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Would you ever intentionally damage your doll?

Dec 17, 2009

    1. I was thinking, if I had a doll whose character suddenly had a traumatic accident (like a car crash, hit by a train, thrown off a cliff, etc), I would think it fun to drop him from a high spot (just a few feet up, not enough to shatter him, just enough to dent and chip, maybe break off some fingers and toes, maybe a whole hand) and let the damage he sustains be the injuries his character suffers. I know it might sound somewhat sadistic, but that seems like such a "natural" way to develop a character - let gravity determine what truly happened to him. And we're talking irrepairable damage, so it'd have to be a doll and a character you're very passionate about as they would probably lose a lot of resale value.

      My question:
      Has anyone here ever done this? Dropped a doll from a high place, left them in a very hot car to bake and discolor, sprayed them with bleach, etc. - any action that would cause serious, permanent damage done on purpose. And I'm talking damage that could happen from accidents or negligence more than taking an Xacto knife to the doll and adding modifications, I mean damage that is more random and less planned out, though just attacking a doll with an Xacto knife could qualify too.

      Would you ever even consider doing this? We all know how much it hurts to see a doll hurt by neglect or ignorance (simply not knowing yet what can damage a doll like Sharpie or spray paint) but what if someone truly damaged their doll on purpose? How would it make you feel? Would you want to rescue their doll even though it was done on purpose for developing a character?

      Please discuss. :) And as always, delete or move this if it has been addressed similarly.

      2010 Edit! This has come back from the dead, I'd forgotten all about this! I still think it's an intriguing idea - to see what damage befalls, then to work with it. Obviously we don't chip or shatter, but each chip or shatter could represent a scar that you'd then have to do some work on to make it look as such rather than it looking like a brittle substance shattering. All said and done, I doubt I'd ever do this. My dolls aren't character driven enough to end up with something as intense as a large injury. If they were, I'd be more likely to hire a professional to do reversible modifications because I'm so mercurial and change my doll-mind an awful lot. Still, it'd be terribly interesting to see if someone's doll took a two story nose dive to see what could become of it. I'm content right now with all my dolls being pristine and intact...after all, I'd be awfully sad to see my Baha covered in stitches and missing an arm. :(
       
    2. no I wouldn't do it but only because my dolls and their characters won't have that happen to them..but from a Modders point of view..if you drop your doll from a high place, you may not have much of a doll left to even call a doll..you'll have pieces of a doll...which I guess if you have the cash to do this and not feel like it was a waste of money..then its up to you..most people don't have the cash to throw away like that...it would be better to have the doll modded to show the injury you are intending..some mods can be removed..others cannot.. and whether you will be reselling it and wanting to get a good price out of it.. just my take on it.
       
    3. I don't think you'd end up with a pretty realistic injury if you did that. People don't chip and crack. If I were keen on having a doll with visible injuries or scars, I would do it in a more planned and deliberate way. And with the cheapest doll imaginable.
       
    4. Honestly, the thought of actually dropping a doll to give it damage makes me cringe. Also, I have to agree with Monkeycancer, People don't crack and chip. It wouldn't be natural to me. I'd go to a person who mods dolls before I'd ever actually break my own doll. Even with the cheapest doll out there, you're still spending $60-$100 or more on it. That seems more like taking that much money and putting it in a fire and hoping it doesn't burn down to ashes. You'd risk so much that it wouldn't be worth it to me. So no, I haven't intentionally broken my dolls. I don't believe I ever would.
       
    5. no, have not done so will never do so
       
    6. I never would do this and only the idea that someone would consider doing such a thing gives me goose bumps (and reminds me of Sid from Toy Story). Modifications which are done professionally are an act of creation, no matter how extreme and disturbing they might look. But dropping a doll intentionally in the hope to get some fancy injures is, in my opinion, nothing but an act of destruction.
       
    7. Wow, this is a hard topic to be positive on. The very idea makes me cringe - expensive doll = piece of art, IMO. But, that said, your money, your doll. I do think dropping it might be a bad idea, since you can't control what breaks off. (part of the head piece, nose, etc) But there are people who have experimented with deliberately leaving pieces out in the sun to change color. Maybe leaving a leg out in the sun, then have it modded to look like it's burned and scarred? Be specific with what you want modded and changed, and I think you'll be happier.
       
    8. I know of at least one modification artist who uses such things as fire and hammers to achieve some of the realistic looking scars and growths on her doll projects. I myself prefer the more controlled method of a dremel and epoxy putty to achieve the look I want.
       
    9. I wouldn't drop the doll. And I do understand where you are coming from. Since we, as humans, do get permanent scars and injuries at times. And I have thought of this. The best way to handle it, I feel is to do a planned permanent mod, if you believe that you will never, ever sell it or believe you will be able to find someone who is willing to buy the doll.
       
    10. I'm actually fascinated by this idea. It's like when a doll gets a mark, some people call it the doll's birthmark. Sometimes dents and scratches make the doll more "yours".
       
    11. Well, really, being hit by a train can't be simulated by having a doll thrown from a few feet high. Burns can't be simulated by burning the resin either. Neither can be scars or broken fingers. It will never LOOK like actual injury.

      The only reason to do such things, to my understanding, would be thinking that by actually "hurting" the resin you're trying to make your doll do through the painful experience that your character has gone through. Except you're the one hurting your doll, and not some random train. Which is kinda twisted, in my humble opinion.
       
