Doll Names : Orginality vs Characters

I have always thought that the doll itself would turn into one of my characters as I went along. I would find a doll I like, save up the money, figure out a name, develop a story and woot.

 

I didnt think i would be able to make a doll from a character i had, but so far he's turned out awesome and i wouldnt change a thing, however the second one i tried to do that with didnt really turn out the way i thought he would so he's still evolving i would guess.
Who knows if he'll even stay laurie, i may even change his name. :/
Depending on how he goes.
Daphne has changed alot since i got her 2 years ago. She used to be really pink and demure but now she's grown out of her shell and turned into something i would have never have expected. i dont think i could be happier with her.
As for lola the minute i picked her up i knew what had to be done. She had so much energy in her it just had to come out.

Im not really a fan of dolls based off of manga characters though.
:/ I like seeing peoples creativity shine through their dolls and what life they can bring to them.
You only get what you put into it.

 

Haven't you seen some of those fandolls out there (Minimees or otherwise)? Those people have put a LOT of effort and innovation and brainpower and love into it. The results are often extremely incredible. If you've seen them, you'd never be able to seriously say that such a thing doesn't take any creativity, merely because it takes its design/name/inspiration from a published character.

I've always made my own characters because I'm lazy; original characters are LESS work than doing a perfect fandoll rendition right down to the last detail. Because if I don't feel like fleshing out this or that detail, or if I want him to go OOC for a day, or if I decide change my mind about anything for no reason at all-- who's to care? It's my own canon. I make the rules. No eagle-eyed army of fellow-fans to notice what corners I've cut. It takes courage to show off your own vision of someone else's character, and it takes lots of dedication to nail all the details, so a really well-done fandoll always impresses me.

 

I don't base my dolls on existing characters per say; I don't write characters for my dolls either. I usually pick Celtic names because I love them, and just play with looks for my dolls that 'suit' them . . . it's an intuitive thing for me.

Yeah, I know that sounds boring, but my dolls are my art models for photography mainly, and because I like looking at them. LOL!

 

All of my dolls are original characters, and so my wishlist, except for one, that's a character I simple love to much and I really want to have him.

Well making dolls of my OCs make me very happy, my OCs are like, my own children, I love each one of them like a mother loves her children, and by having they as dolls I can somehow touch them, care for them.
I would got really upset if someone copied one of my characters for sure. Not just because they are MINE, but because I've created them. I'm a writer, and I would probably want to cut off some heads if I saw my characters in other one hands.
About names, I don't care too much about it, only in special cases like Allura and Akron that aren't common names. But I'm planning to have 4 archangel dolls and they have the most common names ever.

My problem would be -personallity, eyes, wig, face-up-

 

sorry double post.

 

Why do you enjoy original dolls? Do you find it distressing or upsetting when people emulate your original doll or copy his/her name without asking? Or do you feel names are just names and are up for grabs.

Well, for myself... All my dolls are original. All of them. I only have one that is kinda reminding me of a character I love so much, but a lot of modding would be needed and I wouldn't mind it much.

I love original dolls because you literally create that character from the ground up. I'm sure that been said so many times already. They are exactly what you make of them. Their faults and their good qualities. The humorous things they do, and how you know them down to a T. Just the fact that they are yours.. Is so like... It makes you feel like they are kinda like your baby is a way.

I do find it odd, when people try to do that with them. Take a part of them. I mean its hard to have a character completely unique and everything... but when the things that make that character start to get taken away, yah i get upset. pretty much because I have worked so very hard to make that character unique in those ways. Do your own work. Things like names for me and my characters is sacred. Some of the names I have are severely unique and others are not, but it goes with the character. Taking the name is kinda taking them. Like for the characters that are unique with name and such... its like taking a part of their soul.
For example.

Vestipian: My prize name, which a friend gave to me. We literally looked everywhere for anything that might have had this name... And nothing. NOTHING! So we said... yah, now-a-days no characters have original names...

Bracket: Its nothing special, but it has a ring to it, that when you hear it, it makes you think of this character. Well those that know her.

Nylon: Yah its a fabric and also a name of a magazine, but its her. She is this way. She is like the fabric. She's bright and neon, and she's never dull. It starts with her name.

Tryxx: His name is common, honestly. So I just jazzed up the spelling. He's a normal guy pretty much. but he still has these amazing qualities that stick with him. Like his name. Common, but so unique on another level.

So I hope that I got my piece through nicely, without much confusion!

