Grail Doll Stories

Mine was Soom Idealian Gluino. He was the first BJD that actually caught my eye and made me pay attention to these types of dolls. I was looking up something on vampires when the picture of him popped up it was the Vampire Alchemist Version of him. I remember thinking who is this picture of? I want to see that show, and then finding out it was a doll. I was thinking, 'This can't be a doll.' Then I saw him for sale full set, mint condition, asking price was close to $3000. This was years after the release. I saw the doll for sale in 2017, and the release was 2010. The price was reasonable, I know that now, but I was floored. I could never afford these types of dolls let alone him!

I never stopped wanting him. I didn't look for him second hand. It is 'too dangerous' to buy that particular doll that way. I knew the doll had to come directly from the company or I was never going to get him.

I started following Soom on social media. I found out they sometimes re-release dolls. I warned my family if he ever popped up on their website for sale, I was going to rip money out of my savings just to have him. My family understood how badly I wanted that doll. Near the end of 2023 Soom re-released him. I remember running around the house telling everyone that he was re-released. I didn't even hesitate on buying him!

Mines a little different from the original. He is bigger at 75cm instead of 72cm. Mine also has Human ears. Soom made a recall on the heads, but I was so happy to have him home to me at last, and had already fallen in love with him. I decided not to exchange the heads and to keep the human ears.

I've never had another grail. I don't think I ever will. There are dolls that I want, but it's not the same to me. He was something I wanted that I thought I could never have. The other dolls that I want I just have to wait to get, because they are available.

 

My grail was Volks Suiseiseki. She was actually easy to find. At the time she would frequently pop up in the MP, but she was very expensive. Prohibitively expensive really, for the doll alone never mind the fullset.

She was actually the first resin BJD I ever saw pictures of, but I wasn’t enamoured with her yet. I actually thought the Volks doll was a fan project lmao, and I didn’t think she captured the vibe of anime Suiseiseki enough.

Seeing one in person changed everything though. I met a girl who had one at a convention and she let me see her/hold her. I fell so hard for this doll! I couldn’t stop thinking about her for months. Suiseiseki felt so magical to me!

There were other dolls I had been planning to get but none compared to Suiseiseki, so I decided to save my money in hopes of eventually getting her.

One day someone on here listed a fullset for an insanely good price. The box and wig were a little damaged, but it was okay. I snapped her up so fast. The set was actually even less than what the doll alone would usually go for — still very expensive though! She had her default face-up, papers, etc. To this day I still can’t believe what a steal she was though, all things considered.

Where my used dolls come from always matters to me, like it’s a part of their background that I like to remember. My Suiseiseki came from Hong Kong. The seller used to sell quite a lot of Volks dolls on here on DoA, I think she would get them from markets in Asia that we don’t have access to and make them available here. I think she probably priced her dolls based on how much she got them for, probably with some profit, but I otherwise think she wanted to flip them with fair prices (and sometimes a very good deal). I very much appreciated that she did this because it made the transaction a whole lot easier and cheaper than trying to go through a shipping service!

 

I’ve obtained two of my three grails throughout my time in the hobby .

I was wishing and hoping for a Rise Kujikawa dollfie dream that I started compiling fabric and supplies to make my own. Then one morning I woke up and Volks announced a Rise Kujikawa DD which was a literal dream come true . I entered the VUSA, KL, and WLD lotteries and lost all 3. I tried reaching out to the retailers to see if there happened to be any unpaid for and almost got lucky. Eventually I got a partial set here on DoA . I now own three !

The next grail I got was Volks Belldandy. I had pined for one for ages but was a broke college student when she came out so it was just a dream. My friend (you know who you are ) would send me photos throughout the years of one off Belldandys to enter for and I did try to buy one secondhand to no avail. This year a fullset perfect condition Belldandy came up on YJA and I got her and she is perfection. I don’t think she’s ever been taken out of the box.

My very first grail was a Volks Kurumi. She is so cute I’d still like to own one to this day.

