Bonding with your dolls

I'm excited to see the answers this thread gets.. I've been wondering the same.

 

I feel that I have bonded with my dolls. It feels like somethings is missing when they are not in view. The thought of selling them does not occur to me. The personalities my dolls have were already there, it just needed a certain sculpt to match it up.

 

How do you bond with your doll?

I play with them! I like to dress them, undress them, and dress them up again! It is calming for me and I can let my imagination run wild thinking up back stories or photo stories for all of my dolls.

I also like making cute "sets" for them to live in. I just recently found some wire jewelry holders in Target that would make perfect MSD sized chairs (or a table with some JB Weld ).

How do you figure out your dolls personality?

I have a general idea of what kind of personality traits I want a doll to have when I want to order them. By the time the get from the doll company to me, I have developed a back story.

Usually, however, when I start playing with them I find that the personality I created beforehand changes! It's all real fun if you ask me! I think that's the best part of BJD's.

 

How do you bond with your doll?
I customize them. I do faceups, buy wigs, sew clothes, buy eyes, etc. I also like doing minor mods on them, a little something to make them unique. ^^

How do you figure out your dolls personality?
...it kinda comes to me instead of the other way around, lol. I didn't really have a personality in mind when I got my doll, but he somehow developed one on his own as time went on, lol.

 

Most of the dolls I have had a personality as soon as I saw them, and if not then, when I held them for the first time. Doing their face ups and finding wigs/accessories or making clothes are all fun and help flesh out the finer points of their personas, too. Most of the actual bonding comes from talking to them, playing with them, or just touching and looking at them in general. I love to just pose them in as many positions as I can manage and just see how they look there (Is that a cute head tilt or an exasperated one? Is he lounging or getting ready to kick me?)

 

I liked them enough to buy them. That's "bonding" for me. It was cute, I thought of a name for it and an outfit it would look neat in. If I'm feeling particularly fancy, I give it a bare skeleton of a story. That's pretty rare. No fireworks, no music, no fuzzies, no sparkles, no epic backstory or history handed down from above.

 

How do you bond with your doll?
I change wigs, eyes, sometimes try to do a faceup, make clothes for them, take photos of them, and daydream about the stories I want to do with them.
I am currently focusing my dolls on characters I already have in my head, yet I am also getting dolls which it was the -doll- that caught my interest, not a character I thought it would work well for.

How do you figure out your dolls personality?
Like I mentioned, there are those that I am getting mainly, based on a character I already created.
Though the ones that don't have a character in mind, it's quite different for each doll.
Sometimes I just see how they look with my other dolls, if they're shorter, taller, fatter, skinnier, etc. and I use that to help me figure out how they are. I also dress them and I see what "fits" --what I think they look good in, and that also helps. Hair and eyecolor that I like, that will go with the faceup, or whatever, usually why they have a certain hair/eye color will come into personality as well (their heritage, fantasy, do they "dye" their hair).
Sometimes I also listen to music and "play" (dress, wig-swap, etc) with my dolls, and sometimes a word, or a name will pop out at me that will just *fit*.
(example, my pukifee pongpong; I didn't have a character or even a gender in mind; but I knew I wanted pong to be a troublemaker 'cause of that face [more of an innocent, childish troublemaker], and I was debating between the names "Charlie" and "Foxtrot" [because I had a daydream of getting 26 pukifees to model them after the phonetic alphabet...lol just a daydream] and because at here at home because of my hubby's workforce, we call huge mishaps/ cluster-f***s "Charlie Foxtrots". But because I was listening to music, the song "Charlie" by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers started playing, and the part "Charlie makes me smile", and the fact that Pong is such a happy 8D face, it just fit, and helped me decide. :P

 

Haha~ That sounds a bit like me! xD
I've never really gotten the whole 'bonding' thing... It's just... sounds a little weird imo
Sometimes things 'work' better or look 'right'; be it an eye/wig combo or a new outfit; once I get my doll looking how it's supposed to, then I'm happy with it. You step back and look at the doll and think "Hey I think she looks kinda spunky and rebellious now!" (or whatever) and I just loosely build on that. My dolls don't have epic histories, or tragic pasts - most of mine are fairly simple and childlike in their back stories, if they have one at all! (but I attribute that more to my bad writing skills, than a lack of imagination! xD)

