Have you ever disliked a sculpt or company and then ended up falling in love with it?

Count me in with those who said DollChateau! When I first started a few years ago, I was really surprised at DC's popularity. I remember I once thought, "I'll never want one of these, and frankly I don't see the appeal at all!"
But my first DC will be arriving in the next few months! Such cool little things, and I just adore the jointed toes on the bigger dolls, and those spindly, somber looks

Same for the Dollmore Trinity line. I definitely thought, "Oh my GOD I'd NEVER spend that much on a doll! They're as much as a really cheap car!! And they're huge, this is veering WAY into weird territory!!! Thankfully, there's enough things that don't appeal to me about this body, and these faces, and this size, that I'd never want one, anyway."
Anyway, I can't wait for mine to arrive! I'm so sad that my layaway has easily half a year left! I got the Trinity bug, bad, and I haaaaaate waiting for mine. I've never had a wait be this agonizing! Not even for my very first doll! I went hog-wild on a big Trinity order, and I have zero regrets.

When it comes to this hobby, I almost never have strong negative reactions about anything. I can see the appeal in plenty of things that I'll never want, and I'm completely open to basically anything I see in this hobby... but those two companies/lines come to mind, and, of course, now I'm getting both! And I'm really excited about it!

 

Back in the day, years ago, I would never ever have even considered getting a doll from Luts simply because I enjoyed none of their sculpts, slightly too stylised and cute for me. I went on there to look at clothes and for fun just checked out their newer releases out of curiosty, one of the newest dolls was SD65 Terra that had recently gotten his little facelift. Now he is on my wishlist and I routinely go on there just to sigh at him, waiting for the day he'll be mine.

 

For a very long time, I didn't want anything to do with IOS, even going as far to jokingly rant at my friends everytime I saw one of their sculpts on the marketplace. Just within this week, I've seen them recreate one of my favorite anime characters almost perfectly, and saw a sculpt of theirs that would be perfect for yet another favorite character. As much as I love the first one it's too expensive for me, but I'm pretty sure I'll end up getting the head for the second character later. I guess this could be called karma in a way?

 

Oh yes! After 10 years in this hobby, I realised enough time has passed for me to develop different tastes. Or rather, add some new preferences to the pool.
There are literally plenty of sculpts I never had interest in years go, but nowadays I would totally get them. What's worse, it's becoming harder and harder to obtain these as time passes... ;_;

 

Here's another to the "I used to not get Doll Chateau's appeal" train. While realistically or semi-realistically proportioned dolls comprise the bulk of my small doll collection, a DC sculpt (Gladys) is currently on top of the saving-for list, along with the rather lanky NB58-002 body from Dollzone. Coincidentally, DC Gladys sort of evokes Echo Town Delores, another doll I would have wanted to have, but may never get because I'm currently trying to restrict my dolls to just the SD and up.

 

Momoni dolls for me.
My friend showed them to me and I was like ew, why. Then I got her one for Christmas and after handling her and making clothes for her I'm eagerly awaiting a KittyM preorder to open up.

 

Not outright dislike, but when I first got into the hobby and was looking for Meadowdolls 18" Saffi there was a preorder going on for another 18" toddler/kid sculpt, Bailey. I had no strong feelings for it so I didn't order. By the time her second preorder came round I adored it. I have her home now and like her face so much I kind of want the smaller size she comes in too. Only weird because normally I know instantaneously if I want to buy a sculpt or not, and haven't changed my mind about any other dolls.

 

Reviving this old thread because I love this phenomenon, and it happens to me a lot.

I used to be freaked out by all dolls. A regular phobia, so I worked on it and got into this hobby as a way of getting over this irrational fear. That was step one.

I have noticed that, as some other have mentioned in this thread, for me, quite often, I just really dislike the company/default faceup. I do the faces myself and it's not that I am as good by any means, but the default faceups are often "meh" to me. Some even creep me out.

Especially Fairyland dolls. I absolutely dislike their default faceups. And I thought all the sculpts looked the same. Until I looked at them without faceups and could start to see the differences. On top of that the pictures of the blank sculpts on Fairyland's website are atrocious. They are overexposed and not all taken from the exact same angle and honestly more or less useless.

And like someone else said, it seemed like they were the only dolls getting exposure, and I just didn't get it.

Of course now I have a Pukifee, plan to get a littlefee at some point and try to convince myself that I will be able to enjoy a Minifee too, although she'd be a lot larger than my other dolls (I gravitate towards tiny dolls).

Also used to think Vilitunes were... Scary AF, but now I plan to maybe participate in the September pre-order.

I guess what I'm saying is I change my mind a lot as I learn to appreciate different aspects of the dolls that have tripped me up for so many years.

 

@Osquary That's a really cool story, thank you for sharing!

 

Something I've noticed myself is that since my characters are modern human characters, either high school crew or my adult rocker crew, I don't want everyone to be a model. I want some average people and some less than beautiful people. I actually bought my Notdoll Belladonna *because* I thought she was ugly. After I did her faceup, I ended up thinking she's pretty cute, which in character kind of equals a not traditionally pretty girl who has awesome makeup/hair skills and cute clothes. I also bought my Impldoll Aigne because I thought she was kind of ugly in default photos and that she'd be good for my slightly unattractive character, but she ended up being adorable so I just kind of consider it the character's "glow up".

 

Does everyone have "that one DollChateau that changed their mind on DollChateau"? Is that the new version of the grail doll concept? Mine was Noah. I'll likely never buy him, because I have very little confidence I could replicate that faceup and body paint, but I will admire him from afar forever!

 

For me, I appreciate the craftmanship, buuuuuut..... It's not that I dislike their dolls at all, they are just not for me. I would love the head of Cephalopod/Male scorpio, though his little face is adorable, but I do not want that scorpion body, it's just not my thing. I was slightly tempted by Dora, though, although centaur-type dolls also aren't my thing.

I know two people irl who ordered Noah, he is gorgeous! I hope one of them will let my Atelier Momoni Somni pose on his back for a picture one day when we can all get together again.

 

I used to be only interested in MSD dolls since most SD dolls I knew were too tall and didn't have double Joints so i was never interested in them. But now with the new Maskcat Body I fell in Love with Astrid and Lilias (57cm both) and I am head over heels.

 

Oh yes! DollZone Raphael! When he first came out, I found him one creepy doll. At the time I was checking the DollZone website almost daily because my grail doll was (is) DZ Stramonium. Dz Raphael was the first doll on the page since he was new. So I became used to seeing his face.

Eventually I bought Raphael before Stramonium (now owning both) and honestly? He might be my favourite sculpt in the end.