What Makes a Doll Popular?

Besides liking the character itself, of course.

I'm curious because I know Sasara is a doll that constantly sells for quite a lot, so I would assume she's both rare and popular, but I don't personally see the appeal? And of course Hatsune Miku sells well, but I don't know how "popular" her sculpt itself is. I only ever see it used for Miku, and sometimes see other sculpts used for Miku instead, so I feel like a lot of the sculpt's popularity is based on the character.

What aspects of a dollfie besides the character it's portraying appeal to you? What gives one doll large appeal? Does versatility of sculpt have to do with it? Give me your thoughts!

Fully tossing aside the character aspect, I think versatility plays a huge part - for example, the DDH-01 head.  It's one of the most frequently used heads you see customized, and it's because the base is essentially an easy blank slate; the mouth is simple enough to easily sand down and so are the eyelids, which along with a super simple facial structure allows for smooth planes that can easily be carved or heaped.  It's popular because so much can be done with it to create really distinct looks.  It's also popular because it's easy to get and known to size well for both bodies (MDD/DD). 

As far as stock models, I think that also plays a part - is the base makeup versatile enough to let people do various looks?  If Miku were an easy buy off the shelf and not based in limited numbers/character notoriety, would she really be as popular in terms of sales?  Her look is so distinctive, and having bright teal eyebrows doesn't really allow the general buyer to experiment with wigs or eyes without taking that into account.  On the other hand, models released for general sale with neutral colors will likely sell much more easily; a face with brown eyebrows that can be worn across a spectrum of colors is just more marketable to the mass collector population.

Siiiize...?  DDS/Angelphilia/oddball inbetween sizes suffer for popularity because of their size.  There just isn't as much stuff available for them.  And as much as the doll world encourages creativity and customizing, not everybody has or wants to invest time in learning how to craft.  If you can't buy clothes/shoes/etc without scouring the internet and checking measurements and googling "does X fit Y", that model is gonna lag wayyy behind a model you can simply open a webshop and buy three shirts for.

Availability.  This works in both ways, honestly.  Ease of access definitely helps make a doll popular, because a lot of people can get one!  On the other hand, limited availability creates FOMO which creates an aftermarket, which creates grails, etc etc turtles all the way down.  Sometimes I feel like "popular" molds are popular just for the badge of having a rare item.

Speaking to what my personal preferences are for stock models (since buying custom throws a lot out the window), I first and foremost have to like the sculpt itself without requiring mods (everything good but the lip too wonky? it's out.), and the makeup needs to be either neutral enough to work with or fancy enough for some razzledazzle without locking me into a really small box of options.  For example, I'd never personally buy a Miku because I wouldn't like the eyebrow situation.  I very rarely buy blank because I don't enjoy going through the effort of finding an artist and waiting because I like somewhat instant satisfaction, so the default has to be both good and not hyper specific.  Availability of goods follows that, because if I can't get clothes/shoes that fit outside of their single default outfit I'm not interested lol.

These are all great points! I didn't think about how size and availability could factor in (DDP my beloved nobody makes clothes for you). As someone who enjoys customizing my dolls, a less versatile faceup is less of a dealbreaker for me if the sculpt underneath is good. If I wanted to turn a Miku into another doll, I would just wipe her and repaint her. However, I'm not a huge fan of her sculpt because I feel like it's too moonfaced, which is more of a dealbreaker for me. That said, would I buy a fullset doll just to repaint them? Probably not. I'd rather grab the head only on the aftermarket (in a perfect world with no mark-ups, at least). That said, I think the idea of a universal appeal definitely exists, and it's why Volks tends to give dolls neutral or slightly smiling faces to appeal to as many people as possible. DDH-04 is very smiley and creeps a lot of people out! And when they do frowning faces, it tends to be one faceup option of many, like in Dream Choice.

This is a lot of rambling to say what appeals to me may not be what appeals to everyone, haha. I definitely look at dolls through the lens of preferring "interesting" to "pretty", which I know is not what everyone does when looking for a doll to spend money on.

Someone once made a quip on one of the Discord servers I follow about how certain sculpts were not popular despite being beautiful because they didn’t fetch a high enough price on the aftermarket, and while I don’t think that explains everything, it certainly explains a lot 😂 

There are also multiple factors at play—Japanese tastes are incredibly different from Western tastes and even those of other Asian countries, and when someone got into the hobby seems to play a big factor in their preferences. A lot of old school collectors seem to prefer the older sculpts that may look dated to newer collectors (in this case Sasara, although personally I don’t think she looks too dated compared with, say, Yoko or even older dolls…)

Edited August 14, 2024 by ragnamuffin

True, true- I know tan skintone and mochi-ashi are very popular in the west and not so much in Japan. I don't hang around the Japanese side of the community much since they're mostly on X, but I'd be interested to see what the most popular sculpts are with them. It would be fun to set up some kind of poll for the Dolldreaming community on which sculpts are most popular.

