Gabriel's Girls and the Photography of Doom

Takane was just the newest I could think of offhand that I remembered was SWS.

 

Going by what I see in your pictures on my monitor, Anya looks pinker than Yukiho or Ranko, which is how the DDH-07 SWS I have looks, and I bought that earlier this year. Based on our limited sample size, it looks to me like SWS has become less "white" and more pink recently.

Takane was just the newest I could think of offhand that I remembered was SWS.

 

To be honest it had more to do with Anya & Ranko being right next to Kos-Mos, and it would have taken more effort to pull Takane out of where she is. By happy coincidence Anya was the newest SWS doll I have too.

 

Going by what I see in your pictures on my monitor, Anya looks pinker than Yukiho or Ranko, which is how the DDH-07 SWS I have looks, and I bought that earlier this year. Based on our limited sample size, it looks to me like SWS has become less "white" and more pink recently.

 

Yes, a bit pinker is my impression as well. Kos-Mos, Yukiho, and Ranko are a paler shade of white. I think Takane is pretty pale too, but I haven't compared her to the others yet. I will tomorrow because now I am curious, but being a DDIII she's in the back row in my display case, and I have to move other dolls to get to her. Just not up for that tonight.

I have Kosmos and some newer SWS girls, and my Kosmos is definitely paler than the new girls as well. Not as pale as WS but not all that far off, I had her head on a WS body at one point when I was short some bodies.

 

 

 

I wish there were more hair intake wigs available. I don't think anyone outside of Volks makes them, and Volks non-character wigs may not have any either. I wonder if it's possible to add them to a wig with some kind of crimp iron?

 

That depends on your preferences. I added intakes to my girl Ichigo's wig with a very small flat iron. It's a heat resistant Leeke wig. The points are not as sharply creased on mine as a Volks wig, because even a very small flat iron is big compared to the wig. But it doesn't bother me to be just a bit rounded

I wish there were more hair intake wigs available. I don't think anyone outside of Volks makes them, and Volks non-character wigs may not have any either. I wonder if it's possible to add them to a wig with some kind of crimp iron?

 

I think it boils down to the Volks wigs being for the SD line, while Volks sees "anime styled" wigs for the DD line as being character specific and therefore nearly exclusive to limiteds. So, from Volks perspective, why make a general release wig with hair intakes?

 

There's obviously a way to style them that way, but it's all voodoo to me.

 

 

Ah, thanks for pointing out the Halter Neck Sets.

 

Those are mostly a remake of the Saturday Aquarium Sets in different material:

http://www.volks.co.jp/dress/1210/

Can't see it from Volks pics (especially these tiny ones on the older pages) but those are made from a kind of satin material:

http://blog.livedoor.jp/muramach/archives/20012543.html

 

I had passed on the Halter Neck Sets because of how Volks' pictures make them look:

http://www.volks.co.jp/htd_kyoto14/sumika_tnk/

The Saturday Aquarium Sets had the halter part fit nicely around and under the bust, but the Volks pics of the Halter Neck Sets look like they changed and messed up the pattern.

 

However, your Momo pics look like they fit just like the aquarium sets.

 

I had seen pictures of those sets. I hadn't looked at them closely and thought they were the same as the Halter Neck releases from around 2015 and I was misremembering the colors of that release. So, they're an even older release in a different fabric and under a different name? Maybe I need to hunt one of those down.

 

As for the fit on the Halter Neck sets, there could be a couple reasons they look to fit differently in the promo pics.

 

It could merely be that when the person dressed the doll, it just ended up that way. As someone who is into transformable toys, there are promo images of pricey transformables where the toy is mistransformed. I don't think it's too much of a stretch for a DD to be very slightly mis-dressed in an outfit promo pic.

 

Another thing to consider is Momo is a DDS. That's going to affect the fit.

 

 

it is also possible they've changed what SWS looks like over time, or that your KOS-MOS head could have color changed since she's been around for a while. Since she was also the first SWS maybe Volks tweaked the color since? Wolf could answer that better since he has her as well as Takane, a much newer SWS.

