Just For Fun Luckiest or Unluckiest Doll Experiences

After 10 years of collecting and socialising and everything that comes with this hobby, only one thing really stuck out to me as unlucky, and still leaves a bitter taste years later.

I think it was DoA's 10th birthday swap, and maybe the first DoA-sponsored swap (I could be wrong, my memory is awful). I signed up because, oooo swaps are fun!! My assigned swap partner had all full-set SOOMs displayed in a lit china cabinet. Nothing on her wishlist, all fullsets, no buy/sell/trade list ... just fullset SOOMs. After a month of desperation and thinking and clawing for ideas, it got down to the day before the deadline, so I threw together a box of antique and handmade props, furniture, a couple stands, and sent it. Because it was full of bulky items, shipping wasn't cheap. My thought was maybe if I couldn't give her anything to add to her dolls, maybe I could help add to their setting and background and give them objects to interact with.

I kept up on tracking, saw it delivered, checked the thread, and my giftee did post ... and complain about everything. She said the chair would stain them, the props were useless. I just closed the window, swallowed it, and tried to move on. Later that same day, I started getting PMs -- she put them up in the marketplace for free, with added insults! I got a few more PMs of people expressing sympathy, apologizing on her behalf, and so on. I thanked them, saw a few callouts both in the swap thread and in the marketplace thread, and she deleted everything.

I still remember who it was and occasionally see her on the forum. I have no idea what happened to the stuff I sent her.

On the lucky side, the next time I joined a swap, it was a Secret Santa and my partner was someone who just got their first doll and had nothing for it! I decided that since my last giftee was so terrible that I'd be sure to absolutely make this one's day, and went on a shipping spree. I amassed clothes, shoes, wigs, eyes, seasonal stuff, props, and even bought some things for my giftee and her new husband and wrote a short card in their native language. She was thrilled when she received it, and took a lot of really nice detailed pictures for the thread..

 

I have an experience that was both unlucky & lucky LOL depending on one's perspective. I was at one of my first meets (a convention) & this rather full of herself young lady showed up with a very expensive FS doll. Beautiful doll. Also there was a young lady who was quite shy & very new, with HER doll (I believe a Bobobie). She'd made a lovely cosplay for her doll, which I admired. This girl went to the other one & asked if she'd made the costume for her FS doll - that girl just laughed, turned her back on the newbie, & said rather loudly to her lackey (her BF I guess) that these handmade outfits were so demeaning to the hobbie.
Her bad luck was me being there... It was the newbie's luck I was LOL
I didn't speak to the nasty girl - just made a snarky comment that hit home. Others noticed & rallied round the newbie as well.
It is my total luck that that is the nastiest I've experienced in this hobby
Another unlucky thing that happened to me was how I found out what insuring a doll got one - I got a doll who'd kneecap chipped because the post office apparently played football with it or something (banged up box - it had lots of padding inside & was well-packaged but something certainly had happened in transit). I told the PO that it had been damaged & they said, oh, give us the doll (ie the WHOLE DOLL) & they'd give me what it had been insured for. THE WHOLE DOLL!!! It was off the MP so it's not like I could get another from the company or anything. I said, it's just the one part but the PO said, all or nothing.
So I just super-glued the knee cap. I told the seller about it, & said it wasn't HER fault. We grouched for a bit (I think she might have sent me a wig or something) & agreed that neither of us really understood what happened with partially damaged packages until this instance!
Good luck - I've some lovely friends who've gifted me with adorable things for my dolls - people who aren't even in the hobby sometimes! Overall I've had MUCH more good luck than bad in this hobby!

 

Unluckiest-- my very first doll! It arrived, and it was the wrong doll (right sculpt but wrong skin-tone). The company told me it should go to another person in the US and they might NOT have a doll in the right skin tone to send to me! I had the worst several weeks ever! But they finally told me someone hadn't picked up a doll and they'd send it to me. It had an extra head that was supposed to have a faceup, but it didn't so they refunded me money. I was already worrying about spending so much money on a doll. I was totally freaked out and it took a bit for me to bond... but I finally did, and I still love my first doll.

Luckiest--so many!!! (When I started looking at bjds, it was mostly just Volks and maybe 3 or 4 Korean companies... I liked Volks Shiro, but of course he was long sold out and impossible to get even if I was in time for the sales period since they only sold to Japan then. In 2006, Volks started having its Mansion parties in Los Angeles. I went with friends to the second one. There was a Shiro One-Off. I put my ticket in his box for a chance to buy... and nearly had a heart-attack when they called my name. And then my poor credit card freaked out and I had to use another! And my bank account groaned with the pain of withdrawal--but I'm sure we all know that goes along with the crazy bjd Luck!)

I've also had a friend give me 3 dolls, and won a doll in a door prize drawing at a bjd con!

I've been very, very lucky. After the rocky start, it's all been good--for 13 years!

 

Ok,I'm ashamed to write this. I didn't know anything about bjd's. So I bought a Volks Midori in 2006 but her face up got damaged and I really really love the Volks face up. So I've sold my whole doll..to buy a new Midori. A few years later my doll was in the box all time so decided to sell her a few years ago. And now? Regret regret regret!! But I have her on layaway now with thanks to a doll fairy on here. This horrible story was enough for me.

 

So for unlickiest would have to the day I first got my very first bjd, a secondhand Dollsbe Mango. I dropped her. She hit hard. Her face hit my bed frame and the rest of her the floor. I nearly cried and was panicking, afraid to even touch her. I felt like I was seeing a dead body. On to the lucky part, she was unscathed! After that I put her away and didn't so much as look at her for two weeks because somehow I felt that she was upset with me and I didn't want to hurt her more. I'm glad to say she forgave me and we've been buds since. ;u;

 

Unluckiest and luckiest are intertwined.

Luckiest was just recently finding one of my grails on the MP and picking him up for less than 1/2 of what he cost when he was brand new because he'd been spray painted black and no longer had his original human forearm/hand. 20 hours worth of scrubbing later and he's been cleaned of all the paint and, in my opinion, looks glorious. he's a different character than when I first saw him 7 years ago, but I'm really happy with that.

Unluckiest was seeing my other grail pop up in the MP a week after I got the first grail home (they were originally partners). I couldn't afford the other grail and because of what he is, the likelihood of my seeing him again any time soon is less than zero. But I'm oddly okay with that as the ship with the two of them as partners has sailed.

