longest you've waited to find "that" doll

in my other doll pursuits i've scoured mercari jp, auctions, and mandrake pretty obsessively hoping to catch a listing for one of my favorite dolls. usually patience is a virtue and i've been able to find the doll even if the search took over a year. 

for me, as a type moon fan, saber alter and jeanne were pretty easy to track down for a decent price and it great condition since they seem to pop up everywhere! i love alice kuonoji, k-on's mio, and the old school samurai jupiter gals, but they seem to appear few and far between. my white whales for sure! 

i'll keep hoping they pop up but thought it would be a fun conversation starter to hear about your journey to finding a grail gal! did you set alerts and forget about her or did you search every corner of the internet? do you have any girls on your current wishlist that you're still searching for? etc etc ^_^

The one "grail" doll that I was after for the longest was Tamaki from ToHeart2.  It took me 6 years to finally find "The One".  By that, I mean that I could have easily gone to Mandarake and paid over $1400 for her ( the average price for her a few years back ) but I wanted a deal.  I tried many times to buy just her head/eyes/wig but always failed.  I tried YJA auctions for her fullset and Mandarake a few times but every time I had money, she wasn't available.  And every time she WAS available, I didn't have the money.

Luckily after 6 years, a friend spotted one on Mandarake for a very reasonable price of $900 for her fullset in box.  It seems the box was damaged in some way and her plain white stockings had stains on them.  Everything else was perfect.  So I put in for her and waited the 3 days it takes Mandarake to check stock.  It was a long wait for me but finally they got back to me and let me get her.    

Like I said, I could have spent way more for one but every time I missed out on her or missed one due to lack of funds, I told myself that she wasn't "The One".  All DD's have a forever home, it just may take some time for them to find it.  For me, that specific Tamaki finally decided it was time to come home.   

DSC_0821 by Billy  Bennett, on Flickr

 

 

Billy

wow a lovely story to go with such a stunning gal!! her hair and eye color is so beautiful and her :3 is so so sweet!! i feel like secondhand prices can be a really mixed bag sometimes which makes the search more exciting lol but waiting until everything falls into place seems like the best move. thanks for sharing!!! 

My story is not that exciting. Before I got into Dollfies, someone here mentioned Alice Kuonji. I stupidly looked her up and was absolutely smitten with her. I HAD to have her, but as you know, she doesn’t show up that often.

There were a few NIB on Mercari and Rakuma for more than I was willing to pay. I must have pined after her for a month or two before she showed up on YJA in pretty bad shape, ending at around 80,000 yen. I figured if she goes for that much used, it wouldn’t be too outrageous to spend a bit more for her in new condition, so when the app issued a 7% off coupon, I went for it.

No regrets. She’s one of my most prized possessions.

If we're going on technicalities, my Mariko took the longest. I was aiming for the Summer Festival version and missed out on her lottery back in ~2015(?). I bought a Sensei-version Mariko off of Mandarake to soothe myself, but it was also right around that time that Volks discontinued white skin altogether, making replacement parts nigh impossible to find. I was too nervous to play with her because of that and I sold her in 2021, then turned around and immediately bought the Summer Festival version, also off of Mandarake.

If we're going on who I searched for the longest consistently, it would be Anthy. I missed her original release by a couple of months, as I was on a short break from the hobby, and was smitten with her as soon as I returned. I spent almost two years trolling every secondhand venue I could think of and then some. Unfortunately, when I had the funds, she was nowhere to be seen and when I didn't, there she was. I put out a WTB earlier this year and a very kind person on Den of Angels sold her to me for a reasonable price. Mariko always was and continues to be my unicorn, but Anthy is something of a crowning jewel in my collection.

2 hours ago, ragnamuffin said:

My story is not that exciting. Before I got into Dollfies, someone here mentioned Alice Kuonji. I stupidly looked her up and was absolutely smitten with her. I HAD to have her, but as you know, she doesn’t show up that often.

There were a few NIB on Mercari and Rakuma for more than I was willing to pay. I must have pined after her for a month or two before she showed up on YJA in pretty bad shape, ending at around 80,000 yen. I figured if she goes for that much used, it wouldn’t be too outrageous to spend a bit more for her in new condition, so when the app issued a 7% off coupon, I went for it.

No regrets. She’s one of my most prized possessions.

tell me about it lol she's currently on yja for a price well above what i'd pay _(°:з」∠)_ i feel like it's a good sign though!

glad you got her!! she looks so cute in the two tone wig you've styled her in >w<

1 hour ago, Thespian said:

If we're going on technicalities, my Mariko took the longest. I was aiming for the Summer Festival version and missed out on her lottery back in ~2015(?). I bought a Sensei-version Mariko off of Mandarake to soothe myself, but it was also right around that time that Volks discontinued white skin altogether, making replacement parts nigh impossible to find. I was too nervous to play with her because of that and I sold her in 2021, then turned around and immediately bought the Summer Festival version, also off of Mandarake.

