Dolls Be With You "Strawberry"

I welcomed a new doll into the family last week and took some comparison/pose analysis photos of her with a Littlefee that I thought may interest some people.

The new girl is called Isla and she is a Dolls Be With You "Strawberry". I got her secondhand but you can get them on Nine9 Style as well as direct from the company when they are open for orders. She is a 1/6 or Yosd size ball jointed doll.

First up, some shots from the front and behind - she is a beautifully sculpted doll, and can stand on one foot fairly easily. My girl could do with a bit of tightening to hold some poses more easily but otherwise she is pretty good.

The most interesting thing about these dolls is they come with an eye mechanism in their heads for moving their eyes in different directions. It works pretty well and is a nice feature, however its going to mean changing her eyes will be tricky because the wire coils from the mechanism go inside the eye stalks to move them. They are acrylic eyes and are fairly nice but I do prefer my dolls in glass eyes so some modifications are probably going to be necessary if I want to switch these out at some point.

So how does she compare to a Littlefee? Anyone that knows me knows that Littlefee are my absolute favourite dolls ever and that I am notoriously fussy when it comes to other dolls of this size. Luckily, little Isla is an absolute doll (pardon the pun!) and I think she will be quite safe here, at least for a considerable length of time ;) She is a little taller than a Littlefee (which is perfect because it makes her older than princess Tabby which makes their chance of cohabiting much more likely to be successful!), her hands are bigger, and her feet a little longer but she is absolutely beautifully sculpted. She has only one torso joint which does restrict her a little in comparison to the Littlefee but its really not too bad - certainly better than if she had no torso joint at all.

Her range of arm movements is pretty good and she can hold them up high and to her face etc very easily. They are double jointed but the joints do work a little differently to the Littlefee but once you get the hang of it, its fine :)

She can sit pretty well with her legs out in front of her, helped by a little lip on the tops of the legs that holds them in place at the back (see the third photo down), and her arms are a nice length and she can touch the floor with her hands with no problem when in this position.

She can slouch forward fairly well but not as much as the Littlefee, and its not as smooth either; and she cannot arch her back as much as the Littlefee. However, these are not positions I put my dolls in very often so I don't think it will be a big problem for me.

Her range of knee movement is pretty good because again, she is double jointed here and she can kneel etc pretty easily. However, she can't sit with her knees raised slightly as well as the Littlefee. Its adequate, but this is one thing I'd prefer her to do a little more easily.

She can sit cross legged very easily, in fact almost more nicely than the Littlefee because of the way her feet/ankles work - just makes it look a little more natural. So thats a big plus right there!

My main disappointment with this girl is that because she can't arch her back well, she cant support herself well at all for taking photos of her lying on her front. Its not a huge issue, but I do like to take photos from this perspective of my dolls reading or playing with their toys etc. I just guess I won't be able to do that with her but nevermind, I have others who can manage it just fine :)

Finally, I just wanted to show you her hands and feet a little better as they really are beautiful. She comes with 3 extra sets of hands too which are all just as lovely. They are attached by s-hook, not magnets, though which will make changing them a little trickier, but they are nice to have and they come as standard with the default doll.