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

How do YOU plan your doll family?
I planned my collection through characters I have created. Sometimes dolls just end up showing up in my collection but mostly they are planned and looked over again and again. Making sure they suit my characters without question, this was effected because a past purchase, I was unsatisfied with a doll- and I didn't like dealing with selling... so I try not having to go through something like that again.
has that tactic changed?
Yes, before it was "Does the doll look cute?" now its looking at it over and over again.
and do you feel there is a "best" way to do it?
Hmmm... not entirely sure...

 

I an aspiring comic artist and author, so my current doll family is a physical adaption of the characters from my comic =) I wouldn't be apposed to buying a doll 'outside of my collection' though.

 

I was dead set on only collecting slim minis and that totally backfired! Now I have 2 SDs and another on the way!
Before I used to plan everything out but I noticed once I got the doll everything that I originally planned changed anyway.
I guess I'm an impulse buyer? My gut is usually pretty accurate when it comes to things I like. Never second guess!

 

For the most part I have characters in a story that I fill in with dolls. Because they have to fit in with the other characters, dolls, in the story they have to be a certain size but other details such as build and hair color I don't really specify. That leaves me free to fill in those characters with whichever doll I find that I like.

However, there have been cases where I have invented a character for a doll I really wanted that wouldn't have fit in otherwise or even made a side character more important. At this point I only have two girls that I need to find dolls for but I am also still waiting to really find a character for one of my existing dolls. I do have many side characters that I could buy dolls for but I'm just not sure if I want any more dolls after those two girls.

 

I have to admit that I don't plan my doll family at all. I bought my very first doll because I loved her sculpt. Then I bought another one of the same sculpt but in bigger size to be her bigger sister. Since that I just buy dolls and have no plans for their relationships at the time I make the purchase. I wait until they arrive and then I will see if they are friends, sibling, cousins or whatever...

 

How do YOU plan your doll family?
According the size and the age
has that tactic changed?
No.But if when there are two dolls, although I keep the smaller one longer, the bigger one would be the elder in the family
and do you feel there is a "best" way to do it?
different person different way

 

My first two dolls were "Oooh pretty, limited, must have!" My first doll I got without any plan for her character, deciding I'd come up with something later. I couldn't come up with anything beyond making her descended from my God of Fire for the longest time... Then I bought my second doll. He's not even here yet, but I have his and Ashera's designs all planned out now! Having two characters to work with helped.

My next doll I have a character planned for and he's going to fill a slot in the story I'm coming up with for my first two dolls. ^_^

 

How do YOU plan your doll family?
I base my dolls on characters of mine. Usually the protagonist or deuteragonist.

Has that tactic changed?
A little bit. My first doll is stylistically different from the others. I have since decided to keep dolls of similar sizes more stylistically similar. It helps photograph them together which helps me do stuff with them. So I've added to how I plan.

The doll I do the least with was one I won in a raffle. Not that I dislike him, but he's the only one with a very unspecific character. Well, the doll I'm trying to sell right now is also one whose character got a bit muddy over time. I based her on a girly-girl character of mine, but she looked so much better in tomboy clothes.

Do you feel there is a "best" way to do it?
Hard to say, tastes change. I go through 2-to-4-year cycles of obsession so my thought process on dolls changes quite a bit.

 

How do YOU plan your doll family?
I buy the dolls that appeal to me!

Has that tactic changed?
Heck yes! Out of necessity and dwindling space, I've had to stop buying dolls just because I like them and think more about how the doll will fit in with my current dolls. I've gone from getting dolls just cos I like them to thinking more tactically about it.

Do you feel there is a "best" way to do it?
I don't know which way is the best way to plan...it's really a personal decision. I've really liked all the dolls I've had but now I'm trying to be more discerning and to just focus on a few rather than lots. I think that buying dolls for existing characters or buying dolls just because they appeal to you are both positive things. What would have helped me more earlier on is if I had just stuck to a set number of dolls rather than let my wants override my space!

 

I wouldn't really call mine a "family", per se, simply because only a couple of dolls relate to each in ANY way. LOL If anything, I've likened the various dolls/characters to that stoner who crashes on your couch in the apartment for a month or two and it's not until he leaves that all the roommates realize that no one actually knew who the heck that was!

Anyway, some of the dolls I'm planning for already have set names, personalities and clothing ideas and range from YoSD to MSD to SD. However, I also have a LOT of dolls on my wishlist... that I just have no clue what to do with yet!

