Re-shelling... Are they the same?

I'm in the process of re-shelling one of my characters - I, too, originally got an Obitsu Haruka with a boy's chest plate, but that was because at that time Haruka was the only one available that fit the character. The character is very dear to me, as he is a very old novel character of mine. The doll in itself grew very dear to me as well.

Years passed, and I started seeing resin molds that I started to think would work for him, and the difference between him and my other, resin darlings, started to bother me a bit. Still, it took nearly a year to convince myself I really want to go through the process of re-shelling.

The first attempt was an utter and complete failure of epic proportions. I chose a mold that I thought looked just perfect. However, I did not take into account the fact that the strong and colourful face up he should have is bound to change the feel of the mold. And the result was a catastrophe. Instead of delicate and whispy he looked cold (and almost skanky). I nearly cried every time I saw the new him, and it didn't take more than a month to convince myself this time that another re-shelling was due asap.

The second attempt will go better, I'm sure of it. I chose the mold very carefully, now keeping in mind the lessons learned from the previous attempt, and I do believe I did a noticeably better this time I still haven't face upped the head, so i can't say for sure, but I do believe it'll be just perfect this time

But no matter the outcome of this new attempt, I won't return to the old - if this one ends up being a failure again, I'll continue looking. In other words, he will be re-shelled, no matter how many tries it'll take
But i do notice I tend get emotional when I see old pictures of him, and when I happen to see his old parts in my "extra dolly parts" -box.

 

I have re-shelled, and been much happier in most cases, sometimes I have really regretted it, but I think I have gotten better at that now.
However I am on the precipice of an interesting re-shelling. I had a doll stolen this year, and my friends contrived to have her "cloned". She was a one-off Volks special that I got at Dolpa, and she is being reborn into an FCS. I know that she will not be the same, but it will be interesting I think to see how Quinn is reborn.

 

I've reshelled all my characters.

-Caleb went from a Shiwoo to a Dia Boy.
-Carmine went from a Soom Naum to a Volks Williams to a Luts Ethan and now is in a Modded Gentle Soo-Ri.
-Fiona went from a Iplehouse Cocori to a Volks Ruby, and changed names four times.
-Arbor went from a Unoa Sist to a Iplehouse Benny.

Sigourney is the only whose stayed in the same body, LTF Ante.

 

I am in the process of re-shelling right now! I feel like I do this often though. The alternate heads are ones that I have for when my characters don disguises for their assassin jobs.

- Hitomi started out as a Volks SD10 Megu, then became an I-Doll Alice, then became a Spiritdoll Jade (with her alternate head being I-Doll Alice). Now, I will replace her alternate head with a Transcend B head.
- Mutya started out as a Narin Doll Narae, then became a Glorydoll Miyuki, and now she is an I-Doll Byul. She didn't have an alternate head before, but now she will have my I-Doll Alice head as an alternate.

 

I have just reshelled a character from a Soom Dia WS to a Soom Dia NS, you wouldnt think this is much of a difference but the skin tone and her new face up has made me think shes evolved into a different character or maybe grown...Not sure yet. Im doing the same with my Lazule. Its odd what a 'blood transfusion' (as my mum says) can do!

 

I could never re-doll my gang! It would be the same, the characters come with the dolls themselves, so even if I got the same doll all over again, it still wouldn't be the same character...

 

I`ve started reshelling. Emily, my first doll, was an AOD Rao, and a wonderful first choice for a new doll owner. But she was always intended to be a DoD Shall, so when I was bored of MSD dolls, I finally took the step in upgrading her. And it went without any problems. DoD had also listened to my instructions about the faceup, so it made it all so perfect...

Now I am reshelling Toby, my Kdelf Bory, to a Sdelf Cian with a Iplehouse YID model body. I tried my friend`s doll`s body first, and the chemistry went great, so now we are waiting for the body to come. Not thinking about reshelling more of my dolls, but Toby has a twin sister, Trish, who I want to upgrade too.

So its possible to re-shell your dolls and keep that seem aura and "soul" in them as in the original doll.

 

Since I'm really into characters, reshelling has never been a problem for me. I just reshelled Chae-ri and it's like she's exactly the same, only more herself. I've had to reshell Megumi no less than three times, and I also recently acquired a new Miya (one of my first). In fact, all of my current girls except for Belle Fontaine are actually second or third versions. I love 'em all.

