What are some of your favorite character concepts for your BJDs?

Oh boy, the thread for me!!
My icon picture is of my first BJD, Oswald, who I got just because it looked almost exactly like one of my favorite, preexisting roleplay character. Needless to say, he's got a lot of backstory and character because he's existed in my head for years.

My second doll, Guinevere, I picked out out of a rare impulse purchase from a doll convention I attended. She doesn't have much of a story at all yet, and I haven't been inspired as much to work on her character so much as building a wardrobe for her. She's much more of a "doll" to me than an actual character yet.

My third doll, (who's coming in the mail tomorrow!) is drastically different as seeing her promo pictures made me instantly come up with a dnd character concept based on her sculpt and sheer attitude she has. Currently she's my favorite just because shiny new doll, but ultimately my favorite will probably be the dolls I shell from preexisting characters.

edit: I just realized I missed half the op, so my favorite concept is a tie between "Victorian child who didn't realize he got turned into a vampire gets put into a coma and then wakes up in 2020 Extremely Confused as to what, why, and how he got there."
OR
"A young Noble Drow (dark elf) who lives in the Underdark (below the surface of the world) who gets a vision that she obsess over -- seeing the moon. Eventually she gets up to the surface and is granted special moon magic (lunar magic sorcerer in dnd terms) once she steps into the moonlight for the first time. She's then convinced she's on a divine quest for the moon goddess (Which is something Really Taboo in drow society) and kinda wonders around like a very snooty lost dog until she eventually finds an adventuring party to go on some quest."

 

I feel like I'm at both extremes, in the sense that half my dolls are mannequins more or less for me to dress up with no real strong personality or background, and the other half are literally preexisting OCs that I shelled!

The mannequin dolls are dolls that I love the concept of (a doll chateau noah body) or sculpts I adore (unoa lusis, fairyland chloe and cupid) -- I think it's easier for me to assign personality and background to outfits/designs rather than dolls themselves, so to speak? My DC noah body will be at times a forest spirit, a starhorse-adjacent creature, etc., and their base concept is a timeless being who walks multiple planes (so...very vague and lets me design whatever outfit haha)

one of my shelled OCs is a video game OC who is an older sweater-vest professor type, though necessarily he'll look younger as a bjd. my other shelled OC is a crow-blessed ubereats driver equivalent who's part of a comic I've been thinking about! but also technically his sculpt fits into the first category of sculpts I like but can't stick to a story for, I'm hoping that this shell sticks (otherwise I'll just give up and make him another vague clotheshorse I guess)

 

My current dolls are pretty much just lifeless mannequins for me sew on. But my next one is going to be an OC that I draw frequently. So he already has a personality and backstory thought out. I’m pretty excited for it.
He’s a Nahua king in the Yucatán during the post-classic period. He’s been blessed by the gods and has been king for over 300 years and thinks pretty highly of himself. So it’ll be a fun sewing challenge to dress him up. I might also get another doll to shell his cousin, who is the human form of my main troll toon in WoW.

I also have a head that I plan to turn into a snake/humanoid deity at some point into the future, but that’s going to take some major mods and a transparent body.

 

ooh the snake deity sounds like a fun project!! I wish you luck with the modding on that one!

 

Thanks! He’s gonna be tough, because he has six arms. But I feel like I’ve seen some blogs where other people have modded multiple arms, so I might be able to “guidance.”

 

I getto know my Bj'ds with no premade plan for who they will be before they arrive. Some of them have littl emore than a name and basic personality details (Jane, my Narae is a hippy, ofr example - She's one of the few I tried to assign a backstory and personailty to beofre she arived and she refused to cooperate - she was not the super slick fashonista secert-agent type I had panned, she was a hippy).

