The bond with dolls

As a person who tends to be hoardy at times, I only buy dolls to create characters which I love deep, deep in my heart, which is why I am probably not going to have too many. My SDGr boy, Charles, is based off an original of mine, and he is the males I am especially found of in my selection, along with his girlfriend. Lets call them like the Mickey and Minnie Mouse in my imagination. I created Hizuru because she is my fav. character's love interest, and one day, I might make my fav. character along, so he won't be lonely.

For future dolls, perhaps, if it is a character which made a deep impact in my life, then I might buy the limited doll.

 

I currently have 28 dolls and a head. I have had as many as 36 at one time. Generally, if I have NO bond to a doll, I sell it. But I do play favorites. Usually, I have 2-3 that are my absolute favorites, and that never changes, and selling them never crosses my mind. Then I have my next 5 or so faves that are highly unlikely that I'll sell, though with time, it could change. Next comes maybe 10 or so more that I really like, but if their plotlines fall through, they could get revamped or sold/traded. And lastly, the fringe characters, who were usually impulse buys, or not terribly important to my stories or otherwise just aren't favorites. I liked them enough to buy them at the time, or maybe got offered them in trades and accepted just to try something new, or maybe I bought the sculpt for a character and it didn't work so I tried for somebody else. They're the ones that are first to go if I decide I want a new doll.

 

The bonding process for me is not about how long or how many dolls I have. In a sense, I only buy one or two dolls the most per year so I can spend some bonding time with the new doll. I'm gonna hit the '10 dolls' mark very soon, however, I've had like 15 dolls in the past but there was only one doll I could never bond with and I had plenty of time to spend with him...I did everything I could to bond with it (I changed his face up, styles, wigs, eyes) nothing worked. Bonding with a doll is like clicking with people...you meet some people and automatically you love them...or hate them...or feelings could change with the time. So, the amount of dolls is not a bonding issue for me, the individual doll is.

"Oh I like this one way better, I think I might sell away the old ones"?

On the contrary, my oldest dolls are the dearest ones for me. My old dolls will always be over the new ones. All the dolls I sold were new, I chose to sell them because I didn't have a bond with them and I needed the money so it was easy to let go but with the old dolls...they're forever staying because they are family in my eyes^^

 

Honestly, I'm not much of a "bonder".

I'm fond of my dolls. I enjoy having them around and I'm sure I'd miss them if they weren't here. I definitely have favorites among the crew... but I just don't have the kind of deep, emotional attachment to them that some of you guys seem to. My dolls are just interesting toys to me, not little resin BFFs or inanimate soul-mates.

I suspect that relative detachment makes keeping up with a collection like mine a whole lot easier... I don't feel any particular need to tinker with every single doll every day, and I don't feel any guilt at all when it comes to closing the cabinet doors and not touching any of them when other things occupy my time and attention. Unlike my husband, my friends and my birds, my dolls don't care if I ignore them for weeks or months at a time.

 

^ This exactly!

I'm not into this whole "bonding" thing. IMO, you can bond with living creatures - people, pets, maybe even plants but that would already be a stretch for me - but not inanimate objects like dolls. Don't get me wrong, I really like my dolls. I'd be really, really angry at anyone who'd damage them and sad if anything happened to them. But I'm not "bonding" with them. Definitely not. To be honest, this whole concept of bonding with a doll kinda creeps me out just a tiny little bit. (No offense, that's just how I am ...)

Thus, I have no problem at all with having my dolls sit around my room gathering dust, sometimes for weeks, before I do anything with them. (With "anything" I mean such things as taking them to a doll-meet where I hardly ever take pics of my own or re-do a face-up - only those that I did myself - or re-dress them. Sometimes one of them gets to "watch" a movie with me or sit with me when I'm on the computer but that's about it.)

 

I can't imagine myself having 20 dolls and love them all the same way. When i don't love a doll as much as i love the others, i sell her...

 

I have a bond with each of my dolls, and I haven't yet had any of them 'fade' over time, though I have ended up selling dolls I couldn't bond with in the first place. Sometimes I do feel a bit neglectful, but not of just one or two of them, all of them when I haven't done anything with them in a while. I open the doors to the closet they currently live in, and I get all these vibes and glares from most of them like 'Well look who decided to show up.' But they don't stay unhappy about it for long, because I think they know that I still love them and always will. (Or at least, my interpretation of them in my imagination tells me that they know this...)

 

Well when I first started buying dolls I didn't think of them as anything more than pretty objects I could change the clothing of. In fact, I initially only wanted ones that I liked the clothing of a lot since I didn't ever see myself changing their clothing. They were going to be pretty display pieces... Well that didn't last too long.
The first dolls I purchased were my small PureNeemo dolls. The only one I've bonded with is my very first and it's still not a deep bond. So I feel like I could sell them and while I would miss them I would get over it. I think this comes down to the fact that I have so many of them and acquired them all so quickly.
But when I got Nova (Dollfie Dream Nia Teppelin) it all changed. She was larger and more pose-able and I immediately loved her. I love to change her look with new wigs, eyes and clothing. There's something about being able to make her my own that really changes things.
I don't think I could ever have a lot of dolls and bond with them all. If I slowly acquire new ones and take the time I think I can bond with them but having a lot would be too difficult. I need to spend time with them one on one to love them and I couldn't do that with a lot of dolls.

