Non Fantasy Dolls vs Fantasy Dolls

If I really think about it, I prefer fantasy sculpts. However, only one of my girls has faery/elf ears, and the rest are human.

Fantasy sculpts, as much as I prefer them aesthetically, have usually cost more than I’d wanted to spend on a doll at a given time. My other issue with fantasy dolls is that they usually aren’t the sorts of fantasy creatures I like the most — or if they are, there’s something else I don’t like enough like the face or body. It’s easier for me to find a “perfect” human doll, and much harder to find a fantasy doll that grabs me enough to want to have in my collection. I’ve mostly enjoyed fantasy sculpts vicariously through the collections of others.

The one fantasy doll that was “perfect” to me was Souldoll’s Hanged Man Kyle/Amon. Easily my biggest regret in this hobby was missing out on him. (I actually had started a layaway, but it fell through due to a lot of life issues at the time).

Lately I’ve been thinking about getting into sculpting/doll-making, and if I do, it’s to make the kinds of fantasy dolls I feel are perfect to me.

 

I'd say most of my collection is human, with a few fantasy sculpts/colors. (I love a good fantasy color, especially pure black or pastels. Transparent resin, too.) I do enjoy seeing the fantasy sculpts that come out, but can't say I'm interested in owning many of them.

...Because yeah, I feel this so hard. A human has to match the resin colors, size, and facial/body features I like, but a fantasy doll has to do all that and also have an execution on the concept that I like and want to bring home. Even small things can be a deciding factor - I don't mind little elf ears, but vampire fangs, not so much. Let alone the big stuff. Centaurs are cool, but look like a lot of space and also they limit the sewing I can do for them, which is a lot of my doll play. Same with wings and anthro head sculpts.

I think my eternal hunt for Just The Right Robot Doll exemplifies how easily all those factors can disqualify dolls I otherwise think are cool. I love robots and would love to bring a robot or cyborg doll home, but on the rare occasions I do see a robot doll, they're just not the right one. I've seen a couple small artist dolls that are too small and too retro-themed. Dollzone's Ji-Zero? I don't like the lumpiness of her head. Their robot ballerina? Wrong size, don't like the perma-heel feet, not fond of bendy tube limbs. The Ex Machina dolls? Not my vibe on the face or much of the actual robot sculpting. Coral Reef's ONE would have been perfect with more humanoid legs. They're all cool dolls! They're just not quite what I'm looking for with the concept of a robot doll.

And therein lies the rub - my idea of a concept and an artist's idea may be totally different, and they really gotta convince me that theirs is the one I want to go with. Easier for some concepts than others.

 

Most of my dolls are 'fantasy'; elf ears, vamp teeth, hooves, horns, weird coloured skin etc. No offence to anyone (doll or human otherwise), I find 'humans' very boring. This is also reflected in games I play, chosen fav books/films and off topic dolls/figures I own.
The dolls I do have that are human sculpts, are generally not 'human' characters. The 1 exception is my first bjd. Aeryn (dm flocke) is a human in character aswell as sculpt. The fact that shes my only humans makes her more 'special' in my mind (i know how stupid that sounds xD).
But yea team fantasy all the way