Others, have more backstory and more detal, other gain mor eth elnger I have them and the more thye interact with my other dolls and friend's dolls. The majority of my SD sized gang are children and are all part of the same big, extended Victorian family of siblings, half-siblings, and cousins,

My favourite is Elfie, she's an RML R20J head on a Voks SD10 Swarrico body. She has three sets of ears (big elf, smaller elf, and human). She and her twin brother, Bracken are nine-year-old half-elves and can cross the barrier between the Human world (whereg they live with their big Victorian family) and The Elfwood where the other half of their family live. Elfie's personailty varies accornding to the size and shape of her ears. She's a sweetaand frinedly little human girl when her ears look human, she's a refined elven child from an influential Elven family with her regular elf ears, and she's an impishly mischevous little creature-of-the-woods who answers (when she bothers to answer at all) to the name Mosscrop, when her largest elf ears are present. I got to know all this slowly over the first years she was with me. Her name was a long time in coming - She refused to tell me a name (except the Mosscrop part with her massive elf ears on) and was referred to as, "my elfie girl," for so long that Elfie became her name. Her twin brother isn't nearly as distinct in his character.

Some of them don't let much deatil slip aboout themselves until another member of the family arrives, and their interaction reveeals small (sometimes large) amoutns of detail. Nesta was always a bit of a snarky-older-sister and follower of fashion (even though she's only eleven). She's very close with the quiet, ten year old Cressida, but Nesta really came into her own when ten year old tomboy Hannah arrived and gave Nesta someone to disparage for her lack of interest in clothes, fashion, and keeeping up appearances. Cressida turned out to be the peacekeeper between them.

Seven year old Arin was just a quiet, contemplative little boy until eight year old entitled "princess" Nettle followed the twins home from the Elfwood one day and became part of the family - then his sharp sense of humour made itself apparent as he took advantage of nettle's gullible nature and told her that if she were a real princess she should be able to pee through twelve mattresses. Nobody has yet figured out how she managed to move so many mattresses by herself, but Sera (the eldest girl and guardian to the yhoungsters of the family) averted the potential disaster of wet mattresses when she became suspicious of how much Nettle was drinking and followed her upstairs....

Most of it is "revealed," or made apparent, to me in bits and pieces as time goes on, rather than something that's fully formed from the start.

Teddy

 

SIX WHOLE ARMS!!! I've definitely seen dolls with four arms and also some incredible reductive mods (I swear I saw a doll that also had a violin body) so I'm sure you'll find something that'll help you! But all the same, good luck,

 

My favorite character is my first BJD, Hiro (Volks SD13 Link). But he's just a regular American boy, probably not super interesting to most. His character was inspired by the doll himself, his character was not pre-existing in any way. And the inspiration for my other dolls' characters has come directly or indirectly from Hiro.

I have searched for the right doll to be a new character I've thought of, but the characters were inspired by dolls I already had. Does that make sense? Having a 3D representation of a character is much more inspiring. Their expressions change from different angles, which also changes their characters.

Possibly my most interesting character is Demetrius, my ElfDoll Red. He was a quiet introspective boy who loved traveling to the UK with his professor father. He never knew his mother. But when his father died unexpectedly, something inside Demetrius was permanently broken. As a coping or defense mechanism, Demetrius developed a secondary personality named Glorfindel, who believed he was an Elf, and was everything opposite of Demetrius. Arrogant, proud, strong, outgoing, and unafraid to get what he wants. Glorfindel was created from the legends and tales Demetrius' father told him during their travels.

Amusingly, when he's wearing the short wig, he's Demetrius, but if he's wearing a longer wig, he's Glorfindel! A la Hannah Montana, as I found out later. LOL! But that's my favorite way to show who he is, with no explanation. Needless to say, he has confused several other members of my BJD family. Luckily we have a resident psychologist and a resident hypnotherapist who are helping him.

