Smart Doll April 2 announcement - new face? :)

Trinity is absolutely stunning but I need to resist - I need to see how many Cortex girls will be available at launch, bc as beautiful as Trinity is, I think Starlight has my heart.

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Edited August 25, 2023 by ParacosmDoll

Is Destiny the tea version for the Kanata/Trinity/etc mold? I think that's what she looks like, but for some reason her skin tone in her pictures looks lighter than the other tea dolls, though she does still look darker than the milk dolls.

Is Destiny the tea version for the Kanata/Trinity/etc mold? I think that's what she looks like, but for some reason her skin tone in her pictures looks lighter than the other tea dolls, though she does still look darker than the milk dolls.

Seems to be; she's too dark in the pictures to possibly be milk. I think it's some of the newer photographs; Trinity and Kanata look lighter than Mirai Anniversary in the official pictures too.

 

Also, Danny originally joked about calling her "Trini-tea" before announcing the Destiny name:

(assuming that is her; I have real difficulty telling some of these girls apart now)

Is Destiny the tea version for the Kanata/Trinity/etc mold? I think that's what she looks like, but for some reason her skin tone in her pictures looks lighter than the other tea dolls, though she does still look darker than the milk dolls.

 

Yeah, the only difference that Destiny has to Trinity is the skin colour. I do wonder why he couldn't just call her the tea skin version of Trinity, because he didn't feel the need to rename Infinity's tea version either. Destiny has the same eyes, the same face up and pretty much the same wig as Trinity, so I find it curious how exactly she counts as a "new character" that needed a new name.

 

Then again, his naming conventions have never made sense to me. He likes to reuse the same sculpt many times and just by changing the face up, the wig and colour of the eyes, he gets all these new characters... which makes it seem like he's got a bunch of new dolls. I counted him having around 40+ characters, but he only has 11 sculpts so far... and some of them are modified versions of his older sculpts, because there aren't that many differences between a few when I really sat down and compared them.

 

Like for example, this sculpt that started with Serenity & Trinity, with the more narrow eyes... I do believe it's the Mirai sculpt, but it just has smaller eyes that are a slightly different shape. I've been comparing many photos and everything else (nose, mouth, jawline, overall shape of the head) but the eyes match perfectly to Mirai. The face ups can fool you sometimes - the person who designs the face ups on the dolls does a good job - but the actual features of the sculpt don't lie. The most crucial evidence is the profile. He had already released a couple of newer sculpts after Mirai (for example Kurenai) that had more definition to their cheeks and nose bridge when viewed from the side... and then comes this "new" sculpt that is exactly like Mirai from profile. I doubt that he would admit that some of these sculpts are modified versions of the older sculpts as he seems to take offense when people ask which sculpt his dolls use, but... yeah.

 

A while ago I made a compilation of the Smartdoll sculpts so far. In the image I listed the sculpt name and the character names are listed in the description when you view the image in flickr (except for the few that don't yet have official names):

 

Smartdoll sculpts by mizya, on Flickr

 

I debated whether I should post here or not, but because at times I spot people asking here about the new dolls' sculpts, I thought that this compilation could be helpful. I try to keep it up to date as well as I can, but sometimes I may be late in updating it because I don't follow DC actively.

It's a very helpful compilation, thank You

Maybe an addition of the "name" (like Kizuna, Sana etc) will help to identify the mold behind each face

 

As for the Trinity sculpt - well, it might be a modified Mirai sculpt, but I think its better to call it with different name. Be it Trinity, for example. Maybe first revealed name for each mold?

Danny is using 3D modelling software and he can make some others "modified Mirais" using the same base - how should we call it then - Mirai mod 1, mod 2, mod 3 etc? I think it will be too confusing.

After all, they're produced using differend molds (one cannot simply mod Trinity to Mirai) so despite being a modification, they should deserve the unique name, maybe with explanation like "Mirai with narrow eye mod v1" or something like this.

If you go to mizya's flickr link for the picture, she has text listing the names of all the dolls.

It's a very helpful compilation, thank You

Maybe an addition of the "name" (like Kizuna, Sana etc) will help to identify the mold behind each face

 

As for the Trinity sculpt - well, it might be a modified Mirai sculpt, but I think its better to call it with different name. Be it Trinity, for example. Maybe first revealed name for each mold?

Danny is using 3D modelling software and he can make some others "modified Mirais" using the same base - how should we call it then - Mirai mod 1, mod 2, mod 3 etc? I think it will be too confusing.

After all, they're produced using differend molds (one cannot simply mod Trinity to Mirai) so despite being a modification, they should deserve the unique name, maybe with explanation like "Mirai with narrow eye mod v1" or something like this.

 

I understand where you're coming from, but I precisely made this list to focus on the sculpts rather than the character names. That's why I didn't list the character names (Kizuna, Melody, Sana, Infinity, Moonlight etc) in the image itself - also because it would have ended up being confusing. But like I said in my post and cfx also pointed out, if you click on the image and go view it in flickr, I have listed the character names in the description.

 

And about naming some of the sculpts "Mirai (modded eyes)" or "Mirai (modded features)", it's also precisely because I wanted to focus on the sculpts instead of characters. Personally I don't feel that the sculpt that Serenity, Trinity, Destiny, Unity etc characters are using is unique enough to warrant a new sculpt name. Maybe it's because I originally started with resin BJDs and usually in resin verse when companies make a version of a sculpt with narrower eyes, it's called "Dreaming/Tender/Romantic etc" version of that sculpt... it doesn't get a new name as a "new" sculpt. I'm bad at explaining things but hopefully that makes sense. ^^;

 

I did change it a bit from the very first version I had, where I'd listed Yukari as a modified Starlight and I had put some of the characters using the Yukari sculpt under the Mirai sculpt (Haruka & the unnamed girls)... but a couple of days ago I sat down to look at those more closely and came to the conclusion that Yukari has her own sculpt (it's different enough from both Mirai & Starlight: face shape, position of the nose & mouth) and Summer, Haruka & those three unnamed girls also use that sculpt.

