Copy Cats! - does it bother you if someone tries to copy your doll's style/looks?

I find myself being very wary about this. Example: while Il&#250; was still en-route, I saw photos of an absolutely gorgeous silver-haired Yder with two different coloured blue eyes in the gallery. I looked over at the wig and eyes I'd already bought for the brat - silver wig, check; two different blue eyes, also check >.< If Il&#250;'s look hadn't been set in stone years ago, I honestly would have considered buying him new gear, as I'd hate to have anyone think I was copying them.

But as some people have already said, with the finite number of eyes and wigs available there's always the possibility of two dolls coincidentally looking alike. I've cut Il&#250;'s wig and given it extensions, so now his hair's his own and there's no other wig like it on the board, and I hope to mod him a little further in future to make him more unique to himself, but there's always only so much you can do, bar making your own BJD from scratch.

Exactly how I feel, too ^___^

 

The name-thing is an interesting point, and one that I've worried over a bit with Nameless being... well... nameless.

I *think* I may know what his name is, but its shortened, familiar form is already being used by another DoA member for her dark-haired doll. (The actual name itself is different, but they share a prefix and are both shortened to the same nickname-). That doll's style is nothing like Nameless and he's an entirely different mold... but it still feels like stepping on toes to use the short form of the name. It's already "in use" and the original doll's owner might or might not take offense.

If Nameless does end up with that name, though... I'm not sure what I'll do. 'Probably just use the name as-is and avoid the short form altogether....

 

I agree with Cacau about my dears being very "normal" and that making them endearing, but I also want to eventually mod them all in subtle ways to make them uniquely my own, once I'm brave enough. I love the thought of taking a Too/Yen/Kai/etc. and shaping them into Rowan, Fabian, Damien, you catch my drift.

 

There's another doll named Juniper on the board (hi Sher! XD) and since my Juniper came first I can't help but egotistically wonder if that is where she got the name. Probably not! I like Sher's dolls and especially the names she comes up for them (Jeramiah Blue :3) So we probably just have similar taste.

 

No. Because there's a limited number of retailers for good dolls, wigs, shoes, ect, it's entirely probable that someone could end up with a similar looking doll to yours.

Heck, there's another Zac(k/ary) on the board who is also a DOD Yen, and we have the same blue CanCan wig... and I didn't know about him at the time I named my boy, or bought me wig.

I seem to remember there being a topic like this before... time to go digging throug the archieves!

 

At the moment, I feel TERRIBLE because I know Grey looks like a composite of a bunch of Hounds... But we bought clothes we knew would fit, just so he wouldn't be nakie when he arived. As much as we like him looking gawthy and rockstar-like, I can't help but look over and think that another person's doll mysteriously landed on our desk.

So he has two shirts coming in, and I'm making him comfy jeans soon, so he can be Grey. x3 And then I'll make his kilt, and he'll REALLY be Grey. XD

 

I found out the other day that there's an anime character called Seiji with blonde haird and purple eyes just like my Seiji. Same name and looks and everything, but did I copy? No, I didn't. They might look the same, but it's just a coincidence.

There are only so many different hair and eye combinations, a lot of people are going to have similar looking dolls. I think you shouldn't get upset unless you know that your doll has specifically been copied on purpose.

 

I think the proper response to seeing a doll with a similar style to yours is innocent until proven guilty.

I mean, it's a nice feeling to think that you've inspired someone, or maybe a bad feeling if you think they are directly copying you... but chances are it's probably just a coincidence.

 

I tend to agree, a lot of us have characters that are influenced by other things (music, manga/anime, etc) and a lot of us like the same things, with the limited number of brand name items, wigs and stuff there is bound to be some similarities. Names are a different story, some names are really common but if I had a really uncommon name or something I made up and someone else had it AND had a similar look to my doll that would upset me a little bit.

 

I don't find copying flattering. Inspiration from something is one thing but flat out copying is just...uck. There's always accidental similarities though which no one can be blamed for. I feel the same when it comes to art, when someone gets inspiration from another piece is okay but copying the entire picture is just wrong.

 

Yep... That's more or less what I had to tell T-Dragon when she pointed out how much Nameless is going to resemble Sai.

I really wasn't thinking about Sai when I was puzzling out what Nameless would look like... I was actually thinking about Sparrow (My Exalted character-), whio has a character design that I've always found attractive... But... There he was.

He looks like a specific anime character, entirely by accident.

Oh well. At least he'll have his own name, even if I can't ever give him a nickname. ^_^

 

Well, when I first joined the board I had the only boy "Mischa" that I knew of. . . and now there are a few more, including a lovely dreaming Lishe boy. ^^; I have to admit that the first time I saw another doll with the same name I felt a pang of jealousy inside me -- it was like, "No, it's MINE." But I don't really feel that one can have a monopoly on names, so I got over it quick enough.

Flat-out imitation would offend me a bit more -- I mean, if someone bought the same doll and tried to turn it into exactly the same character as a doll I own, I would feel a bit peeved. But again, in the end that's their choice -- I just wouldn't be happy about it.

