What do you see?

[Fräulein_Kim]

I'm an illustrator/sculptor/3D-Artist, so I'm trained in things like that and can find a flaw in 90+% of them dolls. ;>
But I'm aware that they're not exactly designer toys or art dolls so that is to be expected and tolerable as long as it ain't too bad. ^^

However, I agree that one of Goona's eyes looks to be placed slightly higher than the other and one of Cleo's pupils might be a little more oval/wider than the other. I cannot say for sure, tho, since eyewonk is insanely hard to tell from pictures alone, especially if there is just one and it's not taken perfectly from the front. ;>

In general it is always good advice to look at the doll straight and see if she's wall-/cross-/squint-eyed or has smudges. That's the most obvious flaw and at the same time the most annoying to a lot of people. Basically just check if both pupils are looking in the same direction/ are focusing you.
Second check is looking if the eyes are off-center, have different size or are misaligned.
I second the tilting of the box. I look at the eyes from upside and below, make sure that they are where the mold wants them to be and not larger/smaller than the dent.
I also make sure that they align perfectly (this one can be seen from the upside pretty well) and that none of the eyes is tilted more than the other.
Another common flaw is that the eyes won't have the same distance from the nostrils/bridge - Most likely one will be closer than the other, on some dolls the edge of the eye will even be printed ON the bridge of the nose. Although this is mostly seen in Clawdeen/Frankie/Lala. Gonna seldom has it and so does Cleo.

Third I check for the eyeshadow/eyeliner to align as well, make sure that the lashes have the same distance from the eyeshadow in each eye. With Cleo, her little beauty mark is often not perfectly rounded either.

Those are mostly the flaws that picky collectors will look after, I guess.. ;>
But like I said, almost all the dolls have it to some extend, given the way they are made and their price-point. So it's mostly just picking out the one with the flaws that annoy you the least out of them. xD
I'd just leave behind dolls that have severe wonk (wall-/cross-eyes) or smudges/scratches. xD;

Oh, and yeah.. I almost instantly focus on the eyes.. to the extend where I'll put a doll in the basket, thinking it is flawless enough only to notice at second glance that the lipstick is smeared or smudged. LOL. Fail.

[faunabay]

The way I check eyes, if the issues isn't immediately noticeable, is to tilt the box. Since their eye sockets are sculpted on you can usually catch a highlight on the paint at the top of the eye. See where the paint hits it, and how far from the iris the edge is. Then look at how far the edge is on the other eye. If they look off, you can see it.

This is a great suggestion DoomBunnies.  Thank you!

And I'm not going to be stressing about it in any way.......just being curious.    

Post Merge: March 11, 2013, 07:47:58 AM

Years ago when I first started in my video production career I had an editor play a bad edit over and over and I didn't see it for a LONG time.    But once I trained my eyes to see bad edits I see them easily now.  So I'm trying to do that here.     But then again you can't see anything that's not there either!  LOL   So if nothings there, nothings there to see.   

I meant Lagoona's. Don't beat yourself about it, learning takes practice and with enough practice, you'll be able to spot the most minor detail eventually.

Oh yeah.  I can spot the minor bad edit very quickly now.  But it did take me looking at one over and over until all the sudden my eyes learned how to focus on, instead of glide over, the mistake.  So no worries..... actually just having fun trying to learn!!   

[DoomBunnies]

Fräulein, I do that tooo! My SS Draculaura has amazing eyes, but a huge chunk of her lipstick missing. I didn't notice it for days, and by then I was attached to her so she stays, and keeps my 1600 Clawd company.

[Fräulein_Kim]

Fräulein, I do that tooo! My SS Draculaura has amazing eyes, but a huge chunk of her lipstick missing. I didn't notice it for days, and by then I was attached to her so she stays, and keeps my 1600 Clawd company.

LOL. I'm glad it's not just me.
I have an Abbey like that, too - Was all like 'YAY - Perfect Eyes and no distracting Glitter!', then when I was unboxing her noticed she had a huge lip-smudge. D'Oh! X'D

[operaghost]

They're both so pretty!

