What kind of characters are your dolls?

Apologies if this isn't in the right section and if the title was strangely worded! But I'm really curious:

What kind of characters are your dolls, if at all? Do you treat your dolls like original characters and have very specific ideas for them, or are they more for experimenting and having fun? Or do you like to collect dolls that are already collaborations/pre-existing characters? (like any of the vocaloid collab dollfie dreams, pure neemo character collabs, etc etc)

I'm really curious as to how other people view their dolls in that way! I've been a freelance commission artist for a while now and draw pretty much exclusively OC art (and have been for about ~5 years) so I decided to make my oldest OCs into dolls. It's nice to have physical versions of them but it gets tricky when I have new ideas for redesigns lol... I have very specific ideas for them...

Anyways answer this however you'd like. I feel like I worded most of it weird so go nuts ^_^

I like making my dolls into OCs, rather than make my OCs into dolls. Partially because I have way too many characters and not a lot of money. Plus, it's fun for me to figure out who my doll is as I customize them. My resin dolls are divided between two stories I've been working on for a while, a fantasy world and a sci-fi. But my vinyl dolls, besides the shells, are all in the same vague urban fantasy world I'm figuring out as I go!

My SCP shell dolls are a little unique, since they're my first and currently only fandom dolls, but they're still based on me and my girlfriend's interpretation of the lore. I also have another shell of a pre-existing oc of mine in the works because I just happened across the perfect head for him, but at the moment he has no body (he's the pitch black doll I'm likely gonna dye a body for!)

This is kinda rambly, but I love love love making characters and figuring out who they are, and love reading about everyone else's dolls too! I'm too shy to roleplay, really, but I definitely wanna make art of my dolls and their story at the very least!

At first, I just bought my dolls because they were pretty. Didn’t have any plans for them beyond that, and didn’t even know the characters they were based on.

Over time I started to get ideas for photostories with my character dolls, and slowly came up with personalities for them based on their existing characters, with some adjustments to the ones I thought were too boring or just didn’t like, but my dolls are still somewhat distinct from their source material.

My custom dolls are shells of characters from one of my favourite games and are not distinct from their source material (in my mind, at least). I have no plans to create any storylines with them.

For my smaller dolls, I don’t really have any ideas for them, they’re just whatever the backstories their respective companies gave them (if at all). I don’t really do OCs.

Very interesting thread! I'm very interested to see how the vinyl side of the doll hobby approaches characters, since it seems like OCs are less common over here than they are on the resin side of things. For vinyl it seems like shelling your favorite anime/game characters is a lot more common.

I've been drawing and designing characters for as long as I remember, but I don't ever make them into dolls. I'm kind of finicky about my characters being "on model", and I have a cartoony style that just doesn't translate into dolls well for a variety of reasons.

For my dolls I usually start with a super super basic trope (Tsundere, stoic, bubbly, mischievous, stuffy, bashful, etc.) when planning the faceup, and the character sort of "builds itself" from there. There's no real concrete story connecting them all, they're just sort of personalities to bounce off one another. I know them well enough to be able to say "oh no, he would never wear this outfit" or "she would definitely be the one to hold up a peace sign in a group photo" but I don't usually think about things like "what is her relationship with her mother" or "what is his greatest fear".

So I guess they're pretty shallow. 😅 But I don't mind, to me my dolls are like the cast of a really low-stakes slice of life comedy anime. That's kind of how I think of it, anyways.

Edited May 30, 2024 by 0bsequi0us

What a cool thread! I like reading everyone's approach to their dolls' characters.  

I have a mixture of character and OC dolls. I've made a few dolls into characters. I have a Pullip Create your Own doll that I made into Nuriko from the anime Fushigi Yugi. My Aimerai BJD is Jaeha from Yona of the Dawn. I've got plans to customize a Pullip Isul to be Shuichi from Gravitation, and I have a DD on the way who's going to be Amelia from Slayers.

       But some dolls are their own person. When I get a doll that isn't meant to be specific character, I don't tend to give them a backstory or have an outline for who they are. I develop a sense of their personality as I get to know them. My Smart Doll Matilda, for instance, didn't even get a name until she arrived and I'd had her for several hours. Based on her faceup, I knew she was going to be somewhat spunky, but that was it. The more I've photographed her and put her in different outfits, the more she started to develop a personality. I didn't plan to have a doll who has an affinity for Cryptids and aliens and dislikes overly dramatic romance novels, but that's what I've got! (Seriously, I got a mini Colleen Hoover book in a surprise ball, and she did not look at all enthused when I put it in her hand!)

I'm in the 'dolls become OCs but OCs don't become dolls' crowd.  I always end up assigning quirks and personalities to each, they don't really deviate outside of their assigned hair & eye colors once settled, and I try to keep each within a wardrobe selection that suits them.  Sometimes I buy with a preconceived notion of how I'll have them, and other times I just end up finding out along the way!  With Crocus I had purchased clothes had an idea of how I wanted them to be, but when they came I was instantly like, "oh, that plan is not gonna work out" hahah.  A quick rummage in the doll closet, and it just felt "right" when I found their new style!

Weirdly though, I've never felt the urge to shell any of my OCs.  I guess I'm just comfy with them staying 2D?  I also like looking at other people's dolls that are based on existing content, but I'm not interested in owning any myself.  I'd definitely buy one if I liked the sculpt, but I'd instantly change everything about them on arrival lol.

I’m interested in shelling both my own OCs and perhaps a few characters from existing media in the future, but the only on topic doll I own right now was actually originally meant to be a mini-me. She developed a personality of her own as I interacted with her, though, although she’s still somewhat in flux.

I don't tend to make OCs unless it's for something like a story or a roleplay campaign, and even in those cases they tend to be mirrors of my own personality in some way. I did end up with more defined characters for my dolls, though.

