Do you only buy dolls that would fit into your doll-family?

Yes. My doll family is thought out nd added to by what doll I want next who will compliment my family. I currently only have two types of dolls living with me though (Blythes, which are not BJD's and a Puki Puki, however, I want more Fairyland dolls and I would love some DollFactory pets too!) But that doesn't mean I ever DON'T buy a doll just because it doesn't fit, it usually means I end up buying TWO dolls who looks good together and so find a way to slot into the family because they're a pair.

 

I try to stick to my plan, but keep an open mind in case I fall madly in love with some random doll.

 

Like many, I have a predetermined set of characters I want to shell, and I rarely deviate from my "plan". Additionally, I like my blood-related characters to be the same companies - so far I have two exceptions to my rules. My Silf was an impulse buy (who could resist the tiny teef?) and my Dollmore Miro, while her uncle and mom are Iplehouse.

 

Originally, I only wanted to buy dolls to represent specific characters. However, I fell in love with a doll that didn't fit a predetermined character, but got her anyway. Maybe I just have no willpower...

 

I enjoy a variety of companies, but I like to keep the sizes consistant. Completely MSD! Although if I ever got tinies (I plan to) I'd keep them in a completely different family from the MSDs.

 

Well I understand wanted dolls that compliment each others appearance, especially if you plan to photograph them together. I am of course one of those people who buys dolls to fit their characters. I have to find just the right doll to fit them before I will buy it. Now I won't NOT buy a doll that doesn't fit into that 'family' (or my various storylines) but I have to really want them. There are a ton of dolls out there I think are awesome, but I won't own them because they don't fit one of my characters and I don't want them bad enough to deter from that plan.

Of course I have three dolls, and two of them were not planned. But I am set on my next one, and she will be part of my original ideas for my dolls. ((She was suppose to be my first, just a different mold ><))

 

Yes I only buy dolls that fit a character I want to shell and typically I have those planned out in order of who I want to buy first. I have bought impulse dolls in the past and it never worked out. I always wound up not bonding with the doll when it arrived and selling it in the end. I did unexpectedly buy a head recently but I am considering it as a re-shell for a character I already own and it was a really great deal. Otherwise I wouldn't have done it.

 

Honestly, I didn't think of planning my dolls to "fit" together at all when building my doll family. I just got whatever sculpt I liked most. My doll's sizes basically go: 11cm (x2), 25cm, 27cm, 60cm, 70cm, 80cm and (with my mom's doll) 90cm. So... They don't fit together too well. ^^; The most mind-boggling thing is that I have a 25cm boy, who by his looks could be 3-6 years old, and a 27cm girl, who could be like, 11.
In the future I want to be more conscious of height and corresponding face/body maturity. xP

 

I don't actually have a BJD family yet, but I've noticed that the molds I like all have similar features, so I'd also expect that doll family in the future would be ones that complemented eachother - simply because of my taste, not that I would weed out dolls that don't look like the fit into my doll family on purpose.

 

For now I&#8217;d like to make sure that my doll family &#8220;matches&#8221; in style enough. When they are displayed next to each other, I&#8217;d like them to appeal to me as a nice decoration (for lack of a better word) when not in play. When I finally move out and actually have separate areas for display, (right now all my things stay in a tiny little space XD) and hopefully more money to spend, I want to set up another family that matches. I already have an idea in mind. ^-^

 

I deliberately created my collection to be a neighborhood band of misfits instead of a family. I had many stories to tell, and I loved setting up separate display areas for each and every doll, so it really appealed to me to have them all look very different from one another. I wanted them to represent a mulitracial and multicultural inner city neighborhood, so choosing sculpts from different companies became the way to go for me and was so much fun! It left me free to express the multiethnicity of my imaginary neighborhood through fantasy colors like WS or lilac (rather than through normal skin tones) or through their being a clockwork mod or a robot. This being said, however, I have (to this point) kept them within a certain size range (MSD's and one YoSD size) so their sizes relate well to one another (all heads fall within the 6.5 to 7.5 range) and best accomodate their elaborate displays.

 

Same here. I only got the dolls I like because of their sculpt and I wasn't really aware whether they would fit together.

 

Hmm. I have one main "family", which are a group of dolls that interact and fit into one storyline. They are a mix of human and elf characters (mostly elf). Some are physically related to each other (my Dark Elf Soo pair are mother and daughter, for instance), and some relate by association (my Moon and my DES are lovers) but they all "fit" in this story. I do notice that most of the characters involved in this particular story have ended up dolls from the Luts and Fairyland companies, since they're related and all have the same general look (anime-ish as opposed to more realistic).

