Things you DONT look for in dolls?

I don’t like bodies with waist joints, even if you don’t mind the look they don’t contribute much to mobility in my experience.

not a huge fan of how double elbow/knee joints look either but they make posing so easy that they’re worth it

 

I think most of it is not something I think consciously, to be honest. But I have noticed some things that make me go from to on a sculpt real fast.

• Heads that are too small. Not proportionally, necessarily, but I just have trouble finding wigs I like under 6 inches.
• Realistic and semi-realistic faces that are too "pretty"/symmetrical/idealistic. I just need something to latch onto, and I find I have a certain level of face blindness if a face is too "perfect"
  
• Tiny top lip, big lower lip
  
• Too much detail/emphasis around the Philtrum/cupid's bow
• Cleft chin (I hate to list this since it's such an underrepresented trait, but I know it would ruin a sculpt for me)
• That specific thing (mostly in baby/toddler sculpts) where only the 2 bottom teeth are visible
• Teeth that are too small/uniform

I have some dolls that are exceptions, but usually these are enough to put me off a sculpt entirely.

 

I don't mind facial features so much, as I don't mind modifying things to death if I have to. I prefer realistic proportions for my mature male dolls, and that goes mostly for body proportions.

I am not a fan of apples on a stick, narrow necks too slim for the jaw-line, etc.. I am also not a fan of tiny torsos and mile long legs, which is basically all BJD bodies ever! I stopped wanting more of these dolls for thosr reasons alone, more than a decade ago. I prefer realistic body proportions in general, I don't mind facial features. However, I also prefer smaller sized dolls -- as an action figure collector before I even knew of these, I kind of feel like I am fine with BJD not being it for me, even if 1:6 head sculpts lack in variety of styles.

I am not new to BJD, I just stopped purchasing a long time ago. I got a mature tiny last year, mostly out of FOMO, although I do love the doll, the proportions are not my ideal. Particularly the giant head, narrow shoulders and child-bearing hipss. He's a male doll, so I would have preferred more ideal young, slim male proportions, but oh well.. DX

 

Two years ago, I would have said the same. I did not like those sculpts at all! But then I started roleplaying a character who was always laughing about something and had a big cheesy smile, and I literally could not see him being any other sculpt out there. I shelled him in their Mu Yanzi sculpt and have zero regrets! Though I can still totally see how that sculpt turns off a lot of people. (If you find that sculpt unsettling normally, you should see it when it has the teeth out, it's much worse. )


I tend to do this a lot, though. I'll think I hate something, but then it turns out to be perfect for one of my roleplay characters. I've kind of decided to stop saying I'll "never" want certain things because I often end up proving myself wrong. The weird thing is that I don't really care about all of my dolls being beautiful. Sometimes, I choose them because they're not attractive. My characters are just a bunch of average people, and I like the variety of some being more attractive than others.

The things I think I can safely say I do not like at all are in the bodies more than heads. I do not like exaggerated pear shapes. If it looks natural, it's fine, but I mean where the hips are twice as wide as the shoulders and the ankle is thicker than the neck. Not my thing at all. And also bodies where the only torso joint is at the hip/low stomach. Those bodies never pose the way I want them too and feel stiff and awkward to me, it breaks up what should be a pretty stomach/hip area, and underwear always gets caught in that joint. Also not a fan of 3 part bodies, because of that same joint, but at least they can slouch.

 

Hmm, let's see...

Features that are a big nope—moving on for me:
•puffy, rounded cheeks—especially child-like faces that look like they're either pouting or have the mumps.
•BIG EYES. Throughout my childhood and into my early adulthood I had a phobia of being stared at, and big-eyed, closer to the anime-style aesthetic (from most minifees to the Volks MSDs/vinyls, etc) just make me shudder.
•generally...child-like features in general. Not the biggest fan of kids, but also just don't particularly like the rounded, pudgy faces, hands, feet, etc. when it concerns bjds.
•playing off the eyes thing—bjds with very round eyes, especially the child-like ones with more unconventional features.
•anything smaller than MSD: even MSD is kind of pushing it for me. I got into bjds because they had a sense of realism to them that most other dolls just don't have, and a majority of bjds MSD and smaller just give off more of an action figure vibe—and that's a turn-off for me.
•anime-style heads in general. The uncanny valley, lack of details thing about them honestly kind of creeps my out—especially when they don't have a faceup. It's like they have a bad case of melted face syndrome.
•"O", tormented expression faces (a lot of Angelphilia sculpts seem to fall into this category in particular). They just make me shudder and think that somebody's...ummm—abusing them. It makes me uncomfortable.

