Why do people dislike character dolls or dolls without backstories?

On the flip side you occasionally get people rolling their eyes or fleeing at the first hint of someone mentioning their dolls are OCs or have a backstory. Actually, to be honest I've never seen the situation described in the OP, but then my BJD interactions are all virtual these days, perhaps meetups are different. It's true what's already been said on the thread -- people can find anything to be rude about. You do get comments on DoA about how awful anime or anthros or character dolls or buying stuff (especially weird in this hobby, but in my experience by far the most common of these things) or whatever thing they personally don't like is, implying that there is a singular good taste that all these offending owners are violating, and that they are in accordance with it so they can judge. This attitude is probably unconscious in at least some of the people displaying it.

(On an aside, there's also a tendency to give conditional permission to what doll owners do in almost all respects, e.g., "I think it's fine to do X as long as they're paying their bills." It's the weird cousin of all the permission-asking people do on DoA e.g., "Is it okay to do X with my BJD?")

 

I think it's just that everyone has opinions, and sometimes it comes across oddly--these are perfectly well-meaning comments that I have gotten about my own dolls:
"Doesn't it have a character?"
"Why does it have a backstory??"
"Is that your faceup? Well, your next one will be better!"
"Do you need to borrow some clothes?"
"So when will this one get shoes?"
"Why so many fantasy parts..boys..girls..dolls..freaky things.."
"Are you still buying dolls?"

So I think you can pretty much either decide that people are just making conversation (which 90% of the time, that is all it is) or since it's dolls, and not neurosurgery, you can just smile, nod, ignore the comments and ask your own questions, and hope they understand you are just making conversation:
"So..what is that on top of this dolls head?"
"It's a WIG. I made it myself!"
"I bet you learned a lot making it!"

hehe!

 

KellyinDallas i totally understand why you are asking this question. i have came across the same type of thing. it really is frustrating. the best thing to do is just ignore them. it is sad that we have to sit here and think of reasonable reasons why people are rude or condescending and if in some way it is "justifiable."
rudeness is just rudeness and all types of bjds should be accepted in this hobby.

 

Agreed.

I prefer not to buy full sets - I like to customize my dolls - but I have no story lines or personalities of any kind associated with them. I just like how they look, and being able to change that look whenever I like.

Other people can do as they please, and usually do, since even if I had an opinion on how dolls should be 'used' it wouldn't really change anything.

 

I think it's just rare few who are being elitists. Ignore them : > I have all sorts of dolls, full sets, Oc dolls and dolls that just got their own character with no backstory They are all equal in my eyes.

 

Bless you.

All I can think of though looking at that is "Rules? in a knife fight? No RULES!" *thwack*!!

 

personnaly, I couldn't own a doll with a faceup not made by me. I couldn't own a doll that represent a movie/book/anime character. simply because making my own dolls make me feel...closer to them I guess. it helps me to bond ^_^ but that doesn't mean I can't appreciate other's dolls that don't fit my personnal critera. as a matter of fact, I really enjoy seeing "cosplay" or anime and and such on dolls! but I still couldn't own one.
I also try to create characters for my doll because it helps me figure out how I will dress and paint them and find them a place in my familly. but I've had a doll that didn't have a character. at all. it was just there to be cute xD
soooo I can't really speak for those persons.
but my guess, and a lot of people have pointed it out, there are people who are just plain rude. often because they feel insecure and they feel the need to bash other to feel superior. also, as in anything, there are elitists. if you don't do things like they do, you're basically nothing more than a piece of sh*t Ôo
aaand not to be forgotten: the misunderstood. I am often like that I don't express myself properly and I make it sound like I just hate everything different while it actually meant that I don't like it for ME. surely I can't be the only one from that group xD;;;;; often it really was just bad wording, but I did have a few mean times though (not proud of it, but I do admit my fault)

 

Sorry for the double post here but: are you serious? People have said these things to you? Care to pm me a list for my resin hit team?

I obviously have lots' o character dolls, Rurouni Kenshin being the most important group and frankly the group I would part with last if it came to it. Slayers next, although Zel and Lina are the two I'd have to keep. But the rest of my dolls are just... dolls, no particular characters except for Joe, who's developed one for himself, and Leaf, poor boy, who came here a self-confident young thing and has been withering under the pressure of so many cranky women.

