Limited edition dolls

I only have one limited, and I wish she wasn't because now I am nervous about dyeing her. But I got her because I had a character I wanted to make and I had yet to find anything else like her on the market. It was not for status or anything like that.

 

I buy limited sets!! That way I can keep the special awesome clothes and if I don't like the doll I can sell the head and get a sculpt I do like

 

If I buy a limited doll it's because it fits a character I'm trying to shell. I do take into account that it might hold it's value better than a doll that's not limited, but I'm not buying it for that. If I don't like the limited clothing I don't BUY the clothing LOL I do wish now I'd gone ahead & bought my IH Dexter's pleather coat, tho

 

I have one limited boy and two limited floating heads, plus one unlimited boy. I purchased the limited boy (referred to hereafter as Alistair) because I loved his smug little face and because I wanted another boy to play with. The limited bit was more of a bonus than anything. Regarding quality, Alistair is the superior doll from a technical standpoint. He was intended by his makers to be a vampire and has the tiniest little molded teeth set into a smug little grin. His hands are also specially molded, with the fingers being tipped in fairly sharp claws. My unlimited boy (referred to hereafter as Johnny) is supposed to be a human, so his face has no teeth showing and his hands have normal nails. It can't have been easy for Dream of Doll to have molded those specialized pieces, or to paint them.

Overall though, the two dolls draw about even. They are constructed the same, they both came with nice company faceups, and their resin shows no signs of yellowing...not yet, anyway. They also have some quirks and perks that balance the playing field. Johnny is sanded all over, smoother than a baby's rear end, but he's also very top heavy. I can't trust him to stand up. Alistair stands like a rock, but his seams aren't sanded. Both have torso joints that kick like mad (in opposite directions, no less). So Alistair may have been harder to mold, but he and Johnny are on fairly equal footing in terms of who the better doll is overall.

Regarding my two limited heads, they're the same mold, FairyLand Juri 2013. I adore this mold, but there's nothing about these heads that scream "I'M LIMITED" like Alistair's head does. Johanna and Guinevere have pointed ears, but then so do plenty of unlimited FairyLand dolls, and lots of dolls that FairyLand DIDN'T make. So for me personally, limited dolls are just...well, limited. I don't get drawn to them solely because they're limited, but usually because they have some sort of attribute that caught my eye like pointed ears or in Alistair's case, that toothy little smirk. I don't think Alistair, Guinevere, and Johanna are any better or worse than Johnny and Chloe are. They're all just members of my resin flock and I treat them with great care and love!

 

All of my dolls are discontinued, some of them weren't "Limited", but they're now so old that you don't see them often.

I have a CP Shiwoo, DZ Wing (first gen), and Silverfox Yuu. Two small Pipos Cheshires and a Halloween Pipos Cheshire from 2015. Soom Fosy is on the way, but he's been the first doll that I've bought as a Limited fullset.

I would never buy a Limited doll as an investment, since it's never guaranteed to pay off. I've recently seen some dolls from the same generation as my oldest that were Limited and they're sitting at more than half the price they originally cost. It makes me sad, but the aesthetics of our dolls are changing constantly.

I *try* to only buy dolls that I wouldn't mind enjoying for a time and sell them knowing they might deprecate. Or with the intention that my doll is going to be loved until he's yellow and his resin starts to crumble from age. I have several dolls that my children will inherit when I pass.

 

I buy limited doll because she has something special from basic doll
and the most of all I like her! so I buy her.

 

In general. if I like a sculpt well enough to add it to my collection, it doesn't matter to me if it's a rare limited or as common as cornflakes. That's just not the way I pick who's going to end up as part of the crew... All that being limited means to me is that it may take longer to find the doll if I missed its original ordering period, or that it may cost me more than a readily-available standard would.

I don't treat my limiteds any differently than the others, either. I'm not a big believer in that hands-off, "mint in box"-thing, and I don't use little white gloves.

 

In large companies I almost never Care for LE Dolls, unless it is a really diferent resin color - specialy darker shades. But for smaller companies or Artists, that usually means small preorder time/ limited dolls, and then you either buy quickly, or might never find that sculpt again. * I cry for the dark resin ellana from lillycat i didn't get *

 

As others have said, I don’t think LEs are superior to the ‘basic’ dolls just usually one offs that are very hit and miss in my opinion. Some people love LEs and buy many, while others are happy to pass and go for the basic dolls. Sometimes it’s purely a customization preference, they’d rather have a blank slate than all the bells and whistles LEs usually come with.

I’ve a few LEs in my crew, I’m admittedly quite picky when it comes to buying them so they have to really hit me hard.

 

I'm not really looking for limited dolls. If i like a doll or the face and body attracts me then I go for her.. I want now a limited doll and that one is pretty expensive especially, because of the expensive body that can go with the head. So it's just because I like the doll. I don't buy dolls to re-sell but to enjoy it myself

 

Reviving a dead thread because I want to know!

I have a few dolls that were "one in ten" or something along those lines. I got them because I fell in love with the sculpt. Often it wasn't until later on that I realized how rare they actually were.

