SoulDoll mini dolls Soulkids Discussion part 5

@Guen Winters Some of the hidden joints can become...cracked or chipped...with wear. The hidden joints seem to put a lot of pressure on the thinner resin around the joint.

 

The hidden joints are an issue overall. Supposedly it was fixed a few years after it came out, but honestly, it's better to just use the normal joints instead of the hidden ones.

 

Eep that's no good

O

k. I noticed my Clodia came with extra joints. I'll have to restring her. Thanks!

 

@Guen Winters I've been really gentle with my dude since I'm trying to figure out if I want to keep the hidden joints or not. May take some thinking.

 

Okay I'm a bit shook by the latest announcement. Did I read it correctly and are they discontinuing even more dolls? Like almost all there msd's.

With this I was wondering if anybody knows if a soul kid girls head would fit their soul kid boy body's. Did anybody try this? Or does anybody have both and could make a picture of a head swap ?

I would love a yeon-bee boy and planned one on the far future with plenty of research time, but since she's being discontinued I geuss I need to speed things up.

Edit:also milky cocoa is back? Or am I reading this wrong, because two weeks back or so a friend of mine got an email from souldoll stating milky cocoa wouldn't come back.

 

Wow this looks great! Does the hybrid work the other way too- a raccoondoll head on a soulkid body?

I’m popping in also because I just read the news about sculpts to be discontinued. When I joined this hobby, Souldoll Liddell was almost my first doll, and I’ve had a soft spot for her ever since. Now that she might be gone, I wonder if I should finally get her...

 

@skyealloway : I don't know. We can buy the body separately.
The neck circumference of Raccoon's body is 6.7 cm, Souldoll's are 6.5-6.8.

So I have to order Seung-A head next month

 

@A Wee Tiefling I wasn't actually careful with him at all, as I didn't know about the joint issue. Maybe I was lucky and he's one of the sturdier ones or something, but he's been played with and there's been no problems so you probably don't need to worry much! (They pose way better with the regular joints though, so that alone is a reason to go for them if you can get your hands on a set - he came with just the hidden joints.)

@Mademoiselle Grymms here's my Hari head on the N.L boy body. In my opinion it works great - though I personally find the girl body too slender for the girl heads.

 

@Mista Isilme Thanks for the pictures! If I look at these I indeed agree that the sits pretty well on the body. Soon as the heads are up I'll go for it and then buy a nl boy body later (hope they won't discontinue those because I love the style of them). Now to contemplate if I'll also go for a Bonnie head... Since she's adorable even tho I don't have a character for her yet.

 

@Mademoiselle Grymms I'm so saddened by the news too, it seems that they're discontinuing virtually everything and then making heads + bodies or heads or bodies just limited release sets. It's killin' me because my grail is a Tera Zenith Kratos and now that's along with a Joelle D. I'm probably going to order them as heads when the head only period opens (NooOOooOooOOo Jooooeeelllllllleeeeeeeeee DEEEEE)

@Mista Isilme I saw someone's hidden joints with breakage and it scared the bejeezus outta me so I've been extra super gentle with Robbie now. He's really popular when I take him out though. Thanks again!

 

I'm upset and scared and just... basically on the verge of losing it.

I was planning and have been planning for the past couple of years a few souldolls. I was working myself up to the price point and trying to save up a decent wad of cash to put toward it. I kept hoping they'd release a better brown too, a properly brown brown. *sigh* I can't afford to buy the two dolls I have had on my wishlist all this time, literally i cannot afford it even with a generous layaway. I don't earn enough a month (I have literally got £75 a month to spend on dolls, that's it) so i'm having to really make a lot of hard choices.
I'm quite upset with the implication that we might not be able to order special colours either, as I wanted a Joelle in sandy tan. Discontinuing sculpts in such quantity was hard enough, but to discontinue the special colours with literally no notice for those sculpts like it looks like they have? That's just flat out cruel and thoughtless.

I'm really quite bummed out about it.

How hard are souldolls to dye decently? I mean, I was kinda settling with the sandy tan as being "close enough" for this oc but I have to either give up on the idea of shelling these guys COMPLETELY (Joelle and Lester are literally perfect likenesses and i'm unlikely to ever find anything closer), settle on a regular skin joelle and dye it and hope it doesn't end up too dark or blotchy or the wrong colour (big risk and big stress) and then buy a lester head during the heads only period and buy a body later (hoping they don't discontinue the bodies before I can save up) or spend the next however many years tracking both down secondhand and going insane.

