The Facebook debacle & other issues

On 11/22/2023 at 9:47 PM, ebil said:

why did you delete all pictures of them from the internet?

decided to break lurking manouvers for this, since Interestingly enough there is still one little vestige left of these ... although for how long after posting this remains a mystery...

the subject matters flickr account still has pretty much everything from the tokyo storm trooper days since flickr actually never went through with their threat of pruning every non-pro users photos to the last 1000.. so there's a good 80k pictures of a certain kind of nostalgia to be found there.

for the most relevant items page 695 is where he got saber, in 688 are pics of the the seifuku Chun made.

EDIT:

I strongly suggest viewing the older bits as part of something else (part of a blog about life in tokyo), not specificly what the person actually likes to browse or do.

 

... and back to lurking.

Edited November 24, 2023 by finnleo

 

On 11/22/2023 at 3:21 PM, finnleo said:

decided to break lurking manouvers for this, since Interestingly enough there is still one little vestige left of these ... although for how long after posting this remains a mystery...

the subject matters flickr account still has pretty much everything from the tokyo storm trooper days since flickr actually never went through with their threat of pruning every non-pro users photos to the last 1000.. so there's a good 80k pictures of a certain kind of nostalgia to be found there.

for the most relevant items page 695 is where he got saber, in 688 are pics of the the seifuku Chun made.

 

... and back to lurking.

The fact that he has uncensored h****i on there makes me feel an ick about him I didn't know I could feel toward a person...

Edit: OH AND ADULT MAGAZINES THAT PROMINANTLY SHOW MODELS IN SCHOOL GIRL AND YOUNG GIRL ATTIRE, THAT'S GREAT WOW...

Edited November 24, 2023 by cinnabunroll

31 minutes ago, cinnabunroll said:

The fact that he has uncensored h****i on there makes me feel an ick about him I didn't know I could feel toward a person...

Edit: OH AND ADULT MAGAZINES THAT PROMINANTLY SHOW MODELS IN SCHOOL GIRL AND YOUNG GIRL ATTIRE, THAT'S GREAT WOW...

I feel there is a need to clarify a few things, since that photo library is very much disconnected from its original context, which is the blog he used to make back in the early days before anything, which if I am not mistaken has ceased to exist.

the articles did vary from the mundane to the more questionable subjects, but it was all about what kind of stuff you could stumble across while going around tokyo.

obviously some stuff is more deliberate (the topless figure shoots are an amusing retrospect, also the promotion stuff with company "T").

So I strongly suggest viewing the older bits as part of something else, not specificly what the person actually likes to browse or do.

 

anyways, with that late disclaimer ... lurking... lurking is better.

 

I'm sorry, but I don't believe for a second that Danny's old blog wasn't about his personal interests. 😅 He's a massive weeb (I say this as a massive weeb myself) and just looking at his early dolls being sexualised with gigantic spine-breaking boobs and skimpy outfits, before he started this "Smartdolls are for children" thing, makes it pretty obvious where his interests lie. He also used to say stuff like "I like the girls best in their birthday suit" and one of his reasons for not being interested in making male dolls was because their "birthday suit" wasn't appealing to him ('cause obvs he's not into naked dudes). Sounds quite absurd to me that Danny of all people would've been going around Tokyo looking at all this stuff out of purely professional interest like an actual journalist, instead of a weeb living his Japan dream and writing about stuff that he's personally into.

I guess nowadays he's pretty much cleaned up his act when it comes to being pervy, although he's still problematic in other ways like the whole 'entitled customers' and gatekeeping thing for starters. It's like dude; if you don't want certain people to buy your dolls, then don't make them into a commercial product. 🙃

Haven't check here a year and I only missing like 10 pages here LOL.

Seems Not much happen and outside this place I only heard how it's super difficult to get spare parts and how it's near impossible to get the Licensed limited dolls and a friend mention it's way harder to buy, than volks limited models DD during their prime popularity like 8-12 years ago

If He don't want people to hybrid Smartdolls, he need to make new Body variants in size,and I mean different height and they need to be accessible

I believe the current Smartdoll body still the same as 10 years ago ? , even the failed cortex also basically the same thing since they share the exact same frame

-------------------

Can't comment much about his blog days, once he start advertising weird stuff unrelated, I start to walks away, not to mention the toxic boards.