 

I've bonded closely with the majority of my dolls. There's only one who I don't consider myself closely bonded to yet, but I do like him. I can't really describe the bonding process because it feels so natural that it just happens! It feels like my dolls have stopped being just a piece of plastic and have become inhabited by something that is seperate from myself. Does that make sense? They have a personality, they have a presence, they have a LIFE if you will. I don't actually believe that they are alive, but they can really feel that way.
I guess bonding for me is that feeling combined with affection and familiarity. I understand my dolls, most of the time, though they can surprise me still! Also if I'm apart from them, like I am now, I miss them. I miss their presence. It's not like I miss my laptop or my iPod, because that's based on necessity and function. I just miss having them around me!

As for their personalities... that's something that comes with time, open-mindedness and imagination, I reckon. I have a very vivid imagination that allows me to dream up personalities and also to interpret personalities onto inanimate objects. Sometimes I get the personalities a bit wrong before the doll arrives, and then it quickly shows me what it's truly like. That's OK- that's part of the bonding process too.

To be absolutely honest I can't see the point of owning a doll without a personality. Sure it might look pretty, but I find the idea quite bland and uninteresting. But then again, I find it so easy to give personalities to objects that I'm biased. Other people may think it's completely redundant. YMMV, natch!

 

I'm pretty much with silverholly and bandersnatch. The word 'bonding' makes them sound too much like a baby or a pet for my liking. They are not alive, and I don't think you really SHOULD 'bond' too closely with an inanimate object To me it is a strange concept in this hobby that WAY too much importance is placed on.

Don't get me wrong, I do really love my dolls, they have names and little stories and families, because it is fun and I feel they need characters and context to perfect their aesthetic style and create a cohesive 'look' for the doll. It is more about art and creativity for me, less about having a special little friend that is there for me in my darkest hours and that I can't be parted from.

 

I'm glad I'm not alone- sometimes I feel like kind of a jerk, because I don't have these "bonding" feelings for my dolls! For me they are beloved toys, and I could sell them without too much trouble if I really had to. Yes, I love them, and that is why I spend so much time and money on them. But no, I don't feel like they have presence or that we develop a relationship through bonding. They are gorgeous hunks of resin that I love to have around. The end.

Now, animals, that is a different story... My cat, my rabbits, and my hamster are part of my family, and we all have great relationships with each other. They are my friends. The dolls aren't XD

Everyone has their own style when it comes to their dolls, and that is normal and great

 

How do you bond with your doll?
Through customization From doing faceups, buy wigs, buy eyes, exchange the wigs and clothes, etc. And of course, playing with them, take their photos, talk about them with fellow friends..

How do you figure out your dolls personality?
Almost the same with PannytheAngel... Yes, just like the others I usually have a personality in mind, or a story before they come. But then, after they come and I customize them, slowly somehow the stories and personality of my dolls are developed automatically. By seeing them everyday, interact with my fellow bjd friends, and for me, answering the doll-related memes. It helps me to arrange their stories and personality.

 

My dolls all have very defined, developed personalities and very complicated and silly backstories, and they have these before they even become dolls because they're all based on RP characters who have existed for around a decade. That's how I roll with my dolls.

I don't do or get the whole bonding thing. I love my dolls because they're pretty and cherished things I own, and I love that they let me have visual representations of characters who I've imagined in my head for so long, but they're not my friends nor do we have any sort of relationship. Too much emphasis is put on bonding. It's perfectly alright if you don't get it or can't do it. Just relax and enjoy your dolls. Do with them what you feel like doing, be that photography, customization, stop motion animation, or hell, leaving them in the box to look at them once a year.

 

My dolls personalities come from everything- the mess of influences and ideas in my head, the way they sit, stand, flop over or scowl, the way the face-up comes out, or whatever popped into my head when I first saw them. I like to take a trait like a tendency to slouch at the chest joint and create a personality trait from it: like shyness. Or kickiness turns into 'fiesty', and a tendency to loose wigs or shoes might turn into 'silly' or 'absent-minded'. Outfits, wigs, eye colours all of those things sort of just inspire little bits and pieces of it until you've got a whole character.

