Dolpa 39 Report - img heavy

(Note: There are ~40 photos total, so I will break them up among several posts in this thread.)

 

Before I begin, I'd like to thank everyone who helped me during this trip, especially Torino for hanging out with me and showing me around (and helping me find my grail, an adventure which will be dobleepented in a future post). I also want to thank baldylox for helping me find a place with excellent rates to exchange USD-yen, and everyone who commented in my going to Japan OT thread with advice. Thank you all so much! Your help truly made my trip much less stressful and helped make it possible to enjoy myself a great deal.

 

Dawn over Tokyo on Dolpa day. Mei was too excited to stay asleep!

Her nightgown is made by Ronronshuka/RonshukaCouture. Torino very kindly helped me get it from Dollshow the previous day.

 

And here's Big Sight! We got there around 8am and the queues were already large. There were separate queues for Sumika (ie. if you want to buy Luka or any of the other lottery dolls) and the dealer hall; I joined the dealer queue. It stretched all the way down one side of Big Sight, and snaked back on itself; it was four people wide.

It was actually really cool being with so many other people who were also into dolls. Most people didn't take out their dolls in the queue even while it was stationary because the sun was out and we were outdoors, but you could see doll bags, and dolls wrapped in cloth, and so on. I didn't expect it to be that exciting to see that, but somehow it was.

 

It was around 10am that we finally entered the building. The line suddenly starts moving, and as you reach the entrance you have to wave your guidebook so they know that you are actually supposed to be there

 

Sadly the dealer from whom I really wanted an outfit had already sold out (they had only made 10 copies per outfit and they had way underpriced, in my opinion), but I was able to get everything else that I wanted! And, of course, a lot of things that I didn't know I wanted till I saw them right then

 

I didn't take that many photos of the dealers, both because of not wanting to have people's faces in my photos (in case they have privacy concerns and don't want their faces shown online) and also because I was more focused on shopping

But here are a few showing the size of the area.

Please forgive the blurriness in some of these -- I uh, only have manual focus lenses, a fact I didn't regret before this trip...manual focus isn't really a problem if you're taking photos of dolls, but it is if you're trying to cover a busy event full of moving humans.

The dealer hall was -huge-.

 

Here's Fiore!

I'm not sure if she (head/mech parts) is actually cast in vinyl or in resin. I would imagine it would be cheaper to have the prototype be resin (for which it is much less expensive to make a mold) if they are not yet sure whether or not she'll be produced in vinyl.

Another angle.

 

Luka in the Sumika shop!

 

Not the best lighting, but here is her Senbonzakura outfit, also in the Sumika shop. The Sumika shop was a separate area within the hall, with portable walls put up so it was like a "room within a room". This is where people who wanted to buy the limiteds bought them, but after the main queue went through it was open for everyone. There were also various doll care items and parts for sale, along with everything released in the Volks News.

 

Sheryl and Ranka in the Sumika shop. I had been considering buying a Sheryl for a while. She is beautiful in person, but I realized after seeing her that she wasn't the sculpt I was after.

I also realized after seeing Takanes in the dealer displays that Takane was the sculpt I was after... but that story will be told in a future photo post.

 

More Macross.

 

This super-cute open mouth sculpt is one of the Dream Choice exclusive heads! I was very close to getting a Dream Choice with this head, and maybe would have if the SW had been available. It was a good thing I didn't, though, because of the miraculous appearance of my grail later in the trip (all right, I'll stop going on about this for now).

 

And here is the new DDH15 sculpt, modeling one of the outfits released at Dolpa. Unfortunately the lighting is poor. The mouth is sculpted very deep, which surprised me a little upon seeing it.

 

I hope you enjoyed this look at Dolpa! Next up will be photos of the Piapro stage and the owner display area.

It's cool to finally see your pics because I havent actually seen most of them!

The one of Mei in the morning is so pretty!

I'm glad we had such a good time While you got a lot more pics of the official volks stuff, I got a looot more photos of the dealers and will eventually make an event report on my doll tumblr with those.

