Character dolls vs. Companion dolls vs. Art dolls vs. ???

Well,
i was never thought i would give my dolls names..especially not characters.

I just was like..a doll..there.
But as soon as i got more involved in the doll community, read threads and all that...
you start to answering questions...
like, would your doll do this or that.. and you develop a character lol.

Now my first doll character is married has adopted 2 kids and works at a tattoo shop :'D

I must say, it really works better for me with photography as well.
Tho i do not keep to rules as.. that one doll can only wear brown wigs because she's a brunet thing.. XB

 

Nah, some dolls are just Really Loud!!

Ann in CT

 

All of my dolls have names and personalities as well as background stories...but unlike a lot of people I know who buy their dolls to fit an original character they already have, I work more in a "love at first sight" way. I get the dolls I really like and they slowly become original characters with their own names etc...

 

All my dolls have names and characters, sorry! I find that unless I can think of a character (not necessarily a name, I find those less important) or personality I don't want to get the doll because I don't feel I'd bond with it.

However, one of the reasons for this is I love writing stories and have an epic-huge backstory in the works for every single one of my dolls (oh the hilarity of some of these characters ) and some of other peoples' dolls too!!

But then, I'm one of these people who's good with characters I wrote a short fanfiction story based around two of a girl I barely know's OCs (she's lovely ) for a contest she was running. Bearing in mind I got one sentence of backstory and a couple of drawings, she was thrilled with the way I portrayed her characters Dunno how that happened >.> (luck!! total blind dumb luck woo!)

Another time, in an RP I wrote a short backstory between my character and someone else's based on a single post by her - I checked it with her before I posted, and she said it was accurate I guess I just have a knack for character building, even if they're not always mine But like I say, I love writing! I'd never say I'd never get a doll without a character, story, personality or name, but I can't imagine me doing so ^_^ Not for very long anyway!! I could see me falling deeply for a mould, buying it on a whim and then musing for months over its character and name

 

I used to try to name my dolls but gave up and barely remember the names I gave them ...

I don't do characters either.

I'm a creative person and I've been writing and developing characters for as long as I've been able, but I just don't feel the desire to anthropomorphize my dolls any more than they need. I respect them and I enjoy them, but I can't wrap my head around pretending to let my dolls make decisions for me. (I roll my eyes when I see people say, "Dollsname doesn't like to wear fur!" or something like that.) And I don't get hung up on how "lonely" they might be or ... whatever else.

 

Mine all have characters to one degree or another, but they *don't* all have names...

My Abyssals, who are resin versions of tabletop RPG characters, only have titles. (One of the conventions of the game is that an Exalt of their type is required to give up his or her name when they become Abyssals, so they use their titles in place of a proper name-)

My Dreaming Breakaway is another matter... He's not an Abyssal, he just absolutely, completely, steadfastly refuses to suit any name I've ever tried giving him. So I gave up.

 

Exactly... for the price we pay for them, it's just not worth keeping them around if you are not *totally in love* with them. No biggie, I mean... I give all the dolls I buy some time to grow on me, but sometimes after all a doll will just be "there". When that happens, I sell them to make room for one that I think I will like better. (Mostly tho, it's just *BAM* i'm in love at first sight.)

This is very true too... I'm sure that's the reason that a lot of people on this site are sooo into it. Not everyone mind you, but for a lot of people on this site it prolly didn't occur to them until they saw others doing it first.

A bunch of my dolls are just physical representation of characters that i've had for years and years... but sometimes the opposite is true. Where you see a doll and go "Ooooh, I have to have you", and you figure that you'll just work out a character for him/her later.

Very well put!!!

 

Well.. My Rozarie is kinda.. a companion doll? Cause I bought her because I felt there's some sorta bond between us when she was on display and now I kinda am making stuffs for her... (partially because I'm too broke to buy her anything)

 

What I always found appealing was that they were so well proportioned. I grew up playing with barbie dolls and trying to make them clothes. But its so much easier with Bjds. I bought dolls based off of characters that I have created. And I do clothes and pictures.

 

Each of my dolls was different. My first doll was love at first site, my second doll was sent mistakenly but I kept her anyway. I planned my first very hard were as the second I just had a basic out line of what I wanted her to be and let the rest flow as we got to know eachother. (She arrived before my first intended doll.)
My third doll I wanted just because I liked the look of her mould so I had to build a whole new charcter and backstory for her.
My fourth doll was very vague, I knew what type of loko I wanted and went in search for a mould. Then I get a basic personality and let him grow once he arrived.
I pretty much let them direct me.

 

I guess I collect them as Companion dolls...?

All my dolls...er...I let them develop their own personality. Soon to come 2 heads~~~~ They don't have bodies, but that won't stop them from developing their own personalities. I'll just name them and leave them be.

Somehow I feel that if I force them into the character I want and they can't pull it off, I'll be too disappointed. So I won't do that...