 

Unlucky- I bought one of my grails, Soom Ender head, and tried to hybrid him onto a thinner body because I didn't like the default body's muscular build. Nothing went right. The color was terrible. The neck fit was terrible. I couldn't find a single body anywhere that I liked and would fit and match. Everything I made for him failed. It was next to impossible to find someone to commission to make his style, and half the commissions I ordered never got completed. I spent more money on that doll than I'd ever spent on a doll--around $1000 in total. When I'd look at him, I only saw all the failure. I sold him. I miss that gorgeous face but he never was what I wanted.

Lucky!- most recently, I bought a Limhwa Luna head but I needed a tall thin body for her. Randomly traded for one and the fit and color is as close to perfect as a hybrid can be! I had no idea if they'd even be close and it turns out I've had full dolls bought in pieces that didn't match half as well. That's the luckiest I've ever been with hybrids!

 

I'll be honest, I think anything my dolls and I can walk away from relatively unscathed is pretty lucky. But I think I have two dolls who represent serious luck in my obtaining.

1. My grail - Volks Michele, the Summer Nights Phantom full set.
I had given up on him early on, deciding that second hand he was too much for me to shell out on a doll that, at the time, wouldn't fit into my collection at all. Then, after several years, suddenly I had the money and decided to go for it. On DOA there were two blank heads sans COA and one was modded, both well more than I wanted to pay for a head. One of my best friends (met through the hobby btw, and more directly through DOA) hooked me up with YJ and showed me how to use the shopping service, cause I'd never done that before, and I started bidding on a full set. Sadly I was bidding against a bunch of others and the price shot up past what I wanted to pay quickly....so I had to drop out. Literally minutes later, another full set popped up, with a WTB price just a little above what the blank, modded heads were priced at. So I jumped on that one. That was, appropriately, 2013 and I have yet to have another real "grail" doll. I'm pretty happy with my Michele

2. Ringdoll Norman Dark head
This head was one I didn't even know about until it was pointed out to me as a great head for an SD sized Joker. I wasn't planning on taking my DC dolls to SD size so I dismissed it....until about a week later when I thought "what the hell lets do it!" Unfortunately he was a limited and no-longer-for-sale sculpt. I did a random eBay search and found one the day I decided I needed him. I waited the auction out unit the very last second, bid, won and only paid a little over what he cost new. I consider this really lucky since I've yet to see another one for sale anywhere, I never buy BJDs off eBay (other than Jeeryama) because I'm terrified of recasts, but I owned other Ringdoll's and new he was legit, and my timing seemed to be perfect....which it never is lol



Unlucky.....not that many, I've had good luck in this hobby for the most part. Unless you count this past weekend when literally everything BJD-related I touched went wrong, and I ended up having to wipe and redo my favorite guys favorite head. And then a spider crawled out of one of his eye sockets while I was looking at him. I just want to pretend that weekend didn't happen.

 

The only unlucky thing that happened to me was when I was doing a photoshoot with my beautiful Dollshe Saint Simon, even though sueded and wired he decided to take a nosedive, I couldn't catch his fall and he broke two fingers which fell in the tall grass. I found them and glued them back on invisibly but it left me shaken.

The luckiest was finding an original full-set Bermann , the grail doll of grail dolls , on eBay in the middle of July a few years ago, bidding on him the low starting price and going to bed thinking there would be a flurry of bids at the last second as usual but that I at least had to try. The next morning getting the e-mail I had won him was definitely my luckiest day, I still can't believe he flew under the radar that way.

 

My unluckiest experience in the hobby involved my first doll, hands-down. When I received my DOC Petsha, I was so enthralled yet so terrified of breaking her... it took me a few weeks to get brave enough to handle her for photographs.

Well, as my butterfingers would have it, one day I was posing her on the end of my table and she started to tilt forward. Without thinking I lunged toward her! I caught her before she fell, but in the process I dropped my DSLR onto the table. My DSLR was fine, but it landed on my girl's brand new company face-up, chipping it in the process.

I cried. Seriously. I was worried I had ruined her forever. I sent her off to the amazing @momochu shortly after, and when she returned from her trip to the spa I was SO HAPPY. She was PERFECT, and just as I had envisioned her character. From that point on, I became addicted to custom face-ups.

----

As for luckiest experience, I have two that are tied: the first was finding a pair of Dollflower eyes on eBay for only $50, and the second was buying a brand new, in-stock 1/4 GUUDoll Verona for only $125 (with free shipping)! Both deals make me squee to this very day.

 

Lucky: When I first became interested in bjds I fell in love with DoD H.Ducan and Shall. I was on another forum (I actually think it may have been Neopets, lol), and....someone offered me her Shall head for free as she did not want it. I just had to pay for shipping! So I got that head, then ordered her body. Then I think the following month I ordered Ducan. I have long since sold the Shall, but I still have my Ducan. So my first thing in the hobby was a really good experience.

Then yesterday, I found someone selling a grail doll of mine, DZ Yuu. Not only was he in tan skin, but he has the default face up from the Silver Fox version. He's actually the second doll I fell in love with but never bought because I figured he'd always be available and I kept falling for limiteds. Then he was discontinued. So I was so thrilled to find someone selling him. He just shipped out!

Unlucky. It was either my first or second year in the hobby and being here. I was dumb and did not check a persons feedback. I started a trade with them...but never received my half. After looking around and hearing from other members, I found out that the person I had been trying to trade with was selling/trading the same items on a few different forums and everyone was having issues with her. She then vanished. I'm still sad and angry about that, and it has made me hesitant to do trades again.

 

I feel pretty lucky with the friends I've made in this hobby. So many of my closest friends are people I originally met at local doll meets

A lucky story for dolls themselves would be my grail. Iplehouse JID Vito in RealSkin with default face up. That was the doll I made my grail back before RealSkin was available as a basic option. At the time, he was an LE. And I was a teenager with no job. Years passed, and Iplehouse made RS basic! A while later, that original face up from his limited run became a basic default option! Woot! But I still had no job and could only continue to pine for him. Then, Iplehouse announced a bunch of discontinuations. Vito was on the chopping block. I was already applying for jobs without success at the time. But, finally, I was hired, and with my first paycheck, only days before he'd be gone forever, I put my grail on layaway. He's proudly sitting on my shelf now

Unlucky, I have a few stories. First time ordering new from a company. When I ordered my doll, I ordered shoes for him and my first doll, along with some other stuff. The color of one pair of shoes I wanted was sold out, so I picked another color. When the doll and the shoes got to me, the second-choice shoes were two left shoes! So when I emailed the company, they apologized and asked me to send them back, and they'd send replacements. Except now -that- color was out of stock, so I had to pick another color. Lo and behold, the color I originally wanted was back in stock!

