Charm Doll Discussion

I received my fullset girl in a little over 6 months - I ordered in the beginning of May and she arrived mid November

 

Great to know, thank you!

 

Guess who's finally got eyes and more period-appropriate clothing?



To say I adore this sculpt and how perfectly she shells Jaime is an understatement. She's looking like a Waterhouse painting turned to articulate sculpture. Photography may not be my forte, but rosy stickers and Picsart filters and all, I wanted to share how happy I am with how my quasi-Victorian belle is coming along.

 

hello!

i'm looking to create a hybrid between my fairyland ns head & a charmdoll body.

would any of you have any ns fairyland ( preferably 2018 or later ) to compare with either the normal pink or normal yellow resin?

thank you so much!

 

Did i just miss the charmdoll event where u can get tan skin?

 

They seem to offer tan skin when a doll is new, which is likely because the demand for tan skin is less and is more expensive to produce.

 

Just ordered Raccoon 2 days ago!!! Now for the waiting haha I ordered it on alice's collections but looked on legenddoll and saw estimated 16-20 weeks. I'm questioning now if I should have just gotten the full set. I ordered mine with faceup, blushing, and special parts. Lol his name is literally Raccoon but his ears aren't included XD Also, the tail is only available by ordering the full clothing set. Does anyone else have clothes shopping experience for Charmdoll 45cm boy dolls? They look a bit slim to me.
Thanks all!

 

Which body type did you order? They look like they could like they could fit normal msd clothes, the new one looks a lot slimmer imo. What type of style are you looking for him?

 

Hi! It's a 45cm boy version 1 body. I want something historically inspired. My concepts for the doll are of either a Victorian news boy or possibly a ship's cabin boy. Alice's collection just got back to me and the wait is about 7 months right now for charmdoll.. I have lots of time to look around I guess

 

I have renard in body 1 and he's kinda thick compared to say a minifee boy. In any pattern that isn't already loose I have to widen it for him.

 

Thanks for sharing! I haven't seen a lot of stuff on charmdoll so its kinda hard. I'm not even sure if there's a waiting room for them?

 

Hi there! Does Charm Doll have sales often? I am saving up for Baron and want to know what my odds are of getting him on sale.

 

They recently had a christmas/new year event but they have events randomly.

Edit: on alices collection, baron is about $416. Legenddoll hes up for sale at $490 right now

 

Has anyone been able to access their website? Nothing's loading on both my phone or computer

 

I tried and it won't work for me either

 

I was thinking about ordering a Baron head and putting it on a loongsoul 73cm body that i have. I'm not sure if this would work or if charmdoll even sells their heads separately?

 

Yay, I have my Ethan!

 

Congratulations!!! Hope to see more pictures!

 

@SugarFirefly Congrats on Ethan! I'm glad he made it home to you!

 

Ok thank you! I hope they have another one soon. I do still have some saving to to do, but I think I'll wait a bit longer to try to get him on sale. I'll be ordering him through Clover Singing, if it helps.

 

I lost my acrylic plate ive contacted legenddoll about it so hopefully i can get another one even though i bought her in 2018

 

And its a nope

 

I think they said "nope" because of recast etc. They are just careful.

 

I will be ordering Baron soon. With just a face up, I saw someone say their wait time was 6 months. But that their doll was full set. What would wait times be like? (Also never had to wait more then 30 business days for a doll before lol.)

Also, how do ya'll feel about normal pink vs normal yellow skin? I cant seem to find references for Charm Doll's resin color. Is yellow very yellow? Or does it seem more natural? (I almost never get normal yellow resin colors for dolls because it makes no sense to me in the fact that when the doll turns yellow over time it just.... makes the doll look all the more yellow/banana looking.) But in the few pictures of pink it looks really pink. Like new-born baby pink, rather then a gentle pink? Having a really hard time choosing between normal pink and normal yellow.

What clothes best fit the 71cm boys? I have an iplehouse EID man on the model body. Charm Doll looks slimmer, I can never find clothes for my EID. Hoping Baron will be a bit more easy to shop for.

 

Bumping this! I am also interested in the color comparison between Normal Yellow and Normal Pink. Some of the pictures make out the pink to be very light and some of them look very pink. There just aren't a lot of owner photos for Charm doll floating around.

I also checked out Loongsoul's resins since they have the same manufacturer. I still can't really tell...

 

I ordered a Charmdoll Circie with a faceup and it also took around 6-7 months. There's this color comparison between minifee normal and charmdoll pink here /threads/cha...atural-resin-comparison.832879/#post-12893005 so the pink is pretty [ink. IDk about yellow as from what i've seen it's like loongsoul yellow

 

First time posting here, but I was wondering:

Has anyone ever ordered a full doll from Charm Doll's taobao?
How does the total price (including shipping) compare to shops like Alice's Collections?

