Character Dolls (based on fictional or other preexisting characters)

LOL My original characters are all cosplayers....so guess what? THEY cosplay a bunch of different non-original characters each LOL

 

One day, when I have a lot more space, I actually would love to customize dolls for some of my favorite fictional book characters. Like, Have a Merlin, a Peter Pan, a Lyra (from His Dark Materials), etc. I think it could be a neat experiment. But for now I just picked some of my near and dear OCs.

 

I would like to, yes. Maybe someday, but for now I would rather create/shell original characters.

 

I have one character doll and another one is still in progress

 

Character dolls seem cool and interesting. But I'm not 100% into it because I prefer my own character over others. Influence or inspiration from other character's base like from manga or history is ok. I can't say that all my characters have no related or aren't influenced by other characters; for an example, I use Lord Rayleigh's (who created Rayleigh-Wave and Rayleigh-Jeans Laws) last name for one of my doll, "Alaistair V. Rayleigh", my Fayy's appearance is a bit similar to Ciel Phantomhive from Kuroshitsuji But with totally different story...

 

Not intentionally.

My Volk's SDC Ryu was only named after Vanyel, The main character in Mercedes Lackey's Last Herald Mage trilogy.

When I first saw him, there was a something familiar about him to me that I couldn't quite put my finger on, it was like I knew him from somewhere.

It wasn't until several months later, when I was rereading Magic's Pawn, that I realized he looked exactly like the Vanyel I see whenever I read the first volume.

For me, when I read a book it is like I am actually there, seeing everything as it unfolds around me and being a part of it.

Lol, I am literally one of those people to whom the phrase "...transported by books" applies. ^_^

Anyway, he was only supposed to be named after Vanyel, not be Vanyel.

However, he seems to have other ideas.

He was not happy in his default outfit, so I tried him in a kimono, thinking prehaps he would turn out to be the younger brother of my Volks Minoru.

He wanted no part of that! No matter how I posed him with Minoru, he always managed to look like he was trying to get away from a stranger, instead of hugging or hanging out with a beloved older brother. 0_o

He wasn't particularly impressed with the kimono, either. 9_9

He wasn't happy with any outfit I suggested, until I happened to pull out the default outfit belonging to another one of my dolls.

It's a fantasy outfit, all faux leather, and velvet, with silver trimming, and the colors happen to be black, dark sapphire blue, and a kind of silvery slate gray.

The same colors young Vanyel favored...

He even seems to have a personality similar to Vanyel's. 0_0

Lol, next he'll be asking for silver colored eyes! ^_~

 

I have always loved creating oc's.

 

Most of my dolls are character dolls.

 

I don't own any character dolls, and I don't really plan to ever have any. In my opinion, BJDs are too expensive to use for fanart (which is what I consider character dolls to be). I own a lot of the Rozen Maiden Pullip dolls, but I wouldn't want to own BJD versions of them, just due to the expense involved. All my BJDs represent original characters.

I do love seeing other people's character dolls, though! Well-done character dolls are always amazing, and you can really see how much love of the character goes into creating their doll form.

 

I wouldn't want to do a character doll. That seems like a waste to me because that would limit the doll very much... I might use an excisting character as an inspiration, but if I wanted a copy of a character, I wouldn't spend hundreds of €uros for that. I woult buy a poster.

 

I'm definitely going to make one when they get here, but she won't be stuck that way. I want all my dolls to be very fluid in their appearance. I highly doubt I'll be giving them any backstories. I'll just be playing with their looks and taking cute pics.

 

I would like to one day have an Aes Sedai doll from the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan. Or maybe even a Morpheus doll from Neil Gaimans Sandman.


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I modeled my SD guy after Tate from American Horror Story

 

I’ve thought about making some as book characters but it’s difficult for me to consider spending so much money on something, and then be restrained as to what that doll could wear or what the eyes and hair might look like. Someday I might consider it but as of this moment my answer is no.

 

I'm planning on making a Link from the Legend of Zelda games. I don't want any other character dolls.

 

I have Serah Farron from Final Fantasy XIII and I want FFX Yuna, but I don't know what sculpt is good for her.