Yay! I'm so glad to see your pics! I've never been able to go to such an amazing show before so your photos are super nice in helping me see what it's like. Thank you for sharing!

 

You are very welcome about the exchange shop! I'm so glad you were able to find it and get your money exchanged at a good rate. I know a lot of people stress about that so I was eager to help make that part of your trip a bit less of a pain.

 

I can't wait to see more pics! And that's super cool that you could meet up with Torino. I wish we could have met other doll collectors while we were in Japan but we couldn't find anyone that had time while we visited. Maybe next time.

 

Ahh, almost forgot, I want to see the grail you got! WHO IS IT!?!?!?!

 

 

 

Billy

Here's Fiore!

I'm not sure if she (head/mech parts) is actually cast in vinyl or in resin. I would imagine it would be cheaper to have the prototype be resin (for which it is much less expensive to make a mold) if they are not yet sure whether or not she'll be produced in vinyl.

Another angle.

I hadn't seen a profile picture before; I can see the comparison to Towa that Subaru made from this angle.

 

I think it's possible the mech parts might have been 3D printed for the prototype. Whatever they did, it seems like quite an effort if they weren't fairly sure they were making her.

It's cool to finally see your pics because I havent actually seen most of them!

The one of Mei in the morning is so pretty!

I'm glad we had such a good time While you got a lot more pics of the official volks stuff, I got a looot more photos of the dealers and will eventually make an event report on my doll tumblr with those.

Thanks! I'm really pleased with that shot. The lighting in that room was beautiful.

I look forward to seeing your pics! I'm glad that you were able to get photos of the dealers.

 

Yay! I'm so glad to see your pics! I've never been able to go to such an amazing show before so your photos are super nice in helping me see what it's like. Thank you for sharing!

I'm very glad to hear that! Conveying what it was like is definitely part of my goal in sharing these, especially since I have been able to live vicariously through other people's travel and/or doll event photos (including yours!) so I want to be able to "pay that forward", as it were.

 

Ahh, almost forgot, I want to see the grail you got! WHO IS IT!?!?!?!

All shall be revealed in due time! It's quite an exciting story, too...

 

I think it's possible the mech parts might have been 3D printed for the prototype. Whatever they did, it seems like quite an effort if they weren't fairly sure they were making her.

3D printing would be plausible, maybe even easier than resin casting them (I think it would be easier, but I don't know that much about either process). As for whether or not they're sure, they do make a huge amount of effort for the one-offs they've displayed at past Dolpas which are just for photos, like the Archer and Gilgamesh SDs, and the guy pilot from Macross. So I'd say it's still up in the air for now.

 

Anyhow, time for more photos!

 

A large amount of space at Dolpa is reserved for tables which doll owners can reserve for displaying their own dolls. Typically, several people seem to reserve a table together. The dolls here are usually photograph-able by anyone attending, and there were several super impressive customs.

 

 

 

One of the cool things about these tables was seeing dolls I recognized from Twitter. The MDD in the white dress and jean jacket (actually I think both of them) is owned by photographer Tee-See @tee_see_501.

 

 

She's just as cute in real life as she is in Tee-See's photos

 

I apologize for the hideously out of focus image, but I was really impressed by this (presumably dyed) dark-vinyl DD.

 

Speaking of custom dye projects, this tan girl is one of the most impressive customs I've seen in general, and it was super cool to see her IRL.

 

Super Sonico!

 

I'm not sure who she is, but she vaguely reminds me of Violet Evergarden with red hair. The hands are made by Gensou-doll, and after seeing them in use on these display tables, I ran back to the dealer area and bought a pair. It was an excellent decision! They're a lot of fun to use. It's so much easier than having to carry about a bag of hands for all the possible gestures one might require during a shoot.

 

Again, not sure if these are character dolls or not, but they're definitely cute.