Been hearing mixed reviews about the parcel conditions from taobao orders so a bit worried in trying to order there
but the base price is just so much lower than other retail shops, so I can't tell whether international shipping would bump it back to the same price.

 

@OneiricBlue I've never ordered direct from Charm Doll, but I have from some other doll companies. Whether or not it's worth it will really depend on how patient you are. So, most large/full doll purchases are going to be to large to use Taobao's official warehouses for shipping. So, you'll have to contact the seller to see if they'll ship internationally or use a forwarding service.

In regards to shipping prices this is where if you're a really patient person comes into play. If you go with the faster shipping options like DHL, FedEx, UPS you'll likely end up paying almost as much as the price of the doll. Anywhere between 150-300 depending on the size of the package. If you go with the slowest shipping option which is usually sea/surface then you can usually get away with shipping under 100, but depending on where you're located expect to wait months especially now as Covid has backed up everything.

My last surface package from China took almost three months to get to me, but I only paid 56 dollars to ship a 70cm doll body. And the difference between the price of the doll direct from company verses a dealer was around 100 dollars.

 

@Cloudedmind

Thanks for the thorough explanation!
So in general, taobao's general prices for surface mail would be around the 40-70$ range depending on the doll size, while standard would definitely go up and beyond that?

Looks like I'll have to go ahead with the limited retailers available then :')
It's honestly a shame Charm Doll no longer has a international sales site, I wonder what happened with their old one

 

@OneiricBlue

If you're having something shipped via Taobao's warehouse they don't offer different shipping options. They seem to use some combination of USPS and FedEx. The shipping cost is around what you'd pay domestically in the US if using flat rate shipping boxes. My stuff usually gets to me in about two weeks. But, using Taobao's warehouse for shipping is only an option for small to medium sized items or combination of items. Taobao allows you to combine orders but the combined order can't exceed a certain size range.

For my doll purchases like bodies and full dolls I've used Bhiner as a forwarding service, since Taobao will not ship large packages. I order off of Taobao, and have the item shipped to Bhiner's warehouse. Bhiner gives me the option for surface mail, and yes the pricing is usually between 40 and 70 dollars depending on doll size. And yes, after that pricing goes up. Usually the next cheapest is USPS for me then EMS. They're usually in the 110-160 range for shipping.

 

@Cloudedmind I’m using Bhiner too but didn’t know about the surface shipping. I’m not sure but even the small packages cost a lot for shipping through EMS with Bhiner now. They weren’t that expensive last year. Did you ask them about surface mail or there’s an option I don’t know about? Did the dolls come safely? Last time I shipped with EMS and the box was destroyed one corner and my doll mermaid tails were broken in pieces.

 

@LapisShufflin They have the tan event again I ordered my little Eudora today.

 

I'm new to Charm Doll but I'm very smitten with JianLi (ver. 3) Seriously considering him for my birthday but I'm on the fence because I have no prior experience with Charm Doll. Anyone here know how fast their current production rate is?

 

@TokyoLynn I received my latest Charm doll in June and the production incl. shipping time took about five months.

 

@quake That's not bad at all. I'm considering a few of their sculpts now, maybe Ethan and Trista.

 

Hello! I just discovered Charmdoll, and I've been browsing the messages in this forum to learn more about them. The 66cm girls seem to have a very elegant Victorian/Edwardian look to me, and I love that era! (though the clothing they are wearing in the promo photos are probably influencing that perception! I love the realism in their sculpts. (I was reading that they are a sister company to Loong Soul, and that makes so much sense! I love Loong Soul too, but I haven't yet taken the plunge. (Ahh, the Lady Xiang fullset....)

I have a lot of questions! 0_0

I like Vanessa and Cora a lot, and also Trista and Nastya. I've searched for owner photos, and I've tried DoA and Flickr, but there aren't many, and even less with the factory faceup. I didn't find any for Cora at all.

How difficult is it to find clothing for the 66cm girls? It seems like an unusual size, but I'm new to the hobby, so maybe it is one of the standard sizes?

I did try to search for Charmdoll's site, but "www.charmdoll.com" has an error message. I used a translator site, and it mentioned something about the site being "intercepted", and there was some other information that reminded me of the type of notices that appear when a web server is set up, but there is no actual website installed yet. Perhaps they have a different URL now? When I searched, only "charmdoll.com" and reseller sites came up.) I figured I could check their site for clothing options, but no luck there!

Are Cora's eyes completely closed, or are they partially open? The reason I ask is because she's listed as having 14mm eyes, but in all the promo photos, her eyes look completely closed.

