How did you know your doll was "The One"?

Hm... this is a good question. Most of the times I have the Story and Characters first and then I look for Mold that would match my idea of a Character...
It was like that with my most beloved Doll, too!
I saw him on the Companys Homepage and checked the measurements... and everything was perfect!
The size, the measurements - great
I always look up where I can find fitting Clothes, Shoes, Wigs, Eyes ect...
It was love at first sight, I just knew he would be "the one" for my Main Chara and even the Waitingtime of full 11 month never changed that
He wasn´t my first Doll ever but my first Fashion Doll. Since that day I´m just collecting Fashion Doll^^

 

I wasn't actually looking for a BJD when I got my first! I was looking for a toy Thranduil, from the hobbit. Unfortunately, there were only a few toys made of him and they were all either sold out or really bad sculpts. I went poking around on etsy, and found the modoll Thranduil scupt. And he was amazing. So I bought him, then went in search of a body. I ended up with a 72cm doll as my first!

Once I got Thranduil, I thought he was an amazing piece of art, and I enjoyed making his wig and clothes (even though both were badly made). But he set me on a course for more BJDs. As a toy collector, crafter and art lover, they're the perfect melding of my hobbies!

He was what started it all. The other doll I searched like crazy for was Migidoll Ryu. I saw a picture of him, and he looked exactly like a character from my novels. I'd drawn Emilio in the past and Ryu was perfect, but discontinued. I found one later on in the marketplace, and he's great too. It's very strange to see a perfect physical representation of a character who'd been in your head for years!

[Edit: I have a problem with exclamation marks!!!!]

 

A giddy tickly and somewhat breathless feeling rising up in the pit of my stomach...kind of like the feeling I get from a carnival ride. It's a physical feeling. Have I bought dolls that don't give me that? Sure, but my favorites that never fade have always given me that feeling. I believe a way to articulate it was discovered in the early aughts, 'Ka-SQUEEEEE'. Dollgasm? Sounds rude and funny but kind of accurate too...
Edit: characters always come after dolls, and some of my dolls don't have one...or a name. Others very much develop one. I'm not sure if there is a pattern, one of my faves barely has a name and almost no personality at all. I don't even mind.

 

Every single doll that I have picked always seems to match an oc perfectly. Some of them had the character actually formed around them. for example, I was scrolling through Instagram and I came across pinktezka selling her feeple60 soony with a gorgeous faceup and I just new that was the doll for me. I then evolved my character from her!

 

What happened for all of my dolls was falling in love with the doll itself first, then building a character or a style around that doll. I usually don't have a character in mind unless I'm trying to replicate another already existing character, in which case I'll look for very specific features. I have never ended up buying a doll for that purpose though, I tend to just get an idea and do a lot of window shopping.

If I look around for dolls and happen find one that I really love and can't get off of my mind, I know it's the one! Recently I've been looking at various cat BJDs so I could find a potential pet for my doll family. In the process, I found out that LUTS also created cute cat dolls! Now I can't get Nyang out of my head. I'll probably end up buying one for myself at some point down the line.

 

@Spuggey Haha, awesome! Thranduil is love! I'm also trying to recreate him but with a different sculpt. I find that the Modoll head isn't much to my liking. I will be using a Demiurge dolls Eagle head instead.

As for the main question, I initially used my fictional characters to find suitable dolls (much like the people here). Overtime, if I see a doll I like, something that is aesthetically pleasing at least, I ask myself one question: "Do I want this doll enough to spend the money?" Given some time (a week or two), if I still think and obsess about the doll, I will buy it because it's "the one" and not just another impulse buy. If I'm like meh after giving some thought about it, then I know for sure that doll is not for me.

 

Ha ha! I wanted the film version. A mini replica of Lee Pace, since you can't buy the real thing!

 

Most of the time, I'll either see a sculpt I like a build a character around it, or I'll be open to different sculpts, so I don't often get that feeling. It happened with Justin and Jack.

With Justin, he'd been shelled before, but the sculpt and color just weren't right. I looked at over 200 companies for his perfect sculpt and every single one was wrong. Some were okayish, but didn't jump out at me. When I saw Little Rebel's in progress pix of Andre, I KNEW that was my Justin! At the time, he was unfinished, didn't know what colors he'd be cast in or any idea of a release date, but that was my boy. If someone could have sucked my image of him out of my head and sculpted it perfectly, it couldn't have been any better. When the announcement came for his release, it was state that he would come in brown skin, and it matched Luts--I love Luts bodies, and the Senior Delf Type 4 was perfect for his character. Because everything fell in line, I just knew he was the one!

