Second doll... To be or not to be SD

Hmm, I too was in this position a many moons ago LOL. Maybe you can try sticking two pieces of A4 paper together and just measure out the general height of the SD and the width of their shoulders, and then hold it up next to your MSD and see how you like the size difference? You can even go the extra mile and draw the silhouette of the shape. S'not perfect, but it might help a little.

From my experience, the biggest things to consider with an SD is:

• SDs are usually heavier than the MSD.
• The weight of the SD's resin often hinders the mobility or how long they can keep their poses, so they need a little bit of work before it'd match your MSD, I think.
• MSDs and SDs are not often great sizes next to each other unless you consider them like, different races (like one is a fairy), or the MSD is a really tiny child. (This is personal opinion.)
• And SD, especially one that is leggy, can sometimes be hard to take pictures of LOL (Also personal opinion.)

Considering that friend groups often have different fashion tastes, I don't think the worry is whether their fashions would clash, but moreso how you view them next to each other in terms of height and proportion difference. It works, but it varies from taste to taste.

If you'd like, you can go to Dollmore and look at the photos they have of their furniture. They very often have size comparisons between ranging from 70CM to 20CM. And sometimes their dolls are photographed together so you REALLY see how an SD looks next to an MSD.

So my questions are:

• SDs looks great and so do MSDs, but it's nice to stare at a bigger face sometimes LOL.
• MSDs are easier to take pictures together, whereas you'd likely need to take a few extra steps to get and SD to look natural next to an MSD.
• Having two sizes lets you experience the best of both worlds. Because, as the devil's advocate, would you stop saving for BJDs after these two?

 

First of all think about how lucky you are if you only have this problem... LOL
I totally understand you... For me it would be the same problem and I waist a lot of time wondering about things like that... I have dolls of differents brands and size. From Myou, I have a little GINA

 

First of all think about how lucky you are if you only have this problem... LOL
I totally understand you... For me it would be the same problem and I waist a lot of time wondering about things like that... I have dolls of differents brands and size. From Myou, I have a little GINA. I prefer to have different types of dolls in order to explore the different brands... I m also seeing lover but, at the end, I always buy clothes... I don't know what advice give you... But if you prefer the same size, perfect!!! If you need real pictures from dolls, tell me, please... I have 5

 

It could be difficult to get photographs of them together (think about trying to take a group picture where one person is very short and another is very tall!) and since they're different scales, sd and msd can look like an adult and child instead of similar aged friends. Which could work out well if you were making fantasy characters from them, but it sounds like that's not your plan.
Personally, if I want a couple of dolls to be characters that are paired together, I get them in the same scale. Most of my dolls are SD for this reason, though different sizes of SD to suit their characters.
If your current msd is on the larger end of that scale, and the sd you're considering is on the small end of that scale it might work out ok, but you might want to ask in the photo refs section is anyone has those dolls or ones of similar sizes together to get a better idea.

 

When I first joined the hobby, I wanted to stick to one size of doll.
Fast forward to two years later and I have four dolls, all different sizes. (One tiny, one YOSD, one MSD and one SD)

My most recent purchase was my first MSD doll and I love her very much and have two more MSD dolls on order.

However, I love my MSD and SD doll together - they are displayed together and look great, and I would like to get another SD doll on the future.

I think it can be a good thing to try out different sizes until you know which ones work the best for you. You can always sell her on if you don't bond with her.

I would also suggest looking at other brands of MSD dolls. Myou are fab but there are some other great brands out there.
My MSD doll is by Longsooul and her posing ability is fantastic.

 

I totally get it. I'm in the UK, so have similar issues. I managed to get my LS bjd 2nd hand from a seller here so it worked out well.
I actually have a Myou Carr (on a female body) on layaway from Alices Collections - and am looking forward to getting her. That could be another option - getting a male head on a female body.

 

The two dolls I have at home right now are an MSD and an Uncle so while it's not exactly what you're thinking about, it's at least a good indication of just the sheer size difference between the different categories of BJD. My MSD is 49cm tall, while the Uncle is 72cm. On paper this doesn't look like much, it's "only 13cm", and I didn't really think much of it when I purchased them.

