Doll personalities and Character Development Curiosity!

It took me over a month to find a name for my first doll. All the names I kept coming up with never stuck. As for personality, she has a simple one and I haven't really covered a backstory. I think I'd save that for if I ever used her as a rp character.

 

My idea of "playing" with my dolls is exactly the same as yours, @chameleon0891! When I first got into this hobby, I was a little bigger on characters - I'd been writing for a long time, and I was looking for dolls that fit my ideas of what my characters looked like. This works really well for some people. In my case, as I lost interest in stories or as they developed over time, I found my interest/affection for those dolls weakening. These days I'm more inclined to buy a doll because I like the sculpt. I'll probably still assign that doll a name, and maybe even a character, but I'm more open to the idea of changing things up along with my interests. Everybody has their own way of approaching collecting!

 

I sorta have a personality in mind when I pick the dolls I'm saving up for. The satyr is going to be a sweet but little bit randy boy, while the one I've decided is going to be my grail is going to be a devious big brother.

My impulse buys on the other hand, sort of just developed. My tiny one is still developing her's, but Abel and Ajax made themselves obvious in the first few weeks.

 

I only have one doll, and all she tells me is her name too I think I enjoy imagining her in different clothes, wigs... taking photos, but I think I'm not the kind of person who imagines stories easily. Maybe someday I'll create like a real character for her, and not only her name, but for now I'll just craft stuff without caring about not having a backstory for her. I think it depends on every owner. It's true that a lot of people here create stories and make links with their dolls like "these two are brothers and this little one is their step sister", or something like that, but every person has their own to enjoy the hobby. For example, I really really enjoy doing face-ups and body blush, crafting stuff.. and I'm bad at stories, and other people are very creative when it comes to photo stories and writing but not with hand made stuffs.

I've never felt frustrated about it. I think it doesn't mean that I love less my doll, it's just my way to enjoy ^_^

 

Originally, I only meant to get one doll in order to sew for the SD size girls. But something about their faces & bodies ends up stirring up my imagination so part of the "game" for me is thinking of their character & the name that fits it. That part is something I can do even when I'm too busy working to actually spend all the time I'd like to rearranging my dolls. I'm not a writer so I don't go on to imagine whole scenarios & a series of events but do enjoy setting them up for photos where their character shows. Loving all those characters I see in the sculpts & the faceup variations posted has led to more & more dolls with more & more styles invading my space, sending the collection off in interesting zigs& zags. Some have clumped into ever expanding family groups while others have remained less specific tho even those are beginning to group together! Only two of the most recent "spur of the moment" purchases remain nameless...there hasn't been enough time to visit with them as work has been pressing. ;D

 

i didn't have any existing character in mind when i bought nicky, but his personality/backstory just sort of naturally developed during the time that i was waiting for him. and from his character spawned an entire verse of other characters who i now want to shell into doll form. so i guess it can happen both ways!

 

I'm a bit of a minority as I'm a writer and an rp'er, but I don't really do either of those things with my dolls. Most of them have names, general personalities and loose backstories, but a lot of those things are kind of spur-of-the-moment ideas that come when I'm actually handling them and seeing how they look together.

I also tend to base them on what kind of "style" I want for their look - for example, for my incoming Peakswoods girl I want to do a mahou kei style, so I thought maybe she'll be into 80's pop culture and shoujo anime, and so maybe has a bright, bubbly personality, which goes well with one of my existing dolls so maybe they'll be friends or even related in some way.... and so on it goes like that. I definitely don't take it as seriously as developing RP or story characters, and just go with whatever piques my interest at the time.

 

I am new to this hobby as well, but I think mine are just....idk. I like to write and draw, but the ones that I buy already seem to "call" to me, so to say. Its like I can hear a little voice saying "pick me!" (and now I sound crazy). My dragon has a very quiet but happy personality. It is all from his face, body structure, and just the vibe I get from him. All of this is making me sound crazy...but...just what I feel lol. But my dragon also means a lot to me...so...maybe that is why he has his own voice.

 

i base my dolls off of my story characters c: i USUALLY have their names, personalities, etc in mind when i buy the sculpt (which usually is why i pick certain sculpts - because they'd be perfect for my characters). i find with ball jointed dolls, the way you style them gives off a vibe about who they are. kinda makes them special. people put a lot of care into them when it comes to customization.

sometimes i'll have a plan for a doll, but when the doll gets here the plan gets thrown out the window and the doll will kind of become someone else. dolls definitely have a mind of their own sometimes haha.

sometimes i'll impulsively buy a sculpt and then i'll have to completely rely on the doll to tell me who he/she is because i have no plan, but eventually i figure out exactly who i want them to be c:

yes, i think i'm constantly working on my characters/dolls haha because i'm not quite finished my story and when i am i want to write more about them but you're definitely not alone, i think a lot of people don't create personalities for their dolls- some just take a bit longer to get into it, but some never do. it's all up to you what you want to do with your dolls!