 

I compared her to Anastasia who is newer than Takane, and I believe Kos-Mos is a bit paler. Comparing Ranko and Anya it looks to me like Ranko is also paler.

 

Compare Yukiho and Anastasia here.

 

http://www.dollfiedreams.com/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=17527&start=0

 

I think that is similar to the difference between Kos-Mos and Anya.

 

I have Kosmos and some newer SWS girls, and my Kosmos is definitely paler than the new girls as well. Not as pale as WS but not all that far off, I had her head on a WS body at one point when I was short some bodies.

 

Hmmm. Anastasia looks much more in line with the f3 body I have while the other SWS girls pictured are much more in line with the Kosmos head. Maybe it's a combination of the head getting older as well as Volks tweaking too.

 

Meh. Marion was always going to be an oddball. It really doesn't matter. I've already bonded with her. She'll just look strange in photos. And all things considered, that's so trivial of a problem in my photography that it's not even worth worrying about.

 

I wanted to try out the new f3 body. I decided to make my first SWS girl the guinea pig. I knew this could be a possible result. It is what it is.

 

Marion and Amber are currently standing next to each other in similar heels. Marion is still slightly shorter. It's just by millimeters, but heir wigs and outfits are magnifying it a bit. Probably having Sabrina (SD16) next to them is really making Marion look like the little sister.

 

For the moment, Sabrina and Marion have traded wigs. Sabrina's default SD16-Daria wig seems to me to work better on Marion. And the Aoko wig on Sabrina as well as a different outfit have been transformative.

 

 

I added intakes to my girl Ichigo's wig with a very small flat iron. It's a heat resistant Leeke wig. The points are not as sharply creased on mine as a Volks wig, because even a very small flat iron is big compared to the wig. But it doesn't bother me to be just a bit rounded

 

I've figured it must be slightly difficult as well as not an extremely popular doll hairstyle, thus it's rarity.

 

I remember how Rin Kagamine's wig had these little intake crimps to match the sharp arched hair part she has in some of her art. It didn't seem that was well liked. There were quite a few posts here on the forum about removing those crimps from the wig.

I wish there were more hair intake wigs available. I don't think anyone outside of Volks makes them, and Volks non-character wigs may not have any either. I wonder if it's possible to add them to a wig with some kind of crimp iron?

I think it boils down to the Volks wigs being for the SD line, while Volks sees "anime styled" wigs for the DD line as being character specific and therefore nearly exclusive to limiteds. So, from Volks perspective, why make a general release wig with hair intakes?

 

There's obviously a way to style them that way, but it's all voodoo to me.

Good point that I didn't think about in this specific case. I've noticed in general that there is just a kind of lack of things that are DD or anime-specific for wigs and clothing. Wigs in crazy colors like blue, green, pink aren't so easy to find at least in a lot of styles, and at least when I first got interested in this hobby I was surprised by that. Then I realized that many of the third party wig makers like Crobi for example are actually BJD companies so that their wigs are probably an extension of that. Clothing that fits into the categories of typical doll clothing (frilly, girly stuff, lolita clothes, etc.) is a lot easier to find than anime trope clothing in general.

 

For styling, I think the biggest problem like mentioned below is we need doll-sized styling irons and I guess such don't exist.

 

Ah, thanks for pointing out the Halter Neck Sets.

 

Those are mostly a remake of the Saturday Aquarium Sets in different material:

http://www.volks.co.jp/dress/1210/

Can't see it from Volks pics (especially these tiny ones on the older pages) but those are made from a kind of satin material:

http://blog.livedoor.jp/muramach/archives/20012543.html

 

I had passed on the Halter Neck Sets because of how Volks' pictures make them look:

http://www.volks.co.jp/htd_kyoto14/sumika_tnk/

The Saturday Aquarium Sets had the halter part fit nicely around and under the bust, but the Volks pics of the Halter Neck Sets look like they changed and messed up the pattern.

 

However, your Momo pics look like they fit just like the aquarium sets.

I had seen pictures of those sets. I hadn't looked at them closely and thought they were the same as the Halter Neck releases from around 2015 and I was misremembering the colors of that release. So, they're an even older release in a different fabric and under a different name? Maybe I need to hunt one of those down.