 

lol Well I've done some mod work to nearly all of my dolls, so I know there's never going to be another one exactly like them anyway. Similar is one thing, an obvious carbon copy would tick me off. Then again I tend to have little extras on the dolls I work with that make them unique in their own ways.

As far as I know I've only really used a name already in use once, Belial. One of, I believe Helene's Hound boys. Sure mine's going to be a Hound as well, but they're not going to be similar past that...lol Oh the plans I have for the soon to be ordered boy...the plans. XD! So in that respect I don't feel that I've over stepped boundaries since...well I do have sort of a run on demonic names, Bael...Ahriman...at a later date there'll be one named Leviathan. So Belial just fits in with that crew. lol

 

I think the only way it would bother me is if I found out someone got a doll after me that was an exact copy of mine - same mold, wig, eyes, tattoos, dress style, everything. If someone else has parts that are the same, oh well, it happens. Like most people, I spent a lot of time developing the right personality and look for my boys. If I inspire someone, I would be flattered, if I am copied to a certain degree, that's okay too, if they really can't think up their own. I would feel weird seeing pictures of a doll that looked exactly like my boys but wasn't so, that's why copying everything would bother me.

 

IMO, getting upset over dolls with the same name as another doll is rather silly. There's a doll on this board with the same name as my own daughter, and another one with the same name as my niece! (My niece's mom, BTW, thought both her daughter's names were unique and that she had made them up - however, both turn out to be actual names, one not uncommonly used in Greece.)

I doubt the dolls on the board were named after these two human children. It is a conceit of many parents that they want to give their children (and dolls) names that no one else has, but the fact is, even many "invented" names turn out to be in use somewhere. With 6+ billion people on the planet, this should come as no surprise.

I knew of no one named Kasai when I named my doll, however I did not expect that I was the only person on Earth to think of it; since then, someone has registered this as their DoA username, and I have seen the name "Kasai" in Japanese movie credits. Do I think they "ripped me off"? No, of course not. Names are simply just NOT unique.

(And both Mischa and Sascha are pretty common male derivatives of Mikhael and Alexander in Russia...~__^)

(And "copying" is precisely the way fashion trends occur - not exact copying, necessarily, but it IS "copying".)

(And the title of this thread seems to ask if "copy cays" bother a certain doll mold - "U". :p)

 

I honestly wouldn't care if someone named their doll JoAnne. (me) or Jonathan (My brother). Or Juliana (My sister)... It would never cross my mind to be offended or to think they were "copying" the humans in question. That isn't what I said in my post, or what I'm talking about.

I'm worried that the older Haru's owner is going to be annoyed at seeing me shorten the name Harumatsu to "Haru", and use it to identify a different doll.

I don't think that's silly at all...
I think giving consideration to existing names is just basic courtesy.

 

Well, I wasn't addressing you in particular, but if you choose to not call your doll Haru as a nickname so he won't get confused with another Haru on the board, that's of course your choice. But if you did indeed end up using Haru as a nickname, I feel it would be not out of place; not an offense to her doll, or the loads of Japanese people who use Haru as a complete name or nickname. If one is bound to run across humans with the same name or nickname, since when can one expect doll names not to follow that trend? Someday someone else might come on the board, whose doll has been "Haru" or possibly even "Harumatsu", for years. It could happen.

Japanese names may sound more "unique" to English speakers or in an English-language context, but surely "Spring" and "Awaiting Spring" are not so uncommon for names in Japan.

 

It might well... What bothers me isn't so much that there may be another doll out there with the same nickname, or even the same full name. It's that there's already one *here* that uses the short form... And that one was here first. I just feel like she's got "first rights" to using it in this context, just like a User Name.

So, if Harumatsu does end up being Nameless' name... and the odds are good that it will... It's easier just to avoid stepping on toes altogether by not using the short form.

 

Hmmm...

It really would depend on the circumstance.

Names, I don't own names. Alex & Mia are very common names (in various forms). Ryuen is a name from an anime character. *shrugs* I can't get mad if anyone uses them. Same with Yukiro, it is a rather common name I think, but for me it stems from a Yuki-obsession I happen to have, but I didn't want to call him just "Yuki"

Copying looks, my dolls are rather common at this point and likely will stay that way. If my dolls look like yours I assure you it's complete coincidence and I'll likely assume the same about anyone who has dolls with similar styles to mine--unless I see their character profile (if they are so inclined to make them) and say "WTF? That's my character!"

To sum it up, I'm not possessive really of the dolls & their looks. I am possessive of their characters as they were created by me to fit inot my story and if I have a choice I won't allow people to steal my story ideas, they are mine.

 

Hmmm... Maybe o.O... If they did the exact same clothes as me, wig, eyes and such, then yeah ^^; My Bee-A has soul doll pink eyes, and straightened hair fro a waveyone so it would be a bit obvious. With my Tender Too, I happen to know of several people who use the exact same wig, and have the same (DoD) make-up, so I would not care so much. He's not customised yet ^^;