Will that "One Detail" Prevent you from Buying?

Bwahaha... I find this hilarious as my first and only boy is a Nia, and I was so worried about his funny lip before I bought him. For some reason, I decided that I found it charming rather than distracting, although I bothered my friend about it for days. "Do you think the lip is weird..? Honestly... do you?"

Nia does have a rather odd mouth by BJD standards, but I love it.

I'm pretty picky about dolls, though, I've found. Usually what bothers me is IMBALANCE! I've seen a ton of dolls with one eye slightly lower than the other, or the nose bent off to the side, etc. When it can be explained as a quirky expression, it doesn't bother me as much, (like a smirky mouth, or one narrower eye,) but lack of attention to balance is the one thing that bugs me the most.

Other than that, I can't stand certain noses. If there's any one feature that will turn me off from a doll, it's a bad nose... Something about the noses from certain companies really turns me off.

 

I hear you on the noses, Kopiikat. I have this weird affinity for more realistic nose-proportions. So when I see the SUPER ANIME style noses, or the hawk-thin, oddly straight kind.. I veer away and grimace.

Proportioning is what keeps me away from a lot of dolls. If the head is massively too large or small for the body, or the body unrealistic in it's twiggy-ness.. I'm pretty turned-off. Which is why most BBB/RS dolls and a lot of the Chinese companies don't appeal to me.

 

The most recent example I can think of is the new Soom Idealian, York.
I love everything about him but his eyes. They are too squinty, long and slanty (to me anyway).

I really want to get him but the small detail of his eyes keeps preventing me from taking the plunge as I'm really not sure about them .

 

Nope! When ElfDoll K was released, I fell straight in love with the sculpt...but hated the brow furrows. Didn't stop me from buying K and sanding them off (albeit amateurishly) though!

 

Yes. I am so particular that if even one little thing is "too much" or "too little" for me, I'll find an alternative sculpt. I think I'd be a terrible modder, as I have no patience, and so I wouldn't get a sculpt thinking I could mod it, or even a body for that matter. That's why I'm so grateful for this forum and for user pics. There are some dolls that once I've seen user pics I am so grateful I didn't buy the doll.

 

actually, I had the same problem with crobidoll's Nia ô__o instantly when I saw his mouth on non official pics I decided I would never get him! and happened with most crobidoll dolls actually. they look really nice on the site but on owner pics I realize that some details about their face tick me off.
those kind of things happens veeeeeeery often to me! (so I'm not gonna make a list) but luckily that it does!!! or else my doll wishlist would be WAY too long xD

 

Yes and no. Like other posters have mentioned if it is something that could easily be changed then I would not let it stop me from buying a doll I loved other wise. However if it was something that is not easily changed then obviously this is not the right doll for me. There are plenty of other dolls out there with similar looks. I can easily find another doll that fits what I am looking for. No reason to settle for a doll I don't want. So it depends on what is turning me off. If it is just bad company photos and I love the doll in owner photos it is no big deal. If it is a bad company face up, well that isn't an issue, I don't pay for company face ups I do them myself. If the doll is too tall/short for what I need but the head sculpt is the one I have to have can I hybrid it on a different body? There are a lot of ways to make a doll work. But I am very particular about my dolls. I buy my dolls as shells for my characters and if they aren't perfect they are not going to last. I hate having to sell dolls so I prefer to get the perfect one the first time. There is no reason to settle for a doll you don't love just because you liked it when you first saw it. That is the beauty of owner photos, they give you a chance to see what a doll really looks like before you buy it.

 

In the past, I have indeed abandoned the idea of buying certain dolls because of features I didn't like (such as lips or noses...), until I got a BBB Long. I swear his nose is exactly like a pretty much hated ex-friend. In fact, had it not been because my mum loved the body for her doll, I would have never gotten him. All of the people who knows that ex-friend and have seen Long's official picture in the site agree, so it's not an impression...

I ended up sanding his nose a bit (not Voldemort-style, that's for another time), and now I just love that head. It caused me to think about other sculpts, and some of them are back in my WL now...

 

absolutely, it's stopped me. Especially eye shape. If it's turned a certain way even if it only appears that way on an angle I won't buy the doll

 

Yeah, the nose thing is also THE turn-off for me.
I liked York too, but something about him didn't shoot through
the roof for me. I seem to 'resonate' with certain sculpts and
end up buying the ones I can't stop thinking about.

@sahoma: That's a weird outcome, and it would probably
irk me too if that happened,lol. I've thought about modding but
I'm not sure I would even know where to begin with an aspect
of a doll I didn't like. @@

 

That really depends on what it is. I'm also quite picky when it comes to nose and eye shape but since both usually fall under the 'that's fixable' - category (at least with the dolls I've considered getting but haven't purchased yet), that's not necessarily a deal breaker.
A bigger problem for example would be bodies. I don't always feel like trying to make a decent hybrid if I dislike a body for whatever reason (and sometimes it's nearly impossible because of unusual sizes / resin colors etc.), so that would and is one thing that actually can prevent me from buying a doll I would otherwise love to own.

