Changing Characters

Mm, Elis in her Resin shell was actually very much different from how I envisioned her. Elis in my head was actually very gentle... but in her resin shell, I think that Elis is actually a much stronger [and more interesting character!]

I have made changes to all my characters [Elis hates pink as opposed to be a frilly little thing, Albel got sandy brown hair as opposed to dark brown hair] so yeah, I have no qualms about doing that...~

 

Pre-planning for my dolls' characters just doesn't work for me. =_= So far, I've had to change every single of their characters from the time I received them to the time they actually fit in, one of them involving a total change in world concept from high fantasy to urban fantasy/slice of life, and the other involving a switch in gender. If it helps get the doll to your liking, I'd say go ahead.

 

I do this with my characters as drawn/written creations so I imagine I will end up doing this with the dolls themselves at some point too. Specially since it's so easy to interchange eyes and wigs, you can recreate them so easily it's bound to happen for many people. All these options available to us don't really help, do they? For an example, Milk, a character of mine I've had for about eight years went through these steps as she (and I) developed.

Original version (I was 12 and an anime lover): Her name was originally Mizu, age 10-12, the bluest blue eyes, straight shoulder-length blond hair, liked hats with buttons on them. She was also an only child. Second version (I was 15 and still an anime lover): Her name was now Izumi, age 17, teal eyes, straight butt-length dirty blond hair, now never wore hats. This version of her was the older sibling of an 8 year old brother and a 4 year old sister. Third version (I was 17 and a J-pop lover): Her name was then Ai, age 14, golden brown eyes, wavy mid-back length sandybrown hair, she was a popstar. This version had a twin brother named Hotaru, a guitarist. Current version (I was 18 and a BJD and lolita lover): Her name is Milk, age 5-7, purple eyes, wavy/curly mid-back length blond hair, a shy sweet lolita type, always wears pink and white. And she is now the twin of a girl named Tea, another lolita type girl, always wears blue and white.

When she arrives in doll form I have a feeling she will change a bit more. I'm thinking she might end up with her golden-brown eyes again, since I know with doll eyes I tend to lean towards brown shades over other colors. And straight hair might come back into play purely for the fact wig hair is easier for a straight wig than a curly/wavy one. Not to mention when I end up finding a cute purple dress, or yellow outfit. Then she'll surely not only wear pink and white anymore lol. Over time, she's gotten older, younger, gotten siblings and in some ways kind of split into two (that's where twins came into play). Things sometimes change when you look at them on paper versus a real 3D model, you should be prepared for that.

And though you may not have ever meant for it to, they might be one of those dolls who changes often. When I first got into BJDs I told myself they'd be a set-character type, boy was I wrong! I figured they'd have one hair/eye color, one set type of outfit and all. But then as I found more things I liked, I kept thinking, "Oooh, this would look great on *name*!", and buy things I never would have pictured them in before. Even things you meant for one certain character might end up on another. Like when I had one doll and had collected a bunch of wigs which I'd planned to use for other dolls. I figured, "I'll just try this one on *name* and see how it fits/looks while waiting for the doll it's really meant for to get here.", then it turns out it fit that doll so well it never ended up on the one it was meant for.

 

I usually have this problem the first few weeks (or months, in one case) I own a doll. My first ever doll was already a character, and the mold and face-up were pretty much spot-on from the get go. My next doll didn't have a character, I just fell for his mold, hard and fast. I spent the entire time I was paying for him (and the first few weeks I had him) trying to figure out his character. My latest doll I owned for nearly six months before I found a character I was content for him.

I know what you mean, as far as writing, drawing, & RPing goes. But at the same time, if I don't get a feel for the character pretty quick, or dislike something about his story or personality, it's back the primordial soup of my mind.

 

I've gone through with this for both of my two boys. My first, the elf ani boy, was to be cute and adorable and innocent and just a very sweet boy. What I got instead was pitching himself off high areas, slamming into my computer tower, and just..totally not very sweet and very, very (omgvery) hard on the first doll nerves. And instead of forcing the cute image, I just worked with what I had. My first doll still can be a pain in the tail, going floppy at random times (usually when cross-dressing is involved) or pitching himself off tables when I'm not paying attention.

Of course, now that I'm going through the wanting to really upgrade my elf ani, I'm having issues figuring out the ambiance of the now girl doll I have. >_> I want country lolita. I hope to have country lolita. ... We'll see what I get, heh?

 

So far, no, I haven't had any issues changing the character of a doll -- but this has happened only once. I have two Minimee heads: one normal-eyed and one tender-eyed version of the same sculpt. Originally they were the same character and will be sharing the same body. But the other day I realized that the tender-eyed version could just be his own character (and totally replaced the doll I have on my wishlist that I was thinking of for this ^__^) if he could have a different faceup and a different body. He's certainly got a different attitude and personality now because of this, and I'm a lot happier about this dolly epiphany.

 

At first I thought my boy would be an artistic guy who's into fashion and stuff. But now, it seems like he's starting to develop a personality of his own & he seems to be a mature-business type of guy now. For my girl, I planned out that she would be a sweet darling little girl but she is a complete opposite!

Anyways, back to the question...

Do you have issues changing the soul/personality/overall appearance of your doll? Do you have issues just pushing everything you have done already aside to start anew?

Its an issue for me, in a way that I have to get rid of old stuff and buy new ones & that's not cheap- changes are so expensive! D8
However, it that's who they are, I can't force them to be who they're not. Still, its kinda upsetting... :/