Which Came First, Character or Doll?

I want to say "always the character!" but it's not entirely the case with my current boy because, while I had a vague concept for him before getting his doll, he's evolved significantly since then and I'm still working on him. I aim to shell two very well established OCs when their dolls eventually arrive, however.

 

Kind of mixed. For my first, he was strongly gonna be my OC Ludvig when I chose him, but in the end he didn't work out. For my second, I think I came up with a character while he was shipped and reshelled him once later. My third doll was without plans, just because I saw they opened one last order for Venitu and I had wanted him for a while, but definitely not made plans yet. Fourth doll only had an era she was from, and hair colour, nothing else decided when I ordered. Last night I was scrolling online, saw Phoenix dolls' girls for the first time and ordered two heads spontaneously, and now I have started planning on their characters. I guess I like to let the doll take me to the character, and I like new OCs and stories. No doll works perfectly for my existing OCs since I am rather picky about the likeness in the end.

 

Usually, the character comes first like with my first doll. I just saw him on the company site and my only thought was 'he's perfect'. And the Girl I got matching size-wise to him also has her character since years. The only exception is the doll I'll be getting from my parents for christmas XD

 

I’ve done it both ways, but I must say that having a definitive, well-developed character first has always been harder for me and usually required several attempts to get right. It took me nearly a decade to find the perfect face for one of them, and 6 years to find the right sculpt for another! In truth, I find it easier to approach searching with far more vague creative notions...like looking for a blank canvas with plenty of space for art work (my Dollzone Anson) or something to remind me of my vast ancestry research (my Volks DearSD Megu) and letting their characters develop from there. Then the act of searching becomes a fun creative search, not a frustrating one! And just falling in love with a sculpt who instantly says “look at me!” while screaming character ideas in your ear is always a wonderful serendipitous surprise. So yeah, I’ve added to my collection in all these ways, and while some have been easy and others more difficult, it’s netted me a stellar collection I’m absolutely in love with.

 

I've had a nebulous character running through my head for a while... Idk if the doll will end up matching them or being a proper shell or becoming their own entity though...I still need to meet them (am waiting). So my answer would be "I don't know yet!" Excellent question

 

Usually I get the doll first and the character creates itself as I work on the doll. The doll that I’m (not so patiently) waiting for the shipping notification for his body is a little bit of both. I bought the original doll I had for him and his character and personality grew as I worked on him, but then he outgrew his original shell. So he’s a fully developed character now waiting for his new shell.

 

It depends on the sculpt for me. Either O look at the sculpt and go, "oh that's definitely ________!" Or "wow you need to come home with me and get a faceup!". Sometimes it takes until after I get the doll home for a while and sometimes as I see the sculpt it'll just pop on my head.

 

Doll. I had a list of doll sculpts that I really wanted to buy, no matter what I was going to do with them. Only now that I have all of them am I working on their looks (apparently, I needed to have my crew complete, before I felt comfortable working on them). They're not really 'characters', though. More like representations of something.

 

It is a mix for me, honestly. When I got my first, I just wanted a BJD as a pretty doll. Slowly I developed her character. But when the character showed up, she came with two friends already... One of them happily fit a doll I was totally in love with, but the other made me search a long time for a doll and even though I got what was closest to what I had in my head, still today I'm not fully satisfied with her sculpt.

 

I always have a character in mind first before I get a doll, and I try to make sure the doll looks like this character before I buy it, but whether it works out or not is another issue! 4 out of my 5 dolls now have different characters from their originally planned ones, only 1 doll (the newest) hasn't changed, well until now at least.

 

Usually always the character is in mind before the doll. There’s one character I’d love to turn into a bjd though, but hard to find a body for.

 

For me it's the character. Then I search for a doll that fits that character the most. Even though I do sometimes get a doll based on their sculpts alone.

 

Most of the time I order dolls on a whim xD so it's 'doll first, character later' (because I need justification to my whimsical shopping spree so I try to 'stretch thin' the doll over one of my stories' chars lol).
Though, most of the time at the end it turns out that the character was invented first inside an idea for a story, and thanks to acquiring a doll this character simply became more detailed and received a doll-impersonation of them.

 

I feel as if the doll comes first for me. As if I don't get a real sense who they 'are' before I see them physically as well as possibly with clothes and wigs which fit them.

 

For some of my dolls, the character came first. For others, the doll came first and then I developed some kind of character around it. It just depends ^^

 

Dolls .. I don’t have a single doll with character , I’m so boring

Soon I’m hoping I could actually make characters specially with my new dolls coming in , I guess cause they’re just from celebrities minimee it’ll be easier ‍♀️

 

For me the doll typically comes first then the character. I tend to fall in love with a sculpt then start to design the character. I usually wait till I order the doll then while I’m waiting for the doll to ship I typically start to think about what to order and kind of look and personality I would like. When the doll gets here I see how everything looks and depending on how the items look on the doll I typically start to develop a character. This can take a long time even up to years to develop. I still tend to find things that change or evolve over time with the character, just like a real person.

 

A mix of the two - I have some Dollshe boys on layaway that, except for Aramis, I plan to 'see how it goes.' I adore their sculpts, so I imagine their characters will develop organically. For others, definitely characters first. A few I've had in mind (or book characters I've loved) for over twenty years.

 

It depends. Originally, I had planned to get dolls and base them off my original characters from my stories. It left me burnt out, though, because there were so many dolls that I just wanted. So now, that's what I do and create a character around them just for my doll stories. This is also good because it won't create spoilers for my written stories. I still have a few characters from my stories I want in a physical form, but for the most part the doll will come first with a character molded around it.

 

For me, the characters (usually) came first, but the dolls have often given me new perspectives on my characters because they came with their own personalities.

This has helped me to visualize, design, draw, write, etc., in more detailed and realistic ways...not just the characters themselves, but the entire "world" they exist in.

After one doll's head arrived a couple months ago, it made me go back and completely overhaul the personality/background of the character he was meant to represent (and I haven't even started on his faceup yet).

Now, suddenly, the story I'm writing around that character makes sense to me, when it never has before.