Making Dolls based on shows, games or art

Seeing dolls based off of other media used to be far more common than it seems to be now.

There was a company called Doll in Mind that used to have a “Minimee” service where they would sculpt anything, up to 10 copies. Group orders for these were super common and you’d see sculpts made after all sorts of characters and famous people (usually meant to be a character from someone favourite piece of media they starred in). The first Minimee I ever saw in person was David Bowie as he was in Labyrinth.

Searching for Minimee or DIM Minimee should yield you some results (though many will have broken images). You might have fun looking through them

Sadly DIM closed some time ago.

Then there were, of course, all of the many projects where someone would just use a base doll as it already existed, maybe doing some modifications.

I was on hiatus from the hobby for a long time and when I came back I heard that the younger generation of BJD collectors aren’t into customizing as much. Not really sure why that is if it’s true. It definitely seems like there’s a higher ratio of custom projects on here than there are on IG.

 

It's fairly common on DoA, yes. Here's a discussion thread. People also share pics in the Photo Reference forum - you can either do a search for "cosplay" (limit the search to Title only), or look at the "Theme" category (it's the little orange-coloured tab in front of the thread title) to see threads for people's media-character dolls.

I think there's a lot of media-character BJDs still being created, I don't think it's decreased over time. They're now generally called "cos dolls" (for "cosplay dolls") - I believe this name came from the Chinese BJD scene. I follow Chinese soc med and cos dolls are prevalent there: I understand that Chinese hobbyists tend to make cos dolls a lot more than OC/original-character dolls.

What media characters are popular is subject to change over time, of course -- I do think there's a generational difference here. There are some franchises that are perennially loved, eg. Final Fantasy (all games), Link from Legend of Zelda. As for the current hot franchises: I've already seen a Kpop Demon Hunters doll on Instagram. I see a good number of Astarion from Baldur's Gate 3, on DoA and elsewhere. Love & Deepspace has been hot for a while in China, with wig and eye servicing, and even head sculpts that are definitely inspired by the media character but stop short of naming it outright. Oh - nearly forgot about MDZS and Heaven's Official Blessing -- two danmei series that seem super popular. Ringdoll made official franchise dolls of them.

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I personally am not interested in making cos dolls, but I do have a couple of dolls who are heavily inspired by existing media characters, mostly in their appearance with a bit of personality. But they are firmly OCs, and I don't think you'd know which media character they're inspired from if I didn't tell you (and my fandoms are not popular).
I once made one of those dolls cosplay their media character. I commissioned a wig, but cobbled together the eyes and outfit from pieces I bought. It wasn't a good cosplay, but it was the best I could do as a newbie. Now that I have some actual sewing skills, I want to revisit this cosplay someday.

 

There's lots of this in the community, although I think it's easier to find cosplay or character dolls on DoA/Tumblr/Flickr/IG and other western online communities of a bit older or more popular franchises: Evangelion cosplays, Final Fantasy dolls, Legend of Zelda, Genshin Impact etc. Since the hobby is much more scaled up and active in Asian countries, esp China, it's probably easier to find dolls of newer fandoms on respective social media. (I do have to admit I know nothing about Love & Deepspace nor K-pop Demon Hunters and their popularity though )

There are also lots of ready-made character dolls made by doll companies (Volks has a ton of those that I'm not even attempting to count plus all the Dollfie Dreams based on anime characters, Ringdoll's licenced manhwa dolls, Angell-Studio's WLOP characters, Puyoodoll's Zootopia dolls...) - they have always been very popular to collect but I think the available choice and huge demand has definitely made them more common to see around, which is why it might feel like DIY-ing isn't as much in the forefront any more (although I think that's just optics tbh - making fandom dolls seems to be alive and well but of course projects like this take time and don't compete, attention-wise, with an edition of 100 company-made character dolls popping up more or less at the same time).


Personally, I really enjoy doing cosplay projects with my dolls! But they are my dolls doing cosplay, looking like they are cosplaying, rather than dolls made based on the characters as I'm usually not deep enough into fandoms to spend more time with it. It's always cool to see dolls as characters from the screen, though!

 

I do enjoy making cosplay dolls because I am a fandom person. I don't have cosplays for anything you've mentioned, but the most popular doll cosplays I have are Astarion Ascendant and Dark Urge characters from Baldur's Gate 3 videogame, also i've got Kylo Ren and General Hux from Star Wars movie.

 

I enjoy making dolls based off of characters. I have two Link dolls from legend of Zelda and am currently making a G'raha Tia from Final Fantasy XIV. I haven't posted much about the latter's progress like I did for the Link project, but it's still slowly materializing.

