Making Dolls based on shows, games or art

Seeing dolls based off of other media used to be far more common than it seems to be now.

There was a company called Doll in Mind that used to have a “Minimee” service where they would sculpt anything, up to 10 copies. Group orders for these were super common and you’d see sculpts made after all sorts of characters and famous people (usually meant to be a character from someone favourite piece of media they starred in). The first Minimee I ever saw in person was David Bowie as he was in Labyrinth.

Searching for Minimee or DIM Minimee should yield you some results (though many will have broken images). You might have fun looking through them

Sadly DIM closed some time ago.

Then there were, of course, all of the many projects where someone would just use a base doll as it already existed, maybe doing some modifications.

I was on hiatus from the hobby for a long time and when I came back I heard that the younger generation of BJD collectors aren’t into customizing as much. Not really sure why that is if it’s true. It definitely seems like there’s a higher ratio of custom projects on here than there are on IG.

 

It's fairly common on DoA, yes. Here's a discussion thread. People also share pics in the Photo Reference forum - you can either do a search for "cosplay" (limit the search to Title only), or look at the "Theme" category (it's the little orange-coloured tab in front of the thread title) to see threads for people's media-character dolls.

I think there's a lot of media-character BJDs still being created, I don't think it's decreased over time. They're now generally called "cos dolls" (for "cosplay dolls") - I believe this name came from the Chinese BJD scene. I follow Chinese soc med and cos dolls are prevalent there: I understand that Chinese hobbyists tend to make cos dolls a lot more than OC/original-character dolls.

What media characters are popular is subject to change over time, of course -- I do think there's a generational difference here. There are some franchises that are perennially loved, eg. Final Fantasy (all games), Link from Legend of Zelda. As for the current hot franchises: I've already seen a Kpop Demon Hunters doll on Instagram. I see a good number of Astarion from Baldur's Gate 3, on DoA and elsewhere. Love & Deepspace has been hot for a while in China, with wig and eye servicing, and even head sculpts that are definitely inspired by the media character but stop short of naming it outright. Oh - nearly forgot about MDZS and Heaven's Official Blessing -- two danmei series that seem super popular. Ringdoll made official franchise dolls of them.

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I personally am not interested in making cos dolls, but I do have a couple of dolls who are heavily inspired by existing media characters, mostly in their appearance with a bit of personality. But they are firmly OCs, and I don't think you'd know which media character they're inspired from if I didn't tell you (and my fandoms are not popular).
I once made one of those dolls cosplay their media character. I commissioned a wig, but cobbled together the eyes and outfit from pieces I bought. It wasn't a good cosplay, but it was the best I could do as a newbie. Now that I have some actual sewing skills, I want to revisit this cosplay someday.

 

There's lots of this in the community, although I think it's easier to find cosplay or character dolls on DoA/Tumblr/Flickr/IG and other western online communities of a bit older or more popular franchises: Evangelion cosplays, Final Fantasy dolls, Legend of Zelda, Genshin Impact etc. Since the hobby is much more scaled up and active in Asian countries, esp China, it's probably easier to find dolls of newer fandoms on respective social media. (I do have to admit I know nothing about Love & Deepspace nor K-pop Demon Hunters and their popularity though )

There are also lots of ready-made character dolls made by doll companies (Volks has a ton of those that I'm not even attempting to count plus all the Dollfie Dreams based on anime characters, Ringdoll's licenced manhwa dolls, Angell-Studio's WLOP characters, Puyoodoll's Zootopia dolls...) - they have always been very popular to collect but I think the available choice and huge demand has definitely made them more common to see around, which is why it might feel like DIY-ing isn't as much in the forefront any more (although I think that's just optics tbh - making fandom dolls seems to be alive and well but of course projects like this take time and don't compete, attention-wise, with an edition of 100 company-made character dolls popping up more or less at the same time).


