Should all companies should offer tanned and color choices?

Actually, as I understand it, it is difficult for the manufacturer. The darker the resin gets, the more chance there is of visible marbling and defects in the color, as well as increased yellowing/discoloring that happens at a faster rate, and discoloration along sanding points (seams and gates). Even though the option is popular, it's more difficult, takes longer, results in more "bad" castings, and therefore costs more; on top of that, not everyone's happy with the results, and may complain about problems inherent in the process. So it's completely understandable that they'd charge more, or simply not offer the option at all.

 

If they could come up with a way for it to work as well and come out as nicely as 'normal' resins (your pure whites, normal pink/yellow, etc) then definitely. But that being said, as vicemage pointed out it's incredibly difficult to achieve the same results. But it would be nice.

 

I'm not terribly interested in tan or other color resin, so that makes me a bit biased when I think about this. But honestly...I mean, it would be nice, but I don't think it's something companies are obligated to (i.e. "should") do. I think if the demand ever became high enough, companies might put more effort into making tan/colored resins work, but if they're doing just fine with their non-tan/non-colored resins and the process is more difficult for tan/colored resins, they probably don't have that much motivation.

 

It'd be nice to have the option, but it's not something any company should be forced to do.

My coloured dolls are mostly animal dolls; a Pipos Yellow Tomo and Trudy, as well as a Soom Toad who came with light blue resin.

My Tomo has noticeable green marbling on him. Does it bother me? Not in the least! But I can see many other people being really annoyed by things like that. The companies likely see this as well and wish to steer clear of negative feedback due to the irregularities brought about by coloured resin.

With that said, if tanned skin is what you're after, people have done various dying tutorials that may get you closer to the colours you seek, and blushing would do the rest.

 

I wish they did--I love tan dolls. It's true that tan resins (or any with heavy pigment) tend to be trickier to cast, and trickier to modify. Resin formulas are proprietary, so even though Resinsoul (for example) has lots of colors, another company might be using totally different ingredients.

If you're looking for a tan elf, check out Lumedoll. They have three lovely elf sculpts (two girls, one boy), and they offer suntan, bronze and chocolate brown.

 

I've been trying for ages to find a company that does tan in a sculpt I like for one of my characters. She's dark skinned so I want her doll to reflect that. I also think that people come in all different shades of skin tone, so dollys should too! It opens up a much wider branch of the hobby for customisation and character development. Also, if a company offers dolls in colours other than natural tones, they should at least also offer dolls (non-limited dolls) in natural brown skin tones. I mean, I love certain doll companies to pieces, but if I can get a doll from them which is red but not one which is dark skinned, there's a bit of a problem.

I think at the end of the day, however, doll companies will decide what they do by the cost-effectiveness. If they can offer the product and people will buy it and it is a feasible addition to their products, they will make it. And in the meantime, I'll just wait for my perfect Skye to be released, and save up for when she does come out.

 

If they could they probably would, but it is difficult and expensive.

 

Oddly enough some of the more economical doll companies such as fantasy doll and bobobie do very good tan dolls. I have a tan bobobie from years ago which hasn't really changed colour much at all. All of her seams were company sanded with very little colour variation.
I also have an artist doll cast by fantasy doll in 2013 and again the sanded seams show very little.

 

I'd like to see doll makers offer what they feel comfortable offering. I would rather they stay in business and keep making dolls than let their overhead costs get out of control in an attempt to please everyone.
I would have liked it if one of my Volks dolls were a darker skin tone, but it's not critical to my enjoyment of the doll. Also, I find painting dark resin extremely frustrating because colors work differently on a darker base and the talc in the sealant that gives it enough tooth for paint to stick also causes pale blooms on the resin so the painted parts never match the unpainted parts.

 

I would love to know the Bobobie/Resinsoul coloured resin secret - or at least know what their ratio of junk casts to saleable casts is! The range of colours they offer is impressive and I don't recall any particular complaints about marbling or weird yellowing effects. Every company must have an allowance for junk casts in their budget as well as all their other overheads like rent, wages, bills, base cost of materials and so on. It may even come down to a difference in living costs - perhaps because the costs of living in China are lower than, say, Japan, Bobobie can afford more junk casts because their staff wages are lower, but Volks can't afford more junk casts to eat into their budget because their staff wages are correspondingly higher? Just a random guess.

