Cortex release schedule

@cfx I know the kit you're looking for, and it's not on the site anymore or if it is, he hid it better than I can find. But here's a decent alternative.

https://shop.smartdoll.jp/products/smart-doll-body?_pos=70&_sid=c03cc05c4&_ss=r

You can buy a Smart Doll body (only milk or tea, unfortunately) (when they're even in stock) for around 38,000 yen. Meaning Danny charges a premium for head sculpts and faceup work + the eyes and wig... this is is probably also why he refuses to sell blank heads. If he has complete control over the market, he has complete control over the prices. No one can buy repair parts without giving the money directly to him, no one can buy blanks for faceups at all... he'll say that if we want that, we can buy a Cortex doll now, but unfortunately those of us who prefer Vinyl are left with few options as a result.

I digress, I think another thing to factor here is shipping honestly? Because Cortex... doesn't tick Danny's free shipping threshold, and unless you're getting other stuff with a Cortex doll, shipping an assembled one is never going to be cheap. That cuts into the savings margin even more, especially if you live somewhere where you already have to deal with customs fees. 

At the end of the day I think there are definite benefits to a plastic body. I might get one down the line for traveling use, once Cocoa bodies are available. But it's Vinyl dolls that I prefer, and with such a small margin in price difference for an assembled doll (bc I just don't think I could manage to put one together tbh >.>; ) I'd go for Vinyl every time.

1 minute ago, Mothiraffe said:

At the end of the day I think there are definite benefits to a plastic body. I might get one down the line for traveling use, once Cocoa bodies are available. But it's Vinyl dolls that I prefer, and with such a small margin in price difference for an assembled doll (bc I just don't think I could manage to put one together tbh >.>; ) I'd go for Vinyl every time.

I think the problem is he's hinted that Vinyl's aren't going to be available indefinitely. I suspect that he's keeping both lines around long enough to protect himself against the possibility that Cortex ends up being a non-starter.

@BeyondTime for sure, and that's honestly something I'm endlessly bitter over. I can't say I'm SURPRISED, but I'm sure not happy. It remains to be seen if there's a market for Cortex dolls (his Marvel tie-ins will probably tell the tale,) but I'm definitely prioritizing getting the SmD I want as soon as I'm able because I fear within 1-2 years, we'll all be hunting mandarake for them. OTL

6 minutes ago, Mothiraffe said:

@BeyondTime for sure, and that's honestly something I'm endlessly bitter over. I can't say I'm SURPRISED, but I'm sure not happy. It remains to be seen if there's a market for Cortex dolls (his Marvel tie-ins will probably tell the tale,) but I'm definitely prioritizing getting the SmD I want as soon as I'm able because I fear within 1-2 years, we'll all be hunting mandarake for them. OTL

And I'm in total agreement with you. I think Cotrex makes sense as a budget option, but not as a replacement. Plus given the market for silicone busts, it's quite clear in some areas people prefer soft parts as opposed to hard parts. Gods that sounds awful! XD

Edited July 15, 2019 by BeyondTime

Cortex is supposed to stain less easily and stains can be removed with paint thinner so I can see that making these worth it for some.

~$360 for a doll with a faceup, wig, eyes, and underwear isn't all that bad? That's the cost of a DD body alone..curious what shipping will be like for them. Guessing 5000 JPY at least. Makes me wonder how much of the vinyl doll's cost is actually in shipping.

2 hours ago, cfx said:

I don't think anyone has brought this up here, but the closest comparison to make between this and vinyl is the 34,800 yen kit and the store workshop for assembling your own vinyl doll. I don't know if the latter still exists as I couldn't find the page for it now, but that used to cost ~40,000 yen (I don't remember exactly).

The workshop cost 39960 JPY in 2016. (This was 37000 JPY base price plus 8% sales tax.)

The workshop in 2017 cost 41040 JPY. (38000 JPY base price plus 8% sales tax.) I remember this because I wasn't aware of the price going up before my second visit and the fact the workshop was no longer (barely) under 40000 JPY.

While cortex is quite a bit cheaper than I feared it would be, it's also a fair chunk more expensive than I hoped...

The difference is likely not enough to make many people who were gunning for a vinyl, switch to cortex instead.

 

6 hours ago, cfx said:

I don't think anyone has brought this up here, but the closest comparison to make between this and vinyl is the 34,800 yen kit and the store workshop for assembling your own vinyl doll. I don't know if the latter still exists as I couldn't find the page for it now, but that used to cost ~40,000 yen (I don't remember exactly). So again the difference in an equivalent vinyl and Cortex doll is about 5000 yen.