Personally, I really enjoy doing cosplay projects with my dolls! But they are my dolls doing cosplay, looking like they are cosplaying, rather than dolls made based on the characters as I'm usually not deep enough into fandoms to spend more time with it. It's always cool to see dolls as characters from the screen, though!

 

I do enjoy making cosplay dolls because I am a fandom person. I don't have cosplays for anything you've mentioned, but the most popular doll cosplays I have are Astarion Ascendant and Dark Urge characters from Baldur's Gate 3 videogame, also i've got Kylo Ren and General Hux from Star Wars movie.

 

I enjoy making dolls based off of characters. I have two Link dolls from legend of Zelda and am currently making a G'raha Tia from Final Fantasy XIV. I haven't posted much about the latter's progress like I did for the Link project, but it's still slowly materializing.

I think there are still plenty of people that do character dolls, it's just that maybe they don't share too much of the progress until it's finished. At least, that's my current thought.

 

I think some of it comes down to where you're looking. While a lot of people here are into fandoms, DoA itself isn't a fandom space, so if you're looking for fandom things like dolls, you'll have better luck seeing more of them by going into fandom spaces on places like tumblr, bluesky, twitter, etc. It's not that people aren't making them, but that it's easier to talk about the fandom aspect in places where that can more easily be the focus. There are lots of threads of people talking about shelling various characters in the visual concepts area of the workshop section here. If you're not sure where to start with making some dolls for KPop Demon Hunters, you could post there for suggestions or help!

 

I know I do. Mine are mostly Tolkien works based. I'm thinking of selling the dolls that I made to be based off of Final Fantasy 9 characters or my official anime Dollfie Dreams, just because I don't really enjoy them as much as I thought I would.

There are also a lot of larger dolls who look like the Saja Boys from K-Pop Demon Hunters (Soom's newest Idealian comes to mind) but for Huntrix, that will probably take a lot of hunting and searching and possibly commissioning.

 

I have a couple dolls based on a show! They’re not exactly like their canon selves though—one of them has a scar that she doesn’t have in canon (it was a retcon after they’d introduced her, but it makes sense completely given her backstory and another character’s motivations), and one of them isn’t even the same gender as they are in canon (unless you really squint and reinterpret one monologue, and a handful off handed comments that the writers did NOT mean the way I’m reading them). They’re somehow still instantly recognizable as their characters to the few fandom friends who’ve seen them, even though they’re a total reinterpretation, because I kept the hair on one of them exactly canon, and gave the other one a very distinctive scar from canon, and an article of clothing that closely resembles one from canon. I think it’s more common for people to do looser reinterpretations like that than to do exact 1:1 recreations of canon characters—it’s certainly easier on the budget, because unless there’s a licensed version of the character you want, you’ve either got to be really crafty, or commission a lot of specific items to get it that exact!

one of these days, I plan to commission or sew some of my girl’s canon outfits, but that’s a ways off, and she’ll still always be my variation on the character, and not exact by any stretch (her eyes are the wrong colour, her makeup is non-canon, and the scar I took the liberty of giving her is not canon but arguably in the spirit of canon.)

 

Ooo G'raha doll sounds amazing! I have plans to work on one of Hythlodaeus from FFXIV. I've bought the doll and some eyes, and need to just do ... all the rest.

I have to say it intimidates me a little bit, since with the cosplay, there's a "right answer" you're aiming for, if that makes sense? If I tweak something a little on an OC, intentionally or unintentionally, probably no one knows but me, but if it's a cosplay doll, my fear of screwing up gets worse.

 

Would love to see him finished!

I have a lot of character dolls these days. It used to be strictly OCs but I dunno, I somehow started just making more blorbos. I think it keeps me from getting tattoos of them lol (not that that's bad but eventually I won't be able to cover them for jobs) I see them a lot more on tumblr and that's where I post mine. I personally don't like to call them "cosplay dolls" because they are meant to be the character, not my own character cosplaying. However, I have made cosplays for dolls before. To me those are two different things.
I have some One Piece characters, Malleus from Twister Wonderland, Sora from Kingdom Hearts, Estinien and two of my characters from FF14. Been thinking about making a Thancred and Aymeric but haven't found perfect sculpts. I did have a couple Sailor Moon dolls but I'm in the process of selling them and will be making them again as tinies eventually.

