"Over Popular" Sculpts & Originality

I joined this community to share in the enjoyment of the hobby. If people don't appreciate a doll anymore that's for them to feel, but it has no effect on my collection.
I'm also a sucker for Chloe.
Celine, my other doll on-order, seems to have had a love/hate response from most people from the get-go, but this isn't a popularity contest for me.

 

I have a friend who loves the Dollshe Saint and they are everywhere. He doesn't care because he loves the sculpt and all the others just give him more ideas about what to do with his.
If it fits go with it.

 

Yes and no.... I guess. What matters to me is how closely my doll resembles its character, and how well-done its styling is. I'm a bit of a snob when it comes to my own dolls, so I only look for the highest quality stuff for them - eyes, wigs, face-ups. As long as the doll looks the way I want it to look, I don't really care if it's not "original". TBH, I've yet to see someone who styled their dolls like how I wish to style mine. I've seen plenty of owners who style their dolls in very attractive and exciting ways, and I love looking at them, but I've yet to see someone whose style actually spoke to me as something of my own, so it just never really was an issue.


It would probably only bother me if the other person's doll was, I dunno, for some reason wearing the SAME exact style of wig and colour of eyes from the SAME makers, had a face-up done by the SAME artist and had a similar wardrobe and colour scheme. But considering how [relatively] small and varied this hobby is, chances of that happening are... pretty slim.


As for popularity of the sculpt, pftt. I don't care. I HAVE, in the past, decided against getting a popular sculpt, but it wasn't really as much because "ew a lot of people own it" as it was just... fatigue of looking at it. The more I saw the sculpt, the more I realized I didn't like it as much as I thought I did. Which is probably a good thing because it means I didn't really like it in the first place.

 

*laughs* That's what I call my Saint (other than his actual name), "one of a million." But the more I saw of the sculpt the more I realized I still wanted him more than anything. So much that I was willing to endure the year-long wait during the Pure Body event.

If I got tired of just looking at photos I'd certainly get tired of seeing the doll on my shelf every day.

 

I really felt this way at first. I wanted so badly an F60 Chloe, which again is super popular in all forms. I tried to tuck away the urge to get her but eventually gave up and have bought her second hand. (waiting on her to be shipped ) I couldn't be happier with my choice and I really no longer care if it is a popular sculpt or not. If people are sick of seeing Chloe then don't look. Personally I love ALL the Chloe's I see! She is popular for a reason I think.

Go for the doll that makes you happy, regardless of what people say or think.

 

Aw Thank you! The YT community is awesomesauce. I'm such a goober on camera though but thanks for watching anyway XD

I tend to shy away from the BJD confessions because of some of the negativity I have heard. Minifee Chloe's are super pretty, popular or not! Also in a way I think a popular sculpt can be more of a challenge to make unique, which is fun

 

The point of BJD Confessions is very specific to making extent those nagging thoughts one has or to voice those things that there is no other place to voice. Generally those are inherently negative. I find them hilarious, amusing and often helpful to frame certain tropes in the hobby. As for MNF Chloe, I have the hots for her as well. If they ever start making her in the F60 version I'll probably buy one. But to counteract the overly cutesy angle I'll probably make her a goth junkie prostitute......

 

I own a few of the over popular dolls. I had a MNF Chloe, and now have an F60 Chloe. Els were once over popular, and I have a handful. (Of course most of you haven't a clue who El is, likely.) I honestly don't care if someone thinks my doll is too popular. I liked them that's why I bought them!

 

It shouldn't matter at all what a bunch of anonymous strangers think, and if you try to make everyone else happy with your collection, you won't be. And which is more important: that a bunch of anonymous strangers who just want something to complain about be placated, or the person who actually owns the doll and actually spent the money is happy?

I don't care whether anyone thinks one of my dolls is too popular, too weird, too cheap, whatever. I chose each doll because they fit a vision I had. And yes, that includes a LTF Chloe, who ended up having just the look I needed for a character. I never once looked at what other people thought about the sculpt and whether it was "over popular," I made my decision based on the sculpt itself, which is by far the more important factor.

EDIT: Forgot to add... they may not be quite as popular as they once were, but I also ended up with both a LTF and MNF Shiwoo (and would love an F60 one if he'd come along as a rerelease from FL); I've also got the LTF El (another of the old "popular" sculpts) and, if I could get the Shiwoo, would get him as an F60 too. Maybe I'm just late to the party on that pair.

 

I have to confess that a doll too popular puts me off.
Obviously if it's my dream doll then I'll buy it and enjoy it the same, but something inside me dies when I see it repeatedly all over the place XD. I like uniqueness... and mainstream stuff, either it is a doll, a song, a book, a serie... makes me cringe if I don't like it and makes me "sad" if I like it. But as I said, liking it is stronger than everything else... at the end of the day, I love to wear something myself that no one wears but if I find it in a well known store and I know 1 million people will have it too, I still love it. The fact that humans in general -I think- like uniqueness is what makes handicraft and announcements of "one of a kind" or "limited editions" or even "hand made" (which means each item will be different) so appreciated, special, and expensive sometimes.

That said, I also think as a positive aspect of this over popularity the fact that you can see many different customizations and interesting ideas. At least when you're starting, it broadens your horizons a lot.