As much as I love other characters from books. They aren't mine, and I always feel weird for taking them and such. So I have my own. I like it when other people like them, and admire them. That means I'm doing a good job on them. Yah know. But again they are still mine. I don't want people taking things from them that make them eye catching in the first place.

 

Initially, I bought my dolls with the purpose of modeling them after my favorite musicians (hide from X Japan, Yoshiki from X Japan, and Sugizo from Luna Sea, by the way). However, now I've decided that while I might give them some features similar to those musicians, I want to make them into their own characters.

I was going to name my Miho head, the one intended to be based on hide, "Seth", but I have a friend who already has a BJD she modeled after hide (from Luts I think) named Seth, so I decided to think of another name for him. No ideas yet so far, though.

As for which is better between character dolls and originals, I say both are fine, but I personally have decided to make my dolls' characters original, even if they might be slightly based on people who already exist. ^^

With the musicians I mentioned, they've had many different outfits/hairstyles/etc. over the years, so I'd have at least some flexibility even if I did decide to make my dolls exactly like them. XD But I do agree that in most circumstances, that can be kind of restrictive. I guess a good solution would be to have the dolls cosplay as the character instead of making them the actual character. ^^

 

My third doll, Elias, is actually named after a book character I just loved so much, though his personality is not modeled after the character at all.

Elias is a Mo-2 full set, which had the option of a boy body or a girl body and a special face up. With the white skin and special face-up, he had a sort of vampirish look to him.

There's a book entitled "Let Me In," by a Swedish author, in which the main character is a vampire called Eli, who is thought of as a girl for most of the book, but as it turns out, Eli is actually Elias, and was a boy before being turned into a vampire, but there's a lot of gender confusion.

So, since my Mo-2 could have been a boy or a girl, this name seemed to suit him very nicely. Is it original? Nope! But it has an original and unique meaning to me. Then again, my other two dolls are named Liam and Lillith; we could play a drinking game with BJD names. Everyone with Lillith as a girl take a drink, and everyone with Liam as a name take another drink. They're so common, we'd down a gallon of tea in minutes.

 

It's been awhile since I first posted in this thread, and I now do have a doll of someone else's character. In a sense, yes, there are certain restrictions...however, that is true even with my own original characters--of course with my original ones I'm the one that creates their character and decides their look, but once they have that look most of them don't change. Frank will always have short black hair and blue eyes and Rory will always have red hair and freckles. Even my own characters that start out with a less concrete look eventually end up with a particular hair color, eye color, and clothing style. It becomes a part of their characters as they develop, and I don't like putting any of my dolls in things that are out of character for them.

With a non-original character doll your own interpretation of that character will also seep into it, because no one is going to see a character the exact same way that character's creator did or even the exact same way that other fans do. That's why you can see different people's dolls of the same character and they'll all be a little bit different from each other. There's also more ways to be creative than just swapping wigs or clothing styles--it's always possible to play with a doll in ways that go beyond physical appearance.

If I were to change my character doll's wig, he wouldn't cease to be who he is, but it would be very weird, however a lot of my other dolls are the same way.

 

I like the idea of character dolls, I just don't choose them for myself. If I want a doll or figure that is my favorite character, I make it easy on myself and go out and buy the action figure. Now, sometimes I'm totally mezmorized (spelling issues, sorry), by some character dolls. I'm totally in love with Deidara from Naruto Shippuden, and when I saw a doll of him on Deviantart (my apologies to the owner, for I don't know your name), I was captivated. I wanted to make one too, but then again I wanted my doll to be his own character.
In that light I guess you could call all of our dolls character dolls, considering we make them so! ^o^ I know that's not what you meant though.
Anyway...about the names. I do get quite tired of hearing the same names over and over and over again, but if you like that name, then name your doll that. All because a thousand other people have something named lucifer or krill or sakura or kuromi ect., doesn't mean that you can't enjoy the name as well. If you had more than one doll named that though, I would find that a little strange

 

I built my character around my Doll. I would make a doll cosplay, yes, but not make them an existing character (read: I'm not crazy about the minimees). I like originalty.

Anyway, a bit on Nikky's name. I was sitting in my car at a red light, and brainstorming a name for the dolly I was saving for.
Then Nikolai hit me. And for the first week or so, I wasn't sure it fit him, but I guess it molded aorund him. I think he grew up. Seriously--looking at photos from October when I got him and looking at photos recently... his face even looks different. o.O I dunno.