 

I make comics (and never share them, oops!), and while my dolls weren't pre-existing characters, they got established pretty quickly once I bought them. I want to make their comic. I'm not sure if I should keep them to myself.

 

My doll characters are very deep and involved, and I have their information typed up and printed out in a binder, but also I role play them. Most of my dolls were role play characters for weeks, months or even years before I shelled them in doll form. I have to bond to a character every bit as much as I bond to a doll, or I'll end up feeling like the doll is a stranger and sell them. For the ones I have, they all have full names, their parents, siblings and other important family members have names, they have a character birthdate, height, weight, medical history, birth place, pets, job/school, clothing style, favorite foods, drinks, movies, music.....the list goes on. I even try to find houses or floor plans of places they would live. I've always done this, even with my Barbies and other fashion dolls in the past. My sister and I even created character sheets when we were little kids to fill out for each new doll/stuffed animal/action figure character we created. It's been revised multiple times of course, but I still do that for my BJDs. It adds more excitement and creativity for me.

I don't think it's bad if people don't, and prefer to think of their dolls as art or models. People enjoy the hobby differently, and as long as you're enjoying your dolls, it doesn't really matter what you do or don't do with them. I just happen to enjoy combining my doll hobby and role play hobby.

 

For me the characters came first. I used to write a lot of fanfiction and roleplay, and eventually my wife and I created a huge universe full of characters we fell in love with but didn't have a lot of pictures of because neither of us could draw. Photography fills that gap for me now. We got into dolls when she stumbled onto a doll she thought would be perfect for her favorite character at the time, and from there we started looking for other molds to suit his friends and family. Some dolls that have come along grew characters to fit into the story of all of the others, but they all have a role to play together. I just find them more engaging that way.

 

Not everyone does, OP... There are plenty of people in the hobby who don't play the character game or even name their dolls. Though those collectors tend to be a minority here on DoA, where there's a lot of chatter and apparent importance put on the character side of things, they do exist.

Characters are optional, in other words. If your crew turn out to be non-character dolls, don't stress over it. It's not a wrong way to doll.

 

I'm still waiting on my first BJD, but to me this whole backstory/personality thing seems a little daunting. I like the idea a lot, but I'm not sure how well I'll be able to execute it. I have a few name ideas based on what I think fits the sculpt, but I'm still totally unsure what I'm gonna end up liking. I've also come up with a few details regarding his hobbies/style/personality, but he as a character is still very vague to me.

Who knows, I might get the doll and then end up realizing that everything I've planned out for him totally doesn't fit. I'm excited to play around and experiment with what works for me in developing a character for my doll. Based on what I've heard others saying, it sounds like it might be an ever-developing process as I "get to know" him better.

 

@chameleon0891 first off, your username is awesome! Chameleons are awesome! Second, about characterization, I do the opposite. My dolls have characters long before I take them home, and as I make their resin selves, I flesh out their characters. Hades, for instance, aquired a scorpion tail, because it suited her, is a thing in her species and soom Vesuvia is glorious. This told me how she came to be, which really helped her backstory.

 

I'm always working on their character even before I have the doll I do research for their story because it's kind of a period piece but my image of the doll changes with the character I never plan on writing any of it down but I'm my case I do have my dolls in a few different stories at a time so one doll has multiple characters and stories it makes them versatile the multiple names can be a pain but it makes them more interesting to me if they have their own reactions to the world around them

 

I'm a writer, so... I get very into character development, even when the doll doesn't start out as a way of shelling a pre-existing character.

My first doll changed a lot once I actually had him, from what I thought his personality would be like, like he's definitely evolved into very much his own character, and I really love I guess getting to discover more about him the more I work with him, whether it's a new outfit piece or wig, or just posing him a certain way with props or other dolls for photos, it feels like the longer I have him, the more he gets fleshed out.


But I mean, I think it's totally fine to not have it happen that way, as long as you're getting joy out of the way you play with them-- involved backstories aren't necessary, a beautiful picture is a beautiful picture whether the doll(s) have names of their own or go by the sculpt name, whether they have character quirks or are just pretty objects. So I don't think my way is the only way, or even the best way. It's just the way that feels natural to me-- it was the same when I was a kid, and all my stuffed animals and little plastic figurines had complex personalities and relationships because playing with them was my first foray into storytelling.

 

Same here

Some of my dolls have more of a back story, others less (just who they are and whay sort of character they are) but it's the sort of thing that becomes apparent the longer i have them rather than anythign I consciously work on.

My SD gang are mostly one big family of siblings, half siblings and cousins, for example, but each child's character became apparent once I had the doll and some were uicker than others to let the details be known. One girl's arrival solidified the character's/backstories of several of the existing ones (she's a tomboy, one of the others is the "snarky older sister type who constantly gets at her for being rough and scruffy and having no interest in fashion, and a third is the sweet-tempered peacekeeper who runs interference between them, often averting trouble before it happens).

Teddy