But worth a mention until before he nuke his main blog, everytime you search volks or dollfie dream a lot of articles/photos from search engine still redirect to his site as one of top searches, so some pal joking he nuke his blog to erase his history with Volks and DD lol

Edited November 26, 2023 by AyaToyBox

Interestingly, he seems to be at least claiming to be open to hybrids these days, at least using the 3d printer files.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CzncadnB-iG/?igshid=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

"And if your Smart Dolls have other branded siblings, feel free to use these files to create unique hybrids by resizing them."

 

This is from November 14th, and it surprised me and made me wonder if he's changed his outlook on hybrids with Dollfie Dreams as well. Milk is probably not coming back or anything major like that but it's something at least?

 

(also I saw a comparison on tumblr showing SMD cinnamon matches Dollfie Dream tan, lemme see if I can find the post again)

It's not letting me edit for some reason, but here's the tumblr link https://www.tumblr.com/attlebridge/734109058728181760/vinyl-mjd-color-swatches-for-hybrid-and-custom

2 hours ago, Starwaia said:

Interestingly, he seems to be at least claiming to be open to hybrids these days, at least using the 3d printer files.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CzncadnB-iG/?igshid=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

"And if your Smart Dolls have other branded siblings, feel free to use these files to create unique hybrids by resizing them."

 

This is from November 14th, and it surprised me and made me wonder if he's changed his outlook on hybrids with Dollfie Dreams as well. Milk is probably not coming back or anything major like that but it's something at least?

 

(also I saw a comparison on tumblr showing SMD cinnamon matches Dollfie Dream tan, lemme see if I can find the post again)

I think he meant creating hybrids with the patterns and not the actual dolls. (And sometimes I don't know what to think because he has a toxic case of sarcasm.)

On 11/26/2023 at 1:56 AM, AyaToyBox said:

Haven't check here a year and I only missing like 10 pages here LOL.

Seems Not much happen and outside this place I only heard how it's super difficult to get spare parts and how it's near impossible to get the Licensed limited dolls and a friend mention it's way harder to buy, than volks limited models DD during their prime popularity like 8-12 years ago

If He don't want people to hybrid Smartdolls, he need to make new Body variants in size,and I mean different height and they need to be accessible

I believe the current Smartdoll body still the same as 10 years ago ? , even the failed cortex also basically the same thing since they share the exact same frame

-------------------

Can't comment much about his blog days, once he start advertising weird stuff unrelated, I start to walks away, not to mention the toxic boards.

But worth a mention until before he nuke his main blog, everytime you search volks or dollfie dream a lot of articles/photos from search engine still redirect to his site as one of top searches, so some pal joking he nuke his blog to erase his history with Volks and DD lol

Don’t get me started on Smart Doll Cortex! It was my first BJD at the time. When Mirai Cortex’s arm seams on the wrists broke on both of the arms due to tweaking and posing, I was actually disappointed when DC’s shop discontinued them and same for the skin tone. So they can’t offer me replacement parts on the same skintone! 

It turned me off on Smart Doll collecting.

Also, his erasure and censoring the past love of DD shows that he couldn’t forgive Volks for not creating his Mirai at the time. He didn’t take it well, but he could at least be accepting Dollfie Dream. Which Smart Doll is based on…

At least Smart Dolls are more stable when it comes to holding items and doing poses thanks to the telescope stand.

I hope the SmD creator is treating his customers better, if not then he never truly changed.

Edited November 27, 2023 by ZandurFox

@RozenGermain The milk skin, right? It is very similar to DD's semi-white and I bet people loved hybridizing DDs with it!

The milk skin matches DD’s normal flesh color. The semi-white is lighter. 
 

Im not sure what to think with everything Danny is doing, but I just hope he follows through with a frontline pear girl. Also, I hope he actually reworks the guy and does better about crediting the designers who actually made the sculpts and also the people that come up with the face-up designs, because he constantly makes it seem like it’s all his idea.

seems my last comment was deleted. I wasn't bullying.   I just started why would lil kids want big chested dollies for 500$usd. sorry if my context was poor. also please send me asap a link to delete my account or i'll contact the site owner. thank you

If Danny thinks a simple skintone mismatch is gonna stop the hardcore hybridizers, he's very wrong.