 

Most Dolls are for most people too expensive to buy without a lot of thought put into it - so I would suggest not caring whether the doll is popular or not. It's your money and happiness on the line here.

 

I feel just like Hybris.

And also a bit like Lelite... I'm not a fan of Minifees, but Chloe is cute. It's just that it feels like she's everywhere, like so many people have her, it can get a bit tiring ^^" Like Lelite put it, "fatigue of looking at it". So I personally wouldn't choose a sculpt that is so popular that I don't even want to look at it anymore... Idk.

 

Would you buy a doll that is a very popular sculpt and would it bother you that a lot of people had the same doll as you?

I buy my dolls for me, not for what other people think. So, no, I could care less how popular --or UNpopular-- a sculpt is. As long as I want to buy it, that's all that matters.

Do you feel that making your dolls look original and different is really important to you? and does anyone else not care about other people's opinions of your dolls?

Few people are truly original. If you've got a BJD, you aren't original. And basically, ALL bjds are unique, anyway, because you dress them differently than anyone else, and the faceups are hand-done--which means they can never be exactly the same as another.

Originality is totally overrated! Having a doll that is different from everyone else is NOT originality, for one thing. Even if you do something weird, like maybe take a hatchet to your doll... I'm sure someone, somewhere has already done it! And doing something stupid may be different, but does that really make you like your doll better? Just forget about it--everything has already been done by someone else... Just do what pleases YOU.

And yes, I do NOT CARE about what other people think. I have dolls because of what I think, not for what other people think!

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"The most original of authors are not so because they advance what is new, but more because they know how to say something, as if it had never been said before." ---Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it." --C. S. Lewis

"Originality is nothing but judicious imitation. The most original writers borrowed one from another." --Voltaire

"The merit of originality is not novelty; it is sincerity." --Thomas Carlyle

"Most people think an artist tries to be original, but originality is the last thing that develops in the artist." --Lukas Foss

"Some writers confuse authenticity, which they ought always to aim at, with originality, which they should never bother about." --W. H. Auden

"Originality does not consist in saying what no one has ever said before, but in saying exactly what you think yourself." --James Stephens

"Originality exists in every individual because each of us differs from the others. We are all primary numbers divisible only by ourselves." --Jean Guitton

"Originality usually amounts only to plagiarizing something unfamiliar." --Katharine Fullerton Gerould

 

AAHH "hipster" mentality! *makes the sign of the cross*

All Joking aside, I LOVE that some dolls can get crazy popular. It saves my wallet! I don't need a Chloe for myself, for example, because there are already several among my friends that I can poke anytime I like.

 

I have to admit that I have some of the hipster mentality, I do feel secretly a little "smug" for the lack of a better word when I get a sculpt that few people have or when I make an unusual character, especially if people notice, however I am self aware about that and I like to think it is just an amusing part of my psyche and not a "special snowflake syndrom" That said, I also own a Resinsoul Mei who is a drow and I can't count how many Mei and drow dolls are out there. In the end, I like being "original" but having dolls I like is a lot more important to me then having something "unique" and it doesn't really bother me if it has been done a thousand times before.

 

Yes, I would, and no it wouldn't bother me that loads of people had the same sculpt. There is lots of room for originality in the hobby and even though a doll may have the same face it won't necessarily have the same style or face-up or wig as someone else's, and my dolls are for my own enjoyment so it doesn't matter if I have one doll of 10 or one doll of 100, I still bought it because I liked it.

Yes and no. I have definite ideas of how I want my dolls to look and it's not so much that they look original or different, but that they look how I want them to look. I base a lot of my dolls' styles on what I would wear myself and since I wear everyday high-street shop clothes mixed with vintage and a few interesting pieces, I can hardly call my own look original (it seems like everyone's look is a 'mixture of high-street and vintage' these days, i.e. everyday stuff and old stuff )

I suppose if all School Bs started to be red-haired with sparkly eyes and wear a pearl-wishbone necklace and key individual pieces of my Deryn's look then that might get annoying, but if someone dresses their red-haired School B in jeans and a cardigan I can hardly cry foul or copy and I probably wouldn't anyway. If someone asked me where I got something for my dolls then I am more than happy to share that information. I don't believe in hoarding away information to make something seem more exclusive. You love a top my doll is wearing? I am more than happy to tell you where I got it.

I care about other people's opinions of my dolls in that its nice when people like them, but even if I didn't get another compliment on my dolls from someone else that would still be okay because my dolls are there for me to enjoy.

I quite like MiniFee Chloe myself. I don't have one because I'm a bit more focused on my larger dolls right now, but I definitely wouldn't rule out getting one in the future, or getting a LittleFee Chloe companion for my LTF Pong Pong. It shouldn't affect what dolls you get, but if it does bother you what people think and would put you off getting a popular doll, be critical about what you like about the sculpt - is it the eyes? Is it the mouth? - and make yourself a list of all the dolls who share those characteristics you like. There may be a doll from another company who has a similar wide-eyed, pouty look to MNF Chloe, for example, and you could get more 'originality' points if you bought that doll instead... but honestly, a doll being popular only means you have great taste shared with a lot of other people. It doesn't mean your doll is common or less exciting or 'exclusive' than another.