Another time was when my doll and someone else's doll had the shipping labels swapped. The sadness and fear on seeing a doll that was not mine when I opened the box... well, it ended up alright, with us mailing the dolls to each other after the dealer paid for new shipping labels. Still, after a six month layaway, having to wait that extra week was torture.

 

I think my luckiest and unluckiest doll experience are all wrapped up in one story, actually!

A seller on the secondhand MP was selling an original Soom MD Beryl for a fantastic price that even my hubby said I could not pass up. So, I jumped to contact the seller and purchase her. All was going swimmingly until the doll was picked up by the chosen shipping company (MyHermes in the UK, I implore any of you never to use it!). It got to the first depot where it sat for over a week and didn't move. I thought maybe the tracking was just slow, but I did contact the seller who in turn inquired with the company. Some serious run-around later when we both were trying to stay in contact with the company, a claim has been filed for a missing parcel.

There was even MORE being run around before they finally declared it officially 'lost.' What an awful and utterly disappointing few weeks of hoping it would be found. The seller and I had the sneaking suspicion that because it was a large box and well insured, someone had stolen it. Even after the seller had refunded me the money (and I felt terrible for it!) we each agreed to keep an eye out on places like eBay for her. Well wouldn't you know it, a week or two later I got a message from the seller with the link to exactly that. Someone had listed her on the UK eBay and it was more than obvious it was the same one by the blushing and pieces that she had shown me were also in the box. Talk about being livid!

Ultimately it went from lucky to horribly unlucky and then lucky again after a few more weeks. The seller contacted the person who listed her on eBay as well as the necessary authorities so she got pulled down. The investigation unfortunately did not end up tracking down who was responsible, as the doll was sold off to a company that supposedly only seller legitimately lost packages. However, Beryl landed back with her original owner who allowed me to purchase her from her again and at last got home to me.

I certainly learned my lesson to look more in depth at carrier companies, this one had a rash of terrible reviews just like what happened to me, but I'm thrilled to have her home.

 

The luckiest experience was making it to the Volks Tokyo Bay Cruise this year. I'm not making this up - ever since I joined the hobby and found out Volks did those pirate-themed cruise events now and then, my big secret dream was to be able to go to one of those cruise events one day and maybe even - *gasp* - manage to obtain a Williams through a stroke of sheer, dumb luck. I even thought "Hey, wouldn't that be a great gift to yourself for your 40th birthday? Volks cruise and Williams?" Not that I thought it would ever happen but you always can dream, right?

Along comes last November. I find out they're doing another cruise event. I find out international guests are welcome. I find out international guests can also order the cruise dolls - delivery 100% guaranteed! - and have them shipped from Japan via Tenso. I'm like "Volks, have you been reading my mind or what?" So reading that they might have to assign the tickets by lottery I sign up for two tickets - one for the afternoon cruise, one for the evening cruise - hoping that, this way, I might have a chance to get at least one, right? And of course, I signed up for their cruise's Williams cos - Williams! Right?

Well, I won both tickets and thus, also Williams, I went to Tokyo and took part in the cruise event exactly two weeks after my 40th birthday and last month I finally got my Williams. Still can't believe how lucky I got!

 

Last year, customs office went extremelly slow, at the point that I got packages delayed for over 6 months.

However, I had saved the whole year and on December I ordered a doll from Iplehouse... I knew my chances, that the doll could be stuck for 6 months at customs, but at least I had ordered her with EMS and not the cheap/priority shipping. Anyways, Iplehouse took one month, and shipped the doll on December 20th or so, before Xmas.

So, on December 29th or 28th of 2016, I went to customs to fill a complaint por another package I had stuck (it was stuck because I paid customs too fast, go figure ¬¬). Anyways, I was on the long queue, with my hubby, and I was watching the employees weight some packages... picture me completely absent minded. I hear a creack from a door, turn my head and see an employee pushing a cart with some big boxes; with all the patience of the world, he turns to close the door.

In that moment, I saw the packages... and one was a big box, MSD sized (like my doll!) with the Iplehouse logo. I gave an elbow to my hubby, then started flapping on his shoulder as quiet as I could imagine. And I muttered "Venezia! Venezia!" (that was the name I was gonna give the Iplehouse doll). The guy moved the cart and slowly, painfully slowly pushed it towards another hallway, passing right in front of us!! I couldn't watch the label, but you can imagine that my heart speed was touching the skies.

Back home, I was like "No, it cannot be her, it cannot be"... which chances did I have? I live in a very, very small city, on a third world country, and I know only 1 other person of the city who got into BJDs and is not into Iplehouse. Hubby was the opposite, he was like "THAT WAS VENEZIA!!!".

Funny thing, on January 2nd I got a notice from customs office to pay the taxes and go pick her up. I got her on January 3rd. It was her after all

 

I've thankfully had really good experiences in this hobby That will make it hard to choose a luckiest experience, so I'll start with unlucky.

I joined a swap a few years ago (not my first) to sew historical clothing for each other's dolls. I researched the time period requested by the person I was sewing for, found the perfect fabric for the outfit I was making, and sent her a beautiful multi-piece outfit for her doll. She told me she loved it. So far, so good!

Time went on, and I heard nothing further from my other swap partner about what she was making for me. Everyone else had gotten their outfits, and I still had nothing. Eventually, the swap organizer (who turned out to be the person sewing for me) came to tell us that she was going through some awful life experiences at the moment and would not be able to sew for me. The person I sewed for volunteered to be my swap angel, which was so sweet of her. She couldn't sew for the doll I'd originally asked for, but instead agreed to sew something contemporary (rather than historical) for a doll that we both had. We kept in touch for a while, and the last thing I heard from her was that she'd finished the outfit and hadn't been able to mail it due to getting sick, but she would do so as soon as she could. Over the next few weeks, I messaged her a few times to ask for an update, but didn't want to be a pest since she didn't technically owe me an outfit. The outfit never shipped, so I ended up with nothing from the swap. It's the last one I will ever do.

I still can't think of a single "luckiest" experience. Possibly finding out just in time when Iplehouse was discontinuing some sculpts that I'd really wanted. I hadn't been keeping on eye on them very well, but just happened to visit their website just in time to order

 

I don't think I've had anything seriously unlucky happen to me in this hobby. I did have a doll arrive in the wrong resin color once, but AoD was kind enough to offer me another for half-price, and I got to gift the first one to someone else, so... The funniest bit of bad luck was probably when my IH Arvid arrived with an LB body and an RS head! Of course I sent the head back and that was replaced for me too.

