Have pictures ever turned you off from a doll

This HAS happened to me... my big issue with a lot of the pictures from doll sites is that while the photography of their dolls is beautiful, sometimes it doesn't show the doll properly, so something you may not have noticed in their picture you will definitely notice in owner pictures. That's why always do an obscene amount of research about each individual sculpt before I buy it... and sometimes it still ends up being a miss when said dolly arrives at my doorstep

~Gio

 

For two dolls, I saw the company pictures and was like "wow, that doll is so cute!". I was thinking about putting it on my wishlist, so I started searching other pictures of the molds. I found a few on DoA, not many. But those pictures turned me off. Not that the pictures were bad, but they were showing some features of the doll that I didn't like. Things that could not be seen in the company pictures.

 

This happened to me with the DoT Camine. His pictures look real nice on the site, but seeing owner pictures and a few in person I now no longer want one. The eyes are just too buggy for me to accept as an owner.

 

I've been turned off from dolls very often by looking at owner pictures. Not because the doll was ugly or anything, just because it looked very different from the company pictures.

And the opposite has happened a lot of times too, I thought a doll wasn't really interesting for me looking at company pictures but then after seeing owner pictures I suddenly started wanting the doll.

So I'm one of those people who never buy dolls until I've seen some owner pictures

 

I was crazy about Bobobie Pandora and Elena and human Charisma's face molds, even though I didn't like the body. I was dead set on getting at least two out of the three, and faintly obsessed with the idea of a dark tan Pandora. But I just saw too many owner pictures where the head didn't seem to be sitting on the neck right, more sort of propped at an odd angle, and decided I really couldn't live with it.

I loved the Rosette School of Dolls on their own website, but when owner pictures started arriving, I felt really let down and lost all desire to ever onw one, even if one *is* a girl engineer from Bristol (like my other half.). And the Soom Monthlies - Topaz, particularly. I was over the moon with the pictures on the site, but when I saw owner pictures, all I could think was how horribly I'd be disappointed if I'd spent that much money and got something that really didn't seem all that special anymore, at least to me.

Planetdoll Riz and Bobobie March and Isabella were quite the opposite. I had little interest from the company pics, but now I'm waiting for my little Isabella and have been promised Riz for Christmas, and they are the two dolls I want most in all the world (Dollmore Lusion Dahlia aside) - and purely from owner pics.

 

Yes. As with some other people, Soom monthlies since Sard. Not from any fault of Soom, they are doing an amazing job...just...something about owner pics of them, especially if they are default, turns me off.

Iplehouse Noctarcana Circus owner pics strangely enough have the opposite effect.

 

It depends on the company, really. Mostly, though, I tend to be turned off by company photos. Companies usually only show one or two looks of each mold, and if I don't happen to like that look, I can be a bit put off. I always look at owner pictures before I buy now ^__^ Especially in the photostories gallery as there tend to be less photoshopped photos there.
I noticed that I never used to like Volks dolls because they looked so plain, but that opinion was based off of what I had seen on the Volks site. Now that I've seen so many owner pictures, with different face-ups, wigs, eyes, clothes... I've fallen in love with a lot of their molds

 

I was incredibly turned off by Soom's promo pics of Hati and Skoll. Soom had such a good idea going with werewolf cubs, but they really lost something in the execution. Their photos of the paw hands and their choice of blushing made them look like swollen and infected human fingers instead of paws. Once that image was stuck in my head, I could not get past it.

Also, Amber and Vesuvia were big turn offs. To me, Vesuvia looked ditzy and confused in all her promo photos, which is a real shame. I had the chance to see one in person not so long ago and was struck by how horribly Soom failed to do her justice. She is amazing in person.

The look carried over to Amber and was amplified by her long, floppy ears. In her promo shots, she strikes me as being unable to find her way out of the forest, and was looking for someone to give her directions. If anyone has ever played WoW and watched the ways a Blood Elf's ears droop when they emote, that's what Amber reminded me of in her photos. Again, a mental image I just cannot get past.

Heliot has the confused face too, to a much smaller extent. His bold, blue eyeshadow and unibrow were enough of a turnoff without that expression on top of it. (Dear Soom: your eyebrows do not need to go in that far. Ever.) The customized Heliots I have seen in the galleries show what a versatile and beautiful sculpt he is, but I have no love at all for his default faceup.

I really wish Soom would move away from the large eye /full feminine lips that are slightly-but-not-really open combo. I know they are aiming for sensual, but all I see is an ever-growing list of confused-looking MDs that look like they're on the verge of saying "Huh?"

 

I get weary of Souldoll and Soom's insistence upon photoshop to the max. Not to mention some of the weird face-ups Souldoll has been doing (Phillippa and Queena particularly). Elfdoll is another one that just messes up decent sculpts with their face-ups. I absolutely loathed Mir to the extent that I passed up a really good deal on one, and a lot of that was due to the stupid way Elfdoll does his eyebrows. Then I got a reminisce Mir head with my Red boy and I was surprised at how nice the sculpt was-a very distinctive nose and lips particularly. I am contemplating opening his eyes at some point and getting him a body. Red is another one who can be made beautiful with the right face-up (which my LE vampire doesn't have, BTB. When his face-up gets tattered, I am so going to fix him up properly!). And I have to wonder what Tasha really looks like. I keep waiting to see an owner photo of her where she doesn't look like a total mannish tramp.

