Your Doll's Identity - Physical or Mental?

It's dead. If I had to get the same mold to replace him, It wouldn't be the same because you know its a different doll (had the same problem with my barbies)

Definitely if its another mold, that's a whole new doll

both of their characteristics are a mental thing, I had an idea of who they were before they even got here. That's actually how I picked out my second doll because I knew I wanted a girl doll that looked kind of sad but not too sad. some time you have to know what you want before you start looking

 

If your doll got badly damaged to the point where it can't be fixed, would you replace it with another one that is the same, or consider it... "dead"?
Replace it, if possible.

If you did replace it, would it be the "same" one as before with the same personality and background story?
Not exactly... But it would represent the same character if I manage to get the same mold again.

What if you weren't able to get the exact mold anymore and had to get another kind?
In this case, the doll/character would probably be "dead". But exceptions are possible. It depends on the character. Some work with more than one mold.


Is your doll's identity a mental thing, or based off of its physical characteristics?
I am not sure. It is a bit of both, since most characters come to life when I see a mold I like for the first time.

 

Interesting questions you've listed up there O:! I haven't thought of anything similar upon this point...

If your doll got badly damaged to the point where it can't be fixed, would you replace it with another one that is the same, or consider it... "dead"?
Since you said it's a serious damaged,I will most probably treat my boy as dead....(I don't want such things to happen too,honestly.)

If you did replace it, would it be the "same" one as before with the same personality and background story?
To me,the one that existed before is irreplaceable.They may have similar face up,same mold etc but they are not of the same ): I'll just make him the brother or some persona in the world^^"""

What if you weren't able to get the exact mold anymore and had to get another kind?
In the first place,I wouldn't get the exact mold so it doesn't bothers me...I don't want any new dolls or same doll to replace the one that existed before.It's the emotional part being the cause lol.

Is your doll's identity a mental thing, or based off of its physical characteristics?
So far,most of my doll's identity were decided after I spent some time with him.I wouldn't go straight into deciding one for him but I'll spend time with him to see what kind of feeling his physical features has created.But most of the time,it's a mix combination of both mental and physical ^^"

 

If your doll got badly damaged to the point where it can't be fixed, would you replace it with another one that is the same, or consider it... "dead"?

I would probably think that the doll is not 'dead' but, I would find a different scuplt and make it an incarnation of him. As Felinus is a guardian of nature, he would be reincarnated if his physical body 'died'.

If you did replace it, would it be the "same" one as before with the same personality and background story?

Yes, It would be the same personality. Possibly a little livelier. Also, he would have different fantasy parts. Say maybe a centaur or paws instead of hooves.

What if you weren't able to get the exact mold anymore and had to get another kind?

It would eb perfectly alright, as he would reincarnate.

Is your doll's identity a mental thing, or based off of its physical characteristics?

It is mostly mental. His hooves and wings are physical, something I could never replace.

 

If your doll got badly damaged to the point where it can't be fixed, would you replace it with another one that is the same, or consider it... "dead"?
I never thought of this... I don't own a doll so I don't know how strong is the connection between owner- the character itself- the resin BJD. But since I base my dolls on characters with own history and characteristics, I would probably leave the character there; In other words, I wouldn't buy the same wig/eyes/body/head and make another one. But I wouldn't consider it 'dead' either.

If you did replace it, would it be the "same" one as before with the same personality and background story?
Yes, because I'm replacing it.

What if you weren't able to get the exact mold anymore and had to get another kind?
I wouldn't try to put my character in other sculpt. To me that would be like changing a friend's body, hair color and face, pretending that this whole new and unknown person -which is completely different to your friend- is actually the same way your friend is, and haves the same laugh, etc. I wouldn't get used to that.

Is your doll's identity a mental thing, or based off of its physical characteristics?
I think it is more like a mental thing.

 

If your doll got badly damaged to the point where it can't be fixed, would you replace it with another one that is the same, or consider it... "dead"?

