Jointed Toes/Feet

The old Domuya flexibody has jointed feet and they are not all as practical as you'd think. To be honest, they don't do much at all.
Problem is that we're talking about joints on a very small area that isn't very flexible in the first place. How much can you really do with your toes? They can hardly move seperately. The only thing you could do is pulling the toes up or down and on a foot as small as a doll's foot, the results are negligible.

So, to me it isn't necessary, it isn't practical and I'd rather have normal doll feet.

 

I don't know that jointed toes are feasible, because the toes are so tiny. There is a company out there, whose name I can't recollect at present (someone here probably knows who I'm talking about), that has a girl doll with feet that are jointed at the ball. I thought it was a rather nifty idea when I first saw it-you can put high heeled shoes and flat shoes on the same feet. But I've got no idea how it would affect her standing ability.

Silk beat me to it! Thanks! It was driving me crazy not being able to figure out who'd done those feet!

 

Off topic aside: I can actually do a ridiculous amount of things with my toes- Moving them separately, picking things up, etc. I've been using them to do barefoot climbing since I was a little monkey of a kid.

However, I have a Domuya Flexi One, and she has the jointed feet. They're pretty useless except in certain few poses, and then they need to be wired to not just snap right back straight. Stringing them is an abominable pain, so I ended up jury-rigging some wire in her feet and through her ankle parts to attach the elastic.

 

I think it depends on the doll and the type of feet. For example,
I think it’s a very cool idea for large paw-like feet, like SoulDoll's gargoyles –
the toes seem to be pretty functional in their promos, we'll have to wait to
hear owner comments if they are indeed as functional as they seem.
I think for animal/beast-like creatures, jointed toes/feet, could be a great idea,
if they are indeed functional! It would make for great concept photo-shoots if nothing else.

Maybe even humanoid-feet with jointed toes or jointed parts for the foot itself
would be a nice idea, if looking for more natural feet-poses or for artsy photography.
But I think they wouldn't be as practical as animal-type feet because most shoes
made for these type of dolls have very hard (mostly resin) soles, which do obstruct
feet movement of any sort to begin with – so jointed human-feet seem (to me) like a concept
purely for artistic purposes. Although they could also make high-heel feet a thing of the past,
if done correctly jointed feet could allow owners to have just one pair of feet for all sorts of shoes.
(Although aesthetics would probably still be an issue)

For me personally, I am not interested in jointed feet for my own dolls,
but do enjoy seeing innovation within the hobbies I'm interested in – jointed feet/toes.
(I like forward to hearing how SoulDoll’s gargoyles feet work!)


- Enzyme

 

I think the concept sounds interesting, but I think it would only be practical if your doll was barefoot a lot, and required toe positions. I'm not sure how well they would hold though, even if they were wired, because they're so small and finicky. What I would be most worried about is how they act to being pulled out of shoes that fit more snugly (supposing you didn't use them as specifics for only some photos) - what if the joints pulled from the tension? Would it affect the stringing/wiring?

Even if a company did put them out, I can't see them being of any personal use to me. I would like to see how they fared on other dolls, but since I don't photograph my dolls barefoot/in open shoes often, regular nonjointed toes are just fine for me.

 

Having feet that can work with both normal and high-heeled shoes sounds interesting - would be nice to see if someone could make that work - but other than that I don't see much practical use for them.

 

Production Ariadne dolls have jointed feet and partially jointed toes.
I did have one and really enjoyed the feature. It made her feel expressive and added a certain graceful reality to poses, mainly nude poses.
Production Ariadne never really could stand so..can't say how they affected balance but IMHO they were fabulous and I would be pleased to be able to have that option for other dolls.

 

I think it would be very fiddly to have jointed toes, imagine trying to put socks on them or having to straighten them out for photos so they dont look like monkey feet!
I like the idea and look of the Domuya toe joint and how you can use high heeled shoes on them, they dont do much else, but I like the look of them.
Maybe if there was a step type system similar to the EID mobility joint but on the feet so they could be on tip toes etc?

