So I’m casually thinking about making a pair of dicephalus conjoined twin BJDs that are like my favorite pair of conjoined twins, Abby and Britty Hensel. Below is a list of possibilities for making my set of doll twins. I really don’t care if you’re not interested. I’m just writing this down so that my ideas will not bother me while I’m trying to work, sleep, crochet, write, walk home or otherwise function in a sane manner.
Elfdoll Tiny Hana base. This was my original idea because I love the expressive neutral, frowning, sleeping and smiling Hana faces. However, I would need to create another back-of-head for one of the twins because the Hanas don’t come with 4 separate heads, but 1 back-of-head and 4 faceplates. Also, Elfdoll does not sell the bodies separately, so I’d either have to do a lot of original modding to the single body or buy two or transfer the heads to other tiny BJD bodies… Either way, it’s an expensive option, since the Hanas cost $350 per without s/h. Two of them would mean a $700 pair of twins without s/h. It’s also the most complicated option, since the single-piece Elfdoll tiny torso does not offer as simple a mod as a two-piece would.
Orientdoll Joong base. This was my second idea; I thought I would continue with the 8″ BJD size [like Elfdoll Hana], but purchase the twins from a company that sells parts. Joong heads run $65 unpainted [x 2 = $130], and bodies run $115 [x 2 = $220], so, at $350 without s/h, I’d have all the parts needed for the twins. On the good side, Orientdoll Joongs are affordable. On the bad side, I don’t really like the 8″ BJDs, now that I think about it, and the OD 8″ sculpts don’t thrill me.
Orientdoll Dae base. This is a variation of my second idea since I like the 45cm OD sculpts much better. Unpainted Dae heads are $93 [x 2 = $186] and bodies $152 [x2 = $304], so, at $490 without s/h, they wouldn’t be that bad. They’re affordable, but the one-piece torsos would be a needlessly complex mod.
Soom Uyoo base. This is the cheapest version I’ve come up with, since I could get 1 body and 2 heads [“Uyoo & R. Uyoo Replacement”] for $268 unpainted without s/h. Uyoo’s close resemblance to an Obitsu or plastic fashion doll means that I wouldn’t need to get a second body. I could just use some plastic doll parts to create the second half-torso + neck, which I would attach to the whole doll with Aves Apoxie Sculpt, then paint to match. So all parts would be cheap, as would clothes, since I have many 1:6 clothes. Uyoo’s two-part torso would make the mod easy. Plus the two heads, one open-eyed, one closed-eyed, would fit my requirement for easily differentiated, but similar, characters. But…still…I resist doing the conjoined twins in Uyoo size. I might as well just make them with vinyl action figures, like BBI’s Perfect Body figs or something. A set of dicephalus conjoined twins made of Uyoos would be affordable, but also too much like modding I’ve already done. I feel the need to hack into BJDs aggressively on a larger scale….
Bobobie 43cm base. These are pretty cheap too. The girl bodies would be $108 each and the heads $50 each, for a total of $316 before s/h. But I don’t like the Bobobie sculpts and, more importantly, they are lying, cheating, ripping-off plagiarists [of MythDoll’s 60cm Wujee, among other things], and I cannot support them by buying anything from them. I considered them only for price and then only fleetingly.
DollZone 43cm base. These are also cheap. Full dolls are only $199, not sure how much parts are, so the twins would be $398 before s/h. Too bad their sculpts are all squashed and squinty, and, more importantly, they are lying, cheating, ripping-off plagiarists [of Volks’ SD16 Yukinojo, among other things], and I cannot support them, etc.
Latidoll Blue [43cm] base. At $280 for an unpainted full girl, that would make my twins $560 before s/h. The body is one of the most poseable and beautiful in the scale, and the double torso joint makes for easy modding, but I don’t like the sculpts much…
Narindoll [45cm] base. Narins have the best heads for this… They have the possibility of open mouths and eyes open or closed at different levels for great differentiation. But they are the most expensive. 2 unpainted Narins are $900 before s/h!! I wouldn’t want to touch dolls that cost that much!
My ideal dicephalus conjoined twins would be Elfdoll tiny Hana devils, but that’s out of my price range [$700, no thank you] and involves too much aggressive modding.
Therefore my second choice would be two Narin heads, a sleeping optional Narae [fully closed eyes + open mouth] and Butterfly Narae [fully open eyes + closed mouth] at $150 each, for a total of $300 before s/h. And then they would have a <$200 body [where?] with an extra neck created from a Gene or a Tyler doll attached with Aves Apoxie Sculpt, bwah hah hah hah! [This is my genius idea to avoid getting another expensive resin body.]
While I’m thinking out loud for alternative twins, perhaps I could do OD Il head and OD Cheong head [total = $186 without s/h] on an OD girl body [$152] = $338 before s/h + Gene torso contributions + Aves Apoxie Sculpt [with a lot of hacking to mod the one-piece OD torso].
I could make an affordable alternative to Narin twins using an OD base, even though OD has a one-piece torso. I’d just have to slice the OD torso under the boobs and mod only the top part, then smooth a lot of Aves Apoxie between the two neck stems and between the wide upper torso and the skinnier abdomen. But it could work.