Thank you in advance!! ^_^

 

I was in layaway for Cora when I first entered the hobby. I was very exciting until I saw owner photos of her on 2nd hand China market, totally lost interest right away, so I cancelled the order. Her eyes are nearly closed not completely closed.

I was obsessed with Loong Soul too until I saw owner photos. Their dolls just look differently from promotion photos, even the outfit. So do your research before buying. There must be a reason not many people own these dolls if they were popular. Even in China I don’t think they are popular either.

 

@Quinn.nnp - I'm sorry to hear about your Cora experience!

But I thank you **SO MUCH** for the heads up!! I have to admit, I feel a bit of concern in the back of my mind - I was also looking at Vanessa from Charm Doll, and she (and Cora) are very large 66cm dolls, with face-up, eyes, body blushing, and they are each only about $550. I was wondering about that, especially as Loong Soul dolls of around that size are around $800 - $1000.

Cora is really tempting me since she is in stock at Alice's Collections. That's where I first discovered Charm Doll in general - I just browse the in stock dolls every so often. That face-up in the promos.... so pretty... and I don't usually gravitate towards closed or partially-closed eyes. Perhaps she was a return or something? Her main page on AC doesn't have the face-up as an option. I think the listing is only for the completely blank doll.

I've also been hesitant to purchase from Loong Soul because I've read of 9-12 month waits, and then some owners have been disappointed with face-ups after all that time.

I really love Lady Xiang, but I think she is rather new to the line, so I'm waiting for owner photos. But for nearly $1000 for the full set, combined with some bad reviews on face-ups on other Loong Soul dolls (a DoA post about Dr. You Zhi comes to mind), I have to admit to myself that I don't feel entirely comfortable. Maybe I should listen to that "voice"!!

Ahhh that marketing! O_o

Ack, I've kind of gone off track talking about Loong Soul, not Charm Doll.... eek I better wrap this up!

Thanks again!

 

Lol the Cora in stock is actually my cancelled order. Believe me I fell for the make up too and the owner photo in China showing the makeup doesn’t look the same at all.

I did ordered an outfit from Loongsoul and it looks like promotion pictures (the fairy girl with purple ancient clothes and pink hair), but wait time was really long for just outfit. The thing with Loongsoul or Charmdoll is the doll body looks really thin and skinny. Imagine a girl doll at 66cm but measurements are of 58cm body or less? Even they are said to be good at posing but still.

I have seen Vanessa a few times on 2nd hand Chinese market since I was trying to search for her clothes. Even her clothes don’t look the same. From that point I’ve never looked at dolls from both companies again. If you want to buy the outfit then buy from Loongsoul not Charmdoll (check the measurements bc the clothes only fit thin dolls). Otherwise I don’t find it’s worth to get dolls from them.

 

has anyone gotten Abr-4 or Joshua yet? with the sale at Clover Singing it's really tempting to get one of the 71cm boys -- i have a couple heads that need 68-72cm bodies, so mostly the own-head would be stored but some of these sculpts are really appealing!

 

@Quinn.nnp - Oh wow - it's a small (BJD) world!! ^_^

I was trying to search on Weibo for Charmdoll and Loong Soul - and it seems that Loong Soul is *much* more popular. At least, more photos came up when I searched for Loong Soul.

I don't understand Chinese, so it was a matter of trial and error for me. I did catch the Chinese characters for "Loong Soul Doll Company" from Loong Soul's site I understand some Japanese, and some characters have similar meanings - so I caught the characters for "doll" and "company, and figured out from process of elimination the characters for "Loong Soul". (Which according to Google Translate, means "Dragon Soul". Cool name! )

For reference, "Loong Soul Doll Company" in Chinese characters is: 龙魂人形社.

@Quinn.nnp - I saw one Cora photo on Weibo,, but she looked like a different doll - like a different sculpt totally. I wonder if that is the one you saw? She was reclining, with an orange outfit.

 

Hi! I've had my eye on Baron for a while now, I just love his face! I also love his wig but there's no option to purchase him with the wig or full set anywhere. You can only buy the doll with or without the faceup/body blushing. However it's annoying because all other 70cm dolls have those options available. Does anyone know if CD has any plans on re releasing him with the wig and clothing options? Or if they have done something like this in the past?

 

Hello everyone! I have a question about stringing the 71 cm bodies. I recently got my Baron dyed. I sent him unstrung, and while unstringing him I noticed he was EXTREMELY tightly strung. Like the elastic is bigger than the holes even before it is doubled up. This made him a dream to pose but...now that I have him back I cannot for the life of me restring him. Does anyone have any suggestions for restringing or should I just break down and send him out to be restrung? I tried using a string to get the elastic through, but it broke. Hubby suggested I sand down the holes to make them bigger but I am very hesitant about doing that because i don't want to weaken the parts.So anyone have any ideas?

