Doll yoga: Raccoon slim bodies compared

My Raccoon Nina on the Naturally Posed body arrived last week.

I promised doll Yoga, and after I made some Yoga outfits for the girls they are ready for some exercise. For those who actually practice Yoga: I am well aware these are not proper poses, but it was fun to try.

Meet the contestants: Bell (Lara) on the original “Slim body” (OldSlim), Solveig (Rose) on the “New Slim body” (NewSlim) and Nina (she doesn’t have a name yet) on the “Naturally Posed slim body” (NaPoSlim). I will use abbreviations for this post, since the names for the bodies as they are called on the Raccoondoll website are rather long. The body review for the NewSlim body (released in 21) can be found here. Since I started writing this post I received Cindy on the Naturally Posed Glamorous body (NaPoGlam) as well, and everything I write about the NaPoSlim holds true for the glamorous version as well, it’s just a bit curvier.

 

 

The name for the Naturally Posed body (release 2023) is an accurate name for this new body. While the NewSlim already came with some posing improvements, this new body offers a completely different posing experience. Compared to the NaPoSlim the older bodies and other doll bodies appear stiff. The NaPoSlim does not only hold poses much better, it allows the limbs to move and behave in a more natural way. Slightly angled elbows, different knee joints and other changes make it possible to pose this body in new ways. It just looks more relaxed and natural, and the body holds those poses without effort.

And the NaPoSlim body holds the arm and hand poses close to the body without tricks and support. I wrote in my boxopening post that I am not a fan of the way the elbow and knee joints look. But once you have learnt what the limbs can do the aesthetics are negligible.

As you can see in the picture below, the NaPoSlim looks more natural even in a standing position. The arms look less stiff, and the legs can do relaxed looking contrapposto poses easily. The NewSlim body can do some of those as well, but the weak point of that body are definitively the ankle joints. The feet tend to move in unwanted ways and without shoes the joints are not really stable.

 

 

All three bodies can do the sitting pose in the following pictures. The NaPoSlim body needs a bit more turning and trying for the leg position, the simple leg-forward needs a bit of a pull out of the hip socket first. The arms can do straight and angled, and the body holds the pose very easily. The other two bodies needed a bit more balancing time. You can see that the NaPoSlim shoulder-width and arm joints allow the arms to go up around the head more naturally.

 

Nina’s left knee can lay flat on the ground, I just didn’t turn the mobility joints far enough. Still learning to pose the body.

 

 

All three bodies can do this as well. The OldSlim body breast part snaps into a sideways angle that doesn’t look very elegant and creates a dent in the silhouette. The hands don’t hold a head-touching position. The NewSlim body takes some balancing to stand in this pose. Her ankles are weak. The hands can touch the head. The NaPoSlim torso part moves most easily, and the arms touch legs and head willingly. Again, the NaPoSlim body looks most natural in this pose.

The hands are a problem for this pose, so the NaPoSlim with the flat hands has an advantage here. She can even move one leg up. The NewSlim feet and hands are not made for this, so I had some problems keeping them in that position. OldSlim as well as NewSlim look a bit stiff in the arms and shoulders.

 

The NaPoSlim knee joints might not be the prettiest, but they allow the legs to fold in a way the other legs can’t. The head can move back nicely as well, but that might change once she wears a wig.

 

Again, all three bodies can do this, but the hands and arms of the NaPoSlim stay in position, while the OldSlim and NewSlim arms can’t touch the head. The knee joints look definitively odd though. The OldSlim and NewSlim knees are just looking a bit prettier in certain poses.

 

It took some time to get the OldSlim into this position without her falling sideways, but she can do it. Her’s as well as the NewSlim body arms didn’t want to stay on the tigh, though. In this position the NaPoSlim needs a bit more encouragement to place the legs a bit apart, the knee joints make the legs want to fold automatically. Again, turning the mobility joints a bit more might have helped. But none of the other bodies could do the pose in the last picture, placing the hand on the tigh and keeping it there.

 

Now this is a pose only the NaPoSlim can do. Not that there would be much need to ever put a doll into that position. The OldSlim and NewSlim body needed one leg on the ground to keep them stable, they can’t “stand” on their knees. And they needed a lot of balancing to even hold the pose long enough to take the pictures. The NewSlim body wouldn’t stand with a torso bent back, and her arms didn’t want to stay straight either. The NaPoSlim can hold this forever. You could store her like that. Sorry for the bad light, by the way.

 

This clearly weren’t poses you would chose to show off clothes (well, except Yoga outfits), but I thought it would be fun to compare the different bodies in this way. As far as natural posing for every day use is concerned, the new NaPoSlim body is clearly the winner. Even in unspectacular poses it takes and holds the pose in a more relaxed looking way, and some of the poses I need for showing off clothes very often are so easy! Like putting a hand on a thigh. Last but not least a couple of “every day use” poses. If you own one of the older bodies you will know that these poses are not easy to achieve with other doll bodies.

 

I will write another post about the hands, feet, clothing and shoes and show the NaPoSlim and NaPoGlam side by side, but I didn’t want to make this post even longer. I hope you found this helpful and fun 🙂