How do you bond with your dolls?

The box opening starts my bonding. ^_^ All that anticipation finally turning into "Holy crap, it's here!" Taking each photo, and seeing a bit more of the doll with each moment... that starts it.

Then, figuring out who the doll is, and finding wigs, eyes, clothes, et cetera for the doll. Finding its name. (This may happen before the doll arrives, but helps me bond nonetheless) Listening as it tells me what it wants to be. I have yet to give new face-ups to either of my resin dolls, though I've started the face-up for Midori, and tried my hand at the Obitsus (gods, they're so small!).

Once they know who they are, posing, photographing, and, yes, even cuddling, helps my bond with them. Perhaps that's why I didn't bond as well as I would have hoped with Hayato? He's a bit clumsy to cuddle with. Maybe I just need to stick with smaller sizes. ^_^;

 

Please bear in mind that your 27cm Obitsus are off-topic for DoA, XkytsuneX.

 

I do a combination of what other people have mentioned. The box opening is part of it, but I often find I have kind of a weird distant feeling towards new dolls a day or two after they arrive. The first few days I usually have them sitting on my desk, and I check out their bodies/give them a faceup or restringing if necessary, try on different wigs and clothes (although they usually have wigs and eyes decided before they arrive). Over those few days I go from box opening! to hrm to awwww *L*. Then things are usually good between us.

I have failed to bond with only one doll, and I've come close to unbonding with another, but changing his character and his wig/eyes fixed that right up.

 

This may sound odd but I'm bonding better with a floating head of a doll that was kind of an impluse buy than a doll I saw a picture of, fell in love with and couldn't bond with at all when she arrived.

 

Arkady: That would be why I never have a post just about them. In fact, other than my signature, I keep my mention of them to a minimum.

 

I have to work on him. Doesn't matter if it's a face up, making stuff for him, or even just cleaning him. If someone else did all of that, I don't think I'd feel like he's mine.

 

I guess if I really think about it, it's usually the wig, eye and face-up combination that helps me bond completely. A number of my dolls have totally sat around nekkid or in borrowed clothes for quite some time, so long as they have the right wig and eyes with the right face-up, the character sort of emerges and then I can figure out how it fits in with the others.

I always have some trouble bonding with dolls fresh out of the box if they've got a face-up already though- it's happened three times so far, and each time I couldn't do anything with the doll until I did the face-up first.

 

See for me... most of my dolls were set on becoming original characters of mine. So of course, I bonded with them easily. There was only one doll out of the 14 I own that took me a long time to bond with, and that was my Soom Teenie Gem Sweet boy.

My mother had gotten him for me for my birthday as a surprise. She kept telling me that he was an MSD, so I got all excited since I do like MSDs. Though, I prefer SDs more. I feel safer with them when I bring them out. But anyways, he came and I thought that his box was rather small for an MSD. Upon opening it to see the SOOM Label, I got all excited since I thought that he was the MD Silt that I loved. But I don't know. When I opened him to see his face, I just couldn't... click with him. He was originally supposed to be a baby version of my Luts Bory but.. I didn't feel right having 2 of the same character.

But the look in his eyes.. it was almost pleading. As if he was really telling me not to sell him. Since then, he has a new character to represent and I'm quite happy with him. He's currently undergoing his character change. Waiting for his wig, eyes, and wheelchair to come in the mail. =w=

So yeah, I just have to mess around with them and usually try giving them different wigs to better fit them. It's quite easy for me to bond with all my dolls.

 

For me it's the first restringing.
My first doll the BBB Ariel came with a face up, but since I planed on modding her I took everything off and apart. She sat in pieces for MONTHS. After finally tanning her to the color I wanted, I restrung her and finally I felt like she was who she was.

I had a wig and her proper eyes but with a default faceup and pale skin it just wasn't quite right.

It's been the same with most dolls. I'm not happy until I've taken them apart and put them back together myself. I have yet to do face ups but I'm sure that more bonding will occur.

 

It's all about the aesthetics for me. Most of my dolls don't have a character until I see them in person, with only a few exceptions, so if I don't like the way a doll looks, I just can't bond with it.

 

I'm always with my doll when I'm home, we just lay around and watch TV while I sew her a billion outfits. Then I take pictures. Then we watch more TV. It's magical. ^-^

 

I bonded with all of mine even before ordering any of them. Ten of my twelve BJD are (One Piece manga and anime series) already given characters I really love so finding suddenly scuplts which matched them was my first bonding. Also in the case of my two own creation ones, their characters were set before their arrivals. The next step was chasing their features when getting wigs, eyes, clothes, accessories and so on for them. The real fact is my deepest way to bond with my BJD is writing about them. There is nothing better for me, but I also enjoy taking pictures of them, changing their clothes, talking about them to other BJD lovers, like right now, having them right next to me while watching One Piece and many other things.

 

Even though I wasn't successful at doing face ups I still work on customizing my girls and I tattoo them. I also use them as models for my work. I think just doing anything fun with your dolls is how you bond with them.

 

I was really scared that I wouldn't bond with my BBB Pandora. She was a split minute choice. But when she got to my house I would actually sneak a peek at her (she was for christmas.) I finally knew her and I were going to click was when I got her first real outfit (her school uniform) and I knew she wasn't the character I thought she was going to be. I changed her name to Emily and got her new eyes and she stuck.

 

Mostly, I just dress them and do their face-ups and cart them around. When Alec first got here, sitting in American Girl clothes and face-up-less until I could trust myself enough to not mess him up, we sat around and watched a lot of Anthony Bourdain together. xD So that was really how we bonded, I think.

 

The re-stringing and sueding process usually makes me feel more bonded...but with my latest girl it was getting he into an outfit that was more 'her'. The dress i'd made while i was waiting for her was a little too oldschool for her tastes.

 

The way I bond is with photography