Which Came First, Character or Doll?

The character! As someone already said, I need a reason to buy a doll, haha. I only have three but it's been the case each time.

 

I personally would rather make a personality for the doll when it arrives instead of shelling my previously established OCs, though I know a lot of people prefer that ^^

Building the character from scratch is part of the fun to me!

 

My first two dolls that I preordered were character dolls from shows and video games. I got super excited after receiving my first doll and went crazy exploring the forums and buying stuff for him. Inadvertently I got inspired to shell my one and only OC. I feel like I went about this wrong since it’s so hard to find things to match the character doll and my OC. I have this image in my mind and it’s almost impossible to find the clothes and the wigs that are what I’m imagining. I’ll probably have to commission them or make them myself. I wonder if anyone else is in the same boat, committed to their pre-established but unable to make them come to life?

 

My first was the dolls. I felt in love. The second one was the character. I really wanted a fox god and I found a sculpt that fit what I was looking for

 

For me it is always the doll. I buy those I like, then choose the way they are going to look, search for the eyes, the wig etc, and after all that, when the face up is done, appears the character. Shelling my characters that were created before is nearly impossible, I know I won't ever be satisfied with the result because of my perfectionism, so it's much easier for me to create new characters based on the dolls.

 

I think, the characters. But in the end, over time, all ideas changed and I decided that better to perceive the dolls as something separate and let them be their own characters..

 

My impulse control is shot so i make and effort to have a character in mind, or at least an idea in mind before buying a doll. I'm obsessed with Fairyland's aesthetic, so almost every time a dolls comes up for sale I have to talk myself down. But sometimes I love a doll too much to not get, so I create a character to make myself feel better about getting them.

 

I never even looked at dolls of any sort before deciding to shell out my OTP. I am still pretty set on limiting my doll collection. Looking around at all the different sites, there were so many beautiful ones but I wasn't really tempted to buy them since they didn't look like the characters I was shopping for. What would I do with them? However... that's changed somewhat since I saw Ringdoll's Frankenstein... If I ever find either version, I want them both SO much. But Frankenstein already has a personality and story in my head from Mary Shelly's classic novel, so I think 'character before doll' is still applicable.

 

I think I had an idea for a character and then when I found a sculpt I loved, got his faceup and saw him in person, his personality and full character came to be.

 

For me the doll came first. I've tried to do a character first, but it tends not match up with the doll. I usually find a wig first, then slowly a character forms.

 

It’s kind of a mix for me. I have a character in mind and try to see my character in the doll before choosing one, but I also look at the sculpt as if I had no character in mind and see if I like it anyway in case I think it doesn’t fit upon receiving it.

 

When I first started this hobby I would always have a character in my mind, but these days I just buy a doll I like first and create a character around the doll. I think if I like the mold I would not skip buying it, just because it does not fit a certain character. But I think it is awesome if I have character without doll and a mold that fits the character perfectly comes up.

 

For me it was a mix. I have four that are siblings from a story I wrote as a teenager with a friend. The rest were just doll sculpts that I liked that took on a life of their own when I got them.

 

So far, my dolls come first. I piece them together little by little, figuring out which wigs, eyes, and clothing style suits them, and of course face ups. They come to life in time!

 

For right now, I seem to be more doll focused than character focused. I usually get drawn to a sculpt and get to work on customizing things. After awhile the character comes together, it's fun how the doll might become something a little unexpected with creativity. I really want to try shelling out dolls to fit some original characters of my own, but it's really hard since I'm trying to find a perfect sculpt to fit. :'D

 

I tend to fall in love with the sculpt before creating a character around them. Aesthetics are very important to me when it comes to my crew. The only anomaly was this character I was thinking of shelling, but I found that shell quite quickly and easily when I first laid eyes on the new LLT Roderich. I usually draw inspiration from the sculpt to further develop each character afterwards.

 

Character~ but on a couple of occasions I’ve seen dolls that I like and created OCs for them to fit into my groups, so far it’s worked really well for me and I’ve ended up with a couple OCs that I’m really fond of thanks to a sculpt appealing to me!

 

I either get dolls with a character in mind or to go along with one of my other dolls that already has a character. And while I've managed to shell a few of my OCs, some of my dolls have gone through a few different characters before I figured out who they actually are.

It's a struggle between getting dolls that would work for my characters but aren't my favorites vs getting dolls I don't have characters for but that I really like. I've been trying to make "stories" for my dolls that are flexible enough that I can add whatever bjds I want in there - for example, there are a lot of smaller fantasy dolls that I like, so I decided that my Volks Alice has been exploring magical realms and running into all sorts of mythical creatures.

Also some of the characters I was planning to make as bjds I've ended up building as nendoroid dolls instead because bjds are expensive and I couldn't find dolls I wanted to use for them in the same size range...

 

For me I always had characters first before doll. I buy the dolls that I can see my characters in.

 

I used to do character then doll but I learned that in my cases, the dolls become their own characters. Every time I've planned out a doll and then gotten them, they always end up being something different. In fact, only two have remained the same style since I got them.

So for me, I just get a doll that I really like and then the character comes to me.