Do you worry about the size of your doll family? Whether it is balanced? =S

I gave up trying to set up just 1 family, right now my collection has a few families, but they all stay together, I have just about every size from puki to my new boy when he gets here is 70cm, I have way more boys then girls, I have 17 boys and only 6 girls. I have several SD size, I finally got a SD girl and she is amazing! I love her to death! Some started off together, then changed partners, some like to stay alone, some got stuck with kids, some are a pain in the butt like kids. All are loved and are close to my heart.

 

Yes I do. Not at first though, I started out a bit chaotic. I didn't think I would be able to afford more then a few dolls so there was no planning whatsoever and I bought what I liked. First a Zaoll (inbetween MSD and SD), then a MiniRiz (27cm) then an SD, then another 27 cm (but completely not matching the first 27cm in style), then 2 tinies...
The tinies were the first two dolls that I had that fit together sizewise and it was so nice, as it meant that they could inhabit the same world and be part of a storyline together. That's when I realised that I really liked the coherence in size and style and number.

So I started to streamline my collecting more. Made little groups of lonely characters. Now I have three main groups. A Tiny group, a slim-Mini group, and an SD group. The Tiny and slim-Mini groups are all tinies and all slim-mini's (surprise...). The SD group consists of two SD's, a Mini (who is the child of the SD characters) and a Yo-SD size doll (who is a doll of sorts of the child). They have different sizes, but they fit together scale-wise and therefore they can belong to the same SD-sized universe together.

As to numbers, they matter most to me when I approach a certain number (as in: amount) that makes me uncomfortable. My collection grows rather fast and allthough I love my dolls dearly, I am still not used to that I guess. Because when I think of my collection in *numbers* I feel a slight panic.
I actually think it is really odd how I am happy with my dolls and the amount of dolls that I have *except* when I think of them in terms of numbers. It makes no sense to me, but it's true. It's like I have different ways of visualising my group, yet if it's the numerical variety I am slightly shocked. I can't really explain it.

 

I kinda worried about it at first, especially with the girl-boy ratio. I consider them all one big group, and since they don't really have stories they've kind of developed their own weird little story-lines. I hate odd numbers (so I'm sort of a number freak in the opposite direction) and I like all of them to have a partner or friend or just someone to set them on the shelf with, and it bugs the hell out of me when they don't have someone. Two of the girls (one is a floating head) share a body and the same fella (only for one it's her twin and for the other it's his girlfriend). My anthro is all alone (until I save up for her a bunny friend or a Cheshire boy), as will be my incoming SD girl and my lonely little mnf and JID. I have plans for the SD girl's boyfriend already, so she feels less...lonely. No idea what to do for my other two girls.

So total I have 1 boy, 4 full girls, 2 floating heads. I need an equal number of boys I think, so it's symmetrical. I need pairs. It's a recent development/realization, which is weird and my doll quirk I guess

 

Naw. That's not something I really worry about, then again I kinda stopped worrying how my group looked when I introduced my fairy. So far I've got one vinyl SD anime girl, one normal MSD girl, one 27cm fairy girl, and one 23cm genderless pokemon-based anthro. I've also got 2 vinyl SD anime girls coming and a yosd dragon girl planned. Quite the random selection.

I suppose I would like one of each size though. My fairy girl needs a big 70cm hunky guy to sit on. Oddly enough, other than that one instance of wanting a guy I'm pretty comfortable with my girls.

 

I haven't really given it much thought, really. I collect dolls of all sizes, I love having them lined up and all the different heights and looks of them. For BJDs right now, I only have a tiny, but my next two purchases are going to be SD, and I want at least one MSD girl. All the ones I have planned so far DO have some fantasy aspect to them though...I'm drawn to elf ears and hooves, it seems. I'd love to get Angelheim's Myo, as well as the Pipos Cheshire Cat. LOL, so yeah, I'm not balanced at all. XD

 

It's a good thing I don't get wooly over this sort of thing, because anybody looking at my collection is going to *immediately* notice that I have two dolls that stick out like sore thumbs.
- I have 8 boys... and 1 girl.
- I also have 8 SD(+) sized dolls... and 1 tiny. And, no... the tiny and the girl are not one and the same. So... I would have to say that my collection is not 'balanced' at all. Lol! I am working my way towards another girl (or two) to even out the genders, because I do occasionally feel a tiny bit sorry for Eve.

