A few weeks ago I took some comparison photos of my friend's Makie doll with my Lati doll - showing the different poses they hold and the ease to which they do so. I only have one BJD doll now, having sold the others due to not really 'bonding' with them and feeling they were wasted with me. I kept back my little Lati Lami as she is very sweet and I hadn't quite decided whether to part with her or not.
Obviously they are quite different in size. Although their joints are of a different type, they are in similar places, i.e. shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, knees and ankles.
I could have done with a flatter surface but this was the best I had for photographing them against a neutral background.
The girls kindly obliged and showed me some of their 'poses and paces'
Strike a pose! Just love this pose!
Even on a very smooth surface the Makie doll held her poses well.
Sadly I couldn't say the same about the Lati doll, who in the end gave up and watched....the surface was just too smooth for her.
The Lati has a bit more flexibility than the Makie - I love the way she sits in this pose - a position I still often choose when sitting on the floor! Poor Makie though just couldn't do that.
She does manage to sit up though and doesn't fall over backwards.
You can see here, the Lati has a more 'natural' type pose, but they can still both kneel okay.
All in all, despite not having quite as much 'flexibility' than the Lati doll, the Makie doll wins hands down for me as when you put her in a pose she keeps it. This is really important to me as I like to take my dolls out and about and write photo stories, and there is nothing more frustrating that spending too much time trying to get a doll to hold a pose.
Of course not really knowing anything about BJDs in general, I am sure someone more knowledgeable than me would have more success with perhaps playing around with the mechanisms in the Lati doll - I don't think there is anything wrong - she is nicely strung - it is just that she doesn't suit what I want her to do. She is a really sweet doll, with a charming face, but doing this comparison really helped me make the decision about whether she was to stay or look for a new home, and now I have my own Makie doll, Wren, the little Lati Lami doll will be up for re-homing where she will be enjoyed more than I am able to. I much prefer the size of the Makies at 10 inches. The Lati is just too small. I think also the fact that the BJDs are so expensive also means I am more wary about taking her out anywhere in case she is damaged, so the poor girl has spent most of her time in her box!
I am very grateful to my friend for leaving her doll with me for a week - she certainly was a great 'enabler'.
