Making characters based off of dolls that you like?

I do something similar, in that I buy dolls who look like they'd have interesting personalities. I love creating characters, but shelling the ones I already have is difficult for me, so instead I go the other way around and make my dolls into new characters. I think it's a pretty fun method, all in all ^.^

 

I'd say over half of my dolls are "whoops" in terms of I saw the sculpt and was like YES... for the record I have 27 so that's a lot of "whoops"....

 

I bought one or two sculpts for characters I’ve already had established, but most of the dolls I buy because I like their look. Their characters tend to come later.

Although I have bought at least two where they arrive and I realize they’d fit perfectly into an already-established story and I sort of create them from there.

 

All of my dolls have characters I’ve created for role play. I don’t enjoy having a doll with no character and usually I do have a character created first, then look for a doll to match. However, sometimes I do find a sculpt I love and build a character to fit the doll so I have an excuse to buy it.

 

I buy dolls because I like the way they look and I create fashions for them. They are my dressmakers dummies or models and they change images by a whim or fascination with a designer, era, idea or cosplay.

 

I’ve definitely done this! All of my tinies have had their stories written after they’ve arrived. The only doll who has had a story before I purchased them is my SD, and that’s only because I had written him years before.

 

I can completely relate to Jhiggi, my dolls are my muses, they inspire me to create fashion of many eras that fascinate me.
I will say that two of them were chosen on their look and what I could see them wearing.

 

When I got my first doll I definitely hadn't realized that buying dolls to fit original characters was so popular. The very first time I saw a doll was around 2007 and it was DOD's tender Shall nun fullset. I saw that she could be bought blank without her fullset and wondered why the heck would anyone want a blank doll when they could buy a doll in such a beautiful outfit. More than a decade later I finally have bjd's and they all came blank. I didn't have any plans or character ideas when I bought my first doll. She was pretty, and I just wanted to enjoy her and sew things for her. Reading on here got me thinking about making a character for her. I like writing and have several different storylines I occasionally think about. I thought that it would be fun to have a few dolls that were all in the same story together and each had their own character. I took one idea that I've had for a while and adapted it into something that I thought would match my dolls. I only have one doll that was bought with a character in mind (and I have a sculpt picked out for her boyfriend), but the rest of my dolls had characters made for them to fit in the story after I bought them. I don't have any real specific look in mind for any character. If a doll is cute, and I think they'd work in the story them the doll gets added to a wishlist. I'll try to think of what kind of character would suit them and where in the story would they fit in.

 

Every one of my dolls simply must have a character, but I usually do it the other way around...I come up with a character first and then hunt for the perfect doll to shell it. However, there have certainly been a handful of times where I‘ve fallen in love with an unusual sculpt and the character came later (usually while I paid off their layaway or awaited their arrival.) I absolutely love creating characters, and my mind just seems to do it automatically. In fact, now that I think about it, the last 3 dolls I’ve purchased are developing their characters as afterthoughts to the sculpt purchase which is rather unusual for me. I think this is because I’m currently working on finishing up my collection and seeking out some of the fascinating sculpts I’ve missed along the way.

 

I started embodying one already existing character of mine in my first doll but the rest have been the other way round.
When I see a doll that I like and might work (in terms of size and face features mostly) with my current family, I start designing a character for it (thinking, writing, sketching...). If I finally get a character that is appealing to me and that makes sense in their own story, then I will definitely buy the doll.

 

My split goes about 50-50. Some were established characters before they arrived and others I molded after I had fallen in love with a sculpt.

 

While Vince, Pete, and Billy all had a character idea to start with and then they changed once I 'got to know' them, Marigold and Party Martian were both one hundred percent 'I LOVE THIS DOLL SO MUCH I MUST CREATE A CHARACTER'.

