Should all companies should offer tanned and color choices?

That number really puts things into perspective, idrisfynn. I was personally already aware that tan colors were more difficult, but having a success/quality rate of only 10% is telling.

And these colors definitely slow down production times; I recently ordered some (NS) FairyLand dolls, in the midst of them offering one Tan event after another. Because of that slow-down (and another event as well), the processing times of several lines have skyrocketed. My own order was about two weeks late shipping, and there's plenty of orders that should have shipped by now that are still waiting. The processing time for the TS dolls is listed as two weeks longer than for other colors, as well (that's the listed time, not any actual processing times encountered). The tan is lovely, and clearly in demand, but it's affecting all their lines now, not just the ones available in tan--in which case, I'd rather see them stick to tan as event only (with more time between them to catch up), rather than offering it all the time.

 

I think it would be nice if they offered all types of colors. That way there would be many choices.

 

Bobobie and Resinsoul offer (or at least they used to!) a pink resin that is more candy pink than 'skin' pink, comparison pic. It's not massively different from their NS, but compared to other resin colours it is noticably pink.

 

I wish more companies could offer DARK skin! I've had a hard time shelling a couple of characters because the few companies that do offer it don't have sculpts that look right!

I finally shelled Jenna as an IMPLdoll Bella, and JayDen as a Jie Doll Michel (when they were still doing chocolate skin) and I love them, but I really wish there were more options. I understand it's hard to do, and expensive, but still....some companies do it so well, like IMPLdoll, Bobobie/ResinSoul, FDoll.....I just wish I liked more of their sculpts!

I still wish Jie doll hadn't stopped, they had such a perfect color! I can't see any seamlines or marbling at all on Jayden, and I've had him almost 2 years and haven't noticed any change in color. So here's an example of a company that got it right, but gave it up.

 

I always have to think about this Dollshe quote when someone brings up this topic, however, Dollshe also has a pretty dark, saturated tan and Mr. Dollshe has high standards too.
I'm pretty sure that other companies are not as picky as him and thus have less pieces they consider faulty, and their rich and saturated tan is something you don't see often either.
A lot of companies have very light tan resin, because the darker it gets the more difficult it is to make a doll without big and visible faults, and such light tan is barely darker than normal skin. The color is just different (and often way too orange -__-).

I have many tan dolls and some of them are not the greatest quality (my Bambicrony girl for example is a mess) but I knew that beforehand and I suck that up because I wanted the color.
Other people can't and complain about these faults even though they knew about them beforehand if they did a bit of research prior buying the doll.

Also, keep in mind that while doll companies do a lot for their customers they also are artists, and artists want to do stuff that not only sells pretty well but also makes them happy. It's their creation after all.
Just because some companies don't care and prefer selling over artistic freedom it's not the case for every company.
Some companies maybe just don't want to make their product in a certain color and that's fine too.

I would of course love it if more companies would make tan dolls, comparing the market now to the one years ago it definitely got better though, but I understand that some companies can't or maybe don't want to do it.
Keep in mind that having a wide range of available colors also means extra work, it's the same why many companies have only a few basic dolls available or decide to cancel the ones that aren't popular enough.
Everything you offer extra means extra work.

 

I would love to see more skin color choices. Everyone should be able to find themselves represented by dolls; I'd love to see more even darker than tan, even, and I actually really love that some molds have been coming out that look more specifically ethnic to other regions as well. I get that there's a cost factor, but given how fast tan and darker skin dolls sell I'd think that there's a great opportunity to be made there, even with a steep price mark-up.

Another thing I'd love to see is more varying body types in BJD's. Why can't we have some that are shorter, squatter, fatter? I would so totally buy a plus sized BJD!

 

Whenever I read a discussion like this (not just with dolls, but anything where people want to make demands but have NO idea of how the industry in question works) I only really think one thing.
If you see a niche in the market that hasn't been filled; fill it! You can't really complain if you have not tried it yourself and if you have you probably know why things are the way they are. Just trust me on this.
Tanned dolls are not more rare because no one realizes there is a demand. They are not rare because the companies what to push the prizes up and they are not expensive because they want fewer people to be able to get them.