 

About a year ago I came across a picture of msd f-12, and I was instantly like “omg who is THAT I need her and her ridiculously huge ears and eyes instantly.”
I then dug up all the information on her I could, and started hunting for listings. I even drew fanart of the stock photos at some point because I was so obsessed with this sculpt. There were maybe 2 or 3 that popped up over the course of several months, but they were mostly auctions and all of them went for way more than I could afford.
Then one day in August, I wasn’t even looking for her. I literally searched “msd” on jp mercari for fun and lo and behold, a listing with just the head came up. Then I clicked on the listing, and a SECOND head from the same seller was in the related listings section. I had to wait for like a week before I had enough to get one, and I was refreshing both listing pages constantly to make sure neither of them sold out. I ended up getting the second listing I found after some debating with myself. I unfortunately could not afford both but I hope the other one went to a good home too!
After I bought her, I almost immediately found someone selling an old msd body for like $50 so I was able to ship the head and body together from the proxy, which was really nice. She is still earless but I’m just so happy to have her

 

A few years ago when Iplehouse retired a number of dolls at the same time, I couldn't afford all three I wanted, so had to leave KID Milly behind. Since then I've been looking... but no luck so far. Someday, somewhere she'll appear and I will have found my grail

 

The sculpt that initially got be to get back into the hobby was the SiCang A-He sculpt. The sculpt was sadly from a small independent artist that I missed the initial pre-order for as it had launched a few years prior.

I'm not well versed with TaoBao or other Chinese sites, so I was unable to search for second hand sellers myself. I got very lucky and saw someone was offering to do proxy orders a few months later. They found the sculpt for me and was able to purchase through the proxy! I still feel so lucky I was able to get it.

 

I think I've had four grails in my 17 years in the hobby. I've gotten three of them.

The first was Volks F16. He was the first BJD I fell in love with, but thought I'd never be able to afford. I did eventually get him, and I enjoyed him for awhile, but I was so reluctant to give him a full story and roleplay him, that I ended up not enjoying him very much. Most of my dolls are roleplay characters, and that's how I bond. But I was so afraid of roleplay going poorly, ruining his character and hating him, that I held back so much that he felt really lackluster to me. I ended up selling him. (Still love the sculpt though!)

The second was Soom Ender. I was in love with the head sculpt, but hated the big muscular body, so my dream was a hybrid onto a thinner body. I did SO much research, found a body that should have matched and...it didn't. At all. The color, the size, it was all bad. I wanted him to be a Pharaoh, but everything I tried to sew for him was awful, commissions went poorly, I sunk so much money into him and never could get him right. Huge disappointment, and I ended up selling him.

Third was Blueblood Doll Phoenix. Only 2-3 were ever sold, just a head. He was the first BBD ever released, and was a prototype for Draven. I've managed to find one, ever, in over a decade of looking, and he was not for sale and had been modded. So....there's at most maybe two left unmodded in the entire world. There may not be any. This is beyond needle in a haystack, and I've accepted that the chances of me ever finding this sculpt is nearly zero. While I still think it would be so cool to own one, the doll really isn't even my aesthetic anymore, and I have stopped looking.

And the final is my dream story. My main boy, Bren, has been a Migidoll Siho from the start, but it took me years and three bodies to figure out that a Luts Senior Delf type 4 body was best for him. And while he was a favorite for sure, I always felt like the color wasn't dark enough. Bren should have olive-tan skin, but I had him in normal skin. Still loved him to death, but he was just not quite right. Migidoll Siho in cream brown skin on a Luts Senior Delf Type 4 body in real skin brown was the dream. BUT....Siho is one of Migi's least popular sculpts, and I had never seen a brown one anywhere, and they never have Siho available. Luts discontinued the body. So while he was my dream, I didn't think it could ever happen. Then back in June when Migidoll was doing a short preorder period for old sculpts, I hoped so hard Siho would be on that list...he wasn't. I contacted them and asked if they'd ever rerelease him and....they had two in brown in old stock, just not listed! And they let me buy both! It just so happened, the exact body I wanted was on the marketplace, but I hadn't bought it because I didn't think I could get the head. So I bought both the same day! He is perfect and I love him more than ever. The funniest part is that his style is somewhat inspired by Bam Margera, and this all happened the week I met Bam, so Bren now also has a skateboard signed by Bam. And the "Saturday" bracelet Bren's wearing here is from that convention. It also all happened when I had over $1000 saved up, just because I was so stressed over tariffs that I was afraid to buy anything, so I didn't even need a layaway. This boy is everything I wanted, and sometimes i just catch myself staring at him, amazed at how much I love him. So.....sometimes, the grail actually exceeds all your expectations!