 

Another group of beautiful customs. I believe the blonde girl and the middle girl belong to @carino2262 on Twitter. The dresses are made by dealer Kaleidoll, who wasn't at Dolpa, unfortunately--I'd love to own some of their work.

 

Taking a break from all the displays - there was food for sale in the event hall as well: pastries, curry, tacos (!), and purportedly French hot dogs.

I actually didn't try any of the food--I'd brought a snack from the konbini, since I wanted to save my money for the dealers

 

Here's the Piapro/Vocaloid stage. This was an area for people to display all their Vocaloid DDs. There are a lot of customs--even Gumi and Gakupo, in the bottom row.

 

Another shot. There were some non-Vocaloid idols up there as well

This display was super cool to see, especially because of the huge amount of creativity from so many individual doll owners that you could see all in one place.

 

I hope you all enjoyed these shots! Next up, more customs on display, the Bingo, and obligatory loot photo

 

Again, not sure if these are character dolls or not, but they're definitely cute.

 

Lovely photos of such pretty girls! Also those two were character dolls, they're Kirari Moroboshi and Anzu Futaba from Idolm@ster's Cinderella girls lineup.

How can that be Anzu? She's awake!

Lovely pictures as always! I like that picture of Mei in the morning, and I’ve been wanting to say that I REALLY LOVE how she’s styled in your new forum display pic! It must have been amazing to go to Dolpa on your first trip to Japan! I love all of the dolls you’ve shown here—but I think I liked that 3D YouTube screen display thing he most. So creative!

 

Judging from your signature, I see a certain scientist is making a comeback! And what a lovely sculpt~ The story of how you got him sounds like it’s really interesting. I’ll be looking forward to that post. I’d like to see his reunion with Mei!

 

 

How can that be Anzu? She's awake!

 

LOL ikr? It’s so odd to see an Anzu so happy about working.

Lovely photos of such pretty girls! Also those two were character dolls, they're Kirari Moroboshi and Anzu Futaba from Idolm@ster's Cinderella girls lineup.

 

Thank you, and thanks for the ID on those two! I'd seen art of Anzu before, but since I'm not very familiar with IM@S and since I'd only ever seen Anzu depicted as half asleep, I wouldn't have guessed

 

Lovely pictures as always! I like that picture of Mei in the morning, and I’ve been wanting to say that I REALLY LOVE how she’s styled in your new forum display pic! It must have been amazing to go to Dolpa on your first trip to Japan! I love all of the dolls you’ve shown here—but I think I liked that 3D YouTube screen display thing he most. So creative!

 

Judging from your signature, I see a certain scientist is making a comeback! And what a lovely sculpt~ The story of how you got him sounds like it’s really interesting. I’ll be looking forward to that post. I’d like to see his reunion with Mei!

 

Thank you so much, especially for the complements on the Mei photos and styling! The heart shaped sunglasses and headphones are both from Dolpa, as well.

 

And indeed, I guess it isn't such a secret I did get to shoot a reunion photostory in one of the Akihabara Doll Point photospaces, which was great fun! I'm super happy that that was possible, even though I didn't have his correct eyes and wig on hand at the time.

 

Anyway, on to part three!

 

This was one of the customized Mikus. I really like this outfit.

 

It's a Mikumobile!

 

These two seemed to be out on a date, much to the shock of the little MDD in the bottom right. Holding hands? HOW SCANDALOUS

 

Someone brought a whole play structure to the owner display tables!

 

This is my favorite shot from all of Dolpa.

 

(also, note the Cardcaptor Sakura MDDs at the base of the play structure! I was pretty excited to see them.)

 

The central group of girls here are all wearing Ronshuka Couture outfits. One of the MDDs has the pink colorway of the nightgown Mei is wearing in the first picture of post 1 ^__^

 

I loved the styling on this Cirno and Arle pair. Arle is way cuter in person--I thought she was cute in photos, but in person, the cute is overpowering

 

 

And speaking of cute --!

