Vinyl Dolls

If you mean Dollfie Dream and the large Obitsu dolls yeah, they're customizable just like a resin doll. They do stain easily though so be careful with that.
Vinyl will be damaged by the sun and will yellow but it takes a longer time for it to happen if you take good care of it as far as I know.

 

I own a 50cm Obitsu, and yes, you can customize them! The difference is what materials are safe. A lot of the harsher materials commonly used to wipe faceups on resin (like W&N, acetone, nail polish remover, etc) can melt and completely destroy vinyl within seconds. I used 91% rubbing alcohol on my girl, and it didn't harm her at all. I find painting with watercolors tends to bead up on her face, so I used pencils instead. MSC and ZM are still good to use as sealants, thought when I used Vallejo sealant, it became sticky and yellow on vinyl. Faceup techniques may vary, it's still basically the same, but some types of paint don't work as well.

As for yellowing, yes, they can. I am at least the second owner of my doll, maybe third, and she is unevenly yellowed. The softer/more rubbery joint pieces are much yellower than the harder plastic pieces. Heat, sunlight, and cigarette smoke will make it happen faster. They do stain easier and more permanently than resin.

The biggest differences for me are weight and posing. Vinyl is much much lighter weight than resin! In fact, I'm pretty sure my 50cm vinyl girl weighs less than my 26cm resin girl! Resin dolls are typically strung, while vinyl have an internal skeleton and have peg/hinge joints. While this does make vinyl able to hold more poses much easier, it also means if the internal skeleton becomes damaged, it's going to be a lot more costly and difficult to fix than simply buying new string. Currently, my girl's shoulder cuff is cracked, and that causes her arm to fall off frequently and holding her arm up is impossible. however, when I finally can fix that, she'll have a much better ability to pose with her arms raised than any of my resin dolls.

Both types do have their strengths and weakness, but most of it just comes down to personal preferences.

 

^ Didn't know that W&N can melt vinyl! I have 3 DDs and I have used W&N on all of them but I usually clean the head with W&N and quickly clean it again with water so as long as we don't leave the product for a long time, I don't think there will be any problem.

DDs or vinyl dolls are the same as BJDs when it comes to customization. I use the same BJD face up products on my vinyl dolls and never had a problem. BJDs are easier to clean when they stain whereas vinyl dolls are really a pain in the butt when they stain :[ vinyl dolls can pose easier/better than BJDs but you have to be careful with their skeleton joints to avoid permanent damage.

They're both great dolls and have their pros and cons, the only bad thing about vinyl dolls is that you can only find "anime" heads for them unlike BJDs where you get more realistic features.

Personally, I love DDs bodies and I love BJD heads. When Danny releases his SmartDoll vinyl boy body I plan to get it for a resin head.

 

Vinyl dolls are just as customizeable as resins. However, some care is needed to prevent staining. I strongly advise sealing the head with a good layer or two of sealant if you're using colors in your face up that are particularly likely to stain. In my experience strong reds, pinks, and blacks stain badly if you don't seal first.
If you're using a Dollfie dream as your base, I'd advise investing in a tub of Dollfie Dream rescue for staining. Vinyls stain much easier than resins do.

As for sun exposure, I think vinyls are more durable. I've heard of resins discoloring after being in the sun for a short time, but I've taken my vinyls out for many photo shoots outdoors and they are still solid and beautiful in color. I don't do this with my resin dolls because of all of the warnings and stories I've seen here.

I personally really love vinyls, and as time goes on I find myself wanting more of them and less of resins because they pose so beautifully and hold the poses without assistance, which my resins have a hard time doing.

 

I have personally not used W&N (Or owned DD), so I don't know from personal experience on that, but I had heard of someone who claimed it did melt vinyl. However, she may have left the head to soak, I'm not sure. If someone has better details on this PLEASE correct me! I don't want to give false info! I do know 100% sure that nail polish remover with acetone melts vinyl immediately. I ruined a 1/6 Obitsu just by spilling some on him and rinsing instantly...