Weird luck - I've had three different dolls arrive on dates of eclipses (though they weren't all visible where I lived). All three ended up not working out for their characters and were sold. Two of them were for the same devious character, Rinian. Then I bought my IH Leonard for a completely different character, and when he arrived I took one look at him and said, "Oh, it's YOU! Rinian, you sneaky bastard!" And now I can't imagine any other doll fitting the character so well.

 

Hang on...AoD made your doll in the wrong color, and then made you pay to get it fixed??

 

The luckiest bjd experiences I have had...
The 1st lucky experience was when I entered a contest here on DoA for their 9th anniversary. I thought there was no way I would win. My photography was not that great, my dolls were not really popular sculpts. I still entered and I had a blast with my entry. I ended up winning a RamCube silver tiger wei, that I named Parker. He has his own special place in my dolly cabinet.

The 2nd luckiest experience I had was in 2014. Volks USA reopened their website and held a one off lottery online. There was an Sdmidi Hewitt that I adored and was thinking about trying for. I had showed him to my grandmother who was not doing too well at the time (as she got me into doll collecting) she loved him and said I should go for it. So I entered and to my surprise got the email saying I won and could buy him. He arrived just in time, I took him to show my grandma at the hospital and she passed about a week later. Alexander was a great comfort at the time and is one of my favorite dolls in my collection.

Unlucky...a trade gone bad, swap gone wrong and bad deal on ebay with some doll shoes.

 

Yes and no. If I had returned the doll, that would mean they'd lose out on the shipping for both directions, as well as the production cost of the new doll, if they didn't make me pay for any of it. The doll wasn't exactly expensive (for this hobby) to begin with, and was on sale at the time, I think. They made me an offer and I accepted it. I didn't have to, but considering that I had the option of then selling the first doll for full price to someone else, it didn't seem unfair.

 

Luckiest doll moment was definitely when @ShadowedForce was doing a panel at a local con. Well... two separate cons actually. I won Reichenbach's head! I was so excited, but hit hard times financially, so I waited like 3 years to buy her body. Another con swung around and I was able to see ShadowedForce's panel again. She had another drawing and I won -again-. I was so shocked, I picked a really gorgeous head and sat down.... and then my boyfriend won! He is not interested in the hobby and had just grabbed a ticket for me, so I decided to give that one to a younger gal who was asking a lot of questions during the panel and seemed really interested in joining the hobby.

We stuck around and chatted a bit, then after walking down the hall ten feet I realized it would probably be a lot longer than 3 years before I could get yet another body, so I went back and gave the head I had won to a few ladies we'd been talking to that seemed really nice. I knew he'd get the love he deserved there, and I could walk away not feeling horribly guilty for winning ALL the things, when I already had Reichenbach and everything.

 

I haven't been too unlucky overall, I don't think.

I did have a terrible experience at the first meetup/panel I went to; it was at the local anime convention, and the two girls running it were the fabled "elitists" we don't really see much of anymore (thankfully). They covered the basics of BJDs, but rather quickly went into how only the ones from Japan were worthy, and never, ever buy "cheap Chinese trash." At the time, the only doll I had was from China (and I still have him), so I felt pretty personally insulted. (To the lucky side, I haven't seen those two since, and the meetup panel is now run by a group that loves everything and has a fantastic variety of dolls from all different companies.)

There was also a particularly ill-fated group order I was part of earlier in my time in the hobby. It was for a MNM head of my favorite anime character (Ed Elric), and even though that didn't fit my plans at all I was super excited to join up! Everything went well through getting participants, picking the look, and getting the order in, and then it started falling apart. The first sculpt looked great, but when it arrived it was the wrong size--SD instead of the MSD we ordered. The organizer sent them out to us anyway, since she decided we had the right to do whatever we wanted with them, while the order was remade. The second sculpt never looked quite as nice, but it did get done and shipped to the organizer, who collected our shipping money, then disappeared. Literally vanished from the forum, with a "friend" showing up in the paging thread for her with various changing excuses for why she wasn't shipping (even though she was active on her social networking accounts). Because she'd shipped out the previous heads, we had her real name and address, and had to threaten to use it to make a police report for theft to get anything shipped--and I don't doubt that's what got the heads moving, because we got tracking information about an hour before the deadline we'd given the "friend" for the report. That was a nightmare of a GO, that I hope no one has to go through again. (And, further unlucky? When I finally got around to getting a proper body for the head, I decided it didn't suit the character anyway and now my Ed's three Shiwoos in a coat.)

Now, as for luck, that's been a lot better!

I went hunting for an old, discontinued doll, found one cheap on the MP who was in bad shape (that's a bit unlucky), and restored him. His hands were too yellowed to save, unfortunately, but someone who was following along with my progress sent me a new pair so he could have nice hands again! And then, after I was done, I decided I wanted a second discontinued doll to go with him, but just couldn't find one on the MP... so another person sent me her old, damaged practice head of that sculpt to also restore! I love my "rescue boys," and they always remind me how nice this community can really be.

I was looking for a girl mini to fill a character role, and spotted an adorable one as a raffle prize. Figuring I'd never win, but what the heck, I bought a few entries and kind of forgot about the drawing date until I, half-asleep, opened up an email from the dealer doing the raffle. I figured it was just an announcement of the winners and thanking me for participating, but instead it said "Congratulations! You won the doll!" It took me a bit to get over that shock and respond to set up shipping... She didn't actually work for the girl I wanted her for, but she's really settled into a different role wonderfully and I am happy to have her as part of my collection.

I've met so many wonderful people at meets who are perfectly willing to let me handle their dolls, particularly when it's a sculpt or brand I'm interested in. No pictures or reviews can ever match being hands-on with the doll you're looking at! (And I'm always happy to let people be hands-on with my own.)

I have an odd-size doll who doesn't fit much, but between a trade and a seller whose clothes turned out to be great fits, she's actually got her own little wardrobe while I work on her custom stuff!

I had a character who I figured I'd never be able to shell because of his odd body type; not only did a fantasy sculpt come out that was as close to his body style as I'm going to find, but I was able to afford it at the release and successfully got my hands on one. I still don't have the head (hoping to get that this year), but the body was the biggest hurdle on the character, and now it's solved.

Really, I feel like I've been pretty lucky in this hobby, and the good stuff definitely overshadows anything frustrating like the experiences I started off with.

