What Dolly Rules Do You Set For Yourself?

While I hope my contribution is odd enough, I don't think it will be. >w<

- Rules -​

* SDs cannot exceed $ 4 0 0 in price.
* I must have had a new doll for an entire season before deciding to buy a another new doll. ( I always feel greedy! )
* If I'm saving for an SD, I count the saving like two different dolls. ( $ 2 0 0, break, then $ 2 0 0 )
* MSDs must not be more then $ 2 0 0 . ( $ 2 7 4, etc. is fine. The base price can't be $ 300, however)
* No anatomically correct Yo-SDs.
* All dolls must be de-gendered when they get home.
* No impulse buys! I have to really, really have wanted it for a very long time.

 

My rules for myself when I started this year:

1) Only 3 Dolls this year (2010).....I now have 10
2) Only Girls................................So far so good

and one I have discovered is that I prefer larger dolls. I am not against tinies I just feel there so fragile that I barely touch them. Sd's are my love, but unfortunately bad on the pocket book.

 

No more than 3 tinies
SD & MSDs are another matter though (different limits for them) xD but here I'll write tinies because I am going to break this rule soon, so I'm changing it to 4 tinies... for the time being rofl.

No fantasy parts (e.g. elf ears)
I wanted human boys. But I broke this already when I got my AS tiny that had elf ears. Oh well, at least i managed to find a wig that both suit him and covered his ears, so he looked human enough. But I'm keeping clear of others in the future

All boys, no girl
If need be, only 1 girl and a tiny at most -- so far, it hasn't been broken yet :3

No more than $40 on a single set of outfit
Oh Luts, why did you make me broke my rule. T_T

All dolls must wear underwear, socks, long sleeve and pants and no dark outfits
This was when I first started in the hobby and really paranoid about yellowing and staining. I have since loosen up: short sleeves and pants are ok, and so are dark clothes. I also had to ditch the underwear when the pants got too, erm, tight for the dolls to fit in lolz.

No impulse buys
I always try to sleep on it for a few days. Reason being that I have another "rule" that I do not really want to sell my doll, so if it is a doll I really want even after a certain amount of time, there is lesser chance that I might not like him. But as things turn out I might have sell one of them one day.

I think there are more but here are the ones I remember at the moment :3

 

All my dolls (and my planned dolls) fall under few clear gategories:

1/3 and 1/6 scale; I like both SD and tiny sized dolls, but not MSD so much. I have two MSD total on my wishlist and that's more for the character's sake. I'm not sure if I'll carry them out.

Humans and non-humans; Currently, I'm purchasing the "unhuman" part of the collection; they are not necessarily sprite or such (even tho few are) but there also are people who only exists in fairytales of the world all my characters (and dolls) exist in. The tinies are all either childhood imaginary friends of one of my human character, or hallucinations of another.

Semi realistic to realistic; I like more realistic moulds. I like semi realistic the best I quess. Big eyed, soft faced, stylished dolls are fine and dandy, but not for me.

They must look good together; It is important that I can watch my dolls and see that they look normal with eachother, like they belong.

Mostly guys; I have few female-characters, but I'm not sure if I'd never found perfect moulds for them. I also have few characters without gender.

Black hair; Roughtly 65% of my dolls will have black hair.

Pairs; Yep. For some unexplainable reason, my characters (and thus my dolls) come in twos. It doesn't mean I phurchase them at the same time, but they exist in pairs. Which means I don't consider the doll finished untill I get their pair with me also.

I quess that's all for now, folks.

 

I have a couple of rules that might seem odd.

1. Nothing over 60cm. Any bigger will be either too expensive to handle or too mature for me to be comfortable.
2. All of them MUST have last names. The only exception would be robots with number names (which will probably never happen)
3. There will be no photo shoots until a wig and eyes are present. I kind of broke this with Violet, but it's now a rule.
4. All dolls must be ordered from somewhere in the USA (This is more of my parents rule. They're worried about currencys and stuff like that.)
And one last rule...
5. The name and personality should be decided BEFORE the doll arrives. This is crucial to bonding for me.

 

No pictures (taken by me, anyhow) until they're complete. This means eyes, wigs, faceups, clothes, shoes and names, which I guess is why I haven't posted in the gallery yet. (My Yo/ltf's are complete, though...)

 

LOL. We have the same weird dolly rules!! XD It's uncanny! It's really hard to keep them since many names I liked have the same first letter >w< And it's getting harder for me to find different wig/eyes combination that doesnt clash with another doll's.

And some more weird[?] rules -- No buying girl dolls! I ship boy x boy love so no girls for me! Havent broken this rule so far and I wont be breaking it anytime soon. ...BUT if a company makes a super adorable TINY girl, I may break it... cause she's will be little girl = cannot have any hetero relationship with my gay boys XDDD Besides, I need to stop dressing my boys in girly clothes! A little girl can help with that

I gotta reinforce this one since I broke it MULTIPLE times.
No more impulsely buying heads!! BUT. BUT. He's so pretty and affordable AND OMG. I NEED HIIIIIIM!! NO. You'll just end up selling him anyways >.> BUT. NO BUTS. DARNIT. :T

 

1. No Dolls can be taller than my SD Mir... so no 70cm guys or gals. They need too much space, and I don't want dolls dwarfing him and throwing off the height scale I have.