Even though I enjoy writing, I don't use my dolls as an embodiment of an original character I've created ahead of time. Instead, I've created a personality for the doll based on how they strike me once I decide I want them. While I could re-create some if I wanted to, it would be very circumstantial and dependent on the specific doll, but I'd probably consider the character dead (unless I set out to specifically reinvent them).

If you did replace it, would it be the "same" one as before with the same personality and background story?


As far as Remedy is concerned, she's that specific doll. Kun is a readily available doll from Volks but she was a specific vision from start to finish. I found one wig for her that she's worn for five years and I've never even seen the same one to buy as a back-up. She's had the same eyes for just as long, one pair, ever. And when I finally had the nerve to send her off for her face-up, it turned out just so perfectly that I don't think it could ever be replicated with the same energy. So no. I wouldn't set out to replace her; if I got another Kun, she'd most likely be a completely different doll. I tend to have similar feelings for all my dolls, though my feelings toward her are probably my deepest because she was my first true love.

What if you weren't able to get the exact mold anymore and had to get another kind?

For the first time since I've been in the hobby, I've "re-shelled" a character, though I only changed the head for a different one from the same company that I've always adored. I admit I'm surprised that it feels a bit strange to call her the same name as the doll with the old head, though I'm getting used to it. I don't like the concept too much, but made the exception for this particular doll because I just wanted the other head more. I'd just create a new identity for a doll of a different mold.


Is your doll's identity a mental thing, or based off of its physical characteristics?

Perhaps a bit of both. I use their look to help figure them out, yes, but in the end, it is all from my mind. We're all shaped by everything around us, so the way I see my dolls is shaped by my reaction and perception to them as well as everything else.

 

If your doll got badly damaged to the point where it can't be fixed, would you replace it with another one that is the same, or consider it... "dead"?
Maybe. I've given my dolls such mental personalities that I think I might try to get the same doll again, or have my original doll suffer a terrible accident in my story. I might then make that doll dead and mourn it and never replace it (might even make a memorial wall with a grave) or I might replace it and continue as normal. But that depends on which doll it is and how it got damaged
If you did replace it, would it be the "same" one as before with the same personality and background story? It might be the same with the same story just back from a "vacation" or I might make a new character. Again, it depends on which doll it is.
What if you weren't able to get the exact mold anymore and had to get another kind?
Then it would be a new character.
Is your doll's identity a mental thing, or based off of its physical characteristics?
Both. Mostly it's dependant on the FullSet, but also on the face. My naïve characters have big eyes and my more mature ones have narrower eyes. That also influenced my choice of which dolls to get and what character to give them.

 

Well, some of my dolls could be replaced, others couldn't simply because the company closed down or the heads are too unique/hard to find. I would be crushed if anything happened to Luken or Celaran! Those two are irreplaceable. But it wouldn't affect the characters. The characters are a purely mental thing to me. Celaran kinda found me (I'm putting it like this because it doesn't really feel like I made him up - more like one day he just popped up on my doorstep) long before I first learned about BJDs. True, the doll makes it easier to imagine what he looks like but getting the doll really hasn't changed our "work-relationship", one could say. He's still the same bitchy old elf who likes to NOT talk to me and give me a hard time trying to figure him out.

Luken - well, I got him because again, I found it hard to imagine what Luken looked like. The doll now looks like what Luken would look like if he were a doll. Not what the "real" Luken would look like. But the doll helped me a lot with figuring out stuff about Luken and it's thanks to the doll, actually, that I know he's left-handed, e.g.

Would I replace them? Certainly not Luken and Celaran if they were damaged beyond repair (meaning their heads plus the replacement heads I got for them). The other dolls - maybe, maybe not. Depends on whether I had the money to spare. Their characters CAN exist without the dolls. Basically, losing the dolls would be kinda like losing very, very, VERY expensive posters (ok, I'm much, much fonder of my dolls than my posters but I guess you get the idea ...).

