Re-shelling... Are they the same?

I've re-shelled a few dolls now. I think about four? No five.

The first one was an Aoi Tuki Izayoi. I knew when I first got her that the head wasn't going to be permanent, but the body was perfect. So I kept the Izayoi had as the character temporarily and waited for a head that fit the character to become available. After a lot of searching and lots of new dolls being released, I decided a Souldoll sleeping Ize head would fit the character quite well and bought one. It took a couple days to adjust, but once I did was infinitely more happy with her.

The second time was with a Customhouse Chamomile. His character spends a lot of time with another character who is represented by a Latidoll Chaim. Eventually, I decided the head size difference bothered me, so I searched for a doll with facial features I felt would fit with a more 'grown up' Chamomile, and decided on Souldoll Killian. I was very attached to him quite quickly, but the character does feel very different in this instance. I sort of think of him as being older now.

The third one was my Dollish U-da. I impulsively bought him from someone on the marketplace without any idea of who or what he would be. I decided the sad expression fit one of my characters and for a long time that worked for me. He was probably my favorite of my whole group and I would spend hours just staring at him. I'm not really sure what happened, but I suddenly decided he didn't work for the character and decided I needed to find a mold that did. I gave up after months of searching, but eventually found a sculpt I liked on accident, which brings us to number four...

Four was a Soom Olivine. I really liked her in Soom's promo pics and thought that she was perfect for one of my characters. When Soom did their Christmas kit event in 2009 I jumped on the opportunity to get her at a discount, even though I couldn't get her in NS like I wanted. I figured it would probably still work anyway. Sadly, I just couldn't quite see her as the character so I traded the body to get an upgrade for one of my other dolls and kept the head lying around. One night I randomly changed the face up on the Olivine head and put it on another body--it turned out to work perfectly for the character my U-da had originally embodied. The character Olivine was meant to be was re-homed to a Souldoll Ignis, who I have yet to properly bond with.

And lastly, I had wanted a Dollstown Seola for ages, but by the time I felt comfortable enough to order from their site, I had realized I just wasn't that into MSDs. Well, they released the Seola13 and I thought that would solve my problem! So I immediately bought one and fell in love. I don't know why I'm so slow to realize this, but eventually the head size started to bother me since it was so much larger than any of my other SDs. I had the head on a modded Thaasa body and after hearing that the Seola7 head worked well on the Elf body I decided I'd sell my Seola13 and get a Seola7 (and hope it would look okay). The Seola7 ended up looking good on the body and matched much better proportionally. His head is still probably as big as a lot of my SDs but that doesn't really bother me as much. I feel like his head has shrunk because it looks so similar to the old one, but I've pretty much adapted by now and am just very happy that I can look at him without feeling like he doesn't really fit in.

As for the part about looking at old pictures... it sort of depends on the doll. With my U-da I feel a little sad looking at old pictures sometimes because I was attached to the mold even if it didn't fit perfectly. I learned from this and kept my Chamomile head when I decided to re-shell him. If I ever decide I miss him too much I can always get him a new body and let him be someone else perhaps. I don't miss my Izayoi at all, however. She just didn't fit the character in any way. My Chamomile and U-da had the right expression, but the wrong face (which is in some ways more important to me and I would never have re-shelled them if I hadn't been able to find something that could pull off the same expression). And since my Olivine ended up being another character, looking at pictures of her just makes me think of the character her head is used for now. Just.. on the wrong gender's body.

 

I'm thinking about reshelling my second doll, an AE Cherry, into a Minifee Miyu. I'm keeping my AE for a while after I get the MNF so I'll know if I'm going to bond ok.

I'm just REALLY scared about selling her. REALLY. I'm just afraid I'll regret my decision. I know that in all reality, they are just inanimate objects, and they couldn't care less if you bought them their own house of threw them in the garbage, but we all get so attached to these dolls.

I've considered just giving her to one of my friends, or maybe keeping her invade a future character comes along in the ole brain train. What have you guys done with the previous dolls?