Unfortunately, the workshop does not exist anymore (I once asked at the store, after I realized it was not listed on the site anymore).

The product page says free shipping worldwide, so maybe shipping will be free?

@Kushina pretty much summed up my thoughts, but as a resin BJD collector I wanted to add that if we want to be making fair comparisons, then this here:

On 7/14/2019 at 6:39 AM, freakie-oppa said:

(Calling the cortex 'low quality' just because of seams and possible exterior breakage is...quite baffling. The resin cousins usually have seam lines when it's shipped from the company if you don't pay for a seam removal service. But resin IS a superior material to the vinyl because of it's resilience to temperature, staining, and much much more. This is a fact. The seams haven't cheapened their worth nor quality. So why does it cheapen the cortex?)

is most definitely not a fair comparison. Resin BJD seams are nothing like Cortex seams. I find it quite off-putting how DC himself started this "resin BJD collectors are familiar with seams and will love the delicious seam lines" mantra and keeps using it as a defense whenever someone criticises the Cortex seams. Not nearly all BJD collectors "love" seamlines and will sand them down, myself included.

With resin BJDs, the first difference to Cortex is that the body parts aren't two halves joined together. They are solid parts all the way through, although naturally the insides have been hollowed out (how much they've been hollowed out depends on the artist) to fit the elastic inside the parts. But they would never come apart from the seams, like the Cortex does. And usually resin BJD seams protrude outwards, so it's fairly easy to sand them down to create an even surface and make the seams completely disappear. In some cases the seams may be more like crevasses, but usually they're quite shallow and again - easy to level out into an even, solid surface.

However, with Cortex, you have two different pieces that make one body part. The seam is more or less a crack between the two parts joining together, and the crack goes all the way through to the hollow insides. I'm inclined to believe that by sanding the seams, it's more that the dust from the sanding fills up the crack between the parts, which makes the seams less noticeable. But the seams will always be there. They won't disappear completely, like you can make the seams on resin BJDs disappear. And if you ever were to put the Cortex into pieces after you've sanded the seams once and then put it back together again... well. I can't imagine it looking all that nice. Now DC does say that the Cortex isn't meant to be assembled and disassembled time and time again, although I kind of thought that was the initial concept - but it's probably my misunderstanding as I don't follow him too closely.

Edited July 16, 2019 by mizya
typo

5 hours ago, mizya said:

is most definitely not a fair comparison.

I sort of agree with what you said, but also disagree that it isn't a fair comparison. Not all seam lines can be sanded down - such as on dark skinned BJDs. If you try to sand them down, you're left with discoloration that is not fixable. Also, is a lot of cases where companies do sand down the seam lines themselves, they do a rather poor job at refining the sanded down parts, leaving scratches and a sort of "flat" area. With this in mind, I'd say it's fair to compare the two products for their seams, even if they're not the same "type" of seam lines.

 

(the below is meant for someone who commented on a video showing the seam lines splitting all the time)
Also, I do believe that the Cortex is meant to be glued - henceforth not splitting apart at the seams when playing. Of course not everyone will be happy doing this, although it's not even permanent.

Edited July 16, 2019 by Shailara

7 hours ago, Shailara said:

I sort of agree with what you said, but also disagree that it isn't a fair comparison. Not all seam lines can be sanded down - such as on dark skinned BJDs. If you try to sand them down, you're left with discoloration that is not fixable.

And even then, that's not consistent through all resin BJDs lol. I sanded my darker toned boy with no discoloration, but it's never a guarantee to work.

But on topic...I guess I'm in the same boat that I would have thought that the full DIY version would have been cheaper than it ended up being. Disappointed slightly, but not surprised. I wasn't extremely motivated to buy a Cortex at the end of the day anyway since I really only like Sana and I guess she's seasonal now.

Edited July 16, 2019 by Noxxbunny

Volks does a beautiful job removing the seams on their SDs. It seems to be a standard option on limiteds, and a standard option on the extra leg parts you can order with a limited. It’s not standard on hands, and it's not standard on full choice. 

I think with cortex seams you will have to fill them in with something. Pretty sure that is what they do with Gundam kits. 

Edited July 17, 2019 by BeyondTime

11 hours ago, Shailara said:

Also, I do believe that the Cortex is meant to be glued - henceforth not splitting apart at the seams when playing. Of course not everyone will be happy doing this, although it's not even permanent.

Danny's long video on how to assemble Cortex only shows gluing the pins that hold the pieces together, not the seams aside from a few specific points.

That said, if one is going to putty and fill them they'd have to be glued first. But as anyone who has done this on plastic kits knows, if the parts have stresses put on them where they are going to try to separate, a glue joint on thin edges like this is not going to hold, and those joints and puttying are going to crack and it's going to look like garbage in the long run; it's going to look far worse than leaving the joints as is.