Otherwise, I'm kind of the opposite of a lot of people in loving smaller eyes, muscular boys, and more mature features.

 

I find it absolutely fascinating how many different reactions there are in this thread. It proves that diversity is truly the spice of life when it comes to this hobby, which I consider to be a very healthy thing.

For me, it’s too much realism. I’m happily creating a fantasy world here, and I don’t want any of that pesky real-world creeping in. So smaller heads and broader shoulders are just a no for me. I’m more a fan of that old school vibe.

 

I wonder if the "common face" @AlisonVonderland mentioned also comes from 3D sculpting being the starting point for a lot of those heads? Surely there must be companies that just adjust the same base for different sculpts, one can only got that far with the same skeleton.

Also forgot to add in my initial comment - muscle boys. I just can't see the appeal, especially in the muscle mountains with small heads with tender and delicate features - your face changes when your neck changes, come on, you can't have both!

 

I totally agree, this is probably one of my biggest dislikes when bjd shopping. Even my Mnf Celine looked a little bobble-headed on the mnf body, which is why I plan to replace it with a Soulkid body. But aside from the bobble-headed thing, there's also the alien-head thing. Mnf Shushu is a good example of that (no hate, I love Shushu anyway haha). I definitely shy away from dolls that have either of these traits.

Another thing is mobility joint. If a body doesn't have a well-functioning mobility joint, it's almost always an absolute no for me. The ability to sit on their legs is another. So many bodies, especially with the hidden joints, can't sit on their legs. I need to be able to put my dolls on display in more compact poses.

I also agree with not liking the fangs/tongues so much. For very certain dolls it can be a nice touch, but I especially don't like it in the realistic sculpts. Teeth, I love, but not tongues.

 

I've been enjoying reading everyone's responses here, and probably all my biggest turn-offs have been mentioned already, but I'll list them anyway.

• I second the childlike faces on adult bodies, and also the childlike faces with heavy makeup (don't think I need to say why lol)
• Totally dislike the man boobs and "muscle mountains with small heads." I'm one of those people who's not into the body builder shape and thinks it looks unnatural and unappealing.
  
• I also feel the "too pretty" or "too perfect" thing. Faces like this aren't very memorable to me. They need to have some uniqueness or they just don't make much of an impression on me.
  
• One of you mentioned the apples on a stick neck to head proportion and I wholeheartedly agree!! I'm searching high and low right now for a body with a thick enough neck that my incoming head will not look like a bobble-head, haha.
• Over-the-top pear shapes bother me too. I love pear shapes, but when it's beyond all possibility of real human body proportions, it's a no. Especially with a neck that's smaller than the ankle, lol.
• I second the tormented expressions. I love moody dolls, but whether it looks like they're being abused or in total despair, I don't want any of my dolls looking tormented.
  
• On a similar note, I'm someone who's not a fan of super scary dolls. I'm okay with some creepy dolls, but the ones that look really mutilated or wicked disturb me. But then, I'm also not a fan of horror films, so it makes sense.
• Girl bodies with Barbie proportions. I always avoid bodies with big boobs, tiny waist, and that stiff, spindly limbs look.

Wow that seems like a lot. But honestly, I'm open to a pretty wide range of styles in dolls, realistic or stylized. I've ended up owning several dolls I didn't love at first sight because they grew on me and I came to like them.

I've mostly listed aesthetic turn-offs here, but I'm also pretty picky about posing. In the end, I'll probably always pick better posing over aesthetics. But of course, my favorite dolls are the ones with a pretty/natural looking shape and nice posing.

 

I tend to like all dolls. But, in my own collection, I avoid realism. I like my dolls to look pretty/cute, but not like actual people.

