1. It has come to the attention of forum staff that Dollshe Craft has ceased communications with dealers and customers, has failed to provide promised refunds for the excessive waits, and now has wait times surpassing 5 years in some cases. Forum staff are also concerned as there are claims being put forth that Dollshe plans to close down their doll making company. Due to the instability of the company, the lack of communication, the lack of promised refunds, and the wait times now surpassing 5 years, we strongly urge members to research the current state of this company very carefully and thoroughly before deciding to place an order. For more information please see the Dollshe waiting room. Do not assume this cannot happen to you or that your order will be different.
    Dismiss Notice
  2. Dollshe Craft and all dolls created by Dollshe, including any dolls created under his new or future companies, including Club Coco BJD are now banned from Den of Angels. Dollshe and the sculptor may not advertise his products on this forum. Sales may not be discussed, no news threads may be posted regarding new releases. This ban does not impact any dolls by Dollshe ordered by November 8, 2023. Any dolls ordered after November 8, 2023, regardless of the date the sculpt was released, are banned from this forum as are any dolls released under his new or future companies including but not limited to Club Coco BJD. This ban does not apply to other company dolls cast by Dollshe as part of a casting agreement between him and the actual sculpt or company and those dolls may still be discussed on the forum. Please come to Ask the Moderators if you have any questions.
    Dismiss Notice

What is one thing you’re specific about your doll choices?

Sep 23, 2021

    1. Gotta have double joints! Part of why I like BJDs is for how much articulation many of them have, I'm gonna get my money's worth of poses, damn it. Even if the hinge jointed, no elastic dolls hold that pose better most of the time...

      And for now, MSDs. I have playline dolls if I wanna collect in the smaller 1/6 scales or so, I don't need the finickiness of resin there. But I also don't have room for a big 60+cm doll!

      Also (lol this isn't just one I guess), have to love the doll. Like, see it and immediate heart eyes love it. My doll hobby motivation is iffy as it is, I'm gonna at least give myself a bit of an advantage in doing something with them!
       
      • x 2
    2. They’ve got to look like an adult.

      Maybe Aura or Illyra have a bit of a baby face—that I’m fine with. Whatever. They’re both in their 20’s in my writing, and I also look younger than I am in my 20’s so that’s fine. But there’s no msd preteens or yosd children floating around and it stays that way. I am not comfortable around children, and I don’t like writing them, so I’m not going to bring them into my storyline, and have dolls of them for Kinda clear reasons. My closest doll friend has some kid dolls and I love them, I think they’re great, I love the pics they get with them. Other people’s kid dolls are going, I just can’t have them.

      head has to be a 7-8 or an 8-9 and eyes have to be a 4-6mm Iris. This sounds very specific. Basically all my dolls wear eyes of whatever size with irises sized like the average 10-12mm eye, and I found doing it meant I got so much more of their personality out of them. Somehow, going down a size did something for me. My feeple60s wear 12’s and look awesome! My twiglings are in either 5 or 6 mm irises, even though the big ingenue eyes need a bigger sclera than a 12. Dolls like feeple60 chloe though, just don’t look right with a smaller iris, so cute as she was, she couldn’t find a home. The head size is for the same reason—9/10 heads historically just haven’t fit the crew (even if Dia teeters on 9/10 being a massive iple head…) because they’re usually more stylized, with the big eyes that make them not look right with the rest of them.

      most of my other rules aren’t as concrete or universal. I broke my repeat body rule forever ago, and haven’t gone back. That’s what happens when the twigling obsession happens. Theoretically Ness, Coris And Shrike all have different versions of the body, but one of my incomings has the same body as shrike. And I used to have 2 others with it. Funnier was my repeating head rule (hah… what was the rule? I can’t quite hear it over all 5 ingenue heads, or 3 (going on 4) gamines).
       
      • x 2
    3. Double joints and mobility joints at the tops of the thigh are must for me (unless the doll is so unusual that I can overlook some of those features). I prefer my dolls to be unrealistic and gravitate towards odd looking (think DC Barbara - I have 5 :blush) , rather than the usual fantasy type sculpts such as centaurs, fairies and dragons etc.
       
