How Do You Feel About "Character" Dolls?

I was obnoxiously against this when I first got into the hobby, I have too many o/c's I want to shell BUT I am in the process of getting my girlfriend a Sanji from One Piece and I would like to eventually get a Law and maybe some of the other characters we are really fond of from the show.

 

I plan to customize in some shape or form every resin doll I come to own, but all of them will be Original Characters of my own design and probably never canon characters from published stories.
Though honestly I don't think I mind it if someone does use someone else's character, as long as it's for their own entertainment.

 

I do not see the point in having a doll that always looks the same, whether an OTP or a cosplay. I personally do indeed dress my crew up in cosplay A LOT - but each doll represents a character (ie person) in my little town, meaning they change their clothes, hair, eyes etc ALL the time - and cosplay. And do role-playing, historical & otherwise (ie they are geeks & nerds LOL). Variety is the spice of life LOL. So absolutely I'd never get a doll that was meant to only be one character all the time. One reason I never got into the whole 'action figure' thing (before I found BJDs) - not versatile enough.

 

How do you feel about dolls either pre-made or customized by their owners to be existing anime/tv/book/etc characters?
My experience with them was a lot like @Osaka's; when I got started in the hobby, I thought the owner-styled ones were pretty cool (and had a positive impression of them--my roommate at the time was doing character dolls, after all!), but I was more interested in shelling my OCs than doing characters, so it wasn't a thing for me then.

A year or two later, a MNM order for a head of my absolute favorite character popped up, and I couldn't not join that, now could I? I figured, I'd just get a basic body and have a one-off character doll to sit on the shelf with my other various figures of that character. It would be a neat thing to have. But then I started getting picky. The body wasn't right, so the head got split off and I started thinking about other options, and then fell into a hobby break for various reasons, so it sat in a box in a drawer.

A few years later, I remembered that head, brought it out, and picked out a new body, which was what ended the hobby break and got me back in. Of course, the new body didn't look right with the head, either... and I'd kind of started falling out of love with the head itself as a doll head, but not with the idea of getting a doll of that character. So the head got replaced. (I still have the first head, on a bust stand.) And somewhere in there, I decided I couldn't just have the one, so, since I'd fairly recently played the character in a jamjar RP, I decided to shell his boyfriend. And his family members. And the adopted sister he brought home from the game. And it kind of snowballed a bit, I'll admit, but I'm having fun!

Would you ever buy/customize one?
Buy? Maybe. It depends a lot on the character, quality and price. As an example, my above mentioned favorite character is Edward Elric from Fullmetal Alchemist. Quite a long time ago, Bluefairy made a limited edition "Automail Jerome" doll that is very obviously styled to be Ed. And at the time, if I'd been around and had the money, I might have bought him, but with some more experience, I don't actually like the look of him as much as I like my own customized version! (Though if anyone wants to just give me one, don't let that stop you! ) Even if it would have saved me the effort of doing the extensive mods necessary, the face and body both aren't quite "right" for what I want them to be. And the work of putting him together myself has so far been really enjoyable.

If there was a limited DD-type release of a really good looking Ed, though? I might still go for it as a display piece. I've long since learned to never say never, but I'm really enjoying making my own dolls over buying pre-styled ones. That, of course, doesn't mean I don't love looking at those limited releases, just that they aren't for me.

Which character do you love enough to pay for a fancy resin version of?
If you already own one (or a few) which characters are they?
So as I mentioned above, this all started with Edward Elric (FMA), from a MNM order for a 1/4 scale head. From that, I now have:
Edward Elric (FMA) - MSD, YoSD, SD sizes
Jace Beleren (Magic: The Gathering) - MSD, YoSD, SD sizes
Dani Phantom (Danny Phantom) - MSD-ish, YoSD sizes
Nico di Angelo (Percy Jackson series) - MSD, YoSD sizes
Alphonse Elric (FMA) - MSD, YoSD sizes
Winry Rockbell (FMA) -MSD, YoSD sizes

I also have one in progress who is somewhat inspired by an existing character, but what started off as "inspired by" ended up "unique character who shares the name," so I don't really count that one as a "character doll."

Ooh, I haven't seen that one yet!

I get what you're getting at, but a character doll doesn't necessarily need to be a static thing. My Edward's actually developing quite the wardrobe of things that fit with his style, in addition to being more direct copies of what he wears in the anime/manga. I actually find it a lot of fun to find the "derivative" looks for my characters and move beyond what they're shown/described as wearing by their creators! It's sort of a 3D, textile based version of fanfic.

 

I have no problem with other people making character dolls and I enjoy looking at the ones that are done well, but I personally am not keen on the idea myself. There are actually no characters I love more than my own, to be honest. All my dolls are avatars of my own original characters, so I suppose in a way they are "character dolls" even though I am the creator instead of someone else.