 

My unluckiest moment was within five minutes of getting my first doll out of the box. Our neighbors smoke and sometimes it drifts in our window, so when I smelled it, my first thought was, "NOT ON MY DOLL!!!". I left the doll standing on a chair, leaning against the chair back, and got up so I could shut the door.

I bumped the chair.

The doll fell onto the hard kitchen floor.

I stood there, afraid to turn around and see the disaster for about five minutes, and fighting back the urge to cry. Finally, I came to terms with the fact that I may have just destroyed a few hundred dollars worth of resin, and turned around. The body was fine. His face plate was no longer attached to his head, but his face was fine. He DID receive damage on the inside of his head. The little lip that sticks out to help hold the face plate on broke off. However, considering the fall, I'm going to say this was also my luckiest moment as he wasn't damaged more than he was. A wig cap helps hold his face plate on now.

I've since developed resin-catching reflexes.

 

Oh! I guess my luckiest moment was that the company who made the doll who I fell in love with this hobby for made a rerun of him, he had been discontinued before. Woo!
Seriously, seeing that notice in my email spurred on the biggest celebration lol

 

My unlukiest one is from when I sold my first doll. I did it through an online brazilian market, and a guy bought for his wife. He entered my flicker account and saw a jacket in my doll that wasn't listed because I had no idea where it was. He asked me if I could send it to him, and I said that I would if I was able to find it. Turns out, I didn't find it...but I sended him lots of cute clothes and even got out of my job sooner to give it in person. Three days later, he did a medium review in my profille in the market (that is there for years now and everyone can see): "The doll is beautifull, but you shouldn't anounce products you don't have. Sounds false". It made me sooo angry!

When I felt the most lucky was wen the post office lost my second doll. It was terrible at first, and I did everything I could to find her, with no results. The tracking was "Product lost in the way". Then one day a really nice man in the post office she was last seen was kind enough to give me the cellphone of the supervisor in the post office she was supposed to be and told me she wasn't lost in her way over there. He sended me a picture of the signature of the person who received it in the other post office (no one wanted to help me or get involved before this man). The problem was solved really quickly then...the supervisor was able to find the person and the doll and give it back to me.

 

By far, my UNOA Chibi's getting lost whilest in transit from crescent shop to me.

Crescent shop was amazing with getting me a new pair, but before everything was fixed it caused me a lot of agony and I still wonder what happened to the first pair.

 

I feel like it's been an eternity since I've posted anything.
Luckily, Everyone on DOA has been awesome and I've never had an issue with any trades, selling, buying or custom works on my dolls. So that's been a huge plus.
I guess the unlucky part is that I haven't personally had a huge amount of time or funds to invest in this awesome hobby. That's resulted in a lot of missed "grail" dolls, beautiful outfits that cost more than my own clothing and decisions to sell dolls because I started this hobby when I was 15-16 (10 years ago!) and didn't have a job. Nothing of which was DOA's doing, but I still kick myself for getting into such an expensive and wonderfully addicting hobby. Not that I'd EVER change anything about it, but diapers, bills, baby clothes and life now takes a front seat.

 

Unluckiest- When I was very new to the hobby and had just recently gotten my first BJD, Shiwoo, I read about Mr. Clean magic eraser. So I got one to clean him. He still had a company faceup, and the gloss on his lips was gathering dust. So I started scrubbing them with the eraser... aaaaannnnd I erased his lips.
I started a thread on here along the lines of "Help! I ruined my baby's face!" There, I found out all about sealant and how it was pretty necessary for faceups. I had never used Testors/MSC before that when I had painted OT dolls.
So over the next few years, Shiwoo slowly lost more and more of his default faceup as it chipped away; eventually only his company eyebrows were left. Then I made the decision to wipe him clean, which was for the best. I don't have much luck with company faceups, still to this day. >w>

Luckiest- Possibly getting a tan minifee Shiwoo on the MP right around when I started my job at the hospital (so almost three years ago). I had earned just enough that I could actually buy him myself. He then became two dolls- Mosura and Anubis. That Shiwoo was a lucky find, and might be the only a la carte tan mnf Shiwoo in existence.

 

Well I have certainly had a few panicked moments (usually from black wig caps or black clothing leaving stains) but I think my unluckiest so far has been ordering a B&G doll through Clover-Singing/Doll's Singing/jeeryama. The doll arrived in a beat up box, doll box upside down and also damaged, with a broken hand. The face up was wrong, the eyes were wrong, and there was issues with the clothing as well.

It is the first and only doll I have bought from China and through a third party - I usually buy directly from the company or second hand here on the marketplace. I was so shocked and upset that he still remains in his box. I was given a partial refund and the replacement hands/eyes/clothes are in the mail but are currently stuck in New York.

I would blame B&G for the issues but jeeryama included a free wig that was in the doll's box so I am assuming someone at the company at least opened the box and repacked it upside down. It's also the only doll I've received in a beat up and used looking box. My other dolls have come in pristine shipping boxes (now keeping my cats from chewing the corners is another problem altogether). I have no idea who beat up the box so badly but it's still a huge disappointment and has turned me off from buying dolls from third parties and possibly China. I wanted to branch out and try out other companies but it looks like I will have to stay with the one I know and have had good experiences with for now.

As for lucky, buying my first two BJDs here! I love Soom's minigem faeries and I was able to purchase a Nenad and Idril - full sets, factory face ups, the whole kit and caboodle - from here! I've also made a slew of new friends here and learned a lot about the hobby. I still feel like a newbie - especially when the stains happen - but having the community here to help me out has been awesome!

 

UNluckiest: The entire fiasco of the Nobility Muscle Girl custom body. Wow. They refused to really listen to our nudging them to make her properly bulky, so we got her design as good as we could- then they wrecked her casting job. She had seams thicker than a euro/US nickel. Her engineering was totally nonfunctional- the only joints that worked at all were her ankles and neck. And then they refused to do even a partial refund, claiming that since she was a group order, all the nonfunctional joints and gigantic seams were excusable. I put in a month's hard work to rebuild her, basically, but it all let such a bad taste in my mouth I had to sell that body.

Luckiest: Scoring one of my Grail dolls- an Aoi Tuki Tukihime body. They are absurdly rare. I adore my girl. I give her a migidoll jina head and she's the prettiest of all my girls.

 

Short story which I consider my luckiest: I found someone selling a Loongsoul SD male body at a flea market that only appeared once a week. It was a Chinese couple who were trying to get rid of things. The husband sold it to me for 10 australian dollars. The body was still wrapped up in bubble wrap, with the COA and the Loongsoul box.

