Sharing a friend's doll? (blurring the lines of doll ownership)

Do you or would you share a doll by splitting the cost (true dual ownership)?
Probably not. I am still new to the hobby and I love my dolls and I work very hard for the money to pay for them.
Do you or would you share a doll by letting someone else choose a character for your doll, or by creating a character for theirs?
I have collaborated with my friends about characters and my next doll is going to be a twin with a friend of mine who is also into dolls. We created these characters together and her input on the character has helped me create her and viceversa. I have even considered getting dolls for characters my boyfriend has made because I like them so much and have found dolls that would suit them nicely.
Do you or would you share a doll by creating your own character for your own doll, but relying on another person to "complete" the set and letting the doll stay with them as much as he/she stays with you? (or by having their doll at your house/trading off)

I would let my doll stay with my friend for a bit but that is because I trust this one person wholeheartedly. But the doll would still be mine, and she would probably make clothes for her if she stays there for a night or two.
If you do share a doll (in any form), are there certain guidelines you won't cross (something you'd do with your own but not theirs)?
Not sure. If I did anything to her doll or if she were to do something with mine I think it would be fine, and if I had any doubt about it i would just ask her.

 

A huge hell to the naw. I could never do this. It's not even about the dolls as much as their characters. I've had my first doll almost four years, his character's been around about 11. So have most of my other dolls characters. No one else was involved in their creation, it was all me. And I put way too much work into all of them to share. heck it bugs me when people do stupid things to them at meets (ie: have their other dolls "molest" them, or put things like flowers on their heads), it doesn't hurt the dolls at all, but if it's out of their character it bothers me. I would go insane with my dolls in the possession of someone else. Wondering if they were putting other wigs on them, or dressing my non-cross-dressing boys in dresses. I'm kind of cringing right now, thinking about it! Then there's the wondering if they'll come back in the same condition they left me. Maybe I just know a lot of careless people, or I'm just overly paranoid, but no. I'd rather not risk my own sanity. I'm way too possessive of my characters, and by default, their dolls.

 

I found this thread and I was thinking a lot about that...I had two friends on here (whom are no longer friends currently) that I guess not the physical dolls were shared but the characters were shaped and intertwined with their characters and now that we're not friends anymore it feels at least with a couple of my characters and dolls that they aren't close to me anymore. I felt like they got taken away from me. So I guess I don't think I would want to do that again. I don't want to feel like that ever again that my characters were taken away because of sharing and things not going well. So I guess I have blurred the lines and don't think I would want to do that again. It hurts too much. It hurts way too much.

 

I don't think I would ever share a doll physically (like sending them back and forth, not to mention that sounds very risky! What if they got damaged or lost? Worrying about their arrival the first time is enough for me.) as I'm well, rather possessive of anything that belongs to me and don't really like other people touching my things. However, I don't mind sharing ideas or working together to develop a doll's background or personality which is what I'm doing right now with a friend who lives on the other side of the world.

 

I love this idea of sharing dolls. I would love to have a BJD friend that i trusted that much. I would defiantly do it given a chance.

 

I wouldn't Say you're paranoid at all Vampireangel. I don't even own a doll yet and i can tell you I already feel much the same. For example 2 close friends have several dolls, and even were they not valuable I know what the characters alone mean to them. Well during a visit to them a 3rd party was pressing for them to attend a doll meet with certain dolls and even suggested I be the one to carry one...I nearly puked at the idea of being responsible for something/someone so valuable, not to mention how offended my friends were that someone would be so dismissive of their concerns about their dolls being carried about.

Some of us are just wired to be that uptight and I for one think it's more responsible of us considering as you said the YEARS and countless hours put into a truly loved character doll.

 

I think the only time I would share a doll is with my SO, and even then it'd be his by default, but I get to play with it and help out. So he'd make up all the charactery stuff, and I'd chip in with ideas and stuff. And considering it'd be technically his, I would probably tell him/ask permission before I did anything major.

Imaginary Convo:
"Eh, she's a bit floppy. I'm gonna tighten the strings for you!"
"....Er, ok."

It would probably just stay at his place, considering I go over there like, 5/7 days a week XD

I think I'd rather enjoy my friend getting a doll of her own, just so we can play together, y'know? If the character backstories entwined, then that's not going to interfere with who owns what, and we could still enjoy our dolls when we weren't together.

 

I don't think I could ever "joint-own" a doll. I'm way too protective and paranoid about my stuff. I have siblings - I don't like to share. There are only 2 people I would ever trust to take my dolls home with them - but only because they are my real-life friends and I have been to their homes and have seen where and how they keep their dolls. I know that they would be just as careful with my dolls as I am, if not more so.