If we're going on who I searched for the longest consistently, it would be Anthy. I missed her original release by a couple of months, as I was on a short break from the hobby, and was smitten with her as soon as I returned. I spent almost two years trolling every secondhand venue I could think of and then some. Unfortunately, when I had the funds, she was nowhere to be seen and when I didn't, there she was. I put out a WTB earlier this year and a very kind person on Den of Angels sold her to me for a reasonable price. Mariko always was and continues to be my unicorn, but Anthy is something of a crowning jewel in my collection.

i didn't know mariko had a summer version until recently (student mariko was around the time i stopped keeping up with volks due to college life) but she's stunning!! i used to love the sensei version because i think a bob is fun whether its being rocked on a person or doll lol

being so behind i didn't know the white skin dd parts were discontinued so i'm feeling a little... ambivalent towards my saber alter. -.-

anthy is so so beautiful!! love that you were able to get not one but two gals that ya love!!

1 hour ago, amiamitchi said:

tell me about it lol she's currently on yja for a price well above what i'd pay _(°:з」∠)_ i feel like it's a good sign though!

Oooh, from the pictures, I’m pretty sure that’s the one that used to be on Mercari for 300,000 yen! It was there for years and never sold, I believe. Guess they’re trying their luck on other venues now.

1 hour ago, amiamitchi said:

glad you got her!! she looks so cute in the two tone wig you've styled her in >w<

Thank you ❤️ It took forever to find a black and pink wig in that style, but now I have two that she can use ☺️

I don't know if this quite counts, but I've been wanting a doll of an original character for a long, long time. I first started trying to shell her back in 2012, but none of the sculpts I tried seemed to fit her well enough. Failed sculpt after failed sculpt, I've been trying to find the right one ever since then until finally, in December 2023, I found the right one. It was by happenstance at I-Doll, but the moment I (and @rudebuster) saw her, we knew it was the perfect sculpt for her. It was a heavily-modded DDH09, but it had just the right personality that fit her own. Most official doll sculpts just don't pull off the right personality, no matter how much we wished it did. But damn, that was a long process.

 

10 hours ago, chupakiba said:

I don't know if this quite counts, but I've been wanting a doll of an original character for a long, long time. I first started trying to shell her back in 2012, but none of the sculpts I tried seemed to fit her well enough. Failed sculpt after failed sculpt, I've been trying to find the right one ever since then until finally, in December 2023, I found the right one. It was by happenstance at I-Doll, but the moment I (and @rudebuster) saw her, we knew it was the perfect sculpt for her. It was a heavily-modded DDH09, but it had just the right personality that fit her own. Most official doll sculpts just don't pull off the right personality, no matter how much we wished it did. But damn, that was a long process.

the wait must've been worth it!! just curious which one of your dolls is it? I'm totally in awe by the details on all the dolls on your profile (,,⟡o⟡,,)

2 hours ago, amiamitchi said:

the wait must've been worth it!! just curious which one of your dolls is it? I'm totally in awe by the details on all the dolls on your profile (,,⟡o⟡,,)

It was Zenon! And thank you very much!!

i was smitten with angel philia dolls since the age of i think 11 or 12? i browsed MFC everyday and ended up coming across them. at the time, i thought they were the only dolls i would ever collect (i have now branched out and enjoy azone's 1/3 iris collect line and 1/6 pureneemo line)

in 2015, kotone was created. i thought she was gorgeous, definitely one of the better APs... but im going to be honest, i have a REALLY hard time using my imagination when it comes to dolls. i find it hard to understand their potential without seeing a wig / clothing set / eyes i also enjoy in promo pictures. (bald heads with no eyes and no other pics are my nightmare lol)

in 2019, kotone's soft skin version was released in blushed white, and she was given an updated photoshoot.

this was the picture i saw.

to me, this is the greatest picture of a doll ever taken. i think this is just the height of beauty. she is saying so much just with a head shot... it is really an unbelievable picture.

obviously you can just "build" your dream doll. APs are no different; however, i am absolutely smitten with tommy's stylings of his dolls, and call it a symptom of being primarily a collector of many things, but im still getting used to the independent nature of the BJD hobby. to me, it wouldve been too "easy" (and therefore not fun) to just build a doll. i wanted to see someone's vision for what "beauty" is and respect it in its full glory, especially someone i love like tommy (seriously, his eye for fashion and poses is the BEST.)

her promo pictures + body presets + most importantly, her face were all 10/10. she felt like "the one" to me.

i was able to get her this year, nearly a decade later. i actually had a chance to buy obitsu's original 50cm mikaduki for a steal, but a little voice told me to save my money. and in my heart, i kinda knew i was more purchasing mikaduki for the "WOW!" factor of just having her in really good condition for cheap, which i consider not a great reason to buy something. good thing i listened, because a week later i found kotone in perfect condition for $400. tiffany is home now. im a very emotional person, and sometimes i cant focus too closely when im dressing her / playing with her because i start to cry -- she makes me so happy. i cannot believe i really own an AP! to me, they are the most beautiful dolls in the whole world with kotone being queen.

im really happy to own my grail as the second BJD purchase i ever made (the first was my pureneemo himeno ticktock clock ver., which is my favorite pureneemo ever!) 

i hope i make her as happy as she makes me.

thank you for reading!