 

What I'd like to know is how the transition went for you? Was it strange? Was the character so much more like it should be, or did the character change into something you didn't recognize? Are you happy with the new change, or do you miss the old face? How do you feel when you look at old pictures?

I've re-shelled a lot of characters as new dolls are released that better suit my vision of them or in some cases as old dolls I couldn't previously obtain come onto the market. I think there have been an equal number of successes and disappointments. Sometimes it's the entire doll that changes, sometimes just the head or body. I usually find it embarrassing to look at old photos when I find a more accurate shell, same as crappy old face-ups.

My first doll was a Delf Dreaming Shiwoo that eventually got a Volks SD16 Johanna girl head - I'm extremely happy with the change so far, but I haven't had the wherewithal to wipe the default face and repaint him yet. I've swapped his Delf type 1 body for a Delf type 3 for the sake of mobility and I was very unhappy with the drastic size change rendering most of his extensive wardrobe ill-fitting.

My second doll had a body upgrade from a DoT to a DoI. I like the sculpt much better, but now his resin really doesn't match and his posing is even worse. Haven't really played with him since, poor guy.

My third doll has switched heads from a Delf Miyu to a Feeple Ashley, both of which I modified but I still don't think is quite right. I'm waiting on another head sculpt that might work, but I suspect the head and body won't match. That might mean sacrificing the excellent ShinyDoll body for the sake of proportion and color and giving up because after five years it really feels like no one is going to make the body type I've been wanting. This is pretty disappointing.

My fourth doll went from a K-Doll Kayan with an awful old Dolkot Star body to a Leeke Lyonne with a Senior Delf body to a Soom Bix with a few other head purchases in between that never even got to the face-up stage. I am really pleased with his latest shell even though it's not the white skin tone I'd ideally prefer.

Doll number seven went from a DoT Camine on a Dollshe girl body to a Soom Onyx. I miss her lanky, awkward, very poseable body and humble face. I bought the Onyx because it was the only way I could get this girl's dead twin, and it's taken a long time for me to even recognize her as the same character. In this case, I think it was more that the original doll completely altered my expectations for the character so that when I re-shelled her into something that actually matched my original plan better, I couldn't get past the attachment to the first doll. I wanted to keep the doll but she just didn't have a role. The best thing that came out of this is actually that I sold her to someone who randomly fell in love with her as is, so I still get to see her around on the board.

My eighth doll was a Volks Yukinojo that I modified. He had a an Elysium Doll body that never really worked for me, then I scrapped the whole doll for a Volks Genji on a Dollshe DSAM body. The Genji head is a much better representation of the character, but it lacks the lush voluptuous qualities I liked in Yukinojo's face. The body is fantastic and it took a lot of work to modify it to fit so I'm pretty committed to keeping this doll, but the resin match is much worse than I thought it would be based on feedback from other owners. So, he's another guy who never gets any camera time anymore. Pity, because I think I've ultimately spent the most time and money on getting this jerk to look right.

I swapped my first and last french resin doll (a Supia Roda) for a regular urethane version as soon as she was available. I couldn't unload that doll fast enough, and I'm thrilled with her new version. You wouldn't think that a difference in resin luminosity would make such a change in the character, but she just seems more vibrant and present now and less like some airy fairy. And the minor engineering changes were a good thing too. Couldn't be more pleased overall.

I swapped my Soom Sard human boy for a Soom Mecha Angel Deneb on a Heliot human body with the Godmaster hands and Mecha Angel high heel feet. The Sard, lovely though he was, was too vacant and pinheaded and the body was too short. Who knew I could have made a pile of money off of that guy if I'd just held onto him for a little longer? I really don't care though, since I love my freaky new elongated tranny so much I wouldn't trade him for three Sards. The re-shell has changed his doll form into a more abstract representation of the character's personality rather than a literal image of what he'd look like walking down the street and I love this about him.

I'm still waiting for Fairyland to make a 60cm version of the ChicLine girls so I can put my CH Choa on the body I've always wanted for her. That will be a big change and all for the better, I hope.

I guess that's not such a bad track record for the twenty dolls I actually own now. A lot of them kind of crashed and burned before they ever showed up on DoA, so I don't really count those. I think it has generally served me better when I'm able to be more casual about swapping heads and bodies around, but a lot of that is due to timing and finances. I never recommend selling one to pay for the replacement because sometimes the replacement can be an unpleasant surprise and one regrets the sale. Even if one ultimately chooses the replacement as the new shell, it's good to see them side by side so you don't keep wondering if you made the right choice.