 

My list of reshelled characters:

Amir: AoD Chen ---> AoD Gu (great, only been a week, still getting used to him, but love it!)
Loki: DZ Mo-2 ---> DZ Mo-B (MUCH better and rebonded to my boy better!)
Axl: AoD Hun Dong ---> BBD Valentine (words cannot express the greatness! 1st was horrible for him and I hated him)
Mikko: DZ Yuu--> DZ Hid/Lati ---> 5star Tumnus (was forced into Yuu b/c I had the doll, was too big so first change was great. Now he's going back up to match Amir but new doll isn't in yet, not sure how I'll feel)
Blake: DZ Xi --> RD Shao (MUCH better, hated the Xi!)
Venice: RS Ni --> RS Mei (was a good upgrade but not totally happy with her, going to change her again eventually)
Maddy: OT Bleeding Edge Goth ---> RS Lu (great having her in resin and not a bobblehead! lol)
Mike: handmade ragdoll --> DiM Robel hybrid (great having him in resin!)
Parker: IslandDoll Kevin ---> Kevin on IMPL MSD body----> 5star Edmund hybrid (great to have him grow up!)
Cosmos: ragdoll---> AoD Xun ---> Only-Doll YiFeng (loved the ragdoll, did not like Xun at all. YiFeng could not be more perfect. I actually cried!)
Hansel: BBB Tony ---> RD Valo (was only temporarily stuck in the Tony for about a week, just to see if the doll COULD work for him, since I had it on hand. It did not)
Matt: OT Mattell Fashionista Ken --> BF Tommy (much more "him"!)
Claire: AoD Qing --> AoD Qian (perfect! I love her SO much!)
Erik: DZ Hid hybrid ---> BBD Silver (absolutely wonderful, he's much hotter now!)
Ashley: WITHDoll Juwel head ---> Jie Michel (new doll is not here yet, but I think it will be good!)
Kane: handmade ragdoll ---> DragonDoll Cheng ---> Crobidoll Ys hybrid (liked the ragdoll, hated the Cheng more than I have ever hated a doll in my life...it was awful and made me hate my character for a bit. Ys is wonderful and fixed the bonding issue)

Planning:

Zack: OT Hujoo baby --> AE Adzuki Bean --> DZ Mo-2 ---> DZ Mo-B (already have the first three sculpts ready to go and they work well!)



So...yeah, overall, I'm happy with my choices! It's just a matter of getting the faceup right or the sculpt being close enough to be right if you're going bigger or getting it entirely different for the character if the first shell was not fitting.

All old dolls have been sold to help pay for the new ones, except Loki's old shell is being saved to be his son, Zack, when he gets older and Amir's old shell has been "retired" and is mummy wrapped (complete with Pharaoh faceup protector! ) and stored in his box, in a trunk, in the back of my closet b/c he was my first and has far too much sentimentality to sell or use as a different character.

 

I've posted here before, but I have more now so here's a repeat of some old stuff and a continuation of some new. Or something.

Most of my dolls began life as original characters up to 10 years old, so they have a lot to live up too. For this reason, I have no problem moving one along if it isn't perfect for said character. Luckily, I've often been right about which doll to get on the first try; my favorite characters, Alex and David are scary-perfect. Right in one. Others were fail at first and at least one....was just bad....

Success:
Isis
Started out life as a B&G Aurora. Love the mold still but looked awful with my boys.
She became a Dollmore Eve Fine and I completely adore her. recently a new Eve head was released and I think if it had come out first, it would be Isis, but I'm attached enough to fine that I don't want to change. She's perfect as is.

Kimi
ugh. this took forever. She started out as a Dollzone Shoyo because she's supposed to be short, too short for most SDs. Version one didn't work out so I moved on to version 2..
Minifee Ryeon on an AOD body which was supposed to make her taller. While this one looked right, she was proportionately too small with my SDs. Like really too small. Her head was tiny compared to even my smallest headed SD doll. Off she went.
Now she's a Zaoll Ramie, and like Isis, is perfect. Between these two girls I have an appreciation for girl dolls, which I didn't care much for before them

Ryuji
Was a CP Luts Delf Dreaming El on a Domuya Flexi perinnial body. I am as concerned with body shape, height and proportion as I am face sculpt when it comes to my characters, and while Ry was good as an El, he started looking wrong with my other dolls as I slowly went to a more realistic look with most of them vs stylized. The El moved on to a better home and I replaced him with a Little Monica Kliff, who oddly reminds me of El, on a Popodoll 68cm body. He's amazing O.O



Not so much:
Uriel.
My big failure that took more than a year to fix. He started out as a Migidoll Uriel in WS heavily blushed to match a WS B&G Type 2 boy body with WS delf hands. I loved him as he was completely, Miho is one of my favortite sculpts and I had no issues with the doll. So what happened?
Migi releases Cho, who is a dead ringer for the Uriel the character was originally, before I'd ever dolled him into a Miho. After a lot of thought, I bought a Cho head, gave it Uriel's faceup and decided I liked it. I sold the Miho and went on with my life. Then one day I woke up and hated Cho XD
I sold the Cho head off and tried to get a WS Miho again, but I never got around to it, or no one answered my WTB or I didn't want to wait for the order period....something. Who knows. I borrowed my friends Luts Summer 09 and put it on the floating body so it would have a head. I put the Uriel faceup on it and was ok with him for a long time before I gave up and started more actively perusing a WS Miho. I bought the Summery from my friend then turned around and sold it to add to the Miho fund but never found a WS one for sale. :\ Then I started thinking maybe I would rather have a Jina instead. Yep. I just don't learn.

