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How Important to You Is It That Your Doll be Absolutely Unique?

Mar 28, 2010

    1. I think with people generally concerned about individuality IRL, it can bleed over into the hobby, especially since this is an eclectic hobby that strongly encourages customization and imagination to express our own standards of creativity and beauty. However, I feel that individuality is a bit different than uniqueness, and individuality (versus "uniqueness") is what every doll has, even with standard company face-up on a dirt-common mold, because there's still a stamp of individuality imparted to them by the owner that makes each doll different--be it clothes, face-up, or even how they take photos of the doll!

      As for me, obviously I'm not concerned about uniqueness. While I own a few of unpopular molds, in addition to my own orichara dolls, I have fan-dolls based off existing, published characters, which often guarantees there will be another doll based off that character running around somewhere. Sure, it might be a different mold, but the spirit of the look is often parallel. Not exactly "unique" there. But I still feel there is a sense of individuality, so my Axel is still not someone else's Axel, despite them both being Axel.

      But my perspective is a bit strange because I'm not involved in the doll fandom; I rarely look at pics of other people's dolls due to my extremely slow internet connection and I rarely post my own because I don't particularly enjoy that part of the hobby. Thus I have a limited exposure to all the looks and feels of all the dolls out there, so all the dolls I come across tend to appear to me as individual and "true to themselves."

      blahblahblah lol
       
    2. considering how nuts and completely off the walls crazy I am, anything I design a personality for will be unique just by that logic
       
    3. How important to you is it that your doll be absolutely unique? Well as far as mold goes, my doll is relatively unique. I don't see many Bisou Ai PePe's around. But my two incoming dolls happen to be a very common combination. It doesn't bother me either way. Being unique has never bothered me much in any aspect of my life.

      Why? Because I like what I like and you like what you like. I don't care when bands I like get popular and I wouldn't care if I had a common sculpt either. I am also not fussed about styling being unique. My dolls are normal, human kids. It's cool to see tinies with awesome style but honestly when I was a kid I lounged around in tee shirts and pajamas most of the time, so my dolls do/will too!
       
    4. How important to you is it that your doll be absolutely unique?
      It is very important to me that my doll is unique
      Why
      Because the doll should in my mind reflect the owner and and the persons personality.
      And everyone is an individual so the dolls should be as well.
       
    5. Not very. I mean, I have a Schulze named Hyde ... how many Schoolhead A's are named/modeled after Hyde? XD Mine's just downsized :) Just the mere fact that your doll is your doll makes him unique. Even my perception of (and I will go into personal character story detail here) "Hyde" and this doll I am modeling after him is different from someone else's and the actual person.

      It's highly improbably that someone can have the exact same doll anyway :) Even if you try to copy someone's doll (which I have not btw ;) ) there are bound to be some differences.
       
    6. As far as the sculpt goes, I don't really care.
      But if someone I knew styled their doll the same way as mine, I don't think I'd like that very much. If I didn't know them it wouldn't bother me, because it's not like they copied me on purpose.
      I think the style is what makes the doll unique, not the sculpt. It would be sort of silly to be up-in-arms about sculpt-copying when you're in a hobby with dolls that are recast over and over from the same molds.
       
    7. Mine are unique, purely because they are mine and no-one elses.
      The way I sort of see it, its the owner that makes the doll unique, not the sculpt, face up, outfit, eyes ect; two people could own the same sculpt with the same faceup and similar styling and each doll would be indiviual in some way because they are owned by diffrent people.
       
    8. This is an extremely interesting question.
      In finding the perfect doll for me, all i cared about was that it had a face that felt perfect and right for me: expressive, slightly happy, ect ect. i didn't care if it was a Bobobie/Resinsoul Mei (which i almost got and which so many people have) but i was definantly not going to get a limited addition because even if i DID have the money for one, it just doesn't seem like me. I would have to be so careful with this EX-stinking-SPENSIVE doll and be all worried that id damage my pricey commodity. And I'm more of a fist-pump-for-the-underdog-common-man kinda girl. i LIKE the idea that its a cheaper but still really good doll. (cheaper by non-doll people standards). But, on the same side i wouldnt like the idea of getting a doll that absolutely everyone has, where i go into a convention or meet and see three or four other molds of mine sitting there staring at me. The other types even seem wrong to me.
      My only doll currenlty, a Dollmore Ciel, is not an expensive doll. Cost 217 i think. But hes the only guy doll id ever want. simple and humble in body but build flexibly and extremely eloquently. a triumph of the common. But only about three or four people on DoA have him. A fact i owe to the choice of makeup and pictures on the company site, although i must admit they aren't horrid. His uniqueness is just a plus. Sure id like other people to enjoy his sculpt as well, but at the same time i like that im one of the only ones whos 'found' him. Makes it more personal to me.
      My next dolls another story. Im getting a Minifee girl body and putting a ninodoll Woo. U Head on it :). i know ur thinking, will that work? Heh. it may not technically work because the skin tone im almost certain is off and the neck of the head is far bigger than the neck of the body by about one and a half centimeters. But i LIKE that. That difference and rawness. The Rough edges and mismatched existence. It fells warm and correct in its incorrectness. But thats just me, and everyone has their separate tastes. :)
       
    9. Haha! After all this, I was actually thinking of getting the SE tan/realskin Akando that Iplehouse has available right now, & I found myself thinking "but SO MANY people have him!" LOL

      Ultimately, I decided that it was more important to remember how much I wanted Akando when the Pierrot version came out, & I still do think it's a freaking gorgeous sculpt! Besides, the way I style him will reflect my aesthetics, &, well...that's 'unique' enough for me!