 

Vega, I'm right there with you! --- 8 boys, 1 girl
All SD with the exception of Ero-kun, who's my androgynous unoa akubi boy xD

I love odd numbers in dolls. When I have even numbers, it throws me off. And someone always gets the ax. D:

I have:
7 very masculine boys.
1 girl for balance and color and sass.
1 travel-friendly msd for trips and fluff
3 extra faceplates
1 extra head

Any time I have 10 dolls or more, it throws me off. So I keep my numbers low. If I spread myself out too thin, I start losing focus on everyone. And I'm very much the anti-hoarder. Too much stuff makes me feel overwhelmed, out of control, & claustrophobic.

 

Yes to everything.
I only want SDs (and I struggle to keep it that way xD)
I want thre girls from the same company, and three guys from different companies (one will be 71 cm whereas the others are 58-62).
Then I'll be happy with my six SDs. (The taller dude gets to not be human, so it won't weird me out that he's taller)

I'm really picky with dolls. I don't want smaller dolls, and I really struggle to make them fit together.
But this will probably go to hell and I'll sit here with dolls of every size xD
Right now I really hope not...

 

For me it's not the size of my doll family, it's the content that gives me pause. Over the past year or so I basically changed the entire way I was collecting dolls -- I went from not caring what company they came from and being very character centered, to collecting dolls from just a few particular companies and putting less emphasis on character (though they all have some sort of personality). I also went from mostly boys to mostly girls. So, right now my numbers are thinned down somewhat from where they were before. However, I know that the number of dolls will creep up again, and that's fine as long as they fit into my dolly plan, and I have enough stuff for them all. I don't have a set number to top out at, but I am trying to be more choosy about who comes home.

 

I'm with Taco -- I'm more picky about whether my dolls harmonize in appearance and character, than about numbers themselves. My dolls are all from the same "world" roleplay-wise, so they have to be proportional to each other and have a similar overall appearance. That means no slim minis or fairy 1/6s for me!

That said, I like the number five, and that will be a nice balanced number of dolls to handle. However, I'm under no illusions that I'll be able to just have 5 dolls, since there are 3 at home now and my wishlist has more than 2 sculpts on it!

 

I have two Volks SD girls, a Leeke 60cm boy, three slightly different-sized dolls that I consider falling in the "mini" range, three Yo-sized tinies, two 15-16cm tinies, a tiny sort-of between those groups (and a few other tinies that are OT that fit in their own ranges too)...and then my 80cm girl. So, as far as size goes, I have no real rhyme or reason, though I seem to like having three dolls in a given size range. I almost feel having two Volks girls of the same size is redundant, but they are different enough and I adore them each so much that they both get to stay.

 

I worry about the size of my collection a lot, especially now, after my yay-I-got-a-job! binge-buying spree, which I will be paying for until April/May. =_= Collection currently stands at 7 SDs, 5 26cm tinies, 1 16cm tiny, 3 rolling MSD heads, which I think looks pretty, because everything is odd. The numbers really look so pretty when I list them out like that... I'm dreading the completion of my layaways and receiving new dolls. =_=

In terms of balance... no, I don't have any real concern for balance. I never feel the need to add dolls to create a balance.

 

My idea of balance shifts around the longer I'm in the hobby, but I do have some thoughts about it at times. It does bother me a little that I only have one girl amongst 11 boys and men. At others I'd like to add to my one YoSD and one MSD. At yet other times I've worried a bit about having too many storylines.

Right now I'm reasonably content, although I'm at the point of too many floating heads. I'd like to say I'd reach the right equilibrium with just one more body, but I imagine then I'd find something or somebody else that needed acquiring or changing . . .

