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What is your grail doll, and why is it your grail?

Feb 3, 2015

    1. Many people have grails. Which is super cool. What makes your grail the must have item for you?


      My grail is a luts pegasus. Because I adore the look of the horse body, and the wings are perfect for another doll. So the love will be shared.

      What makes your grail magical?
       
      • x 3
    2. My grail is... shall we say nonexistent? :sweat It's a pair of FairyLand F60s (which are currently unavailable), El (who is at least listed) and Shiwoo (who is not). So that grail is magical in that it is wholly unattainable at this time, but the possibility still exists and I do hope that maybe someday, maybe, it'll happen!
       
    3. The BJTales dolls are hard to come by. There never seems to be a preorder when I have money. I love them though - they remind me of Brian Froud's paintings.

      Angel Region Lillica is discontinued. :(
       
    4. I'm quite new to the hobby and dont really understand what is a Grail doll, and what makes a Grail a Grail. Could someone explain it to me please?:wiggle
       
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    5. From my understanding, Holy Grail is something you absolutely want but you have a hard time getting it. (I'm so thinking of the Monty Python reference lol)
      It can either be very expensive compare to what you usually am willing to afford or just not available.
       
    6. My grail is an iplehouse Roger; as soon as I set eyes on him i knew i wanted him, he was perfect for turning one of my ocs into a doll. He's really pricey, but I'm totally okay with saving the money for him. <3
       
    7. My grails are Soom Cheshire and Ringdoll Zombie Sol. For me they always seem to be out of reach. For me, grail dolls are dolls I really want and are not readily available. They're dolls that would make me search for a really long time and when I get them, I would be extremely excited about them. I have gotten of the limited parts of the Soom Cheshire and I got really excited just to have his feet, hands, ears and tail.
       
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    8. My grail doll is/was Volks Jun Tachibana (v1).

      She was the very first doll I fell in love with at first sight. I loved her sweet face, fullset outfit, everything! I had major sticker shock at her full set price, though, and I couldn't figure out how to order her. I was so upset to find out AFTER the ordering period how easy it would have been to get her. And prior to that, I didn't realize she was a limited edition doll. So while she was available, it would have been easy. But since I missed that period of time, she was difficult to find at a reasonable cost.

      It took a few years, but I was finally able to snag a full set second hand for very little mark up. She is still one of my absolute favorite dolls, and I don't regret getting her at all. <3
       
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    9. My grail doll is soom wolf the knight human ver. I love his expression...so magical for me.
       
      • x 2
    10. A "Grail" means that it the the one you want most, it may be rare or hard to get for any number of reasons, but you feel it is the ultimate goal.

      I've had a few of Grail dolls, but I am very lucky in that I have managed to get them.

      My first doll was a "grail" because it was the one that made me go from just admiring BJDs from afar over to saving up money and tracking him down and finally buying my first doll. I bought him third hand shortly after a limited re-release. He is still the main doll in my group.

      My second "grail" I discovered a year after being in the hobby, but he was very limited and had been sold out for several years. I only ever saw these really small pics of him, but I kept going back over and over to look at them. He was a odd doll, but I loved his face. He was also the second tallest boy doll made at the time, at a whopping 65cm. It took me a couple years to get him.

      My third "grail" doll, same thing, very limited, sold out before I'd ever heard of him. There were two heads released at the same time, one was slightly smiley and one was frowny. There was a lot of personality in the sculpts, like they had a lot of qi. I preferred the grumpy one, but I posted a WTB and someone offered me the smiley a couple days later. I figured having either of them was better than nothing, and I am so glad I went for him. He is my only happy looking doll.

      And my fourth "grail", I saw him on display at the Volks LA store opening and I had to ask which sculpt he was. I was completely enchanted, but he was a limited release that came out right when I started buying dolls, so I'd missed out on him. He ended up being popular in the secondhand market and I could never outbid anyone when he did come up for sale. Eventually he was re-released and I finally bought him.

      From my experience, I think if you can maintain your love (if that is the right word) for a specific doll, you can eventually wait long enough, hunt it down, be ready to pounce and get it. Nothing is impossible.
       
      • x 4
    11. About a year ago I was fortunate enough to be able to buy my (at the time) grail girl!

      For me, "grail" meant that this particular doll is rare to find (esp. in good condition, as she is vintage) and is generally quite expensive. I also had an exact idea of the doll I wanted, even had a detailed dream about her...

      Shortly after, as soon as I saw her for sale on a dolly forum, I had the strangest feeling, like it was exactly her that I had seen in my dream! So I went for it, never regretted it, not even the steep price tag. Now she has a special place in my dolly shelves, I smile every time I see her, best feeling ever!
       
