Collecting in different scales

I have dolls of basically every scale. I love what every size has to offer! Tinies are great for travel, MSD has so many fantasy sculpts and are so posable, SD are so sturdy and imposing.

None of my dolls really have their own universe or interact with one another, yet, but I don't think their sizes would impact it much. Just like real life, we've people of all sizes.

I have my dolls scattered all around my living room, situated in any way they can fit, no matter the size. It's all kinda random.

 

I've generally stuck with a mix of slim minis and a few small SDs. I love them all, and I find that the different scales lend themselves to different methods of play. I can sew for both, and sometimes I'll squeeze one into my pack to take to work for the day as a desk companion, but it's so easy to take the slim minis outside for photos and the bigger dolls are so holdable! (Heck, what caught my interest again after a dive into quilting was wanting to hug my DearSD!)

I'm not super concerned about the sizes mixing; while the slim MSDs have their own little universe, the scales and styling there vary already, let alone between them and the SDs. In the end, I like them interacting with the real world as dolls, like a combo Toy Story/Borrowers situation. They do have separate spaces in the doll cabinet, though. The two upper shelves are spaced to fit the slim MSDs without them bonking their heads (much), but that means the SDs don't fit up there, so they hang out at the bottom of the cabinet.

 

I *mostly* collect 1/4, but the collection has certainly branched out in a couple odd directions over time!

They don't all interact with each other even within one scale-- the 1/4 fashion dolls exist in their own separate universe, Robin's 1/4 and could certainly interact with any mature mini, but story-wise she only really 'belongs with' an off-topic doll at this point. Vince isn't part of anyone's story and isn't quite an aesthetic match for my mature minis, but he CAN interact with all my 1/4 and 1/6 (and smaller) dolls.

I like each doll to have one 'friend' that they look right with, so that when I can actually set up doll rooms for photos, I can tell stories where they interact, and I love when they can use the same props or even some of the same pieces of clothing (though even within one scale they won't all have the same fashion sense), but I'm not fussed about making sure the whole collection goes together. Along with my various off-topic dolls (mostly fashion scale, some tiny), some of them will look good together and some of them won't, some of them will share props and some won't, but all of them make me happy.

 

I started out with msd sized, and then immediately fell in love with how tiny 1/12 dolls felt in hand so I ended up with a collection of two vastly differing scales by accident aha.

My dolls of different sizes are stored separately- mainly due to space issues. The small ones stay in my room on a bookcase, and my msd's chill on the sewing table. It would be nice to someday have a cabinet to display them alongside eachother. I try to style all my dolls along a fairytale/fantasy sort of theme so I think they'd look nice all together.

I especially like that I can juggle the two sizes between moods- sometimes I dont have energy for tiny parts so the bigger dolls are easier to play and diy for; sometimes I just wanna lug around fifteen tiny friends without needing a pram aha

I don't think I'll ever venture bigger than msd's as theyre the upper limit of my strength but I've been strongly tempted to branch into an inbetween scale of the two- It's been tough resisting the sirens call of a new scale to harmonize the two extremes. For now, I try to stay disciplined in just buying cute fits for the squad

 

I have all kinds of scales. Right now, all my SDs and MSDs and YoSDs are displayed together. My slim mature YoSDs are on a separate shelf because I ran out of space, and so are my two Dollfie Dreams. To me, they all fit together, which is making it hard to decide who am I going to sell so I can really enjoy them all.

 

It honestly doesn’t bother me at all that my dolls are different sizes, I buy them because they appeal to me in some way and not in order to ‘fit in’.
I started with tinies and slowly drifted into SD then MSD. My lot range from Pukipuki (1/12) to 62cm 1/3 hybrid. I did have a 66cm body for him but I don’t like it so he’s getting a 62cm instead.

 

All of my bjds are 1/4 or smaller so far, so they mostly go along when it comes to size. The only thing that looks less uniform is the proportions for my 1/4’s. I have some Luts KDF’s that have bigger eyes and more childlike proportions, so they do look a bit odd next to dolls with slimmer, smaller proportions. Honestly, aside from that, they all look very nice together!

