Anyone own any Island Dolls? Questions!

[MeltedCaramel]

So, I've been waffling back and forth on my choice for my first BJD. On one hand a ResinSoul boy is calling for a specific character, but on the other hand I had noticed a doll picture and fell in love with the sculpt, and of course since it was a mature, three piece torso, double jointed male I immediately thought it was a 1/3...but it turned out to be an Island Doll 1/4 boy. I fell in love with the Shukaku sculpt. Does anyone own an MSD from this company, male or female sculpt? Do you love it? Hate it? Feel neutral about it? If you have one, share some pictures, your opinions, anything would be appreciated! This isn't a company I hear a lot about despite them having lovely sculpts, so share your experiences with the company as well if you don't mind. Wait time, service, etc? I'm really stuck right now. I don't have a current character who would fit the Shukaku sculpt, but I can already feel one simmering. Any firsthand experience would be wonderful! <3

[SetsunaKou]

I own an Island Doll 1/3 male body and jointed hands. I....love the hands, they're very expressive and natural looking! In fact, I transferred them over to my favorite bjd's body because they're so nice! They are a tad loose, but maybe just my pair are that way? Either way,I do love them to bits!

As for the male 1/3 body (not 1/4, but I thought since it's ID, you might want an opinion.), first the pros:

1)It's very sturdy! WOW! So stable it creaks when you pose! :laughs: Of course, loosening the elastic would probably make him more floppy but I prefer stable, sturdy dolls rather than floppy ones.
2)The color matches very nicely to almost all company brands' 'NS' tone.
3)He seems very well made and constructed well.

Now the cons:

1)He's very stiff and the body has no personality. I know it seems strange to say a body alone would have personality---but it's true! I bought it because I needed a 65cm body for my favorite doll. (I don't know if you saw our seiyuu bjd thread, but we made 19 seiyuu portrait bjds and they all needed to be 'in scale' with each other, so the sizes mattered immensely!) Well, I needed a 65cm and thought the ID would be perfect to replace my 70cm Dollzone body for my Taniyama Kisho doll.
Well....the size is good, but, the body is so unexpressive. The waist was too thick, as well as the hips (we had to carve/sand them down a lot) and even after that, he's just a stiff! If you see a DZ body or now a Fantasydoll 69cm body or even the ResinSoul bodies, they are so gorgeous in not only their sculpts, but in their stance and posing. They've got attitude and can look so real!
The ID body, at least mine, is sort of like how Ken doll's pose. Very stiffly and unnatural. It's not horrible but it's a 1000% difference from the DZ body Kiyan-sama used to have. So after just a month on it, I kept looking and discovered that DZ makes a 65cm, too! So I promptly bought one of those and it's soooooooo much better! He's back to that sass and attitude that suited him to a 't'. (Now, I think I might want to find a 68cm DZ body for him, though because his profile was updated to about an 1" taller than before! But that's beside the point.)

However, maybe the MSD are constructed better? I don't know but the SD male leaves a lot to be desired. Good quality, sturdy but so blah and stiff posing.

I don't mean to discourage you----they are lovely and if you like one, go for it! However, if you find you aren't liking the body, too, you can always switch out the body for a more expressive type and keep the ID head. They are gorgeous! I considered some of them for our seiyuu bjd base heads because they seemed so realistic, but the one I wanted was rather on the small side, so I had to pass it up. (Since they're all a set, they needed to be all about the same size. I was really upset by a few heads that were perfect but when I got them, they were way tooooooo small or one was too big! So I had to resell them and try again. But the sculpts were almost dead on! It was a shame!)

Anyway, for me I give Island Doll 7 stars out of 10----for their quality, durability and beautiful heads. The bodies are what I'm not that enthused about at all.

[MeltedCaramel]

Thank you so much Setsuna!! That does help immensely. If you don't mind me asking, is your 1/3 Island Doll body double or single jointed? I notice they have both. The double jointed (the body I'm looking at in the MSD range) seems to have a nicer, more natural range of movement. The only thing I'm not fond of is the sculpted knees that fall above the seam line. But those can be easily sanded down (I had planned to sand down his back muscles a bit too as I'm not fond of the double shoulder blades look he's got). The body type really appeals to me too. It's so extremely hard to find mature looking bodies and heads in the MSD size! He actually looks like he's above 20!

Here's a double jointed. I definitely think he's got personality. ^___^

[SetsunaKou]

He's double jointed but he's from 2010-2011, so maybe they've improved their design? That MSD body looks very nice and full of personality!!!

Also, the SD Island Doll male body had a pretty short neck, so I had to build it up with Apoxie Sculpt to look a little better with various heads.
Here is the link to the thread showing him:

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=9158

The ID body is the guy on the right side with the white and black striped shirt and eyeglasses. (Tomoaki Maeno). It suits him well, because, honestly, Maeno-san is a bit...lowkey to put it nicely, in real life anyway. (In the events, you hardly notice he's even there. ^^;;)

The Island Doll jointed hands are on my favorite, Taniyama Kisho (the guy in th emiddle with the longish hair, leopard shirt and long black sleeveless coat.). They're very nicely made! One of the best and much better than Dollzone jointed hands.

The Island dolls are really well made so if you like the looks of the Wallace MSD, I'd say go for it! They are a very good company and quality.

You can also buy through Mint on Card, who is an official distributor of Island Doll. You might save a bit on s/h, too, since they're in the USA. ^^
http://www.mintoncardinc.com/dolls/item ... 7&DOLL=YES

Or Denver Doll :
http://denverdoll.com/islanddoll.php#41cm

Also, Fantasy doll has a newish mature MSD boy named Dane:
http://www.mintoncardinc.com/dolls/item ... 7&DOLL=YES

[MeltedCaramel]

Oh, I've never seen your seiyuu set! They're all so gorgeous Setsuna! <33 Actually I've been checking Mint On Card and while there are a few sculpts I like (I'm actually fond of Fantasy Doll's elf Mathan! But I would need to mod that body to be a three-piece. I'm kind of picky with that.), I'm really, really fond of how mature the Shunkaku sculpt from Island Doll is. There aren't a lot of other sculpts that are that mature looking in body and face. Plus, I cannot believe the price! *___* I've got some thinking to do for my first BJD (although if I go larger I need to buy one of HZ's dolls! I collect her artbooks but I never realized she made BJDs, and they're so beautiful! ;___; She's so nice too. ^-^ ), but I know I want an MSD for my first doll, and ResinSoul and Island Doll both caught my eye. Thank you so much for your help Setsuna, it really helps to hear an owner's experience. I know that no matter what doll I get they're going to be modified slightly to fit my tastes, but RS and ID both have gorgeous base bodies to work with! Hearing that ID is great quality is such a relief!

[OkamiKodomo]

I have handled one of the Island Doll girl MSDs before; my friend has an Amy. They definitely are sturdy little things, we could get her to pose on one foot easily, and her joints are very well engineered to hold mid-way poses. We didn't need to suede or wire her at all.

[MeltedCaramel]

Thank you for the information Okami! The more I hear about these little guys and gals the more I'm liking them. The sculpts are gorgeous and the body seems stable and supportive. With some very mild modding I think the Shunkaku could be nearly the perfect MSD guy. Between him and ResinSoul I've got some thinking to do!