Name something you wish were different in major bjd companies

Seconding this. There are so many gorgeous 3D-sculpted BJD bodies out now, but they pose and handle poorly because they weren't play tested enough before being sold. Dolls are not simply an aesthetic experience, they are also a tactile one, and it would be nice if the tactile experience wasn't left behind for the sake of aesthetics.

I am begging for companies to take more photos of their resin tones and dolls in good lighting conditions. So many companies show samples taken in dark rooms/with lots of shadows and it's impossible to tell how those resin tones will translate to real life, especially if you're looking to hybridize. Sure, it looks dramatic and pretty for promotional purposes, but I don't want to buy something that expensive based on promo photos alone.

 

It's already been said many times, but it bears repeating:
More and clearer pictures of the doll! It's impossible to tell what the doll actually looks like when all the photos are weirdly cropped and only show the face from one angle. Agh, just give me the boring no-pose standing straight full-body shots so I can tell if the arms are out of proportion or not! And side profile, why do so many doll companies seem to be fatally allergic to showing their dolls' side profiles??? Lemme see what that nose looks like from the side!! >:0

Also not giving clear measurements. This is more an issue with artist cast bjds, but companies also do this. We need to know more than just the height of the doll- thank you very much.

I very much second this! Just clearly mark the L and R bits

 

I wish more companies offered more than 20 fullsets or some weird number like that and actually offered the outfit/wig/special parts on their own for the duration of a limited run. I remember when SOOM would have the outfit available for the full run of the limited doll and not just 20 of them.

 

Dollstown is really good in this as every head and body has blank pictures from every possible angle, and a posing showcase. No bells and whistles. You get a clear idea of what you're buying.

 

I agree fully with showing the profile and would like to add to that showing blank heads at all angles kind of like Iplehouse do (although they rarely show actual side profiles and tend to go for angle shots) using lighting that shows the sculpt shape. I want to see what I’m getting and Fairyland in particular are dreadful for showing one picture of the blank faceplate or head that is so flatly lit you can’t see the features very well.
Oh and sitting pictures for the body….if I don’t see straight forward sitting pictures especially from the side I get suspicious!

What I’d mainly like to see is more additional parts selling and top to toe selling in general. What I mean by that is ‘here is our new doll, it’s an odd size but we also sell a nice range of wigs, eyes, clothing to fit’ rather than ‘here is our new doll, it’s an odd size….good luck finding anything mwahahahaha’ which is what it feels like.

 

I know I might be the odd one here but I wish they made the websites easier. Some are too complicated or messy for newbies.

 

@v1rus you’re certainly not alone with that thought, I find that too! The websites are horribly cluttered, hard to navigate, menus that make no sense or drop down menus that should be the same but are different from the bar menus, poorly labelled pictures, loads of flashing or animated pictures which hurt your eyes or slow down whatever you’re using to view said site. Quite a few dealer sites are like that too which makes me very reluctant to ever order anything through them.


I know they aren’t everybody’s choice but I do wish more companies would offer ‘sleeping’ heads or faceplates of their sculpts. If you like taking photos especially there are certain emotions you just cannot capture with open eyed dolls no matter how you try and it’s frustrating.
I just found it odd how it’s easier to buy changeable genitalia than it is to buy a sleeping head for a doll

 

As much as I would love for everything else mentioned on this thread, especially when it comes to skin tone variety, sending dolls unstrung is for me one of those "I'll die on this hill" things. It's easier for them to send that way and cheaper for the customer that I just don't understand why it isn't a standard.
I really don't understand why it's so difficult to offer the option for them... It should also make the doll slightly cheaper if we count that they would save on the labour/time of having to string it and the custom big boxes.
I always ask if they can send the doll unstrung and the answer is most of the times no, or they simply don't even understand and answer with a "don't worry, the doll comes with the box and everything"...
I find it very frustrating

 

Actually almost the whole waiting time is simply waiting in line for the factory to fabricate your dolls. So for most doll company with their own factory, like Iplehouse and Iuts, outside the period of events, the doll can be shipped within a month. So I really don't understand some company, for example Loongsoul, stack their orders until the waiting time exceeds sometimes 8 months. It's really a big company and they pose all the financial pressure on the customers.

Yes ! And more accessories for odd sized dolls (it's such a pain to buy shoes for mnf )

 

That companies stop making super longer legs just to call a doll 70cm!

