Action Dolls - ActionDolls.net

Ball Joint Doll Comparison - Ball Jointed Doll Comparison

BALL JOINT DOLL COMPARISON
Ball Jointed Doll Comparison
BJD comparison

INTRODUCTION / PREFACE

BJD or Ball Jointed Dolls or Ball Joint Dolls generally refers to dolls realistically proportioned, cast in polyurethane resin or dense plastic, then joined/strung together with thick elastic string, consisting of ball-like joint articulation for easy pose-ability. These dolls are generally manufactured by Japan, China and South Korea, and they come in proportion of a real human size. The most common and popular sizes are 60cm or commonly refers to as 1/3, although other sizes are also available (80cm, 75cm, 70cm, 55cm, 50cm, 27cm, etc). Due to the big size and the customizable nature of BJD Dolls, they are expensive, varying from hundred to a few thousand USD (for collectors' editions).

To most beginner doll buyers, finding the best doll's "BASE BODY" (or naked doll without paint, nor clothing) is usually the first step. The evaluation of a doll's base-body is based on a few factors, such as skin tone and texture, body pose-ability, joints and articulation, overall beauty in respect how well it is created according to a live human body. Not all dolls are designed and built with the same quality, so this becomes the most seek-after type of information. Therefore, collectors would no choice but to invest thousands of dollars, in order to get a better understanding of the hobby.

This website provides free valuable information regarding some of the MOST POPULAR/BEST dolls in the market, with the goal of assisting first-time buyers choose a ball joint doll that meets their desired specs, without the need to spent a fortune.

The doll that best represents some of the greatest doll manufacturers will be used in the comparison in this writing. The comparison will be done according to multiple different doll criterias, on dolls of the "same class": 1/3 proportion female (mature body) ball-joint-doll, under $600 USD. Please note that, although the Volks Dollfie Dream and Obitsu 60cm dolls are not generally considered "ball-joint" dolls, they will also be included in the comparison due to their popularity. Detail analysis of these dolls will be done, and a conclusion will be provided at the end.

The BEST (and most popular) 60cm female ball joint dolls in the market are:

Unidoll
Luts
Dollmore
Volks
Obitsu
Dolkot
Iplehouse

SPECIFICATIONS / DATA SHEET

The dolls selected for comparison are:

Doll/Company	Height(with head)	Body version	Body Option	Price($USD)(body + head)	Website
Dollmore	57 cm	Youth Dollmore Eve	Normal Body(white tone)	$500	http://www.dollmore.net
Dolkot	65 cm	Model Girl(MDK70)	---	$550	http://www.dolkot.com
Unidoll	62 cm	UBr-02(Real girl body)	Normal Breast	$600	http://www.unidoll.com
Volks	58 cm	Dollfie Dream Base Body II	White skin/M Bust	$300	http://www.volks.co.jp
Obitsu	60 cm	60BD-F02W-G + 60HD-F07	White Skin/Soft Breast Double-Joint/2-parts-body	$250	http://www.Obitsu.co.jp
Luts	57 cm	Senior Delf Body GIRL Type	White Skin	$500	http://www.eluts.com
Iplehouse	59 cm	Young Iplehouse Doll(YID)	White Rose skin	$450	http://www.iplehouse.net
Yamato	50 cm	Vmf50 Miu	Pre-painted	$900	http://store.shopping.yahoo.co.jp/yamato-toys/vmf50.html
Unoa	43 cm	Unoa 2.0 Mocha	Dark Skin	$500	http://www.rakurakutei.com/theloft/dolly_bird_scans.htm
Obitsu	50 cm	50BD-F01W-G	---	$300	http://www.obitsushop.com/SHOP/50BD-F01W-G.html
Volks	60 cm	DD Dynamite	---	$500	http://www.volks.co.jp
Arte Tokio	60 cm	Arte 060	---	$900	http://www.artetokio.com
Azone	60 cm	---	---	$???	http://www.azone-int.jp/azonet/

