Making characters based off of dolls that you like?

I definitely start with a doll who then morphs into a character, I'm not much a planner. The most planning I've ever done is like, "I want a doll so that this other doll of mine can have a girlfriend" but the stories and personalities really come as I work on the doll.

 

For my first doll I originally was going to use him as a shell for an oc I had for years, however, when I saw him in person his character clicked and I realized he was someone else! From there I had created a new oc that was based off of my doll and I couldn’t be happier.

 

While I definitely have characters that I would love to shell in doll form, I absolutely cannot. It just doesn't work, no matter what I try. Finding the perfectt sculpt to match what I see in my head is just a plain non-starter for me. So I'm very much a person who comes up with ideas based on the doll itself.

The closest doll I have to a pre-formed character is Pips, my Soom Viol. At the time I was looking for a smiley, brown resin doll that exuded happiness, who I could dress up in all pink. She was very much inspired by my love of the Pokemon Clefairy, and has remained that way. Beforehand I had seen some blank owner pictures of Viol's surprise head and thought "huh she's much cuter than the official Soom pictures made her out to be" and then Soom re-released her in Brown Tan and I *just knew* she was Pips. Only doll I've ever seen so far that just screams something that already existed in my head.

My two latest dolls are definitely ones completely based around the doll. My incoming Withdoll Alex's main characteristics and personality started to form the minute I saw his fullset. It was a no brainer to buy him when he was re-released (albeit much sooner that I thought he would be lol). My Tamikan Space One Little Alien was 100% bought because I simply adored the little guy at first sight, and as such their character is definitely a work in progress.

And of course, as a completely different example, there's my first doll - who still doesn't have a personality or a character (she's gone through many) and at this point I don't think she ever will.

 

Usually I approach with an idea in mind, but for sure I have had some doll pics jump out of the screen at me and beg to have a character made from them. Most of the time it's the shape of the face that really calls to me, and I plan to customize everything else -- but the Dollfie Dream Sister "Karin" definitely has a lot of personality that calls to me, and whatever character I design to put into that kind of shell would for sure be informed by the existing doll and the way she looks!

 

Most of the time I have the character in mind and then look for a doll to suit the character.

Sometimes, I just see a doll that begs to have a character built around it, and then I have to get the doll and write it into the story.

 

I gave up shelling my own characters in advance because most of them are weird monsters. Although I've found a jorōgumo head that might work pretty seamlessly for one of them. If I ever get to hybridize and experiment, it's going to be from there.

 

I tried buying dolls to shell characters and found out that sometimes a doll will not be who you want them to, even if you've looked at lots of pictures of the sculpt. I tried this with a Dollshe Hound and every time I tried to make him the character I had in mind something just seemed off.
Lesson learned! Now I buy dolls and let them tell me their character and personality as I handle them. For example, I have a rude Volks SDGrB Williams, who scuffed another doll's face in transit (easily fixed, thankfully) and always seems to knock other dolls over; and a gentlemanly Volks Hijikata who is always pleasant to handle despite being modelled after the Shinsengumi's "demon vice commander".

 

Except for 2 who are based off of other fictional characters that I like, Kusuriuri from Mononoke and Link from Legend of Zelda, I think all by dolls I have collected because I really liked the particular sculpt and then I create a character that suits that sculpt.

 

This is actually one of my biggest BJD purchase regrets. When I first started collecting, I solely bought dolls that I thought were really pretty.
But one day I saw a sculpt and thought it looked an awful lot like one of my OCs I was writing a story for. I then started collecting dolls that matched the other characters. I haven't written their stories yet, but they are all from books that I plan to write one day.

So, now I have two lots of dolls. The ones who I impulse bought, and the ones who were bought with a specific purpose. Because I felt bad, I ended up creating another story in my head that was like an alternative universe where all the characters live together and know each other. I am starting to either create more stories for the dolls I impulse bought, or changing their designs to match my pre-existing OCs.

 

So I tend to mix between find a doll that fits the character, and create a character to fit a doll. In one case, I bought a doll that fitted a character, and then the doll arrived and nope, I ended up making a new character for them.

And at the current moment, I'm looking at a doll on a site and trying to convince myself I don't need them, but a character is forming in my mind...