All these MDDs were seriously pushing me towards getting one of my own. There were some custom heads up for sale in the dealer area, but none of them were quite what I was looking for. Perhaps someday

 

 

Many of the people who'd managed to get a Luka took theirs out and put her on display, so I got to see how stunning her sculpt is in person.

I also really like elf Miku. I'm fairly sure her outfit is from room303 closet, a dealer who was also at Dolpa, and from whom I was fortunate enough to get a medieval gown for a future DD. I was very happy that I could get a room303 outfit, as the dealer doesn't seem to sell even on webshops or Y!JA and it is remarkably hard to find clothes that would work for this character. Now that I have her dress and also shoes for her, it seems likely that the project will actually come to fruition! ...someday. It'll probably take another two years, given precedent

 

Returning to the event report...

...I really liked this custom Miku, although the (Luka-cosplaying?) Sheryl in the back seems a tad less enthusiastic

 

The last part of the day was the Bingo, which took place after the charity auctions and so on.

Prizes included xpasses to the next Dolpa, outfits, special resins (I forget which, but there is one exclusive sort of small Volks resin that you can only get at events like this), and even a Miku! They don't usually give out full DDs or SDs as prizes, but because this was Dolpa39 they wanted to give a Miku (39 = san kyu, three nine in Japanese).

Edit to explain the correspondence, thanks to Torino for explaining:

As for Miku, the reason she’s associated with 39 is because 3 and 9 can also be read as ‘mi’ and ‘ku’. There’s a lot of alternate readings of numbers that make them particularly fertile for puns, especially with doll-twitter on certain calendar dates.

 

 

I didn't get any Bingoes, but it was still fun to watch!

 

And that was the end of the event. We all came out of Big Sight into the beautiful sunlight of the not-quite-evening. All around there were people with their new Lukas, Sheryls, Rankas, Mias, and Lucias, and those happy in the knowledge that their doll was on their way home--Volks has a shipping service so you can send the doll you won to your house right from Dolpa, if it's too difficult to carry the doll on your plane or bus--and people like me, with bags full of amazing goods from the dealer booths. Even though we were all parting ways, the happiness of having been in a place with so many others who shared the same hobby remained, at least it did for me.

 

Afterwards Torino showed me around Harajuku, which was also super cool, and after dinner I went back to my Airbnb to revel in all my loot

 

Unfortunately I was also too tired to take a decent quality image

 

Nightgown and pillows - Ronshuka Couture (thanks to Torino for helping me get them from DollShow; Ronronshuka was not in fact at Dolpa)

 

Headphones/iPod - Pop Up Apricot

 

Yellow outfit with cat and fish - JETRUNNER;D

 

Heart-shaped sunglasses - thanks to Torino again, who got them as a freebee when purchasing other glasses, and kindly gave them to me!

 

Medieval dress (still in packet, you'll see it one day ) - room303 closet

 

Glasses and white and black stain-free stockings - HDP

 

Pink shirt and stockings - Purple Dream (they have a webshop with international shipping! highly recommended)

 

Small pink socks - Milai Factory

 

Jointed hands for DD - Gensou Doll

 

Blue-sleeve shirt - Volks

 

Tiny cake - I can't recall the dealer name >__< -- it was Raspberry something. If anyone's curious, I can look it up in the dealer list.

 

And most exciting of all--Mei's eyes!

These are glass animetics from dealer Coeur Lapin.

I have been wanting Coeur Lapin glass animetics for Mei pretty much since I got her, back in August of 2016. Unfortunately, they don't sell online very often and almost never turn up on Y!JA. I tried in a clickwar in their webshop this October or November, and everything was gone within a minute. A pair came up on Y!JA in December, at a time when it really did not fit in my feasible budget.

 

Right before going to Japan, I had seen on their weblog a new color design--a color that was absolutely, dead-on perfect for what I had always wanted for Mei. Immediately I checked for any indication that they were going to Dolpa; there was none, and they weren't on the dealer list. I resigned myself to "maybe they'll show up on Y!JA one day".

