hybrids which work for you?

How much work you want to put into them is really up to you. Personally, hybrids always bug me until I get the body from the matching company, they don’t last long because I hate resin differences. Other people don’t mind a few shades difference, or put in the work to airbrush or blush to match. People usually find neck info on the sites for the companies, or in the discussion threads/wiki here. Each individual hybrid plan will have its own issues, so you may get a clearer answer if you ask specifically about hybrids that work well with a specific company, rather than this generic question. There’s no consistent answer to cover all hybrids.

 

Personally I always look at shoulder width and neck size- if those two are similar between the intended body and what you're considering then usually (-cough- sometimes. I'm terrible at hybriding lol) the hybrid will fit. I
know a lot of people are picky about resin match- but I have an airbrush and minimal fear of dyeing, so I don't factor that in at all.
Sometimes you'll get a hybrid that should work based off measurements, but something is just off about it. My most recent project is like that actually- I got a volks suwariko body as a chubby alternative to the waifish dollstown elf for my black cherry dolls xiao yu. But even though the measurements of the height, shoulder, and neck were all very similar, the hybrid looked absolutely ridiculous. I was determined though and attacked it with my dremel- shortening the neck as well as slimming it just a tad- and now she looks very reasonable.
Tldr: shoulder width and neck measurements are what to look at, but sometimes things just won't work right and it'll take a little finagling to make things work- but the results are often worth the frustration.

 

A mix of all of those, if necessary.

Basically I start with what I want (usually a head, rarely a body, but that happened before), then I look up hybrids of that company or check the resin match threads or make a thread of my own to find what might work color-wise, while also looking up what could work neck-size wise.

Once I find somethign that fits my aesthetics it's market place hunting or ordering time.
Unless there are already working hybrids of that combination out there it's a fair bit of luck. Additonally not all companies have steady resin colors, so there's that additional factor too.

If it works, it works. If it doesn't, it depends on what the issue is.


e.g. I've moddified the neck of a Fairyland Minifee Karsh head, because usually those have these special neck-things that works only with their own bodies. I wanted something else thought, so I closed up that hole and made it into a proper neck-hole and there we go. Hybird status: Working~ (the color of both, head n body was white and the color was/is close to identical).
You don't see the mod from the outside at all :3

Another example: The neck is to thick. Well. Time for sanding paper, if it works otherwise in terms of sizes and aestehtics.


It really depends on what you want and how much work you want to put into it or can put into it or pay someone else to make it work :3

Sometimes it takes more than just one lucky try. Sometimes it takes several.
And sometimes, the body you want to desperatly use just doesn't work with any head you want on it. In those cases, sometimes you need to learn to let go ;P

Best thing to do, before doing a hybrid at all is probably to do research, research some more and then do some research again.
Most importantly: Has this hybrid been done before? ( a head of that company with thtat body of that other company and ideally in the color you want) Is the resin color stable between those two companies? Has the neck similar meassurements to the neck of the original body of that head I wanna use?
Just some key pointers :3

 

Im new to this but so far what i have done seance i haven't seen many doll's in person. Is i always choose a head by the size of the wig they take and match that with body size! So my first girl is a mudoll sien head that takes a 7-8 wig size! so i looked at bodys in the rang size of YOSD and MSD or the odd size between. then because im picky i looked for bodys with a good range of motion in the feet and wrists as well as the doll hands.(just my preference. any way i stuck that head with a Saintbloom 29cm body!. but if i had gotten a head that took a 8-9 wig i would have gone for a MSD body....and so on with size going up or down. I choose the head i like first and then a body! I normaly stick with normal skin or light skin seance its easyer to body blush if they dont match as well as mod with out complications. As much as i love the tan kids i wouldnt want to redye places affter moding or trying to match a hybrid. I have found anice way to mod the neck size weather needing it smaller or bigger, so i dont worry much about that......or haven't run into a issue badly with it as of yet!

 

I try to avoid modding but love hybriding, which adds a bit of a challenge. I try to avoid anything more than a shade off, or get a color match done. As said above, neck and shoulder proportion are one of the most important things, but neck shape (might be wider at the top or be measured from somewhere else), overall proportions (on one potential body, the waist was way less wide the head), and match with others in the collection (realistic or stylized, unusually broad or thin in comparison) are also factors you might want to consider.

