Opinion on Fairyland, over hyped or not?

I'd say they're probably a little over-hyped. That said, I own a lot of them because I adore the Alan sculpt and doing all sorts of different styles with it. The only other current sculpt of theirs I really like is Rozen, so a lot of sculpts of theirs I'm a bit baffled by their popularity.

As far as the bodies go, the first one I ever got was a renewal a-line girl, and her body is strung perfectly with no sueding needed. I've a couple more on the way, so I'll find out soon if it's a one-off or if they do really well with that body. Motion boys are always strung too tightly - I've had this confirmed by other collectors, and the only one of my three motion boys who isn't too tight was secondhand and restrung by his original owner. The F60s of both gender go the other way, and are loose enough to be floppy and rattle even brand new. That said, when restrung they all pose just as beautifully as my first lady. (Although final critique for F60 is they changed the neck connector size at some point, so newer heads will rattle on older bodies unless you suede or stuff putty in there or something.)

Over all, I think I have enough experience despite being young in the hobby to say that they're a little over-hyped, but the hype at least comes with quality materials and design. You don't have to think they're the greatest dolls ever to enjoy them - you just might need to restring them.

 

I owned a minifee briefly and I was having a terrible time posing the body (I was shook that the knees are not actually double-jointed! And let's not even start with the "mobility" cap thingies in the hip region), so I sold it quite soon. I prefer a bit taller 1/4 dolls so the size was too small for me personally, too. I did love the magnetic hands/feet and the neck system (although the latter makes hybriding a pain). In the end I was a little disappointed with it as minifees have been praised for the poseability a lot, and there are a lot of cheaper bodies which do a much better job. I guess they are a bit like the Apple of BJD world - you can best use them with their special company parts and they cost a little bit extra for the design. They do have a lot of faces and parts to choose from across all lines, and I think that's quite fun, though!

Since they are so popular, they are very quickly on the radar for newer collectors or end up being first dolls for many which contribute to the hype a bit, I think. With the price-quality ratio, I'd say they are a little overhyped, though. Then again, with the huge popularity, there's been more shoes and clothing available for slim mini dolls which I'm quite happy about (especially the shoe part).

 

I think Fairyland dolls are beautiful. Their bodies are nice and their faces are super cute. I also like that there are sleeping faces for each head which it's something I adore (I love sleeping faces).

Now, I don't think they're for me. I love to see their outfits and I admire their full sets, but I wouldn't know what to do with one of those. Overhyped?... maybe? I remember when CP was a thing and people went crazy - I didn't understand why and still amazes me that there's still a lot of hype for Fairyland dolls.

 

Overhyped for me too. Seconding the part about the not-really-functional joints, though when it comes to the way they are engineered I love the way their heads are removed and the magnetic hands too - allows for easy dressing.
I also personally feel like their face designs are very monotonous, kind of all look the same to me.

 

My opinion can only come as someone who has never and will probably never own a Fairyland doll. I've liked some of them a lot in my day, but it was lines that are not so popular or not available much anymore (although I guess maybe they are making some again? I don't keep up....) I would say Fairyland is overhyped simply because in a hobby with such a vast array of different makers there is simply not a "best" company. I have seen Fairyland treated this way around the minifee line a lot and my opinion here comes particularly from how I have seen newbies come into the hobby by buying Fairyland fullsets. If that's what you love, fantastic! But I think it's not unheard of for people to find these releases so ubiquitous of the popular perfect bjd ideal that it's a Fairyland fullset or bust mentality. I simply can't understand dropping this amount of money quite frankly ever, but especially for a first doll.

Anyway, I am not the demographic, but maybe my opinion is still worth reading.

 

I think their sculpts and faceups are beautiful and I love how easy it is to remove the head - I definitely see why they’re so popular since they fill a style niche. I love how their hands are styled and not just sausage fingers.

However the quality control issues at that price point I find upsetting. Warped legs were an issue when I was buying one so I worried about that and there were faceup inconsistencies with the sculpt I got around the same time. Fortunately mine was fine though she has the some of the worst seam lines out of every doll I own and her wobbly eyebrows weren’t obvious in the promo photos. Also I’m not sure if it’s because my only FL doll is on the fairyline body but I’m not that impressed with the posing. I have over 20 dolls and she’s one of my worst posers (and the bar is pretty low for me, my dolls mostly sit). I have an active body on order so I’ll see if I like it better. As it is right now with my current doll I don’t see how they consistently end up on every best posing doll list.

In those respects they feel very overhyped to me. I still think they’re lovely dolls and will still buy the ones I like but I have much more realistic expectations now after having one.