      ;D
       
    10. I do want my dolls to be recognisable as "Roeleines' dolls", but other than that I don't need them to be one of a kind. I like to see distinctive features, which makes similar styled dolls still totally different.
       
    11. My dolls are special enough for me, I don't expect them to be utterly unique, but there are a few things that are distinctive for them and I'd like it to stay that way. I wouldn't want to see exact copies of them on the boards, but if someone put a light blonde wig, blue eyes and glasses on a Dollfie Dream Option Head 01, I wouldn't be offended - part of the reason I picked a blonde wig for Momoko is because it won't stain her! I imagine plenty of other Dollfie Dream owners have the same idea :)

      While I wouldn't feel offended if someone had similar wig/eye ideas for their dolls as myself, I would be a little disappointed if someone basically used Momoko as a template for their own Dollfie Dream. I worked hard on her character and sourcing the right outfits for her and since the group of Dollfie Dream owners on DoA is quite small, it would be obvious where the inspiration came from if a Momoko clone did pop up. It's quite unlikely though, since the majority of Dollfie Dreams on the forum are kept in the character that Volks gave them, but there are a small number of original character Dollfie Dreams out there and it's nice to see people doing something different with these girls rather than repeat the same tropes and traits with them.
       
    12. It's highly important to me. All my dolls looks and personalities come from my heart. It would be boring to see someone have a nice doll and then get one for yourself. The point of these dolls are to make them your own, if we all wanted our dolls to be alike we'd all have Barbies. This is why I love the custom face up option many companies have nowadays. When I first began this hobby lots of companies didn't have that, you would have to find an independant artist, having a company that will send your doll exactly as you want it is much more helpful considering the money we spend on them. They should be perfectly as we want them.
       
    13. I think unique should be the last thing on your checklist for "the perfect doll." Why get the most unique doll if you're not happy with it, however, if you like the doll why not. If you have a doll that is exactly the same as millions of other people and you're totally happy with it that's just fine.

      It's not about how unique it is. It's about how happy you are with that doll.
       
    14. I consider unique to technically mean one of a kind as in one doll made from one mold and then the mold was broken. I understand that people mean the word unique as singular from most any other dolls. So referring more to the second meaning....

      I have mixed feelings about this issue. I have two Volks SD kids (Show and Kun) that were some of my first dolls and are probably considered mainstream for this hobby. I love their innocent looks and how well made they are, and I don't care that they are not unusual. After collecting more BJDs I found Dollstown and Dollshe and was really drawn to the strong strange character of their faces. These dolls are easily customized to be extremely unusual and I love that aspect. I did buy a Dollmore Lusion Thistle because I fell in love with her and I was wondering how it would feel to have a LE10 doll. To be honest, yeah I think she is fairly rare, but I don't think of her as absolutely unique. I won't feel that she is unique until I finish the amazing outfit I have planned for her and alter her appearance to suit me. As I am writing this I realize that the dolls I want to be unique have something about them that makes me want to transform their appearance to some unusual level that reflects a part of myself. I hope that makes sense.
       
    15. My friend an I(we are both new to the doll community) were searching for dolls together and both fell in love with the same sculpt. Honestly, it doesn't bother me at all, especially since we have very different styles and ideas for the character behind the dolls we want.
       
    16. For my dolls I'm going with very common names. There must be hundreds of dolls named Jack, John, or Ed. (Their Batman characters) Also from what I have seen on almost every picture site there is edleast a few dozen named Lucifer. I wont care about being unique unless someone claims I copyed their character. -putting foot in mouth- I'm kinda a sponge so I might have. (Not on purpose though)
       
    17. How important to you is it that your doll be absolutely unique?
      They have to be different but not absolutely complete to me. That they are mine is special enough. So if I give the doll a character/look that is common it doesn't bother me. The only think that does bother me is names, that needs to be unique almost one of a kind or first for me. I have no idea why, but naming things has always been an issue of mine, I want to name everything but I want to name it perfectly and unique-ly.
       
    18. The whole idea behind this hobby is that you get to make your bjd unique to you. It's important, I think, that people individualize their dolls if they want uniqueness. I imagine some people order a full package doll, complete with face up, clothes, etc. and then keep them that way. And there's nothing wrong with that. But most of us tend to stamp our bjds with their own personalities, clothing, hair, face ups, and countless other things that make them as individual as we are. It is important, but only in terms of personal expression, not in terms of not having identical sculpts or similar faceups, etc. It's a great hobby for self expression!
       
    19. Interesting topic. In my opinion, even LEs that have the same faceups are not completely identical to each other. Seeing as how human hands have put together each creation, there will always be subtle differences. Further, I feel like even those with supposed "identical" dolls will pose, style, and work with their dolls differently. It creates a difference in atmosphere and aesthetic.

      How important to you is it that your doll be absolutely unique? Why?

      As for myself, I like what I like and whether or not that overlaps with the aesthetic of others doesn't bother me. I wouldn't say it's of utmost importance either though. There are tons of people here who love candy-colored wigs and eclectic looks just like me. One unique thing that most of my dolls have is a birthmark or two (that I myself have on my own body or that my family members have). Although, there are tons of dolls out there with birthmarks or freckling--the placement of mine on my dolls is a specific thing I like to do. :) But, as I noted above, I think that either way...the human hands that shaped these dolls and the individuality of their owners is what aides in the uniqueness.
       
    20. For me, I'm not really concerned. I don't mind if other people's dolls look like mine, or whatnot. It's a character thing for me. And I know that no one is considering my characters for that exact mould, and wants them to dress and look the same way. Especially because my brain is like CONTRARY CONTRARY and takes great delight in dressing voluptous ladies in men's suits.