How much modding is too much?

I think people can mod that they want from their dolls...
Lot o people in this hobby try to do their own characters and sometimes they have a clear idea about their character.
Most of people try to get the best wig o the eyes that suits best to their characters, so I think they can do th same with the face of the doll

 

I see a lot of amazing mods on dolls; but for every amazing mod, there are at least 5 other people who don't have the artistic ability or proper tools to modify their doll properly.

 

What if there IS no existing mold that's a better match than the one they bought?

That is the principal reason people mod doll heads & bodies. They generally buy whatever's closest to the doll they wanted, then modify it to get the details that were missing... they choose the easiest path towards getting the doll they wanted in the first place. I seriously doubt that people choose the path of maximum resistance, deliberately. They choose the best option that's within their reach.

 

Honestly, and I've been in this hobby a couple years now, I haven't seen a very many wince-worthy mods at all. I'm just starting to attempt modding myself, so I'm probably about to produce one, but . . . .

But I'm with what others have said - I'd only think it was a shame if it were a very, very limited sculpt, or if it were modded past the point of structural integrity. There are plenty of straight-from-the-company sculpts out there that I think are train wrecks, but I'm not going to say those companies shouldn't make dolls; on that same token, I'm not going to get down on people doing major mods to their own dolls. They don't have to make them how *I* like them.

 

That's what I think too. I want THAT doll, but not YOUR doll. Even if it's slight modifications, a modder better be prepared for his/her doll to be rejected.

 

I dunno.. several of my friends have been asked (when not selling) if they'd sell their dolls. (modded ones included) to someone...

Personally, I love highly modded dolls. I have a hard enough time telling many sculpts from another anyway, so I can't tell if it's a modded blueblood blahblahblah or simply a stock Latidoll whatever.... And i love watching peoples progress in the customization threads when they have these epic modding projects to create a character ^^ My next doll will actually end up rather heavily modded with being given dragon legs, wings and a tail along with some mods to his face to make it more draconic.

And there are the mods which are done to increase the mobility of a doll -shrugs- like sawing a Crobi lower torso in half to add in a pivot point.

 

The only time I take issue with it is when people mod a doll in a way that they like and then try and sell it off at a ridiculous price.

Not everyone will like the mod, especially if it's poorly done.

 

I personally would find it a little depressing if someone had taken a limited or something akin to that and... modded it to look completley different. It is a little sad that a person who would want it as-is couldn't have it, but other than that, if the modding is well done, and the doll isn't falling apart afterwards, go for it!

 

I agree 100% There are so many people that cry when a limited is no longer for sale. Why buy it, taking it from someone else, and modding it to death. I would understand a new face-up or ear mods, they are simple changes. I personally think modding is risky so I make sure I look EVERYWHERE to find a doll that best fits my chararcter(and can pose). Say there was a hot soom monthly and someone changed the skin and mixed up parts to make it a modded up hybrid. Someone wanted that doll People really need to take the time to find a doll they don't have to mod nearly as much. Customizing is a part of the hobby and I have seen some really good and sometimes very shocking mods.
In the end, do what makes ya happy ^_^

 

It's true that there may be another person out there who would like a new mint limited; but what about the person who actually owns the doll and who thinks it's perfect now that it's been modded (no matter how minor or extensive those mods are)?

How is their desire to own their dream doll any less valid than the person who covets an unmodded version?

 

Because they're *not* "taking it from someone else". If said other person wanted one, they'd have bought one or will look for one in the condition they want it in. I am ridiculously tired of this idea that we all owe each other a damned thing, especially that we are to not mod dolls that some nebulous 'other' will someday want due to thier being limited. If someone wants to mod a limited doll that they spent their money on, they bloody well can.

Absolutely, someone wanted that doll-the person that bought it. People act like someone buying a doll to modify is some horrible sin because 'OMG someone else would have loved that doll as it was!' So what? They didn't buy it when they had the chance. There are others out there to be bought, eventually. The person who owns the modified doll enjoys it just as much as the person who would have kept it stock would've, if not more. I'm really really sick of the implication that someone who mods a doll (especially a limited) must not actually like/want the doll they modded and are only doing it to take one away from some poor deserving soul who would have loved it and petted it and called it KawaiiNeko McUke-chan and stuck it on a shelf away from the world. Why should someone not have the right to modify their doll to *any* degree to make it into their vision of what it should be, limited or not? (Er...this bit isn't directed at you specifically, it's just a general expression of frustration and annoyance at the attitude I keep seeing.)