 

I really love the idea of people doing dolls based off characters they like. I didn't think to do it myself until I saw Disney's "Frozen" and realized my doll looks just like Elsa. So now my goal is to make her Elsa Face up will be different because I had mine factory done, but I'm excited to have a 3 foot tall Elsa get set up in my front room to both shock and aw the masses.

 

Nope! I'm not a fan of pre made character's. The main thing I love about BJD's is that they can be made into my own characters

 

Mercutio was supposed to shell a webcomic character from Teahouse. It wasn't until I had already gotten him that I realized there aren't any good shots of Merc's clothing, so it couldn't really be accurately reproduced. So now he's his own dude and I've decided that I just don't have the disposable income to shell characters, though I do hope to get each doll a cosplay outfit for when I take them to conventions.

 

I'm not sure if it counts but I'm hoping to be able to transform my Tasha into different characters as I become more confident with my sewing. Granted, she'll still be Tasha but I'd like to dress her up as different characters

 

I actually just bought an outfit for a character doll today. I'm going to be making Snow White. This is a very personal project for me, and I'm really excited! I'm planning on making a Prince Charming for her as well... I also kinda want to do an Alice in Wonderland doll, just because I find that Alice dolls are always really beautiful.

 

Awww! They'll be so cute! You'll have to show us pictures when you're done

 

I don't have a tribute doll exactly but I do enjoy recreating CLAMP characters with my tiny girl Pearl. I took her to the last convention dressed head to toe like Kobato, ioroygi included. I'd like to try my hand at Cardcaptors or Tsubasa RC next.

 

Cardcaptors has someone terribly cute outfits. Do you have any pictures of your Pearl in cosplay?

 

I dont have mine yet, but my Ringdoll Sol is destined to be my most favorite Character from an old Anime, albeit a modern version as his clothes.... well .... I cant sew worth a crap... not on the level of his clothes. So far, as I know, he will be the only BJD like him in the whole world!

I also have a Ringdoll Special Event Annie doll thats going to be a human type chibi Fluttershy. (From My Little Pony, dont hate. She has that uber sweet shy look to her. )

 

I love the movie The Last Unicorn and want to own a sculpt that could be Amalthea. This time I would keep her with her prince!

 

For me personally, I do not have any desire to have a doll based on a character I like from a manga, tv show, movie, etc.
If I really wanted to pay tribute to the characters, I would just buy more of the mangas, watch more of the tv shows they're in, or watch the movie with them in it again. Now if I was superbly duperly crazy about the character then I would just buy a shirt, necklace, or some other merchandise to sponsor it and/or pay tribute to it even more. But, considering them as a character for one of my dolls, I just couldn't do it. I like to keep them original and I like the creativity sense in making them original. Overall, I really love the creative side in the BJD hobby and to make a doll based strictly off of another manga/tv show/movie character, just wouldn't seem right. Now, if the manga/tv show/movie character inspired myself to make another character that has some of their traits, then that's fine. But, strictly based off the character to look like them and everything, it kind of creeps me out/makes me uncomfortable and the creativity is very limited to a certain extent.

So, overall, no dolls strictly based off characters from manga/tv shows/movies (& etc) for me~

 

An Amalthea doll would be lovely... And I guess what I hope for my boy Miles is that he'll be something of a chameleon - able to morph into the character I need him to be while still having a distinct personality otherwise... If that makes sense XD

 

I honestly disagree that there's "no creativity" in creating a character doll. Yes, you can go and purchase fully assembled characters from companies like Volks, but that's really no different from someone buying a fullset from any company. In actually creating a character doll, however, you have to put in quite a bit of effort to find just the right parts to match your personal vision of them. If I'm doing a character doll--let's use a hypothetical character named "Bob"--I can't just go out and buy the perfectly executed Bob sculpt from a company, then get a set of Bob eyes and a Bob wig, and top it all off with an order of Bob clothes and some Bob shoes. It's nowhere near that easy in real life. Finding the right sculpt, the right eyes and wig, finding or making the right clothing, even finding the shoes, all of these take a lot of work and, ultimately, result in a character doll that's a reflection of the owner's vision of that character, not the doll itself.

I've spent weeks, months, even years looking for the perfect sculpts and wigs for my characters. There's nothing easy about it, and it's not any more of a "lack of creativity" than buying a doll just because you like the look of it, then buying eyes and a wig because you like how they look on the doll. Both have their own aspects of creativity, and neither is "limited" in any way.

