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

Originally I just bought whatever was pretty to me. However none of those dolls have worked out. In order to be very picky with my buys from here out I'm going to try and buy moulds based on my existing characters. Unless I can develope a character thoroughly beforehand I wont be buying a doll. If I go long enough without finding character matches and find a doll I love enough maybe Ill break that rule though.
A best way to do it? According to your own style and strengthes/weaknesses I guess.

 

I do not plan to. Everything happens by accident.
I read a lot about the dolls, watch photos of dolls ....
And then .... it is she or he is!
AND ALL! .... I have a new doll!

 

I already planned everything ;D
&& I already know which dolls I want :3

 

I plan nothing, didn't have a character till I had a doll now I want more. Just need the fund to do it, darn you RL stop giving me more bills. DX

 

How do YOU plan your doll family?

1. Must really, really like everything about a particular doll and must love them as much all my other dolls (that last is a hard one to manage).
2. I like fantasy themes and my first dolls had elf ears, so I was trying to keep to that. I still don't do characters... I like to create new characters once I have the dolls (although this isn't a hard rule, by any means).
3. I like dolls that will go with other dolls, but they can be a "stand alone" doll if I really like it that much. I won't lower standards to get a friend or partner for my dolls.

I try to limit my family by--
1. Trying not to have more than one doll coming or on layaway at a time (not a hard rule).
2. Trying not to buy more than one doll a year (definitely not a hard rule).
3. Trying to make every doll purchase as if it was the MOST important doll--something I couldn't live without--as if it were my One and Only Doll. That helps me from making impulse buys (at least, a little!).

has that tactic changed?

No, but as I said, it's hard to stick to my rules. Dolls change so much over the years, as does what I'm really interested in (latter changes much less, though), so it's hard to predict what's coming and hard to make plans because of that.

Years ago, I was thinking I wouldn't have any humans, but I got one and then someone gave me another, so I've got two now. But all my other dolls are fantasy-themed to some extent.

Now there are TONS of fantasy themed dolls--but in the first years I was buying, there were only a few elf eared dolls and that was it, so things have changed a lot. I have to limit the TYPES of fantasy dolls I'll buy, otherwise I'll just go crazy and want way too many dolls... (I don't have the money or room for unlimited dolls, sadly)

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

No, of course not! People are all different and things are always changing with BJDs, so it's nearly impossible to have a plan, much less a "best" plan!

There's that old saying:
"The best laid schemes o' mice an' men / Gang aft agley." --Robert Burns

 

No planning whatsoever. My dolls just happen

 

I try to follow a plan, but there is always something unexpected waiting at every corner and I jsut cannot seem to really follow it XD

I starting only wanting a few of my favourite characters, then I starting creating new ones for the dolls I liked and in the end I keep continuing like that wanting all my characters as dolls but making new ones as new dolls I like come out and I cannot seem to find an already existing personality for them xP

 

Oooh! Great question!! I started out planning my dolls very carefully, but circumstances have pretty much taken over and dictated who came home and when- I bought my first doll because he was affordable and cute, then my second because he was on my list and hanging out in the DoA marketplace for a really good price... then my third because I just suddenly had this ridiculous obsession with owning an Unoa... and then Peitan because I had no idea what doll to get next, abandoned the list entirely and found a pouty, sulky tan girl and totally fell in love. And finally, Cass and Aziza because they were both actually on my list. =__= Thus I've found that it's really hard to stick to a list, and now the dolls themselves just seem to inspire me to get others- like Cass' "little brother"- a DM Ciel boy, and Peitan's older brother, the Planetdoll Dandy boy.

I have a wishlist, but I feel overwhelmed when I see how many dolls "I just can't live without" so I basically just let myself figure it out as I go along.

 

Well when I bought my first one, I had no character planned out for him, and it just kind of came as I got more used to him.
Now, though, I've made plans for dolls and their characters that work with my first dolls storyline. And I've got two OC's (A brother-sister duo) that I would just LOVE to turn BJD, so that's another plan. Having the character outlined in your head is a lot easier for me, I can kind of limit dollie-spending to the characters I want and not be broke all the time from buying so many dollies without characters LOL, cuz that's probably what I'd do.~

 

I plan my doll family by seeing some dolls who got my eyes.Then I will take them home and imagine their characters. ^^

 

I'm not planning to get any dolls to represent my OC's--I have too many! Also, I'm the kind of person who would decide that a doll would be this character, then go to sleep, have some random dream sequence, and then change everything when I awoke!
So, when I do get my first doll, I'm going to make a personality just for her, instead of her being one of mine (but the possiblity of cosplaying as one of my OC's is VERY high) I'm already kinda planning her personality, aolng with a...male friend to go along. So it's very possible that's how I'll do it from now on.

 

It's funny because I have plans for both dolls that are "pretty" and ones that are my characters hehe

 

I buy dolls to fill characters. All my dolls are very planned, sculpt, faceup, even price is all preestablished before I get the doll. Only my first doll was decided sculpt first then character.

 

I wish I could just buy dolls for themselves but they really do have to represent characters that have been in my head a long time. I recently bought a doll to replace a character than was taken by Lishe but the replacement isn't working out either! Gggrrrr. I wish I could get a kick in the head and just be satisfied to see them as dolls first and these "people" second.

 

I have been making characters to fit sculpts I've found, two have even told me their personalities ^_^.
Except one, I have a character developed for a 70cm Iplehouse man but I haven't picked out his exact sculpt yet and probably won't for a while since I don't plan on getting him for a long time.

 

Well, i was thinking of getting my first four dolls, then going from there...
the first a girl, then a boy, then another girl, then a puki.

 

the only ones i've planned to buy is the soom family: i've my chalco then i managed to buy aphan as his child, now im planned to buy the new tiny as second child and later, if they do another tan SD, i'll complete my tanned family (yesh im soomed ).

 

Well I plan to buy Soom Topaz and Soom Heliot as her boyfriend,IE Cherie as Topaz's younger sister....Thats all for now but I'm sure i will want to buy more

 

For now all my dolls are based off of characters that I really want to shell into doll forms, so all the dolls are found based on aesthetics and such, which one fits the character best, but also which ones I like the best. I'm not gonna buy a doll I don't like just because it fits the character. As such, some of the characters have gone through tweakings, but that's okay.

After I get all my planned character dolls, I figure I'll just start collecting the dolls that I really fall in love with, and then work out personalities/ stories for them after I get them. There are a lot of dolls I love right now, but I have no characters for them, so those will be the ones I get after the initial collecting.

 

Now i'm waiting for a doll who's supposed to become Mart's sister. Actually i have not planned any girls to have. But one day i understood that i need a doll that is absolutely different from Mart and that can "harmonize" his character.
So that all my plans were broken