Dollmore Youth Eve Doll

OVERALL BODY - Beauty/Shape/Skin

The Dollmore YE doll body is somewhat beautiful. It portraits smooth female curves, proportionally correct to a real young average female body. All parts of the body is made of nice shapes and has a stable skeleton. Skin is smooth and made of great high quality resin material. Skin color is human pink to a realistic sense, even prior to body painting. The doll's waist and hip/trunk is perfectly correct to an average nice-looking real girl's proportion. The only weird (actually somewhat ugly) part in the figure is the upper part of the thigh, which has an obvious outward semi-ball-like shape, destroying the overall beauty. This won't be an issue as soon as clothing is put on.
Face/Head

The Dollmore's YE doll's head is also beautiful. It is not quite animated, but more like a real pretty human girl. It has well-shaped nose, human-alike eyes, and a beautiful small perfected mouth. The head has great shape from the side-view as well, even prior to face-painting. Positive credits must to given to the team at Dollmore for excellent face painting skills; strongly recommended if ordering a doll from them.
Arm/Hand/Leg/Foot

The Dollmore's YE doll's arms and legs (excluding the thigh) are shaped correctly, quite to an acceptable human-alike quality. The hands and feet contain enough details, such as nails, for those who love attention to details. The fingers are smooth, and possess spread individual fingers, although not as "artistic". Quality of hands and feet feel solid, meaning unlikely to easily break accidentally when putting on cloths.
Body Details

Despite of great body shapes in the Dollmore's YE, body details are just average/acceptable. It contains some details, but not much, so don't expect skin marks and very realistic texture. It will be fine when wearing cloths, but the naked body doesn't contain very quality human-alike details. Having said so, the doll's back does contain some simple details. The breast shape is one of the best among all dolls, and perhaps the only one created with big beautiful nipples.
Joints/Articulation/Pose-ability

The arm joints of the Dollmore YE body are made of 2-part(a double joint), allowing a wider, deeper angle of movement. The construction of the arm's joint is somewhat solid, but not very beautiful. On the other hand, the leg's joints are made of single joint, allowing very limited angle of movement. The thigh is made of a single part, further restricting the leg from rotating. To sum up, arms/hand movement is good, but leg's movement is bad. However, the limited leg movement does play an important role for figure stability: the doll is able to stand up easier than many other ball joint dolls.

Dolkot Model Girl

OVERALL BODY - Beauty/Shape/Skin

Dolkot Model Girl offers some of the tallest ball joint doll available in the market, at 65cm height. With average female body shape, it has some of the worst skin color in the ball-joint-doll market. The skin is color more yellowish and feels rough and raw/unfinished. Body construction is weak, and feels like done in a rush. Even worse, body shape contains irregularities when paying attention in certain angles. The proportion of the body is somewhat correct to an average female body.
Face/Head

The Dolkot Model Girl uses heads that are between 80% human-alike and 20% animated. Nose and mouth are somewhat realistic, but eyes are a little exaggeratedly large/wide. Overall head casting is beautiful and above average. The head cover is connected using a magnet, alike other ball joint dolls, but the slit is very badly made (maybe built on a rush?).
Arm/Hand/Leg/Foot

The Dolkot Model Girl comes with hands and feet that are proportionally correct to an average female. Details of hands/feet are average; shapes of arms and legs are average as well. For a doll of this large size, hands/feet details are somewhat disappointed however.
Body Details

The Dolkot Model Girl doll comes with above-average female details. Breast looks natural, and back/waist/Hip/trunk details are good. Nipples exist too, but it is a little unnatural.
Joints/Articulation/Pose-ability

The Dolkot Model Girl has the most ugly joints ever found in a ball joint doll. Not only it does NOT fit well, but it is also the WORSE joint in sense of stability. The doll use double-joints for both arms and legs, which provide the highest possible angle of bending. However, the joints are very badly made that it loses its position (keep shifting angles in a weird manner), and are very very loose. Standing is almost impossible for this doll, because the articulation is too loose, and joints are badly constructed. It is recommended that this doll should be kept in a sitting position at all times, with its back laying against a wall.

