Best vs worst: Bodies

Worst I've had so far was probably my first BJD, a Resinsoul Mei purchased in 2011. Restrung her multiple times and nothing helped.

Second-worst is, and this pains me to say...my beloved Lillycat Chibbi Lana. I ADORE the aesthetics of this doll, but she lives in a sitting pose because getting her to hold anything else is almost impossible. That's without wiring or sueding, though, so there may yet be hope.

Best was my MYou Bettina (mature 27cm). I wouldn't have expected it from a company often considered a "budget option," but she was a great poser straight out of the box.

 

The very best doll body I have ever handled remains the Fairyland Littlefee. Not an adult, no, but the posing and range of motion is just amazing.

If I were to do this by size category, then for MSD size, Minifee hips can be a little fiddly but by and large, I am again giving a fairyland doll the star of best poser approval and sheer humanistic motion.

As SDs and up go... Hard to say.
My Mirodoll 60cm guy needed a lot of modding before he became a great poser, so I'd give him the Worst Poser award. My other Worst Poser is probably my Dollstown 18 hybrid man, who is so heavy he can't stand even when his joints oughta let him.

Oh wait No- the very worst posers are the Iplehouse EIDs, original 2010 bodies. They couldn't sit upright. Or do more than move their shoulder and head joints. Even my Mirodoll guy could do more before his mods.

The best posers might actually be my Soom SuperGem old body guys. They stand like rocks, their jointed hands are gorgeous, and their torso joint and hip joint let them stand in naturalistic poses like contraposto. Right with them is my Granado original 64cm body. Granado poses great.


Granado 64cm body, volks yukinojo head.

 

Best body I've handled is my Volks SDM Momo. She can pose in any way you want, hold that pose, can stand on carpet (!), and even has a cool system for taking off hands/feet. 100% happy with it.

Worst body I've handled is probably my Bobobie Elfkin, Johnny. I've restrung him, fiddled with him, threatened him but he just cannot pose well. It's not his fault... mostly. He's old and I'm not good at restringing yet. Still, I had a similar problem with a brand new Resinsoul doll (Bobobie's sister company).

 

The best bodies I have are from LUTS and LoongSoul. I have a luts gsdf, which is a 75 size, and he poses really well! I guess it's because of their design? (the upper and lower body parts seem to be strung separately). LoongSoul 73 has very beautiful muscles and can also pose very well.
The worst I have is from Little Monica. I have a harmony girl body and I don't appreciate their muscle design very much, I also find the elbow design a bit weird, and they don't have the double joint for the knees......I guess it's the same with their male bodies. But anyway, I have to restring the body and put copper wires in to improve.

 

I guess I'll echo some previous themes in worst bodies. The worst I've handled is definitely the Mirodoll 60cm woman. It's just very poorly made all around and that includes the posing. It is poor both in range and stability. At least the translucent blue color I got it for is nice in person. Iplehouse nYID and nSID woman bodies are also very poor at posing, although at least more stable in basic poses than the Mirodoll. The popularity here is clearly the aesthetic (which is great) and not the engineering.

I'm going to differ on the comments on the Granado Vigor body though which I have in 40ish cm size. I consider it the doll I am most disappointed with out of any I own. That doesn't mean it's the worst, but I expected based on the preview photos a very good posing doll. What I got was a doll that was very good at holding the few poses in the preview shots and not much else. It just seems very stiff and limited. If you're looking for stability and not versatility then I would agree it's a good body.

The best posing doll I have is the Bimong Narae 40cm limited edition? I forget the full name but it was something along those lines. It is very flexible in the poses that it can take. It does have a tendency to want to curl at the series of torso joints but otherwise once wired up it's quite fun in the poses it can do.


Cat Dance

Note that I wire and suede almost all dolls as really none give me the freedom and stability I desire with just stringing. Sadly there's pretty much no way to wire the ankle joint on bjds which pretty much always ends up the final limiting point in dynamic standing poses.