It was all because I messed up a mobility mod for my first Imomodoll, broke the replacement skeleton during installation, and just gave up and got my doll another body. And...it just felt like I was throwing away my doll's body, rather than its old shell, since I planned for it to be a mini model for handmade cosplay and other fashion. I felt like I needed to give my doll a "soul", or at least some sort of personality, so that if I needed to replace or redesign anything else about it it wouldn't feel like I was just discarding what it just...was, physically.

I had the hardest time coming up with an OC for it, though. It felt like any OC I made had to be the character of "the doll". Once I let myself consider getting another doll, though, it was way easier to make two OCs that were foils for each other. I ended up making up a little story for them that ended with them being reincarnated as dolls with only one of them knowing their full past, so they have defined histories, personalities, and preferences, but there's still a lot of room for fun doll shenanigans.

Edited May 30, 2024 by blisseycake

Add me to the "make the dolls into OCs" crowd!

Admittedly, my vinyl dolls are much less fleshed out than my resin dolls in terms of characters. I just don't feel the same level of creative need to make them feel complex and human the way I do with my resin dolls. They all generally end up with a settled name, eyes, wig, clothing style, and general personality. I wonder if they may end up becoming more fleshed out once my resins are a bit closer to being complete and I can spend more time and resources on my anime girls.

I cannot bring a doll home with preconceived notions of who they're going to be. Every time I've tried, it never ends up working out. Even something as small as picking a name cannot be done ahead of time. Call me crazy, but I need to see the doll, hold it, feel the vibes, and a name and character comes to me eventually. I like to say that my dolls "pick" or "choose" who they're meant to be rather than me turning them into any OC in particular.

I am the weird case of "I love these two characters from this series so much, just drawing them and writing fanfics isn't enough anymore", so after my ex introduced me to the idea of getting into the doll hobby and making them into dolls ... well.

So for me the hobby is sort of bound to these two characters only and collecting them in various scales and versions. I don't have any urge to branch out from that. Expanding the wardrobe of these two, taking photos and working on new heads and faceplates etc. is keeping me busy enough as it is, haha.

I've always been terrible at coming up with OCs  I love seeing other people's characters though! It's super fascinating to see what everyone comes up with!

Personally, 4/5 of my current dolls are existing characters that I love and adore! Although I have been musing about possibly making a second OC-ish girl. I guess what usually holds me back is the amount of choice making your own character gives you. There's endless possibilities, how could I ever settle on just one? It can kind of feel overwhelming starting from scratch! My current OC girl started as a custom head + eyes combo that I bought so I had something to 'guide' me when settling for her wig and clothing - basically like making an OC with training wheels!

I'm both! My two resin 60cm girls became their own characters; I kind of had ideas for what I wanted them both to be, but they've evolved over time and showed different sides of themselves. One of them is a fashion design school student who is a cosplay hobbyist because I WANTED character dolls but don't have the money for it, so she gets to be most of them. 😂 My 45cm resin girls are re-shell American Girl Dolls! I still have my original Felicity, but for a while I thought she'd been lost when I moved overseas and my mother unilaterially sold my doll collection without telling me. I made her as an Iplehouse Tania. This year, I was able to buy an Iplehouse Benny to be my Addy, who was my second doll (she's arriving tonight, in fact!)

For my vinyl girls, I have two 1/6 Imomodolls. Kiyora made herself obvious very quickly, she was an adorable, playful little gremlin of a garden fairy. Susumi is her Very Worried rain fairy sister. They're a cute little pair! 

My last doll is a tiny little May Tree blind box doll; she's part of their astrological collection, a gemini. I named her Miya and she's quite simply just a very cute little girl!

The majority of our (@rudebuster and my) dolls are custom canon characters. We take great care in making them look like the character they're supposed to be, so we hope we do what we set out to do. You'll notice a large notice a large bias towards Kimetsu no Yaiba characters, because they have the largest cast, followed by Dororo and Oshi no Ko, because they're our favorite series. Then there's maybe a one or two characters that are OCs, but not very many, because we're not creative enough to think of our own characters. It's a lot of work! 😄

Edited June 19, 2024 by condogenate

I buy dolls because I vibe with the sculpt. Once they're home, they slowly reveal their personality over time and develop a clothing style.

I'm not sure if that counts as an OC or not 😅I've seen OC reference sheets with huge amounts of detail like age, gender, sexuality, backstory, relationships, likes/dislikes etc, which I almost never specify for my dolls.

I have toyed with fanart dolls before, and I do have two Obitsuroids as of this writing, but when it comes to OCs, I tend to be mildly mixed. Most often dolls become OCs, but I do have a few example of OCs becoming dolls. Plus I have toyed with shelling favorite characters for the same reason Moi does, sometimes I find a character that I simp to the point that fanart, fanfic, and official merch isn't enough (especially if there is barely any merch to begin with lol)!

My dolls so far are shelled existing anime characters, but they're my own interpretation of their childhood forms.

Though I am planning on getting a doll for an oc of mine who is a doll herself eventually.

All my dolls represent my OCs. It started with Bambi who I’d originally gotten as she was a dream doll for me and she ended up developing into a character with a whole world. Now my dolls (except one) are all set in the same story/universe and I currently have 1 character left to shell that I have plans for. After I get him I plan to try and limit myself to only getting dolls I really really love and that I can come up with a way to fit into the preexisting story/world. 
And then I have my Imomodoll who I just got and she is meant to be my splatoon oc. I wanted a doll I felt more comfortable traveling with but realized that having a character idea was really important to me with my dolls (as when I don’t I really don’t bond with them the way I do when I have a character for them in mind) so she ended up worming her way in despite my plans.