How hard do you find it to find the right sculpt for that one character you just picture perfect?

Mine is in customs after years & years of waiting! He will be my first novel character who started my series. I just couldn’t find an appropriate sculpt anywhere... I’ve wanted a toy of him since I created him almost 11 years ago, and especially since I discovered BJDs five years ago. In the end I got a custom sculpt made from reference photos. This is not a cheap option but is the most perfect one. So after so long, it’s driving me nuts that the parcel has been in customs for 4 days.

 

I spend five years on research before own my first doll, which is also my perfect match after 7 years.
After purchasing & selling a few doll, my second perfect doll come in 2 yrs ago.
I believe a good faceup is more important. My first doll change makeup style for 3 times. Renewing faceup can fit your latest aesthetic and give a new life for the dolls.

 

oh god.... i feel this struggle. i bought a few different volks girls to see if she would work with my character... shes suppose to have that sweet yet sexy look... so her current head is coming to me friend a friend who did her face up... so i really hope it works out... if not my back up that i might end up going to is an Angell Studio girl that ive been eyeing for ages.

i had the perfect boy for a number of years and decided i wanted to reshell everyone.. big mistake... it took several years to get it right, but now it seems like hes perfect though i have a new head coming so not sure if he will have that one instead.. but either way im happy with how he ended up and its crazy to think how long it took and how much money i spent. now i have some dolls that i need to decide if they stay or go.

 

I researched for several months before springing for a doll for my OC. Reading body reviews, watching unboxing videos, finding comparisons for both appearance and movement... I ended up by choosing the body first, because I'll have more leeway to make the face look how i want with blushing. Adding mass to a body is harder, and as he's a broadly built and powerful guy, I ended up picking the Iplehouse FID Muscle.

The face was actually easier to choose. I started making note of which face sculpts I was clicking on in the DoA new uploads bar. The FID Lawrence won by a mile, so I bought that, even though it's a bit slim for how I draw him.

Now I have the blank doll in hand, and I'm slowly working on his customization. Of course, with the attachment I feel to his character, I want to get him absolutely perfect! Which means progress is painfully slow.

 

I actually identify with OP completely. I have 1 female character that I can simply not find the right sculpt for. At this point, the body barely matters I just want narrow/romantic/half open/sleepy/whatever they call them eyes and a slight smile, since I am looking to shell a maternal character. Or just a gentle expression that still has a smile, the closets I've gotten is Ipledolls Eric which feels completely crazy! A male sculpt, which is exactly what I'm trying not to resort to .

 

Francis is my pain in the butt. He’s a teenage fat guy with somewhat of a troublemaker personality. I had him shelled as an IslandDoll Noah, which is the chubbiest SD boy body I could find but he’s still too slim and the face is too sweet. If only Dolls Be With You Pumpkin was 1/3 size he’d be perfect!

 

I have spent many years trying to find the right doll for this character I have. When I think I have the perfect doll, the doll decides it is not that character. I start by giving them the hair, eye color and even name but they turn out to be a new "person" and demand to change the wig, or the eyes etc so far my character is doll-less and my dolls are their own character which I have come to love so I don't get rid of them.

 

Theres a specific character. He was my OG Doll character (the one I had when i first found out about BJDs and was trying to get one.) I was a teen and things changed and I never shelled him. Not only that but its kinda hard. The type of character he is, he would need a specific height and face, and thats always expensive! So its hard for me to really commit as I never really feel 100% on the big boys i've come across (because of the price?)

 

I spent a full decade searching for the perfect boy to shell one of my extremely important characters. Tons of research, careful perusing of doll sculpts and owner photos never produced the right result, and I’d almost given up. Finally Luts released a free event head and I recognized my character in him immediately! Fortunately purchasing a body for that head was enough to qualify me for the event.

Another tough one was a long-time gaming character of mine. I must have shelled that girl half a dozen times before she finally stuck! And another gaming character took multiple tries before I finally figured out the problem was that he needed to be a boy instead of the girl I was trying to make him. Once I made him a boy, he immediately stuck on the very first try!

 

Due to the fact that I like the idea of smaller dolls (msd sized) but all my characters are 17+ it’s pretty tricky xD some are easy, others, not so much. Now in SD I can find all of them real quick. but then I’ll need to find the space xD

 

I got dealt with this issue hard with the main OC boy from my story.

He was the first I had shelled when I got back into the hobby in 2015, and had gone through five different head sculpts before I finally found the perfect one. For every one of those sculpts, I studied owner pictures for days before I even ordered them. Even so, there was always something...off about every single one of them. I was almost to the point of sculpting his head myself when I happened to do a trade for a Granado Galileo head that turned out to be surprisingly perfect for my guy.

He ended up going through quite an overhaul (I had to get a different body to work with his new head), but I finally have him the way I've always wanted him.

 

Hmm I'm still saving up for my second doll but I've decided on a sculpt, and I'm hoping it works out! I'll only know when I have her ready, I'll have to do my own faceup. I've gone through pretty much all the stores I could, and at first I wanted a fanged head because she's a vampire, but I'm thinking if I can mod her some fangs myself I don't have to worry about that, but it's not that important. The shape of her face is more important and always the nose was too long or too little, the mouth was wrong, the eyes were droopy, etc etc etc. I found 2 nearly perfect sculpts and one is of a SD unfortunately, they are a bit too big and expensive to me, so I picked the MSD. Already bought her wig and clothes, so I hope she'll look right when she's here and all is done!

 

My novel's protagonist has a very specific body type. Doll Chateau comes the closest, but lack the right body in the right size. She will remain a thought exercise for now.

For a different character I was shelling, I bought a close-eyed head and carved them open to the width I wanted. Would that work for you?

 

I've felt this before. Sometimes a doll face screams my character's name immediately (Iplehouse Vito literally made me gasp my character's name out loud!) But then some characters are so hard to shell. I got into the hobby in 2010 and from the beginning have looked for a doll sculpt for my twin characters. I finally got them last year. 8 years of searching led me to Souldoll Elan, then I had them on a year long layaway before the sculpt was discontinued. Somehow, the characters in that story always end up being dolls that are about to be discontinued, lol.

 

I would have to send the head to someone for them to do it since I don't have the nerve, but it could be an option! I wouldn't even truly mind the doll having completely closed eyes, it's just finding the perfect hard that's tripping me up