Toys, names and personalities

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I named all my cars, to, and even loaners and rentals.

This is completely wild and amazing to a person who doesn't really invent personalities for anything. I had understood synesthesia (to the extent that someone without it can) as a mixing of sense-input, but what you're describing has nothing to do with the senses as ordinarily described — sight, sound, taste, smell, touch.

I never really played with toys, other than the family PC. The only outlet my childhood fantasy world had was in my creation of imaginary football (soccer) leagues, teams and players, along with the relevant statistical data.

I had toys but never named them or gave them personalities. One time when I was about 7, I was given a fairly big doll. My parents asked me its name but I didn't have an answer so they named it Amy.

I used to focus more on pulling things apart and putting them back together. Or, with Barbies, taking their clothes off and putting different ones on. That was the extent of my playing.

I was so different from my twin who used to love all her dolls and plush toys. I think she ended up giving some of them to her daughter.

My toys meant a lot to me. They all had personalities, names, backstories and a role. Some had proper names, others were rather unimaginatively named (such as evil Barbie, because she's evil. Or good Barbie because she’s the good one. ). I didn't like it when other kids played with my toys, because they'd change the character and I couldn't abide that. Often I would plan out story arcs. So one play session would end on a cliff hanger, then I'd think next time I'll continue the story by *insert continuation of the story* and the time after that they'll *insert ending here*.

The one main exception to the names rule was one character in particular. However, this was actually a big part of their character. My toys lived in one of my fictional universes, and one toy (although they weren't actually a toy but we'll get to that) didn't have a name so they were sad. In fact, most of their storylines revolved around feeling angry about not having a name and wondering what their identity was. At certain points, they even did horrible things to the other characters (I remember in one game they pushed one of the toys off the bed which in the story was a cliff and of course the other toy died). However, death was rarely ever final in my stories. There was a mirror dimension (a pocket mirror that was in my bookcase) which they would end up at whenever they died and so they came back and complained to that toy: "How dare you murder me?".

Sometimes names did change, but whenever they did I'd always find an in-universe explanation for it. Now, as for the part about it not being a toy yet at the same time being a toy...let me explain. I wasn't picky when it came to what I assigned a personality. Random scrunchie/ hair bobble? Sure, let's give them a role. I even assigned necklaces, rings and rocks separate personalities. There was one ring in particular that I used to pretend gave me the ability to teleport...however, it liked to mess with the wearer. I had a fictional universe (that was different to the one my toys lived in) and by wearing the ring and turning around a certain amount of times I could travel into that world in my imagination. Now, I'd give instructions to this ring "to the town centre, please" but I'd imagine that it would teleport me to somewhere close but not quite.

*Turns around wearing ring*

*Imagines myself in fictional world, looking around*

Me: "Excuse me, this is the bus stop".

The ring: "Maybe you could use the exercise then and walk the rest of the way".

Me: "Very well, so be it".

One of my rocks I called Spot because the pattern on it looked a bit like a spotty dog. I used to pretend that rubbing it would summon a shapeshifting creature that I also referred to as Spot. They were one (of many) imaginary friends.

As for the last question, I think I stopped playing with my toys around eleven or twelve. However, I’m not fully sure.

What constitutes a name for a toy? Does calling a stuffed dog "doggy" count as a name?

I made a small(about 2" high) stuffed bat named Belfry. My younger sister didn't have a man among her dollhouse dols, so sometimes she borrowed Belfry to fill in s the father. Since Belfry wan't very smart, he called the other dolls Wife, Duaghter, etc. cause e coudlnt rememebr their names.

One time he was the father, sitting ina a chair reading a newspaper, as dollhouse fathers did in my family(imitating my real father). Daughter had friend visiting. Friend looked at him and said, worried, to Belfrys' daughter "did You know your father's a bat?" duaghter said something like "oh yeah, he is."

Another time a burglar doll was in the house and when he saw father Belfry asleep int bed he shrieked "eek! a bat!" and ran out of the house.

I don;'t usually buy new plushies but the teeny ty gator had ot comehome with me. The label says Wallie but she's really a baby girl named Amee, and has been adoped dint othe gator family. All she says is "eep."