Curious if anyone has gone from 1/4 dolls to 1/3 dolls?

I don't have much experience, but I did the opposite. My first two were SD then I got an msd. I tend to prefer SD, but I love them both. SDs have more "presence", I love their weight and they are easier to craft for. MSDs are easier to move around and squeeze just one more on the shelf, and I do love how they feel in my hands. There is also much more available to buy for MSDs. This is just my experience though. I'm sure others have different opions. Hopefully this helps.

 

I did just that but very quickly. My second full doll was a 1/4, and I traded my first (1/6) doll for another 1/4. It was only within a month or two that I decided I wanted to try other sizes since I seemed to like bigger dolls. I had never seen a 1/3 in person. So I ordered a 1/3. Then another. And another. All before even one of them arrived. All secondhand too so they were coming quick. The first two happened to arrive on the same day and I can remember opening the first huge box with my two 1/4 sitting beside me. He was 65cm and MASSIVE. I honestly felt kind of overwhelmed by the size at first because my brain hadn't made the jump that this doll would be twice as tall and three times as wide as my 1/4. Then I looked down at the other unopened box that had a 62cm within and started thinking what the hell have I gotten myself into. And there was another still on the way.

After that initial shock, I actually prefer 1/3 scale. Like lividdarkangel said, they have a nice "presence" to them that 1/4 don't really have. They don't seem like toys like smaller dolls can seem like and I like the weight of them.

 

Yes !! I used to only have 1/4 scale but I’m definitely in love with my 60 cm guys now and I have a few 70s. They are heavier but I really enjoy them.

 

I went from 1/6 to 1/8 to 1/4 and am now just starting to dream of my first 1/3. I like all these sizes for different reasons but I will admit that I prefer the heaviness of my bigger gals. (The portability of my tinies is great though, not gonna lie.)

 

I had all tinies starting out, but have been getting more MSDs lately.... I got one 1/3 girl last year and I love her but that size is too big for me to get any more, I decided... It's uncomfortable for me to handle a bigger doll -- so I think MSDs are my sweet spot.

I have mostly 1/6 and 1/8, and I do just like the smaller scales more overall.

 

I started with an msd, then got a tiny. Now I need to get an sd so I can know for sure, which scale is for me! I had never handled dolls like these before. I really like the msd and tiny for different reasons so I'm sure I'll like the sd for its own. I want to hold something heavy!

 

I started out with SD right away and have never really looked at other sizes. One time I was in love with a certain 1/4 doll from Souldoll but couldn’t find her 2nd hand so I let her go. I like sexy girls with sharp face features and I couldn’t find that in smaller size dolls. Also I try to do makeup and SD head size already gives me a hard time so I don’t think smaller size works for me.

 

I started out with 1/4, then got a 1/3 as there were more clothing, wig, eyes and accessories choices for 1/3 when I started more than 15 years ago...

Now I have dolls of all sizes - 1/3, 1/4, 1/6, 1/12 and one giant boy that's 75 cm tall. Though I think I do prefer 1/3 (that's in the regular 60cm-ish range) in general. They feel more substantial than 1/4 and aren't too heavy or bulky, and they suit the characters I want them for better. Somehow I'm unable to get rid of the idea that 1/3 and above are adults and 1/4 and below are children, so mature 1/4 and 1/6 dolls just feel odd to me personally.

 

I started with MSD and switched to SD after getting frustrated with the lack of mature/realistic sculpts in MSD. I originally wanted to stick with only 1/6 scale, but that want feasible with the style of doll I wanted.

It's a lot easier to sew for SDs, and I personally find it easier to string them, because the big channels allow you to use more substancial crochet hooks to grab the string. They're heftier, but I personally don't have any problem picking them up or manipulating them (easy dumbbell hack, just hold an SD in each hand, gainz for days).

 

I have started with MSD and have all kinds of sizes now thought my bulk still contains of MSD.
Each has it‘s own advantage and I admit if I could strink the large dolls to fit in wizh my MSDs I would, for space reasons alone.

One thing can be said for sure: More elaborate and detailed crafted clothes, shoes and accessories can be found for the bigger ones.

 

My first doll was Yosd. I had friends who had MSD and SD sizes before me and I would help them with their dolls. My second doll was MSD size and I feel a bit more comfortable with them. I finally did get an SD of my own but she’s quite big to take out and I feel like she’s a giant compared to the rest of my collection. I also think MSD is my sweet spot thought it sucks that more often than not clothes are easier to find for SD sized dolls. :/

 

This could be the single sentence description to the story of my time in the hobby. I found out about bjds in 2007, got my first—an MSD—later that year, and got immersed from there.

For a time anyways. I moved states around the time I was getting more fascinated with bjds. At the time I was also losing interest. I recall taking an interest in some SDs I saw while browsing shop pages back at the time, but getting more bjds in general wasn't feasible at the time. Thus my interest in general for the hobby waned, and went into a several year hibernation.

