Doll Names : Orginality vs Characters

I like both kinds of dolls, but mine are original. I just think its fun to express myself in that way. And I don't pick names according to what's least used or really different or anything. I pick what suits MY character. And if that happens to be a name that others have - whatever...

 

Why do you enjoy original dolls?
The thing is, I have such a vivid imagination, I could never follow someone else's template, I have to be able to discover my characters on my own.

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.

Hm, this has never happened to me, but I think I'd be flattered if I had come up with a character that inspired people like that I would prefer if they asked (I would say yes, of course, this is just because then I'd have a chance to also tell them that I'm flattered), and above all if they say where they got it from, and not pretend that they came up with it all on their own.
It's sort of like fan fiction, I've never understood the writers/creators that actually don't want people to write fan fiction, I think it's a compliment.

 

I have both fan and OC dolls and enjoy both a lot. They have all developed personalities or odd behaviors that differ from the initial character or concept. My character dolls wear non-costume clothes and definitely do things that aren't cannon. I've had a sweet, charming little girl OC turn into the biggest psycho brat you've ever seen.

I really love seeing others' visions of the same fan doll and I think it's cool when I come across another doll that shares a name with one of my originals. Heck, even if I had an OC with a really unique name/look and someone else copied it I'd think it was awesome.

Either way you go there's a lot of hard work and creativity involved in bringing any vision to life and I think it should be respected. I see a lot of OC folks really get down on non-OC or non-backstory folks and I think it's very wrong. Especially since most of the "original" backstories I've heard are just variations on three themes. On the other side of the coin, my little girl was told (by a grown woman in her forties!) that her character doll sucked because it wasn't the "official" one.

I just don't get superiority complexes about the way anybody chooses to play with their toys. And except for Beyonce's kid, most names aren't copyrighted.

 

I love character dolls. It makes me really happy to have a doll of a character I love. Whenever there's an anime, a manga, or a video game character I really like, I always think about how I would make a doll of them (even if I don't actually do it.)

For years I've been planning to do dolls of Inuyasha and Sesshomaru, but I haven't found the right sculpts yet. Right now I'm busy building a Shinsengumi army.

But all my dolls have alter-egos (using different wigs, eyes, and clothes) which are my own original characters.

 

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.

All my dolls are characters I made up,I don't know it just never occured to me to make a doll from a movie character..but I've been going in the fanfiction direction a lot lately with my OC character Dahlia. I've never had anyone copy anything from my dolls before so I don't know how I would take that. It would be weird because I'm sure people have better imaginations than I have so surely they could find something else to do than copy someone else. As for names I really don't care if someone else uses my names. When you think about how many dolls and owners there are out there,the same names are bound to be used a lot.

 

My doll is named after an original character in a fanfic I wrote because I just liked the name, but I didn't model her after the character. They don't look the same or dress the same, although I sometimes think about buying a new wig and eyes and outfit just for the heck of it, so Faith the doll can cosplay being Faith the character.

Hm. I think I might have wandered off the original topic, lol. Does it matter whether you name your doll after an existing character or made one up? As long as you're happy, that's all that matters.

 

I only have original characters for my dolls. I like seeing my imagination -and whatever weird creatures that crawl out of it- come to life in a way. Seeing a character that I've spent 2 or more years on in resin is eye opening, since it is sometimes hard to imagine characters in just your head cannon. Like with my newest doll, Rainer, I had been having trouble imagining his character and it's ever changing form. Since his face couldn't stick in my head, every picture I tried to make of him looked a little different, and nothing really screamed "this is Rainer." Because of that I had to shell him; I took a doll that looked closest to how I had imagined and cast him in resin. While it's not exact, the character speaks much louder and clearer to me now then it ever did when he was just in my head.
As for people stealing my characters, I would personally feel offended. For one, the person must not respect me, since they felt it was ok to take something from my imagination. secondly, I think that people should be original, if they are creating a story, I would like them to be original enough to create something intresting, something like nothing else. But if you can't even think of your own characters, how can you expect to make your own world?

 

I am more of an original type of person, I like having unique dolls with the idea of that doll just popping into my head. I might be a little mad if someone duplicated my doll.

 

I have kind of characters & names attached to my dolls nothing too fleshed out...in fact the characters they are get more fleshed out when the doll is with me. Firstly I had Spooky who was a character I sketched out without any real story but at least he had an appearance. I sold him off though to get Sandalio (which means wolf) because he was a werewolf but he didn't stick. Then I had Zach who's name was suggested in the FL waiting room...as I developed his character more I thought that Zach should be short for something but I didn't like Zachary so I came up with Zachariah instead then he got the last name Starchild thanks to my housemate. Now there's Basil who was formerly Toko the vampire prince (Toko the name being inspired by Tokomon from digimon) but there's a lot of bad memories attached as he was Toko when he got stolen from me so I re-named him & gave him a new character now he's a mischevious fox spirit. For his name I looked up names that meant Trickster & liked that. Most of the time I'll look at a doll & immediately come up with an appearance & a name. Sometimes tho I have to look up names depending on what I want. I don't think any of my names are original though I'm sure there's another Spooky, Zach or Basil out there but the characters I hope are different (I know I've never seen another doll named Sandalio though).