After spending a weekend working my ass of for way more money than I was expecting to get, I was able to afford a NS Miho head, NS Jina head and a Delf body in NS for the new and freaking final version of Uri. I gave both heads the same Uriel faceup (Which makes 6 times that I've done it. 6!!!), put the jina head on the body and took it right back off and sold it. So wrong *shudder*
Now Uriel is once again a Migidoll Miho, as he was meant to be, albeit in NS instead of WS, but he's the same to me 3
Finally.

 

With the exception of 1 hybrid (a Jeremy Brett / Sherlock Holmes Minimee), all of my characters are from a series of short stories and a book I'm writing. I've done quite a bit of re-shelling of characters, since some of them have been admittedly harder to connect up with the appropriate resin avatar. Changes have been made either due to finally finding a more appropriate head sculpt or resin color, consolidation into taller scale (I no longer own mini's or under 60cm dolls), or in some cases, consolidation / changes to the actual characters themselves (hence requiring a new and different shell).

I'm not usually sentimental, so it never bothers me to re-shell ~ Previous shells either get sold, or they get shifted into yet another character that works better for that sculpt.

 

I've got an OD Tae Vampire and from the second I saw him, I knew he was Tyhlian. It took me a while to find his partner, Dakvir (Doll-Love God Enjoy on boy body), but once I did, I thought everything would be fine.

But....

The OD MSD's have a much smaller than average MSD head. Sometimes I think he looks odd next to Dakvir but other times, it doesn't bother me at all. I have looked around and the Doll Leaves W would be a near perfect substitute. I wouldn't want to sell the OD Tae as he IS Tyhlian in my head and I'm pretty sure I'd regret it on down the road, but I don't like the idea of having 2 of the same character (of the same age) in-house only because of a head size issue that doesn't always bug me. I haven't decided what to do about this *sigh*.

 

I've only had to reshell one doll once, and that was my creepy cyborg Wolfe from a Luts JDF Summer event 2010 2 head (guh, it's such a pain to type all that out!) into a SDF Abadon. I think I always knew somehow that the first head wasn't quite Wolfe, even if I didn't admit it to myself. Too soft featured, too childish. The Abadon head, which I've modded to give more delicate features to, is ruthless yet strangely angelic, and so much better for his character.
But that left me with the JDF head, which I originally intended to sell. But I couldn't do it- it was such a beautiful sculpt. So I kept it and looked at it, and it suddenly blossomed into Selkie, my little seal boy. And it is the perfect sculpt for him and I can't imagine him another way- so happy ending all round!

 

I've re-shelled a character doll from a lati blue line rucas to a withdoll juwel. I found the Rucas looked too realistic compared to the other dolls I had, and the Rucas, while different fits in much better. You could say I re-shelled my one girl doll Cordelia, but all I did was buy the same headmold with a upgraded mature body to fit her age better.

 

I've only reshelled one so far, but it was vastly needed. I had a B&G Sky SP, which is a nice enough mold but it's built on very slim/petite lines. The character's lover is a DZ Floy. Together, they looked VERY strange, to the point that it drove me nuts!

So, last year I traded the B&G form up to a bulkier, better-proportioned SDF Howl. His wig didn't work anymore, as I didn't like how it framed his face. After a new faceup and a new wig, however, he's PERFECT and I feel much more comfortable with the result.

Before --> After

 

I have re-shelled a couple of characters now and so far it has gone well for me. My first I only changed the head, he still has the same body so it wasn't a huge change. Killian is a much loved character of mine and I knew the moment I saw the new head that it was perfect for him. As soon as I had it home and painted it clicked. I am quite glad I reshelled him. I don't feel badly at all about it. I reshelled Amaryllis from a dz Sis to a HDF muffin which was a bigger change for me. The new sculpt does suit her better but it is odd in that my old DZ doll never left our house, my oldest son kept her (he bought her from me). It is obvious whenever I look at her that she is not Amaryllis but it is still sort of odd. She never really fit the character but I was too lazy to go searching for the right mold. I'm still not 100% sold on the HDF either though, perhaps because I have such a hard time with that doll. I also sold Dorian my DOD Kalix when he didn't fit the character but I have yet to reshell him. I want a Popo doll Ivan for him. I have every expectation that I will love him when he arrives because I have been planning him for so long. I just need to wait for the right time to buy him.

