Lemme tell you a bit of the best buy I made for my art last year.
First, this is NOT a sponsored post. This is honestly from the bottom of my heart, because I didn't think this would help me at first, and a month later? I have 100% changed my mind.
See, you probably have seen the ads on face or other social media about the Body-kun and Body-chan figures for artists. They are fully articulated manequins you can pose however you want, and have a variety of hands and accessories that come with them. In the box, they look like this:
(This one in specific is the Sport Deluxe Set. I am not sure you can still get the original normal version, as Tamashii nation makes them in limited quantities and I haven't seen anywhere that sells the original ORIGINAL one anymore)
Now, this is VERY important, I said the ORIGINAL one because there are a TON of bootlegs going around. And I mean a TON. It's so bad that the first site you get when you google Body-kun and Body-chan (the female) is one for Bootlegs (usually announcing a 50% sale, where each figure is about $30 dlls or so.
Now, at first glance, the bootleg and the original look very similar. In fact, years ago, I had bought a bootleg thinking it was an original and boy, I was disappointed!
First, Bootleg-kun is far less flexible than Original-kun as you can see in the pic (I have no idea where his base dissappeared to, but he came with one). But also, the plastic it is made of is SO CHEAP that the hands became... impossible to remove an put again (as you're supposed to be able to) and in fact, Bootleg-chan just, lost her left hand articulation one day. I have a one-hand girl.
For more comparisons: These are my two first Originals (the girl is the "Birdie-wing" golfer edition... more on that later)
While these are the two bootlegs (Chan is holding her arm like that because, it also went off)
And again, you can see here how much more natural the Original can move:
Sports Edition even comes with balls and bats and a baseball glove!
While golfer chan Has two extra legs so you can make her kneel even more.
You can use them digitally, taking pictures and then tracing your skeleton over them Or traditionally, using them as models, which is what I do.
And I loved them SO MUCH, that I had to get other two (mostly because although bootleg kun helped for couple poses, his limited flexibility didn't allow for much variation.
Only that this time, I got the "normal" Sport edition girl, whom I call the gymnast. (the boy version is the same as before)
And once again, you can see the difference! The gymnast is more buff, and has more articulations, which makes her more flexible (Although for some reason? Not as flexible as the boys)
But the best part? The gymnast comes with extra FEET. More specifically, ICE SKATE wearing feet!
anyway, the point of all this is that thanks to being able to both visualize AND touch how the body parts move, I can now be a lot more confident on my poses and so this:
Becomes this:
Too long didn't read version: Do get a Body kun and a body chan (Or two body kuns or two body chans if you do Slash or femslash) But if you do? AVOID the bootlegs! The extra money is worth it so you can do EVERYTHING you want with your figures. Check on the site that they are TAMASHII NATIONS brand! (and if you want, I can show more WIPS from the pose of the dolls to the final product here!)