 

Most of my dolls are 60cm, I have one 50 cm and three 73cm and one 75. Honestly, I think 60cm is my max height now. Anything bigger just disrupts my whole room. It’s so hard to display 73cm+ dolls, I tried to set them up as like a family but their looks don’t really match and depending on the doll’s maker their heads my not be to scale with each other even though they are the same height. And don’t get me started on clothing styles. Some of my fantasy styles dolls just look weird standing next to a casual styled doll. It looks so displaced. Some people are cool with that, but I’m so neurotic it just bothers me. I separate them based on their outfits sometimes and overall I try to keep everything pretty casual, business or semi-formal looking so I don’t see one doll in like a jogger outfit and another dressed like they’re from the renaissance.

I have one 73cm doll that is one of my favorites and I could never part with him, but it’s so sad when I see him alone so I’m trapped now with at least two 70-73cm at all times now. The taller/bigger dolls are also extremely difficult to find new homes for too. I am still struggling to re-home a 73cm doll right now. It’s a big commitment.

TLDR: I’ve made a promise to myself that I will only buy 60cm or shorter dolls from now on. Life is just simpler this way and it makes it easier for me to pose dolls in different scenarios.

 

My scales, if I include unfinished projects, are everywhere, 1/4th, 1/3rd, 1/5th. I don't really plan on visual unity / characters being depicted with each other, so I don't mind, but I think with the large range of variety and the other scale doll I'm waiting on (75+cm / 'uncle,') I'll have a good enough range to decide which scale I like the most and then settle in from there.

 

I collect any size (and type) where the doll appeals to me (except 8 inch BJDs, for some reason BJD in that size seldom stay, no matter how much I like the doll itself), and display space constraints means they all inevitably have to mingle,


Although do I try to keep them roughly to family/freindsgroup, size groups where possible


Different sizes do interact in play - 1/6-Littlefee-YoSD-Petite Ai work as children with mature/slim mini size AND as younger children/toddlers with 1/3 size dolls, for example so my little-kiddie interact with both the 1/4 and 1/3 dolls. Most of my Teeny-tinies ( RalFee, Banji etc are fae creatures, so their scale compared to the others is pretty irrelevant. A PukiPuki can, for example, be a litle pixie companion to a 1/3 scale elf or human character.

I DID avoid gettng any slim-minis for a long time, way back in the day, because I already had distinct 1/3, 1/4, and 16 groups , but since none of my other doll types are rstricted by size, it seemed silly to restrict BJD on that basis, and a BJD/dolly friend pointed out that everyone knew how ga-ga I went over the 43cm Narae, whenever I encountered one online or at a meet, it was obvious to everyone but me that I was going to get one sooner or later... as it turns out, over a decade later, the slim minis are one of the sizes I play with least frequently so they're all now on my looking-for-new-homes list (even my beloved Narae, who is the only one left now), since dolly-space is really at a premium, and something's gotta go.

EDITED TO ADD: Also, more recent sizes, such as the "big-baby" (1/4 height but younger, chunkier bodies like Dear SD) work very well with some of my OT dolls such as Disney Animator/BJD hybrids and the 18inch articulate Fancy Nancy dolls, and they can share clothes with Sasha dolls, so there's crossover between BJD's and non BJDs too.

Teddy

 

I started off as an MSD collector, thinking larger dolls would be way too much to handle, and occasionally tried a YoSD/tiny. I found that I didn't like anything smaller than MSD, and then tried an SD on a whim, and fell in love with that size for customizing and styling.
But I have the thing where I have to keep them separate, it would drive me crazy to have all the sizes mixed together. Now my crew of MSDs are displayed on their own shelf, and they don't get mixed in with others. They're basically my 'collector' dolls now, fully dressed in a cohesive theme, and don't get moved around often. My SD is on my desk or an entirely different shelf, where she's easier to reach to adjust her or change clothes and whatnot.
I suppose the only exception is pet dolls-they're the only tinies I like, and I could easily consider them the pets of the SD and mix them in.

 

I collect Volks 1:3 and 1:4 scale dolls but these dolls also collect dolls .

The smaller one is an Azone Pureneemo. It's extra special when I can find a doll in both scales.