Spoiler: My Perfect Bren

 

Feeple60 Juri 2012 has has the honor of being my grail doll since I entered the hobby properly, but as I was a high schooler and totally broke at the time I discovered her, there was no way I could ever reasonably afford to bring her home. Fast forward to 2018, I happened upon a Juri 2012 on the moe line body while browsing the marketplace at a price point I could afford. I snapped her up and brought her home, and Aiyu has lived in my house ever since. In 2023, someone posted a F60 motion line body for sale on Instagram, which was always my preference in terms of posing and aesthetics, so I nabbed it and stuck Aiyu's head on it. Now she's perfect as I had envisioned her, and I still cannot believe this beautiful girl is mine.

Dollfie Dream Sister Mariko was my DD grail doll. Her white skin sensei release and first edition student release both occurred before I had the expendable funds to even think of buying her, but her summer festival release happened right around the time I was graduating high school and I put in for her lottery, which I lost. I snatched a Mariko off of Mandarake, which ended up being a Mariko Sensei in white skin. I liked her well enough, but Volks discontinued servicing white skin DDs pretty shortly thereafter, which made me scared to play with her lest I break her. I ended up selling her during my soft reset in 2021 and used the funds to purchase a summer festival version in semi-white off of Mandarake and I truly couldn't be more pleased with her!

I wouldn't necessarily call her a "grail," but I hunted pretty tirelessly for DDS Anthy Himemiya for about a year and a half. Her release happened when I was on a break from the hobby due to having my first child and I fell in love with her as soon as I saw her. However, she never managed to turn up when I actually had the money to purchase her, and she was gone again by the time I had saved up. I put up a WTB ad on the marketplace here last year and a very kind user reached out to me and offered to sell her to me. She's even more amazing in person that I had dreamed and I often think of her fondly as the crowning jewel in my collection.

On the DD side of things, a step up from a grail doll is a "unicorn," a doll so rare and/or expensive that the likelihood of ever owning one is a pipe dream at best. This doll, for me, is DD Sasara. She was the doll that got me into the hobby in the first place, but she was pricey even way back in the day. Finding her today for anything approaching reasonable is basically impossible, so I had written off the potential of ever owning her. I didn't even hunt for her! She existed solely as a "the right opportunity has to come banging on my door" kind of fantasy. Then, last year, I was browsing the marketplace on the DollDreaming forum and saw that one of the other users was not only selling her head, but had slashed her price in half to encourage a quick sale. And quick it was! I could afford her! She doesn't yet have a body or a wig, but her head lives in my house and that is truly the wildest, most improbable dream come true I've ever had in this hobby.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'm at the end of my grail hunting days!

 

Ever since I've found out about Little Rebel Doll, I felt I needed at least one head. The sculpts perfectly suited my taste - high cheekbones and big lips. Moreover Carmen (the owner/sculptor) had a beautiful Asian head called Sarang and I immediately thought it would be perfect for my character. Unfortunately around that time I had things more important then dolls and I missed two preorders. I was afraid the head would be discontinued. But eventually I managed to order it and I was super happy when I got it. And later I bought from Carmen again but this time her first MSD sized head, mini-Kamu. I'm overjoyed to have those LR heads. They're both my grails.

 

I'm a beginner to the hobby -- just initiated early this year to be precise, but I would consider my only two dolls to be my grails. Although I never did any duration of coveting per se, one of three doll companies I had been eyeing on re-released a sculpt with a new faceup that completely won me over as I saw a vision of my OC in her. The following month, I saw a vision of my other OC in another re-release -- one I hadn't even considered before, but the faceup once again sold me. They are both Sartoria J dolls.

But let me talk about my rollercoaster of emotions and the learning experience as a newbie who, only a year prior, stressed myself out over my fourth purchase of a $15 obitsu-11 alternative body (1/12 MJD).

