Things that annoy you... *Rant Thread* - pt.2

Skintones. They drive me NUTS. When ABJDs first came out they came in exactly two colors: "normal" (white skin) and "white" (drowned and bled dry corpse fish-belly white). Yes, I know about the Asian preoccupation with "white skin equals beauty", I am well aware of the concept behind it, and it still irks me no end. But at least back then there were two colors, white and REALLY white.

As much as I applaud the attempts at dermatological diversity, we've traded almost no choice for TOO many choices. White, pink-normal, yellow-normal, beige, blush, rose, tan, dark tan...and please don't get me started on the fantasy colors. It's not the variety I mind, it's the bloody INCONSISTENCY. There's no standard of what a "normal" skintone is, which makes it sheer hell when you want to use a head from one company and the body from another. You can't trust the colors you see on a computer screen. The only hope you have is to check with friends who have dolls from those companies and do a side-by-side comparison...and when your friend with the Dollzone lives in Poughkeepsie and the one with the Iplehouse is in Peoria, and you live in Atlanta...yeah.

Then there are the companies where one production run of a "specialty" color (like tan or rose) is going to be a slightly different tone than another run. *headdesk headdesk* And then you can't sand some colors because they dyed the resin post-casting rather than make the resin the color it was supposed to be in the first place...Not everyone does this, but it has been known and it does still happen.

In short, skintones are calculated to drive us all insane. And I'm already within walking distance.

 

Even being absolutely new I already agree with the annoyance about no photos of blank casts. Trying to pick out a first doll is difficult if you have no experience in judging a cast's worth even if it's blushed.
Another is unclear information on sites. If a company offers layaway, ordering of heads-only or heads with different bodies than the default, or custom resin colours... can they please mention it clearly somewhere on the site? Communication is already liable to be difficult because neither I nor the people doing the customer service have English as a first language, let alone the same cultural communication standards, and I prefer not spending weeks emailing back and forth.

 

I'm also really annoid with clothes and shoes only sold as MSD or SD without measurements.

 

THIS! cuz fairyland and Iplehouse are not even on the same planet but both have 'msd's' lol, no matter how many ppl tell you 'if it fits 'fl msd it has to fit your JID/FID'..... not in this lifetime...

 

This reminds me of the bjd companies who dont just have one contact email, that you can write to using your own email. Some have a Q&A site that you need to log into, remember password and then visit every now and then to see if your question has been answered. Is this related to some security issues? (Like avoidong risk of having an email account hacked?) idk, but it is annoying and one of the reasons why I prefer buying things 2nd hand

 

I wish more companies released outfits individually from the dolls. Like, I don't want an entire new doll and I don't feel comfortable doing a split.

 

most companies DO sell outfits separately.... you need to stop looking at 'full sets' and just look at 'clothing'or clothing sites. Or learn to do splits... which by the way are how I got half of my best outfits...If you stick to DoA you should be more than safe. Just look for ones where the person running the split is keeping the doll. YOU don't have to run the split. Check feed back and it will be fine.

 

What's something you feel like everyone loves about bjds that you just can't understand?
This can be about companies, specific sculpts, clothes, wigs, eyes, or anything else!

 

I think Fairyland are overpriced and overhyped

<_<

and the minifees all look the same to me.

That I think is my biggest "unpopular opinion" lol.

 

The lack of posing options is what gets me with minifees. They're hyped up but the body is practically single jointed

 

I don't find Switch boys all that good looking

 

I'm not actually sure if it's unpopular in the hobby in general or just in the places I frequent- I LOVE the look of bjd joints. I love it when they're chunky and super visible, especially when it enhances posability. I understand why one might try to make them as inconspicuous as possible for the sake of aesthetic or realism, but I just feel like having really obvious visible joints is what makes a BJD a BJD, you know?

Also, I don't value perfection as much as a lot of the hobby. I really like somewhat wonky, asymmetrical, "ugly", uneven, "amateur", or home-casted artist sculpts, and I don't mind if they're not up to the usual BJD standard of perfection when it comes to production, sculpting or aesthetic. I'm a newbie sculptor myself and I want to home cast my own heads, even though they'll never be perfect.

ALSO I think really realistic dolls are creepy.

 

(this comes from a person who has a sucky camera, and usually - out of laziness - just takes photos with an old mobile anyway)
I find it not worth to spend tons of money on eyes, when already the cheapest glass ones often are defined enough and when photographed from a distance, the doll looks the same whether wearing eyes that were $6 or that were $50...

 

I don't like venitu , he looks so bored with everything and the way his mouth is sculpted it always looks like he is hiding a frog in his mouth or something. He could have the best custom job in the world, but that mouth is so off-putting to me that I can't look past it.

I also really dislike the look of jointed hands, something always looks off. I love the ability to give the hands more poses, but I would much rather have several sculpted hands

 

Proportions has always been my biggest annoyance with these dolls. Even my ChicLine Rou, who I find to have the best looking (closest to my personal ideal male doll) body I own, he's still off and has tiny baby feet. Super long legged, tiny out of scale torsos, ultra-thin necks and a wide jaw are not my cup of tea. Most dolls are proportioned that way, so I have to believe my opinion is unpopular (not that it ever isn't, I'm an weirdo). (:

I also agree with the two posters above about eyes, I rather not spend much on them since I suck at photos and I rather have custom eyes that fit the character than spend a doll's worth of money on a pair of eyes. I also don't like the aesthetics of jointed hands and would rather companies I own dolls from, made more optional hands in different poses -- I love that action figures normally come with three to four extra pairs, but I don't own any BJD that have that many options.

 

I like imperfect dolls. Sometimes I imagine what I would look like if I was a doll and then wonder who would buy me. Bring on the cracked, chipped, yellowed imperfections. They feel more real.

 

I don’t like the really big eyed, pouty lipped aesthetic which is common in BJDs. Even some ‘mature’ sculpts have squinting but super wide eyes. I also don’t like very puffy, pouty lips with exaggerated curves. They weird me out.

 

Gosh I love imperfections too. Nothing more satisfying than a doll with flaws you can incorperate into their character heh.

I also don't mind yellowing/mellowing and think people need to chill out about it. If you can't stand yellowing, don't buy resin. *shrug*

I also love interesting noses and faces that aren't conventionally pretty.

 

YES!!! Exactly I like to make my dolls developed characters with personality and physical flaws! My favorite bjd has a cracked nose.

 

I also don't get the Fairyland hype at all, and I don't care for Switch either. I know the noses and lips are the appeal point for a lot of people, but they bother me lol.

I also think all of Soom's recent releases look the same. =/

Lastly, and maybe most contentiously, I think some of the most popular and expensive big-name faceup artists out there are overrated, and there are a lot of more obscure artists working for less who do better work. :P