As for bonding, I do it by doing their face-ups. Once I've envisaged a character, I buy the blank doll and then I literally paint that character on to them. It's actually the reason that I almost never buy full sets, and when I have, I've totally wiped factory face-ups. I love to do it myself- it's like a stamp of ownership. I also bond with them by developing their character stories. Most times I don't even need the doll to be there physically- I just scribble down little bits here and there about what the character would do or think or say and it all just sort of reiterates: Mine.

 

How do you bond with your doll?

My first doll was bought on a 'starter' basis and she was a nightmare. LOL I had to restring her, reposition her eyes, suede her... I really had to work with her and still do. My friends told me to sell her. I couldn't. And then, all that work turned into love. My second doll was easy because he was a sculpt I loved to death. I loved him before I had him and bonding was almost instant. My third was a Minimee head and I love Robert Pattinson. Now that he has his eyes, his wig, and I've done his face, I can't see myself ever being rid of him. Just waiting on his body. MMmmm, 70cm boy. My fourth, and newest, was easy too. She came in and I can't stop playing with her. I didn't need to do anything to her but enjoy so I have been doing just that. I'm actually sitting with her at this moment. My fifth doll, who should be coming soon, is going to go under major body blushing(a Souloid with nooks and crannies to paint) so I expect that to be my bonding with him.

My point, each one has had a unique bonding experience. I think it depends on the doll and the owner.

How do you figure out your dolls personality?

My first doll was over time. During the bonding I figured her out. Cats are playful curious things but moody, that suits my first doll Delilah. It was natural based on sculpt. Evan, my MD Ryu, was an evolution. He slowly told me his story as I played with him. Robert, my Minimee Pattinson, you'd think would be Edward but he's not. When I did his current face up I felt his personality then. Robert will always be his name but that ends the relationship to his human counterpart. I'm developing a story around him. Genevieve is an OC and I bought her with that character in mind. Though, now that she's home, she's changing my view on the character. LOL

 

I don't do anything special to bond with them... I face them up, make clothes, dress them, do photostories... and either I love them or I end up having no strong feelings for them...

As for their personalities... well, I suppose somewhere in my brain I am the one deciding, but names/personalities tend to pop up on their own if I'm not shelling a pre-existing character... And sometimes the dolls will reject their intended identites and insist that they are someone else entirely...

 

I think you just kind-of get that feeling. It's like people talk about having a baby! We decide to go for it and make an order then wait several months...then open the box and there he/she is!
I've watched dozens of box opening videos and there are very few that don't squeal with joy as they see their doll for the first time.

 

(Not @Kim, specifically, more of a general reply)

I'm sure some people do bond with their dolls on an emotional level (i.e. a relationship)... but it's generally not what I think of when I think "bonding."

Bonding, to me, is just wanting to play with the doll, however you do that. The dolls I consider myself bonded with are the ones I grab first when I want to do doll-related things - going to meets or conventions, photoshoots, painting, sewing (attempts), etc. I sold my first two dolls with very little sentimentality because, after I got my fifth doll*, I just realized I didn't like the other two all that much, cute as they were. I like my toys, but I don't see any purpose in keeping one that I don't have a strong desire to play with.

(*Long story, short - Doll#5 was something of an epiphany about what I actually want out of the dolls I collect.)

None of my dolls had pre-developed personalities when I bought them. I generally figure out stuff like that when I start to paint and play with them. I also get ideas from interacting with other doll owners. My doll that has the best and most fleshed out personality, IMO, is the one that started as a joke between me and my friend. The traits her character inherited because of the joke... aren't ones I'd normally pick for a character, but it was funny to me.

 

Put me down as another member of the "not really a bonder" camp...

Like Kim's crew, some of my dolls are the resin avatars of characters that have been kicking around for years and so have extensive backgrounds attached to them. Others are more like Silverholly's, with hardly more than a name and a vague concept. I enjoy having both sorts in my collection... I wouldn't keep them if I didn't... But I'm just not all that emotionally invested in the majority of them.

I'm sentimental about a few, sure, and would be very reluctant to part with those... but in the end I have no illusions about them. My dolls are inanimate objects. Toys. Pretty bits of resin that I may value very highly, but can't really form any sort of deeper relationship with. There's nothing there TO form a relationship with.

I suppose that makes me seem shallow to the "bonders" and the my-dolly-has-a-soul crowd, but to each their own. They apparently see something in these guys that I'm oblivious to.