Are dolls like family or like toys?

My dolls are definitely toys for me. Family responsibilities will quickly bring me back from fantasizing about a doll family. They are art that brings joy for me to look at. A needed distraction from feeding and caring for real people and other worldly woes.

 

Depends a bit on the doll, for me! I have a couple of them who I've never really bonded with at all, but I still hesitate to say they're 'just toys' to me. They feel more like, I don't know, characters waiting for someone else who WILL click with them and bring them to life once I sell them!
Because I guess most of my dolls are something like OCs to me; they've become characters in my head who I think of backstories for and whatnot. I'm a writer, though, so I'm by nature an insane person.

And then there's my little Dollzone Miyou, who's in a class of his own lmfao. He initially got lost in the mail for a bit when I bought him and had him shipped from Singapore to the US, and when I took him out and saw his cute little pouty face, I was like, 'Aw you were scared and cold, huh? Poor bby, you'll sleep over on the bed with me tonight!'
. . . Annnd now guess where he lives permanently? He has his soft little nest over in the corner of my bed, and I regularly just pick him up and cuddle him while I'm watching shows at night. Earlier this evening, I was holding him like that and had to get up to find something, so I was carrying him around with me and talking to him while I looked . . . I regret to inform you all, this is not an uncommon occurrence lmfao. Nor is me kissing his little head before I go to work in the morning. Pfff.
So yeah, he's my little baby. He's the most like family of all my dolls, even though I have a couple of others who are also very 'alive' to me!

I just never grew out of being that person who feels sad when one of my stuffed animals falls out of bed during the night and is cold and alone ahaha. So I feel strong emotions for my dolls, too!

 

I get attached fast to inanimate stuff, so bonding with dolls was extremely easy. I do know they're just dolls but I kind of look at them and see parts of myself no one else can see, they feel like family but they also feel like, well, me. It would be really painful to have to sell them or give them away and buying the same sculpt later wouldn't feel the same, if that makes sense.

 

For me, dolls are a game, a distraction from problems. I really like sewing clothes for my dolls, taking beautiful photos, sharing photos with my friends. This is a hobby that is enjoyable and ruins your bank account)

 

I've managed to get my mom involved in a hobby because she's a seamstress, but sometimes I feel like she's skeptical and not serious...

 

My dolls are neither family or toys.
I never saw my dolls as characters or having personality beyond "pretty doll" (Even now I've had some dolls for 5 something years and still have no personalized name for them ), I tried in the beginning of the hobby to have character bios etc for them but it never felt right. They definitely don't feel like family members. I don't introduce people to them and rarely even point them out unless my visitor notices them.
Not to say I'm not attached to some of my dolls. I don't know if I could ever sell my first doll, life without her seems so foreign.

They are definitely not toys. Aside from regular maintenance, clothing changes and photography sessions I don't really take any of the ladies out of their cabinet.
I treat them more like precious valuables, like an expensive designer vase an aunt has in their cabinet and brings out only for holiday parties. Something expensive and delicate that makes you happy.

Luckily for me dolls are very customizable so I can have pretty things specifically tailored to my tastes and they take some work to get to that point

 

My dolls are somewhere in the intersection between toys, art and tools.

They do have a toy like quality, that can't be denied and I do spend time just playing around with them for sure.
The art aspect is also pretty obvious to anyone knowing anything about how a doll is made.
But to me they also have a very practical function. I use them as a foundation for a huge number of different crafts, many that wouldn't be possible or at least not nearly as easy without the dolls.

Ayone claiming that dolls serve no practical purpose can fight me.

 

My dolls are definitely more than just toys, but I wouldn't call them family. I see them more as outlets for art--models for fleshing out a particular original character, creating fanart of an existing character, and dressing up in a particular fashion/aesthetic. All of my dolls each have their own "personality" that I dress them to and in that way, they feel somewhat alive. So if I had to stick a solid label on them, they'd be my "muses" for sewing, wigmaking, photography, and other artsy hobbies of mine

 

Spoiler: Thoughts on Relatives/Family/Etc

Only person in my life, currently, who knows about me having dolls/BJDs is my fiancé. I believe I showed my mother in the past when I was heavily into Dollfie Dreams but am unsure if I ever showed my father. I never got into how much things cost with my parents though as I didn't want to deal with them saying I could use the money for other things or silently judging me with disapproving looks that I feel they can give off at times. My fiancé is alright with my dolls, as long as I don't put myself (or eventually us) in a bad financial situation over them. He's not much into dolls/BJDs himself but doesn't try to make me feel bad about them either. He likes certain sculpts I've shown him as well, which is always a nice surprise. In general, there's not too much support from anyone but also, no one disapproving so far. However, I'm not too deep into the hobby yet anyway (since I'm just starting out again from a long hiatus).

Spoiler: Family or Toys?

As for if dolls/BJDs are more like family or toys, well, that has been a complicated mess for me that initially started when collecting Dollfie Dreams a few years back. A lot of people I had encountered (not on DoA) seemed to push that "dolls are family", "dolls have feelings" or "dolls have their own personalities/thoughts", which I ended up trying to play into as well to see if it helped me bond better with the certain dolls I had at the time, etc. It DID NOT help at all. On the contrary, it made me feel worse. At the time, I didn't have much in the way of finances to get a lot of clothes or experiment with wigs, eyes, etc. So, with the mentality of "dolls are family/their own person" made me feel super guilty that I couldn't provide them with a lot of things along with making me feel even worse about myself. It was one of the reasons that pushed me away from the hobby and collecting Dollfie Dreams. With that being said, I would not see/prefer not to see them as "family" (though I can understand others viewing them that way as I, personally, have felt similar feelings towards other items in my home ). As for seeing them as toys, I would never really consider these types of dolls as that (unless they are rag dolls, playline dolls or something in that vein). Normal resin BJDs are usually much too fragile for that kind of play and can be quite expensive/annoying to fix if certain parts kept being broken, if one treated them as purely toys.

