What matters more, a doll's appearance or posing abililties?

hmmm.... a bit of both!
in your sittuation a would probably take the secong doll, cuz u feel its prettier than the third but pose better than the first.
by single jointed you mean the torso part? yaaaah, i've seen a doll like that and it couldnt even sit! so then i wouldnt go for this one... OR i'll put her/his head on another body if i reeeeeeeeally want it ^_^
and all depending on what you plan to do with the doll... my boy mostly just arround and i stare at him and keep redoing his faceup XD so even if he didnt posed well, i dont think i would really mind...

 

I think it depends - are you going to really miss the poseability? I personally think the look of the face is most important, and the look of the body and poseability are second. Keep in mind a lot of improving can be done to help dolls be more poseable - my single jointed boys arms can do basically the same things as my double-jointed boys, because they're wired. A one-minute fix equaled them out. Torso and leg flexibility isn't as fixable, but also could be more easy to work around. If the poseability is just needed for photos, you can always fake a lot of things in photos with stands and well-chosen angles or cropping.

You can also sometimes combine the perfect head with the perfect body - best of both worlds in a hybrid. Not everything works together unfortunately, but it's something to look into.

It's a tough decision, but one only you can make.

 

I think I'd choose the prettiest doll, even if she seems less poseable than another. Of course poseability has a great importance,but unless you're interested in difficult or strange poses, a pretty face really makes the doll (IMHO of course)

 

I'm all about the face

 

I would say the face, too. Even the best posability is no use if you don't like the dolls face... because the face is what you first look at and which you look at the most. that's my opinion at least.

 

Appearance beats out posabilty every time with me. As long as the doll can stand solidly, sit well, and has smoothly designed single joints, I will be happy with the body's posabilty. I want my dolls to be beautiful dolls, not action figures with a million different joints.

It may have all the joints in the world and be able to do doll contortionism, but if you don't like looking at it, what's the point of owning it?

 

I think it depends on if you want to do a lot of the more difficult posing with your doll or not, I always think go for the pretty face as that's the first thing you or anybody else look at.
I agree with Kim as long as the doll can stand, sit and do the more common poses then I'd be happy!

 

This is where I'd like to state the glory of hybrids. ^^
If you're willing to do a little research and don't mind shopping around a little you won't have to worry too much about how well the doll you love poses. For example I have a Dollzone Shoyo head but I cannot stand my friend's single jointed Dollzone girl body so I didn't want to put her on one. So I just took a look around the marketplace and found something else for my Shoyo. Problem solved!

I even have the same thing in reverse. I bought a Dollzone boy body which I absolutely loved (does not have the same problem with the torso joint as the girl body does) but had no head for it. Looking at the DZ heads I could have gotten nothing jumped out at me saying "buy me". But once again with a little searching in the marketplace I ended up finding the perfect one from another company. There are always ways around these things. ^^

 

For me appearance comes first, because that's the ultimate deal breaker when it comes to being an appropriate sculpt for a character. That said, I do appreciate posability, though I've become a bit more relaxed about it--I have found that as long as I take the time to get used to how each doll works, I can usually get them to do what I want them to do. It may take a bit of tweaking, but nothing difficult. If I really love a head and really don't like the body, I'd just make a hybrid.

 

Poseability is great, but it won't sell me on a doll. I have to love the face sculpt to even be remotely interested. (Or when just buying a body, the body's sculpt)

I have a boy who is double-jointed and one who is single-joined. The double-jointed one has a wider range of motion, but the single-jointed one holds his poses much better. So sometimes what you think would pose better actually doesn't, so you can't always base it on expected poseability.

 

This is generally how I feel. I actually like some solid torsos because of how they look as well. For me, it's the face that sells me and unless the body is really bad looking and poses so poorly it can't even sit or stand well I usually don't mind. I do like the body to at least look nice but I don't need it to do anything crazy.

I think everyone has a different level of posability that they're looking for depending on what they plan to do with their doll. As others have also said you can also consider hybriding.

 

I don't own a BJD yet, but I will say this:

I would only buy one if I love the face/sculpt. Facial features and appearance are what "draw" me to certain dolls and make them come alive. I think it helps give them their personality.

Being able to pose them is nice, but as far as I'm concerned it's just icing on the cake.

 

* sorry, I accidentally double posted *

 

For the head, appearance, hands-down. As many others have stated, head and body don't have to come from the same place. From there? It depends on how covered the doll is going to be by clothing, because appearance matters to me a great deal. If what I envision for them is being scantily clad in a few sequins and body paint, they can find a pose they look good in and stay that way a while without any stress on my part. If all I'm ever likely to see of the body is head and hands for the most part, that may change somewhat -- but I'll generally go for appearance first.

 

I'd get the lovely first doll, and if the lack of posing ability REALLY bothered me, I'd sell the body and buy a more pose-able one. ^_^

 

I'd have to say appearance comes first with me. I saw my doll and fell in love with her and at the time had never seen or held a BJD so I wasn't sure about poseability. And while I LOVE good poseability, if my Anna could pose no better than a rag doll I'd still adore her!

So I'd say go with what you love. If ya look at the doll and just love seeing her, can imagine holding her, playing with her hair and dressing her up then thats the one to go for.
After all, whats the point of having a super poseable doll you just don't love to pieces?

 

Appearance for me, too. I'm not too concerned with amazing posing ability... in fact I find all those fiddly double jointed whatsits interfere more with posing than help it :-/
I just want a doll to stand or sit and bend properly at basically expected places without the resin breaking.
Good resin is important to me, too, but ultimately a compelling sculpt purchases indemnity (as it were) for most faults.

Raven

 

Well engineered single joints can sometimes pose better than double joints. For me, though, if I don't like either the doll's face or posing ability, I won't get it. Or attempt a hybrid. BJDs are so expensive that I won't spend so much money on something that I am in anyway not in love with.