How often do you 're-evaluate' your collection goals?

I have been feeling the same about a lot of my dolls. I have completed a few of my dolls but not all of them. On and off I feel like I need to do more with my 4 main dolls. And I feel like for me in the past I would focus on getting more dolls or floating heads than focussing on my current collection. I think I’ve always had this problem that my tastes can change often and then suddenly I want to change my dolls style or something about them. I feel like I like my goth boy and girl the best at the moment but I feel like I’m losing focus on my others a lot. I am trying to really use this time as the time to focus on my dolls.

My big wish is to try and put floating heads to bodies although I am not sure how easy that is going to be at the moment.

 

I'm someone who doesn't view my dolls as long term projects, meaning that I don't have goals that translate into a "finished" doll. I don't have default wigs/eyes/etc. for them. But my doll preference has significantly evolved from when I joined the hobby in 2003 to now.

Personally, it becomes a burden when I have so many dolls. Each one I purchase was specific and deliberate, but when I find that my cabinet is getting full, I start thinking hard and making cuts on those that I don't really like as much as the others. At the end of the day, even the ones I swore who would stay forever (like my first SD BJD from 2004), they've gone. No regrets. I just don't want my cabinets cluttered with dolls that I don't handle.

I suppose my approach may sound a bit unemotional and cruel to some, but I get a lot of joy in an ongoing creation for my dolls. Once the creation aspect is gone, I lose interest in the doll, and that's when the cuts are made.

 

I have actually just gone through this very thing. I have been in the hobby since 2007, I have gone through different phases as doll styles have changed and new things have become popular.
Honestly, I lost my spark for my dolls a couple years ago. I was buying them up quickly and hoping I would rekindle the spark *somehow*. But nothing really was doing it for me.

I realized that in 13 years I hadn't REALLY done anything with the dolls I had. They were all still in beginner clothes, wigs, eyes etc. I didn't take pictures of them because I only had a phone camera. I didn't do face-ups because I "didn't know how'.I was literally using every excuse in the book to not do anything to improve them.

So now, I do my own face-ups, have sold off most of the cheaper doll stuff, and just bought restringing tools. This is the most fun I think I've ever had in the hobby. Even if my pictures are crappy phone pictures, they're there on my IG account. When my restringing tools get here I will finally have dolls that can stand.

However, I also can't stand clutter in my life. So I have to keep my dolls to a minimum.

 

I’ve been in this hobby for a decade now, and I’ve never had any serious plans. My doll buying choices have been all ‘I like it, have no idea what to do with it, but oh well, get it anyway’. No regrets, but I wish I could be more disciplined with fewer, better put together dolls.

 

Every year I evaluate my wishlist and think on what I really want to buy that year. Most of the time, its often one or two unplanned dolls that pops up and my wishlist still remain the same for the next year. I don’t change my wishlist much and been slowly meeting my goal of getting all on my list. I’m almost there...
Sometime it changes.

 

I WISH!!!!

Unfortunately, I have never had plans after buying the first bjd 15 years ago... I thought I would have one only. Haha!

Now I just try and not buy more, but I fail... which is why I have TOO MANY now.

 

I just buy what I like. I've never even evaluated, much less reevaluated.

 

In two days, I’ll be hitting 12 years since I ordered my first doll. I re-evaluate my goals yearly, sometimes more like monthly. All of my dolls are characters from my roleplay, and as stories end or I get bored with characters, they get written out and new stories and characters begin, so that means my goal of ‘Shell main characters’ always stands, but goal of attaining and completing specific dolls is ever changing.

Though one goal I’ve had for a very long time is to be at 13 dolls or fewer. I had a couple of years where I had money to spare and went on regular spending sprees buying way too many dolls, up to 39 at one point. It was overwhelming and I finally decided to stay under 20, a goal I have reached and kept for several years. So now that goal is 13, and I’m right on that line right now. Ideally, I’d like to be down to six, but I think then my crew would be boring, since the characters interacting within the group is important to the RP. With only six characters, I’d be a lot more limited.

 

Well....re-evaluated...no. But thought about selling dolls...yes. Now I am fine with a doll being somewhat complete. This is not a reason to sell it and start over with another one. As almost every member of my crew portrays premade comic book or movie characters, I could be considered a bit unoriginal. That's fine. I asked myself whether I still find them as fascinating as when I had the idea (some...5+years ago or something). The answer is: yes. So they simply all will stay. Even if I have more than 10 big boys right now. And even if 70 cm is not the limit any longer.

I consider them somewhat as action figure. But if there is a new, cool outfit, I can replicate it. If there is a new hairdo, I can make it. That is the fascinating aspect, which does not go away. If the actor takes on another role I fall in love with, I can make this. If you have the imagination, I can make it. With my available dolls. As my preference for realistic, mature men does not change (I love my hubby to bits, but I also love a trained male body, which he...does not have. But that's okay. My boys have it). And I can do so much with them. So I came to the conclusion that they are forced to stay with me. Even if I sometimes take them apart to modify them a little here and there...

 

I have gone through that a couple of times since I joined this hobby 7 years ago.

