Mass discontinuation - How does it make you feel?

Yeah, it was totally unexpected to me. There's quite a few that I've been eying, but Mephisto and Kevin were the 2 I want the most. I'm hoping I can budget for at least one of them. I usually order through DDE so the layaway helps.

I think too though that it makes those sculpts more special to own. It's almost like they're limited dolls now, lol

 

I hate it and wish companies wouldn't do it. All it appears to do is cause massive stress and anxiety and hurt for people who's budgets are suddenly thrown into disarray and plans suddenly shattered. I feel like it's hugely unfair and there's got to be a better fairer way of doing it. Perhaps extending the period to 6 months, perhaps allowing year long layaways or even just discontinuing smaller batches at a time to allow people to budget, save and not have to chuck ideas and plans out the window or scrape together funds for an unexpected early purchase.

The only consolation is you can buy just the heads, which makes it less expensive a prospect than only full dolls but I feel sorry for those who wanted dolls who are also getting their bodies discontinued like Elisabeth.

I dunno, I just think it's crappy.

When souldoll did it it threw my plans into such a state and people we so lacking sympathy and kept telling me I should have "expected it" as if everyone has a grand set aside as "just in case a company decides to discontinue most of their dolls" fund which honestly is ridiculous. The whole experience nearly turned me away from the hobby completely. That may sound dramatic, but the feeling of abject poverty, of not being able to fulfil long held plans due to not having a wad of cash I could just throw at it and people effectively scoffing and telling me to "suck it up" made me feel very very unwelcome.
Now it's happening again with DC. Thankfully nothing I wanted from them is on the list this time, but it means others are in a situation I was with Souldoll and that SUCKS.

Mass discontinuations SUCK and they deeply hurt the less well off members of the hobby. We as collectors need to remember that 1: the plans people have for dolls MATTER TO THEM and can be massively important to them and 2: not everyone just has a few hundred bucks laying aside and have to plan their budgets very very carefully. Something like this can completely screw over all your plans, all your budgets and cause a great deal of financial stress.

I'm much of the attitude that dolls should bring joy, not stress, and I really honestly hope people can get the dolls they wanted and not put themselves into debt in the process.
I saw one person saying they were working 2 jobs to try to scrape the funds, that's awful.

Sure at the end of the day they're "just dolls" not an essential, but when you've poured so much time and energy into planning for something and then having it all ripped away in an instant, it's painful. It's not so bad when it's ONE doll you wanted, but when it's 3? 4? a dozen? all at once? You have to sit and give up half your plans, make difficult decisions you don't neccisarily want to make and hope like hell you can then buy the rest secondhand at a decent price which let's face it, is a pretty big ask unless it's a really popular sculpt. Especially as once something is no longer available the price tends to go up.

I think a lot of bjd people forget that this hobby is extremely expensive and for a lot of people it's literally the ONLY luxury they can afford to allow themselves.

So guys, I ask this, have compassion for others and if someone is finding this discontinuation hard, don't dismiss them, don't tell them "they're just dolls", listen, advise, sympathise. This is going to hurt people, don't trivialise their pain. Those dolls meant a lot to them, let them grieve.
okay?

tl:dr - I hate mass discontinuations, they're cruel and sucky and they cause people a lot of undue stress and upset.

 

Dollzone and Doll Chateau are sister companies, so while I wasnt exactly expecting the news, I wasnt too surprised either. Dollzone did the same thing a couple years back and got rid of a ton of sculpts including my favorite (msd Mo). At the time I panicked and bought another Mo in their (at the time)new grey skin, but in person the grey wasnt the tone I wanted so I did end up selling him. (It always seemed oddly green hued and threw me off) Luckily for me I already had a white skin Mo, and if anything happens to him their Noel sculpt is very similar.

I am concerned that DC is getting rid of all or nearly all their 60cm and 70cm dolls, because my partner and I do occassionally keep coming back to their 60cm boy body when thinking about a possible msd/sd of consenting age and probably not human anyway pair. But DC said that the bodies will still be available even if the heads will not (except Elizabeth's spider body) so hopefullly they are just redesigning their lines and choosing to go in a new direction?

DZ and DC are super popular and 6 month production time is the norm for them, so I wonder if the occassional trimming of their available doll sculpts is to help them keep from getting too far behind.

