Are your dolls characters?

I can't bond with a ball-jointed doll until I can link a personality to it. The personality of a doll is very important to me. Once their appearance, name and background are settled I love to write stories about them or daydream about their adventures. Usually I try to flesh out their character to the point that I'm writing pages and pages just for one character biography. It makes me happy though and it's what I enjoy about the hobby.

I'm not good with my hands but I can daydream and be random like no tomorrow! Everyone has their talent, mine is making up too many characters.

 

Yes, I create original characters for all my BJDs. My newest ones are still in progress. For the most part, my oldest dolls are the ones with the most intricate backstories. My BJD characters are more real to me than any other fictional characters I've come up with in my past. The inspiration comes completely from the dolls themselves. I love having a 3D inspiration to create!

I don't really plan it extensively ahead of time, their characters are planned in my head and are embodied in the dolls. The dolls inspire even more stories as I look at them. Sometimes the doll comes first, and sometimes I go looking for a doll to fit a character in my head. I write their photostories and that's when they come to life for me, though I am always thinking about what they did in their pasts and what they will do in their futures.

I write down some backstories, past scenes and dialogue for them if I don't want to forget it, but don't have a book or anything like that. It's like a giant family tree in my head. The stories are all ultimately connected. I have groups of dolls who have their own circles of friends and family. (Okay, now I want to do a "friend" tree just to see how they connect.)

I am still trying to work out how my Dollfie Dreams will fit in! But they each have distinct character types too.

Linda S.
galatia9

 

It seems that half the time I have a character fleshed out for a doll I'm going to get, and the other half I'm kind of winging it until I can figure out what type of personality they have. My very first doll was a gift, but the friend who gave him to me let me pick him out based on the character, and he's a doll I still have. My second and third dolls, however, I just thought were cute and was able to afford them at the time, but then I never bonded with them. I couldn't figure them out. My Winnie Ai I fleshed out beforehand and still am bonded with her, and the doll I'm saving up for now has one as well.

The ones I have right now are original characters from roleplays or doodles, but the one I'm saving up for now is actually a character from a TV show, which I've never done before. I'm interested to see how it pans out.

 

My dolls are just dolls mostly, sure they all have names and a vague concept of a personality, but nothing as detailed as some other BJD owners.

 

this is me as well. I have a basic idea of what kind of character/archetype my dolls fit into, but no intricate stories and such.

 

For me...I am waiting for my first bjd (and saving money for second :'D) and I already have backstories and characters for them. I also try to draw...how I wish they would look like after face up. Btw I somehow trust that there is "something" in these dolls I really like bjds of my friend and they look like they are living their own lives and I want my future dolls living their own lives too So yeah, to be honest, I can't imagine that I would have a doll that would only sit on the shelf :/

 

I am new to the Bjd hobby, but I'm not new to dolls. Ever since I was a little girl, my dolls had their own character. That is what made them MY dolls and they could never belong to someone else unless of course I didn't bond with them, then they found a new home for some other kids to enjoy

 

You asked a good question. I wish I could give the characters from my stories a body to represent them. It would be awesome and very inspirational. However, I simply haven't found a doll that perfectly matches any one of them in appearance, which is too bad. I'm about to order my first doll in the next week or two. I haven't thought of what type of personality she'll have or what her back story will be, yet. I haven't even chosen her name! The only thing I've done for her so far is buy her an outfit, a wig, and accessories. But once I get her, I'm sure a personality will shine through. From her personality a character will be born, maybe even a story. This will take time, of course.

 

Mine have personality traits. My little Lati Yellow is bossy and loves sweets and reptiles, especially my pet lizard Clovis and her toy alligator Steve. My bigger Lati Green is very patient and less mischievous than her little sister. So no detailed stories, but as I play with them little personalities definitely emerge!

 

Yes they are--I find I can't really bond with a doll unless they have a very strong character attached to them and the ones that are the most fleshed out are the ones that stick. All of my current dolls, save for my pong and DD, are based on original characters (mostly ones I've used in wrimos--Max in particular is a longtime reoccurring character (unsurprisingly he's my favorite.)) and I can't wrap my head around having a doll without a firm character. Nearly every doll I've sold I sold because I either found the doll was wrong for the character I meant for it to be or their character wasn't strong enough (premature shelling. My No.1 enemy).

 

Hm.

You know you are lost when you used to 'limit' yourself to dolls that had a pre-made character and fitted in the same doll family, but your latest doll doesn't fit any of that and was bought just because she is an utter byoo-tay. There was a time when I thought I wouldn't click with a doll that didn't represent one of my characters. But I just enjoy those just as much, only differently. I have shelled the characters I wanted to shell, but... now I'm looking out for dolls that I love simply as dolls.

 

No, I don't think so. Embarrassingly, I think my doll is an extension of myself. I buy her clothes (that I would wear), doll food (that I would eat), etc. I guess that way I can identify with her.

 

(Accidental double post, please delete)

 

All my dolls fit to a previously designed character, even the ones I have fallen in love with the sculpt first. I don't really think I could bond with a doll if it has no background or personality.
My first doll is the protagonist of a bunch of my short novels, and the second and third one were born to be a part of her story in a nowadays world. But the next ones are part of at least 3 different worlds, with magic and strange creatures.
In general, for me, first comes the character, then the doll.

 

Yeah always i want to choose sculpts that they fit to a character that i have create i can't imagine my self buying one doll because i like her or fell in love with her!

 

I actually create characters in my mind, i also draw them, building up their stories and i like to write it down, a little like a book. So i create the characters and their storys before i buy the doll. I enjoy to create different characters, storys to write about and to be able to share it with others.

I do always my research for the right sculpt for that character that i have in mind before i buy it.
My doll that i have now have a character and a story, she is a like a little mini-me. I am going to make so her boyfriend and her best friend is also in the BJD crew soon, can't wait until then!

 

My dolls are characters, but not in the same sense as the characters I write about in stories. They're not part of any kind of plot, but they do have histories and personalities. I base the characters off the dolls, and not vice-versa: sometimes, I will see a sculpt that gets me thinking about what sort of person the doll would be if he or she was alive. Of course, coming up with backstories for my dolls means inevitably coming up with family and friends that I would love to have shelled as well!

 

Most of my dolls I own I have developed characters for when I got them but I do like creating a character first better. I have 3 fully planned out characters I want to shell and 3 more vague ideas.

 

I create characters to fit the dolls and write about them. They tend to change/develop a bit over time, especially when they're new.

 

I started out buying my girl on a whim, having no character or name or anything created for her. I sat down not too long ago and wrote out 4 characters of dolls that would work well together, and I'm starting to turn my girl into her character slowly. Now I'm buying my dolls based on their sculpts, body types, and everything else I've created for them. I think it's a lot harder this way, having something pictured in your mind and trying to find the exact thing you want. I've spent hours already trying to find ONE! face that works for my new girl, and jeez is that difficult work.