*rant* Body Blemishes

My very first doll has gouges out of her ankle balls because the S-hook keeps getting stuck on them and scraping them.... I was so mad when I first noticed it, but apart from squeezing the ends of the s-hooks closer together and making it harder to take them off the elastic, I dont know what else to do... I thought about putting hot glue on them to protect them, but I'm sure the s-hook will just get stuck on the glue as well. I'm sure Doll-Leaves would sell me some new ones if I ever needed any (plus I have some for her other feet). But you get used to stuff like this in the end.... little dents and things are bound to happen unless you never play with them and just keep them in a glass case (I barely play with her right now because of school and it still happened).

 

This seems to be the core of your issue - it's that they cost 'so much' but are not perfect/immaculate; you feel that it is not good value, or that they are overpriced if they are not flawless.

I have a factory made china mug. It's perfect - flawless. It cost $x. I also have a handmade pottery mug, handpainted, fired in a one-potter operation who was making a basic living from his work, but no more. It is very much not 'flawless' - the glaze has some runs, the colour is marbled, the inside is slightly wavy and there is an annoying little bump on the handle. It cost $x + $y. By your argument, when I paid so much more for the handmade mug, I should have expected it to be immaculate! But I didn't, and don't; what I value about it is the individuality of it, the personal story behind it. The factory made mug is lovely and utterly impersonal. If it got broken tomorrow, I'd never think of it again in the future. If that handmade mug got broken, I would still remember it years into the future.

It is the same with dolls. It is not that I want flaws, per say, but that the individuality and the handmade aspect of dolls is what we're paying a 'high' price for. A factory-flawless-clone may be 'perfect' but would be worth much less to me.

That said, I have returned a tan BJD for scratching/sanding flaws. There is a limit - that doll was my 4th in that resin color. All of them had some marks on them, but that one I returned? Her flaws were an order of magnitude more severe. I have also had a doll hand break in shipping; the company sent a replacement. Right now, I'm peeved at Fairyland because the headcap on the free MNF event head that I just received does not fit. At all. However... I'll deal. It's a free gift after all!

 

No offense, but if this is the kind of world you're looking for ("perfect girls"), this may not be the hobby for you.

I don't know a single doll that's come to me "perfect." The least expensive ones needed to be restrung to hold a pose. The most expensive one has slightly uneven legs. The ones in between have trouble standing, or can't touch their faces, or have oddly sized eye wells, or headcaps that are a pain to deal with. And yes, more of them have seams than do not.

I have never considered seams a flaw on any color of doll. I don't consider even the uneven legs a flaw--the original body was hand-sculpted, and a tiny flaw like that is something that's expected in a case like that. I don't consider the need to restring a flaw--that company had problems with dolls breaking in transit, and used looser string to solve the problem. I did my homework. I expected this, and understood it. I've got a doll with some rough body mods, that were a bit of a surprise when he arrived. I still dealt with them and moved on.

Honestly, the dolls I have that came fully sanded? They look too "plastic" to me, because of how smoothly sanded they are. I'm planning to, in the near future, fully clean and coat all of them with sealant to dull that cheap plastic look. I'd rather they had seamlines and a more textured resin. As others have said, this is a hobby about customization, not perfection. It's a hobby of quirks and small details that make your doll uniquely yours, not one of ten thousand. If it's perfection you're looking for, there's plenty of dolls out there you can buy that are perfect right out of their box. These are not those dolls, and that's what makes them special.

 

Thank you for saying what I've been thinking. Nailed it!

 

I agree that seam lines and marbeling are not a problem in moderation but I take issue with the attitude that having to mod a doll to make it presentable is par for the course in this hobby. I am much more forgiving of problems with tan dolls and dolls who are home cast but I do expect a certain level of quality control to exist in any item I buy.

I feel like I should be able to buy a bjd and take it out of the box completely intact and fully functional straight from the company. Dolls with seam lines so sharp they cut you, fantasy parts with magnets that don't fit the holes made for them and string channels drilled so crooked the doll can't stand or sit right are major problems. If I have to have a dremel present at a box opening the company is going to hear about it. I used to see a lot of people in box opening threads who seem to be content with receiving a damaged (or in a few cases incorrectly assembled) product and whether they are afraid to bother the company or are so tired of waiting for the doll they want to be done with the whole transaction I don't know. But for me, I work really hard for my money and I don't subscribe to the "we're privileged for even having the chance to own bjd!" philosophy I see floating around.

 

The best thing you can do is research the specific companies you're interested in to see if they have common problems (because some companies have known issues) you can also go into the company/doll specific discussion threads and ask if there is anything you should look out for. A new doll coming from a company scratched, cracked, or with bubbled or pitted resin isn't normal and would be something you'd likely send it back to the company for and have them replace it.

 

I dont think anyone is saying that they would be okay with the problems you are describing (seams sharp enough to cut you, crooked channels, incorrectly assembled parts, etc)... the majority of major issues I've seen like these in box openings have usually been mentioned in conjunction with "I posted on the Q&A about it" etc. None of those are acceptable... as for the incorrectly assembled part.... even though I dont find it acceptable, it can be easily fixed. I still think it should be mentioned on the Q&A boards however.

