Is YOSD an awkward size?

My very first doll was a yosd back in 2018. I still own her and she brings me much joy! Despite being chunkier than mature 1/6 dolls, they look pretty good with 1/6 furniture and accessories!
They are just as easy to handle with one hand. I don't think they are awkward at all.
I want to say the chunky size makes them more cuddly!
Personally, I think the hesitation might come from how the majority of companies promote yosds. They style them as kids. While not a bad thing, it can make the styling possibilities feel limited.

I think of them more like "chibi".

If you want my recommendation, Charmdoll makes excellent yosds! I own a charmdoll Daisy, and I plan to buy at least 2 more charmdoll yosds.

 

Mm, well, for background, while I mostly have 1/3 dolls I have also collected plenty of 1/4, and smaller dolls like anthros, 1/12, mature and fashion 1/6, and yo-sd proportioned over the years... I seem to be a little addicted to how cute they are.
I really do like the yo-sd. Mine are old Dollzone 1/6, to be technical, not actual volks yo-sd, but they are the chunky little childlike old ones. I think they are more similar to my volks msd than to mature 1/6 even though they are a lot smaller. They do have a great presence, I think they look cute with similarly proportional MSD too, like a toddler sibling for an older child.
For me, small dolls that are very slim and delicate are not really my preference, but I love cuteness and I love any little chubby bodies and cute doll faces with big eyes and everything. I also think, although I haven't really been able to buy clothes made by anyone, any shop or etc for my yo-sd sized dolls, that they have the absolute cutest stuff available at very affordable prices from craftspeople. I love looking at all those cute little sets and thinking about how precious they would be.
I do like mine to look very young because I don't do that much with most of my other dolls, but I definitely think you can do cute chibi style characters too, if that's your thing.
So personally, I think they are great maybe you will feel the same if you find the right ones.

 

Based on the size ranges you own I think you'd be very happy with a YOSD sized doll. I think they have a similar presence or idk "volume" that you like about your 1/4s. and the cute baby look like the littles. They are not at all awkward to hold in one hand.
When it comes to new sizes I always recommend looking for a meet up group near you, and if there is one, ask if a member can bring one for you to check out. You should also be able to find comparison pics with the scale you own. But I think you get the best feel for a scale when you see it in person.

 

I find it’s difficult to get 1/6 dolls that don’t look like little kids, and it’s just a personal preference that I’m not fond of those styles, but more and more I feel like 1/6 mature styles are coming into vogue, or at least stylized anime bodies. And I decided recently that I was going to stick to anime-styled face sculpts from now on, so any doll can be “mature” for me.

On the side of how they handle, I find that my 1/6 Dollzone is a lot easier to carry and work with than the old 1/4 doll I used to have. He’s lighter, I need less force to position him, and oddly even though he’s so delicately styled, I don’t feel like he’s going to fall apart in my hands. And dolls of all sizes have really improved as far as joints and body shape.

I will say the major drawback is clothes. It’s hard to dress him to make him look older than 12, especially with how shoes are so rounded for their feet. But if you had a girl doll, this wouldn’t be an issue at all. I find plenty of beautiful outfits for girls.

 

It took me a while to find the right YOSD, I bought and sold several, and had pretty much given up on that size, before I got my two Huajing girls. But I have to say that I adore them. They’re easy to buy clothes for and I like to photograph them alongside my MSD.

 

I have two Volks yosd and I love them so much. They sit very naturally despite being the old single jointed bodies and their faces are very expressive imo.

They dont scale well with my fairyland dolls but they look great with my tiny delfs and Volks msd/sdm.

 

I love them! They are little kid dolls for me, they work great for both the msd and sd dolls to pose with as kids.

They can actually wear a lot of the barbie clothing, I know that sounds crazy because they look so different body wise, but other then the larger bjd hands sometimes getting in the way, the clothing fits amazingly well. a lot of baby doll stuff works for them as well, beds, chairs, etc. A lot of stuff is made for ⅙ dolls so it's easy to shop for them.

They are small enough you can set them on your desk, or take them with out with you and tuck them away in a messenger bag/ backpack easily enough. They are also big enough to pose well for pictures, they are just as versatile on posing as lot of the bigger dolls but in small size. so easier to take along.

 

My most favorite size of all is DearSD/Chubby BB because it’s the personality and simplicity of YoSD with the presence of SD in an MSD form factor - the best of all worlds!

I also think of yosd as more “chibi” than children, and mine are usually teen/adult characters in chibi-fied packages. I have mostly Volks but have handled Littlefee and Honey Delf & think of them pretty similarly. Because you can use a fair bit of sixth scale/Barbie stuff for them, I think roomboxes are pretty easy if you’ve got the space! I also love how they pretty much fit in standard size pouches and are very portable for on the go photo opportunities.

 

Thanks Esme1971 for suggesting Huajing dolls!

