Do you consider Switch heads realistic?

I do. They are just about my favourite head sculpts anyway.

 

I don't
So 50:50 here so far.

I'd say though that on a graph from very cartoony/anime to hyper-realistic they are somewhat in the middle.
They are not super exaggerated, but still way too exaggerated in their proportions to be truly realistic. And their aesthetic is also not really realistic either. They remind me of the drawn style I often see from Chinese BL artists.

 

The Switch heads are clearly stylised, and semi-realistic at most. They’re not on the level of, say, classic Volks sculpts or older CP sculpts, or Dollfie Dream, but they have a distinct style and will look cartoony/exaggerated if you put them beside a realistic sculpt like a custom one based on an actor.

 

I think they have realistic placement, but they are still bordering on stylized.

The main issue with displaying SWITCH heads with realistic heads isn't really whether their features are anatomically correct, but moreso the headsize?

SWITCH heads are still standard BJD heads, a little on the larger side even on tall bodies. So, to accommodate the bigger head space, the features have to be bigger, and styled to fit the canvas. It makes for an odd coupling with very realistic heads, however I've seen people make it work, though.

 

Fairly so, although so much can depend on faceup style.

Teddy

 

Definitely more stylized. The shape of the nose and eyes have a distinct look. I think they are similar to some of Luts sculpts.

 

No, I consider them quite stylised. Even then, there is some variation in stylisation between the sculpts. For example, out of the ones I've seen in person, I felt Gyoha and Seojin had a smaller head and slightly more realistic look then the most of the others.

 

i don't. they always reminded me somehow about old volks. big head, big face features, exaggerated and defined shapes of their noses, eyeshapes and lips. that's why they fit to the specific korean photography style with flowers, lace etc. not fully a boudoir doll, but sort of.

 

Definitely Semi-Realistic is the style I would classify them. I've seen Switch boys beside realistic sculpts and I concur that if you have similar face up styles it could work for some of their sculpts that are advertised as 'bigger boys'.

 

Semi-stylized for me: not as stylized as other companies, but not realistic either. If you want them to fit in, I think they could work with other semi-stylized. Or maybe, if you put a switch head on a bigger body with a realistic faceup, it could also work.

 

I find them heavily stylized, but I do come from a 1:6 action figure hobby (where sculpts based on real actual actors are the most popular genres). I don't personally collect figures or sculpts based on real people (few exceptions so far), within any hobby, but Switch is far from semi-realistic. I don't take photos of my dolls all together in a single photo, and I display my figures based on their licenses (I mostly own Japanese anime or video game-based toys). I personally don't mind owning a variety of styles and stylization. However, because I know what actual realistic sculpts look like (ultimately, ones based on real actual living humans, or other living beings), I wouldn't associate Switch (or similar aesthetics) sculpts to look realistic, nor semi-realistic. Their features are too exaggerated. Having said that, when I first learned about these dolls, people would comment on how "realistic" CP/Luts sculpts looked to them -- I always assumed they meant detailed, but no, they actually mean realistic. I am not sure compared to what, but I feel like realism within certain doll styles can be pretty warped -- at least, people's perceptions/opinions on the dolls. (:

 

Not at all, they fall in the same category as Volks or Luts for me. If one were to paint for example a beard stubble on a switch boy sculpt, it would feel very off because they look like... dolls, not men. I think they tend to look the best when not painted realistically.

 

They're definitely stylized, but I think depending on the faceup they could lean a little more towards semi-realism if that was the goal. some of the sculpts are more realistic than others too.

 

I think they’re in the middle. They’ll look pretty realistic next to an anime sculpt, but not very real at all next to a sculpt that can almost pass as human in photos. So I think the answer here really depends on what other dolls the sculpt will be paired with. And for pairing, I think it also depends on how picky you are. Most of my dolls are in the middle on the realism scale, some closer to the stylized end, others closer to the realistic end, but I don’t mind the differences. I wouldn’t pair a Dollfie Dream with a Granado guy, but I’m not too picky about it. I think as long as the dolls are somewhat similar in aesthetic, it really doesn’t matter. I’d hate to deny myself sculpts I love because they didn’t perfectly match another doll.

 

I've considered them in the past, and like them, but they would look odd next to my other dolls. I don't think their facial features are exagerated, but they are not the faces of adults. They look more like adolescents or children on adult bodies.

 

They're definitely stylised bc nobody looks like that IRL lol - but they do imitate some elements of realism especially with faceups.