 

There are not many different companies represented in my collection, so I don't have experience with many different bodies. But, as I've mentioned before in other discussions, my 5 Star Doll dolls have very good bodies in my humble opinion. They feel solid, and the joints are smooth and well fitting. They pose well. I can't remember if they stand alone because I've had them for many years, and have never had them standing alone due to living in earthquake country.
I also like the resin of the dolls I have from 5 Star.

The body in my collection which I consider to be a problem is my MSD Steven from Doll Leaves. He can't sit without ontorting his torso in an awkward position. If I try to have him sit normally, he can only lean far backwards and will slide down into a reclining position. Other than that issue, he is ok.

I have a couple of Minifees, and I really don't like the way their legs will flip around and go all wonky. I hate that cap at the top of their thigh, and it is always turning backwards and making their legs become skewed. Also, arms on my boy minifees with the action line body don't fit next to the sides of their body. No matter how I try to arrange their arms, they stick out awkwardly at the sides.

 

Out of the dolls I own:
Best poser:
Doll Leaves Teenage Dream body (male, old version). He has this great balance bteween smooth joints that you just sort of shape the way you want them and they stay there, and a slight lock in his knees helping him to stand, but without forcing his knees into set poses. I never sueded or did anything to help him and he just works. The sculpting is nice, but basic, so that is probably his main minus.
MaskCat 26cm line body. This girl is tiny, but she has an impressive range and holds poses well. The best part is her knees and I know this will be a bit on the nerdy side, even for a doll person, but hear me out. Her knees have a regular double joint that looks perfectly ordinary at first glance, but here is the genious: The lower part of the joint is a balanced joint, it has a very smooth range of motion making it possible to leave the leg in any position along it's way with equal resaults for a total of about a 90 degree range. The upper part of the joint is a locking joint that locks into either straight or 90 degree. Taken together this actually means that depending on what parts of the joint you activate and in what combination, you have the full range of smooth motion that you would get from a balanced double joint, but with the stability very near that of a single joint! Maybe others have done this as well, but this is the first doll I've seen it in.
Despite this, she doesn't stand very well in bare feet as her feet are disproportionally small.

Worst poser:
Resinsoul Ming. I bought him to mod him and I knew what I was getting myself into, so no hard feelings at all. But right out of the box he had so many problems... I have since modded him quite heavily and he poses all right now, but from the start he was really something. Fun fact: this doll and the Doll Leaves mentioned before cost almost exactly the same when I bought them, both new and at about the same time. I will say though, that the resinsoul is perhaps a little better scuplted, that is a matter of preference of course but fair is fair.
Iplehouse JID both male and female. I have the older bodies with the but-flaps. These dolls are so pretty and so frustrating. Their joints don't work as intended, the ankles are so weak the dolls don't stand well on their own and the foot often slips out of position and the only way to get it back is to fist pull it out and reposition it. Their knees and elbows have the pull out joint that makes the arm or leg so much longer when avtivated that clothes no longer fit right and the are very tricky to use when the doll is dressed anyway. These dolls are pretty. Very pretty. But they are also very limited in what they can do.

Honorable mentions, neither good or bad over all:
Luts Kid Delf girl. This doll is my best stander and sitter. This girl stands like a rock. And that is exactly how she does everythig else as well; stiff and hard. She can stand for hours, she can sit up straight like no other and her elbows are sort of ok, but her shoulders snaps, her torso joint does very little and there is absolutely no inbetween poses for her legs other than sitting and standing unless you string her loosly enough to barely hold together.
The arms of my Lati Blue girl body. These have tiny little peanut joints in the elbows that looks as if they should have very little friction, and yet they smoothly takes any pose you put them in and just holds it. I have had this doll holding heavy objects just freely away from the body, leaving it like that for days and she just holds her pose. No locks, no snapping, no slow sagging. The rest of the body is admittedly basic. Single jointed legs similar to those on the KDF and a torso joint with very little forward and backward motion, but she has a little bit of rotation and that is pretty rare, so, not bad, but not exceptional either.

