Dolls and Dogs

After the impression my German Shorthair (Gunterdog) made after his guest appearance in my Dolls in the Snow post, I thought I'd post a few more photos of him with various members of the doll posse (it's all photos after the break).

"Don't look now, but I believe there's a giant dog behind us."
The dolls are Soom London & Souldoll Rouse

Clothes shopping for MSDs: Guess Doll

Two outfits spread out over 3 dolls.

One of the added money-sinks of getting into ball-jointed dolls is that the relative price of ready-made doll clothes tends to be proportional to the price of the dolls, which is to say high.  That tends to be offset by the fact that these guys are large enough that sewing for them is less of a challenge than it is for smaller dolls, so it does even out on that front.  Unfortunately for me, my sewing machine broke when I moved, so I've been watching for alternative clothing sources.

One clothing line that caught my eye was Guess Doll.  I've primarily seen the clothes sold through the dealer Denver Doll Emporium - shipping costs from them had turned me off when I was on the other side of the border, but now that I'm based in the US, I decided to order a couple of outfits and hope for the best.

The two outfits sets that I ordered ("Casual Affair" and "Cagey") were both in the $50-$60 range, which is quite reasonable considering the number of pieces included (two tops plus jeans in the first, and three tops plus jeans in the second).  I wasn't hugely impressed with the darker jeans from the "Casual Affair" set, which seemed a little thing and with only basic detailing, but everything else exceeded my expectations.  In fact, I would say the the quality is almost on par with some doll clothes that I've seen listed at twice the price.

Lumedoll Atik in the "Cagey" jeans and hoodie.

Withdoll Aiden in the "Casual Affair" tank and jeans.
These jeans were my least favourite item in the bunch.

JID Boris in the "Casual Affair" overshirt

SDC Miko in the "Cagey" t-shirt

SDC Miko in the "Cagey" jacket and t-shirt

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New Arrival: Withdoll Aiden

Withdoll Aiden in temporary eyes and wig

Back in February I placed an order for Withdoll's Aiden in dark brown (the UV version).  I've been admiring the company's work for a few years now (since their limited edition Fenrir was released), but held off on buying anything since I was on the fence about the narrow noses that their sculpts seem to have.  But looking at the "Fallen Angel" promo shots, I decided that I could live with the nose, and went for it.

The doll actually arrived nearly three weeks ago, but since I was out of town for April, I only opened him last night (luckily nothing was amiss!).

The box in a box

Withdoll ships their dolls in a cardboard shipping box into which the (also carboard) dollbox fits tightly.  I appreciate that since it means that there are fewer
packing materials to throw out (or store), but I know that worries some people as it means the inner box can be damaged when cutting open the outer one.

In the box

Inside the inner box, the doll is protected by multiple layers of foam (included the foam doll cut-out that some people use for crafts).  I received a pair of Glib acrylic eyes and an extra set of option hands  along with my doll, and these were packed on the base layer, next to the doll itself.

As the eyes were packed separately, the doll obviously ships eyeless.

The hip in action

The first thing that stood out to me upon unboxing this doll was the unique engineering of the hip joints.  The body has a multi-piece hip that allows the doll to pose in a surprising variety of realistic positions.  It also means that the doll looks rather less realistic when unclothed, but the sacrifice or form for function strikes me as being well worthwhile.  

While the hip is the most distinctly different of the joints, the doll is fantastically engineered overall - I would also say that the elbows and chest are exceptionally well done.

 

 

Showing off the joint movements

The doll's colour is also interesting.  It's a solid brown, but still has a certain translucence to it, which means that the colour can look deeper or lighter depending on the brightness of a room (or the use of flash).  Compared to other companies, it's solidly in the middle of the dark tan and lighter tan options.

Iplehouse ebony, Withdoll dark brown, Illusion Spirit tan

That comparison photo also makes it obvious that this doll is  a fair bit skinnier than many other MSD-range dolls.  As such, it may be tricky for this guy to share clothing with some of the bigger guys in this size group (he's wearing pants designed for a JID in this photo, and they fall much lower on his body than they do on a JID due to the tiny waist on this doll).


I'm still waiting to finalize this doll's look, so I'll have to post an update at some point, but right now I'm thrilled with him. :)

Fifth out of the box: Osman (Iplehouse JID Boris)

One of my newest dolls, I've still not figured out exactly how to style this guy, but he's an attractive doll and a good size, so he still got to be one of the first on display.

I ordered him via Iplehouse's Custom Doll System (which I believe has since been renamed) after noticing that the blank sculpt had more than a passing resemblance to their EID Chase.  And since I already had a Chase, it seemed like it would be promoting cohesion in my collection by bringing home a doll that looks like family.

I'm normally not a fan of ordering a sculpt in a colour for which there are no examples, but given the resemblance, I figured that an ebony Boris would still be a safe buy - and I was pleased to discover it was true (I was even more pleased to see how close the colour was to my Chase, who - being a NC Shadow Chase - was from the first batch of ebony after Iple stopped doing the old dark tan).

The JIDs aren't really in scale with the EIDs, so I don't frequently photograph the two together, but there they are on the right (along with my dog, because why not).

The JID body is not the most natural of posers, but it has fantastic detail, stands like a rock and has a nice weighty resin, so I give it top marks.