Dolls from Different Stories

For me personally I currently have 5 different doll universes/stories and all of my dolls fall into one of those different universes.

None of those stories are connected to each other either. I sometimes even get a new doll and decide to create an entirely new story/universe just for them.

So I don't think your dolls have to all be part of the same story. As a personal preference, I like to at least have two from the same story though, so they don't get lonely, haha~ (my poor Iplehouse Scarlet; Cassander is still waiting on her partner that I've yet to buy Sorry Cassander!)

 

I used to feel like all of mine needed to fit in a story together. My main story is that Parker is the main character. He's in a boyband. The rest of the dolls are his band mates, staff/crew, family or friends. Some are directly related to him, others are friends of friends but still tied to the story by one or two degrees of separation. (Example: Luc doesn't know Parker directly but is roommates with Parker's boyfriend's band mate.)

For a long time, they all were part of that story. I had one character who didn't really fit--Pharaoh Ay. He is 73cm where the rest were in the 55-65cm range (or were children of the other characters). Ay's story is set in 18th Dynasty Egypt, but I even made him 'fit' because Parker's stepdad is Ay's 169 times great grandson. So even if the stories were separate and the characters would never meet, there was a connection.

However, several months ago, something changed. I had an overwhelming desire to own a minifee, even though she would look extremely out of scale with my crew. So I got one. She has an entirely different storyline. I also got a DC Queena who has her own as well. Piper and Hazle are acquaintances, but don't regularly interact. They could, being the same scale, but are so polar opposite in personality and backstory that they really don't.

 

I actually don't have real stories for my dolls. I just purchase the dolls that are personally aesthetically pleasing. Because of this I have so many different types of dolls. It's possible to have the similar sized dolls be in the same storyline but I don't feel like making the effort lol. I name them and create sort of a small backstory just so I have an idea of what style I want to give them.

 

It's definitely a personal decision and I don't think one version of collecting is more valid or "right" than another. Many collector's don't even have stories for their dolls! I really think it boils down to what makes you comfortable and happy.

Personally, all of my dolls are part of the same storyline, and I prefer it that way. I won't say I'll never branch out, especially as I do like pet dolls and they have no place in my world so they may end up in their own little menagerie of sorts. Actually, now that I think about it, I DO have two little deer dolls who are sort of off doing their own things, so I suppose I've already broken my own rule! But for now, any human dolls must belong in my current storyline, otherwise I don't think I would be happy having such a mixed collection.

 

Mine don't really... I have several different, completely unrelated "casts" among my crew, as well as individual dolls who are avatars for characters unattached to any of them. (Plus, there are also a few dolls over here who AREN'T character avatars. Their only role in the collection is to be pretty dolls. XD) I tend to only photograph and display the dolls from each distinct group together, though. I rarely try to mix the members of one group with another.

That has to do with my One-and-Only Unbreakable Rule.

The only written-in-proverbial-stone guideline I've ever had for this collection of mine is that the dolls that I wanted to photograph and display together (ie: the members of each cast, the couples, the family groups, etc.) HAVE to match each other in scale and sculptural style... A couple who were wildly out of scale with each other, or one very realistic sibling with a very stylized brother or sister would just drive me up a wall... So, I avoid that. Groups have to match. That's just the way it is.

BUT! The members of each distinct group don't have to match any of the *other* groups... As long as they match each other within their particular group, it's all good. That's how I ended up with everything from a very cartoony Bishonen House Steve to a group of EIDs. I'll never pose Dante (the BH Steve) with Kestrel and Cardinal (two of the EIDs). I don't take pictures of my Turtle House charcters (mostly old-school CP/Delfs) or the Brat Pack (all older Volks sculpts) with the Machine City androids or Arjuna and his friends (Soom SGs), and most of the more whimsical, off-the-wall DC and DZ "creatures" spend their time posed with Foxfire, my equally unrealistic DC Pierre.

That way, there's never any question of rather or not the whole, entire tribe looks good together. They don't need to. And their characters, like their avatars, can remain separate and independent of the others, too. They don't all have to share the same "story" or even the same world. Each cast is self-contained. ^_^

 

I used to have two groups of dolls with two different stories. It went well for years, but ultimately I took one storyline too seriously and the dolls were stressing me out, so I decided to abandon it and focus on the other story! Maybe someday I'll have another group again but for now I'm happy. It is fun to start a totally new story.