Now, I'll preface this by saying that the MSD is a fantasy sculpt with bird parts, and he is not intended to be in scale with my big boy. This is important, because if I had been trying to make them make sense to be two adult humans who were just hanging out? It wouldn't work for me. The size difference between the two is just....huge, when looking at it. The uncle "feels" twice as big as the MSD. As people have mentioned, this could totally work if I was trying to have them be in scale and have the MSD be a child. But not two adults. I don't have a pic of the two of them together (I just took a video as comparison for my friend), but if I remember right the MSD came up to probably waist height on the uncle.

 

I prefer small mature looking dolls. I love 1:6 scale action figures, but mature and realistically proportioned BJD weren't a thing when I discovered these dolls (I like to think about a million years ago, but more like twenty).

In the beginning, I was okay with the larger dolls because those were the only mature looking ones in this genre of dolls. Then I got a mini to be a kid, I could photograph with my first two 60cm sized dolls. They weren't exactly the same style, but were all stylized enough it worked for me. I thought I wanted all my BJD to work each other then, as part of the same "world." When I got his older brother who was a more realistic style in comparison to all the BJD I owned up until then, I decided I didn't need to set myself any limitations like that.

I decided to do what I do with most of my other hobbies and just purchased what I love, without thinking whether it would look good next to my other dolls or not. To me, it is more important to own the item, than how it looks next to any other item I already own.

I much later got my first mature 40cm doll and was firm on never getting more large BJD afterward, because I knew then I dislike giant, heavy dolls. I just got my first mature 28cm Myou BJD, just this year. So, that was once again confirmation for me, that I love smaller mature-ish-looking dolls. Regardless of cost or materials. I would never sell my heavy chunks of plastic, but I would never get large BJD again either.

I am happy owning the BJD I own, but I don't have to take photos of all at the same time. I also don't display my resin dolls, so I don't really care if they look like they belong in the same universe or not. I like too many different genres and dolls, to limit myself like that. So I don't. That is what works for me, good luck finding what works for you. (:

 

I don't know about other companies - I think it depends if the heads are compatible with the bodies but it is always worth asking.

 

Here's an old photo of a 1/3 doll (Dream of Doll Lahoo, about 60-62cm tall) and 1/4 doll (Volks MSD girl, about 43cm tall). Btw, Lahoo was my first doll, and then I fell in love with the Volks MSD and she was my second doll. So my doll size experience was reversed to yours. :XD



So yes, different sized dolls can be friends and you can definitely photograph them together. My mini girl was an "immature mini" with the body of a little girl, so she was more harmonious with my big boy, but you can have mature minis like Fairyland Minifees in the same frame with bigger dolls and they won't look too out of place. Difference of scale? Make them live in a fantasy/portal world and rationalize it away.

Definitely look at photos in the DoA galleries, especially under the tag "Groups" - plenty of group photos with different sizes together. But photos only do so much - if you have a chance to go to a doll meet before you buy that 1/3 doll, do it! Seeing the dolls in person, even holding them, helps a lot with getting a feel of physical differences.

But ultimately, the only way you can know is to get a 1/3 doll and see what it's like having different sizes in your crew!

As for clothing style - well, those can change around. Your frilly girl can "cosplay" modern clothing every so often, can't she? ^^

I'm one of those people who sticks with just one size. I started out with 1/3 dolls, then along the way got a couple of minis and a tiny. The different sizes didn't work for many reasons, but a major one was - I started with 1/3, so was spoiled by their presence and weight. In comparison, the smaller dolls were just so small -- even a mini feels insubstantial next to my 60+cm dolls. The minis and tiny are almost all sold now, and I'm going forward with 1/3 only. But that's just me. Plenty of other people happily have all sizes!

 

CC5945E5-0627-42D1-97A7-C1D97AEDC1DE by Itely Not Italy, on Flickr
Here's my two boys next to each other! Luts Senior Delf65 Joe and Dream Valley Dean (47cm)! I'm not sure what size your myou is (chuddy or mature), but I think slim msds tend to have smaller heads, and they look kinda odd next to sds, if they're meant to be friends (except for fantasy stuff). If yours is the one of the more mature ones, the height difference would be smaller than between mine (~14cm vs 18cm) so that's something too.

 

I don't think the fashion difference would matter. My dolls have a wide variety of styles with everything from preppy to punk to goth. The size would bother me, though. I have all SD except one MSD, and I don't photograph them together. My only exception would be if the MSD was a child to SD--height-wise, MSD is proportional to about an eight year old next to SD, but if the MSD is mature, it's just going to look...off. This is just my opinion though, scale doesn't always matter to everyone, so really, do what makes you happy!