 

As for the fit on the Halter Neck sets, there could be a couple reasons they look to fit differently in the promo pics.

 

It could merely be that when the person dressed the doll, it just ended up that way. As someone who is into transformable toys, there are promo images of pricey transformables where the toy is mistransformed. I don't think it's too much of a stretch for a DD to be very slightly mis-dressed in an outfit promo pic.

 

Another thing to consider is Momo is a DDS. That's going to affect the fit.

It's probably mostly how they're put on, or the prototypes in the Volks pictures were changed a bit for actual production. While fit is going to be a little different on DDS or different-bust-sized girls, the most noticable problem issue for me in the Volks pictures is how the area under the bust curves and dips down in the center where the lacing is, rather than being more like a horizontal line, as it is in those older outfits and in your Momo pictures for the new ones. Either Volks did change that for production or I could see it possibly being affected if the outfit isn't adjusted just right when put on.

 

I think the first time I saw all these I didn't realize they weren't the same either. Then as I looked more and more at outfits and realized there are very few that are actual exact rereleases I started double-checking everything.

 

From that Volks page you can see the gray Aquarium set is for S/M busts and the pink for M/L. There is also a S/M version of the pink one apparently released at a different time; I'm unsure if there is a M/L gray one. Since you're interested in these I'll link some more pictures. It looks to me like the S/M one may not be very flattering on the small bust.

http://blog.livedoor.jp/sh_sonmin/archives/51369416.html

https://ameblo.jp/blog-dd/entry-10676792161.html

http://goroumaru-dd-blog.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/2011/06/post-2404.html

 

Picture quality not so good here:

http://otatetuya.blog.fc2.com/blog-entry-259.html

That's the original pair though, so comparing that to some pictures on the Dreamy DD Blog link above, I think it's safe to assume that for an M-bust girl, the S/M version is going to look nicer than the M/L version. So S/M for M and M/L for L, and S-bust girls get the short end of the stick as usual.

 

On these Aquarium sets, I kinda didn't like how the neckline on the sweater stands out so much probably because it's not white since I didn't feel that way about the halter neck sets. I have a thin turtleneck top I got from mizya that I thought might look nice with these though. While I like both colors, I think that material finish looks better for the pink than the gray.

 

[Edit: the pink S/M Aquarium set is older as its part number is DDTK-109 while the M/L is DDTK-173; so that's why I couldn't find a Volks page on it. Hopefully we get Tenshi-no-Koromo in the final Dollfie the Best voting round so there is a reference for everything Volks has released.]

 

Every time we start discussing outfits I find something new to buy that I had previously considered but then decided against or just never got around to before.

 

[about SWS]

 

Hmmm. Anastasia looks much more in line with the f3 body I have while the other SWS girls pictured are much more in line with the Kosmos head. Maybe it's a combination of the head getting older as well as Volks tweaking too.

 

Meh. Marion was always going to be an oddball. It really doesn't matter. I've already bonded with her. She'll just look strange in photos. And all things considered, that's so trivial of a problem in my photography that it's not even worth worrying about.

Even in photos I don't think it's going to matter too much and if it's not bothering you it's nothing to worry about. I'm not sure I'd have noticed it in the picture here had I not already known because you had asked about it earlier. Also the head being lighter is probably better than the inverse; even with matching color you can end up with the neck looking a bit darker due to lighting and shadow so it's more of an expected look than the inverse would be.

 

I added intakes to my girl Ichigo's wig with a very small flat iron. It's a heat resistant Leeke wig. The points are not as sharply creased on mine as a Volks wig, because even a very small flat iron is big compared to the wig. But it doesn't bother me to be just a bit rounded

 

I've figured it must be slightly difficult as well as not an extremely popular doll hairstyle, thus it's rarity.

 

I remember how Rin Kagamine's wig had these little intake crimps to match the sharp arched hair part she has in some of her art. It didn't seem that was well liked. There were quite a few posts here on the forum about removing those crimps from the wig.

Good point, and I remember it being mentioned with Iori as well. I think part of it is with the less overt ones like on these two dolls especially if someone isn't too familiar with that style, it can come off looking more like a mistake in the wig than something that should be there.

