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IMPLDOLL Fantasia Discussion thread

Feb 18, 2010

    1. I like Impldoll and I wish they would make something very own, like they did with grey Christopher, its obviously that they can sculpt and understand design, so it would be sad if they become bad image because they're "inspired" by Soom or other companies, it would be really really sad.
      I want more variety on dolls world, and like companies who have their own face.

      Soom themself are inspired by other artists work, its obviously, but they give it their own style, and do a lot of work.
      And Soom get inspired from other BJD companies too, here:
      http://www.denofangels.com/forums//showthread.php?t=155257&page=4

      I like Fantasia and want her in human skin later, and I love Christopher and Aaron too.
       
    2. I don't know how to feel about all this. The feet and hands are a total ripoff. Adding the little fringes or whatever they are doesn't make them original. She's really beautiful and I know several people who would really like gray or purple big elves for drow characters, but I can be sure that IMPLDOLL is trying to cash in on SOOM's MD patterns. Yes, they're sculpting their own, so it's still 'allowed' in the end, but I can't look upon it highly.
      But, by the same token, if no one had ever "copied" the idea of Ball Jointed Dolls from other companies, there wouldn't be all these different dolls to see in the first place, and SOOM wouldn't exist either. So I don't know. It's a messy argument for sure, no matter what side you stand on.
       
    3. This is what i feel too, although with Fantasia, i thought Topaz at first too, but a friend of mine pointed out that her face seems more like Cuprit than Topaz. Fantasia ended up seeming to me to be a pretty amalgamation of a few Soom MD girls.

      I'm all for inspiration as well, especially with the success of Soom's fantasy parts and MDs, but it seems like IMPL might be trying to directly include the style of the sculpting rather than incorperating certain elements. This goes for the dod-esque minis as well.

      (okay, and the colored elf "baby" line. Is it just me, or is the general style of them similar to bambicrony's colored elves, both in color and clothing style? Again, obviously IMPL's work, but also obviously inspired)
       
    4. To me it just seems like another company cashing in on a fad.
       
    5. I was wondering why no one else had noticed this too!:sweat
      That's the first thing I thought when they were released but didn't say so just because, you know. xD

      I hadn't even noticed Ember/Eugene before until this thread either, clearly they went straight over my head.:sweat
      But I adored Fantasia the second I saw her so, here I am!
      I makes sense that I adore her too, as I love fantasy resin colours, I have a Cuprit and love her, and I don't have a Topaz but want her - just don't want yet another WS doll!
      I think the Ember/Amber similarities are stronger than the Fantasia/Topaz ones though, simply because so many artists have drawn fairy legs like that in the past - who knows where Impldoll's influences lie.

      For me, while the similarities can't be denied and I do suspect some copying is going on, I've been getting frustrated with Soom as of late for them always choosing natural over something more fabulous - and we all know they could do something more fabulous really well!
      They stick with WS, NS, tan and grey to be safe (even their grey is very subtle), and their faceups are generally very natural.
      I want to see some more fabulous resin colours, and more intense makeup and body blushing, because I adore what Soom does and feel as if they're holding back.
      At any rate, so many of us have been saying this for a while, so I wonder if, rather than Soom listening to us, OTHER COMPANIES have listened to us.
      True it would have been better if Impldoll had created something totally unique, if only to avoid all this kind of discussion!!!

      As for Fantasia, I do really love her concept, but there are many things that worry me about her, mainly that I've never seen people talking about Impldoll, I have no idea what their quality is like (it doesn't look very high from their basic doll pics but this could just be bad photography), what their poseability is like and so on.
      Plus she's come out at the same time as Souldoll's Kayla (ice violet skin) who I already have on layaway so I'm not sure whether I can justify another purple girl!
      If she were MSD sized I'd be all over her, but I'm guessing she's SD?
       
    6. I've never seen an Impldoll in person, but I've heard from several sources that I trust who HAVE seen and held them that they are very nice. Heavy, gorgeous posers, and have nice smooth resin with no seam lines.

      I first saw Impldoll on ebay, and wasn't impressed much with the sculpts until I saw the gray Christopher, and Abigale. When I saw the WS Ember at DDE, I ordered her because I love her changeable ears, and she DID remind me of so many Soom MDs I've loved and missed, but I do feel she is unique in her own way. I've looked at her photo almost daily because they are due to arrive at DDE any day now, and I'm really eager to see her in person.

