Opinions on completely changing a doll's look?

[davidd]

When I wanted my Mattel Wild Hearts Crew "Kenna Roswell" character to appear in a photostory with more realistic 1/6-scale "action figure" type dolls, I attempted to emulate the Wild Hearts Crew using a TBLeague seamless body and a head sculpt I found on eBay. Most of the Wild Hearts Crew clothing fit on the action figure body.



I ended up liking both versions equally well. Now, Original Kenna appears in "doll" photo scenes, and New Kenna appears in "action figure" scenes.

Recently I've been revising some of my 1/6-scale pirate figures. Margot'chelle Rumscupper got a complete makeover, including costume and head sculpt:


Original


Revised

The new head sculpt is sufficiently similar to the old one that it seems plausible. The original head sculpt was also being used for a different character who now gets to keep it permanently.

A third 1/6-scale character I've been having trouble coming up with a permanent look for is a scientific field researcher named Ellie Fields. The character was originally created by an online acquaintance, and I've been trying to emulate (copy) what he did, but the original pieces are no longer readily available.

Ellie started out looking like this:


Ellie v.1

Then she evolved in to this:



And then... I gave up and Ellie No. 1 became a pirate...


Dread Pirate Bethany Blood-Thunder aka the former Ellie Fields No. 1

... and Ellie No. 2 was banished to a convent:


Sister Albatros of the Convent of the Sisters of Little Mercy aka the former Ellie Fields No. 2

I'm abandoning the Ellie Fields project, at least for now, because what I have been able to come up with has never seemed to fit the character.

Have we reached the TL:DNR stage yet? There's one more character who appears in, or will appear in, a military story: the mysterious and aloof Fräulein Erde Gräfin Spitz-Ohren, scientific advisor and consultant in occult arcana to the Ahnenerbe.

This character has gone through several iterations:


Version 1 - too clunky looking



Version 2 - too kinky fetish looking


Version 3 - costume didn't fit very well and was too fragile and the Pullip doll wanted her dress back



Version 4 - latest incarnation as of last week with kind of a Dieselpunk vibe

At least Fräulein Spitz-Ohren kept the same head sculpt, which has made the iterations easier to accept. For me, the head largely defines the character.


Coincidentally, a little over a week ago I was having this same philosophical debate with myself over "repurposing" dolls and figures who have become established characters. I posted the following caption on Flickr:

Former pirate Beverly Blood-Thunder has retired from life at sea to become a permanent Cuban Rebel Girl. The new pirate figure pictured here [above] was previously an incarnation of Royal Kadath Society character Ellie Fields, but since Ellie was updated to a more accurate head sculpt, the former Miss Fields has stepped in to fill the vacancy in the pirate crew, adopting the name Bethany Blood-Thunder in acknowledgement of her predecessor. (The second Ellie has since been similarly repurposed, joining a convent as a nun.)

Do any of you ever find yourself becoming attached to the physical embodiment of the characters you create, as in, if you decide to "repurpose" parts of a pre-existing character, do you feel a need to "explain" or "justify" the change, at least to yourself? In this case, both "Beverly Blood-Thunder" and "Ellie Fields" appeared only briefly in now-forgotten photo-story installments. I'm sure nobody remembers them other than me, yet I feel I can't just let them disappear without some kind of acknowledgement.

It is reassuring to see that I am not alone in my angst over physically changing established characters.

[Kukolka]

I've gone through something so similar I could have written the first post. I was going to reply with text only, but seeing the evolutions in davidd's post nudged me to trawl through the archives for visuals. (Also, hi, it's been a while. I've been lurking a few forums here and there, but have been reticent to join back in before now.)

I've had a doll since 2013 that was bought to be a specific character, an OC initially created in the MMORPG Rappelz.



The first embodiment (prerooted) wasn't right because her hair was the wrong colour (turquoise instead of periwinkle) and then the haircut was rushed, but at the time I felt it was better to have a representation of her than wait for rooting.


Kira by Kukolka, on Flickr

She stayed that way for years. Meanwhile, the character moved from Rappelz, with limited preset looks, to Black Desert Online, with extensive character customization. I still tried to keep her similar to the Rappelz version at first, then moved toward how I pictured her.



Eventually I finished rooting another Obitsu head with the right coulour. And then rushed the faceup to bring her to a doll meet in 2018. >_<

In story even before then, Kira was solidly built; not the cookie-cutter thin body every Deva woman had in Rappelz. Around the same time as the new head, she also got her right body: an MTM Curvy.

The one in blue here is Kira v2 with the rushed faceup.

Black Desert Online Hanbok by Kukolka, on Flickr

Between early 2019 and summer 2023, I mostly took a break from dolls altogether, and devoted most of my free time to gaming and roleplay. With the same main characters, different media.

In 2020 I redid the eyes (which, with the in-game character customization, went from blue (as in Rappelz) to dark blue, to "dark" (colour unspecified)) - and changed the eyebrows to blue, which was a bad idea.
Kira v2.1:


The Obitsu head felt disproportionately small on the Curvy body, and the hair was rooted much too densely to style much, so not long after the fixed faceup, I started shopping for another head. Since she wasn't going to have the exact same sculpt as her sisters anymore, I also wanted an open smile. The finalists were June and Olivia/Pizzazz. I preferred June's nose, but Olivia's more genuine smile won.

Meanwhile, in BDO... Kira was an active Valkyrie, which meant she was required to dye her hair red. This was a real struggle to accept, especially because of all the work that went into the doll. But eventually, for roleplay, I made peace with that decision.

And bought two Olivia heads. Rooting of the blue one is stalled indefinitely. So I could use her as a proper Valkyrie, I rooted the other with Vermillion nylon. Finished that one in 2024.



...and again, rushed a faceup to bring her to a doll show. *facepalm* (When will I ever learn?)

Kira v3 (lol what even is this faceup?)


Earlier this month, I wiped the inside of the eyes leaving the outer shape, started redoing them, then wiped the eyes and eyebrows completely and started over. Is it a perfect match to her final form in-game? Hardly. But it's a version we can live with.



(...until an open smile makes it harder to change expressions for photostories. Considering Barbie Basics Collection 004 Model 04 with minor touch-ups.)

(Also, her little sister up there in yellow? Same hair and faceup since 2013? Keeping the Volks New-EB body, just waiting on Mattel to release a Kit sculpt doll that matches that skin tone.)

So no, you're definitely not alone!

[maywong]

Nice job you two!

[happyknot]

We ourselves are always revising our own looks. It makes sense to revise a character's looks too when it no longer/never matched our vision for it. I hope we get to see the result!

[Tasuke]

More of an Overall Enhancement... than any sort of Re-Imagining outright, but;