@oneironym I see what you're saying, but at the end of the day, they are still your dolls and you can do whatever you want with them! You're free to interpret the characters how you see fit, or make the changes you want to them. If people have a problem with it that's on them. Sure, you can be super strict and only have them look exactly like canon if that's what you want, but personally, I make characters I want to be able to dress up like barbies. So while I may have some of their canon outfits, they have a ton of other clothes that I think generally fit their style. Or how I made one of the One Piece characters into a female doll (there is precedent for it, if you know, but still). Do what you want. Who's stopping you? No one, that's who.

 

100% I love dolls based on characters. I have one Honkai Star Rail doll and I have a Howl (from Howl’s moving castle) in the works. I’m contemplating doing Rafael from LADS but man do I have too many doll projects going right now haha I shouldn’t take on more until like… next year probably

 

I definitely do! I have numerous dolls that are Dragon Age characters and I’m currently working on my Rook.

 

I have three fan dolls I've made-
Bakura from Yu Gi Oh (i'm planning on redoing this doll with some different heads as not happy with how my first attempt came out).
Nux from Mad Max: Fury Road.
Mettaton from Undertale.
They were fun projects as the characters were visually interesting to recreate as dolls and pushed my skills forward a bit!
I think the idea of having an OC doll dress up in cosplay of a media character is also quite fun too (though not done that for my dolls)

 

Probably the majority of my dolls have influence or basis on existing characters or celebrities, mostly in appearance, but they're all my original roleplay characters. Some are more heavily inspired that others. A few have been accurately guessed by multiple people, others are mostly only known by me. But none of them are meant to be the actual celebrity/existing character.

 

Yeah I do it frequently for my collection, I have a Batman Scarecrow, Stranger Things Vecna, Lupin the Third (he's technically off topic tho) and I have plans for more. I think with the right faceup and styling, it's very very possible. Feel free to message me if you want help, I'm always willing to lend a hand

 

I do. I have a lot based off different Manga (Tokyo Ghoul, D.Gray-man, Witch Hat Atelier, etc.), Cartoons (Hazbin Hotel, Helluva Boss) or shows even (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina) along OC dolls. None of them are "cosplays" they are used by me as the characters they are to recreate scenes from the series or basically fanfiction in 3D.

I started with OC dolls, went through a few character dolls, back to OCs and for a few years now I am almost only doing character dolls again.
I'm planning to make William from Moriarty the Patriot for example and just have finished a doll of Johnny Gill from D.Gray-man.
What I am not doing is sharing them actively on here, there is other spaces for them as a lot of others already said.

 

I am currently body blushing pyramid head even though he's gonna be covered in grime and dirty clothes. I do what I want, it's myyy doll with my head canons.

( Do what you want, it's fun because it's yours even if it's a little goofy or not perfect. The beauty of resin is you can keep trying)

 

I have a lot of floating heads and a few dolls based on known franchises, that I think of as character dolls, and not as cosplaying dolls beause to me they represent the characters from the franchise and not a cosplayer in disguise. Mostly Japanese video game ones, and two anime ones that are on-topic. I usually don't photograph them unless I change something on them. Because I am a nut job, I am constantly finding something new that needs fixing. I also lost interest in my BJD a long time ago, so I stopped working on my larger resin dolls for over ten years. I later got a tiny in 2022, and that got me back into thinking of potentially working on my larger resins. I even sat a goal of working on them last year (2024). Sadly, I had to wait until freaking summer of this year, to start working on them (because of life!). I've slowly gotten to a few; I'm currently working on my (FFVII: AC) Kadaj DIM Minimee head sculpt and my (Code Geass) Lelouch Minimee head from DIM as well. I hope to be able to finish those soon. I still have a Leon S. Kennedy (RE4) and a Raiden (MSR) minimee sculpts to work on afterward.