 

If your doll got badly damaged to the point where it can't be fixed, would you replace it with another one that is the same, or consider it... "dead"?
I'd be very upset for my damaged dolls but I'd replace them. Luckily I don't have any limiteds that can't be replaced (thank you, Iplehouse CDS) and I will just have to hope no one gets retired. I have a problem with the idea of death in real life (different topic whoa), so I think having the ability to replace them would be great.

f you did replace it, would it be the "same" one as before with the same personality and background story?
Yes. I don't think I would find that a problem.

What if you weren't able to get the exact mold anymore and had to get another kind?
That would bother my obsessive compulsive nature. If I have a mold that fits a character--I usually create a character for my doll and not the other way around--it is hard to change my mind and say another mold is better. I've never been able to "upgrade" characters doll to doll. If it was irreplaceable I might just give up and pretend the character didn't exist, instead of giving it a death. And boy do I sound crazy.

And that leads to my final question:

Is your doll's identity a mental thing, or based off of its physical characteristics?
Like most others, both. I think it's part of human nature to naturally assign character traits to sculpts, like we do to other humans.

 

If your doll got badly damaged to the point where it can't be fixed, would you replace it with another one that is the same, or consider it... "dead"?

Every single one of my doll krewe with the exception of Belle Fontaine has undergone a reshelling at some point in her doll life. Dolls aren't living things, so how can they be considered dead? It is interesting to note, however, that in the Victorian era especially funerals for broken dolls were quite common.

If you did replace it, would it be the "same" one as before with the same personality and background story?

I've had to replace Megumi twice--once when I ruined her face-up and then again when she got stolen. Ashe, Miyae and Chaeri were all reshelled when I got better bodies and heads for them.

What if you weren't able to get the exact mold anymore and had to get another kind?

I'd either find one similar or just find another I liked which suited the character.

Is your doll's identity a mental thing, or based off of its physical characteristics?

Mostly mental, though the dolls (all based on characters except for Megumi) do dictate subtle differences in their characters based on the physical attributes of the dolls themselves.

 

There's only one doll character I've ever reshelled, and that's Satin. The original, first Satin was a Nanuri '07; due to finances I had to sell his head, which I regretted pretty much immediately. I've not seen another in BW come up since then. I ended up reshelling him as an Elf Chiwoo.

I decided last year to downsize my collection to what I thought would be a more manageable size, and gave Satin to my younger teen for her birthday (she'd fallen in love with him and insisted I couldn't sell him). I killed off his character in the storyline and figured that was pretty much an end of it.

Except I missed having the character around - and hadn't counted on the outcry I got from a small group of his fans! So I brought the character back. Again, I had another hunt around for another BW Nanuri 07 head but without any luck. I did spot an Elf Chiwoo vampire head, but the seller was asking way over the odds for the head based on a crappy face-up I would have been wiping anyway. And then I spotted a LuWen vampire in the MP that sculpt-wise looked much closer to the original Nauri 07 I'd wanted. So Satin got reshelled as a LuWen vampire.

And... he's not quite Satin any more. The Chiwoo Satin wasn't quite the same as the Nanuri 07 Satin to begin with, but he'd never gotten a body so hadn't interacted with the rest of my cast. The Chiwoo Satin had - and gotten pretty involved with the storyline in a way that brought out far more of his character. I redid his LuWen vamp head to resemble his Chiwoo Satin face-up as much as possible, but... he's just not the same. Something has very much changed. Satin's identity is too caught up in his Chiwoo-ness now, I fear. I'm going to have to try getting him an Elf Chiwoo Vampire head and hope that works, and the LuWen Satin will simply become a different character.

