Perfect in every way but one...

I have and often do hybrid dolls. I am not going to pass up the perfect face just because the body isn't right!

Usually the problem I have is a part I can't hybrid is wrong. Like the face is so perfect BUT....the nose is too short. The chin is too small. The eyes are too big. The profile looks flat. It has elf ears. Sometimes, it's something I can easily mod (like opening too narrow eyes or sanding a pointy nose) but sometimes, I just can't change it and I'm not willing to spend $150+ on a head and mods and risk STILL not liking it and the resale value is destroyed at that point. In those cases, I usually pass and continue my search.

One that I did just decide to deal with is Dhani, my Souldoll Iliya. He's so pretty and perfect, love the sculpt, it fits my boy...but....the nose is very "ski slope". From the front, you can't really tell it, so I've been dealing with it for over three years, because aside from the nose, he's perfect. I haven't found any other sculpt that comes even close to looking like my Dhani. IF I ever find one that is just flawless in every way and fits his (also perfect) current body, yes, I'll get it! Until then...I just try not to ever take profile pix of him. XD

 

I've always loved the Resinsoul Yao and AI sculpts. The only thing that bothers me about them is their nose. It's too bulky looking for me. I've thought about modding it to be more slender if I ever got one of them. Though seeing them in person could be a whole other story.

 

Now that, you ask. I feel there's no "perfect doll" at least for me, well, maybe I'm just picky, I've always found certain details about dolls I don't like.
I knew I really wanted to own certain dolls because, the good things about them made me not mind the bad points, and that remains the same now.

 

I really like DollsTown bodies - but they have those ugly lumpy bulbous ankles narrowing down to feet too tiny for the body size. I swapped the first Dollstown Elf body I had for a Volks Swarrico body because the ankles irritated me so much.

I've got another and several other DollsTown bodies now, but I have to be careful to dress them in shoe or boot styles, or rolled-down socks that disguise the ugly ankles.

Teddy

 

I can't actually remember the sculpt it was, but back when I was buying tons of dolls I wanted one that I thought was perfect... and then I found some owner photos that showed it's profile, and the nose was super long and pointy! It wasn't just one owner's photos either. I really loved it, but I just could not quite handle that! xD

 

I think this is why more than half of my collection is comprised of hybrids. Heads from one company, bodies from another, hands and feet from another...it's a Franken-dolly factory at my house. That said, I have been ruined on a face due to some feature I didn't enjoy. The worst is when they look great straight on but then the profile is meh.

 

I've had a funny thing about the Dollshe Bermann, he was the grail perfection for me all this years until I've become able to get him finally with re-release. The Bermann, he seemed very beautiful on the few photos my friend showed me but as I knew about how rare and limited he is I just didn't let myself to think about getting him - neither did I search user pics of him nor dig into the site gallery. I was forbidden to think about him by myself xD
But now with the news of re-release and even the discount sale that's on for him, I thought I'll get him for sure, and I got deep into it - all the photoes, different user characters etc., etc. And how much was I surprised when I understand that I don't like him at all, he's nothing special and unusual for me and that I simply don't want him - I was so much after his image as I've seen him at first time, that I saw him as "forbidden perfection" and didn't realise all this time about the actual state of things. So for me he was perfect in everything, until I finally let myself to look at lots of real photos.

 

Crobidoll Zia, her nose is asymmetrical! But I love everything else about her, and now I have a Crobidoll Hami so I know I love the resin, the body aesthetics with all its weird posing quirks. But I can't get over that odd nose on Zia.

 

That happens to me too. And such a relief too as I would be in debt otherwise.

I'm pretty happy with the dolls once I bring them home. They may not be "perfect" in all ways but close enough that I'm not fretting.

 

I absolutely adored DollZones Marlin right until I saw him in profile. Form the front his face is beautiful but from the side you can see his ridiculously protruding chin... I suppose I could mod it but I'm also not found of the sloping nose. I prefer Resinsouls noses.

 

I'm struggling with this right now. I just discovered that Saki actually has an open mouth. Granted, it's not obvious unless you're looking at her from an up-the-nose angle or from her full side profile, and I've seen custom faceups that completely mask it, but I am not fond of sculpts with open mouths in general. However, I've loved Saki ever since she was released, thus I am willing to overlook the open mouth.

 

For me it was a couple of Supia ladies. Looking at them from the front, they're gorgeous and make me want at least one, but then someone mentioned to me that from the side their faces look wonky ("like a pug", if I recall correctly) and now I can't unsee it. I'm really picky about liking my dolls' faces from all sides, so I guess that's just not happening. The same thing happened with an Angell Studio lady, I love her from the front but looking at her from the side, her nose really bothers me! It's okay though because not getting her when I was originally considering to allowed me to get a different one I love much more.