 

Personally, I don't really get this bonding with dolls thing. While I'll heavily bond with a pet or with friends, I just don't feel the same way about non-living physical objects. I buy my dolls because they are beautiful or quirky & my SDs have well established characters & storylines but my tinies & minis are simply lovely creatures to look at & play with a bit. Sure, it's hard to imagine parting with some of them but then when I downsized from a house to an apartment it was difficult to part with much of my antiques & other collections.

I don't buy knick-knacks so the only lovely things sitting around are my dolls. I tend to do seasonal displays with them & am quite attached to some but they are more of beautiful objects of art than anything I "bond' with.

 

I don't really get the whole bonding idea. I mean, I can understand what people mean by it, but I personally don't "bond" with my dolls because you can't actually bond with inanimate objects. I bond with my cats and my birds, because they are alive. I feed them, clean up after them, take care of them, nurse them when they're sick (or take them to the vet), and in exchange they give me affection and trust. Kind of like furry (and feathery) kids. Dolls are incapable of doing such things. There is no mutual exchange of affection and trust.

I love my collection (well over 30 by this point), but that's all they are. A collection. Kind of like my books and DVDs and knickknacks are collections. I definitely have my favorites among them, and I greatly enjoy playing with them and taking photos and such. Some I bought to embody special original characters of mine, but most I bought just because I love the sculpts. There are some I'd never consider selling (unless I had no choice, like if I'd lose my job for some reason), and others I've sold without much regret. If I HAD to sell them all, sure, I'd miss them because I've invested a lot of time and money into them (especially money), but it wouldn't be the end of the world.

I'd be a LOT more upset if any of my fur or feather babies died or had to be given to another home.

 

I don't have a collection with over 10 dolls and I probably never will, but this has nothing to do with being afraid that I won't 'bond' with my new dolls.

Matter of fact: I don't 'bond'. To me, my dolls are pretty objects - art even. That is why I'm collecting them; I like to surround myself with beautiful things (plus, I've got a few sculptors I admire and whose work I want to own). The main reason why I don't want any more dolls is that I think my house looks too cluttered if I do. I prefer a few good pieces over a large collection.

I do make up stories for my dolls and they all have characters, but that doesn't mean that I've 'bonded' with my dolls. I'm 'bonding' when I like the sculpt well enough to keep.

 

I think the word "bond" has different meanings for many of us. I bond with my dolls because there is something in that doll that I like a lot and I feel that affection I create by myself in mind towards this doll, it is not the same kind of "bond" with a human being of course but these are just different perspectives and it's all subjective. I don't 'bond' easily with people because, for whatever reason, some people just don't get along. As for a BJD, it is YOUR creation so it is easier to bond with it but when my vision for this doll is hard to recreate or it just doesn't work, we don't bond and that's when I decide to sell the doll. Sometimes we like a certain doll and feel that connection that only the person feeling it can understand and sometimes nothing happens, this is bonding for me.

If some people bond with dolls like they bond with humans, there's nothing wrong about it and we shouldn't try to understand it. Different strokes for different folks.

 

I don't really bond with mine. It just comes down to if I really love the sculpt, the way it moves/poses, etc. I've had other dolls I thought I would love, but ended up selling because something about them bothered me. I don't feel bad if I leave one in its box for a few days. But if it becomes something I never use, I'll sell it, because that's a big waste of money in my opinion.
I think it's awesome when people do bond with their dolls (on a not creepy level. You know what I mean), but I'm not home enough to be THAT attached. I'd be really upset if one broke, got lost or stolen though!

 

I find that the bond with my doll is very strong. I was thinking of selling my MSD doll to buy an SD doll but I couldn't bring myself to do it. I felt like there would be a hole in my heart. So now I'm just saving up for the SD doll. I've changed my mind like 6 times on which one I want, but I think that's because I know I will never part with her!

 

I've recently been addressing my bod issue with my very first doll, his resin was a very different color from the picture I seen and so instead of love at first sight it was, did they send me the right doll? He was suppose to be a warm honey golden light tan... and instead he's rather beige looking. I just redid his face and am now much happier with him, I could tell the difference in my bond because my second hand SD girl I love to pieces, She was very neglected when I received, dirty, poorly done face up that stained her, yellow beyond discerning her original resin color, one leg had a string but wasn't hooked into the body and could have fallen off at any moment and her original hooks dug groves into her arms and legs on the inside. I feel like I saved her from a life of sadness, like rescuing a cat. Now that my SD boy finally looks like he has blood pressure, I feel like he's got a life and soul now. He isn't just some bland, anemic looking doll anymore, he's finally become the character he should have been from the get go.

 

This. I've had a much larger doll collection that I have since cut back on because I wanted to spend the money tied up in the dolls on other things and they just took up too much space in my room. It had nothing to do with feeling like I am ignoring one doll or not spending enough time with them. I mean my fave doll I honestly haven't even taken out of his box in uhhhh months. You can't neglect something that has no needs. If I want new dolls and don't have the money, I'll look at old dolls and see if I am bored with any of them.

 

For me this is exactly it.
When I say I bond with my doll Nova it's not like a bond I would have with my pets or other people in my life. It's a real love for the sculpt and the feeling of turning a stock doll into something more special and your own. It's an appreciation for the art involved and the love of a hobby. I know they aren't real and they don't love me back. But I still "love" them the way I love any beautiful object I own.

 

I have my dolls because I like their look. They are pretty. I have stories for them and they have certain likes and dislikes that I have given them character wise. But I wouldn't say that I have a bond. I would certainly be upset if something happened to them. But I would get over it quickly and move on. I would love a larger collection for the art aspect of the dolls and the inspiration they give.