I think that Bettie Page (yes, that Bettie Page!) is my rarest doll. She really is 1 of 10. Bettie Page is a 2014 Dollmore Catish Girl Doll - Rule the Cat World Red Reaa fullset.


100_4811_zps5ff3c3cc by Ryuichi Sakuma, on Flickr

So to answer OP's original questions. I don't think she's aesthetically superior. I got her because I fell in love with her sculpt and fullset. I had already ordered her before I realized she was rare.

She's not a better product, but she does glow in the dark, which I think is pretty cool!

I had the money at the time, so she was one I ordered outright from the company. She was actually the very first doll that I paid in full, the previous ones were all done with layaway.

I wouldn't call me falling in love with her "unfortunate," its how I bring home all of my dolls. I fall in love with them, and they eventually come home and join my Crew.

Now I'm going to go read and see what everyone else has said so far!

Ryu

 

So this is my own personal take on limited vs basic dolls, from a business standpoint.

I think basics are the sculpts that a company is confident that will sell well, year after year. These sculpts are often "safe" in regard to aesthetic - they won't have demon horns, or sleeping eyes, or other atypical features. They're, well... basic. But basic isn't bad! I personally prefer many basics over the limiteds. These basic sculpts are their bread-and-butter revenue, so to speak, because they appeal to a wider consumer base. They're more affordable, they're a blank slate, and they usually have a more conventional look.

The problem that arises for the company is - how do they reel back the collectors who already have all the basics they could ever want, or the wealthier collectors who want something that no one else has? That's where limiteds come in. A company can pop some elf ears or mermaid fins or use purple resin on a pre-existing sculpt (reusing a basic sculpt for this is very cheap and easy), and bam, you've got an exclusive limited that you can sell to these collectors at a higher price-point. It's a smart business practice.

There are also those limiteds that are entirely new sculpts. I think this varies from company to company, but I think that sometimes, an artist will produce certain sculpts that a company is not sure will sell well as a basic, so they make it into a limited or event head. Though, I've seen other companies (like Fairyland) that churn out gorgeous limited sculpts, and I can't help but wonder why they didn't sell it as a basic! I'm sure they have a reason for it, though.

I personally prefer basics for aesthetic reasons, but if I see a limited that's simply a nice sculpt, I won't turn it away either. But I won't specifically buy a limited for the sake of having something exclusive.

 

This! As a collectore looking specifically for pointy eared dolls to add to my collection, elf ears or elf event heads seem to be limited releases. Unless you want vampire teeth.

I wouldn't purchase a doll because it was limited. I would purchase it based on if I liked and wanted it. To be fair a full set purchase would be the way I would go for a limited doll.

 

I wouldn't buy something just because it's limited, on a similar note, I won't buy something just because it's expensive. I don't care to pick them up as some kind of investment that might not play out. Its purely about the aesthetic appeal to me! I actually wish there was less limiteds just to make replacement easier.

 

Limited sculpts aren't particularly superior to non limited sculpts, but neither are they inferior. I tend towards buying limited sculpts, but that's because the companies I tend to like have either discontinued the sculpts I want, or only offer them in limited runs. One of my favorite dolls is my Souldoll Rye, who was not limited at the time I got her, but was since discontinued. If I were to decide to avoid buying limited sculpts, simply because they're limited sculpts, I would not have been able to shell the majority of my characters, simply because the sculpts that work best for them were almost all limited.

 

Out of 4 dolls I have only 1 is (theoretically) a limited. However that company she's from (Volks) are well-known of super obsessed in the word "Exclusive".

I mean, they have only 3 standard 1/4 sculpts and if you want the other(s) ... Which have about... 100 or more you can't get them via a normal purchase on the web site.

So, basically I'm just become to like my girl even she is a limited or not I think I'll still choose her.

The other 3 Dolls I'm having are non limited doll and I'm loving 4 of them equally (Or at least I think I am)

 

Lately I tend to buy limited dolls, not because I care about my dolls being "superior" in any way but because I like a lot of independent artists and small companies. My favorite doll company (dust of dolls) only releases sculpts in a skintone once and never releases that sculpt in that color again, so nearly everything they sell is limited in that way.

 

I don't buy dolls simply because they're limited, but that said I do have a couple limited ones in my collection, and another planned to be added. For me, I really enjoy fantasy parts because they make sculpts stand out more than your average doll- nothing wrong with a basic human, but I only have one doll whose character is intended to be that in my collection. As others have mentioned, the fact that limited dolls are, by nature, time limited does make me decide to order them over other dolls that I could pick up later on with no issue.

Like, if I like a limited doll and a basic doll enough to want both, I'll get the limited one first to save myself the hassle of tracking one down secondhand.
Layaways are especially nice for limited dolls because they often have very short ordering periods and aren't announced far enough in advance for someone to have that much spending money saved up before the event ends.

 

I like limited over basic for its worth. You cannot resale easily if it is just a basic. I often buy and sell when I don’t like them anymore. It is critical that they still worth something when I sell it

 

I have a few limited edition dolls. And I have actually miss some that I didn’t order when they were released….. I can totally fall in love with the limited because of the details on clothing or special items they have that makes them limited. But if you were to take those lil things away from it they’re exactly like other dolls. Still I don’t regret having my limited edition dolls. :-)