 

You've obviously never seen the vast number of splits that appear immediately any time a new MD is released purely for the purpose of splitting up the parts from the very moment the doll is released, I suspect. This is common practice -- especially with Soom MDs.

 

What if someone buys a limited edition doll and decides to keep it? That's one doll less for other people to buy. How horrible!
Doll collectors have to accept that once there are more people who want a certain LE doll than there are dolls of that LE, there's going to be an unfair distribution of those dolls amoung the people who want them.
Consider a "mod to death" LE the same as a doll the owner does not want to sell. They are both taken out of the potential second hand market pool.

 

I'm getting really tired of this. People don't have the right to claim a doll when it belongs to someone else. The person that modded that doll wanted it too, otherwise she wouldn't have bought it.
You make it sound like modding one single limited doll makes it impossible for someone else to find one in pristine condition ever again, but that's not true. There are plenty of others on the after market you could buy, it just takes some time - and sometimes money - to get one.

Besides, even if all the owners of über-special-limited-one doll decide to modify their dolls - making it impossible to find one in original state ever again - the community still can't hold it against them. They've bought their doll, so it's theirs to do whatever they want with it. Limiteds don't belong to the community and they certainly don't belong to those who wanted them, but didn't buy them (for whatever reason). They belong to the owners. Period.

EDIT:

Yup. I'm not selling mine. So all of you who were looking for one, you've just missed out on a K-ss, a Madoka, a SwD Lucas, an Iru, a Peroth and a Williams. What can I say? I'm bad for the community for selfishly wanting to keep them. Bad Silk.

 

THIS. My Lawrence Owen, or Silk's Madoka, or any other person's limited is not somehow on loan to us from some community pool of dolls. It's the property of the person who bought it, full stop. Not a friend's, not that woman in Australia or guy in Brazil who really, really wanted it, they're *ours*. The fact that someone else might have wanted something as-is does not negate the actual owner's right to do as they please to their doll. I'd really, really love to have a Cecile Scarface as he came, but that doesn't mean I'm going to whinge and cry if someone who has one dyes him purple and gives him a third eye because OMG I WANTED HIM! That's a really childish, overly entitled attitude.

 

This. So many times over, this. Exactly this.

I am not renting my dolls from the rest of you. I bought them. They are my property -- not community property. If you don't like what I do with them, too bad for you. If I don't like what you do with yours, which are your property, too bad for me. It's just that simple.

 

And some of us would be like PURPLE THIRD EYE CECILE SCARFACE (swoon)(nosebleed)

 

Such wonderful points, better said then I could have. I now want a T-shirt that says "It's my doll, get over it."

 

It's been a long time since I've been part of this debate, but having been in the hobby for such an extended period of time, I do have perspective to say some new things (for myself, though it may just be rehashing for some of you) on the matter discussed immediately above. About modified dolls 'lowering the value' and pulling them out of the second hand market.

The first thing I want to say is that, absolutely, I agree with the point that Silk, surreality, Hominivorax, and Muisje (and others) is driving home. Our property is our property expressly, regardless of what it is. At the end of the day, regarding our property, it doesn't matter what we do with it, or how valuable it is; just because we want it does not make it ours, or even potentially ours, which many people in this hobby have a hard time understanding.

Some people will say that modifications, if badly done, to an object is disgusting or somehow immoral to the hobby because it changes what the original idea of the object, what it was 'supposed' to be as intended by the source company or owner. But see, there's a problem with that mindset. If it is not a living thing, it can't be 'abused', so we really need to get out of the mindset that there are 'bad' doll owners because they make a really horrid mistake in opening the eye of an Elf Lishe. There is no violence in sawing the breasts off of 'female' dolls to make them more flat chested, or 'transition' them into boys, because they, as objects, have no real genders (it's symbolic; my Si has no functioning gonads and that's not just because he's an MSD sized 'little boy' doll, and he couldn't 'wrongfully' be 'reassigned' into a girl because his gender is as it is perceived in my head.). Gore mods may represent abuse, but you can't abuse the doll who has the mods n reality because it is not a living person. People who say 'we need to rescue dolls from bad owners' really need not rescue anything, because there's nothing of real live value to rescue. The real 'value' perceived in this hobby in its symbolic representation is strictly preceptual and emotional. Morals can be interpreted from there, in that category. But in the real world, the only 'value' these chunks of plastic have is monetary.