I think there are still plenty of people that do character dolls, it's just that maybe they don't share too much of the progress until it's finished. At least, that's my current thought.

 

I think some of it comes down to where you're looking. While a lot of people here are into fandoms, DoA itself isn't a fandom space, so if you're looking for fandom things like dolls, you'll have better luck seeing more of them by going into fandom spaces on places like tumblr, bluesky, twitter, etc. It's not that people aren't making them, but that it's easier to talk about the fandom aspect in places where that can more easily be the focus. There are lots of threads of people talking about shelling various characters in the visual concepts area of the workshop section here. If you're not sure where to start with making some dolls for KPop Demon Hunters, you could post there for suggestions or help!

 

I know I do. Mine are mostly Tolkien works based. I'm thinking of selling the dolls that I made to be based off of Final Fantasy 9 characters or my official anime Dollfie Dreams, just because I don't really enjoy them as much as I thought I would.

There are also a lot of larger dolls who look like the Saja Boys from K-Pop Demon Hunters (Soom's newest Idealian comes to mind) but for Huntrix, that will probably take a lot of hunting and searching and possibly commissioning.

 

I have a couple dolls based on a show! They’re not exactly like their canon selves though—one of them has a scar that she doesn’t have in canon (it was a retcon after they’d introduced her, but it makes sense completely given her backstory and another character’s motivations), and one of them isn’t even the same gender as they are in canon (unless you really squint and reinterpret one monologue, and a handful off handed comments that the writers did NOT mean the way I’m reading them). They’re somehow still instantly recognizable as their characters to the few fandom friends who’ve seen them, even though they’re a total reinterpretation, because I kept the hair on one of them exactly canon, and gave the other one a very distinctive scar from canon, and an article of clothing that closely resembles one from canon. I think it’s more common for people to do looser reinterpretations like that than to do exact 1:1 recreations of canon characters—it’s certainly easier on the budget, because unless there’s a licensed version of the character you want, you’ve either got to be really crafty, or commission a lot of specific items to get it that exact!

one of these days, I plan to commission or sew some of my girl’s canon outfits, but that’s a ways off, and she’ll still always be my variation on the character, and not exact by any stretch (her eyes are the wrong colour, her makeup is non-canon, and the scar I took the liberty of giving her is not canon but arguably in the spirit of canon.)

 

Ooo G'raha doll sounds amazing! I have plans to work on one of Hythlodaeus from FFXIV. I've bought the doll and some eyes, and need to just do ... all the rest.

I have to say it intimidates me a little bit, since with the cosplay, there's a "right answer" you're aiming for, if that makes sense? If I tweak something a little on an OC, intentionally or unintentionally, probably no one knows but me, but if it's a cosplay doll, my fear of screwing up gets worse.

 

Would love to see him finished!

I have a lot of character dolls these days. It used to be strictly OCs but I dunno, I somehow started just making more blorbos. I think it keeps me from getting tattoos of them lol (not that that's bad but eventually I won't be able to cover them for jobs) I see them a lot more on tumblr and that's where I post mine. I personally don't like to call them "cosplay dolls" because they are meant to be the character, not my own character cosplaying. However, I have made cosplays for dolls before. To me those are two different things.
I have some One Piece characters, Malleus from Twister Wonderland, Sora from Kingdom Hearts, Estinien and two of my characters from FF14. Been thinking about making a Thancred and Aymeric but haven't found perfect sculpts. I did have a couple Sailor Moon dolls but I'm in the process of selling them and will be making them again as tinies eventually.

@oneironym I see what you're saying, but at the end of the day, they are still your dolls and you can do whatever you want with them! You're free to interpret the characters how you see fit, or make the changes you want to them. If people have a problem with it that's on them. Sure, you can be super strict and only have them look exactly like canon if that's what you want, but personally, I make characters I want to be able to dress up like barbies. So while I may have some of their canon outfits, they have a ton of other clothes that I think generally fit their style. Or how I made one of the One Piece characters into a female doll (there is precedent for it, if you know, but still). Do what you want. Who's stopping you? No one, that's who.

 

100% I love dolls based on characters. I have one Honkai Star Rail doll and I have a Howl (from Howl’s moving castle) in the works. I’m contemplating doing Rafael from LADS but man do I have too many doll projects going right now haha I shouldn’t take on more until like… next year probably

 

I definitely do! I have numerous dolls that are Dragon Age characters and I’m currently working on my Rook.