 

I just heard of "reshelling" for the first time one a youtube video. I was really confused what the person meant by it... but then she explained briefly that she was going to buy a new doll for the character. And in case you have no idea what it means, like I didn't at the moment, it means to buy a older version or 'better' doll for one of your dolls that you already own.
My question is, do you like the idea of reshelling? Why or why not?
Personally, I guess it's just 'normal'. I've done it unknowingly, a matter a fact there's lots of dolls that I would like to 'reshell' as an older doll. But that doesn't mean I want sell my younger versions.

 

Yeah definitely ^^ At first I thought it was a crazy idea and I would never sell any of my dolls, but recently I have been rethinking my collection and I will be reselling a character C: I guess it just happens!

 

I have a character who is hundreds of years old and has had lots of different appearances throughout those years. The character is my first doll, and I'll never get rid of my first, but I do have plans to dollify one of his future selves

 

Just recently I thought about reshelling two dolls I have. Not completely, per se, but getting older versions of them because, at the time, I bought them as kids thinking their characters could be all cute and streetkid like and that's it. But their characters have developed more and I realize that they grow up together, fall in love and, as adults, they get married and have children together. I would love to have adult versions of them so bad! But, alas, I have no idea if I can find older dolls who look like them.

All that rambling aside, though, at the beginning of this hobby, I was adament I'd never reshell but, honestly, who knows? I just know that, so far, I haven't thought of reshelling any of my dolls into a new version and getting rid of the old version. Just maybe buying a younger or older version of them and, in my Sard's case, a female version of him.

 

I'm looking at doing it for the first time. Not an older version of a younger doll, but a different sculpt for an adult doll I have. I thought that she was perfect for the character at first, but after I did a new face-up on her she looked entirely different and no longer like the character. I think it is perhaps because the new face-up is more realistic while the other one was more fantasy based. I'm going to try facing her up a third time, but I'm beginning to entertain the idea that she needs a new sculpt. She's got a big nose, while the character had a very small one. Though everything else is just right, I'm having trouble living with the nose and I'm not certain I want to sand it down, though that's another possibility.

 

YES. I agree with the first answer, I initially imagined that if I ever got dolls they'd be here to stay and I'd ultimately be buried with them upon my death. However, I've had a few show up that were just not what the company website photos promised and they had to be rehomed. The first time I ever sold a doll it was sort of difficult. But soon enough it became second nature really. Of the dolls I've resold, I've only "reshelled" 4 of the characters so far. But yeah. It gets easier as you realize what you want/need for the doll.

 

I don't think it's wrong or immoral or anything, but I'm pretty sure it's not for me.

For me, the doll so much becomes the embodiment of the character once a character is given to it, that I don't think a different "shell" would be the same for me. I think that once a doll is here, she or he is here to stay for me as that character.

Everyone's creative process is different, though, so saying it's not for me isn't a judgment against anyone who chooses to. That's just not how my characterization works, personally.

 

I like the idea of re-shelling, but I don't know if I would do it for any of my "adults." We'll see, though. Right now, I'm happy with them, but maybe someday!

However, I really want to make older versions of my Tobias. He's a Honey Delf Pie, and I've already seen an Junior Delf that he could transition easily into. I just like the idea of going from really young, child, teen, to adult, and so on. But I'm kind of a nerd like that. I'd take pictures of him through his own generations.

Yeah.

 

For me, the character is generally created for the doll, so I never imagined I'd be inclined to reshell any of them - after all, what doll could better suit a character than the one for which it was created?

However, I actually think I might be considering it. I still don't think I could reshell a character who belonged to a fully realized doll, but in this case, the "doll" for whom I created the character is just a floating head that's never even had a face-up. I still don't have any clothes or accessories for the planned doll, and I was struggling to find a body that would actually work out, when I ran across another entire doll who would work out even better.

It's kind of an odd situation since the first doll would never even have a chance to embody the character if I do end up going with the other option, and I see it as an odd situation that I won't likely repeat, but it has made me understand the notion of reshelling a bit better.