I recently reworked my Sephiroth (DIM MNM), who had a lot of previous mods, but I "fixed" a few more just last month and shared some photos of his repainted head sculpt in the gallery, here on DoA. I don't usually share photos of my work in progress, as I take forever, sometimes, and I just rather not spam with even more boring stuff. I occasionally post progress on my Tumblr, but it's a lot of nonsense, since I tend to ramble. Lol! Most are just fan-art floating heads, no full-bodied dolls except for my Fairyland Chic Line Rou who represent my Dissidia version of Sephiroth and my Myou Bettina mature tiny male, who represent my Ken Kaneki. I also forced my Rou to cosplay as (MGS) Psycho Mantis and Pyramid Head (Bogeyman SH: Homecoming version) in the past. I also plan on forcing my tiny into cosplaying various video game characters, that I wish I could own as permanent dolls, but who knows if I'll get to live that long (I'm super slow, I've have yet to complete any custom doll I've ever planned on making!).

My recently renewed Sephy, whom I got single-ordered from DIM, a thousand years ago and have modified a bit, like his whole face, lol! I did have plans to get a body for this head a long time ago, but I am a fan of realistic yet idealized proportions, Sephiroth is supposed to be quite tall, but they made his head gigantic. He would probably look okay-ish on a 75cm+ body and I am a weak old fart. I don't what to pay for resin costs anymore, so I'll probably never get a body for him, my arm would probably break in two, yes, I am that weak! I will, however, try to work on his hair some more. I was thinking of making a new wig, but with current import conditions, I don't know that I can justify purchasing inexpensive supplies, only to pay a gazillion more on taxes:

 

Honestly I think nowadays there are as many people with dolls that ‘cosplay’ or are based on characters of their own making as there are people who just have dolls. It wasn’t as common years ago but seems to be as big a part of today’s BJD scene as anything else.

I see ‘cosplay’ and ‘based on’ as two different things although some use the term cosplay as an all encompassing term.
To me ‘cosplay’ is when you’re making the doll (or yourself) into that precise character and therefor clothing, wig, eyes, faceup are going to have to follow strict guidelines to achieve that. It’s still open to interpretation though as we all see said characters or people through different eyes.
‘Based on’ however is just another way of saying ‘influenced by’ and is fully open to one’s own interpretation. @oneironym if you use that mind set then you don’t need to feel intimidated by your intended project. It is after all your doll.

As previously mentioned certain companies used to make heads and there are a few independent makers that have recently began producing sculpts of well known faces or characters but that’s playing a dangerous copyright infringement game which tips over the moment they cease being for personal use and become part of the product line no matter how you try to justify it.
DIM kind of tiptoed along the middle of a very fine line by mostly selling the heads as commissioned pieces and not going for 100% likenesses, the pressure did get to them in the end though and they ceased production.

Collaboration dolls are different as the two companies are working together with permissions and licenses.

From the view of my own collection I intended to make one based on my FFXIV Viera character using a Minifee and using my other FFXIV Lala as inspiration for the look one of my Realfees will have.
I’d quite like to have Sandman/Morpheus doll, have done for many years as I read the graphic novels way back in the 1980s when they originally came out but I think it’d be very much inspired by Tom Sturridge’s version, I do love the way he played him.
I’m also waiting for the rerelease of a particular SartoriaJ sculpt because of his resemblance to a particular person however the look will be again more inspired by rather than exact as that feels a bit stalker-ish to me, I’d be uncomfortable handling the doll.

