Body Comparison: Soom ID51 vs. Souldoll Vito

Soom ID51 London, Souldoll Vito Rouse

One of the most common photo requests I've gotten on doll boards is regarding the in-between (at 52cm, bigger than MSD, smaller than SD) sized Vito from Souldoll and Idealian 51 from Soom.  I have one of each  - Soom ID51 London and Souldoll Vito Rouse, so let's take a look at them side-by-side.

A note to the sensitive, unclothed dolls below the cut (although they're posed for modesty, since I originally took these to share on a board where that's a requirement for anatomically correct dolls).

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

Dolls in the Snow

I've been sorting through my photo archives, and I've found myself feeling nostalgic about the doll photos I used to take in my garden in Burlington during the winters (if you're not familiar with Southern Ontario, that's along Lake Ontario, halfway between Niagara falls and Toronto).  Having left the snowbelt, it's probably just that I'm just forgetting how much I hate shovelling, but the photos made me smile, so I thought I'd share a few of them.

Volks SD13 Heath, January 2011 

Height Comparisons Across Doll and Figure Lines

Earlier this morning a co-worker asked me about the relative sizes of BJDs with American Girl dolls, and at almost the same time I read Vanessa's question about the size of MA's International Travel Friends relative to playline dolls over on Black Doll Collecting.  And since a couple of weeks ago I also received a PM on Den of Angels asking about Teen Trends to MSD comparisons, I decided that I've amassed enough comparison photos to warrant it's own post.

First up is the Travel Friends/Playline line-up:

Back Row (L-R): Disney Classics (Li Sheng), Barbie (Princess of South Africa), Monster High (Clawd Wolf)
Front Row: Bratz (Cameron), International Travel Friends (Namaste), American Girl Mini (Ivy)

 The AG comparison:

 

 

L-R: Iplehouse EID model body (Chase), American Girl Cécile,
Illusion Spirit mini (ZhuQing), Monster High (Jane Boolittle)

The Teen Trends comparison:

L-R: Volks SD13 Long-leg body (Irvin), Soom ID51 (London),
Illusion Spirit Mini (ZhuQing), Teen Trends (Deondra)

And finally, a larger one:

Back Row: Angelheim Elderheim Angelo, Volks SD13 Irvin, Souldoll Vito Rouse, American Girl Cécile
Row 2: Iplehouse JID Boris, Ellowyne Wilde Lizette, Monster High Clawd, Girls of Many Lands Neela, AG mini Samantha
Row 3: Sideshow Toys Krycek, Hot Toys Wolverine, PlayArts Commander Shepard, DC Direct Tali, Figma Yukiko Amagi
Front Row: Hasbro/Marvel's Greatest Battles Captain Britain, Star Wars Black Series Mace Windu, Heroclix Pete Wisdom

The Wish List: Dolls, Figures and... throw pillows?

I haven't been making any major collection purchases this summer (in part because of all the travelling), but every now and then a preorder item pops up somewhere and catches my eye - and just these week there have been several, so I thought I'd take a break from sorting through the older items in my mother's basement and share a few upcoming items that I'm watching.

Photo credit.

First up is a re-release of Soom's Chrom, with brown tan as one of the resin options.  He's on their Super Gem body which, while not their largest, is still 65cm tall - and I've been holding off on adding any SD+ sized dolls to my collection for three years now.  Still, I've admired this sculpt before, so it's tempting.

He'll be available for pre-order through the end of the month, so I have time to think it over.








Next up is Titan's upcoming (January 2015) release of a series of Dragon Age mini figures, to be sold as blind bags (or boxes).  I'm generally grumpy about the idea of blind bags over the price of $2, but knowing my ridiculous fondness for the Dragon Age games (and the franchise as a whole) that fan-feeling is probably going to get the better of me.

Photo credit

I didn't follow SDCC this year (aside from checking for a couple of game demos), but when I noticed the new Monster High Vandala Doubloons, she ended up on my watch list as well (both because I like the pirate concept, and because she needs to join the figure-with-prosthesis collection).

