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

My main grail doll (I have had a few smaller ones - but then I got them), was Volks Michele. I was pretty new still when he was released for the second time and no idea what a Michele was, and I wasn't a fan of Volks. Luckily my friend ordered him and I was present for his unboxing. She wasn't impressed but it was love at first sight for me. Sadly he wasn't really proportionate with my then doll group, at 1000+ and rare on the second-hand market, I resigned to never owning him. Thus he became the "grail".

Fast forward to 2013 and I got an inheritance from my last grand parent. I snuck some out before investing and tracked down the Summer Nights Phantom fullset (which is the one I wanted and with some help from a wonderful friend) and shelled out the $$$$ + a million fees and the most expensive shipping I've ever paid for anything ever for a box I could ship myself in.

Michele is my grail doll because to this day (from 2009 or whenever the SNP was released) he's the only doll I want enough to pay that price tag for. I guarantee that won't happen again. He's even more special to me since now he's a reminder of my grandparents.

 

I just found my grail doll! I didn't get what people meant about grail dolls until I laid eyes on Prias | Doll | Argonautica Dolls! They're so pretty an unique! I'm so sad they're sold out, I hope they haven't been discountinued.

 

My Grail is Dollshe's Bermann. He is my grail because I reeeeeeeally want him badly, however he is very difficult to find, and should I ever find one for sale, I would be paying a LARGE amount of money for him (honestly, an amount I cannot ever justify with my current financial situation).

 

My grail is Dearmine Loc (Laberinth ver.). It is my grail because it is lovely but I didn't even know the company when it came out plus it was limited and I couldn't have afforded him even if I had known.
Nowadays it is rarely seen in the second-hand market and if I couldn't afford it in its time, I couldn't afford it now with the price people would pay for it (+$600).
So I guess it will remain a grail for my whole life, it is sad but it is what it is.

 

Years ago when i first learned of Bjds, i fell in love with my friends Lishe. When i saw her in tan, she became an illusive mistress. Every time i had the funds, i could not find one available. (before tan was offered regularly). I still remember the day one came on the marketplace here, jumping out of my chair and laughing because the seller had sent me their paypal address.
As for the doll itself - She is literally sitting over my head as i type this. That doll has been like a family member. I may not do as much with my dolls as i used to, but that doll has been a beacon of joy when things have been less than joyous!

 

My first grail was honestly the Dust of Dolls Zouh Spun. She was tiny, bunny themed, and curvaceous as heck and I ADORED her. I had been looking everywhere for a doll that was unique and did not adhere to the same body measurements like the other bjd's of her size. I was so sad when they ended the preorder for her (I still had not broken into the hobby). I wanted one so bad I didn't care what form she came in.
I finally bought a secondhand one that needed a home, and I snagged that cutie up in a heartbeat. I constantly rave about this doll and I will never stop.

 

Not sure what i should count as grail, the mold itself or his fullset version... but i like to tell the stories that no one will read heh so let me do it again

i first met my current grail about 6 months ago when surfing among tons of grown boys, in a search for those who could fit my style proportions to help me as reference and for inspiration in the whole. i only found 3 molds and he was among them. something felt strange about him (maybe his nose from profile view), but i saved a place in my heart for him because he had that special something in expression that i couldn't forget

6 month later my sister showed me a sketch of the character. We work together: i'm an artist and she is a basic story writer and character creator. She ain't got much drawing skills but gives me quite detailed sketches of basic characters design. Well, the character named Reinke was a redhaired goth style black magician with austrian origin, which is nothing overly original and I already knew it from our roleplaying, but when i saw the sketch i was quite... shocked and could only say 'yay that's that doll boy look i'll show you'

He had the same hair color and structure (small red waves), close eyecolor and iris position (y'know, the position when there's some white space under iris is left), very similar makeup (black drips under eyes, smoky-black lips AND flying eyebrows starting from the low angle which is really rare among doll makeups - i like this pattern and hardly ever find it), big black hat and even the history was quite alike (black magician from Austria) lol

my sister never seen my grail before and i guess this is just the same vision of black magicians between Ringdoll and us, but still it is so exciting for me that i will never stop wishing to have him even though i'm not sure if there are left any with original make-up that will be sold in the future, but i'll keep my eyes on

BTW, what is best of all, the mold itself is perfect and it still sells. When i had a pic of him in the wishlist album on my vk page, some of my friends told me that he looked just like one of my characters. Yep, he keeps the face expression of 'my' style, which is really hard to find. If i has a chance to get as much heads as i want for my characters, there would be probably 70% of them in this mold, just with modification in some parts like that nose and other slight changes, mostly made by makeup

 

My grail doll is iplehouse Aaliyah. she is one of the only sculpts I truly fell in love with and had to have at first sight. I have to save up a lot of money to get her but I think shes going to be worth the wait

 

my grail is migidoll ryu, not because he was particularly hard to get but because he seemed so unobtainable to me for so long. i fell in love with ryu when i was 16, and the thought of owning a BJD seemed so impossible to me at the time. i had nowhere near that kind of money and strict parents, so he just seemed like a distant dream away! i also was intimidated by the thought of having a ryu, because most of my favorite dolls at the time were ryus and i felt like mine wouldn't measure up if i ever bought one. luckily, i was able to make him my first bjd this year. he's definitely my favorite doll of my group, and now he is my favorite ryu out there > 3 <

i also have, as strange as it sounds, a grail body and grail eyes. my grail body is the demon garden body. i came back into the hobby at the beginning of this year and was crushed to find out that dg no longer produces. if i ever find a second hand DG body that isn't too yellowed, i will snatch it up! my grail eyes are kaitou eyes. she currently only takes orders domestically and through weibo, so owning a pair of her eyes seems unlikely at the moment :')

 

My grail for almost 3 years, is a green Beryl. I have 2 love me or dies, the smoke grey one, and a big sister version idealian. You would think I had enough of her. Nope. One of these days I'll find a white one on the mp and that will be that. I dye poly and I might be the happiest girl on the planet. Of course I still have to design clothes, and ruby slippers...