Character-wise, my doll-friends actually have a pretty big influence on one of my dolls. Vesper (LS Emily) didn't come with a pre-established character, so things that happen at doll meets often get written into who she is and she was even named (indirectly) by one of my former coworkers.

Vesper is, more often than not, the only female 1/3 at doll meets in my area. Most of the 1/3 boys are straight and single. My friends and I noticed that, at every meet, she would end up posing/sitting/cuddling with a different guy - jokingly referred to as her "boyfriends". It has spiraled out from there, but the idea of Vesper being very friendly and a bit of a tramp, is now a permanent part of her character.

I often chat with the owners of Vesper's top 2 boyfriends. If we ever lost touch, or otherwise stopped talking... I would be disappointed to lose them as friends, but I don't think it would affect Vesper's character overly much. (She is, after all a very friendly doll. )

I actually have the opposite issue as some of the other owners and writers who have posted.

The owner of one of Vesper's top boyfriends does NaNoWriMo, and wrote the story of her dolls. I was very tempted to ask her if Vesper had made a cameo, or if she had ever thought of including Vesper, even as just a background character. I didn't, though. It's her story and she seemed to have a pretty good idea of where she was going with it.

Also... What if she wrote my doll out of character? It's not like Vesper's character is set in stone... but what if? I wouldn't know what to say or how to tell my friend that my doll's character would never do that (just as an example).

 

Do you or would you share a doll by splitting the cost (true dual ownership)?
No.

Do you or would you share a doll by letting someone else choose a character for your doll, or by creating a character for theirs?
No.

Do you or would you share a doll by creating your own character for your own doll, but relying on another person to "complete" the set and letting the doll stay with them as much as he/she stays with you? (or by having their doll at your house/trading off)
No.

In the past I've had a few doll characters "matched up" with other people's dolls, but in the end it was a major road block for my own creativity. I would constantly with each new idea think "What would [the other person] think?" and "Would that not be out of character for the other doll?" Like for example changing a doll's wig and then hear that the other doll would never fall for a blond. Or have the other person go "I thought X liked purple. Why did you change it?"
I want to create, develop and experiment unhampered without a need to first check and cross check with another person. When my dolls ended up "un-matched up" a floodgate of creativity opened. I'm just held back by sharing characters.

I do understand that co-creativity is a strong source of inspiration to some, but it's not for me.

I treat another person's property with greater care than my own and would ask the owner before fixing something.

 

My sister and I share characters, we make them up together, but there is always a line of "mine" and "hers", she has the last say of everything concerning "her" characters (the ones she has dolls for) and vice versa.
If I tell her that I think that a certain doll would be great for a character and she doesn't like him, then certainly she won't buy it. And I won't because it is "her" character, she made him up and plans to get a doll for him.

We buy our own dolls, their clothes and wigs.
The only thing we share are eyes and shoes, if we have dolls who will use the same things.

 

My brother and myself share a single doll, a Hujoo Action Doll Dana (I know OT but it's the only example I have) -that he really wanted but my mother was a little... miffed about, so we settled for this. We decided on her personality, name, general character and image together and we both take turns in caring for her and playing with her. We both buy her clothes and wigs and all the good stuff. And odly enough we're both pretty paranoid about her safety... *rolls eyes* We don't really send her back and forth, more rather I take her with me when I travel home, though. u v u

 

I am a little too obsessive to share a doll. I would like to make it my own character and unfortunately, I still have a lot to gain in the sharing department. If I spent money on something, I would really like to keep my eye on it and make sure nothing happens to it. The same goes for dolls, so I may not be able to let go enough to actually share one.

 

^this^

The only one I'll share my dolls with is my SO, and he's really the only one who I'll ask for input if I need help with a character.

Soon, we will actually have a shared doll. He got it for himself but since I'm the "doll person" in the household I get to maintain it, play with it and post pictures of it, and to the rest of the household it'd be mine since he doesn't want them to know it's actually his. Not that it really matters because we share everything anyway, except for articles of my clothing. We live together, so there's no question as to where the dolls go.


I'd never be able to do that with just a friend though. Too many times have my friends just up and disappeared on me. I prefer my things to be mine and their things to be theirs. If they want to get their own doll so that we can play dollies together, that's good. Don't expect me to go halfsies on a doll with them, in case something did happen. Character wise... I'd rather my friend didn't try to make a character for my doll. Just seems kinda pushy to me. At the same time I wouldn't try to make one for theirs. If the dolls backstories entertwined, neato I guess. Though good times can be had with two irrelevant characters too. I'd prefer it so that our dollies could play together, but not be dependent on the other if we couldn't get together.

