Poll question: What do you look for in a doll?

I like faces that I personally find desirable or aesthetically pleasing. I'll buy a doll with a good face over a good body any day. I think of it like this: If this doll were real, I'd crush on them hard.

 

I chose 'easy body shape' and other. None of the other answers apply to me - I dislike having too many joints, most would probably consider my taste in sculpts to be 'mainstream', and I'm not really a brand loyalist. Mostly, I look for a face that grabs me, with at least double-jointed elbows and a torso split for posing. I also take things like resin quality, body aesthetics, customer service, and company history into account.

 

it's totally the sculpting, not necessarily super unique, but I choose based on how it fits my aesthetic also the size is really important to me as well; I have a 60 cm doll right now and I don't want my other dolls to be too far from that scale (if their characters are supposed to be the same height).

 

fantasy skin tones, fantasy features, wierdness, uniqueness. I like dolls that look unique, like.. you can immediately say "yep, that's a x company doll" rather than so many that I personally find very samey looking.
I like faces with personality as well, a little smirk, a smug little self satisfied half smile, a slight scowl.. I love that and I love wonky noses, big ears, big noses and odd face shapes. There's so many dolls that are kinda generically "pretty" (even the boys) and that doesn't really appeal to me. I like that more human feel, the imperfections that make a face beautiful and interesting to look at.

And if I can get a doll in green skin then i'm super sold hahaha.

Scale is also a big thing. I don't much care for teeny tiny dolls because while I know the engineering is way harder, they're the same price as big dolls and the value for money just doesn't feel there for me. Also I like the heft of a larger doll and they're way easier to dress and paint. But SD scars me, it's just too big. I feel intimidated by a doll that comes up to my waist. So YOSD and MSD are my scales.

Interestingly, posability doesn't really matter to me so much. Oh I like having joints, but amazing articulation is low on my priority list. FACES are what I look at, body just has to look decent and not boxy and hideous.

 

yep, I plan to have an msd, but technically, she's supposed to be a child compared to my taller dolls for now I want dolls that are in that specific universe to have the same scale. After that, I don't have plans for other dolls but you never know

 

I chose posebility and other. In order to get posebility, I usually plan to hybrid. So what makes me like faces and what makes me like bodies are two different things. As for other, well, I guess there is just this aesthetic that I like, kind of androgynous, at the line between realistic and stylized. Oh, and scale too. No bigger than 65 cm if I can help it. I tend to be attracted only to SDs, but I think that this is less because of size and more because of style.

 

I like unique bodied/faces. Something different from what everyone else has, something that you don't see all over. I love small companies and short runs. But then I also chose cheap. hehe. Not because it neds to be cheap but rather I cannot fathom paying some of the prices I see! I'm budget-conscious. Yes, I will pay more (400$ maybe) for just the doll but it has to be very unique, because then I still have to give it a face up, wig, clothing, etc. I'm a bargain shopper too so show me the deals. I just gotta be drawn to the doll and the doll has to be what I think is reasonable at the time.

 

I go by a mixture what other owners say, along with both company and owner photographs. For instance, I dislike resin that appears super shiny, since that makes the resin look cheap. I also like weighted resin versus lighter resin, but that is a personal preference and not a quality indicator. You'll want to look out for consistent complaints of bad customer service, too-thin resin and terrible seam lines when researching any doll, though. I avoid certain companies because of that.

 

I like expressive and realistic faces best. Next comes the body--aesthetics and proportion are more important to me than super poseability. Pretty hands are very important and can be a deal breaker for me. It's mostly intuitive and hard to explain. I just know when I like a doll. Price can be a factor so I look for basics rather than fullsets.

 

not sure. I kinda figure when I can buy an msd doll i love for like £150, that same money for a doll that fits in my palm feels more frivolous you know? Harder to justify to myself and non doll people who don't get why that teeny tiny thing is so expensive.
I've seen 5 inch tall dolls that are like £300 and while they're omg amazing and detailed and the sculpting at that scale is breathtaking, it's super hard to justify to myself that sort of cash on something so little.