It's stressing me out.

I know they're "just dolls" but these two were quite important to me. Only reason I hadn't bought them already was the emotional involvement of shelling a precious oc and the price tag. I don't have much money and it's hard for me to justify big ticket expenses. Souldolls are like 2x the price of the dolls I usually would buy and feel okay about buying. The "spend guilt" associated with a doll purchase as expensive as a souldoll vito wasn't something i'd quite worked myself up to be able to handle. I suffer massive guilt for spending money on myself and when it's a huge sum at once the guilt can be crippling. I was working my way up to a point where it didn't feel like quite such a huge jump you know?
But now I feel like the rug has been pulled out from under me. I can't get ONE and not the other because they're brothers and it'd feel really weird not shelling both of them.

Lester IS more common on the secondhand market but the cost associated with buying a discontinued sculpt secondhand and importing from the us in most cases (so paying ridiculous customs fees) means it'll end up likely costing me way more than it would have new.

And i'm sore that it looks like i'll have to settle and attempt to dye a doll rather than have a doll that's close enough out the box.

It never occured to me they'd discontinue nearly everything at once, nor that they'd not offer their special colour options in a last ditch "get your grail orders in now or forever hold your peace" thing.

My careful plans have been totally scuppered and I just don't know what to do.

Like, either I give up on the idea of shelling these ocs because it's too expensive or I scramble for money and put myself into debt. Either option is not good. I'm quite sad.

 

I'm definitely going to have to get a Gana head in August! I'm debating a Shaun head, too...

 

I’ve always wanted to get a Vito boy, but I’m not at a point I can afford one during the discontinuation period. I guess I should have made it more of a priority as I’m going to miss out. Oh well, such is the bjd hobby. There are many sculpts I’ve missed out on over the years. Still, quite sad this discontinuation. I think souldoll is going the way of special event dolls and limited ordering periods like FL.

 

@purple_monkfish
I completely understand where you're coming from, I cried last night when I saw the announcement because Souldoll is literally the only company that makes msd sculpts that I like and essentially all of the sculpts I was planning on buying over the course of YEARS are being discontinued -- there's no way to get them all in two months.

My advice to you would be to take advantage of the head only sale in August. It sounds like the sculpts are the most important parts and you can (hopefully) buy bodies later. That would cut the cost down to about a fourth of what it would be otherwise. In the past they've sold kid heads at $100 (about 76 gbp) and vito heads at $120 (about 90 gbp). If you were to buy blank heads on layaway you might be able to get your boys!

As for dyeing, I haven't done so yet but I'm planning on dyeing my Marty so I've been doing quite a bit of research. Its generally recommended that you get a doll you plan on dying in white so that you can have as much control over the final result as possible. Not a lot of people have dyed Souldolls but of the few I have seen they didn't appear any more challenging than any other doll. That being said, if you were to somehow get the bodies in the color you want in the future, airbrushing the head to match is a much more reliable way of achieving the desired color. In fact, if it's just the head you're working with I've seen people just blush the whole thing to match a body.

I really hope you can get your boys

 

Thanks! Hm... maybe I'll leave it? I do prefer the hidden look... and I won't be taking her out very much. oh i duno lol

Is this announcement on their website? Or here in DOA? How sad I'd been looking into a male head to partner my clodia

 

@skyealloway I tried my RD Sia head on a Kid body, and it fits but she's a bit short in the neck. You would definitely need a pad of some kind in there. I found some really good head-swap photos on Flickr a while back - HYBRID : RACCOONDOLL + SOULDOLL KID

 

the announcement is on the website yeah..

Becuase I only want a sort of slight tinge of brown i'm not sure the best wayto do it. I can't help but feel like tanning normal would be easier than white because you'd at least have a base flesh tone to work with you know? But one I want kinda.. well.. yellowy brown and the other I would have been happy with their sandy because you know, it's brown ish.

Eugh. I always knew i'd have to dye Esk but it's a pain to have to do both.

My current plan is to put a joelle on layaway as it's the harder sculpt to find, then sell a load of stuff to make the money to afford the lester head or hope that one turns up secondhand and will ship to the uk (i've seen like.. ONE. So many people won't ship outside the us gah. But customs fees would bite anyway)
thing is, secondhand souldolls don't seem to lose any value, they sell for near full dang price even secondhand!

but lester IS a really common sculpt right?

