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

I don't really plan my 'family' It's just that when I'm rp'ing with my dolls sometimes we need more persons, and after a while they get a personality.. and a doll body.. and that's how they keep multiplying.. it's scary sometimes

 

No plan survives contact with the enemy. I learned that the hard way, very early on. (I started out as one of those "I'm only gonna have ONE doll"-people, if you can believe it. o_0)

These days, like Jenny, I take a more zen approach. I buy dolls I like... Some I keep, some I don't... I don't realy think of the collection so much in terms of numbers or future plans or who's related to whom. I just sort-of set the budget and then let it happen. ^_^

 

I didn't think I'd ever own more than ten dolls. But as I have six dolls, two heads, and one incoming tiny, that makes nine already. And my list is long. So right now the cap is at 20. My policy is the doll that I want has to have something planned about it. For instance, my incoming Glati has a twin sister in Toronto. One of my friends got a Glot, so they're going to be siblings. It doesn't have to be a name. It can be a particular style or a personality.

 

Hmm...I always feel a bit weird that I don't have any "characters" to put on dolls, since just trolling around DoA makes it seem like EVERYONE MUST do this. (Even though I know its perfectly fine not to)

I do like to RP and create characters/stories but that could never be brought to life perfectly in doll form for me unless I completely sculpted the doll myself and I already have too many expensive hobbies to even consider wanting to do that!

I really just shop around at all the existing companies and very very rarely some sculpt will just JUMP at me and I revisit the sale page a thousand times before I realize I MUST have this! I can't forsee wanting any more than what is in my sig except perhaps an SD sized girl but I've not found one I love love love yet. I also will see a sculpt I previously never liked in the galleries and someone's beautiful doll will change my mind! That's how I came to want a DT Hue There are three really unique Hue's from the galleries that convinced me!

Since I don't do personalities either, I just choose what type of clothes and wigs I'd like them to wear. Unfortunately there's not much in doll clothes that I like in vast quantities >_< I swore never ever ever to put any of my dolls into anything emo/punk/visual kei/lolita-esque because I see lots of HORRID combination's of those things on dolls and I don't trust myself to not make it just as horrible on mine haha. Once you rule all that out there's surprisingly little to clothe my horde with (especially in MSD, not so much a problem with SD).

I don't know if I'm in the norm or not, I'm assuming there must be more people like me out there!

 

I´m totally that people which sees a doll she likes, and buys it. My dolls don´t really have strong characters or personal history behind them, they just have names and some personality, which often comes by time. I do write stories too, but I´ve never had a feeling I´d like to make any of the characters in doll form.

There really isn´t a "right" or "wrong" way, I think it´s great everyone can do like they feel best. I really enjoy to watch how some people has a character doll and the doll really makes a person of her/his own. Mine are mostly cute little things, but as most of them are little children I think it´s very natural that they haven´t seen a lot of life before and live in present time.

 

I don't plan my doll family at all! Dolls come home to me because they're pretty and I can't resist, rather than because of some predefined character.

Even now, my dolls only have loose characters rather than detailed backstories. I guess I get my creative urges filled by writing (fanfiction and original fiction) and by my job.

 

I donno how to link Clover and Sarah together (Clover is a faerie and Sarah isn't) so that put a kink in the plan lol
I assume they're friends, since I always have Sarah holding Clover
(Clover's vocabulary had to go up to 7 words)

 

My "tactic" has changed recently. When I first started, I just bought the dolls I liked and tried to make their personalities come out on their own, which worked on some but not others. The ones who didn't come out on their own, I realized really fit characters I already had, so they're in the process of turning into them. Now, my tactic is a list (so I don't run out and wind up with so many dolls!) of the main (or favorite) 2-3 characters from my stories, and I try to only buy dolls I can customize to their appearence and attitude! ^.^

 

I plan, and plan, and plan @u@; I currently only have one (and a half? e__e; I have a floating head xD) doll(s?) right now, but every time I take them out I always end up ~planning~ my way up to a tenth doll XD;;

 

I used to plan characters, background story and everything. They existed in this HUGE alternative universe and was even closely intervened in the lives of my friend's bjds. But as time went by the characters I wanted began to slip and the dolls became something completely different.

My interest in looks or styles change radically and often, and so does the interest I have in my dolls' looks and "personality". I've thus given up on the entire planning thing, as far as entire family goes. Now I just buy the ones that strike my fancy and interest.

I like to plan the overall look and aesthetic of them to a pointy detail, though.

 

I have 4 dolls that I need and my friend ShadowHuntr needs 5 to complete or joint doll family. We've had this "family" forever, and have RP'd with them forever, so it stands to reason for us to have their dolls. It will take a long time, but I think we can do it.

