Do you collect stylized or realistic sculpts?

I tend to stick to Fairyland for my humans/elves & Luts for my 'spirit beasts' (Zuzu Delfs), just because I simply love their dolls but also because I like consistency. Right now, my dolls are dress casually since I haven't worked up the courage to make armory as at least two of my boys will need armor. Most of my humans/elves have 'job classes' based off the game, Ragnarok Online:

Zephii - merchant (vampire elf) [Ragnarok Online]
Brink - knight (elven prince) [Ragnarok Online]
Nem - goddess reincarnate (Zephii x Brink's baby)
Pommie - phoenix spirit
Bambi - acolyte [Ragnarok Online]
Rayleigh - lord knight [Ragnarok Online]
Journey - angel
Katarina - bow-rogue [Ragnarok Online]
Riyan - warlock (vampire) [Ragnarok Online]
Vienna - human princess (unicorn curse)
Chrom - royal guard [Ragnarok Online]

I came up with an idea for each elf to have their own 'spirit beast' based on the book/movie "The Golden Compass" but the term 'spirit beast' is from World of Warcraft (it also helps me limit on purchasing elves since I'd technically be buying two dolls, lol), they somewhat have personas that represent their elf counterparts!

Kimochi - shy wolf (Zephii's)
Titan - courageous lion (Brink's)
Evie - fancy pooch (Nem's)
Dream - warmhearted pup (Bambi's)
Kenji - loyal dog (Rayleigh's)
Risk - vigilant dragon (Katarina)

So I guess my dolls don't really vary too much and all belong to one sole universe except for my little otter girl (haven't decided what role I want her to be yet, lol). Some day, I want each doll to have their own wardrobe, rather than sharing all the time since their job classes are all very different! Time to get sewing, I guess!! XD

 

I have a bunch of different universes and as long as everyone matches the important characters in their own universes, I really don't mind if they look a little strange with everyone else. For example, my souldoll girls look kinda weird with their tiny heads next to my regular MSD girls, but it's not like I'm ever going to need to take pictures of them side by side, since they don't exist in the same world story wise.
(I do have some exceptions to this, but really, most of the time the size and style different does not bother me much at all)

 

I prefer the dolls in the same story to look compatible. (Though I prefer to not rely on the same doll company for that compatibility factor.) I think each doll/character should be unique but if one doll's level of realism varies drastically from their colleagues' it would bug me. I have modded my most recent doll so his tiny realistically proportioned eyes matched the style of the others in the same story. This pickiness is just for my collection. I don't mind seeing other Collections with drastically varying styles; I think it's interesting!

 

I think my response is exactly the same as @Anante 's! I've got two groups of dolls. One group is very realistic, very detailed, tiny tiny eyes. The other group has hugely misproportioned cartoony heads! Unless I'm taking humourous casual phone pictures, they're not displayed or photographed together, and aren't the same "universe", so to speak.
I've modded every single one of them, sometimes excessively, to make them style-match each other correctly, which in itself speaks volumes of how picky I am about it. However, I don't apply my personal preference on other people's dolls! I appreciate a crew of any and every doll the owner loves just as soon as I appreciate a crew of meticulously matched-up dolls.

 

My dolls are just... any dolls I like, so they vary a bit-- though the resin dolls I have aren't too far apart in terms of stylization, they're still pretty different styles. For the most part it doesn't matter because they don't all need to fit into the same universe, I just like to collect what I like and I don't have strict preferences.

 

Mine are all quite realistic. Most of my folks are from Impldoll, due to their realistic style and fantastic ratio of price and service (affordable dolls, beautiful sculpts and stellar service).

 

I know if I had very different styled dolls I would have trouble keeping them displayed together... However, I can't see ever getting more realistic dolls, or the more anime dolls either, I like the slightly in between look. Bigger eyes but realistic noses and such. I also can't see getting smaller dolls that look more mature then the dolls the same size... So I don't think the style will ever clash so much that I feel the need to keep them separate.