 

Rin's wig seems like kind of a mess too. I've noticed in many pictures of her that you can see the wig cap at the part in the hair at the front, which is unfortunate. I also remember reading here how some received the wig with a real excess of styling goop in it. In general I wish Volks' wig quality was better, especially since there's no replacement for many of the character wigs from other sources.

Here are my Star Trek RPG books. Oh, and Freyja is in there somewhere.

 

Pretty I saw your caption on Flickr. reminded of the song

Here are my Star Trek RPG books. Oh, and Freyja is in there somewhere.

 

 

I think the casual look suits her pretty well.

Nice doll-sized Adirondack chair.

Pretty I saw your caption on Flickr. reminded of the song

 

I know that you love me, love me.

 

I think the casual look suits her pretty well.

 

This way she reminds me of someone in my class in high school, back in the dark and mysterious origins of time. She just needs a teddy bear image on her sweater.

 

Nice doll-sized Adirondack chair.

 

Sometimes strolling down the clearance aisle of a Wal-Mart nets something useful.

Here are my Star Trek RPG books.

 

I think I checked one of those books out from the library years ago.

 

Oh, and Freyja is in there somewhere.

 

I found her, do I get a prize?

I found her, do I get a prize?

 

      (_v_)                   
      _|_                    
      | |                    
 |-----+-----|               
 |    1ST    |             
 |   PRIZE   |
 |  Sinclair |               
  '---------'             
   \       /                 
    '.   .'                
      | |                  
     .' '.               
    _|___|_                  
   [#######]

.

A buck Rogers game?!?  How awesome is that?

How's the Miku outfit on staining?

1 hour ago, sinclair said:

A buck Rogers game?!?  How awesome is that?

How's the Miku outfit on staining?

A TV series that was critically panned, but which I still love to rewatch. Critics keep their heads up the asses...

2 minutes ago, BeyondTime said:

A TV series that was critically panned, but which I still love to rewatch. Critics keep their heads up the asses...

I haven't seen it in years, but I liked it. Well, the first season anyway. The second, aboard the ship and with Hawk I didn't like much; I remember especially disliking the ones where Hawk's girlfriend played any significant part.

There's an Australian blu-ray release of the series, which I should buy. I have the original Battlestar Galactica which I'm also a fan of. Glen A. Larson was responsible for a lot of the TV I watched back then.

Just now, cfx said:

 Glen A. Larson was responsible for a lot of the TV I watched back then.

Yeah, it's safe to say that's going to be true for a lot of us. I think TV was a lot more innocent in those days too, and that's a big part of why I no longer watch TV.

1 hour ago, BeyondTime said:

I think TV was a lot more innocent in those days too, and that's a big part of why I no longer watch TV.

I agree with this.

A Larson show I'll always remember that seems lost to time as it's never been on DVD or blu-ray and I'm not sure if was ever syndicated was Switch with Robert Wagner and Eddie Albert.

Random anecdote: In one of those things that I've never been able to find anyone else who remembers, or any reference to online, such that I start wondering if I imagined this, there was one single episode of that show that had a different opening and different (and kind of weird) theme song, at least upon its initial airing. I think when it was rerun it was changed to be like the rest of the series. There were two openings used for long periods of time; I no longer recall if this one oddball was between them or somewhere else. I don't remember much about this one episode, except it was also unique in that they had a unique car in it that wasn't in any other episode; I think maybe it was an Auburn but who knows after so many years. I think the special opening maybe featured the car as well.

Edit: Perhaps I'm not crazy after all. From iMDb in reference to an episode called The Things That Belong to Mickey Costello:

Quote

In the syndicated version, the theme music by show creator Glen A. Larson, who is uncredited for this episode, is played during the opening credits. The rarely-heard theme music composed by Eddie Sauter, which was pulled after one episode, is played during the end credits.

 

Edited August 4, 2019 by cfx

3 hours ago, sinclair said:

A buck Rogers game?!?  How awesome is that?

How's the Miku outfit on staining?

The Buck Rogers game is a boardgame produced by TSR (the D&D company) back in 1990.  It isn't related to the late 70s TV show except by name.