When I was younger, I felt entirely more self-entitled than I do now. When Woosoo came out from Luts back in the day, I grew secretly angry whenever people would buy, then modify, the sleeping vampire head. Because I wanted one, and whenever the eyes were modified more open than what I would have done, I was expressly aware that the amount of Woosoos out there 'available' for potential resale to suit my needs was one less than before each time I saw another one. But you can't think of it as, 'because it is not what I would do, it is less valuable'. The owner of the item, when they take the time to plan to modify, normally aren't thinking of the resale value, of what you would like. You have zero right to their doll when they have bought it. When an item is someone's, there may very well be no resale value because there will be no resale. And what you are really complaining about, what you are really resenting when you see a full set doll split up, repainted, modified, whatever is this:

The resale value of the original, mint in box item, as is, unmodified, has gone up.

And admit it, that's what's making you crazy. It isn't how 'good' or how 'bad' an item is modified. It's because you want something that is just going to be that much harder to obtain. And it's okay to be jealous. Envy is a common emotion. But when you're jealous, you need to realize it. And you need to own it. And move on. At a certain point in your life, way, way, way beyond dolls, even, you would do well to be aware of your own flaws (no matter how logical they may 'seem' be) so that they don't own you. You have what my psychology classes classify as a 'bias'. Recognize it, because you're going to have a much easier time changing yourself and how you view the world than you are going to be successful at wooing others to perceive how much a doll is supposed to be yours.

That's the point I really wanted to make. I know I was long winded in saying it. But I still stand by what I've said. In order to understand why we feel the way we do about dolls, about anything, is understanding the psychology behind ourselves. After all, we have a whole debate subforum dedicated to resin toys. If there was no psychology attached, we'd've probably run out of things to argue about before the subforum was created.

tlrd; Spy talks psychological reasons for doll envy and why mods are considered 'bad' or 'good'.

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edit: For those of you who wonder about the appropriateness of using a loaded word such as bias in my post, allow me to quickly explain what a bias is. It is either a positive or negative idea, sets of ideas, or thoughts (set into place in the mind of the individual for whatever reason) that colours and influences how they perceive the word, an event, a situation, or a noun. Therefore, I defend myself in saying that the use of the word bias is utterly appropriate for this topic of discussion. If it makes you uncomfortable, wonder then, instead of 'why am I using it to talk about dolls', 'what amounts of bias do you express in this discussion, towards dolls, life, etc'. I'm aware that I have some sort of bias in discussing my opinion, and take responsibility for it.

edittldr; in case you are upset about the use of the word bias, which is seen as negative, Spy explains that he uses it because our morals are affected by our biases.

 

Also

While your entire post is made of awesome, I think this drives it home the best. The sense of community entitlement and "having a say" when it comes to *someone else's* doll is really amazing. I know that there are more than a few dolls out there who have fan followings (I fangirl over a few myself, as I'm sure we all do), but if the owner then chooses to repaint/mod/totally destory that doll, it's their business. They should be allowed to do so without grief from random peple they have never met and probably never heard of until they get a flood of "Nooooooo, why did you totally ruin my beloved SuperAwesomeDoll."

I've seen this so many times, especially on DeviantArt. And it makes me want to go off on someone on the owner's behalf. I don't know how most of them handle it with the grace they do, and when those owners feel so pressured by the "community" that they stop posting pics of their dolls over crazy, rabid fan reactions, it is really a sad testament to the insane entitlement people feel about something that isn't even--and never will be--theirs.

That owner shouldn't have to answer to anyone about what they choose to do with their property. Even if it is a one-off. Even if they want to carve large, random chunks of resin out of that one-off for no apparent reason whatsoever or add a shark fin or hamster feet to it. (Random modding scenario is random.)

Why should a person who loves his or her doll have to feel accountable to a huge, random group of strangers for what they choose to do to their property, especially if they love it all the more for having those large chunks of resin missing, a shark's fin and little hamster feet? It's not your (generic, coveting one-off lover's) doll. It will never be your doll (because the owner who loves it isn't going to sell it). So why get all worked up over it?

Also, this. A thousand, million times this.