But yeah. My boy's my own. Though, the girl I"m wanting is going to be based on my own, existing character. *nods*

 

Step 1. Buy doll.
Step 2. Name doll.
Step 3. Doll turns into OC. D;
I've never had a character doll, but I guess some of them come close. (read as: It's easy to see where I get my inspiration if you look enough ><)

 

Come to think of it, all of my dolls were bought with an existing character in mind. First my puki Chipettes, then Bella Swan, then Alice Cullen, then Nessie Cullen. It's only my very recent impulse buy that changed the WHOLE crew. I was kinda getting bogged down in the limitations of my characters' existing styles. But my LF Shiwoo girl started as an original character named Stellan. Very quickly all of my other dolls found roles in Stellan's original world. Actually just creating Stellan's character and world from scratch has made me want to write - and although I am a truly avid reader, I have never been one to write. So in essence I plan to keep all of my dolls first names and have them cosplay their intended characters sometimes, but really have them transition into originals for the most part. I'm really excited about it - it makes me feel like I have several new dolls as opposed to just one with just a few new wigs and eyes!

 

I only have one doll - my Kid DELF "Nara" who I call Sarang... She's an original doll, and I'm pretty sure all my future dolls will be original characters as well... Because in my opinion that gives me the most creative freedom~

 

Certain names are just up for grabs. Even the ones who look or sound original.
I have a doll named Hoogmoed, which is Dutch for haughtiness or pride. I got it from a Dutch proverb which nicely covers the character's essence. I dare to bet that at the moment I'm the only one at DoA with a doll that carries that name.
However, what if someone reads or hears that word and likes it? What if they want to name a doll that way?
Hoogmoed is not an everyday Dutch word, but it certainly is not in disuse. Although "ijdelheid" (vanity) and "trots" (pride) are more commonly used as the Dutch versions of the one of the seven sins, "hoogmoed" is sometimes also used to refer to that sin. You could use that as an origin for the name too or you could flip through a Dutch dictionary or use Babelfish to translate random text and end up with that word.

I certainly do not own that word. No permission is needed. Who knows. Maybe there was already another doll called Hoogmoed out there, before I got my Hoogmoed.

If you would bang your fists on the keyboard, say your doll is going to be named after the characters that appeared on your screen and then someone says "Omg! That name is so cool, I'm going to use it too!", that would be a little different.

Still, it's not that bad to inspire people, though. I get inspired by the work of others. My boy Derrick is named after the main character of a German detective show. My other boy Het Naamloze Beest Rozenknop is named after the character the Nameless Beast Rosebud from the cartoon Earth Worm Jim (I watched the Dutch dub). I just used the names and not the existing characters for my dolls, though.

I don't have them myself, but I do like to look at character dolls. In certain cases it takes a lot of dedication and work to make it look just right.

 

I'm bad with names... ^^;; and I have some books/movies characters I like... so my doll will have a name from a movie, but he won't be that exact character >w<

 

Character Dolls:
When it comes down to it, when someone creates a doll based from their own origial character, is it not still a character doll? *Just wants to add another thought to it* Technically all dolls become character dolls at somepoint in their lives. I have considered making a "Character Doll", but I decided against it because most of the time it just doesn't do the actual character any justice and/or would make me look like a freakish otaku fanboy/girl. *Really doesn't want that label*

Original Dolls:
As a writer, I have many original characters, and I try to make all names unique, though you can only go so far without sounding ridiculous sometimes. I would be upset if someone used my original character names like, Seiaeka, Santheas, or Luidweig. I can say their original because after spending nearly 15 years on the net, I have yet to find someone else who has ever used them. (This is where "originality is dead" does not apply).

Retired Dolls:
I haven't noticed many retired names or dolls. I can't really say much about the subject. It is possible for someone to come up with the same name without ever having seen the original's before; and though it is not impossible, it is highly improbable.

 

I like original characters because I have some created already and I really want to see him turned into a BJD form *-*

And BJDs are too expensife (for me) to buy lots and make, not only my orig.chars but anime/whatever too, so I won´t have any like this (I think)

But I DO THINK character based BJDs are really cute ^^
I´d like to have a Chii, or some of the Rozen maiden dolls, or maybe Sora XP~
I´m just used to don´t think about it and don´t do this kind of plans because of financial issue... someday, who knows...

 

For me, if a doll was created with a name, I use that name. It doesn't matter if she's based on a character or if she was named some random name by the artist.

For characters that have concept titles in place of names (Momokos have these for the most part), I name them myself.

For the record, the Dollfie Dream Yukino I'll be getting tomorrow will be called Yukino.