I find MSD easier to justify because they are so obviously different to a regular fashion doll to the non doll people, they're big, they're chunky, they're quite clearly something else while anything 1/6 scale and smaller? "oh is that a super expensive barbie?"
*headdesk*

I'm pretty cheap, I don't have an awful lot of money for for me £100 is a LOT of money and the spend guilt is a very real thing. So I have to feel like I can "justify" it even if that's completely ridiculous and crazy. But it also means that it has to be unique and special enough for me to feel it's "worth" that expense. It's all a whole lot of madness on my part, but very much linked to me being paranoid about money and never having much of it. I have literally £75 a month to spend of frivolous things, so if you consider one of my wishlist dolls say, a Souldoll Vito, that's about £300 which is 4 months of saving and buying NOTHING else at all. More realistically, that's 6 months of saving for me.
Justifying 6 months worth of savings on a single item is... really very hard to do.
Which is why I tend to buy cheaper dolls or dolls that feel like more "bang for your buck"
Most of mine have been second hand and it's nice that the hobby has become accessable to people like myself on such a limited budget. It wasn't once upon a time. I remember lusting after dolls back in university and being unable to justify spending my student loan on something so utterly frivolous. That was a good uh.. 15 years ago.

 

I feel this is a difficult question to answer as there are so many elements that go into choosing a doll. Is it supposed to model a character? Is the face somewhat mischievous or does it have a different expression than most dolls? Body types, skin colors, and companies also come into consideration. If I happen to see a doll I like I'm fine with paying a high price tag, not to say I'll spend 1000 bucks on something small like a limited yosd, but I don't feel like I should let the price limit me. If I really want a doll I don't believe I should settle for less. Regardless, thing I personally look for in a doll is: company reputability, a variety of skin colors, slim body style, unique array of facial expression or versatility, and size.

 

I only chose the Fantasy category. I thought about also choosing the Poseability one as well as I have been turned off on a few dolls do to a complete lack of a torso joint, but at the same time, I generally prefer simper and smoother jointing of single jointed dolls vs the double jointed ones. I hate peanut elbows and knees, but if a double joint has a nice design that does not look weird when bent, I love a doll with good posing ability.

 

1. Easy body shape-I'll never NOT find the clothes I want!
   
2. Poseability-My doll can't be static, let me see you cross those legs!

Those are the two I picked. I like finding them new things to wear and it's important to me that the doll can pose or hold a pose. The posing ability doesn't have to be extreme. Just enough to sit or stand while looking natural and not having their arms snap or drop.

 

I chose Other - since I'm populating a little BJD town... & have characters I need to shell. I like variety, a few groups of dolls from one company for family resemblance, uniqueness, realism.

 

I go for mature looking dolls. I do not like them to look like children or teens. For a girl, She has to be unique, I love large lips and angular noses. For boys, they just have to be good looking. I tend to have a much easier time adding boys to my crew.

 

I chose fantasy. Love those elf ears! Size is an important factor too. SD size dolls scare me a little, I find their size a bit intimidating.

 

Uniqueness piqued my interest in this hobby from the start. Then I realised that supporting some of the bigger company dolls was not what I wanted from the hobby anymore. Now my second important aspect of doll selecting after uniqueness is the 'artist', I really like the idea of supporting independent artist/ doll makers, and decided to make it my news years BJD resolution.

 

I chose poseability and other.

I want my doll to pose at least somewhat decently, preferably very well. If she can't sit or stand on her own, can't touch her face, can't get into natural positions without looking stiff or awkward...it's not the doll for me. It's okay if I have to play with her for awhile to figure out the center of balance and how to work the joints for the best posing, but the engineering has to be there to allow for it.

My "other" is that it has to fit my OC, meaning it needs to have the right body type, face sculpt, resin color and go with any other dolls in the same story (like I can't have a super anime styled adult MSD paired with a super realistic 70cm doll, for example). Also, if I'm buying new, the company needs to have a good reputation. If they're known to take much longer than estimated to ship, have poor communication, are known for sending out unfinished or damaged dolls, have poor quality control or don't pack dolls safely, I'm much much less likely to buy. Lastly, I have to be able to buy them without too much difficulty. If I have to enter a lottery, be part of a clickwar or have an agent to get the doll, I probably won't get it.

