When It Comes To BJD's What Makes You Fussy?

Poseability and a sturdy body. I have 2 dolls I would normally love, but they have difficult bodies.

 

My personal fussiness (possibly to the point of OCD...) is that I only like / can cope with Delf boy bodies. I don't actually care about poseability, but I... do... care about the aesthetic of the one piece torso, the hands that are small enough to slip through most sleeves, and... the feet that are small enough to fit in quite a few girls shoes.

Maybe it's because my first 60cm boy was a Delf, but when I (momentarily) had a Crobidoll Lance I very quickly found that I just couldn't cope with the body being bigger than I was used to. I struggled to dress him and, honestly, I just didn't like the body at all.

So, even though I'll admit it's quite blinkered, I now stick pretty firmly to Delfs and (I'm happy) it works for me.

 

I'm quite fussy about my BJDs. I don't like:

- Unhappy/pouty/grumpy/miserable sculpts. I much prefer smiling sculpts, open mouth and visible teeth are bonuses.

- Part closed eyes (it just make them look mean/sneaky to me, no matter how nicely they're painted)

- Childlike face sculpts on mature/developed/shapely/big-boobed bodies - that's a World of Wrong.

- Child/toddler dolls with face-ups that look like they're caked in makeup (eyeliner, rouge/blusher, lipstick, HUGE lashes etc.)

- Child/toddler dolls dressed like prostitutes.

- Dolls shown smoking - I don't like being around people who are smoking, why would I want to see dolls doing it. It puts me off the sculpt, not just that individual doll.

- Historical clothing for dolls that owes more to anime/manga/fantasy than to historical accuracy.

- Plastic-looking/Synthetic lace all over an otherwise nice doll outfit or garment. These outfits often cost a fortune, why make them look cheap and nasty....?

- Up-do wigs that are OBVIOUSLY wigs

- Moccasin/loafer style shoes (I don't like them full size either - they're just not attractive in any way shape or form)

- Out-of proportion shoe details (soles too thick, lacing holes too big or finished with enormous eyelets etc).

- Stark white resin - it makes a doll look unfinished to me, it's much nicer when it's mellowed and got a bit of a creamy yellow tone... as are most "normal" skintones which I usually find too pale or too pink when new.

In other ways, I'm not fussy - for example:

- I don't mind a bit of resin-colour mismatch between head and body - most real people's faces are a very different shade from their body, so why would I mind it in a doll - it's more realistic for there to be a bit of mismatch.

- Many of my dolls are pinned into their clothes because I haven't finished sewing the fastenings onto them

- I'm not "precious" about my own dolls - they get shoved into my workbag for transport to work, handed to people who are interested enough to ask about them, friends' children get to play with them (one went home with a friend's toddler for a few weeks until I next babysat and collected it back). To me dolls are meant to be played with, if they're only displayed, then they aren't dolls they're ornaments. Of course, they're my own dolls - I'm more reserved with other people's dolls.

- Posing - while I try to pose them nicely for photographs, etc. my dolls are often just plonked down at home in whatever spot is handy and left in whatever pose that puts them in. I have friends who will carefully place dolls each time they put them down and make sure they're nicely posed before leaving them there.

So a mixed bag from me on the fussyness front.

Teddy

 

I like having my dolls sit with me as I work since their beauty recharges me from all the dry stuff I have to get through, so I get super fussy when I set them down. Their clothes have to sit just right, and I have spent a good 20mins once combing the fringe of my boys' hair to lay just so against their forehead. I surprised myself when I realised I'd pretty much been procrastinating by fussing with Sowon's bangs so it would lay out of his eyes.

The only reason I had for doing that was procrastinating from starting work, but I couldn't believe how long I'd spent coaxing his wig so one single flyaway strand would behave.

 

I'm SO unbelievably fussy about names and stories for my doll. I never settle on a name until I've basically searched through every babyname website in the world.

Also fussy about wigs and how they look with dolls, both on my dolls and everyone else's dolls. Nothing bugs me more than when someone has a gorgeous doll with a gorgeous faceup but an unflattering wig.

 

Clothes. I love doll clothes and spend a lot of time and money looking for them. Sometimes for more than what I paid for the doll... or my own clothes for that matter.

 

I'm fussy about faces.

First, the doll needs to have a cat's face or head.

Then, the face needs to look either extremely realistic, or passably fanciful. But it still needs to look like an actual cat. It can't be a big-eyed anime reject with a cat muzzle tacked on. Sometimes the feline features of a doll seem like an afterthought. "We'll take our little girl doll, scrape off the human nose and mouth, and plug in a cat nose/mouth." No. I can't have this.

In the same vein, I am not a fan of kemono or human dolls with cat ears, cat paws, cat tails, etc.

 

I am fussy about:

- Noses, ears and profiles. I can't get over ears that don't look sufficiently detailed or realistic. I adore beautiful noses (one of my main gripes with DDs is their lack of a proper nose). And by all means my dolls must have beautiful profiles.

- Movement in the feet (and naturally-posed feet in photos). I have loved IH BIDs for a looooong time, but never dared to buy one because in their sales photos their feet don't seem to have any movement in them. When I finally cracked and got a second-hand BID, I discovered he could point his feet just fine - which had me squee, but I still don't understand why in IH's photos feet are always at a 90° angle :p. I own one body whose feet cannot point; I have been tempted to get rid of it several times, except that I have trouble finding an alternative that I like.