 

So far, only my most recent *hasn't* been based off an existing character, so here's how mine works:

Each doll comes from the universe of their original story/franchise, but they depart from canon at some point and end up in our universe in some way or another. My home becomes a kind of safe house for them. . .and all their respective dysfunctions, because apparently I never bring in a character who's both 100% human AND 100% sane. XD

By extension, photo stories wind up being about how these very disparate personalities interact--I can't really say "get along", because mostly they, well, don't.

So that's how I've rationalized having dolls from such disparate canons as webcomics, anime, and. . . whatever the hell Abby is; she's my only one that's not based off an existing character, and hasn't told me who or even WHAT she is yet. XD But she still slots into my safe house/way home concept just fine regardless.

Edit: Think I should clarify. Basically, rather than have separate stories for certain dolls, I made a specific story JUST for the doll versions. A Doll-niverse, if you will.

 

Ah, I myself recently made the decision to focus my doll family on only two main stories of mine as I used to have a few characters from several different stories/worlds (none of them connected) all at once and it became very difficult to focus on all of them at the same time. There were two stories/worlds that inspired me much more than the others anyways so I tended to focus most of my time/funds into them and thus the others were rather neglected in comparison. As much as I may love their sculpts/characters I don't like keeping dolls around that don't inspire me as much as others or that aren't getting enough attention so I decided for me personally it would be much better to part with the dolls from the other stories and only keep the ones from my main two. c: For me it was definitely a good decision since I feel i'd be restricted with just one but overwhelmed with many at once, so having two is working out great for me so far. xD That being said the two stories I have are fantasy worlds so I have a pretty good amount of leeway when it comes to doll aesthetics/variety I can reasonably have within them. Basically my only rules are no SDs and the characters have to be canonical and in proper proportion/scale to one another so I have a lot of freedom even when limiting myself to only two separate stories.

Anyway, I think if your dolls do have stories and its important to you for your dolls to be part of something bigger than themselves it is best to keep it limited to only a few as otherwise its easy to spread yourself thin trying to make substantial progress on them all, but that's just me. I mean, especially if your new story has characters that dress very differently, are a different scale, need special props, or have a lot of characters you'd want to shell that's a pretty big commitment, you know? If you have a lot of extra funds/time to devote to them all then go for it, have as many dolls from as many separate universes as you want! But if not I'd say from personal experience to be realistic about your resources and critical with what exactly you want out of your collection, otherwise you're bound to get in over your head or fall into all too familiar trap of mindlessly buying pretty dolls that have no proper place at some point.

c: Anyways, tldnr, but everyone has different goals and there is no right or wrong way to own dolls or fulfill different stories. Its good to branch out a little bit if the inspiration and means to fulfill a new story/world is there, just be realistic about what you can handle and what you want from it in the long term.

 

My dolls are from different stories, backgrounds and times. Theres's the big, extended Victorian family, a couple of late 20' £arly 30's girls ( my only dolls based on book characters) and another from the same period who is not from their books, my slim mini's are all modern teens/early 20's, the betweenies (small mini's/large tinies) are a mixed batch of modern kids and period kids (for a wide period covering from the early 19th through to the early 20th Century), the teenie tinies are all fay creatures (as are some of the big extended Victorian family, but that's just coinsidence)... etc.

But they can all interact when they happen to be in proximty to one-another. The same way I can interact with people of different classes, races, families and social groups when I happen to be in proximity with them... sometimes people from different times when I'm at multi-period reenactemnt events.

One of my Victorian kids is best-friends with one of the 1920's/30's girls. It's not a problem, after all, when it comes down to it, they spend most of their time in the same house (the same room even) so there's plenty of chances for social interaction between the different groups.

Teddy

 

I had, at one time, what I thought were separate characters in separate stories. As long as the dolls I got for the characters were within the same relative degree of realistic sculpting, I didn't care; they all look good together, regardless. It turned out the separate stories all meld into one at some yet-undetermined point anyway. Even if some of these characters will never meet or even know the other exists, they're all part of the same overarching general Story. Go figure, right?

 

My dolls all live in the same universe which is identical to ours but there is an underground magic scene with gifted humans as well as elves and demons and vampires. I did have twin elf girls, but I sold the one that was a floating head, so now I have one elf who is the heir to the throne of the elf kingdom, but prefers to go to clubs and travel. I have another elf who is strictly in the Cardiff, Wales magic underground scene. I have a tomboy who lives in Chicago, a mori girl that lives in rural Japan, and a real b*tch who lives in LA but has Peruvian heritage and doesn't want to acknowledge her psychic abilities. I got two dolls that are school girls in Tokyo. I JUST got a doll last week that I haven't placed in the universe yet. My tiny is part of a family that lives in Maine, but I have failed to acquire her sisters because I'm always buying discontinued dolls second hand! All of them are in the same universe, but none are in the same story. I have a doll on layaway and a number of floating heads that I'll have to fit in some how. I wish some bodies would magically appear for all the girls in my head box! My friends and family think it's really creepy that I have a box of heads in the cabinet.

