Collection Themes or Not?

When I originally became interested in vinyl dolls it was when the first Miku DD came out, and then eventually Rin/Len came out, and I had decided on just collecting all the Vocaloid dollfies and nothing else.

But then now, the only vinyl doll I ended up owning isn't a Vocaloid at all, (it's Saber Extra) and I've since changed my stance on collection preferences a bit.

I don't really have much of a collection - only two dolls, one resin one vinyl. As for resin, I only intend to shell OCs in resin.

But I'm aiming to only get character dolls in vinyl, whether that be official collab DD or custom-made ones when the character has little chances of getting a collab. Due to the cost (and space) I'll probably only get my absolute favourite characters, but we'll see how that goes in the future!

It's sort of an unofficial collection rule but I will probably also stick to dollfies only, mostly because of the official collab stuff and aesthetic preference; I mostly like DD and DDS in terms of size/look. I don't think I'd see myself buying DDDy or MDD anytime soon, and I like Volks' aesthetics the most out of the 1/3 vinyl options.

For vinyl there's also sort of two categories of dolls I want; ones I mostly just want to display in specific things long term (DD Kaito and Len, and a custom Gakupo, if I'm lucky enough to ever own any of them) and ones I want to dress up and actually play with (DD Saber Extra, and probably most others I'd end up getting). I'm definitely prioritizing the second category more, but it would be a real dream to be able to display Kaito/Len/Gakupo as their unofficial trio "Vana n Ice" if I could!

I'm also trying to keep vinyl to 1/3 only and resin to 1/4 only, which seems to be going fine as I've found that my doll preferences run that way anyways.

Honestly I think the only doll that would make me break my "collection preferences" would be SD16 Oscar -- she's just so beautiful!! - but probably only if I suddenly came into possession of a lot of money lol.

The only theme my dolls have is fantasy / scifi aesthetics and fun streetwear. Because Smart Doll made a blue and a grey and a dark skintone, I knew I would try to get at least one of each of those, and somewhere along the line it became, "All the SMD and Volks skintones except Volks White and every Icon exclusive."  (That was not on purpose; I'm just a sucker for visual diversity.) Almost everyone gets elf ears.

 

However I do have some collection rules pertaining to vinyl:

• Only dolls I'm committed to. Find the best of the best and stick to that. If it's not a long-term want, it probably isn't worth it.
• With the exception of holy grails and DDCH via proxy, no doll is worth $900+. $700-something is my pushing-it amount.
• Pick goals and try to fulfill them.
• The vinyl is not allowed to match or exceed the resin.
• Where possible, boys.

...I look forward to the day that last one is not applicable. Having a group that's neither all ladies nor gents is a must for me, but DD-size guys are hard to make.

18 hours ago, ashefaust said:

For vinyl there's also sort of two categories of dolls I want; ones I mostly just want to display in specific things long term (DD Kaito and Len, and a custom Gakupo, if I'm lucky enough to ever own any of them) and ones I want to dress up and actually play with (DD Saber Extra, and probably most others I'd end up getting). I'm definitely prioritizing the second category more, but it would be a real dream to be able to display Kaito/Len/Gakupo as their unofficial trio "Vana n Ice" if I could!

It kills me that we'll probably never get an official Gakupo. He has no Figma, gets the least merchandise (That I can tell), and after Meiko, is unlikely to see a Dollfie release. I'm not even a Vocaloid fan, but of the designs he was always my favorite. Definitely deserving of some good fanbuilt dolls.

 

Edit: This was supposed to go in my first post, but it didn't for some reason? Sorry about that.

Edited March 11, 2023 by PolitelyNefarious

When it comes to dolls in general I like to have a huge variety. My Pullips for example I have a large variety of body types (as I usually change their body), skin tones, fashion styles, hair colors, etc; 

My two resin BJDs are siblings but their styles and color schemes are very different from one another (one mostly wears black and leather and the other is floral and light colors). 

I dress in many different ways depending on the day myself, so it's nice to reflect that in my dolls.

As for DD, tho, my theme is probably just going to be...Vocaloids. The only ones I want currently are Vocaloids. We'll see if that changes with future releases, I suppose!