The CEO of TSR back in those days was Lorraine Williams, heir to the Dille Family Trust, the owners of Buck Rogers.  In 1990, Mrs Williams had TSR license the Buck Rogers property to create RPGs, boardgames, and novels.  

The game itself is similar to Axis & Allies or Fortress America, which were popular boardgames at the time.  It portrays a war within the inner solar system.  Each player chooses a Buck Rogers "leader" character (Buck, Wilma, Ardala, etc) and commands an army consisting of different types of units all represented by specialized miniatures.  Gameplay is territory based.  If you haven't played Axis & Allies, think Risk.

------

I thought you had the Vampire set?

Snow Miku is wearing a bodysuit, so I don't know how the outfit and bare DD skin play with each other.  The outfit is lined in white, but as usual with all Volks outfits like this, there is black thread in the lining.

I have not noticed any dye transfer from handling the outfit and then handling the doll.

The collar of the outfit comes up above the collar of a bodysuit.  I was worried about the edges touching the neck of the doll, but I haven't detected any staining via this contact.

2 hours ago, BeyondTime said:

A TV series that was critically panned, but which I still love to rewatch. Critics keep their heads up the asses...

 

1 hour ago, cfx said:

I haven't seen it in years, but I liked it. Well, the first season anyway. The second, aboard the ship and with Hawk I didn't like much; I remember especially disliking the ones where Hawk's girlfriend played any significant part.

There's an Australian blu-ray release of the series, which I should buy. I have the original Battlestar Galactica which I'm also a fan of. Glen A. Larson was responsible for a lot of the TV I watched back then.

I remember really liking Buck Rogers when I was small.  I remember when the Searcher/Hawk season hit the airwaves, myself and my other grade schoolers thought Hawk and his ship were really cool.

As an adult...  The show is watchable and enjoyable, but definitely shows its age.  The whole Searcher/Hawk season is markedly lesser than the first.  The first season is dated, but wears it proudly, and is therefore nostalgic.  The second season is just dated in a bad way.

I've read that the second season used retooled left over scripts originally intended for Battlestar Galactica.  There are a few episodes where I have no problem believing this.

As a whole though, Buck Rogers was created as a cheaper Battlestar Galactica.  The Protectorate Starfighters were the originally intended design for the Colonial Viper.  I believe the Draconian Hatchetfighters were the original design for Cylon Raiders.  Then there were other models retooled from their use in BSG for use in Buck.  

I liked and still like Battlestar Galactica more.
 

6 minutes ago, Gabriel said:

I liked and still like Battlestar Galactica more.

I did as well, and probably still do though since I haven't seen Buck Rogers in so long can't be sure. I'm older than you so was already (barely) an adult when I first saw it, which is probably why I had the reaction originally that you have now. Since I was older, I think part of my problem with Hawk was just how ridiculous he looked. He wasn't a bad character, but so many other things about the show were worse too--the loss of Dr. Huer, the robot-doctor thing that Twiki carried around being gone as well, making Twiki really nothing but a sidekick since he no longer had any real excuse for being there, and Colonel Deering being reduced to...nothing, basically.

I never knew that about the ships and scripts coming from Galactica but it isn't surprising.

Both shows got screwed over by budget cuts for second seasons; Galactica suffered worse with Galactica 1980. The time-travel episodes were ok, perhaps mainly because Richard Lynch always made for a good villain, but the ones featuring the kids were just awful. I think that the only truly good episode of that was the final one showing what happened to Starbuck, which seemed a lot more like something left over from the original series.

Ooh, Axis and Allies, that was an Avalon Hill game wasn't it? I never had that one, but I had Gettysburg, but never anyone to play it with.

First Season was arguably better than the second. Iirc Hawk's girlfriend died in the second season's opening episode.

Edited August 4, 2019 by BeyondTime

My Lucy has a few stains that I'm certain came from the Vampire Miky outfit.  

Nice suit, I never got around to ordering that one while it was available.

I think I remember seeing that Galactica game in some store way back when, probably Nan's in Houston.

Further OT, but have you seen this scratchbuilt Galactica model: Part 1 and Part 2