Do you plan one doll at a time or do you go all in?

They were from different companies. Finding the right body for a character is just as important as finding the right head for me, and the bodies available from the company I was ordering the head from were not what I had in mind for the character. The nice part about this forum is being able to ask if anyone has done a certain hybrid (or in my case, being able to look at threads where other people have asked). I'll admit that I was worried if the head would fit right when I first ordered, and at the time, I was not a member of any forums so I went by neck sizes from the companies. I knew the resin wouldn't match, and it's a non-issue as this character is very modest. Only his face and hands show and his hands are jointed-hands from the same company that I bought the head from. When working with mismatched resin from different companies, if the resin colors are close enough, the head can be blushed to match (easier if the head is a bit lighter when dealing with tans).

 

I'm new to the hobby and I ordered two BJDs at the same time along with wigs, eyes and outfits for them.... while i'm still waiting on them I guess this makes me the "go all in type." I just know what I like!

Edit: I will also say I'm more of a "plan a character around a sculpt" type than a "pick a sculpt for a planned character" type which might be why it was easier for me to see what I like and to go for it. I'm very easygoing when it comes to my creative pursuits and I'd rather be inspired by a sculpt than try to fit a preset idea to available sculpts

 

When I first joined the hobby I went a little mad planning dolls (and buying heads lol) now I'm more organised and only plan one at a time. It also makes it less stressful for me as I have anxiety and can get easily worked up!

 

I originally started with researching companies. At the time there were only a couple that had scupts that interested me so I narrowed it down to one company in particular that I basically loved everything they did. I knew for certain that I wouldn't be able to do the face-up myself so choosing a company that produced really nice default make-up was also a must. I really would have been happy with any of the dolls from that company, and had pretty much decided which I wanted when the company went ahead and released a new limited edition that just stole my heart and that was that!

 

Ok, story time with the feels about this! I'm putting it under a cut for length, jeez.
If I had a YouTube channel, this is the kind of topic I would likely blab about in Wine & Dollies!

Spoiler: Storytime (long)

When I first started in the doll hobby, it was not with bjd, it was with smaller dolls and repaints.
I had followed the bjd hobby on the outside for a long time, just in general, but no DoA membership until 2008.
I just looked at photos on the web sometimes and saw bjd in the Gothic & Lolita Bible quarterly magazines sometimes, there were clothing collaborations and some Lolitas had them, just a few. At that time, bjd were not within my budget, but that was OK. I had a few Volks D+ very cute, customizable enough. The Lunar Ark was a good forum for small doll customizing (I do miss that forum, yep!).
Then in 2008, my life situation changed 180°. For the better 100%. Financials were now blue skies, really great! So, now I started thinking of the bjd hobby for myself. I had always had one big favorite sculptor, I wanted one of his dolls a lot, I thought I should just get ONE DOLL, because after all this time I still really liked them, must be something good to do, it's creative, I paint and sew blablabla...yes? Yes.

So I started looking,researching, and found she was a bit hard to get (his first one was near impossible, see below for grail)...so I did what any prudent person might do, I did still more research, made some lists, a range of first, second and third tier doll wishlists, then one grail, who I was sure if never get and lastly, a long shot ’dream doll’ shortlist of what I considered ’impossible’ dolls, either not released, ones long out of production, ones perpetually way too expensive or just unavailable second hand.
I am a Virgo, what can I say, I love lists!
After some looking (and if you were not around then, I can't begin to tell you how much easier and less stressful the second-hand doll shopping was in 2009 because it was before the recast boom) I got my favourite as my first doll, Unoa Lusis - second hand, great condition, within my budget, very lucky in that! She's still my favorite to play with too, 10 years later! I really recommend getting a favorite or at least one very high on the list as a first doll. She kept me from chasing ’something better, something more’ until I just decided I wanted ’more dolls’, a small collection maybe. A first-tier doll popped up, a Volks SD10 Kun, and they were not listing her ever as ’restocked’, better jump for her, right? But no more than 3-5, surely.

But then some on my third tier list came up and the opportunity was there and good so I went for them.
A couple of first and second-tier, fine, let's get them too, and the collection grew! Definitely stop at 10, yes? Yes!
But then, boom, the grail came! UNOSS, both sets of clothes, with most of her rare extras. And one first tier doll was ending production, Ariadoll Narvy, so of course she had to come home too, plus these 2 are both very similar to Kun in sculpt aesthetics, they will all be great friends, what good luck again! Surely we will stop at 15...right?
Then 4 of the ’impossible’ dolls came. A Unola kit...then...
Three within a year’s time. Dollshe Saint, a new Cream White SOOM Sard, and out of the blue Mr. Araki made a new 1/3 girl Prim/Metia, OMG, that was only a wish! But real now! My poor doll budget!
Holy doll overload, Batman!

Long story short, 23 dolls now. So this tale of embarrassing largesse leaves me with a bigger collection than I want and some difficult choices to make to curate it and I'm honestly not looking forward to this part one bit. I get attached, they hold memories. Good times of meets and friends and stories with and about them. I've neglected the hobby over the dilemma and just put my dolls away now twice, too overwhelmed to deal with my feelings about it.
Looking back, would I do it differently? Would I advise someone differently? No, because who can say whether those wildcards on anyone’s dream list will ever come?
But for every one of the dream dolls I have welcomed, the second and third tier dolls fall further on my list and frankly I'd rather have fewer but better styled dolls, all of my first choices now. But it makes me feel guilty. That's the worst part. None were just cheap impulse buys, once I liked them all...and now I am kind of saying ’no, I just don't want you anymore’. Yes they are lumps of plastic. Yes I'm too sentimental, maybe. It is what it is. Sometimes things are more than just things. They stand for something.
My wishlist has one more ’impossible’ doll, (who I now fully expect will magically come available at the most inconvenient time conceivable) but otherwise I'm on a no-buy for full dolls for the foreseeable future and I'm going to spend a goodly amount of time just going over the current collection and communing with them all, trusting that when it's time for a few to go, they will let me know!