Spoiler: What I Consider My Dolls/BJDs

As for how I view my own dolls/BJDs, I'd say I view them more as interactive art pieces with character possibilities (of course, they don't need to be a character for me to be able to enjoy them though). The interactive part comes from what the doll/BJD can do physically (pose, hold things) and that they can facilitate others to connect with other doll/BJD owners/enthusiasts while the art part comes from how they are sculpted and the creative things we can do with them (photography, fashion design, stories, etc). Which, so far, I really enjoy the photography aspect of dolls/BJDs and thought about using some of my dolls/BJDs as models to practice drawing human proportions/body parts/poses (like how people use the little wooden doll in art classes).

 

I dont think family is the right word, but my one doll I have is more like an extension of myself.
Her customization is made out of things that found their way to me over the span of 10 years.

Her forgead gem was a birthday gift.
Her bottom skirt layer is from my graduation dress.
Many of her fabrics were gifts from friends or family.
And I assembled the outfit myself, pattern drafting and all.

When I first started counciling, and when I first stayed in the psych ward for depression, she was with me.

She is a part of me, and I am thankful my family understands and accepts her significance.

 

I've been lucky - my family doesn't quite get the hobby, but they're supportive so long as I stay responsible with my spending...and I do, of course. My partner is wonderfully supportive, surprisingly so considering he isn't even adjacent to this kinda hobby - he doesn't collect ANYTHING. It's baffling. But if I call on him to help me with a photoshoot, he's there no matter how silly the things I ask him to do are. It's wonderful.

As for the dolls themselves...It's a mix. I have a lot, so I can't treat them all like family or like toys. They're more like...photo models, outlets for art, representatives of things I like or projects I'm working on. But a couple of them are closer to companions than anything else. I've always got at least one with me when I go to work during the week, and if I'm feeling lonely when I get home I'll take one of them out and sit them by me while I go about whatever I'm doing. It's like having a little friend but without any of the pesky obligations of maintaining a friendship! I love my human friends, but it IS nice to just put a doll on a shelf for a while when I'm feeling super antisocial, come back a month later, and not have them be mad, lol.

 

The story between my family of origin and my hobby is a bit sordid and lengthy, but the short version is that they now accept my hobby even though they don't really "get it." As for the family I've built, my husband is very supportive of my various hobbies and is fine with me having them as long as I don't put us in a financial hole over it. The only aspect he's even mildly critiqued is that I need to finish some of the dolls I have before buying new ones, which...yeah, that's a fair ask at this point. My husband's a Lego guy, so even if he doesn't get the "doll" thing specifically, he understands expensive toy collecting and niche interests.

My dolls are probably more like extensions of me or, in some cases, expressions of love than they are toys or family. I'm a creative type, like many people in this hobby, and my various creations are often reflections of my mental/emotional state. My dolls are no exception. In many ways, they are physical manifestations of both my best qualities and my worst. Add in that I get emotionally attached to objects fairly easily and it's no wonder that they rank above "toys" for me. On the other hand, my dolls could be replaced if push came to shove. I would be gutted to lose them, of course, but I would eventually recover and rebuild my collection. My loved ones, my family, are truly irreplaceable to me. In that sense, my dolls absolutely rank below "family."

 

For me there is certainly an aspect of companionship to having a doll. Maybe not family but certainly a treasured friend. I am however also one of those people who get very attached to inanimate objects as well as lean towards animism as a baseline.

I don't think I will ever be a big collector because of that reason. There are only so many dolls I can reasonably take care of and wouldn't want any of them to feel neglected.

 

I kind of see my BJDs as ... their own individual characters. Neither toy nor family, but some secret third option. Though, I suppose they are nearer toys than family for me. I see them as art pieces, something that can be displayed and look nice, but also serve as a representation of a character to me.

 

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I feel extremely attached to my dolls, but they are neither toys nor family. For me they are inspiration for character creation and stories, and a tool to be more creative and productive in my free time ... if that makes sense.

 

I always get really emotionally attached to objects I own, dolls included, but I tend to see my dolls more as incarnations of characters, or maybe art pieces. Not really the same way I see other kinds of dolls, and not really like family (yet?).

I definitely would be agonized if I had to sell any that were characters I really liked (which is, and will be, pretty much all of them). Out of all my belongings, if I had to prioritize, they'd probably come maybe third, after my computer and my drawing tablet? Just because those are generally more important to daily life and more expensive overall.

But outside of drawing, dolls has become my other number one hobby tbh, so they're definitely really important to me, just in a way that can't really be categorized into "objects" or "family".

 

My dolls are neither family nor toys for me. I giving a lot of personal energy for each of them, and they are like individual people or character I taking care of. I m very creative person, so I see like in a mirror, part of my creativity in my dolls, manifestation of my good and bad qualities.. I could say they are like a friends, nice and understanding, bringing joy and happiness in my life.

 

My all dolls are an important part of my family. I love them really so much and i never think about them like a toys.
I breathed a soul into them, they are a part of me. Maybe Im a little bit crazy