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Does any doll you buy have to fit a story?

Sep 12, 2010

    1. While I've brought dolls home that didn't originally fit into a story, they've all either taken on a previous character or grown one to be added to a story. I just don't bond very well if they aren't a character of mine, and as was mentioned by another poster, it helps me stay focussed rather than wanting every doll out there but having no real firm criteria on how to choose.
       
    2. For the most part, yes. All but a few of my dolls have been purchased to serve as physical avatars for pre-existing characters, and as such, they are all part of some kind of narrative. However, not all of my dolls come from the same story, and the ones that come from one story will not interact with the ones that come from another story, so the groups in my doll collection are separate from one another.

      However, as I have come closer to acquiring all of the dolls I want to shell my pre-existing characters, I've found my eye wandering toward other sculpts that I like that have never quite seemed like theey would fit any of those characters. I've already got a couple of "omake" dolls that have personas (of a sort) but that are largely stand-alone dolls, either because they're an alternate version of a character that already has a doll form (I have two pocket-versions - a PukiPuki and a LittleFee - of one of my 60cm dolls) and don't quite fit in with that character's narrative group, or because they're really just more of a fun project (I am making a female Shepard doll from Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2, using spare parts).

      Through working on those omake dolls, I've realized that there are a couple of other dolls that I will probably purchase in the next year or two which will function purely as art pieces, with no personality or character attached to them in my mind. This way of interacting with the doll collectoin will be very different than what I'm used to doing (with each doll being a distinct character, and selected based on how well they fit the physical parameters of that character, not because of how they appeal to me aesthetically), and I'm not sure if it will work out or not, but I think that doens't make it any better or worse than any other form of interaction.
       
    3. Lately yes, they all at least have to fit into my story universe, not necessarily as a pre-existing character, but I have to be able to create a new one for them that fits. Otherwise, they tend to bore me, unfortunately.
      I'm not the type of person that gets a lot of fun from a doll that is 'only pretty'. Just recently found that out when I had to create a new character to fit my Mono, which I love, but rarely ever played with before. I believe that was because I only bought him for being so beautiful, not because he fit into any of my storylines.
      Since I don't want to sell a doll if I don't have to though, as I said, I worked a way around that by using him as a shell for a different character, that fits into the group better. I doubt I'll get myself into something similar again though. If I pay so much money for pretty plastic, I at least want to stay interested in it for a while and not leave it stored away, waiting for the 'magical bonding' to happen all of a sudden.

      Only exception: At one point I'd like to have at least one girl doll (all male so far), and honestly, I don't want to do anything else but put her in pretty dresses and such :/ So her character doesn't matter at all.
       
    4. The above quote sort of summarizes how things worked when I got my first doll. Before ordering her I had a well defined character for her: name, back story, universe etc.
      She came home and something didn't feel right, the doll that had come home wasn't the character that I had been envisioning. It took a year before she revealed her name and after that I soon found out who she was and what her world was like.

      What I learned from her is that a doll that comes home either needs to be allowed to develop its own storyline upon arrival or need to fit in to another dolls storyline, either way the characters can't be set in stone because then something will feel wrong.

      I know that there's going to be a man in her storyline but I won't define his character before bringing him home more than that I know that he is male and he is tall.

      Each doll must be allowed to tell me its name and who it is although I can have planned loosely which storyline it fits in to and some more general characteristics.
       
    5. Two of my current stories were sparked when I found (and fell for :P) a doll. But that doesn't exactly count, as they still had characters.

      My "grail doll," my perfect doll, has no character yet. He has a name, and I guess the beginnings of a personality. I'm sure a story will follow but for now there is none. I made the exception because he's absolutely perfect. ^^
       
    6. I only have two dolls, but so far I've bought dolls to fit a character/story. If I find a doll sculpt I like I usually base a character on that sculpt. If I ever do buy a doll that has no pre-existing character I will most likely create a character for it in the sotry I have.
       
    7. I don't have a list of pre-existing characters to get dolls for, but I do buy dolls with the intention of having them fit in with the story and world I created. It's always attraction to the sculpt first, and then character development. I limit myself to doll size, so that there's almost surety that the new doll is gonna fit in with the others in the collection. And the more I write about that doll, the more it gets integrated into the story, the more likely it is for me to start saving up to buy that doll.
       
    8. Hmmm, I suppose I definitely lean towards that- but my 'story world' or whatever it is is really broad. There are bunches of different 'races' so most looks would fit in pretty well. I make all my own clothes and do all my own face-ups so aesthetics aren't so much the problem except in extreme cases. I also don't buy dolls to become specific characters, mostly because I'd make my life a disaster trying to find exactly what I want for my favourites. I base most of my doll characters on the doll itself, which is why I end up not buying a doll unless a character jumps out at me right away.
       