Marigold, I saw these cute little deer centaurs and I immediately came up with a whole little fantasy world for her (and eventually I would love to bring home the other three seasons)

With Party Martian, I'd loved the Clever Littles, and all of Batchix' work, but when I saw HIM at the convention, I fell in love at first sight with the hot pink artist's pour. He was so PINK! Rather than a high fantasy elf, he felt like a mischievous-but-sweet cosmic traveler. So I was coming up with a character and story not for a sculpt that time but for this one particular doll.

 

Most of the time I will buy a doll I really like and then create a character that suits that sculpt. Creating OC's is easier this way for me rather than creating a character in my head and then shelling. I am actually trying to do that right now! I have a certain character in mind and I just bought a floating head to shell her, but I'm starting to get a little nervous that the head won't suit her character. I think it will turn out fine though!

 

I go both ways: I shell existing characters in dolls (or will soon), but my first doll had the character arise from the sculpt and some things I put together because I liked them. There's one (two, but the other is lower priority) more doll I want that I'll make the character for later, so in looking forward to that too.

 

Which came first, the character or the doll? XD I've gone both ways, actually. Most of the time I'll get a doll, then come up with a new idea for them, but there's been a couple times I've seen a sculpt and gone "Oh! That's [insert character name here]!" or "Hey, this might work for [name]."

And then there's been the few times I've made a character for a doll then merged that character with a preexisting character of mine since they were compatible.

 

I have been writing and roleplaying one character for a long while, a few years anyway. I have only discovered this hobby about 6 months ago, but I have bought an SD that when I saw her, I thought, "That's her!" As for other dolls, I saw the doll and she just hit me as so lovely that I want to make a character for her! Still working on that, but with some writing and roleplay she will feel fully fleshed out.

 

For me, I've done a bit of a subversion of this for a few of mine. Most OCs I've got in my crew were full fledged characters when I shelled them as bjds, but I've had a few where the ideas for a character were there, but they were a bit nebulous.

A good example of this for me would be the case of Azabian. I had a bit of an idea for their character before I got the Little Rebel Kai sculpt for them, but Kai really helped me to visually give them their identity beyond just the basics. Kismet Jaide, my Minifee Mika/Mir is another weird case of this. Kismet's character was actually created years earlier for another story idea I'd back burnered for quite a while. When I received Mika/Mir, she gave me the idea to use her as the shell for Kismet, and also helped me flesh her physical form out more fully (as well as get me interested in her story again after being practically forgotten for years).

In a sense, it's been an amalgamation effort with my examples. It wasn't really a case of finding a sculpt and creating a character from there, but it did involve having the sculpt develop a bare-bones character further once they arrived and I started working on them.

So, yeah—a bit of a subversive example, but still an example nonetheless

 

I think this is what I have been doing while looking at sculpts. The character can come once I have found one I like. But then again when i was doing a dollhouse project I planned for one thing and then it changed 180 degrees as "the house told me it wanted to be like this instead of like that". So for my future BJds I think i will plan but ulitmately see how the sculpt/doll wants to be.

 

Most of my dolls I bought because I liked how they looked and then created a character for them later. Some of them don't even have characters, but more so embody an idea or theme.

 

I definitely start with a doll who then morphs into a character, I'm not much a planner. The most planning I've ever done is like, "I want a doll so that this other doll of mine can have a girlfriend" but the stories and personalities really come as I work on the doll.

 

For my first doll I originally was going to use him as a shell for an oc I had for years, however, when I saw him in person his character clicked and I realized he was someone else! From there I had created a new oc that was based off of my doll and I couldn’t be happier.

 

While I definitely have characters that I would love to shell in doll form, I absolutely cannot. It just doesn't work, no matter what I try. Finding the perfectt sculpt to match what I see in my head is just a plain non-starter for me. So I'm very much a person who comes up with ideas based on the doll itself.

