Dolls With Personality Quirks

Do you mean the character's personality quirks, or the doll itself? For me, these things are different.

All of my dolls have written characters that do not interact with me at all, so any personality quirk would be something I've written for them--like Parker's need to constantly point out everything under the sun that's unhealthy and therefor gross, or Jack's nailbiting habit, or Justin's absolute laziness or Luc's tendency to fall in love with people who don't like him back...

If you mean the doll itself, Hazle is very kicky, even though she's been restrung and sueded. Every time I try to change her clothes, she curls up fetal position and makes it really difficult! Eirnin like to throw his headcap. He's an old Volks doll made before headcap magnets, and so the headcap is supposed to be hooked to the s-hook, but because I need to remove his head for some clothing, I don't hook it. Usually, the wig cap and wig are enough to keep it on, but sometimes not. Rose's thigh joints twist easily and every time I want her to sit, I have to look up her dress to figure out what's wrong.

 

Baxter, my Unidoll Ark, is difficult to find clothes for because of his size. So for a while he would sit around naked. I eventually decided that he's the kind of person who is so comfortable in his own skin that he just doesn't mind. XD

 

I collect a lot of kinds of dolls, including fashion dolls and even THEY do this.

Like, years ago I bought a Barbie, a generic boring barbie with the intention that I was going to pop her head off and use her articulated body for something else. I got her out her box and immediately that little hunk of plastic was all "girl, don't even THINK about beheading me. I'll shiv you." and I was shocked. I mean, I was fairly new to dolls at this point and this was the first one to pop out of a box and be so... full of personality. And man she's MEAN.
I named her Jules, and she lives on my mantle because I KNOW if I put her away she'll be angry hahaha, she'll threaten me and generally be a jerk. And I know that's crazy because its a damn doll but for whatever reason a doll I purchased just because I wanted a jointed body turned out to have the MOST personality, and she's continued to ooze this general b***yness as the years have gone by.
It cracks me up, because it came outta nowhere.

I'm convinced i'm either mental, or dolls genuinely have lives of their own because since then, a few others have done similar.
My Monster High dolls don't really, but the more "blank slate" dolls? Oh heck yeah. My Makies for instance have it so if I dress them in something that's not their personal STYLE they look wrong. Even if the outfit is super cute on the body, as soon as that head goes back on they're like "oh please, frills? What the hell are you thinking?" and I have to change them.
They also seem to develop relationships. Noah right now seems to have developed a crush on Ripley, I come downstairs and find him leaning against her or his hand on her arm or something and while initially I got a distinct "i'm annoyed by this" vibe off her, as time's gone by her expression has softened to my eye, to the point I think she kinda likes the attention.

And now I know i'm crazy ahahaha.

But it's not just the BJDs. I suspect it's something to do with this pouring character into these dolls we do. LIke with RP characters, they "get away" from their creator, they behave in ways we didn't expect, they do things we don't want them to do or refuse to do things we DO want them to do (I recall a game recently where two characters spent THREE HOURS dancing around admitting their feelings for one another and both myself and the other player were like "OMG WHY!???" but that was how these two characters wanted to act and we couldn't force it. We had limited control over figments of our own imagination)
Because dolls often end up as physical avatars for "characters", be they rp or story or just little ideas in our brains, they seem to take on a life of their own often quite against their own creator's intentions.

I can't decide if this is some sort of mental illness creative people have, or just a sign of a creative mind but I know many writers who've complained of characters "getting away from them" and "doing their own thing" and I know a few doll people who claim the same of their dolls. If you pour enough creativity into something, it's like they just come to life and then, then you're screwed lol.

 

my impldoll iris doesn't like to sit next to my dolfie dream or my iplehouse violet. everytime I sit here near one of them she folds her arms up and leans her body away from them. sit her next to other dolls and shes fine. no curled arms and no leaning

 

I think I kind of understand what you mean, being that the doll itself lends to the character's personality? All my characters are created from fashion styles and personalities I associate with those fashion styles. However when I receive my dolls, they tend to shift away from what I intended.

Take Karis, who was supposed to be my mori boy, I got him in a T shirt and pants that were temporary but now it's been over a year and he hasn't gotten any new clothes since! He looks perfect as-is. My shironuri girl has yet to have a shironuri wardrobe, but I still find she's perfect in the style of clothing she's in right now too. The physical doll definitely affects how I style them and they can "speak to me" when something is just totally wrong on them.

 

I usually have personalities mapped out for my dolls before they come, but my first on-topic doll threw me a curve. I intended for Johnny to merely be a little on the shy side, but otherwise fairly normal. However, when I pieced together the early part of his story line, I realized that he had all the symptoms of an anxiety disorder. He also, for reasons I'll never know, loves stuffed animals despite being a sixteen-year-old male.

 

My dolls are generally good natured and are usually happy to sit next to anyone else. They gravitate into their own little social groups. But I do have one snooty girl (Maura) who sometimes sneers at the others, and I sort of imagine I sense it when I seat her next to someone she doesn't like. She prefers to sit next to her ex-husband (Maxim) or whoever the newest cutest guy is. And she doesn't seem to have any girl friends! She treats them nice to their faces, but I imagine she's really sneering at them behind their backs.

Also, my dolls aren't generally demanding when it comes to new clothes, but I have one guy (Duke) who assumes that all the new men's clothes that come into the house are for him.

