Is it possible to create duplicates of a mesh, that can be deformed and used as blendshape targets? As the title says, is it possible to create duplicates of a mesh, that can be deformed and used as blendshape targets in blender?

like this:



edit:
Here is a nifty little script to deform the base into the target shape...you can save it as a shape key then:  

import bpy

target = bpy.context.selected_objects[0]
obj = bpy.context.active_object

for i,vert in enumerate(obj.data.vertices):
    vert.co = target.data.vertices[i].co


But still it would be nice to have them as a live modifier...
I assume you're talking about the blendshapes like these available in Maya (example tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtfYPxhLO30). If so I'll show you how to do it in Blender on the same example.

Create a mesh, duplicate it 3 times and make some deformations on the duplicates.


Select all the deformed objects and then the base object. Then click on the down arrow in a Shapekeys panel and choose Join as Shapes option.


You have now all the deformed shapes applied to the base model.