Unidoll Real Girl Body

OVERALL BODY - Beauty/Shape/Skin

The Unidoll Real Girl Body offers a beautiful model-alike, slender, proportionally correct female body. With a solid construction, the waist/hip/trunk/chest/shoulders feel natural to the shape and curves of a realistic female body. Skin smoothness is good, but color is somewhat yellowish and unnatural among standard ball joint dolls.
Face/Head

The Unidoll Real Girl's head is realistic, comparable to a real-life human head. Nose, mouth and eyes are molded to portrait a very unique character, giving life to the doll. The forehead cover is solidly constructed, yet allow easy access to interior of head for eyeballs customization.
Arm/Hand/Leg/Foot

The Unidoll Real Girl hands and feet are beautifully constructed too. They contain enough details to feel like real-human parts. Fingers and Toes are well-separated, with feminine slender shapes.
Body Details

As many have already noticed, the Unidoll's back is the one of the MOST beautiful in the ball joint doll market. Complete with the finest details, the hip, waist and back is so beautiful, that appears like photographs of real-human female models. The chest and breast is some of the most natural, real-female alike you can find for ball joint dolls. Nipples are of average quality, yet still somewhat natural.
Joints/Articulation/Pose-ability

The Unidoll Real Girl doll uses single joints for both arms and legs. This type of joint restricts angle of bending, so articulation is very limited. Do not expect this doll to be able to pose much, but this doll does keep simple posture very well. Standing up posing is easy due to simplicity in its joints.

Volks Dollfie Dream Doll

OVERALL BODY - Beauty/Shape/Skin

Volks Dollfie Dream Base Body II contains a proportionally beautiful female body, shaped to the animated sense. It is a typical japan-animation young heroine proportion. The waist, the hip and the trunk is absolutely pretty, too perfect that is unlikely possible to the realistic sense. Proportion of long legs to body is unrealistic too, but absolutely beautiful in the animated sense. For those who love model-alike, animated figures, this is surely the dream female shape. On the other hand, for those looking for a more realistic average human proportion, the Volks dollfie dream base body II is surely not the choice. Skin is soft and smooth; skin color is beautiful too, typical of whitish color found in japanese girls in their anime culture.
Face/Head

Volks Dollfie Dream Base Body II usually comes with (or can be attached with) an animated head with eye-holes. Like most ball joint dolls, the eyes are customizable with other colors. Replacement is simple and alike most BJD dolls too. The head is made of soft material (as with the rest of the body), and shaped like the typical heroine in japanese animation. Original face painting from Volks is normally very simple, but very solid, somewhat durable.
Arm/Hand/Leg/Foot

The Volks DD base body II comes with hands and feet that are somewhat choppy (fat). If you are expecting some delicate long slender fingers/toes, you will be disappointed. Hand/foot details do exist to a satisfactory level, but don't expect very detail, realistic quality.
Body Details

In the Volks DD based body II, most of the realistic female body details are completely missing. Overall body shapes and curves are there, but don't expect nipple and skin texturing details.
Joints/Articulation/Pose-ability

Unlike the typical ball jointed dolls, the Volks DD base body II does not use a internal string linking mechanism. The doll's skeleton is put together using some internal individual plastic-alike joints. The pros side is that each joint can be removed and replaced individually. The Volks Dollfie Dream base body II is one of the best doll when it comes to stability and pose-ability. Solid construction, and great angle of articulation on both legs and arms. Joints are somewhat "hidden" from the front to appear more natural, and help preserves overall body beauty. Standing up is easy for this doll, as well as posing different postures.

Obitsu 60cm doll

OVERALL BODY - Beauty/Shape/Skin

The standard Obitsu customizable base body is one of the popular choices among collectors due to cost versus quality. The standard Obitsu 60 cm body is portraits a strong female fighting (or robotic) proportion. Not as feminine as the Volks DD body, the Obitsu body is more male-alike female body. Overall body shape does not contains as much female curves as other ball joint dolls, but it does offer some plain, strong anime fighting heroine characteristics. Chest and Hip are somewhat plain (although chest/breast can be replaced with bigger ones), so it either a love or a hate to collectors. Skin color is adequate, and although skin feel is somewhat softer all real-resin ball joint dolls, the Obitsu is still a bit harder than the Volks DD base body.
Face/Head

The Obitsu doll offers 2 basic types of heads choices: an anime-alike version, and a more human-alike teenager head version. The human-alike head is generally considered more beautiful, and is the one used for evaluation/comparison in this website. The head somewhat mimic that of young female teenager human shape, but definitely not as beautiful comparing to other ball jointed dolls.
Arm/Hand/Leg/Foot

