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

Currently I'd say my grail is a Luts Kid Delf Rika. Her face just looks so sweet and gentle to me that I'm just drawn to her sculpt. Luckily Rika isn't a limited sculpt, so I have plenty of time to save up for one!

 

Is it weird to say I have none? There are plenty of dolls I found extremely pretty but to me, you must want to acquire a hard-to-get doll in order for it to be considered a grail. All desire of acquisition is instantly killed by the price tag, because even more than getting a rare and expensive doll, I really want to avoid stressing over my hobbies. And that's inevitably going to happen if, for example, an Enchanted Doll should ever get into my hands somehow. Despite my absolute love and admiration for that artist, I would probably seek to sell it as fast as possible out of sheer stress. I can't handle the responsibility of just "owning it" XD

It's better for me to have a collection with which I can be comfortable handling it, rather than a collection that I don't even dare to look at, lest I damage it somehow. Basically, I only covet what is more or less comfortably "in reach" (granted, with a bit of work). Since they are fairly easily attainable, they can't really be considered "grails".

 

I don't think I have a grail doll anymore. In the past, I would have maybe considered a Volks Unoss or Kinokojuice Kiki to be grails, but now I've seen Unoss pop up more than a few times since then, and Kiki is readily available and easy to buy. It's not a grail to me if money is the limiting factor. I can and will save up if I truly want something. If the doll isn't available to me no matter how much money I could throw, I guess it'd be a grail at that point.

If a doll just happened to be more than I could ever justify spending, it's alright for me to just admire pictures of her or him on the internet. It's okay to not get what you want sometimes. That's just how life goes.

 

I honestly feel like this isn't said enough in the hobby. Especially with the limited releases, oftentimes it seems FOMO drives people to make purchases they might not have truly wanted at the end of the day if not for that. (I'm not an exception to this either, haha.)

There are a lot of beautiful dolls and sets I sometimes get that little WTB twinge when I see, but I know now that some things are better appreciated from afar. Maybe I'll have a true "grail" again someday, but my only current dream is definitely attainable via budgeting and I'm happy letting other people own the extremely expensive things in my place.

 

What you’ve said may be the reason why my grails are all TLC projects. I want a doll in poor shape so I can handle and mod it fearlessly and happily. The lower price is nice, but the it’s the project aspect of it that excites me.

My grail doll would be a forgotten project doll that needs new life, right now it would be a Unoss, but it’s a grail because it’s very hard to find an abandoned project Unoss in need of TLC . Maybe if I put out a WTB…

 

Its a doll i loved for a very long time, but was unable to purchase until i got older; Dollzone carter! And right after i bought him he was discontinued. LOL
Im so glad i ordered him when i did!

 

I have two, I Have Doll Pim, and Soom Puss in Boots - Another World. Both would suit my OCs perfectly. Oh how I wish I could have them now. I think they would complete my dolly crew. I don't want to own too many, so no more than four dolls. Do face sculpts count too? Cause I'd like to own all of the Miho sculpts as well.

 

I think being away form the hobby for some time due to money constraints has had an impact on what my grail dolls a lot. I've been having grail companies instead of specific dolls. About a year ago I was finally able to get a doll from Fairyland, which has been a company I've been wanting to buy a minifee from for ages. Now my two grail companies are Soom and Iplehouse. I don't even care what doll I get so long as I can get one of their SD dolls. XD

 

My original grail was Soom's Ender Dreamwalker that after years I finally got in 2016.
Right now, my forever grail, is Dream of Doll's Tender Too and Bee (A version). I was so close to buying them right when they started getting shady and folded. I was SO SAD. At this point I'll settle for just the heads T_T

 

My Grail doll is Doll Chateau's Stacy. She is so beautiful, and I love the body that she is on. I will probably never own her, however. She is discontinued and expensive to me. Also, she is an SD. I don't think I will like dolls of that size. I love the size of MSDs, and having a doll that is several extra inches taller seems intimidating to me. Even though she doesn't fit in with my crew, I would still love to own her one day. Honestly, I would probably be satisfied if I could just see her in person The idea of her has stuck with me all of the years I've been in the hobby, though I'm not exactly sure why.

 

Harucasting Morae and Wind. They are currently unattainable, because they haven’t gone up for preorder yet.

I try to not even look at dolls that have been discontinued. No use falling in love with something I can’t have.

 

Merrydollround Olathe! I absolutely love her sculpt, especially the nose, and if you add MDR's Petrichor body l can't imagine anything prettier. She's also pleasantly short.

 

My grail doll was DOD Elf Ducan but he'd been a limited sculpt before I got into the hobby, so I thought I'd missed out. But I was lucky enough to find him on the Marketplace here and have now had him for several years and no longer have any grail dolls - well, for now that is

 

DollZone Yuu. I just fell head over heels for him and would not get any other doll until I could afford him. I ended up getting him in pieces basically, head first then face-up, then body, then accessories. In a sense, he is still my grail as I would love a tan Yuu too, but I'm very confident I'll never find one.

 

I have two technically my first is a Dream Of Dolls Si. the doll that was supposed to be my first doll but then I fell in love with fairyland. I still want one but Dream Of Dolls is now defunct which hurts my heart. I remember going on their website at school and just staring at all their dolls. My second grail that i'm currently actively on the hunt for is a volks Hewitt. Something about the attitude yet soft features in his face got to me...someday I will have one. I think Hewitt has been my grail since i got into the hobby honestly.

 

My grail doll is a BlackBox Mochi. Its honestly the best articulated bjd animal I have ever seen and its whole sculpt is so freaking adorable. I'm constantly on the hunt for one that's secondhand (which btw hit me up if you're reading this and have one for adoption) as I don't think BlackBox will ever rerelease preorders for it.

 

I guess my 'grail' dolls would be the fullsets of DoD Shall and DoD Calla. I still haven't managed to find them but I first saw them when a friend of mine and I were incredibly new to the hobby and these two looked almost identical to how I had imagined our two characters that we would write stories of together. I couldn't afford them at the time since I was 13 or so and I fell out of the hobby until recently and by then Dream of Doll had closed down. I'd still like to get a hold of them somehow but with them being rather old and fullsets in particular being even rarer, its been pretty difficult.

My current grail is the RingDoll March Hare doll who I absolutely love. Her gothic maid aesthetic is really my style and hopefully she'll be back in stock sometime in the near future.

 

My grail dolls have always been something that fits my character but is hard to come by. When I get my grails I move onto the next hard to get sculpts. Previously it was Or-Doll's Anderl and Blue Phoenix heads.

I've acquired those a few years back, so my current grail is The Voice Eagle. I think after I get that one then I won't have a grail for a while.

 

My grail for 8 years was Volks Lieselotte In My Closet version and for a while you couldn’t even look at one for less than 2k but with the preorder version of Lieselotte, people sold off their older versions so I was finally able to buy her for 1.5k! I never in my wildest dreams thought Volks would ever have a preorder of her.

I wouldn’t say I have a “grail” per say now but I realize finishing my collection is going to get harder and harder because the remaining dolls were LE and still highly desired. So my “grail dolls” are now Soom Ender(grey skin) and Volks Yo-tenshi Una. I know I’ll be able to buy them for the right price so I don’t consider them exclusive or anything like some of those dolls with only ten in the world, but those are the ones I want.

 

I haven't found it yet, but I'll know it when I see it. I don't even know what it looks like!