I take issue with the term 'Random Eye Color'! Do you?

What Lulu said.

Indeed.

This can be an - intimidating hobby. The dolls are expensive, the bits and pieces needed to complete them can be as well. But so much of it, I believe, should be about serendipity. I get my best outfit ideas from finding some random bit of fabric and letting it take me in an interesting direction. Don't many of us (especially the tiny addicts) love coming across things? "Oooh, this will work perfectly! Great, it's just the right size!"(Ignore the squeeing noises - it's something tiny owners have no control over).

When I got my first doll, ED Red, I had loved the red eyes in the promo pics, but mine came with deep blue. Loved 'em, and they are still his eyes today. ED Yumi - I would never have chosen golden for her, but they again worked beautifully. I had a planned colour for one of my tinies, PKF Flora, but she came with turquoise acrylics, and again opened up my eyes...no pun intended...to colour possibilities. So she will get glass turquoise. I'm not scared of colour, I'm an artist, but I am scared of wasting money. So, having a growing collection of "random" eyes to try out is very helpful. Like I said, colour, material, size and shape of doll's eyewell, there are lots of variables. So I like the "random eye" thing. Serendipity.

 

There is nothing wrong with random eyes being random. They are free. They are place holders till something else can be found. They often are a surprise you would of never thought to use. They are an arsenal of changeable FUN surprises that are.. Free.
I love it when I rummage through free eyes try out different sizes and have new ideas. I'm not buying something that I am unsure about.
If you don't like your freebie eyes, I'm sure a ton of pranks could be pulled off with unwanted eyes. Especially on non-doll people. (gluing half domes to people's foreheads while passed out, I think yes!)

Plus, companies will tend to try to honor a request. Ive made mine simple instead of DEMANDING what color I wanted. I simply politely asked if it could be honored I not be sent a specific color. Sometimes you get more of what you want, when you don't ask for what you want. But you ask for what you don't want, to not happen.

If you are so picky over say BLUE eyes, I'm sure the blue eyes you would request (and get sent) won't be good enough. The mind is a fickle stubborn thing.

 

Quoted in its entirety, because - holy smokes! - this needed to be said.

 

I have received dolls from companies that had no eyes as part of the deal and they did not even offer eyes on their websites to order something with the doll.

It is my opinion that any eye is better than no eye, so random does not bother me.

As many people have already stated, many companies are open to eye colour suggestions if you have something in mind in acrylic to start with for your doll. In my case, I have requested specific eyes before from different companies and some have done it and some haven't. If they don't and I see eyes on their site I like, I order them with the doll so they arrive together and problem solved!

Dollmore has always been accommodating and I always select the inexpensive acrylics with the product number listed in the comments so they know exactly what I want placed in my doll's head. They even did this for my little Elf Elly Banji and Lime - size 6mm eyes!

Fairyland has been good with colour requests as well.

I have let some of my dolls come without requesting anything specific, letting the company have fun with my doll. My second Puki and my Pukifee are wearing the inexpensive acrylics FL put in them because the eyes are really nice in colouring.

Luts has NEVER taken eye colour requests. Luckily the eyes from those dolls ended up being used for other dolls.

In fact, many times the perfectly wrong random eyes I got in one doll ends up being the absolutely perfect eyes for a doll I purchase a few years later. So I don't discount random eyes - they just may be the pair that brings your doll's character to life!

Dream of Doll put in blue eyes like I requested in one doll and put randoms in another doll because I already had the perfect eyes purchased and waiting for the doll a year before I even ordered him.

I yanked the Volks eyes out of my two Yo boys and replaced them with glass. They always put in eyes that look too large and the plastic makes them look vacuous. Glass two sizes smaller (16mm to 14mm) brings out their character and gives them some intelligence.

I like random eyes. I have two overflowing craft drawers to prove it!

 

I'm so glad someone brought capitalism into this, because it cuts right to the heart of the entitlement syndrome that seems so rife in this hobby. It's ridiculous that people continue to expect (from a commercial point of view) that this hobby will somehow function differently from the rest of the world.
Cash gets you stuff. Feeling entitled gets you... a hernia.

 

Chibaraki and Cami_Hat - I applaud you both!

I'm always thrilled to get anything 'extra' even if it is termed 'random' or otherwise. When Dollmore send out stickers and badges with purchases, I'm always happy at the gesture, they don't have to do it and it certainly should not be expected. ^^

 

I'm just glad they bother to send dolls with eyes included in the first place! The beauty of BJDs is that you can change virtually anything, so I don't have a problem with my dolls coming in with brown acrylics when I know there's thousands of other options out there to choose from. I'd be mad if they sent a fullset doll with eyes different from what they had pictured, but otherwise, I prefer choosing the eyes I want later. Most companies send your doll with dead-eyed acrylics by default, so I'd much rather shell out $15 for a set of livelier glass eyes in the color I want rather than settling for the same thing in the companies' grab bag of acrylics.