 

I'm not sure how to describe it. Semi-realistic? I see a lot of really stylized and anime or hyper realistic and mature or semi-stylized and cute smaller dolls. But that is not really what I go for.

 

I chose my dolls based on the characters I already have in my mind. In my case, the doll has to adapt to the character, not the character to the doll.

 

A little of both. Sometimes I'll see a specific doll with it's company faceup that I adore, then see the same doll blank and suddenly hate it. In this case, if I ordered it I'd have to order it with a faceup or else when it arrived I'd not enjoy it. Other times I'll see a blank face I fall in love with and I might even hate the company faceup shown. I always check how a doll looks nude prior to putting my hopes into it.

I agree with you on the realistic part! I honestly dislike the volks dolls with the anime eyes, and some of the doll chateau, although interesting, I could never own.

 

My Responses:
Poseability-My doll can't be static, let me see you cross those legs!
Other-I'll explain in the comments!

My "other" response is similar to "Uniqueness-This doll looks like nothing I've ever seen!," but not exactly the same. I object to the second part of the answer choice, "This doll looks nothing I've ever seen."

"Uniqueness" has senses both of "sole" or "individual" as well as that of "uncommon." My "other" response corresponds to the second meaning. I tend to like dolls which look a little strange or different, in one way or another. I wouldn't say I choose a doll because it is unpopular with others (I think that LLT Roderich is fairly popular).

I tend to like boy sculpts for girls--they tend to be more proportionate (especially for eye size) than their girl counterparts, and I like stronger jaws and sharper facial features. I also like strong noses and chins, which are generally not found in female sculpts.

 

I tend to stick to stick with certain companies and not stray far from them. A big thing with me is the aesthetic of the body. If the body imo is "ugly" then there is no way I can buy them.

 

I picked uniqueness and 'other' as my biggest factors. I like fantasy dolls, though I have humans too. My oddest doll is a DZ Wendy on the human body, who's head is half fish and half human. I now have four Soom Fairies, including one the color of grape juice, and one blue-lilac. Two dolls by other companies have elf ears. As for "other" my dolls are mostly mature tinies or smaller, so being in scale with my existing group is a major factor. I also have a weakness for tan resin, and about half of my BJDs are varied shades of tan. Many of the non fantasy dolls I have are from a small company called Lumedoll, and have more realistic bodies and varied faces than those from other companies.

 

It's always something about the face that I look for. I can deal with a difficult body but if the face is off I start having issues.

Every doll that's caught my eye is always some mix of mature and cute.
Like, I don't know how to describe it... slightly round features? :S

 

I've known about BJD's since I was 13 years old (and that was 13 years ago xD). I thought they were really beautiful and I wanted to take pictures of them, but since they were a little expensive, I simply avoided thinking of them. Then, at the end of last year I was looking at dolls for curiosity and fell in love. She inspired me to create and made my heart flutter and get excited, so I needed her with me and bought her. I loved her face from all angles and the look she could have, so I guess I focus on aesthetics and how it makes me feel.

I'll open her box this monday! She arrived yesterday, but I'm in another city xDDD

 

It was Cynthia from Angell Studio: Rouran girl/Cynthia

I loved her Rouran girl face up and those light blue eyes~ I asked for the face up without the butterfly:

 

Hahahahaha, not at all! XD

 

I chose easy of clothes and fantasy, but I think now that I've read through the comments I should have put "other" and my other is variety. I don't want sameness in my personal collection. I have a human girl, a cyborg, a green gal, etc. I often see a doll I love, then realize I love it because it looks like a doll I already have, so I pass on buying it.

Been in the hobby 8 years now and my preferences have definitely varied over the years so my answers change over time.

