At last! GEM of Doll Hallea is here! (pic heavy)

Ordered Aug 21 | Shipped Dec 32 | Arrived Dec 27

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My big girl has finally arrived! I ordered her directly from GEM of Doll's website and it was a very interesting experience that I will definitely get into more detail in a proper review. Tonight though, I was just too enraptured with my new doll to gather my thoughts!

On to the the box opening!




Wish I'd gotten a better picture of the COA! But I totally forgot. It's so nicely packaged and secure! This booklet on the top, by the way, has both company pictures and owner pics printed in it.



Peek-a-boo!


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And here she is! Love the tan color so much! I searched all over the internet for an owner pic of their tan resin color and the closest thing I found was one of their dolls dyed tan. I'm so glad I took the plunge. She looks so lovely! I wish I had other tan dolls to compare resin colors. I will definitely be getting more tan dolls in the future!

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Her belly button is so silly. I love it.

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A comparison between my first BJD and my newest. All of my previous dolls have by at or under 13cm so... this was quite a step up from that. My family teased me quite a bit about that

The timing for the was so funny, by the way. Just yesterday, I recieve restringing tools from a group order. And I ended up using them today to get the head off (S-hook made putting eyes in much too difficult)!

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As I'm typing this, I'm now realizing that the gift sea snail was not included in my order. At least, I thought it would be a gift by default. I ordered Hallea during the Summer Event, where it was indicated that purchasing either Hallea or Ares would get you this baby snail guy. Maybe I was supposed to include the snail in my order?

I'm also wondering if this was a customs issue. As you can see in the picture above, customs completely tore up the box! They cut a hole in the back. The sides were also torn off. The box is currently staying together with adhesive and I'm mulling over whether I should even keep it. But if the snail was included, maybe the snail fell out???

I don't know.

I'm a little hesitant to message GEM of Doll about this. I got the summer discount and the extra high-heel feet and that's really what counts.​

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She's beautiful, even without her face-up yet. I originally got her to shell a character of mine named Portobello - hence the mushroom shirt. However, now that I have this girl in my hands, her expression seems so much cheekier than in the company photos. Not sure if she'll stay Portobello or become one of my other characters. Guess I'll find out!

This wig and skirt were actually given to me by @Julie M at the newbie exchange during DOA's anniversary. Thank you Julie!

 

Thank you so much! I'm hoping to finally start painting in either January or Febuary. In the mean time, I have to resist buy her eyes and clothes. But with her finally here, it's so tempting

Thanks for the advice! I went ahead and message the company after all.
Her blank face was her selling point to me. She's so cute, yet she has such pronounced features.
And yeah, I was a little nervous after seeing the box, but she came very thouroughly wrapped, so I least I knew she hadn't been cut into.

Customs is really something. And thank you. I'm looking forward to working on her.

Yes, they've mentioned before being very busy as of late, so I wouldn't be surprised if that's contributed to this. It's one of the reasons I was hesitant to message them about this small mix-up, especially since I didn't actually pay for the snail. But I've decided to message them about this.

Thank you so much! She's such a cutie. And I agree that her hands are very cute. She also came with fist hands, which is pretty neat