Planning your doll family? Did you have a plan? How did it work out?

The larger part of mine and my best friend's "doll family" is comprised entirely of characters from one of our stories. It'll be about eight or nine dolls total, and each and every one of them has a predetermined "look" and aesthetic that we have to match (like one of the characters having darker/tan skin and blonde hair, and another being effeminate, pale-skinned, and having black hair). Their personalities are also very well-formed, and I've already ordered clothing for one (and been forbidden from buying certain wigs for him, too, boo~).

Our other dolls are a little more "random", though, and are character dolls from our favorite anime - I have a doll modeled after Cho Hakkai from Saiyuki, and another who is an alternate universe, female Fuuchouin Kazuki of Get Backers; the doll I'm waiting on now is Fai D. Flourite of Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle fame, and I have a planned doll who will be Integra Hellsing from the Hellsing manga/OVA. Obviously they come with styles and personalities of their own, which I find it fun to accommodate. :3

But I find it "weird" and kind of unsettling / not fun to even put a doll on my wishlist without knowing what character they'll be, personally. I could never just buy a doll because it's pretty - it would have to have a character before I ordered it. That works for me. Other people can do that, and that's awesome :P I don't think there is a "best way..." Whatever works for you, works for you!

 

lol im definitely guilty of planning my doll family. i only have one doll right now his name is siren and he is a soom heliot. but if you listen to me talk about dolls you would think i had many more dolls because its not unusal for me to say something like "my saint needs to have that jacket!" or "zoey is a cute cyber goth girl so she needs a dread wig"


for me i seem to plan my dolls in pairs. everyone has a buddy or a lover. so in some cases the character comes first and i have to find a doll to be them (there are still a few characters that i really need to have that i dont know what doll they will be yet) and in other cases there is a certain doll i just cant stop looking at and i feel like i must have them so i create a character for them (most recently i have done this with migidoll ryu, leekeworld milch, and zaoll muse) and sometimes a certain character doesn't have a buddy (and all the others do so i cant stand that) so i need to pick out both a doll and a character.

so i dont really have a certain strategy but i like to have a character before i buy or plan to buy the doll

(see my signature. lol and thats just most of them. there are two or three still being developed, they are from different worlds as the ones in my siggy too so as of right now i dont feel bad leaving them off the signature. once all; the ones in my signature are home ill work on the second much smaller family)

 

I certainly didn't start by planning a doll family... but as I found out more about Mirai, the more I thought about the people she would surround herself with, and what kind of family she might have as well. So, now I have a couple of prospective characters to get dolls of.

And if I ever get dolly versions of my OCs, then their look and demeanor is pretty well pre-determined.

 

I've planned my entire doll family XD
I know each doll I want, but not so much their personalities yet.

 

From the very beginning my doll family was planned. I knew with the amount of money, time and space I have I can't be one of those people with more than two dolls. I measured these three main facts before making any decision on doll-buying. So I knew the perfect thing to do, make twins!

Originally they were a Volks MSD Toppi & MSD F-18 girl, fraternal twins. But that tactic changed after I got them and found MSDs weren't for me. Now they'll be Volks YoSD Lin twins, identical. I love the mold so much I could easily own it twice, hehe. They're all planned out and that will be my doll family (literally, since they'll be sisters). Even if my situation changed where money, time and space weren't an issue, I probably still won't end up with more than the twins, two is plenty for me.

But then again I try to never say never. Who knows, I may bring an SD mama home for them someday far, far into the future. But that can't happen for at least 4 years.

 

I don't think there's a "best" way to do it. To each their own.

But I'm one of the "buy pretty dolls and figure their personality out later" people. With the exception of Genevieve, who I bought specifically as a little friend for me to carry around with me everywhere.

 

I started with a plan.

But as most well intentioned plans, they went awry.

I started with one doll. Then I decided to get one for the current story I was working on. I had to wait for him so I bought a tiny, because I felt like rescueing.

