How do you decide which dolls you REALLY want and which you're just infatuate...

One thing I've started doing is ignoring the marketing photos and instead studying the far more boring photos of the doll's blank head and body, no wig, no eyes, no faceup. I think it's easy to get distracted by a doll's beautiful presentation on the manufacturer's site. They are shown with top quality clothes and hair, and the professional photography makes the doll look even more amazing. But sometimes when you look at the doll's actual features, they aren't really all that great. If I can fall in love with a doll's bare, colorless face, then he/she is the one for me.

 

Do you just get a 'feeling' when you see a special doll?
Sometimes I do, yes, but sometimes it's planned, and a couple times, it was purely by chance. For example, when I make up my mind that I want to turn one of my story characters into a doll, I usually just make my rounds on my favorite doll sites until that feeling does hit me. Otherwise, I could just be randomly browsing, and then I'm suddenly smacked in the face with a doll I must have! The former happens more often though.

Could you bond with any doll you bought or are some dolls just a temporary obsession?
Most of the time I do, but sometimes I have to work at it, because yes, I have received a doll or two that's not quite so hot in person as it was in pictures. I have never not bonded with a doll to the point of selling it though.

Have you ever bought a doll only to find you liked the idea of the doll more than the doll itself? Have you learnt to tell the difference?
Yeah, I recently bought a Dollfie Dream, and though I am liking her more and more, I have realized that I only really like realistic looking dolls. I thought that with some light modding I could make her fit in with my tiny eyed, big nosed family, but really she just stands out less. Also, I know I really want a certain doll when I jump through hoops trying to convince myself I don't like it and should spend my money on something else.

And are you satisfied to just enjoy wanting some dolls or do you have to try and buy every doll you want?
Ummm, buy them all, hellooo! I'm the type of person that when I realize I really like or want something, I'll go nuts thinking about it until it's in my hands. Well actually, no, there are some exceptions to the rule: limiteds and discontinued dolls. With those types of dolls I don't even try and just learn to go without them.

 

Yes, but I'm not sure how to describe the feeling itself. All I know is that I've never been unhappy with a doll I've bought, never had trouble bonding, and I definitely don't just buy dolls indiscriminately. I can tell, almost immediately, whether or not I will bond with a doll sculpt. All my dolls are Soom MDs, but I haven't just bought every MD and got lucky bonding with them. For example, I knew I could skip Sphaler as soon as his preview was up. Same with a number of their later male dolls, and Coquina. I think it's mostly that their faces don't 'fit' the Soom aesthetic (in my opinion only), which means they don't fit my aesthetic, which means they won't fit in in my collection, which means I won't be able to bond with them.

I also know it's not just me talking myself into not liking dolls I can't afford, because I've passed on a number of dolls due to finances but known I'd need to eventually get them (Hati, Skoll and Breccia, for example).

I think the biggest factor for me is whether the head 'has character'. That is, if the sculpt doesn't immediately give me a feeling about what sort of person the doll's character would be, I I won't bond with it. Sometimes I don't know exactly what the character's backstory is (like my Amber, who didn't 'become' my biological automaton character until I bought home my Ai twins to be Amber's prototypes), but I always know what sort of personality they have (for example, Amber is attentive, gentle and quiet. She enjoys working as an assistant, and loves intelligent people who speak to her without patronising her).

 

honestly i cant choose! all the sculpt around is beautiful and sweet, handsome and cute, chubby and cudly....seriously if you show me a beautiful, cute dolls and ask me what sculpt is this...im 90% sure i dont know!!! heck all those yosd, msd, sd looks the same for me

thats why i rather search for unique doll
so finally i found my favorite company, they producing unique sculpts and body....they are unordinary, unique, beautiful and gorgeous on their way.

 

I do this thing with anything I really want, so as to differentiate between an obsession and a much-wanted purchase: I print out a picture of it and blu-tack it onto the wall next to my bed, and if after a year I still want it, and provided it's still available, I go for it (which is just as well I'm not that big on buying clothes!).

For example, I've had a picture of the Dollzone Stramonium since it was first announced, and I recently just started paying layaway for it.

I do it this way because I'm usually very impulsive, and once something hits triple digits, I really have to step back and make sure I'm not going to throw money at something I might not like down the track.

