Perfect sculpts hiding under company faceups

I think I may be guilty of unconsciously doing that, but sometimes I have trouble seeing the possibilities on a blank face, though I definitely give bonus points to every company that shows a sculpt both with and without face-ups.

 

Maskcat roulan- I saw someone's personal doll painted up all dark and mysterious. I adored it so much, I went in search of the doll for myself.

Upon finding her at Alice collections, I never would have even considered this doll. The company paints and dresses her like some 1800's farm girl and definitely wasnt my taste, I passed her over dozens of times because there was no potential I could see.

I think more companies should show the blank heads.

 

Years ago I had a SD10 Megu and it's a sculpt that if it wasn't because I had seen custom faceups on her I wouldn't have bought her based on the company faceup.

I personally like when companies show pictures of the dolls with a faceup but at the end of the page they have one with the head blank so you get both ideas of how a doll looks with an example faceup but then you get the blank head at the end to get your imagination going.

This also happened to me with another 3 dolls. The one that was my first doll (a Soo from Luts), I bought her head second-hand with a custom faceup, and I had seen that sculpt in the official page but the official faceup never said to me that sculpt had that potential and I would have never bought it otherwise. Then again it happened to me with my Planetdoll Roseanne, I bought her second-hand with a custom faceup and then later I saw her in the official page and I would have never bought her seeing her like that to be honest. And the third one happened with my Dollsbe Garlic and this is the only time that I actually bought a doll despite the official pictures (and seeing no custom faceups from people around first) because I could see its features more or less, so I just had faith it would work for what I had in mind and it did.

I agree with TwistedRiver too when it comes to blank faces seems difficult to get an idea and a few times I've actually waited to see custom faceups of people before buying the doll I'm interested in.

 

Honestly, it doesn't bother me when I don't like a company face-up. I can always buy the head/doll blank or wipe the default face-up and have the head painted to my liking.

 

Off the top of my head, I can think of a couple of examples.

Crobidoll Heena - I think her sculpt is lovely! But I'm not too keen on her face-up, I think she looks a little dozy in most pics.

Dollmore Zaoll Luv I also really like the sculpt, as I saw her first without a face-up, but when she's made up I don't like it. Not appealing to me on the company website at all.

 

I think a lot of Switch sculpts are this way. They have a particular face-up style that's rather dramatic, and while pretty, it can mask some of the features.

 

Angel of Dream's company faceups are some of the worst I've ever seen, and for a while it put me off the company completely, but then I got to see people's custom faceups on their AOD dolls and they can actually be quite cute. AOD still isn't really my aesthetic, but I definitely appreciate their style more.

 

Used to go by the face-ups in the very beggining, but these days, the nose is how I pick a doll
But damn, face-up does make a huge difference!

 

I usually need to see custom faceups on a sculpt to know if I like it or not, company ones seem to never convince me for whatever reason. And I also love playing in photoshop with blank heads to explore their potential

 

Two of my dolls from Soom have default face-ups that I find really off-putting. Soom doesn't always provide pictures of their face sculpts blank. It wasn't until after I saw custom face-up pictures of Boehm that I saw potential in him. With Juchy, it was easier to see past the company face-up that made her look worried.

 

This happens to me all the time! So much so, that I won't even buy a sculpt without seeing it blank or with a custom faceup.

When I first got into the hobby, ResinSoul's photos were much much lower quality than their current ones, and I've never been a big fan of their faceups, as they're just too grey and simple for my taste. So for a long time, I thought ResinSoul dolls were just not my thing at all. I did buy a Lu, and while I liked the sculpt, I hated the default faceup. I finally decided to wipe it and repaint her--and I LOVED that doll, she was one of my faves until I sold her in favor of SD size. I now own a ResinSoul Mi, and I think she's one of the prettiest sculpts out there with a custom look.

Fairyland was the other big one for me. While they do nice faceups, they're much too perfect and doll-like for my tastes, I prefer more realism and more expression. It's the eyebrows that I like the least--they tend to look either worried or emotionless to me, and that turned me off for a long time. Again, custom faceups with arched brows or more expression and individuality made me take a second look at them. I've realized they're still not for me, but I really do appreciate seeing a unique Minifee with attitude!

 

Sometimes a company's faceup is just not my taste, however their doll sculpts are beautiful but it gives me doubt whether or not that doll is the doll I'm looking for. That's when I go on Instagram or flickr to look at the sculpt itself with numerous different faceups to compare

 

Like the entirety of Volks' original Full Choice System heads. They were pretty much the only thing around when I first got interested in the hobby, and I was actually fairly repulsed by the FCS molds! Early Volks faceups were...ah, perhaps not the most flattering! Now I really love those old heads and find the sculpts very beautiful since I've seen their potential.

 

Bobobie is notorious for having unflattering faceups on their website. Their faceups aren't much better looking in person sometimes, but I would never have considered buying a Bobobie Weylin if I hadn't seen one in person. His sculpt was very appealing to me, and now he's a favorite doll of mine.

I never would have looked twice at Angell Studio if I hadn't seen one of their dolls in person, too. She didn't have the greatest faceup, but there was something I loved about her sculpt (Kana). Later, I had the opportunity to buy her from her previous owner. I had a custom faceup put on her, and now she is stunning. People ask me who she is all the time.

I can think of more than a half dozen examples, in my own BJD family! The hidden potential in head sculpts is amazing.

Linda S.
galatia9

 

@Windicus another nose fan here.

Some companies have the worst faceup photos! Angelsdoll is one. On the other hand, some companies have great photos, but the doll itself is not as good in person. I like to see the blank sculpt before I decide.

 

Its unbelievable how much of a difference a faceup can make, though I know thats the idea behind BJDs and how much a company can make their dolls seem so average with a bad faceup and bad photography XD Ive gotten a doll with a default faceup, wiped it and did something new and she was so much more pretty to me ;w;

 

While I still don't think I'd call her sculpt perfect, Souldoll's Yeon Soo default faceup just isn't flattering. My poor doll looked disappointingly dead eyed and quite dull before I redid her faceup myself -- and I didn't even do a particularly good job! I'm not a great faceup artist! But the company's photos made her look SO distant and depressed that I couldn't bond with the poor dear for a solid two months. (She also needed smaller eyes, but giving her any kind of facial expression at all made the biggest difference.)

 

I've got a secondhand (thirdhand?) DC Jodie that came with a custom faceup, and as soon as I saw him I had to have him. I later looked up the company's site and... yeah, I love Doll Chateau but their faceups are very dramatic, which is great and all, but it doesn't always work for every sculpt.

Yeah, at this point I do my best to try to find as many owner pictures with custom faceups (and blank pictures, if I can find them) before I consider any sculpt. (Although promising defaults are a plus for me because I'm scared to do my own faceups just yet.)

 

I searched for some Soom Idealians' owner pics online and saw a really handsome Narmer. Then I went to the company to search for him and his Egyptian themed faceup is not working out for me (it looked like totally 2 different dolls). Also the company did not post any blank photos then, so I wouldn't have considered him at all if I didn't look for owner pics. But problem with Soom is by the time there are owner pics the pre-order would have been closed long ago

So right now I'm hoping for Soom to release Narmer again Though I'm not sure if I can make him have a similar vibe that I get from the other owners' pics that made me fall in love with him with my lacking faceup skills