Have your dolls ever gone completely against your intended plans?

Mostly they work out for me. Kevin on the other hand was uncooperative. Originally my Doll Family H Linfeng was delivered with a broken head cap so I got another blank head. He was supposed to be a relative of the original doll's. I went and ordered a Doll Family H Lyre to be a character named Amadeo and sat back and looked for sculpts for his partner Kevin. Fast forward a few months when I had settled on a sculpt for Kevin and Amadeo arrived and all my plans went out the window. First of all the Linfeng sculpt was constantly leaning towards the Lyre sculpt and the two of them seemed to "fit". As much as I tried to force him back into his intended character mold he made it very clear that if Kevin got to be with this guy he was going to be Kevin. So now the love birds are together and five years later I still don't have a sculpt for the character the head was meant to shell. To be even more irritating he now seems to want to change his name. Kevin isn't working for him anymore. Ah well. There is one in every family I suppose.

 

My Iplehouse Eric was going to have another name until the day he arrived and soon as I saw him I realized he really was an Eric so his sculpt name stuck. He also was not intended to get into a relationship with another of my dolls but they were just so right together. It seems he chose his path and it was not what I had planned. He is a real sweetie and I'm happy how he turned out.

 

My Puki Puki Pukisha Leon is my most 'not what I planned' doll. I bought a puki puki body for the sleeping face plate that came with my Real Puki Toki fullset. My plan was to mod the head (with no experience yet) to open the eyes part way and have the doll be a girl named Hecate who lived in a haunted house (which doesn't exist yet of course). However, a real puki face does not fit on a puki puki head back as is. And I realized how much work it would be for someone with no experience modding to open the eyes of a sleeping plate. And Kali, my real puki Aki, absorbed most of the character I had in mind. So I ordered a Pukisha face plate through DDE. The body kept the magnetic shoes and helmet I bought with it. When I got the face plate the eyes I had bought for another doll, who they didn't fit, worked. He is now a cat-boy named Leon who is more interested in exploring than in living in a creepy house. I adore Leon as he is, and the face plate went to be used as intended by another Toki and his owner.

Of course most of the others weren't exactly what I planned but nobody changed as drasticly as he did.

 

I have tried very hard to keep the bjds that I buy to stay the character I imagined them to be: I have a self-instituted limit on the number of dolls I want to buy, and I want to stick with it. So far, in comparison to my other hobbies (which I have essentially left) I have managed to do it. However, my Ancient Tales Rachel was a surprise, both as a doll and as a character: I didn't want a doll that size--I wanted all SDs. I also imagined her as more of a modern character, but when she arrived, she reminded me so much of a Pre-raphaelite painting that I had to make her this character. Nonetheless, despite being based on a painting of Juliet, she stubbornly refuses this name. I have no idea what to do for her besides sew her the dress she so obviously needs...we shall see.

 

I am finding that everything I planned before getting my dolls seems to be going out the window. All the time I spent preparing for their arrival, clothes, shoes, wigs, eyes, sewing patterns, face-up ideas, are not satisfying to my dolls. I have to "flesh them out" and let them tell me what they want to be. I just hope they don't take too long

 

I feel like every time I try to plan something for my precious everything goes wrong ! Whenever I choose a special type of clothes, shoes, or wigs my bjds seem to reject it (even if I planned it for a long long time before their arrival). It is so discouraging.

 

Yeah a doll I bought just doesn't seem to fit the character it was intended for now I am coming up with a new character for her because I love her sculpt and don't want to sell her.

 

Yes.... My fairyland Flora sleeping plate ended up taking over my lishe's body to become twins!! Well, that was unexpected...

 

So I know a lot (though of course not all) of us collect dolls in order to fulfull some type of character. Sometimes these are fully fleshed out characters we've written about for years, and sometimes they're just vague ideas with a basic look and personality.

But what about when the doll doesn't, for whatever reason, seem to suit that character? I know sometimes collectors absolutely know the second the doll is out of the box that the pre-planned character just isn't going to work, and other times it can take a few weeks, or months or even years for a doll to settle into its correct place. Or what even about dolls who perfectly represent more than two characters?

Please share your experiences! Tell me about your process and the steps it took to transform a doll from one character to the next

 

I have one here, yes. A couple of years back, on a whim, I entered a charity raffle where the first prize was a blank doll in the size I mainly collect. I took a look at the pictures for her, thought that she could pass as one of the female characters I was planning to shell, and, figuring I probably wouldn't win anyway, went ahead and bought a few tickets. Much to my surprise, I won her, and subsequently styled her to look like that character.

