Dolls Who Changed Characters/Personality

Ah i can feel you... it was like this for me too back in my older doll collecting days^^
I have to say it all changed to me since i decided to make my own doll fantasy universe with their own countries, religion, history and nations/ nationalities...

Since that i have some criteria like they all have to be fashion sized (between 30 and 50cm), heads between 11 and 14cm and so on...
If i see a fitting doll, i try to place them in this fantasy world and think which kind of country they might fit in best.
Then i start buying things which might fit them. Since i have some dolls of a similar size they can easily share clothes^^
Once i have them home i try to let them show there best potential to me like if they look good in a beard or not, which hair color suits them best, for some i made wigparts because they looked great with them and so on... they start to develope from this until i think i found the best role for them in my universe
Then they get there place, name, history and character.

If i tried it the other way around and create a character first and they buy a doll that should fit, it sadly never worked out for me
For me personally they always want to choose who they will become themselfs

Lately i made some viking style dolls because i wanted to make the northeners first and i love vikings
Now i´m up to get some more kingsmen for another country, my golden kingdom.
I have one now and two more are on the way

If someone is interested in how they turned out i recently made a gallery for them^^
Links to pictures:
https://denofangels.com/threads/my-northerners-and-kingsman.859759/
https://denofangels.com/threads/all-my-agatti-dolls.852194/

This is my experience up to now...

 

Awww thank you
He was my latest edition to my crew^^
Sadly i´m not very good in writing in english
I wish i could tell the whole story...

It might take some time but your doll will find herself and what suits her best

 

I feel this so bad, especially since I prefer the bigger (60+cm) dolls but started with MSD and my favorite head sculpt is in that size, so I want to make him work. He's gone through 3 different characters/looks while still being just a head. But, the character I've landed on now seems to have staying power and doesn't feel like I'm forcing it to work, it just does it naturally. The customization possible in the hobby means that it's okay if dolls change aesthetics or characters over time, they're not limited to one faceup or wig or wardrobe!

 

A doll is what you want it to be.
Good thing is that you didn't get everything already and then changed your mind, saves a bit of money.

I have changed a lot of dolls in all the years (mind me I have over 150 so yes things happen) - the best I vibe with is having a character and then go and search for a fitting doll. I have done buying a doll because I like it and then inventing a character, but knowing what I want is easier for me as I can plan better.

If there is a doll I like and get if for only the looks I might decide on a style and erase everything as soon as the doll arrives. I usually sketch down concepts just to see what the doll could look like.



This is an example of the first concept vs the actual finished doll. I kept basic things but other parts changed, I have other dolls that went through very different styles over the years but this is a recent one.

 

Very few of my dolls have a single character/look. All have worn multiple wigs and
different outfits. Some have had new face ups. One of the joys of BJDs is the variability.
We all have different objectives and manage our dolls differently.

 

My number one rule for collecting bjds is “no character, no doll”…period! So I create a character first, and then buy a doll that should fit it. This has worked extremely well for me over the years and helps prevent impulse buying. BUT…there was one total and rather dramatic fail! I’d been looking for an SD sized fem-boy for a long time, and when I came across a rather rare head with the extreme features I’d been looking for (PicotPrince Makoto) second-hand in the market place, I suddenly felt, “Eureka! He’s perfect!” So I purchased the head and quickly procured a separate body. I’m a fairly adept seamstress, so I purchased some spectacular fabric to create a fun fem-boy wardrobe for him. I did his faceup, made him a pink wig, and excitedly spread out the fabric I’d collected and the pattern pieces I’d made, preparing to cut. Well…I walked around and around the table…for no less than a full 30 minutes…unable to put scissors to fabric! I was so confused! But I just couldn’t make myself do it. So I finally laid down the scissors, and went off to think and sulk in a huff.

It soon came to me that the doll just didn’t want to be that character at all. It was just as simple as that, and no amount of my trying to force it would work. I’d already been collecting for years by this point, and it’s the first time it had ever happened to me, so it came as a tremendous shock! But he fairly quickly told me he was a nature loving caretaker of the forest. I named him Hemlock, brought home some recycled knits in nature colors and quickly made him a full wardrobe, adjusted his faceup, made a new wig…and voila! We’ve been one big happy family ever since.

 

Being a character-driven collector (no character first = no doll purchase) this is something that really drove me mad for a while, specially at the beggining of my BJD journey.
I always refer to my first male doll (my second doll) when talking about this topic. I had already bought everything for him, had designed his background, his personality, then send him to receive a face-up... But, when he finally came home and I had put him together, he looked... I don't know how to explain it, but I couldn't feel anything towards it (like he was empty?). I decided to start from scratch and to place him next to his partner for a while. After seeing them together, I started to figure out what was wrong and designed a new personality and looks for him and then he suddenly he fitted in the character like a glove.
After all these years in the hobby, I continue planning characters before buying a doll, but I have made my peace with the fact that sometimes they will refuse to be what I had planned for them.

 

I've had that happen many times, most obvious being my first doll, Amir. I wanted him to be kind of Final Fantasy Sephiroth inspired, but once he got home, that wasn't happening. So I went with shy goth/emo (this was 2008, and that was a very easy style to get. Not a lot of variety back then!) and he stayed that way for about a year, until he jokingly wore a blond wig that belonged to my sister's doll, and it just clicked immediately that he should have been blond all along. His character just really started coming out then, and now I've had him for 14 years, and he's been a blond artist for 13 of those. The character was 19 when I got him, and I let my doll characters age in real time, so he's 33 in character now. I just think of the first year as his "finding himself" phase that would be normal for a college student.