 

The luckiest AND unluckiest experience I had was when my only doll (doll leaves ida) fell off my printer.
I normally sit her up there because its right in the corner, so if the desk moves she's less likely to fall off (no gaps near the wall to fall down).
She's quite tightly strung though, and a lil bit kicky. One day I just brushed her leg to the side a bit and it set off some sort of domino effect, in which every part of her flicked about and caused her to do a sick backflip off the printer all the way to the floor. It was like a damn poltergeist had angrily punched her about 5 feet away from me.

The printer is on top of a small chest of drawers, which on on top of a stack of books, which is on top of a very tall desk. The floor is not soft or forgiving to mistakes such as this.
I couldn't do anything but sit absolutely in shock. She had hit the floor face down, head first, with all her limbs bent and in unnatural positions.
However, I eventually got the guts to pick her up and see what sort of damage had been dealt. But when I turned her around and fixed all her limbs into an acceptably human position, I was amazed to find that she was completely intact. Nothing broken, chipped, bent or anything else. Perfectly fine.

From then on I kept her a lot lower down with lots more support in case of an event like this

 

I've been in the hobby for a long time and it's had its ups and downs. Most recently I've picked up an addiction for old CP Delfs after impulse buying an old elf Yder on the market place for super cheap. Sent him off for a custom face up and when he came back I absolutely fell in love with him. He's now the second favorite doll I own so I consider that lucky.

On the unlucky side I'm having what's probably my worst doll buying experience ever right now. I found an old Delf Chiwoo listed on Dollyteria and quickly bought him; they shipped EMS and his tracking has been stuck in ISC Chicago for over a month. We've filed for a missing package claim on the insurance and I'm pretty sure he's lost for good. In the meantime while I was waiting and hoping that he would still arrive they listed and promptly sold a Delf Shiwoo. I would much rather have had the Shiwoo and would have bought him in a heartbeat if my money not been tied up with this. So I'm not getting either doll and I'm out the EMS shipping on the Chiwoo.

 

Worst luck- I was trying to take some photographs of my ElfDoll Mir with a new custom made oak armoire I had had made for him, he was standing on a nice thick soft carpet, carefully positioned, I went to take a shot, and his knees buckled and he collapsed, with his face and arm smacking the armoire. I was so startled I screamed. I was afraid I had broken his face, the face was fine, but his right thumb broke clean off, I ran down stairs and got some E7000 and glued it back on. No one but me has ever noticed the break/repair....but it bothers me that he is imperfect. He was my first doll, and an only doll for about four years, he really means a lot to me. I would give anything for a replacement hand, but Elfdoll went out of business, and they are just not available.

Best luck- gosh, I have been so lucky in so many ways. Finding the hobby in the first place was a total accident: I happened to stop by a fabric store, and an acquaintance from the SCA happened to bring her BJD to work with her that day, and pulled her out to show me. Otherwise I would probably never have seen one. I am not exactly computer literate, I am not into any of the related hobbies like anime or manga, so it was a random event, that started what has become, I will admit, a total obsession.

I have had so many friends give me simply amazing gifts for my dolls- a sterling silver German made antique tea set, exactly the right size for SDs. A tiny cast iron skillet. A green and gold brocade couch. A sapphire and gold necklace for my Iplehouse Carina. A ruby to glue into Lahela's belly button. An absolutely perfect wooden guitar. I am very, very, very lucky in my friends.

 

luckiest was my first doll. he was a complete accident ^^; I had bought a practice head from df-h months before since I thought I'd want to do faceups for fun. Turns out that was unable to satisfy my desire for something more in this hobby, so I purchased a body sculpt I really fell in love with at the time. I was thinking I'd buy a head later for a character I wanted to shell. But I was pretty clueless in the world of hybriding.
Tried my practice onto the body... and it was a almost perfect fit. Neck size, resin color, sculpt even? (for a different character I had hahah but no regrets) I had my ups and downs bonding with him in the end, but I'm glad it worked out this way.

Unluckiest was the second doll I bought. It went horribly wrong and didn't like him at all (in fact he pretty much stressed me out for a whole week xD)

sooo my experience has been....you win some, you lose some

 

My luckiest experience in this hobby was back in 2015 when I went to the PNWBJD show, my first BJD show. It was the last day and they were doing the drawing for the biggest and best door prize of all, a 78 cm Crobi Doll limited Martin. I was looking at my ticket as they read out the number, and thinking to myself let's just get this over with. Low and behold, the number they called was my number. I couldn't believe it. I had won that doll.

 

My luckiest doll experience was when I placed third in a stop motion film festival held by Doll North. My prize was $100 from Switch! I had no BJDs at the time, so I ordered Miro Doll Rain and used my prize money to buy an outfit and a wig for him. I am very grateful to Doll North and Switch.

 

My luckiest doll experience?

I received a free doll-head, not included in an event as a special gift or anything.
It just showed up on my doorstep one day and was surprised that it was a head that I liked very very much.
I am currently waiting for a body for him

 

I've had lots of lucky and unlucky doll experiences. One of my unluckiest was when a friend's doll was visiting here, and as I was taking his picture, he fell onto the carpet and broke his finger! I was mortified. My friend had other hands to put on him, but I still feel super bad about that.

One of my luckiest was the finding of my ninth doll, SoulDoll Lune. I had seen him posted here on DoA by his owner, and I liked him so much. When I went to BJDC in 2006 (my first BJD convention), I was surprised to see him in person! I kept taking pictures of him, trying not to look like I was giving him preferential treatment! I couldn't take my eyes off him, he was just so beautiful. Not long after the convention, a friend of mine who knew I wanted Lune emailed me and said there was a gorgeous one for sale on ebay. I was shocked to see it was the one I admired so much at BJDC! The owner was also on DoA, and I couldn't send her a message fast enough. He is still with me, and I love him as much as ever. He is still the best looking Lune I have ever seen!



I was also lucky enough to find a tan Dollzone Leslie from 2013 here on DoA! That was an amazing day and an amazing find. I never thought that would happen! I just love the secondhand marketplace here.

And finally, I ordered my tan Dollzone Linlan from the company only a day or two before they posted a notice she was being discontinued! Love that girl!

Linda S.
galatia9

 

Luckiest: My parents saw how much I liked my first girl and offered to buy me a bjd for my 21 birthday, since they had no idea what I might like and knew that (like all of my recent birthdays) it was going to be a bit of a miserable day for me--it falls just in time for uni exams. At least this year, they started the day after...