 

This is the route I happily went down (thank you @Blodeuwedd for your excellent synopsis of this topic.) As I was building my collection, I fell in love with creating characters much as one does in certain video games. It just seemed like a natural progression to extend that to some of my dolls as well. From my love and delight of Pokemon games, I’ve created a small group of trainers to reflect the ones I play in the games. And I even have a couple of favored ones from Diablo and Heroes of Might and Magic as well. When you spend so many hours playing your characters, I think it’s only natural (and certainly a whole lotta fun) to create them in doll form because they come to feel so real to you over time as you play them, it’s nice to have a representation of them in your collection. Basically anything that inspires me is grist for the bjd character mill, so I’ve created one from the cartoon “Beyblade” to remind myself of the countless hours spent twirling those spinning tops with my young grandsons. And I was so inspired by the manga series “Chobits”, I jumped at the chance to buy the mechanical-bodied Doll Chateau Gladys to make my very own discarded “early prototype” chobit.

 

I'm not brave enough to do it on a bjd, but I've made a custom American Girl doll to look like Ahsoka Tano from Star Wars! I have brought her to meet Ashley Eckstein twice someday I'd love to remake her on a bjd, though!

 

There are lots of media/characters-based dolls out there. For example, I know I've seen a Link from Legend of Zelda on IG recently, and I remember there were a fair share of Final Fantasy based dolls when I began collecting dolls back in 2013. I do have 2 dolls myself (one completed, one on the works) that portrait characters that belong to Marvel (Doctor Strange and Storm), though both are my own iterations of the characters based on a series of fanfics I've written.
Having your favorite characters from video games, movies, books, etc. is an idea as good as any other to form your collection as long as they make you happy (and I love KPop Demon Hunters, so I'm sure they would be awesome as BJDs!)

 

I've made a few dolls based on my favorite characters from books, comics, or movies. I have a handfull of dolls base on the original Oz books alone. A few Marvel, and DC superheroes and villains. I've Puck from a midsummer's night's dream and am working on making Puck from Gargoyles.

Also Volks made dolls of my two fav NPCs from the MMO FF14 so I didn't have to make them I just had to order them. XD

 

I have a few dolls that are inspired in varying degrees by media I've enjoyed, from vague concepts of how those worlds work to being inspired by specific characters. I have a head with an artist friend at the moment for a character-inspired faceup.

I don't think I could own a pure character doll because I feel the ideas would be limited for what I could do with that doll, and how it would interact with my other dolls.

 

I have recreated the Trailblazer trio (Caelus, March 7th & Dan Heng) from Honkai Star Rail, and I've recently gotten a head to be Sunday as well (because he's part of the little fam as well) because I love them so much. And although I'm recreating their hair, eyes and several of their props (and even some costume pieces) I'm treating them very much like real 'people' than cosplay, so I dress them up in things I think their characters would wear in different scenarios rather than their in-game costumes. That's just a lot more fun for me and I never have to feel limited by having them look a certain way.

 

This was what pushed me to take a more in-depth interest in dolls outside of seeing them as toys, when I was younger, actually. I saw a character I really liked back then, and wanted to make a custom doll of her. I never ended up doing it (and it was a non-BJD doll anyways, so not super relevant here) but I still love the idea!

The only thing stopping me from starting the custom Scaramouche (Genshin) or Hiiro Amagi (Enstars) dolls -- the current chartacter doll projects that interest me -- is the cost of custom work. As a kid I was more okay with the subpar work I could on my own, but I'd rather pay a skilled crafter for things like wigs and faceups now, but I can't really afford it on top of the cost of the base doll itself right now. The only things I could attempt to do alone is clothes and maybe simple props. I've also been flip-flopping over whether I want Scara to be a resin or vinyl doll, too, so I can't even begin collecting things for that project until I decide.

If I was rich I'd have tons of "cosplay dolls"! There's so many characters I would love to have in doll form from various shows or games.

For now, I'm happy with official character collab dolls, like limited Volks Dollfie Dreams and such (I do have one of an official character, Nero from Fate/EXTRA), but I think there's a certain aspect of creating it yourself (or ordering custom work) that's really special, too.

