Pin head syndrome

Would the regular Dollmore Model boy hands fit his wrists? You could try swapping them out for something slightly smaller than gorilla.

 

Oh my goodness, my Luts SSDF Avalanche has the same thing going on. His hands are MASSIVE and his body is uber beefy goodness, and then his HEAD is... just... lol! I couldn't stop laughing the moment I took him out of the box. I love the head, I love the body, but my goodness, combining the two together was not a good idea. His head is truly suited to be more of a 60cm sculpt. Not helping this lolsy situation is the fact that I intend for my Avalanche to be a girl eventually (though a rather tomboyish girl).

 

Actually, my problem with dolls is that most of them have heads that are just too big for their bodies (except tinies. I can't resist the cute of chibis). I adhere to the idealized 8-8.5 (sometimes 9) heads for my males (2+ heads shoulder-width) and 7.5-8 head for females and most dolls are just sooooo bobble-headed, especially when they wear a wig! Like those crappy little celebrity bobbles you stick to your dashboard. It just makes me laugh and shudder at the same time - too-big heads is seriously the BIGGEST pet peeve I have with everything involving the human figure. I'll seriously take a pin-head over bobble-head any day, especially when pin-heads can be disguised with wigs or hats or other items, while bobbles are always glaring at you from a mile away like neon orange. I've tossed out a huge number of wishlist potentials because they just looked so terribly misproportioned. This is also why I stay away from any older SD dolls, when too-big heads and otherwise stylized faces were the norm.

I will agree though that there's a huge variety of head sizes among SD's - particularly when it comes to the width and height of their faces, which means that a lot of them will look really strange together. And there are DEFINITELY a small portion of SD's out there that have heads that are kinda tiny, I won't deny. I've created a rule that I won't buy a big doll that takes eyes bigger than 14 mm, because bigger eyes almost always (but not infallibly so) means bobble-head. Also, my big dolls need to look good together with my small dolls. SD's, unless they're 70+ cm, almost never look good with Yo's or MSD's if their heads are bigger than 8.5 inches. Too much of a size difference considering the head of the human is the thing that grows the least. If SD's have heads too big, putting them with smaller dolls makes the smaller dolls look like toys since they're so out of scale. Or, that's what it's like to my tastes, anyways.

 

When I first entered the hobby I was consumed by the Larger Size Luts dolls and had my more-than-fair share of Els, Shiwoos, and Woosoos. I loved them! But once I got my hands on a Dollshe, I found it difficult to see the larger-headed dolls in the same way I had before - they seemed fantastical in light of this realistic Bermann. I began to prefer the more proportionate Dollshe to all other dolls. I love the long, lean look of the current Dollshe boys - especially the smaller-headed Saints. I find them hauntingly beautiful - the human form in resin perfection. However, I still can't quite wrap my head around the Chic Line proportioning and find those heads waaaaaaaaaaaaay too small for the bodies.

 

I like the pin heads more than the bobble heads! I think there are some that obviously are too pin headed (and I know I have sold on a few that were) but most I think make up for it when you put a wig on them and I find them more realistic looking, in the case of the Iplehouse ladies its all about that amazing body, the smaller head really goes with those massive curves for me

 

I am not a fan of pinheads or SD or larger sized dolls with small eyes. My Peroth skirts this issue with his smaller 8/9" head and his 14mm eyes, but thankfully his face is so stylized he works with the rest of my dolls. And some of that 14mm really just comes from how squinty his eyes are. If he had more open eyes, he'd prob take 16mm or 18mm.

I don't need very realistic human proportions for my dolls and in general prefer larger heads with larger eyes, but I do hit a point where a bobble head is TOO bobbleheaded for the body and it's always in regards to shoulder width and hand size. Heads the same width as shoulders and hands that are smaller than the doll's eyes just look wrong to me. I really, really do not understand the trend of putting MNF sized heads on Chicline bodies. The hands and feet are completely out of proportion with the doll's head and face. Of course, I also hate huge hands on dolls that look just as bizarre the other way.

 

I am on the 'pinhead' side of this... the first doll I ever had was a Dollshe Saint, the most pinheaded pinhead in the bunch. He has set the trend for the rest of the family.
The only true 10cm in the house is a two of a kind Minimee, and as special as he is to me, he was largely ignored on his 60cm body because his proportions bothered me too much. I solved the problem by upgrading him to 70cm. The DIM Lloyd met much the same fate... he's now on a 64 cm Crobi body.
As much as I prefer the smaller and more realistic heads, I personally hate the ever-shrinking eyes. I think the larger eyes keep the 'doll-like' appearance. I prefer the 14-16mm range, but will choose the 16mm whenever possible.

 

I cannot believe that collectors really see the Dollshe Saint as pin-headed...

