Saturday, May 31, 2014

Out of the Box: Arne (LoongSoul XuanYan ver. 1)

LoongSoul XuanYan with his standard arm.
I just realized that there's a doll in my header that I've never introduced, so today's the day to remedy that. 

In an HZ uniform outfit,
with mechanical hand.
In 2009, LoongSoul (who were new on the scene) offered the first version of XuanYan, a 63cm doll with an extra mechanical arm/torso piece in a limited run of 100 (they have since created an alternate version as well).  I was quite taken with the doll, but put off buying him until seeing him in stock at a dealer during one of their shop's events (an event that saw him arrive with full body blushing and an extra head).

I was highly impressed with this doll when he arrived - when I ordered him, I'd assumed that the would come with the mechanical arm  only, so it was a nice surprise to find that he actually came with multiple arms and upper torso pieces.  The blushing was also quite well done, although over the years, the metallic grey at the shoulder of the mechanical arm has rubbed off somewhat do to friction.

The body itself is solid with a nice weighty resin.  It's well-engineered with doubled jointed knees and elbows and with fully jointed fingers on the mechanical hand.  I also admire the fact that the hands are in an active/gestural position rather than a neutral one, since that adds a certain dynamism to them (at least to my eye).  The face sculpt has a soft, neutral expression which was painted to have a certain wistfulness to it, but that's clearly specific to the faceup, because I've seen the same sculpt look very different in both version two and with custom paintwork.

Being within the standard body size for SD13-type dolls, he's able to wear a wide variety of ready-made outfits and won't require much (if any) alteration to patterns for the size.  He also has a fairly standard head size and can share wigs with most of the larger-headed dolls in this range.

A better view of the mecha-arm.


With YID Cocori
A side view (also with YID Cocori) and showing off the jointed hand.
I may have been having too much fun playing with filters on this one. ;)

6 comments:

  1. He looks completely different with the wig change. That mechanical hand is boss.

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    1. The hand really is, isn't it? It's totally what wold me on this doll.

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  2. Oh he's a neat dude, love the arm/hand. Just wondered about Cocori's wig, did you do all those plaits? It looks great on her.

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    1. Thanks! :)

      I didn't do the braid-work on that wig, no - I bought it from Featherfall. They used to carry a series of that style in red, black, and blonde (I think they might have been a retired Dollzone style), but I haven't seen them offered anywhere else for a few years now.

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  3. He's very cute, the mechanical arm and hand are amazing! I love the standard hands, as you've said, they're in an active/gestural position that add dynamism.
    By the way, your girl's wig looks really cool.
    Greetings ^^

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