First: in buying blank BJDs, I felt underwhelmed by one of the sculpts upon their arrival. I also mistakenly thought I could save some money by attempting their faceups myself since I had nearly all the faceup materials at my disposal -- only to find out I don't have the patience to develop my faceup skills. So then I sought and found a faceup artist whose skills are very good and prices very fair -- but working with the artist in actuality had been very stressful to say the least.

I'm Canadian, so when my doll heads were shipped back to me from the US, I was taken aback by the high shipping and customs expenses. And worst of all, I didn't bond with my dolls' faceups! I had been so upset by this, I considered immediately going to another faceup artist and deeply regretting I didn't simply purchase custom makeup from Sartoria J in the first place.

Despite this, I took to styling my dolls like I intended and surprisingly found that the wigs I was originally disappointed by, now look kind of good? No, really good -- and staying in place and shape when they didn't used to before their faceups (what sorcery is this? lol)

A few dress-ups and decent photos later (and nudging the artist if they've seen the photos I sent them because they did ask, but they left my DM unread for over a week while clearly being active on social media ) -- I can more or less say that my dolls are finally growing on me, and as I continue to work on their styling, I think they may yet to match up to the characters I've always envisioned for them.

 

I have been lucky enough to bring three grails home. My first was Volks SDC Renee, who was prohibitively expensive secondhand until her re-release, where I lost out on the lottery but got her secondhand at a reasonable price. My second grail was Volks Ami Ayase, who my partner found for a steal on Mandarake and gifted her to me. My third grail was Volks (I’m sensing a theme here) Lady Oscar. I splurged on her after selling my Dollfie Dream collection.
Also! I am guilty of enabling friends (you know who you are) but they enable me right back!

 

I have been in the hobby for only 2 years, but I window shopped for many years, even back in high school. One of my grails from back then was Volks SD16 Kira, whom I got from Dollyteria last year. She had to be restrung and required cleaning and fixing. Her fullset also required some restoration. Overall, I am pleased to have her. Her face sculpt is so beautiful. I have sewn her a fully lined formal dress, and she looks quite elegant in it!

My other grail from back then is Fairyland Feeple65 Chloe. I don’t have one in my collection yet, haha! Well, one can wish!

 

I first saw my "grail" Dollfie back in 2014, when she was first released. It was love at first sight! Back then, I only added resin BJDs to My Crew, I was like "I can't see my self paying as much or more for a mere vinyl doll."

Jump to December 2022, eight years later.

After a series of terrible life events, I took the advise of a very learned friend who said, "You've had it rough lately. You should do something nice for yourself." So, late one night, I decided to look around and get myself a doll. I found my grail, but she was super expensive, like she has been ever since I first missed out on her. After messaging two different sellers, I finally broke down and used a credit card to get her from a third seller, and for less. Luckily for me, she was still Mint In Box! I even managed to find some super-expensive outfits for her.

So after a stressful two week wait, during which much of the US had some really strong winter storms, she arrived on December 28th!

Meet Hatsune Miku, my first, and (probably only) vinyl doll! Old pic is old.


Hatsune Miku is home! by Ryuichi Sakuma, on Flickr

Ryu

 

Of the many grails on my wishlist (Volks Rozen Maiden collab dolls and some of their fashion brand collabs), I do actually own one single grail: Volks SD Victorique de Blois. When Volks posted their JP webstore June Bloom 2022 One-Off lottery I knew I had to enter for her. Surprisingly, I won it's actually the only Volks lottery I've ever won lol. I was so lucky to get a brand-new Victorique- with a gorgeous faceup by Ciera no less! She was also my first 1/3 scale resin doll (though I already had 1/3 vinyl at that point) so she's very special to me. I think she'll always be the shining jewel of my collection

 

For 7 years I had 2 serious grails and I firmly believed that I'd never have them. They were to be a couple so I needed them in specific colours, too. The first was a Unidoll Ark in WS with the fantasy ears. The second was an ImplDoll Miguel The Demon Hunter LE100 in grey.

At the time that I wanted to get Ark, Unidoll had said they were closing to "renew sculpts". They never re-opened. Ark is often described as the angriest doll ever so he wasn't hugely popular and Unidoll wasn't a big company or active for more than a few years. When the Miguel was released I didn't have the money to buy him and with him being LE100, the clock was def ticking. Over the years I'd browse the MP hoping to see one of them at a reasonable price I could afford but having no luck.

