Can you love them all?

I don't operate on general impulse and only buy dolls I love. Some people may only buy for aesthetics. But I won't buy a doll that I won't love. My focus is completely on which dolls I'll be able to take care of as a collector or curator.

 

I have to really like a sculpt before I go for one. Like, bordering of grail sometimes. Either that or I have to have an idea for it easily come up. I don't want a family size that is completely overwhelming, but there also the fact that I have a tendency to get emotionally attached to my dolls rather easily, so I don't see them as easy to sell off.

 

I definitely can't love them all but I don't necessarily think that I need to. Whenever I'm falling out of love with a doll I'll either put it into storage and wait for the "magic" to return or I'll sell it.

 

I have yet to receive my first, but I have dabbled in a collector-oriented hobby before and I think it's too easy nowadays to get funneled into a neverending cycle of FOMO that makes you buy a shiny new thing after another while losing track of what you really were looking for in the first place. Especially with the pressure of preorders and limited runs.
There are many amazing doll-makers out there that I'd like to support, but I plan on getting two, maybe 3 dolls I really want and then enjoy what I have. In my previous hobby I felt I loved only a handful of the things I had and could've easily lived without the rest.
So as a rule I'm only getting 1/3 and I'm being really considerate with sculpts but also how well the body poses (I don't like the idea of getting something I can only display sitting somewhere), how easy it is to buy clothes that fit, and so on. The upside is that I can splurge to my heart's content. Quality over quantity. If I ever break that rule I still don't see myself owning a doll army because I'm naturally picky and (thank goodness) I tend to be satisfied for good after I clear my bucket list.
That's the plan at least.

 

I think as long as you’ve made a character for the doll before you bought it, you’ll love them because you immediately opened the box knowing who you were looking at. I think a lot of apathy may come from simply buying a sculpt because it was pretty or on sale, making you see it more as a toy (which it is, but some object projection helps with bonding) rather than a representation of a person you know in your head.
That being said, you also can also love art for arts sake, so you can love a doll just as a doll. But for me personally, I need to know a dolls personality and backstory to love them. When I don’t do that, it’s significantly harder for me to really care about them.

 

I have for now 7 dolls and 3 heads. I think that i still love them all, beacuse they are an important part of my family.
It's true that I have my favorite, but that's only because that he is my first doll.

 

Since 2009, I’ve collected 17 full dolls and 12 heads and each is a character in my Free Lands story. I don’t buy limited or full set dolls because I enjoy the process of crafting outfits and character for each doll. I love them all of my crew. The one I’m playing with in the moment is my favorite.

 

I love them all equally, but at different times. Some I will gravitate towards for a few months and then move to another doll or batch.

 

I haven't got dolls which I don't love. But I don't think of them equally or see them all every day. There is the favourite one of course. I think, more important that they all have my attention from time to time and bring me joy.

 

I have 16 complete dolls and at the moment, 5 loose heads, as I have one of them for sale. The truth is that I try to pay attention to all of them but it goes a little bit to times in which there is one that calls my attention more than another, but that does not make me love the others less.
I think that in the end it is part of the hobby, it is a cycle and if one of them does not satisfy you is when you decide to sell it and give it another home.

 

I think I love them all equally but I can't help to have my favourite one among them.

 

I love them all, but inevitably I have preferences. Actually I'm considering selling the least loved since she has not been paid attention to as others.

 

I'm currently sitting at 86 full dolls. I enjoy all of them and it would be very fair to say I love them. All of them are characters in the novels I write so they all have a deep meaning and connection for me. I've been in the hobby for 16 years now and the only resin I've sold in all that time is a body that I had for years that nobody wanted (the head I bought it for hated it and the 2nd head I tried it on hated it as well so after like 8 years, it was time to move on). All that being said, all my guys live in their boxes/bags on shelving units in my spare room. I don't have the room to display them all at the same time. I do generally have 3-4 dolls out on a chair in the living room and I rotate them out every few months.

I fit into the collector side of things in the hobby. I lean heavily to the odd/unusual/weird and a lot of my collection reflects that. When a company comes out with something that's off the beaten path, I'm probably heavily drawn to it but I don't always buy (price and available space are a big factor for me know).

 

If I don't count the floating heads, I'm below number 10. I love almost all of them. Except for the one that bites me with her thigh joints every time I handle it. But I love the first one the most (my favourite Rei, Dollmore Zaoll Luv). The quality of love doesn't tend to go down, but I'm more connected to some than others. The nature of some of them makes it impossible to love them, but I respect them in my space.

 

What's your ideal doll family size?
My ideal size is whatever I have now. I think I'm at 106. I may go up to 120 or so, I don't know. I love all of my dolls.

I find it pointless if it's just for collection/display purpose if you don't really spend the time with them.
My grandmother had two dolls because she enjoyed knitting doll clothes. She got a kick out of dressing them up, and two was enough to keep her busy. That's a much more interactive way of owning dolls than dislaying them on shelves. However, I don't agree with you that my grandmother's way is the only way, and that my way of enjoying my collection and finding joy in it is "pointless".
I find joy in collecting dolls. Just like my grandfather did with his stamp collection, and my grandmother did with her stacks and stacks of knitted doll garments. And my husband with his thousands of books that he doesn't have time to re-read.

I have to admit that I also have stacks of yarn that I'm not crocheting/knitting anything with right now, and several cross stitch kits that I'm not working on. I just like having stuff around that I can work on when I feel like it and ignore when I don't.

 

I currently don’t own any floating heads. So I have a total in my procession 11 dolls with 2 otw. No I can’t love them all, but I do enjoy them all whether I am physically doing something with each of them or not. Collecting dolls makes me happy. Whether it’s admiring them on my nightstand, dressing them up, taking them out with me, or photographing them. Everyone has a hobby that makes their time on Earth enjoyable and one of mine is dolls.

 

I currently have 6 dolls (plus one unfinished) and two more I’m waiting for. The first two years I was in the hobby, I collected at about a rate of 3 a year. This rate was fine for me with being able to spend time and bond with each doll (except that one, but it was for other issues).

Then I was on hiatus for 15 years and acquired 0 dolls. However if I had continued to collect at a rate of 2-3 dolls a year, thats 30-45 more. Such a number (especially on top of the ones I already have) seems wildly daunting and overwhelming to me, but if the rate of acquiring them had been slow, I don’t see why they wouldn’t all be loved.

If I had a collection that size (and the space lol), I would probably also collect dolls with the intention that some are grouped or paired together, that way if I am spending time with one in particular, there’d be a few more getting attention at the same time too.

I also don’t think there’s a wrong way to collect. Some people like large collections and will love seeing each doll on display, even if they don’t “play” with each one as much — not everyone is interested in doing that. Others get more enjoyment from playing with fewer dolls.

 

i think around 10 big dolls is my ideal that i know of, as my tastes change I'm downsizing my collection so ill just have to wait to see if i can handle more, but yeah ten was a good number, i could appreciate one on one day and another on another day