With Jack, he had been a poorly modded Migidoll Mu, only because I got it basically for free and forced him into it. When reshlling, I thought I wanted an unmodded Mu, or maybe a Shion, but I came across a modded Cho on the market, with really good mods--not only was he made to look happier with a slimmer face, but his ears were gauged! Could not have been a better sculpt for Jack, and the mods made him both perfect and unique, like it was meant to be. I wasn't even considering Cho, but those mods just really made him the One.

 

If only we could have the real thing. He was the perfect Thranduil.

 

Most of the time I'm looking for a character & find a doll to fit. But sometimes I see a new doll sculpt (or an old one I missed somehow) & just HAVE to get it LOL I'll make it fit....

 

Some of my dolls were chosen after hunting through owner pictures and careful consideration, and I usually buck uild characters from the dolls. I got the almost instant "Your perfect!" for my second Fairyland Real Puki. The company put up teaser pictures of the fullset Toki a week before they were available, and I had a line from a song from an anime closing stuck in my head whenever I thought about him for most of that week. The line is "I want to capture your heart with my silly smile."

I wanted to shell one of my favorite anime characters as a mature tiny, not a scale that has a lot of choices. Lucky for me Lumedoll's 1/6 Lucas made the perfect Hei from Darker Than Black.

 

I just ordered my first doll and I knew she was the one the second I saw her (funnily enough, just yesterday because of a news forum)! I had been going between dolls for a few weeks but she was the first doll that made my heart actually skip a beat. Everything about her sculpt matched my aesthetic, fit the exact personality I was going for in my character, my price range, and her official photos immediately let me know she'd even work with the sort of fashion style I wanted my character to wear. I'm an antsy and nervous person though, so I thought I'd ask questions about her brand first (MYOU doll) before I ordered her but I couldn't resist and slammed the order button before I had even gotten around to reading replies I had gotten from some helpful people on here. Guess you call it love at first sight!

 

The current doll I'm working on wasn't the original doll I had in mind for her character!! I had originally started saving for a Feeple60 Chloe because I had wanted one for so long. I was having a hard time with inspiration for this character, as well. But one day, I decided to visit the Angell Studio website for fun. I wasn't planning on falling in love with any dolls. But then, I saw Cynthia, and my jaw dropped. All of a sudden, looking at the face of this doll, I saw my character. It was as if a lightbulb clicked. Suddenly, her expression inspired me. My character went from a 2D idea to an entire soul, a being, whom I love more and more everyday. Hitomi (my character's original name) became Midori, and Midori became the most extensive, creative, fun character I've ever thought of. I was able to create characters to be in her story. My heart races as her story grows. This is how I know she was the doll for me~ She's still being made, but someday soon, she will be here. I'm sure she will bring me even more joy then~

 

If I see the doll and my heart skips a beat, that's how I know. The moment I saw my current grail, I fell in love and new I had to have her. Most of the time it's the face sculpt that does it for me. I love unique sculpts that are cute, elegant, and different.

 

If I start thinking of a zillion things to do, and getting really excited about All The Projects headed my way, I know I'm seriously interested.

If I can't think of that, but am rather lusting after a pretty thing to put on the shelf... well, I've done that and I have less fun with it personally.*

*Not to say there's anything wrong with it! Just, I have more fun when I can imagine things to make or how I want to interact with them.

 

When I can't forget them. I see many dolls that I admire and would take home immediately if I could. At that moment, I have to use a lot of self-restraint. But if I'm still thinking about the doll a month or more later, I know.

 

It was a picture of someone's YoSD Nana (back when the YoSD Four Sisters were first released) but I knew I wanted an SD and through some quick research I found SDG Megu and fell in love with her. I just saw her adorable face and knew I needed her in my life, in the years it took for me to save enough to buy her and the years it's been since I've had her, my love for F-01 (Megu in particular) has only grown stronger and I still am not quite sure what it is about her that makes her "The One" but she definitely is

 

Four of my dolls were second-hand. I knew each of them was "the one" for me, when I had to send off a message to the seller and then wait in suspense (and anxiety!) until I got the confirmation that the doll was still available, and did I want to pay up front or do a layaway? It was such a relief, like I'd actually rescued or been reunited with someone I almost lost!

The other six were bought from their respective companies, and I fretted over every single detail up until I hit the Paypal button -- and then I never worried again about any of them (except for wondering how long it would take until they arrived, of course!)

 

For me it was a bit different,
specially since I don't have a character in mind yet for my doll.
However, I knew my doll was the one ever since I looked at him.
It was practically love at first sight,
I really loved his handsome look and the enigmatic aura that he gave off.
I gave it some time but after a year of thinking about him I knew I had to have him~.