Stability vs Poseability

My pick is a secret third thing which is aesthetics haha. But if I'd have to pick from the two, it'd be stability. I'd love to say poseability, but from my experience with an overly posable body, I just don't use all the possibilities enough and the extra joints make it hard to try on clothes and sew for the doll, which I love doing a lot. I don't really think the number of joints always result in more natural poses either, sometimes they're really the opposite of helpful. I also feel a better spark of creativity when scheming around limitations (hence I love my single jointed dollzone body a lot haha!) - it's much more rewarding to get something extra out of less than to be frustrated at all the options laid in front of you.

 

For me it really depends on the size of the doll!

I do very little with my SD-sized crew because they’re a bit heavy and unwieldy for me to manage, so for them I really value stability. I am actually trying to find a new body for one of mine, because, while her original is very pretty, it is not stable and that stresses me out when I try to handle her.

For my MSD-sized & smaller dolls, poseability is much more important to me since I do a lot more with them and can readjust them easily if they shift around.

 

I wouldn't consider a doll so unstable that it doesn't keep the pose I place it in as "poseable" at all.
If it's just a case of joints that goes far at their extreeme postition, but can't keep the inbetween positions, that's not very different from a joint with a limited range. I mean, neither can be reliably be placed in a large variaty of positions and thus isn't very poseable, in my book.

I'd take a well constructed but limited joint over a poorly constructed joint with a larger range every time, but if I can get a well balanced joint with a larger range, that's even better.
I have examples of all three situations within my collection.

With that said, I chose my dolls based on a wide range of things. Poseability is one. Aestetics is another. So is availability, cost, how well the doll will fit with my current collection and many other things.

 

I prefer stability over poseability, but neither matters all that much to me. I can find a safe way to display them no matter what.

 

For me, it doesn't matter how many joints a doll has if it won't even stand still.
A lot of my solid torso crew are great standers, but my old 18M Dollshe Hound with his 3-piece torso has difficulty standing without his hip or knee joints giving way.

 

As someone that takes a lot of doll photography I'll still take stability over poseability any day. Ideally, as Lillith said, I want something that is balanced enough and I don't necessarily consider an unstable doll to have more poseability than one with less joint movement precisely because the end result of a "more poseable" doll that collapses continuously ends up being worse than one with limited movement.
When taking photos, and especially photos outside that is what I do the most, I want a stable doll. One that can take a bit of wind without falling or that if I put in a pose it can keep it if I move it slightly or put it on another place wanting the exact same position. It's extremely frustrating taking photos of dolls that don't hold poses, or that collapse with the slightest of breezes (or me touching their hair...). I've had and have some dolls that technically should be quite poseable, and yet, most of the times I just have to take photos of them sitting somewhere. Sure, I'll be able technically to do less poses with those dolls that are both stable and have less joints, but it's worth it if I'm not going to be cursing at it when it fell on its face for the 10th time.
This issue is one of the reasons I've ended up selling many dolls in the past. I've got to a point that if a doll can't hold a pose chances are I'll end up selling it.

 

I pose my dolls a lot and I don't use doll stands. I agree with everything Lillith and Gynure said. Joint articulation is one thing, and reliable joint articulation is another thing. It's possible to have a BJD body that has a lot of articulation (posability) AND holds the pose without constantly collapsing or falling out of position (stability). So it's not a simple either/or choice.

You can increase both stability and posability in a doll through internal maintenance -- wiring, sueding, tightening or loosening elastic. My two single-jointed dolls are extremely stable and once I get them into pose they will hold it forever; I've increased their posability by wiring them very heavily and sueding their joints - now their range of movement is much greater and they can do things like cross their legs, fold their arms, and (almost but not quite) touch their faces.
On the flip side, I have a double-jointed doll who is absolutely phenomenal at posing and can hold some reliably, but is temperamental with other poses. I've increased this doll's stability by sueding all the joints with pleather and keeping elastic extremely tight, so I'm now a lot more confident that it can hold pose and not fall out of position, while I'm posing other dolls in the same scene or taking photos.
(Interesting fact... my single-jointed dolls may have limited natural elbow/knee range, but they have much, much wider wrist and ankle range than my double-jointed dolls and can make a wide variety of expressions with their hands. So who is more posable now?)

So you can improve a doll on both factors and almost get the best of both worlds.

As far as what I prefer... like many have said, aesthetics are pretty important to me. And not just the body sculpting aesthetics, I also pay a lot of attention to jointing aesthetics too. (Yes, some joints look more attractive than other joints when engaged/bent, and yes, I notice this.) If I find a doll's body attractive, I'm much more willing to invest into making it more posable and/or stable, or working around poorer joint engineering and posing. But there also comes a point where the doll's body just doesn't meet my standards -- in aesthetics, or joint engineering/posing, or my goals for posing, or some combo of those -- and that's when I will sell the body and look for another.

