Bonding with dolls?

[granolagirl90]

From lurking around on forums such as this one, I noticed that fellow doll enthusiasts have a tendency to talk about their dolls as though they kind of develop a "mind of their own", and elaborate histories and personalities are often built around them.

I was wondering... How easily does a doll develop his or her personality? Is it something that happens naturally, like you spend time looking at/posing/dressing the doll and get a "sense" for his or her personality? Or do you have to consciously work on developing it?

I admit that I had imaginary friends for many years, long after it stopped being appropriate. When I finally started to outgrow them, I knew I needed something to fill the void. At first I tried going back to plush toys because I used to love them when I was younger. Their personalities used to come so easily to me back then, but these days I have a very difficult time bonding with them. I have also tried bonding with less expensive dolls in the hopes that I could satiate my BJD obsession without having to actually buy one. Not going to happen!

I'm worried that, because I haven't had much success in developing the personalities of my plush toys/less expensive dolls, I won't be able to bond with the pair of BJDs that I recently bought. My worst fear is that they will arrive and I will feel nothing for them and they will just sit on a shelf collecting dust!

Is owning your preferred type of doll an emotionally different/stronger experience than owning just any random object? Do you think I will have difficulty bonding with my BJDs given my history?

[Iwa_Hoshi]

Kinda subjective I suppose. Mine comes naturally from a bunch of existing characters, if they won't stay, they would just go quiet and fade out like two of my action figures of well loved characters. One of my other fullset doll is a company released favorite character, who I can't bond with as I prefered my customed doll version(she is not very active these days) of said character.

I have some dolls who are here because they are the companions of my other dolls or made because I wanted to bring their concept over in doll form. They 'acknowledge' my ownership, but I don't actively play with them like some of the others. But they still work with me if I need them to cosplay or for photoshoots (unlike said fullset doll).

Unless I'm sewing or doing photoshoots or changing outfits, I don't fiddle with them much. At most I just look their way and see who catches my eye.


These days I notice a trend where by I rotate the dolls that I work with, some days its 1/3 bjds and some days its the 1/6 Neemobistu girls. Once in a while, the Obitsu ladies and action figure dudes come by and make themselves heard. It kinda helps that the 4 large dolls actually have 1/6 versions of themselves.

[DollyKim]

Don't worry yourself. I've got some dolls who clicked immediately as the home for a character/muse/imaginary friend and some that haven't got any further than figuring out they like to listen to a certain band with me. I keep them near my creative working space incase I hear a little voice call out to me. When I get in to something sometimes they'll get in to it too. Who want's to dress up and pretend to be this character and act out this story? Who wants to play _____ with me? That's what it is, playing.

And they're great listeners who keep all your secrets.

Why did you buy the dolls? Why did you pick out the hair and eye color for them? What do you look forward to doing with them? Think about the good stuff and let the bad stuff pass.

[Kirahfaye]

The answer to your question is "yes"!

Most of the dolls I own and have owned were meant to be resin personafications of pre-existing original characters. (I may or may not have lamented on DS already about the problems I've had finding the perfect doll for my own Kirah and the number of times she's been reshelled....)

All but one of my current dolls have character roles that they were more than happy to fulfill. The one that doesn't is my only vinyl (Integrity Doll) and she is my fashion plate. Non-character driven dolls (or ones that end up not matching the persona I got them for) don't tend to stay with me long as I have a (small) list of characters I'd like to have in doll form and would rather rehome the non-character doll in favor of one that works with a character.

There are no rules to follow when it comes to collecting dolls. They can have their own character and name, background story and special clothing to match, or then can be a favorite sculpt that you just enjoy looking at. Do what you enjoy and don't worry about it.

[granolagirl90]

Thank you all for your responses so far. I appreciate your reassurance!

When I first got my doll money, I had briefly considered using a Dollfie Dream (or a DD head/obitsu 55cm male body hybrid) as a shell for a favorite childhood toy or one of my old imaginary friends, but I wasn't completely sold on either idea.

I wound up adopting two Mystic Kid BJDs from JunkySpot as they were on sale and I really liked two of the sculpts (the Tremmel and the Qifeng, both in 1/4 scale). I made this thread because I was just a bit worried as I didn't originally have a character in mind for either of them.

However, the more I think about them and visualize playing with them, the more my concepts for them are beginning to take shape. I already have an entire outfit (more like an ensemble) planned out for my Qifeng, and I think he may even be beginning to develop a personality. I think I may use my Tremmel as a shell for an OC I made up a couple of years ago. I originally had a different species in mind for his character, but I think his personality would be rather suited to the Tremmel's vampire sculpt. My OC is quite the brooder - I don't think I've ever drawn him - or even imagined him - smiling, not even once! (I do love him though!)

[granolagirl90]

You know... As I was spending some time practicing photography with two of my Monster High dolls and my Nano Freya, I kind of realized that they do have their own little personalities. I was feeling particularly inspired after I read through the biographies of Iwa_Hoshi's dolls, since I feel like I have "muses" too. (Maybe that's the proper name for what I've been calling "imaginary friends" all these years?)

Anyway, I've decided that I will include said Monster High and Nano Freya dolls in my official doll family. I will post their pics and bios in the proper forum, but I'm going to wait until my two Mystic Kids boys arrive and I get them dressed so that I can properly introduce everyone.

Once again, thank you for your responses. Everyone on this forum is so kind!

[Tasuke]

my own 1/6 Mikuru Asahina, a 2007 character doll from a 2005 Anime, based around the 1/6 OBITSU doll body,
has long since become not only my favorite female Anime character, but my favorite doll. i've lavished the most attention
on her wardrobe, somehow along the way fleshing her out into a vector of my personal fantasy of how i tend to imagine my dream woman would prefer to dress and convey herself, maintaining the integrity of the original character underneath.

i suppose i look at it as building upon the basics of what the original materials provided for her.
i've a fancy towards imaging her being a woman of the late-1970's/early-1980's. that is what she has ended up reminding me most of anymore, at least.

actually, she has somehow almost become all but an OC to me in many ways.
i'm an avid player of SONY PLAY STATION's LITTLE BIG PLANET series, and,
using that game series' DIY create your own character nature to great effect,
i created my own VERY convincing Mikuru in the PS3's LBP2, and have carried her over in full to the more recent PS4 LBP3.

someday i'll have to get a screen photo to show around, but in the mean just imagine this,
in the ultra-cutesy SD/Chibi like form that LBP's "Sack-Folk" take;