Having anxiety over owning a character doll and don't know how to fix it

I have sold off existing character dolls because I felt too limited to play with them since everything I did had to fit that character. That made it pretty boring to me. But I have had many dolls that were sculpted to be specific characters/people, and I just totally do them my own way and don't care who they were meant to me. It's freeing to me!

I think one way to look at it is to see your doll not as "Ariel but not Ariel", but as your own character, with just a little special inspiration to her. The character is your own. She just has the similarities to Ariel. I do a similar thing with most of my dolls, though they aren't sculpted to be a certain person. But many of my dolls are influenced by real people. For example, my boy Cooper is heavily inspired by Ville Valo, but the character is not Ville. Cooper is very much a deeply developed character of my own, he just is styled similar to Ville. Maybe you could take this perspective with your girl? She's completely her own person, she's just lucky enough to have Ariel's facial structure!

 

I feel kind of similarly about my Anna. I really love her but somehow I can't see her as anything but Anna. Atm I am contemplaiting getting her a new faceup but I haven't managed to go through with it yet. Maybe I need to put her in a completely different wig and outfit for a while. And spend some time with her this way.

On the other hand I have no such issues with Belldandy. She has always been my OC 'Valerie' to me. I can even put her in her fullset outfit and she's still 'Valerie' (just cosplaying as Belldandy I guess). And I must admit I play with her a lot more compared to Anna. I enjoy it more too.

Honestly I'm not entirely sure why I feel this way about one doll but not the other. They are both fullset dolls styled after existing characters. The only thing I can maybe think of is that I fell for Belldandy's sculpt through all the beautiful one-offs and customs I saw. I only found out afterwards she was 'the Belldandy from AmG'. Whereas Anna won me over with her promo pics as 'the Anna from Frozen'.

If you look at other custom Ariels are they 'the Ariel from the little mermaid' to you or not?

 

Yes, if the doll has been created to represent a character and that's the reason of owning them, that's very much for me fixed for this character. But it's true that without makeup or fullset they may not look exactly like the character. If you consider that you are attracted most by the aspects of the doll other than the aspects of the character, it's completely ok to customise them.

 

I tend to avoid blatant character dolls for this reason regardless of how much I may like the idea.

It’s hard to know what to suggest as your feelings are very much your own concerning this quandary. Some good points and perspectives have already been raised.
Perhaps box her up and put her out of sight for a while so you then see her next with fresh eyes so to speak. I’ve found that has worked for me with things that I’m unsure of but don’t know why.
Depending on your creativity you could also perhaps rewrite her story, she could be a sort of alternate dimension/reality Ariel which gives you a bit more free reign. That way she’s still Ariel, still has the same basic appearance, same basic personality but her storyline can be as different as you want it to be and you can style her accordingly.

@CloakedSchemer aah, Ville Valo…..now there’s a name I recognise as my friend is utterly obsessed by him.

 

I get a lot of character celebrity heads but I have them painted a different way and I don’t feel as limited on how I play or RP them. I do end up renaming them and giving them some of their own story so it’s not the exact character but “a guy who looks like this character and has the same facial features.” I might give him a longer wig or change his coloring up slightly but knowing he is sculpted to be this certain guy kind of makes me want to hold on to him.

 

I might be the weird one here as my dolls are a mix of my own RP characters and O.Cs and characters from things I love like comics, movies and books etc.. I do not feel limited by any of my dolls based on characters from media, but I do look at them as my take on the character. Like how an actor puts their own take on a role or a new writer adds a new spin to an established superhero comic. So like my doll custom styled to be DC's Impulse though based on his DC comics character, it's still through my lens as a fan and how much that character means to me and meant to me as a teen. I don't see the character dolls as limiting play, but then I also love DC's Else Worlds and Marvel's What If..? comic growing up, so I feel like there is always room to change or edit a character in a new way.

Maybe before selling the doll try a few things, like take her out of her full set and try some restyling, ask yourself some what ifs for changes to the character and/or alt styling. See if playing around with different ideas helps, and if not then maybe try the out of sight out of mind thing some folks do before selling a doll to see if you miss her. I have found if I pack a doll away and miss it then I'll regret selling it. (Have only done this trick on a few dolls sold one of them I didn't miss, and fully restyled another. Ironically the restyled doll became a DC comics character and is still here.)

 

My point of view might be extremely different, as I don't own licenced character BJD, but I do own some OT 1:6 action figures, scaled figures, and fanart dolls based on Japanese licenses.

I don't feel limited by my BJD I've customized as any particular character (anime/Japanese-video-game). Because I am doing all the customizing work and the doll may or may not look exactly like the character (I own a few DIM Minimee, but even then...).