 

I know I really want this doll when I get a strong feeling as I lay my eyes on it. The feeling would be so strong it would be all over my face. Shock, happiness and awe. If it is strong enough the feeling would stick with me forever until I decide to buy it. If it disappears after a couple of days, then it was probably a 'temporary obsession'.


So I usually wait a few days before I decide.

 

For me, it's just intuitive. When I see a doll I really like, I do the same as JeeNoo: I try to forget about it for a couple of days and then look at it again. If I still believe I need it, I usually go and search for owner pictures / unpainted pictures to see the sculpt better. If the worst of the worst photos still cannot put me off, I click the "buy it now" button (or write a PM if the sales thread is here on DoA). If I get the slightest doubt, I let the doll be.
I rarely plan my doll purchases, but this strategy has been very helpful so far.

 

I've bought dolls and been disappointed in them before, so for me I only buy dolls I've had an eye on for a while. I try to avoid "flavour of the month" things that come around, unless that flavour happens to be something I've wanted for some time. Half of my dolls are limited, the others I thought long and hard about buying. I just ask myself "do I really want this or will they sit and gather dust?" I also think about how they will fit into my current family and what size they are. I take a lot of things into consideration before purchasing a doll rather than just quickly buying whatever I like the look of.

 

I think part of it is just that feeling of knowing, and part of it is giving the idea of that doll a day or so before clicking the button to buy.

I feel completely in love with the first doll that I ordered when I saw her. But dispite that, I slept on it and checked on some forums to see what others thought of the doll.

 

Even when I have a desperate craving for a doll and i think about it endlessly after finding it, it isn't always one i'd buy. Sometimes as badly as part of me is saying 'I have to have it' my gut doesn't quite agree. I realised this after finding a doll on ebay that i really liked and considered buying, but found myself attempting to convince my mother and then (at 11pm by phone) my boyfriend, that it was a great deal and i had to have him. My boyfriend knew my whims better than i did and just told me to sleep on it cos it was late. I woke up in the morning and realised i'd been trying way too hard to justify buying the doll because i knew it wasn't really right for me & i was just struggling to wait for my 1st doll i'd allready ordered to arrive.
Now i can contoll my 'deperate need' for new dolls i find. lols

 

I thought this was a really cool idea. I'm a pretty impulse shopper too and whenever I have waited to buy something I think it ends up being for the better. Maybe I will try this lol.

 

Here is how I differentiate infatuation and my real feelings. I was looking at many different doll companies's dolls and was awed by the beautiful and detailed sculpt before I lay my eyes upon Fein. He was gazing at me with that eyes of his and everything about him is attractive, there is "something" about him that sets himself apart from the others. I considered for a week, but every night I can't stop looking at his photos by other owners and the manufacturer.
And then I bought him. Even after he arrives, I always find myself staring and him and smiling (like an idiot).
I still look at other doll's photos and sometimes it is hard to stop myself and my impulses but I will normally give myself a few days to one week time to cool down. Normally, those are infatuation because after a few days, I lost the strong feeling.

 

My answer is: wait for some months and see if you still like them!
If during this time of waiting the doll develops its own background in my mind, this is the clear sign of him/her being my following purchase (or entering my wish list) XD

 

I "just know". There are a certain feeling I get when I see a sculpt I like, and it's incomparable to any other feeling. However, I do not run into something and buy a doll because "it's so beautifuuuul~". I need to make certain it means as much to me as it sometimes feel, so I let it be for a couple of weeks. And if I look at the sculpt again after that time, and still feel the same, or if I really can't get it out of my head. Then I know it is it. When I found Souldoll Vito Lester, I visited his page several times a day, and still got the same feeling. Every time. Six months later, I have him in my home, he's mine, and still looking at him, I feel the exact same thing as the first time I saw him. Love at first sight, lol xD

But yeah, I just recently got to weed out dolls from my wishlist, going through for the first time in months. And many of the dolls had to go. My taste in dolls have changed, and the novelty crush is over and the dolls are still beautiful, but not that... heart-stopping, wowing, how-can-I-even, sort of feeling x3

 

As I've gotten older, I have pretty much conditioned myself to not jump on the impulse buy (that goes for everything I buy: clothes, groceries, shoes, videos/games). When it comes to dolls I will usually put it in my "watch" list or subscription list and leave it there for the night or the next day. If the doll has been sold, I say it wasn't meant to be. If it is still there, I really try and pay attention to what I'm feeling when I look at the doll again. Often times the "impulse" to buy has subsided and I can stop watching them. Only rarely now do I end up purchasing the doll.