I do think it helps that all my dolls are dolls first. My characters that I have for my stories could never be dolls... I would have to go for more realistic dolls for many of them. I tried it once and I felt like I was forcing the character into the doll, and forcing the doll to be that character... so now I just let the doll become it's own character, and keep the characters in my head in their own worlds. It's awesome that it works for many people, but I don't find it works for me.

 

Mine are random but need to look appropriate by size.

 

I group mine mostly by size, and a little bit by style. Most of my dolls fall into the "kinda realistic" style--I don't own anime styled dolls, or the ones that need a double take to tell if they're doll or human. I wouldn't want to pair up extreme differences (for example, a Dollshe and a Dollfie Dream), but a little variation is ok with me because real humans do vary so much.

 

Mine are in groups. The Luts/Peak's Woods style, the Iplehouse/realistic, and my 16 cm are the three basic groups. I've got a couple of dolls that don't really fit in either, but this is the first time I've been able to do that without going nuts and selling the stragglers. I don't like mixing the styles or having any dolls without a friend. Lol.

Now that's just for my dolls. Looking at other people's dolls, I don't think it looks odd to have them all mixed together.

 

My boys are from 3 different universes and none of the universes cross each other as they're set in vastly different times (as well as areas of the universe). The styles of the characters are loosely cohesive to their respective universes but that wasn't intentional when I was purchasing the dolls. For the most part, I buy what best suites a character.

The Dream Time: Leans mostly to the anime side of style. Old style AoD, RS, OD. The newest addition to this universe is a Souloid, which is on the more realistic side of things but whatever. That doesn't bother me.

Big Mystic Smoke: Mix of realistic/stylized. The larger dolls tend to be realistic with the smaller ones more stylized.

Absolute World: Realistic for the most part. This world also has the most SD's of the 3 worlds.

As far as other people's collections go, it doesn't matter to me if they have wildly different styles together or if everybody is rigidly of the same style. It's their collection and as long as they're happy with it, it's all good in my mind.

 

I actually only have one "universe" that all my dolls reside in, regardless of style or scale. Since they're mostly fairies and various supernatural creatures, it doesn't bother me too much if they look "off" from each other.

On the other hand, I think my taste in dolls is fairly consistent, stylistically speaking. I'm not interested in very realistic dolls and I tend to prefer the older aesthetic of Volks and CP-as-Luts dolls. The most realistic faces I have are Soom Super Gems, so there isn't a huge style gap between anyone in my crew just by virtue of my own taste.

I do like seeing other people's collections whether they match well or not, but I admit that if I saw say... a romantic photostory between a Dollfie Dream and a very realistic Grenado or something, I might find it a little strange.

 

All my boys are realistic, the world of fashion for them... my 70cm+ don't mix with my 17" boys more for scale then anything else & are not grouped together.

 

I usually go with what fits the character best, which mostly falls in the middle between stylized and realistic towards the more realistic side. I hadn't really taken into thought the concept theming mine into one category for my characters---whether they're from the same story or not. I just tended to make certain they weren't leaning towards something more anime-esque

 

i really prefer realism. i love a doll who looks real, rather than an anime one

 

My on-topic dolls are all realistic, although some are more realistic than others (my Planetdoll is probably less realistic than my others). My off-topic dolls, on the other hand, are very unrealistic--I'm wondering if the realism was what initially drew me to BJDs, as I can get unrealistic dolls other ways (Pullip, Hujoo, etc).

 

All my on-topic dolls are in the same universe, so I try to be sure they're all the same scale. Some of them are more realistic (dolls from Lume), while others are somewhere between realistic and stylized (dolls from Soom). I have a doll from DIM who's far more stylized than my more realistic ones, but if I'm careful about who sits next to her it's less obvious and she works as a member of the group. The Real Puki's sort of fit - but they're sort of a separate group. If two is a group. I prefer dolls that are realistic, or somewhere between realistic and stylized.

I'm a bit obsessive about scale with my own group, but if that doesn't bother other people so much, why not?

 

I have bought many different types of dolls from different companies, but somehow I ended up with a great portion of Iplehouse dolls.

Still, my human dolls have a little universe I have created for them. I also have a little world for my vampire dolls, and I am currently building a small narrative for my fairies.