Things you DONT look for in dolls?

I agree about the closed eyes. I love picking eyes for my dolls, so closed eyes take that away. I also don't like dolls with very exaggerated body proportions. While I love images of them and love how they look, I image getting clothes for them would be a hassle. Especially in cases where the top half of the body requires a different size from the bottom half (i.e. body can wear 1/6 scale tops and 1/4 scale bottoms).

 

This thread is so fascinating to read. I like sculpts with option heads with open / closed / partially closed eyes and option ears ( human, elf, mermaid). Anime and realistic are equally fine though I lean toward the older more Anime sculpts. I’m not a huge fan of exposed teeth but small teeth are ok. I like smiles, frowns and neutral expressions.

My face deal breakers are fangs, tongues sticking out, and O faces.

 

Heh. Most of the responses in this thread are rules I would have agreed with even a year ago. But my tastes just keep on changing.

I used to HATE doll teeth. Then I got Doll Leaves Hedy and Dollmore Trinity Elysia (Alicia), and now, they're growing on me.
I used to avoid smirks - now, I have two smirking heads on order from Jane's Dolland.
I didn't like the AP "O-face" until I saw someone's doll with an amazing face-up and a tongue piercing. Now I think they're rad.
I always said I'd never buy a boy doll. Ha ha ha ha. SartoriaJ Matias is calling my name...

I do still have a few "Not for me (for the most part)" rules:

• No single-joint dolls (she says while owning multiple Dollmore dolls and LOVING them).
• No more vinyl - this is pretty much staying a hard and fast rule. The staining. I can't get past the staining.
• I avoid anime unless I am also paying for a face-up. Cuz anime face-ups are hard. *whine*
• Generally, the more joints, the better. If there's a choice between a 1-part, 2-part, or 3-part torso, I'll get the 3-part torso every time. (However, I've seen some dolls that I feel kinda jumped the shark on that one. I'm talking 6 or 7 joints in the torso. They look like snakes to me.) Neck joints? Yes please. Oh, shoulder joints? Sure, I'll try those.
• I don't like one-piece torsos at all. I get it. It's an aesthetic. But my girls got to MOOOOVE.
• PashaPasha. I'm sorry. I don't know what it is. I just can't with those dolls.
• Companies that don't sell optional hands and feet, or they don't sell them at the same time they sell the dolls. I gotta have my hands and heel feet! If I can't buy all the optional parts the same time I'm ordering a doll - I'm not ordering. *cough cough* Migidoll *cough*
• Sleeping faces: I like to buy eyes. I like to swap them out. If there's no eye hole, where do I put the eyes!

 

I tend to ignore anything smaller than 1/4 scale for some reason

 

Admittedly, I don't think any amount of customizing would make the AP "O-face"tolerable for me. Just seeing anything with a semblance to it sets off a visceral trigger response. In regards to PashaPasha, I'm of the same opinion with them—although I do recognize what turns me off about them. Their expressions, especially the puckered lips, reminds me of King Tut's mummy. I love Ancient Egypt, but that's not something I want to be reminded of every time I look at a doll

 

It's been very interesting reading the replies for me as well - I'm really surprised that teeth and open mouths would not be as popular to have on dolls as I thought! I always thought teeth showing is something conventionally "special" that adds to the sculpt. Same with dreaming (half-open) eyes, I guess our own wishes colour the expectations. But I also have my own unpopular preferences - I would never want to own anything similar to popovy dolls (the bony bodies make me shudder for a few reasons); I wouldn't mind an o-face on a mature sculpt at all, though (so, no Unoa o on the default bodies but AP I think is a fair game)

 

@cobaltconduct I share your unpopular preference! The emaciated, model-like bodies are definitely not for me.

 

I personally dislike dolls that
1. Stick their tongues out
2. Have unnaturally extremely huge bosom like those anime characters that seem too sexualized
3. Child faces with mature bodies that's just disturbing unless you switch the head to a child's body then it's fine
4. Dolls with interchangeable male parts
5. Extremely big eyes, but there are exceptions to this for me
6. Dolls with multiple eyes on it's face that scares me
7. Closed eyes sleeping dolls but there are exceptions to this

I think that's about it

 

Other users have already mentioned this a couple of times and I can only agree with them: I don't like overly buff bodies. I don't mind muscular bodies at all (I'd especially love more muscular female bodies) but I don't like the extremely buff ones. Especially if they come with super broad shoulders to boot. It makes the head look so tiny.

 

I agree with points 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6.
And I also add tentacles, double faces and cyclops to my "No".

 

I don't like closed eyes, I want to see the eyes, even if the doll is winking or dreaming I need to see the eyes.

I don't look at anthropomorphic dolls, cute little ears are okay, and some facial features, but full on animal heads are a nope for me.

I just want tiny humans, so most fantasy dolls are also out of the running for me... although some vampires slipped in. Vampire's are mostly human except for the teeth, and I like dolls with teeth.