(And taking it a bit further, there's a huge amount of creativity involved in anyone attempting book characters, where you have no artwork to reference, and have to go entirely off text descriptions and your own mental image of the character. I'd love to see more interpretations of literary characters!)

 

I agree wholeheartedly with you, vicemage. I also never really understood what people meant by a character doll being "limited". Once you've decided what your character looks like and acts like, you're just as "limited" unless you didn't want a consistent character.

 

I own one character doll who is supposed to be Casca from the Berserk manga. I thought it would be fun to have a doll of her since she's a great character, very pretty and I happened to find just the right doll with the right skin tone for her. So yeah, my other dolls who are based on my own work have one friend who is from a manga

 

I haven't logged on in quite some time but I've been looking at dolls again (it's a curse).

I have a BJD planned out that I want to design as one of my own original characters but now, I'm thinking of a second doll design based off of a fictional character (specifically Daria from the animated TV series). I wasn't sure if a lot of people made dolls based off of characters that weren't their own. To me, it would be sort of paying homage to one of my favorite series of all time.

Do more people tend to lean towards original designs or already established characters?

 

This discussion has cropped up a LOT on this forum; there's probably a dozen threads devoted to some variation of this. Here's a particularly lengthy one.

I wouldn't say "more" or "less". Everyone has their own tastes, and no one style is better than any other style. Some people prefer original characters; some *hand raised* like fan dolls. There's plenty of both around here, and both have their merits.

Do whatever you'd like to do with your doll. This is a big sandbox, and everyone can play however they like.

 

I think character dolls are a wonderful way to pay homage to a character, just like cosplay on real people. And it just takes as much effort like building an own character, especially when you plan to do every detail of the characters outfit. I myself plan on doing a fan doll of a Kaito moule from the Vocaloid PS Game Project Diva F and I don't care what anybody says, I will do this and make myself happy and that's the main goal in this hobby, isn't it? Though I must say, I wouldn't want all of my dolls to be fan dolls but if someone else wants to do that, sure, go ahead =)

 

It is all about having fun! I don't have much of a preference either way. I'm more excited about seeing my original concept come to life but I know working on the character doll will be just as rewarding once it's finished. As you said, a lot of work goes into both.

 

I personally think it's fun and that everyone should do what they want with their dolls. Most of my collection are original characters, but I also currently have 3 dolls based on some of my fav characters of all time. (Namely Cato and Clove from The Hunger Games and Eric Draven from The Crow.) I also have another doll in the works that is based on the idea of The Crow but is still my own original character. I do personally see it as an homage to those characters created by someone else and I don't have a preference over original or fan based dolls.

Not sure if people tend to lean more towards original or fandom dolls, but I certainly have a mixture in my crew and I see mixtures all over the forums as well. No matter what anyone says or does, always do what you wish with YOUR doll. If you want a fandom one, go for it! If you want an OC, then go for that! Just do what you want and what feels right and have fun with it. It seems to be fairly common to have either around here and it's fun any way it happens I think. XD

 

BJDs are so customizable, it would be kind of strange if some people did NOT try and make dolls that were an homage to their favorite characters. So yes, there are quite a few bjds around that are based on fictional characters. Just do a search... I'm sure you'll find a bunch.

Personally... I don't tend to get dolls to shell fictional characters intentionally, but I have bought dolls that are pretty much something like that!

Soom MD Ender -- He's basically Anubis from ancient Egyptian pantheon of gods. Counts because he's not my invention. I'll make up the rest of the history, though, so he's an Alternate Universe version...

Soom MD Beast -- definitely inspired by Beauty and the Beast fairy tale by Soom and I have kept him pretty much like that with not vastly different background or personality. Another alternate-universe version.

Ringdoll Frankenstein ('12) -- Ringdoll obviously was inspired by the fictional Frankenstein's Monster. My Caliban has a different name (from another fictional character from Shakespeare) and does have an alternate (more original) history... but he's still looking like he could be Frankenstein's monster... or at least Ringdoll's version!

Crobidoll Sinbi One-off -- Is inspired (very much so) by Scarlett O'Hara from "Gone With the Wind" (film), wearing the famous curtain dress. I'm not bothering changing her history at all.

