Getting a companion doll?

Yeah!
So my favorite owner photo I've ever seen of a doll was a photo I saw of Comi Baby's Cutie Peridot back when I first started really digging into the hobby ... probably early August?
I knew I had to have her, so the moment she became available on Comi Baby's site for preorder, I purchased.
And then they also released Lady Lulu, and I felt that Lady Lulu looked *just* like Peridot's older sister (even more than Lady Peridot... hmm...). I went back and forth on purchasing Lady Lulu for quite a while, and then finally pulled the trigger.

I'm SO glad I did.
While it turns out that the scales actually make it so they really don't look like sisters, I'm really REALLY glad I made the purchase for a very different reason... I ended up buying a 1/3 size doll when I was certain I wouldn't like the bigger dolls. And it turns out that Lady Lulu is by far my favorite doll in shape and size now.

So they sit together, and I painted them in the same style, so they do look like they belong together! Just... companions of strange scale comparisons

Plus, the added bonus of that is I have multiple dolls from a company I really love. So I think that's cool too, that the desire to have a companion meant I was inclined to patronize a really sweet company again.

 

Alllllllllll the time. I think companion dolls count for the majority of my doll purchases, whether it's a character's romantic partner, sibling, or friend. I'll be browsing the secondhand market and suddenly the "that's them!!!" feeling strikes. Sometimes I even have to make adjustments to family trees to accommodate the newcomers...it's totally worth it, though. I find daydreaming of the connections between my dolls to be very stimulating for my imagination, and even though I know the dolls themselves are inanimate objects and don't care one way or the other, I don't like for the characters in any of my different groups to feel lonely, so they usually end up with at least one companion.

 

I got Ruthie. And then she needed an older sister. And then a sibling who came with another sister. And a mom.

I got Artemis to be my therapy weight. Now she has a brother and they have their two partners to make up my 'poly am dolly fam.'

These stinkers are addicting.

 

The moment I laid eyes on Maskcatdoll Yael, I knew that Leon (my profile pic at time of posting; Aimerai Neo/Akagidoll hybrid) would be getting a little sister! It was my first time experiencing that feeling, it was like a new character sprang to life in an instant. Although I haven't ordered Yael yet, I'm pretty sure that she has bumped my next planned doll down and taken the top spot on my ordering list.... we'll see how things go.

For the sake of keeping my collection small, I hope I don't experience this feeling too often

 

Well, I traded for an unplanned girl, and now she has a whole universe, a lover, a step-demon-daughter thing, and probably a step demon son thing too.

 

Absolutely. There are even pairs in my crew who were specifically ordered together, because I didn't want to have one of them without the other.

 

Many, many times! In fact, my entire doll collection is connected in some way or other. All of my dolls fit into my role play, and if I end up with an unconnected doll, I end up not keeping it.

Because my dolls are characters first and dolls second, I usually have the connections planned out long before picking a doll. But sometimes, a companion/sibling/relationship just feels necessary. It’s funny, one of my favorite dolls, Marley, was originally a very minor side character in RP. She was a younger sister of one of my other dolls, only mentioned in passing. I had actually sold the doll before realizing I wanted to give Marley her own story and personality. I’m more attached to her now than I ever was to her brother! And I’ve bought not one but THREE dolls to be her girlfriend and not a single one worked out! They all developed their own personalities and stories that didn’t involve a relationship with Marley. Poor girl.

 

Yep. I have a single tiny, but she is so alone. I almost immediately started thinking about friends. Now, hopefully she'll get a halfling friend.

There is also the one doll that might get a boyfriend before she gets a body...

 

Oh, yes! All the time really.
I don't like for my dolls to be "alone". I always want them to (eventually) have at least one other companion who is usually a similar scale/sculpting style and a part of the same story/world. Most of the time its romantic partners, but occasionally a sibling, friend or familiar.
Though at this point I suppose I couldn't even say that the companions are really "unplanned" as pretty much whenever I get a new size/type of doll I know i'm going to feel that inevitable urge to get them a companion. Like, I find myself purposefully not buying dolls I really like but feel wouldn't work as a companion to my current dolls, or that I couldn't see myself wanting/finding new dolls that could be good companions to them, if that makes sense.

For example, early this year I got a Fairyland Minifee dragon doll who I (unusually) didn't initially have a story or companions in mind for, but I ended up adoring him SO much that soon after his arrival I got him a Fairyland Realfee dragon to be his little half-sister. Now, I have 3 dragon themed dolls with one on order and 4 more planned for the future (not to mention a few dragon pet dolls too) to be friends/partners for my other ones. I probably wouldn't have even considered making a dragon crew had it not been for that first one, but now I find myself constantly looking out for more little dragons to add to the horde!~

 

I'm thinking of getting a companion for a doll I don't even have!

