Soft-bust Obitsu vs. Made to Move Barbie

I've had this post in Draft Limbo for nearly a year, so instead of Throwback Thursday I'm going to complete this post.  This saga began clean back in April of last year, when Emiko's neck broke and her head popped off (indeed, a couple of the following photos were taken at when I was still working at Holcomb, where I haven't worked since early May).  Finding a new Takara body would've likely been easy, but instead I chose an Obitsu body because why not?  The Obitsu body arrived on April twenty-third, much faster than I thought it would, and Emiko now has her new body.

That was my first time ordering from Junky Spot but given the quick shipping time it probably won't be my last.  Anywho, the Obitsu body has an insane amount of joints, much more than Emiko's old Takara body had.  I'm looking forward to tinkering around with this body, but I can't help noticing the similarities between it and a Made to Move Barbie body.  I was hoping that by the time I got this post up I'd have found a Gabby Douglas doll to show off, but my favorite little gymnast continues to elude me so good ol' Cassandra will be helping us out today.  For those of you that need a refresher, this is Cassandra, my Made to Move Asha.

Emiko's new body cost twenty-five bucks, about twice what I paid for Cassandra at Wal-Mart.  That's a good-sized price gap given the size of these two dolls, but not big enough to keep me from comparing how they move.  These Made to Move dolls are fabulous, by the way.  How many Barbie dolls do you know of that could sit like this???

I don't know yet if Emiko can do that, but we'll soon find out.  Here's what the two bodies look like side by side.  I also threw in Jenny and Natalie (Barbie Fashionistas #23 Love that Lace) to give a further idea of size.

Emiko is still the same height as Jenny, so that much has stayed the same.  In the above picture it's easy to see that the 27-cm Obitsu body is shorter than the standard Barbie body, but taller than a petite body.  The original Barbie was supposed to be about 5'8", and the average petite girl is about 5'4", so if these dolls were real people Jenny and Emiko would probably be about 5'6".  5'4" is the upper limit for a petite woman though, so these numbers are free for playing with.

I'll start at the top of these bodies, with head attachment.  The heads attach to the bodies in similar manner but with different pieces.  Cassandra's head attaches with a barbed piece of plastic that looks like this.  Obitsu bodies have neck knobs that come in a number of shapes and sizes; the body I've got has knobs that look like this.

These knobs attach to the neck by virtue of a small metal pin concealed with in the neck stump.  Push this pin part of the way out and fit the metal eye down in the neck.  Push the pin back into place and you should have a sturdy connection.  One does have to play with the position of the metal eye a bit; if it's not screwed into the neck knob enough the connection will be very floppy.  My particular body came with four neck knobs of varying sizes, but you'll only get to see two.  One is being used and the other...well, it's stuck inside Emiko's head and I haven't got the tools to get it out.  But it's not gone forever.  Regarding motion of these necks, Cassandra can swivel and tip her head with no trouble.

Emiko can also swivel and tip her head, but she goes about it in a different way entirely.  Look very closely at her neck alignment in these next pictures.

I've got plenty of dolls that can tip their heads, but so far Emiko is the only one with a jointed neck.  In addition to left and right Emiko can tip her head back a bit.

Forward motion isn't great, though.  This is as far forward as I can flex Emiko's neck.

I can live with the limitations of this joint, because it's a joint that Emiko didn't have when she had her old Takara body.  As I showed in Jenny's and Licca-chan's reviews, neither one of them can tip their heads.

Moving down a bit, Cassandra has your the combination of plastics found on the majority of Barbie dolls:  vinyl head and hard plastic body.  The Obitsu body is a bit more complicated.  Most of it is hard plastic, but the hands are soft vinyl, and since I ordered a soft bust option part of the torso is vinyl too.  Here's what the two torsos look like side by side.

The Obitsu body has some lovely sculpted clavicles up front.  Cassandra's body doesn't have that.

Outwardly the two torsos each appear to have two pieces.  Cassandra's joint is just below the rib margin as you saw above, and the Obitsu joint is at the waist.  Both of these torso joints have mediocre front-to-back motion and good side-to-side motion.

Emiko has one up on Cassandra here, in that her torso joint can swivel (Cassandra's can't).

Unfortunately, that extra movement comes at a price, as the Obitsu waist joint is quite floppy, especially when Emiko is not wearing anything.  It's not uncommon for me to stand Emiko up straight, walk away, come back, and find her like this.