 

Personally, I use my dolls to shell my OCs. I roleplay them, and wouldn't want somebody else's character that I couldn't RP.

That being said---I LOVE seeing other people's dolls of existing characters/people! I have seen an absolutely amazing Sephiroth and Cloud, as well as a gorgeous Billie Joe Armstrong and a very well done Tom Hiddleston. So while I have no interest in owning them myself, I completely love seeing them owned by other people!

 

XD I have plans for certain fictional character dolls, but mostly of just OC's FROM those fandoms. Like I'm trying to come up with a good sculpt to look for to make a Divergent BJD (Not based off of Tris or Christina) but I'm having trouble deciding on a sculpt

 

I think it goes can go both ways for most people. Some people like to stick strictly to their original characters whereas some can stick strictly to fictional or even nonfictional characters. And there there's some that can do a bit of each. :3 For me, right now, I plan on always staying with having original characters but that doesn't mean that the characters aren't inspired by some real anime characters though. (:

 

I don't have a character doll and I don't plan to. Personally, for me it's a bit weird, because I wouldn't know what the character would do in certain situations. Especially if I like said character, I'd feel like forcing them into certain situations. ^^;
Or if I don't and just place them in situations they have been in before, I wouldn't really be doing anything with them other than reenact scenes someone else thought up.
So either way, I'd feel uncomfortable. ^^;

 

I plan to make the characters from my favorite series into dolls. It is a series of four books called The Lunar Chronicles, based on fairytales. Each girl has her own book that ties into the main plot (i.e. the first book is Cinder, about Cinderella, and Scarlet, about Little Red Riding Hood, ect.) And it's set in the future which is so awesome like I love these books A LOT. If you can't tell already, I think everyone should read them. Eveeeryone.

Anyway. I don't plan on "doing" anything with the dolls, per say, once they are completed. I kind of just want them as collector dolls that I myself customized into perfect renditions of my favorite girls... I see the project sort of as real-life, tangible fanart.

 

I don't have any BJD's yet, but the one's I am planning to get are based on preexisting characters. So, my dolls will be inspired by another character but are not that character (If think that makes sense...). As for a doll that's supposed to completely be a character doll, I might consider it.

 

I want to get two character dolls. One for Edward Elric (Fullmetal Alchemist) and one for Suigintou (Rozen Maiden, and the main reason I joined this hobby). I've pretty much picked out acceptable sculpts for both of them, I just have to wait until I can get them.

 

Alright one thing I wanna see after seeing Guardians of the Galaxy is someone making a Rocket Raccoon custom....With a tiny baby Groot in a flower pot.

 

Yes! I would love to see that, too!

 

I have a SD Yosuke Hanamura from Persona 4 and I'm thinking of possibly doing a character from Tales of Xillia but I love all the characters too much to choose who.

 

I'm trying to get dolls of all the Rozen Maidens right now I already have Kanaria, Souseiseki and Suiseiseki I also have oc's but I like having character dolls alot their just so much fun for me.

 

I won't because no doll would be near my expectations for me. And I like it more to see the character be born through the doll itself.

 

Right now I don't really have that special character that I loved so much as to invest a doll for but maybe someday

 

I have several based on Marvel comic characters. That's actually why I started collecting bjd. I wanted a Jubilee doll. Strangely, she's the only doll I've sold. I'd still like to reshell her in an SD size. I also have my own OC's.

 

I would love to have a character doll but I like so many different genre I wouldn't know where to start.

 

I'd like to have a character doll of Fukunaga Shouhei from Haikyuu because I have a love of background characters and things that look like cats but aren't. (Also he's just a really cute character??) If I ever have enough money I think a 5th Motif Goohwa would do brilliantly.

 

Most of my dolls are OCs but I have several that are based on existing Marvel characters. I have two versions of Loki (Asgard and Jotun) for which I have used DIM Tom Hiddleston minimee heads and I have a Thor who is a custom Iplehouse Claude. I am also waiting on a Robert Downey Jr Minimee head and custom body which will become my Tony Stark. It is fun having these guys as they are kind of like giant customizable action figures.