 

Then when Torino and I were making the rounds of the dealer booths, I saw one of the glass eye makers, and noticed their glass eyes were quite large. "Maybe it's another glass animetic maker," I thought.

I looked closer.

They were, indeed, glass animetics.

But--

Not only were they glass animetics.

They were the exact design that Coeur Lapin had shown on their blog.

 

It turns out that they were sharing a booth with someone else, I think. But the artist herself was there, exhibiting the new eye design and some of the older ones, and she was super nice. She actually offered to let us try on B-grade eyes in Mei's head, and after I had confirmed that the design looked even better than I had hoped, she picked out a pair of A-grade eyes just for Mei, which I promptly purchased, feeling rather like I was in a dream.

 

I'm super, super happy with these eyes. There are a lot of cool features--the top of the iris is actually darker due to blending different glass colors, so it doesn't give the "surprised" look that a lot of glass eyes do, and of course the irises are elongated and not round. Also, the way the light reflects in and on the eye is a lot more natural than with printed animetics because the shines match up with the direction of the real light source. There will be better photographs showing how good they look forthcoming--Mei wore these for the rest of the trip, so they appear in all my shots from this point out.

 

All in all, despite regretting missing out on that one dealer who sold out early, I am super, super pleased with everything I got at Dolpa

 

Of course, this was only the beginning of our Japan adventure--but what an absolutely amazing beginning it was! I am so happy to have experienced Dolpa, and especially to have been able to experience it with a friend. I haven't really done it justice here, but the experience is truly one of my happiest memories.

I hope that you all were able to experience some of the fun and excitement through these photos and narrative!

Edited May 23, 2018 by Guest

That first photo of Mei is seriously amazing!

 

This looks like sooo much fun! I love seeing and recognizing a bunch of custom dolls from Twitter as well. And I can only imagine how fast some of these creator booths sell out...

 

Oh gosh all those Roronshuka clothes in that one photo.. I want them all..!!

 

Thanks so much for sharing, I hope to go to next years Dolpa, now I know to go queue in good time.

I always love that pic of Mei with the loot. She just looks all ‘yes, I’m worth it.’

 

The limited resins that you can only get from the Dolpa bingo are SeiTenshi and ReiTenshi, and they are the smallest dolls Volks makes! They seem to have about six or so of each type for each Dolpa. If you get a bingo, you get to pull a cord that is attached to a random prize (so you do not know what prize you are getting) - can be boring postcards or can be one of the big items like the Tenshi. One woman jumped higher than I have ever seen someone jump when she realized she’d pulled a Tenshi, and that was really funny to me (the Volks boss, who hosts the bingo, then asked people to please jump like that if you also win a Tenshi)

 

As for Miku, the reason she’s associated with 39 is because 3 and 9 can also be read as ‘mi’ and ‘ku’. There’s a lot of alternate readings of numbers that make them particularly fertile for puns, especially with doll-twitter on certain calendar dates. A Miku fullset is to my knowledge the most expensive potential prize ever included in a Dolpa bingo, or at least out of the three I’ve attended! Once again neither me nor the people I was with won anything but just watching it is fun.

 

Oh and about the Mikumobile - all the Mikus in there are actually owned by the same guy! I wondered why on earth someone needed that many but I recently realized that he has one for every variety of Snow Miku to date (even the first two years where the only difference between the two was the addition of muffler and mittens on year two), plus he’s started doing the Magical Mirai outfits as well. He always has them in the trolley like that and was also at Magical Mirai and Snow Miku...he’s gotten kinda infamous now.

Oh and about the Mikumobile - all the Mikus in there are actually owned by the same guy! I wondered why on earth someone needed that many but I recently realized that he has one for every variety of Snow Miku to date (even the first two years where the only difference between the two was the addition of muffler and mittens on year two), plus he’s started doing the Magical Mirai outfits as well. He always has them in the trolley like that and was also at Magical Mirai and Snow Miku...he’s gotten kinda infamous now.