      When I told my doll friends that I'd ordered Ember, one of them thought I had said Amber and thought I was getting the Soom MD, and when I showed pictures, some were confused because of her faun ears. So I KNOW there are similiarities that cannot be denied. I just think they at similiarities, and that's it. I saw a Bobobie mini with faun legs the other day made by some othere company......not Soom, and he looked like one of the more recent MDs.

      Call it cashing in, but I think it's smart marketing. Once they get their foot in the door and can afford to go out on their own limb, great, but since they know that people love fairies, fauns, and fantasy dolls, let them start there. This is a very competitive market, and while I'm sure some artists start out doing their "own" thing, and hit it big, many start by doing what SELLS.

      P.S. I believe Fantasia is what they call the STAR size. 63.5cm
       
    7. I may not have been on DoA for as long as you have, but I read that thread a while ago and I thought this was a good answer/explanation to that particular thread;

      You can't really accuse companies of being inspired for the common human body part. It's just too common, while the Amber Ears and Fairy Feet/Hands aren't.

      It just doesn't smell like originality, that's all. Especially with that name, Ember :doh
       
    8. To tell truth I kinda like Impldoll's Ember, Fantasia and Eugene (The boy version of Ember). Sorry for the SOOM MD hard corest but my opinion the Fantasia face and resin color is lovely. And having the option of a BOY and GIRL twin faun's is wonderful.
       
    9. These two dolls are too similar. You can say all you want about fairies having pointed feet, but those hands and feet are clearly sculpted to have a likeness to those of Soom; there would have been other ways to sculpt fairy hands and feet and they'd look different enough.

      It's one think for a company to take inspiration from another, but to make an item that is so much like an original is more like making a knockoff than anything else.
       
    10. Glad I'm not the only one who has been struck by the obvious similarities between Impl's dolls and Soom MDs. However...

      Well, someone's gotta be first. There was a first MP3 player, a first laptop, a first Barbie doll. Volks has been brought up in this thread already - they were the first to make BJDs, if people hadn't "copied" them or become "inspired" by them, we wouldn't have nearly as much to choose from BJD-wise as we do now.

      I don't know what exactly to call the similarities between Soom and Impldoll, because "ripoff" seems too harsh and "copy" is inaccurate (Impl's are original sculpts too, after all). But we should also keep in mind that Soom has become a major "trendsetter" in the BJD hobby. Soom was the first to make all the amazing fantasy Monthly dolls (horns, hooves, wings, paws, tails, ears, oh my!) that many other companies are now trying to replicate in their own way. Think about what hooved/horned Soom dolls like Beryl inspired - such as ResinSoul 60cms and Angelheim MSD boys that now sport horns and hooves.
      Sure, it is jumping on the bandwagon to mirror Soom's trailblazing - and often unprecedented - designs. But doll companies are companies, and need to make sales and profits. There's no denying that Soom Monthly dolls are wildly popular, so I can't really blame any company for trying to snag their own share of the market in the fantasy/LE doll fan base.

      Having said all of this...

      I also think there IS a very thin line between "inspiration" and "blatant rip-off". And Impl is getting rather close to crossing it...

      And while Soom doesn't have any sort of copyright on fantasy doll parts like long drooping ears (or in this case pointy fairy feet), in my opinion it's pretty easy to see that Impl isn't really using the Soom dolls as "inspiration"... it looks like they're using them as a blueprint for their own parts.

      *Edit*
      After doing a side-by-side comparison of Fantasia to Topaz, I can say that, for me personally, the similarities between the two dolls are too obvious to ignore and too close for comfort. So much is similar - the position of the fingers on the hand, the long slender fingers, the shape of the eyes and the pouty lips (which do not resemble Impl's previous sculpts much), right down to the long elf ears with a scalloped edge.
      I urge people to at least compare the left hand in the Fantasia teaser to that of Topaz... the same hand (left) is in the same pose, complete with the bent ring finger. Now, I know there's only so many ways to sculpt a hand... but really.
       
    11. I quite agree with you on this one, and having briefly owned a Topaz myself I felt my eyebrows raise as soon as I saw Fantasia here - I see a whole lot of 'inspiration' coming through in her general look, and those feet coupled with the fairy theme in particular are quite the giveaway.

      While it's important to be able to give companies the benefit of the doubt, I'd say one occurance can be a fluke but more than one should be where we start to question exactly where a company is getting its ideas from. Once would have been the similarities between Ember and Amber, but given that Impl have followed up Ember with yet another doll that has an eerie echo of another of Soom's monthlies I call that one too many co-incidences for comfort, personally.
       