 

I own one Fairyland doll from their most unpopular line ever. I feel like they are like any other BJD maker, or any particular brand that is popular within any other genre. There are people who will love their products at a fanatic level, and people who will hate them for that or any other little to large flaw. I don't particularly feel one way nor the other about them. I love the one doll I own from them, but I can certainly see all the flaws as well as the features that make FL innovative in engineering and beautiful aesthetically to so many. Like other popular BJD creators, they are just another "brand" to choose from, and will probably have as many followers as they will have people that hate them. I don't find FL any more over-hyped than other popular BJD creators. (:

 

I'm not a slimMSD fan, so I never got into them, but I can see why the magnet hands and easy head swap makes them appeal to people.

I think their full sets are pretty same-y though and their QA seems pretty iffy for their price point.

Their fantasy parts are gorgeous both aesthetically and engineering-wise, though. I don't think anyone makes a better centaur body

 

I'd say overhyped.

I haven't had one before, mostly because the main turn off is all the faces feel the same to me. You see a million posts of the exact same face only to find out "oh it's actually a different sculpt". Mind you they are lovely for sure, but the lack of individuality of the faces is a huge turn off for me. Everyone can identify a FL doll from a distance because they all look the same.

I think like others said the engineering aspects are quite good but for me personally the faces are less of a style and more of a reprint with small tweaks every doll they release. Not for me.

P.S. No salt intended to owners of FL dolls, I'm strictly specifying from MY opinion, if you love them or you have them and love them that's great and also totally valid!

 

I voted "kinda". I have a Minifee (currently stored away in her box) and found her posing to be really terrible in comparison to my other slim MSD's. I really like the ease of taking off the head, hands, and feet, and I don't hate them by any means but I do think they're pricier than what they're actually worth, especially with how thin the resin gets around the knee and ankle joints, and in my experience (and from what I've read elsewhere) the quality control overall is kind of lacking. I will probably sell mine.

 

Whether or not Fairyland is overhyped shouldn't affect your decision about buying one. So what if they're overhyped? If you like their stuff then you should get it!

As for my opinion, I preferred the early days of Fairyland. I liked their (now discontinued) bodies better and their (now discontinued) sculpts, too. Back then they were still very popular, and I would have said they were worth the hype. But over the years they changed body designs, the face style changed, and I've heard the quality isn't quite as good. So think current Fairyland is overhyped. That said, they finally started doing fantasy resin colors and if/when they release it for Feeple60s or 65s, I may go back to being hyped...

 

I'm on team "kinda." I've never owned one of their MSDs, but I've owned both a Littlefee and a couple of F60s. I think they have a strong aesthetic direction that is pleasing to a wide variety of collectors, which makes finding stuff for them (especially minifees) more accessible than other dolls. Their resin is very pleasant to handle if you aren't victim to the QC issues, so I've been overall very pleased with my dolls, especially the secondhand ones. I quite like the magnetic wrist and ankle systems and I wish something similar was adopted by more doll companies. When strung correctly, they're usually highly poseable straight out of the box. Even when they need restringing, I've been able to get dolls to stand in heels with few issues in a way that no other dolls in my collection would. I can also respect that they prioritize their vision for their art over what's popular in the hobby at a given time. F60 Juri 2012 was/is my grail doll for a reason, and I'd love to own another Littlefee someday.

On the other hand, they've been changing aesthetic directions the last few years in a way I deeply dislike. I really prefer the old CP Delf look over what they've been doing lately, and it's sad that they have no plans to bring any of those back as part of the standard lineup. The whole moe line thing they've got going, especially for F60s, makes finding clothes and shoes that fit much harder than it used to be. They often discontinue lines, bodies, and sculpts that were/are relatively popular, which drives up secondhand prices and creates a culture of FOMO surrounding their releases that I find distasteful. Other people have mentioned the quality control issues and I don't want to beat a dead horse, but it's worth considering. I also recognize that they do so many limited releases in order to stay ahead of the counterfeit market, but I think this sort of rat race business model is at the core of a lot of their problems - the "same face syndrome" thing, the QC issues, the loss of popular lines/sculpts, etc. The pressure to make new things and get them out quickly is doing both Fairyland and their consumers a massive disservice.

 

I probably would call them overhyped, honestly...

I am and always have been a big fan of older Cerberus Project dolls (The classic CP/Delfs and long-gone Feeple70 sculpts-), and there are some Fairyland LittleFees and Feeple65s that I like a lot. I can't say that I've been at all impressed by the pouty, same-faced girls that they're best known for, though, in either the MiniFee or larger scale. I really can't tell some of them apart, even when they're sitting side-by-side... a problem I never had with the old-school designs.

