How important is poseability to you?

It's not super important to me. The only thing I really ask for is that they can sit and stand in a somewhat natural pose.

 

It’s not abundantly important to me beyond wanting them to fall into natural looking, relaxed postures (my crew are big slouchers!)

 

When I was newer in the hobby I wasn't entirely sure what my preferences were, but as I've been in it longer and longer... I want bodies that are good posers and beautiful. Ultimately I think it's about equal in importance; I don't want a doll/doll body I find super unappealing, for example, neither do I want a doll that is functionally a "beautiful brick" that can barely do the minimum possibility (or less!) expected from a the simple barbie bodies. At a certain point, it can feel like the doll is more of a strung statue/figure or puppet than a ball jointed doll.

I've found that I like doll bodies that are double jointed (or close, eg minifee knees) with ideally mobility and/or swivel joints in the legs and a two or three part torso and glide naturally into poses without much fuss about pulling out peanuts or what have you. So far I've found my preferred doll bodies appear to be either minifee or dollzone (specifically b45-012; I haven't tried the other models out yet). I am hoping to get some experience from other companies though; I am particularly interested in Dream Valley (B4-02 and B4-11), Charm Doll, and Doll Family-H... I've found bodies to be really unappealing if they are either a beautiful brick, pose like a brick, or crumple up like a dead bug and can't do anything, though...

 

Oh my gosh, yes! This is beautifully put and 100% true. When you frame it like that, its like a sliding scale, and theres a certain point that people usually shoot towards in that balance, whether they are more focused on solid sculpted detail or on having tons of poseability with (sometimes unsightly) joints.

My only pet peeve is when a doll has a torso bend, but the trunk of it is sculpted so its meant to look good in one piece. Therefore, when you actually use the bend, it looks so strange...I guess that's why they're meant to be clothed, heh heh.

Also...I'm still having problems with deciding on a body for my character with digitigrade legs. The body I have right now is wonderful, has almost a double joint at the knee, but the section where the ankle joint woud be is sculpted solid (its a SOOM Mylo btw). I think its a gorgeous sculpt, but I'd like for him to be able to pose into a crouch position, and I feel a bit overdramatic that it's bugging me, but I guess I'm just getting down to the nitty gritty of just how much poseability means to me

 

VERY important! I love super poseable dolls, but I also like the joints to look good too. Finding a doll that can pose well and also not have decent looking joints is a plus. The dolls that I have right now are the best posers I have ever had, and they hold them well, which is something I love very much!

 

I have a few bad posers, and I love them just as much as my good posers Usually there is something about them that I find really endearing, for example my Dearmine Lincoln. She really can't pose, like at all, but she just so darn cute that I don't find myself caring. Same with my Kinoko Juice Haine really she can only stand...but also she is just so cute! So yah I guess its not that important to me.

 

it is extremely important but if the sculpt is pretty and unique enough i might pass over possibility over uniqueness but even then i might consider modding it so it can have the desired poseability

 

I used to try to buy the best posing dolls I could, but over time I realized I preferred aesthetics over poseability. For example, I really dislike three-part torsos and one of my favorite dolls is actually on a single-jointed body. However, I do want dolls who could stand on their own since I like all of my dolls to be standing on a table or a shelf, but this is not necessarily a deal breaker.

 

So far the idea of poseability seems very important to me - ie I'd like bodies with double elbows and double knees. I want the doll to be sturdy and flexible etc., but also aesthetically pleasing. Mayhap as my collection grows I'll care less, or be more willing to suede and mod to get what I want (or sculpt my own).

I do like changing the pose of my current dolls, and it helps me to see where there might be issues with stringing, or joints themselves. Definitely an explorative learning process.

 

I'm terrible at coming up with cool original poses for my dolls and I suppose that's why I don't blame some dolls with larger ball joints for not being able to stand on one foot or touch their own faces. I have a double-jointed doll they say to be a good poser and I totally get it that good poseability is a huge plus, but I'd choose a beautiful sculpt over great poseability.

 

I don't need my dolls to do crazy things like headstands or balancing on one foot or anything, and I'm not willing to sacrifice aesthetics for the sake of poseability, but I do need them to be able to sit fairly naturally. Nothing drives me nuts faster than a doll that can't sit upright unassisted! I like to sit with my dolls on the table or shelf next to me while I'm going about my day and I need to know they're not going to faceplant if and when a dog jostles the furniture.