- Disproportionately long legs on otherwise realistic bodies. This is beginning to bug me a lot, which is annoying because the vast majority of SD bodies are like that -_-.

- The way fabric drapes on doll bodies. This is an eternal struggle for me: finding fabric that drapes naturally on small figures. I don't think I will ever win at that...

 

*I'm very peculiar about the mouth area, especially the philtrim. Once I deem it too long...that's it. No amount of prettying the doll can make me like it.
*I also can't stand dolls with open mouths like they're in the state of shock. A little gap is okay...like the Soom Dia...but nothing more.
*I can't stand dolls that are bobble-headed. I know some people find that appealing but...yeah...just not for me. I like mine proportionate...so smaller heads for me.
*Light colored eyes. Glass eyes are fine in general but some glass eyes are really light in color and lack detail so when a doll has really huge eyes...they look like they're in shock.
*When the eyes aren't put in properly and the doll becomes cross-eyed.
*Huge irises and pupils. This isn't the fault of doll owners but the sellers becoz they don't state the size. I've built myself a large collection over a short period of time just trying to find the right ones.

 

I only like extremely realistic dolls like Iplehouse. Stylized anime-like dolls just don't appeal to me. I don't like open mouthed or grinning dolls. I like a calm, serene expression. I don't like dolls with six year old faces and big sexy adult bodies with huge breasts or mega muscles. It is just inaccurate and disconcerting. I don't like wonky eyes, or ones that the iris and pupil are disproportionate to the eye opening. I don't like blobby little baby hands, I want them to look elegant, realistic and adult; same thing for the feet. I am VERY particular about a well proportioned profile and nice straight realistic noses. I hate ski slope or turned up little pug noses ( I have the latter myself!)

 

I don't like to own realistic looking dolls (I like to admire them from afar), I prefer to own the stylized sculpts. I will always love Iplehouse dolls, but I don't want them for myself (except the tinies).

Rounded hips on boys.

Mature body and childish face, this goes for both female and male dolls.

The worst one of all: Duck lips or kissing face sculpts. I'm in the minority here but this is the reason why I don't like most of the Fairyland girl sculpts.

 

I find face ups really stressful because the doll itself could be perfect bit the fave up could ruin that especially if you like to do them yourself

 

For my dolls, I'm extremely fussy about the face-up. It has to be absolutely perfect for how I envision the character. That I don't do face-ups myself can make that a challenge to achieve. I'm also very particular about the eyes. they have to be the right shade for the character and positioned just so. I don't want any of my dolls with that startled deer-in-the-headlights look. However, I never position them glancing off to the side as I find it makes them look sneaky.

I can't stand human ears and animal ears on a head at the same time. I think it looks stupid which is why I had the human ears cut off of my cat-boy character and made him a pair of cat ears that are sewed to his wig.

Teeth showing (vampire fangs excepted) are a definite no for me as are dolls with a button nose. I don't like button noses in real life and I've recently discovered that I don't like them on dolls either.

 

Shoes....


Not being able to find the shoes I like or am looking for at the time. Since I am going to Colorado in February, I was looking at snow boots or boots that have that winter feeling to them, but I just couldn't find ones that clicked to me.
It's very frustrating!

 

Fussy about face-ups, definitely. It's so hard to find a face-up that suits the character I have in mind.

 

I've had issues with this too. It's hard to imagine what your character is going to look like.
Completely understand what you are going through xD

 

Personally speaking I can't stand when bjd have giant airbag style breasts. If it looks like you could bounce a coin into the stratosphere off of the chest it won't end up in my bjd family. I get that some people like the giant boobs look but I'm not inclined to agree : /.

Another pet peeve is shoes that won't fit, and companies who advertise that they will fit. When they clearly do not fit. If only shoe shopping for bjd was as easy as human shoe shopping -_-'.

 

Peanut joints! I honestly just can't even with them. I didn't know better when I got my first girl (BF Neo Body), but after I got two dolls with single joints I realized I liked them much better than her, and for a while I thought I actually hated all double joints, but then I got my LTF and I fell in love with her jointing system, and then an SDCute and I really love her double jointed arms and now I realize it's just peanut joints that I hate!

Something about the appearance of them is kind of uncomfortable looking to me, and my only doll with these joints is my least favorite doll to pose. She's so finnicky even with wiring, and she doesn't have mobility joints in her shoulder so they limit the mobility in her lower arms. The joints are hard to keep in place too, especially at the knees- it's like the parts are too small and just don't fit in the body correctly. Among my five dolls (which I rarely take out in the first place), she's the only one who stays in her case for months at a time. I love you Elda, but your body is wack!

I'll probably get a doll with similar joints in the future (I'm eyeing Iplehouse right now) but at this moment, I would take a static doll over one with peanut joints any day. Who knows? It could just be that I hate the Neo Body as a whole. I wouldn't be surprised.

 

I fuss over;
Elastic tension and Re-stringing. I hate when my doll is either too tight and kicking her legs in my face and cracking at the neck or when she is floppy and can't stand up or hold a pose in shoes without support. I also fuss over how the magnets in the hands and feet are either too loose or too tight. Or how the head cap is either falling off or doesn't want to come off at all.

 

The number one thing that drives me nuts is probably ears, I don't like elf ears and I don't like ears that are pierced (with an actual drilled hole).
Eyebrows are another thing that I'm really fussy about, any kind are fine on other people's dolls but for my dolls they would have to be natural and simplistic and easily hide-able via wig.