Most companies very like have thought about it. Many have done their math and realized the can do it, at a certain prize, some have done it and decided it's not worth it. There is a LOT of factors in this kind of decisions and very few of us here are qualified to criticize how things are done today.

Sure, in a perfect world every possible color would be available, in every possible shape and size, and at a prize we all could afford with perfect quality and short shipping times. But that's just not how reality works.

Besides, for those using Resinsoul/Bobobie as an example, didn't they remove their dark tan from their options?

 

Technically, yes, they did remove it, Lilith, because of issues with inconsistency/marbling in the color... however, they still offer it as a special request color, as long as one agrees to accept the risks of marbling and inconsistent color. I'm hoping to order at least one doll in that lovely dark tan color in the not too distant future, and if there's flaws when it arrives, I'll deal with them, but I tend to enjoy doing blushing and the like on my dolls so it's not a big deal to me personally. For others, I'm sure they could see a small imperfection as the one thing that stops them from bonding with that doll and makes them want to sell it off immediately from the disappointment.

 

Lillith, as far as I know they removed it but you can still ask for it, but you have to be willing to ignore the obvious faults.
EDIT: Whoops, vicemage typed already something up while I typed the rest and explained it a bit better than I did XD

I also am not sure how many people who demand tan actually want really dark skintones.
A lot of the tan especially cheaper companies offer is in my eyes only that: a tan. A tan on a "human" that is actually white and saw a bit of the sun, fitting the "sunshine" name some of the companies give it.
Doing that is actually really not difficult, but it's also not really what I personally want when I buy a "tan" doll.
I don't want a different shade of normal, especially when it's just a bit browner, I want a dark and saturated skintone that makes it impossible to mistake my doll for normal skin.
It's the reason why the last years while building up my tan crew I had to ignore a lot of companies that were actually offering tan, their tan was just way too light for my taste and often not worth the mark up in price.
I got a Granado Andrew head because I REALLY like the mold and yet I still sit here unsure what to do because his tan is an ugly light orange and next to a Dollshe pale tan he looks like some normal skin doll with bad fake spray tan.
If companies only do light tan it doesn't really help and in my eyes barely counts (like the Bobobie Toffee skintone...it's so light in reality!D: ) and I'm not really interested in more companies offering such skintones, same with Volks sunshine skin or the old Migidoll tan.
If they start to offer such a variety like LUTS now does it would actually perfect, they have a great range from very light brown to a deep saturated brown.
I'm not even starting with deep skintones like Dollshe's Ebony because that is REALLY difficult to make well and I guess the market for such dolls is really small, especially since it often seems like a half-assed thing since the molds just don't look like they fit the skintone.
I love Iple for not only offering such a color but also making molds to fit it...Kamau will always be one of my favourites :3

 

Tan? That's so 2013. What I want is chrome dolls with mag wheels! Now that'd be sweet!

 

I do wish companies would offer a range of colours, but I can understand why they don't. If companies could easily offer every skin tone a customer could want, they would - the problem is that is just isn't that easy to do.

 

I also wished that companies offered tan skin. But I understand it is difficult and they should be free. However I wouldn't mind having some marbling in the resin

 

I have to agree with most everyone here: I would absolutely love more resin colors to be available (it is boring to me if all dolls are the same color), but it is up to the company's descretion on whether or not they can do it (or even want to do it). I love monster and fantasy dolls, however, so I want dolls that are every color of the rainbow. The blue resins I have seen make me drool.

 

I'm just another person, who think it would be terrific idea if any company would offer tan skin. Too bad that the companies whitch ones I adore the most offer tan only as an event

 

It probably depends on the type of sculpts you like as to whether darker colors are available. It seems that companies who offer more realistic sculpts (Iplehouse, Granado, Dollshe for instance) are more likely to offer dark colors.

Also, resin technology is improving, so the dark colors offered now have fewer problems than yesteryear.

 

Many choices with skin color would be great, it means more ways to personalize a doll, but as for now some companies are using different skin colors to produce some limited dolls only so i guess that won't change anytime soon. I would love to see more gray color dolls...

 

I don't feel like they should be obligated to have a variety of skin tones, but it certainly would be nice. I personally would like to see more fantasy colors, soom in particular always offers such amazing fantasy skin tones and I'd like to see more companies offer that kind of variety.