 

I'm going on 9 years with an Obitsu 60 and only had attempted staining from home made clothes I didn't wash well enough, a wash got the marks off the doll, and some marks from things I shouldn't have used as stickies to keep his wig on because I didn't know any better.

Shi Shi quickly became a traveler because he didn't weigh much and could take knocks and oopsies better than a resin. He has tubes to hold his eyes in place so he got a spare pair with spiders in the iris. Even better his shoe size is the same as my MSD pair but he can share wigs with the taller SD twins so there's even more looks he can try.

 

On softer DD heads I found out the hard way that 91% alcohol can damage a head over time.

I left a girl in a bowl to loosen her face up and all but the tiniest bit of alcohol dried up a day after, the next day I took her out (I know terrible of me but I was caught up with work and stuff happens...) and when I pulled her out to give her to the local group's faceup artist she had a welt on her face where the alcohol had swollen the vinyl and it's a different texture than the rest of her face....

This coming on the heels of my zapzit fiasco. For destaining vinyl dolls, zit removal spot treatment cream is the common go to if you can't get dream rescue. WELLL....

Normally I use oxy or wal mart brand. That day wal mart had neither and I tried zapzit. Welted my girl everywhere I put the stuff....ugh.

Live and learn as they say but those are 2 scenarios that I would like to share just in case anyone else would not have realized or could fall into the same situations with their vinyl dolls.

Sent from the future via SkyNet

 

All of my human dolls are vinyl, and I love them to bits; the only resin I have is a dragon. XD

It's been somewhat covered, but yes, you can customize vinyl dolls much like resins, especially in the blushing/painting department, and on the Dollfie Dream side there's been some pretty inventive subtractive head mods, especially on the 01 head. Mods on other body parts aren't common as, between the internal armature and the fact that the body part vinyl tends to be fairly thin, it's kind of a logistical nightmare. There have been some successful dye jobs on them too, though be warned that the internal armature parts and the soft outer vinyl parts do take the color somewhat differently.

CloakedSchemer is right about the sticky sealant issue. Apparently some sealants react with the vinyl, and as a result never cure. MSC and Zokeimura spray are the two that I know to be completely safe; Preserver Your Memories II would likely be safe as well, but not a desirable choice as it's "semi-matte" and thus has a slight sheen to it. (Unless you're coating your girl with Pearl-Ex for whatever reason, then it'd be the best thing ever.)

While vinyl can technically yellow over time, it does it much slower than resin does, and as I recall the jury's still out how much of that yellowing is caused by the sun and how much is just the vinyl doing its thing. Dollfie Dream white skin shows it the most, and for some reason Nia Teppelin is particularly prone to it. (I suspect something went awry with her vinyl batch, personally.) Generally you'll notice vinyl owners are a lot more relaxed about sunlight than resin owners.

The thing vinyl owners are paranoid about is, in fact, staining. Take a deep breath, and let it out. It's kind of a given that at some point your vinyl doll will pick up some stain or another. Don't panic. It can be fixed, but it takes PATIENCE. We're talking 1-4 weeks of sitting the affected doll or part in a warm room, slathered in zit cream. Yes, heat can speed the treatment up, and yes stronger creams can too, but personally I find it better to be patient than sorry! (It can be pretty funny to have friends or family over, and see the look on their faces when they see a doll bald, naked, and covered in white gunk, too. XD) I do recommend picking up some extra hands, and dedicating one or two to stain testing outfits/fabrics--easier to treat than a whole doll. You'll also want to give dark clothes a good dish soap and/or vinegar wash.

The posing on vinyl dolls is pretty different, thanks to the armature. They feel a bit more like action figures, since they're not prone to the "kickiness" factor that resins are. They can get floppy over time, but fixing them up usually entails a hairdryer and a screwdriver, instead of wire and hemostat clamps.

One thing that's really nice about vinyl too: it's LIGHT. I think my heaviest Dollfie Dream is my Dynamite girl Agatha, and while I haven't weighed her, even with her big boobs and butt I doubt she clocks in above two pounds, probably more like a pound and a half. I've carried dolls around conventions before, and honestly once I found the right way to hold them got tired of not having my hands free long before my muscles got worn out from holding them. XD