How long does it take for you to find the perfect shell?

I only did this once for a doll that's on the way now. I actually just chose the best fit I could find when I wanted to buy a new doll. Best shape of the face was what I went for. I chose within a week. Then again I think the head was perfect. XD

 

I have some character that was perfect from the start, that I don't ever think about reshelling. I also have characters that I reshell at least 3 times before I satisfied with the doll XD;;; I do have a character that have same - head but style/body/face up are changing over times too. It's hard to give a definite answer on how this is for me, I think being impulsive got to do with a lot of the changes that's happening. XD

 

I have several characters that were created based on my existing dolls that I've gone back and forth about choosing the right shell for them. Rourke's sister is proving a bit difficult for me. Where as her best friend has been decided for over a year now. I've had the characters for a couple years now.

 

For my first doll, I considered maybe 4-5 different sculpts (over the course of like 6 months) before choosing. I'm waiting on him, so I don't know if he'll really be what I have in mind - I don't think I'll need to re-shell him, tho.
As for future dolls, I've actually got a rough idea of which sculpts suit their characters, but I'm pretty sure others are going to need some re-shelling before I think they really match their character, or at least it'll take me a long while to find to find the perfect sculpt.

 

It depends, for one character it took months, and even then I was not 100% sure, it looked like my character but a little too childish, so I actually ended up buying a second head (that had not been released when I first ordered the doll) to use as a more mature version of her, while keeping the one I initially went for as a younger version, but if I waited a little longer I would have just gone for the more mature version.
For another character it only took me a few days to find a sculpt that just happened to be perfect for him, and now I've just been saving up to buy him...

Personally I wouldn't settle for something that doesn't feel exactly right, especially since I don't like the idea of reshelling as I also get attached to the dolls/sculpts, not just the characters... So if a sculpt seems close but not perfect, I learned from my previous "mistake" and now I would rather wait.

 

That depends a lot. Usually I don't have the specific physical features down, but I know who the character is and why it acts like it does. So when I am looking for a head I look for heads that can match the feelings I get from the character. Sometimes it takes just a few days to find it and other times I've searched for years.
It took me years to find the dolls to be my gods and then even longer to buy the heads because they were limited.

 

When I first laid eyes on, say, Doll Chateau Zenobia, she made a character in my mind. No other doll could ever be that character. I knew instantly. Some other characters (Jo, Frost, Rina) have all been respelled once or twice, when I just realized their original shell didn’t work. My new rule is to not buy unless it’s perfect, even if perfect doesn’t exist yet..

 

It really depends. I figured out my last two right away, but I really have a lot easier time shelling boys. I have a girl character I have been trying to shell for about seven years now and have never found a doll that reminds me of her to date.

 

The vast majority of my collection I "got right" the first time. But I have one stubborn straggler that took over 12 years to finally "stick" to a sculpt. And I'm only...97% sure its the right sculpt this time...

 

And it's not just faces that give people trouble. My boy Eli was set for his head right from the start. But then he went through four different bodies in three years before finally finding perfection for his character. The problem was his body hadn't existed for those previous three years. But when I saw the DollZone B60-005, I knew that was exactly what he needed.

 

I have had some where I chose the doll before I even fully finished writing the character so the character ended up being written around the doll.

Other times, it has taken me anywhere from a couple of weeks to months to even years! And sometimes I do buy the best option available, but reshell later if something more fitting comes along. For example, Hailey was first shelled as a Mystic Kids Miri, and at the time, it was perfect for her. She was 14 and still looked young. But as she grew up, got married, planned to be a mother, she needed a more mature sculpt, and I ended up reshelling her as a Loongsoul Michelle.

 

With a lot of them it goes pretty quickly for me. If I am looking for a sibling or other family member that is going to show up, then I tend to look in the same company, so this limits where I am looking. Recently though I needed a father for a Dollzone SD boy, and from what I can tell Dollzone stopped their 70cm+ line. I had to search outside the main character dolls company. I settled on Loong Soul for the dolls father, and the dolls cousins will be coming from Loong Soul now.

I do tend to have the character in mind first most of the time. Sometimes a part of the script is written before I order the doll, but I try to find the doll first before I write. However when looking for personality of a future character I make a list of what I want to see in the character and look for something that shines through in a doll to show me that what I am looking for is there. Most of the time I do find a doll fairly quickly to suit what I am looking for.

Sometimes it can take awhile. I will have a character churning in the back of my head, I guess there is usually a few characters doing that. But then it feels as if the character is never going to make it out of my head, because somehow none of the dolls that I have looked at seem to suit what I am envisioning and no faceup is going to change that, and then out of the blue I might see someone else's doll, or a doll being sold, and then I am like 'Oh! There you are! It took you long enough!' It's usually because I didn't look at the right company for the dolls, but some of them to take awhile to find the right doll for.

 

I have learned to be very patient with myself when I’m looking to shell a specific character…to take my time with it, and just keep that character in the back of my mind for however long it takes. My characters for my BJD fantasy world are extremely important to me, and it comes down to almost an “instant recognition” when I finally stumble upon them…an “Oh hello, there you are” response. Basically, I’ll know them when I see them. Some choices were able to be made very quickly, within a few days. But some took much, much longer to find. My latest preorder was for a character that took me about 5 years (and two false starts) to find. Another character simply needed a size upgrade, but took me 8 years to find. And one of my main characters took me an entire decade to find the perfect sculpt for him!

 

How long has it taken you to find the perfect shell for a character? It hugely depends on the type of character you're looking to shell (fantasy vs human, I mean). Overall, finding a certain sculpt to shell a certain character you have in your mind will be challenging and can take from days to years depending on what you're looking for and what's available. Fantasy attributes are fairly common nowadays in doll form (centaurs, vampires, animal-related, etc.) but that wasn't the case in the past.

Or is it a never ending process of "compromising/settling" and reshelling? I think it's nearly impossible to find the 'perfect' sculpt for that idea in your head and you'll always have to compromise even if you're willing to do hybrids and such. And sometimes you think a sculpt will do nicely and when it comes home it can happen that it doesn't fit the way you thought it would (for examplem it's features are too mature/childlike in comparison to other dolls that are supposed to be in the same story as that doll) and you have to sell and find a new option and that's not bad.