Poll question: What do you look for in a doll?

I chose 'easy body shape' and other. None of the other answers apply to me - I dislike having too many joints, most would probably consider my taste in sculpts to be 'mainstream', and I'm not really a brand loyalist. Mostly, I look for a face that grabs me, with at least double-jointed elbows and a torso split for posing. I also take things like resin quality, body aesthetics, customer service, and company history into account.

 

it's totally the sculpting, not necessarily super unique, but I choose based on how it fits my aesthetic also the size is really important to me as well; I have a 60 cm doll right now and I don't want my other dolls to be too far from that scale (if their characters are supposed to be the same height).

 

fantasy skin tones, fantasy features, wierdness, uniqueness. I like dolls that look unique, like.. you can immediately say "yep, that's a x company doll" rather than so many that I personally find very samey looking.
I like faces with personality as well, a little smirk, a smug little self satisfied half smile, a slight scowl.. I love that and I love wonky noses, big ears, big noses and odd face shapes. There's so many dolls that are kinda generically "pretty" (even the boys) and that doesn't really appeal to me. I like that more human feel, the imperfections that make a face beautiful and interesting to look at.

And if I can get a doll in green skin then i'm super sold hahaha.

Scale is also a big thing. I don't much care for teeny tiny dolls because while I know the engineering is way harder, they're the same price as big dolls and the value for money just doesn't feel there for me. Also I like the heft of a larger doll and they're way easier to dress and paint. But SD scars me, it's just too big. I feel intimidated by a doll that comes up to my waist. So YOSD and MSD are my scales.

Interestingly, posability doesn't really matter to me so much. Oh I like having joints, but amazing articulation is low on my priority list. FACES are what I look at, body just has to look decent and not boxy and hideous.

 

yep, I plan to have an msd, but technically, she's supposed to be a child compared to my taller dolls for now I want dolls that are in that specific universe to have the same scale. After that, I don't have plans for other dolls but you never know

 

I chose posebility and other. In order to get posebility, I usually plan to hybrid. So what makes me like faces and what makes me like bodies are two different things. As for other, well, I guess there is just this aesthetic that I like, kind of androgynous, at the line between realistic and stylized. Oh, and scale too. No bigger than 65 cm if I can help it. I tend to be attracted only to SDs, but I think that this is less because of size and more because of style.

 

I like unique bodied/faces. Something different from what everyone else has, something that you don't see all over. I love small companies and short runs. But then I also chose cheap. hehe. Not because it neds to be cheap but rather I cannot fathom paying some of the prices I see! I'm budget-conscious. Yes, I will pay more (400$ maybe) for just the doll but it has to be very unique, because then I still have to give it a face up, wig, clothing, etc. I'm a bargain shopper too so show me the deals. I just gotta be drawn to the doll and the doll has to be what I think is reasonable at the time.

 

I go by a mixture what other owners say, along with both company and owner photographs. For instance, I dislike resin that appears super shiny, since that makes the resin look cheap. I also like weighted resin versus lighter resin, but that is a personal preference and not a quality indicator. You'll want to look out for consistent complaints of bad customer service, too-thin resin and terrible seam lines when researching any doll, though. I avoid certain companies because of that.

 

I like expressive and realistic faces best. Next comes the body--aesthetics and proportion are more important to me than super poseability. Pretty hands are very important and can be a deal breaker for me. It's mostly intuitive and hard to explain. I just know when I like a doll. Price can be a factor so I look for basics rather than fullsets.

 

not sure. I kinda figure when I can buy an msd doll i love for like £150, that same money for a doll that fits in my palm feels more frivolous you know? Harder to justify to myself and non doll people who don't get why that teeny tiny thing is so expensive.
I've seen 5 inch tall dolls that are like £300 and while they're omg amazing and detailed and the sculpting at that scale is breathtaking, it's super hard to justify to myself that sort of cash on something so little.

I find MSD easier to justify because they are so obviously different to a regular fashion doll to the non doll people, they're big, they're chunky, they're quite clearly something else while anything 1/6 scale and smaller? "oh is that a super expensive barbie?"
*headdesk*

I'm pretty cheap, I don't have an awful lot of money for for me £100 is a LOT of money and the spend guilt is a very real thing. So I have to feel like I can "justify" it even if that's completely ridiculous and crazy. But it also means that it has to be unique and special enough for me to feel it's "worth" that expense. It's all a whole lot of madness on my part, but very much linked to me being paranoid about money and never having much of it. I have literally £75 a month to spend of frivolous things, so if you consider one of my wishlist dolls say, a Souldoll Vito, that's about £300 which is 4 months of saving and buying NOTHING else at all. More realistically, that's 6 months of saving for me.
Justifying 6 months worth of savings on a single item is... really very hard to do.
Which is why I tend to buy cheaper dolls or dolls that feel like more "bang for your buck"
Most of mine have been second hand and it's nice that the hobby has become accessable to people like myself on such a limited budget. It wasn't once upon a time. I remember lusting after dolls back in university and being unable to justify spending my student loan on something so utterly frivolous. That was a good uh.. 15 years ago.

 

I feel this is a difficult question to answer as there are so many elements that go into choosing a doll. Is it supposed to model a character? Is the face somewhat mischievous or does it have a different expression than most dolls? Body types, skin colors, and companies also come into consideration. If I happen to see a doll I like I'm fine with paying a high price tag, not to say I'll spend 1000 bucks on something small like a limited yosd, but I don't feel like I should let the price limit me. If I really want a doll I don't believe I should settle for less. Regardless, thing I personally look for in a doll is: company reputability, a variety of skin colors, slim body style, unique array of facial expression or versatility, and size.

 

I only chose the Fantasy category. I thought about also choosing the Poseability one as well as I have been turned off on a few dolls do to a complete lack of a torso joint, but at the same time, I generally prefer simper and smoother jointing of single jointed dolls vs the double jointed ones. I hate peanut elbows and knees, but if a double joint has a nice design that does not look weird when bent, I love a doll with good posing ability.

 

1. Easy body shape-I'll never NOT find the clothes I want!
   
2. Poseability-My doll can't be static, let me see you cross those legs!

Those are the two I picked. I like finding them new things to wear and it's important to me that the doll can pose or hold a pose. The posing ability doesn't have to be extreme. Just enough to sit or stand while looking natural and not having their arms snap or drop.

 

I chose Other - since I'm populating a little BJD town... & have characters I need to shell. I like variety, a few groups of dolls from one company for family resemblance, uniqueness, realism.

 

I go for mature looking dolls. I do not like them to look like children or teens. For a girl, She has to be unique, I love large lips and angular noses. For boys, they just have to be good looking. I tend to have a much easier time adding boys to my crew.