 

Worst body: Mirodoll 60cm Girl (I think? whatever came with Mika in 2014)
Not a single joint on this doll fit together properly. It had no chance of standing unassisted. The ankle joints did not fit properly at all so they were a huge weak point. If I remember correctly, the socket was oval and the balls were round. I never figured out what the triangles on the side of her hips were for. The inner elbow peanut joint was too small for the outer sockets. There was just so many issues with this body. I literally gave this doll away.

Best body: Unoa 1.0
Is this a hot take? I love the sculpting on this body. Especially the hands! The lines and proportions are perfect and not a single double joint in sight. Just the way I like it. I think Araki is an artistic genius and I would love to play with a body he's designed after 2003. I know some people like to hybrid Unoa faceplates with minifee bodies but I'll never understand it

 

My best are my Atelier Momoni girls. I have never owned, or seen another doll that poses like they do. There are no seam lines, the resin is smooth and they move so fluidly. I also think they are pretty cute, they are mature but not overly mature, they also look young but not too young. I find them to be ageless and can go either way which I also like.

The worst I have personally had was my Doll Chateau Julianne. That doll frustrated me to not end! I loved her face and overall aesthetic but she couldn't even sit without issues. One slight move and her limbs were all over the place and she would fall over.

 

Best

Granado Lads: Very nice in shape and poses very well. He basically came perfect straight out of the box. If you're looking for a body that doesn't look super jacked, he's a nice option.

Dream Valley 70cm: I love the look of these bodies. They're very slim so it depends on what your aesthetic is. I bought one specifically because I have an old Doll Chateau boy I love the look of and wanted something similar for a floating head. I will say that Dream Valley poses much better than the original 70 cm DC bodies. Those bodies have round (like ball shaped) knee joints and they are *very fussy*. I still love mine but he's not easy to work with.

Old Impl Star Body: The original Impl Star boy bodies are amazing posers. Mine is old as dirt but he can hold any pose you put him in. They changed that body to be more of a small muscle body now. I'm not sure if you can get the original. It's a really good one though.

Best- Female body

Twigling. Hands down. They're gorgeous. They're fabulous posers.

Worst

Crobidoll M Line (original) : Good grief. This body couldn't do anything at all. I sueded. I restrung. I eventually ended up parting ways with it. It was nice enough to look at but that was about it!

Souldoll Zenith- Male and Female: I'm sorry. They're beautiful bodies. They really are. But they are wretched posers in my opinion. The knees have the same issue the old Doll Chateau bodies have. They're round and they just make the legs slip every which way. They really can't stand. Having said that, they are really pretty to look at. I love the way Souldoll sculpts hands and feet. I also think they have great customer service. It's quite possible they've made improvements since I got the dolls I have as mine are not at all new. If not, they make gorgeous shelf babies.

 

The best poser I have hands down is my Loongsoul 60 cm. girl body. No one else comes even close in terms of flexibility and versatility.

My BBB Elfkin and Moony are horrible. I actually chopped on my Elfkin a bit and there was a marginal improvement.

I really don't mind my BBB and Resinsoul MSDs. I've got them wired and they stand and sit well, so I'm happy. They're basic, but OK.

My old Elfdolls have arms that pose well enough, but a bad case of the noodle legs, even wired and sueded. The first stand I bought was for my Elfdoll girl (my boy will stand if he likes the outfit I put him in, go figure).

My Dollshe Pure Body boy is a reasonably good poser and will stand even if strung on the loose side.

 

My Dream Valley MSDs and my Fairyland Littlefees and Pukifees are the best of my crew. There's very little in the way of posing I can't get them to do. And they stand like rocks.

Doll Chateau is the absolute worst as far as posing, but they're so beautiful that I just sit them on my cabinet and let them look good.

