Modding - How Far are You Willing to Go?

Whatever it takes to bring the doll in my imagination to life.

 

I say ditto to ChristinasDream,
If you like the way your mod is coming along, dont listen to other people who say other wise
It's YOUR doll, not theirs

 

How far I'm willing to go depends on the doll. Some of mine have needed next to no modding to be perfect for what I wanted them for. Others I'm just not WILLING to mod in a permanently way (my little LE tiny) because I don't want to have to hunt down and afford another copy if I finish and realize I miss the base doll. I have 1 doll whose entire arm got carved and painted. He was my first 'big' mod. I have another that I'm working on that is getting a total body re-shaping by the time I'm done with her. I'll mod a doll to the point of being un-recognizable if the mood strikes me to do so, and I am sure I won't miss the base doll once I've finished.

 

I'm not willing to personally mod a doll since I have no experience and lack safety equipment (I don't want to mess up my lungs with resin dust...), but if I'm sending a doll to a skilled modder, I'm all right with them doing whatever it takes to match the character I have in mind. Epoxie, dye, dremels, saws? Bring it on!

 

For me it really depends on the doll. I've hacked away at dolls to make horror mods and I have a few dolls I don't even want to pierce the ears. With some dolls I feel it will be fun to change them and make them different and with some dolls I feel they are fine the way they are and shouldn't be changed by me (except for wigs, eyes and clothes).

 

i'm quite happy with basic dolls, but should I decide to mod one, I would do whatever it takes to get it "just right".

 

Though I haven't modded a doll yet, I have a few ideas for future dolls. I'd be willing to go very far on modding to make sure the idea I had comes to life. But for some dolls, I know I'd prefer it to be left alone or have very minimal modding. All in all it depends on the doll, but when I do start modding, I'd go as far as it needs.

 

It entirely depends on both what the character of the doll requires as well as how common the sculpt is. For my DoC Ivan, his character required quite a bit of modification-claws, fangs, added on belly, hooves, full body airbrush...all these things he needed from the start and I find he stands out enough as well from other Ivans that I don't need to do much else to him. On the other hand, my DoC Kirill, also a rather common sculpt, only required a few basic mods for his character-a light nose sanding, claws and fangs. However, I still found he looked too common after these and so decided to grow his character a bit more, he now has facial scars as well as his lips have been entirely reshaped so they're fuller and less smirky. As he's on the old type body he was also given mods to his legs to both make him shorter as well as more flexible.

So for me, it really is a toss up between those two. I have no trouble modifying one of my already less popular dolls ( as in, he already doesn't 'look like all the others') if that's what the character requires, such as my Elysium Jamie who'll eventually be airbrushed a dark brown and given elf ears as that's what his character requires. But I don't feel inclined to modify them if they match my vision of them the way they are and there aren't too many of their sculpts around. I'm a fan of modding in general, even just small ones such as reshaping of ears, nose jobs, etc. so likely almost all my dolls will have some kind of work done on them in the end.

 

Ok, I may go very deep into modding, but there is one huge restriction: the mod should be not obviously visible! I mean additive mods with epoxy putties here, because everyone knows epoxy putties have different structure. And I have no airbrush to match the color with acrylics. So: longer noses, huge elven ears etc. are no-no for me because of this certain reason. I want my dolls to look perfect. I only did additive mods to make the eyes smaller because this addition can be easily covered with pastels.
I accept all subtractive mods though.

My Zoryana (i-Doll Byul) went through a lots of modding so she differs from her "sisters" greatly. I also modded Simon's body in many places for better posability. My last project is modding Luts Cane to Cloud Strife from FFII. And my Leo (Lazule) has a very minor modding because I like his sculpt very much, but I feel modding gives him more personality and makes him more mature and less "sweet".
So, the main idea is to take the original mold similar to what I want it to be, and start carving, sanding etc. until the result is satisfying. There is no "too much" for me, only the final result matters.

Rarity of the sculpt matters nothing to me. When I decide to start the job there is no place for mistakes and I'm 100% sure I want this exact result.

 

I'd probably do very little. Opening eyes, and giving earrings is probably the furthest I feel comfortable going.

 

I'm willing to go so far as to create my own doll from scratch, so I can get the exact doll I want. Of course this doesn't mean that I don't want some dolls that have already been made. For example I would LOVE to have Migidoll Ryu... However, Conceptually, I'm more interested in creating my own doll. I feel that if I were to create it from scratch myself, then I would have a stronger relationship with the character I have created (even more so than if I had bought the doll first then gave it a face up). >_> (I guess my willingness is a little .... Extreme. XDDD Oh well, I've always liked a challenge. The major challenge of being able to successfully make my own doll is also a major reason why I want to do so). So my answer to the main question is, put simply: "All the way!"

 

I agree with several others on this thread that I would go as far as my vision for the character required. I will add one caveat, however. What most people consider 'extreme' mods, zombie/gore mods, prolific fantasy mods, etc., do not interest me and therefore it is unlikely I would create a character that would require a good deal of modding. But anything like modding eyes, noses, cheeks, or even body mods like adding another joint to the torso or such, I would be fine with doing.

 

Somewhat far. This coming year I want to attempt piercings, opening eyes, and sanding cheeks. Beyond that I can't see myself doing much -- perhaps making eyes smaller, because I've seen that sort of thing look good from others, and might be what I need to do for one specific doll. Tanning seems to be very hard to do well, so I don't know if I'd ever try it. Extreme mods I'm unlikely to do; I'd rather wait for something closer to what I want to come out. My characters rarely have anything all that extreme about them so I wouldn't see the need to do extreme mods.

 

I refuse to mod limited items, including bodies. It feels sacrilegious to me, but I guess that's just me. Other than that, your imagination is the only limit. I'm planning a hybrid girl with a body that I can mod to look like a dollfie dream dynamite.

 

since I do commissions I will do whatever the clients ask...

and I have done some limited dolls that the client wanted scarification carved into them, dyed and so on...

on my own I have done dyeing, piercings, eye closing...but on my limiteds..I won't modify them.

 

I'll do anything and everything on my own dolls, limited or not. If it gets me closer to the look I want, anything is fair game.

 

I think the ONLY thing i'd never mod is the nose. because if I don't like the nose I won't even buy the doll in the first place :3 ( I haz nose fetish xDD)

I don't really like to mod limited though. it makes me feel evil to destroy rare stuff xD AND it would totally suck to have the re-sell it half the price I got it >.> the only mod I'd do on a limited is eye opening (did that twice actually. on a breakaway and afi)

those who are willing to do all the mod necessary so the doll has the look they want, even on a limited... I would just like to say: if you sand the jaw line, shorten the nose, mod the eyes and even the lips...... you could as well have gotten another doll, not limited >.>;;
if you only change a thing or 2 but overall we can still recognize the mold then I don't see why you should have gotten something else then. just saying that for those who change about everything on the doll's face

 

I'll do whatever I need to do to bring my dolls closer to the characters they're supposed to represent. Since I'm very picky about molds in the first place though, it is usually very little and often add on mods that can be reversed quite easily, such a creating stretched earlobes yadda yadda yadda.

 

I'm in the "whatever it takes" camp, although I haven't done much to my own dolls except to add elf ears, open eyes, slightly sand down pointy noses and to dye one of them tan.