Character Dolls vs Dress-Up Dolls

I can't see myself creating an elaborate story for my characters especially because I know I'll end up with dolls that may not look like they "belong" next to each other so it would be hard for me to make it make sense. Unless I seperate them and have multiple stories going on. I find myself feeling a bit awkward trying to make any story currently though..

 

Speaking as someone who joined this hobby just to shell OCs and only two of them, I am even avoiding to label myself a collector because that would imply I have more money and space to do more than just that. However, I prefer to shop multiple outfits for my two dolls so I guess they are my cute little dress up dollies.

 

I’ve had a few dolls, including my first, who didn’t work for the characters I had planned for them. This didn’t make me love the dolls any less though — they got different characters and aren’t all part of a story.

I think I prefer having characters over them being things to dress up — though that’s an appealing aspect of the hobby too.

 

I think I'm somewhere in the middle here -- I got my first doll for shelling an OC, but then fell in love with a sculpt/faceup that didn't fit for any characters I had already, but he has ended up a character as well. I like having characters because it gives me ways to think about their fashion for dress up, otherwise I think I'd get lost in the sheer amount of options. But I also definitely want to get some different styles of outfits (like a maid dress...) beyond what they would normally wear lol

 

I do a little of both, sometimes simultaneously.
All my dolls have their own character to some extent. Some are more fleshed out than others, but all have at the very least their own name, a few personality traits and some kind of context that is their "normal". Many of them have some kind of relation to each other as well.
Every now and then, however, I make an outfit just because I want to make it, regardless of if that is something the doll would actually wear.
Sometimes it's the dolls character that is doing the dressing up in-world. I often make them halloween costumes, for example.
And some of them have historical or fantasy alter egos that have their own clothes and context, while keeping the name an character intact.

 

Both

I mean I get them and I get to know them are (who they are, their character) as I try wigs/eyes/clothes until I find what works for them and find out who they are. It's not always a fast process. One of my early BJDs refused to tell me her name that I took to calling her "my elfie girl" and this went on so long that Elfie became her name by default.

There's another i've now had for a couple of years that I know is related to one of my other dolls, but I have no idea whether they are siblings, half-siblings, cousins, or more distant relations. I also have no idea of the doll's gender or name.

Some I only get a name and a very basic idea of the type of person they are, but am suddenly flooded with background info on them when another doll joins the household and they have the opportunity to "interact" - for example, Nesta was a fashion-conscious "snarky-older-sister" type who was best friends with quiet little Cressida, but it wasn't until scruffy tomboy Hannah joined the family that Nesta's snark really had a target, and Cressida came into her own as the peacekeeper between them.

I do dress them up but they each ahve their style preferences (and colour preferences in some cases) that their clothes tend to default to.

Teddy

 

I'm in the characters team! All my BJDs are my OCs, I write stories for them or I buy dolls to shell a character from an existing story. Because I write both slice of life and technofantasy I have my dolls divided into two groups and they are styled differently.

 

my own dolls are, to me, beautiful art pieces. i will envision a look for them that will go unchanged for the foreseeable future, and take great care over creating the face-up and costume for that look, but each doll is not a character so much as it is like a base sculpture that i then paint.

 

Half and half for me I think. All my dolls have a story, some more a general vibe and others a more fleshed out backstory. Half don’t change clothes often or at all. The other half have big closets I’m story driven I think, cuz even if a doll was originally more of a dress-up doll, she’ll get a fashion related backstory.

 

It's both really? All my dolls have at least some kind of character. Like names and some sort of personality. The amount of depth to it can vary but it's there. And I change their outfits whenever I feel like like it. So they still are a dress up/plaything. I love dressing them lol. It's just that each character has distinct styles so I get to have fun putting things together that match that style.

 

I'm also in the both category. I love creating worlds and characters. For example; I've got a few doll groups for different solo D&D games. Those character dolls would only interact with the dolls that fit (a.k.a. are in scale) within that group. Though I also have some dolls that are just for display and to look pretty (no other character development than maybe a name), changing their outfits whenever I like.

 

I lean heavily into the character side of things. I don't mind dressing up my dolls of course, but my focus is always on the character themselves, so I don't have many extra clothes or special outfits unless a character really demands it for story reasons. Whenever I shop or browse doll clothing I'm always thinking things like 'oh! *Doll Name* would love this!' and things like that. Rather than seeing a beautiful outfit and wanting it just to try on and dress up a certain doll.