    9. How many of you only buy a doll if it fits a character you already have, or can at least fit in the world you've created? Or do you buy a doll because you like the way it looks, and then create it's character (or have it's character manifest) as you interact with it?

      Ten of my twelve BJD are characters with an already given, and for sure related among them, story: One Piece manga and anime series, by Eiichiro Oda. My first thought, the first time I saw a first picture of my first BJD, was she would be a resin version of me as she reminded me of myself. As soon as I changed my mind, by watching a wig, about the character she would finally be, I thought about a group of BJD (6 Delfs), I had seen on the same company, as other members at the pirates crew she belongs to. So I did not have to look and search for those six to fit. I already knew about/liked them.

      The other three large ones took some not intended research. I mean, I knew I would like to have BJD of those characters also, but I did not go for them. They also appeared and fitted in my head at the same time of the first sight.

      Only two of my BJD, my middle size ones, are my own creation characters, who were created by my brain and my writings before arriving, but they also interact with the rest, like all they do and I also thought about their characters and sculpts all at once. In my imagination, my BJD's story is a part of their whole one, one not showed nor told by manga pages, episodes and specials on TV and movies on the big screen. And for me it is funny and interesting how it is. It seems in many things the author and me follow a curiously close way of thinking about the characters and their story.

      Therefore, is it that I buy BJD to fit a story? No. From my point of view, it is that I fall for the BJD in which I recognize characters of a same story I really love that I truly want to own. In other words, I like and get them because of the characters I see in them. That is exactly which makes me love them (Given characters or not), the characters I feel they are, not the beautiful nor the ugly, the popular nor the rare/hard to find, the big nor the tiny, and all the so on.
       
    10. All the dolls I'm gonna buy will embody the characters of my stories. That's the very point:)
       
    11. I guess I fall into the two major categories... I'll hunt and scrimp and save for the perfect doll for a character I have in mind, but at the same time, I won't say no to a doll I love simply because I like their mold.
       
    12. I make stories after I get the dolls, if I make stories about them at all
      so far the only ones to go in a story are Clover and Syrinx
       
    13. Well, in my case he had to fit an image I've had in my head since...forever. xD A doll with a dark, bad boy look with a tint of glam and glitter thrown in. I guess, something like a character now that I think of it. ^^; But I'm hoping with my dream doll he'll have his own sort of personality. :D
       
    14. I just get the dolls I like, there's no characters for them beforehand. Then I developed stories that for them while I'm waiting for them/gotten them. They sometimes voice their opinions on their names and bio though! 8D;;
       
    15. I have only one doll on my wishlist that has anything resembling a story to fit with. When I got Josslyn I decided that she needed a brother. I'm looking at BBB and RS for him, but I'm not 100% on their possible elf males. All my other dolls were bought because I thought they were cute/pretty/lovely and I wanted them.
       
    16. None of my dolls have ever been purchased with a specific character in mind. I'm of the type that falls in love with a doll's face & goes from there. The name & character come to me after the doll comes home. And even then my dolls will often evolve into more complex characters than I originally thought.
       
    17. At this point, I've given myself this limitation of character-fitting. The main reason is that I need to put some sort of boundary on myself so my collection won't get out of hand. Aside from the first two dolls that the story originally developed from, I've only bought two others that didn't have a known place in the story upon arrival. They've both found their way into the story since, but I'm resisting temptation on many others by doing this.

      If I bought every doll I loved, I'd be far too poor. If I ever come into a lot of money, get a bigger place to live or think up another hundred stories with plenty of casting room, then I'll buy all the dolls I love and find a way to make them all fit in. But for now, I'll just limit myself to dolls that fit characters. And I don't think it's wrong to do it differently, either. Whatever works for someone is just fine :)
       
    18. Not necessarily, the most recent doll I bought is completely out of place with the rest of my group, who all come from the same story. but I purposely chose a sculpt that wasn't human, so it being the odd one out was made more sense.

      I am thinking of getting a human type doll that also isn't part of my story, she's actually based on a character I created in one of the video games I played, it will be quite some time before that happens tho.
       
    19. If I really like a doll and want to have and keep it, I will either make the doll fit a story world concept or not care it doesn't fit. At times a doll that is a pretty doll I like to play with and look at is enough for me.
       
    20. The new dolls I buy have to fit the story. If they don't... Il change to story to fit them in. :)