She looked okay to start, but the character never really quite "took," to be honest, and I felt like the longer I had her styled that way, the grumpier she looked! After looking at her grumpy face for a few months, I finally decided it was time to reshell the character, and started shopping around for a new doll, eventually settling on one that fits the character perfectly. Being a raffle prize, I don't feel right selling or parting with the other girl, though, and she's really a lovely sculpt that I do like, so I had to figure out what to do with this now-characterless sculpt... the answer was to add another character to the story. As soon as I switched out her clothes, wig, and eyes, though, she stopped looking as grumpy, and definitely is fitting more into this new character! She still needs a little aesthetics work (dedicated clothes, and a new faceup/blushing for her new overall style), but I'm a lot happier with her new character.

 

I do!

Kier is the second character in my Iplehouse Mars head. It was good for an old character, but that one got scrapped and Kier was created and I love him much more now.

JayDen is the third character in my Jie Doll Michel. I bought the doll for a relatively new character several years ago, whom I lost interest in pretty fast, but still loved the doll. I tried creating a different character for the doll, which also didn't work. I had been trying to shell JayDen for some time, but no doll I bought worked out. Eventually, it clicked that JayDen should have been in that shell all along!

 

yes, my LTF Chiwoo elf girl was a crying baby, then turned Rock n roll, among other things, then became a flower elf . At the moment, a new face-up has -at last- found who she was: she is the likeness of a boy and she is lovely in this role. I am so pleased I hang on to her.

Then there is my Twigling's who is a real chameleon. She is going to be marvellous at playing different roles and personalities. I have barely anything for her to wear yet, and I already am in awe of her versatility.

 

I had a shy wallflower character in mind for one of my dolls, but the moment she was out of the box she declared that was not who she was.I'm still working on her character, but she's as unyeilding as steel under a demure exterior. My second doll is a Dollmore Banji who has worked better since being renamed. However, she still doesn't work with the group I have, so I plan to get her a different head in hopes of figuring out who she really is.

 

I have a Doll Leaves Evan and Noir that have both human ears and elf ears. Each doll is two different characters depending on what ears are in (elf or human), and how they are dressed (fantasy or casual/today's style). I also gave each doll a name to go with the different ears. So I have two physical bjds, but four characters. I have the fantasy characters stuff all figured out, now I'm working on the casual/today's outfits. It saves space (only two big bjds) and I get to try new things without a lot of expense.

So I can say my dolls have split personalities, and switch characters often!

 

I have a number of dolls that have changed characters over time. My Souldoll Giselle and Iplehouse Rexy are each on their third character. Other than my one tiny, they're the only ones in my crew who have done a lot of character changes.

Giselle initially changed characters because we couldn't get her first character's boyfriend (we tried and he didn't fit at all) and I felt terrible about it, then again when I realized the character I'd changed her to was a little uninspired. Now she's a mama werewolf with cotton candy-colored hair. She might change again in the future, I'm not sure.

My Rexy changed characters because my Iplehouse crew keeps changing, and so does her story and character. We're pretty sure she's finally settled as Sonja, a modern-day hacker with ties to several of our other dolls/characters.

Most of my other dolls have stayed pretty constant, especially the ones who were bought and intended to be certain characters, like my Crobidoll Nao who was bought to be Remus Lupin and has never been anyone else.

 

I had my doll-love kaja as another character called Seth.. His older personality was just too tough for him, the name didnt suit him, nothing was good >-< So I changed him to a more... Kinda-cute-spoiled character xDD

 

Totally yes.
My big boy, Edgar, a Vito Lester came home and it was waiting for him a character that was very serious, black haired, always wearing elegant clothing... but he didn't want to fit that xD
So now he is a hot guy, who loves kidding with his little sister and having a good time, he is brown haired now and he always wears informal clothes xD

 

My Juri 13 was supposed to be my sweet innocent cutie pie. She however is quickly turning into a sassy spoiled party girl, completely not what I expected. But hey, the doll gets what the doll wants :P

 

None of my dolls are what I planned for them to be. Before I bought my first BJD I planned to dress them in Medieval and fantasy costumes. I even bought fabric to make their Medieval outfits. but they have all ended up being modern kids instead.

 

with me it was the other way round, actually At first I was making mine wear primarily some casual clothes, but later - having seen all those cool historical outfits (and tons of frilly volks bjds) I decided to change their style. Nowadays it's far less casual. I sometimes miss their being 'normal' though :3