 

I totally know how u guys feel. I have a PpoPpo with the kissy-faced mold that was my first BJD I bought about 3 or so years ago and now I've been getting the vibe from her that she wants to be.....bigger. She is like 20-23cm and I'm looking at a LaTi Doll Senny mold that is 30cm tall and has the lips kinda molded into that smooch look but not as severe. Also, the shape of the eyes are big for me as well. Rika's character is like a precoucious little girl of like 9 or 10. She squees at cute things like Sweet Lolita dresses and LOOOOVES cake but will whip around and glare at u and flip u off if she's pissed and thinks pink is the color of infinite evil. Kinda bi-polar sometimes....

 

I've technically re-shelled before. I had a sort of stand-by nanny character, Eis, who my knee-jerk-pounce Maki T. was for a while. Then I was starting to struggle with him, and it occurred to me he could be Fabian, a pre-existing OC. If I hadn't done that, I think I'd have sold him, and he's now one of the ones I take out of the box the most.

I've got a more difficult re-shelling coming up. The character for my Crobi Nao was created by that doll after his arrival (I swear he did it so I wouldn't sell his head like I planned :p ) but the character is now functioning in stories, and when I saw Crobi Zack I knew he was a better match. This makes me feel a little guilty . I'm thinking Nao can work as a character from a different story, so he won't necessarily get kicked out of the house, just out of his first character.

 

I was thinking this as well, for one of my dolls that I actually intend to get in SD size someday (Aster is a Bobobie Elfkin lol, it'd be a biiig jump for him). The thing is, I love little spunky freak Aster and have no intention of selling him even though he didn't "fit" the idea of the character I had planned him for. I guess this could be because I connected with him regardless of the character difference. I don't mind the concept of having two of the "same" doll, and I know I've seen people have mini versions of their bigger dolls that have a similar sculpt, eyes/wig/etc.

A future planned doll Riddick may end up seeing some reshelling though, but what I really want to do is be sure that the doll I get for him first will work out for all the years to come. That's the same feeling with the other dolls on my wish list who have characters picked out for them already. For most of them I see the doll and go "oh my gosh that's ____!"

 

I've reshelled several times, and I'm doing it again now. My first was my third doll, a DZ Shoyo who was a great doll but I can't believe she lasted as long as she did because I just couldn't envision that sculpt as my character. She was then turned into a MNF Ryeon who looked the part, but was way too small. Now I'm looking into 50ish cm girls and hybrids to try and get her to work finally.

My second worked out perfectly the second try. The fist Isis was a B&G Aurora...I love the sculpt and the first time I saw her thought she was the perfect Isis, but when I got the head on a body...it was all wrong. I couldn't stand her. I putzed around for a while looking but not seriously for a replacement until I really started to feel the need for a girl doll and began looking at more realistic molds that would look good with my Migi and DM boys and was going to settle when Dollmore came out with Fine. Fine is exactly what I wanted in an SD girl and perfect as Isis. so Yay!

Uriel is an example of what happens when reshelling goes awry. He started out as a Miho because I wanted a Miho and I wanted Uriel as a doll and one day I realized they'd be perfect together XD
A year later Cho came out and I fell in love and thought he'd be better. I bought cho, sold miho and realized I hated cho. Not hated, he's gorgeous, but so not Uriel...He might have been a great Uri had he been first, but the Miho had helped to cement the character and Cho couldn't cut it. Uriel sat around as a floating body for awhile, then I tried my friends Luts Summery 09 and really liked it...So now he's a Summery. I still miss Miho and might someday go back but if I don't, it's not going to kill me. I do like Uri the way he is now.

I recently sold off two of my elves and do plan to reshell them in the future, but my Afra's character needs to be a little more masculine and there aren't any Elf molds that really scream "Shae" to me right now so they're both on hold. Cael I could do in a heartbeat, but Shae's more important, so he'll be first.