This would be the start of a long line of 'I DID NOT PLAN THIS' rescues. I can't help but peruse the marketplace for sob stories and sad faces with big eyes that cry to me for a home. I fall prey easiest to 'been in box' or 'stayed in closet'. Also, 'had sister\brother but they are now sold'. I have to stop doing this. XD

Other members of the Hybrid Hollow crew were never supposed to be. They were planned, but they refused to fit the mold and said, "I'm actually this character you never knew existed in your imagination from this story you didn't plan to have. By the way, that guy over there is actually this other character from my story line..."

And so on. Then I tried to age a character. And he became someone else. So I deaged him again because the body before that was being used by someone else.

The older boy who refused to become the aged character is now my new book, which I'm seeking to get published. He also rescued a doll I intended to sell, and they are the main characters of the book. It's amazing what can happen in your mind when you live with so many muses.

It's a mess. My family was not planned at all, really. After a while I just stopped trying to aside from a couple here or there that asked for their friends. In fact, Rehael and Mikael were spur of the moment BOGOs at Customhouse, and now they, too, are main\side characters in my book. They were never supposed to even be in the book.

[shrugs] I like living on the edge.

 

"Planning" is relative, I guess...I have a large list of dolls I want to suit my roleplaying characters (and there are a LOT). However, all the dolls I currently have are of characters we had determined we weren't going to make dolls of at all. ^_^;;

I'm definitely of the 'character first, doll later' category. There are dolls out there that I think are gorgeous, but they don't even make my wishlist because they just don't suit any of my already established characters. Although, one of my character's looks maaaaay have been heavily influenced by my favorite doll of all time (Dollzone Hong). XD So 'never say never' is probably an accurate statement.

 

All mine are character first dolls. ^_^; I've got this Tsubassa/xxxHolic thing on the go....it just sorta happened.

Honestly.

 

My first doll (on the way) and my future dolls are all made to look like my original characters that I made a loooooooong time ago. I've already planned what dolls they are, too.! XD Saizer (AoD Jimi) and his brother Iulo (DZ Cosmo), and Wolf (either B&G Freya or AoD Zi Yuan) and Sidjyo (PukiPuki Pongpong the Clown). Saizer is on his way now, though I can't wait to get the other three... Even then, I'm sure I'll end up wanting more! XD

 

I plan, though I'd like to do the "Oooo~ Pretty!" -buys-

But I've got to get my "family" together first. My first (and only right now ) doll is Crystal [DollZone Cherry]. I'll be getting her husband, Takutsa (hopefully a [Angel Studio Luxifer]) and then her sisters and their husbands and then Crystal's child. If I could I would totally do the "spur of the moment Ooooo~" but I've got to get them home first. -glomples Crystal- Awww~

 

How do YOU plan your doll family?
I have mine planned out already. The characters, not the dolls.

has that tactic changed?
Not exactly, but I've come up with a compromise. If there's a doll I absolutely love and want to buy, I will figure out a way to fit it into my existing family plan. It's easy for me to create a new character from scratch.

do you feel there is a "best" way to do it?
The best way is what is good for an individual and their specific situation.

 

Mine is a bit weird though.

The names, family and stories were originally from a fiction story I wrote (Just for time killing and hobby). Then it happens that when I'm picking my first and second doll, I wanted the dolls to depicts the characters inside the story. And from there, I restricted the choices when I'm picking wig, clothes and so on. It seems to be a principle to me and I enforced myself to follow it.

 

I wouldn't say I've really planned my dolls out, but I don't buy willy-nilly either. I seem to mostly just be gathering the dolls I've liked for a long time. All but one of my dolls are ones I considered for my first, but decided decided against because they were limited or high-priced. Since then, two have been re-released and I was able to get them for retail price (and one is now in a skin colour I prefer to previous releases, as well as being a couple hundred dollars cheaper than the original release's retail price!) and another I bought during a free head event so I was able to get both of the heads I liked (originally I thought it would be nice to have them as twins, but now they will be two heads/moods for the same doll) as well as a discounted price. Only one is a doll that I didn't consider before buying my first- she is a limited that was released later on and the closest I have to an impulse buy doll. I suppose the one original "plan" I had was that I wouldn't have more than 3 dolls and I've already broken that one, but hopefully I'll be happy with what I have and won't feel the need to buy any more dolls , at least for a while.