 

First:

Chibaraki and Lulu your posts make me happy.

Second:
[Any you and you're in here are purely general and not aimed at anyone or anything]

No, I don't take any issue with the entire 'random eye color' thing. In my opinion it's one less thing I have to scramble and worry about buying. There's already the wig, the shoes, the clothes, the accessories, and what ever the heck else you buy so your doll isn't naked by the time they get home so I'm happy eyes is one thing I can cross off my list. So if anything I'm grateful for the eyes the company sends with the dolls. I have only ordered two dolls directly from a company and with my first girl I can honestly say I love her random eye color. Is it the one I want for her? No. Will she be getting new ones? Yes. But until then I'm happy with them and I honestly don't mind keeping them in until I can afford the pretty urethane eyes I want to get for her. My second girl isn't here yet but at the very least I know I just need to worry about getting shoes and a wig for her now, eyes aren't an issue.

Honestly I have an issue when people say they have a right to anything. No you do not have the right to choose the color eyes that the company sends with your doll. You can ask them to change it and you're more then welcome to buy a pair, those you're entitled to because you paid for them. But other then that just be grateful the company offers the option because some companies don't so that's even more money out of your pocket aside from what you've already spent.

Not only that but think about this and I'm using myself as an example here:
My favorite company, Iplehouse, offers the option of selecting the eye color with the purchase of a doll.

Yay!
But wait, the blue I want is out, drat.
Ok, I'll go with green.
None of that either. Ok.
Hazel maybe?
No? Seriously people!
Ok we'll go with purple.
Not even that? Ok, really, really? Do you just hate me today?

Eventually it's probably going to get to the point where the color you want is out anyway so you'll end up picking no eyes or random eyes anyway.

I do think it would be nice if there was an option to include the eyes shown in pictures of limited dolls though, kinda like how Angell Studio does, but that aside I'm good with what I get.

 

Oh I'm so glad someone caught my silly and ran with it. I'm generally insane when it comes to language mis-use, so when what the actual question asked was something different than what people were discussing... I couldn't resist.

That would be darned random, too, wouldn't it. "Why is your doll wearing 'THOSE'?" "Oh they were the default random eyes..."


(right up there with people who misuse words like what you do with havoc... you WREAK havoc, not wreck it..... and other fine turns of phrase!)


Oh and I have to add my applause to the posts by Chibaraki and Lulu. Great stuff.

 

(Generic non first-person pronouns are generic, mmm'kay)

Well. Okay then. This is just the silliest thread I have come across in a long time. I try not to call threads silly but...


Are people really griping at companies for providing something they are under no obligation to provide? That they, in fact, charge extra for in other parts of their store?

I mean....really? We're that ungrateful and entitled?

For my own part, companies who send eyes with their dolls are awesome. I really don't care how completely random those eyes are, whether they be blue, brown, red, mismatched or the wrong damn size (which I now kind of want to see a company do, thanks to reading this thread). They are providing me with something above and beyond the basic doll I just ordered from them. Thank you, Doll Company, for being cool enough to think of me, your customer, and provide me with things for my doll that I might find useful.

Companies who send wigs with their dolls are more awesome still. I don't care if it is the craziest, most out-there wig that I could never, ever see any of my dolls wearing ever. The company is still awesome for including it and not charging me for it.

And while I get what the OP is trying to say, they are making a flawed point. From their initial post:

The key word here is not random, but option. You have the OPTION to select a faceup. Some companies even give you the OPTION to customize that faceup. You have the OPTION to select a different skin tone. You have the OPTION to select jointed hands, or a different sized bust or jointed torso or foot style. Some of these OPTIONS cost extra (faceup, jointed hands, etc). Some don't. But they are things you can choose to do or not to do during the ordering process.

If a company lists random eyes being included, well, that's about as clear as one can make a sales listing. It is INCLUDED in the price of the doll. Therefore not an OPTION. It is RANDOM. Therefore you have no say. You can make a request, but the company is under no obligation to fulfill it.

Most doll companies give you the OPTION to select a specific pair of eyes or wig if you want them. All one has to do is go to their eye or wig section of the store and pick what one wants and PAY FOR IT. Problem solved.

This is the BJD world. Customization usually costs extra.

I can't even believe people are getting upset about something so trivial. Shouldn't we all know this by now?