 

Has one detail prevented you from buying/bonding with your otherwise perfect doll?
I have two cases of this, actually. One turned me off from buying a doll. When B&G first put out their Old World line, one of their dolls was this lovely dark elf boy. The few pictures they had of him made me drool. Then they released full front pictures. He had angry brows T_T And he was dyed, so they couldn't just be sanded away (that I know of). I was so sad. I still call him Mr. Angry Brows.

Also, when my Elf Ducan fell and dented his nose in, I felt really... ambivalent toward him. I did some mods (which I later had removed) to try and fall back in love with him. It's funny how that one little can change so much, but I think it really is important. Once I got him all fixed up again, I loved him like before.

Should you avoid buying if you feel this way?
I think you should avoid it, definitely. If there's something you've truly unhappy with and on something you're going to be spending a lot of money on, why put yourself through that? Now, if you've got no problems modding, that's one thing. If you feel it's something you can come to love, that's another. But buying a doll that has some part of it you really don't like? I wouldn't do it.

 

Yes, that one detail will often deter me form buying.

I love the Lusion Dahlia except that she's a grumpy-looking doll and I really don't like non-smiling sculpts - if I'm paying *that8 much for a doll, I want one that has a face sculpt I'm completely happy with.

Likewise outfits - time and again I see an otherwise perfect outft that is (for me) spoiled by an element I don't like. More often in "historically based" styles, but also with others - A garment that doesn't work with the rest of the outfit, a sleeve style that is wrong for the period the rest of the outfit is based on, skirts that are far too short, the wrong colours and/or fabrics, or it being decorated in {shudder!!!} nylon lace... etc.

Frequently it's stuff I could alter, but if I'm paying the prices that these items cost, I don't want to have to alter it to make it right (if I had time to get around to the alteration, I'd have time to make my own and not need to buy them).

 

Sadly, yes. I have a thing for hands... I'm pretty picky! I want them to be nice and proportional, not too dainty or long or short. I've wanted a Littlefee since forever, I keep going back to the page to look at it, but I just can't stand the chubby pointed fingers. I'm not one to get into modding (someone suggested I sand the tips of the fingers, but that sounded even worse!) And so now, I doubt I'll ever get a Littlefee because that tiny detail will probably get at me forever...

 

With all of these quirks people have, we could make a suggestion thread with
help for those problems! Hehe!

I would if I were in the hobby long enough!
I would love more realistic jointed hands!

 

Personally, if I am spending as much as a BJD costs, I generally want it to be perfect. However, it depends on whether or not anyone has the right feature. If, for example, I wanted a doll with built in rainbow coloured wings, and no one made that, then I wouldn't let it deter me. However, if it was the nose, and someone made the perfect nose, then I would just buy the right one.

 

I remember being dead set on getting a Resinsoul Wu. I adored his face and he seemed perfect. Then I started looking at owner pics and realized that I didn't like how big his lips were. I decided to wait on getting him and continue looking around.

 

THIS. I won't even look at their dolls as an option for me at all because of this...

Other turn offs include size (I won't buy a doll over 63cm, no matter how gorgeous), elf ears, long skinny noses or anime noses or overbites. I've seen a few that were cute too, but the eyes were too far apart. Another big one is facial lines. Some certain dolls tend to have creases or indentions in their sculpts that give the illusion of bags under their eyes or lines from the nose to corners of their mouths and I think it makes them look old and saggy. Even on Yo-SDs. Just little things I often don't notice on others' dolls, but when looking to buy my own, it jumps out and I won't buy them.

I also don't like chipmunk cheeks, extremely pointy noses, too small or narrow eyes and small hands, but these things can be fixed and if the doll was otherwise my dream, I'd still get it and fix it.

 

I've been going through this for quite some time. The doll? A dollmore Lusion Ice. I think she is gorgeous and lovely...however in half the pictures she looks more yellow/hazy, and her head/chin look very very ackward but in other pictures, she's gorgeous.

So yes, it has stopped me from buying her. I just can't seem to find decent owner pictures of her to assure me that she is indeed white and indeed gorgeous...

but yeah the company photos/details like that will prevent me from buying a doll because I'm just not sure about it.

However owner pictures help greatly! Though they can also turn me off from a doll. Like Dream of Doll Homme Ducan. I feel in love with him immediately but after seeing many owner pictures, I decided he wasn't what I thought and didn't want him anymore....so it works both ways, I guess.

 

I have no interest in modding dolls at the moment and I do have specific taste in what I love in a doll. Almost all dolls are cute and most of them are even beautiful, but when it comes to my image of pure perfection I know what I want.

I love Iple house jids and a few months ago I was trying to decide between 4 gorgeous face sculpts but all of them had that one little not quite perfect detail. I didn't buy, instead I took a break from research for a few months. When I came back Iple had not only released a new jid who is perfect for me, but also a new 35 cm doll that I felt would make a great first doll.

My advice -- if it isn't perfect and you can't mod it yourself -- wait. The next beautiful doll is just around the corner.