How accurate are your dolls?

Well, currently most of my dolls are more like younger representations of the characters I have so they're sort of accurate (depending on the age they are I guess), I mostly look for facial sculpts that are similar (I was pretty hyped when I found the impldoll Olina because she had a much rounder nose and not a tiny, pointy thing). I don't quite trust myself with modding just yet but there are definitely a few things I'd like to try one day to make some of the older representations of them more accurate, mostly altering the hands and feet (possibly just even making whole new ones). I've never been good at sculpture though, so that stuff is still a long ways away for me. Dx

But I can dream I guess?

 

Sometimes, quirks of the resin and sculpts themselves become so much a part of the character that they end up affecting it a bit, but that the same time, I don't hold back on the mods where needed. I'm currently in the process of full spray painting my newest doll so it's the correct colour for the character and I can't even say that's the most extreme thing I've ever done to make it work. Early next year, I'll be hacking a cleft lip into a head too. It just seems like a half measure for me to not go for it in the mods tbh, but everyone's different, so go with what works for you, I guess

 

As for mine, since they're based on my own characters I'd like for them to be as accurate as possible. Although, I definitely consider them all 'in progress,' even if I've had them for years. I'm no good at modding or painting so I send them out. Like, right now, the Migidoll Owen I've had since 2009 is finally having his body modded to match the character. And even after that he'll still need scar mods. Come to think of it my Iplehouse Rexy needs scar mods too. She was the worst. XP. I bought 3 dolls as potential Lorinas that were no good before finding a light brown Rexy. But as far as face, eyes, skin color, clothes, eyes, and hair, they're all pretty much already perfect.

But, in cases where I was particularly fond of the doll (3x Bambicrony Emily...) I just altered the story a bit to match. XD;

 

My character Pele is shelled in a bronze Vesuvia. Pele the character does not have a tail. Pele the doll does. The tail is so beautiful that I'm going to have it blushed in a way that Pele the character would have hers blushed if she did have a tail.

 

Some are closer than others.

My trio of "fan dolls" (I have D from Petshop of Horrors, Issun from O-kami and Nue from Haru Toki) all three ended up looking pretty close to the originals, but with a definite spin of their own. That's particularly true of Nightengale, who physically still resembles Nue very strongly but ended up with an entirely different backstory.

Of the ones who are avatars for tabletop RPG characters or MMO toons, it varies from "spot on" to "close in spirit, if not 100% in execution". It just depends on how difficult to capture the original character actually is. Some details are just impossible to reproduce in a doll.

 

The three dolls I've received to be fan characters have all turned into original characters somewhat based on the origin characters. Only one of them has their original name. So far they're all loosely "inspired by" more than strictly "based on".

 

Mine are all at a close stage. I feel like three of five of mine are very close, but due to wardrobe they are not 100% accurate (why must elaborate clothing be so expensive!!!?). I consider none of them complete for now.

 

For my two dolls, I would said they are 99.99% close to my vision. I couldn't think of anything more to change to make them look more like their characters. For one, his looks is based off the original artist's style so someone who knew the character would probably recognize him right away. My other one is a realistic interpretation to what I think they character's features would be like and although it's not going by the original artist's style, I have had many people say they knew who he was right away and that there was no way the doll was a cosplay. that he was definitely meant to be that character.

 

I used to draw my characters or I already had a picture of the character that inspired them. However, when I was picking dolls, some sculpts that actually look like the picture turned out to be not all that appealing to me. Then I realized that their personality isn't really reflected in the image. It's very different in 3D then it is on paper.

 

Mine are all pretty accurate to their source characters, and I have absolutely zero qualms about modding them to make them even closer.

My first doll, shelling one of my oldest characters, is an elfen-looking character with a scarred ear. So I reshaped his ear to match. And then resculpted the ears of his "child" counterpart doll to match.

Another doll, shelling another very old character of mine, is an anthro cat, and I will not be happy with her until I finally get her on a body with proper cat legs! (I wish so much that DearMine's 50cm body had actual cat legs and not "cat legs," it'd be perfect for her if they weren't slightly modified human legs.)

Another one, who I have in 3 sizes, is a fan doll of a character who lost a toe to frostbite. So far two of the three have had a toe hacked off; the only reason the largest one hasn't had that done is because I'm likely doing a reshell shuffle there and the new character who will take on that shell does in fact have all his toes. When I get the final sculpt for him, though? One of those toes is going to go.

One of the biggest ones is my set of fan dolls for the character Edward Elric. The two smaller ones are being very heavily resculpted to give them the prosthetics the character has, which has taken me nearly a year so far and is going to keep going for probably at least another full year. The parts that are done, though, are making me so happy, that there's no way I'm not going to finish! (I've been planning this since about 2009, anyway.)

And the last one that I haven't quite started yet is a darker-skinned character who, once upon a time was sold as a tan-skin doll, but no longer. I now have a secondhand NS version of her who is destined for a round of spray-tanning in the not too distant future!

Most of the rest of my characters match their existing body types nicely, so they don't require any modding; I just need to find sculpts that look similar enough to capture their personality.

 

For me there's this weird, comfortable disconnect between the character and the doll representation of the character. My dolls really don't look like my characters in the face--my characters tend to look a bit less perfect than most sculpts, you know? So for me my dolls definitely are representations rather than actually being the character, if that makes sense. And I'm totally fine with that. It affords a bit more freedom. I can dress the dolls in things the characters would never wear just for fun, because there's this strong sense that it's a doll and not the character. Sometimes the doll dresses in the character's clothes, sometimes not. I figure, as long as looking at the dolls makes me think of the characters, that's all I need. It's a fun middle ground between the written character and a blank slate doll. I feel like none of this makes sense lol

 

Vince... was not accurate at all when it came to details, at first. He just had the feel of Vince, and many of the specific features I'd imagined I gave up on finding because I couldn't imagine another doll would feel more right. But of course ever since he arrived, the reality of him has won out over those early ideas and he's become accurate.

Pete is sort of in the middle-- he's quite close, if stylized, and perhaps a bit younger. Just the difference between young adult and adult, not like his kid self.

Billy isn't all that accurate, but he is adorable. And I knew that accuracy for him was not going to be something I shot for because it couldn't really be done, so I just made him the best match based on how I felt, and then his cuteness kind of made up for any inaccuracies. (okay, so he totally looks like a kid, maybe like his kid self... but that's okay)

 

I would say mine turned out how I envisioned them. I only have several OCs turned into dolls (the rest I just buy because I like the doll), and I'm very satisfied with how they look. With BJ, he's spot on. His character is very special to me, so I was very meticulous while shopping for him and styling him. Michael looks much like himself as well. While he's a newer OC of mine, I have more musings/snippets written about him than any of my other characters so I wanted to ensure accuracy with his written character more than anything as I had no drawings of him. The doll fits his description perfectly, which is a success in my mind

 

I made a character based off of the doll So he looks exactly how I imaged him.