Anyway, I searched for weeks trying to find a doll I wanted within the price amounts they told me but couldn't! Then, on my birthday, just before I'd decided just to leave it and settle in with a good book instead, someone listed a souldoll girl on the marketplace. I've loved souldoll for years, they were the company that convinced me I had to have one of these dolls one day, so I jumped for her without really thinking!

...I mean, it still took me another two months before I bonded with her--I had to learn how to do a bunch of things my first girl just hadn't needed, like painting faceups, sueding joints, and making wigs--but she turned out to be exactly what I was looking for.

 

That is definitely an unlucky instance! This is why I feel USPS insurance is a ripoff. Unless the BJD is a total loss, there's no way I would want to surrender it. Too many of them just cannot be replaced.

I'm not mortally afraid of spiders, but... eyaggghhhhh!!

How often does THAT happen?! Not very!! That is super lucky.

I will say that I am MOST surprised to hear how durable resin BJDs are!! Even though I have experienced it too.

Linda S.
galatia9

 

For me, my luckiest experience was when I bought two dolls second hand and they both turned out to be legit and not recasts!

 

Unluckiest - when I got my soom York he arrived with 1 broken finger. He was my first soom doll, my first time ordering something from soom in general and I looked at their forum and topics here and saw that people had problems with soom and dolls being sent with broken parts. I thought to myself "that will never happen to me" and guess what, it happened to me. Sigh

Luckiest - nothing so far lol.

I have another unlucky experience - I lost in an auction for a ring doll Norman. I was so distraught I went to bjd confessions and wrote about it. I was so sad.

 

I had an unlucky experence that turned into a lucky one. When I recieved my limited Noellia from Soom, I was disappointed to find, they'd forgotten to send her wig. My internet server is incompatible with their Q&A board so I couldn't tell them. Two weeks later, I got a little box from Soom with her wig in it!

Mostly I've felt lucky in this hobby, which I'm still pretty new to. (I got my first BJD 4 years ago) The Noellia mentioned above was one of the number limited black resin ones. Originally Soom was only going to make 20, which sold out overnight. I was disappointed that I hadn't realized how limited they were and considered ordering a white one and trying to dye it. Lucky for me Soom expanded the black resin dolls to 50, and I managed to order one! There was a limited Dikadoll elf that I fell in love with after Mint on Card no longer had them, but a distrimbutor in Canada did. Mint on Card had a Xagadoll I wanted in stock, which meant I only had to wait a week for him, not Xagadoll's usual production time of 10 months. There are plenty of other instances where I've felt lucky to be able to order a doll since I ordered a number of mine when they were being discontinued.

 

Luckiest: I was photographing Callista standing on a branch of a tree in my yard. Through the camera's viewfinder I saw her starting to fall and quickly reached out to grab her. I managed to grab hold of her wig, which somehow miraculously didn't pop off (it usually tries to slip off frequently) and kept her from falling the 3-4 feet to the ground.

Unluckiest: I took Callista to an anime con with me and had taken her outside to take some pictures of her with some of the sculptures/statues near the convention center. While I was taking a picture she fell forward from a standing position on the ground before I could catch her and onto the cement sidewalk and got a tiny bit of damage to the end of her nose. (thankfully it's very slight and not noticeable unless you're looking closely and the light hits it right.)

 

Luckiest: I've honestly been so lucky in this hobby, not only have I made amazing friends, and done well in competitions, but I've also been lucky enough to get sculpts I love for my characters. Most recently I managed to snatch up a K-Doll Khan, head and body, despite them being hard to find. He's perfect for a beloved character of mine so I'm very excited.
Unluckiest: overall I've been really lucky in this hobby, but one event still leaves a bitter taste in my mouth, months later. I was in a Secret Santa swap this past Christmas, and I spent a ton of time putting together the perfect package for my person. I made them a bunch of holiday props in varied sizes (little candy canes and individually wrapped peppermints and hot cocoa), some one-of-a-kind hand sewn clothes for their dolls, a nice card, a watercolor portrait of one of their dolls, and even some candy and goodies for them- all of which I individually wrapped in cute holiday paper. I really put in a lot of effort, and they loved the package.
Just through happenstance they had also been assigned as my secret Santa, and a week or so after they received my box they sent my package. In it was an old Wal-Mart bag filled with filthy, stained, crispy, and ratty old Barbie clothes and an awful matted wig that was far too small for any of my dolls. None of it was even salvageable, with massive yellow stains and a thick coating of pet hair on almost all of the items, large holes on the others. There wasnt even any wrapping paper or a card, or candy for me as had been suggested in the swap theme, if there had even been one of those things I would have been a lot more understanding, but it feels like they didn't care at all. We had all filled out a form with our dolls sizes and aesthetics, and nothing they had sent would have worked even had it been clean and new. It felt like a punch in the gut, especially since they sent it after having received my super thought out and detailed box... Honestly I don't know if I'll ever work up the confidence to join a swap again, that was just so incredibly hurtful and hard for me to go through...

 

My luckiest was probably getting my DOD Elf Ducan~ When I was studying abroad, he came up for sale on the marketplace (in the UK where I'm from) and I just couldn't afford him... I was convinced he'd be gone well before I'd have any hopes of getting him, since he was the mark 2 grail alongside my Homme Ducan.
On the journey home to England at the end of the year, we almost got fined $150 for our luggage, even though the combined weight of our cases were in the limit, and every other airport staff member was on our side, we just happened to get the really strict one who took some convincing. Then our flight was delayed, and we missed our connection by 10 minutes... we spent 6 hours in Germany late at night. Naturally, we wanted some form of compensation for this, besides the 10 euros of voucher we were given. It took months to sort out, and some persuasion from my friends mother who was working for the Citizens Advice Bureau at the time, but we finally got money~ Enough for me to get my Elf Ducan who was still for sale! I think it was fate XD

 

Unluckiest: I didn't get my first BJD. It was brownie doll and it was 2010 when they 'disappeared' dumping a lot of people My second attempt - BlueFairy's pocket fairy Noma - succeeded, he's adorable little treasure.

Luckiest: I think getting Raclette recently was it. Their preorder ended long time ago, and I thought I have no chances of getting her... I dared to ask the artist (very nice person by the way) and turned out that she has few of them available

 

I generally find the 13th to be a lucky day for me. But...I seem to be unlucky or inept at posing my dolls. I can not tell you how many times they fall over on me. I can usually get them to pose just fine with no clothing, or not much...but once that wig goes on and clothes...bloop over they go. T-T I guess that's why I love Obitsu so much, I'm far luckier posing them!