I do love seeing the realistic dolls though. I saw some Iplehouse in person and thought they were fantastic.

 

While I wholly recognize the power of a good face up, the actual odds of me getting around to commissioning or doing a face up myself are extremely low, reserved only for special circumstances
It is far too much effort and faith, for a sculpt that I am not even remotely excited for from the start. Why make a doll smile though her pain and boredom, when I can get one who is actually having a good time?

 

There's another thread of turn offs somewhere, which I have a large list of small things, but for specifically things I'm not looking for, I'm not looking for posability. There's a particular company I really like and when you find out their newest body can sit unassisted, it's cause for celebration!

 

Totally agreed, I could care less about hands to face, knees to chest, butt to ankles... If my doll can't stand, she can sit, and if she can't sit either, I'll buy her a stand!

 

@Novalyna and if she can't stand assisted or sit, I'll just make her a bed!!

 

Since I got some responses about "common face" and 3d sculpting has been around longer than I've been annoyed by it I feel like elaborating if anyone cares .

Spoiler: My feelings

It really is for me the same feeling I have about some popular companies dolls right now and a kind of tiktok girl, it's the facial balance itself is for me just too "over perfected" -- when all features are too much the same size and hyper symmetrical in addition to "empty" expressions the effect is created for me.

There are different companies I already didn't love for too much symmetry but slightly more unbalanced proportions made it better at least. 3d rendered faces are the most likely to be too symmetrical and empty for me, but I think it's because this is something you can acheive with 3D, perfect symmetry, and since symmetry is pleasing it's been a natural exploration of the boundary. However there are also artists 3d rendering their sculpts who do make faces I find interesting and full of personality/ humanity. So I meant what I said, it's definitely not just, a dislike of the method of creation entirely. It's just aesthetics I do and don't like.

I think threads like this are always super fun because everyone has their own interests and it's never to say "it's universally good or bad" just what we all get excited about.

 

If a doll's only got one head/face plate, I don't care for crying/tormented expressions. Like, I don't mind a sadboi pout, but full on crying doesn't appeal to me. (Now, if it's an Ob11 type doll where the faceplates can change, I don't mind having a cry face for occasional photos, but they'll usually be wearing a different face.) Also starting to get a little annoyed at how many blindbox dolls just have as their face expression as it strikes me as odd when a whole line of them has that expression. It kind of feels like a vapid stereotype somehow if they're all doing it?

I don't really get the appeal of like 99% of the dolls that have their tongues sticking out. I don't hate them; I just don't get it. I kinda wish I understood since some of them look like fun sculpts; the tongue just doesn't appeal to me.

I do love some smile sculpts (especially smirks; I'm a sucker for a good smirk), but some don't quite hit right. Particularly with semi-real sculpts. Hyper realistic teeth add to the issue, which is wild since I love a lot of sculpts that have stylized teeth and will absolutely require little fangys on a couple YoSD sized characters I have planned.

I tend to prefer stylized sculpts, and this preference gets stronger the younger a character is (adults can be full-on realistic; some of my 1/6 action figures are more realistic inclined). So like, all my YoSD plans have to be anime or anthropomorphic. My more mature dolls can have more realistic sculpts but my art style leans anime so they're getting stylized faceups, regardless. Hyper-realistic young children dolls are a little unsettling to me.

I generally prefer body proportions to be somewhat grounded (with wiggle room for anime/toony head sizing). I don't like ragdoll chonky hands/feet 99% of the time. Unless the character is a ragdoll, ragdoll shaping is almost always a dealbreaker for me. And like, while I certainly appreciate dolls that have thicc hips/thighs (kinda want a Ye Maozi after I cross some higher priority stuff off my list), when they start getting into X-TREEM PEAR territory where the mid-thighs are thicker than their ribcages and their chests are totally flat, I don't like it. I especially dislike this trend when it comes to younger characters/dolls.

 

Plus it still might not work - I have one (off Topic) doll that I sent away to be repainted by a really good artist and even they coudln't make her expression look anything more than sullen. Better to stick to sculpts that are at least neutral enough to faceup some cheer into their epression, or preferably already sculpted with a happy face.

Teddy