 

Well, for the 'wrong size' part of it, I did recently receive a doll with eyes that appeared too big for the sculpt, but then again, I'm a bit weird when it comes to eye sizes. >_> Then again, I didn't even realise that eyes were included, because he was the first non-limited I'd ever ordered direct from a company. O_o

But I do think a lot of posters have already pointed out what really bugs me about this thread and threads like this: entitlement issues. I have no idea if there's been more of it lately, or that I've just been around more to see it, but I realise that I don't enjoy it, soooo, I should probably screen myself from participating in this kind of threads in future. X3

 

I call Bull! Luts has! I asked for light blue glass when they offered glass and got them. I have asked for other colors, in glass!, and gotten them. Maybe NOW they do not, but they did then.

And getting random eyes doesn't bother me either. I'm going to be changing eyes soon for dolls. I can sell the others.

 

Point 1: You say the eyes come as part of the doll fullset. So fair enough, you are paying for them. But you don't get to specify/make demands about the rest of the fullset, like, what shoes you get with it or whatever. So why should it be different for the eyes?

Point 2: They are doll companies. They sell dolls. Isn't it a little much to expect them to have a huge supply of all types of eyes just for our convenience? The "other options" you get to vary are all related to production of the doll, which is the job of the doll company. They don't manufacture eyes themselves.There are many eye companies which specifically manufacture and sell doll eyes. If CiG for example sent me a pair of random eyes, I'd have justification to be upset. If I ordered a fullset doll and it came with a random pair of eyes I would either keep them, or sell them on and use the money from the sale to buy a replacement pair that suited my needs, from either an eye company or the marketplace.

Conclusion: I don't really understand your issue here. It seems like making a mountain out of a molehill. I work in retail and I face many "entitled" customers who seem to have an inflated idea of how far the company should go out of their own way, at significant cost to themselves, purely for the sake of the whims of a few individual customers. I don't understand that mentality.

 

The part I highlighted is so true. I would rather my doll come with something - even a terribly ugly pair of eyes - to act as a place-holder until I got a better replacement than an eyeless doll.

 

To be Honest it doesn't really bother me, I kind of like the surprise of which ones she came with. Of course I plan on purchasing the 'perfect pair' anyways, it doesn't bother me to much, although I completely understand why it would irritate other doll owners, it IS a lot of money to be spent on something your not 100% satisfied with.

 

It would be really cool to me to be able to pick the eye color, of course. But I definitely understand the issues that would come along with it (it must be so much easier for the company to just toss in whatever extra set of eyes they have than having to keep track of who wanted what and keeping tons of every color in stock just in case...or even making people wait longer to get odd or out of stock colors). So no, it doesn't particularly bother me, especially when there are plenty of sites that let me order whatever eyes I want whenever I want them, hahah.

 

It doesn't bother me. Why on earth would I get upset about a pair of eyes, when it's the actual doll that really cost the money and that I'm concerned with. You can request that a company give you a certain eye color, but there will be no guarantee that they will have it in stock -- and most of the time you're talking pretty inexpensive acrylic eyes that are no biggie to replace. If the doll came with more expensive glass eyes that you didn't like, you could actually sell those and get a little extra cash. You know, dolls don't have to come with eyes -- many non LE dolls don't come with wigs. You are paying in most cases for a blank doll that you will finish to your own satisfaction. Yes abjds are expensive -- there are good reasons for that--they are also meant to be finished by their owners. Some companies are just nice enough to throw in a few extras so our dolls aren't bald and eyeless while we figure out what we want to do with them.

 

I have one on order that if I ordered even fullset, I'd have to purchase eyes as the eyes are sold out. Even the basic comes without eyes. Luckily I have eyes here so I'll try those first in her.

 

I totally agree with you on this issue thank you for bringing up this topic. When i got my first doll, I liked the color of her eyes but I'm sort of in between buying glass eyes or acrylic and whether or not to keep her default eyes as is. On the other hand, when I got my third doll, she had random glass eyes. I like them a lot, but they did not compliment her face well. So I did buy another pair of eyes and I like them much better on her now. With that being said I also thinking of buying more eyes for all my dolls that way when I take pictures of them in different outfits, they would compliment the outfit or the wig. My guess is that choosing eyes or wigs is a process of elimination, but I think dolls companies do that so that you can buy more stuff. Plus you could keep the default eyes and try them on another doll that you get or just sell them

 

Some companies don't offer free eyes to go with the doll (like Dollshe), so to me "random eyes" are a bonus. It's just a nice freebie that the company throws in with the doll, they don't have to do that. Some companies like Ringdoll offer free face-ups, so would you complain about how they painted it? I sure wouldn't.