2. All dolls have something written into their backstory that allows me to change their looks via wigs and eyes, because I have fun seeing the molds with different looks. (eg, Mitchy's an actor who takes on different roles, Mirai experiments on herself, etc.)

3. All dolls must eventually have another doll to be paired with (can be romantic or platonic)... their partner can come from either my collection or my mother's.

4. Between Mom and me, we keep an equal number of boys and girls. (At the moment it's uneven, until I order the boy I'm saving for.)

5. All dolls must have wigs, clothes, shoes, and eyes when they arrive. Naked, bald, eyeless dollies sitting around would just make me feel: A) Cold and B) Sad.

6. Doll partners must be chosen to look good together in photos. And dolls need to look right in the height scale already established in the collection.

7. No dolls that are so expensive that I wouldn't be comfortable interacting with them. Really expensive dolls (like over $1000) make me want them less, because it reminds me of all the pretty dolls in boxes that my grandmother keeps and that I could never play with as a child. At that point they turn into collectables to me, and that's not what I enjoy in the hobby.

8. No impulse buys. If I buy a sculpt, there will be months of planning before any saving begins.

9. Despite toying with the idea of getting a practice head, the idea of doing a faceup for a doll that I really want to turn into a character is stressful rather than fun. I'll pay either a company or artist to do a nice faceup and avoid the stress.

There are two former rules that were broken and subsequently thrown out:

Originally, there was a rule to have only one doll... it fell by the wayside when I decided it would be more fun to give him a girlfriend.

And originally I didn't want any fantasy parts or characters in my collection. That got broken on the exact same doll as the first rule. The DZ Celine I fell in love with has elf ears, so I just made her character a human who had surgically altered her ears into elf ears. It turned her character into a mad scientist instead of a perky cyberpunk mecha-freak, but it turned out better that way. She also opened the way for my next boy to have a fantasy element to his character... so there will be option parts for him.

I think that's pretty much all of the set rules...

 

I have a few in particular that I think about when browsing doll sites...

{1} Balance out genders and fantasy/non fantasy dolls. I am bothered by my Soom's fantasy parts sometimes even though they are so cute. I have worked them into the dolls characters but I try to have a balance of humans and fantasy dolls.

{2} Floating heads deserve bodies too! I have some extra heads from Soom and I'm wondering if I should try and make characters out of them or just use them as spare/practice heads. I have a peeve of floating heads...I want bodies for them all.

{3} Only glass eyes. Acrylic and other eyes just don't work for me.

{4} THINK about the doll you want to purchase. I have to think about how it will fit into my current group of dolls and what the character will be like.

I'm sure I have more but I can only think of those at the moment...

 

my rules are
1. nothing smaller than around the 25cm mark. I'm worried that if i had one smaller than that i'd lose the poor little thing, plus i have a lot of big dolls in my family so i couldn't see a really tiny tiny fitting in.

2. No floating heads! I'm worried that if i start getting just heads then i'll end up with a whole heap that will never have bodies because i'm a poor university student

3. characters who are connected need to be in scale with each other (eg lovers, parent and child ect) but the whole crew doesn't need to be in scale with everyone else because that would drive me crazy...

4. No dolls that aren't connected with a character. For the time being i can't afford too may dolls so i'm focusing on those that already have a character planned out rather than the ones i want because they're pretty.

 

-No floating body parts unless I get an event something... I'll feel guilty.
-No impulse buys, the closest is finding the perfect sculpt for reshelling my boy Briar and really needing it a week later... Cant buy it yet though! :/
-No dolls with similar names or names that start with the same letter.
-No overly similar dolls. Unless their twins or something~
-Never remember the day you get the doll on. Rule of just something that always happens- you decide..!
-No tinies.

 

