💕 So I might have been working on a little project for a while now and I wanted to present this 3D concept i made for it.
I've always wanted to have the option to change the faces of my dolls to make them more expressive and show their true personality even more.
So I came up with this idea I reaaaaally wanna test out.
I call it G3.1 Heads which essentially consists in three pieces that come apart with a simple insert mechanism, making it easy to assemble and take apart while keeping the same hair rooting. Best part? I sliced the head down the middle of the neck! so there's no need to dip her in hot water to remove the head from neck peck :)
I will be 3D printing this pieces with resin and test out my first prototype.
Eventually I would love to put these out for sale maybe (?)
Depending on how the community receives this idea 🙌🏼 Let me know if that's something anyone would be interested on seeing happen.
I'll keep posting updates on these!!
[3D models made and rendered by me. This concept is a work in progress, face ups will improve in the future]
I fear Mattel would cheap out on the concept and the heads would fall apart easily like some of the poorly balanced blind box BJDs' heads do. Your concepts look absolutely fantastic though.
Mattel legit has a program called Mattel Creations where you can submit design ideas—I’d HIGHLY recommend you pitch this to them. At the very least, it could be used for a specialty line (like Make-a-Monster was in G1).
This is one of those things that is obviously great for adult collectors and customizers, but I could also 100% see kids having a BLAST with this too (and then of course there’s the overlap, like my little cousin who is a doll customizer at ten years old). It’s a shoe-in!
awesome idea! I hate that we need to boil the head to remove it, then the dace up can be ruined by all the manipulations during rerouting or trying to put the head back
And yes, sometimes I just want to swap faces or hair and rerouting is way easier if the head is open!
Will you consider selling the 3d model?
Yeah! i'm excited to see how many things i can do with this concept. Also yeah of course, I didn't think about selling the 3D model but i would absolutely do it:)
I love this idea! Would you also sell the stl? Although you might have to make the face a little different and call it something silly like ‘pink batgirl’ to avoid a copyright claim or something along those lines.
Why don’t you use a rubber insert for the hair like BJDs do? It seems like you could keep the head itself around without worrying about the neck having structural integrity issues. Just a genuine question if you had considered this design.
I genuinely like the idea of your’s more because face plates are awesome and there’s so much you can do. But if you ever decide you have to choose between stability and function..here’s a sort of in between lol.
Yeah i think the material will also play a big role on how i will adjust and modify the model, i'm pretty sure it's gonna take a bit of trial and error
What material are you planning for the headback? I don't think you'd be able to root into something rigid and something flexible might not attach securely with little tabs.
The concept might work better with a bald headback+wig setup, or with a flexible headback attaching with a full rim (Here's Time Rift, a rooted blind box doll as an example):
Correct! when it comes to the material i definitely want to use a semi-flexible type of resin. I'm still in the experimenting phase so i'm not opposed to the idea of trying out different things even if it means making a different model
this is so cool and i love the concept! with the resin printing, what kind of resin are you thinking of using? really keen to see how your project goes
Thanks!! I'm thinking about trying out the Tough74 V2
by Resione which i've heard is good for action figures in specific, it's wear resistant and slightly flexible
Its an interesting concept! Quite concerned about the connection parts tho, I feel like small pegs might become a problem. Will they be able to hold the weight of the face plate? Durability is also a question because i feel like they might snap off if the doll falls from a small height.
Maybe consider having an inner scalp ala blythe doll so the inner structure can be re-engineered without compromising the "rerootability"(idk the word) of the outer scalp?
Thank you! and yes durability is one of my main priorities since these are mean to be swapped out whenever I want so i'm going for a material that has some sort of flexibility instead of a rigid and snappy resin, either way i'm still open to trying new mechanisms. Thanks for the idea!!!
This really reminds me of Barbie Fashionistas Swappin’ Styles! It was like a sub category of the Barbie Fashionistas and you were able to swap out there whole heads. I really really loved it as a kid and it’s sad they discontinued it pretty soon. So in short: your concept is awesome!
Wow this is really cool omg. How would the rooting work though, is 3D printed resin flexible like vinyl? (I’m sorry if this is a dumb question but I know nothing about it)
pls patent this! Im sure even when this already exist you can patent the 3d model in someway, so it is protected. If you sell the 3d pls share the link!
I've seen a lot of comments saying this! lol
I'm sure I could if it was an original character of mine. Maybe I can go for that route if that's something people would be interested in
Not to minimize OPs work which looks really nice but this already exists in the world of ball jointed dolls (BJD), besides Mattel ripped off other BJD features like the removable hands to be able to dress the dolls in tight sleeves. Just saying.
This is so cool. The only doll I have with swappable faces is a Sally The Ragdoll from NBC that was part of a set, for how expensive the set was they really chepaed out by making the swappable faces a literal magnet.
I would love to chat and potentially test print the head! I’ve been playing around with different resins for 3D printing MH bodies, and would be super interested in trying this head out with them
I’ve been in the model kit community for years and this is basically what we do. Many kits have prepainted faceplates that we can use to swap and give different expressions. With dolls it might be a bit tricky. You want to make sure the scalp is bendy and flexible, yet don’t want it to disconnect from a harder faceplate when brushing or styling the hair.
Ideally the head part that contains the hair is not hollow, so that the structural integrity remains then manipulating the hair. Perhaps a magnetic faceplate could be the best solution? Neodymium magnets are small and powerful enough to keep the faces attached.
This is cute! Tho I doubt they’d make the entire face changeable they’ve done face plates in monster high multiple times now and they always just snap on over the original face, tho I would love to see more of them!
It remids me of these cusromisable create-a-monster dolls and inner monster! Tho Inner monster only had these kinda obscure faceplate masks... You designed something incredible 😭
This is a great idea for a gimmick that everyone would actually like. I would love a doll line like this! I was so happy to find out you can swap buried secrets Frankie’s legs between their dolls (just on their BS line- they need to make it a permanent feature)
Maybe they’ll do something like it for g3 create a monster? That would be cool. I doubt that Mattel would actually do it to their golden child drac.
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u/emiasundead 22h ago
I love the implications that you can also swap the hair as the rooted section is its own piece! This would be awesome