 

My dolls are mostly for play/companionship, although they do have highly defined characters and names. I tend to really anthropomorphise objects - be they dolls, computers (Esme), phones (Kitti-Z) etc so to me it's the most normal thing in the world to have characters and names for my dolls.

I guess in a lot of ways my anthropomorphising is a creative outlet and an escape from what I feel is a rather mundane life.

 

One doll was a gift, and he has no character so I guess he's just for sitting around and being pretty. ^^ I can't even get a name to stick to him.

Second doll was purchased because when I saw his face I saw my favorite original character I draw/write about all the time. Awesome~.

 

My original interest in BJDs was all about customizing - being a very artsy-crafty type person, the idea of creating characters and dressing and styling them sounded like too much fun. But I didn't really get that into it until I started looking at BJDs as companions.
I've been struggling for a long time with PTSD and panic attacks, and I found it helpful to hug a pillow or stuffed animal when I was alone, at times of stress. It is very calming. At this time, BJDs started to llok better because they were both large enough to hug, hold, and pose, and because they could be customized and made beautiful. So with BJDs I could combine several activities that relieved stress - writing stories and characters, doing arts and crafts, and hugging or holding a doll or stuffed animal when I needed to relax.

I'm not so much into the collecting aspect, but I do tend to prefer certain companies over others because I like the sculpts and they suit my characters. I never really get the urge to buy a doll because it is limited or part of a set. I have my slightly less expensive BPAL addiction for that, LOL.

 

Most of my dolls will be or are characters from my published novels. One will totally be a costume doll and when the centaur gets here, frankly, I don't know what he's going to be. May have to write another novel.

 

For me it really depends. There are some characters I really want to "shell"; some are fandom characters, others my own personal characters. Some, however, I just want because I find them particularly beautiful, or cute, or interesting. All of them I want around to play with and make clothing for.

 

My dolls are not characters or companions or even really art. I don't tend to acknowledge personalities; I dress and select eyes and wigs for my dolls based on combinations that I enjoy looking at, and I don't mind changing things or trying out combinations. Generally my dolls have a similar theme in appearance because that's the theme that I enjoy for multiple hobbies and aspects of my life. (For example, I'm unlikely to style my doll to look like a punk rocker, but am likely to opt for a romantic forest-living fairy tale heroine look. Personal preferences.)

 

Most of my collection (planned and owned) is for character purposes-- between being a writer, being a roleplayer, and being a fangirl, there are a lot of characters that I'd love to shell! But that doesn't mean I don't love just having my dolls sit around being beautiful-- sitting around being beautiful is kind of Vince's raison d'etre, anyway...

Vince I had some plans for that, when he arrived, he didn't quite fit. And because he's a spoiled brat, he got his way. I just let him be what he seemed to want, which is not so different from what I wanted out of him. He decided he didn't want a boyfriend or a girlfriend, which changed my doll buying plans since I'd thought he'd have a partner (despite being MSD, I don't see him as a kid, unless I'm dressing him up more youthful just for cuteness' sake, same with my tiny-- child characters don't interest me). And he sort of had a 'self-aware' attitude. He's still my little clotheshorse, happy to try any fashion and any wig, and his tastes are very much as I'd planned... but some things have changed, and I like the way he's turned out.

Pete and Billy have remained pretty true to what I'd planned... except that Billy now refuses to take off his dino costume. (I can't blame him, though, because if I had a dino costume I'd wear it all the time) So while I might try making him some clothes sometime, I won't bother saving up to buy him the outfit I thought would be his default, because he won't stay in it.

 

Mine all have names and distinct personalities but some I have only learned once they arrived. A few represent OCs that have been a part of me for many years while others stories emerged more recently once I got the feel of them and then others are fandom characters that I have wanted in bjd form (sort of giant, customizable action figures). For my OCs and fandom characters I have done a lot of searching to find the right sculpt but others I saw and it was love at first sight so I got them and my rather overactive imagination creates their characters stories. As others have noted in previous posts my characters are often a part of me as well (probably why I have several long haired, tattooed boys into heavy metal

 

I agree wholeheartedly with this! ^^

Most of my dolls are resin avatars of my original characters, and were purchased with that intention in mind. I would say all of my dolls are very strong and definitive characters and are very much "alive" in my imagination. They are both the outlet and the stimulus for my creativity in many ways. That having been said, my dolls are so much more to me than just physical representations of my characters. They're photography models, jewelry models, beautiful display items and cherished companions. One of my 1/4 boys has become my travelling companion and I frequently take him with me when I travel either for work or for pleasure. He doesn't really do anything, but I feel better having him along, and of course it's inevitable that I'll take photos of him during our travels. So in that sense he is a companion, 'security blanket' and creative inspiration. I also really like to cuddle my big 70cm guy. Holding him actually calms me down when I am suffering from anxiety, so maybe that guy is even more of a 'companion' than the others.