 

As I have found over the course of owning a lot of dolls in varying head sizes, it's not the size of the head, it's the size of the face that really matters. Dollmore as well as many smaller-headed dolls (I just happen to have a lot of Dollmore), usually have larger faces in relation to their head size. It was mentioned early on that wigs ad a great deal to the head size, and this is true. With a wig on (and wig-cap), most "pin-head" dolls tend to look...proportionate XD

I have had to deal with head size issues in my collection several times, and usually I come down in favor of the pin-heads lol
I used to own an El, and even though my Kara Klum's head is so small I could practically put it inside the El's head (ok exaggeration, but you get the point) when I photographed them together, it was the Kara Klum who's head looked larger. It drove me nuts until I figured out the whole face-proportion thing. My El has moved on to a better home and the doll who replaced him works much better in my collection.

It's always going to be a matter of personal opinion, but I find the smaller heads to look more mature, a little more realistic (not always the case) and have a certain grace I just can't force my larger headed dolls to have.

 

I tend to like the smaller headed boys! Honestly, most of the dolls we think are 'pin heads' are actually just Classically proportioned, (which a lot of humans aren't proportioned like either! lol it's classical sculpture/painting that follows that 7-8 heads high ideal). I think we're all so used to seeing dolls with anime proportions, (larger heads, larger eyes etc), that it looks strange to see it swing the opposite direction.

Also...in some cases, it might not be the head being out of proportion...it might be the hands. A few people in this thread have talked about their doll's head being too small because the hand covered the entire head, assuming it was the head that was proportionately too small. But, really, it's possible that the hands are proportionately too big, (I have an Iplehouse SID here and he is juuuuust 7 heads high...but his hands are HUGE) So it isn't necessarily always 'pin head' syndrome... sometimes it might be 'gigantor hands'

Which personally, I love

 

Oh they do. A friend and local collector had one for awhile and he was called "tiny head" by a second local collector who just couldn't believe anyone would own a doll with such a small head.

It makes no sense to me either, but I started with smaller heads so they look natural to me XD

 

I have both a Chic-line and a Chiwoo and most of my other dolls are sort of evenly distributed between pin head and bobble head. I like the realistic look of my C-line doll and I like the dollish looks of my bobble heads, because there isn't just one ideal that appeals to me.

Without a proper wig my C-line El's head looks way too small, I give you that, but a wig makes up for a lot and mine wears a poofy mohair wig and a hat.

As for hands being too big, I don't mind big hands, but I do mind hands that are too small. The hands of my MechaAngel Sabik (80cm, 9-10 inch wig) are as large as those of my DoT Lahoo (64 cm, 7-8 inch wig if I recall correctly). I find the hands of my Lahoo just right and I can't find any big enough hands that will fit the tiny wrists of my Sabik.

 

I like a happy medium. lol I had a Lati Blue boy and hated that he was bigger than all of my MSDs but his head was Yo-SD sized...so...I sold the head and bought a DZ Hid head for the body and like him MUCH better.

I can't stand the pin head, but my RS Mei bothers me because her head is so big....but not enough to change her...

 

I'm a big fan of realism, so to me the 8-9 heads on certain dolls look proportionate, that is, dolls that are supposed to be relatively realistic representations of humans. Model/glamour model dolls certainly don't fall into that category-- who in real life has legs that long? My dollmore model girls are 9 heads tall-- maybe this is why their heads seem a little small. My IDealians have 9-10 heads, but their bodies are so huge that the larger head looks proportionate. They are 8 heads tall-- which is "ideal".

Even though they are more stylized, and perhaps more anime-influenced, I don't find Volks heads to be disproportionate, especially on an SD10, which is supposed to be a ten year old. "Ideal" proportion for a ten year old is 7 heads high. My custom house girl is 6.5 heads tall, so it's close, although not "ideal."

 

Pin-headed by comparison... I love him to bits, and don't refer to him as pin-headed at all, just for this topic. He's certainly no bobble head. To be fair, though, he does have the smallest head of the original Dollshe sculpts.

 

But is the head proportionate to the body? In my opinion, yes. I'm not sure I feel the same about the Chic Line. And yes, the Dollshe hands seem far too big but all my boys wear the Soom jointed hands which I find to be perfectly sized for the doll.

 

I have this thing about heads that look too big for the body, so I'm definitely more fan of the pin heads than bobble heads. Although, when seeing one of the EID women without a wig, they can look a bit odd, first time I saw one I thought "eh... is that....right?".
Still, I do like both bigger and smaller heads.

 

I actually lean towards "pinheaded" dolls because the very first bjd that ever belonged to me was a Lati Red boy. When I opened the box I was all ((O.O));; because I wasn't expecting the head to be that small, but after painting and photographing him for the last 3 years, I'm definitely in love with the proportions. To top it off, I have nearly all the Lati Red heads now, so I'm always on the look out for dolls with smaller heads to complement them. I think it just gives a more realistic aesthetic to the doll when the head is on the smaller side, and as others have said, the wigs definitely add bulk! Edissen's head looks almost properly SD sized when wigged and photographed from the right angle XD

I also got a DM girl with a very small head, and a Musedoll girl as well. Their proportions fit well with my current resin crew, and with proper photographic cheats and clever posing, (as well as some very generous character explanations) you can photograph larger headed dolls with smaller headed ones without too much of a problem.