1. It has come to the attention of forum staff that Dollshe Craft has ceased communications with dealers and customers, has failed to provide promised refunds for the excessive waits, and now has wait times surpassing 5 years in some cases. Forum staff are also concerned as there are claims being put forth that Dollshe plans to close down their doll making company. Due to the instability of the company, the lack of communication, the lack of promised refunds, and the wait times now surpassing 5 years, we strongly urge members to research the current state of this company very carefully and thoroughly before deciding to place an order. For more information please see the Dollshe waiting room. Do not assume this cannot happen to you or that your order will be different.
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  2. Dollshe Craft and all dolls created by Dollshe, including any dolls created under his new or future companies, including Club Coco BJD are now banned from Den of Angels. Dollshe and the sculptor may not advertise his products on this forum. Sales may not be discussed, no news threads may be posted regarding new releases. This ban does not impact any dolls by Dollshe ordered by November 8, 2023. Any dolls ordered after November 8, 2023, regardless of the date the sculpt was released, are banned from this forum as are any dolls released under his new or future companies including but not limited to Club Coco BJD. This ban does not apply to other company dolls cast by Dollshe as part of a casting agreement between him and the actual sculpt or company and those dolls may still be discussed on the forum. Please come to Ask the Moderators if you have any questions.
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Something you know now that you wish you knew then?

Jun 11, 2019

    1. Nothing in this hobby is cheap- clothes are expensive so remember to save for more besides just the doll!
       
      • x 7
    2. If you want something pricey, it's better to just be patient and save up for it instead of trying to settle for a cheaper alternative that'll only disappoint you in the end.
       
      • x 13
    3. If you are a tan BJD, sunlight is evil. My first doll was inconsistently protected from direct sunlight, and she's yellowed unevenly. Her face and hands have faded to a greenish color.:doh It could probably be hidden with a decent face-up, but I don't have the skill.
       
      • x 1
    4. Keep all your documents for your doll (or future dolls) in one place. If the box is not marked down also have a notepad with the year you brought your doll, make, model and price of your doll. This will help if you need to sell any of your dolls and is also have an insurance claim on them.
       
      • x 10
    5. That I would want back a couple of the things I sold that are now hard to get. This is why I've almost completely stopped selling.
       
      • x 3
    6. Well I knew it was going to be a expensive hobby but I wish I knew the dollar currency in my country is going to be 7 in the future
       
      • x 2
    7. Hybrids are a great option if one likes the head but not the body or the body poses badly and so on. I ended up buying a doll because I really loved head sculpt wise but his body still makes me a bit uncomfortable because it's way too skinny and spindly. I'm planning to get him a different body in near future.
       
      • x 4
    8. I just about ruined my first faceup by not applying enough Mr. Super Clear to my doll's head. It took me weeks to remove the staining and a lot of that had to be sanded down. I wish I'd known beforehand as her face is rougher and the sanding caused some discoloration.
       
      • x 2
    9. Wait and buy a doll second hand are sometime faster than order once it's came out through a dealer (especially through Dolkus, this dealer is slow and will not move if you didn't ask they to.)

      I've a doll that ordered since december 2019 (The month they came out) and still on "shipment waiting". While some other even already put that specific doll on sale. :abambi:

      (The last time my dealer contact me was after x'mas and said the doll was already arrive and ready to ship to me and will get back to me once they got an EMS number... I will see if they took more than a month to issue an EMS number :mwahaha)

      Also, some company are not having consistent with resin color or faceup. Do not think that you will alway get what you see in the promo picture and do some research beforehand.
       
      • x 2
    10. Always look for the blank body and face sculpts. Dig further than the pretty, exposure heavy promotional pictures and see what the face looks like underneath.
       
      • x 9
    11. I wish I’d known how much I would continue to regret missing out on certain sculpts that were discontinued. While finance wasn’t a problem, I didn’t want to grow my collection too fast so always planned to purchase them later. I also wish I’d known how long the wait period was for certain dolls in which case I might have decided to order them sooner.
       
      • x 5
    12. buying secondhand is just as fun, if not more fun, than buying new. while I still have some grail sculpts, I've decided that the real thrill of falling in love with dolls lies in the secondhand market (mostly instagram, but sometimes facebook, too.) I chalk this up to the wide arrange of obscure sculpts with beautiful faceups that end up being sold secondhand that I would have never known of otherwise. and besides, they're usually cheaper, come quicker, and are more environmentally conscious than buying new.
       
      • x 7
    13. I’m still figuring stuff out, but I do wish I had been more prepared for how long things can take. I was prepared for the doll to take a couple months. Not that I probably won’t get my doll for a year or possibly longer.
       
      • x 1
    14. I'm still waiting for the day that ordering a doll takes a year+, it seems so stressful! My heart goes out to folks who have to wait for such long times to receive their dolls :' (
       
      • x 2
    15. That anthropic dolls are not for me and that if I buy any big dolls keep in mind they will end up display dolls. Also keep any Irrealdolls I buy. I will regret selling everyone of them.
       
