How Do You Feel About "Character" Dolls?

Boypink is making a body you might like.

 

I don't see anything wrong with them, if it's what someone wants to do with their dolls. Just now looking at my list of planned future doll purchases I realized that about half of my current planned collection will be character dolls.

 

i have seen some pretty amazing owner customized dolls. i think they are often better than the company ones, which are often too stylized for my liking. on the other hand i am content to just look/admire them. for the most part i don't feel the need to have any specific characters myself, even though many of my dolls are named after favorite book characters. the name is as close as they get. the one exception is my realfee faun who just had to be mr tumnus!

 

I would LOVE to find dolls of Inuyasha and Kagome. I already have ideas on how to make two dolls I'm looking to buy in the future look like them but to find dolls that where already made to look like them OMG!! I would be so excited. I love character dolls and I also like making characters for my dolls.

 

I initially didn't think I would go in for character dolls, because I had a stack of OCs that I wanted home, and I frankly was either left cold by the way the dolls were styled by the company, or it was from something I really didn't want a character from. That changed pretty early on when I saw a sculpt and thought "my gosh, he'd make a lovely Zhuge Liang." ^^; That was sort of the end for me. While most of my dolls are still OCs, I have a group that are characters from other works that mean a lot to me. It's been fun, tracking down sculpts, wigs, eyes, making costumes, putting my own spin on things. What I really enjoy is seeing how other people interpret the same characters. (I haven't seen two Snapes that are alike, and that's been fun to see.) I think with fan-made character dolls, you get to see what parts of the character's personality and look are important to the creator, whereas the company-made dolls are made primarily to give an accurate physical representation. To go through the time and investment of just making a doll into a certain character indicates that this is something important to that particular owner, be it just appreciating how cool a character to looks to a deep emotional connection.

Admittedly I'm a theatre nerd at heart, and the thought of tracking down just the right resin actor and styling them in a certain way and letting them have different scenarios to play in is a great joy to me. And I really appreciate the creativity and vision it takes for anyone to try to make a doll into a character.

 

I've always had a fascination with creating character dolls, to be honest. So many of my favorites don't even have action figures, much less official art or some other physical form. Customizing dolls to become them was my route to getting poseable figures for those characters, and I've got a hoard of Pullip brand dolls customized as favorite characters of mine.

When I got into bjds, I planned to stick with creating OCs. It incrementally crumbled, however, and a mistaken body order and receiving the right head with a body I wanted later and I've got a few characters planned. My avatar (which, ironically, is a character from the Avatar sequel series) is Tahno from Legend of Korra. I've also got Korra and Mako WIP, and plan to add Asami to the mix.

So yeah...I have no issue with character dolls personally. Original or fan created from an existing series---its up to personal preference. Me--I'm cool with it

 

I collect figures for characters I absolutely love, and prefer to leave BJDs of pre-established characters to other people. I'm pretty neutral towards the idea of fan dolls in general, but each to their own. I'd much rather see original characters.

 

While I love looking at them, especially is they are spot on, they're not for me.

I really enjoy role playing my characters, and I feel too limited by existing characters I didn't create. Years ago, I created several Kingdom Hearts based dolls, and I sold them pretty quickly. I'm no good at fanfic. Sometimes I still toy with the idea of a Rosalina or Princess Peach doll from Super Mario, but I think maybe my best bet would be my own OC doll, who just so happens to enjoy cosplaying Nintendo princesses.

 

Zhuge Liang from his Dynasty Warriors incarnation? Because he's dreamy... XD

If money and space were no object, I'd have a small herd of character dolls along with my OCs. I've always thought Xellos and Lina Inverse from Slayers would be neat to try to put together, or a Tron Bonne. A Manny Calavera and Mercedes Colomar couple could be fun, too, or a Bertie Wooster. Finding just the right sculpt and parts/clothes/mods for my characters is a big part of the fun of the hobby for me, so I imagine trying to recreate a character could be just as engrossing! (Now that I think about it, if I get a second head for a doll I'm already planning, I could have a character doll for the price of the head and a change of clothes...! Inspiration!)

For the time being, though, I just enjoy the character dolls others have put together. I can't remember where I saw it on Tumblr, but not too long ago I saw someone had made a doll of Maia from the Goblin Emperor that was so lovingly done, and someone else made a Nabooru from the Legend of Zelda games that recreated her outfit perfectly and even modded her nose to the exact right shape. And someone else still (I think on these forums) made a Princess Zelda that was knockout beautiful. A lot of care and resourcefulness goes into them; I like seeing them as much as OC dolls.

 

I've always wanted a Frida Kahlo doll, and if I ever find the correct sculpt I might jump on it.

 

I love character dolls-- for me, the care and attention in putting together a favorite character's appearance is really wonderful. Even though you're not designing your doll's look, it still involves a lot of creativity to figure out how to translate some character designs to the doll itself. Although, for character dolls based on books rather than visual media, you are doing a lot of the visual designing too...