 

I have Dream Valleys of varied shapes and sizes and they all pose wonderfully.

The worst poser of my crew is my Resinsoul Ming, even compared to my other Resinsouls (but I expected that when I ordered him, so it’s all good). He’s got Resinsoul Sui wings which don’t help his posing ability at all. Poor guy can hardly even stand. It’s a good thing he’s pretty, at least.

 

Best: Dream Valley, particularly my Dean's giraffe-taur body. His limbs are super thin, but he's solid as a rock! I can trust him to stand on just about anything, on four legs or three (sometimes even two). The sculpting is gorgeous too. I only have their MSD-scale bodies, but I would imagine the bigger ones are just as stable.

Honorable Mentions: Shout out to Luts for their S65DF and MDF bodies, both of which are great posers. They have a large range of mobility, as so long as you keep them strung tight, they'll stand solid and even hold a variety of poses.

Worst: There are too many, honestly. A lot of companies prioritize aesthetics over engineering. In my own personal experience, this includes Souldoll (the older N.L. bodies are awful posers, those joints are terrible), Soom (both the older super gem and little gem bodies are awful at standing, let alone other poses), Doll Chateau (beautiful, but can't stand and snap into the fetal position at every opportunity), Crobidoll (that R-line body is a nightmare, I got rid of mine for cheap just to see it go), and finally, Sugarble (they no longer exist, as far as I know, but their tiny bodies were a disaster).

I've owned and handled a lot of different companies, but these are the ones that stand out one way or another. Keep in mind this is all assumed without sueding or wiring, because those can turn awful posers into good ones.

 

I think the best body I have as far as ease of posing is the Impldoll Star girl body. She stood right out of the box, the joints do not look overly bulky and fit together nicely, and she holds poses very well. A close second would be my Fairyland Feeple girl. I find it's a little more sensitive to stringing and does not hold arm poses well, but it has great range and poses nicely when well strung.

The Bobobie Luna body does not pose well at all, and I question if it should really be considered ball jointed. However, being that it was so inexpensive, I do not feel terribly bothered by it. I like that they tried something different.
While I love Dollshe, I think my old Dollshe body was among my most disappointing. No matter the stringing or sueding, it is never a great poser, and it is harder to give it the same pass as I do for some of the cheaper, seemingly experimental bodies.

Dishonorable mention to my EID girl. I don't newer EIDs are actually engineered poorly. However, EIDs are just so big that they are a constant pain to handle, imo.

 

Of the dolls I have in my collection, the ones that give me the most problems are my Custom House Ange Ai tinies and my Momocolor girl (technically a tiny, but on the tall end of the spectrum).

The Ange Ai bodies both have mismatching leg lengths (i.e. one longer/shorter than the other) and don't pose very well. The Momocolor hip joints have these cross-shaped openings that are meant to allow for different hip/leg positions but really just get caught in weird ways.

 

Best poser has been my Dollzone Ji-Zero and I even got her to stand with help from a stand pretty easily!

Worst would have to be my Luts Kid Delf, she was very stiff and I've found I hate single joints, she did however stand on her own like a rock which I enjoyed as I was short on stands at the time

 

How do u wire your
Bimong? I haven’t sueded mine but bimong bodies have been my favorite by far although some smaller dolls also pose great too.

 

Straight through both arms, U up one leg through body and down the other. Same as I did here.

BJD Stories - Wiring and Stringing a Dear Mine Dear Pet

 

For me, one of the worst ones was the old Volks SD10 (solid torso). Loved the look of the body, it's nice that it doesn't have any joints in the chest for photography purposes but when I had my dolls sitting down felt that they were impaled.
The torso felt super heavy as well. I am unsure if they changed the design for their Standard Models. I just owned old Volks dolls.

On the scale of 1/4 I want to mention the Unoa Quluts body (Alchemic Labo). It's beautiful, easy to assemble and poses very well. I am very happy with the KDF from Luts too.