What companies have surprised you, in good ways?

ImplDoll...I found all of their MSD sculpts to be quite unappealing. All of a sudden they come out with Adela, who stole my heart!

SoulDoll. I was absolutely shocked by how fast they shipped out my Arina. I was fully expecting to wait six long and painful months for her - four if I was lucky - but she was shipped out in two and a half. That's with a face up and sandy brown skin too, which supposedly takes more time!

 

Bambicrony. It looks as though they've changed hands entirely. Their re-stock/ re-release of their old sculpts (particularly the Brava Bambi line) in a more hybrid-able colour, and with their new faceups, make the dolls look a lot nicer. I also have found that their customer service has been amazing lately, which is a big change from when I first bought from them. (I couldn't get a word out of them for more than four weeks at a time!)

 

Impldoll for me too. I really disliked their first few dolls, and then they came out with Fantasia and Dorisy, and suddenly they had all these cool sculpts. Now I have a tan Akasha who is my favorite doll, a gray Antonia, and an Erica head, and am eyeing Bella.

Also, Sugarble. I loved their delicate little tinies (and I have Hellena now) but I was quite surprised when they suddenly came out with those beefy 70cm boys, Genie and L.

 

IPlehouse, the service and dolls are remarkable.

 

Dollmore! upon buying my first doll i recieved tons of free gifts! Great service aswell!
Soom! For some reason, Soom did nothing for me, it was a bran like anyhting else, then i saw their MD's and i was sold!

 

5stardoll. Seriously. I'd seen their official promotional pictures for some of their sculpts and was relatively unimpressed. And then I saw a blank Nigel head in-person(it was for sale). I was completely astounded at how nicely detailed his sculpt was! The blank head won me over, while the official pictures for the same head left me unimpressed. I wound up buying him and taking him home.

Dream of Doll and Dollclans totally get props for answering my questions quickly and providing great customer service.

Also, holy crap Souldoll's eyes have gorgeously INTENSE color in-person. Again, I find it's a case of the official pictures not quite doing them justice. Very good if you want something that's VERY striking.

 

Soom doing a special order of Idealians in different resin colours. So I get the doll I love, in the resin colour I prefer. Surprised is an understatement.

 

Peakswood - Best customer service I've ever had with any company.
Rosette School of Dolls, Limhwa and Planetdoll - Incredibly delicate sculpting.
Doll Family - amazingly chunky but cute 1/6 dolls.
Leekeworld - Their project dolls are getting astoundingly creative. Croom is one of my favourite dolls. For members, the resin colour choice is great.
Dollshe - I bought Rosen planning to put another head on his body but instead fell in love with the sculpt.

There are a lot of dolls I've had arrived and been amazed by.

 

AoD- Being a "cheap" company, they have much better quality and posing than I expected! And relatively fast shipping.

Doll Chateau- the bodies are not as frail as they look

BlueBlood Doll- for a smaller, lesser known company, they blew me away! The quality, the resin type, the posing, the extras, the customer service, shipping times....I was simply amazed. I always get better communication and service than I ever have even in stores in person!

 

BlueBlood Dolls - I have to second CloakedSchemer on this. The sculpts are all amazing, the resin is beautiful and flawless, the posing is wonderful, and the customer service is second to none!

5Star - I did get caught in the xmas debacle of 2011. But that aside, I love them. I have several - Michelle, Becca, Tong Tong, Rex, and Bibi.... and a 1/3 and 1/4 boy body on two of my hybrids. I also have more planned from them. I love their sculpts, resin, posing...

 

Definitely have to agree that Bambicrony surprised me a lot. I bought from them nervously after seeing a whole bunch of bad feedback on their customer service as well as their dolls.. but my cb marion came absolutely perfect and their customer service was excellent, very quick responses.

Iplehouse for me too recently. They seem like a great company and all, but I wasn't a huge fan of any of their sculpts until I saw their KID Irene @_@ just need to save up!

 

Dollzone and Doll Chateau for out-of-the-box thinking!

Cerisedolls- At last! French art dolls for everyone!! LOL! I will be forever grateful that Lillycat decided to go public and make affordable incredible dolls!

Soom- I am continually suckered in by cute fantasy dolls!

Rosette- Lanky amazing bodies like nothing else on the market! They pose amazing too!

 

Angel Egg dolls, by Marmite Sue! I've been an admirer of her work in porcelain for a long time, and was over the moon when she decided to cast dolls in resin.

 

Pipos--
Box was really lovely.
Doll was nicely placed and wrapped.
Arrived DRESSED (it was a full-set Derek).
Eyes were beautiful and well-placed.
He was ready, right out of the box.
No seams.
Everything well-fitted, well-strung.
The most perfect doll I've had right out of the box.

My other dolls are beautiful and fine, too... but it was just a nice surprise that everything was so nicely wrapped and presented by Pipos, and that the doll was so well-made (no kicky arms/legs, could stand easily and hold a pose). Sometimes it is the little things that really make things better.

 

I have to say that one company that really impressed me beyond the quality of their product is Atelier Muse - I could not get over the detail that went into their packaging! I like that sort of thing (design freak here), so I really notice when it's well done and appreciate the extra time and effort that go into it. It really speaks volumes to me, because it's something they don't have to do, but it adds to the experience. ^_^

 

Honestly, Bobobie has surprised me. They've done quite a bit of tweaking with their bodies, and they look so much more pose-able now than they were before. And AoD has fantastic bodies as well. The only thing about switching out my Bobobie Sprite from her old body to the AoD body is that now some of the shoes I bought her don't fit. AoD has quite a bit bigger foot, lol.

 

I only own 3 dolls at the time (a Soom Idealian, an IP EID and a Peak's Woods F.O.C) and I must say I'm very pleased with their service. However I have to admit that Peak's Woods have pleasantly surprised me by their attention to detail, how beautiful their boxes are and how friendly and available they always were every time I exchanged emails with them. Plus, my doll is way more beautiful live than what I was expecting judging by the promo shots. I definitely recommend their services.
Soom's customer service is also really nice and friendly though.

 

I bought my boy from Ringdoll through a dealer, and it was a nice surprise (if not quite a "fortunate" coincidence) that he turned up with blue eyes! I love men with gorgeous blue eyes, and had planned for one character - possibly not my Ringdoll boy - to have blue eyes. As for other companies, Tata's Paradise recently surprised me with a free pair of goggles for my boy as part of an order I placed with them. They took some time sending the order out to me, and they did not mention they were sending a gift for my patience, so it was nice to open the parcel to find them amongst the items I had ordered!

 

HZDoll. They took a while, but my tan fei is the most beautiful tan doll I've ever seen. (and I'm a huge fan of my tan dolls!)