 

I do this all the time! I created Cole’s character around a doll I really wanted to trade for—not even just the sculpt, but that specific faceup as well. She turned out well, and now she’s a major character in my cast. I created Tass and Echo to go with sculpts I had but couldn’t sell, which is a bit of a shift in the trend!

 

I have several characters that I'm designing dolls around, there's a whole complicated plot in my head about them

 

while I admire the creativity of otherss who do that and create characters for their dolls I don't do that , the only one it could be said as "character doll" is a huge las reinas toddler like doll which looks like I did when I was a toddler so subconsciously I consider her as represantation of myself when I was little but otherwise it adds much fuss and work into something that for me should be easy thoughtless and just fun , the obligation of creativity that bjd's create was one of the reasons I left them aside for long , I just want to be surrounded by a pretty collection not create more obligations for myself maybe that's why in latest years I prefer buying something nice for myself (clothes, perfume etc) or just going out and relax or play some pc game the rare times I have spare time and money instead of doing collections and it is a bit of the reason I am thinning my collections. I still love the creativity and effort others put on dolls , characters and stories but it's too much work for me I just want some lazy relaxation with my hobbies.

 

Most of my dolls are based on original characters (OCs), and I find dolls to match their personalities.

However, I do own some dolls that I saw first, and a character was born from them. Just recently, I saw a doll that I felt compelled to adopt. So I asked myself who he would be and how he could fit in with everyone that I currently have. It was a slow day at work, and I was able to develop his character while I was there.
Did I also start writing fan fiction once I started to flesh out his character more? Yes. I have also picked out another doll from Luts that will be his future lover. RIP to my wallet.

 

It goes both ways for me. Sometimes I'll see a doll/sculpt and love the look or feel inspired. Although with BJDs being expensive, I'm really having to try and be sure I really do feel inspired sometimes since sometimes when I've gotten other kinds of dolls just because I liked the look, I never get more than a vague idea. I'll want more than the vague idea, but sometimes it just never comes. I'd like to avoid that happening with my resins. So far, the resin bjd heads that I've gotten for their looks have done well at meshing together and inspiring a story (although it did take me nearly a year to name Shido since he was not very forthcoming about his name, despite having a clear personality otherwise). So far I've wound up with three MSDs on the basis of their heads looking fun to paint because they were unique and full of personality. I've definitely gotten some very strong impressions of dolls based on their example faceup photos and on the two I have that happened with, worked to honor what I fell in love with about said photos while putting my own spin on them. Only one of my resins has the factory faceup (though I didn't go for the fullset outfit because I could do something similar cheaper, and while I got similar eyes and hair, the eyes and hair I got are a little different).

But I've always had a life long love of making up my own characters and then trying to make a tangible version of them, so sometimes I'll try to find sculpts to match the character. Though if I wind up not getting the shell right, that also results in me not interacting with the doll as much and feeling unsatisfied. x.x So I've been pretty slow to actually getting around to dollifying some characters I've been wanting to do in resin since I want to make sure the investment goes well.

 

I’ve come up with names, personalities, or at least story ideas for most of my characters. The only thing is that I have trouble making decisions when it comes to names and characters for dolls I really like because I want it to be perfect. One of my newer dolls is coming in a month or two, so I gotta decide soon! If I keep calling him by his sculpt name, I’m never gonna get a real name for him.

 

With my first doll, I had an OC in mind, sort of, but I found it stressful to try to find a perfect sculpt. Then once I was waiting, I didn’t like the uncertainty of not knowing if the sculpt still fit once I saw her in person.

Now kind of let the dolls develop their own personalities and characters once I own them.

Sometimes what draws me to a sculpt is when I think about making one into non-OC character doll. I don’t know why this works for me but my own OCs don’t. I’ve never actually made a non-OC doll and think I’d get bored of it if I did. Maybe it’s just the general vibe of a character I like that helps me decide, I don’t know

Also like someone else mentioned, a lot of my OCs are monsters and there just aren’t BJDs that fit. I’m thinking about taking a sculpting class over the summer to see if I like it and if making dolls would be feasible, because that’s the only way I can see myself ever having dolls that really fit the story for my OCs.

 

I think it's a great creative outlet to create characters from dolls and customize them to your liking!
That's half of the fun in it, honestly.

 

Sometimes, I already have a story in mind when I look at a doll, but so far (with the one doll I have), I've just created stories for them afterwards