      • x 1
    4. I'm very particular that each of my dolls be "special". I have more fantasy dolls than humans, and a weakness for tan resin. One of my human women is unusually tall, and one man is unusually short compared to the others. I have Dream Valley Rosa with jointed wings, and a Gem of Doll Capricorn with goat ears and twirly horns, and a Dollzone Wendy on the human body. I love how unique they are.
       
      #24 Leo Pheonix, Sep 24, 2021
      Last edited: Sep 29, 2021
      • x 2
    5. I look for sharp features on a sculpt, particularly for noses and jaws, rather than softer or rounder. I do most of my faceups now as well, so I'm always looking to make sure that there is a strong brow and eyelid space, things that I know I can handle! I also usually look up various photos of a sculpt before I buy it, to see the versatility of it, or if the faceup is hiding qualities I'm not wild about. I rarely worry about the body, but I don't do much posing or photography, so the face is usually what needs to meet the criteria over anything else.
       
    6. All of my dolls are small or children. Adult dolls arent really my thing, but I like looking at them.
       
    7. I love having dolls that are diverse, be it in size, color, fantasy/anthro vs human, etc. - but one thing that I always veer away from are dolls that are super babyfaced or look like small children. I think that might be due to the the prevalence of baby dolls marketed towards young girls growing up, and I was never the slightest bit interested in those as a kid.

      I don't recall the name of the sculpt, but I did see a chubby-cheeked doll by Soom that caught my attention once - but it had thick yak hooves. That one was actually pretty cute!
       
    8. For the majority of my dolls I have looked for dolls that went well together. In this case that ment mature minis with a sort of middle ground of stylization (is that a word?). They are not very realistically proportioned compared to real uman, but compared to the true anime dolls or the old school volks dolls that started it all they are. Mine all represent older teens or young adults with the exeption of a Dollmore Narsha who fits in as the little sister of one of the others. She represents a child/preteen of about 11 or 12 and I think that's where I draw the line. Any younger and it will trigger the horror trope of a child who never grows up. The older the doll, the less obvious it is that they don't age and I find that a bit unsettling.
      I look for a bit of variaty. I don't think I would ever get more than one of the same sculpt and I only get more than one doll from the same company if I really, really want it and never on the same body.
      I appriciate a good poser and a few of my dolls I found by looking for that specifically, but if I like the rest of the doll enough I can stand some workarounds. (Doesn't mean I don't constantly complain about my Iplehouse dolls or that I didin't spend a silly number of hours modding a Resinsoul to get it to behave.)

      I the last few years, though, I've also started a small collection of mature tinies. If I look for more dolls that size I think the same criteria will mostly apply. They need to fit in and represent characters old enough to be somewhat independent.
       
    9. I'm waiting for my first to arrive (which I believe it will be next year :( ) but, judging by my other toy collections, I sure like consistency in height/proportions a LOT.
      I debated some time if starting with SD or MSD because I know it will be hard if I'm forced to shift from one to another, and while my impression is that MSD bodies are more popular with more offers in terms of dresses, accessories, bodies and heads, I finally stumbled upon a body I liked very much and ordered it.
      It was in SD size :roll:

      My idea right now is to wait for my first doll and see if I can "connect" with her (she has elf ears, a thing I'm not very fond of) and then try to find another head that suits my tastes better.
      If I'm lucky to find one, I'll settle and maybe in the future I'll get her a sister. If not, who knows, I could venture in the MSD world a little.
       
    10. I just discovered two new ones today.
      1. Knee joints MUST be attractive. I just opened a new boy for the first time and his knees were HIDEOUS! Totally off putting. I can tolerate ugly elbows (at least better than knees) but knees must be at least moderately pretty. It just looks lazy/cheap to me if they are ugly, cuz I have seen pretty knee joints and I know sculptors can design better.
      2. Head MUST be relatively proportional to body. That same boy's head looked too small on his neck. Very creepy. He's going up for sale.

      My original criteria that affects everyone? Coordination in groups. Everyone needs at least one buddy of a similar style. Most of mine are in a specific style, but I do have a few pairs of outliers. But they are just that; pairs. Everyone has company.
      My major style was historical asian, but I'm easily distracted but pretty sci-fi or fantasy. So most of my dolls fit into those categories.
       
      • x 5
    11. It all comes down to how appealing I find the face and expression, really. Appeal is not the same thing as beauty, there has to be something in the face that speaks to me.
       