I saw some pictures of this somewhere before...probably some random twitter I was looking at. If I remember correctly at the time it wasn't actually all Mikus; there were a few of the Snow Mikus that were other dolls with the Miku clothes and wigs; one was a Saber and I don't remember what else. As far as I can tell here though it looks like they are all actually Mikus now.

Oh and about the Mikumobile - all the Mikus in there are actually owned by the same guy! I wondered why on earth someone needed that many but I recently realized that he has one for every variety of Snow Miku to date (even the first two years where the only difference between the two was the addition of muffler and mittens on year two), plus he’s started doing the Magical Mirai outfits as well. He always has them in the trolley like that and was also at Magical Mirai and Snow Miku...he’s gotten kinda infamous now.

I saw some pictures of this somewhere before...probably some random twitter I was looking at. If I remember correctly at the time it wasn't actually all Mikus; there were a few of the Snow Mikus that were other dolls with the Miku clothes and wigs; one was a Saber and I don't remember what else. As far as I can tell here though it looks like they are all actually Mikus now.

 

Quite frankly, if I didn't have other expensive hobbies, or was so responsible, I'd have a ton of Mikus too. I can't get enough of how adorable she is. I'd have a Miku for every Volks Miku outfit, and then a few more to be in other outfits I love her in. Every time I say something about wanting to do that to my wife, she ties the purse strings up in one of those impossible knots that only women seem to be able to undo (I've never been able to untangle things like her and my mother can.).

Thank you so much, especially for the complements on the Mei photos and styling! The heart shaped sunglasses and headphones are both from Dolpa, as well.

 

And indeed, I guess it isn't such a secret I did get to shoot a reunion photostory in one of the Akihabara Doll Point photospaces, which was great fun! I'm super happy that that was possible, even though I didn't have his correct eyes and wig on hand at the time.

 

That sunglasses + headphones combination is just perfect. So fun and trendy.

 

I had to pause for a while at glass animetic eyes. xD I didn’t know they existed at all before so I looked up Coeur Lapin’s blog, and WOW. They match so perfectly with the wistful(?) aesthetic of your photos and are just the right color for Mei too! Such an amazing and fateful find, congrats!

 

And looking at your ‘Dolpa gets’/super styling Mei image... those blue HDP glasses are for you-know-who right?!

That first photo of Mei is seriously amazing!

 

This looks like sooo much fun! I love seeing and recognizing a bunch of custom dolls from Twitter as well. And I can only imagine how fast some of these creator booths sell out...

 

Oh gosh all those Roronshuka clothes in that one photo.. I want them all..!!

 

Thanks so much for sharing, I hope to go to next years Dolpa, now I know to go queue in good time.

 

Thank you so much about the photo of Mei!

I was actually amazed at how long some of the dealers' goods lasted, even though people were buying them up--the dealers must have put in a great deal of very hard work in order to make enough!

The dealer on whose works I missed out was exhibiting for the first time, so I suspect they just weren't aware of how huge the demand would be.

 

I always love that pic of Mei with the loot. She just looks all ‘yes, I’m worth it.’

 

Thanks! I felt at the time she was a bit put out with me for not coming home with a certain doll, but I remedied the error of my ways a few days later so she's quite happy now

And thanks so much for the info about Miku and the Tenshi! I edited the original post to fix the info about 39 and Miku.

 

I saw some pictures of this somewhere before...probably some random twitter I was looking at. If I remember correctly at the time it wasn't actually all Mikus; there were a few of the Snow Mikus that were other dolls with the Miku clothes and wigs; one was a Saber and I don't remember what else. As far as I can tell here though it looks like they are all actually Mikus now.

I think all of these were indeed Miku sculpts. I do know there's someone on the boards who customized what I believe was a Saber to be a version of Miku not released by Volks, and he also had a couple other Miku versions. So perhaps the Mikumobile guy has more customs like that at home and just couldn't fit them all this time

 

Quite frankly, if I didn't have other expensive hobbies, or was so responsible, I'd have a ton of Mikus too. I can't get enough of how adorable she is.

