Shelling OCs vs. "Their own character" dolls vs. "Canon" dolls

Hi all, I'm curious about whether anyone has ever "shelled an idea", so to speak. I am doing a project with three dolls that is a combination of approaches (1) and (2), but with a twist. Each doll is developing a distinct personality, but their "original characters" are the concepts of manager, firefighter and exile from the internal family systems psychological model.

 

My dolls are all pre-existing OCs. I personally do this because it gives me a lot of time to save in between while I'm trying to find the perfect dolls to shell my characters into. If I bought the dolls and let them become their own characters I would probably end up overrun by dolls and wouldn't be able to save at all. I see so many dolls that I fall in love with for one reason or another but keeping to my rule of only OCs lets me resist that temptation. As for shelling a cannon character, there is just nothing I like enough that makes me want to spend that kind of money on bringing to life in doll form.

 

Well, the only reason I got into the hobby is because it seemed like a fun extra way to bring my OCs "to life" besides writing about them. But thanks to new releases and changing plans, I now have a secondary group of resins that just didn't end up being the best choices for the characters I bought them for. So they're still figuring out their own story.
And originally I didn't have plans to do any fan-dolls, but after seeing what other people had done, I kind of got it in the back of my head that maybe someday when I was done shelling OCs (ha ha), I'd consider making dolls of my favorite anime pair. And then one of my purchases ended up looking more like one of them than my OC, so...
So I did end up with all three types, despite not having the intention to!

 

I mainly try to shell my OCs but it's not working very well. The more I see other dolls online the more matching sculpts I find and it makes me feel bad about my dolls. Now only 2 out of the five dolls I have match the OCs I've planned for them, the other two I will probably try changing their face ups and see if they would also match the OCs I want, if not I would assign them to other characters, the fifth doll was a total impulse buy and I think I will let him develop his own character.

 

Mine are all in the 'have their own character" category. Five of them were originally intended to be recreations of y favorite anime characters, but they've all either evolved into characters loosely based on those characters or gone a completely different direction.

 

#2, because:
a) I have way too many OCs to shell them all. Writing is cheaper.
b) I don't feel a doll will ever be accurate enough.
c) I wouldn't want to spend a bunch of money shelling someone else's character when I know they already exist somewhere in some form when my dolls otherwise would not.

I just see a doll I like, have a character hit me, and go from there. The one exception is Gobbie, who I had an idea for before I even knew of a suitable sculpt, and who is loosely based on a very minor pre-existing character. Loose enough that I don't have to worry about her being shelled mutating that character. And it might come full circle as I am tempted to make a character loosely based on her.

Chibis of OCs be tempting though, as they don't have to be all that accurate. Fortunately, nothing quite suits my taste just yet. Though one sculpt is tempting me...

 

I tend to prefer #1, though currently the only doll I have home is a combination of #1 and #2 wherein I had a very vague concept of what I was aiming for but no really distinctive features aside from "foxboy based on platinum color morph" and therefore he's still heavily in development. Two of my planned boys are #1, though one of them doubles as #3 with a different wig and a new shirt/main accessory because he's technically an expy of a canon muse of mine haha.

 

I have some of all three types of characters you mentioned among my dolls (I also have dolls with no character to speak of). I tend to go with the flow when it comes to my dolls, so even if I purchase a doll for a specific purpose, I can get it...and then it becomes something completely different. No type of character really gives me pause. I just go with what feels right in the end (...eventually, there is some angst in there first if the doll keeps changing it's mind over who it wants to be ).

As for "canon" characters in particular, I have discovered that I LOVE making these dolls! Having a very solid goal to drive me in styling my doll has been really wonderful for me and really pushed me farther in the hobby than I might have otherwise. All of my dolls have benefited from me making the canon dolls because now I am much more particular about details in their appearance and I'm also more daring in modifying a doll, or accessory, in pursuit of that perfect look.

 

For me, my bjds have to have some kind of character imbued into them. I've tried working with bjds with a blank slate (no character beforehand, no character developed for them), but ended up never connected completely with them.

As for the options: I'm mainly either one or three. A majority of my crew is made up with pre-existing OCs of mine, with some of them having some of their characteristics developed alongside the creation of their resin counterpart. For a particular example: for my Little Rebel Kai, Azabien, I had a general idea of their character when I picked up the sculpt, but developed their background, personality, etc. once I began working on them.

For option three, they make up a lesser portion of my crew. I actually didn't plan to do any existing character bjd shells when I got back into the hobby, as I intended to just develop bjds around several specific OCs for a work in-progress story of mine. After ordering my Loongsoul doll, however, I ended up wanting to do some Legend of Korra characters for a fanfic based on the show I've been on and off working on (which actually inspired the story my OCs are from).

Also, I just recently acquired a Dollstown J head at a local meet (which I originally planned to use for another OC of mine), and I ended up going further down the existing character rabbit-hole and decided to have him become Zuko from Avatar: the Last Airbender instead.

So, overall it's either 1 or 3 for me for my bjd crew

 

The minute I shelled my MSDs they became their own characters. They refused to stay in the limited boxes I put them in. So I started getting dolls that I could build from scratch and be inspired by. The only dolls who are stable in their intended guises are my 3 SDs, and that's because it's much harder to buy a lot of accessories and clothing for bigger sizes, less room to play around with looks and props.