      • x 4
    12. Dolls that I like tend to be proportional but I also like dolls that are usually between a mixture of realistic and anime-esque. It really depends on the character I have in mind. I'm a fan of stylized dolls with some exaggerated proportions like longer legs but if it's too extreme, then it's a general "no" from me.
       
      • x 2
    13. I have no idea. :...(I buy what I like and what I think will fit into a theme I have in mind. I also buy what I think has beauty. I probably will not buy anything over 68cm and even those are pretty big for lil' ol' me.:D I don't care for the anime looking dolls for me, but I like seeing others and find some of them nice. I think the only really hard and fast rule I have is (besides not getting carried away over budget) that each doll have some type of unique quality: lips, ears, body, hair, construction, features, etc. whether it is an art doll or major company doll.
       
      • x 1
    14. I like them to be in between anime and realism too as others have said :D
       
    15. My dolls sit on a shelf, and I don't have space for any of the SDs or even the MSDs to stand up. So they have to be able to sit straight without falling over backwards. I dislike having to contort dolls to get them to sit up. Even if they are going to be leaning on something anyway, I still want them to be able to sit up straight without leaning over backwards. I recently bought a doll which has double elbows and knees and a 3-part torso. You would think he could sit up straight, but no. In order to get him to sit, I have to pull both of his torso joints out of whack. And often they snap back and he falls over backwards. It really annoys me.
      Regretfully I can't know these things ahead of time without watching an unboxing video where the person shows how the doll moves and poses. With this last doll, I made the mistake of not doing that.
       
    16. I think I have found a few things tgat my dolls have in common. I am trying to put together another one now, so these are my criteria:

      Firstly, NO double joints for me xD Over the years I've found I like single jointed knees and elbows a lot more. It's okay if the doll can't touch its face, but I like the lack of kickiness and the stiffness/stability of this old type of joints.

      Secondly, no hip joints either xD waist joints are a must. A nice belly and hipbones too. Generally a cute belly, not ruined by the hip joint line.

      Thirdly, small breasts. I am losing weight and downsizing on my bra size all the time. I love the feeling. I also love for my bjds to look like me. We're now all flat chested, yeah <3

      The fouth criterium is that they're not overly skinny or long legged. E.g.my Zaoll is a perfection with her 'short' legs, which, in fact, are simply human-like in terms of their proportion. If I could chsnge anything about my two volks SD13 girl bodies, I would widen their hips and upper thighs a bit :)

      The fifth is the 85% realism... So it's not like the iplehouse, etc. But it is there and you can still easily imagine what they'd be like if they were humans. My ine exception is my one baby Volks Nana, which is the most dolly doll ever, with her cute huge eyes and stylised face. She's not in the same 'story' as the rest of my girls, but she's a classic and a must have, I think, for any collector claiming they like stylised sd girls.

      The sixth is that they are the boring, popular sculpts that every one had some 10 years ago when Deviantart and Tumblr were big. I bought some less popular dolls or new releases and always regretted. The popular sculpts seem more 'idiot-proof' and since I suck at faceups, they're cool for me. My 'least' popular sculpt I currently own is my supia lina. So yeah... It's still relatively recognizable.

      I haven't noticed any other regularities that would bespeak of me having any rules :3
       
      • x 1
    17. When I got into the hobby it was about the sculpt. Dimdolls were just coming out with new sculpts and they are so versatile. There are so many interpretations of just one sculpt that I stuck with them. Volks is another company I loved the older Volks and all the interpretations. Unfortunately, Dim closed and in my opinion, Volks changed. Now I’m collecting random dolls that really just give me that “oh my gosh, I have to have feeling”. Also, some I loved in the past and want now!
       
      • x 1
    18. Proportions. I like my dolls to be close to the actual human proportions, which means no oversized eyes, no "bobble heads" no odd baby faces on adult bodies. Limits my choices by quite a bit, especially considering I prefer mature minis, but I am still very pleased with how my collection is going so far :) Don't foresee myself ever caning that preference.
       
      • x 2
    19. I want dolls that “hold” with my collection. Meaning they need to be proportional to one another, as if they could exist in the same world together. So no adult-proportioned 1/8 tinies or baby-proportioned MSDs. It would look too odd to display them together! Lol.
       
    20. My dolls need to be able to stand unassisted. If I have to get fiddly, I lose interest.
       
      • x 1