On the contrary, I feel like it's so fun to dress and redress my "character" dolls, in things they could possibly wear or like as the characters they repesent. But, not necessarily things they do actually wear in game/anime. Sometimes giving my self huge artistic freedom, because I am doing all the customizing work.

I like it even more, because to me it is freeing to play dress up with my favorite characters, in miniature form. I never did so as a young child, because I am a weirdo and rarely unboxed or played with my Barbies. Now as an old fart, I find it fun to dress my fanart dolls, in clothes I'd like to think those characters would wear in real life (terribly made handsewn doll clothes I make for them ).

I also own a few dolls I consider cosplayers, and not necessarily that character, but just a "person" who happens to enjoy cosplaying one (or more) specific character. That helps me feel zero guilt about never making any character specific clothes, because I suck at sewing but particularly tiny sewing is a struggle for me.

Another thing that helps me, when I am working wth licensed figures that might look accurate and come all dressed in pain in the gut tiny clothes, that may or may not be meant to be removed. Is I purchase a parted out head and nude body to kitbash or customize. That is probably not as easily done with BJD, but maybe if you already gave your Ariel a custom face up, you can also switch her wig or eyes, since those are easy to switch back and forth. That way you can test how you feel, without committing to anything. Good luck, discovering what will work for you and your doll. (:

 

I owned a character BJD once and I sold her because I felt limited. I tried to custom her and changed her style but for some reason just didn't looked good to me.

I feel many people have different feelings towards character dolls. I'm my case this helped me to understand my taste and preferences towards dolls. Customisation and character building is necessary for me as this is the way I bond with the doll. Certainly character dolls are gorgeous and some stole my heart (Xie Lian Prince from Ringdoll for example) but I don't see myself playing with them aside of few photos and that's it.

I hope you find your personal BJD experience. Volks Ariel is gorgeous, perhaps can help you to have a look around here or IG to see people's customs?

 

I owned a character doll for a while, but she felt like an OC because she was not the most beloved character in canon, and the series that write her did so with a lot of little issues and inconsistencies. She was my character in a lot of ways but it always felt weird to me that I had no other dolls from her universe. I ultimately realized to shell her, I’d need to make her ex, and her lover, and possibly her nemesis, ehich I just wasn’t willing to do, so I gave up on her.

I have another character shelled that is a shameless rewrite of a character from a series I watched. Her name is different, but aesthetically anyone could see that they’re intended to be the same person, other than a scar I gave cassandra to be more fitting to what I envision happening in canon. I will eventually be making Cassandra’s more distinctive partner, who will stand out as looking like their canon self. I feel so free with how I dress and write and do things for Cassandra because she has that degree of separation—she’s not actually the character, she’s a combination of the character I love, a Greek myth, and vampirism.

I agree with a lot of the people in this thread who’ve mentioned making her “Ariel but not Ariel” like alternate universes, or your own retelling of Ariel, or modern versions, or whatever you’d like. Trying her with other wigs and eyes is another good step to finding something that feels more her. A big step for me was renaming my girl Cassandra instead of her canon name, so maybe looking for names that are like Ariel, or have a metaphoric relationship to the story you want to tell with her could help.

 

Well there is always space to experiment that is my opinion maybe see her as an actress playing Ariel instead of Ariel ? So she can be in character sometimes but not all the time just droping an idea..

 

Hmm. I'm just speculating here, is it possible it's not that she's an existing IP, but it's that she's a fullset? I don't mean that in a bad way – I just know that sometimes, when we as collectors buy something really expensive and valuable, we can become afraid of "messing it up" somehow? Or that if you make any changes, it's somehow a "waste," because you spent money on the wig, outfit, faceup, etc. she came with?

I'm probably pretty off base cause I'm just thinking that's what it would be if it were me; BJDs are expensive, so it's hard to not think in terms of value sometimes. For example, I had trouble modding my LM doll because I bought her when the company was closing, so all I could think about was keeping her "pristine" just in case she was rare and valuable in a few years. Turns out they're making dolls again as of this year, and that anxiety is gone. Ah well.

 

I have a Volks Belle and I just look at her as another sculpt inspired by a beloved character. To me, she is Miss Morgan. Miss Morgan just happens to somewhat resemble Belle, and that's ok. Like a doppleganger, I guess.

I also customized a doll to be Link from the Legend of Zelda video games. I made several of his in-game outfits, but he also just lounges in clothing I think Link would wear if he were hanging out in our world. It's actually quite a fun challenge to get a normal looking wardrobe for him.

I agree with the others who said to play around with her looks. Change her wig, change her outfit, maybe even give her new eyes. You'd be surprised by how that can help make you see a sculpt differently than the character she was inspired from.

Best of luck in whatever you decide!