And I have another guy (Gavreau) who is probably a clinical psychopath or sociopath. He hates that the house is so crowded with other dolls now, because he can't sit by himself any more. He will tolerate a few people, and some of them (like Tournai) sort of understand him. Luckily he is in therapy with Trevor, but I don't expect it to help much.

Linda S.
galatia9

 

I don't really see the dolls themselves as having personality quirks, necessarily...but the characters definitely do, and those sort of translate into doll form for me. I don't think Aelic is going to start "yelling" at me if I leave him sitting around naked (which the character would hate), but I will give a little "I'm sorry, I know you hate it" if he's left naked for too long (but I'll do it anyway, if it's necessary). I'm perfectly fine talking to him and not expecting an answer. I'm in both the "it's a chunk of resin" and the "he's my child and I love him forever" camps, so I kind of go both ways with it. I personify even non-human-shaped objects, so it's really easy for me to do it with dolls, but the communication is pretty much a one way street.

I definitely think that characters can get away from their creators though. My characters are a HUGE part of my life, so having them in doll form is just...great. I get to actually interact (in a weird way) with these incorporeal things that mean so much to me. Take Ilya for example (his doll form, a DZ Carter, is on it's way to me right now); I've poured so much into his character and know so much about his personality and everything that that's definitely going to color how I interact with his doll form. He's my baby! (It also helps that I based his character around that sculpt, so...it's literally him! I'm so excited. So excited, in fact, that I've started rambling.)

So basically, I'm aware that dolls are just resin and can't talk or have a "personality"...but they somehow manage to do it anyway!

 

Yep, this is what happens to me too. I know they are just objects, but since they are shaped like people, and since the characters I have created for them are so vivid to me, I automatically think about how they would react to their environments. But they are also like little actors, sitting around backstage until I'm ready for them to do their thing. Even if it's just in my head! Sometimes I imagine they sit around and have a little greenroom chat about me.

Linda S.
galatia9

 

Now talk about an interesting idea for a diorama....a green room, or even better a whole theatre, wouldn't that be amazing? A old fashioned burlesque era dressing room would be hilarious...all the pretty dollies making themselves up, costumes everywhere, makeup, bottles of booze, pictures of their boyfriends stuck in the mirror, people sneaking a last cigarette, and a little shot of something to steady their nerves before they went on...

What an inspiring idea, I think I will go home and start making show girl costumes for my dollies. I knew I was saving those peacock feathers for something.

I always expect my dolls to be nice people, kind of gentle and sweet. They all persist in being their unique selves however. The Iplehouse Carina that was supposed to be gentle, demure and spiritual is my Loud Girl, she lacks all musical skill but insists on playing drums and a saxophone, and she is bossy, and greedy and demanding. She was supposed to be an Egyptian priestess, but she said it would be TOO quiet and boring, so... she's a pirate queen now.

 

My Eris is curious and quiet, but gods forbid you try to put her in clothing she doesn't like, or if I haven't played with her for a while. I have to practically bribe her!

 

I cant seem to finish the face I'm sculpting because she's so moody I can't decide what emotion her eyes are conveying!

 

I love this, This is how I feel. When I get a new doll, and someone asks what it's name is, I usually reply with "They haven't told me yet". Always gets odd looks from Non doll people.
One of my favorite dolly personality memories: I bought my first BJD (DZ Cozmo) and was super excited so showed off his photos a ton. My cousin asked me "Is he going to be one of your pretty boys, or a manly one?" My reply "I don't know, I haven't met him yet"
Even with her being used to my dolly oddness, that one still threw her off.

I have a ton of dolls with fun quirks, my loudest tho, would have to be JES, He gets extremely offended if you use lowercase letters when writing his name, He is a Diva all around. He always has to sit on a shelf where he can be clearly seen so all can gaze at his beauty. I tried to put him in jeans once...... If looks could kill, Jeans are for "Commoners" not Stars.
He gets offended if you like anyone more than him, even tho he probably doesn't even like you in the first place...
All hell would break loose if he found out he wasn't my favorite doll.
(I even have a version of him in all 3 of my favorite doll sizes, he started in the Barbie world, and I now have MSD and SD BJD's of him)

 

My Hannah is a mori girl who seems to prefer to be barefoot as much as possible. It makes for rather low-class photos, but she doesn't seem to care.

 

My Ezume was mostly ok with the ideas I had for her, just not sold on the blue. Not completely. I have tried so many shades of blue hair on her and she seems to be some what content with teal?

 

My boys are based off characters from a novel I wrote, so they're very real to me. Unfortunately, I'm incapable of writing happy, well-rounded characters, so they're all irredeemable jerks but I love them to death anyway. Honestly, I think it's psychologically healthy to have external objects to project these complexes onto and bond with. Kind of therapeutic, in a sense? Anyway, Jake is incredibly needy. He hates it when I go anywhere without him and doesn't seem to understand that I can't take him to work.

 

yeah, my FCS Sunlight F-01 girl, Hitagi, does this a lot. Whenever I try to take her out for pictures on her own she refuses to the point of not even sitting properly and standing is completely out of the question. She has been restrung by me and even taken to the Dolly Doctor at Tenshi no Sato for a professional restringing and maintenance but she will not behave on her own. However when she's with her older sister Nadeko, she's magically compliant and stands like a rock even in the face of wind, ice and snow....it's a mystery
She also rejects the majority of clothes that I get for her or try to dress her in, unless of course Nadeko has a matching set in which case she'll not be super happy but will wear it without being 100% non-compliant like she would be otherwise