Plus-size dolls?

Impldoll has recently put out "plump" dolls in both 1/4 and 1/3, but they are definitely not what I'd call "fat," they just have bigger hips.

 

Goblin Tales no longer does BJDs IIRC, but the Cassie doll is a plus-size 1/4-scale doll! You might be able to find one secondhand.

Similarly, I know I've seen a plus-size 1/3 around (Magikademia if I have the name right?) and mmmiiiiigght have seen an artist doing sculpts for such a body recently, but I couldn't remember who if I'm right in the first place.

Ah, but rereading your post, plus-size male dolls specifically? I've not seen them around. I would love to see a greater range of bodies available, since for the guys, it's so hard to find anything beyond various forms of muscle dude from what I see. Maybe a slimmer/broader shoulder option here and there.

As for modding, I haven't done full-body padding, but I've seen someone needlefelt a plus-size doll, and I needlefelted a "bottom surgery" type of mod for one of my dolls. You could probably do similar or sew some padding. It might be fiddly to get all the limbs and such, though.

 

Argo Dolls has some "plus size" bodies in 1/4 and 1/3, which are a little better than Impldoll's, but not by that much. Hopeful Creation does some chunkier dolls, and I know I've seen some other smaller brands with more realistic bodies, but I can't recall off of the top of my head... In all cases they are "female" bodies though.

Edit: I remembered Of Butterflies & Things. Not currently available to buy anywhere, I don't think.

 

Huli Dolls has created a few plus size boys. One of them being a dwarf. I've had the pleasure of seeing one of them in person and he's absolutely amazing.

Here's the other, non-dwarf body they've created, but I'm unsure whether they're off topic on DOA or not.
Still, I wanted to share regardless, because they're a super talented artist.

 

OfButterfliesNThings girls are so awesome, and I hate that they're no longer available. Unfortunately, they weren't very popular, but you may be able to find one secondhand? Claudette was their first and most popular sculpt and was around 57cm, but Paulette and Nicolette were on the same body. The artist had plans to make 1/4 versions called Claudine, Pauline and Nicoline, I think? But I'm unsure if any were ever produced before they closed shop.

Here's my Paulette, Harriet. I am so so glad I grabbed this girl when I had the chance!




But a plus size boy...I've wanted one in the 60cm range for well over a decade, and never seen one. Be With You Pumpkin is the only plus size buy I can recall, but he's 30cm and was limited. But he's so cute!

 

As @idrisfynn said the problem is balance in all senses of the word with more natural looking plus size bjd.

There’s literal balance, making sure it can stand and also sit. You want that luscious chunky butt and highs, great…..however resin is solid, it does not yield like flesh does so when you try to sit a portly doll down it looks anything but graceful. The legs will spread out to compensate, it’ll lean back as the stomach is in the way, it’ll require some very clever engineering to allow the hip joints to ‘spread’ in a natural way to keep the legs together.

There’s balance of movement vs aesthetics because as previously mentioned resin is solid. The chunkier you make bodies and limbs the more it restricts the movement. It becomes more difficult to do even simple poses as bits of resin get in the way. Suddenly something such as having the doll cross its arms in front of itself becomes almost impossible. Wider shoulders can help compensate to a degree and obviously on a male doll you won’t have boobies to contend with but the thickness of the arms themselves be restrictive in themselves.

Let’s say you successfully manage to solve those problems then you will have the balance of aesthetics to deal with. The development so far will have taken many sleepless nights, hours and hours of sketching, sculpting and scrapping. Days of utter defeat and depression and quite probably lot of money and materials.
Yes when you mention the idea you will get loads of people saying “Yes please”, “OMG I would totally buy that” but I’ll tell you this now….. they won’t, they will be the first to make excuses as to why they can’t fork out the money to purchase the finished result.
“Oh he/she is amazing, buuuuuuuuuut I can’t afford to pay that just now as I have to take my goldfish to the vet to get its non existent nose hair shaved”
The more realistic you make your chonky doll the smaller the pool of people who will actually buy it which means you will be lucky to recoup the costs especially if the doll in question is more mature in age appearance as the fat distribution becomes more flabby and lumpy instead of rounded and smooth. You may well have to sacrifice a lot of your original plans in order to make something people will pay for.
You will also have to deal with nasty comments about its looks on social media, let’s not forget that massive steaming turd on the path to success! Can you deal with that?

