Okay, so I bought the new Zenith body for Iria although I didn’t like photos of it much and there isn’t much info on it yet. I just don’t like to own more than one of the same body, so I went for it despite the reservations I had. I was also looking forward to the legs that seemed much more stable than on the old double body.

Lol, I asked Souldoll to not string her so tight for the shipping (because their dolls always arrive so tight it’s a surprise they survive the shipping and it’s a pain to take them apart). They said sure, and I expected to get a noodle that I have to tighten. But nope: she arrived strung perfectly. I had no issue changing her hands or feet with just my fingers as tools and yet she’s firm enough to hold any poses. From now on, I’ll always ask for more loose stringing when I order dolls from them. xD

So, this is my comparison and review of the Souldoll new Zenith double body (vs. old Zenith double). I apologize for all the possible typos, I’m too tired to proof-read this right now.

Fair warning: I don’t have that much good to say about it. If I didn’t have the old body to compare to, I might’ve given it a better review. These are my opinions, though I tried to be as impartial as possible. The pictures also speak for themselves. I didn’t explain that much about the old body because it’s been around for a long time and I’m sure there are reviews of it somewhere.

The new body is always on the right side of the image.

Standing

Side by side the sizes are pretty much the same. The older body is a little bit taller, although the new body has longer legs. The postures are different as well. The new body has a more curved back in her default pose, which makes her push her chest out. The shape of the upper torso is also different but more about that later.

They can both stand in the same way, but the old body is less stable in the knees, so I didn’t push the legs together as much to not lose balance here. The new body can stand with her legs wider apart but you have to rotate the whole leg a bit because her knees don’t rotate at all. The ankles in the new body are much better: very stable. I tend to use boots with the old body to give her ankles support.

Interestingly from the side the legs look about the same height. The old body has thicker knees and a smaller booty. From the side, the new ribcage and boobs look bigger. However, they have the same measurements, so they’re just shaped differently. The new boobs are also placed higher up.

The backside doesn’t have that many differences, except for the shape of the butt and shoulder blades. The new body has the shoulderblades squished higher up (making them smaller), I guess because the joint has been moved higher. The whole torso on her is a bit shorter in comparison to the old body.

(Sigrun doesn’t have her headcap on because it’s full of tape and magnets for all the head-things/wings/horns I’ve put on her head. Sorry.)

The torsos & arms

Obviously the chest and elbow joints are the biggest differences here. The chest in the new body looks more squished because of how high it is and how it’s shaped. That and the posture give her a stiffer look, imo.
As for the arms, the old body can rest hers in a lovely natural way, but the new body can’t. They’re just straight.

If you want to rotate the arm a little to the side the old body does it like it’s nothing because the elbow turns literally into any direction (but the nugget can also turn around in a bad way). With the new body you have to pull the joint out of the socket to rotate it, which doesn’t look nice and will be difficult with sleeves on.

Both torsos are in default positions here. Both bodies break the ribcage with the joint, but in the new body the joint is mostly invisible from the front. However, the old joint rises higher up in the front and it’s easy to hide even with shorter tops, too.

I’m still trying to figure out what it is that I dislike about torsos with boob joints… Maybe it’s that they look a bit like they’re sucking in their stomach all the time??

The new joint gaps all the time (at least on the body I got) although it’s in the default pose. You can see the different shape of the breasts here. Not much difference in the lower torsos, but when you look at the upper torso, I think the old body looks more relaxed.

From the side it definitely looks like the new body is sucking in her stomach more and pushing the boobs out.

…And now this is where I went “Why, Souldoll, WHY??”

Like what were you smoking when you thought this was a good idea? The old body breaks her ribcage when you tilt the joint to the side, but it doesn’t look so bad because her lines stay nice and round on both sides. The new body however… ….

Bending forward, not much of a difference.

Side view. I don’t think there’s anything pretty about the new joint; it’s so blocky and has so many ‘sharp’ edges.

New body bending backwards. Another view. There’s a sort of a peg shape between the boobs but it doesn’t fit between them without gapping, so why is it there at all?

Old body doing the same. There’s the peg between the boobs as well, but you can actually use it to lock the torso in place, so she can lie on her stomach.