 

I would love to delve into making dolls based on characters from my favorite media. I was very tempted to buy Doppel Maiden's Beta head when it came out years ago. He resembles Lee Dong Wook VERY well and I thought about making either Moon jo from Strangers from Hell or the Grim Reaper from Goblin, both played by Lee Dong Wook. I sadly didn't purchase it...but maybe someday..

However I did purchase Dollfie Dream's Alphinaud which I am VERY excited about since he's coming in November. He will be my first true character doll.

 

i have a decent handful of dolls that are video game characters-- but they're all either the player character that's customized in the character creator at the beginning of the game (the Vestige from Elder Scrolls Online, the Inquisitor from Dragon Age: Inquisition) or OCs from the game universe (mostly The Elder Scrolls). none of mine represent canon characters/NPCs. i don't think of them as cosplay dolls, because to me they are the game characters; they aren't meant to be real-world people cosplaying the game characters. a lot of their game-accurate clothing and armors are still works-in-progress just because it's a lot harder than sewing regular modern fashion, but i'm slowly working on it! in the meantime their personal appearances are character-accurate and they wear regular modern fashion that feels like what their character would choose to wear in a sort of "modern/real-world AU" situation.

 

I love fan/cos-dolls. I'm currently working on bringing a favorite movie character to doll-life-- I have always had a long wishlist of characters I'd do, both fan and OCs, and my priorities often shift, but I've loved this guy since I was five years old.

 

I can agree to what others said that it was far more common a while back (early 2000s, the 2010s) of people in the BJD community creating dolls that resembled characters from shows, games, manga/animes, and more. Heck...there was a time where there were BJD sculpts that were being custom made looking like real life celebrities (Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Hiddleston, etc). I remember a lot of WoW (World of Warcraft) and FF (Final Fantasy) inspired BJDs back then as well as Rozen Maiden and Legend of Zelda, Twilight, and Star Wars too. I think if you find specific discussion threads like others have suggested then you can find what you are looking for.

I think there are still BJDs out there that are still inspired by a lot of characters but there is just so much BJD content out there that it just gets lost. That, and when companies do official collabs with animes and mangas and video games, I think it might make some people feel a little intimidated, especially if the original artists or developers of said animes, mangas, and video games are like, "Yes! That is how I imagined my character would look like!" Or worse, if fans are like, "Dude...that looks nothing like the main character."

I'm sure if you posted a thread of "Show me your BJDs cosplaying as Love and Deep Space characters" you'll get a decent amount of entries. Hahaha. There are so many BJD companies with hotties that look like they could cosplay those characters, but it's just getting someone out there to go the extra mile and do it and post it. Same with K-Pop Demon Hunters. I'm sure you'll do a great job making something like them. Just give yourself time to get the looks right and even then allow yourself grace that you are doing the best you can with whatever materials you have at hand.

I don't know much about other companies, but I know that Azone did an official Hestia doll from Danmachi a long time ago. Might be also a reason why it is hard to find dollies inspired by games and animes/mangas as I think Azone is technically off-topic (vinyl) so what you are looking for might be in off-topic areas instead of in the resin doll areas.

Volks has done a lot of official collabs (some in resin/SDs and some in vinyl/DDs/technically off-topic) to show you that stuff is out there but takes a bit of digging to find (this is not a complete list but what I could remember off the top of my head):

• Black Jack
• Disney Princesses (Anna and Elsa, Ariel, Cinderella, Rapunzel, Belle)
• Final Fantasy - Y'thola, Alphinaud, and Alisaie
• Frieren and Fern
• Harry Potter - Harry, Snape, Ron, and Hermione
• Hatsune Miku - they have done so many versions of her and the Vocaloid crew over the years
• Lina Inverse
• Nier Automata - 2B and 9S
• Ranma and Shampoo
• Rozen Maiden - they did Suigintou, Shinku, the twins, and Hinaichigo
• Saber/Fate
• Sailor Moon - they did all the Sailor maidens
• Shining Hearts
• SpyXFamily - Anya and Yor Forger
• The IdolM@ster
• The Rose of Versailles - 3 characters

I think in the end, just have fun with your K-Pop Demon Hunter project. As long as the journey of making your characters brings you joy, that is all that matters. Have fun and please share with us your journey as you create your characters.