      • x 1
    16. I would let go of a lot of my early angst spent worrying about numbers…always afraid I’d get carried away and spend too much money on dolls or make things overly crowded. I kept trying to limit myself…over and over again. But the numbers would always slowly creep up on me regardless of what I did (working out to roughly 3 dolls per year, and after nearly 16 years, that really adds up!):sweat There was the occasional sale along the way of course, but only if the doll didn’t work out for their planned character…a simple process of refining my creative aesthetic that most of us go through. But in the end, I wound up with an amazing collection of nearly 50 dolls. And I’m wondering what all that worry and angst about numbers was really all about? I budgeted well, getting most on layaway while keeping all the bills paid. None of them are “box babies”, all are on display, and I can still remember all of their names and where they came from. All are complete, with faceups, wardrobes and stories. From what I know now, if I could go back, I’d tell myself to just relax and enjoy the amazing ride!:)
       
      #56 PoeticSoul, Feb 6, 2022
      Last edited: Feb 6, 2022
      • x 7
    17. Still have a long way to go in the BJD learning path but... Don't be super afraid of handling/doing things to your doll.
      Want to try faceups? Go for it. Wig making? Sure. Making some eyes? Do it!!
      It's scary at first but you might find something you're super passionate about!

      My doll spent most of his time hidden away until I decided to stop being scared, now I enjoy him much more and I feel our bond growing quickly. (And I also love doing faceups now ;;)
       
      • x 2
    18. That I would regret selling every doll I've sold and some would be really difficult to find again.
      That Dream of Doll would vanish without a word, so I could have tried to buy the ones I wanted direct from the company when they were around.
      That Dollshe would end up having shitty business practices full of broken promises and 2+ year long waits, would've snatched up more secondhand Dollshes instead of suffering with the wait.
      That fashion scale 1/4 dolls would be a thing, then maybe my collection wouldn't be full of 60cm+ dolls and taking up all my space lmao
      That joining DoA without owning a bjd is a good thing, joined after I got mine and had done all of my research with a lot of googling instead of having the plethora of info that's on here lmao
      That there was a local doll group and I could have seen a bjd in person before getting one. (though, now I don't live super close to that doll group anymore and don't know if there's one closer to where I am lmao)

      Year+ long wait times are rare, but I still suggest reading through the waiting rooms of any companies you're interested in. My longest wait is at 2 years 9 months, and is still ongoing (so, don't order from Dollshe, just fyi).
       
      • x 5
    19. I mean, the first and biggest takeaway I have from this hobby is that you can sell things when they don't work. And seriously, that's been a game changer. I found pictures of my collection from... I think 2018 on my old Flickr

      [​IMG]IMG_4786 by demon.chameleon, on Flickr

      I still own exactly 3 dolls that are in this pic--the Angela on the left (red Dress), the Iple Kamau behind her (but now with a faceup!), and the WS head you can see between the purple girl and the shattered doll face of WD Adriana. Also the mermaid body that sitting in front, but not the Rho head on it. All those other dolls I've sold, which made way for me to get some of the dolls I never thought I could have.

      [​IMG]Doll squad 2020 by Indifferent Red, on Flickr

      this is my squad in 2020 (everyone who isn't being modded, which is why Kamau doesn't appear). Not only has the population grown, but it's still not fixed--I think 6 dolls, and a few bodies have left me from this pic, and several have come in. You'll noice a few big changes--the first is that I really like girls*. I know, shocking comment from the lesbian. But I really have an easier time with characters that are women (or femme-aligned, because I'm not actually 100% a woman, even if I use she/her and look femme but that's a whoooole nother discussion!) Also the company rep has changed. The great Twigling-splosion happened in 2020, when I first got shrike (in the multicoloured wig) who is genuinely my favourite doll I've ever owned, and was fuelled by the sale of one of the dolls from the first pic, that gave me the money to bring her home.

      That also taught me the next biggest lesson I've learned: you can have that doll. I'd always said twigling was too expensive, and they were--for high school me, incapable of saving up. The current count on full twigling dolls is 4, but there are also so many extra heads (5, 2 incoming). One of those dolls, I was even convinced I'd never see for sale, let alone own. I have bodies I had previously only dreamed of (amadiz angels, 5th motif, soom mecha angel gal) and dolls that were discontinued before I could ever have gotten them (Ingenieuse, elf doll Lydia, the MA body). Nothing is impossible to get, there's just variable waits for them to pop up on the MP, and varying amounts of saving up.

      And the last big takeaway: you can also create that doll. I love modding. I was terrified to sand dolls because "I'd ruin them" until I hit a low in 2020, and that body is currently a mess of mods, but she's not done until I like the way she turns out. Nothing is off-limits to modding, and no mod is done until you like the result.

      Bonus: stop shelling other people's characters is the lesson I've "learned" now, twice, the first time of which was the only reason I started selling. And yet, here I am, shelling my dnd party, 3/4 of which are other people's characters. I've told them, this party has to last so I don't learn my lesson a third time.
       
      • x 4
    20. I probably should've known this, but i was unprepared by how severe the yellowing could be on some kinds of resin. I still love my yellowed dolls faces and I can't say I regret buying them, but I wish I could've stopped the resin from yellowing - especially when it's been uneven.