 

I have three fan dolls I've made-
Bakura from Yu Gi Oh (i'm planning on redoing this doll with some different heads as not happy with how my first attempt came out).
Nux from Mad Max: Fury Road.
Mettaton from Undertale.
They were fun projects as the characters were visually interesting to recreate as dolls and pushed my skills forward a bit!
I think the idea of having an OC doll dress up in cosplay of a media character is also quite fun too (though not done that for my dolls)

 

Probably the majority of my dolls have influence or basis on existing characters or celebrities, mostly in appearance, but they're all my original roleplay characters. Some are more heavily inspired that others. A few have been accurately guessed by multiple people, others are mostly only known by me. But none of them are meant to be the actual celebrity/existing character.

 

Yeah I do it frequently for my collection, I have a Batman Scarecrow, Stranger Things Vecna, Lupin the Third (he's technically off topic tho) and I have plans for more. I think with the right faceup and styling, it's very very possible. Feel free to message me if you want help, I'm always willing to lend a hand

 

I do. I have a lot based off different Manga (Tokyo Ghoul, D.Gray-man, Witch Hat Atelier, etc.), Cartoons (Hazbin Hotel, Helluva Boss) or shows even (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina) along OC dolls. None of them are "cosplays" they are used by me as the characters they are to recreate scenes from the series or basically fanfiction in 3D.

I started with OC dolls, went through a few character dolls, back to OCs and for a few years now I am almost only doing character dolls again.
I'm planning to make William from Moriarty the Patriot for example and just have finished a doll of Johnny Gill from D.Gray-man.
What I am not doing is sharing them actively on here, there is other spaces for them as a lot of others already said.

 

I am currently body blushing pyramid head even though he's gonna be covered in grime and dirty clothes. I do what I want, it's myyy doll with my head canons.

( Do what you want, it's fun because it's yours even if it's a little goofy or not perfect. The beauty of resin is you can keep trying)

 

I have a lot of floating heads and a few dolls based on known franchises, that I think of as character dolls, and not as cosplaying dolls beause to me they represent the characters from the franchise and not a cosplayer in disguise. Mostly Japanese video game ones, and two anime ones that are on-topic. I usually don't photograph them unless I change something on them. Because I am a nut job, I am constantly finding something new that needs fixing. I also lost interest in my BJD a long time ago, so I stopped working on my larger resin dolls for over ten years. I later got a tiny in 2022, and that got me back into thinking of potentially working on my larger resins. I even sat a goal of working on them last year (2024). Sadly, I had to wait until freaking summer of this year, to start working on them (because of life!). I've slowly gotten to a few; I'm currently working on my (FFVII: AC) Kadaj DIM Minimee head sculpt and my (Code Geass) Lelouch Minimee head from DIM as well. I hope to be able to finish those soon. I still have a Leon S. Kennedy (RE4) and a Raiden (MSR) minimee sculpts to work on afterward.

I recently reworked my Sephiroth (DIM MNM), who had a lot of previous mods, but I "fixed" a few more just last month and shared some photos of his repainted head sculpt in the gallery, here on DoA. I don't usually share photos of my work in progress, as I take forever, sometimes, and I just rather not spam with even more boring stuff. I occasionally post progress on my Tumblr, but it's a lot of nonsense, since I tend to ramble. Lol! Most are just fan-art floating heads, no full-bodied dolls except for my Fairyland Chic Line Rou who represent my Dissidia version of Sephiroth and my Myou Bettina mature tiny male, who represent my Ken Kaneki. I also forced my Rou to cosplay as (MGS) Psycho Mantis and Pyramid Head (Bogeyman SH: Homecoming version) in the past. I also plan on forcing my tiny into cosplaying various video game characters, that I wish I could own as permanent dolls, but who knows if I'll get to live that long (I'm super slow, I've have yet to complete any custom doll I've ever planned on making!).

My recently renewed Sephy, whom I got single-ordered from DIM, a thousand years ago and have modified a bit, like his whole face, lol! I did have plans to get a body for this head a long time ago, but I am a fan of realistic yet idealized proportions, Sephiroth is supposed to be quite tall, but they made his head gigantic. He would probably look okay-ish on a 75cm+ body and I am a weak old fart. I don't what to pay for resin costs anymore, so I'll probably never get a body for him, my arm would probably break in two, yes, I am that weak! I will, however, try to work on his hair some more. I was thinking of making a new wig, but with current import conditions, I don't know that I can justify purchasing inexpensive supplies, only to pay a gazillion more on taxes: