Is it okay to mod a rare head?

Eeeeh, as much as I enjoy the community and interacting with people within it I'm afraid they have zero say over what I do or don't do with my personal possessions. Dolls don't belong to the community, they belong to who ever happens to buy it regardless of that dolls availability, there's plenty of one offs or very rare dolls that get bought then never surface within the online community because either the owner doesn't participate or isn't interested in posting photos or what what have you.

 

Yeah, let's just settle all of the "OMG, is it okay to ______" with that. NO, you may NOT do as you please with your own doll, especially if said doll is limited. Obviously, as it is rare and pweshus, you may not do anything you like to it unless you go to the community at large and take a vote (because if it's a limited, it is magically transformed into community property even though you paid for it). Otherwise you have a one way ticket to special hell beside people who talk in movie theaters and will be shunned by the rest of the doll collecting community FOREVAR.

...Seriously, people. I don't give a rat's bum how rare something is; even if Mr. Dollshe or Gentaro Araki himself personally sculpted and cast a single doll and then burnt the mold, if you bought that doll it's yours to do anything you please with, even if what pleases you is sanding its face off. Dolls are not community property no matter their rarity. No-one has to consider how modifying their doll that they paid for or were gifted will make someone halfway around the world (or next door) feel. We do not have to consider the rest of the community before we pick up tools and have at a doll. There are no ethics involved here and it annoys me when people try to make things like this an issue of them.

 

Do whatever you wish with your dolls. Sheesh. If you succeed with the mod, the head becomes unique. Booger it up with a botched mod and all the other heads in that run becomes even more rare. It's a win for somebody somewhere either way. ^_^

 

It does not matter, really. You can do with your belongings as you wish.

Being respectful to a piece of art, that's another thing. But this is also up to everyone. I also feel kind of hurt if a rare modelhorse resin (let's say an edition of 10 pieces worldwide) gets customized (our technical term) in a way which I find odd. Well, no need for me to take one further look at it. If the owner likes it, it is okay. Not more and not less.

I have not right to put my personal opinion above the likes of other people.

 

I think it decided on your own decision to make, its up to you. It depend on the person too, if that person had prepared about the result and think about it enough and do the modification, then its decided.

As for me and for my doll maybe I will think about it 100x for sure since they will be very rare or one of a kind. This is just my personal opinion ^^

 

Until someone comes along with a bottomless purse and as surreality suggested, sets themselves up as the grand historian of this hobby and buys all the rare heads and dolls to preserve them in a climate controlled chamber somewhere, then anything goes.

I wonder if what we're addressing here is not so much the ethics of the situation (which have been debated over and over again) but the consequences? Which are, if you attempt to mod your rare doll and mess it up, then no, you're not going to get anywhere what you paid for it. Because it will no longer be an only-three-in-the-world rare sculpt, but a butchered chunk of resin.

Ah, JennyNemesis, please don't learn any rhetorical restraint. I wouldn't laugh out loud on this forum anywhere near as much if you did.

 

Lol, seriously. QFE.

 

well if its REALLY rare. like 3. then i would say no, dont do it.
because imagine if the 3 persons get like: well there are 2 others like this anyway ^_^
then oops, that beautiful limited doll doesnt exist anymore. that would kinda sucks.
for a limited with great number, like soom for exemple, i'd say its not as bad. personnaly i kinda bothers me when someone do mods on a limited, other than eyes opening or closing. i get a little pinch in the heart "one less of that mold....."
but of course, i cant sew you or send you to hell because you did it xDDD you did pay for it, its yours. but anyone who mod a limited, i am expecting them to lower the price when they resell :/

 

I have a few very rare dolls, a Souldoll Gunun, a Luts/CP 2006 El Elf and a Mudoll Le Petit Prince. I love that they are rare, and would never think of doing anything to them. I also have a rather rarish Souldoll Asiter, but I have an extra head for him that was damaged and modded at one time by someone (so the nose is colored blue and there is eyeslot pitting). I plan do mod this head, because, well, it'll make my Asiter even more rare, and besides it's in need of something because of the damage. I have a rare Ganymede head that was modded by the first owner, just opening the lips a bit to show teeth, this I think is fine. Now, if someone were to take the El Elf and sand down his ears, that would be wrong. If they want an El with no elf points they should just buy a regular El. I also have a Dollmore Dean, who I understand is rare-ish also... but his face up is so weird that I'm redoing that, and the previous owner pierced his ears, so he's modded already. So, I guess I'm as wishy-washy as they come with this question. I vote don't mod a very rare doll, if you can possibly help yourself. If you don't like it the way it is, sell it to someone who will love it the way it is, and get yourself something you like or can mod with a free conscience.

 

For any limited, rare, or even totally common everyone has one kinda doll I see no issue with modding it to your little hearts content for one main reason. Once you mod that doll, especially if its some sort of extreme modding, that doll becomes more rare then it was before. Because it is now one of a kind. Even if there is fifty of one type of doll, and ten of them get their eyes opened more, each one is unique because they wouldn't have been opened the same way. And should you and the doll not work out and you sell it, well you don't know, maybe someone had been looking at that rare doll when it had been available but didn't get it because something just wasn't right about it. Then they stumble upon your listing and bam! Your mod was just the thing to make that doll perfect for their character so they buy it from you and are extremely happy.

 

I wouldn't know.

If I am going to mod a dolls head because I want it to be modded. Then I am going to do it ( not me myself, I will pay someone who has done it before and really well).

I do agree that rare heads should not be praticed on when it comes to modding, and makeup can only work so much as an illusion.

I am on the line here, neither condoning or destroying the idea of modding a rare head.

It just depends on the owner. Who cares about the community's stand point. It will just stop a lot of people who want to buy the head and since I do not sell my dolls. I wouldn't care less. I saved up money, I bought it. It belongs to me. I am not going to start scratching up the face with a key, but again, if I want something done to it to make it better (in my eyes). Then yes. I would love it to be done right.

 

I say if it's your head you can do whatever you want with it. Just prepared that if you go to resell it, you most likely won't get the original asking price. BJDs are meant to be customized and played with, so play away.

 

You own it, you can do what you want with it.

That said, I really think you should be extra sure of what you're doing before modding a rare head, and realize that if you post it there will be extra scrutiny because it's rare and not easily replaceable. Take your time, think about it, plan, really look around and make sure there's not another sculpt that would work better for your purposes, and maybe even consider buying a cheap practice head to experiment on techniques with first. I've seen where someone took a limited variation of a standard head and roughly modded it to look like the standard version, when they could have simply sold the rare one and bought TWO standards to play with and had money left over. It was theirs, none of my business, but I was appalled, it seemed just wasteful and thoughtless to me. I'm amazed how often someone's first ever mod is on an expensive limited that ends up posted in "emergency" needing repair work because the owner was not happy with how the mod turned out. The amount the doll is devalued and that will need to be spent to "fix" it often is enough to have bought a practice head or two!

Again, it belongs to you, you can do what you want with it. Just THINK first, for "destructive" mods. If there's only 20 of them on the planet, when you're done there will only be 19, no matter how amazing the mod is. Be sure you are making the right choice, and THEN go for it!

 

If you own a rare head and you want to modded it??? I'd say go ahead. But if I were you I wounldn't do that, if I didn't feel bond with its original rare mold. I might sell it on marketplace a get a sooooo good price for there must be people out there who's willing to pay for it (such as '08 juri MNF head) because if you modded it, there will be no turning back also no replacement................

 

There's nothing wrong with modding your own property.
I do however think it's a smart thing to not practice on it (because you probably spent alot of money on it lol) and if you want it modded, go the extra mile and have it done by someone who can do it well.
Honestly, if I got bashed by the community for modding a rare head, then it's not much of a community to me. Then it would be a bunch of jaleous sillyheads (lolol PG cussing here).
Also, modding doesn't nearly always make a mold worth less. If it's a well done mod, you could sell it for even more money if it turns out not to your liking.

 

I can on one hand sympathise with this remark, but on the other hand what if someone buys a limited head (or doll) and never shows pictures of it and will never sell it? It would be "gone" to the community too (i.e. people wouldn't be able to admire the limited from a distance), but is the owner doing something wrong by enjoying their doll the way they like?
What feels right to the owner may feel "unfair" to the community and we all know life isn't always fair.

I've actually bought a "destroyed" limited head second hand and I modified it to my liking. I'm putting the word "destroyed" between quotation marks, because one man's garbage is another man's treasure.

 

Haha, you do have a point.
Sometimes I see people getting all excited over limiteds and such, but from some you never see any of them again! For instance the Impldoll limiteds. There's only 4 or so on this forum out of 60 dolls (a few different dolls aswell) made or so. They just disappear.

 

In a way, I do feel like it's a loss if there were such a short amount of said doll. Because then there would be one less of that doll, and if you're striving for the original, it's kind of like having that less of a chance.

On the other hand, it doesn't really matter because it's your doll and these things are meant to be modified and loved. And a very talented modifier could probably fix the mods to make it look like it originally did, or at least very similar. That's the fun of this hobby and I think it's more fun to have a doll that's unlike someone else's. To me, it makes it that much more special.

But it kind of bothers me if an unskilled modifier destroys a very rare head. At least practice with a cheaper one first. Because in that case, it's kind of a waste in my eyes.

 

I think limiteds are just flat-out overrated.

Resin can be shaped in all kinds of ways, and I don't care if *this* resin head was shaped by Michalangelo (well, maybe that I would) - but you guys get the situation.

If someone *still living* created a doll head I wouldn't care. I don't plan to ever get limiteds, either, so it doesn't matter to me. I think resin is resin, and no one can really say that a head from someone 'famous' in the BJD community is better than a regular head from somewhere else. Better in what way? Someone special made it, that's all. In the spectrum of BJDs, limiteds really don't matter to me.

If I ever did get a limited (by some twist of fate) they'd be treated like all my other dolls, anyway. Sure, maybe I'd be a little more careful in some instances, but they're not sitting in their boxes, they're not being overly protected from sunlight... it's just another BJD to me.