Honestly? I've only bought one doll new, and that came with a nice padded zipper case. So I don't have a lot of experience with dolls that don't.
My favorites are the padded zippered bags that my Soom dolls came with. They're handy for taking one of the dolls that fit them with me safely. I like the pillows a couple of my dolls came with, though they aren't as useful. The foam cutouts work well for keeping a doll safe during shipping, and if they're stored in their boxes, but they are only useful in their box. I keep a lot of my doll boxes, but not all of them. I ordered an MSD sized Dollmore bag to keep my Raccoon doll in, so I keep her in that and decided not to keep her box.
I know the "form foam" is objectively the safest, but I can't help appreciating the bubble wrap pillowed mummy the most. When I have to box my dolls for storage, it makes tucking their things away with them much easier! The pillow bag, as efficient as it is, makes me extra OCD-check my doll more often than the pillow sandwich does; did I insert my doll in well enough? Will the pillow puff up too much to let the box close? At least with a pillow sandwich I can generally guarantee the doll will be in the position I exactly left it in, provided I'm not moving the boxes.
I personnaly dislike the doll boxes with form-fitted foam. I tends to store my dolls in the first boxe available from my pile of boxes, and I can't store just any dolls in just any boxes when there is form foam inside. And it pisses me off. I prefer boxes with regular pillow or carrier bags. (Even if it's harder to stack bags than boxes ).
I'm not going to be original, I guess : D Form-fitted foam is the best for me. I've currently only had only this type of packaging and never had any accidents with broken parts or anything. It's the safest one and looks really neat imho so I voted for that!
I've had all first three and here are my thoughts on them: Option 1 "Doll box with pillow (bubble wrap mummy when shipping)" - I've had a company send me a doll body in packing peanuts and a little bit of bubble wrap, without a pillow. I was honestly surprised it survived the journey. Had I known in advance that's how the company ships their dolls, I would've likely thoughts twice before ordering. That said, I will be ordering from them again because their plastic is so thick that I believe it'll arrive safely and without any damage. Option 2 "Doll box with pillow bag (zippered, slide in, velcro, tied)" - a pretty solid option, no complains here. What I like about this is that you can then store the doll in the pillow bag outside the box, protecting it from direct sunlight. Option 3 "Doll box with form-fitted foam inside" - I think this is my favorite options because it seems like the most secure one, and since the dolls are travelling from afar they could use all the additional protection they can get.
I think the form foam is the best, security-wise! But once a doll is home, I found the pillows more aesthetic. If I pile them up, and add a blanket and pillows, I can have a makeshift bed. That said, it would not be hard to throw out the form foam and sew pillows, and the main concern is to get the doll safely to its destination, so form foam wins all the way for me.
I am pretty new, and love the pillows tied on the side. It looks so cozy! I haven't received any dolls in fitted foam yet, but a few other things I have before, and yes I think that's going to be the safest and most secure. So, I won't be sad if I get one that was packaged that way instead.
Form-fitted foam all the way. It makes it easier to repack my doll into it and easy for me to pack the box away entirely knowing how safe of an option it is.
To be honest, I do not like doll boxes at all. Being in the hobby a bit longer, if I had the option, I would choose dispatch of doll bodies disassembled in a small, compact box which you could easily discard. Doll identification could be done otherwise. I do not need a fancy dollbox, it just takes up a ton of space. If a dedicated doll box is necessary, I like form-fitted, pretty stiff foam with the delicate parts such as hands and feet well-wrapped in bubble wrap. The pillows are nice and dandy, but you have to pay for these. Foam is much cheaper to produce and offer, in my experience, much better protection. If you absolutely want a nicer unboxing experience, you can have it with a fancy surface or fabric cover. The zipped pillows are also nice, I actually have one of those, but it just lying around. I can't bring myself to discard it. A good option would be to be able to get them as an accessory if you foresee a lot of travelling with your doll.
I like the pillow w/ buble wrap. Totally not because that's all I ever got LOL But I generally use the box to store a lot of my doll accessories and extra parts. The leftover bubble wrap can be used for anything and I've used some of my stockpile when mailing gifts to friends. I would love a carrier bag but I would not ditch the doll boxes I have to replace them with one?