To be honest, if Volks ever made a character doll for a character I really loved, I'd want to do the same too.

...it's these sorts of possibilities which motivate me to advance in my career

 

 

That sunglasses + headphones combination is just perfect. So fun and trendy.

 

I had to pause for a while at glass animetic eyes. xD I didn’t know they existed at all before so I looked up Coeur Lapin’s blog, and WOW. They match so perfectly with the wistful(?) aesthetic of your photos and are just the right color for Mei too! Such an amazing and fateful find, congrats!

 

And looking at your ‘Dolpa gets’/super styling Mei image... those blue HDP glasses are for you-know-who right?!

 

Thank you so much!

I'm especially glad to hear that you think the eyes match the aesthetic of my photos! (and indeed a wistful atmosphere is something for which I often strive in said photos, so I'm happy to hear that I'm able to convey that, as well!)

 

And yes, you're 100% correct on the glasses

Thanks for the extensive report! You sure had great time with Torino ^^

 

I just wanted to say that opening photo is one of your best shots. I also like your avatar Mei, but the melancholy of not sleeping because the upcoming event...Mei really wanted to attend Dollpa 39 ^^ she is really pretty and the photo tells so many feelings ... great job Ie-Aster! (And now the melancholy of Mei awaiting for Leona xD)

Thanks for sharing all the beautiful photos you were able to take during Dolpa 39! I love seeing all the custom DDs/MDDs that are on display by owners. That tanned DD with the wicked fox tails was my favorite of the bunch. And I'm so happy you were able to get the exact pair of eyes you wanted for Mei. If you ever get the chance I would love to see a photo of them close up to get the full effect. I didn't even realize there were people who made glass animetic eyes so that's something new I learned from this thread

 

Mei's loot photo is the cutest photo

I just wanted to say that opening photo is one of your best shots. I also like your avatar Mei, but the melancholy of not sleeping because the upcoming event...Mei really wanted to attend Dollpa 39 ^^ she is really pretty and the photo tells so many feelings ... great job Ie-Aster! (And now the melancholy of Mei awaiting for Leona xD)

 

Thank you very much! This is one of my favorite shots too, and I'm glad I was able to convey those feelings through it.

(...I also miss how nice the morning light was in that room...)

 

Thanks for sharing all the beautiful photos you were able to take during Dolpa 39! I love seeing all the custom DDs/MDDs that are on display by owners. That tanned DD with the wicked fox tails was my favorite of the bunch. And I'm so happy you were able to get the exact pair of eyes you wanted for Mei. If you ever get the chance I would love to see a photo of them close up to get the full effect. I didn't even realize there were people who made glass animetic eyes so that's something new I learned from this thread

 

Mei's loot photo is the cutest photo

 

I'm glad that you enjoyed seeing the event photos! I've spent a lot of time enjoying other people's doll event photos and videos, so I'm happy that I'm able to make my own event pictures available for others to get a sense of the experience.

 

This is probably the most up-close photo I have of Mei with the eyes:

(Sorry for the messy wig, this was taken in Harajuku and I had taking-doll-photos-in-public jitters)

They reflect light very nicely, so the "shines" in the eyes you see in this photo are the reflections of the window of the building in which I took the photo. In contrast, while printed animetic eyes also will reflect natural light sources, the big printed highlights in the eyes often don't correspond to where the light sources in the photo are.

 

Coeur*Lapin is the maker of these eyes, and she has made glass animetics in 18mm (like these) and more recently 16mm. At Dolpa, there was also another eyemaker who had made glass animetic eyes which had small pieces of white glass in the iris to represent the shines within the eye--it's a similar principle to how the stars are made in these Miyabi Glass Studio BJD eyes. The glass animetics with the glass shines were 20000 yen if I recall correctly.