Mistakes Made In The Hobby

Sort of an ongoing one: I honestly forget that my dolls should have shoes, because I don't wear shoes in the house and the dolls are in the house.

 

1) deciding to trade a brand new very expensive doll for clothing items that didn't amount to the her cost...even remotely. I'm still upset years later that i didnt tell them I was unsatisfied with the transaction.

2) purchasing bodies for heads without researching it first.

3) purchasing odd sized dolls then wondering why I can't find clothes easily to fit them.

 

1. I bought 2 very expensive dolls in physical shop, but could get them 50% cheaper.
2. I used black wig without cup, it left spots on resin.
3. I used wet sponge to clean doll face, part of make up was out.
4. I didn't ask seller to wash away make up, the head was stained.

And long time ago I thought that a bid made of porcelain

 

1) Not being sufficiently patient. I could have waited for events (freebies! discounts!).
2) Not wanting dolls to be naked, therefore buying them clothes that they are unlikely to wear once I have made them their own outfits.
3) Absolutely wanting to shell one of my characters at a given time, instead of waiting for the perfect doll to come along. (Normally I fall in love with a doll and buy it if I can find a character fit.)

Fortunately, after nearly four years in this hobby, I have got a little bit wiser. Probably less than I would have liked, but still .

 

Haven't even gotten my first doll, and reading all these scare me >< what if I don't like how my grail doll actually turns out in real life?? That's a really sad thought ...
But some mistakes I've made, since falling in love with dolls:
1. Thinking that expensive dolls are the only dolls, and not even bothering to look at cheaper dolls (TOTALLY REGRET THAT)
2. Convincing myself that a doll isn't nice at all when I actually really, really like it. I got a feeling it's peer pressure that's making me like this.
3. NOT SAVING UP FOR THE DOLL THAT I REALLY LIKE, and attempting to settle for something lesser. THank god I always slapped myself before purchase.

Right now I'm just waiting for the one to come. And shall avoid scrolling through doll sites, just in case. Don't want to get myself a second doll before I've even held my first!

 

I do this one, too. At most I wear these little ballet-slipper type shoes around the house, so it's anybody's guess if I'm going to remember who is or isn't wearing shoes in a photo.

Not strictly doll-related, but I'm also very bad about remembering to check what's going on in the background of a photo before I take it. So sometimes I have to do some creative cropping.

 

Impulse purchases. I used to be like a kid in a candy store overwhelmed with choices. Now I know my style and stick to it!

 

Buying a doll because of face up and not sculpt

 

Oh yeah, exactly!

And my number one failure, believing those amazing Photoshopped photos on manufacturer sites and thinking that's what's it's going to be like when that doll comes home. Instead, there's frizzy hair, wig falling off, dress that doesn't fit as well, and of course those impossible poses, where your doll falls over, knocks over your glass of juice and takes out those other three dolls you had for that group photo.

I'm definitely more realistic about my own expectations and my own abilities in the hobby. I used to be fascinated with fantasy dolls and parts but these days I'm more into the simple dolls, ones that don't have crazy jointing or high tech gizmos or attachments. I don't have time for a five hour twister session to get a doll stand no matter how realistic or amazing it looks when done....though I jealously admire the photos of those who do....

 

First faceup, didn't have access to a sealant..problem was it was an Obitsu Haruka, oops! Yeah, couldn't get it off. Maybe this was a good thing, I later learned I am allergic to MSC ^^;

First restringing, only happened because I oopsied an s-hook and it got a little stuck in his leg. Well, I learned how to restring dolls pretty quickly.