But if I ever were to make character dolls, I'd probably make characters from Bleach.

 

I'm not into them myself, as in I don't think I would ever buy or customize one. I dunno, for me it seems too over the top in terms of fangirling. I'm weird lol. I'm not much into oc's either though. Like my doll has a style and general personality, but I don't have a whole background story for them.
However, I can definitely appreciate them for other people!! It's all about what makes you happy in his hobby-whether it's creating your own characters or bringing preexisting ones to life.

 

I think character dolls are really cool, personally. Especially ones of really elaborate characters! I have a couple I'd like to make myself, but they're not near the top of my list really. I also really like the idea of cosplay for my dolls, so that I wouldn't have to get a whole new doll, but could still have a representation of a character (that's not mine) that I like. Especially since I don't really like the limitations of most "action figures" already available.

I'd love to see some Bleach dolls! I think one of Renji would be super cool, with those tattoos and the hair.

 

I've seen some really great Bleach dolls. Someone made a Souldoll Vito boy into Grimmjow, which is probably the best one I've seen so far. I'd love to see a Renji, too. hahah I'd probably make Ukitake Jushiro, because I'm weird like that. But probably also Ichigo and Orihime, because reasons.

 

Ooo, I'll have to look for that Grimmjow doll! That'd be so so cool if done well. And Ukitake is probably one of my favorite characters too! He made the second and third seasons much more bearable to me. A voice of reason.

 

Heh no one has seen mine! He still doesn't have his clothes. He's dressed as Khan still. Someday! I should make it a priority.....

This so much. My SD sized Joker (who is a Ringdoll Norman Dark on a Dollshe body) has a huge wardrobe, including a "cosplay" of himself from the Suicide Movie. I call it a cosplay because he looks nothing like that Joker and is usually very well dressed lol
But he does not stay the same at all. Like, at all. I dress him more than I dress a lot of my own OCs. He also has an outfit that makes him look like one of the Arkham game versions. Right now he's wearing an outfit that mirrors the last issue of Batman. I also dress him in weird things like Batman t-shirts.

Harley is another one who changes all the time. Pretty much if it's black and red, it's a potential outfit for her. I love it. Catwoman has street clothes already and I just got her. Batman has "Bruce Wayne" outfits. Moon Knight dresses like a normal person who he's not Moon Knight. I could put him in everything. And probably will once he's finished.

Not one person out there is going to tell you that your character doll has to look exactly the same all the time.

Unless they're Special Agent Pendergast of the FBI. In which case it's the black suit. And only the black suit. Period. (I can say that because mine will never change ever lol)

 

I'll hope to see him when you get him done; I do stalk the comic book characters thread, which is how I've seen the rest of your crew.

That's definitely another fun thing about costuming for character dolls; lots of characters out there have multiple outfits--they're not all dressed in nothing but school uniforms with the same pigtails every day! (And even characters who might fall into that sort of consistency tend to have special "promo" art around of them in other outfits, or even other artists' interpretations of them, like the very lovely Amalthea in a recent project journal.) So even if you do stick to just the character's official look, there's still a lot of room to vary them from day to day...

...But this is the more important thing. No one has the right to tell you how to enjoy the dolls you paid for! They're not going to tell you they have to always look the same, and if they do? Forget about them, they're not worth your time. If it's fun for you to put your Vash the Stampede doll in a frilly DollHeart dress, not one person has the right to say you can't; and likewise, if you prefer to just have your IOS Levi wear only his fullset clothes and wig and sit on a shelf where you can enjoy him? That's fine too! The same rules about enjoying your dolls your way apply to character dolls as they do to dolls shelling OCs, to dolls whose characters develop after you buy them, and to dolls that are just dolls with no character at all.

 

xxxx

This works The reason I chose to shell my dolls as cosplayers is room & $$$$ - that way one doll = lots of characters LOL

I have a confession to make - almost all my doll sculpts were originally chosen based on whether they could cosplay a Bleach character...(or Gintama) I've got a Dollzone Mo for Toshiro LOL I really need to get to work making hakamas... right now my Renji (he's a cosplayer who happens to love Bleach) is dressed as Gintoki & looks fabulous (he's an IH Bichun).

 

That's such a good point about a character doll not needing a static wardrobe!

I'm a little up in the air about what my next doll will be, but I'm leaning towards a particular character from my favorite movie over shelling another of my original characters. Even though he only appears in one outfit over the course of the (first) movie, one of the things that I really look forward to is creating a full wardrobe based on what is known about him-- giving him tee shirts related to his favorite music and movies, stuff like that, to make him feel more complete. (and of course once the sequel comes out I'll have some visual references for at least a second canon outfit)

While there's a lot of pleasure in achieving screen accuracy, I think you can branch out from that without being untrue to the character.