*sigh* this is such a pain.

and then once i've spent out doing this, Magic Mirror will debut the other doll I want to complete this group and I just don't know how i'll find the money. So i'm going through boxes of stuff trying to sell like.. everything I don't NEED or really can't stand to part with.

maybe it'll end up a blessing in disguise and help me declutter, I dunno. I'm kinda just.. eugh. Annoyed.

 

Really bummed out with the announcement. I actually had two friends contact me about this, ahaha. I really want a Kuu, Mewo, Crispin, Yarn, and Joelle... and flirted with the idea of a Kirsten, too. *sighs* Even if I was going to just get the heads, that's nearly $500-$600 in heads alone. I wanted Kuu in grey but, worst case scenario, I will try to get at least Kuu and Mewo head in NS...
This is a huge bummer to see, and it was what concerned me after their last discontinuation, which also didn't seem to have any rhyme or reason. Like, why was Maa discontinued, but not Maa.Ba? And on this list, some of them aren't even a year old!

I am tempted to contact Souldoll, and see if they would be willing to have these sculpts be offered in the future for special events.
Would this idea interest anyone else? I was thinking of setting up a "petition" that could be used to gauge Souldoll to show if people would like this in the future. As it is, it looks like they want to have less dolls to manufacturer and possibly focus on selling heads and/or limited editions so they can get dolls out faster....

On a brighter note, the Juno head I bought secondhand arrived today! It is a bit bittersweet, though; if I knew this was going to happen, I wouldn't have bought Juno so soon.

 

Thanks @eland ! I’m actually gauging the hybrid option for a different doll head with similar proportions to raccoondoll but with a much more limited fan base (creature doll). I’ve seen a creaturedoll head on a raccoondoll body and the neck appeared too long....and if a raccoondoll head on a soulkid body has a neck too short....then maybe creaturedoll head will be perfect on soulkid body!

Hybrids are hard

 

Ahahahaha!! I have done those multi-step hybrid research comparisons too @skyealloway Usually trying to work out if resins will match... "If A is similar to B and B is similar to C then maybe A will work for C "
Unfortunately I never got a Creature doll, so I can't help there. But it does sound promising... if the Creature doll has a smaller neck hole than Raccoon, it miiiiight sit well?... It's always so hard to predict though!
I do kinda like the Sia on the Kid body though. I might keep her that way. Don't know.


now to figure out which heads I'm going to try and get in the great purge of 2018....

 

@purple_monkfish I recognize so many of these feelings! I hope you can get your grails without the financial stress.

 

It’s such a bummer to see them discontinue so many sculpts. I’m glad I got my Joelle earlier this year so I don’t have to worry about him. I’m pretty tempted to try and get a hold of a Gana head and possibly Bonnie too if I can swing it. I’ve never been that in love with the kid bodies so the head event will work out wonderfully for me. xD;

But man...just sucks a whole lot. I can understand why they might want to cut back on what they sell since I’m sure they don’t like getting behind on orders anymore than anyone else does, but Souldoll was definitely becoming my favorite source for mature and diverse mini sculpts, and now such a big chunk of them are gonna be gone... D:

Ah well...what can ya do? Good luck to everyone that’s gonna try to get the dolls they want before they’re discontinued!

 

Seriously getting a whiplash from souldolls communication. I had build up some hope that they would actually again sell milky cocoa even if they told my friend they wouldn't, thought maybe they changed their minds. And now bam again no milky cocoa for future dolls. Was already a bit bummed out that I would not be able to get yeon bee in sandy brown but was willing to make a sacrifice in my choice and order the head in ns with the hope of getting my fav special skin milky on a doll of them in the future. However I start to notice I'm getting a bit peeved and salty.
I mean sure I understand that they needed to cut things down, but so drastic? So short notice? And what's going to happen exactly in the future because as it sounds they will only choose one special skin color. On the other hand I remembered years ago when I asked souldoll of they ever would release their zenith clay in sandy brown, where I got a firm No NEVER, and then a few months later they actually did (after I bought him in ns ofc =, =) which crushed me and and contributed to making me leave the hobby for years. I'm sorry for this little negative rant guys, but I just had to air it.
As for now I'm actually on the fence if I'll buy any head at all. Especially since it's so unclear about the future.
Don't think they really thought out how this imeould feel for their customers and fans (or maybe they just expect us to be all rich with always spending money on hand?). Or it was just really an emergency and dm they had to make the sacrifice...