The sad fact is realism in the doll world doesn’t sell unless that realism involves impossibly handsome or beautiful looks. People will shout about accurate representation of body shapes but won’t buy it when companies or independent makers actually bring out the sculpts unless that realism is toned down to make it more pleasing.
The only way it can be made possible financially is if you have other sculpts that are the money makers and only offer the plus sized ones in limited small runs.

Personally (as a plus sized older person) I’d like to see more variety, I like dolls with personality over prettiness but I’m also realistic about the pitfalls of doing anything creative that people have to pay for the end product.

Doll wise I was involved in the design of SleepingElf’s Fat Fairies. They were tinies, sculpted and cast by Bobobbie/Resinsoul years ago when single joints were more normal. I did the drawings to help Carrie out but had no say on how they were interpreted as the idea for them was not mine. My understanding of doll engineering was also incredibly limited. The resulting dolls were cute but posing and sitting was very restricted, this wasn’t helped by the big boobies which made arm movement more difficult. Here’s a photo of one of them. Sorry I don’t have a full body shot to hand, thought I did. I still have her if you want me to take some so you can see the pitfalls of a rounder figure.

CoCo1806 by Red_Bloduewedd, on Flickr

 

Have you seen Joydoll's soft body? Off topic for most of the forum because of how it is constructed, but maybe the use of foam gives you some ideas for either a custom body solution or a padded suit that could be worn over another body.

 

Magikademia does a plus sized girl, she's shorter than a Volks SD10 but probably too tall to pass for a 1/4 - and no use at all if you're after a male doll


Teddy

 

morningstardoll has a gorgeous fat body doll that's roughly 1/6 in scale and it's a pleasure to pose and to look at. Could maaaaybe work with a msd crew, but she'd be very very short (not that she fits well with mature tinies either, she feels too big with them)
Sadly, they're rarely for sale, and tend to sell out insanely fast. You have to stalk the artist's instagram to have a chance (or be lucky on the second hand market).

A handful of off topic 3D printed fat dolls also exist, but they also tend to be at small scales.

 

A Chinese dollmaker called Blackship黑船 is releasing their "Oil Painting" (油画体) body in 1/3 and 1/4 size next month. She's a Ruben-esque curvy girl who really has flesh on her. It looks amazing!

I'm not sure if this link works, but here is their account on XHS/Rednote, which has a lot of photos including measurements. This is their Taobao store where they're selling the doll.

 

@aihre Finally softer arms, thicker calves, and a sculpted soft belly! This is what I wished IMPLDOLL's plump body looked more like. The jointing looks promising too. Good to see a Chinese artist start paving the way for curvy dolls (especially knowing the beauty standards there)! I hope they'll succeed.

 

@sageyufi Yes, I think this Oil Painting body holds a lot of promise and Blackship seems to have done well on joint engineering. But true to form, she will need bespoke clothing - I put her measurements into my spreadsheet of doll body measurements, and nothing out there is likely to fit her unless there's lots of stretch. I think she's 64cm tall with head, but her hips and thighs at least are already larger in circumference than the largest 68-72cm girls'. Blackship's Taobao store seems to be listing a custom dress for her that can be preordered, which is a great start.

The promo pics have generated a lot of buzz on the CN side, so I hope the preorder is a hit! (It will open in March, and I'm sure she'll appear at dealer websites too.)

 

@aihre Woooow, what a georgous bodyI sure hope this type of more rounded or even mid to plus sized body will become more popularI just adore, when a doll looks soft and "natural" (I know real people all have vastly different bodies, but most aren't shaped like the typical BJDs we know). She looks like she's going to be a great poser too. Also a big fan of the shoulder joints. Would love for it to become more standard too.

 

@aihre What a gorgeous doll!! I hope they share more pictures soon. That sculpting is gorgeous.