 

I know It would be expensive for the company but, I would love to have dolls offer in different sizes ( like 1/3 and 1/4 for one doll, at the same preorder time). Sartoriaj did this with their David body and the two boys head in dec, and I loved that ^^.

 

A lot of companies have links directly to their dealers and don't do direct ordering, or they make direct ordering difficult, like having to email them and specify the order etc. While I don't mind using a dealer. It would be nice to be able to easily order directly from some of the major companies that do not offer this.

 

It's possible to order directly from most Chinese BJD companies -- by going all the way to where they are, which 95% of the time is Taobao, all of them have a Taobao store. Which means going through the rigmarole of getting a verified account on Taobao, and then the next rigmarole of getting verified for payment methods (which requires disclosure of ID). But once you're through, you can generally shop freely. Then, since many Chinese companies don't ship directly overseas, you have to figure out how to get the goods delivered to you, which usually involves a warehousing/freight forwarding service (direct like Cainiao, or a proxy like Superbuy or Parcelup). And you may have to communicate with customer service in Chinese, which can be daunting, but machine translation is excellent, most companies know that foreigners are buying from them, and some c.s. can use English.

I suppose if you want to cut out the middleman of the dealer, you'd have to go to where the Chinese companies are, and handle things on their turf, on their terms - do everything the dealer usually does on your behalf. There's a learning curve to it, but it's possible to do, and I find it worthwhile. How to Tao is a good guide on starting out on Taobao.

 

Talk about not showing the blank sculpts: there are companies who don't even show the doll bodies anywhere on their site, or do not list the measurements on the dolls' pages.
I've searched on this large company's site, down to the FAQ and every other section. Nope, not a single picture of the body. All the dolls are shown clothed in fullset outfits. It makes me write off the company really quickly if they're listing all the disclaimers about marbling/seams/bubbles but don't show the actual doll they're selling.

 

I gotta agree with this. The tall girl bodies that are coming out lately are just SD bodies with ridiculously long legs. The DZ body's shank is longer than her whole torso. Long legs are pretty but there's a limit please...

 

If companies have an odd sized doll, I would adore them if they would stock clothes for them more often, or ideally, offer some basic patterns for sale! I have a hard time creating base patterns, but I can work up to and adjust things to be more elaborate if I have the basics.

I love my Rosette Doll Fir, but she is very hard to find clothes for. Soom did not ever sell very many clothes or shoes for these dolls. This was such a niche line of dolls and I think most of us who own them would have been really happy if some more basics or patterns had been available!

 

In order to not post something totally redundant with what I said in another thread, I'll go with this one: I wish companies who sell beautiful, complex fullsets (like Loongsoul) would post a dressing tutorial video for each of their dolls!

Look, I'm fashion-illiterate even with the simplest clothing, but add in historical/cultural stuff with 1,000 layers and I'm like the Spongebob meme of Patrick with a board nailed to his head. Every one of them I've seen so far has one or more strings (on multiple layers, even) that I'm sure are meant to be tied around the waist a particular way, but I have no earthly idea how that works, so I won't even go into what ridiculousness I do to make those outfits work... I'm sure it would be considered a cultural insult and possibly start an international incident

 

Similar to this -

There's a particular doll company who uses very soft lighting or editing on their doll body photos and it makes it really hard to see if their dolls have chest joints or not. It almost looks smoothed/blurred out (like how some people used to do for the arm and leg joints on their artsy photos for the forum) and it's very hard to tell on my phone, my home computer or even my work monitor if I'm really seeing a joint there or if I'm just imagining it. I've tried adjusting my brightness and contrast settings and I'm still not sure!

I've tried to find owner photos, but they're always clothed!

 

I wish that communication with the companies was a bit easier… And I would also love for them to re-release older limited sculpts so we can have another opportunity to purchase them if we missed it the first time.

 

@Rekka my Coral Reef Caroline fullset has a pretty tight leotard as the base layer, a tailed lace-up corset on top, and a skirt with bustle on top of both that need to be tied UNDER the leotard. I have to use tweezers. Someone on Weibo even posted a video instructional on how to arrange the multitude of ribbons around her neck by sewing them together (eventually I figured out I could tie them all into a daisy chain, but I'll sew them eventually cause it's still a pain). But outside of that I had to reverse engineer from the official pictures. It looks absolutely incredible when it's complete but it takes forever.