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

I bought Citadel Purity Seal years ago, and did some of my dolls face-ups using it. I'd had it so many years since then that I realized I should throw it away and buy new cans, but it longer seems to be available! MSC isn't recommended for tan resin, and a lot of my dolls are tan, so what will I use instead?! Hopefully DoA's Workshop can give me an alternative. I've got so many blank dolls...

 

Citadel rebranded it under the name Munitorum. I've used it for my own faceups, and it works well. You can probably also find other's opinions by searching for it on the forum searching under the new name.

Let's see, a gripe of my own to post—
*Not a lot of female sculpts with defined cheekbones. I love me a mature lady with some good cheekbones, and so many of them out there are the rounder, cute, wide-eyed girl next door type. That, along with more built females in general. wispy waifs are fine enough, but I like a strong personality or built woman. (This might be why I'm mostly drawn to male bjds...)

 

PREACH! You are singing my song.

 

Thanks @jade-eyed-cat ! I ordered a new can so that I can hopefully get most of my many blank dolls painted this summer.

And I found a new annoying thing in this hobby- working with Milliput. The Super White is a good color and is fine textured enough to work for filling dents in an artist cast white doll, but its so sticky its super annoying to work with. It stuck to my fingers and to spots on my doll I didn't want it. At least its water soluble, but not as user friendly as polymer clay or paper clay.

 

1- When you have a tiny doll and you try to position the eyes just so, and finally get the putty to stick. Then you close the head cap and pose it for the photo. And for some reason, despite feeling like it shouldn't be a thing, the tiny S-hook in the head swivels just enough to knock one of the eyes either off pose or loose in the head altogether.

Like... It's a tiny head with barely enough room for the eyes in the first place. How is it physically possible for the tiny S-hook to move in there, let alone make an eye go wonky?

2- RingDoll clothing. Out of any of the secondhand clothing lots or Alice's Collection orders I've ever placed, a RingDoll Teen sized uniform I got second hand has been the most confusing sizes I've ever had the displeasure of encountering. It's the only RingDoll clothing I own and I refuse to buy anymore if I could help it.

The pants fit a 70cm butt, but the length of the pants are for a 65cm male doll. The white button shirt fits a normal 59cm girl, and is a tight fit to busting open on a 62cm slim boy (it won't fit on the 65cm boy I have), and the sleeve reach over the hands. And then there's the coat. It drapes kinda alright on a 65cm boy, but the sleeves look like they should fit a 70cm doll. I can't decide if I want to alter it or just hand it off to someone who owns a RingDoll it was obviously tailored for. Because it is not other-brand friendly at all. (I'm rather curious and scared of the RingDoll male body proportions because of this outfit XD)

3- Finding promotions that sell tiny pets with the condition you have to buy a larger doll to get them as a "freebie". And no option to buy the pet individually. (Looking at you, DreamValley! Why must you torment me with cuteness I can't have!?) It's not always the case, but when it does happen, I certainly get grumpy. I just want the cute tinies! Let me have the little pets!

 

Haha. So sorry, that blog just makes me so mad.

My rant....Taobao....I can handle not having it in English, but the mandatory log in now is annoying, and international buyers can't seem to register.

 

BJD Bhiner is the best. For whatever reason, I can't log into Taobao anymore either (it says I've tried too many times, even though it will be weeks between tries).
You can put Taobao links into BJD Bhiner's search bar, and if Google Translate fails you, they are lovely to work with. They have been happy to answer all of my questions (on China time, of course).

 

Of course my first actual post is whining, how typical

Anyway
Finally when I have energy for this hobby in a long time, then I feel like I cannot do anything!

Faceups? Lol turns out that my sealant has run out and the local craft store that sells MSC asks hefty money per can imo. I get the prices are high here in general but * sigh * and thanks to shipping costs buying elsewhere wouldn't save me any money.

Shipping costs in general are the bane of my existence, I would be very okay for paying a bit more for a nice set of eyes or a wig, but when the shipping costs can climb in the same price range as the product itself: HARD NO.

Shopping overall? I get overwhelmed with the amount of supply tbh.
+ in my absence many companies have discontinued things I've wanted, many Etsy artists have quit their shop/things are sold out and I don't know if they're moved, and if so, where?? I tried googling usernames but results were 50-50.


