Posing comparison: Made-to-move Barbie vs. my 1/6 ball joint doll

Today I’m going to do a brief comparison between Daisy – my Wildflower doll on a made-to-move Barbie body – and Jinjur – a 1/6 scale ball joint doll from Aimerai dolls. These two (and Lily, who’s on the same body as Daisy) are the best posers in my group.

Starting at the foot, both dolls are able to rotate their feet at the ankle a full 360 degrees (in case you ever have a use for that :))

but Daisy has more range of motion back and forth and can rest her foot on the ground with her leg outstretched, while Jinjur has a limited back and forth motion.

Moving to the knees, Daisy’s knee is double jointed (meaning she can bend it all the way back), while Jinjur is single jointed (she can only bend her knee 90 degrees). Many ball joint dolls are now double jointed at the knee – Jinjur just doesn’t happen to be one of them.

Jinjur’s knee turns a full 360 degrees, while Daisy’s only turns side to side.

Both dolls also have a mobility joint at the top of the thigh – you can see the faint line on Daisy. Daisy can rotate 90 degrees left or right at the joint, while Jinjur can turn a full 360 degrees.

Both dolls also have a joint right below their breastbone. Daisy has limited mobility in this joint, while Jinjur has a wide range of motion both backwards

and forward

And both can get into a book-reading pose.

The wrists are the similar to the ankles. Both dolls can turn the wrist around 360 degrees, and both can move the wrist back and forth around 90 degrees.

In the elbows, both are double jointed

although Jinjur’s joint is harder to manipulate – I always have to fuss with her to get her into that position. Daisy just moves smoothly at that joint.

Daisy has an additional mobility joint at the top of her arm, which can twist 90 degrees in either direction.

Because of the way the Wildflower doll heads are attached, Daisy has limited motion in the neck (compared to a generic MTM Barbie), while Jinjur has a wide range of motion both side to side and back and forth.

In terms of the range of posing, both dolls easily hold any in-between position in their joints. If you’ve only had fashion dolls, this might seem obvious, but many BJDs can be difficult to pose at anything other than 180 or 90 degrees at a joint. That is, you might have a doll where the leg is either straight or bent at 90 degrees, without any ability to hold a pose been those two. This is based partly on the elastic and partly on the stiffness/loseness of the joint. Fortunately, my first BJDs (both Jinjur and Buu) move smoothly between their poses and I can get them into a wide range of poses.

Because of the elastic, though, Jinjur tends to move out of poses in a way that Daisy doesn’t and I find myself fiddling with her to get her locked into a pose.

One area where Jinjur totally shines is in standing. Basically, she stands easily while Daisy stands really not at all.

This isn’t so much a fashion doll vs. BJD thing, though. It’s all in the feet. Daisy simply cannot balance on those tiny things. Moana, with those huge feet, also stands easily.

If I got Daisy a wide pair of shoes, it would give her something to balance on. Otherwise, it’s the doll stand for her.

Overall, I find the MTM Barbie and BJD dolls roughly equal in terms of poseability.  The standout feature for BJDs is that most can stand on their own (without a doll stand), while MTM Barbie’s shine in the ease of getting them into a pose without having to fiddle with the joints.