Maybe it's just because I'm a klutz. I tend to drop my floating heads too. Luckily, the only damage so far appears to be a scratch in an old face up near the ear, so easy to not notice.

 

Unlucky....well...I once fell down stairs while holding my Soom Amber in my arms. I went into Doll Protect Mode! (TM) and she was completely undamaged even though it was a set of like floating concrete steps. So that was also super lucky, but back to unlucky, I'm fairly certain I broke my tailbone in that fall and it's bothered me ever since. T.T

On the just lucky front, I'd have to say being able to purchase some of the amazing dolls that I own. Some of these I never thought I'd get in a million years and I just sort of have to pinch myself sometimes when I look at them.
:: rolls around on the ground, ugly happy sobbing ::

 

My luckiest experience was definitely getting my DZ Carter~ I ordered him from Alice's Collections and settled in for the six month DZ wait. About three weeks later though, I checked back on AC and saw they had a Carter in white skin (just what I ordered) in stock! I emailed them thinking they would say that I just have to wait for my order because they had already put my order in with DZ, but I got a response from AC just a few hours later, and in literally four days I had Ilya! It was amazing!

As for unlucky... Hmm... I'm not sure! I'd have to think about it. I've had little annoyances, but nothing super terrible has happened yet. I hope it never does!

 

My luckiest just happened over this weekend. I still can't get over it. At a dolly con and there's an AOD that I fell in love with at first sight. I put in 25 tickets. Only one other person was bidding for her and they put in 15. My friend decided to help out and put in ONE ticket.

One.

They pulled her name and she gave me the doll!

 

I experienced the most scary moment with BJD in 2014. I pulled the elastic string of one of my big guys very much. The hook broke and bent, slipped halfway into the neck and stuck there. Half of the hook was above the neck, and the other half inside one. I was very scared. I thought I could never pull the hook from the neck. I decided to compress the top part of the hook. I was very lucky that I managed to do it. The hook slipped inside, without damaging the neck. I could to make my boy again.

The most enjoyable time I had when my doll won the 1st place at the exhibition. I understood that my doll is appreciated by many people. I was very happy that my doll is so beautiful and everyone liked it.

 

Hm, nothing really comes to mind for unlucky. I'm sure I've had bad luck in some things, but I've just forgotten them. (Good!)

When it comes to luck, the first thing that comes to mind is my very rare Soom Bix! When Soom released Bix all those years ago, I thought he was an amazing sculpt but I couldn't afford him at the time, figuring I'd buy him secondhand... unfortunately his fantasy parts were absolutely ridiculous, which I think is why hardly anybody ordered him. There's an ancient thread on DoA with a poll of "Which Soom MDs did you order?" to roughly gauge how many of them DoA owners had. Some had very high numbers; Amber and Heliot were in the 80s! But at the very bottom was Bix, with like... 10. Hahaha... I gave up on him completely. I never even put him on my wishlist that you can have on your profile here, because there was no chance in hell I'd ever find one so why bother even dreaming about it!? Welp, one day I was checking out the Marketplace, and one of the new threads was for a Bix head. The thread had been up for less than an hour. I slammed that contact button and wrote a hasty message... and he was mine! *___* The seller said it was the fastest sale she ever had! XD

 

My girl's default right hand seems to have an unlucky streak. She had on an Iplehouse outfit that had metal chains on the wrist, and while she's normally a solid stander, she suddenly decided to take a topple. My heart skipped several beats -- but miraculously, her faceup was undamaged. Of all the places she could take a dent, it's her right hand (the chains dug into the resin). I was able to boil the worst of the dents off, but that same hand ended up falling from the table more times than any resin part I own. I had since replaced her default hands with jointed ones. While the resin color isn't a good match, my girl never had a major fall or dent with them on.

 

Lucky: I'd have to count the fact that I sold my modded Sist faceplate and regretted it instantly but two-ish months later, the buyer said they were planning to sell her and since I'd thought ahead to say I may want to buy her back, they contacted me first. She came back home and I promised myself never to let her go again! (Even treated her to a body upgrade with a minifee M-Line. Modded it myself to fit the unoa head.)

Unlucky: There was one doll I'll always think about that I really wanted, but I missed the opportunity to buy her. She was a custom, so it wasn't like a limited full-set or anything, but she really stood out to me. ;; I eventually got the sculpt but never managed to bond with her because I was always focusing on that particular one. Sigh.

 

the time i was restringing a doll and the string toll snapped! got the whole blody thing and my fist in my eye. seriously thought i had busted my eye. but luckily no harm was done, i seriously think that my contact lens saved my eye, at least from getting scratched.
both very unlucky and so very lucky!

 

Unluckiest: My doll budget is very limited, and so I normally don't buy expensive dolls. But I had been drooling over this one doll for over a year and finally put him on layaway (I won't say the company). In the photos on the website he was gorgeous and I had a character all set for him. When I got him and saw him for the first time, I instantly hated him. I've never felt that way about a doll before. Something about him was just WRONG!
I had ordered him in tan, but the color was much more orange than in the photos Also his body was way out of proportion for his head. He was supposed to be an SD13 but his body was more like an SD17 and was so bulky and heavy I could hardly lift him. His head was way too small for his body. Also the company faceup they gave him was nothing like the photos. His facial expression made him look snarky and smug, rather than sweet and handsome. YUCK!
The company would not take him back, so I tried for over a year to sell him, with no luck. So I'm stuck with him. I feel like that was money down the drain. I felt so disappointed that I eliminated the character from my story. I couldn't even stand the idea of the character any more.

Luckiest: My Miro Doll Mika in dark chocolate skin was one of the most impulsive purchases I've ever done. I hadn't planned to buy a doll, and was "just looking" (yeah right). I fell in love with her on the web site and when I got her I loved her even more. But poor Mika had issues. My poor Mika's body was weird somehow and no matter how I restrung or sueded her, she would just collapse. So I put her away for 6 months. I'd also had a problem with finding a character for her. She refused to "speak" to me and tell me who she was. But one day I decided to get her out and see if she would speak to me and if I could do something about her body issues.
Well, after taking her apart again to try re-sueding her, I discovered the problem. Her thigh parts were on the wrong side. It wasn't something I had done, it was how she came from the company. I restrung her correctly and that did it! No more collapsing. Plus she started speaking to me. Suddenly she had a whole personality and a whole backstory. I wrote it all down and it fit into one of my stories perfectly. Now Mika is one of my favorite dolls. I got her a cute outfit from RRabit which worked with her character perfectly. YAY! I love when a plan comes together.