how do you fall in love with a doll

For me it is easier. Falling in love with a doll is simple, simply because of the sculpt, faceup, fullest, actually can be everything. But for me to welcome a doll into my house is difficult, coz I need to have a character for the doll before hand. Thus most of the time I will enjoy the beautiful photos by other owners or maker.

 

The face (and body sculpt to a point) is what makes me like a doll and say I'd like that doll. However, to make me IN LOVE with it, that's something unique and special. I'm not sure how to describe it. But I'll see her/his face and there will just be something that just clicks. I don't just like it, but go gaga for it. That's how it was for A Clockwork Faery's Moriko. The second I saw her sweet little face it was love at first sight, and I saved for her. Now I'm patiently waiting for her to come home from the preorder. So the sculpts I love they just have a special something about them that I can't explain. I really like dolls with large eyes, though. lol. A pert nose too. Peakswoods is a dream.

 

For me it is all about what I can do with the doll. I'm plotting out a story with my dolls. In order to tell the story I need to do several projects. The projects are what I love. The doll is the vessel which allows me to execute the projects. Pretty much I look at a doll and say 'what will I do with you/make for you.' hope that made sense!

 

Sculpt and face up. Like Teddy, I don't want one that looks angry, grumpy, or sad. Clothes I can make, wigs and eyes are easy to change.

 

For sure the sculpt and facial expression that the sculpt has, I really want all my dolls to be unique in their own way so I look for unique features too!

 

I voted for "sculpt" though I'm not sure that's entirely true. To date there were only two dolls I ever saw that I felt an immediate and powerful urge to buy: KDF Bory and Impldoll Idol Tony. I just couldn't get either sculpt out of my head because they so perfectly matched what I'd been envisioning for their characters. It's impossible for me to look at them and not find every feature of their face and body perfect. BUT I have been able to "parse" what I like about them and find those same attractive qualities elsewhere. I love Tony's strong jawline, and there's more than one Iple man and LLT man who can mimic that look. But none of them are perfect the way Tony is perfect. Same with Bory's silly adorable moue. Lots of dolls (looking at you, Fairyland Niella) have a big pouty moue that could be smiling or melancholic or whatever and it all depends on the faceup. But none of them come together the way a nicely painted Bory does. (Which is why I'll be getting Bory in all sizes some day when I win the lotto or inherit a lot of money from a mysterious rich ancestor). And as for bodies I've fallen in love with, well I'm adoring Island Doll's wind island 60cm bodies. They are "soft like a friend" as someone so aptly put it. No other body has that beautiful humanizing look. I'm pretty good now at parsing what I like in a doll and seeing the attractive features clearly even when I'm looking at a heavily painted fullset that is nothing like what I envision. It's unique to every person's taste.

 

The sculpt in combination with the default faceup. I mostly lack the imagination to see a blank sculpt and have an awesome idea what to do with it (I refuse to be ashamed of that!). If I see how someone painted X sculpt and I really like it, then I'll kinda really want one done in a similar way (having someone kinda copy a pre-existing faceup seems to be frowned upon though...)
Sometimes, though, it's that I simply love how the doll looks in the full-set and that'll be the only getup for that doll.

 

For me the face sculpt is the biggest factor in making my love a doll. I rarely order a fullset, and I sew most of my dolls' clothes. A face-up can influence how much I like a doll, so a few of my dolls have company face-ups. One of my dolls has a face I adore, but I really dislike the company's default face-up for her. I'm glad I saw past those worried eyebrows and ordered her.

 

Sculpt. I am not one for fullsets and company faceups. I need a doll to make me think of a character, to not leave my head until I get them. If I can close the tab for them and not think about them or stumble across them with the same longing again, it wasn't meant to be. If it is a fullset, then I can simply enjoy looking at someone one else. It already exist, whereas these characters won't without me making them. It is also important that they fit in with the ones I already have. I don't like having dolls that are too similar to each other.

The character tells me the faceup, the body (I do a lot of hybrids), and the style. At that point it is simply a matter of putting them together.

 

For me it's something between the fullest and the faceup. Usually it's the faceup that does it, but sometimes I'm actually more in love with the outfit than the doll itself.

The really funny thing is that once I go looking for a picture of the blank sculpt, it's like a 50/50 chance whether I'll still like it. I've promised myself I'm only going to buy dolls I still like when they're completely naked and unpainted for this reason, lol.

