Opinion on Fairyland, over hyped or not?

I'd definitely say they are kinda overhyped. I have one MNF boy that I got in 2016 and he was my first doll, so for a while I didn't have any other dolls to compare him to. While I do love him very much, and I will say his presentation right out of the box was outstanding, I don't feel like he offers anything special in terms of quality or posing compared to my other dolls. Luckily I wasn't struck with any severe quality control issues when I ordered him, just the regular weird seams--but the fact that that was even something to worry about should say something. The engineering of his joints makes him honestly kind of annoying to handle, and until I sueded him he was always wanting to throw some weird exaggerated pose.

Other people have mentioned the same face syndrome of their sculpts, and I agree. The sameness of their sculpts is what keeps me from really wanting to add another minifee to my collection at this point--I sort of feel like now that I have one I have them all, LOL.

Combined with all of those things, I think the main thing that makes me feel like Fairyland is overhyped is the price point. Fairyland is considerably more expensive than many other dolls with similar or better quality and posing. For that I really want their dolls to be standout! (Some folks have said that back in the day they used to be, but other companies have caught up with them since--I came to the hobby a little late to witness that but it makes sense.) I love to browse their catalog once in a while but at this point unless one of their dolls was a grail for me I don't feel like I'd want to spend that much on one of them, especially when I could get another lovely doll from plenty of other companies for a lower price.

 

Well, when I first started on the hobby (about 12 years ago) I had this girl straightforward telling me my doll wasn't as good as hers because she collected all Fairyland dolls and they were the best in the market in ever sense, so maybe I've conditioned myself to not find them in any way exciting, but I think they are definitely a bit overhyped, though maybe not so much as they used to in the past, I feel like. I remember seeing a lot in my local community at an early certain point in my life as a doll hobbyist, then the focus started to shift a little towards other companies. And I didn't even know about some of the quality issues O.o

 

I’m not a fan of the minifees but I absolutely love my FEEPLE60 Celine. She is my favourite doll and I really love her body and poseability. The sculpt is basic yet you can make it really original and beautifull. My grail dream is actually a Centaur type of doll from Fairyland. But for an european who makes roughly 700€ per month is kinda hard to save

 

I personally hate Fairyland yet I have 5 FL dolls and counting.
I always told myself Id never own a minifee because they were uninteresting to me at the time and compared to most other companies I found the posing to be pretty lacking- especially compared to dolls in an even lower price range. I can't lie though, It's a love hate relationship. Minifees are so versatile and simple it's hard to say no. I especially love some of the older "retro" sculpts. As a company, I think it's quite pricy and quality control is far too lackluster. All in all, think FL is like a drug and it is overrated but who cares

 

I'm a big fan of Feeple65, especially the old boy body is great. The new one...well...not so much. It seems really tense and the muscles are too pronounced. I liked that the old body wan't mascular. It was one of the reasons why I liked the Feeple line.

However, I'm not crazy about MNFs. They are cute, but same-ish and not for me. We just didn't bond. I had one and ended up giving her to my mom who really likes her. But I like there are so many MNF sewing patterns and clothes on Etsy! They fit my DearMine boy just fine.

I never had any quality issues with their dolls or any other problems in difference of...well...let's not name names.

Maybe they are a bit overhyped now a days, but they legitimetly have a lot of fans!

 

Fairyland introduced me to the Littlefee version of the classic Delf El and I love him to bits. They were also the reason why I was able to find a better body for my floating El head via the Feeple 60 muscular boy body (not too fond of the default Luts 60 cm body sculpt with no chest joint).

In the current state...I have no idea Fairyland is considered over-hyped, hahaha. The current sculpts they produce no longer calls to me as strongly as when they had the classic CP sculpts.

 

Apologies for necro-ing the thread but I have some additional cents. I can understand why people would like the sculpting style of FL, yeah, but thinking a bit more I realized I don't really like their Minifees very much style-wise (1/4 scale is my preferred size despite me having more YoSDs, so that's why I single them out), my favorites being the elf vampires, and more so the round faced sculpts with the big eyes. I think it's mainly due to me not being keen on mature MSDs in the first place, but I also like my MSDs to look young and cutesy to some degree, considering that I find Luts' Kid Delfs more appealing to the point of temptation even when they aren't fantasy sculpts. Plus I mentioned before that Doll Chateau-esque and anime sculpts are more up my alley than FL's style as well. I think style preference contributes to me finding them kind of over-hyped as a result, likely more than the somewhat ubiquitous feel of Chloe does. Mature MSDs just aren't for me I guess.....

 

Reviving this thread because of a few discussions I saw elsewhere about Fairyland. It mentioned a few things like how a lot of BJD newbies feel like they have to get a FL as a first doll or nothing at all, and another discussion about needing FL to “fit in” with the hobby.

Back in 2009, the “fitting in” used to be said a lot about Volks, but the majority of collectors then obviously didn’t have one. Due to the nature of forums, anyone could have their doll seen regardless of brand so I don’t this this effected people as badly then. I spent time in the hobby both with and without a Volks doll, and no one treated me any different during either of those times.

With Fairyland it seems to be a little different, the perception seems to be that unless someone has a Minifee, their doll doesn’t get seen at all. I wonder if this is a problem with social media algorithms. If so, I find that sad and maybe explains the all or nothing attitude?

Anyway, with my familiarity of FL, I would not have considered them to be overhyped, at least when I had been most active in the hobby. I can’t speak of the reported quality issues now though. Minifees were around $350 then (they are around $400 now), which was a fair price point. I thought Souldoll’s resin was nicer (for $300), but MNFs definitely posed better.

I only owned a MNF for a brief time, but a friend was a big collector of them so I would say I was pretty familiar with their quality and a variety of the sculpts. They definitely would have been worth the $350-400 price. If the quality really has gone down though, I think that’s an off putting price though.

 

I'm too new to BJD in general have any idea how popular Fairyland is, really, but having glanced at their work a few times, I was... underwhelmed, I suppose? They're beautiful, don't get me wrong, but clearly they're not my style, because there hasn't been a single "must have" for me yet. For the price they command, I feel like there's a better option for literally almost everything they offer.

My favorite Fairyland designs are of course the "creature people", like merfolk and centaurs. I think their horse half sculpt is the most beautiful one I have seen so far, actually, it's the one time I would say Fairyland has the very best take on a particular thing. Except that I'm not in love with any of the human halves of their sculpts... something about the style just isn't quite to my preferences. Even though the engineering of my Resinsoul 'taur is objectively not as nice as a Fairyland centaur, I prefer his overall aesthetic, and I definitely prefer the price I can have a whole herd of those for the price of one Fairyland doll!

I'm not sure if it's a case of "same face" or if it's simply that I don't like the style of the faces very much. But hey, if people want to clamor over Fairyland stuff and leave more of my favorites for me, I'm not going to complain! Have at it, I like being able to get the stuff I prefer without a struggle!

 

They were the first dolls I saw that got me into the hobby. I can see how it can be overhyped, but since I am interested in them, I like it when people talk about them.

 

Speaking of overhyped, they actually were during the early 2010's when the classic CP sculpts were sold on their site (after separating from Luts). But when the classic sculpts were no longer continued, so did my interest in them. It also didn't help that FL is now veering towards realistic proportions for their taller sculpts.

I miss my big head CP sculpts