History Main / DolledUpInstallment

* Since the [[ShiftedToCGi transition to CGi]], the Advertising/EnergizerBunny's commercials in North America are remade in Europe and Australia with Mr. NRG, an anthropomorphic battery, in place of the Bunny. This is because Duracell still holds the copyright to their pink bunny mascot (whom the Energizer Bunny is a [[TakeThat not-so-]]AffectionateParody of) in Europe and Australia.

* ''[[ComicBook/TheDefenders Fearless Defenders]]'' was originally not going to be called that, as it was a spin-off of the ''Fearless'' mini-series from ''ComicBook/FearItself''. WordOfGod states that Marvel slapped ''Defenders'' onto the title in order to boost sales, even though the new team had ''nothing'' to do with any of the prior incarnations of the group other than having Valkyrie as a member.
* In the 90s, writer [[Creator/ChristopherPriestComics Christopher Priest]] pitched a Creator/DCComics series called ''The Avenger'', which would've starred a teen superhero struggling with the realities of young adulthood. At some point during development, someone decided that the idea would work better as a LegacyCharacter series centered around ComicBook/{{the Ray}}, one of the original ComicBook/{{Freedom Fighters|DCComics}}, and thus the 90s ''The Ray'' series was born.

* ''ComicBook/{{Runaways 2015}}'' was originally pitched as an original series with no connection to the old ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'' series, but then Marvel supposedly realized that they were about to lose the trademark to the name "Runaways", and thus slapped it on the new series. Apparently Molly was only added to give it a connection to the original.

* Ride/SixFlags Great Adventure in New Jersey has a colorless roller coaster that originally opened as "Medusa", complete with a green paint job to imitate the mythological figure's snake hair. Then in 2009 it was re-themed to {{ComicBook/Superman}}'s twisted clone, Bizarro, complete with a blue and purple paint job, so it would match other DC Comics-themed rides in the park (and in Six Flags in general). It was reverted to Medusa in 2022.

* Marvel sometimes did this with reprints of old comics from the 1950's. For instance, one sci-fi/horror story had an unnamed scientist character changed to a young [[Comicbook/AntMan Hank Pym]] when reprinted, while an issue of ''Menace'' had a nondescript foreign spy changed to an agent of HYDRA. One ''Strange Tales'' story about astronauts from the U.S. and U.S.S.R. who mistake each other for aliens was altered to instead have the characters be from Comicbook/{{SHIELD}} and Comicbook/{{HYDRA}}.

* In the 1970s, Jim Starlin and Steve Englehart created Comicbook/ShangChi, a new Asian martial-arts character, for Creator/MarvelComics. Because Marvel had recently acquired the rights to Sax Rohmer's Literature/FuManchu stories, it was decided that Shang-Chi would be Fu Manchu's son. At one point Marvel believed incorrectly that Fu Manchu was a PublicDomainCharacter--this was half-true and a ''very'' complicated issue, but it boils down to certain Literature/FuManchu stories being in the public domain while others aren't, and the copyright varies from country to country. It was eventually handled via an agreement that they could reprint these stories, but couldn’t use Rohmer's characters or refer to those plots again.

* ''[[ComicBook/TheDefenders Fearless Defenders]]'' was originally not going to be called that, as it was a spin-off of the ''Fearless'' mini-series from ''Comicbook/FearItself''. WordOfGod states that Marvel slapped ''Defenders'' onto the title in order to boost sales, even though the new team had ''nothing'' to do with any of the prior incarnations of the group other than having Valkyrie as a member.

* Atlee from ''Comicbook/PowerGirl'' was going to be an original character before Dan Didio convinced Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti to make her the new Terra instead.

* Obscure Marvel hero and occasional [[Comicbook/TheDefenders Defenders]] member Devil-Slayer was created by David Anthony Kraft and Rich Buckler as a way to continue the adventures of Demon Hunter, a character they previously created for Atlas Comics before that company went under. The two have gone on record as saying that [[BroadStrokes give or take a few minor details]], Devil-Slayer’s Marvel Universe exploits could be easily be considered a sequel to the original ''Demon Hunter'' series.

* The {{Elseworld}} ''Comicbook/{{Robin}} 3000'', by Byron Preiss and P. Craig Russell, was originally written as ''Literature/TomSwift 3000'', before Simon & Shuster, the Swift trademark holders, abandoned their plans to enter the comics market.

** Creator/KurtBusiek wrote and submitted a sample ''Comicbook/{{Superman}}'' [[https://busiek.com/site/2014/10/07/the-24-hour-truce-of-lex-luthor script]] about a young Lex Luthor offering Superboy a 24-hour truce in exchange for a favor. It didn't get published, but helped get his foot in the door. He later reworked the premise (using his own characters) into "Wish I May...".

