Rant: Why You Should Know Your Doll Companies and Why Reading is Good

There shall probably be irony in this post. I accept that. Please withold judgment until I'm through ranting, tyvm.

I'm going to be up front here and say one of the things that irritates me most in the doll community is people who don't know anything about the dolls they are buying. This will probably offend some of you, and I'll apologize up front about that, since I like you. But since this post is about reading and why reading is good, I'm just going to offer you a virtual cookie, pat your head, and tell you to keep reading. You can hit me if you want to. I'll even hold still. Feel better? Good. Moving on!

For example: If you plan on buying a recast minifee, please familiarize yourself with the company. Know what the body types are, know what things like optional hands are. Know what generally comes with the dolls.You can find all of this out by reading, googling, checking out castaways, DoA, flikr, the facebook groups. You don't have to say, "tell me everything zomg about dollz plese I want ot bye one but I dont kno how". 

Yeah. The bad grammar isn't helping you either. Honestly, I've seen better grammar out of most non-native speakers of English than half the people who are from the U.S.A. You rock awesome Swedish or French or German person. You speak better English than most Americans.

image by Grammarly on Facebook

Moving right along...

Reading will help you understand exactly what the recasters have, what they don't, and how to ask for the things you want.

For example, don't assume that Fairyland dolls have A-line or Moe in every size. Know about the sizes.

This isn't to say you need to be an expert, by any means! I'm not an expert on much of anything. ;)

This doesn't mean you can't ask questions about wigs and eye sizes, though generally you can find that info without asking, since thirty million people before you probably asked the same thing. Hell, I've done it too (though I tend to read first and ask questions later nowadays), and I still ask stupid questions or questions I could have found the answer to on my own all the dang time. 

I'm a notebook. I'm amazingly useful!

My advice? Keep a notepad. Buying a Chloe? Write everything down you can find out about Minifee Chloe. Keeping notes as you learn things will really help. 

 

Example: On EVERY SINGLE PAGE of the Fairyland discussion on Den of Angels you will find at least one question about wig size or what eye size for Chloe. On EVERY SINGLE PAGE you will find at least two responses to that question. If the person had simply searched the thread, searched DoA, or even READ the page before they might have found their answer. Questions about opinions on things are entirely different. Opinions change, opinions are different.

I love dolls, I love helping. But please, please, please, read before you post. The information is right there in files, in wikis, in posts. Read the files. THEN ask your question. Chances are you can find most info there in the files. However, some things are confusing. Really confusing. I've had to ask before too. It took me like a month to figure out what the hell an agent is and why I needed one for Taobao. There is nothing wrong with this. However, I ALWAYS read first, ask questions after. 

Ohmygawd I love her. Image copyright by Fairyland.

[I keep using Chloe as an example because I love her and want like a million of the damn things.]

Sometimes you just gotta ask a dumb question. We all do. Sometimes google fails you. Sometimes you just simply didn't see the answer. It happens to the best of us (for example, I freaked the hell out about the SDgr body, worked myself into a tizzy, and felt stupid when I realized I'd made a stink over quite literally nothing). 

Sometimes you can pull a me and read something and come away not remembering a damn thing you just read. Sometimes I'm not even sure it was in English. Seriously. They should just start calling that "pulling an Amaranth". The point is that you tried. There are some of us who work our butts off collecting information for you, writing it up in easily digestible chunks, putting it in one place. Make our efforts worth it- read first and ask questions later.

Know the companies you love, try to know the sculpts. Don't worry about becoming a dollie encyclopedia. We have wikis for that. DO worry about doing your homework. Just like in high school it's important in the real world too.

READ FIRST ASK QUESTIONS AFTER.

Apologies for the rant. I hope you'll forgive me and keep reading here in the future. Did I piss you off? Make you think? I love you either way. Or, did you just notice a grammar mistake I ironically missed? Post a comment or drop me a line!

Thank you for visiting, and happy collecting!