 

Youpladoll has a plus-size body. Shiki is beautiful, I ordered her and am very excited about this body and the doll. It seems to be a big trend at the moment. For me it's the first plus size doll

 

Love the photos of plus sized dolls shared here and hope more artists and companies endeavor to make more body options! I personally want to own as many varieties of Volks SD bodies that are femme presenting as I can. It would be so cool if they were to include a plus sized option one day!

 

I like my Cassie - an MSD Artists BJD from Goblin Tales BJD
Cassandra
Despite being plus size, she can also fit into clothes from common, normal, slightly larger BJDs like Zaoll, for example And best of all, the hands and feet are equipped with magnets, just like in MNFs!

 

I love this body! The jointing and posing ability reminds me of my Anitya by Bardo Research (she is only 31cm). I dont think I've ever seen such complex jointing in a 1/3 doll.

Any ideas which dealers might offer her?

 

@aliquotiens No word on dealers yet, but since the preorder for the Oil Painting body opens next month I expect there will be info within the next couple weeks. I'm sure dealers will offer her - I'll update when I find out which ones.

Here's the official announcement from Blackship's Weibo for the CN audience. If you're ordering via Blackship's Taobao store, the preorder duration is 8th - 15th March. Dealers may or may not have longer preorder timeframe for her.
That post also has more promo pics, the CN-facing price (it's a deposit/balance payment), photos of the option parts and order info for the bespoke dress that's offered on Blackship's Taobao.

Additional Weibo posts: measurements for both 1/3 and 1/4 bodies, nude posing display for the 1/4 body, two sets of promo pics for the 1/3 body. There are more pics on the Weibo account.

 

Gosh, I'm so excited for this one! The posing looks phenomenal and I love the chubby hands so much. Really hope it fits my budgetAnd hoping dealers will offer it, because otherwise this is going to be difficult

 

Yes there are definitely a few of these out there, but mostly by smaller/indie makers. I have a Summerbird Viola, and I don't think I've seen her mentioned in this thread yet.

Unfortunately Summerbird is no longer active in dollmaking. I found mine secondhand so it's definitely possible. There's a hybrid on the MP right now with a Viola body.
Viola's body was intended to be unisex and comes with a flat chest part.

 

Wish I had marketplace access @TheBodyVolcanic your doll is gorgeous That outfit is A-DORABLE

 

Oh! Another plus size 1/4 girl that you'd unfortunately have to find secondhand is FreakStyle Salomé! As far as I know, the artist no longer makes dolls, which is sad because while they only had a handful of sculpts, they were really unique and interesting and Salomé was one of the first plus size BJDs to ever hit the market, back in 2014. Here's an old DoA thread where she was released with a few pics.

 

Thank you so much!! She is such a special doll. She was a grail for me so I'm so glad I found one!

Ahh I hope you can get access soon, it's definitely a nice place to buy and sell. People definitely post them elsewhere for sale too though, I got mine from another collector I was connected to on social media

omg oh no.... I had never heard of her and she's BEAUTIFUL!!! Maybe someday..

 

She wasn't terribly popular, but I was lucky enough to get to do a faceup on one and play with her. Despite being an early plus size doll, her posing was better than I expected and I was able to get her balanced just right to stand on her own. Quite a unique and fun doll! Keep an eye out and post "Want to Buy" where you can! I hope you find her eventually!

 

Edit - New information about the nature of Dollsphere's listing, please see post #32 below.

Update on Blackship's Oil Painting body, for @aliquotiens and others who are interested.

Dollsphere is dealing for this body in both the 1/3 and 1/4 sizes - their product listing is here. According to their Instagram promo post, it's limited quantity (60 units, unsure that figure is for each size or both sizes in total).
I have not been following this conversation closely on CN social media, but I understand that this March preorder is actually an "early-bird" preorder, hence the limited quantities available at Dollsphere. Seems like Blackship will hold another preorder (non-early bird... like an actual preorder? I'm unsure) later, that is not quantity-limited like this.

Hope this helps, I think the dealer will have more info regarding what's the difference between an early-bird preorder and a proper one.