I don't like big breasts on my girls. My 69 cm Loongsoul girl is an A cup, and I filed down my Bobobie Ophelia's chest, my Ringdoll Alice is fine, she can fit clothing easily enough, but Ophelia strained every shirt, and the really super large busted girls are just not something I would want to own.

I don't want the anime style dolls either. I think they are adorable, but they don't fit with the rest of my dolls.

 

• SD and SD-inspired bodies. They're uninteresting and unappealing.
• Ribcage joints that sit at the waist (looking at you again, Volks). There are a couple of instances where I don't mind this, but they're the expection.
• Diaper joints. Not a dealbreaker since I'll still pick them for the extra mobility if given the option, but they're almost always ugly and I wish there was more variety in 3-part torso jointing.
• Very realistic sculpts. Again, some exceptions, but I have no interest in most of them. This goes double for rugged, chiseled, masculine faces.
• And while we're at it, facial hair of any kind.
• Some fantasy skintones; I can like them, but I'm picky.
• Very small eyes.
• Ugly breasts (not the same thing as big breasts, but unfortunately they end up together more often than not). It's frustrating because if they're too round or close together they look bad naked, but if they're too natural-looking or far apart they look bad clothed. Finding a happy medium is hard.
• Overly big heads compared to the body. Not the same thing as bobbleheads, where the effect is intentional.
• General poor anatomy and proportions. Long ribcages, perfectly square abs, sausage fingers...
• Barbie anatomy. Alternatively, lazily-sculpted penises.
• Overly muscular uncle bodies. Some of them look like parodies of themselves. It's particularly bad when the sculptor wants to give the body huge tits but also wants to maintain an inverted triangle shape, which leads to a ridiculously wide upper torso.
• Very short or long torsos (this turned me off Ye Maozi's body).
• Those ugly-cute babies (like QBaby and Kkner).

 

An interesting question! This thread is fun. I've been enjoying the replies. Interpretive questions are a nice dive into individual preferences. Obviously there is a doll for everyone, and an audience for every kind of doll. The diversity is our collective strength.

One look at my list will tell you I have diverse tastes, and not necessarily one cohesive aesthetic to my collection. But I do have an overwhelming bias towards fantasy dolls. That said, there are some things I usually avoid:

• 'Generic'-looking faces. It might just be me, but I swear a number of companies have collectively made the same four or five heads twenty times over, and the only thing that truly differs is the faceup style. Granted they are not the exact same, and just many artists tapping into a similar aesthetic, but by golly, they sure look it to me.
  
• Overly muscular bodies. Past a point, it looks unnatural. I do think these can be handled well by the right photographer, but I don't have a personal use for this style.
  
• Plain, undersculpted bodies. Bodies that look like a rectangle, where the bare minimum was done but not much else. Usually the pectoral muscles / breasts look unnatural, the abdomen and groin are undersculpted, the elbows, knees, and wrists are awkward and ungracefully tapered between moving parts... It may be functional, but dang is it unpleasant to look at. I tried to get by with these kinds of bodies early-on in the hobby, and realized within a year that I just couldn't do it. It is worth noting that some of these do have decent articulation, and can easily outpose their more expensive counterparts. They are not without their merits. But for me personally, it was tipping the aesthetics scale too far.
  
• Thin, fiddly parts. I like to travel with my dolls. I like to pose them and handle them and change them up. If I have to worry about all the things I might break off, this is not a doll for me.
• Dolls that don't hold their center of gravity. This one's a bit more subjective, but hear me out: at smaller scales, you can do almost anything with figure design and face few consequences, aside from potential brittleness. But scale that design up and gravity becomes more of a factor as your parts get heavier. I struggle endlessly with my largest dolls, but sometimes against all logic, there are less heavy dolls that do not want to cooperate no matter how tight their strings are, how much sueding they have, etc. etc., and refuse to be more than off-balanced. What this feels like in practice can range across designs, but in general, if I see a doll that looks too long and thin to comfortably hold its own weight, I avoid it.
  
• 'Light' tan. Not all lighter tans; a particular shade. I'm talking the tan that is barely there, that looks more like badly-diluted chocolate milk, or lots of resin yellowing. Don't get me wrong; the human skin palette is diverse, and every colour tone should be an option. But admittedly, I've never felt that this shade particularly reflects some of the lighter non-Caucasian skintones all that well, or even a Caucasian tan. Personal perception. Interestingly I will be forced to take on this colour in the future, because I ordered a limited doll in it, thinking that the tone was darker. Whoops.
  
• Oversized breasts. Having options is important. Different characters and designs will call for different things. And there are people out there with large natural endowments. But their bodies fit to that shape accordingly, regardless of type/weight, while resin is a static material. To my eye, past a point, it stops looking feasible. And small breasts can fit into many more clothes. I do own a Dollfie Dream Dynamite, but in resin, I go for at least a semi-realistic silhouette.
  