 

2. Each doll develops over time and sometimes turn out completely different from how they started. I may have an idea before I get my doll but even mass produced dolls all seem to have some manufacturing quirk that helps determine their personality for me. One doll may have messy hair so she’s a bit sloppy and nonchalant, to me, another doll may have a scratched face somehow so she’s obviously a fighter or a survivor of some kind and that’s a whole deep dive into interesting personality traits. Sometimes the clothing I buy beforehand just doesn’t suit the doll at all so that can also affect the personality that’s evolving in my head.

I don’t know how Chloe will turn out before I am completely satisfied but I have a few persistent ideas that I think will stick around. I do know that her joints have had a huge impact on the ideas I’m percolating around her. It’s been a lot of fun.

 

I have tried both OCs and just going with the flow, but only OCs work for me
And I actually don't mind they're not 100% accurate. I usually say that they're portrayals of my characters rather than the actual character.
This doesn't mean that I don't way overthink and wonder about how to get it perfect

 

I prefer recreating my OCs (and my friends' in doll form). It gets a bit hard when there's more fantasy than just elf, or centaur involved though. Thankfully I can work at it slowly with my mini painting background.

I've never really experienced a doll "becoming" a character. But I have impulse bought a doll that has then become a character if that makes sense.

As for canon characters... It depends? If I buy a doll that is a prexisting character, say a SOOM MD, I'm probably not going to keep it as that character. But if idk I buy a Dollfie Dream 2B or Saber then they will always be 2B or Saber. I don't think I've ever really wanted to make my own (since they're bound to be released at some point by someone). There's characters I'd like to see in doll form but for now they exist as other merch like figures.

That being said, I have a great admiration for people who make canon characters and do it suuuper accurately. I've seen a lot of Danaerys ones I love. I think I've seen a Sylvanas Windrunner too. They're fantastic!

 

I do all three, myself, but mainly with a focus on 1 and 3.

When I started out, I planned to do only the first one, shelling my OCs. I have loads of them, all from the same world, and the desire to have a poseable figure of one of them is what ledme to this hobby and my first doll. They're still the most prominent part of my collection.

Along the way, I found a couple of dolls that, while I really liked them, didn't fit at all into my story world (and it's pretty established to me at this point, leaving no way to really fit them in, either). They were right in my aesthetic wheelhouse, but with no way to fit. I decided to go for them anyway and see where they'd go; for the most part, they're "fairies" with very vague personalities and backstories, and while I do enjoy them, I don't think I could have that as the focus of my collection.

Also along the way, I happened on a group order for a custom head of one of my absolute favorite anime characters, and jumped on board. I'd specifically decided that I didn't want to do character dolls when I started, and decided I'd do "just this one" when I joined the order. Well, the order was a bit of a fiasco, and the head, while nIcely sculpted, never quite worked for me, so i boxed it back up and shoved it in a drawer, where it sat forgotten until I moved. When I was unpacking, I found it again, tried and failed to get it to work, but loved the idea of it even more than I did originally and ended up finding a new head and body. And then he needed friends. Character dolls have ended up the second largest set in my collection, vastly outnumbering the fairies in group 2.

 

I'm a freelance artist (making character concept for game is one of my main job) but I think I won't go for #2 since drawing is my occupation before I'm join in this hobby. For me making character concept goes first then the doll so I'm around #1 and #3 instead. On my first year I'm mainly #3 trying to find sculpt and make BJD from characters I love from anime and games. Then on my second year I'm going #1 since I know here and there in this hobby now. I'm trying to make BJD base on my OC sheets which are drawings at first and I want them to come alive as BJD. So I have 2 type of BJD: Canon Character that can have other concepts to be in, known as alternative universe and Original Character who have their own world to live but they can cosplay other canon characters just like stage play or in drama (sorry if I sound confusing, English is not my main ).

Also hello Hypmic fans @Sami-Fire and @sydick . I'm so glad to meet you xD. Me and a friend also plan on making Hifumi and Doppo, we already found the sculpt we want. I hope the best for you as well Sami-Fire, finding sculpt can be hard but if you need help, I'm open for discussion.
@MercutioEx Please check Hypmic whenever you have time but I think it won't disappoint you .

 

Shell OCs, there’s no better feeling than having an image that’s been stuck in your head, or sketched out, manifested in a physical form Sometimes I see a doll I love and they aren’t allowed in the crew unless they spark an OC that feels like it was there from the start

 

At the moment, I have one doll on order who is his own character, I have one 3D printed BJD who is a canon character, and I have plans to save up for a doll that is me shelling an old OC. I think all options are fun in their own way.

 

I have both OC’s and existing characters in dolls. They only thing I can’t seem to do is develop character around the doll with no prexisting idea of who they will be.

Two of my dolls are oc, and my other four are characters. I’m drawn to doing characters partly because I often fav side characters or people from not well known stuff. So these guys don’t tend to have merch I can get. So I steal their souls and put them in dolls instead

 

I'm so glad I found this thread because I've been meaning to see what others do with dolls they don't have a preexisting character for!
Because I'm so particular about my already made oc's I've never made a doll from them (Because modding looks pretty scary) so I fall more into the category of letting them become their own character and just adding to it! Because I don't like to limit myself, I try a bunch of new things until I find that one thing that just clicks! But I only own 2 dolls so maybe that will change!

Though I do want to make a doll from a media characters, I don't know if I'll ever be able to find the sculpt I want tho LOL

 

I've never had OC's to shell, so my dolls always develop their own characters. Usually I'll see a sculpt that really speaks to me and I'll get some idea of a character/name in my mind of that particular doll. Over time, their character/story slowly but surely develops. For instance, my second doll Akira. Over the 3 years that I've had him, his story and character has blossomed a lot. Since the character came from the sculpt itself, Akira could never be shelled into any other doll sculpt