 

I'll admit I'm not a fan of Smartdoll (especially after the whole mistranslation of Volks' Dolpa policy by Mr. Choo and the way he treated his fans who pointed out that he was in the wrong) and I mainly compiled this list because I'm critical of his reuse of the same sculpts and promoting them as "new dolls", so it's biased in that sense. If someone wants to do a more objective listing of the sculpts, then they are free to do so. This is just my view and I understand that you're critical of it, but I also have no desire to change it as it serves its purpose the way it is to me.

Sorry, I didn't get to Flickr and the list in description really makes most of my remarks irrelevant...

 

I also understand the point of the "Dreaming/Tender/Romantic/Sleeping/etc" sculpts in resin.

Yes, in most cases the "other eyes version" has also the name of the original sculpt, just like You said.

I have a resin too, and her "dreaming" head sleeps somewhere in the drawer...

 

However reusing molds is nothing new here.

In the past Volks did similar thing, using the same headmolds for several different DDs (different faceup/fullset). Aoi (standard head DDH-02) is also old version Rei. There were two Shirakawa sisters, Estel/Feena etc.

In this regard, I think Danny may promote "new dolls" even, when they have just different faceup and fullset. Similar to Volks, it's character name, not the mold name. But still, additional official mold name would be nice.

 

But to be honest, I'm starting to think that Danny...

well, there is an old saying in Polish, "sparkling water got to his head". I think You get the meaning

Yeah, the only difference that Destiny has to Trinity is the skin colour. I do wonder why he couldn't just call her the tea skin version of Trinity, because he didn't feel the need to rename Infinity's tea version either. Destiny has the same eyes, the same face up and pretty much the same wig as Trinity, so I find it curious how exactly she counts as a "new character" that needed a new name.

Infinity has a tea version?

 

Linda S.

galatia9

Infinity has a tea version?

 

I couldn't find a more recent picture because I was searching rather quickly, but here is one of her from July 10th and another from July 4th. I don't think he's mentioned when or if she's being released

 

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Edited August 25, 2023 by ParacosmDoll

That's at least the third version of a cocoa doll with that head sculpt; there's also Unity and Justice.

 

I greatly preferred the look of the older "purple" cocoa skintone like Moonlight had.

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Edited August 25, 2023 by ParacosmDoll

I didn't realize that was the same faceup as the new Kizuna, or that Trinity and Unity are the same. I wish he didn't do that. It used to be the faceup defined the character, and you could just order different skin tones.

 

I think Kazuna's faceup got tweaked a bit, and for the worse. Here's a picture of her from months ago, a prototype:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DkXsaU_UYAI1xAt.jpg

 

Here are owner pics of a new Kazuna Cortex--should still be vinyl head since AFAIK that's all has been sold so far:

 

It may just be the difference between the harsher lines of mask painting versus an original prototype, but the older picture looks a lot better to me, something about her overall look changed even though comparing details it's hard to figure out anything.

 

I don't see why anime dolls need real-world skin colors when they don't have real-world hair colors, bust sizes, leg lengths, or pretty much anything else. However it's clear from the fan-fiction backstories Danny has written for Unity and Justice (and their names for that matter) that he's joined the social justice crowd. I'd like for this hobby to not be infected with that like video games and everything else has to be these days. I also don't want to discuss that topic so I'll drop it.

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Edited August 25, 2023 by ParacosmDoll

I'm personally not into the new faceup. Maybe it's just the lighting/colour correction on the photos, but I feel like a lot of the new cocoa girls have a really unflattering "brick red" blush, and it doesn't really complement the skin tone. However, I have not seen any of them in person, so it's possible it looks better face-to-face.

 

That said, I adore how deep and rich the cocoa skin looks in general, and may just have to make the Cortex I pick up after Starlight a cocoa girl Dolls with POC-accurate skin are super important, and the history of black dolls in particular is super interesting. Call me a crazy SJW all you want - but not everything has to be white.

Um, yeah, out of all things to get pissy at Danny for, his decision to make more racially diverse anime dolls isn't one of them. I'm not here to yap at you, but consider why this makes you upset and analyze the validity of those beliefs. I do agree that the backstories are a little struggle lol, but so are most so I can't complain.

 

Anyways, I came to this thread to see if anyone was discussing the new Cocoa girl he posted. Her face-up is super pretty. IDK which sculpt she is though. The new Kizuna is cuter than I thought, too. I hadn't really seen her.

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Edited August 25, 2023 by ParacosmDoll

Um, yeah, out of all things to get pissy at Danny for, his decision to make more racially diverse anime dolls isn't one of them.

I couldn't agree more.

 

As for the new girl, I am honestly surprised by how much I love her. I'm almost always drawn to smiles, but even though she isn't outright smiling I feel like she's radiating a casual contentment that I really dig.

Ooh, okay, if she's the same as new Kizuna it explains why I think both are cute! And yeah she looks so serene! What a qt pie.

https://mobile.twitter.com/mizunamizura/status/1101035551283544064

Saw this on Twitter. Apparently, the girl with the red hair is a “new” version of Journey.(?)

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Edited August 25, 2023 by ParacosmDoll

She is not Journey. I asked Danny and he said she is a new prototype.

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Edited August 25, 2023 by ParacosmDoll