 

I'm definitely more in the dress up category! I got into dolls as an extension of my fashion hobby, so their characters don't matter as much to me. I just go with the vibes of the sculpts for their names and personalities, and that's only vague. I enjoy sewing, crafting, styling, and photography most.

 

i love fashion design and sewing and one of my favorite things to do is make clothes and dress my dolls up...but since they all have their own characters and personalities and therefore their own personal styles, i can't bring myself to dress any of them up in something their character wouldn't wear. not because of a rule or anything, just because it would make my brain itch also because i make just about all my own doll clothes and i don't have any repeat bodies. so it feels more worth it to make sure when i take the time to make a garment, it's tailored to fit the doll it actually feels right on. i guess that's one of the cool things about having a good handful of dolls tho-- at this point pretty much any item i get inspired to try and make, i have somebody whose style vibe it suits. incidentally, that's also a big part of why i think i feel pretty content with my group.

 

I’m in Character Team, also.
The character is the important part. It doesn’t have to be a fully detailed persona - sometimes just a sketch is enough. But I always think about things like who they are, where they live, etc.
This background is essential for me; without it, I find it hard to truly connect with the doll. It also shapes how I choose to represent them visually.
Few times i’ve tried playing with dolls as just objects to dress up, but without character they quickly lose meaning for me - I get bored and lose interest.

 

As an old-fart, in this particular hobby and in life. I always collected dolls for the sake of collecting dolls, and not to play, interact or redress, just to collect (MISB collector hoarder here). So, when I got into BJD a thousand years ago, I knew I would want to do the fashion doll thing, because I never did so with any of my mass-produced dolls. I always just kept those in box. I dress up and customize my BJD, but they also have characters and are based on specific ones and never are just a doll I just dress up. But I do dress them up, just as I would a random doll.

Having said that, most of the time I dress them up as I please, mostly because I suck at sewing and own pretty unpopular (old-school) dolls, I was never able to just purchase clothes and know they would fit (without wasting money on things that wouldn't work). I always had in my mind, that all my dolls would never wear the same clothes twice, because I was weird (when I was younger, but still am a huge weirdo). Then I learned that sewing small clothes as detailed, proportionate and realistic to fit my needs is not easy. So, my dolls did end up wearing the few pieces I made for them more than a few times and even shared at some point in time. Most of the time, not character accurate clothes.

To me, these dolls are both for me, characters that I dress as "cute" dolls all the time but somehow still remain "their own character." I don't do that with mass-produed fashion dolls, even now, even if I do customize them. I do that with other OT toys as well, like 1:6 action figures. I guess it's mostly because if I am going to waste my time making sh1tty clothes for my dolls, I might as well do so for the dolls I want to photograph in said clothes. Something I rarely want to do with my OT fashion dolls, even when I customize those (other than to share the customization I did on them). So, because I am weird, I can't dress just a cute random doll in cute clothes, like a normal human. I have to do the playing dress up with my resin BJD (or OT action figures), because those are the ones I want to photograph in crappy handmade clothes, even if the clothes are not even close to being character accurate, and crappy as the dickens. (:

 

Mine are a bit of both! I enjoy sewing clothes for them, but I can't click with a doll if I don't have a strong character concept for them. I don't shell preexisting characters with my dolls; when I see pictures of them, they need to stand out as their own character. But a big part of each of those characters is their unique style, and whether I know what I would make for them. If they have some overlap with a different doll, that's all right, but they shouldn't be a 100% match. That way, I can sew lots of things and find someone to dress up in it!

 

I began my grand bjd adventure with the idea of having one gorgeous doll that I could dress in anything and everything…yeah, that lasted less than a week. I soon realized that my fascination with fashion exploration required fully evolved characters who would wear it, and I discovered that creating their characters was every bit as much fun for me as making them wardrobes to fully express who they were. I was hooked! Nearly two decades later and I’m still at it. What a wonderful and creative journey it’s been.

 

Well, I think I'm pretty much in the middle, because I give all my dolls their own personality or story, so I treat them as one character, but when it comes to photography, I don't really care about characterisation because I'm more concerned with the overall image, so I just put on whatever clothes and hair I like X°D