The recent introduction of pear means my girl Sinclair will finally be able to SIT! I will blush her expensive DD head to match cinnamon if I gotta, nothing is keeping me from this one. 😂

He's moved away from the marketing to children shtick lately, which I'm very grateful for. These days it feels like his focus is on marketing Smartdoll an inclusive high-end fashion doll brand, which....I guess is at least something you can kinda see, if you squint? The kid-friendly angle never did make sense to me, but at least you can have both big sexy boobs AND disability rep, without it being weird and creepy right from the get-go. There's even space for his cyberpunk stories if he wants em.

This is a much better direction imo, even if it does mean some of the frontline girls' descriptions read as trying a little too hard sometimes.

I feel conflicted on this topic because I'm essentially Danny's ideal customer - I like SmDs more than the average DD, I want a doll that comes out of box with face up/eyes/wig, and I don't plan on heavy modification. 

My other reason for supporting SmD is the true dark skin tones they offer. No other companies offer Cocoa and not many offer Tea - even Volks doesn't. I'm still waiting for a tea anime girl to drop, and I love my cinnamon girl.

Edit: For me those outweigh Danny's lack of professionalism & issues with products being discontinued, but I understand why those are a big issue for others. 

Edited January 13, 2024 by meteorite

5 hours ago, meteorite said:

Edit: For me those outweigh Danny's lack of professionalism & issues with products being discontinued, but I understand why those are a big issue for others. 

There is nothing wrong with liking SmartDolls, but walk in with open eyes with regards to how the company handles things.  

I have been wanting to dabble into smarties, but for me I want to be conscious of who I am supporting by purchasing items from. But I feel like purchasing 2nd hand would be a better option?

I was seeing on twitter as of late (maybe within the past year) more of encouragement for the creative side of the community, possibly because of content creators showing support to him on youtube. I really like the creators page & artists he’s been featuring. Quite possibly why he’s making diy files available

to circle to the topic. for years I reserved from following DC on IG because of his focus on negative customers.

Today I went to the site to see if they had new clothes, but nothing, they have the same ones as 8 months ago.

But I noticed one thing, they removed the optional heads, had people started making hybrids?! Ahahahah 

10 hours ago, Morilec said:

But I noticed one thing, they removed the optional heads, had people started making hybrids?! Ahahahah 

I wouldn't be surprised if it was both for hybrid and also price reasons, 39000¥ for just a head with a stock faceup is asinine.

Also, I found  this...gem while trying to figure out when they stopped selling option heads. If I wrote down all my thoughts on this it'd turn into an essay real quick.

Official announcement was that they were discontinued because people were buying the heads and then getting mad because there was no body included.

I'd call nonsense on that, but having modded a Discord server and seen some of the stuff people post abt on bad transaction FB groups, I am unfortunately not at ALL surprised. Some folks seem completely incapable of reading disclaimers. I do wish Danny would quit punishing the collective over the actions of the few, but it is what it is.

(Also, I highly doubt it's a hybrid thing even if that explanation IS bull. Milk was the only color that matched anything readily available from other brands without MASSIVE amounts of blushing at the time. These were gone before people discovered Imomodoll's tan matched Tea.)

I'm gonna mention a thing, so hopefully this is on topic enough. but he was @animenyc, he seem to be against hybrids or dolls wearing other brand clothes and not to display on the table at,his booth and then changed his mind for some reason an asked they put them near the back.

On 1/13/2024 at 7:50 PM, Evy said:

I was seeing on twitter as of late (maybe within the past year) more of encouragement for the creative side of the community, possibly because of content creators showing support to him on youtube. I really like the creators page & artists he’s been featuring. Quite possibly why he’s making diy files available

And to think that when I customized my girl back in 2018 I got told to k*** myself by half of the community (not by Danny thankfully). Now customization is a big thing and he's featuring creators. And even takes advice from people regarding the boy look. It's great. I just sometimes wish I could still order from him xD

I don't mean to continue ragging on about some of Mr. Choo's questionable decisions too much, but this has been bothering me for a bit. I find it exceedingly odd that so much of his advertising is directed towards little kids and their parents, but it feels like the prices and buying process of the dolls is geared towards a "high end luxury" experience. Like, the ads show toddlers playing with the dolls, but their cost is so high and you need to answer emails to his liking to buy one.

It seems strange to implement marketing strategies that luxury brands do to create a sense of exclusivity (requiring the customer to have an interview/survey before selling to them, needing to be an established customer to buy things, having to specifically request to buy certain items from the sales representative because they aren't openly listed for sale, etc) but then actually go on to market the dolls to first time doll owners and kids. Even more strangely, I could've sworn that one of Danny's gripes with Volks was the lottery system since many international customers felt like it was done purely to create artificial scarcity and enhance the "exclusivity" appeal. I feel like I remember him stating that he wanted to make Smart Dolls easier and more accessible for people to buy in the beginning.

I completely understand wanting to give the customers a luxury experience, especially for the prices that they're paying, but with the way it's marketed I would expect that to be more like fancy packaging, high quality customer service, and good warranties. I wonder if part of the reason that he gets as many angry customers as he says is because of this disconnect with the brand image? I can easily see a parent getting frustrated because it was marketed as a kid friendly toy, only for them to find out that they can't easily buy the repair parts needed when their kid breaks it. Or an experienced doll hobbyist that expected a luxury product getting mad if the doll arrives with noticeable flaws because of the wabi-sabi policy.

With that said, I noticed that he seems to have added a section that really clarifies the return and warranty policies, which is great! However I also thought he changed the snarky "why you shouldn't buy this" link to the "why smart doll may not be your best choice" page, but uh, I think it's gotten even worse 😬. The list of alleged texts he's received seem more like quotes he made up to mock and straw man any complaints people have had about certain choices, especially with all the "stop it!" or "apologize now!" at the ends. Don't get me wrong, many of those complaints ARE stupid (even if he wasn't exaggerating them), but this whole page on the official site to snark on them feels so...juvenile? Like, is there really no PR team? It would be faster and easier to just say "We seek to increase diversity in the doll world and give our design team full creative freedom. If you don't agree with our design choices, we do not recommend buying from our company."

With the way these pages are written, I would expect him to be a former customer service or retail employee with a bone to pick with annoying customers, not the son of a millionaire who was a computer engineer or manager/executive for many high profile agencies 💀

2 hours ago, Roserolls said:

I don't mean to continue ragging on about some of Mr. Choo's questionable decisions too much, but this has been bothering me for a bit. I find it exceedingly odd that so much of his advertising is directed towards little kids and their parents, but it feels like the prices and buying process of the dolls is geared towards a "high end luxury" experience. Like, the ads show toddlers playing with the dolls, but their cost is so high and you need to answer emails to his liking to buy one.

It seems strange to implement marketing strategies that luxury brands do to create a sense of exclusivity (requiring the customer to have an interview/survey before selling to them, needing to be an established customer to buy things, having to specifically request to buy certain items from the sales representative because they aren't openly listed for sale, etc) but then actually go on to market the dolls to first time doll owners and kids. Even more strangely, I could've sworn that one of Danny's gripes with Volks was the lottery system since many international customers felt like it was done purely to create artificial scarcity and enhance the "exclusivity" appeal. I feel like I remember him stating that he wanted to make Smart Dolls easier and more accessible for people to buy in the beginning.

I completely understand wanting to give the customers a luxury experience, especially for the prices that they're paying, but with the way it's marketed I would expect that to be more like fancy packaging, high quality customer service, and good warranties. I wonder if part of the reason that he gets as many angry customers as he says is because of this disconnect with the brand image? I can easily see a parent getting frustrated because it was marketed as a kid friendly toy, only for them to find out that they can't easily buy the repair parts needed when their kid breaks it. Or an experienced doll hobbyist that expected a luxury product getting mad if the doll arrives with noticeable flaws because of the wabi-sabi policy.