Character-wise, I base their character/personality off of the sculpt as opposed to finding a doll to fit a pre-existing character. I do write a bit, and I have occasionally decided that a certain character would like like a certain sculpt but they're not dolls that I buy. If I'm spending hundreds of dollars on a doll I'd rather have the one that I think looks the nicest rather than looking the most like an imaginary character of mine (unless they happen to be the same sculpt)... I can always draw a picture of my own characters for free after all!

 

I definately planned mine, I just never planned on how many members/characters in my family I would end up with. There was 5 definite members I knew I would have, then as another doll was released that I liked, I just added that member to the family. I currently have 6 members in my family, with another 2 arriving in May, and 2 others I want to add as they are released. After that I have no idea what will happen.

 

With my first dolls, I just bought the ones I liked. And then I came up with some ideas like "it would be great to give Yelena a sister! She is a DES, let's go for a AES too!"

After a while, when my doll family turned bigger and bigger, I wanted to create 1 backgroundstory which would connect everyone with eachother somehow.
So I came up with this fantasy world, with Gods and Goddesses and such.

When I created those Gods and Goddesses, I planned some out. Like "I need a Goddess of Love". And when I found a doll that would match the empty spot, I ordered the doll and the rest of the personality came later.

And it also happened that Soom made a wonderful doll that I really wanted very much, ordered it, and created a Goddess for it later.

Now I have only 2 empty spots that need to be covered: The Goddess of Light and the UberGoddess, and I am waiting for Soom to release beautiful SuperGem or MegaGem females to fill those positions.

But if Soom also comes up with other lovely dolls that I decide to buy, I will be creating their storyline later on.

So actually it is a bit of both.

 

I totally agree. There is a best way, one for each person, the own. About plans, plans, plans,... *Sigh* They have generally two main ways of ending up, to be followed or not. Then, as a third, there is the mix of them.

My first plan came to my mind when I saw a BJD which reminded me of myself, but even before she arrived home I saw a wig which caused the change I love.

I found in it Nami's (A One Piece manga and anime series character) hair (Nami became the character she was, is and will be), and felt I had already seen almost all the rest of the main characters by then in the same company I bought her.

I was right so my plan changed to get all the resin crew I love. I followed it step by step (Only two Mini Fée and a resin pet came across as own characters, although with their personalities also in that sudden, out that line, but stayed within the story of my BJD) and I stopped by then, but...

I found another character from the title I was wishing to have from a long in another company and I also fell, so she was expected and not, and less in that way.

Since that moment I knew I would chase another character I wanted for similar reasons and ironically I found him in a mold I never thought I would get. As soon as I saw him with a limited make up the company released I fell again.

Finally, I got my nowadays last BJD because the crew (A main character into it appeared) grew up. But again he came from a different company, from one I never thought I would buy a BJD for myself.

Up-to-date I know I will fall again if a new character, like those, appears on the scene. So personally characters would come and really do so first for me, but most of the times they happen to appear at the same time that I see the sculpts I recognize them in.

 

I don't really need to plan a lot since all my present and future dollies are here to represent my older characters. They have all their family and friends and foes already of course. So I'm just looking for dolls that fit in and buy them. If I have the money. Which won't be the case for a while

It does happen though that I see a doll that just makes me have this 'Do Want!' - feeling, even if I don't have a 'character slot' to fill. Like Migidoll's Cho which I had to buy, just had to. But I'm good at making up random characters and weaving them into an existing storyline. 5 years of playing the same self-created roleplay with over 50 characters helped with this, I'm sure.

 

How do YOU plan your doll family?
It's not really possible for me, because there's always going to be another new doll released that I'll want. I always knew I'd want 2 but beyond that, I've not really planned. I still don't think I want a large collection but....

has that tactic changed?
Never had a tactic to change. I have found myself saving for a third doll though, which is one I never thought I'd want.

do you feel there is a "best" way to do it?
No, everyone's different. I just think it's a shame if you make yourself stick so rigidly to a plan and miss out on a doll that you would have loved.
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