I'm planning on working my way through the dolls that I have a definite plan for and then work on the other dolls. I may try and plan a character for them or I may wait for them and then just let them do what they please!

 

I personally fell in love with my snow (aka tania from noctarcana circus)the instant I saw her on the iplehouse page and couldn't live without her, as soon as she arrived home it was almost as though she had a personality of her own, from her i'm building her a family that she would love to be surrounded by, I feel the best way to do it it YOUR way, there is no specific way to purchase a new family member

 

I have many characters in my mind, what I expect is to find the dolls who can fit them...

But the truth is I see a doll with a stunning face, I buy and find a character for him/her...

So my doll family is chaos...>_<

 

hello I'm very new to bjd's so reading all your posts are very helpful. I have only one lady so far. she is an impldoll manner, who has decided she wants the name coco don't know why! anyway I would like a male doll to go with her and am working to plan out how that can come about. there are so many out there and as with alot of you money is very much a factor. so planning this is interesting. any suggestions?

 

A mix of careful planning and impulse buying... needless to say, the impulse buys far outnumber the ones I took the time to plan.

 

I buy dolls 100% because I like how they look. I try to make them fit together, for instance I don't have any SDs, nor am I planning to get one. My dolls are all MSD or smaller, and most of them have a little peculiar appearance (DC Alberta, Soom Dune, DC Hilary etc).

And my dolls rarely have a personality before I get them, because it tends to shift ones I get the doll anyway..

 

I never planned it before because at first time I think I only want one doll, but now I am saving for the third bjd as well with etc ( I hope only three not more...). Lots of new sculpts and dolls release so I found out that all of the doll will always become my favorite. But still I need to choose the one that fit with my characters. Their characters came first and my dolls also became my art object since I like to do making my characters alive through my own stories. Now I think they live on my doll family.

 

My tactic started with just buying Amir. He should have been my only. And I just searched for the doll I found most attractive. Then I thought he needed a friend and again went with "ohh, pretty dolly!" This went on for a bit, with me just choosing what I thought was pretty and letting them "tell" me who they are. But after awhile, with the exception of my first two, I started to realize this didn't work. Sometimes, the doll didn't fit a character or the character created around the doll just didn't interest me.

So new tactic became figuring out a character and role playing them before ever having a doll picked out. IF I bond to the character and decide to keep him, then I start looking for a doll that looks like the character I have in mind. If I don't bond to the character, he gets scrapped and I've only wasted time, not money.

For about 6 months, I did go through a phase of searching dealers and the MP for what was cheap and available, just to get new dolls fast. THAT was a disaster, as I ended up selling most of them within the year and taking a loss on almost all of them. Just because you CAN get 5 MSDs for under $700 doesn't mean you SHOULD.

So now I'm back to "create a role play character, shell if I love him after a month or more." The biggest exceptions here are if I receive a gift doll or head. then I'll do the whole "create a character around pretty dolly" if it doesn't fit any of my current unshelled characters.

 

Like several others on here, my dolls are based on characters I've created. Some of my dolls are (or will be) members of the same "family" (i.e. the characters are related), while others are unrelated. I'm not sure if I could ever just buy a doll "because it's pretty". I would have to have a character in mind first, I think.

I'm pretty sure there's no right or wrong way to plan your doll collection or doll family. It's whatever the collector wants to do and what makes them happy

 

How do YOU plan your doll family?

Well, depends.
I can have the 'need' to embody a character that i've imagined. In that case i search the mold that is close to my ideas.
But sometimes a doll jut pops out because i find her beautiful so i created a character out of it.

Has that tactic changed?

Hmmm dunno X) don't believe so.

Do you feel there is a "best" way to do it?

Nope, it's kinda the way i deal most of the time ^^

 

How do YOU plan your doll family? has that tactic changed? and do you feel there is a "best" way to do it?

I started by coming up with an original story using some of my action figures, then later incorporating dolls (I didn't have a BJD at the time, so yeah). I'm now planning to incorporate more characters from my graphic novel story while keeping a couple of the characters that have only been around for the doll stories and selling the ones that don't really fit. I'm trying to keep a max limit of 20 on my doll collection, so I don't really have room for dolls that aren't a part of that story.

What's good about this re-vamp is that there's a couple of dolls that I've loved for a while but thought I wouldn't be able to get because of not having characters to fit them. Now I'm reshelling one of my current characters into another mold, and am going to mod and dye her current mold to shell my alien OC. As for the "best" way to plan your doll family? Go with the sculpts you love!