Linda S.
galatia9

 

i’m waiting on a body for one of my older ocs, which… honestly he doesn’t have the most interesting or exciting concept, he’s just a character that’s existed through many ages and whims (so at one point he was pokémon themed, another time, a pirate, i used him in d&d as a dragon sorc for a bit, etc). he’s always been recognizable as that character though, so it was primarily aesthetic changes and minor backstory tweaks. The doll version of him will mainly be just a “modern”, more grounded version of him and his history (career switch from law to arts, and enjoying life? i guess is a good summary? it’s extremely mundane at the basis!!). But!! his style/clothes will definitely change a lot, because i love seeing and he’s had so many iterations and outfits (he’s always been a fashionable boy) that i plan on making him all sorts of his outfits that he’s had. So maybe for a photo shoot it’ll be his modern realistic fashionably trendy side, and another shoot it’ll be him in his fancy pirate captain outfit, or his elaborate fantasy sorcery outfit. A sewing mannequin with a background i guess is so far my favorite

my other favorite is my pastel faun girl. that is literally it! she doesn’t really have a story-story, more just an aesthetic, personality and color story. Must be: rainbow, pastel, fun, mischievous, sweet. And then i design around that!

all of my other dolls are similar, since i don’t really rp or write comics/stories anymore, it’s mainly expressed through my sewing and art of them. I guess i try to express their story via their styling but there isn’t an actual timeline to things unless they’re dolls i specifically picked to shell certain characters that were fleshed out like that

 

Some of the dolls I have plans for have characters/personalities already figured out (just maybe not robustly fleshed out, just general ideas) but one of my planned sub-collections I haven't thought about the individual characters since I've been too busy just finding every vampire SD sculpt I could find in the styles I prefer to be possible members (Though I have some general ideas of pairings and a hierarchy in the "coven"). A rule I go by is that dolls NEED to have a character for me to buy or keep them.

I have ADHD and while I go in and out of current focus with the hobby as a whole, having multiple planned sub-collections means that I can also focus on one crew or jump to another if I get bored/burnt out for the time being with them. But my current two character ideas I'm fixated on are:

1. A forest spirit faun who gives up his life to save his Queen and has to live in the underworld in her place (sort of an alternate take on the story of Persephone and Hades, it's definitely an inspiration). The sculpt I have in mind for him is an Another Secret Mr. Milu, but that sculpt has closed eyes. So in my head, the justification for that is that the character wears a bandage over his eyes, refusing to look at his dark, nightmarish new surroundings.

2. The demon who's tasked to watch over the faun in the underworld. He's a demonic Seer, meaning he uses psychic abilities to act as a right hand man to the king, and is deformed on one side of his face (One day, Dika Doll Galois-2, you will be mine!). He wears a mask to hide his deformities and has never trusted anyone but the king to see him without it. He's cold and detached at first, but it could change

I have dozens of other ones, some more fleshed out that others, but I don't want to ramble TOO much

 

currently my fave concepts are for my first doll, a dikadoll Jean and a future purchase dikadoll Xiao Chen. They are based on OC's I created in the last year and are two AIs in humanish robotic bodies. which is why they have doll joints n stuff. they both have fleshed out backstories and fashion styles already.

Other concepts I might shell into a doll are a cat boy/cat girl AI set of twins from the same universe and a slightly more random pastel goth unicorn magical girl who will be more a mascot than an actual character

 

For me I create characters from what I've created in stories or games. Each is unique, albeit some have some similarities, which makes it easier not to always "accidentally trigger buy". If a sculpt doesn't fit I rarely purchase it.

Most of my characters are fantasy based. I don't often like humans so even human looking characters are some sort of supernatural.

 

My crew are my RP characters, but they're just humans in a modern world. I like this kind of character because I can relate to them and don't have to worry about powers or limitations or how things would work in a fantasy world, but I can give them things I can't have--a world without political unrest, war, pandemic, destruction or danger; they can have fancy houses, cool jobs, all sorts of friends, go on expensive vacations, travel anywhere on earth. Familiar, yet also fulfilling fantasies.

But another I had last year was fantasy based. It centered around my girl, Twyla, who was capable of interdimensional time travel. She usually traveled with my sister's boy, Sunny, who was a regular human from our Earth. They'd get in all sorts of situations limited only by the power of our imaginations. They're currently not shelled (due to major difficulties in doing so--the "brown skin" doll I ordered for her was extremely pale and bigger than I expected, and we got a head for him, but then couldn't get a body to match, so both are in limbo now), but maybe one day!

