Original sculpts vs Customs/Modded Sculpts

I’m new to Dollfie dream in terms of collecting them, but I have been seeing them around on various socials for a long time. Before I actually joined this community, I was under the assumption that the vast majority of the dolls out there were custom mods of the sculpts, rather than the original heads.

After joining this community and starting to see them on sites like Tiktok, that doesn’t seem to really be the case. It seems twitter and instagram lean custom and sites like here, reddit, and tiktok lean original.

What do you think? Which seems to be the most popular way to collect? Leaving the original sculpts as is, or customs?

Also curious since I seem to see a lot more “character” dolls from anime/games rather than original characters (I came from BJDs where original characters are definitely the majority). I even see a lot of people using various sculpts to “shell” video game or anime characters for which there was no official release by DD. Which do you think is more common generally: oc’s or using the dolls to represent non-original characters?

Basically I’m just curious about whether this site is more representative…or maybe there is a big difference between western collectors and otherwise. 

Compared to the resin BJD hobby I'd say the vinyl doll hobby is definitely much less focused on custom faceups/mods. That's not to say there aren't plenty of customs or that customs aren't a big part of the hobby, but I think vinyl default faceups are just much more affordable and accessible than resin.

Most resin BJD companies just don't even offer a "basic" pre-painted doll like DD Standard Models. And Standard Models are a great deal compared to just buying a blank doll-- to buy a blank DD body and a blank head on Volks USA it costs $416, and to buy Himari it only costs $74 more. That includes not only the faceup but eyes, a wig, and a simple underwear/lingerie set. To get even a very basic faceup on a resin doll it'll usually cost you about $75-100, especially if you want something professional-looking that will last. And that's JUST the faceup-- no eyes, no wig, no clothes. So most resin collectors just opt to do faceups themselves to save themselves the trouble and expense of having to ship out their doll heads to a faceup service.

I'd say the reason customs/mods may seem more common on some platforms than they really are is just that they're very popular and sought-after, and they're very visually impressive and appealing so photos of them get passed around more often than the (still cute, but not especially eye-catching) default faceups. But in sheer numbers I do think that there a LOT of defaults floating around.

Edited 4 hours ago by 0bsequi0us

4 hours ago, 0bsequi0us said:

Compared to the resin BJD hobby I'd say the vinyl doll hobby is definitely much less focused on custom faceups/mods. That's not to say there aren't plenty of customs or that customs aren't a big part of the hobby, but I think vinyl default faceups are just much more affordable and accessible than resin.

Most resin BJD companies just don't even offer a "basic" pre-painted doll like DD Standard Models. And Standard Models are a great deal compared to just buying a blank doll-- to buy a blank DD body and a blank head on Volks USA it costs $416, and to buy Himari it only costs $74 more. That includes not only the faceup but eyes, a wig, and a simple underwear/lingerie set. To get even a very basic faceup on a resin doll it'll usually cost you about $75-100, especially if you want something professional-looking that will last. And that's JUST the faceup-- no eyes, no wig, no clothes. So most resin collectors just opt to do faceups themselves to save themselves the trouble and expense of having to ship out their doll heads to a faceup service.

I'd say the reason customs/mods may seem more common on some platforms than they really are is just that they're very popular and sought-after, and they're very visually impressive and appealing so photos of them get passed around more often than the (still cute, but not especially eye-catching) default faceups. But in sheer numbers I do think that there a LOT of defaults floating around.

Ah yes that makes sense! When I first joined the resin bjd hobby about 10 years ago, I do think there were maybe more companies that provided default faceups and maybe even a pair of random eyes (although def not wigs or any clothing else you were ordering a full set). It seems those companies have definitely decreased in number over the years. I also mostly collect so-called “artist” dolls with limited time preorders run by a single person, so they don’t come with anything at all. 

It makes sense that the vinyl hobby would have more defaults just cause of how accessible they are for sure! And the faceups are very cute anyway, so why not? lol