All of this has shown me that were I to lose one of my dolls to some terrible accident that was irreparable, the character would be likely dead, to all intents and purposes. It would be very difficult to reshell it. It wouldn't be so difficult to get a new doll in the case of those that are standards, but even if I were to reproduce their face-ups perfectly, they wouldn't be the same doll. A lot of my dolls were bought initially as heads on the secondary market, and as such they have a bit of character history to them - a lot of Eric's personality and background story evolved, for instance, from the fact that I was able to trace some of his previous history here on DoA and discovered that I was his third owner. He was very much an impulse buy for me, and I snapped him up with about 10 minutes to spare on his ebay auction - and he'd already been relisted once, so it just seemed he arrived with this general air of having been rejected so many times which coloured his character as it developed. It would be perfectly easy for me to buy a new Shiwoo from Luts, give him a scarred eye and reproduce Eric's face-up and piercings - but it wouldn't be Eric, because the actual doll itself just wouldn't have that same background history.

I don't think I could bring myself to throw away the remains though. I think I'd have to make some form of casket for them. That said, I really cannot imagine any damage so bad as to be completely and utterly irreparable. I've seen some pretty "hopeless" cases restored quite amazingly by talented custmisers here on DoA, including dolls that had lost noses and ears, and one that had been through a house fire. I think that no matter how bad the damage was, I'd rather try and rescue the doll rather than attempt to replace it or write it off, and turn it into part of the character's back story.

 

If your doll got badly damaged to the point where it can't be fixed, would you replace it with another one that is the same, or consider it... "dead"?
i'll consider it dead, for me, every doll is unique, i guess i'll never "replace" it, but i do want another same one, actually, if i love some mold very much, i would like a dozen of them ^_^

If you did replace it, would it be the "same" one as before with the same personality and background story?
no, definitely a new one.

What if you weren't able to get the exact mold anymore and had to get another kind?
oh, i wish that will never happen

Is your doll's identity a mental thing, or based off of its physical characteristics?
physical characteristics, but it can change

 

If your doll got badly damaged to the point where it can't be fixed, would you replace it with another one that is the same, or consider it... "dead"?
It would really depend on the situation and on which doll it happened to. I currently only have Soren and my floating head Neva, but there are different terms for both, as well as future dolls who are in the works. If it was Soren, who was an original character of mine, as well as my childhood imaginary friend, I'm not sure if I could replace him, even with another of the same mold. Though with Neva, I'm sure that I could do it with minimal fuss. It all depends on my level of emotional attachment.

If you did replace it, would it be the "same" one as before with the same personality and background story? Most likely. Unless I had been reworking their character during the time of the incident, or had been wishing to do so, they would probably be the same.

What if you weren't able to get the exact mold anymore and had to get another kind?
I wouldn't, unless I had been planning to reshell them into a different mold beforehand. It just wouldn't be the same.

Is your doll's identity a mental thing, or based off of its physical characteristics?
My doll's identity is most definitely a mental thing. I have written about them, except for Neva, prior to having any inclination about making them into a doll. To me, they are the characters that float around in my head before they are my dolls and they aren't defined by the doll that they are shelled into though I try to find molds that suit what I imagine when I think about them.

 

If your doll got badly damaged to the point where it can't be fixed, would you replace it with another one that is the same, or consider it... "dead"?
I would probably consider her dead. Just for the simple fact that if I replaced her another doll would physically be another doll. Even with same wig, same eyes, same belongings. I have actually thought about this before. Quite a bit. I would get another doll, sure... but probably not the same mold...


Is your doll's identity a mental thing, or based off of its physical characteristics?
My dolls personality is a mental thing. She is part of me. She's a bit of my brain and who I am.

I think if she broke beyond repair and I were to consider her dead, that part of my brain where she was born from would probably also die. And I admit, that is super weird. But I don't think I could carry on with another doll to replace her. I dunno.... is there such a thing as doll reincarnation? Maybe I should believe in that, just in case she does break and I have to replace her.