Maybe Emiko has been hanging around P. Bo too much.  I don't know if there is a way to get inside the body and tighten this joint or not; some Obitsu torsos have removable vinyl parts, but I haven't tried that with Emiko yet.  I can pop her apart at the waist, but at the moment there doesn't appear to be much I can do to tighten that joint.  For grins, here's what the inside of Emiko's torso looks like.

Moving outwards now, limbs.  Cassandra and Emiko have arms that are the same length, and they move in the same manner.  Both have double-jointed elbows, enabling the arms to bend to extremely acute angles. 

The upper arms are jointed as well, but placement of the jointing is a little different here.  Cassandra's arm has a joint halfway between the elbow and the shoulder.

This joint rotates and looks surprisingly natural no matter what position the arm is in.

The Obitsu upper arm joint is closer to the elbow and looks the same all the way around.  It rotates fully like the Made to Move joint does, but since the plastic is uniform in size the joint doesn't change shape.  The location of this joint is highlighted by that poorly drawn arrow.

Both dolls have ball-jointed shoulders, and both have wrists that bend.  It's a little harder to bend Emiko's wrists because the soft vinyl hands create a lot of friction in that joint, but it can be done.

Emiko's arm is shorter overall than Cassandra's is.

Down to legs now.  Pardon the crudeness of this next picture, but this is what both dolls' lower torsos look like.

Cassandra has molded drawers and Emiko has a pair of bare butt cheeks shining.  Both dolls have high cut hips that look strange but allow for some high front kicks.  Cassandra can kick higher...

...but Cassandra has respectable forward movement too.

The next few photos were bordering on dolly porn, so I briefly put the girls back in their clothes.  That being said, Emiko has better lateral movement in her hips...

...unless I rotate Cassandra's hips so the notch in her hip joint points up.  Then she can do full splits.

Cassandra can also achieve full front-back splits with ease...

...but Emiko's hips are cut at a diagonal so she can't kick back.

I can't really tell if Emiko's legs are longer than Cassandra's or if that's just an illusion, but it doesn't really matter since they're so close in length anyway.

Like the upper arms, Cassandra and Emiko both have joints in the thigh area.  These both rotate, allowing the dolls to rotate their knees outwards like so.  Cassandra's thigh joints are higher up, close to her hips, while Emiko's are down by her knees.

Both bodies have peanut joints in their knees, similar to LIV knees and some ball-jointed doll knees.  As a result these knees can bend to a sharp angle, though Cassandra can bend hers to a tighter angle due to her slimmer thighs.

Lastly, both dolls have jointed ankles that rotate and bend.

Both of these dolls have weak ankles, though Cassandra's are floppier than Emiko's.  So much for ice skating.  LOL, and I had that ice skating costume ready!  Due to their rotating hips, bending knees, and flexible ankles, both dolls are capable of doing grand plies, something that even my ballerina dolls can't do.  Dang, now I wish I had a Barbie-sized ballet barre!

Before I discuss posing and clothing in more detail, there is one last way that the Obitsu body differs from Cassandra's.  It comes apart in multiple places...and I mean MULTIPLE places!

And I thought Monster High dolls were impressive with their pop-off arms and hands!  So far I've counted thirteen places that come apart counting the neck.  There may be more if the vinyl can slip off the skeleton of the torso, but the absolute last thing I want to do is break this body so I'm not going to try it.  A couple of these parts already look like they'd like to split along the seams, particularly these thigh pieces.

I can't show how lightweight the Obitsu body is, but it's considerably lighter than the Made to Move body.  I've seen the occasional large-headed doll (usually a Pullip, less often a Blythe) rebodied onto an Obitsu head, and I honestly don't know how the customizers do it, because my factory Blythe Jaylin's head weighs more than the whole Obitsu body.  Normally that wouldn't be a big deal since Blythe dolls have heavy heads anyway, but the Licca-clone body that Jaylin possesses holds her up with very little fuss.  Granted, I AM using a stand to hold Jaylin up, but see how her posture is better than Emiko's?