It always makes me happy to see someone working on bringing their faves to life.

 

So true. It's an awesome creative project to be admired in itself to try and recreate someone elses aesthetic vision.

 

Character dolls can be absolutely gorgeous, and it's always great seeing people pour so much love into their dolls. They're not for me, though - my Luts Lemon was originally intended to be a character doll for Daine from The Immortals Quartet by Tamora Pierce. But she never clicked with me, and I realised pretty quickly that the reason was that she just didn't feel like my own. But I didn't want to part with the doll (she was a gift) so I just remade her into my own character, and eventually we did click! So, just my story there...

 

@PennyForTheGuy have you ever checked out Twigling's dolls? I don't know what size you are looking for, but with her larger dolls (60-67cm) she offers different types of torsos, hips, and legs to add variety to the body shapes. They all have very interesting faces that could cover (I think) a range of ethnicities.

You can see examples of the body combinations on her Flickr page:
Reese

And her website appears to be open for pre-orders now:
http://twigling.com/discover-artifex-kindred/

Her dolls just came to my mind when I read your description of your character!

 

I love a good portrait character doll, but I have my own OCs I prefer to shell. Still, even mine might do cosplay if there's someone they match well enough.

 

While I don't have any plans for character dolls, other than my own, I really like them. However I tend to like the fanmade ones better than any official versions. Just a few days ago I saw a Prompto on here and I was absolutely blown away, he looked amazing!
At some point, when I have more money and more experience I plan to maybe make character costumes to go on OC dolls

 

Most of my dolls are limited Dollfie Dreams that are character dolls from an anime or video game.

The resins are not character dolls though.

 

Actually I plan something like a fanmade character doll on my own
Normally I use only OC's from me for my dolls. But in this particular case I saw the doll and instantly knew it would be a fantastic shell for a mystical creature which appears in the songs of my favorite band. So I ordered her. I'm excited how it will finally turn out - currently I'm waiting for her to arrive. But I only have rough plans how to design her, there are many things I still have to think of. Luckily it's not a very detailed character, so I have free space to design her
I think this doll will be the link between my fandom for my favorite band and the bjd-hobby on the other side. I just don't know if I'll do much with her once she is finished - or if she will only be the keeper of my band-merchandise-collection then

 

*deep breath*

How do you feel about dolls either pre-made or customized by their owners to be existing anime/tv/book/etc characters?
I love them. Speaking as someone who has liked them from the beginning (of y'know, my BJD time), there is something awesome about seeing other people who love characters that you know and love, enough to create\style BJDs of them. I am a little less excited about company-made\styled ones, but only a little. There's not a lot of difference between those and Minimee heads, and I like Minimee's too. Seeing people's interpretations of all-ready existing characters is like fanfic or fan art. It's better than fanfic. lol

Would you ever buy/customize one?
Mmmmmm....well. From the start of my time in this hobby I've tried to make character dolls, and totally failed. Like a lot of people, got into this hobby to make my own OC's that had always been what I was better at bonding with. Generally, with character dolls, once I got them done, I was done with the doll and didn't want them anymore.

I guess a couple years ago I bored of my own OCs (I can't draw them anymore either) or I just found my Character Doll Niche, because that's almost all I'm interested in now. Really, I should have known that bad guys were my thing, I've always been a Villain-Sympathizer.

Which character do you love enough to pay for a fancy resin version of?
I don't really know.... I mean, It would have to be good. Really really good. I'm not into anime characters so I seriously doubt any doll company will ever make anything I actually want enough to buy anyway, but it would have to have a head that is spectacular and a body that I like enough to pay for.

I could name a few, but I made my own versions of them, and I'm pretty happy with all of them. I can't see how they could be improved XD

If you already own one (or a few) which characters are they?
I'm very DC Comics heavy, but I have a few other characters as well...

YO-sized
Chibi's:
Batman
Catwoman
The Joker
Bilbo Baggins
Smaug (he's a little smaller than YO)
unfinished-
Moon Knight
Deadpool
Hellboy

Mini
The Joker
Harley Quinn
Batman
Nightwing
The Penguin
The Riddler
The Scarecrow

SD-sized
The Joker
Harley Quinn
Batman
John Constantine (who just gave up his body to-)
The Riddler
Two-Face
Poison Ivy
Catwoman
A nameless DC character who was in one issue of Batman that I made a doll of because I am obsessed

Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast
Harry Dresden
Moon Knight aka Marc Spencer aka others.
Dr. Strange - who started off as Sherlock\Khan (he's a Benedict Cumberbatch MNM)

not sure if this counts, but I have a doll of Marilyn Manson also. Not a MNM, he's DS Saint.

I think that's it. Like I said, I like the bad guys.