Sorry you guys are in the same spot I was in and scrambling to budget for the dolls you want. Since the bodies are supposed to stay for sale maybe try to at least grabs the heada you want for now and get bodies at a later date? Or go through bjdivas which has super flexible layaway (14 months is the longest one they have done so far. You just gotta email them to discuss what you need)

 

Posting more because purple_monkfish's point about Souldoll's discontinuation really hit hard. I try to block out that memory Dx

My Mo is the only non mature mini doll I own. The rest all have more proportional heads and look more like adults than children. This limits the number of companies I can order from and Souldoll was one of the few that fit that. When they did the mass discontinuation I was not in a position to order any of the heads that they offered, even though I wanted to. Im not sure if bjdivas didnt have souldoll yet or if I jjust didnt realise that they did. Either way it was right before my partner was going to have surgury so we were saving up for that and couldn't order dolls. It really, REALLY sucked.

I am glad DC is at least giving a 2 month notice on orders, including heads. Souldoll only giving you a 1 month window for heads was murder. I still really want their Yarn sculpt but doubt I will ever get one now. Now I am stuck watching Souldoll doing limited dolls and having to order those when offered without being able to see owner pics or being able to plan in advance.

Like I get that the company wanted to make things easier to produce for them but I agree a 6 month discontinuation window would have been way better for customers. Even if it would have made a backlog for them for a bit.

 

Well, now I am waiting for 2 dolls from dch and i really want spider body - pitty that i cant buy body without head :/ and i want other 4 sculpts as well - so welcome floating heads :/ like if they announce that they will discontinue the dolls after 6 months... it would be better... or if they do like replacement for dolls in smaller quantity but regularly - ok so we added 4 new dolls, in 3 months we stop produce other 4 models... it would be better than cut around 20 dolls at once... at least it is possible to buy head only... but still 4 heads and one spider its still quite pricey

 

I understand why they do it, molds take up a lot of space and if the dolls arent selling they gotta do something ...
I at least appreciate that Doll Chateau is giving a pretty big advance warning, until late March is a pretty good warning!

I hope that folks who want dolls to be discontinued can make it work and get their grails

 

To be honest, I was more surprised and shocked. Definitely not angry. Slightly annoyed since I had already outlined my 2019 doll plans, and it looks like I may have to change them -- but like @PumpkinKings, I appreciate the advance notice as well as the 15% off discount.

I don't think a lot of us really understand the dynamics of doll companies as well as their financials, myself included, so I'm not really in the position to say that this is a horrible decision by them, etc. This is akin to other companies discontinuing things that I love, so I can accept it. Realistically, even without the discontinuation, I'm not sure how long it would've taken me to even get all the Doll Chateau sculpts that I wanted.

Additionally, I think it's great that certain dealers like BJDivas do offer super long layaways for buyers, so hopefully people are able to get their grails before the discontinuation. (But this is coming from someone who was in the hobby before companies even considered offering layaways.)

 

I think DC are doing it because of Dream Valley, so I don’t think they necessarily want to! I think it’s just legally better/more respectful for them to retire that artist’s work now that they’re Dream Valley.

In that sense, DC is one company you maybe COULD have expected it from, since they split to Dream Valley!

That said, I do feel a little sad because whilst I don’t want them enough to purchase them, there are some lovely sculpts being stopped. The plus side to this though is that I’m very excited to see what both Doll Chateau and Dream Valley make, going forwards! Differentiating from each other will probably make even more unique dolls.

And yeah, two months notice means two months paycheques hopefully, which may help anybody wanting one to begin a layaway. Best of luck anyone getting one of the discontinued dolls!

 

Didn't realize one of their former sculptors decided to start Dream Valley (had to look them up). Interesting and good to know. Where is this information? I can never find any actual information about the companies. DC's website has a blank "about me" page. Dream Valley started in 2017 according to their page, but I can definitely see some DC aesthetic in their dolls.

BTW, I don't think it's a legal matter, though; typically, the IP that is produced while you work for a company remains with that company.

I also really question if DC and DZ are really "sister" companies (whatever that means) vs. parent/subsidiary relationship. Again, I can't ever find any business information about either that easily. DC didn't even bother posting the discontinued information on their own brand Instagram...

 

I really don't care. It's the circle of life. I may or may not decide to buy the Snow Nymph head from DC, but it's all up in the air.

If in 3 years I havent' bought one of their soon-to-be discontinued dolls, it means I didn't really want them to begin with.

 

Honestly, I enjoy looking at Doll Chateau sculpts (not enough to buy them though). I think mass discontinuation is sad for people who wanted those sculpts and had plans for them, but at the same time, at the end of the day, bjds are a hobby. We don't need bjds to live. Like a member mentioned above, dolls take up a lot of space. I feel like it's for the best. That isn't to say I wouldn't cry or be outraged by the discontinuation notice. For some people, dolls are their only enjoyment, so I understand that discontinuation would be very sad for them.