To be blunt, I think Danny suggesting anyone do this is incredibly irresponsible, because it's not going to really work, and you're going to ruin the Cortex skin parts doing it, especially since the replacement parts are stupidly expensive and there's no kind of warranty for user damage. Saying he's not responsible for you messing up your kit while simultaneously telling you to do things that are going to cause you to mess up your kit is really pretty despicable.

Edited July 16, 2019 by cfx

2 hours ago, cfx said:

That said, if one is going to putty and fill them they'd have to be glued first. But as anyone who has done this on plastic kits knows, if the parts have stresses put on them where they are going to try to separate, a glue joint on thin edges like this is not going to hold, and those joints and puttying are going to crack and it's going to look like garbage in the long run; it's going to look far worse than leaving the joints as is.

Traditional modeling putty absolutely wouldn't work. It would crack the moment you started posing her. You'd also have to paint the parts to mask it. At that point you might as well just sell one body in model kit grey, and sell the flesh tones as paint sets.

19 hours ago, Shailara said:

I sort of agree with what you said, but also disagree that it isn't a fair comparison. Not all seam lines can be sanded down - such as on dark skinned BJDs. If you try to sand them down, you're left with discoloration that is not fixable. Also, is a lot of cases where companies do sand down the seam lines themselves, they do a rather poor job at refining the sanded down parts, leaving scratches and a sort of "flat" area. With this in mind, I'd say it's fair to compare the two products for their seams, even if they're not the same "type" of seam lines.

Yes, one can absolutely do a bad job at removing seams on a resin BJD, but I don't really see how that relates to the issue of DC proclaiming that Cortex seams are removable (when they aren't removable). Unless you meant that resin BJD seams and Cortex seams are comparable in the way that you can do a shoddy job at sanding them? (This is getting off-topic, but the absolute ban on never sanding darker skin tones was more of an early 2000s problem, when there was the possibility of the colour being only on the surface of the resin or painted on. These days techniques have developed and the colour is often all the way through the resin. For example, Withdoll's Gray resin is relatively dark and it can be sanded without discoloration. Often times it's just a matter of finishing up the sanding job with fine enough sandpaper to even out the colour difference. I reduced the size of a Normal skin doll's breasts and was left with discolouration, the sanded areas are lighter than the rest of the doll because I had to use a coarse sandpaper or it would've taken ages. Now I just need to use a fine sandpaper to polish the surface to even out the colour. Discolouration when sanding can happen to lighter skin colours too, if you do more extensive modifications.)

Anyway, when I said it's not a fair comparison, I was referencing to the earlier conversation when the argument "you can't compare Dollfie Dream (prices) to Cortex (prices) because they're made of different materials". By that same logic, you can't compare resin BJDs and Cortex, because they're made of different materials and they have different types of seams.

I agree with @cfx, it's pretty irresponsible for DC to keep advertising that the seams can be sanded. Especially when he also keeps saying he markets his dolls to first time owners, who most likely don't have the experience to do such modifications in the first place. He doesn't even include printed instructions with the kits, and the lack of warranty is a huge red flag to me (especially when in the Cortex info page he admits that you need to break the shell if you want to switch out parts). 

6 hours ago, mizya said:

He doesn't even include printed instructions with the kits, and the lack of warranty is a huge red flag to me (especially when in the Cortex info page he admits that you need to break the shell if you want to switch out parts). 

The "Cortex or Vinyl?" section of that info page is certainly worth reading.

10 hours ago, BeyondTime said:

The "Cortex or Vinyl?" section of that info page is certainly worth reading.

This part I found interesting, as a person who usually has longer nails: "Both vinyl and Cortex attract scuff marks when something is rubbed against their surface like fabrics or a fingernail etc. Scuff marks are more noticeable on Cocoa vinyl and all skin tones in Cortex. Scuff marks are easily removable with fine grit sandpaper." and "As mentioned previously, scuff marks on all skin tones for Cortex show up more prominently - use the fine grain sandpaper included with all Cortex bodies to remove them - you need only brush against the surface very lightly."

I haven't messed with a Cortex yet, but the prices and the many, various issues with me make me say "No thanks." I'll save up for a vinyl Smart Doll, if I ever even get one (I'd rather buy second hand), but if Danny goes completely Cortex, then 100% pass forever for me. For people that want them, cool, but total meh here.

Edited July 18, 2019 by kranberrijam

2 hours ago, kranberrijam said:

I haven't messed with a Cortex yet, but the prices and the many, various issues with me make me say "No thanks." I'll save up for a vinyl Smart Doll, if I ever even get one (I'd rather buy second hand), but if Danny goes completely Cortex, then 100% pass forever for me. For people that want them, cool, but total meh here.

It seems to me like it has some strengths and some drawbacks. I think at this point we need to see what owners have to say about it as cortex dolls start finding homes and getting used.

The bit about fabrics scuffing them is worrisome. I mean unless they are meant to be kept on a display stand and occasionally repositioned, you couldn't even take them anywhere or dress them without scuffing them

Oh we'll find out real quick how durable they are if I'm able to get hold of one, because I travel extensively with my dolls, and while I try to baby them, they're going to be posed on a sidewalk, put in a tree, carried around in a bag... vinyl is pretty resilient, and Cortex was meant (I thought) a stain-resistant, travel-friendly body. If it turns out that Cortex is actually more easy to damage, I probably won't want one either.

Also, 

I feel like bit by bit, we're kind of losing the "soul" that made Smart Dolls so interesting in the first place, just in my personal opinion? On one hand I suppose it's good that we're acknowledging that the sculpts are all recolors of one another, but at the same time... I don't know, it just makes me sad. The stories will probably disappear for them too, but given Courage's story... maybe that's for the best.

If it means every doll sculpt will eventually be available in any skintone, I can't complain. Still though, it seems like in his pursuit to streamline the doll-making process away from vinyl, he's losing the qualities that drew us to SmD in the first place, the personality of each girl and whatnot. I don't know, I'm probably overthinking it...
 

He can't make up his mind. It used to be you bought your Smart Doll in various skin colors but it was the same character i.e. there was milk and tea Chitose, then he decided that different skin tones were different characters i.e. Mirai and Gaia, Melody and whatever-tea-Melody's-name-is but now cinnamon Mirai and Melody are still Mirai and Melody?

Personally I prefer to call them sculpt character + skin tone because it's easier to keep track of. I have a Destiny, but I never really think of her like that, more like tea Kanata/Kizuna v2. But I'm not invested in the character she was assigned, I was literally just wanting that sculpt in that color.

I see it as not much different than saying, this is my SWS 03 girl or something.

I also prefer having things labelled as a single character + skintone, it makes things much easier for me to keep track of. That, and I am not much of a fan of the direction the recent stories have taken. I feel like this could give more space to develop existing characters though, as there will be fewer to write new unique stories for.

My assumption has been--and it is only that, an assumption--that the different skin tones started having different names to make it look like there were more unique dolls, and to try to hide the fact that so many use the exact same sculpts since that particular bit of information is never explicitly divulged.

I too would prefer one name for the different skin tones that have the same faceup, because it's far less confusing. It's just funny that seems to be what is being done now, again, and unless Gaia suddenly becomes tea Mirai then there's now the inconsistency of both things being done at the same time.

I think it's worth mentioning that even now (for most cases iirc), same heads with same face-ups but different skin are still named the same. They go with different name when they have a different face-up? So that might still happen. I also don't think it means we'll get every girl in every color, but just that he might be limiting how many different face-ups he makes per head? Hm...

Back on topic though, I think we just need to wait for feedback from people who get Cortex. Yes their feedback might be biased but I think that we can't speculate much yet. For example he says that scuffs happen "easily" even on vinyl - especially cocoa. I have a cocoa girl and I've not noticed any scuffs (and i have long nails). Even when I handled her a little roughly. So I wouldn't take his word for it; i think he's more like trying to cover for himself. He knows scuffs can happen, perhaps a little easier than vinyl, and so wants to warn people that it is possible. 

Edited July 18, 2019 by Shailara

On 7/18/2019 at 3:03 AM, Shailara said:

I think it's worth mentioning that even now (for most cases iirc), same heads with same face-ups but different skin are still named the same.

No. It used to be this way but it's not now. I've double-checked this by looking at the pages for each doll, and there isn't an option to select skin tone on any of them, nor is there a second page with a same-named doll with a different skin color, aside from these new cinnamon ones. Some of the ones that existed previously are just discontinued, like tea Chitose, but others exist with same faceups but different names i.e. Mirai and Gaia, Melody and Symphony, Valiant and Courage, new Kizuna and Athena. When Danny first showed Gaia but hadn't named her yet, he had something on instagram about why he chose to do it this way.

Anyway, obviously he can do whatever he wants; it's just the inconsistencies make things confusing.

Edit: Late on this but didn't want to make an additional post. The instagram post in @Mothiraffe's post above has the statement about with the additional skin tones now they'll all have the same doll name. In contrast, back in December 2018 he wrote this:

 

Edited July 27, 2019 by cfx
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