Smart doll sculpt chart.

I think the frustration with the re-use of SmartDoll head molds is the lack of transparency; there's no clear listing on sales pages "this is X head mold." Volks tells you the head mold. Obitsu tells you the head mold. Angel Philia tells you the head mold. 

I actually love multiples. I own several twins and triplets. But I do so purposely, knowing in advance that I'm getting multiples. I think it's a bit more frustrating when you:

- Specifically want multiples, and can't figure out who shares a head mold with who

- Specifically want a NEW mold, and can't figure out if a doll shares a mold with a doll you already have

For example, I had a Mirai and realized I didn't like her mold. It just didn't work for me. The lack of transparency made it super difficult for me to avoid getting a mold that I knew I did not like (this was really early on; now that there are mold charts it's not really an issue -- but I've stopped buying SmD for other reasons). 

11 hours ago, K-2 said:

I have found this to be true about many doll sculpts. I have well over a dozen Obitsus with the Haruka head and with different face ups, hair, eyes, etc. and they really don't look like they share the same head type. Going into Smart Dolls knowing this, I really was kind of puzzled with the flap about dolls sharing the same sculpt.

I guess it depends on the person and what they see. I tend to be really good (apparently) at identifying sculpts, so I find that many of the Smart Dolls that share the same sculpt to look practically alike. For instance, the comment about Kizuna and Mirai; it's always been obvious to me that they're the same sculpt.

It could just go back to people not liking how flat the sculpts are, so seeing them reused rubs salt in the wound. 

1 hour ago, cfx said:

I guess it depends on the person and what they see. I tend to be really good (apparently) at identifying sculpts, so I find that many of the Smart Dolls that share the same sculpt to look practically alike. For instance, the comment about Kizuna and Mirai; it's always been obvious to me that they're the same sculpt.

I think Kizuna, Mirai, and Melody look very different, but once you know they are the same sculpt it's obvious. Mirai, Gaia, and Symphony look very much alike. I get that one is probably meant to simply be tan Mirai, but the other tan one could look very different if he wanted her to.

I think the F6 sculpt is great, very unique, but at the same time it's so unique it makes the characters look really similar until you add skin tone into the mix. Still what's great about these dolls is that you can create very different characters with a single sculpt and a new faceup eyes and wig. In UnderOrange's Ch-ch-ch-chaaaanges photo thread the boy version of the F6 doesn't look like an F6 unless you really look closely at it because the faceup is so different from the female dolls.

Edit: One thing I find with tan Chitose when compared to Milk is that her eyes look more crossed on the tan version. I love the beauty of Milk Chitose, but tan's face has more personality. I think the difference is tan highlights the whites of her eyes at the edges.

Edited May 16, 2019 by BeyondTime

45 minutes ago, BeyondTime said:

In UnderOrange's Ch-ch-ch-chaaaanges photo thread the boy version of the F6 doesn't look like an F6 unless you really look closely at it because the faceup is so different from the female dolls

That would be because the male doll is an Eiji.

1 minute ago, RainbowNanaki said:

That would be because the male doll is an Eiji.

Hmmm, well if that's the case I think maybe I did miss what was going on in that thread. I thought his female F6 was transitioning to a male F6.

53 minutes ago, BeyondTime said:

I think the F6 sculpt is great, very unique, but at the same time it's so unique it makes the characters look really similar until you add skin tone into the mix.

But that's the thing, even the different sculpts aren't all that different. F6 looks to me to be identical to the Mirai sculpt with the only change being the eyehole shape. Same nose, same mouth, same chin, same jawline, same everything as far as I see except those eyes.

32 minutes ago, cfx said:

But that's the thing, even the different sculpts aren't all that different. F6 looks to me to be identical to the Mirai sculpt with the only change being the eyehole shape. Same nose, same mouth, same chin, same jawline, same everything as far as I see except those eyes.

The mouth and the jawline look different to me, but I would agree that it's really hard to tell.

Looking at pictures taken from the same angle: Mirai vs. Destiny

Mouth could be debateable though I believe it's only the painting. But I see the exact same jawline, chin, and nose and I don't see how that is even questionable.

45 minutes ago, cfx said:

Looking at pictures taken from the same angle: Mirai vs. Destiny

Mouth could be debateable though I believe it's only the painting. But I see the exact same jawline, chin, and nose and I don't see how that is even questionable.

Destiny's jawline seems to be a shallower V to me. It's hard to say for sure though. I took both images into Photoshop and superimposed one over the other, then dropped it's opacity to 50%. The mouths do seem to match perfectly, but the jawlines come very close yet don't. Still the scale and positioning isn't exactly the same. Even if I mess with the scaling a bit the jawlines don't match up, but that could be positioning.

If you look at them in K-2s thread the heads look very different to me. Under very even lighting for product photos they look similar. Even lighting is going to wash out some detail because there are no shadows to show depth.