I love YOSD-sized dolls, but really don't care for babyish looking tinies. My collection of tinies look like kids, maybe 6-7 years old, not toddlers, and the Huajing dolls have the older kid aesthetic that I prefer. (Additionally, the bodies look very posable, too.) Thanks again for pointing this company out! (I think I see a Lucy in my future.)

 

I love YSOD scale. I usually love them when they are created in an image of a child or preteen. I have been looking around at different artists that work in this scale. So my MSD girls can finally have a little sister.

Many of the fashion YSOD scale hover around 29 to 31 cm and it complements the MSD so well. For example, Tender Creation has the adult girls in 41cm and the younger girls in 31cm. When paired together, they look like an adorable family.

 

I do love the YOSD scale! When I first started as a lurker in this hobby I really liked the SDs but knowing how heavy they are I do not feel I would be really happy taking them with me. While I still want to own an SD in the future I really like how easy to play with YOSDs, and I feel it is easier to build dioramas for them without taking too much space!

I just felt though that it is quite scary to get YOSDs since you can get easily addicted to collecting A LOT of them!

Oh, and to add, I feel like they are a perfect size to be a little sister to MSDs I think. But they can be a bit of an awkward size with SDs though.

 

When I was new to the hobby, YoSD was mostly child-like dolls. I was initially put off because I was an action figure collector, intent on adult characters. But nowadays there are all kinds of dolls that fit the term 'YoSD' due to relative height: 'mature minies' which are adult but smaller (Much like 1/12), ambiguous anime dolls, and facial / body sculpts with varying degree of maturity. People like to turn them into chibi forms of larger characters, dwarves / hobbits / gnomes, and all manner of shorter minions, fairies, and monsters. They don't have to be kids, and there's a lot of variety.

Actually, it's not! YoSD, on average, is shorter than Barbie, and can't go much taller than her. It depends on the artist- there is such a thing as 'tall' YoSD- but if it reaches much above, it starts to fall into the MSD category. Average YoSD- like Teenie Gem, Littlefee, or Volks- fit nicely in the palm of your hand, and are a perfect travel size, since they can fit into a carrier about the length of a pencil case and about the size of a small makeup bag.

Although I do wonder what you mean by 'presence'. If presence is defined by personality, just pick the right sculpt! Yo's have a wide variety to offer, from neutral, sleepy or wide-eyed, to cheeky grins, roaring yells, and pretty much any expression you can think of. SDs and MSDs are actually catching up. But if presence is defined by size, then yes, that is a valid concern. To me they are an extremely satisfying doll to hold and behold, because they fit so nicely in one or two hands, and still have a bit of weight to them that comes with resin. But they're not overly heavy, like a thick MSD or SD, and are easier to put down in a pinch. Because there's less weight for gravity to drag on, they also tend to hold their stringing tension longer, and stay well-strung for good periods of time.

I would also say that building a diorama for them is fairly easy. They are relatively the size of Blythe or Pullip; wider, but comparative heightwise. And not drastically thicker; their width is usually closer to a 1/6th male figure / GI Joe / some Kens, and many can rock Barbie tops if not the bottoms. They'd be closer to 'one and a half Blythes' than 'two Blythes' of width, and can use your Barbie furniture with ease. Plus, if you have smaller-headed MSDs, they might even be able to share wigs. My artisan Yo wigs fit Lillycat, and the elastic cap ones can be shared between a variety of sizes.

With Yo the biggest issue is the clothes. It's both a pro and a con. Pro: They're much easier to find on the cheap in a variety of styles. If you like getting your clothes from TaoBao / resellers or the secondhand market, you will have a plethora of options. Even the full company sets like Dollheart tend to cost less due to the size. But the downside, as mentioned, is that you may have to shop around if you don't want your Yo's to dress like children. That too has gotten easier with companies like TTYA and Nine9Style providing neutral basics in this size, and artists adapting it to a variety of styles. But if you have a specific look in mind, you might have to settle for a smaller wardrobe built up over a longer period of time rather than everything, all at once, like Minifee and MDD.

One more potential con is the bodies. Now there are YoSDs that out-pose average larger dolls and have wonderful engineering. But lots of companies skimp out on the jointing for this size, so if you do decide to venture in, always be mindful of giving the body options a good onceover first. Lots of cute heads, not always the best bodies.

TLDR: Yo is a good size with lots of pro's if you don't mind a smaller doll. They are comfortably close to a fashion-scale, Blythe, or 1/6th figure in terms of weight and height, but thicker through the body.

 

I just got my first YOSD a few months ago. I only had mature tinies and smaller dolls for years, then added MSDs a few years ago. My Yo is from Dream Valley, and proportioned more like a 6-7 year old than a toddler. He/they wears a 6/7 wig and 14mm eyes like most of my MSDs. I see them as a child with the MSDs as adults. (All my MSDs are the more mature slim minis) They're more substantial and easier to stand than a mature tiny, but easier to pick up and carry around than an MSD. I don't want to own a lot of them, but I really love the one I have.