 

For me, it's largely if I can keep going back to that page, and still feel like the doll is a good fit to one of my sets, I'll be much more likely to bring the doll home. And if it does fit a family, or start its own, then it's a done deal, that doll isn't going anywhere after that!

I have bought dolls before that, as much as I loved them, it turned out I only loved them from afar, and moved them along. In particular, one of Soom's beautiful limiteds only stayed with me for a short while (compared to all my others), never got a faceup or blushing, and only had one simple dress when I sent her off to a new home. I still love seeing pictures of that doll, but she's not for me. On the other hand, all the ones I still have are securely staying here with me.

 

Do you just get a 'feeling' when you see a special doll?
Yes, I'm very picky about dolls - although I like a lot of dolls, I only love a hand full of them. Being a poor students does help in making those decisions x'D I only want to go for an A++ choice, This does mean, for me generally, expensive limited heads. I have to compensate those costs by trying to find bodies that a) have a reasonable resin match and b) are cheaper. So a special doll has to be 'worth' this hassle and patience.
What makes a doll an A++ to me is either it having certain features I like (big lips, small eyes) or reminding me of a character I'm very much into at the moment.

When I finally find a doll I love the research of blank/owner pick can end up doing a lot for how much I end up loving or liking the sculpt, and thus deciding to actively search for it on the Marketplace (since it always seems to be a limited, sold-out head ><).

Could you bond with any doll you bought or are some dolls just a temporary obsession?
I have bonded with all my dolls save for some practice heads. Some dolls got upgraded along the way, one of them even twice, but I never sold a doll because I couldn't bond or 'un'-bonded.

Have you ever bought a doll only to find you liked the idea of the doll more than the doll itself? Have you learnt to tell the difference?
When my Rosetta Zio, my second grail doll arrived, I felt like I wasn't as smitten about him as I thought I would be. In the end, it turned out I mainly felt regret for paying $40 for his face-up which didn't suit the character at all. I wiped and re-did it, expecting some magical bonding to happen... But it didn't. I'm still struggling with this head and I might have liked the idea of getting home a second grail doll more than the grail doll itself... :/

And are you satisfied to just enjoy wanting some dolls or do you have to try and buy every doll you want?
I'll always feel like I wouldn't mind having more dolls, but I don't feel doll cravings as much as I did when I entered the hobby. I like that better, it's nice to see your crew and be fine with the size it is, and the dolls it contain. I am completely content (but wouldn't say no to more dolls if money wasn't an issue! ).

 

Yes, I do get a feeling, but it's difficult to put into words. I know what types of dolls I like, so I just know when I see one of the sculpts I just have to own versus dolls that I just enjoy looking at. It's easy with basic dolls, as I can wait awhile to make sure I really like it, and hopefully see some owner pictures just to confirm. With limiteds, it's more difficult. With the case of my most recent purchase, Soom's Red Riding Hood, I just found out about the doll five days before the sale period ended. I knew immediately that she fit the aesthetic of what I wanted for my second female doll. I wanted her to fit in with my current Soom collection as a human in a fantasy world, and potentially be the love interest of a Granado Xavier that I'm planning. I am confident that she can do both, and I also love her facial features and expression. I still waited three days (which isn't nearly enough, imo, but I had to make a decision) so I could think it over carefully before purchasing her.

 

Great topic! Gosh I am still trying to work that one out, if I obsess over a doll for quite awhile it usually stays, but then having said that I have thought I wanted the two minifee's I am now trying to find new homes for, for over a year and now I have them they just don't seem right, I keep going back and forth in do I want them or not (its frustrating). I love tinies so that's where I think the problem with them lies. I also like change, which doesn't help really. I guess the only way I have evolved in this decision making is I'm being more careful in what I purchase now and really taking my time about it. But it is love at first sight for some of them and a few of those ones have definitely stayed with me.