-I refuse to get more than one doll of the same size and gender. Like I have two msds, one a girl and one a boy. That means I will not buy another doll in that size unless I sell one of them. Animal dolls I can only have one of, which is why I've got a lovely charlotte on layaway! My reason - OCD. I like to be very organized with my dolls xD (***6-17-2011 & 8-6-2011, broke this rule.***)
Plus it keeps my dolly hobby from turning into a problem. No offense to others with lots of dollies, I'm jealous of your collections! I just don't have the money do have such a collection. Or space for that matter... (**** HAS 14 NOW, and always changing****)
-No spending more than 400 dollars at once on a doll. I'm very cheap. The fact that I'm paying 330 for charlotte is ridiculous to me, made not ridiculous by the magic of layaway. (HAY LOOK. broke this one several times this year. FFFFFFFFFFFFF)
-No buying clothing unless its shoes. I like to sew and am not to shabby at it. (BROKE THIS ONE TOO)
-Only dolls with pointed ears. Normal ears weird me out for some reason, I think pointed ears are much more graceful. (*BROKE THIS RULE 7-26-2011*)
-If I buy a floating part, I must have a plan for it! I.E. I bought a soom lami surprised head, and I plan to make him into a little dragon boy. (*BROKE THIS RULE 7-31-2011*)
-Try to keep genders equal. Buying charlotte upset that balance, so good thing I bought the lami head. (*BROKE THIS RULE 2 DOLLS AGO*)
-Every doll must have a few names picked out for them when they arrive. At least three. When I open the package and see them that will determine thier name. ( HEY GUESS WHAT? I'VE GOT TWO DOLLS WITHOUT NAMES NOW. FFFFF)
-Everyone (except floating parts) must wear at least one thing I have made for them. Where it be a necklace or a whole outfit, at least one thing. (Really? Cause mino is entirely in factory items except for those panties that came as a gift with my last purchase)
-Don't buy too many to close together. The Last doll recieved's outfit must be finished before the next doll arrives (I've got ~2 outfits to finish before I can allow myself to pay charlotte off) (*BROKE THIS RULE*)


EDIT: So it took until june 2012, but I broke ALL my rules. FFFFFFFFFF-

 

1. Girls only.
2. Not smaller than MSD and not bigger than Model Doll.
3. Humans only (no vampires, elves, gosts etc.)
4. Every doll should have its own eyes and wig which should be different from others' wigs (by color) and eyes (by color and/or style).
5. White or/and black outfits only.
6. Outfits from BJD brands only, not handmade.
6. Dresses only.

 

I only have my one doll as of now, but I already know that I wouldn't get MSD dolls that look like children. My MSD sized girl is 17 years old so she's pretty much on the mature side.

All characters should somewhat be connected: Looking at my dollie plans: Yes, I think I'll manage that.

And only use money from my dollie-fund. I don't know if that counts as a wierd dollie rule, but it's also something I'll try to stick to.

 

1. No smaller than MSD and no taller than 70cm
2. SDs and MSDs stay separate, always.
3. Every one of my SD guys will own his own suit.
4. Humans only.
5. All dolls must have at least one outfit, wig, pair of eyes etc.
6. Commissioned face-ups only, no factory.
7. All dolls must have last names.
8. No French Resin
9. Doll must have full name and the beginnings of a character before it comes home
10. When possible, open mouthed dollies!

 

All of my characters must in some way, connect story-wise to my favorites: Amir, Loki and Hansel, who are all connected.

If Amir appears unhappy with a doll, it must go.

Couples must be the same scale, unless there is supposed to be a significant height difference, for example, Cammi is 5'2" ic and Mike is 6'4", so its acceptable to have MSD/SD together. Amir is 5'11", Mikko is 6'3", so they are MSD/Lati Blue.

Dolls connot have too much resemblence, unless they are siblings or otherwise related.

 

1) It all revolves around Quinn or Spencer (mostly), or Ginaphae... and there is a connection between the three of them.
2) A doll must have at least their wig, eyes and an outfit before they come home (I did break this for my set of Hujoo twin babies, they were purchased earlier than planned due to having the money for them *right then*)
3) Height/size appropriate for the character... Quinn is 5'11" (ic), Ginaphae is 4'7"... her doll can NOT be taller than Quinn, etc.
4) No buying a doll without a character in mind. I've had one that completely changed on me within months of his arrival. But overall, they MUST have a name, character and some basic form in my mind. I don't bond otherwise.
5) All dolls/characters must have a partner... these don't have to be in my own collection (as all three of my "main" characters are paired up with friends' dolls/characters)... but I tend to lose connection to solitary characters.
6) Unless they're related, they can't look too much alike. Also, again unless related, I try and have different hair and eye colors, no repeats... light blond, dark blond and strawberry blond is ok but carrot red and carrot red isn't, etc.

I think that's it....

 

I'll save you! Elizabeth Taylor. Her eyes were naturally violet/purple. It's a gene mutation.
I got something similiar. While,I've never been the one for natural coloured anything,I like my hair/eyes/clothes to correspond by colour. It's my rule when I dress myself,so it's my rule when I dress my dolls.

A few other rules of mine:
~each one of my current dolls must have an outfit, body/head,wig,and eyes before I purchase a new doll
~I LOVE twins,so I'm trying to make myself end up with no more than 2 sets of twins.
~I perfer my dolls be related in some sort of family kind of way
~none have last names
~I try to avoid exact character dolls unless they're limiteds....and they're my Asuka. xD
~size range: the tiniest, to the largest avaliable. I don't care for the in betweeners.
~their clothes HAVE to match their personality
~they have to be wearing something at all times unless I'm modding them. Even if it is just a piece of cloth tied around them to cover their naughty bits.
~no dark brown eyes