And when it comes to resin matches, inevitably you run into a company that hasn't been compared to the one your looking at, in which case I look for indirect matching (X matches Y and Y matches Z so X matches Z), talk in threads for that company (X has yellowish undertones, but A has pinkish undertones), or if I can, color match. Sometimes, I just have to make a leap and hope it works out. So far it has, but you never know.

 

I usually choose a head I like, and a body I like then see if they'll fit together. The proportions are the most important thing to me, everything else can be fixed. I feel like I've made enough hybrids that at this point, I'm pretty good at guessing what works or not, but when you're new, the most important thing is checking proportions--compare the head's default body measurements with the body you want to use.

Once I'm fairly confident in the proportions, I like to have the color match if possible, but if it's not possible, blushing is always an option. If the neck hole isn't quite right but close, I can sand it out a little, or add hot glue to fill it. A hybrid can be a simple as just popping the head on by S-hook and being ready to go, or it might require blushing/painting the head to match, sanding/sueding/sculpting the neck to fit, and in some cases, certain heads simply can't fit certain bodies and look good so it could be an expensive risk. Still, in the end, I make hybrids because the right body is just as important to me as the right head, and often that requires using parts from different companies.

 

Most of my dolls are hybrids and there are three things I look for:

- Neck circumference - I'm looking for a neck size that is as close to the original as possible.
- Shoulder width - this is a biggy for me: I own old-school dolls and so they have a case of the bobble head. I usually try to find bodies for them that make them look a bit more proportioned, but still doll like.
- Resin match - The most important thing. If the resin doesn't match, or doesn't age the same way, that's a big turn-off for me. I only have one doll that didn't age the same and I'm still considering getting him a better fitting body for him. I don't like blushing the head to match the body, because I'm not really a good face-upper and that would be a real hassle for me.

As for modding: My Williams is on an old Soom Supergem body. And since Soom has necks resembling that of a giraffe, I've had shorten it by 2 cm almost. But it's worth it and now it's like that body was meant for the head.
And I modded the head of my Iru-HS, because the neck joint was too small. Widening that gap made the head fit better on the body.

As long as the neck size isn't too big, it's always possible to mod the doll a bit to make it fit in such a way that it looks good.

 

I hybrid Unoa because I have one full doll and I really don’t want to duplicate that body across my growing cabinet of Unoa faceplates and small gang of 6+ Unoa-based characters...I plan to collect all the Unoa 1.5 faces and dupe Lusis and B-el faces in tan so I hopped on the hybrid bus. I agree about neck measurement and shoulder width. I’m lucky because usually someone has tried a Unoa faceplate with a Buff hardback on everything under the sun, (or are quite willing to FOR SCIENCE!)...and I’ve seen some amazing results for Unoa already being somewhat smaller headed to begin with.

I often think the big head 1/3 girls would be the hardest to not get too bobble-head looking, those who take the 10” wigs. My Kun just would not do well for me on a willowy body, she’d start to look like she had cranial swelling to my eyes so her stubby but graceful old-school one piece torso is just right. I could see her on a Switch body but probably not on a slim 1/3 like Rs/Bbb or DC, those narrow shoulders...but for someone else, it may be just what they want!

The truth is that everyone’s ‘eye’ sees it a bit differently and it can depend on your preferred aesthetic, skills and tools. I don’t fear resin matching because I buy blank faceplates mostly, I know enough about color theory and skin undertones and I have an airbrush and determination.

Also my hybrid dolls prefer to stay quite dressed most of the time, their story is set mostly in the 16th and 17th century, a happy accident but pretty handy. No one owns a bikini!

One final trick I’ve also found is that either a smooth, sleek darker wig if you want their head to look slightly smaller or a big floofy lighter colored wig to make the head itself look a bit larger can trick the eyes on proportion somewhat if the actual face size is a good fit. One reason Unoa 1.5 don’t look like their heads are the size of a 1/6 is because of their face shape.