One head, two bodies?

The Squad by Gary  Menten, on Flickr


I'm still fairly new in the world of 1/6 scale collecting and kitbashing, so I don't really know how common this is, but one of he things that I realized is that I wanted to to be able to depict my main heroine Kamiko, and maybe some other figures in more than one outfit, but found that this poses particular problems with TB League figures at least when it comes to some outfits.  They can be quite tedious and time consuming to get on them.  I wanted Kamiko for instance to have her battle uniform and gear, but also to be able to dress her up in simply a short, sexy Kimono and little else.  I did not very much love the look of leaving the combat boots on the figure when she is in the kimono (see below)

TB League /  Phicen by Gary  Menten, on Flickr

and I did not feel like going through the process of unlacing and removing her tall boots all the time or struggling to get her shorts over her buttocks every time I changed clothing, and so the best solution seemed to be to get a second body for the same figure.  

Kamiko in sexy kimono by Gary  Menten, on Flickr


So thinking this through to it's logical conclusion, it seems like not a bad idea, to have a few spare nude bodies in different body styles that you can swap heads with a main character like Kamiko, as well as a larger collection of interchangeable heads to play the "extras" that invariably appear in some photos; bad guys, expendable red shirts, etc. I'm just curious who else does this?  I know I've seen some collectors here use the same head on different bodies...Ephiane for instance, but I'm wondering how common it is. Probably more than I think?

As I final note, I don't post any of the nudies here (Kamiko or other) but for those of you who are curious, they can be  seen on my Flickr profile, which can be linked by clicking on the images here.

It’s not that uncommon, actually. I have quite a few spare bodies, most of them may never be used; but every now and then, I find having them on hand for modifications, parts, etc., useful. I haven’t yet swapped out the same head on different bodies for different looks — I’ve gone the more expensive route, perhaps unwisely, to have multiple copies of the same head on different bodies. I tend to dress the figures once, and then leave them in that outfit permanently, so having multiple copies of the same head makes the most sense to me — particularly if I want to display all of them. For example, I have 3 Slave Leia heads by ACPlay (and the outfits), in the event I want to do something different with the character — since the Jiaou bodies aren’t as resilient as TBL, I’m concerned about cracking and tearing.

Lovely photo — she looks great in her kimono!

And yes, I have indeed done this. I’m one of those crazy people who makes several versions of the same characters (at least three for some of them), and often use the same head but swapped into different bodies for exactly the same reason as you have noted — it can be such a pain to dress them! In fact, I have even had to sew a couple into their clothing to achieve the right effect, so removing the clothing isn’t even an option on those.

In my case, I eventually intend to have all the versions on display next to each other, so will need heads for them all. But for now, if it’s just for pics, swapping heads is the more affordable solution.

skywalkersaga wrote:Lovely photo — she looks great in her kimono!

And yes, I have indeed done this. I’m one of those crazy people who makes several versions of the same characters (at least three for some of them), and often use the same head but swapped into different bodies for exactly the same reason as you have noted — it can be such a pain to dress them! In fact, I have even had to sew a couple into their clothing to achieve the right effect, so removing the clothing isn’t even an option on those.

In my case, I eventually intend to have all the versions on display next to each other, so will need heads for them all. But for now, if it’s just for pics, swapping heads is the more affordable solution.

By extraordinary luck, the kimono dress is very similar to the one I use for my original DAZ 3D version of Kamiko, (and her friends) and is easy to put on and take off. My Daz versions are usually not so focused on the combat version of Kamiko, but more often seen in tight leather dresses, usually red or black. However for collecting purposes, I will probably do only the the combat version and the Kimono version and I'd like to have heads for all of them, but that will depend on availability and my budget.

However where my photography is going with this, is that Kamiko and her buddies will routinely be engaged in combat against post apocalyptic baddies and ne'er do wells who have to die in one episode and be reborn with a different look in another, so I may well end up with lots of spare heads. I have yet to start building villains, having not yet decided on what kind of distinctive look they should have.

Stryker2011 wrote:It’s not that uncommon, actually. I have quite a few spare bodies, most of them may never be used; but every now and then, I find having them on hand for modifications, parts, etc., useful. I haven’t yet swapped out the same head on different bodies for different looks — I’ve gone the more expensive route, perhaps unwisely, to have multiple copies of the same head on different bodies. I tend to dress the figures once, and then leave them in that outfit permanently, so having multiple copies of the same head makes the most sense to me — particularly if I want to display all of them. For example, I have 3 Slave Leia heads by ACPlay (and the outfits), in the event I want to do something different with the character — since the Jiaou bodies aren’t as resilient as TBL, I’m concerned about cracking and tearing.