 

Very! Even in my off topic dolls I want heavy articulation (thank u marvel legends for being a new standard to action figure poseablilty). I don't really set my dolls in crazy poses, but I like to be able to. Plus it's fun to see which ones can touch their toes.

Although there is a thing as too much articulation. Doll chateau, for example, I think sacrifices some asthetics for articulation (they're also very stylized, which is another factor in my distaste). And having had a Dollshe three part torso, I found that it was extremely difficult to find a happy medium between floppy and ab crunches

 

While I love him to bits and recognize his poseability potential, my IOS boy who has a three-parts torso is so floppy and hard to pose! (There may be also a user error, as I cannot tighten his elastic more though) My Maskcat girl poses like a dream though. I usually spend like 20 seconds to pose my Maskcat and 3 minutes to make sure my IOS boy stay upright, or at least in an humanely non-lethal position. XD My IOS boy is an unhealthy mad scientist-type character, so I can definitely work the slump into his character, but I definitely would have considered getting him another body if the constant hunch did not mesh with his character so well.

They have both double-jointed limbs. I never had a single jointed doll before, probably because it reminds me too much of a Barbie and I would not have bought it.

In summary, to me, aesthetics are the most important things. I like beautiful bodies and I would not buy a very poseable body that does not appeal to me.

But the doll has to be a little bit poseable. I don't see the point of turning to BJD if I can have the same level of articulations as simpler (and cheaper) dolls. I don't need anything crazy (but I would be very impressed by it!) but there are minimums standards: can it stand upright? Can it sit well? Are the poses fairly believable?

Basically, the aesthetics are what attract me to a specific doll and the complete lack of poseabily is a deal-breaker. XD

 

I don't do much with my bjd but yes, it's important to me. Even if the expression is the most important and I have trouble with simplified bodies. The body and posability are not essential but I would have less of a crush.

 

It's not the same thing for all my dolls. I'm always looking for a specific person.
Aesthetics come first, because I love high realism in the sculpt, but poseability is also very important. I am not willing to buy a perfectly poseable body that will not meet my demands. But the stationary decorative "brick", as mentioned above, is beautiful for a while, but later it annoys you... Altough... my first two dolls are single-jointed, but their bodies are so charming that I would never change them. And not so bad, when you consider that they move more naturally than some double-jointed dolls. It would be ideal to have bodies that are beautiful and functional at the same time...

 

To me it's equally important. I don't want a doll that can barely move and hold poses, but I also don't want a doll that's visually appalling and poorly sculpted. Perhaps it's the artist in me, but I want a doll that's simultaneously well-sculpted and cohesive as well as engineered.

 

For me it's a HUGE deal as I like to use my dolls as my models in my photography. I don't like taking pictures of people cause they move and don't hold poses that I envision properly

 

Bare minimum, my dolls need to be able to sit up straight, stand solidly, and touch their face. I'm okay with single-jointed knees, but elbows absolutely need to be double-jointed. Anything beyond that is icing on the cake.

Generally speaking, I don't mind the look of even very obvious joints, and will always go for more mobility when it's an option. My only exception to this is shoulder joints. I've seen a lot of dolls who have those shoulder cup things that allow them to slouch their shoulders forward or pull them back, and in general I'm not a fan of those. Most of the time, they make the shoulders stand really far out from the body, and I can't abide that. But in the (very few) cases where those shoulder cups DON'T result in a huge gap between the arm and the side of the chest, I'm all for it.

I have one girl (a Rosen Lied Holiday's Child) who is single jointed, with actual ball joints. It fits her "antique porcelain doll" aesthetics, I'll admit. But I constantly find myself wishing she posed a bit better. I'm too much of a sucker for Rosen Lied - I can see myself getting another Holiday's Child or two. But I don't think I could put up with single-jointed-ness in any other dolls. It's very much a deal-breaker for me.

 

I've only ever asked the bare minimum of my dolls - sit and stand naturally, and easily. If they can't do that I will hate them. If I have to spend 20 minutes trying to wrestle them into those poses, I will hate them. Knee bending and hip placement should not be a chore, be painful or flat out impossible in clothing (I am looking at you, impldoll). I should not have to mod the hell out of a doll to get it to stand with it's feet apart.

Other than siting and standing (again, it must look natural. No stiff "dolls" please.), I don't have many requirements. I had one doll I desperately wanted to be able to do some Spider-Man poses (because he's a Spider-Man), so I bought a doll with the joints that could possibly do that....but he was literally the only one I sought out for posing abilities. And thanks to his super-tight jeans he can barely sit XD