 

Such an interesting topic

At first Lance and Little Hela weren’t going to have back stories and such. So when I first got Lance he was just My Lance, and thought he would be similar in personality to Lance from the game Nameless.

Then my mom gave me a bunch of halloween skeleton stuff. One was a skelly dragon who is just the right size for a pet. So Lance became a necromancer and Little Hela his friend from childhood. This led to them developing backstories and more defined personalities.

The twins were part of My Ultimate Doll Plans. They are going be adopted by a unique couple (once I get the dolls that’ll be their parents). I thought they would be my modern era doll family, but the twins look so cute with Little Hela. So they’ll be part of Lance’s world instead. The twins personalities are at the basic stage and based on their sculpts.

I’m not sure if there is a concept so far other than things going in a different direction than expected.

 

I’m one of those overly creative types who just naturally see stories everywhere. It’s just how my brain has worked ever since early childhood. So I always have a cast of characters floating around in my imagination somewhere that I can draw from. Sometimes they become so developed to me, I will spend a great deal of time hunting for the perfect shell…and I’ll keep at it until I “recognize” my character. An example of this is my boy, Barrio Luminaria (literally “light of the neighborhood”) who is an angel who has lived throughout multiple generations in one specific area in the West, protecting the people who live out their lives there. His character was so strong in my mind, it took me an entire decade to find his perfect shell! I love that I can dress him from any era appropriate to that specific area…a 1600s padre, a 1700s Spanish landgrant nobleman, an 1800s western lawman, a 1960s local musician, or a modern day church construction rehab-er. I have way too much fun with this guy, truly!

Another example is seeing a doll for the first time, and having such a strong instantaneous reaction to them that a character springs forth pretty much instantly, blossoming like a flower whose petals unfold very quickly. This happened when I first saw my Dollzone Anson (see avatar.) I literally gasped out loud, haunted my doll dealer until they activated her “buy” button, and moved heaven and earth to bring her home! I did extensive artwork on those magnificent petals and named her Bohemia Rose…she is my interpretation of the ultimate flowerchild. Her character is that of a rose placed on the grave of a young woman by someone who deeply loved her. The young woman was a flowerchild, a free spirit who was loved by many, lived in the French Quarter of New Orleans, and tragically died far too early. When the light cast by a nearby chapel's stained glass window fell upon the rose, it became sentient, absorbing the memories and ideals of the young woman upon whose grave it had been placed.

 

I get a lot of pleasure making my doll characters chronically ill or disabled. Signs on the doll can be as subtle as a scar under a wig, but it's satisfying having them reflect his part of myself.

I'm also in the process of turning my novel leads into dolls. I've been with these characters for almost ten years, and now I get to interact with them in person.

 

I like dolls with a contrast between their appeal and faces. For example, a vampire doll with fangs but wears a pope costume or has a pair of prayer hands. I also enjoy playing with fantasy dolls and started collecting dolls with accessories (horns, wig parts, etc.): more accessories, more rooms to play around.

 

I have to confess something. I'm really bad at coming up with backgrounds for my BJDs!

I would love to imagine deep, detailed characters for every of my dolls. But the best I can do is one or two sentences at most.
Usually I gave my BJDs an idea of character after I bought them. It's more... a matter of aesthetics first. What feeling does it give me? What I think will make it stand out? I don't really know how to explaned it. I think about the character only after.
Once I have an idea of what I want to do on the doll, I will start thinking about a character that will fit.
I tried to work on my so little detailed characters some months ago. For that I used the fertile imagination of a friend, then started discussing my characters with another friend... so far we have worked on 1/3 of my crew, I think. Those braimstorming sessions were super exciting. I hope to make others in the future!

So I can't say which dolls inspired me the most; my most detailed characters are made with the help of other people.

 

I feel you so hard!! none of my dolls have super fleshed out personalities or stories or anything besides a few little details lol.