 

I didn't know this was kind of taboo. One of the reasons I got into this hobby was to make characters, all-inclusive of original characters, pre-existing characters, and even real people who I look up to. But I am intending to "extend" the pre-existing characters and real people, since I know my imagination and fashion sense for my dolls will bring in my own creativity.
So far, I have one MNF Chloe who is Miwako from the manga Paradise Kiss. She is going to have an Arashi someday, and many fun outfits that I design

 

Hope this is the right place to put this query, which is about character and story?

I was just wondering if there were any fans of this fantasy series out there, and whether you'd ever thought of dressing your dolls as characters from the books? I've been lying awake nights thinking about a warrior leather clad Renunciate, and perhaps a red-headed Comyn lady? I've ordered a black Benny and she could be the character who comes to be in charge of the Spaceport, and nobody has ever seen dark skin before? Then how about another Renunciate, but this time one of the midwives wearing the national dress? The possibilities are endless - and I just thought, how about a white skinned androgynous doll to be a chieri?? I'm SO excited about this.

Sorry I know if you haven't read these books none of this will mean anything at all to you - but if anyone else was interested I though it would be fun to make contact and see what we can do together. I'm going to do it anyway, but it would be nice if at least ONE person understood what I was trying to achieve!!

 

Since I helped write one of the books, I am a great fan myself. I've already got an entire cast of dolls from my own books, but I think Marion would have been tickled and flattered by your project, as she was a great fan of people cosplaying her characters.

 

Oh Victoria I'm so pleased to hear that. I've read Sci Fi and fantasy all my life, but these are perhaps my favourite - well the ones about the Guild house and the renunciates are! It will be such a great doll project won't it, I'm already making notes about possible fabrics etc and grabbed a very cheap roll of 2" wide fake fur!

 

Yes and no. I bought 5Star Tumnus because I thought his face reminded me of my pixel-crush Genesis from FFVII (see my avatar). I got a wig that also resembled the hair of the character and Genesis' signature turquoise eyes. I had intended to sew the outfit from the game.
After having him home for a couple of weeks, however, he was trying to tell me that's not who he was. He took on a character of his own that was nothing like the character from the game. So now my sweet boy is still named Genesis, but he is not THE Genesis.

 

I'm definitely not new to the concept of character dolls.

I voted that I have character dolls, but at the moment that's really only off-topic dolls (Pullip/Taeyang/Dal lines). I've got quite the slough of different characters from very different series done, from Abby Sciuto of NCIS, Capt. Jack Harkness from Doctor Who/Torchwood, to anime characters from Gravitation and cartoons like Teen Titans, Avatar: the Last Airbender, and Legend of Korra. Funnily enough...when I moved back into bjds after a long hiatus, I had planned to focus solely on OCs...until I had an order mishap occur.

I had ordered a body for one of my OCs in a custom color, but the company I ordered from sent me the custom colored body in the wrong style (ordered one version of their female bodies, and instead got another, much curvier one) after working things out with the company (they let me keep the mistake), I decided to make this body into Korra from Legend of Korra.

I'm weird in a respect that I get really attached to some characters and series I end up being a fan of, and LoK is one I'm especially fond of. I'm still really fond of the original Avatar series, and don't see that dying any time soon. A fanfiction I have been working on for a while that's an AU retelling of Book 2 and onwards heavily inspired the story my OCs are coming from, so I have a very special attachment to the LoK characters I'm planning to create as bjds as a result of this.

I'm officially planning to do 4 of them: Korra, Asami, Mako and Tahno. They're going to be more based on the AU fic rather than the canon, so it will give me more licence to be creative with what I plan to do with them. I'll probably make outfits that fit with their canon wardrobe, but also add onto that with original pieces inspired by their existing garb. This will allow me also to further develop my sewing skills (I'm not confident in it enough yet to sell pieces I create), while also maybe giving me some inspiration in designing costumes of my OC crew (most of which is still WIP) since I haven't got a clear idea on in-universe style garb for them just yet (their story is still very much in the development stages, as I'm a Graphic Design student with classes taking up much of my time).

In general, the reason I like to do character dolls is because it allows me to: 1) have a doll version of a character that otherwise doesn't exist in existing series merchandise, 2) the ability to have characters from various series interact with each other that otherwise wouldn't (I'm a sucker for crossovers), and 3) I just like having them. I love doing original characters too, but I like having a few character dolls too in the mix. Variety is the spice of life after all.