 

My wife and I co-own dolls, but that 'what's mine is hers' thing is kind of a duh. Half our dolls are my characters and half are hers from the same storyline, but they were bought with our money and we both play with them.

I would never be able to do it with a friend, though. I just can't imagine a scenario where that much money between friends wouldn't lead to an explosion.

 

Do you or would you share a doll by splitting the cost (true dual ownership)?
No. I cannot do that. If the doll would not be mine completely, I would keep obsessing about a possible quarrel or end of friendship - and hence loss of friend and doll - that could be caused by something as simple as "you don't treat our doll well enough". This would keep me from enjoying the doll to the fullest.

Do you or would you share a doll by letting someone else choose a character for your doll, or by creating a character for theirs?

Yes, I do this sometimes - for my newest arrival, Arkose, there were even two people whose ideas went into the creation of the character! Both people are very close to me and know me well enough though so they would never claim the doll as their own because of that though. I have also created a character for a doll that I gave somebody for their birthday, complete with background, clothing, eyes/wig... And I had played with the doll myself before I let him go a lot.

Do you or would you share a doll by creating your own character for your own doll, but relying on another person to "complete" the set and letting the doll stay with them as much as he/she stays with you? (or by having their doll at your house/trading off)

No (see the answer to the forst question).

If you do share a doll (in any form), are there certain guidelines you won't cross (something you'd do with your own but not theirs)?

No modding, no taking outside...

 

The answer to all of those questions is: Absolutely not! This just opens up a world of drama. A friendship that's all roses & sunshine today could go sour tomorrow, you never know. People change, and sometimes they drift apart naturally. So in that case who would end up with the doll? If I'd invested time, money, and creative energy in a doll & character, I'm sure I'd want it if the friendship ended, but then so would my ex friend. Then it's time to saddle up the drama llama. No thanks! Also, my characters are very personal to me. I could never collaborate with anyone. I neither want nor need anyone's input into MY character design. Yes, I'm pretty selfish with my characters and my dolls. And why shouldn't I be? I've worked hard for years for both. They're not for sharing, they're just for me. Kudos to those who can successfully co own dolls & co write story lines & characters! I guess i just don't play well with others.

 

Do you or would you share a doll by letting someone else choose a character for your doll, or by creating a character for theirs?

All of my dolls are part of a very large story that is based off of a very long running - as in 10 years - online RP, with my two best friends who have also been my best friends for over 10 years, so I really don't have much worry about a sudden break up affecting my dolls. We all own our own separate dolls, but those dolls are all particular characters from the RP who we have all had input in helping to create. When I make a new doll based on one of these characters, I'll ask the others for their opinions on things like sculpt or eye colour and the like. They know the source material and have fresh eyes for things when I am torn, and I in turn do the same thing for them.

None of us have ever gone in together on buying a doll. It's just easier for us to buy the one's we're interested in. My Peroth's husband, and other father to most of my remaining dolls, is owned by one of them, and I am perfectly fine with that. We do family photoshoots whenever we go and visit each other, but we've never left a doll with each other for an extended amount of time.

 

This is somewhat of a case with me and my friend here She often lends me her little girls or her Soom Chrom head (I put him on my DZ SD body and pretend that he's a full doll, and I adore him ), and I lend her my girls and boys when she wants. I also let her have her way with my floating heads (she's quite good at modding, and she uses them to improve even more while I marvel at the results), and she in turn lets me practice face-ups on her dolls. I also sew for both of us, and her dolls model the clothes I make for sale sometimes. We also trade dolls if one has something the other wants - I traded my Ange Ai Uri for her IH JID body, and we're both very happy with this deal~

We have a pretty symbiotic doll-collecting relationship

 

This. 90% of the dolls in my household are long standing characters, created from countless hours of RPing, with friends I'd had for even longer. I don't really believe they'll ever be far away or unreachable.

I, in fact, do share some dolls with my roommate. She enjoys owning them, and looking at them, but feels it's kind of a waste to just leave them at that. I do the photography, and customizing, and sewing for them, because those are my interests, dolls aside. It works out really well for us. Although I do ask before changing a faceup, I think nothing of making them new clothes, dragging them to the nearby park for a photoshoot, or anything else I'd do with my dolls as I please. I'm not a person who likes to own mountains of things, so if/when we move out of living together, I won't be terribly distraught over seeing the herd thinned. While I love each character, and their resin form, there are MANY other characters that were never shelled from the same storyline. They spent 8 or so years being intangible ideas, so it's not a big deal if they end up that way again.