Feats of Engineering

Fairyland is my favorite- while some may beat them out in posing, to my eye those bodies are rather awkward and unpleasant looking. I prefer bodies that have waist joints and the joint beneathe the breast. I think they look the most natural. I actually like Souldoll bodies as well. Even though they aren't the best posers in my experience, they do look beautiful. The look of a body is more important to me than the posing though, I must admit. In all fairness I haven't handled the bodies of too many companies to have a well-thought out opinion and we'll see how things change in the future.

 

I absolutely adore the Dollzone 45cm girl body--my girl stood straight out of the box and could touch her face as well without sueding or wiring!

I know this is probably a bit bizarre, but I am not a big fan of the Unoa faceplate/headback system. ._. Mine doesn't 'click' on properly which is probably what soured me on it even though it was an easy fix. Also, just aesthetics-wise, the Angelheim 70cm boy shoulders--what the heck even?!

 

As far as poseability goes, Minifees win in my mind hands-down, at least of the bodies I've handled/played with. They can get into and HOLD any pose straight out of the box. The AOD 60cm girl body is really poseable too, but needs sueding because of how smooth the resin is.

out of the dolls I've owned, my Soom Super Gem was the WORST poser. Even after restringing, she wouldn't stand on her own and her arms would never stay where I put them. that was a beautiful body for sure, but not so good at posing. The old DoD body was a pretty awkward poser as well, but its much better now that they've added the torso joint and double-jointed knees and elbows. I really dislike the look of bobobie/resinsoul bodies as well, they lack definition and the arms and legs are just so tubular...for an inexpensive doll, go with Angel of Dream for sure. Great posing and much more aesthetically pleasing. =)

 

To be fair I haven't actually handled any dolls other than the ones I own, but I have to agree about Fairyland- I don't yet own one, but I hope to get a MNF with my tax return, but from what I've seen they have an incredible balance of aesthetics and posability. Even with two torso joints, their A-line bodies can take poses gracefully and naturally. I especially love the curvature of the knee joints, and the fact that they actually thought to make them look natural when posed.

As for the worst, I unfortunately have to agree about BBBs. I love my 2 Resinsoul girls and they are sculpted beautifully, but the BBBs' limbs are very cylindrical and look unnatural overall. Their facial sculpts are beautiful, but I would undoubtedly have a BBB face on a Resinsoul body.

 

I have a resinsoul girl with the double joints and three part torso. Being my first doll, I love her and find the appearance of the body quite pleasing... but she can't pose for crap. With the proper amount of fiddling she can stand and do that pretty solidly. I've modified her hip joint because she could not sit AT ALL. After removing a substantial chunk of resin she can sit better, but not perfectly. Her arms refuse to pose in anything that looks even vaguely real or natural and she is so finicky about her string tension. I love her but she drives me crazy.

And to counteract her, I have a littlefee coming in a few months! I am excited.

 

The best posers I own were already mentioned (dollmore, fairyland). But I think the worst poser I have is actually an FOC from peak's woods. I love her shape and face and stuff, but, her range of movement seems really really limited. She looks great in the few positions she can hold. But other than that, she can't even come close to simply touching her face. It's so bad I have been wondering if I can find a new body for her. And that torso joint? It makes me wonder why it's even there. A simple slouch... so close, yet so far...

It's a shame too, since I love peak's woods' unique style.

 

I like the elbows and knees on delfs and feeples, how they look natural when bent, but they're rather annoying to engage, sometimes. Maybe cos I have silicon discs in them, but only 1 joint tend to be used unless I fiddle the other one out. Though, when both of the joints are used, they have a really nicely bent elbow/knee.

Sculpt wise, I like dollshe bodies. I don't know why, but their hands with the wrist bone poking out (not sure what that's called) make them really realistic. Delf hands are awesome too, though a bit small for anything than a delf. EID bodies look amazing.

I don't like domuya flexi bodies cos they have too many joints to look aesthetically pleasing (I can compromise with looks if it poses well, but generally I don't pose my dolls THAT much anyway, so looks come first), and my AA body with the single joint elbow annoys the heck out of me. That said, the AA body can be pretty much pushed into most poses that double jointed dolls can do, so it kind of evens it out.

 

We have lots of different companies in the house, CP keeps getting our money (lol) but I haven't been blown away by any one factor from any company. Until...the Loongsoul girl we just got.

Notches under her arms, y'all. She can hold ANY arm pose. I'm so in love. @.@

In terms of what I utterly despise, I'd say the HANDS on the SSDelfs. I had a Regen and it drove me NUTS because his hands fell off constantly! I finally sold him, though he was gorgeous and his twin is still in the house. I appreciate the convenience of the magnet attachment, but please...give them some kind of locking system to keep them in place. :/

 

This is a really interesting thread! I must say, after some ahem, investigaions into Fairyland, their pukipuki's and the like are all incredible!! If only they didn't drain the purse so... *sigh*

 

Seconded!

I have one of LS's 58cm girls, and I have to say she is the most flexible doll I have ever played with. She can hold so many poses with out any sueding and every pose I've twisted her into manages to look so natural, too. I even got her to stand on one foot, just like LS's product pictures.

I think the butt-joints on their 58-62cm dolls are a bit of an acquired taste for some people, but I really love them. When a person sits, their pelvic bone rotates more horizontal, and these parts mimic that. As much as I love swivel-thigh joints, I've always thought it looked unnatural to have the leg bend at that point.

