Dolls portraying multiple characters?

It's not just you. I have several dolls who are basically the same character in a couple of different times. A lot of my fantasy/RP dolls also have modern counterparts.

 

Dolls are just items/props to me. So yes, I've reused them as different characters in different stories and even in the same story. Sometimes changing the look but often not even bothering if their current look fits the role.

When taking photos of them out of any story context I may refer to them as one of the characters they've portrayed with that name and some of those traits, or as the manufacturer name, or as just a generic figure.

 

I'm trying to move to that because I found that being rigid with their characters and style stifled my enjoyment of the hobby.

That being said, I can't quite bring myself to make them completely different characters. I know some people treat the dolls like actors and "cast" them into different roles, but I tried that with my girls and uh... no. Nope, couldn't do it. One of them originally is a silly but tomboyish lesbian in the book I wrote. Like - "no thank you, men as friends only, please cook up some girls with pigtails." I tried getting her some stuff (wigs and outfits) to be a totally different/more feminine/straight character from one of my more recent stories (I just really want an excuse to buy pretty dresses...) and it like, viscerally made me uncomfortable to even photoshop that other stuff on.

So now she's kind of a similar character to her original, just in different settings (e.g. space nomad vs. airmail pilot). It's kind of a the same story with the other girls too. One of them is actually a character in the same story I'm writing in two different time periods (modern day and late 1930's) so she by default is two characters, but again, they're sort of similar in personality.

 

Pretty much ALL except one of my dolls are characters that are part of an ongoing D&D campaign set in the Legend of the Five Rings universe. At the same time, they're also characters with a backstory I've created independent of that. As if things couldn't get even more complicated, two of my characters could freely switch physical gender, so they have male and female doll forms.

Strictly speaking, they're all in a fantasy-ish setting, but that hasn't stopped me from styling them in a mix of modern and traditional, with the occasional fantasy trinket mixed in.

 

Most of my dolls are based on RP characters of mine or other O.C.s so they kind of stay in those roles once set. However early in my time in the hobby I had one doll that I styled to be my favorite super hero and his evil clone. That lasted awhile, but at some point I got the non limited version of the doll to be full time the hero as the first doll's identity had fully become the clone character.
I've thought of doing things like that again, but most of the time when I get a doll I have a character in mind, characters that shift or change are rare for me. That said there is no wrong way for characters and doll, having a doll be many characters or just one are both valid ways to enjoy your dolls. Hell having a doll with no character at all is just as valid. ^_^

 

My SD sized gang are mostly siblings, half-siblings, and cousins in a large Victorian family, but they all have modern world equivalents to their characters too (though they seldom get to visit the modern world) and several of them also have character equivalents in The Elfwoods (One of them has three distinct caracters depending on whether she's got on her human ears, her small elf ears, or her large elf ears).





Teddy

 

Currently, most of my dolls have sub character/backstories, but I may portray whatever character on them when I come up with something else. This often happens when I create references for my art because I make narrative art.

As a grownup, I do enjoy taking time waiting and "listen" to my dolls as they reveal themselves and develop characters. But as a kid, my then-dolls had absolutely no shell and I would give them whatever names and stories I come up with.

With BJD hobby being so expensive, it is easier for me to give at least one base character to develope unless I am fine with any character looking same.

 

Technically I sorta did this with one of my dolls while I waited to find the right doll to actually take the proper role. Although sometimes I find it difficult to have multiple characters come to life through a single doll.

 

Jack and Deanna are essentially the same *character*, but I do want to be able to style them to be those characters in different settings-- their current incarnations are very D&D inspired, since Jack is my rogue and Deanna's loosely based on a friend's character from a different game we play together.

But I have considered a boy who would be one character most of the time, but could easily be dressed up as a couple of other characters if I wanted to do some different photo shoots, and my newest doll is green so my sister pointed out I could dress her up as Elpheba and take her with me to the movies when Wicked comes out.

 

Sometimes I used to do a shoot with a doll and I kind of saw it as if they were "acting' a role as a different character for the sake of a shoot- Rowena might become A Dancer, or the Littlefees might pose as fairies.

 

Kind of but not really in the same sense?

All of my dolls have a set character that really doesn't change. However, a couple of them get played differently in different RPs. I have a main story with my sister and friend, and my "canon" human characters belong in it. But on rare occasion, I'll do side RP with other people where Opaline and Aapo are true vampires and Jarppi is a gargoyle (as opposed to human characters who are styled as such). They're still the same basic characters, just with fantasy elements.

Sometimes when I lose interest in a character but still love the sculpt, I'll totally wipe the doll and redo them as a new character. Not really the same as having two characters in a doll at once, but still using a doll for more than one character.

 

One character per doll for me, but I'm still dreaming of a second doll for the same character at a different age. Sounds a little insane but I need it!!!

 

Most of my dolls have their own permanent characters, but like several other posters here, I do have them doing alternative versions of them selves in different settings, sometimes. Some of them have a modern and a historical version of themselves. It's mostly still the same personality, just in a different context.
I only do it with some of my dolls, though. Some of them have a carachter that is too much themselves and very resitant to alternative settings so it just never feels right. And some have too specific face ups to be historically versatile.

And I have one doll who barely have any personality at all, she is mostly a mannequin for different styles and ideas. I didn't plan it like that, it just sort of happend and after all my years in this hobby I know better than trying to resist it.

 

Not really. I mean I see them all as little bjd actors for my story and those dolls have their own personalities as the actors, and even have siblings that may of may not play their siblings in the story. The characters are different from the actors, but I don't see this a multiple roles.

The characters they play aren't them. But, none of them have multiple roles. I get a doll to play the part for every character in the story. Thankfully I almost have my full cast acquired.

When I set up the photo studio they get into their costumes for the scenes and play out the drama by the script then they change clothes when season of shooting is over and go back on the shelf being the little doll actors that they are and sometimes whole different personalities seem to come out. I might end up with couples that met on the set, but they don't have a single romantic encounter together in the story.