How Do Doll Sculpts Get So Popular?

There's allot of answers you could get.
0_o Allloooot.
I can give you one though;
I choose my dolls based on their facial structure,
and their expression.
I like pouting/seductive like looking dolls- who seem
really rude and cynical looking. /Cold. /Evil. /Sleepy.
I like puffy lips XD and half closed eyes.

 

Although I'm not into them myself, I see a lot of owners that have squinty male dolls (usually with a defined jaw). Could be wrong though.

 

People who play with dolls tend to be artistic or into Japanese things, and both share a very common sense of ideal beauty and an appreciation for variety. ABJD collectors tend to like the same kind of things on their dolls, like eye shapes and facial structure, and sometimes BJD come along that happen to have the right combination of things that draw in a large number of people. Remember how everyone had a Luts El?

 

Your guess is as good as mine. None of the dolls I've chosen appear to be very popular. When I was first looking for a doll I wanted a female msd that looked Asian and the closest I spotted was Dollmore Kid Vora. I also liked her because she had more naturally sized eyes than most bjds.
Now, everyone who sees her likes her, but no one buys her. She's a happy, normal-looking girl and I think so many bjd owners like dolls that are either edgier or super-cute, like Pukis.

 

I think it's different for different people. Some people will go for an anime look. I don't like anime, but I do like a stylized look. Some people go for beautiful, some go for unusual, and everyone has their own opinion of what those two mean. Some people go for sculpt over poseability. Some people prefer a more poseable sculpt.

I think it'd be easier to list things that can HURT a doll's popularity, though. Things like bad posing, or horrid company photos, or bad company reputation, confusing or difficult to order, or too-high price compared to quality. I have a Dolkot day, and the only reasons I can think of that he's not super-popular is because of the iffy reputation Dolkot had for the last year or so, plus he's on the high end of the price range but doesn't have the poseability of say Minifees.

There also seem to be phases, where certain dolls are very popular for a while, then are less popular for a while. I seem to be a bit behind on this, which is great - I can find them secondhand!

 

I owned a Bory myself at one point back when they first came out. They shot into popularity seemingly overnight. But i can't deny it's a gorgeous and surprisingly versitile mold.

I think it's just people's tastes. If you think about where alot of owners came from before joining this hobby you can see why some molds are just way more popular than others. The price is also a big thing to consider. Think of the cute Bobobie/Resinsoul Sprite mold. She's very cheap, but also very well sculpted.

There's also dolls which become popular based on reputation of the creator. Think of how many Crobidoll Lance are floating around on the forum in just a year! The mold shot to popularity not just because it's a beautifull sculpt, but because it was created by the same artist as Pixydoll's Sevy.

Being honest, it's hard to say a real reason.

 

This is a really tough question because with some popular sculpts it's easy to see why they are so loved - like Volk's Megu with her beautiful Snow White face, but some sculpts baffle me by their popularity. Elves seem to be popular, maybe because they seem kind of ethereal. Personally speaking, I prefer dolls that look kind of sultry and exotic.

 

Another Bory owner here. I was caught between a few other KDF's and him, and ended up with Bory because a) I could purchase all the others as heads, b) because he had cat eyes and c) Because he fit my genius kid character the best. His smaller eyes made him appear more focused and thinking.

But, I notice that I do tend to fall for a lot of Yuna's sculpts (Pixydoll, Crobidoll and some Luts - including Bory). I think I really like the way she sculpts her noses and facial shapes, but I can't say whether it's the same for everyone.

I suppose you could hazard a guess that there are particular features that seem more attractive to some people than others, and being in this doll hobby means that people who all like a certain look congregate in one place (Because personally, I wouldn't say my beauty standards are conventional. I tend to find features attractive that everyone else finds ugly). Add that to things like company reputation/awareness and price, and you'll probably find some kind of pattern.

Actually, it might sort of be interesting to do.

 

I agree with Lelite on there are probably certain things that seem to make sculpts popular. I'd argue that poofy lips seem t be one of those. Maybe it's the love of girly boys here, but feminine boy faces definitely seem more popular sometimes..

All I know is I thing there's only one other RS Feng on here, ahaha...