 

I'd be perfectly fine with that! One of my grails right now has an opened mouth and obscene fangs, and I don't mind horns, elf ears, or even cat ears on a doll. I just don't like overly exaggerated proportions, be it the body or the face. I've seen some animalistic dolls, such as with a dog-style nose, that look super realistic and I wouldn't mind. :>

 

Poseability is big for me. The most important joint IMO is the elbow joint; that at least needs to be double jointed for me. I strongly prefer dolls to have some kind of thigh joint as well that at least allows them to rotate their legs. I'm not too worried about double jointed knees as I rarely pose my dolls that way, but it's nice to have. Oh and torso joints! I don't like one piece torsos at all. They need to be able to slouch at least a bit.
Uniqueness, definitely. I get really tired of seeing the same sculpts over and over in my Instagram and FB feeds, and I want fresh faces in my own collection, ones that I won't see a million other of the same sculpt on social media.
If I could choose a third one it would be company preference hahaha. I know it's sort of silly, but... when I'm browsing doll sales on FB or the MP I pretty much only look at Volks at this point, LMAO. I'm also very fond of Peak's Woods and Merry Doll Round. I would love to get more dolls from them! The thing about company preference though... I'm not so hung up on it that I'll buy ANY doll from these companies/artists. I still have to really like the sculpt. But these Volks, PW, and MDR happen to have my favorite aesthetics/design and thus, have a lot of sculpts I find appealing.

 

I vote for uniqueness and poseability. Having had a doll with genuinely terrible posing that resisted all attempts to fix it, I really just can't stand bad posing. My dolls are never really naked (and the one I have right now that is going to be showing a lot of skin looks great and poses well), so I don't care as much about body aesthetics. (...I say even though I'm actually extremely picky about bodies. Oh well, I think it's usually possible to find a body that looks good and doesn't pose like butt. Just gotta do some searching!) And I don't really like single jointed knees and hate single jointed elbows, so I'm picky about that. Sure, double joints can look kind of wonky, even under clothes, but for me, these are dolls and I know they are, so...I don't really mind if the joints are obvious or a little weird, as long as I can bend the legs further than ninety degrees! I also really like thigh joints. Joints everywhere! (Except at the hips. I prefer torsos with just one joint. I'm honestly...really picky, whoops.)

As for uniqueness, it's honestly not as much about the sculpt (though I do love weird and wonky sculpts) and more about what I do with it; because my dolls are representations of my characters, I want them to stand out and really fit what I have in my head for that character! That being said, price is always a factor, but I wouldn't buy a doll purely because it's cheap. (Though if it was less expensive and I happened to like it, that'd be fantastic. Don't need to spend a bunch to get a great doll~ )

 

I chose poseability and other, although I can be a little lenient as long as the posing's adequate in my mind, and could be improved upon by simple mods, sueding, etc. I prefer three-part torsos over two part torsos for the added poseability, and love the versatility of jointed hands. But one thing to note: I won't sacrifice realism for poseability. I'm not going to settle on a hyper-stylized (cartoony) body to gain a super-poseable body.

I tend to shop with a character specifically in mind, so I look for face sculpts, body types, and size specifically for them. I also focus mainly on SDs (for bjds anyways) as I don't much care for the youthful aesthetic common in MSD sized and smaller (with exceptions for more mature sculpts, and some OT dolls ). I also am particular about some semblance of realism, whether hyper realistic or stylistically realistic. I'm not a big fan of faces that look too cartoony (or anime), or have odd, more exaggerated features. I'm also partial to elf ears, as my OCs all have them (although I do have some BJDs without).

I also like having a variety. I'm not brand specific, and like shopping around. Variety is the spice of life, after all.

 

bit of both lol. I buy Resinsoul not because they're cheap so much as because they come in every colour, I really like their cartoonish faces and Sun will bend over backwards to do just about any crazy thing you want (two heads? sure. Four arms? heck yeah. 6 arms? why not. I mean seriously, they will do just about whatever you ask and not charge a lot for it which is amazing)
I recently got a Doll Chateau for crazy cheap second hand and omg I love him.
So I mean deals do crop up for legit dolls on the secondhand market, particularly if you have quite unusual taste. Fantasy coloured dolls are a bit more niche as are weird inhuman ones which are my thing

I find i'm less attracted because of price and more put OFF because of price tag. If I see something I think is cool but it's like £500 i'm gonna just back away slowly and forget about it.
I mean I have several mid range 300+ msds on my wishlist which i'll have to save hard for, but when you're talking like the $1500 fairylands and stuff? I just cringe, gasp a bit and run away lol. I don't care how pretty it is, my poor heart can't take that price tag.

I totally chicken out. It took me days to convince myself to press "confirm" on my first doll. I kept agonising "is this the right colour? is this the right sculpt? did I make the right choice?" argh. And now i'm having the same wobble. I've been saving up for one of two specific dolls and i'm like "arghh which one? do I go for the one I was supposed to get or the awesome custom cheer me up one?"
it's terrible.

 

Aesthetics should have been an option, I chose my dolls because they're beautiful to me

 

I haven't got a hybrid yet, well if you don't count my custom house/mirodoll but thats just a body for a floating head! I'm currently anxiously awaiting my Mishi's Doll Murphy so she's top of my list right now. I like the idea of some of the doll chateau sculpts but havn't gotten one yet--they're all so spindly, I like a little more meat on my sculpts. I do like the FreakStyle Salome. I love the dollzone flower dolls, I have one of the tiny flower fairies. a lot of mine come from the second-hand market and I have an affinity for old dolls (think serendipity and fancy boots). I love aimerai's resin, it's beautiful!

 

I chose easy body shape and other. Most of what I'm looking for is the aesthetics of the head mold. Does it fit my character or would it look out of place with my other dolls? I've done a lot of hybriding so I'm not afraid to replace bodies, haha. Poseability is nice, but if the body is pretty enough, I generally let it slide.
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I'd say a lot of my enjoyment of the hobby comes from finding clothes, so I try to aim towards bodies with standard measurements. Both of my current dolls are standard sizes, and I want a second girl to share clothes with the first. This isn't end-all be-all, though, since I'm planning on an Iplehouse SID and they're a pain to dress.

 

I picked fantasy and other.

Fantasy, because I look at humans all day long. :p Even elf ears can be a bit... not enough outside the norm? Particularly if they're dressed just like everyone I can see walking down the street. That's not my thing.

That said, there's a certain human doll I'm absolutely drooling over. >.> So it's not a hard and fast rule, just a preference.

The "other" is... inspiration. As in, it inspires me, not feeling like the doll is an inspired work of art. Does that make any sense? When I got my guy, I surprised myself by doodling up seven or eight outfit concepts for him, and working hard on learning a new technique so I can get his aesthetics right. That's... not how I've interacted with a hobby before, and I really like it!

But the upshot is: I think I've about had enough of collecting pretty things for the sake of having pretty things. If I don't get the itch to do things with and/or for the doll, I'm not going to buy it, no matter how beautiful or unusual it looks.

 

Oh, I've props galore, LOL. I'm a cosplayer/costumer, very into anime. I wanted dolls to dress up as various anime characters plus my own (cause I write). So I created (on paper & now stories) a fictional little town near Atlanta, complete w/history, & my dolls represent the nerd/geek/cosplay types who live there. That means I can make whatever costumes/cosplay/everyday streetwear my little heart desires, & somebody in my little dollie group will wear it LOL

 

I have to fall in love with a dolls first before I buy. I want to make sure that it will fit in with the rest of my dolls. I like to setup my dolls in groups of 2 or 3.

 

It may seem crazy,but, the doll would have to speak to me. You have a lot of different and wonderful dolls out there but unless it has that no thing that says bring me home I won't get it. It's almost like,I'll know it when I see it.

 

Poseability and money. As much as I wish otherwise, I'm a college student! I can't afford to spend too much on a doll. That said, even though I love resinsoul mei's sculpt, their bodies were a big turn off for me. I wanted a bjd who could pose reasonably well just as much as one with a lovely face!

 

I choose uniqueness and fantasy as it's somewhat close in my mind: I really like exagereted limbs lenghts (no wonder I like doll chateau and blossomdoll bodies) and unique features like anormal number of eyes, unusual face expressions, strange shapes... The fantasy part come as an extention to that: something you can't have in your usual human (I think the fact that the first bjd that keeped my eyes were Frieda and Trieda from DZ has a say in it).

 

Other.

To buy a doll, I need it to meet four criteria:

1. Size. No larger than about 65cm or shorter than 52cm.
2. Aesthetic. My preference leans towards realism; too stylized and I'm out.
3. Quality. Does the company involved take pride in their work?
4. Suitability. The sculpt has to physically suit the character I am trying to represent.

 

I don't have specific rules about size or look or anything. On the whole I tend to prefer realistic looking dolls over cute cartoony ones, but there are definitely exceptions to this (Lillycat!). Things like poseability are not really an issue for me as I honestly just like my dolls to sit and look lovely, haha. I also don't think of them as specific characters so that's not a concern. However, on the whole I will:

- Not buy a doll unless I have known about and liked the sculpt for a good long while. I tend to get very excited about things very quickly and then my enthusiasm fizzles out, so with dolls this expensive it's important to be sure I really do love them! This is especially the case since I usually buy secondhand, often from ebay, and you sometimes have to be fast! As there's not a lot of time to deliberate I will only go for sculpts I already know and love.

- Look at lots and lots of owner pictures. Some dolls look beautiful with a particular faceup but if that's the only faceup they look good with, for me that's a bad sign. I knew my Iplehouse Soo was for me because I loved her in every single faceup I saw - even the faceups I didn't like, she still looked lovely.

- If the doll looks beautiful even without a faceup, that's a great sign too! This was definitely the case for my Heeah and Lillycat Millie Choupie

- Ideally, buy secondhand so I can see pictures of the exact doll I'm getting beforehand to check that I like her!

- Try not to overthink it too much even so - with my first doll (Iplehouse Soo) I kept going back and forth on the pros and cons of her vs Carina, whether it would be better to get a smaller one, etc. But in the end it was Soo's picture I kept coming back to, so she was the one for me

Money is also a factor, of course. For my first doll I went big because I (naively) thought I'd only ever have the one, and wanted to make sure she was the one I really wanted. But subsequently I have been a bit more circumspect - I wouldn't be willing spend $500+ on a doll again. As a grad student I really can't justify it!

 

I see that I am with the majority here that uniqueness and pose-ability are the two things that matter to me. I love dark skinned dolls because I am an African American. I don’t like that darker dolls cost more but I do understand why. I don’t think every maker does dark skinned dolls justice with their sculpting and it’s hard to find ones that I like. I also an avid lover of fantasy and want to retain the whimsical nature of my dolls so I do not want them all to be mundane. Don’t get me wrong I have human dolls and currently they are all female. I just am now starting to branch out into less remedial sculpts like moths, monsters, anthropomorphic, etc.

 

The face is the selling point. There is no need to be unique, but it does need to be one of my favorites in the massive sea of sculpts there are now. Body is not a selling point but is easily a dealbreaker. Brand loyalty comes in here if a company consistently makes good faces and has a decent to great body. It has to be earned though.

 

I have chosen poseability and easy body shape without thinking too much because that seemed to me like reasons that would make me more inclined to buy but then, looking about my current dolls (and especially my WIP), I admit I can gladly ignore issues related to both of those choices to fit the character I'm trying to get in doll form as I am a character-driven collector.

 

I went for uniqueness and poseability.

For uniqueness it's not that my dolls are fantasy, but it is something that will stand out in facial features to me. It could be the shape of the dolls eyes, or the smirk or the lips, or sharp teeth. Maybe the doll is melancholy, or so happy I smile whenever I see the doll. All of my dolls except the pets are human, I consider the vampires, and cute animal ears on top of the head human. I don't have any anthro or fantasy dolls, but I still feel that my dolls are very unique.

Poseability is a must. I use my dolls for pictures in my webcomic and they have to be able to have a full range of mobility to produce the realism in the story. There are certain brands that might have very nice looking dolls but because of what I have heard about their maneuverability, I don't even look at the companies. If I get a doll that can't hold all the positions I need, I am going to wire it so that it can. I use floral wire inside of them, and run it along the strings. This allows me to move them and put them into positions that they would not normally be able to hold.

If I had a third choice, it would be the easy body shape. I like my dolls to switch up wardrobes with each other. There are a couple items unique to certain dolls, but mostly they share, so having dolls of similar size is very helpful.