 

You can still buy Bowie but now it's Major Tom from Demiurge Dolls. I love that sculpt so much!
And I like cosplay dolls or ones based on game/movie characters. However I'm not fond of anime style dolls, I prefer realistic ones. The exception was Spike Spiegel from Danny Choo.
I'm not sure if I fall into this category but my Ren is heavily inspired by Felix, a member of Stray Kids. Though it's still my own OC, just with Felix's look.

 

I am currently working on a new bjd project to make a Rafayel from Love and Deepspace. Already received one of the heads and two pairs of eyes, the wig is on its way to my country(but I have to cut and arrenge it), prerordered two complete outfits from Momo palace and other store, and his body is already on layaway.

Seven sugars doll Qiyu wink head by ccsakura85, en Flickr

 

All of my SD-sized dolls are human-formers (Gijinka I think is the term) from various Transformers properties. It's a lot of fun trying to interpret a non-human character in human form. There's some details that everyone seems to agree on -- you better believe Terrorsaur ALWAYS has flaming red hair -- and then there are details that personalize the doll -- you better believe my interpretation of Terrorsaur has body mods -- The most exciting thing is accessorizing some of them (Those new Ringdoll Android bodies are PEAK).

 

I have one ordered who I'm planning on making into a very minor character from Hana Kimi. Primary reason being that he stands as close to 0% chance as possible of ever getting a figure or other merch. Figure if I've consistently liked the character for 20 years, it's worth the investment. Considering doing something similar with another character I just don't like any official figures of.

Otherwise, I don't really have highly developed OCs to shell or anything, I'm just getting dolls I like the looks of as art projects and letting random ideas I get from them stick. But shelling preexisting media characters with no merch definitely appeals a lot to me. I like feeling like I can have a "representative" of my love for a character on display so to speak.

 

I've been wanting to make a doll based on my Dragon Quest 10 Weddie avatar. I'd probably use a Lillycat doll in mint or baby blue resin as the base (and not sure which sculpt, but I think any could work well) and sculpt the fins myself.

 

In another thread, I once mentioned having no intention of shelling a preexisting media character, but now I'm reconsidering.

It's funny because my dolls originally started off as genderbends of The Sandman characters (Netflix and comics) in an AU that is a little like The Devil Wears Prada. They have since surpassed their inspirations to fully become my OCs due to their expansive story.

Lately, I'm feeling a lot of nostalgia -- and you may think having known The Sandman for little more than 3 years hardly counts as enough time passed to be nostalgic, but in those years and as recent as last weekend, my mind had churned out an insane amount of stories and worlds. So I want to honour that love I have that supersedes both the TV series and the comics by creating my version of the titular Sandman/Dream/Morpheus character.

I found that LLT's ballerino body would be perfect so it's still a matter of finding a face sculpt that clicks with me. I'm not looking for a Tom Sturridge replica (and being too attached to any real person is a risk I won't take again), but I certainly see my Dream with a similar sharpness and drama to his features. I would aim for a cross between the whimsy of Yoshitaka Amano's Final Fantasy character designs (FF4 being my favourite and I love his Dream Hunters illustrations) and Netflix Dream's contemporary looks. My version should ideally look a lot like Balem Abrasax from the movie Jupiter Ascending.

 

Is that the character in your icon? So adorable!

 

Yes she is! ty

 

The majority of my dolls are based on characters from Bubblegum Crisis (the others are OCs from my BGC fanfics)

 

Yes! And I love seeing dolls customized as characters from other hobbyists too!
A long time ago, when I was starting in this hobby, I wondered why I didn't see many more dolls directly based on media characters (besides Volks character dolls) despite a lot of them being pretty doll-adjacent.
Nowadays, I think there are a good mix of both, and also of OCs based on IPs and that are really cool too.