 

All of my characters have been sucked straight out of a story or have a story of their own. Aisling is a Yu-Gi-Oh! wannabe and wants to marry Yugi Mutou, despite the fact that he is a fictional character. She would be classified as coming from a world much like our own, with small differences, like an alternate reality. David Bowie is literally David Bowie (RIP). And then there's Erik. Ripped straight out of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical, The Phantom of the Opera.

 

I have 2 distinct groups in my collection. One group are all OCs from a comic story of mine. They exist in the same universe (though some belong to different time lines). The others are all based on Marvel comic characters I love and wanted dolls of. The two groups don't interact unless I'm taking, say, a comparison photo for someone.

 

I have 3 story groups.

My Absolute boys which come from somewhere/when that I've never specified and is populated mostly by elves, fairies, demons and gods along with a few other types of mystical creatures like dryads, oceanids, kitsune, psychopomps, etc. There are humans in their world but none have appeared in any of the stories I've written (and likely won't in all honesty). All of the in-house pairings I have right now are of a god and his partner(s). I have a doll that I'll be picking up soon that is a dyrad and his partner (yet to be purchased) is a psychopomp. Typically these dolls fall into the more realistic end of the sculpting spectrum but not always given their fantasy background.

The Dream Time boys are mostly Awh'anise (either full or half) with their partners who typically aren't Awh'anise. This story line is set in the future in a different galaxy from ours. Humans do exist in this world and they are known but they show up very rarely. All the species in this world are creations of mine. These sculpts usually tend to the more anime/stylized type of sculpts.

The Big Mystic Smoke boys are from a world that is our Earth in modern times but with a slight paranormal twist. Obviously, there are humans in this world and one of the dolls I have is human (albeit Gifted), but the others are demons, satyr, dragon, cockatrice, naga, wight, etc. The sculpt style of these boys are all over the place from anime/stylized to realistic. The ones that are human/appear human are typically on the more realistic end while the ones that are fantasy creatures slide more to the anime look.

As far as interacting with each other, they typically don't. The one exception to that is Moswen. He'll break the "fourth wall" all over the place. The only time they get photographed together is when I take a group shot of all my dolls or if I bring dolls to a meet that are from different groups.

 

All of my dolls are individuals with their own stories. I enjoy casual writing, so each doll has become the main character in their story. It gives me the opportunity to just focus on one doll at a time and create a world around them. This is just my preference of course, there's no right or wrong way to do it

 

It really depends on what you want to do! what you feel you can handle and will ultimately enjoy.

Most of mine are characters from one story/ universe that I have been working on ever since I could remember. Some are dolls I have picked out specifically to be a certain character, and some were impulse buys who either adapted to an existing character, or one I created to fit into the story.

But I also have a few that either don't have a story at all, or have developed into a new one story all together.
They all have characters and dynamics, and part of the fun is finding those out.

 

Nearly all of my BJDs are from separate "doll worlds", the only exception being one girl and her floating head twin (one day she'll have a body). I think it's awesome for those collectors that have this whole huge connected world or realm, but my tastes are far too eclectic to pull that off. I would love to build on some of their universes as time goes on though.

 

When I was under the illusion that I could keep my collection to less than 8 dolls; they were all a part of the same story/canon group. I still have this group of 6 and their story is pretty finite.

The rest of my dolls are the result of independent inspiration and their stories don't intersect necessarily but rather this: if they were to come to life their characters would interact with specific dolls a certain way or ignore them as such. Outside of my original 6, the other dolls are like strangers on a train or maybe more like co-workers; they occupy the same space but their agenda, history, motivations etc, have different origins and objectives. Some dolls are accessories for other dolls and they're characters are defined by the dolls that "own" them.

 

For the longest time, I was confused when people said story... AKA their "life" background.
I'm not sure if mine will mix. David is a fashion model, his boyfriend I haven't decided what his story will be yet & I have 2 more coming..... Augh panic can't set in, but no wonder my creativity in general seems to be clogging up lately...