Name one thing you wish was different in this hobby

More ethnic variety in face sculpts! It's so easy to find white or white coded sculpts, a bit of a search to find realistic East Asian sculpts, and a headache to find anything else.

 

Preorders and wait times

 

How we've gradually started to accept longer and longer wait times and how it's just become normal to wait more than 10 months for an order (talking about pre-pandemic). The new normal is just really long wait times and then companies saying "well other companies take longer".

I wish companies were completely transparent with wait times and didn't just have "order ready in 90 business days" when in reality it's been consistently taking nearly a year.

 

Falling out of love with a sculpt before it even arrives yet, when you wait ten months that's a long time for characters to change.

...Being tied to specific sculpts because I'm a D&D nerd and they *have* to look like my characters.

Yellowing especially for fantasy colors, they turn swamp green!

 

I wish there weren't so many "rules" in the hobby. People get too judgmental over rules being broken in a hobby where being creative and breaking rules is kind of the whole point. At the end of the day it doesn't matter where a doll even comes from, its what you do with it to make it your own. I feel like this is the only art hobby where an artist/company presents a doll to you in the way they want it to be seen only for you to change it anyways.

 

Definitely wait times (I've only been waiting a month for my first one, and I'm already dreaming of the day that it arrives), also seemingly inaccurate time estimates on store listings. One of the parts that I ordered says the wait time is 3-4 months, but most if not all of the posts from owners that I've seen said that it took 6-7 months. I get that the increased time is likely due to Covid, but I wish they would update the estimated time to reflect that so that I don't get my hopes up. I don't expect to see my order until at least 6 months regardless because the head that I ordered seems to have a 6 month wait time as well, but I still catch myself occasionally thinking, "What if the body's wait time is actually 3-4 months and I won't have to wait very long?" Even though I know it will be longer than that.

 

I agree it would be nice to see more guys who are comfortable in the hobby, it's sad that we can't normalize it to the extent that we want.

Something else that bothers me is the negativity some long-time collectors have for newbies who don't know all the ins and out. Like how do you expect someone to learn when you are constantly criticizing them for not knowing something.

 

I guess...quality control? Idk, after my experience with my Miwa event head coming with a loose head cap and finding out that a loose head cap fresh out of the box was considered "normal" after seeing others having more secure ones out of the box was disheartening for me to say the least. I understand wear and tear over time but to accept such varied qualities out of the box shouldn't be considered "normal", at least I think so. She was my first Fairyland doll and after hearing nothing but good things for the price, I didn't expect the quality to be spotty like that, especially on a limited event head.

I don't expect perfection but paying a lot for a doll and finding stuff like that and finding out it was "normal" was very disheartening to me. I've put eye putty to help remedy this problem but still

 

I could probably go on about negative attitudes perpetuated by certain factions in the hobby, quality control issues, crazy wait times, or dolls/accessories not looking like their promo photos upon arrival. But there's one thing that's been an ongoing issue in the hobby for a good many years that needs changing, and only appears to be getting worse as time goes on.

Dollshe. If there was one thing I would change with absolute certainty, it would be his whole business model. Things that are in desperate need of change: time frames for doll production (it is outrageous that there are people waiting 3+ onto 4 years for a doll to be made and shipped), premature preorder releases (setting up preorders on sculpts that only have 3D renderings of them, and not even have a physical copy produced yet; he should at least have physical versions made and photographed for promotion photos before bothering to sell them!), using doll sales to fund the creation of outstanding existing orders (If he had a process of production, say...like Iplehouse, for example, he wouldn't be as backed up with orders as he is now, and wouldn't have to rely on new orders coming in to fund older ones), making promises he can't keep (yes, this covers the broad spectrum of his issues, but the most egregious example that needs mentioning is the expansion of size ranges he promised, and even set up preorders for—but never delivered on. He eventually decided he wasn't going to make them in that scale after all—after already taking people's money for those exact same dolls in those scales).

At this point, every bjd related group/resource across social media should be warning potential buyers about his scammer-like practices to save others the headache and potential financial loss in the event Dollshe never fulfills their orders—or in the event the business folds due to it's poor management. Nobody should have to fall victim to those sales of his, unknowing of the history that exists behind them.

 

There really is a lot to learn about this hobby! I agree! There's a ton of information and it's hard to know where to start, but more often than others, someone has already asked a question before or the information is already out there. Sometimes the question has been asked multiple times before and it does get old to see it. I feel like 10 years ago it was much more common to lurk for months and research before asking questions so that's why a lot of us are so crotchety about it.

@Tsukihime26 Fairyland's quality really has dropped in the last decade and I wish the current culture outside of DoA didn't hide that. You really wouldn't expect to get a doll with such defects from seeing how many ecstatic customers they have, but it seems like everyone wants to hide any negative feelings they have about brands.

@jade-eyed-cat I could not agree more and I wish I had a better way to warn people. I'm dreaming of the day he's declared a scammer so that (most) people stop sending him money and perpetuating this. Money will almost certainly be lost in this situation, which is awful, but just letting it go on makes the overall community loss even larger. It's so painful to watch and I feel awful for every customer involved.

 

I wish the dolls wont yellow with age. So sad to see dolls I have sent so much on just yellow.

 

So true to that!

 

In terms of pie-in-the-sky impossible wishes then I wish the dolls were free but the artists still got paid. Don't ask me how that would work.

In terms of actual realistic wishes. More European/UK dealers.

 

I have heard that there aren't many dealers in Europe/UK area, is it a logistics problem?

 

Either that the dolls were less expensive or that I had better will power.

 

I'm sure this has already been said many times, but I would certainly change the insane wait times for doll shipping, as well as the very high price of some dolls. I haven't spent $600 at one time on anything that wasn't rent or tuition!

But, I can appreciate all of the hard work that goes into them. They're art, after all! So that makes them definitely worth the high price tag

 

Same here agreed.

 

I think lesser wait times would be nice, but I do get why it takes fairly long. However, I will not order from a company taking more than a year to create the order tho. Overall I am very happy with this hobby

 

Cheaper shipping on small items! I want different hands for my DIM doll and the best match in size cost less then the shipping!

 

while i can agree that art is subjective and that ofcourse you should pay for limited things. Spending more on a set for an MSD, limited outfit, than a full limited outfir for my trinity doll seems entirely insane. Especially when i then sit with the frikking dress and the sewing is so shit that it barely holds it's own and all the large dresses for my Trinity is PERFECT... I can't say i'm a happy camper.
If you make cheap crap, please price if accordingly... If i pay 150-200 usd i EXPECT the outfit to be PERFECT and made at a certain quality. Not falling apart with barely a touch.

I won't be putting in names or anything, but urgh...

I'd like some companies to look at what they ACTUALLY make and price it more fairly is all i say...