Eventually I came back to the hobby after digging my MSD girl out of storage for the first time in years. I knew at that point, however, that I was ready to make the great SD leap. I started big—going for a (fairly slender, I mean—it's the smaller 70cm Resinsoul body that Long came on) 70 cm as my first. I eventually upgraded that boy onto a larger, meatier body, and I fell in love with the proportions. The weight, details, maturity—it outweighed my interest in smaller scales—bjds and off-topic dolls alike. I was actively still collecting and customizing Pullip brand dolls at that time, and my interest in them seriously started to wane once I got into SDs. (I admittedly prepared myself for the scale before his arrival by getting a general idea of what the size would equate to, plus having and carrying cats around prepared me for the heft I have to also admit—I was slightly disappointed that he wasn't larger when I finally got him)

For me, SD and larger just have more depth and gravity to them. They feel like smaller scale people, while MSD and smaller are more akin to action figures in my perspective. It was that factor especially that drove me further into the larger sizes instead of going smaller. If I want an action figure, I'll get an official produced one, or find a blank to customize myself (or create one in a 3D program and have them be printed). (The only exception to this for me would be intricately jointed animal bjds—especially cats) Smaller equates to toy in my mind, while SD and larger are more equivalent to living, breathing—alive.

I prefer imbuing my OCs into something with more life in it, rather than as toys. Yes, the heft makes it harder to move multiples at a time, and the size does take up more room. But I don't need a large collection of bjds anyways—just enough to shell my special OCs (and favorite existing characters) as.

(As an aside: there's also the fact that more mature, realistic options are available in larger scales, and I strongly prefer mature features over more child-like or stylized ones. Plus the ease for doing faceups, restringing, sewing clothes, finding and creating eyes for, etc compared to smaller scales.)

 

I thought I really wanted an sd but I found msd is the perfect size for me after handling both irl during a doll meet. they're the perfect on the go size, don't take up too much room, and a good size to craft for! I do love the overall presence of sds like others have said, and the weight of sds feel really nice to hold imo.
so I definitely reccomend handling a sd irl before jumping into buying one!

 

I have everything from a 6cm Micro to a couple of 75cm giants over here in my crew, and honestly? The various sizes all have their good and bad points.

My traditional/old-school, medium-sized 1/3-scale dolls are definitely my favorites. At 57-63cm, they're large enough to be visually impressive, they're much easier to sew for than smaller dolls and they definitely have that sense of physical presence that smaller dolls often don't... while still being a pretty manageable size and weight to handle. (Redressing a massively heavy, 75cm doll is a little like wrestling with a small bear. The 60cm guys are so, SO much easier to deal with. )

If you're used to 1/4-scale (Especially light-weight "slim Minis" like Fairyland's MiniFees-) a 1/3's height and bulk may take some getting used to, even if you don't go for one of the 70cm+ Seriously Huge guys or gals. After handling them for awhile, though, they'll start to feel more familiar. (I faced that learning curve in the other direction. I had my 1/3s first, and it took me a few weeks of owning my first itty-bitty doll... an 11cm Banji... to convince myself that I wouldn't break him just by picking him up.)

 

I got into the hobby a long time ago (2005), and at that time there were a lot of people posting here talking about how they were overwhelmed by the size of an SD after owning only MSDs. So much so that this actually influenced my plans, my first doll was SD sized because I figured if I can handle them, I can handle anything smaller no problem! So I started my shopping from there. But there were also plenty of people with opinions like what's already been said here, like the extra options SD size ranges open up for realism, maturity, details, etc. So it's definitely possible you'll "click" with SDs even more!

I was definitely surprised by the difference when my first MSD came, even though mathematically/intellectually I knew there IS a big difference between 45 and 60 cm. I think the same is probably true going the opposite direction. I like all sizes, because they each have their own appeal to me. But I think if I were going the other way, trying out SDs after MSDs first, I would hunt for a doll I really loved the look of that would also look appealing to me next to my MSDs. I kinda am doing that, right now, trying to figure out doll plans for what's supposed to be the father of one of my MSD kid characters, lol. Especially if you like posing or photographing your dolls together, you want it to make you happy! (Example, I store one of my 65cm boys with my 11cm pukipuki sitting on his knee, because they're so drastically different but they both have big hair, and it makes me smile to see them 'hanging out,' lol. The big hair don't care club, haha!)

 

I definitely have! When I got my first BJD, I was really young (around 10 or 11) and just took what I could find available to me on the secondhand market. She happened to be a 1/4 scale doll around 44cm tall, and she sat in her box for almost a decade after I received her. Upon getting back into the hobby a couple years ago, I decided she needed some friends, so I was all in on 1/4 scale. I didn't even look at anything bigger, thinking back on it, which I think I certainly would have if that first doll wasn't a factor. So, she got friends, but it wasn't long before I started noticing 1/3 scale sculpts.

For masculine sculpts especially, 1/3 scale just seemed to have more of what I was looking for! So I ordered one 1/3 boy, a massive 68cm (compared what I was used to)! After receiving him, I was very happy with the size, although I did waffle back and forth a bit on which I liked better. I, at one point, decided 1/3 scale wasn't for me entirely, and that I would focus more on 1/4s.

But then the floodgates opened once more, and I was able to get a 1/3 doll that was probably the closest thing I've ever had to a grail. He's smaller than my first 1/3, at 62cm tall, and he's probably my favorite doll in terms of size. He feels a lot sturdier/less fragile, while not being so big he's unwieldy. But, despite saying that, I have three more 1/3 dolls planned currently and all are much taller! One I plan to use my first 1/3 doll's body, so he'll be 68cm, and the other two will be 70cm and 74cm. I blame my love of height differences.

To get to the point, for me personally, I like both 1/4 and 1/3 scale, but I do prefer 1/3 scale for the clothing options and wider variety of masculine sculpts. (I still adore my 1/4 girls, but I'm not sure if my 1/4 boys will be sticking around for much longer, heh)