 

Interested in this topic very much so decided to bump it

After seeing a lot of doll (but hasn't own it), pretty sure I like fairyland body and SDGr. Their movement is so natural and have a lot range of pose.
I also see Oceanmoon 50cm girl, looks like it's quite promising but never see much photo of it.

Wonder what others love especially when this topic discussed 2 years ago and there should be better body now

 

I only have two resin dolls, so I've not had a chance to compare them with anything. But I do love the way my little 5Star tiny poses, it's so easy to have her look natural. My Fantasy Doll msd, on the other hand, is a bit of a nightmare. Posing him is like juggling a limp, wet fish. I'm hoping that glue sueding will help his slippery joints, but he also has arms that hang off his body oddly.

 

I think some of my most impressive posers have been my Loongsoul body (68cm is not quite as good as the 70cm), 68cm popodoll, and my IOS 60cm boys. The LS body is big and heavy, but he poses so beautifully! Stands on 1 leg, looks natural, the whole works. The 68cm one is not as good for some reason, but I still really like it. Popo bodies are really great slouchers, loungers, and overall lazybones fellas. IOS boys are so natural too, they can curl up like no other!

I've only had 1 Fairyland doll, a female Feeple65, and I wasn't impressed. I had to fight with her to make her sit, she couldn't cross her legs, and trying to take her apart was a nightmare lol.

 

Engineering-wise, I'm impressed with improvements to resin colors. Not all that long ago, buying a tan doll was a gamble. Some of them only had the top layer in tan, or it yellowed/discolored so quickly. Now, a lot of companies seem to have gotten the whole tan thing figured out. The same goes for fantasy colors, especially blue and green. They used to yellow into such a yucky color, but now I have no problem with the idea of buying these colors from companies like Soom.

 

I love the pop and lock system that my Planetdoll Mini's knee joints have. I almost wish her elbows worked the same way. It's a really clever design.
My DC Ada is the opposite. I love her to bits but her design is terrible. Her head is a nightmare to get on! Luck for her she's super adorable so I can live with the minor flaws.

 

For standing like a rock and having a nicely pleasing adult body on an MSD, hands down, my AoD boys (circa 2008). Even after all this time and A LOT of handling since Moswen is my favourite, I haven't had to re-string him yet and he'll still stand like a freaking rock. I trust him to stay standing unattended for long periods of time over my MNF boy (beauty line body).

For OMG! that's amazing, probably my Sugarble Naga boy. The tail is made up of 23 joints (I just counted them) and Nassano has been "sitting" on his tail on my desk at work all day without moving despite drawers being opened and closed and my desk being bumped a time or two. Considering that he's balanced on the curve of his tail (with the tip helping him balance a little), I'd say that's pretty freaking amazing.

Pull my hair out and wail at the unfairness of the engineering? OrientDoll knee joints (specifically I have a Tae Vampire). They have the Collapse O'matic Knees of Doom (tm) and I swear that they buckle if you so much as think of looking at them sideways. I have re-strung Tyhlian I don't even know how many times, hot glued his joints AND wired his arms and legs. He's better after all that but I still wouldn't trust him to stand in the same room as me with my back turned for less than 5 seconds.

Leeke 68cm muscle bodies (or at least mine) has the Amazing Spinning Legs (tm) and magnetic hands that were prone to pop off at the slightest touch despite a supposed locking mechanism to keep them on. The body is gorgeous as far as looks go but as soon as I pick Khale up, his legs spin around in the hip joint like they're possessed. I solved the hand issue by replacing his (gorgeously blushed) default hands with a pair of DZ armour claw hands.

I have several RS dolls and while I can agree that the MSD and tiny bodies that are human are a bit lackluster on realism (and the MSD's desperately need re-stringing straight out of the box), but the non-human bodies are actually pretty decent (although the MSD STILL need better elastic *sigh*). I have an MSD with the Ming body and a Pixiu and they're pretty good posers.

 

I think my absolute favorite overall engineering has to be FairyLand's LittleFee line. When I started looking around for sculpts for the character dolls I was considering (at the time), particularly the Tiny-scale version of them, I went through company after company... and then decided to just fine a LittleFee for every character because I didn't want any tinies that weren't LittleFees! They're just always an absolute joy for me to play with, pose and handle, and I can plop them down just about any way I want and have them hold the pose for me, which is certainly not something I can say for any of my bigger dolls.

I love three-part torsos and double-jointed limbs, and particularly those that manage "extreme" hand poses (by which I mean, holding a pose with the wrist flexed as far as it can go). Only my AoD, Little Monica, WithDoll and FairyLand bodies will do this for me (Bobobie, ResinSoul, SoulDoll and DollPamm won't and I forgot to check the Soomlings); it's not a dealbreaker for me though so I can deal with it. But I much prefer posing hands that stay in place.

I love the natural poses of my MiniFee body, even if I can't get him standing very well yet. He settles into some absolutely wonderful poses, that are perfect for his borderline-contortionist character.

I don't care for two-part torsos, and a one-part torso is actually a deal-breaker for me. I'm not overly fond of single-jointed limbs, but some are engineered well enough that I don't mind them at all. I'm not super fond of the engineering of my DZ Eudora (quadruped with skinny legs), but I can compensate there.