how do you fall in love with a doll

First of all, I like the sculpture of the doll. Especially if I can imagine my character in this.
But it also happens that I see a promo photo in the full image, and this pushes me to buy, since I already understand which character I need).

 

The face, sometimes in combination with the face-up. The whole other hubub can be nice, but the face is always a deal breaker. The face-up also only helps to show me what is possible, I wouldn't buy it anyway.

 

I didn't vote in your survey because none of the options are right for me.

It's a combination fo factors tht determine if I will buy a doll.

I don't regard it as falling in love with a doll, that happens once i have it and start to get to know it and build up the look it will have.

I see sculpts that I like (and usually I need to see them blank as well as with a faceup before I decide to buy), and sometimes I have to mask part of the picture in order to appreciate the face because, for example, it's been given "angry eyebrows" that angle down toward the nose and make even the happiest sculpt look miserable, angry, grumpy, sulky or whatever.

There are cetain things that attract me right off to a particular doll - smiling sculpts for example - and certain things that put me off (frowning/unhappy/pouting sculpts - misterable dolls are so not for me).

Next I'll look at the body to determine if I like the full doll, or if I'd need to get hold of the head alone and find a suitable body to hybrid it onto (I'm creeped out by childlike head sculpts on a big-boobed/curvy woman's bodies, for example, it would need an immature/child-like body).

I seldom buy fullsets as there's usually something I don't like about them and I won't pay those prices for clothes I'd need to alter, accessories 'd never use, wigs I'd swap out for ones I liked etc.

I don't often buy dolls with the company/default faceups either. Many of them either don't appeal to me overall, or have something (angry eybrows, chevron eybrows, chocolare drops in the corners of the lips, eyeliner, eyeshaddow) that I don't like so it's better to buy blank and get the facup I want done by someone whose faceup style I like.

Then there's the price. Much as I like a particular doll, there will be limits to how much I'm willing to pay. Some of the dolls I have dropped off my list when they were new because of the price (especailly if they were only available as fullsets or limiteds) but I got them later on the secondary market because someone was selling on the head (or the whole doll, if I liked the body, occasionally I'll buy the whole doll if the body will be useful for another head - One of my girls was released as a limited fullset boy but the sculpt works better as a girl for me, and the boy body was used for one of my other boys).

Teddy

 

This is hard cause I had to decide between sculpt and full set on this one--
For me the love of my life in doll terms is 100% Hwayu by Fairyland. At first I wanted to say sculpt since I want to own at least 10 of them one day including the human version, I just adore her. But then I read your message, fall for them before anything. And very likely that was her fullset. Her dress, the crown, the shoes, the faceup. Everything together just made this absolutely drop dead gorgeous doll, that was what got my attention and only AFTER that I even looked at the blank sculpt. I hope I can one day own her full set, fully painted and everything. She's a dream, I just love everything about her so much. But like I said the sculpt was a close choice, cause on it's own it's so pretty as well, qhich is the reason I want a whole army one day. She's just perfect for me !

 

The face up that a doll has makes a huge difference for me in being able to design a character. Sometimes I fall in love with a sculpt without a face up but more often than not I fall in love with a doll with an artist face up. I usually prefer to send my dolls out to get a specific face up. Sometimes though I will find one second hand with a face up I love and I will get that doll.

 

I chose the sculpt, but it's not entirely accurate for me. It's about the head and the body equally, but less about how beautiful they are and more about how they fit my characters. The merging of doll aesthetic and written character is what really makes me love a doll. For example, I actually think one of my dolls is very unattractive, she's a sculpt I would never in a million years buy for being pretty, but she's absolutely perfect for her character and that makes me love her. I like my doll characters to have a sense of realism, and not having every single one of them be drop dead gorgeous beauties makes me like them more.

Faceup, full set and clothing mean absolutely nothing to me, as I'm going to customize all of that to fit my characters anyway. I would actually prefer to see the doll listed nude and blank to decide if I want to buy. Once I do my own faceup and choose just the right clothes for my doll is when I really fall in love. It's about bring it all together to really be my doll/character.

 

I always notice the face first, and it’s what makes me like a doll.

 

It is the sculpt that I fall in love with. If I don't love the doll blank I'm probably not going to really love it painted either. But usually I don't notice the sculpt until I stumble across owner pictures of it already fully customized. Then I will look up the sculpt and fall in love (or not!). I saw my Iplehouse Tania for the first time blank on the marketplace and fell in love instantly - no face up pictures necessary!