 

I have (currently) 3 grails. Two of them I'm actually now content to simply have them as wistful dreams and I don't have a burning need to add them to my collection. Those would be the Impldoll Miguel the Demon Hunter and a Unidoll Ark. Miguel was a limited and I didn't have the money at the time to buy him. There was also the fact that Unidoll had gone under by that point and the Ark was his lover. I couldn't have one without the other (because I'm weird that way). As mentioned, Unidoll was gone by then and when they were taking the last orders for their dolls before closing, I didn't have the funds then either to get even just Ark's head *sigh*.

I have seen Miguel pop up a few times on the MP but I either didn't have the cash or there was something not right about the one offered. He MUST be unmodded and in grey resin with all his parts. I don't care about the face-up/blushing as that would need to be done to suit my vision of him. Ark has popped up a few times as well but very, very rarely. For him, I'd be perfectly willing to settle for just his head but he MUST be in WS with his elf/demon ears and unmodded. Then there's the whole thing of having one and not the other, which would bother me terribly, so they are wistful grails that I highly doubt I'll ever have, which I'm honestly okay with now.

The other grail... that's one I truly regret missing. Soom Idelian 51 Damphir in grey. They only offered him for sale for 1 week and towards the tail end of that week, they started an FCE for their boy fairies. I only had enough money to buy 1 doll. I wanted a Kremer head on an Azur mer-body (no funds for the Azur when he came out, story of my dolling life *sigh*). Figuring that the mer-body would be the more difficult of the 2 to find (I've only ever seen 1 for sale in the MP and he was snapped up before I could get him), I went for that. However, Soom didn't offer the mer-body in that sale and by the time I got an answer about whether or not they were going to (it was the weekend), the Idelian sale was done and I missed out on both dolls.

The Damphir is perfect for 1 of my characters that has been a nightmare to try and shell and I'm really kicking myself for not pouncing when I should've and put him on my credit card if I'd needed to. I should've clicked buy when I saw the mer-body wasn't offered on the Friday instead of waiting to hear from Soom about it being included in the sale. Could've, should've, would've.

 

My grail is Miracle Doll Jing. I've never seen another doll like him, he's beautiful - Unfortunately, I probably never will have the money to buy him and a body for him. Oh well.

 

i consider grail dolls which would be hard to find/not as simple to purchase, so my grail is a Fairyland Lunnula because i dont know if she'll ever be released again, and i may have to look on the secondhand marketplace for her. another grail for me is probably a SWITCH Seolrok because that sculpt isnt a monthly preorder from that company, so who knows if/when itll be released again...
the rest on my wishlist are dolls that i can get anytime, so even if its years before i can afford them, they arent grails to me.

 

My grails are grails because I'm obsessed with Sebastian Michaelis, and I have been since I started reading the manga eons ago. I wish I had gotten into this hobby earlier, so I could have gotten my hands on the IOS Osiris ... still regret not getting the IOS BoC Sebastian, it looks much better in owner photos ;-; so I'm hoping they do a second round like they did for Ciel.

 

My grail is the Dollfie Dream Rena. I love her default faceup, eyes and hair, as well as her diminutive size. I've googled owner pictures of her and she seems to look even more beautiful in person. She is simply perfection in plastic.

 

Hm... my grail-- in terms of 'very unlikely to get my hands on it' dream dolls-- is probably Batchix' Machina Alpha. I've never had the money at the right time to jump on an order for any of the Machina dolls, and... well, I might get lucky with a future sculpt someday, but Alpha is one I just have to live with not being so lucky on.

 

Doll Chateau Debbie and Caroline. They were done being sold before I even got into the hobby. I love me some unusual dolls, and I've never seen anything like them before or since. Not being able to buy them just makes me want them more. Agh. I'm largely indifferent about the sculpt of their faces, but that conjoined twin body? I neeeed it but doubt I'll ever find it.

 

the moment i saw my grail (soom dia) i knew i would want it forever. i just want to be able to have a pretty boy in my midst

 

I'm so lucky that I haven't found a limited or expensive one yet that I want badly enough to pursue it, but I do have one that I desperate to get now! Doll Zone Pumpkin! I MUST get her, so I'm saving up as best I can and trying to do even more extra work then I was doing! I saved up fast for my first doll, but a lot of that was luck, so I'm going to have to work extra hard if I want to get her soon! xD (she's actually an amazingly good price, but it's a lot of money to me!)

I don't think I've ever wanted a doll as much as I want her. : D

 

when I first saw a bjd on an fb page
its an angell studio cinderela red... i fell inlove... i just want to own one... but i cant afford it and the stress of dealing with customs here is so frustrating seriously...so i give up and decided to get a resinsoul ya for my first dol... and i love my ya so much... but im still inlive with that sculpt (as. cinderella) so in planning to buy one and ask for help... while we (me and vintage doll teahouse) are emailing angell studio to finally purchase the doll... i saw her for sale on the marketplace of our local forum.... so i bought her... and now im so happy .... shes my grail doll... and now i have her... hehe i just want to share that story... my dolls have their own story...