Seriously. It's tiresome. Play with your toys however you like.

And why resin embodiments of other people's characters? I can answer this one: THEY DON'T MAKE ACTION FIGURES THIS BIG OR CUDDLY. simple as that In fact, for Zel, my first character doll, all they had was one really pitiful little plastic figure about the height of a DZ Leo. Blah. I needed to have a Zelgadis.

 

it's a shame, isn't it??
the only "action" figure I have is 14cm tall! I wish she was a bit bigger and could stand (or at least sit) by herself <.< (she can't sit because her clothes are made of plastic and are in the way of her legs)

 

Some people just like to snark about the stupidest little things. I find it best to ignore them because, obviously, these are the types who clearly enjoy being controversial for any reason they can think of. It's fine to have their opinions. It's not fine to be rude about expressing them.

As for me, I have no issues with character dolls. I think they're really cool. I've seen some spectacular examples of character dolls with handmade outfits and wigs and everything, and I have to admire the amount of work and skill the owners put into them. I think they take just as much work to customize as an original character doll, if not more, because there's already a set "look" for an established character, whereas an original creation often (but not always) starts as a blank slate and develops from there. Much more to work with in developing its look/personality/ect.

That being said, character dolls aren't really for me. I really wanted a Jareth. I found a mold that would work, got him the right faceup, eyes, wig, clothes ... and he mostly sat on my shelf while I ignored him in favor of my original character dolls. He just didn't seem a part of their group so I never had him interact. I ended up selling him again. Most of my OCs don't have much more than a name and personality. A bit of a sketchy background, but nothing fully established. And that's fine with me.

On the other hand, I actually started writing an entire novel for one of my dolls. What can I say, he inspired me! And another of my dolls is a character long-established in a novel I've been working on for ten years now. The Shadow King was a lot more difficult to put together since his look was already established, whereas Puck is one who developed as I went, until his entire personality and story came together. I wish ALL of my dolls could inspire novels out of me like Puck did.

 

Backhandedness! Can you dig it! Reminds me of some of the great mothers & mothers-in-law on TV. Like the one on Raymond, insulting the wife's cooking: "Cookie dough in a tube! Well, it's almost baking." Or the one on AbFab: "Somewhere inside me is a thin person screaming to get out!" "...Just the one, dear?"

So, yeah, I remain unconvinced that it's always cluelessness or difficulty expressing oneself, and therefore the victim should be the one to bend over backwards & forgive the shit-talking. Those people aren't goodhearted klutzes, they're trolling you. Writing them off is the best cure for them. Thankfully, unlike real life, DOA comes with an Ignore feature.

 

I didn't realize there should be rules dictating how to enjoy dolls. I happen to have, so far, bought dolls that are either pre-conceived characters or that I have created characters for because I want them badly enough. That's how I enjoy my dolls and how I justify the money I spend on them. But I also want a doll that is Rapunzel from "Tangled". "Variety is the spice of life" is a cliche for a reason. Not everyone should collect the same exact way just to appease some unwritten rule that shouldn't even be a rule in the first place. A hobby is meant to be enjoyed, no matter how you want to enjoy it.

 

Well, two of the very best dolls I've ever seen on this forum was a Prince Dastan doll from the Prince of Persia movie, and a Sephiroth doll that the owner had hand sculpted from scratch. So I think that saying a fan doll lacks creativity is kind of... blind?

In some cases it requires more creativity to create a fan doll, just of the sheer effort in designing clothes, props, doing mofidications... and so forth.

I have dolls that have just rocked up with no character attatched, and they've developed their own sense of self really quickly. (And demanded that I get other dolls.) I've also had dolls rock up that were my original characters for years before I knew of dollydom. And soon, I'll have a fandoll rock up as well. (Yay Elphaba!)

I think what it comes down to is that people forget that this is an individual hobby even though it has a strong emphasis on community. We don't share the dolls - you don't get my dolls for Wednesdays and weekends. People need to learn that others have the right to collect how they want to.

And I'd say that most of us are aware of that.