I suppose I do want them all to fit together somehow. My one character was a Minifee Lishe, and she was supposed to be the younger half-sister of my Dark Elf Soo. But I never liked that she was so much shorter and didn't have pointed ears (her character is a half elf). So after a few years I upgraded to an Elfdoll Aurora. But her features were too realistic as opposed to stylized, so she never "fit" right, either. I finally snagged an Elf Lishe off the marketplace, and now she finally fits into the group.

I've had a few other dolls that I bought, but I ended up selling them because I never paid attention to or played with them so didn't see the point of keeping them. The only exception is my Dollmore Kyle Reese, 'cause I love him too much to sell him, even if he doesn't fit in with my storyline. He sort of has his own story, even though I haven't developed much of it yet.

Oh, and my elfdoll Aurora, of course, who has now become the embodiment of my original character-slash-writing muse, Deedlit. She isn't part of a story. She inspires me to create my stories (when she isn't being lazy, anyway).

 

Yes, I only go for dolls that would fit well with my other dolls. With the focus on a certain size, I can prevent myself from going overboard with my wish list and budget, and thereby exercise a modicum of self-control .

 

Yep. That's pretty much what I do. Since my dolls are usually based off of pre-existing characters, I won't impulse buy one unless I absolutely think it'll fit into a niche (like my cheshire). Though, if I like a doll well enough, it's not hard for me to imagine a place for them. And if they're too opposing, I probably wouldn't want them anyways.

 

I don't mind getting different sized dolls but I wasn't sure (and I'm still not sure) what to do about Fairylands new C-line. I LOVE the scupts but they look so completely different to the rest of the dolls I plan on getting that I'm not sure I'd bond with them.

So for now, no, I wouldn't buy a doll unless it fits in with my planned doll familly.

 

Do you only by dolls that compliment your doll-family?
This is an interesting question for me mostly because I've yet to actually buy a doll for myself. All of my dolls have been gifts and none of them have any terribly great relation to each other, as one's an SD and the other two are tinies (one on the way, one present). My dolls are actually planned a bit around to correspond and blend in with my roommate's doll storylines, rather than mine, but as we constantly roleplay, this is no problem for me at all. We both tend to prefer more realistic sculpts, so many of our dolls look different, yet well together. We're from the US, so we like some diversity in sculpts. For the moment, none of our dolls are related by blood to each other, though we do have a few couples that we had to make sure would look well together (if there's a major height difference (12cm difference), does it make one look like a child or just shorter, that's important).

If you do, what do you think makes you do this? Why does it matter? If not what are your thoughts on the matter?
It matters because for the most part they need to all look like they're from the same country and racial stock, unless the setting used is purposely mixed (as an American, I tend to forget that having different races surrounding you is actually an anamoly, especially in the Middle Ages, where the story setting is themed to be like). Some differences are totally cool and we like to play around with other ideas, I mean there's a certain amount of facial proportion similarity that's necessary, but they don't have to be from the same sculptor or company at all to work. For our Court set, we have the human court, which is based in a medieval Welsh setting, but we also have some fae playing around with them, which is perfectly valid to a medievally minded person. So we have a sidhe (high elf) and some pixies (pukipukis, and soon another pukipuki will be a brownie, and then a pair of realpukis for faeries, and a modded pukifee troll). Do any of the fae really match our human SD size court. Pfft, no, they are all tiny or MSD, save the sidhe, who is on the small side of the SD range, but they still can play in there, supernatural and weird things don't have to match.

Do you think different sized dolls can be involved in relationships?
I've yet to see an MSD and SD look well together that way, or even a tiny and MSD couple look well. So personally, no. Does that mean they have to be within 5 or even 10 cm of each other to look good? No. My SD and her husband doll are 12cm difference (10 in heels, she's 58cm, or 60cm, and he's a solid 70cm). These dolls are character dolls so when we put them together her height was on purpose. We had to match the sculpt with the character, which included things like height difference. He's supposed to be 6'4" or so in real life, and she's a solid 5'. But the chosen sculpts match (same company helped) in that they are obviously adult and of the same racial stock (after faceupping). It was almost pure chance.

Do you find the need to justify the relationships between your dolls, so for example I need to get him/her because my other doll needs a brother/sister/boyfriend/girlfriend ect? Do you need to justify each doll in relationship to your others?
Lol, no. My pukis play with the court and such, but mostly they do their own thing and have their own little doll family. They create their own relationships, so unless I'm buying a character doll in specific, any SD I get will somehow fit in, and any tiny will do great with the others.

 

I buy dolls I like I don't really worry about size differences. My imagination is big enough to come up with a concept to make them all be friends, whatever size they are!

 

I actually want the opposite -- one of each type (or designer) to round out my collection. I only buy the ones that speak to me. And if they all speak to me, they must all belong together somehow.

 

unless they are meant to be always together, no. i just see if i like the mold ^^
but if its for a couple, or BFF then i make sure that one wont look disproportionnate (eh...?) next to the other