 

Completely and totally okay with it. I love seeing the different interpretations. I've made a lot of plans for character dolls but they just never wind up being fulfilled because inevitably one of my own characters will wind up matching the sculpt better. If I ever could, I would but only if I had the funds to do everything right off the bat. Instead I wind up shelling my own characters. If I could afford it I'd love a set of dolls to look like Hiro Hamada and Tadashi Hamada from Big Hero 6. or Keith from Voltron: Legendary Defender. (I'd say Shiro but I'm already imagining nightmares from trying to figure out his prosthetic without destroying him)

I'm more likely to snag up a random doll and give a backstory to it versus deciding "That's Tony Stark/Eren Yaeger/Tadashi".

Now I just need to convince myself I don't need another "chibi" (Yo-SD) version of one of my main OC's running around.

 

How do you feel about dolls either pre-made or customized by their owners to be existing anime/tv/book/etc characters? About 50% of my collection consists of character dolls so...I guess I feel pretty good about them!

Would you ever buy/customize one? A premade one? I never have. I enjoy the customization process a lot. I'm not opposed to buying them premade but they'd have to be pretty stellar in order for me to want them.

Which character do you love enough to pay for a fancy resin version of? I'm not really sure? I'd be more inclined to make them myself than pay for an already finished doll.

If you already own one (or a few) which characters are they? Hoy boy.

Nightcrawler (Blue Dollshe Grant Phillip)
Gambit (Nabarro Sumner/Dollshe 28M)
Storm (Twigling Newkiru)
Anole (Green Dollshe Van)
Emma Frost (Argodolls Leith/Dollstown 17)
Shadowcat (Argodolls Ifit/Loongsoul 63)
Pete Wisdom (Leekeworld Patrick/Dollstown 17)
Chamber (Ringdoll K/Dollshe Hound)
Jubilee (MDR Fang/Granado Nuevo)
Husk (Souldoll Chantal)
Skin (Spiritdoll Abbies/Granado Lads- grey)
Angel (Dollshe Rey Lewis/DC 72cm body)
Death of the Endless (Black Cherry Aishat/Twigling body)
Shatterstar (Island Doll Odin)
Rictor (Dollshe Saint)
Present Mic (Agakidoll Tann- modded)

I think that's all of them. I have Eraserhead (from BNHA) coming. He'll be a Dollshe Husky. Wish me luck on painting that damn facial hair...

 

If it ever happens, I'll post him for sure!

I didn't even think of this, but yes! I have a whole pinterest board just for fan art of Harley, Catwoman, Ivy and Joker in different outfits for inspiration.
I love getting ideas from other artists!

 

You have a Present Mic doll??? He's one of my absolute favorite BNHA characters! Do you have any albums or pictures? I'd love love love to see! (Also, Eraserhead is another one of my favorites! I hope you'll share pictures when you get him~)

 

How do you feel about dolls either pre-made or customized by their owners to be existing anime/tv/book/etc characters?
I love seeing owner made or factory made character dolls! I like seeing how much effort is put into them, and how accurate the costumes and faceups are. I think they're beautiful.

Would you ever buy/customize one? If you already own one (or a few) which characters are they?
I have a Volks Kazuya Kujo, but I bought him because I loved his face, and I wanted to make my own character with him. I also have a Volks Dollfie Dream Len Kagamine, but I haven't done anything with him yet. I bought him because he was the first DD boy and I thought he was cute. And I wanted his keytar! Both were very well done. I have a customized DIM Minimee Squall Leonhart too, and he looks nothing like Squall now! If I buy a character doll, I have to love it for the doll's sake, not just for the character, since I will end up making my own character out of it anyway. My dolls are pretty much ordinary everyday people, and I don't want to have celebrity or character dolls walking around in their world, if that makes any sense!

Which character do you love enough to pay for a fancy resin version of?
Hmmm, I'm not sure. I think I would like to make my own version instead of buying a very expensive one. It would have to be pretty spectacular for me to buy it, because they are usually well out of my price range.

Linda S.
galatia9

 

I'm not usually a big fan of character dolls but I'm an absolute sucker for the VOCALOID Dolfie Dream dolls! They just look so much like the actual characters, and I love them so much, although I really don't think I could justify the price tag I've seen some really lovely character dolls made though and I absolute appreciate the hard work put into recreating a character!!

 

I really think character dolls are cool! Especially the owner-customized ones. Problem is, with the fandoms I'm in, I'd probably end up doing one for a character that either a) doesn't have a set design or b) has a really cartoonish design and making them more realistic. Though, I have ideas for dolls for characters from The Adventure Zone, or me and my group of friends' FNaF AU. I think I'd have to hybrid some specific characters, but that's even a problem with some of my OC shell plans.