The others just have a little bit of growing up to do. =)

 

THIS

Nearly all my dolls are based off anime characters or are semi-original (aka made up children of anime characters) and I really do not give two figs what some troll or jerk has to say about how I should be enjoying my dolls. It's my money and my dolls. When it's their money buying said dolls I might deign to consider their opinion but until then, I just roll my eyes and think daisy thoughts.

 

Personally, I'd like to add my two cents that dolls based on pre-existing CANON characters (from a tv show or book or something) seem like they would require MORE effort! When you base a doll on a character you made up you can adapt and change the character to fit. But those who model their doll after a specific character from a cartoon or movie have to go out of their way to put together a doll with pre-determined details. Also, if the character is well known you will automatically have people relating your doll back to the real character and therefore making a judgement on whether your doll was successful or not in portraying said character. I imagine it would be ten times more challenging to customize a doll to successfully embody a canon character than put together your own. One could argue that perhaps, there is a difference in the amount of effort put in and the creativity put in but I think both cases (origional and canon dolls) require both to some extent. For example, you probably won't be able to find most things you need in outfitting a canon-character-based-doll readily available which will lead to some creative thinking in what you can use as a substitute or how you can make whatever it is you need yourself.

....So anyone who says you have to have an "origional" doll to be creative is crazy!

I really hope this made sense X'D

 

( Baakay: good luck--the perps are my family for many, and the rest were well-intentioned visitors trying to wrap their heads around "giant Barbies". The clothes one was from a doll meet and was only a bit because they were looking at something I had sewn. I don't think any of it was intended as abuse in any way.)

 

The criticism about making copyrighted characters in to dolls might stem from resentment, especially if that character is popular. The skill that goes in to making a doll look as much like the character as possible gets ignored by the critic who instead assumes the artist is getting attention only because it is a character everybody likes. It's like they see it as a soulless desperate grab for attention rather than a tributary work of art about a character the artist really loves.

On the other end of the spectrum there are people who don't even name their dolls let alone make stories for them. That's raised a few eyebrows too.

The bottom line is - no one can dictate what your personal tastes should be. If you like it then who cares what they are saying?

 

I don't dislike character dolls, but I also don't understand them. Which is kind of funny, considering some of my dearest doll friends collect character dolls. But I've always been a storyteller at heart, and my dolls are simply another part of that. I don't keep a doll without a story, because to me they're just lifeless dolls rather than personalities.

I have seen a number of truly impressive character dolls, and I can certainly admire the work that went into them, but I'd never own one myself. Not my style. :3

 

^ I've seen this happen - though it's super rare, luckily, as in I think I've seen it done once or twice. I think that there are some owners out there who see it as a badge of honor to say that they don't run with the crowd in some way, shape, or form (like what JennyNemesis mentioned).

It should also be noted that this doesn't mean that everyone who happens to say "I don't have any dolls with company face ups" (I'm using JennyNemesis's example here) is doing so to gloat - sometimes, things just fell into place that way, and they just never liked the face ups the companies gave. It might be difficult to understand from the text you read on the internet, but it's important to try and see the perspective of that person, and what their intent is. If that person is saying something like what JennyNemesis pointed out, then I would say it's being used to put others down.

I've got two dolls, both with characters in a semi-story I created when I first started buying them. Nothing's written down, but I have a basic plot. However, one of my dolls lacks a set personality. Her brother, I can easily describe, but my other doll's personality is still a work in progress. Admittedly, had most doll owners not done the character/personality/story thing, I wouldn't either. I was compelled to think up personalities for my dolls, but they're nowhere near as in-depth as other people's.

That being said, there are people who will say things to make themselves seem better than others, or the general population of hobbyists (that'll happen in any area of anything), but there are also people who might not be able to grasp the concept. A lot of dolls do follow the formula of non-company face up, back story, and personality. It's not a hard and fast rule, but it is pretty common (it's not a bad thing, just common). Some people might not understand why you are buying or doing what you do with your doll if it goes against what's typically done. Some people can't understand why someone would buy a very inexpensive BJD, and aren't planning on using it for practice. Some people can't understand why you'd choose a company face up, either.

I think I've seen more people who were just unable to grasp certain aspects of the hobby more than I have seen people think they're better than others because they do or don't do a, b, or c. Sometimes, they're just uneducated as to what the hobby entails, and don't realize it's all a matter of choice; it's just that certain things are a very common choice, which might confuse people.