* Producers of {{Shoddy Knockoff Product}}s are fond of this, repurposing their limited selection of molds to mimic a given popular brand. Attempting to pass off TransformingMecha toys as Franchise/{{Transformers}} or turn any muscular male bodies they have access to into superheroes is particularly common. A particular example is a Franchise/{{Superman}} [[http://www.weirdotoys.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/superspider02.jpg figure]] that still has the web pattern from when it used to be a Franchise/SpiderMan.

* Even though you don't notice it when you read it, the Franchise/SpiderMan classic ''ComicBook/KravensLastHunt'' started out as a Wonder Man/Grim Reaper story. When that was rejected, writer J. M. [=DeMatteis=] reworked it into a Batman/Joker story and submitted it to DC. When that was rejected for containing too many elements similar to another story then in the works (i. e. ''ComicBook/TheKillingJoke''), [=DeMatteis=] reworked it again into a story featuring Batman and Hugo Strange. But that was also rejected, and so he finally hit upon the idea to use the story for Spider-Man.

* The Italian dub of ''[[Anime/FutariWaPrettyCureSplashStar Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash* Star]]'' was going to be dolled up as a sequel '''to its own AlternateContinuity''', the original ''Anime/FutariWaPrettyCure''. Apparently, "Nagisa and Honoka" looked different because of a PlotRelevantAgeUp... even though Saki and Mai are ''younger'' than the old heroines left off at the end of ''Max Heart''. Luckily they changed their minds. The new heroines were {{Expies}} of the original duo to the point that saying it was them under new animation styles would have worked ''quite'' well, at least until the team-up movies started. In the ''end'' it's lucky that they changed their minds.

* ''Ninja Resurrection'' wasn't a sequel to ''Anime/NinjaScroll'', but you could be forgiven if the box text and the distributor misled you. The only similarity was the main character's name, Jubei. ''Ninja Scroll's'' protagonist is a homage to Yagyu Jubei, one of the most famous ninja and folk heroes in Japanese history. ''Ninja Resurrection'', based on the novel ''Makai Tensho'', actually uses Yagyu Jubei as its protagonist. Also, it's not even ''called'' ''Ninja Resurrection'' in Japan. ADV Films, the US distributor, changed the title, added the subtitle "The Return of Jubei" and marketed it to make it look like a sequel. Many viewers were furious when they found out, but the deception made it a big financial success anyway. Ironically, it sold better than the official ''Anime/NinjaScrollTheSeries'' did.

* Similar to the example above, there's ''Manga/GanbareKickers''. In the Italian and French versions, it's mentioned that the main character Kakeru comes from Syutetsu, Genzo Wakabayashi's old school from ''Manga/CaptainTsubasa''. In reality, there's no relation between the two series, except that both are sport animes about UsefulNotes/AssociationFootball.

* Defied by the Italian dub of ''Manga/MagicKnightRayearth''. The dub was originally going to add lines in the dialogue suggesting that Hikaru Shidou is the younger cousin of Usagi Tsukino from ''Manga/SailorMoon'', but Creator/{{CLAMP}} forbid such addition from inclusion.

* Subverted with Ruf Automobile, which basically builds cars based off Porsche chassis. While their cars do have fundamentally similar features as their Porsche counterparts, their bodywork are otherwise original and feature improved performance in comparison. Interestingly they also do carry out repairs on Porsche vehicles as one of their services.

* This goes back to the Golden Age, actually. There is evidence that some stories were hastily rewritten to accommodate various in-house situations (at least one very late Golden Age Green Lantern story has him so OOC that it must have originally been a Batman story, and at least two All-Star adventures were rewritten with cast changes).

** Elements of ''Shada'' were previously recycled into the third book of the ''Literature/TheHitchHikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' series, with Creator/DouglasAdams [[WordOfGod reasoning]] that if ''Shada'' was never going to be seen on[=TV=], the ideas should not be wasted. There is more than a little Chronotis in the character of Slartibartfast, and scholars of both ''Who'' and ''[=H2G2=]'' have noted the suspicious similarity between Ford Prefect as he appears here and Creator/TomBaker as The Doctor.

** Elements of ''Shada'' were previously recycled into the third book of the ''Literature/TheHitchHikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' series, with Creator/DouglasAdams [[WordOfGod reasoning]] that if ''Shada'' was never going to be seen on[=TV=], the ideas should not be wasted.there is more than a little Chronotis in slartibartfast, and scholars of both ''Who'' and ''[=H2G2=]'' have noted the suspicious similarity between Ford Prefect as he appears here and Creator/TomBaker as The doctor.