 And then last night I came across this Captain Britain throw pillow over on Studio6.  It might not be my favourite piece of fan art, but I can't help but think that it would look fantastic in my Captain Britain-themed guest room...

Photo Credit

And finally just this morning I was scanning recent posts over at toyhaven and discovered that Fewture/ArtStorm is putting out three figures based on characters from Fringe.  I was slow to get into that show (I'm currently working my way through season 4), and I'd always wondered why there wasn't more merchandise.

The Olivia isn't a great likeness, but the other two look decent.

And that's it!  At least for now...

Cross-Company Comparison: Tan Resins

One of the big challenges that I hear about from people who want to hybrid tan dolls is the near-impossibility of finding matching colours without having to resort to custom batches or blushing an entire body to match a head.  With that in mind, here are a couple of references based on my own collection:

1. Illusion Spirit tan (ZhuQing, 2011)
2. Secretdoll tan (Binu, 2008)
3. Dollmore Suntan (Mettaa, 2010)
4. Iplehouse Ebony (Chase, 2009)
5. Iplehouse old Dark tan (Aaron, 2007)
6. Soom Dark Brown (London, 2011)
7. Iplehouse Light Brown (Arvid, 2011)
8. Limhwa tan (Half-Elf, 2011)
9. Dollzone tan (Alpha, 2011)
10. Volks ebony (Irvin, 2008)
11. Island Doll tan (Kevin, 2011)
12. Iplehouse old light tan (Cocori, 2008)
13. ResinSoul coffee/light tan (2010)

Clockwise, starting with the feet:

1. FantasyDoll Dark tan (Charlotte, 2013)
2. Iplehouse ebony (Boris, 2013)
3. Soom dark brown (London, 2011)
4. Dollmore suntan (Mettaa ),
5. Island doll tan (Kevin, 2011)
6. Illusion Spirit tan (ZhuQing, 2011)
7. Souldoll tan (Rouse, 2010), 
8. Iplehouse light brown (Arvid, 2011)
9. Limhwa tan (Half-eld, 2011)
10. Dollzone tan (Alpha, 2011)

Personally, I thought the biggest find was the similarity between Iplehouse's light brown and Island
Doll's tan (although the IS tan does have slightly more red to it).

That's EID Arvid in light brown holding Island doll Kevin in tan on the left.

#7: Roland (Soom ID51 London)

Another day, another non-standard sized doll!


When the original steampunk London was released, I debated ordering him, but held out - I wasn't that taken with the narrow Soom faces, he was strange size and would be a challenge to dress... But when his sale period ended I kept thinking about him, so when a second release popped up I went for it.

I still rather regret not getting the original outfit, although the cream white suit that was released with the second period was nice too (just a little hard to keep clean, given my fondness for photographing dolls outdoors!).

I got him in the dark brown resin, which is a nice even colour (it's slightly lighter than Iplehouse's ebony, and quite similar to their old dark tan).

The default outfit

The sculpt is awesomely detailed - both face and body - but the real standout is the detail on the hands and feet.  They're probably the nicest in my collection.  On the downside, the knees are single jointed, so the posing options are limited, and his resin is actually quite thin around the joints, which makes me a little nervous.

In terms of scale, he's too short and too realistically proportioned to fit with standard SD-sized dolls, and his tiny head (he shares wigs with Yo-sized dolls!) means he looks odd with standard minis.  He's only slightly shorter than the Souldoll Vito though, so they work together, and depending on wig choice he can look in scale with the Iplehouse JIDs (although the head size on those is slightly larger on a shorter body).

With Souldoll Vito Rouse

On clothing - he's slightly to broad in the shoulders for the tighter-fitting Souldoll Vito and Iplehouse JID clothing, but anything baggy can work.  I've had better luck with putting him in SD10-sizes (although obviously the bottoms are always too long if they're left unaltered).