 

I have a wish list, and a very long one at that, but I actually seem to go one doll at a time because the more I look and the more dolls I find I usually find more and more dolls I like more then the ones on my wishlist. I can't even look at dolls right now since I have one on the way and am totally broke and i'm scared of falling in love with another one and ordering another one. But, I do plan on getting the dolls on my wish list sooner or later since none of them are limited edition so, maybe a bit of both???

 

I have a wish list, but I tend to end up impulse buying ones that I've seen for a different OC... Or I find a different sculpt I like better and get that instead... I do plan on focusing on just ticking off OCs on my wish list now though, and one of my newest ones was on the list but changed OC. I'm going to focus on my current unfinished MSD and my floating heads for the time being.

 

I have three dolls that I really want to buy! The only problem is if I purchase more than one at a time I worry that I won’t be able to buy all of the accessories and clothes I want!

 

I started with one doll planned but as I started educating myself about the hobby and finding out about different companies and artists and molds, I eventually fell down the rabbit hole of having a million and some dolls planned. Having a limit on my budget monthly helps me keep my eagerness in check, otherwise I'd be swimming in dolls and all of their supplies by now. I think I'd probably get overwhelmed if I could actually get instant gratification but since I can't, I'm happy being able to plan for many!

 

atm because funds are tight. I plan one at a time. I am getting a new doll soon. I have 25 dollars left to pay for layaway and then shipping and then He's Mine..lol.

 

I have a list of the dolls I want. It replenished gradually, over a couple of years not one of the dolls left there, but several new ones were added.
If you look for only one ideal, that is, a chance to miss the other. Firms sometimes take their heads off, or arrange lucrative sales, sometimes something can be found on the secondary.
I have priority dolls on the list and less. And as soon as I have money, I will buy the one that I most want at the moment.

 

I currently have two in planning. Mine varies: sometimes none, sometimes many. I’m getting down to the bottom of my ‘always wanted’ list now, though.

 

I don’t really plan and I probably should. I knew my big doll goal was to have dolls of Lestat and Louis from ‘Interview With the Vampire’ and currently I am after a David Bowie doll.

Presently I wish I could plan better as I have bought things on a whim and been a bit over excited about it but then unsure what to do once I have got the doll.

 

I have a list of dolls that I want, but I'm also always on the search for others. The fact that there is so many doll companies leaves a lot of dolls that I have never heard of or seen before. The second hand market has really shown me a wide range of new dolls. On the open market you see all sorts of dolls and one you might just fall in love with.

 

No plan. I have a few favorite companies and when I see it

 

I have 3 or 4 dolls/sculpts that are on my wishlist right now. I tend to be really picky with these however, so I'm not going to be putting in any orders until I have a more solid plan for which heads will have which bodies, etc, etc.

However...I'm a huge sucker for really fancy limited release sculpts, so if I have the funds and I get in at the right time, I can quickly add and then cross off a doll from that wishlist...oops, haha!

 

I was v much told to go for the perfect doll route when joining. Keep in mind I heard of the hobby late 2011, joined (aka bought my first doll) in late 2016. I had plenty of years of looking at dolls before buyin. With that being said.. my first doll I totally settled. Settled for a doll that fit my “general” needs at the time i.e: more affordable, what looked like good posing, tan resin, not so long wait time. The doll I got was beautiful and can totally see her working in another timeline but I totally settled and that was my downfall. That’s when I went on the “go for dolls u reaaallllynwant route”. Similar to yours, I kind of just had a list of sculpts I adored. A lot of these sculpts were some of the first I had seen that had really made an impression on me. I found having that loose list and going off that helped me find my path in what kind of dolls to collect. V much for my personal visual aesthetic. I tried planning one doll at a time and really trying to shell them out before moving on. It just didn’t work, I find much more fun in slowly making my crew come together. Piece by piece

 

While I’ve never kept lists, I have maintained elaborate “plans” ongoing in my head for lengthy periods of time...even a full decade in one instance. I’ve been in this hobby for over 13 years now, and my doll desires have always been strongly character driven, with only a small handful of grails along the way that required any character development after the fact. Fortunately, my grails have always had something very unique about them that made their sculpts completely unforgettable to me, so they were always in the back of my mind to be taken advantage of if the proper opportunity arose over the years (and by the time it did I’d already developed a full character and backstory for them too.) But mostly I would just come up with a character that would become so real to me that I’d systematically research and hunt for that one character until I “recognized” them in resin form and managed to finagle my finances to bring them home. Then I’d wait until another character popped into my head and begin the process all over again. And this is how I slowly built my entire collection. Naturally, there were a few inevitable changes along the way as I refined my tastes over the years, finding even better shells for pre-existing characters. But this method allowed me to create a fabulous crew filled with great personal meaning...and everyone is fully curated, displayed and enjoyed on a daily basis. And now that all my stories are told, I’m finally down to just that one last fabulous grail!

 

I started out just being interested in 1 doll, but even before I got him I started making a list of all the dolls I saw that I wanted. Rn I have about 15 dolls on my want list TvT

 

I’m planning on buying my first bjd as well and right now I have 6 floating heads and 3 bodies on my wishlist for 2020 that I’m interested after doing my own research. The way I was gonna go about it is just focusing on buying whatever is limited to this year/high in demand than being desperate and buy whatever is available right now on my list since it’ll push me to spend too much at one time (two heads on my wishlist are in stock right now but i’m resisting and saving up since it’ll always be available for me to buy at a later time anyways)