 

I've only got one so far (hopefully that'll be changing very soon...), but my approach to planning my doll family has definitely changed. I started of just thinking I'd pick whatever I liked and not really flesh out my dolls personality beyond a name and basic traits. Now, I'm developing this whole neo-Victorian fantasy world concept and several dolly characters to go with it. And, of course, their backstories all intersect in some way.

 

I had started planning, and had a whole big story planned out. But I planned it well after I had paid for my dolls. I didn't have a story planned, but when I saw my CH Bina (who is a BonBon sculpt) I realised that I had to have her. And then when I managed to change to a sale order, and hence got a free head, I chose the Muu head because she looked gorgeous. I then wrote a massive historical backstory for both those two dolls, and then some for two other dolls I wanted. Ends up that I may not get those dolls, and that I may not even stay with the backstory that I came up with!! I have generally decided on what dolls I want based on how they look, and whether they 'speak' to me when I see them. So yeah, not so much planned as "OH MY GOD I WANT YOU!!!"

 

If a doll grabs me I can I buy it, and if a mould grows on me I can also buy it. I don't work out stories as such for my dolls, but when I've got the look I want for them, a character sort of follows, and they usually keep that look that seems right for them in my eyes. I also tend to prefer SD sized dolls.
I'm pretty happy with the collection I have now. There are one or two I could possibly buy in the future though if I have an idea for a look for them.

 

I had my RPG characters and their stories before I started this doll hobby, so yes, I had a plan and I'm sticking to it - to find doll forms for my old dear characters. That's quite safe, I think, since there are not too many off-character dolls here Just one, actually :P

 

How do YOU plan your doll family? Well, for the most part, I follow JennyNemesis's "zen" plan - I see a doll I love, and if I have money, I buy it. If I don't, I save up until I do. Their characters evolve while I'm saving, or waiting, or sometimes after they've "spent the night", as Jenny put it.

Unlike some of the other people who've mentioned using this method, they all wind up having pretty set personalities, backstories and relationships, although I let myself be kinda loose with the details. I don't want to limit myself on what dolls I'll buy because I just want to buy what I love, you know? (Although considering the size of my family and wishlist, that's probably not the smart plan to follow.) And since the storyline I've been loosely working with is about fae and supernatural folks, I can pretty much throw in whatever I like regardless of size or realism, haha.

has that tactic changed? Well. . .

That's the thing. I was writing fiction/rping with friends long before I ever heard of BJDs. So of course I have a wealth of pre-existing characters that I could be shelling from both my own stories or our massive RP. But I actively avoided going that route because. . . honestly, I probably have a hundred characters and I thought "therein lies the path to ruin!"

But, uh, best laid plans, and all. The fiancée and I happened to see a head going by on the marketplace that had an adorably snarky face-up and was going for a ridiculously cheap price, and we both went "Woah, it's Eli!" and bought it. So now of course my wishlist is slowly being populated with dolls for older characters, too. Because Eli needs friends, he can't just be by himself.

Clearly buying any dolls at all is the path to ruin, and I should just accept it.

and do you feel there is a "best" way to do it? Obviously not the way I am! XD No, I'm kidding. I love my dollie family and I've actually never sold a doll. (Except for one extra LTF Shiwoo faceplate, but I got the doll for the elf Shiwoo event faceplate, so I don't think it counts.) I'm not overly concerned about it - the RP characters can just get their own shelf, since the one that houses the fairytale characters is already full. Our house is gonna be full of resin, and that's that.

 

All my plans are in crumbles, and that's the way I like it, I think. I've learned to be more flexible, and see what happens with my dolls, rather then trying to stick to a rigid scheme. I think when I had a really intense plan, I was trying too hard to force characters. Now that I am not, they come easier, and I can envision their sculpts easier.

I think doll planning only works to a certain point, for me at least. I know everyone is different!

 

All my dolls are representations of my original characters, so while there hasn't been a concrete plan, per se, I've always worked along the lines of filling in my guys' family tree (and I'm doing pretty well, it seems!) Even then, I'm not planning to bring every single character on that family tree home as a doll since quite a few of them are very minor characters, and then there are the unplanned dolls who just seem to turn up out of the blue, like my Zack Fair who isn't even one of my characters but is very much loved anyway I think it's been helpful to me to have a framework, but sticking too closely to that plan would mean I'd have missed out on a lot of fun and some very beloved dolls in the meanwhile.

 

My doll family is most definitely planned. I don't prefer simply buying a doll only because I think it's pretty. I try to stick with the descriptions I have in mind, and for some reason, things just fall into place. I have numerous characters, and most of the dolls I've come to adore actually bear some resemblance.

 

I'm like you VelvetBat, I kind of picked dolls I liked, and created characters around them. But as I added to the characters, the story came through, and is still being put together.
So, yeah, its a bit of both! :P