I think it's great for collectors who like that kind of thing to have a company that caters to their preferences. Fairyland definitely found a successful niche and ran with it... But. Yeah. Sometimes the hype does get a little ahead of their reality. When Fairyland keeps an eye on quality control, they do make nice dolls. But they're not the end-all be-all of the Resin World. There are a lot of other companies that make equally nice ones.

 

Kinda… I do love some of their face sculpts, and I appreciate the ease of magnetic joints, and the neck adaptor for handy head removal. But I don’t really like their bodies, they manspread when they sit, and their thigh joints cause me no end of grief

 

I'm relatively new to the hobby, but FL's aesthetic doesn't really appeal to me. The magnetic hands and feet are also a turn-off – I'd be terrified of losing them. Slim MSDs aren't my thing (the closest I'll get is SDC) and then there's the quality control issues.
Though, to each their own. Most of my dolls are Volks or Dollmore, so if FL is someone's personal taste, I have no issue.

 

I’m also only speaking as someone who’s never owned a Fairyland doll, but I think they’re somewhat overhyped… I personally think all their head sculpts look pretty much the same and aren’t my preferred style, they cost a lot, and from what I’ve heard, they’re not super sturdy… but that’s all just personal opinion. Some people obviously really like them!

 

Wow, people used to have this debate about Volks too. Maybe they still do? But whether a doll lives up to the hype or not mainly depends on what your expectations are and how much you like it. Considering any doll as an investment is mostly a gamble, with a handful of exceptions.

Fairyland dolls had a big surge of popularity at one time because they are made by CP, one of the OGs in this space whose style is well-loved, although that style has changed a lot over many years. All that demand on the studio resulted in a higher price tag.
There was less visual variety in the bjd world then, making ideas like "same-face syndrome" not matter too much, because you could customize the doll with your make up. Many sculptors who produce a large volume of sculpts end up with "same-face" but I don't see that as an issue. Our fashion doll collector brothers and sisters all seem content to collect dolls with identical face molds, and there is crossover between us and them so I imagine some collectors are very happy to get slight variations on the same face. because you can tell right away that it's made by the studio they love and their dolls all look like brothers and sisters!

I have heard mixed feedback on the doll's bodies. I have owned a FL doll. Total impulse buy. At the time they were being touted as the best posers of all time. I did not find it to be the best, but it was fine. I didn't love the aesthetic of the body. But that's a subjective thing. I don't actually hear this anymore about FL being the best posers and hear more of the opposite now, but it doesn't look like the body engineering has had any significant changes Interpret that how you will. Although their promo pics can be a little blurry I think they showcase the body and its posing ability/limitations pretty well.

In general I don't think that FL represents their dolls or the quality in a dishonest way. The main complaint I heard back when I bought mine was visible seams. I have owned dolls from so many different makers and I expect to see seams no matter how much I'm paying for the doll. That is a characteristic of the molds used to make them. I wondered who was telling these buyers that their FL dolls would not have seams as if I recall correctly this has always been listed in their product descriptions. But as I mentioned before, it was circulating that these dolls were like amazing gymnastics posers so it would not surprise me if there was some rumor generated about them being seamless too.

Regarding QC, I don't have experience with the QC issues and am curious if FL did what they could to make these buyers whole in the end.

If you expect your FL doll to be seamless and insane at posing with all very unique heads and have some special magic that no other doll has, then yes I think you'll be very disappointed too and say "it's overhyped"
But many collectors are happy to pay what the doll is priced. They want that doll, did their research into what they were getting and can accept that the dolls aren't perfect. If you love the doll when it arrives then it totally lives up to the hype and the price you paid for it. Take some time to do your own research and analyze photos before you push the buy button.

Unless you are trying to quickly flip something for extra money, following and abandoning trends is a great way to set yourself up for disappointment!

 

I'm on the kind of train. I don't want to say that most of their sculpts are similar, which no, but they do keep the same over popular ones. I do have a Karsh on the muscular body that I love. I did had to glue the hip joint because I didn't like it. I've had a better experience with my minifee than a soom doll that I'm trying to sell. The soom one cost more than my Karsh and has less movement than the minifee. If I had known about that before I rather would have gotten another fairyland or something else. I do wish the Karsh, the muscular body, and the other discontinued sculpts return.

I do like that everything is magnetic which can give more options to hybrid. However hybriding can be a bit challenging if a person wants to change a body considering the turn key mechanisms that are known for.

I feel there needs to be more variety and options that can be selected when choosing a doll. I understand that is a tall order to ask. I just feel that if more hand options were added and easier ways to get headbacks for those that use those. I know they just released two new colors, which is a step in right direction. I also feel that the secondhand market is insane with this company.