I do think older collectors generally like older sculpts, I see it in the resin market too- there's not really a dislike of new sculpts, but definite nostalgia for older dolls. I personally after a certain point in the dollfie timeline my opinion of them tends towards "them heads are too small", lol.

Honestly, I think one aspect that make a doll popular are the "doll-influencers." They post photos of their doll, and then their followers want one too. This happens a lot in other types of social media, like the fashion scene (not that I know much about it, but I had to write a class paper on it once), that I can't not think this has at least some impact.

10 hours ago, PlasticJester said:

but I'd be interested to see what the most popular sculpts are with them.

Mostly custom DDH-01, but also 10, 22, 27 and increasingly 28 and 29. For more mature sculpts, it’s almost exclusively 06 and 09, but custom MDDs are far and away the most popular Dollfies in Japan.

You don’t really see that many character dolls out in the wild here. Clearly someone is buying them because they always sell out (except Ranka, Freyja, Saber Altria and Ruler, who were so unpopular they are still available new at Doll Point even now, RIP), but if I had to guess, it’s mostly OG Miku and the Kagamine twins. Don’t think I’ve ever seen any other character doll as often as them in Japan.

Edited August 14, 2024 by ragnamuffin
Clarified that I’m talking about Japan here.

I feel like Shin Sato is also pretty popular, though mostly to customize.

2 hours ago, ragnamuffin said:

OG Miku and the Kagamine twins. Don’t think I’ve ever seen any other character doll as often as them in Japan.

In some cases, a character's appeal surpasses the doll's inherent qualities or objective beauty. Volks hit the mark with the vocaloid dolls, as everything Vocaloid sells incredibly well, regardless of shape or form.

Many beginners, or even those who aren't deeply involved in the hobby, view the vocaloid dolls as the ultimate representation of their devotion (which it is), but not necessarily because of the doll itself and these individuals rarely delve deeper into doll collecting.

On the other hand, less experienced collectors often own a Miku doll. This isn't to say "seasoned collectors " they don't like her, but the exclusivity factor is diminished due to frequent reboots and the high volume of pre-orders.

Edited August 14, 2024 by puxlavoix

14 minutes ago, puxlavoix said:

In some cases, a character's appeal surpasses the doll's inherent qualities or objective beauty. Volks hit the mark with the vocaloid dolls, as everything Vocaloid sells incredibly well, regardless of shape or form.

Oh for sure. Volks seems to release standard heads that share features with other character dolls, but the Vocaloid dolls have really unique sculpts that make them attractive to fans and seasoned collectors alike. I’d drop everything for a Sakura Miku even though I don’t really care for Vocaloid in general, and I’ve been tempted by Rin more times than I care to admit 😅

Re: a character’s appeal, I think it’s interesting that some character dolls (like Sasara) are highly sought after overseas despite being from eroge/VNs that didn’t have an English release at the time, and not being particularly popular characters in general. I guess these are examples of dolls that are popular more for their beauty and exclusivity than renown.

Speaking of appeal vs character appeal, Arle got a whole re-release due to her popularity! One could argue DDH-22 was made based on her popularity for a youthful smiling sculpt. Puyo Puyo is not that popular here in the west since most of the games are Japan-exclusive, though the Western release with Puyo Puyo Tetris helped somewhat. I wonder how many collectors got her due to enjoying the character over enjoying her sculpt/faceup? (It's me. I'm that collector. I adore Puyo Puyo please I want her so much-)

Visual Novels are an oddity where I think hardcore VN fans are more likely to enjoy Japan-only VNs with fanmade english subs. A bunch of the most popular ones were Japan-only for a long time, right? So I think, like Vocaloid, VN fans are pretty devoted to their characters. Surprised a Saya doll never got made, just from my barebones knowledge of the genre.

As for dolls I have no character connection to but think are beautiful, Kizuna AI's smiling face and Shibuya Rin's cool look are both ones I enjoy. A lot of the Idolm@ster girls are really cute despite my 0 knowledge of the brand, actually. I would love to snag an Iori, but I don't think either of the DDP releases were that popular due to being DDP.

But like, do I think the Sailor Moon dolls would be popular without the brand behind them? Absolutely not, lol.

Edited August 14, 2024 by PlasticJester