Re-shelling... Are they the same?

I´ve upgraded a doll once, and it didn´t really work for me, the new version looked a lot more like the character but I didn´t have a click with the doll itself, after I sold it I knew why, I had picked it just because it looked like the character, whereas the previous version was chosen because I loved the mold and he looked like the character. I´ve since then sold another doll with the intention to reshell her, and I´m waiting patiently until I find a mold that both works for her and that I also like. If you love the Shiwoo sculpt, I think it will work fine for you!

 

when i started collecting, i couldnt understand how people could just sell their doll, get a new one and act as if it was the same Ôo
i sold my WS breakaway with type1 boy body. almost a year later i bought a NS breakaway head + souldoll double body. its like I never sold him ^^
of course its not such a big change, but my friend is like: "but its not really him anymore D': "
so i guess it depends if its really an OC of yours or if really its just a doll.
and of course if you think you will like the newer more. if you think the other doll is amazing and the other is OK but would fit better the caracter, maybe it wont work...

 

When I first joined the hobby I was very apprehensive about reshelling old dolls into new. This was half because I was nervous the new doll wouldn't 'feel' like the character anymore, and half because plain and simple I absolutely hate having to sell old dolls. Period. xD But after I decided to bite the bullet and sell off my MNF El of which absolutely nothing about him worked for me and replaced him with my LM Kliff, I couldn't be happier with the switch. For me, I was never overly fond the MNF El sculpt from the start and had bought him mostly out of sentimental reasons more than anything. But when I realized that I could find absolutely no joy in keeping him around, I'm now glad he went off to someone else as I absolutely adore my Kliff. The same thing happened when I sold off my Lati Rei and Ryu heads and they are now replaced by my Elysium Jamie boy and the soon-to-be-complete DiM Bellosse boy. Just like with my MNF El I felt no oddness about this at all as I was never all that crazy about their old sculpts to begin with and I'm simply in love with their new forms.

With my latest boy I'm re-shelling however, his story is a little different as I'm actually keeping his old form, an Angell-Studio WS Gus. In his case I still think this doll is cute enough (now that I've replaced his hands with MNF hands) to keep around just as my nameless little muse, even if he no longer has a place in the actual doll family. I don't know how it'll be once his new form, a DiM Alpon, gets here, if it will be odd to have them both around or not. But as I've already switched up the Gus enough to no longer resemble the character he previously was he just seems like some sneaky little doppleganger that managed to creep his way in here, and I'm sure I'll have no problem with my Alpon transforming into the actual character he was meant to be.

 

I just had this dicussion with my Fiance the other day, I wanted to sell my Bernard and buy one of the NEW Bernard heads and a different, non dollshe body. He suggested taht it wouldn't be the same, but in my mind, nothing would have changed.

As for shelling, my character Ian has gone through an identity crisis. He was a DOI luke, but then I realized that next to my bernard, he looked silly in my mind, bernard being very realistic, and luke not. So I made him a Minimee. And then I realized I didn't like that much either. Now he will be a saint, I just need to sell stuff to buy that saint.

When I first got into the hobby I couldn't imagien why people would sell dolls that they had made into characters then re-shell them, but now I understand.

 

I have reshelled dolls into taller, shorter, same mold just needed to sell first one and so on. It happens in this hobby you think you find the right one and then someone better comes along doing a better job, or finances says they have to go and you hope you can find them later. It's one of the things I love about the hobby it's always evolving.

 

The way I look at it, the character is mine. The doll is just something that represents it physically. I am selling one doll because ultimately I found the look and feel of Soom's were more to my taste. Now I am only slightly regretting the switch because Soom's dolls actually lack a lot of the detail (fingernails, creases in the hands, ribs, etc) that made me totally fall in love with my previous doll. That just keeps me on the lookout for another replacement for what I'm using now.

Ultimately I feel that the character exists independently of the doll itself, and once I decided to sell my old doll, the character completely left it. Now I look at it and it seems like an empty doll, as lovely as she is. The new doll has completely absorbed my character and owns it now.

I know that if I replace her the same will happen to the next generation.

I refer to my old doll as "Deathbunnie Mach 1" and the one I have now is "Deathbunnie Mach 2" and I'm sure there will be a Deatbunnie Mach 3 in my future.