      • x 2
    12. Got two: Volks Williams and LLT Ludwig. Williams is very, very expensive and thus I'll probably never get him (but maybe I'll be able to afford that Yo-Midi Williams head one day that I crave). Ludwig still has to be released which might happen any time between next month and never. *lol*
       
    13. I have two grails: Soom Ender and Volks F-16.

      Ender was a grail because he was a monthly doll, and only available for about 2 weeks during his first release. I couldn't possibly come up with the money for him, and I also wasn't interested in the fullset or even the body. I just wanted the head, and a slimmer body. It took me two years to finally find just the head, in the right skin tone, at a price I could afford. Then it cost another $500 fr a body I liked, plus three months of work to make them match, plus another $300 on commissioned clothing and accessories because the look I wanted isn't readily available.....So the cost and difficulty was my struggle with him.

      F-16 was a grail because I fell so hard for him 4 years ago, and despite my ever changing tastes in dolls, I never fell out of love with him. However, getting my hands on one was really difficult because of the price tag and how hard it is to buy one new. Just last month, I found his head on the MP at a price I could handle, and I traded for his body.

      All in all, by piecing both grails together, I got them both for much less than their usual secondhand prices. I'm so happy to finally have both, and glad I didn't give up on the journey.
       
      • x 1
    14. My Grail was a Volks F-32. She's very hard to get, because she's not a popular sculpt, and she was only available to order through FCS at Sato. I searched for years to find her. The first one I found for sale was so expensive there was no way I could get the funds together to buy her. The second one I found (and the only other I've ever seen for sale) was at Mandarake, a second hand shop online. She was a one off from a Valentine's Day event in 2011, but only came with her wig. And, she was well within my price range. She is now the most beloved doll in my collection, and a reminder that doll dreams do come true. I searched for her for about 5 years and never gave up hope :)
       
      • x 1
    15. My Iplehouse Lisa hybrid doll was a grail doll, I suppose. I fell completely in love with her when they released her in the Addiction series. Her little face was the most beautiful child sculpt I'd ever seen, I loved the gray skin option and vampire theme, and she was the first doll I EVER showed my husband that got a "okay, now that one is actually cool" response. I absolutely did not have the money to buy her during the ordering period--- not even in her simplest form with no extras... but then I found her head, in gray, on the marketplace, a few months later. Which kicked off a huge project that took me months to complete and involved mods and custom-painting a body to match her gray resin for a hybrid. Now she is 100% perfect... she's everything I loved about the Addiction doll when I first saw the sales page, but she's got the elf ears of the vamp version with the closed mouth expression of the human head, which to me is the ideal combination, plus she is on a slightly chubbier 30cm body that I prefer to the more slender 34cm KID body. Definitely worth the work and probably my favorite doll.
       
      • x 1
    16. I have two grail dolls. One I have and one I don't. The first is Volks kurumi (limited+Pricey) who I got lucky enough to do a long layaway with. Second is Volks Lieselotte. She is crazy expensive and also limited. While she is generally pretty easy to find, I can't find anyone who offers a long enough layaway for me to be able to afford her.

      One day....
       
    17. To me a grail doll is what I must have in my collection in order to feel satisfied. I always tell myself that once I acquire all my grails, I would stop collecting and just enjoy what I have. But I have a long way to go before I can afford all of them. So far I've got only two of my grails; Volks Shinku and Reisner. They both cost me a good penny because I had to get them second hand.
       
    18. Soom Namu, DiM Lloyd, and a 60cm Saint. Namu because I missed the chance to own him when I was getting into the hobby due to lack of money, Llyod also due to money, and 60cm Saint because I sold one without a thought to hybrid him with another more suitable body for my taste. Never had any grail dolls in other sizes.
       
    19. For me, a grail doll is one that you really, really want that is hard to obtain. A doll that for whatever reason is nearly impossible to get and is one of the dolls that you want most out of all the dolls out there. It is a very rare and precious thing, like the grail of legend. . . OK, not that extreme.:lol: But you get my point.

      Usually, it is "the one that got away," a doll that was a limited and you missed getting. The reason why you missed it are varied: you joined the hobby after the doll was no longer available; the doll was released when you were dead broke; the official pictures were horrible but you later fell in love with the owner pics, etc., etc.

      My grail was the Souldoll Jinwoo. He was released as a fullset in 2007. I LOVED the doll, but wasn't so interested in the fullset. So I thought, "I'll just wait for the basic to come out, or for them to put out another fullset." They NEVER released him again! Some sort of dispute with the sculptor, from what I'm told.

      I was crushed. Not many were sold, so my chances were very small. I'd pretty much given up on the idea of ever getting him. But last year, I got really lucky and was able to snag him from the marketplace here. Took me about 7 years, but I finally got him!
       
      • x 1
    20. My grail doll would be a Soom Epidia Queen of the Waterfalls and an iplehouse Aaliyah The Addiction. I love vampires, and they seem to be the perfect female vampires for my tastes.