The Obitsu's 60cm base doll comes with hands and feet that are simple and lacking details. This type of simplicity offers the advantage of durability, similar to the Volks Dollfie Dream dolls. Details of the Obitsu hands/feet are worse than the VOLKS DD dolls. The Obitsu hands and feet are also slightly smaller than that of the Volks DD dolls, which has the advantage of easier fitting into different type of doll shoes and clothing.
Body Details

In respect to body texture and details, the Obitsu doll is almost completely lacking. Nevertheless, the Obitsu offers different optional chests: hard or soft chest, and chest with or without nipples(this nipple is more realistic than the Volks DD base doll II). The rest of the doll's body are basically not customizable (in respect to adding details).
Joints/Articulation/Pose-ability

The Obitsu 60cm base body offers 2 different type of arm and leg joints: ball-type and double-joints. The double-joints allows a higher degree of bending movement, so is the one used/shown in this website for comparison. The Obitsu double-joints allow the highest degree of bending angle among all ball joint dolls. The Obitsu joint is also the more stable, durable type of joint that is easier to preserve a doll's posture.

Luts Senior Delf Doll

OVERALL BODY - Beauty/Shape/Skin

The Luts Senior Delf Doll is definetely the MOST beautiful female ball joint doll every available in the market. Shapes and curves of different individual body parts are incredibly detailly made, perfectly follows the natural body characteristics of a real female young girl. Excellent obvious details in thighs, waist, hip, breast, legs and arms. Definetely the most beautiful naked female dolls in the comparison. Beautiful skin quality and color.
Face/Head

The Luts Senior Delf Doll provides a well-made, correctly proportion, female head. It is not as realistic as the Unidoll's head, but it is extremely well-made with fine details. The head cover is the BEST among all comparing ball joint dolls: perfectly fitting cover, and solidly built. Access to the interior of the head (to customize the eyeballs) is extremely simple and well-designed. It is practically impossible to find any imperfection anywhere in the head.
Arm/Hand/Leg/Foot

The Luts Senior Delf Doll uses some of the most artistic and beautifully constructed hands and feet. Full details to fingers and toes, mixed with well-thought fixed 'movements'. When dressing the doll, make sure to be extra careful with the fingers, so it won't break (because they look too delicate/fragile).
Body Details

The Luts Senior Delf Doll offers the same level of body details as the Unidoll female doll. The back is beautifully constructed, identical to a real young human female. The chest and breasts are as human-alike natural as the Unidoll's version, but slightly different to mimic that of a younger female. Nipples are similarly done as the Unidoll's doll, and are also beautifully done.
Joints/Articulation/Pose-ability

The Luts Senior Delf Doll uses double-joint articulation for arms and legs. This type of joint allow maximum bending angle, which permits highest degree of posing possibilities. In addition, the dolls use 2-part thigh construction, allowing rotation in legs to further enhance leg-posing abilities. All joints are well-fitted, and bending angles are solid and stable (it won't go out of place). Posing is easy; the Luts doll has some of the best articulation and posing-ability among all true ball joint dolls.

Iplehouse YID Doll

OVERALL BODY - Beauty/Shape/Skin

Iplehouse YID doll has some of the above-average female body shapes, made similar to real human girls. Waist, hip, trunk, chest of doll are all proportionally correctly build with good shapes and curves. Skin color and quality are fine too.
Face/Head

Iplehouse YID doll comes with a head that is average in shape and design. Face paiting is also average, but a bit overdone. Head/Face feels more like a doll than like a real human, but it does not look like an animation character as in the Volks DD dolls.
Arm/Hand/Leg/Foot

The Iplehouse YID doll has hand/feet done proportionally correct, with fingers artistically positioned alike the Luts Senior Delf Doll. Hand and feet details are limited however.
Body Details

The back (waist,hip,etc) and the chest(breast) have been naturally created in the Iplehouse YID doll. Shapes and Sizes are well-done to mimic real human females. The only cons are the lack of skin-level details.
Joints/Articulation/Pose-ability

Standard to most ball joint dolls, the Iplehouse YID female doll uses single joints in arms and legs, which severely limit angle of bending. This limitaion has the benefits of a more stable posture. The thigh has an optional rotating 2-part construction (similar to the Luts Senior Delf doll), allowing the leg to produce a more human-like moving angle.