 

If your doll got badly damaged to the point where it can't be fixed, would you replace it with another one that is the same, or consider it... "dead"?
I'd replace it if I could. i love my dolls too much

If you did replace it, would it be the "same" one as before with the same personality and background story?
I think no, the doll will be different
What if you weren't able to get the exact mold anymore and had to get another kind?
It still depends. If the doll that I'm replacing the destroyed one with looks simmilar enough, then yes. It'd take me a little getting used to it, but it could work.

Is your doll's identity a mental thing, or based off of its physical characteristics?
I like buying dolls becuase I think they're pretty. I give them a name, and then based on the impression I get from the doll's features a "personality" gets formed.

 

Well all I can say is none of my characters existed before I had my dolls, so their identities came from ideas when I started to collect them. Then some characters formed off the ones I already had, and some were formed around the actual moulds, ( so for me it is a mixture of mental and physical).
They could all be replaced, but experiences ( e.g. Meets and such) would be different IF I had to replace them with a different mould, but that would be all. I agree that even the same mould can look completely different, so if I had to replace them, something would be slightly different about them or their character. I don't tend to do back stories or roll play with them, so it's a little different I suppose.

 

If your doll got badly damaged to the point where it can't be fixed, would you replace it with another one that is the same, or consider it... "dead"?
I would definitely consider them dead. I don't think I'd even want to get the same mold again, just because it would make me sad.

If you did replace it, would it be the "same" one as before with the same personality and background story?
Not, totally. To me, it would be like trying to say identical twins were the same. Just because they look alike doesn't mean that they have the same memories, energy, or personality. Kinda like when Data died in First Contact and they replaced him with the blank copy (NERD)

What if you weren't able to get the exact mold anymore and had to get another kind?
I would prefer this. Like I said, I wouldn't want the same mold because it would just serve to remind me of who used to make me happy and that I loved very much. I don't think he would stay with me very long.

Is your doll's identity a mental thing, or based off of its physical characteristics?
Well, I guess I have to say physical if I understand the question properly. My boys are who they are, they're not based off of characters or anything. They've developed their own personalities that are specific to them, not to a "character" per-say, so they could never be re-shelled or anything. Bodies I can upgrade, but I couldn't part with or change the head because that's just who they are. It'd be like that Twilight Zone episode where the old man gets a new young body but decides to give it back because its not "him" anymore. (DOUBLE NERD)

 

My doll's characters are attached to their body, I won't just change doll, if they get damaged I'll try to fix them but if I can't do that they'll be dead to me. I may try to change parts if possible but never the head.
This because I build characters after I get the doll not before, so it wouldn't count even if it was the same mold.

It's different when you look for a doll to impersonate a character you already have, because your own character would never die.

 

For Zxyla... She was always a name in the back of my head but her personality came from the doll so I'm split. It wouldn't be very hard to get the same doll model but she would be changed. The feeling would be off, like someone that had been through a traumatic accident or something. I would probably scramble to fix her. If she were in pieces I wouldn't mind the "broken dolly" look for her but if a fire was the reason and she was totally gone I would get the same girl. A fire damaged doll sounds pretty though...
Leon is an LE so it would be nearly impossible to replace him. I don't even want to think about anything happening to Jhonen and he isn't even my doll!

 

If your doll got badly damaged to the point where it can't be fixed, would you replace it with another one that is the same, or consider it... "dead"?
No. If I can replace it I will...

If you did replace it, would it be the "same" one as before with the same personality and background story?
yup. I wouldn't change a thing ^^

What if you weren't able to get the exact mold anymore and had to get another kind?
Right well for me the mould is the character. My dolls aren't really characters before that I'm searching for mould for...the moulds speak to me and then I turn them into who I see fits ^.^ So no... I'd have to say good bye I suppose...

Is your doll's identity a mental thing, or based off of its physical characteristics?
It is a mental thing, but unlike a lot of people for me the sculpt comes first and then I make a character for it. So the sculpt is part of it. It's not based on the sculpt but I relate that character with that face...and sometimes that faceup... Tulie (my glot) would always need the soom faceup or 1 done verrryyy similar... Otherwise she's not the Tulie I know