The Frankendolly: What's the max number of different companies you've used for parts for one doll?

I usually just do head/body hybrids, sometimes I'll get hands from a third company. At one time, I had a Doll Leaves body with a DikaDoll head, Soom hands and 5StarDoll horns. So 4 is the most I've done.

It didn't take long. I bought the head from DikaDoll, and that part took the longest. I already had the body from an old doll I had upgraded, and the horns from a head that I wanted to be human. I bought the hands on the MP here because they had long nails instead of looking human. All together, it took about three months, if I recall correctly.

The doll was mostly white skin, and the head, body and hands were close enough match that I didn't mind if they weren't perfect. The horns were normal yellow, but were painted anyway, so it didn't matter.

This doll was my first attempt at a hardcore fantasy doll, and since I already had the body on hand, I just needed a head. I just picked one I liked, but I do hybrids so often, I barely even thought about it. Everything fit just fine because I researched each size first. I imagine if you were swapping out arms, legs, torsos...things would be a lot more complicated and need modding. But this was very simple, I just had to be sure the head fit the neck, the hands fit the wrists, and that I could attach magnets to his headcap.

 

I don't have many hybrids in my crew, but one of them (Chanter) has a Luts head, a DollFamily body and Volks hands... and occasionally wears a pair of Leeke horns. He's by far the most frankendolled of the lot.

 

I only have one hybrid and he's a Migidoll head on an AoD body, so I just used two different company's parts. Most of my dolls I like to get head+body together since I'm more picky about head sculpt than the body sculpt.

 

I think it would be loads of fun to actually make a Frankendoll of sorts, using the body parts of MANY dolls to make one doll. HEEHEE, I feel like Victor Frankenstein just thinking about it. I would purposefully use yellowed dolls as well.

 

I have a doll that is a Lume Light Koit with Soom Alk lower legs/feet modded to fit the Lume knee joint. I've also got a DZ Edward with a RD mecha arm, a 5Star Dark with a FL event arm and an LE Doll/AoD that sometimes wears high heeled girl feet from an unknown company. Neither of those required any mods to swap parts.

My next project will be... interesting. Dollshe Orajin head on Miro boy body with Soom Cass mermaid forearms and Dollmore dollpire hands. The head and body are oriental and NY respectively. The Cass forearms are cream white and the hands will be white as well. The colour of the forearms/hands doesn't matter as I will be dying them blue as well as part of the upper arms of the Miro body to go with the character as well as hide the resin mis-match.

I bought the head when Dollshe was selling off the last of the in-stock stuff they had after discontinuing several dolls. The Cass forearms took me almost a year to get. I haven't bought the body or hands yet due to saving for something else (although with the current Miro sale I may jiggle things to make it work). I expect there to be some modification required for the Dollmore/Soom/Miro joints but I researched before buying and the mods should be minor in nature as the base dimensions I was able to get from owners of the assorted parts are very close to one another.

 

I have a 4-part hybrid-- or will as soon as the legs I have on order arrive.

Originally I only meant for her to be a simple 2-part head/body hybrid. She was my first bjd... an Elfdoll Rita. I decided to get her head by itself and get her a Mirodoll body for two reasons: one, I didn't really like the Elfdoll body. I thought it looked too simple and almost cartoony to match the ultra realistic Rita head, and Miro's, though cheap, looked like it had some more realistic sculpting. Two, I wanted to get started with bjds already and at that time, it would have taken me FOREVER to save enough to buy her as a full doll from Elfdoll. So, an impatience-prompted hybrid!

I was/am so incredibly glad I'd made that choice, since not too long after I got my Rita head, Elfdoll discontinued her and their entire Rainy doll line. I never would have saved up enough to get her before that happened! Which would have crushed me... she was the specific doll I'd finally fallen for hard enough to take the plunge into bjds, and if she'd been discontinued before I could get her I don't know that I would have started the hobby.

After awhile, there were some things that really started bugging me about the Mirodoll body though. They've since added a small bust option, but when I got mine it was ENORMOUS OVERINFLATED BALLOONS or nothing. I'm happy with her having a large chest, but they were so big they looked silly and a bit like they were about to pop, or maybe just float off of her body. So I modded them to a slightly smaller size with a bit more natural shape. And the hands.... I tried the hot water finger repositioning thing, but they were still icky sausage finger hands. So when I saw a pair of Iplehouse nYID hands on the MP, she became a 3-part hybrid.

That doll's character pretty much exclusively wears heels (of which I have a decent collection--- I love doll shoes!) and although lots of her shoes work on flat or heel feet there are a number of pairs she needed heel feet for... which I just got around to ordering for her late last year. Well when the Mirodoll heel feet arrived I found that they're enormous and don't fit into MOST of her shoes... and then right after that I discovered a hairline crack right up the side of her shin starting at the ankle.

The legs are the worst part of the Mirodoll body for posing (single jointed with ridiculously ugly knees when bent, and kicky as hell even with sueding and good stringing), so that was the last straw. I ordered her a pair of Angell-Studio heel legs, which have yet to arrive. When they do, she'll be a 4 part hybrid. I have no doubt I'll be able to get them to fit/work with her torso; I'm very unafraid to mod.

Resin matching between all the parts I've used to build her so far has been close enough that a bit of blushing blends it all together; the Mirodoll neck and Elfdoll head were a great fit. The Mirodoll wrist sockets were originally weirdly oval shaped, which makes for stiff, awkward wrist/hand posing and doesn't let other hands fit well, but that was an easy fix: softening the wrist sockets in boiling water made it no trouble at all to simply squish the oval into a round shape. Once that was done the Iplehouse hands fit perfectly.

One of the biggest reasons I've kept working with the admittedly wonky Mirodoll body and swapping out parts instead of just getting her a different body is: I sew almost all of my dolls' clothing, and I design stuff really specifically for each doll according to the personal style I've imagined for each one. I'm really proud of some of the clothing pieces I've made for this doll; I've spent a lot of time and energy sewing very detailed and structured dresses that were tailored to fit her Mirodoll body exactly. It would be ridiculously hard to find a body that would have the exact same measurements as the Mirodoll one I modded, so after the replacement she wouldn't be able to wear any of those clothes... and neither would any of my other girls. Plus I do actually like the shape of the upper body and its proportions with the Elfdoll head quite a lot. I think once I get her new legs installed, I'm finally going to be really happy with her body overall.