 

well, there are quite a lot of akando's here, which is a very lovely sculpt and surprisingly versatile too, though not quite girly.
my own dolls are less well known, but I picked them for their beauty. sometimes a certain price makes them popular, or beeing very customizable and divers.

 

One for the El owners, methinks! There seems to be lots of Els around, and he is a handsome guy...but I can't work out why El would be so astronomically popular.

Most of my dolls are unpopular sculpts!

 

Hmmm...a good guess might be that a lot of people see different ways to interpret the sculpt-----thus it's really 'versatile'----and a lot of people buy it not because "OMG, SAME DOLL" but rather the sculpt works with so many different concepts that vary from person to person. That's just my personal guess though for certain sculpts' intense poularity. ^-^ Also, it might be because a concept is "brand new" to the doll world----when EIDs first came out, Akando was pretty darn poular----no one had seen a male doll quite as muscular and manly as an Iplehouse EID! Same goes for Soom's Heliot I would think...the response to hooved dolls had already been a good one, but a UNICORN?! This was a pretty exciting, fresh new image that a company was putting out there. ;D

'Tis my guesses I guess. New ideas excite people, as well as multiple different ideas for the same thing. ^^

EDIT: OMG, WHOOT, 1,000 post for me!!

 

Two major factors off the top of my head:

- Versatility. If the sculpt can do what a LOT of different people want, a lot of different people will buy it. Most of the REALLY popular dolls don't have super-distinctive facial features; you can do a lot of different things with them.

- Photogenic-ness. If a doll photographs well darn near every time it'll be more appealing than if it looks sort of weird in half the photos. Most people don't see the dolls they buy in person before they buy them.

 

All I can think of.. Unoa hands. Those hands are GREAT. I can see people getting into them because of that. Silly answer?
Maybe it's just SOMETHING about the sculpt.. something beautiful and unique that makes people love them. Unoa were (until a bunch of same size dolls came out) unique in size and general proportions, something new.... exciting?

 

I just wanted to mention there's a HUGE number of dolls that are popular because they have the "F-16" look, which (in my opinion) include:

F-16/F-28 from volks
Volks Chris/Lucas/Kai/Sasha/Masha
Volks School Head A
Crobidoll Lance
Soom Namu
DiM Ando (? I think that's the right one...)

I'm sure there are others, and I don't mean to intimate that any one company is copying another, but I think they're all dolls that capitalize on the same aesthetic!

 

Price > company photography > brand image

I find that price trumps all. A very cheap doll will have more people buying it since it's less of a serious purchase. Case in point? Tiny tinies. Anyone can afford a Basic Puki. I myself bought a Pocket Fairy once just because he was barely more expensive than a LE outfit for one of my big dolls.

Company photography is the next very major component. Luts and DoD are the most notorious for this. They make everything look perfect, glowy, and sexy. Pretty hard to resist a doll that looks like a Final Fantasy character "come to life". The companies who don't do this typically sell more in person and less online, like Volks.

Brand image. People want to fit in with the popular crowd, no matter what hobby. A lot of people will buy from one company just so they have more in common with others and can discuss company-specific things. Over the years certain companies are at the foreground, then maybe two years down the line you rarely hear about them anymore.

 

i think it's how the dolll is portrayed, how the owner sets them up in thier story as well as how the over all doll looks, adn of couse how much they are attached to them.

 

I have noticed that androgynous facial sculpts seem to be very popular.
Perhaps this feeds into the versatility point, as such a sculpt can encompass both male and female characters.

I also would suggest that sculpts that look young are more popular than mature sculpts. This would include dolls with larger eyes, smaller mouths, that heart-shaped face...anime style anyone?

 

I think it all boils down to a company's ability to get people to "impulse buy". It can be any combination of looks, photos, price, availability, etc. A bunch of people buy on impulse, and then they post pictures in the community, and it just feeds the fire. Even if someone is meticulously choosing a doll, there's a measure of emotion that comes with the selection.

I'm sure most people have had that feeling where they come really close to buying a doll on impulse but then thinking twice and going through all the options just to come back again. The company/doll did something to catch their eye...and like others have said, since we as a group tend to think similarly, whatever caught one person's eye will catch others as well.