I just really hope everybody will atleast be able to snag one of their favorite heads.

 

The discontinuation is so sad but it's weird to me that they're discontinuing popular sculpts though.
Saddest thing for me is that I still haven't seen other Criss Angel boys around, other than my own (I might be looking in the wrong places though). It feels like I'll never see others now, and it scares me to think that if I mess him up I won't be able to find a replacement But he definitely seems unpopular since I don't see him.

Good luck for those wanting to get their dolls before they are gone though

 

I think they discontinue the dolls that sell the least. Some are popular but don't sell as much as before

 

what baffles me is the discontinuing of sculpts that aren't even a year old. I mean, older but very popular sculpts maybe the molds are wearing out? But the brand new sculpts? Why discontinue those? Some were literally only released in January THIS year!
It's bizarre.

I'm actually really worried about the future of Souldoll in general, especially their unusual sizes like vito. They're discontinuing all but 3 boys and all but 1 girl, and their latest explanation only makes that more unclear saying that after the 3 order periods they'll discontinue dolls anyway (so once they've cycled through three order periods for those, will vitos just be gone? Will we be able to get a body if we buy a head in the discontinuation? Will there be another one of these discontinuing everything else in 6 months? How the heck are we all supposed to get the money together for this? Not everyone has like £600 in petty cash laying around ffs!)

I'm stressing badly because i'm not sure I really trust them at this point. I feel like if I want Lester and Joelle, I HAVE to get them both, complete as whole dolls before Souldoll pull another stunt like this. But I just don't think I can scrape the funds together.

Angelesque will only give me a 4 month layaway which for both dolls is like £160 a month, twice what I actually earn a month for non essentials. My budget cannot stretch to that.
Souldoll are saying they'll do a 6 month layaway but then i'd have customs fees to pay and it's gonna end up ridiculously expensive, i'd really rather go through a dealer and avoid that stress you know? Plus it saves me a wad of cash because customs is NOT cheap.

Doing the maths on it:

$739 + postage (how much is souldoll's shipping? I'm gonna assume like $50 because it's usually between 30 and 50 from companies right?)
So assuming 50 that's $789usd

Spread over 6 months that's $131:50 a month. That's about £100 a month.

I get literally £75 a month. So yeah, even with a 6 month layaway I CANNOT afford it. I need a decent wad of cash in my wallet first to put a nice big downpayment in and lower those monthly payments to £75 or less.

Also 6 months is a long time to not spend any money at all on anything else.

Eugh.

Vito boys turn up secondhand fairly regularly right now but what happens when they're discontinued? will the prices skyrocket? Can I risk them becoming even more out of my price range while I try to get the money together? I dunno, i'm really rather stressed out by it and kinda bummed out.
I've been planning these two dolls for years.

I needed like, one more christmas and birthday at least to have a decent chunk toward it. *sigh*

I doubt i'll EVER see a Joelle secondhand as i've literally only ever seen one or two like, ever (they all seem to be Joelle D and not the regular sulky version) so I know if I want him, I NEED to get him sooner rather than later.
Lester though is pretty common isn't he? But will people start asking crazy money for him now? he doesn't seem to sell that fast secondhand (big expensive dolls don't) but eugh.. I dunno.
It's all a bit of a gamble.

I'm going to put in an order for a Joelle as soon as Carol from Angelesque has gotten a straight answer about the whole thing. I don't think they're gonna offer sandy tan which upsets me (so unfair to discontinue that option with no notice, really crappy way to treat your customers) but it might have been way too pale anyway.
Has anyone ever dyed a souldoll? How hard is it to get a tan colour over NS? I only want a tan, not a really deep brown.

I think my best option at this point is to buy Joelle on 4 month layaway (which is about £74 a month for four months, which means NO other expenses for four months eep) and scrape together funds in the hope I can either afford a full Lester OR just the head with a nice chunk toward getting a body toward the end of the year (before they can discontinue ALL the vitos grr)

And to confirm, the Soulkid boys are about 47cm tall right? their website measurements are borked. They claimed juno as 42cm when she sure as heck isn't, she's really damn tall. So I don't trust them.