 

I don’t think I ‘fall in love’ as to me they’re dolls and the term seems odd... but how do I know I really like them? It’s all faces to me. Face sculpt is far and away the most important part.

I (90%) of the time do my own face ups and wig making. I’ve never bought a full set. A lot of my dolls are also hybrids and I can cope with a questionable body, but I need their faces to be right, even to the point where I commission custom sculpts from artists. The aesthetic I like most is not very common amongst BJDs, and although there’s lots I quite like, obviously the cost means they have to be really special for me to buy one!

Mine are either minimees of people I like or characters from my books (with a couple of crossovers when I want a character to resemble someone a little). In terms of the minimees, obviously they need to look like who they’re meant to be, or the whole thing is pointless.

With my novel characters, they’ve been around 10+ years in my head so again, I’m very particular about how they look, and their faces are the most important.

 

The sculpture, for sure.

The clothes, the face, even if it's full set, I am going to change it. The sculpture it the part of the doll that doesn't change (well, without modding) it's the permanent part of the doll, and that's what I have to like. I need to see that blank face before I get a doll. That tells me if I am going to like it when I am tired of the faceup and the clothes.

 

I fall in love with the sculpt
Of course that face-up makes a big difference too. But a good sculpt looks good even if raw...

 

The fullset. I noticed with bjds I have a harder time envisioning them finished, so an amazing fullset really pulls it all together for me. Getting a doll that’s ready out of the box is a dream. It’s much easier for me to appreciate them that way. I have an unrealistic anime inspired art style so it’s difficult to plan them out when my art is so different from the doll.

For anime styled bjds and Dollfie Dreams I’m all about the sculpt. I’m very particular about anime features and know what I like and dislike, much more than with traditional realistic or even semi realistic dolls. Being able to draw them makes me more comfortable with creating a character.

 

As an addition: although general body shape is important and I do look at the sculpt, my dolls are always clothed, so I don’t spend much time viewing the body. The important parts are proportions and shoulder width, etc.

 

I'm a sculpt first kind of girl. ;-) My best friend has to see the doll finished even if she wants to ultimately change it. She tells me all the time she can't see in her head the possibilities unless it's already painted. I'm just the opposite. I need to see the sculpt so that what someone else has envisioned for the doll doesn't cloud my imagination. I love to see the different ways people face-up the same doll and it often inspires me to try something I hadn't thought of before, but to pine for a doll it's the sculpt that matters. Clothing (although I would walk around in the same $1 shirt for a month to get my dolls something I love for them) is the least important when getting a doll. To me it has no influence on my purchase. The new Rainman doll has me drooling over her but I don't see painting her as the sample is-although it's lovely. It's kind of like I have snapshots going through my head when I look at the sculpt. I also agree with Teddy that angry eyebrows and black mouth corners are a turn off and I have to see past them as they are not anything I want for my girls. Inspiration can come from face-ups and clothing (also covetousness!!) but love is the sculpt and it's possibilities.

 

I can't choose just one, because it honestly depends on each individual doll. Usually it's the sculpt, and always because of one or more outstandingly unique features - LLT Black Pearl's roguish smirk or Iplehouse Leonard's big nose and catlike eyes, for example. But other times I fall for the whole package; I absolutely had to have Fairyland's Mandrak Moors Sionna Fómhar, the fox/witch in my avatar, because I loved everything about her - from the fae faceup to the fantastic, detailed outfit and skull embellished witch's broom. I wouldn't have bought her without all of the trimmings, but conversely, I didn't need a single thing besides Black Pearl's fabulous face to make me hunt him down and bring him home. And other times...I am overwhelmed by top to toe resin cuteness, as with Luts Rumi or Dearmine Lupy, where the sculpt includes not just the face, but the body (and usually tail) as well.

So yeah, case by case basis.

 

The scupt. If the face isn’t right none of the rest of that stuff matters.

 

Mostly its the sculpt, sometimes its the full set that draws me into buying the doll. If its a character doll, then its the character itself. I consider myself particular with sculpts because that's the thing that always reflects the personality of the doll. I'm also all for BJD stories and lore. I love hearing what other people in the BJD community's stories for their dolls are.

 

The face always sells it for me. I think that when it comes to a face it's a mix of the sculpt and how you paint it because some artists can really bring a sculpt to life! The body comes second for me because I do like more articulation and slimmer lines, but I feel not a lot of companies do this kind of body, which is why I always end up being more of a fan of Russian artists

 

I’m the same way, I need to see face up on a doll (preferably many examples) to understand its potential.