Other than that I really think my current crew is perfect! Several of their characters wouldn't exist without the dolls so they won't be reshelled and the others are creepily identical to the character and I couldn't find a better mold if I did minimees of them XD

 

The thing that got me into BJD was the desire to get a doll-shaped OC I couldn't picture very well. At first, AoD Rao seemed like the ideal mold, with those beautiful eyes and a gentle expression. But after half a year I realized that there were very few molds that went well with her and that I liked (which was very unfortunate since I wanted to get all my characters together). So I decided to re-shell her into a minisup Yisol (since I did buy her supposed twin as a Yan of the same company).
But now that I actually started buying SD sized dolls I am also thinking of re-shelling both dolls as either two Supia Rosies or a Rosy and a Roda. I am going for more realistic looking dolls, and there are just much more of them to be found in the SD range.

For me, re-shelling a doll would mean getting a more mature version of them, so the character would also have some space to develop in their dolly forms.

 

In my personal case, I could not imagine any of the characters my BJD are in any other sculpts that the ones I have them in, but that does not mean I cannot understand there may be good reasons for re-shelling in other people's cases. Always I see it I think what the owner is doing is chasing the sculpt which better fits his/her idea of what he/she wants to have. If you are not satisfied with the match the BJD and how you see it make, it seems more than logical going for a really right one.

 

It's funny. I started reading this thread and I thought to myself “never! Wing 2 will be Rai and ALWAYS be Rai! I could NEVER re-shell him!”

But, I’m just stubborn. J In actuality, this may be true for now and could POSSIBLY be true for always, but it made me remember five-six years ago when I first discovered BJDs. The only site I knew at the time was Luts. In fact, that may have been the only site around, I’m not sure. Either way, at that time, I thought CP EL was absolutely 100% Rai. I even saved pictures of him and hoped for MONTHS that I would be able to afford him. Then my computer crashed and died and I lost all my files, including the EL pictures. In fact, this led me to completely forget about BJDs because I forgot all that I had actually lost until I got back into dolls again.

Now that I see EL again, he is COMPLETELY not Rai. His sculpt is beautiful and I absolutely love him but, if I were to get him, he’s WAY more suited to another character I have than Rai. In fact, I believe if I had bought him and had seen Wing 2, I would’ve wanted to re-shell him. Would I have? If I think on it, I believe so. Rai is a VERY important character to me and I want him as accurate as I can possibly get. I think if you have a character that means a lot to you, getting them so that they feel and look right is the key part. If you feel a doll is more suitable, I say go for it. Of course, to be absolutely on the safe side, I wouldn’t sell/box away the old doll until the new doll arrived and you got the full picture.

 

For me, each re-shelling ends up a different character. Even if the character is the same, the feel is different.

1st instance - shelling a doll to the same size: K-doll Karon head. Moved him on because I wasn't that attached to him. Then realized later on that I really missed seeing that face around. So, bought another Karon head that called to me. Totally different character, and intended to be so. But... Ocean Moon just released the new Hwa-lan head, and it struck me as a Better Version of the original Karon head I had. So I'm getting one of those, and in this case I may give him the same name as that original character, and see if we get new adventures with him.

2nd instance - shelling a doll to a different size: I have a favorite character in 63cm size, and one day I decided to try and put him into a Unoa B-el (45cmish) for fun. Worked like a charm - the sculpt took the character very well, and I'm quite pleased with him. But he is different. The same character, but the feel and energy I get from him are totally different from the original guy.
Then, I just recently got in my Bigger version of him - 70cm EID boy, and once again, the character has made the transition nicely, and I'm very pleased with the result, but once again, the feel is quite a bit different. I feel he has a deeper voice, and a darker dark side.

3rd instance - shelling to a different size: Now, with my favorite doll, I tried the same thing as above - sharing the character from his original 63cm doll-self, to another Unoa B-el.... but this one didn't take. He didn't look right. I just couldn't get anywhere near the same vibe from him. So I de-shelled that smaller one and sold him.
I tried shelling him to a bigger (EID again) body, and just the other day realized it's not taking. Again. The thing that should have been obvious to me, was that he's a darker resin than the original character doll, but that didn't bother me. Once it was pointed out to me though, I realized there were quite a few things with this bigger version the just weren't working for me with this particular character. So I'm not sure I am going to follow through and get the bigger version in the correct resin color or not. I just don't see that this character is going to be willing to make that move.

So for me, it just depends on the character. One handles it quite well, while another just flat refuses. *shrug* The only difference I can point to, is that I'm VERY attached to the one that refuses to be split. It's like he is him, and he refuses to be any other doll.
So much for MY dolly story ideas!