[empirical]

Fräulein, I do that tooo! My SS Draculaura has amazing eyes, but a huge chunk of her lipstick missing. I didn't notice it for days, and by then I was attached to her so she stays, and keeps my 1600 Clawd company.

LOL. I'm glad it's not just me.
I have an Abbey like that, too - Was all like 'YAY - Perfect Eyes and no distracting Glitter!', then when I was unboxing her noticed she had a huge lip-smudge. D'Oh! X'D

i'm alot less picky about the eyes than some people but i always focus on them and don't tend to notice other imperfections right away. my ss lagoona has a bit of lipstick missing from her top lip. it took me probably a week to realize it. i try not to make that mistake anymore.

[Keelee_von_Cupcake]

I've become pretty ridiculously picky about the eyes, and it's practically a hardship to me. So it's good to see that other people are less so. I miss those days!

Your Cleo looks perfect, though I might think differently if I saw her in person (and could examine her from other angles).

Your Lagoona looks slightly wonky. Her right eye (my right, as I'm facing her on the computer) is definitely (a little bit) higher than the other, and also slightly farther away from her nose than the left is. I also think her lipstick is slightly higher on the left side of her upper lip than the right, but this could just be the photo. The eye thing makes her pretty much unacceptable to me. I wouldn't care about the lip thing, those have to be really badly flawed (missing whole streaks of paint or somesuch) to bother me.

Everything Kim said about looking for flaws is spot on. The main things I do are look at her straight on (best way to see vertical misalignment - are her eyes even with each other? how about her eyeliner lines, and her eyebrows?) and then look at her from above, tilting the box (good way to see horizontal misalignment, by checking to see if both eyes are the same distance from the nose).

[faunabay]

Ok Keelee now I do see the lip misalignment.  The eye is more the angle of the photo I think because when I look at her in person the corners (the little points) inside of the eyes are spot on even but...... now I see the pink underneath each eye - the right one you were talking about is moved a miniscule amount farther out but the black part of the eye looks even.  Are they put on in layers or all at once because it looks like the pink is wrong but the black isn't.   

[LiquidCyanide]

This might just be me but if you stare at any doll long enough they all start to look like they have wonky eyes, even if they don't

I think the paint is probably done in layers because i have dolls with perfectly placed eyes but offset make up, my Toralei is like this (as are pretty much all of the other Toraleis i've seen)

Something else to watch out for is sometimes the eyebrows can cut through the corner of the eye makeup, it can be super hard to tell in the box though. It might not bother others but it looks kind of weird to me, its a common problem in signature Robeccas it seems.

[faunabay]

This might just be me but if you stare at any doll long enough they all start to look like they have wonky eyes, even if they don't

There is this too!!!   

[HollowZero]

Lagoona's right eye is printed larger than her left. Also, her pupils make her appear to be looking--well, the opposite of cross-eyed.

Cleo's left eye is misprinted, bigger than the right and the iris's outer line is kind of wobbly.

[Fräulein_Kim]

I've become pretty ridiculously picky about the eyes, and it's practically a hardship to me. So it's good to see that other people are less so. I miss those days!

I SOOO get that!
My picky-ness can totally drain all the fun sometimes.. when a new doll arrives in the mail it's not 'WHEEE - SHE'S HERE!', but 'OMG-- please.. PLEASE be tolerable!! X_X'

I also have to buy a bunch of older dolls on ebay, and pictures can be deceiving.. so sometimes a doll arrives at my home just to be instantly relisted in the bay since I loathe her faceup... some dolls have taken 4-5 buys before I found one I could tolerate.. ALL.THIS.TIME.WASTED. ..makes me hate Mattel sometimes.