 

I'm getting into the hobby, and for me personally depends on the "personality" esthetic of the doll. I have a Mela from merviaartdolls and she's super poseable- I tend to place her in zany Yoga positions and because of that I really value her range of motion. As my collection grows I'm just predisposed to get stands for everyone and spare me the trouble of figuring out how to balance them.

 

Every so often, a body will come along that will do both:


I will probably never stop hyping the Dream Valley B45-19 female body. It does everything. It poses. It stays in place. It's beautifully sculpted and just perfection.

I chose the apparently unpopular option, which is posability. I can fix stability issues with hot glue and wire. A doll that can't pose well, however, needs major surgery - sanding or carving off resin. I don't mind surgery of course, except that I'm always terrified of my cats inhaling resin dust. Hot glue and wire, OTOH, are much safer for kitty lungs.

 

I will say poseability as well because of the description, but i'm a beginner and I only have 2 teennar BJDs (blind box) that are kinda bad in both stability and poseability lol.

 

When I first started collecting, I thought poseability was the most important thing. I'd watch videos where people show off all the motions of 'A' doll and why doll 'A' was better then doll 'B' because it could have more motion range.

Now I vote stability. Mostly I just have them sitting or standing when interacting with each other in pictures, and I need them to remain sitting or standing in the place I put them and not worry they are going to fall and knock the other dolls down. I need them to stay where and how I put them.

Ideally, I want both, but definitely taking the stability over poseability .

 

I have voted stability... the ease of plonking a doll down quickly for a quick photo is much preferable to a doll trying to be a slinky toy. I have had the latter before... I know you can suade, wire, etc. But when pieces are spinning under clothing you sometimes just want a reliable stander. Especially if you are doing a quick photoshoot outdoors

 

This is how I feel, too. A doll can have 20+ joints, but if it can't stand, sit or hold the poses it can be bent into, then it isn't really poseable at all to me. It's just a floppy, kicky, twisted mess.

My favorites are a good balance between posing, stability, and as someone else mentioned, aesthetics. I am so ridiculously picky about what I like in bodies, sometimes, I have harder time picking a body I like than a head. I've even skipped over sculpts I loved because I hated the body and the head didn't hybrid well. I want something I can count on to stand or sit by itself and can do basic poses, like crossed legs, holding things, touching face/head, etc. I don't need an Olympic gymnast. It also has to be a pretty body. No matter how well a doll poses and holds that pose, if I find the body ugly or just not character-fitting or aesthetically pleasing, I'm going to end up upgrading at some point.

 

I need the doll to be stable standing up, to pose well and to look realistic, because aesthetics is also an important part for me because of the photo shoot.

 

Stability 100%. I've had dolls that can't even maintain a seated position, and that's a dealbreaker for me.

 

I used to care a lot more about posing, but stability is key to me now, particularly the head. An unstable head or ankles are a deal breaker. Knees are very hard to deal with too.

I have one in particular that opened my eyes. I have a Baby Kumako, notoriously known for their “terrible” bodies. I have since come to appreciate her design after dealing with other dolls. She has actual notches to hold a pose, but it takes some getting used to compared to other dolls. But she can stand very easily even without shoes. With shoes she is a star. It’s always been a fight with her knees and arms (the knees I am getting the hang of!) but once she is set in a pose, she’s golden. She can’t sit on her legs, and she has a single piece torso, so she does have her limits when it comes to posing. Others like to fall over while they are sitting or tip when their ankles give out, or their head starts to turn. She is like a rock. The larger Kumako I didn’t have very long due to getting too frustrated with the body (it felt like handling an SD and it was just too much) and she had stability issues too since she just weighed so much. She had to be propped up or she would fall, even sitting.

 

I’m just going to echo what other people have said - the only positions that matter are the ones the doll will hold once you take your hands off them. I have some dolls that I’ve been meaning to mod (sueding and wiring) to make them hold their arms better, but I prefer for dolls to be stable standers without needing to do anything to them. (Of course, this doesn’t hold for dolls of a certain age, who are perfect beloved children who deserve to rest and can flop if they want to.)

 

I'm also on team aesthetics over both posing and stability. I find that my preferred aesthetics tend to prioritize stability over posing, which is fine with me as long as the poses they can do are reliably stable and look reasonably natural -- the biggest sin a doll can commit in my house is being unable to sit without help. I will tolerate a certain level of floppy/kicky behavior, of course, but I'm always profoundly annoyed by dolls that need to be sueded in order to not fall over when my air conditioner kicks on.

As it stands, the only dolls in my collection that are allowed to get away with being unstable out of the box are my Resinsoul Mi and my planned Leekeworld Art hybrid, both of which are notably still able to sit pretty well even without being sueded.