 

What Honestrabbit said. I've always wanted a way to get a doll on tip-toes, I don't know why. Or, even get my boy to point his foot.

 

I worry about the stability of dolls that have jointed feet, but at the same time, I'm one of those crazy people who absolutely LOVE to pose their dolls and will spend a solid hour or more making sure the pose is absolutely perfect and life-like (which is then shown in exactly ONE photo). I spend half again as long with jointed hands, trying to get them exactly right, and I can only imagine how much longer I'd spend with the feet.

So for me, the practicality isn't so much of feasibility and stability, but time. I think spending over 8hrs on a photoshoot is quite enough (spread out over the course of several days).


I have to agree with what a lot of people said above - I don't think we'd get a whole lot out of the jointed toes/feet as we would with the hands. Most doll companies tend to exaggerate the hands (Dollzone to name one), which allows for more detail. The hands do relatively nothing to add to balance or stability of a doll, as feet do, so having the joints there would, I imagine, take away from that, if only slightly. The fact is, most doll companies don't go as far with doll feet as they do with hands or other body parts. We're used to seeing exaggerated hands, but if they were to do that with the feet to allow for ball-jointing and such, I think that a lot of people wouldn't like it.


In the end, as much as I may be excited for this idea and would totally get jointed feet for my huge boys, I don't see many companies as doing this or it catching on. I hope I'm wrong and just overthinking it..

 

I think jointed feet/toes are different than jointed hands. Feet are going to have to hold the weight of the doll. I would think that they'd be a pain to deal with, and might be difficult to manipulate.

And aside from going from no heel to heeled, toes don't do a whole lot. And as for tip-toe, couldn't you just use the high heeled feet? They seem like they'd be good for that, too.

 

lol me too! I'm always trying to use my feet & toes
I think on a larger doll, like a Lusion, jointed feet/toes would be really interesting,
just not very practical. But I would love to see jointed feet become more popular
& mainstream in the bjd world! If nothing else they would be a lot of fun to play
with

edit: @writerm...I'm presuming you mean that toes don't do a lot for dolls, yes?

 

I've seen a picture of an artist doll with jointed toes... It's a little weird ^_^; I wonder how well they pose...

Here's the picture (doll nudity warning): http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v321/yukamina/g37.jpg

 

I'm not terribly fond of jointed hands personally and because I really don't care for feet in general I think jointed ones would not be a good idea. That's just me though. I can see how if they worked properly they would be a nice alternative for having multiple sets to get better posing. Pointed, tip-toe... Like others, I just don't think it would work.

 

Actually, I meant for everyone in general. I do the whole 'pick stuff up with my toes/feet' thing, too, but in terms of movement, to me it just doesn't seem that toes do a lot of movement.

I think this is especially the case with dolls, because when I see a nice doll picture, I don't look at what their feet are doing. I'm not interested in how the toes look. I'm looking at the face up, the outfit, the general setting, but that's it.

I like jointed hands primarily because they can save money. You don't have to go crazy looking for hands in a specific pose that both fit and match the doll's resin all the time. Sometimes, because of the joints, they do sort of look...skeletal though.

 

Im fond of the jointed toe (I mean a joint around the whole foot, under the toes.. not the toes individually) so that you can have more range of posing there. I love the idea of making my doll do en pointe ballerina feet or high heel feet or standing without having to switch through 3 different sets. I also just like the way they would look under tights or something, i think it would be more natural for lounging on the couch photo shoots

 

For hands, I very much prefer them jointed compared to normal, but I am not so sure about jointed feet. I don't know, but normal hands are known to have broken fingers, and jointed hands probably have a higher risk and jointed toes will probably have an even higher risk due to their size. But if you are having a ballerina for a doll, jointed toes sure will be useful. Or if you are someone who pays attention even to the tiniest details and is taking nude pictures of your dolls, I suspect that jointed toes can make it more realistic.

 

I had jointed feet on my domuya doll also, and despised it and traded them for normal feet. They only made a headache for me and weren't very useful.

 

Those jointed feet on the artist doll are really interesting, they are good for expression in faceless shots. I like them but maybe not something I would go for.