    12. I personally don't think they are copying soom directly. I think they are more inspired by what soom is putting out. Fantasia does have her own spin to the whole pointed feet and thin fingers idea. For one they aren't made out of that transparent resin. They have scales on them. I think the color of the resin is beautiful and I think she has a pretty face. Many companies have been inspired by extra fantasy parts, one being Iplehouse with their circus/limited EID line with the lion heads and such. Look at Angelheim with their medusa parts. I don't want to see Ipmldoll's dolls banned over supposed "copying", when I feel their dolls are beautiful and unique in their own way.
       
    13. Sorry to be blunt, but this looks like an attempt to make a "poor man's Topaz".

      The feet, ears and hands are the same style and the overall presentation is too similar to Soom.

      I'm reminded of when AOD made their Jurgis doll which was obviously "inspired" buy Soom's Io. Why can't these new companies try something completely new? There's way more fantasy creatures than fairies, fauns and werewolves...
       

    14. You have a very good point and it is one I addressed in my previous post above. That point does have merit, it is undeniable.
      And I'm not saying Fantasia isn't a lovely doll in her own right... she's the first Impldoll I have found relatively appealing thusfar, so I'm not trying to shoot her down because I think she's ugly. :sweat

      And I seriously doubt she or any other Impl dolls will be banned, considering they aren't direct recasts/copies. Technically, Impl wasn't doing anything unscrupulous regarding the production of their dolls. The issue at hand is more ethical than anything else... The location of the line between "inspiration" and "rip-off" and how blurred that line can be.
       
    15. I totally agree, too many similarities, too many times. It's just tacky.

      (And don't forget the Bambicrony-coloured 'baby' line, complete with similar ears.)
       
    16. I'd like to remind everyone that Asian countries don't have nearly as strict of copyright laws as North American and European countries. I think if Soom doesn't see a problem with Impldoll than we shouldn't be so worried about it. Trust me, if you place a Soom doll and an Impldoll side by side, you'll see many differences even if they have the same fantasy theme going on. Besides, there wasn't this much debate over Peapod doll's hooves, so why all the Impldoll hate? They are really a lovely, honest company!
       
    17. Not only that but BJD's have been around for centuries. Germans were really the first to come up with the ball jointed idea.
       
    18. Personally, more warning flags went off in my head when Angelheim appeared on the market than with Impldoll now.
      While Angelheim started with their own unique parts (medusa snakes), the way the heads were sculped and the way they did their faceups, I have to admit that the first thing I said was "total Soom ripoff" - though if Angelheim started releasing girls, I might be tempted into one all the same.:sweat
      I actually didn't link Fantasia to Soom until I started reading the comments here to be honest, so I think it's more to do with the fact that this doll has come out directly after Ember/Eugene, so people are already on the lookout for Soom copies.

      To some extent, I think this might actually be a good thing however.
      If the GS Christopher is anything to go by, Fantasia as a complete fullset will probably be around the US$400 mark.
      A fullset Soom doll is going to cost you around $1200 probably, and a fullset Angelheim doll around $900-ish.. then looking at resin colour over fantasy parts, a fullset Souldoll Kayla (ice violet resin) will set you back about $1000.
      There currently really doesn't seem to be any affordable fantasy dolls out there, which means a lot of people can't get the dolls they want - I know I have to starve regularly to afford my girls!!

      Not saying that copying in favour of price is ok, just that I think it's good that more affordable companies are trying out the fantasy doll market. Hopefully they'll find their own feet soon enough and start being more creative!
      After all, Domuya released their Life Project, the first 3 dolls of which were fantasy and very much their own creation. From what I know, they really didn't sell that many, at least not here on DoA, proving that trying something new doesn't always work out, and it's quite a scary leap for a smaller company to take!
       
    19. I went and actually took Fantasia's Photo, and put part of Topaz's photo on top. It's silly how close the pose is, all I had to do was flip Topaz around and it was practially the same.

      But I have to disagree with the hands. The poses are similar, but they're fairly different. Topaz's hands look more fleshy and rounded, while Fantasia's are very slender and pointy.

      If you want a rip-off of soom hands, go looks at Heliot's hands, and compare them to Fantasia's. Same pose, and same slender pointy fingers. That one is much closer than Topaz's hands.

      I didn't even realize that Ember/Eugene existed until reading this thread and looking them up, and the first thing I thought was Soom when I saw their hands and feet, so I don't think that's it.
       
    20. i dont think they look the same.... why do people have to say its like a copy of soom.... if that was the case then all the vampire dolls are copy's because vamp's have fangs so if one does a vamp and another company does one it is not a copy..... and usually fairies have all the same features... well thats just my opinion