Then, one day I was browsing the MP and saw someone selling their Miguel for an amazing price that was a fraction of what he sold for originally. The seller had spraypainted him black but he was grey under that and the seller was confidant that the paint could be removed with some serious elbow grease. He was also missing the lower human arm on one arm that the seller had swapped for an RD mecha arm in silver (they couldn't find the human arm/hand parts). I bought him and spent about 26 hours removing all the black paint and then another 34 hours metal leafing about 50% of him. He's a different character than what he originally was but I'm thrilled to have him. He's now Mkhai, God of Warfare & Weaponry.

Literally 3 weeks after I bought Mkhai, I saw someone selling their WS Ark in the MP for a reasonable price. I raged and cried and whined to a friend (who also collects dolls) about how cruel the Dolly Gods were in shoving this into my face when I didn't have enough funds to buy him. I was seriously disappointed when he sold about a week later (and cried to that same friend about it). Fast forward several months and that friend tells me to keep an eye out for a package from her. I was wary as the last time she said that, she de-stashed her yarn hoard to me, making my yarn hoard overflow (I mean, I liked it but that's not the point). Cookies to whomever guessed that it was the Ark she sent me. She put a card inside that said it was a combo of birthday and Xmas present from her. He is now Kathiel and him and Mkhai are happily married.

It could be said that there is another grail or three for me. One is a SoulDoll Kowalski. There was one at the Doll Peddlar for literally years but he sold sometime late last year. I called him Mortgage Boy because by the time I paid his price, conversion from US to CAN dollars, PP fees, shipping, Canada Customs fees, he would've been about $3,000CAN and I can't afford that right now. I'd sort of love to get my grubby paws on an RD Alpha (with electroplating, please) and while there is an Alpha body on sale on the RD site as of this writing, the Alpha as a full doll is also bigger than I want to have in my collection at 75cm. Should they shrink him down to 50cm as they have with some other sculpts, I'm going to be in serious trouble. I'd also love to have a SoulDoll Kyle/Amon The Hanged Man (with gargoyle parts). Someone was selling one about a year ago in a FB group I belong to but the price (especially after conversion to the less than stellar Canadian dollar), while reasonable, was too much for me to be able to afford in good conscience at the time.

 

I have managed to get a few grails throughout my time in the hobby and love to hear other people's stories!

My first grail (VOLKS YoSD Megu) was my grail since she was first released in 2008, spent nearly 10 years saving and searching when a dear friend suddenly gifted me one for Christmas. She was my first tiny, even more adorable than I'd imagined all those years, and now a symbol of friendship/support from someone so important to me!

My next grail was a VOLKS DearSD Una, I really love F-01 and wanted to have a trio of sisters in each color. Originally I'd planned to get an FCS but as this would be the last/youngest sister I was conflicted that she'd be the same size or taller than her older sisters. Around that time VOLKS had introduced DearSDs and when they released an Una I knew she'd be perfect. She was able to safely come home a few years later from Y!A.

The rarest of my grails (VOLKS Ian) was actually the one I actively searched for for the least amount of time.
I really liked her from the time I first joined the hobby but with how few were made and the fact that I'd never seen one for sale I'd resigned myself to hopefully seeing one at Sato someday but never owning one myself. Little did I know that they don't display her at Sato (they don't even really have records/info) but that one would come up for auction randomly! I was ultimately outbid in that auction (by such a small amount that it lit the fire in me) so I put out a WTB here that a lovely fellow DoA member replied to thus this lovely girl was able to come home!
This one taught me that no matter how rare a doll is, so long as there's one out there, yours will find you someday, it just takes patience and the right time to come.
I have no words for the kindness of people in this community and hope I'm able to pay it forward someday

 

I managed to get a Luts Delf Chiwoo back in late 2024 after wanting one for a while. For a while I just accepted I'll never own him since a lot of the old Delfs are rare and when they do pop up secondhand they sell fairly quickly. I randomly saw a sales post on Instagram for him and immediately jumped at the chance. At first I thought "maybe the person sold him already", but he was still available He even came with his original box and a beautful custom face-up. Honestly, to this day, I still can't believe I own him. I may be exaggerating, but it feels surreal sometimes.