The closest doll I have to a pre-formed character is Pips, my Soom Viol. At the time I was looking for a smiley, brown resin doll that exuded happiness, who I could dress up in all pink. She was very much inspired by my love of the Pokemon Clefairy, and has remained that way. Beforehand I had seen some blank owner pictures of Viol's surprise head and thought "huh she's much cuter than the official Soom pictures made her out to be" and then Soom re-released her in Brown Tan and I *just knew* she was Pips. Only doll I've ever seen so far that just screams something that already existed in my head.

My two latest dolls are definitely ones completely based around the doll. My incoming Withdoll Alex's main characteristics and personality started to form the minute I saw his fullset. It was a no brainer to buy him when he was re-released (albeit much sooner that I thought he would be lol). My Tamikan Space One Little Alien was 100% bought because I simply adored the little guy at first sight, and as such their character is definitely a work in progress.

And of course, as a completely different example, there's my first doll - who still doesn't have a personality or a character (she's gone through many) and at this point I don't think she ever will.

 

Usually I approach with an idea in mind, but for sure I have had some doll pics jump out of the screen at me and beg to have a character made from them. Most of the time it's the shape of the face that really calls to me, and I plan to customize everything else -- but the Dollfie Dream Sister "Karin" definitely has a lot of personality that calls to me, and whatever character I design to put into that kind of shell would for sure be informed by the existing doll and the way she looks!

 

Most of the time I have the character in mind and then look for a doll to suit the character.

Sometimes, I just see a doll that begs to have a character built around it, and then I have to get the doll and write it into the story.

 

I gave up shelling my own characters in advance because most of them are weird monsters. Although I've found a jorōgumo head that might work pretty seamlessly for one of them. If I ever get to hybridize and experiment, it's going to be from there.

 

I tried buying dolls to shell characters and found out that sometimes a doll will not be who you want them to, even if you've looked at lots of pictures of the sculpt. I tried this with a Dollshe Hound and every time I tried to make him the character I had in mind something just seemed off.
Lesson learned! Now I buy dolls and let them tell me their character and personality as I handle them. For example, I have a rude Volks SDGrB Williams, who scuffed another doll's face in transit (easily fixed, thankfully) and always seems to knock other dolls over; and a gentlemanly Volks Hijikata who is always pleasant to handle despite being modelled after the Shinsengumi's "demon vice commander".

 

Except for 2 who are based off of other fictional characters that I like, Kusuriuri from Mononoke and Link from Legend of Zelda, I think all by dolls I have collected because I really liked the particular sculpt and then I create a character that suits that sculpt.

 

This is actually one of my biggest BJD purchase regrets. When I first started collecting, I solely bought dolls that I thought were really pretty.
But one day I saw a sculpt and thought it looked an awful lot like one of my OCs I was writing a story for. I then started collecting dolls that matched the other characters. I haven't written their stories yet, but they are all from books that I plan to write one day.

So, now I have two lots of dolls. The ones who I impulse bought, and the ones who were bought with a specific purpose. Because I felt bad, I ended up creating another story in my head that was like an alternative universe where all the characters live together and know each other. I am starting to either create more stories for the dolls I impulse bought, or changing their designs to match my pre-existing OCs.

 

So I tend to mix between find a doll that fits the character, and create a character to fit a doll. In one case, I bought a doll that fitted a character, and then the doll arrived and nope, I ended up making a new character for them.

And at the current moment, I'm looking at a doll on a site and trying to convince myself I don't need them, but a character is forming in my mind...

 

I do this all the time! I created Cole’s character around a doll I really wanted to trade for—not even just the sculpt, but that specific faceup as well. She turned out well, and now she’s a major character in my cast. I created Tass and Echo to go with sculpts I had but couldn’t sell, which is a bit of a shift in the trend!