I solemnly swear that I did not deliberately lean Emiko like that.  I turned her head, yes, but she flopped over on her own.  That loose waist makes me wonder though how folks can successfully rebody dolls like Blythe and Pullip onto this body.  Maybe the smaller Obitsu bodies have tighter waists?  Maybe Pullip heads are lighter?  Maybe it's the different jointing on the hard-bust Obitsu bodies?  It has to be one of those things, because the Obitsu body IS used to rebody Blythe and Pullip dolls.  I'll say this about Emiko, though:  if I get her feet centered just right, she can stand without support.  Jaylin cannot, and Cassandra can only do it after I've fought with her for about five minutes because her ankles like to collapse.  I think that's the only gripe I have about Cassandra's body.  Notice that while Emiko stands freely Cassandra's leaning against the wall.

Granted, I can only get Emiko to stand like this when she's barefoot or wearing flat shoes, and to get her balanced I always have to leave her legs slightly apart.  But she CAN stand, about as well as President Michelle does.  Obitsu does offer an option for bodies with magnetized feet, but I've heard that wearing shoes makes the magnets ineffective so I chose a body without magnets.  But then again, Emiko lives barefoot so magnets might not have been a bad idea.

Regarding clothes, Emiko and Cassandra are of similar height, but their measurements are not the same.  This isn't a problem for Cassandra since the Obitsu body doesn't come with clothes anyway, but that does leave Emiko free for experimenting.  Clothes for original-bodied Barbies and Sparkle Girlz are a little big across the bust but look nice.

Outfits for Takara Jenny and Bandai Barbie also work, much better than Barbie clothes.

Starr and Teen Skipper clothes fit nicely.

And this Diva Starz outfit still works, except for the shoes.

Now...clothes that DON'T work.  I don't bother with clothes for tall, petite, or curvy Barbie dolls, because tall clothes are too long, petite clothes are too short, and curvy clothes are too roomy.  TNT clothes and LIV clothes are also too big, while the majority of my other fashion doll clothes are too short.  The good news is that original Barbie clothes are becoming more and more commonplace, and Sparkle Girlz clothes are VERY abundant, so Emiko has plenty of things to choose from.  I tend to prefer her in this cute Sparkle Girlz outfit...

...or this purple chevron-print dress, sized for Barbie...

...but she prefers this blue flowered Barbie dress.  It's big around her bust, but it's also got a skirt wide enough for her to show off her best poses.  The chevron dress and the Sparkle Girlz dress restrict her movement a bit.

What a surprise, this dress didn't come with shoes, though I doubt they would've fit anyway.  The vast majority of Barbie's shoes are too small, as are Sparkle Girlz shoes.

And unfortunately, the Diva Starz shoes don't snap shut over Emiko's rigid plastic ankles.

LIV and Starr shoes are too big.

If I bother with shoes at all for Emiko I have her wear Takara Jenny shoes like these...

...or Teen Skipper shoes.  They're wide enough to work.

Shoes meant for curvy (top image) and tall (bottom image) Barbie dolls will also work, though I had to use my keys to pry Emiko's feet out of the tall doll shoes.

So there we have it, two highly posable bodies of a similar gauge that can share clothes and probably share heads too.  What made this comparison interesting for me though was that Emiko's body cost twice what Cassandra the full doll cost, and yet it has a few frustrating shortcomings.  Firstly, Emiko's waist is very floppy.  I don't know if all Obitsu waists are this loose, but Emiko's is and I don't know how to fix it.  If she were a street-themed doll like P. Bo I'd be more likely to turn a blind eye to this, and indeed I could dress Emiko in some old Flavas clothes and make her P. Bo's new homegirl...but there's something about Emiko's cheery visage that just doesn't scream "homegirl" to me.

The other issue I have with this body is its durability.  It's very lightweight, and I've already vocalized my concern for the hip pieces, which appear to be separating at the seams.  It certainly isn't as sturdy as the old Takara body, though it does have a neck that isn't crumbling (always a plus).  So I'm not going to lie, I like Emiko's new body, but I definitely wouldn't recommend using this body for any doll head bigger than a Barbie's.  I've seen Pullip and Blythe heads on Obitsu bodies, and I honestly have no idea how they stand up straight...unless there's some sort of difference between the hard-bust Obitsu bodies and the soft-bust bodies.  Most of the rebodied Pullip dolls I've seen have the hard-bust bodies, so maybe I'm missing something here.  There may need to be a Part Two to this saga somewhere down the road.  But right now I think Cassandra's Made to Move body slightly edges out Emiko's Obitsu body.  It moves in all the same ways, but it feels more substantial and less likely to break.  Perhaps if I'd chosen a hard-bust Obitsu body the outcome would've been different, but for now Cassandra wins this one.

Happy New Year,
RagingMoon1987