The cheeks and jaw of F6 make me think of someone with food stuffed in their cheeks. I think her profile is very flat, which may mean my perception of a difference is based on how she looks from the side as opposed to the front.

K-2 could probably answer the question of how similar or different they are since he has 4/6 sculpts (that we know of.)

If Danny is doing everything using a 3D model of Mirai as the base model, and then adjusting various elements until he get something he likes, then it's possible that parts of the face may be identical from one angle but different from another. Of course that's just speculation. I really need to see them in person.

Edited May 16, 2019 by BeyondTime

Updated the main post as I have added Journey. I had to lower the resolution of the image so it would fit so sorry for the slight blur it has now. if anyone wants the full rez version let me know. it is kept up to date on the Smart doll lovers facebook group in the files section but if you don't have access to that then let me know where  it may be good to post that can support 10Mb + files ^o^

Comparing Destiny F6 and Mirai F1 (original release) they are practically the same with a few modifications. Destiny has narrower eyes and her forehead looks larger in profile. Destiny’s lips and ears are just a bit more built up and less sharply detailed than Mirai, but I don’t know if it’s intentional or an evolution of the casting/mold making process. Features are otherwise the same scale and placement, and they can swap head caps.

3 hours ago, jadepixel said:

Comparing Destiny F6 and Mirai F1 (original release) they are practically the same with a few modifications. Destiny has narrower eyes and her forehead looks larger in profile. Destiny’s lips and ears are just a bit more built up and less sharply detailed than Mirai, but I don’t know if it’s intentional or an evolution of the casting/mold making process. Features are otherwise the same scale and placement, and they can swap head caps.

Thanks for taking the time to post that.

The lips and forehead explain why her side profile looks so different to me. Her nose seems to come to a sharper point too. I don't suppose you could post a comparison from the front?

This may just be the way the light and shadow are playing across the tan skin, but her cheeks and jaw just look a bit bulkier to me. When you compare by looking at the blush the placement seems identical though.

If I draw a straight line over to the ear from the tip of their nose her lower eyelid is higher up that Mirai's which may be why her cheeks look different to me. I'm betting the way the light plays across them makes her look more different from the front than she really is. Her cheeks make more of a plateau, but the shape of her jaw from the front could be completely identical between the two.

To me they are really different looking dolls even though the sculpts may be very similar. I like both sculpts, but at this point I haven't ever really met a vinyl from Volks or SmD that I didn't really like except for maybe the DDH01 head & MDD. That's really more from me not liking the pre-adolescent doll look than anything wrong with the head or body. I know around here that opinion is probably heresy. XD

Edited May 18, 2019 by BeyondTime

I'm back with another Destiny/Mirai comparison, for science!
Most of the differences are in the faceups - the more detailed paint and gloss on Destiny's lips makes them look bigger. They might be a teensy bit bigger - overall she does have a feel of being a bit built up and smoothed vs Mirai sculpt, like an extra few layers of surfacer or something. It's really subtle. I think if there's things you love or hate about one sculpt it will definitely apply to the other since they are clearly variants of the same design.

Thanks for taking the time to post these.

From the front Destiny's jaw looks rounder to me, and her face looks a bit wider.

In the second shot the way the shadow plays across the side of her face it makes the line of her jaw look identical. I really want to see a variant of this head in person.

Oof, the way the headcap sits on Destiny's head in profile tells me there is zero care for anything that can't be seen when photographing a full doll. =\

Bumping with big edit. the charts have been made into three and all cleaned up with a new layout.

Anyone see the new realistic head he previewed? I think it looks fantastic and has depth. 

 

I'm curious to see what she looks like unblurred but I'm not sure if I'd get her. I like the anime-look that Smart Doll and Volks have.

I'd really like to see more of her.  From what I can make out through the blurriness, she seems to be somewhere between the more "realistic" DDs like Rise or 2B and the more anime-looking ones; she has smaller eyes with a more detailed, realistic shape, but her nose looks pointier and less detailed.  It'll be interesting to see what he does with this style.  I'd especially like to see this influence more in his male dolls, since it seems like it'd be a good style for more mature guys.

Updated with Liberty and a C for the dolls with a Cortex version. 

I'm already in love with the Realface doll and we haven't even really had a good look yet. I don't have a dolls yet, but I know I prefer semi-realistic faces and this sculpt looks to be just that.

This also might be a good opportunity for Danny to make more unique sculpts, because the more dimension and detail a sculpt has the harder it is to hide when your trying to make it work with more than one character 😂

To think, I caved in and bought a Smart Doll when Kanata/the F6 sculpt was first released because it was so different.  Then came the influx of F6 mold dolls, which was even more irritating because at the same time Danny continued to hold back Haruka and Prowess.

Oh my this post really is useful! It's so hard to ID the same sculpts within the available models...

New dolls are up! This is totally me guessing but:

Clarity - F1

Envisage - F4 or F5

Freedom - F6

Moment - F6

Chitose Multiverse - F2

and Entropy is the realistic sculpt of course, not sure what we're calling it. Is it F7?