 

I have several characters that I'm designing dolls around, there's a whole complicated plot in my head about them

 

while I admire the creativity of otherss who do that and create characters for their dolls I don't do that , the only one it could be said as "character doll" is a huge las reinas toddler like doll which looks like I did when I was a toddler so subconsciously I consider her as represantation of myself when I was little but otherwise it adds much fuss and work into something that for me should be easy thoughtless and just fun , the obligation of creativity that bjd's create was one of the reasons I left them aside for long , I just want to be surrounded by a pretty collection not create more obligations for myself maybe that's why in latest years I prefer buying something nice for myself (clothes, perfume etc) or just going out and relax or play some pc game the rare times I have spare time and money instead of doing collections and it is a bit of the reason I am thinning my collections. I still love the creativity and effort others put on dolls , characters and stories but it's too much work for me I just want some lazy relaxation with my hobbies.

 

Most of my dolls are based on original characters (OCs), and I find dolls to match their personalities.

However, I do own some dolls that I saw first, and a character was born from them. Just recently, I saw a doll that I felt compelled to adopt. So I asked myself who he would be and how he could fit in with everyone that I currently have. It was a slow day at work, and I was able to develop his character while I was there.
Did I also start writing fan fiction once I started to flesh out his character more? Yes. I have also picked out another doll from Luts that will be his future lover. RIP to my wallet.

 

It goes both ways for me. Sometimes I'll see a doll/sculpt and love the look or feel inspired. Although with BJDs being expensive, I'm really having to try and be sure I really do feel inspired sometimes since sometimes when I've gotten other kinds of dolls just because I liked the look, I never get more than a vague idea. I'll want more than the vague idea, but sometimes it just never comes. I'd like to avoid that happening with my resins. So far, the resin bjd heads that I've gotten for their looks have done well at meshing together and inspiring a story (although it did take me nearly a year to name Shido since he was not very forthcoming about his name, despite having a clear personality otherwise). So far I've wound up with three MSDs on the basis of their heads looking fun to paint because they were unique and full of personality. I've definitely gotten some very strong impressions of dolls based on their example faceup photos and on the two I have that happened with, worked to honor what I fell in love with about said photos while putting my own spin on them. Only one of my resins has the factory faceup (though I didn't go for the fullset outfit because I could do something similar cheaper, and while I got similar eyes and hair, the eyes and hair I got are a little different).

But I've always had a life long love of making up my own characters and then trying to make a tangible version of them, so sometimes I'll try to find sculpts to match the character. Though if I wind up not getting the shell right, that also results in me not interacting with the doll as much and feeling unsatisfied. x.x So I've been pretty slow to actually getting around to dollifying some characters I've been wanting to do in resin since I want to make sure the investment goes well.

 

I’ve come up with names, personalities, or at least story ideas for most of my characters. The only thing is that I have trouble making decisions when it comes to names and characters for dolls I really like because I want it to be perfect. One of my newer dolls is coming in a month or two, so I gotta decide soon! If I keep calling him by his sculpt name, I’m never gonna get a real name for him.

 

With my first doll, I had an OC in mind, sort of, but I found it stressful to try to find a perfect sculpt. Then once I was waiting, I didn’t like the uncertainty of not knowing if the sculpt still fit once I saw her in person.

Now kind of let the dolls develop their own personalities and characters once I own them.

Sometimes what draws me to a sculpt is when I think about making one into non-OC character doll. I don’t know why this works for me but my own OCs don’t. I’ve never actually made a non-OC doll and think I’d get bored of it if I did. Maybe it’s just the general vibe of a character I like that helps me decide, I don’t know

Also like someone else mentioned, a lot of my OCs are monsters and there just aren’t BJDs that fit. I’m thinking about taking a sculpting class over the summer to see if I like it and if making dolls would be feasible, because that’s the only way I can see myself ever having dolls that really fit the story for my OCs.

 

I think it's a great creative outlet to create characters from dolls and customize them to your liking!
That's half of the fun in it, honestly.

 

Sometimes, I already have a story in mind when I look at a doll, but so far (with the one doll I have), I've just created stories for them afterwards

 

The minute I saw the dolls I wanted on their listings, whether on Ebay or the official company website, the characters jumped out at me saying, "Hey! This is who I am and this is my story!" XD