Sticky things on head to keep wigs on leave marks that take a lot of scrubbing to get off ^^;

Make sure female dolls have clothing that not only fit their bodies, but their busts. My old Bobobie Pandora holed three dresses because they did not fit her chest ><;;;

Taking a doll off a shelf and not paying attention to the one that was sitting next to him. Tiny goes flying, end of elf ear goes snap and disappears. Well, at least having a broken ear actually suits the character well :3

Ordering outfit for yo-size doll and not realising that his hands would be an issue to getting it on. Old Bobobie body as well, string goes through the wrist and not an s-hook. His left upper arm, forearm and his head both took several turns in rolling under the bed while I wrestled with reknotting his arm string through his sleeve ^^;

Restringing my second doll too tightly. He is an old Angel of Dream doll, his headcap is held on by the end of the neck hook connecting to a bridge inside the headcap. Of course, I restrung him so tightly that I do not actually have the strength to remove his head. Its annoying, he still doesn't have a faceup and I can't take his head off so he can get one ^^;

Oh, the trials of dolls :P

 

I almost don't want to post in this thread in case I jinx myself as I haven't made any real mistakes so far. True I've messed up faceups while doing them but it's all part of learning and nothing I couldn't fix. I think the only thing I couldn't mend was the magnet I snapped in half because I was too lazy to pick it up so I waved another magnet at it. But hey, now I have two magnets. Two sharp edged magnets.

Oh hang on, I also cut my finger trying to separate toes. But I must have learned cos I didn't bleed a bit when I did an eye mod!

 

I started with buying a Doll I couldn't deal with him and I couldn't do the things I wanted to do. I realize this a bit too late and bought a second Doll from the same company. I sold both Dolls, it was the hardest thing I ever did but after selling them and buyng a new Doll of another company I am happy about I did it. I love my new Doll and I can do with him everything I wanted to do and have planed. I almost forgot about my mistakes and actually see my Doll as my very first Doll.

After this I bought Eyes I didn't liked XD but that's just a small thing.

 

Biggest mistake so far - taking a month to do an elaborate photo story w/several different scenes, but not immediately saving the photos on my external hard drive, loading them up on Flickr nor even syncing my phone - so of COURSE I sit down in front of my computer to finally save the photos & oOOps the computer DIES...I've had to redo all the photos sob

 

Oh Teleri, I feel so bad for you. That's awful.

The worst mistake I made was when I used a metal dentist tool to move a hair off my doll's face while doing a photo shoot. I wasn't wearing my glasses at the time and did not see the black scratch across my doll's cheek until I had the image blown up on my computer screen. Then I almost died, checked my doll, and yes, I have given her a permanent scar!

 

So [MENTION=23952]koka[/MENTION] how do the magnetic hands clip on and off? When I get my Minifee, what can I do to avoid making this mistake?

 

In some of FairyLand's smaller dolls, there is a locking mechanism. MNFs, for better or worse, do not include this mechanism, so you won't have to worry about damaging it.

 

I was a little hard on my first girls wrist joints and used pant brushes to keep the string in place when I went to blush her nails.... She got a small chip from that, now I know to put something between the joint and the brush handle so that doesn't happen again.

 

1. Ordering jointed hands at 4 a.m., and sleepily ordering them in the wrong resin color.
2. Ordering a cheap wig.
3. Standing my doll up against a tree (sit your dolls down!). His face flew quite a ways, but he was mercifully no worse for wear.

Those are my big ones. I have been blessedly lucky and have not made many mistakes, which is not to say everything has been perfect. Still, at least a lot of the time it's not my fault! Ha ha!

 

1. Buying a first hand doll from then new Chinese doll company, without checking reputation or photos from other owners.
The doll ended up to have a really weird skin colour that made me very sad. (It was some greyish brownish hue despite it's meant to be "normal skin")

2. Buying a limited edition doll with a lost head plate. And the price then was not low enough to compensate the head plate.

3. Buying a doll because its lower price, instead of buying a doll I truly liked.

 

Buying an in-stock fullset last February from MoC because - well, it was cheap (relatively!) and in stock. The doll is cute but not my style, and I don't like the posing, so she never leaves the box. One of these days I need to get around to taking photos and selling her.

The Big Bag o' Really Bad Wigs. Turns out a $5 wig isn't necessarily a bargain.