** Elements of ''Shada'' were previously recycled into the third book of the ''Literature/TheHitchHikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' series, with Creator/DouglasAdams [[WordOfGod reasoning]] that if ''Shada'' was never going to be seen on[=TV=], the ideas should not be wasted.there is more than a little Chronotis in slartibartfast, and scholars of both ''Who'' and ''H2G2'' have noted the suspicious similarity between Ford Prefect as he appears here and Creator/TomBaker as The doctor.

* ''Comicbook/AstroCity'':
** Creator/KurtBusiek wrote and submitted a sample ''Comicbook/{{Superman}}'' [[https://busiek.com/site/2014/10/07/the-24-hour-truce-of-lex-luthor script]] about a young Lex Luthor offering Superboy a 24-hour truce in exchange for a favor. It didn't get published, but helped get his foot in the door. He later reworked the premise (using his own characters) into an issue (volume 3, issue 16).
** Busiek also pitched a one-shot to Marvel of a ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'' story where a {{Mook}}, completely by chance, sees Spider-Man taking his mask off, and grapples with what to do with the information. Marvel shot down the idea, because they thought leaving that loose end untied wouldn't be feasible. Naturally, he retooled it into an ''Astro City'' story, using the local SpiderManSendUp instead.

* In the 90s, writer [[Creator/ChristopherPriestComics Christopher Priest]] pitched a Creator/DCComics series called ''The Avenger'', which would've starred a teen superhero struggling with the realities of young adulthood. At some point during development, someone decided that the idea would work better as a LegacyCharacter series centered around ComicBook/{{the Ray}}, one of the original [[ComicBook/FreedomFightersDC Freedom Fighters]], and thus the 90s ''The Ray'' series was born.

* An in-universe meta-example in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': in "The 138th Episode Spectacular" Troy [=McClure=] summarizes the origin of the show as “an old drunk made humans out of his rabbit characters to pay off his gambling debts”.

* ''Ninja Resurrection'' wasn't a sequel to ''Anime/NinjaScroll'', but you could be forgiven if the box text and the distributor misled you. The only similarity was the main character's name, Jubei. ''Ninja Scroll's'' protagonist is a homage to Yagyu Jubei, one of the most famous ninja and folk heroes in Japanese history. ''Ninja Resurrection'', based on the novel ''Makai Tensho'', actually uses Yagyu Jubei as its protagonist. Also, it's not even ''called'' ''Ninja Resurrection'' in Japan. ADV Films, the US distributor, changed the title, added the subtitle "The Return of Jubei," and marketed it to make it look like a sequel. Many viewers were furious when they found out, but the deception made it a big financial success anyway. Ironically, it sold better than the official ''Anime/NinjaScrollTheSeries'' did.

** Marvel's used Shang-Chi's father as a villain again after this -- he came back in an early MAX version of the franchise, for example -- but they avoid calling him "Fu Manchu," (using nicknames or supposed "real" names instead,) and rarely depict his face unless it's masked or, as in Secret Avengers, mutilated and rotting. They did much the same in the 1990s, using a visually altered version of Fah Lo Suee in a story but only ever referring to her by a newly-coined (Marvel-owned) nickname. Note that Nayland Smith and other Rohmer-original characters like Karamaneh, who did show up when Marvel had the license, simply don't appear anymore.

* ''Literature/DirkGentlysHolisticDetectiveAgency'' was likewise cribbed from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E6Shada Shada]]", an uncompleted ''Series/DoctorWho'' story. Professor Chronotis was originally from "Shada", as was the fictional college he works at (St. Cedd's), his time machine (which closely resembles a TARDIS), and his unnaturally long life. The story itself also derives from his completed ''Doctor Who'' story "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E2CityOfDeath City of Death]]."

* When Music/MichaelJackson released ''Music/OffTheWall,'' it was such a monumental success that his previous record label, Creator/{{Motown}}, released an album of material—both unreleased and just kinda obscure—as ''One Day in Your Life'' in 1981, the pure schmaltz of which made "ABC" sound like Music/{{ACDC}}. The following year, ''Music/{{Thriller}}'' (1982) was released and by 1984, it became the biggest selling album ever, prompting Creator/{{Motown}} to remix some older songs—some being over decade old—and released ''Farewell My Summer Love'' the title song of which makes "The Girl Is Mine" sound like "[[Music/TheBeatles Helter Skelter]]." This stopped happening, thankfully, however, future Michael Jackson album releases seemed to coincide with well-timed Music/TheJacksonFive hits collections.