I think what matters to me more is that there is a greater range of features and body types available rather than different resin colours because resin can be dyed or blushed to change the colour, but if you want a doll with African or Asian features there are only a few examples available or if you want a pear-shaped doll you're limited in size because those dolls are either minis or tinies, not larger dolls. I think elves and vampires have better representation in the BJD world than people of African origin, which is great for fantasy characters but a shame for people who want more down to earth dolls for their characters.

 

Jescissa: Based on what I know of China, despite their living costs being generally lower, they also don't make nearly as much money.

The thing about dolls (specifically) is that they've reached an audience that spends a lot of money that has (approximately) six times the value of the currency in China, and to fully capitalize on that, they can still sell dolls for lower prices to attract business.

So if each $100 you spend on a Chinese doll is approximately 600 RMB, then it's likely that even a few junk casts wouldn't eat too much into the profit margin.

 

I'm one of the 'It'd be really nice but you can't force a company to do anything other than voting with your dollars.' I DO wish more companies had Resinsoul's range of colors. And they're so consistent about them too! I've bought many many Resinsouls that perfectly match despite being made months apart, whereas some pricier companies can't even keep their normal skin consistent from day to day. I honestly wish I liked more Resinsoul faces because I am in love with their colors and bodies.

But I'm also not afraid to dye or 'spray tan' dolls. A look through my doll family will show about a fourth of them are dyed or have some degree of spray coloring/airbrush coloring. Especially since I love putting Soom fantasy parts, which generally only come in white-normal-sometimes bronze, on a whole range of fantasy colored dolls.

 

Thanks for the info! That makes a lot of sense.

 

I would love it if more companies offered tans, but I understand why so many don't. It just means that I squee that much harder when I find a beautiful tan and my wallet screams in fear.

 

As much as I would loooooove to see more resin shades, tan especially from doll companies; I don't believe they should tackle the colored/tan resin conundrum. I'd much rather see the companies and artists focus on producing dolls that are an expression of their artist vision. It could also be that companies just don't have the bandwidth to figure out "the tan formula" vs. keeping up production times and general quality.

 

Everybody wants what they want. Companies really want to cater to their customers, but they still need to be able to stay in business. I'm sure if they could, they would sell all kinds of resin colors and all kinds of sculpts--but that's not how reality works!

People dye dolls because they want specific colors. They often want colors that have a very limited market, which is why companies aren't making dolls in that color.

Companies are charging more for certain resin colors not because they want to screw anyone over. They have to charge enough to make sure they stay in business. As others have said, it can be more expensive to make certain colors, so they have to charge more.

Not all resins are the same. Companies and factories all have their own recipes. What works for one company doesn't necessarily work for all. Sure Bobobie/RS has a range of colors, but I wouldn't want every single doll out there to come in those exact same colors and resin. And that's never going to happen anyway, since the companies don't share their resin recipes.

And, as others have said, Companies should do what makes sense for them and not do things just because we demand it. If they think they can make the dolls and sell them in certain colors or sculpts or whatever, they will do that. But obviously they have their own sculptors who specialize in their own designs and their own resin and can't be all the same, nor should they be.

 

Actually, I was kind of wondering about this - from the photoshoots, it looks like a lot of people don't change the skin colour of their dolls at all, it seems the pale porcelain look is pretty much preferred. Or is it just that incredibly difficult to do right without airbrushing the doll? I would imagine that on mini and smaller dolls it'd be doable with pastel too...

 

I agree that companies don't have to make things they don't want to but at that same time I don't think its fair to deprive customers of things that are in high demand. I also think companies should offer their customers 'some' level of consistency with their products, not just one special skin color event doll that costs a fortune never to be sold again. As far as tanskins yellowing faster, I don't think I agree with that statement since I have heard a number of people mention that yellowing process is actually slower or less noticeable in darker resins.

But on a personal level, when there's a character I want to flesh out I look at companies who I know offer my preferred skin color for the doll. So far there's only been two dolls on my list that don't come in tan and if I get them, I would like to dye them myself.

I do wish there was a 'real' pink skin doll out there though, like a soft pastel pink. I honestly don't even understand why pinkskin is called as such because it hardly looks any different from normalskin IMO.

 

I know that there's already been a lot of great responses. My opinion is that I would love to see more tan and darker tones offered. Finding a resin for a doll that is of a different nationality or has darker skin due to species is such a pain--and then when you find them, they are very expensive. (I have a handful of tan/darker skin characters who I want to shell but because of the limited nature of the resin and face sculpts I like, they are lower priority.) So I wish more companies found a way to make it work or those that did made more face molds. That said, I know it's a much more complicated issue than just not offering it--and that it's expensive for the company as well as the buyer.