 

I've upgraded my DZ Mo to a MNF Shiwoo Elf and for me the transition went smoothly. I sold the DZ Mo in November and finally got my Shiwoo boy in March, so I had enough time to get used to the idea of a new doll for the old character.

I did love the DZ Mo, but I love my Shiwoo even more and feel that its the right mold for my character. And I have never regretted the reshelling, the tiny little toes and fingers and the pointy nose of the Shiwoo are sooo lovable.

 

I've done some swapping around lately in order to focus on my main group and get people into the sculpts that best represent them. At first I thought my Ninodoll Anna would be perfect for Eileen, but while I had in the correct eyes, wig and clothing I never got an 'Eileen' vibe from her. I realized that the doll would be better for Katherine, another character of mine and swapped the doll over to her. I'm planning to get Eileen a different Ninodoll head -- probably a Mogwa, as I think it will ultimately suit her better. Today I decided to use my Ninodoll Bada head for Diarmaid instead of Riordan, as the sculpt didn't seem quite right for him and it was bugging me. I will probably wait awhile before I reshell him, however, as I made some changes to the story that make him being here not as much of a priority.

Ultimately if a sculpt just isn't working, I feel better about going ahead and changing things. This hasn't really caused me to have to sell dolls so much as swap them around as I find a particular sculpt will work better for somebody else. A lot of my dolls are unchanged, and I'm happy with the choices I made, but I think it's almost inevitable that at some point down the line there will be at least someone that didn't work out as planned.

 

Lord Alikaj, my first doll, started out as an IH SooRi, but when Elfdoll released their K-SS, I knew Alikaj had to be him. He was older, less depressed looking, with a slight smile that could turn into a bully's smirk. His character changed, became darker and less likeable; a villain you want to hate. It made me love him even more and now he is exactly the guy I wanted him to be.

 

I once got a CP Moon head to be the youngest brother of three siblings. It made me decide that the older siblings would be an El and a Lishe, but the Moon mold looks so much older and I decided to change the youngest brother into a Lu-Wen. As much as the Moon head could work for the character, it didn't work with the sibling concept. I don't think that re-shelling resulted in much change as the re-shelling happened in an early stage of character development.

I've re-shelled my old type Dollshe Saint into a Limhwa Mano body with a new type Saint with face-plate (better resin match) and because I liked the body-head combo better, I liked the doll better. Any change has been an improvement.

If you like the new mold a lot, there will be changes in your concept of the doll, but I'd say they will make you like your doll even more. They won't be the same, they'll be better.

 

cannot agree with you more.
i changes doll's parts often, just to make them better and better.

 

Has anyone reshelled just to move out of a size? I started off in this hobby with just MSDs and I loved them all dearly for a while. And then I got my introduction to SDs...and MSDs have not looked the same since! But one of my MSD characters is very near and dear to me and I don't want to loose him, so I'm looking to reshell him and trying to find him a good mold. It sounds like everyone here has reshelled into a different mold of a same size, so I was curious if anyone has ever got up a size (or down a size) when reshelling.

 

For me, the dolls have no influence over the character at all, so changing a doll to better fit the character doesn't change anything really except my enjoyment of the doll. I have very specific characters that exist already that I use the dolls as a type of 3D fanart for, and I want them to be accurate representations for me. A doll that doesn't work is never going to work, and so I sell that doll and continue my search.

 

I owned a CP Juri05 on a Volks Dollfie Dream body named Zooka, and when Soom released Beryl I thought I'd re-shell her in that very awesome body.

It didn't work, the body didn't suit her, the poseability was too cumbersome and the adorable face was gone, and now I have no Zooka. I continue to regret that decision.

On the other hand, Zooka had a whole troupe of characters to accompany her, and the thought does occur to me to re-shell them all as pukis. I'd need a Chocolate Pipi, though, which is the only thing that stops me from trying it out.

 

I've been thinking about reshelling Nicolai(KD Bory) to a MNF Seorin boy. I'm particularly interested in the slightly more mature look and of course the non-muscular active line body's posing capabilities. The KDelf body isn't that appealing to his character anymore. Seorin seems to be the closest to the Bory mold. I love the Bory sculpt for his character, but I think it would just look off/odd to me on a MNF body.
Oh and there's also the dreaded "you loved that doll so much, why sell it/stop wasting your money" lecture/rant I'd get from my mom. -.- She just wouldn't understand the concept of reshelling the character.