 

If they have only one or none order six months after the release of the mold, I think it's normal they discontinue it.
For the Vito girls, I saw one Yola, one Kate and some Freyja. Nobody seems to have a Felice. So it is normal too...

Souldoll will announce new dolls in August.

Maybe you can hybrid the Kid boy, but the Vito

 

Hyrbidding isn't a great option for me sadly as I NEED their heights to be specific to one another. So the Vito HAS to be 52cm and the kid HAS to be 47. Not many msd dolls are actually that tall. Soulddoll msd is unusual in how tall they are. All mine here are like 44-45cm for boys and 42 for girls. Which would throw my scale off.

So im hoping souldoll's measurements are actually accurate and Joelle really IS 47cm tall or i'll be annoyed.

 

Nooooo the notice is so sad. Ever since they put out the first shiva i had been hoping for an MSD sized four armed doll, jump on the spider queen asap, sadly, really dont like the blue skin color once she arrives. I had hope they might re release in a year or two though since they did for shiva, but cutting their lines so drastically is freaky! I kinda get it though, they did a LOT of really custom orders which can easily slow things down. Though that was also what i liked about them, that you could email to get certain things.

 

If it helps, Akagi's MSD dolls are 47 cm.

 

Yeah, Soulkid NL boy body is around 47cm tall. I've got the body for a Narin head and he's taller than Withdoll & DollZone (old type) boys at 45cm height. I've got a comparison lineup in my flickr: here.

 

This is sad news.. I was hoping to get Kuu and Bijou later this year or next year but, it looks like I'm gonna have to miss out or pick one over the other..

 

@Fawne : Bijou and Kuu have similar makeup and can be the perfect sisters.

 

Thanks guys!

Okay so there is a msd option. It is easier to just order the full doll though. Eugh.

I've made about £50 selling stuff so far. I'm sorta emptying out every cupboard and every box and trying to find anything at all I think I can sell and won't sorely miss. It sucks that i'm having to scrape together funds like this but there's nothing else I can do. It's this or give up on the idea of shelling these ocs and that's just not something I want to have to do.
If they were just dolls I kinda liked I think i'd be a lot less stressed. I'd be a bit miffed but I wouldn't NEED to own them you know? but because they're shells for quite important ocs to me it's like this added element of sentimental attachment and it makes it hard.

 

I’m going to order just heads and hope for the best. Flett, Shaun and Joelle, IF I can get the funds together.
Good luck to everyone, hope you can all get at least something out of this.

Oh my, he’s adorable. Definitely need that sculpt.

 

Man, what a bummer! Guess I'll have to look at my budget and see if I can squeeze in a couple heads before they're gone... Sympathies to all those who are losing their faves--cripes that's a lot of molds to discontinue all at once. I hope the company is doing alright.

 

On my spider they ordered one of the parts in the wrong color from the casting factory. I'm guessing since they're also dropping custom painting options that they're generally having logistical issues tracking all the various custom orders. The fact that they don't do their own casting probably complicates offering special colors too. I suspect they have to meet minimum orders. It's a shame though as one of the reasons I ordered from them was the ability to chose any head and get a custom face up.

As to discontinuing a bunch of sculpts I'm sure it makes good business sense. When something is always available it has a tendency to stay at the bottom of people's buying lists. I've seen it in various hobby-sized communities that when things are discontinued or sell out many people suddenly state how much they really wanted something yet they never actually got around to buying it in all the time it was available. The simple truth is that limited availability drives demand in these communities. If something is always available there's no urgency to get it and thus people put their money elsewhere.

There are definite costs to offering multiple options on any product. If those options only sell in low volumes they become more trouble than they're worth. You can see this across many businesses even very large ones. Those costs aren't always just (directly) monetary either. Clearly they've realized the additional complexity is causing orders to take longer to fulfill which can lead to unhappy customers and some people will simply not order from a company once a delay reaches a certain length.

 

Agreed on all counts. I'm one of the people who have been 'meaning to' buy from them for a couple years and am only acting now that I have to. If someone's got money and can buy either something available all the time or a limited offering that they like just as much, guess what gets bought. Pruning back their offerings and refocusing their efforts on customer service will likely work out well for them.

 

But I dont see their limited dolls as much either. I mean....I dont feel like lots people buying their limiteds. I hope they're doing ok.