 

I gave serious consideration to Impldoll Ziv to be my next-to-impossible-to-shell character, Rhas-Khan. I loved the eyes, he has pointed ears, I can get him in grey resin, he's very close to the short SD height required but... his nose is completely wrong and just killed the sculpt as a possibility for me. I tried to talk myself into him but it just wasn't happening so I passed on the sculpt and went back to the hunt for the right sculpt for that character. I do still find myself admiring the Ziv sculpt so he's probably a character I haven't discovered yet.

 

If there's a part of the body I don't like, no problem! Hybrid-options are endless, half my crew are hybrids and some have head, body and hands from different companies (I'm particular about hands, lol). If it's a part of the face and not something I can get over, I'll pass and look for another candidate. One example is Little Monica Haazel. I have a weakness for their sculpts in general and I adore Haazel, but only until I see his lower lip. It's too drawn in, like he's sucking it. I just can't get over it. I've had several opportunities to order him, the last one just last week in the Ldoll preorder (no shipping/customs fees!), but in the end I just couldn't. Still, in this hobby I've learned to never say never, so who knows. Maybe one day I will wake up and suddenly adore it :P

 

My two SoulDoll boys (Paris and Lune) have weak chins in profile, but I like everything else about them and wouldn't trade them for anything. My Bobobie Weylin doesn't have the best profile either, and his body is so gangly and waify, but I adore him anyway.

I like that my dolls aren't perfect, though, because I would worry too much about marring them and wouldn't want to handle them.

Linda S.
galatia9

 

This has happened to me a lot, and sometimes it's okay if one little thing is wrong, but sometimes it isn't. My favorite doll is Volks Williams, and he is perfect except that I don't like the placement/appearance of his neck hole. That sounds totally ridiculous but because it's so minor, that's why I can live with it. Up until recently I had a DollClans Kien, which is another perfect sculpt except that the smile he has didn't work for the character... so even though I loved him 100% as a doll, his expression was enough that I had to get rid of him. D:

For me the deciding factor is how often I notice or think about the imperfection. With the Kien, I was thinking about how his smile is wrong pretty often... looking at him in person, looking at his photos, thinking about his character. That's why I couldn't live with it. On the other hand, Williams' flaw is only noticeable to me when I'm editing photos of him. Strangely I don't notice it much when looking at him in person, or when looking at photos of him that are more than a day old. But when I'm in Photoshop, editing the pictures, his neck joint annoys me, and only then. LOL. Which is why he can stay. XD

I'm not sure a doll can be completely, utterly perfect. Probably the closest to perfect in my experience is Delf El. I love everything about that doll: every detail of his face, the sculpting style, the design of his body and joints, his hands, feet... it's all perfect. However, if it were possible I would make his head smaller. I don't necessarily wish it were smaller, because like I said I think he's perfect, but if I could make that change I would. That's probably a contradiction but it makes sense to me.

 

I love some of those long slender Doll Chateau 1/4 boys, especially the one who had this sad little face, I can never remember his name, lol. Something like Douglas or Charles I think.

However, those extra odd little joint pieces kind of freak me out, they look too much like little vertebrae bones, especially that extra one in the neck!


I know that some of them can be removed, but I don't know for sure if all of those odd extra joint pieces can. Plus I don't want to have to unstring him myself. I seriously suck at restringing!

I haven't gotten up the nerve to ask DC if all the extra joint pieces are removable, and if they will just string him without those bits and ship him to me.

I'm afraid DC will say no, that I have to remove them, which means I'd have to find someone to send him off to, that was willing to unstring, remove said extra bits, and then restring him for me. (...and preferably that person would just keep those little vertebrae looking bits for themselves.)

.....or even worse! DC will tell me that the extra wrist joint has to remain, in order for the hands to attach and work, or that the neck joint has to remain, etc.


Lol, and then there's that dead bird's head hat he's wearing....
That kind of creeps me out a little, too!

Lol.

 

As someone who owns one of said bodies; the pieces can all be removed. But I don't know if DC would do it for you.


For me, it's my Noble Dolls Radicelle. She's perfect in every way... except for her height D: If I could get a taller OUAD, ND or Dark tales doll body to hybrid her onto, so she'd be at least 35-40cm (instead of the 29cm she is now) that would be perfect. But unfortunately she's an odd shade of pink and I'd want the body to be artist cast to match the head's resin texture, so that's probably never going to happen.

 

Thanks WinonaFlammery, I'm so glad to know that they are all removable, that's good to know!

Am I right that the only extra joints are in the neck, wrists, and ankles? That's what it looked like from DC's photographs.
There aren't any extra joints anywhere else, are there?

Hmm, so if that's the case, do you have to unstring the whole doll just to remove them, or can you just carefully unattach the head, the hands, etc. and remove each extra joint?

If that's all that's required, that much I can do!