** After several former members of the band formed a parallel group with the ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin name "Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe"[[note]]which some [=DJs=] dubbed "Yes (Not Yes)," playing off the group name Music/WasNotWas; the musicians eventually dropped the name because it sounds like a lawyer firm[[/note]], several songs which would have been released for the second album ended up with some form the above incarnation of Yes, to form the somewhat awkwardly named ''Union'' album, all under the Yes banner. It's awkwardly named as the two different lineups didn't really record much together; other than Jon Anderson's lead vocals on every track and Chris Squire's backing vocals (but not bass playing) on some of the ABWH tracks, it's two different bands on the same album.

* On a September 2000 edition of ''Monday Nitro'', World Championship Wrestling held a special match that, having been conceived by Vince Russo, was unneededly confusing and gimmicky. It pitted two teams of five wrestlers against each other inside the triple-tiered cage seen in ''Film/ReadyToRumble'' and previously used in a tie-in match for that movie. The WCW Championship was hung above the highest cage, and the person who walked out of the bottom cage with the belt in hand would win the match for their team and the title for themselves. Despite sharing almost no similarities with the classic War Games match other than a team format inside a special cage, WCW decided to call the match "War Games 2000: Russo's Revenge."

* An in-universe meta-example in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': in "The 138th Episode Spectacular" Troy [=McClure=] summarizes the origin of the show as “an old drunk made humans out of his rabbit characters to pay off his gambling debts.”

* Ride/SixFlags Great Adventure in New Jersey has a colorless roller coaster that originally opened as "Medusa", complete with a green paint job to imitate the mythological figure's snake hair. Then in 2009 it was re-themed to {{ComicBook/Superman}}'s twisted clone, Bizarro, complete with a blue and purple paint job, so it would match other DC Comics-themed rides in the park (and in Six Flags in general).

* Ride/SixFlags Great Adventure in New Jersey has a colorless roller coaster that originally opened as "Medusa", complete with a green paint job to imitate the mythological figure's snake hair. Then in 2009 it was re-themed to {{ComicBook/Superman}}'s twisted clone, Bizarro, complete with a blue and purple paint job, so it would match other DC Comics-themed rides in the park (and in Sox Flags in general).

* Creator/{{Kenner}}'s toyline for ''Film/RobinHoodPrinceOfThieves'' reused parts and molds from many of their previous lines, such as ''Franchise/StarWars'', ''Franchise/RoboCop'' and the ''[[Franchise/DCUniverse DC Super Powers Collection]]''. A particular case is the Robin Hood figure, which [[ComicBook/GreenArrow still has a big letter "G" on its belt buckle.]]

!!Examples:

* DolledUpInstallment/LiveActionFilms

[[folder:Film -- Animation]]

** Subverted with Ruf Automobile, which basically builds cars based off Porsche chassis. While their cars do have fundamentally similar features as their Porsche counterparts, their bodywork are otherwise original and feature improved performance in comparison. Interestingly they also do carry out repairs on Porsche vehicles as one of their services.

** Similarly, some of the ''Franchise/ConanTheBarbarian'' stories written by Creator/RoyThomas for Creator/MarvelComics were adaptations of novels by Creator/GardnerFox about ''his'' barbarian hero, {{Kothar}}. Change a few proper nouns, and presto!
** This goes back to the Golden Age, actually. There is evidence that some stories were hastily rewritten to accommodate various in-house situations (at least one very late Golden Age Green Lantern story has him so OOC that it must have originally been a Batman story, and at least two All-Star adventures were rewritten with cast changes).
** Marvel sometimes did this with reprints of old comics from the 1950's. For instance, one sci-fi/horror story had an unnamed scientist character changed to a young [[Comicbook/AntMan Hank Pym]] when reprinted, while an issue of ''Menace'' had a nondescript foreign spy changed to an agent of HYDRA. One ''Strange Tales'' story about astronauts from the U.S. and U.S.S.R. who mistake each other for aliens was altered to instead have the characters be from Comicbook/{{SHIELD}} and Comicbook/{{HYDRA}}.

** After several former members of the band formed a parallel group with the ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin name "Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe"[[note]]which some [=DJs=] dubbed "Yes (Not Yes)," playing off the group name Was (Not Was); the musicians eventually dropped the name because it sounds like a lawyer firm[[/note]], several songs which would have been released for the second album ended up with some form the above incarnation of Yes, to form the somewhat awkwardly named ''Union'' album, all under the Yes banner. It's awkwardly named as the two different lineups didn't really record much together; other than Jon Anderson's lead vocals on every track and Chris Squire's backing vocals (but not bass playing) on some of the ABWH tracks, it's two different bands on the same album.