I'll be jumping on the head only event, even tho its only white/ns. I'd like to get sandy brown, but it's either this or none *shrug.

 

Although I know it makes sense from a business standpoint, the scope of the discontinuations has left me shaken. Actually, it's left me quite sad. There are a lot of sculpts I'm just going to have to let pass since I'm not made of money and don't really want to have a ton of floating heads.

I hope this reorganization/re-focusing is good for them. It's painful for us!

 

@Oshun11 Although I still keen for a Joelle D, my Shaun is so pretty he distracts me from my pain. He's got a very sensitive sculpt, the right faceup just makes it so...moody and romantic.

I've decided I can only do Soul Dolls on layaway but I'm going for a less popular sculpt too. Kinda want something in the Vito range but nothing inspires, so sticking to the Soul Kids.

 

Shaun is a gorgeous sculpt. So unassuming while blank, but with a faceup he's got a very "pacing the moors composing tragic poetry" vibe, lol. He and Joelle D are on my short list, along with Bonnie and Maa Ba, though I'm sure I won't be able to manage all four. The only Vito head on the chopping block that piques my interest is Yoon Gi but I honestly don't know what I'd do with him.

 

@A Wee Tiefling and @sugarbeta Joelle D seems to have dodged the discontinuation. He's still for sale in the normal kids section.

 

Where do people find clothes for their Soulkid boys? I've been looking everywhere and I can't seem to find anything big enough, and there aren't many options on the Souldoll site. *scratches head*

 

this has ruined my plans. I can't afford all the dolls I had been planning for the past two years so i'm just.. out.
I can't do it. Souldoll have ruined my plans completely and i'm not sure i'm gonna be able to forgive them for quite some time.

As a result, i'm stepping away from the hobby as a whole. Too much to clean up now. I'd spent over 2 years researching, planning, agonising and bam, in one sweep it's all ruined. Just destroyed.

Clearly i'm just not rich enough to be part of this hobby properly. Never will be. So I give up.

Besides, the mods here hate me anyway. I've never felt more rejected by a community than I feel here.

So yeah, see ya. Or.. probably not. I'm logging out and i'm not logging back in.

 

Well that’s kind of upsetting, but realistically if purple_monkfish is so upset then maybe it would be best for thier well being to just take a break. Best wishes!

Do y’all think the girl body will still be available separately after they discontinue these heads? There are several that are beautiful sculpts on that discontinue list... speaking of beautiful, does anyone have a Betty they’d like to spam us with? I’d love to see an owner pic.

 

NL or the new double? It's always best to ask Souldoll to be sure, but I haven't heard of any plans to stop the NL body! I think they were just getting overwhelmed by the mold maintenance for the few orders they were getting, etc.

 

Souldoll is known for the sudden discontinuation of their sculpts from time to time. If you know the company you have to be prepared for this - long time planning in this hobby always is a risk anyway, no matter which company. But there always is a chance to get the older molds at the marketplace.

 

It's definitely a challenge. A lot of generic MSD size tops are fine, but pants are definitely a problem. The best fitting pants I've found are actually these black skinny pants that are made for iplehouse FID woman. So if you're looking for skinny fit pants, highly recommend.

 

Hi all, just popping in here to spread the word about something I saw on Facebook that might help with this Souldoll discontinuation thing.

Spoiler: A screenshot is worth a thousand words so I'll leave this here rather than trying to clumsily paraphrase it. XD

BJDivas offers super long layaways and they have really generous requirements for what qualifies for their layaways. The terms are much better than what Souldoll is offering, which as far as companies go are already pretty sweet layaway terms.

It looks like this discontinuation's gotten a lot of people pretty upset, and I saw the most of that in this thread (other than Souldoll's announcement thread). I've been in this sort of boat before and it really sucks, I hope that this will help some people. :<

 

@sno4wy Oh that's right, BJDivas are the ones that offer like 12 month layaways, correct? I totally forgot they were a Souldoll dealer...

Even so, I think if we just go through Souldoll we can still get 6 month layaway on the discontinued sculpts, right?

 

Yeah, I think they technically can offer longer but I don't know of anyone who's requested longer than 12 months. For Souldoll, the 6 months layaway is only if you buy a full doll, 3 months for head orders.