 

I prefer creating Original Characters, so much more fun ! As they have, or will have, pretty common names (Aloïs, Camille, and the next one will be Lisbeth), I can't say people are "stealing" from me or things like that. I have different ways to pick a name : sometimes, I just choose a name that'll fit the character the best way possible. Sometimes also, I love a name so much that I create a character for that name. Third way, the character just rise in my head, with already a name, and sometimes even a doll sculpt.
That's what happened with the dolls I currently have. I loved the name Aloïs, and when I had to create a character for a school project, I decided to use it. For Camille, I wanted to do a very manly man, but with a name that could fit both boy and girl. And finally, Lisbeth arrived one day in my head, in a philosophy lesson, and just said : "hello, my name is Lisbeth. I want to fit in your stories. Oh, and by the way, I'm a DC Elizabeth. Have fun !"
I love creating characters, And I'm always very enthousiast to make them in dolls. I love picking their clothes style, hairstyle, making them interact, it's so much fun !

 

I own and have planned both OCs and fan characters. I try to pick unusual names, but I'm sure there are other dolls named Lilith, Sparrow, and Blaze. Giving my dolls surnames helps make them more unique. Yin, the only fan character I have so far, ended up being pretty loosely based on the original. My planned fan characters are based on less well known anime. so it would be cool to see someone else's doll version of that character.

 

My characters are all original, they and their stories are all inspired directly or indirectly by my first BJD, Hiro (Kazuhiro Tanaka, my Volks SD13 Link). Some of my BJDs have very common names (like Luke and Tyler), and some have unusual names. I have chosen their names from many sources, including books, TV, movies and even towns.

I would have no problem having my BJDs cosplay non-original characters, though! I love choosing BJDs that resemble anime characters so they can cosplay if I want. But they will always be my original characters first.

Linda S.
galatia9

 

I think all of my crew have fairly common names - Lilith, Mikail, Jessie, Ramsay, Tristan, Achmed, Keith, Ysandre, Loki and Amber. well, Ysandre might be more unusual but I borrowed it from a book. My dolls tell me who they are, I don't usually have a pre-set character for them.

 

I have only original characters which I named them by myself. (Somehow like naming a new born baby ) I like to write story, so I created the place where all my dolls as original characters could exist. I prefer reading manga and sci-fi novels too but still few a bit strange to adapt the name after them. Their name may inspire me for something but I don't think I'll use the exactly name from favorite manga/novel's character.

 

I'm in the original character camp. Though I find I have more characters than dolls! Whilst I love the idea of imprinting my own sense of style on my dolls there is a bit of discipline needed to try and make them more like the character I have envisioned (despite how cute they can look with a pink wig). When it comes to names I'd always give them an original name unless the character was obviously a character from something (like Naruto).

 

All of my dolls are original characters but a few have names borrowed from characters or people so bothish? The look of one is based on an actor (sort of fan casting like) but he otherwise follows his own storyline. Sometimes I worry about telling people some of the names because they'd think I was dorky

 

My first doll was a total blank slate,I developed her character after recieving her but my incoming doll as well as my wish list dolls are going to represent my already fleshed out original characters.
There is a pre made fan doll that I'd love to own though,Dollfie Dream Hatsune Miku but I don't see that happening.

 

All of mine are original characters that I came up with except for my two most recent. One I am specifically planning to do Beelzemon from Digimon, however he's my version/interpretation of the character. I plan to do some tattoo work on him and just have fun with it since he was my favorite character from the series. The second one I was not planning to have as a fan doll, but I'm leaning towards making him into Marshall Lee from Adventure Time

 

I could only ever justify a doll purchase for an original character personally, because of the expenses involved. It's good, though, as it's motivated me to write and draw OCs again.
I also told myself I would only buy dolls for very developed characters but I find it's really nice for sculpts to shape the character too!

 

Mine are original characters, although I'm starting to wonder about a "character" doll - one of my dolls looks so much like an OC in some of my old Dr. Who fanfic stories that I'm starting to play with the idea of finding a small doll to turn into the fourth Doctor.

As far as names - I don't mind if someone has a doll with the same name as one of mine. In fact, I know someone in a FB group who also has a PKF named Paisley (although I don't think hers is the same sculpt as mine.)

As far as "famous" dolls - well, I confess that the first name that came to mind for my PKF Ante was Miranda, but I didn't use it. Someone I know has a rather well-known doll by that name. So my Ante became Kira instead.