    12. Slinging a doll off your balcony isn't going to give you anything near a realistic set of "injuries", it's going to give you at best a severely dinged bit of resin and at worst, a bag of shattered parts. If you want injuries on a doll, why would you just let fate decide what happened and not just mod it?

      I have a doll who's character has a severe limp following an accident, it was acheived pretty easily by buying a body with a defect where one leg is slightly shorter than the other, meaning he will always favour his damaged side. I've painted scars and marks on plenty of dolls too, it's not hard and eliminates any need to purposefully damage a doll in a probably needless manner simply so it looks like it's seen life.

      As for the later questions, I can and have rescued dolls that have been damaged either by their owners ignorance of modding or by accidents. Such things happen in a hobby based on customisation, but I really don't see the need to deliberately damage my $500 lump of resin when a mod job gives me the end result I want and is usually removable should I wish to sell on.
       
    13. Have I intentionally damaged one of my dolls? Yeah, but the damage was easily reversible. Did I do it to achieve a certain effect? Not per say, it was more to improve posing than anything. Would I ever chuck a doll to achieve a certain effect? No, because it's unrealistic.

      While the idea of unbiased damage is okay in theory, there's still key things for every different type of traumatic incident that aren't truly all that random. If I approached a patient who just collided with a brick wall head on in a car while wearing a seatbelt, I could reasonably expect that they might have injuries to the front of the chest, the neck and the face from the airbag/dashboard/steering wheel etc, and damage to the front of the body in various other places, but they probably aren't going to have many, if any, cuts on the buttocks or back of the thighs, as they were rather well protected, if that makes sense. In order to replicate a scenario like that with the idea of causing realistic damage to a doll, you would want to maybe find a video of a crash test dummy or something and watch how it impacts, then use those specific areas of injury to build other injuries off of, such as perhaps a chest injury that involved a rib or two breaking and protruding from the skin, in turn leaving a scar when healed, or a face impact that led to a broken nose, in which the end result would be maybe a crooked nose. I could see how the randomness could work for maybe minor damage such as scratches, which probably wouldn't be severe enough to scar, but most of the major, life-threatening or serious damage is going to be around the point(s) of impact specific to that particular accident and would have to be more planned than a quick huck against the wall.

      For the last question, I'd say that I am bothered by people who destroy dolls due to lack of research or lack of consideration for the permanence of the modification, but it isn't my place to do anything about it. It's their doll to do with as they please. If they were to approach me and ask me to attempt to fix the problem, I would surely try, but only if I knew I could fix the doll, rather than just making it worse.
       
    14. I would never damage my doll intentionally. Perhaps I could make them a scar, even a permanent one - but this would be accurately done. If I had a doll that had to be damaged to fit for a character, I would rather buy spare parts and mod them, so they could be replaced any time.
       
    15. Argh, it was bad enough when Asagi faceplanted the floor! I couldn't ever purposly drop a doll :<.

      Modded scars, I have a buffdoll done one and its amazing.
       
    16. I'd like to be somewhat in control if I do extensive mods even if most of my horror mods develop on the go and have "happy accidents". Still I'd like to be able to determine the location of where the damage will be to make sure it looks good.
      If a person has an accident things happen no matter what will look good, but if I'm going to stare at my heavily modded doll, I want it to look balanced and pleasing to the eye. (As weird as that may sound for a scar or worse.)

      I did buy a head that was burned by the previous owner and decided to build my mods on top of that. The burns form a very interesting basis for horror mods, but I wouldn't burn a head myself, because I don't like the thought of exposing myself to harmful chemicals released when you burn resin. So I'm sort of glad someone else did that.

      Maybe for an art project I'd break a doll and put it back together in an artsy way, but I don't have a good reason to be artsy with a doll of several hundreds of dollars.
       
    17. christ why would you even think that dropping a doll from altitudes will emulate injuries? you will damage your doll more than anything. No i would not even consider that, i paid good money for mine, so no way.
       
    18. Portraying damage to dolls is not my kind of thing, but if it were, I would probably assemble a doll from the cheapest parts possible to start with and control the damage. Strung doll parts are under pressure from the elastic and I wouldn't want the parts to suddenly fly apart because of structural damage. I use resin epoxy to mend broken dolls, and fortunately, have only had one occasion to use it.
       
    19. I wouldn't, because with dropping it at least you're as likely to end up with a doll broken in an unusable way than one with marks that look like "injuries". Sure you MIGHT just get some scratches you could make into scars, but you might just as likely have it crack apart at the seamlines, break at the eyes, chip horribly at the ankles and wrists and be unstringable. I might consider deliberately yellowing a (cheap) body that's not quite the color I need, but it would be done in a careful controlled manner. I think it would be interesting to see what happens to a doll left in a hot car to bake, but am not willing to try it myself. I don't think it'd end up looking like any injury or burn, anyway. Jaundice, probably.
       
    20. O____O Maybe I'd consider doing this, if the dolls cost less than ten dollars each, but however, I would DEFINITELY never do something like that to a $500 or $600 doll, hell no.

      I like my injuries planned out accordingly, but that's just me. I could never drop one of my babies or hurt them like that on purpose. It would be like setting a living human in a car and saying, 'Now you don't get to come out until your nice and toasted,' o.o