I personally would like to have every version of every figure on display also, and I may do that with some, however the head sculpt used for Kamiko is a modified TBLeague Tomoe Gozen head sculpt parted out from the complete figure. You don't see these come up often, and Monkey Depot seems to have had more than one available when I bought mine, but at $59.00 US, I opted to only get one, especially since I didn't know at first I could get it to look like my DAZ version of Kamiko. Now that I know exactly how to do this, I confess that if one should pop up again, I would probably buy it.

skywalkersaga wrote:Lovely photo — she looks great in her kimono!

And yes, I have indeed done this. I’m one of those crazy people who makes several versions of the same characters (at least three for some of them), and often use the same head but swapped into different bodies for exactly the same reason as you have noted — it can be such a pain to dress them! In fact, I have even had to sew a couple into their clothing to achieve the right effect, so removing the clothing isn’t even an option on those.

In my case, I eventually intend to have all the versions on display next to each other, so will need heads for them all. But for now, if it’s just for pics, swapping heads is the more affordable solution.

Here's another for you then.  I'm trying to stick to a regimen of shooting at least one photo a day.  

Kamiko by Gary  Menten, on Flickr

Excellent. Love the colours here!

I rarely commit bodies to a specific outfit, but if I did, and if there were multiple looks for the same character, I would indeed swap the head between kitted-out bodies.

GubernatorFan wrote:I rarely commit bodies to a specific outfit, but if I did, and if there were multiple looks for the same character, I would indeed swap the head between kitted-out bodies.

I guess it depends very much on what we like to model and how we use it. My sexy post apocalyptic warriors, all built on TBLeague bodies require a lot of equipment and take a while to dress. The multiple bodies solution for some characters seems best suited to this, I think.

No, there is nothing wrong how you make your collections, I have 5 sets of bodies (different costumes) share with 3 heads, sometime 1 head needs 2 bodies. For examples, look this~






I really don't want to change the whole formal suits to the casual jeans, and it is nightmare to wear back the suits....sometimes I just broke the pin or the buttons~ that is cost...

What makes you feel "uncomfortable", I guess it is may be you see some of the bodies without head~ so you feel just unbalance as a figure collector, but I tell you what~ keep changing the heads to body to body isn't a good choice too....so I just collect 2 same heads if I can afford (Minitimes, Damtoys and SS headsculpt doesn't cost so much as Hottoys), so that I have directly 2 same "actor" with different outfits.



Another thing I should mention, which good or bad, really depends on you, that is every headsculpt is painted by a person in a time, so every head really have a little bit different, unless we are talking like Hot toys, Damtoys, these kind of big factories need to be very same line of paints, but the else, you don't 100% get the same head, so buying 2 or 3 same heads doesn't really wasting money....

The important thing is we collect these figure for happy, don't make it worry you.

lawlaw91 wrote:No, there is nothing wrong how you make your collections, I have 5 sets of bodies (different costumes) share with 3 heads, sometime 1 head needs 2 bodies. For examples, look this~






I really don't want to change the whole formal suits to the casual jeans, and it is nightmare to wear back the suits....sometimes I just broke the pin or the buttons~ that is cost...

What makes you feel "uncomfortable", I guess it is may be you see some of the bodies without head~ so you feel just unbalance as a figure collector, but I tell you what~ keep changing the heads to body to body isn't a good choice too....so I just collect 2 same heads if I can afford (Minitimes, Damtoys and SS headsculpt doesn't cost so much as Hottoys), so that I have directly 2 same "actor" with different outfits.



Another thing I should mention, which good or bad, really depends on you, that is every headsculpt is painted by a person in a time, so every head really have a little bit different, unless we are talking like Hot toys, Damtoys, these kind of big factories need to be very same line of paints, but the else, you don't 100% get the same head, so buying 2 or 3 same heads doesn't really wasting money....

The important thing is we collect these figure for happy, don't make it worry you.

I would rather have a head for every body also, including duplicates, however the head sculpt I use for Kamiko is one which normally comes only with the Tomoe Gozen figure from TBLeague. I was lucky enough to get one which was parted out, but they are rare.

ThePhotogsBlog wrote:


I would rather have a head for every body also, including duplicates, however the head sculpt I use for Kamiko is one which normally comes only with the Tomoe Gozen figure from TBLeague.  I was lucky enough to get one which was parted out, but they are rare.  

I see, then that is different story....but however, you are not alone, look at people up there, we all do the same thing XDD

lawlaw91 wrote:

ThePhotogsBlog wrote:


I would rather have a head for every body also, including duplicates, however the head sculpt I use for Kamiko is one which normally comes only with the Tomoe Gozen figure from TBLeague.  I was lucky enough to get one which was parted out, but they are rare.  

I see, then that is different story....but however, you are not alone, look at people up there, we all do the same thing XDD  

Well if another Tomoe head sculpt pops up parted out on Monkey Depot, which I think is the best place for that sort of thing, I'll probably snap it up, but they are among the more expensive ones out there. The one I have now cost me $59.00. It wouldn't be a bad thing because I like this figure both in her combat gear and her kimono dress.