I wanted a Unidoll Suri for a while, but couldn't find any owner pics. Then I saw some additional pics on an eBay auction and decided to pass her up. She looked totally vacuous rather than perky in those pictures, her mouth just hanging open.

And like everyone else, I get tired of companies that show 5-6 pictures of the doll from exactly the same angle, only in different wigs and clothes. Stop that! We know if you do that you're hiding something. Just 'fess up and show the doll full frontal, three quarter and profile. If it can't stand up to that scrutiny, then go back to the drawing board. I was very pleased to see that Raurencio Calian actually had a profile shot, and it moved him up in my estimation considerably. I get tired of searching and searching for owner profile shots of dolls I am interested in. The profile is very important to me.

 

Something kind of... the opposite? happened to me. I would NEVER have gotten my Soom Namu, if I'd only seen pictures of him. I REALLY dislike the company ones, and all the ones I saw on DA were like you said, very girly. Then I saw one in person, and absolutely fell in love with him!

But had I not seen one in person, It just couldnt have happened.

So I think pictures play a big part in getting a doll you thought you liked, or didnt.

 

Most of the Dollzone ones have been like this for me, for a reason previously mentioned-they look very, very different head-on.

Also, if I would have seen a single photo of Puki Madeleine without a wig (there weren't any here on the forums), I wouldn't have gotten her. ._.

I've also seen some "creative" mods with a doll that turned me completely off of that sculpt, the mods were done so badly. There are also some molds that just seem to attract photos that are horribly unflattering-crazy eyes, crayola faceup, and up the nose shots. Of course, I try to keep searching until I see that mold's full potential if I'm interested, but after so many awful shots I start to associate that with the doll.

 

This is a really interesting thread. Personally, with the dolls I own I have loved the promo shots and think the dolls have lived up to them (although I can't for the life in me capture their beauty in the same way with my own crappy photography so I wouldn't dare post them on here) but...for a lot of companies, I don't like the sculpts at all until I see some of the, frankly, brilliant shots their owners have put up here or on flickr etc.
One sculpt that sticks out in my mind where I have been influenced by the photos is CCC Firefly Faerie - I thought the sculpt was pretty cute in the official shots but the owner photos on DoA have made me insanely in love with the little critter!

 

I very rarely order a doll without looking at a lot of non-default faceup owner photos (unless it is a limited and I have to order it before anyone gets it home). Sometimes looking at owner pictures is misleading, though, because there are some seriously beautiful faceups that make a doll when the sculpt otherwise doesn't appeal to me enough to want to own it ... I have learned (the hard way), that unless I can buy that particular doll or commission the same artist, then I shouldn't buy one of that sculpt.

 

This has definitely happened to me! Lol!
This is why I look up dolls on here after seeing them on their actual site! I like to see pictures of them from other people. People who aren't necessarily able to take professional pictures, to make a product look good. Not only that, but you can see how other people have transformed their doll. See if the doll could turn into something that might suit you. Rather then a doll you'll get and then just leave sitting around.
But i think it's a good idea to look at other pictures of dolls. So that way, you wont be disappointed when you actually get the doll.

 

It happens to me all the time. If it is possible, I always try to see as many pics, especially owners' pics, as possible. And from my experience I know that if something bothers me on the photo (shape of the nose or something like that), it will definitely bother me even more in reality. In the beginning of the hobby I tried to ignore it, telling myself this or that is nothing, in reality it would be better. But now I know it won't. So, I look at the pictures and if there is something I consider "wrong" with the mold - I don't buy it.
Of course, there are cases when the only pics you can see are promo photos, and... it's hit or miss then.

 

Yes! a lot of the times the websites pictures hardly do the dolls justice, so I check out owner pics and if those are still terrible looking to me, I just skip getting that doll for awhile until it grows on me XD

 

Just happened, in fact, with Raurencio's Calian. I really love the face but now that they have posted pics of how his head sits on the body - err, nope, thanks.

But the opposite has happened, too. I found DoT Sha rather cute on the official DoD pics but not cute enough to really want one. Well, since I saw owner pics here on DoA from someone trying to sell hers, I find I'm really falling for him. And in those pics, he didn't have any clothes on and didn't wear a wig, either. But there's just something about him ... *sigh*

 

Dream of Doll. The doll looks so pretty in their pictures, then owner pictures, well, the doll is no longer as pretty. Just not for me. It's mostly the DoT dolls, not the DoC ones.

 

Yeah. It often happens to me D: A lot of DM's dolls end up looking unappealing to me in owner photos. Flat faces...imo.

Dollzone as well. And a lot of the time souldoll. I loved how the one boy they came out with not too long back looked but then I saw owner pics and was like "NO THANKS. DNW". I was lucky enough to fall in love with SK Mayu and have her look pretty much the same in person. A bad face up can ruin how I look at a doll. If I see a bad face up(I can't do face ups so I'm not even presuming to be able to better :'D) I have to look for photos with a nice face up to see the potential or see a blank face and do a mock up.

 

Mostly the DoT and DoI dolls. They look amazing on the official website, but most ownerpics don't appeal to me, even with default faceups.