 

I can finally post here because my Charm Doll Aria is back from the faceup artist, and the work promptly got a seal of approval from the resident inspector.


Lily in Love 01 by Yela Gatchalian-David, on Flickr

Even though I haven't taken her apart to study her joints in detail, I have to agree that she has the signature TIGHT STRINGING that many Chinese companies seem to like (encountered it in LoongSoul, Angell-Studio, Impldoll, and Granado). However, I would rather restring her with smaller size elastics than widen out her channels. Too much sanding may end up compromising the structural integrity of the resin.

 

Greeting, I have a question about the resin of these dolls, if this company is a sister of Loong Soul, I would like to know if their resin is similar and if the white resin is as white and translucent as Loong Soul's or does it have its own white? and if it is a tone that seems more pink or yellow?

 

@NuttyRojita I've asked Alice's Collections a similar question before. LS and CD use the same resin, but if you're afraid the information is out of date, you can ask again. Hope this helps

 

Thank you for the information!! I was checking some 1/4 scale my sister would be interested in, but the one she likes has yellow skin in the pictures but she doesn't want to get any yellow-skin-toned dolls and most of the time Charm doll's promo pics are with their dolls in white skin, when I found out about the relationship with Loong Soul I couldn't take out of my head that unsettling white skin of theirs. I will ask Alice Collection if the resin is still the same as the one Loong Soul uses, if so I would suggest my sister get the normal pink.

 

@NuttyRojita I think that's a solid idea, pink skin resin will mellow out in a few years so even if you end up thinking it's too pink in person it will be a matter of time until it looks okay

 

Does Charm Doll white resin yellow easily? I have a Renard in white skin, and he's been packed away in a box (not exposed to any light) for 5 years or so, and when I take him out I noticed he looks much more yellow than I remember him being. My other dolls that were packed away the same way/same amount of time haven't changed resin color, so I'm wondering if Charm Doll resin just yellows easier.

 

Not in own my experience, no. I've rather abused my WS Nastya and left her on my windowsill for longer than I should readily admit on this forum (to be fair, I do live in a forest). At most, she's mellowed a tiny bit over the six years I've had her. It could be down to the resin batch?

 

I'm heavily considering adding Bowen to my crew. How are the company face ups? I know a lot of people opt to do their own but I'm not artistically inclined and I'm okay if the company face ups are decent.

 

Hey! Their faceups are nearly identical to the company photos in my experience. They're also very sturdy, as found out when trying to wipe one. It took a lot of elbow grease.

 

@knona_ona Thanks for the info! I'm even more eager to order Bowen now.

 

Well guys, Charmdoll is discontinuing a ton of sculpts, so we have until October 10th to get our last orders in for those.
I was not planning to get Nastya this year, but it is rather coincidental that I just recently thought of her and figured she could probably get discontinued any second now...
I'm trying to decide if I would rather pay $230 upfront on Taobao or $360 on a layaway with Alice's Collections. Probably would rather do $230 + shipping, but having to keep track of the preorders myself is kinda stressful sometimes.

 

- did they announce it on their page? What about Aria? Is that why they have event now for many of their dolls?

And what's with those limitations in other companies? Dollzone has only a few dolls, so does Doll Chateau, Soul Doll and other companies limit their dolls heavily...? What is going on?

 

I'm barging in despite having no business with Charm Doll currently (though I loved Nastya and Trista... sad to see them go) but I'm a bit concerned about this too. I'm struggling to find a head for a DC body I want to own because everything is discontinued...
It could be that these companies are all switching to a strictly limited business model, although I don't really see why it would profitable to discontinue the rest of the catalog just let me buy a head please

 

@Lady Mariko Alice's Collections posted the notice in the DoA News section. Aria looks like she is safe, but you can see who is being discontinued here.

Souldoll and DZ have a heavy demand to keep up with. Hell my DZ head just took 8-9 months to get to me. Souldoll made this change several years ago because the order loads were simply unsustainable. I imagine it's a similar case for Doll Chateu.

 

Thank you so much for your reply! It all makes sense now, although it's strange they kept big dolls and not the smaller ones.

Aria is safe for now, but who knows. :/ Also, I liked Nastya Timeless Love and once even wanted her so I get it is hard on people who wanted her. She is a beauty.

Still it's good that the demand is too high and not too low, as it was my first thought. :/

The only good thing about all this is that AOD is back after a long time of waiting.

 

Maybe master molds are difficult to maintain and they had to cut on those. :/

 

Yeah, if those particular dolls aren't selling then cutting your loses is actually the best thing to do. The tastes of the Chinese market has changed a lot in the last few years, and they're kind of the biggest part of the market right now.