 

I do it with all of my dolls, most of them start around age 16-18, and grow from there, so most do stay in the same shell, but I might upgrade to a more mature body as they age. I do update faceups for maturity, and I do cycle out clothes, wigs and accessories to reflect their current age. My most interesting one to ‘grow up’ was Amir’s stepson, Parker. I started the character as a child in YoSD form and he ‘grew’ through an MSD form up to SD. The character is currently 21, though I have since sold the doll off. I think he was 18 or 19 when I sold him. (My main storyline changed so I had an overhaul of my crew, but Amir will always hang around because he was the first.)

 

I develop it as I go to be honest??
When I get a doll, I get it because I felt inspired by the sculpt. After getting the doll, I try on different existing doll clothes and see what makes me feel similar to when I saw the sculpt. After I chose clothing, I design a kind of mood board as well? More like a character doodles page if I'm being honest.
Once I have the character doodles, the character's style, and the characters makeup styles, I start developing more on the character as I interact with it. For example, a little quirk about it moves or a stain or two it developed can affect how I see the doll.

So basically, I get the doll because I feel inspired by the sculpt and I take weeks or months "getting to know the doll" by customizing and trying different things. Because of this, it can take months for me to develop a character and name that I like for the doll. I give a placename and have character ideas before I get the doll but I don't actually stick to one until I get to know the doll.

 

I relate to so many of the "No Character - No Doll" stories here, but I think most of us know to be flexible and that our dolls and tastes will change with time. I've had a few of my crew evolve over their developments. First was Zevvy, currently shelled as a Little Rebel Jelle. He was meant to shell the partner of my LR Andre and I'd been considering a few sculpts that I thought would be complementary and appropriate (Including some from Doll Family and Luts) but when I saw Jelle done as a boy I knew THAT was the sculpt for Zev all along. The other doll who changed a lot is a doll I haven't finished yet. She's currently a Seed Arts Wol head but I'd been tossing all kinds of sculpts at her character for a while, trying to get something that conveyed the character's strength and femininity and inhuman nature all in one. Most of the sculpts were ones with extreme features or expressions, like Souldoll's Maa Baa and Joelle D. But none of them really seemed right. Then I saw Wol and knew that head worked best. Finishing her faceup and finding her the right body will be the next step and could evolve her further (a Wol on a Souldoll body is a different Wol than one on a Dream Valley body, right?)
One of the fun things about this hobby is how customizable it gets. Being able to change and experiment is liberating from a creative standpoint, and the dolls are ways to express creative feelings.

 

One of mine just did that recently!

I try to be pretty flexible on the details; my method is usually see doll I love, decide whether I want it enough to order, and if I can come up with a general idea of where to slot them into the doll fam, I'll put the order in and further develop them as I wait. It's worked well enough thus far.

However, in March or so I impulse purchased an in-stock Resinsoul Zhen. I told myself she was gonna dress more masculine, be the sort of butch doll I saw as missing from my collection. I made her some pants and a tank top, got a denim jacket that was supposed to be someone else's but went to her, tried on the masc clothes I had around... and eh. I was waffling on whether I wanted to keep her!

Just recently, though, I got in my Black Cherry Dolls Zeri. I was fiddling around with some clothes for her (her hips make it hard to put things on) and decided to take my Zhen out just to see if I was still feeling meh about her. On a whim, I gave her the floral skirt that barely squeezed on Zeri, and it clicked! She was more of a skirts and flowy stuff gal. Which, honestly, I find her dragon tail easier to pair with skirts than pants, let alone her big old feet.

The Zeri, I'm still figuring out her style

 

When I see a doll that speaks to me to the point I have to buy it, it usually is because a concept and story around the character has formed in my head. As a result my dolls don't really develop outside of me.

Except I recently took a hiatus from the hobby and when I went to sell most of my dolls, that started happening with one whose story had dissolved. She'd originally been transfem and very feminine, but when I started playing with her again masc clothes felt right on her, so she got a name change, a new sexuality, and now she's a genderfluid lesbian. It's great because without a story I can dress her however I want without trying to conform to a very rigid character in mind! And that feels right for the her in a way a rigid character didn't, so now I'm all for thinking dolls can have a "mind" of their own.

On the other end of the spectrum, I had characters for another story pre-pandemic, and while the SD boy I already have hasn't changed in any way aesthetic-wise, when I sat down and bought his girlfriend, I began actually trying to write their story. The story changed (as well as her character specifically) so much in the two months I've been waiting for her body that not only will she eventually have to be dyed, but the outfit, eyes, and wig I bought for her no longer fit the character. Even my ideas for her makeup are different!

 

I had a doll who was going to be Ellie from The Last of Us. When she arrived, the face shape wasn't what I expected. While I liked the eyes I bought for her, they were too saturated and luminous for the character, and the wig was too red and not dark enough. I could have worked with that, but then I lost enthusiasm for the game.

After months of consideration, I changed the doll's name and gender, tweaked her (still uses she/her,) background and gave her a service dog. I'm now satisfied with Aster.

 

I find that my dolls have a personality of their own and it’s up to me to “excavate” it. It seems the pics I take of them really help capture these aspects.

Lance has been a bit more of a world weary type than I expected (Most likely his pet dragons fault) and Little Hela is very playful and mischievous. Shitoyaka is as sweet and caring as I was expecting but her twin (Suneru) end up being more of the ‘got attitude’ and grumpy type. I thought she was going to be the sweet and pouty type.

 

I think it's a balance between your expectations and accepting the doll "as it is". I think all of my dolls have changed a bit between the planning stage and the more or less final stage. I see that it's a bit like children I guess? You can raise them a certain way, buy you also have to accept their individuality.

 

My first was like that. I'd planned for her to be sort of Vintage Femme Fatale, but she only wanted to be Fantasy Working-Class 18th Century when she arrived. Sometimes they just have minds of their own!