 

I really really wanted a sleepy but I was procrastinating, so this was a real kick in the pants! It kind of pushed me to get the doll I wanted, but I feel sorry for people who have grails on the discontinue list :'( I was suprised to see some of their more "popular" sculpts on the list, Alberta and Stacy were a real shock! I hope this discontinuation means that they're making room for new and interesting dolls, and I really appreciate the 15% discount! Bjdivas' long layaways will hopefully help too.

 

I hate it.... because its really hard to keep money and buy a doll. And its very painful when you finally get the money and them your doll doesn't exist anymore and sometimes its impossible to find it on second hand markets

 

Fortunately, I don't care for DC's sculpts. When Souldoll discontinued their dolls, I wasn't affected by it, because they had already discontinued the one other doll I might have ordered from them years ago (would be nice to have a version of the character after she got her scars as well as the version before she got her scars, but oh well). People tend to put off buying dolls they know are not limited, in favor of limited releases. Not necessarily because they don't like the non limited doll, but because if you have to choose between the doll you can only get for one, two week period, and the doll you can get any time, you'll probably get the limited one and assume you can get the unlimited one later.

But that makes it look like people don't want the unlimited doll, when that isn't necessarily true....

 

Wait, Doll Chateau and Dream Valley have a relationship? I hadn't heard of this before. I guess then it would make sense for them to discontinue the sculpts that their former sculptor worked on, even if they still own the IP. Didn't Iplehouse do something similarly, discontinuing some sculpts because the original sculptor left?

If this is motivated by Dream Valley, then I wonder if we're not going to see a major change in their aesthetic as they try to set themselves apart? I know that after Dollzone's mass discontinuation they came back with a pretty much completely different aesthetic. I'm interested to see what they'll do, though I admit I don't have an emotional stake in it because I was never interested in owning a Doll Chateau. Liked their work, just thought it wasn't for me.

 

I know that when Mint on Card was around the owners used to actually go in person to visit some of the doll companies overseas. They labeled DZ and DC as sister companies and said they shared a headquarters and casting facility. (Although I believe they got second casting facility later on because they were so overrun with orders between the two).

But that was many years ago, and honestly to me it looks like they should just merge the two. DZ is ALWAYS the one on tumblr to post new DC news, and there seems to be a lot of crossover style wise as time goes one. Many sculpts of DZ have been more "creepy" themed and feel a lot more DC appropriate (Tarot Star and Moon for instance.)

Like they could still label them Doll Chateau on their website if they wished, but both companies would be under one umbrella on one site. I think it would be easier on them if they merged because they wouldn't have to pump out as many limited event dolls when they make winter and summer events for both companies, and it would be easier for customers to actually meet event criteria, because swapping heads from one company to the body of the other is quite popular.

Buuuuuut thats all just my two cents on the matter from what limited knowledge I have. There could be a lot more going on behind the scenes on why they do things the way they do.

 

Yeah its sucky. I dont care much for DC but the Souldoll discontinuation hit me hard. I ended up ordering 2 heads and 2 full dolls because the sculpts I liked I never really saw for sale second hand. Definitly ask bjddivas for a long layaway if you need it. theyre really awesome. Its hard too because I had to miss out on other preorders I wanted because it was only a month long. Its just sad and I think if they need to do it, Give us a few months before a discontinuation event.

 

@Alaia Thanks for taking the time to explain more of the history! I completely agree with the Tarot series. To me, it seems more well-suited to the DC aesthetic. I think some of the later releases like Blanche seemed more DZ.

I'm now debating who I want to get. Difficult decision. May have to throw some heads in there, too!

 

@honeyedbiscuit Looks like you already got some explanation, but yep! DZ and DC were once one and the same, and they’re still practically the same company since all DC news is now through DZ. In 2017, at least one sculptor left DC to form Dream Valley. I don’t believe there is any animosity, I just think the artist(s) wanted to go it solo.

The sculpts that DC are discontinuing are likely to have something to do with the Dream Valley sculptor - at least this is the info from the dealer Angelesque. If DC are providing two months for people to put orders in, then I don’t think it’s because there’s any bad blood between DC and DV, they’re just making the effort to differentiate from that sculptor.

To me it actually seems like one of the most pleasant ways a discontinuation can happen! It isn’t because DC or DV are going under, or because the artists are unhappy. It’s because they’re each starting a new artistic era. I feel quite optimistic about it!