 

@sno4wy Oh heck I thought the 6 month layaways included the head only sales... Good thing I asked! Thanks for the info

 

On the bright side, the reason for the discontinuation is the overwhelming maintenance and orders... so if things calm down, the molds can be available again, perhaps..? It's not like they'll be destroyed, so there could be a chance of them returning, even if it's for limited time head orders or something.

 

I wouldn't count on it. Yewon's been gone a long time & never returned, and same for Lev, Apple, and numerous other molds I've owned from Souldoll. Souldoll has flirted with limited only releases for a long time, with their seasonal limited sculpts and their fantasy limited lines, so I'm not surprised to see them move towards a 3-orders-only model.

 

I agree with @Sarako, it's unlikely that the discontinued sculpts will be back. Souldoll hardly ever brings back limited sculpts (Chiron and Shiva are one of the very few that have gotten more than one release), let alone discontinued dolls.

I remember in the past one of the reasons for a bunch of sculpts getting discontinued, was the fact that contracts were expiring: they would no longer have the legal right to produce said sculpts, as Souldoll often uses freelance sculptors for their heads. One of the reasons this time could also be expiring contracts, in addition to them wanting to take off some of the workload off themselves.

 

Pretty sure indeed they will not return. I mean sure in the past they have said "never" and eventually did do it. But not at the moment of such mass discontinuation, sadly. They also hinted that the sculpts weren't populair enough, stating they previously had the moral that they would want sell niche sculpts even tho there was a smaal market. But now they couldn't handle anymore/wasn't profitable enough. So they now want to focus on things with a bigger market potential probably

I really hope, as above posts stated, that the getting overwhelmed by orders is a good sign of them still selling allot and thus a bright future. And I do really really hope they will still try to make sculpts that are different from what other company's are doing and not try to sculpt the same as other populair brands to just get more customers.
I mean personally that made souldoll so great, their dolls being just a bit different then what one would normally find.

The bjdivas is a nice tip indeed. Might look into it if I finally decided if I'll get yeon bee or wait it out and hope souldoll will actually release more quirky sculpts and not cookie cutter sculpts.... Choices...

 

My thoughts exactly.

I also like that Souldoll has been making a variety of sculpts with differing looks. They have some sculpts that can even be described as "odd", I suppose, but those have a lot of character and look quite unique. They're not afraid of making grumpy (mature) females either, which is what I often struggle with, especially in the 60cm+ range. There are companies that seem to only make either sweetly smiling or just sad-looking female dolls. ^^; I'd like to have frowny women with attitude and charisma, too, not just sweet/wistful girls.

In the recent year or so Souldoll has released a few sculpts that haven't had the same kind of personality as their older sculpts have had, though...I mean, sure, they're pretty and all, but maybe a bit too pretty and perfect? I do like it better when they think outside of the box and release something... well, not cookie cutter, as you nicely put it @Mademoiselle Grymms xD Here's to hoping that they'll still keep experimenting with at least their limited dolls, even if for basic dolls they might go for more generic head sculpts.

 

So it´s really 3 orders per mold only? I hoped I misread that. And I wonder how a company will make any profit with such low sale numbers.

 

@Ashemanu Based on this post in the news article, I understood it as having a maximum of three order periods for a limited head sculpt. Producing only three of each doll wouldn't be very cost-efficient, indeed. So the number of dolls produced isn't restricted, but the time period that a limited head sculpt is being offered, is.

The way I understand the new system is that they will be having a month long order periods. Resin colours A & B will be available for a month, and after that the next one month long period is for colours C & D. And limited doll X will be available for a minimum of two and maximum of three order periods, so that's 2-3 months in total.

So, during the first month you can order limited doll X in colours A & B, the next month limited doll X can be ordered in C & D, and the third period would be either a different combination of the previous colours ( A & C or A & D or B & C or B & D) or another set of two colours. After those three periods are over, limited doll X is discontinued and a new sculpt, limited doll Y, will be available for order in colours A & B again.

And of course, basic dolls, bodies and parts will be available during all the order periods alongside the limited doll, but you will need to keep an eye on the resin colour periods if you want to purchase them in a certain skin tone. The basic dolls will be available in the same colour as the limited doll(s) for a month at a time.

... I probably wasn't able to explain that too well. It can seem a little confusing at first, but it does sound like a system that will be easier for Souldoll to handle (a fewer number of dolls available and in only two different colours per month) and should shorten the wait times in the future.