Bendind to the other side with the arms posed as well. The new body’s got nothing on this. First of all, her torso is completely broken and I’m not sure there’s any kind of clothing that can even hide this. (It really looks like her whole top part is about to fall off.) And second, she can’t move her elbow against her hip and still have the arm posed to the side, like the old body (unless you pull out the elbow joint like I did earlier).

Also the old body actually automatically rotates the torso to look more natural, but the new body can only move side to side in a straight line. It looks like it’s more bent than the old body at least, but it’s not. ^^;

She can put the elbow against her hip, but then her hand will have to bend straight forward.

Yeah, which would you pick?

….

Arms only:

Not much of a difference, but like with the legs: the old elbows are thicker.

No matter which way the old elbows are bent, they look smooth and lovely. With the new elbows, if you bend them even a little bit, the joints will create gaps. The old elbows rotate into any and all directions. But the new joints are MUCH more stable. They stay is pretty much any position, but they only move up and down -that’s the price you pay for stability.

The new elbows also bend more. The old ones bend a little over this but they refuse to stay that way. They can both touch their faces.

Sitting

In the default position the new body leans back a bit.

…But it straightens out with a little bend to the torso. However, this is the first position it moves to, while the old torso can bend to any position and stay there (as long as she’s not strung too tight).

Bending forwards they both gap but the new body creates one sharp ledge. She also can’t bend as far forward as the old body due to the higher position of the joint. The old body can bring the face above her mid-thigh, but the new body can’t reach that far, this is the maximum it bends.

And now for the legs:

This pose looks quite identical from the front.

But the new body can lift her leg higher and give slightly more of a ballerina ankle.

The new body is also sitting straight (with the torso bent only), while the old body has to lean back because she can’t lift her thigh past a 90 degree angle properly.

Although the new body is more stable here, it was actually harder to get into the pose: she tried to fall backwards with her leg in the air several times.

The new body can bring her knees to a more compact bend. The old body can go a little bith further than this too, but they won’t stay that way by themselves.

You can also see that the ankles on the new body reach lower, giving her much more stability.

And that was pretty much it. All in all it was pretty much what I expected, the only surprise was how much the knees bend; didn’t expect that.

SUMMARY

These bodies are pretty much the same size and they look quite similar -shape wise, but the jointing is very different.

• The new body is very stable and stays in poses very well.

– Only the shoulder, wrist and thigh joints rotate without having to be dislocated
– The elbow and knee bend all the way against eachother and stay in poses
– The thighs can be lifted above a 90 degree angle
– The ankles are stable
– The body is very stiff to handle: the non-rotating joints make natural posing difficult
– The chest joint is ugly and almost useless -gaps even in default position, let alone when bent

• The old body is quite flimsy;

– Every joint will rotate into pretty much any direction, giving the poses a very versatile and natural look
– The arms like to fly all over the place
– The knees are not stable, if the stringing isn’t just right
– The ankles are not stable
– The torso joint breaks the ribcage but bends in a very natural way, making it unnoticeable with clothes on

I would recommend the new double body for those who look for stability and don’t care so much for natural posing or a natural look. It’s stiff to handle and looks quite rigid in it’s default stomach in -> butt and boobs out -pose. But it stands well, even with one knee bent and holds poses.

I would recommend the old double body for advanced hobbyists and for those that demand natural looking poses. It’s not very easy to handle (=floppy) and making it stand can be a pain, but it just looks so much smoother and moves more fluidly. It also needs some adjusting with the strings to make it behave well.

To me, personally the old double body is much more aesthetically pleasing with the lovely round knee and elbow nuggets. I just could not resist them -so I never got the single body at all -although it’s much more stable. xD I think the new body is actually more like an upgrade to the general zenith body, rather than the old double.

I’m VERY tempted to buy another old double body and switch out the legs to the new ones. So I’d have old arms + torso and new legs & feet. That would be quite perfect.
(But I’m not sure anyone would want the old legs + new torso & arms -body)

Update

Since this review, Souldoll has updated the new body. It still looks the same, but they added more resin to the inside of the lower torso, so that when you move it the slope is a little bit smoother. This also means that the hole for the strings is smaller and it can affect the mobility a bit.

Also, if you’re interested in my journey with the body, I eventually got fed up with it and got a whole new torso. Here‘s the story and post about it.
(Here‘s also a comparison with the original new body with some clothes, but since Souldoll has updated the joint, it’s not as relevant anymore.)