I had very unrealistic and non-defined goals when I started, most of them related to characters from the stories I used to write, but I soon realized that those plans wouldn't bring me the joy I expected so I stopped, I picked a storyline I felt happy with and went on with it, my 3 human dolls belong to that storyline. Then 4 years ago, I had to pause everything due to personal life and, when I came back, I wouldn't find the old spark either in my current dolls or any new ones to buy. I realized I hadn't done anything with those 3 dolls, they were complete and all, but I wouldn't take that many pictures or at least didn't shared them because I felt they weren't good, I didn't knew how to deo face-ups or make wigs or sew clothes and I didn't wish to learn... Around that time, I suddenly met Dearmine and I felt very excited about their dolls. But, before taking a leap of faith with those tiny lovely anthros, I had to re-think where was I going for in this hobby, who I wanted to be as a doll owner.

Recently, I did another re-evaluation and decided that, now that my 2 anthros had helped me to get back to love BJDs, I had to keep improving. And I'm in the middle of that process now. I'm sharing pictures on IG and learning to make wigs, and I even want to learn to sew simple stuff. I'm changing and developing my human characters so they bring me the same joy the anthros do. I think it is very useful to rethink from time to time where are we going, not only in terms of dolls but in terms of life itself.

 

I'm so confused that I really have no goal for my collection, it's ambiguous but as BJDs are the inspiration for my writing, the goal might depend on the number of characters in my own story.
At first, I just think 1-3 dolls is enough, but then it increased to 5, then 7, then 13, and then 25.
My current goal may be 49, but it's a hard goal for me to archive at this time!

 

I re-evaluate my collection every day haha. I always second guess, always delay, always find different dolls I want. I have no story ideas, no plots in mind... I see something I like, and I get it. Which results in a lot of unwanted dolls.

Right now I'm re-evaluating not only my current collection, but my future collection. I think I'm going to start only getting dolls I have ideas for. Sure, they can look pretty, but do I have ideas in mind for them for stories or plots or personalities?

This hobby can be so tough. While collecting character designs is easy because you never run out of physical space, collecting dolls takes up space, and a whole lot of money. So... while I don't have a number in mind, I do have a few characters I want to make dolls for, and I'll work on looking for sculpts that fit my characters.

 

I re-evaluate my collection on a yearly basis. Towards the end of every year there’s always a “goals for the upcoming year” thread here in the discussion forum, and I use that opportunity to carefully re-evaluate my current collection and plan any new goals or changes to my crew. Then I keep referring to my posting in that thread to help keep me on track and focused throughout the year. It really works for me, keeping my collection fresh, up to date, and on point in my mind and heart.

 

All my dolls that are MSD+ in size are original characters that are part of several storylines with my best friend, or on my own. I'm attached to all of them and have thoroughly thought out their characters. Even if some are complete impulse purchases, I've still created their characters with just as much care. Even my smaller dolls yosd size and down that don't have characters specifically for story creating, they still inspire creation for me and give me enjoyment having them sit on my table while I work or taking pics every now and then. But there was a time of several years that started as just a hiatus because I was pregnant and knew I wouldn't have time for the hobby, that turned into a hiatus because I had burnt out of it. I had no desire to take them out of storage. Though, my SD girls (two at that time) didn't have boxes so they sat on a high shelf and everytime my husband walked by holding my son, (he's super tall) my son would babble at them. It was cute and made me feel like they weren't being completely ignored. I thought about selling them, but it just made me depressed to lose them. So instead, I limit myself to what I get now rather than trimming my current collection. It makes me much happier and satisfied with my dolls. Though, there are still impulse purchases that happen, I give myself a waiting period before I do any actual buying and if it's still available, it was meant to be. If it's not, then oh well.

 

I tend to re-evaluate every two years or so. One of these collection checkups led me to reshell just about everyone, and I’m currently considering doing the same to one of my favourites if I can’t get the feel I want with a new face up on his incoming head. That scares me a bit, but I remind myself that not feeling obligated to my older dolls allowed me to try many new things while still keeping my collection at six. I couldn’t have afforded the dolls I truly loved without selling off all of those I just sorta liked. Life is too short not to re-evaluate.

 

I've been in the hobby 4 years, and from time to time I do re-evaluate my collection, but I don't have a set period of time to do so. My first doll wasn't for anything specific, and I lost interest in her after a year so I sold her. I had already started on my tribute dolls by that time, and they're the ones who've always stuck. I had dolls of my RP characters for a while, but found that too often I was ignoring them so I sold most of them, and gave new characters to the ones I did keep.

I think re-evaluating is good, especially when you have space limitations. And the dolls can be pretty expensive, so selling ones that aren't clicking with you can give you the funds for a new doll without breaking into other funds.

 

Every once in a while I go over the state of the my doll family, my attraction to them, my drive to complete or collect. I add and subtract from that. So far, really steady on my Volks F-01 path, don't see myself shaking from it.

 

I don't have a set timeline for re-evaluating my BJDs, but I do it from time to time. I've been collecting BJDs for seven and half years, and I've gotten more particular about what I like, and while I like all my current dolls there are a few characters I'd like to reshell.