• 'Normal' and White skin. Bweh? What? You read it here first. Sometimes those are the only colour choices you get, and sometimes they fit the design you have in mind. But otherwise? If there are alternative options, I go for them when I can. Nothing against the shades. They're just the defaults. And defaults are boring. At least if you're a fantasy / scifi collector.
  
• Huge eyes and chubby cheeks on SDs. I don't know why, but past a point, very large eyes and round cheeks on SDs look out of place to me. It subtracts from the maturity of the doll. There is absolutely no rule on what size your design has to be, but so many SDs are mature that it's a subconscious default. Then again, I know I own and have owned sculpts that technically break this one. 'Big Baby' SDs are a good niche; they allow collectors who may have trouble with the smaller sizes to enjoy a classic aesthetic.
  
• 'Meh' posability. Do you know what I hate? Genuinely can't stand? Paying $$$ more than a chunk of my other dolls for a so-called 'premium' product that can't stand and may struggle with other, basic posabilitiy functions, like elbows, ankles, slouch or standing with the legs in two different places. I won't name names, but a certain company soured me big time last year over what should have been a major grail. They had said they improved the flawed design factors. Not a thing had been changed. I know that art dolls and action figures are technically two different things, but dang, why pay almost 1K for something that can't pose worth a dang versus my $16 hunk of factory plastic?
• Three-part torsos on most things bigger than YoSD. Not all of these are badly executed, but they often seem to be a 'pick your poison: aesthetics or posability?' scenario, and I say, why choose when a two-part torso usually has both at no cost of function? The worst is when the abdomen part is actively slippery, twisting itself around and folding forward out of place. This is usually a stringing + suedeing fix, but man, some of them are temperamental, and the slightest loosening in the strings sends you back to square one.
  
• 5000+ 'extra bits' / X-rated 'addons'. I don't know how much I can say here. I've had one male doll with posable junk. One. It was just a standard feature of the body. You can sculpt as many of them as you'd like; if it's a nice body, I'll still buy it, but they'll stay in the box while he lives here. And since I have Dollfies now, I'm obligated to include them. We've already established that standard bust sizes are good by me. As for certain third-market bits, no thanks.
  
• Pinheads. I've technically owned a couple of these- as in, they were complete from the company, designed this way. Not hybrids. But I can't wrap myself around them. If the head looks too small for the body, it bothers me. More than minor resin differences between two companies or batches. More than a neckhole that's too large for the neck. Heads that could have been 'properly' proportionate but are slightly off drive me nuts.

...I think those are the main ones. TLDR: Posability and aesthetic are both important, and finding the right balance is a crucial part of my purchase decision-making. I will always look for owner photos, if possible, and see how a doll is rated in stability first before dropping $$$ on something that is visually appealing.

Here's to many more intriguing replies!

 

I've been collecting for over 15 years. I no longer look for dolls with white-coded facial sculpts; I already have plenty of them. If I'm to get a doll now, it must have a PoC coded face.

 

@Loptr and @Lumenade - I giggled reading both of your lists. That's almost literally everything I look for in a doll.
More for me!

 

Hear hear!!

 

To be fair, pretty much all of my rules have exceptions! I even have or want dolls that break one or more of them.

 

I posted earlier in the thread about my "absolutely not"/dislike features... but what about features I don't dislike, but just don't look for when I browse for dolls? I don't look for fantasy features. I love my bog standard humans so my dolls have to be completely human in head and body. Not even elf ears or vampire teeth - if the sculpt doesn't have a human version, I can love it as much as I want, but I won't think of buying it.

That was the story of my only 1/4 doll... When Dream Valley released Achelous Lost in the Vortex, I was quite attracted to the head sculpt but it had fantasy ears, so buying the merman or even splitting the head out was never up for consideration. That is, until I discovered there was also a human-eared version of Achelous that I could buy separately and put on a human body. The doll was back on the cards, and I ended up buying it.

I just remembered that I do have an elf-eared BJD head... It's my faceup practice head, and I will never be at risk of falling in love and turning it into a full doll. (And even if it had human ears, it still has visible teeth - which is one of my deal breaker features and guarantees it'll never be part of my crew. The perfect faceup practice head! )

 

I'm going to interpret this as "things other people seem to care about but I usually don't," rather than my turn-offs. so:

- Joint visibility. This is a big one; I've never cared if extra articulation renders a doll's joints visible; I'd still rather have it. It's a doll! I know that! I don't mind if other people do!

- Dolls with teeth. Some people really hate the idea, and while I prefer closed mouths in general...I don't mind a well-designed and unobtrusive set of teeth. Maybe it's my experience with antiques where open mouths + teeth get very common around the 1880s-1920s?

- Having a body that's easy to find commercial outfits for. I love to sew- bring on the weirdly shaped dolls! I don't think I've ever bought a garment for one of my BJDs, actually.