Ball Joint Dolls Strength and Weakness Table

Doll/Company	Skin	Joints	Pose-ability	Face/Head	Body Details	Body Shape	Summary
Dollmore	O	X		O	O		Average skin/Pose-ability/skeleton/shape. Average hand/foot and body details. Bad leg joint and articulation. Beautiful head and face painting. Beautiful breast and nipples.
Dolkot	X	X	X		O		One of the largest doll size in the market. Average Body details. Average head/face, body shapes/curves. Excellent bending angle, but ruined by bad joint design and looseness. Impossible to keep any kind of posture. Incredible bad skin quality and color.
Unidoll	X	x	O	O	O		Average female body shapes, but some of best female body details. Beautiful back, breast, hip and waist details. Simple joints restricting bending angle, but good ability to keep simple poses. Realistic head/facial expression.
Volks	O	O	O		X	O	Better-than-average skin touch and color. Lacking female body details. Good and solid joints, and excellent pose-ability. Excellent body shape, like those in japan-anime heroines.
Obitsu	O	O	O		X		Strong, plain, Fighting-alike animation heroine body characteristics. Lacks all kind of body details. Best joints available in the market, and excellent bending angles, and lasting pose-ability. Best choice if main goal is for posing different postures.
Luts	O	O	O	O	O	O	A perfect doll. Excellent female body shapes, with realistic body details. Incredible amount of points of articulation, providing maximum bending angle and quality of joints. Solidly constructed body, easy and stable to pose-ability (second to Volks DD and Obitsu dolls). Beautiful skin quality and color.
Iplehouse		X				O	Standard female doll construction, with average details. Excellent body shapes, but limited pose-ability due to the single-joint design in knees and arms.

Ball Joint Dolls Score Ranking Table (Maximum score=5)

Doll/Company	Skin	Joints	Pose-ability	Face/Head	Body Details	Body Shape	Average Score
Dollmore	4	2	3	5	4	3	3.50
Dolkot	2	1	0	3	4	3	2.16
Unidoll	2	2	4	4	4	3	3.16
Volks	5	5	4	3	1	4	3.66
Obitsu	4	5	5	3	2	3	3.66
Luts	4	5	4	4	5	5	4.50
Iplehouse	3	2	3	3	3	4	3.00

CONCLUSION

The BEST doll is obviously the doll made by Luts, although the non-typical BJD Volks and Obitsu exceed in their ability to pose due to the non-string joint construction. The Unidoll Real Girl is second best when it comes to body details and real-human proportion.

The WORSE doll in the comparison would be the Dolkot and Dollmore bodies, although Dolkot offers the tallest body and Dollmore offers the BEST face make-up. The Iplehouse doll has nothing that is really bad, but offers nothing extraordinary either.

OTHER COMMENTS

In the future, We will attempt to include more high-quality dolls for comparison (as long as they belong to the "same class/level"), such as the ArteTokio dolls (http://www.artetokio.com), the Volks Dynamite Body, and the Obitsu 55cm body.

Because we only have limited resources, we have decided to exclude the following doll manufacturers for now:

angell-studio.com
aoddoll.net
bgdolls.com
bobobie.com
buddy-doll.com
crobidolls.com
dimdoll.com
doll-zone.com
dollfairyland.com
dollga.com
dollndoll.com
dollsoom.net
domuya.net
dreamofdoll.com
ecinter.net
elfdollshop.com
fdoll.com
glorydoll.com
gomidoll.com
jollyplus.com
leekeworld.us
limhwa.com
lumedoll.com
musedoll.com
nobilitydoll.com
notdoll.com
souldoll.com
supiadolls.com

These doll manufacturers are excluded for different reasons, but most likely because:

They do not sell dolls belonging to the "same class" as the ones shown in this website, at the time of writing.
or, their dolls were not considered as good/popular as those presented in this website, at the time of writing.

This page is written by doll collectors for doll collectors. If there are other GREAT 60cm female dolls that worth included in the comparison, please kindly notify us by email at infoanimefigurez.com.

Thanks everyone who found this website informative.