 

I am bit a control freak, so it is somewhat odd that I don't worry much about my clan of odd individuals so much.
The thing I do worry most is that I want dolls I'm planning to picture together to match visually. It is problematic as almost everyone in my curret group and on wishlist are somewhat related to eachother through different relatioships which automatically means all of them must look good together in case I want to take photos of certain meetings.
Then again it makes things easier, for I have very spesific taste for my dolls and they have to be just right mix of realism and aestetic beauty.

For the numbers, it goes even more complicated; I (like many else, it seems) dislike even numbers generally (tho there are exeptions like 10), but all my characters come in pairs. Somehow there is always counterpart for each and everyone of them. So I may have even number of dolls in any given time, but I try to make sure that then the number of pairs is uneven.

But generally, I try not to think these things too much (save from aesthetic match) and just buy dolls I really like and that match for the characters I have in mind for them.

 

My "family" is more of a community than family. Everyone must be connected to my favorites, Amir, Loki, and/or Hansel, even if it's a distant connection, with two exceptions. I have my business group, my rocker/musician group and my artist group. Some dolls overlap into two groups. A couple fit all three. The only two that DON'T fit are Lucien and Xerxes, but they're my supernatural tinies and there more for silliness than actual plotlines.

On the topic of numbers....I'm OCD too. I LOVE 13 and 6...absolutely HATE 7. Always have, since childhood. I threw screaming fits for my 7th birthday, saying I didn't want to ever turn 7. and before every 7th birthday, something happens negatively in my life that causes me to think I won't have that birthday...it's....weird. When I was very young, I couldn't even LOOK at the number without crying and getting very upset. So if I ever notice having 7 dolls or a multiple of it, I have to sell or buy one to fix it.

But really, just loving the dolls i have is usually enough. Sometimes, I DO think less is more, that I'd like to scale it back to just 6 dolls, but then I can't figure out who to part with...I really don't have anybody atm I can stand to sell, except my RS body. and I'm even considering keeping that and just getting her a head.

 

No, I don't worry about numbers or appearance or anything really! I like to have dolls that look good together but even that's not mandatory. I just like to have pretty, unique, interesting dolls I love.

 

Balance is definitely something that I think about. It has been driving me nuts having the number of dolls I do in the size/gender combination I currently have. I couldn't say why and I've waffled so much over what my next purchase should be because I want it to be "right". I've had various combinations of SD, SD13 and MSD sized dolls over the years and in quantities varying from 1 to I think 7 and a floating head at the most. I think I was most content back when I had 3 MSD boys and it's been kind of troublesome finding balance since I got my first SD but I'd find it very difficult to give up SD girls now because I love the clothes so much. I'm hoping to get my first YoSD soon and hope if I get her she will help balance out the crew better.

 

Nope, I don't really try to balance sizes or gender. I don't give much thought to whether their appearances will "work together," either. I had a moment of laughter when I put my pin-headed Ziv next to my melon-headed Chiwoo, but since I've no plans to photograph them together, it doesn't bother me. I just buy whatever doll I like. Maybe in the future, if I've amassed too many dolls, I'll consider refining and balancing my crew.

As it stands:

1/3: 6 male (plus one more incoming male doll)
1/4: One male and one female
1/6: One male

 

This is very close to me...Also a hater of evens. It's a design thing for me. Even groups look too forced.
I really liked my collection when I had 13 dolls and would freak out if I had 14 or 15 and have to sell someone...then somehow I made to 21 without realizing it and I was ok. Now I'm way past that and numbers have lost all meaning =_=

As far as my current form of balance goes, I have to keep my dolls in groups. I think if they were all sitting in a huge mass I'd go insane, but as long as I can see the SD sized section, the Minis, the Tinies and The Alexes all separate I'm ok. For some reason I'm really obsessive about my Minis. If they can't fit on their shelf, I have to start getting rid of them. Other than that I stopped worrying about numbers and genders. My boys seriously out-number my girls and I'm ok with that. As long as the dolls look good next to each other, and I'm happy with them It's ok.

But those Minis better stay put. >