I Need to Give Her a Name

EDIT: Please see the next post for updated photos. 

As mentioned in the previous post, the head is DDH-07 semi-white, which is a Volks brand doll head.

The eyes are Obitsu 20mm Purple, held in place with Loctite brand "Fun-tak". The local office supply store didn't have Blu-tack. ^^;

So... the dress. The dress is Volks brand Hatsune Miku "Siren" costume. I didn't attach the headpiece.

This is where I have to start talking about the body. The body is a Smart Doll equipped with an SS-bust. The Siren dress was designed for a Dollfie Dream S or SS-bust body. Even when equipped with the Smart Doll version of the SS-bust, the body was too big for the dress. The photo to the right is what the back of the dress originally looked like.

I undid the ribbon threading at the back and threaded a longer ribbon. This solved the "dress is too small" problem.

I also had a problem with the weak button fasteners for the bow ribbon, so that's held in place with safety pins you can't see. :)

I'm happy with how she turned out. :D

I might as well tell the back story of how this all happened.
Back in September, My friend Gary and I attended Los Angeles Dolpa. He bought Dollfie Dream Mirai. (Because "Mirai" is in the title of the video, he suspects he's getting traffic from people who were actually looking for Mirai Suenaga.) As well as the doll, he purchased a one-off dress (which is also shown in the linked Youtube video). At the time, I had several Volks 1/6 scale dolls I used for sketching human poses and I wanted to get something for them. Unfortunately, at the LA Dolpa, only 1/3 scale doll products were available. I walked out from the gathering empty handed while Gary walked out with a new "daughter".

For anyone who has seen what horrible things I do to my toys by reading the contents of this blog, such a person would understand I like action figures, dolls, etc. While they don't always become my actors in scenes I want to create, I like them in general. At the time of LA Dolpa, I actually wanted to buy a 2-foot doll like Gary did but I kept making one excuse after another. The excuses included high maintenance due to the wig tangling and skin staining, as well as a doll's inability to swap out facial expressions. Facial expressions are important to me because... well, when I turn my action figures into actors, having a few expressions go a long way for telling a joke or story.

My intent with the following isn't to hate on Volks even if it sounds like it. The intent is to explain *WHY* I kept making excuses to not buy a 2-foot doll and then what made me take the plunge.

Dollfies are notorious for having bodies which get stained very easily by dye from clothing and wigs. This is not a new problem; this problem has existed for years. I don't expect soft vinyl to be dye-proof but from a (potential) customer's perspective, little to no effort has been made to address the dye problem. R&D investments should have been made to create more dye resistant doll bodies. Lining every piece of clothing with white underlining should have been the default and implemented years ago instead of just within the last few years.

Dollfies also have extremely weak joints. If I bought a Super Dollfie or Dollfie Dream, I would make heavy modifications to the joints because I simply wouldn't be happy with them.

Speaking of weak joints, there's a Volks brand doll stand Gary purchased at LA Dolpa. Specifically, he purchased the DD Stand. The DD Stand is a piece of garbage. No matter how much the screws are tightened, the joints are too weak to support the weight of a Dollfie Dream. It fails at the function it was designed to perform. Not only is it a piece of garbage, it's an expensive piece of garbage.

Recognizing the DD Stand is a piece of garbage, Gary subsequently purchased the C-type metal base saddle stand. I've seen this myself and it looks good. However, I didn't take a close look at the Stand Stopper. This thing is fragile, so Gary bought another one. So from a (potential) customer's perspective, why the hell is there such a fragile part on such an expensive doll stand? Why was the stand designed to be used with such a fragile part?

So that brings up my next point: "Expensive". When someone says something is expensive, that person is saying a product or service doesn't provide the value at the asking price. If a can of soda is 50 cents and you're in the mood for one, then the soda provides value at the 50 cent price point. If that can of soda is now $100, it no longer provides value at that price point. You're going to move on to another vendor who would be selling another can of soda at a price point where you feel provides value. So why did I bring this up? One of my complaints and excuses for not buying a Dollfie was, it didn't provide me with value. Weak joints. Easily stained bodies. Fragile, overpriced, non-functional accessories. Volks wants how much for these products?

Now it's obvious I purchased Volks products when I felt they provided value at the asking prices (as evidenced by the DDH-07 and the Siren dress). As far as the Volks brand 2-foot dolls are concerned, they did not provide adequate value to me at the asking prices. This is why I kept making excuses to not buy one no matter what my actual desires were. What Volks offered wasn't good enough for me to take the plunge.

Something then happened. I came across info concerning the Smart Doll. That wasn't the only thing. There's a workshop. Anyone who spent some time with me would know about my backlog of plastic model kits. At work, my cubicle is decorated with completed plastic models of Macross, Gundam, Star Wars, etc. I like building things. There's also Danny Choo's product design philosophy. So the fact I like toys/dolls/etc. + I like building things + Danny's design philosophy made me want to go to the Mirai Store and participate in the workshop (which I did). While I previously didn't have good enough reasons to take the plunge and kept making excuses, Danny removed the concerns I had with 2-foot dolls. Being able to build a doll of my own was an awesome bonus. I built one Smart Doll and purchased a headless base model of another. I haven't taken photos of the one I built yet. The photos in this blog post are of the base model.

I hope that adequately described why I refused to buy a Dollfie body without making it sound like I'm hating on Volks. If I wanted to go on a Volks rant, I could complain all day but I'd rather spend that energy on the positives of the Smart Doll than to list my grievances with Volks. XD

While I don't know when I'll be able to visit Japan again, dropping by Gotanda and visiting the Mirai Store will be a priority during my free time. I hope to build another Smart Doll.

Now I need to give her a name. ^^;