With that said, I noticed that he seems to have added a section that really clarifies the return and warranty policies, which is great! However I also thought he changed the snarky "why you shouldn't buy this" link to the "why smart doll may not be your best choice" page, but uh, I think it's gotten even worse 😬. The list of alleged texts he's received seem more like quotes he made up to mock and straw man any complaints people have had about certain choices, especially with all the "stop it!" or "apologize now!" at the ends. Don't get me wrong, many of those complaints ARE stupid (even if he wasn't exaggerating them), but this whole page on the official site to snark on them feels so...juvenile? Like, is there really no PR team? It would be faster and easier to just say "We seek to increase diversity in the doll world and give our design team full creative freedom. If you don't agree with our design choices, we do not recommend buying from our company."

With the way these pages are written, I would expect him to be a former customer service or retail employee with a bone to pick with annoying customers, not the son of a millionaire who was a computer engineer or manager/executive for many high profile agencies 💀

I agree. I always feel a little leery of smart doll sometimes. as a nerudivergent, my social cues can be tough.   also the amount of unnecessary "dog" plieing on constructive criticism by others, used as meanness. I hope this was on topic, I do try to stay on topic.

Edited April 29, 2024 by DollyDearest

9 hours ago, Roserolls said:

requiring the customer to have an interview/survey before selling to them, needing to be an established customer to buy things, having to specifically request to buy certain items from the sales representative because they aren't openly listed for sale, etc

Super exclusive companies like Rolls Royce just want you to bring money... lots of money. 

10 hours ago, Roserolls said:

I don't mean to continue ragging on about some of Mr. Choo's questionable decisions too much, but this has been bothering me for a bit. I find it exceedingly odd that so much of his advertising is directed towards little kids and their parents, but it feels like the prices and buying process of the dolls is geared towards a "high end luxury" experience. Like, the ads show toddlers playing with the dolls, but their cost is so high and you need to answer emails to his liking to buy one.

It seems strange to implement marketing strategies that luxury brands do to create a sense of exclusivity (requiring the customer to have an interview/survey before selling to them, needing to be an established customer to buy things, having to specifically request to buy certain items from the sales representative because they aren't openly listed for sale, etc) but then actually go on to market the dolls to first time doll owners and kids. Even more strangely, I could've sworn that one of Danny's gripes with Volks was the lottery system since many international customers felt like it was done purely to create artificial scarcity and enhance the "exclusivity" appeal. I feel like I remember him stating that he wanted to make Smart Dolls easier and more accessible for people to buy in the beginning.

I completely understand wanting to give the customers a luxury experience, especially for the prices that they're paying, but with the way it's marketed I would expect that to be more like fancy packaging, high quality customer service, and good warranties. I wonder if part of the reason that he gets as many angry customers as he says is because of this disconnect with the brand image? I can easily see a parent getting frustrated because it was marketed as a kid friendly toy, only for them to find out that they can't easily buy the repair parts needed when their kid breaks it. Or an experienced doll hobbyist that expected a luxury product getting mad if the doll arrives with noticeable flaws because of the wabi-sabi policy.

With that said, I noticed that he seems to have added a section that really clarifies the return and warranty policies, which is great! However I also thought he changed the snarky "why you shouldn't buy this" link to the "why smart doll may not be your best choice" page, but uh, I think it's gotten even worse 😬. The list of alleged texts he's received seem more like quotes he made up to mock and straw man any complaints people have had about certain choices, especially with all the "stop it!" or "apologize now!" at the ends. Don't get me wrong, many of those complaints ARE stupid (even if he wasn't exaggerating them), but this whole page on the official site to snark on them feels so...juvenile? Like, is there really no PR team? It would be faster and easier to just say "We seek to increase diversity in the doll world and give our design team full creative freedom. If you don't agree with our design choices, we do not recommend buying from our company."

With the way these pages are written, I would expect him to be a former customer service or retail employee with a bone to pick with annoying customers, not the son of a millionaire who was a computer engineer or manager/executive for many high profile agencies 💀

He even once said he didn't want secondhand dolls to be scalped, aka have a crazy high price, then proceeded to put a Moonlight sculpt (which had been in his shop for a long time) in the garage for 3k. 🙈