Also finding shoes: soon my Pipos Charlotte can go bare feet forever for all I care!! Multiple times during the years I've tried to search what other Charlotte owners have bought or said, but either I'm exceptionally terrible at searching, or there just isn't spesific info. Not helping that I want her to have more mature/older lady look, and most YOSD shoes I've seen are very child like.

Last thing is my own impatience: now when I finally have energy to busy myself with dolls I just want everything right now! I get frustrated when I have to think, budget and priotitize things: I just want to destress with my dolls, not think hard stuff >:^( I need to learn how to chill, and not just burn my energy and motivation all at once but it's a forever project of mine /__\

 

There has been a few things recently...

I still can't get over the new EU VAT for every. single. tiny. thing I order from outside of the EU. It's something like 23% of value added on top of the price, and Etsy charges it on checkout, so I also have to overpay for their high Paypal exchange rate. Sometimes customs office charges the same VAT again (because I guess the seller didn't list it clearly that it has already been paid?), so I pay double! It makes this hobby even more expensive and annoying. I also need to have an unknown amount of cash at home to pay for these packages, because postal workers here don't carry terminals.

And for some reason putting in eyes has never been more frustrating to me. The white tack just refuses to stick I'm tempted to use something softer and more sticky, like putty-like ear plugs, but I'm worried of possible stains... So the struggle continues.

 

I've always had great results with Testors model masters Flat, even on darker tans. Just apply lightly.

 

My new minor annoyance: how hard it is to find jewelry that isn't yellow-toned. There's so much gold, and never enough silver.

 

I unearthed a dress I sewed and dyed myself. It has a moth hole, despite me living over seven years without an infestation.

 

My other pet peeve. The stalking and harassment.

I am beinging to think this isnt the hobby for me....

 

Have you tried silicon ear plugs? Something like this. They don't stain, they're easy to put in and take out, and they don't get hard, even years later. I use it in all of my dolls.

All I can recommend, @lucylanger, is to avoid negative sites. TBH, I haven't been on tumblr for years, partially because I'm sick of the drama. Try the BJD subreddit on Reddit, other than DOA, its where I sometimes hang out, and everyone there is pretty nice. Most people don't want drama on social media, its only a very vocal few.

My current peeve is not being able to find tall/calf high brown men's boots for my Doll Chateau Kid that don't cost $50! UGH, he's a MSD, NOT an SD! Why do I have to pay the same price for a smaller doll with smaller feet?

Ryu

 

Pricing. I'm looking to downsize, and sometimes looking for a ballpark is hit or miss, especially with fullest outfits.

 

I feel all of this on a spiritual level lmao. I have boys who need visual kei/jrocker clothes (including a LittleFee). I have a boy who needs pastel clothes. Which, that wouldn't be as much of a problem if he weren't an Iple SID XD I have boys who are smaller than your average SD, so SD13 stuff is still too big, but then I have big beefy boys who are too big for average 70cm clothes (got a lot of pantsless boys around here cause their thighs/booties are big lol). I haven't been able to find anything for my Narin, cause all the slim mini clothes are for MiniFee girls, including the patterns! orz

But to add my own things...

Spending lots of money on shoes/clothes, just to have them flake/deteriorate :'D

Buying things secondhand and them arriving smelling weird. Got some stuff that has a kind of mildew smell and we still haven't gotten rid of the smell after several washes, even using vinegar. Clothes, wigs, and shoes. Of course, can't wash the shoes due to the material, so they're just hanging out in a large tupperware with some baking soda. It's been almost two weeks and they're still stinky

Getting a doll secondhand and the eyewells/inside the head is practically caked in putty. It's especially annoying when it's super sticky and has a strong chemical smell. Please clean the eye putty out of the dolls you sell, your buyer will appreciate it.

 

@LupusDarkmoon - Ugh, I'm allergic to a lot of scents, so I understand the struggle! One thing I've found that helped is to buy some activated charcoal odor-removers and keep them by the objects for a while. That really seemed to help with a too-strong resin odor, and ought to help with other things as well. They "recharge" by being placed in direct sunlight for a few hours, so you don't have to keep buying new ones.

This is the kind of thing I'm talking about:
Robot or human?

Edit: I don't know why that link says "Robot or human?" - it's just a WalMart link to examples of activated charcoal packs.

 

This probably isn't a great place to be, either. As we've all learned, you can get away with just about anything on this forum, up to and including SWATing a dealer, so long as you're buddies with the mods.
You and me both, @lucylanger - you and me both.
I await my ban.