But yeah, with me, this also developed over time. I sometimes look at my older dolls that I picked out in store and go 'WOW, how could I BUY this one back when? :O' - But I remember I've always looked after flaws right from the beginning, so I probably WAS already choosing the best there was. It is just that I could tolerate a lot more flaws a few years ago. And yeah, just like you, I miss those days. :,c

[faunabay]

I've become pretty ridiculously picky about the eyes, and it's practically a hardship to me. So it's good to see that other people are less so. I miss those days!

I SOOO get that!
My picky-ness can totally drain all the fun sometimes.. when a new doll arrives in the mail it's not 'WHEEE - SHE'S HERE!', but 'OMG-- please.. PLEASE be tolerable!! X_X'

Not judging here at all......but why have you both gotten this picky over time?  Especially if it's taking all the fun out of it?  That makes me kind of sad for you!     Because while I don't want any of them with major flaws I still have a HUGE "Whhhheeeee - She's here" moment when I get a new doll!  I hope you guys can get that back somehow!!!

[LiquidCyanide]

I've become pretty ridiculously picky about the eyes, and it's practically a hardship to me. So it's good to see that other people are less so. I miss those days!

I SOOO get that!
My picky-ness can totally drain all the fun sometimes.. when a new doll arrives in the mail it's not 'WHEEE - SHE'S HERE!', but 'OMG-- please.. PLEASE be tolerable!! X_X'

Not judging here at all......but why have you both gotten this picky over time?  Especially if it's taking all the fun out of it?  That makes me kind of sad for you!     Because while I don't want any of them with major flaws I still have a HUGE "Whhhheeeee - She's here" moment when I get a new doll!  I hope you guys can get that back somehow!!!

I can't speak for the others but i too have become pickier over time to the point where i dread buying new dolls. For me atleast its because in the begining i wasn't aware of the flaws but as time went on i got better at spotting them so even tiny flaws really stand out to me now really doesn't help that i'm a perfectionist anyway. Thankfully the two dolls i bought before i became super picky (they were the only ones on the shelf at the time anyway) are still acceptable to me now... well mostly but i'm never satisfied

[Fräulein_Kim]

I've become pretty ridiculously picky about the eyes, and it's practically a hardship to me. So it's good to see that other people are less so. I miss those days!

I SOOO get that!
My picky-ness can totally drain all the fun sometimes.. when a new doll arrives in the mail it's not 'WHEEE - SHE'S HERE!', but 'OMG-- please.. PLEASE be tolerable!! X_X'

Not judging here at all......but why have you both gotten this picky over time?  Especially if it's taking all the fun out of it?  That makes me kind of sad for you!     Because while I don't want any of them with major flaws I still have a HUGE "Whhhheeeee - She's here" moment when I get a new doll!  I hope you guys can get that back somehow!!!

I can't speak for the others but i too have become pickier over time to the point where i dread buying new dolls. For me atleast its because in the begining i wasn't aware of the flaws but as time went on i got better at spotting them so even tiny flaws really stand out to me now really doesn't help that i'm a perfectionist anyway. Thankfully the two dolls i bought before i became super picky (they were the only ones on the shelf at the time anyway) are still acceptable to me now... well mostly but i'm never satisfied

^This exactly.

I don't know why, but I just can't stand it when a doll has a weird eye. Smudges I can tolerate, imperfect Make-Up I can tolerate. But Eyes that are looking in two different directions or are tilted or of different size just drives me batty. Once I have noticed it, it just cannot be unseen. LOL.

My Sig Howleen is worst. She has the common flaw where one of her eyes is looking up slightly while the other is looking straight. I never managed to find/get one without that flaw and since she's exclusive and was never released in germany it's costly. So I gave up eventually. Now she's living wrapped up in tissue paper in a box. I cannot sell her, for I want sig, but I cannot display her for I dread her weird eye. THIS IS HOW CRAZY THIS HAS GOTTEN, YOU GUYS! x'D

However, WHEN I find a perfect enough one it's quite a rush. I love that and I cherish my dolls. :>
It's just that it is quite a hunt to get one like that, LOL.


BTW LiquidCyanide, your Catrine is one of the prettiest I've seen so far!!