wonder if it's the doll which is not right or if it's you. In my case, I think the experience has helped me learn to tell apart the dolls I just like from the dolls I love, and also to be really attentive to all the details before purchasing.

 

I've had so many that failed to live up to my expectations. I had a Dollzone Carter specifically where I hated the body type (it was a first-run Carter and idk if they make that body anymore) because the hips were so wide and it was hard to find pants that fit him. More than anything though, I was not skilled enough to style him the way I wanted to at the time and couldn't find pitch black eyes that fit in the wells. I wound up getting rid of him and regret it now, since I can totally pull him off with my current knowledge/skills.

 

In my case, it happened with only one of them, an SD head to be more specific. It was a Mystic Kids Miri. On the promo pictures, her face-up was very pink and bright, but the head I received was nothing like that. Her face-up was grey toned and not pink (there was litterally no pink at all ), her skin tone was more white than normal pink, and the head was very small for an SD, she wears MSD sized wigs... I was very shocked and very disapointed. I never bonded with her and she sat on my shelf for a few years, then went back to her box. Now I'm trying to sell her, I just want to get rid of her because I don't have the money to buy her a specific body (since I have other priorities), and even if she had a new face-up, her skintone is not to my liking so it wouldn't change anything.

 

I feel like doll company face ups almost always disappoint me…the never look like the photos. It’s the reason I started learning to do my own painting,but then again,I’m never happy with my own work lol

 

It's happened on a few occasions. Thankfully, it seems to be more a case of exception than the rule.

Mostly I tend to deal with a gradual falling out, where a head/body no longer suits a character because I found a better match elsewhere. There have been a few exceptions, however.

When my OC Tahmos was on his second head (IOS G), I searched for a suitable replacement (that one made him look pinheaded, which I only began to notice after trying to do a specific drawing based on him). I purchased two promising candidates: Granado Gabriel (which unfortunately had the same issue as the IOS G head), and Simply Divine Thomas (a lovely sculpt, but the head was too big and the facial proportions didn't work with the rest of my crew's). Gabriel I immediately rehomed, but I tried to make Thomas work. However, nothing I tried made him a viable option, so I reshelled Tahmos again and rehomed Thomas.

A few body examples I knew weren't going to work upon receipt: Mirodoll 68cm boy body (wrong color, didn't fit any characters, horrible posing), Legend Doll 70cm body (beautiful body, but too beefy for the character planned for it), Classy Doll 66cm boy body (didn't like how it was sculpted, and didn't work for any of my OCs). Majority of other rehomed/reshelled heads/bodies were more gradual cases due to changes in character design concepts over time.

 

Fairyland so far was the only doll I was severely disappointed. I'm trying to sell it but it's not going well.

 

@Forever We Are Young - ah, I'm so sorry to hear it.
I ended up giving 2D Doll Cherry Tomato away to someone who wanted a BJD but was afraid of the steep initial investment. Sold her for the cost of shipping. Cherry has been rehomed to a place where she is loved, cherished, and where she truly belongs. The new owner's happiness took away the sting of letting her go for a total loss.
I've decided that I will NOT shop with a specific character in mind anymore. That experience shook me. To pay that much money, only to experience total disappointment - I won't do that again.

 

A few times yes the worst being a time a few years ago when there was a doll I was very excited to get. I had quite a bad experience with the whole shipping process only to then have him arrive with chips in the faceup. I was quite upset and dissapointed by the whole ordeal that I ended up selling him a year on.