 

I'm not very good at seeing past the company photos so I like to see a sculpt blank/nude too, but only if I don't like the company faceup.

I prefer to buy a doll with faceup because I'm no good at doing them myself (and terribly lazy!)

I have bought dolls with no faceup (got 2 currently) just because I loved the sculpt, even with no faceup.

I've also bought dolls for their body sculpt rather than for their head sculpt, because I can always find a new head to fit the body (got 2 of those currently as well, and yes I eventually found a head for both of them, which I love - one with faceup (bought on the mp, for the faceup which is beautiful, by angel toast) and one without faceup (bought for the sculpt, which I love even though it's blank; mirodoll Jared). It took me well over a year to find these heads and meanwhile I'm quite happy to have a headless doll sitting there fully dressed, waiting patiently, as they do!

So for me it is a combination of things which matter - definitely nothing to do with clothes or full-set though. I am guilty of having naked dolls for years because I always prioritise new resin over new clothes for existing resin - a bad habit One of my dolls currently has just a rag wrapped around her for modesty, whilst another has a mere artificial flower hiding her crotch! Clothes are the last thing that matter to me, unfortunately for my poor dollies...

 

I'm another one who considers sculpt to be a major factor, but not the only one. I've chosen some as a spur of the moment thing, where I didn't have time to consider their head sculpts. In these instances, I took in the whole doll. For the most part, they worked out. One however, I didn't bond with until I gave her heavy modifications.

 

I'll admit it's generally the faceup that lures me in to look in the first place but it's the sculpt I fall in love with. I won't buy anyone who I don't love blank, partly because I know they'll stay that way a little while

 

The sculpt -- face most frequently. Sometimes face up plays a role too, but that's rare. As a result I have no problem with fully customized dolls without face ups. Many sculpts have anough personality and details even without it.
The body isn't all that important as long as the boy isn't too muscular. On other hand, I like girls with muscles. I can have multiple dolls with same body, not a problem for me, head is most important in my personal opinion.

 

for me is a combination of everything. I'm thinking of my first doll and it was the only doll that made feel butterflies in my stomach, so to speak.
The thing is, I saw him before but I never paid him attention probably because of the company photos, but then I saw the photos of an owner, he had the same face up as in the company photos but different wig, eyes and overall styling so he looked very different and grabbed my heart at first sight.,,,,I miss feeling like that, it's such a beautiful feeling but I never felt it again. I have over 20 dolls now but I only felt that with my first doll.

 

I voted ’the full set’ because that's what really grabbed me about the first doll I was absolutely crazy over...enough to buy her book then hunt the both of her full sets a decade later when I could afford her - UNOSS, those robot parts, demon gal, kitty girl, little meido...just wow!
Also because even though I mostly prefer to paint and style our dolls myself, I really do love seeing the company's ideal full-on photoshopped glorious vision for their doll, like SOOM does for each of their dolls, character, story and all. Pretty magical! SOOM and Fairyland are the doll websites I visit most often even though they aren't my favorite doll companies to buy from (so far)!
That said, if I'm not going to get that swanky full set and especially on those that I am also going to paint myself, I am not sure I would buy one without having a pretty good idea about the head sculpt, ideally seeing it blank from several angles and also seeing the full nude body (posed and in several views) before pulling the trigger. Much as I love some sculpts, if they can't do basic poses and stand ok in a doll stand, I won't enjoy them, I find. I have one really cute doll who is a very bad poser and much as I like her sculpt, even picking her up brings a sigh.

 

for me... it is usually the sculpt over everything else

 

I'm all about the sculpt, I can't see past it for face and clothing options unless I like the sculp first.

 

I honestly cannot cast my vote >_< I am trying to figure out this very thing. As I am a new collector, I want to pinpoint my interest for dolls now so, I don't get caught up buying Every. Single. Cute. Doll.

At the moment, I can honestly say it's not *just* the sculpt that I like, cause some sculpts I find not appealing, but with the right resin color, faceup and clothes, I could be won over.

So, a combination of the right resin color and faceup will do it for me!! (I always imagine my own style of clothing, so I can look past clothing I don't care for).

 

I always find that when I see someone else's doll that I like, it helps me to fall in love with the general aesthetic of a doll.

I think I'd have trouble falling in love with a faceup-less sculpt that I haven't seen inspiration for yet.