Most of the posts I've read here are talking about inconsistencies due to them being handmade like A-symmetry and basic seam lines etc... not things that are definitely quality control issues that could and should be fixed and done properly before sending the doll.

As far as the hole in my Pamela's knee part, if it had been anywhere else on her, I would have definitely asked for a replacement part. But since it wont be seen ever, I dont see that as a huge issue.

 

Where the hell are you guys buying your dolls?
All mine have been perfect!
Each and everyone...
I've not had any weirdness or offness to the doll.
No seams, no marbling, I'll - fighting parts...
"Knock on wood"

 

Same. The only dolls I've gotten with weirdness going on were either second hand or from very inexpensive companies.

 

Some people here really need to work on their attitude. She just asked a question, no need to get all defensive about it..
I don't own any BJDs yet, but I will buy one someday. When I do, I expect it to have a certain level of quality. It is a lot of money for a doll, so I do understand what Asatsuya mean.

In the end I guess it depends on how big flaws you are able to live with.

 

[putting on my collector's hat]
I do get where you come from, but I also understand the knee-jerk reaction that you have received from some of us. I have to admit, that I had that same response at first too. This is why: It's is an argument that we often see in the hobby. These dolls are expensive. So, for the price we pay, we want them to be exactly the way we want them to. If you look at the years gone by, customers are getting more and more demands. When BJD's were new, nobody minded seamlines. We considered these dolls to be customisable figurines, garage kits even, and so seams were a part of the product, but that sentiment has changed over the years, and now they are often considered a flaw, instead of the byproduct they really are.

But there have been other demands as well. I remember the first time a company started giving away free heads during an event. And I remember how none of us understood, because... did they really mean "free"? Not a discount or something. Later on, that same company decided to do something else during a new event, and people were outraged. Because they had expected to get their free head, and it was their right. Other free gifts were expected as well. And recently, there have been complaints about the free eyes we get with the dolls we buy. Some think companies owe us to give us eyes of the color WE want, because we pay so much money already!

The last few years, I feel that there is an increase in entitlement. Perhaps I'm wrong. Maybe it only looks like it, because social media like Tumblr make it easier to see all kinds of different opinions, unlike a forum like this that has always been heavily moderated. But, as one of those old-skool collectors who still considers these dolls as customizable objects, not so much collectible, it sometimes rubs me the wrong way.


[and.. now putting on my dollmaker's hat]
The point is: All this money you're spending to get a doll, more than half of the asking price is production cost. That $600 doll? Yup, 300 bucks is directly used for the resin, silicone, release sprays, string, s-hooks, packaging, clay, primers etc. The remaining money is used to pay rent, computer maintenance, taxes, possible employees etc. So that big lump of money, really isn't that much when you look at it.

When creating tan dolls, the production costs increases too, due to the pigment needed to achieve the color. The more pigment you add to the resin, the more flaws you'll get. (With flaws I mean, bubbles, marbling, resin not wanting to cure properly, brittle resin etc) This means that there are quite a few casts that have to be discarded, and this is something that costs money too .

Seamlines are a byproduct. Depending on what type of resin a company uses, these are able to be removed when using a darker colour, or not. Some resins, like Dollshe's for example, we're unable to sand, due to the color difference it creates. The resin does provide a very deep, full color though and it has a nice tooth.
Other resins, like the one Weiju casting uses ARE able to be sanded, even when using really dark tans. Their colors lack a bit of vibrance though, and not everyone likes the glow it has.

So, every resin has their pro's and con's. And if you really do not want your doll to have seamlines, you could either choose to buy a normal skinned, or a white skinned doll, and possibly do the sanding yourself, or research what companies offer tan dolls with the seams sanded.

[back to being a collector]
Now as for flaws:
Cracks, marbling, air bubbles, deep scratches etc. are all things that are unacceptable. If a doll I bought would arrive to me with these issues, I would contact the company and ask for a replacement. With air bubbles I'm sometimes a bit more lenient, especially when I'm dealing with an artist cast, old sculpt, or when there's only one bubble, in an inconspicuous place (like inside the doll, or ball joint). But especially when dealing with a crack, or with deep scratches, I'd want to have a replacement, because my doll is damaged.


tl;dr
These dolls are expensive, yes, but the majority of the money is used to buy the materials. Seamlines aren't flaws - depending on the resin type it is possible to sand tan dolls -, but cracks, deep scratches, marbling and airbubbles are unacceptable and should be dealt with, I think.

 

I'm still fairly new, having not been in the hobby a full two years yet. Nearly half my dolls are tan without sanded seams. The tan Dika Doll has no seamlines, like my NS Dollzone, Doll In Mind, and Xaga Doll. The seamlines are far more noticible on my two artist cast dolls, and I plan to sand them myself as soon as I get a particle mask and superfine sand paper. One of them has an air bubble between his toes but as he's a mature tiny, who's going to see it? And if they do, he's hand cast by the artist, so its an acceptable imperfection.