 

Oh, definitely.

When FairyLand launched the LittleFee line, I remember thinking how they weren't my style, they didn't fit my collection, I was not going to get one... but man, were they cute, and with the sale it might be my best shot at affording a FL doll new, and I could just get one... And then he seemed so lonely all by himself that I got him a friend. (Now he has two!)

When MNM Group Orders were a big thing, I resisted most of them, but ended up getting one of my favorite anime character. I was just going to do the one doll, and he was a trial and a half to get together, but when I finally started pulling him into shape... he seemed so lonely all by himself so I got him a boyfriend. (And some siblings, and their SOs, and his boyfriend's brother...)

When Mint on Card was closing down, they did a lot of their remaining stock as lucky bags, and I was lucky enough to get a couple of them, one of which had a lovely little cat lady in it. She was totally unplanned, but not long after I got her I was inspired to style her after my childhood cat. And I had more than one pet who's passed, so...

 

Yes yes yes! So many of my dolls have started out that way and keep expanding lol.

 

I try to keep within a certain proportional scale for my dolls, so they can all hang together, but I haven't gone and specifically gotten a companion bjd for my dolls. I did get one doll a little non-bjd doll of her own, though.

 

Oh boy, I said I only wanted one. Then that one had to have a companion. Then now they have children. And since their kids are shelled as 1/3 or higher, I'm now strongly entertaining the idea that they should have partners of their own. Then there were the "add-ons" to my first two dolls (the nature of the relationship varies depending on the universe). If I don't stop with these dangerous ideas, my dolls will multiply like expensive rabbits.

 

Yes, and it started because I didn't understand the ideas of 'in Stock' and pre-ordered. I just assumed every doll offered on a BJD dealer website was 'in stock''. I had planned to buy 2 LTF dolls, one girl one boy, swap the heads to get a Shiwoo girl and sell the other.

So it was a shock to learn I could get my Shiwoo boy within 3 weeks but I needed to wait for my Chiwoo elf for 5 months.

He was looking so lonely that I bought an in stock painted Asella Raspberry to keep him company. She was going to be an older sister.

Now, my Shiwoo boy is on his way to his new owner and I am keeping my little elf.

She has a dad, a F60, who has a best friend, a Dollzone, and both SDs are taking charge of my DC Kid Amos.

This wasn't planned but it does give richness to my collection.

 

One of my dolls unexpectedly turned out to be a character from a favourite childhood book series, so I then had to find her sister... {sigh!}

I ended up with two new dolls as a result, the sister and a boy from a head that didn't work for the sister.... and while I've made them a dress each that fit with the period of their books, I really need to get on, at some point, and make their book-clothes so they can be recognizably dressed as the characters they represent.

Finding the right sculpt etc. to become a pre-existing character is a huge pain in the arse and I really don't like doing it - but I suppose i should consider myself lucky that it's only the two characters and I'm not having to find dolls to fill the roles of the other characters I the series. That's a rabbit-hole I don't want to fall down as there's a family of four (five, in later books) siblings, another brother/sister pair, and then, potentially, ten others, if I'm sticking to just the child characters.

Teddy

 

Not immediately, but my Lu came with 2 headsculpts, and for several years I was content with her...then I realized "she needs a brother." And since I already have his head (and now, his eyes), I'm now getting body/wig so that Lu's twin brother Lukas can join her in photoshoots.

 

I did this with my genie twins. My initial Luts girl was a limited whose fullset was absolutely perfect for one of my characters. I adored her so much that when a limited head from that same fullset later came up in the second-hand marketplace, I jumped at the chance to buy it and make her a sister. With another Luts limited event head I loved, when a second one popped up in the marketplace I couldn’t resist giving her a brother. And I have a pair of eerie Doll Chateau rabbit characters that happened in the exact same way. For me, I think this was more a case of “sculpt love” however, and a failure to resist owning a second example than a real need for siblings. I do have several dolls paired with other dolls in my collection, but those relationships tend to be more in the little companion/pet range, having huge size differences so they’re not overly connected with their counterparts.

 

I always though that Delf El was the most beautiful doll... So when I got the chance I bought one from the Marketplace, and I adore him but... 1/3 is just not the right size for me. Still, I got a Dreaming Doll Mae to keep him company! Kinda silly, right? They are my only dolls in that size