New To DD....

HI Guys!

After many years of collecting anime figures I decided to take the plunge into Dollfie Dreams (always liked the look of them). So I bought a DD3 body (with the large shapely bust one-piece torso), a DDH-07 (2012 version) default pre-made head & a wig (Romantic Wave milk white) from Mandarake (who I've bought plenty of figures from before). It came to a bit below the cost of a standard model (of course I still need to buy some eyes) - but they seem to be perpetually out of stock on the Volks international webstore (i'm not in the US) anyway...

They all arrived in what seems to me in as new condition (the head was unopened) but Mandarake always seems to be overcautious with their descriptions anyway (most items I've bought with "box damaged" in description I couldn't see anything wrong - i've seen worse sitting "brand new" on shelves in physical stores!). And i've got to say - these dolls are massive! And that's from someone who owns quite a few of the 1/4 scale freeing figures! I knew 1/3 would be bigger.....but still!

Anyway, I have a couple of questions to ask, if you guys wouldn't mind answering:

1). Where to buy eyes from? I see quite a few photos of dolls with fantastic looking eyes, where would you recommend to buy eyes from nowadays (older threads asking this were almost a year ago and a lot of the stores seem to have closed now). I see Sharkdoll eyes are currently for pre-order and they look nice on the website but are quite expensive. How do they look in person if anyone here owns some?

2). Where to buy wigs from? Volks doesn't seem to have a large selection of wigs (and I really like white hair wigs with the red / violet eye combo) and it seems the wig I bought from Manda is sold exclusively (among some other nice styles & colours) from their physical stores in Japan. Any store recommendations that are still open / active today?

3). I'm planning to order some hands & eyes from Volks - is there anything you recommend I should pick up from there while i'm at it?

 

Thanks for reading, and looking forward to your answers!

 

I don't have an answer for eyes as I've gone through pain trying to get what I wanted there as well. Since you have a DDH-07 head, you probably want 22mm eyes though 24mm can also work. 24mm will likely touch inside the head and be harder to place accurately.

Volks wigs are generally pretty poor quality, and aren't the heat-resistant fiber type. BJD Crobi and Cotin Doll are two sources for good wigs. Mandarake's own wigs are pretty nice too; to find all of those search for "himekazura" on their site. You generally want the "M" size but "L" will probably also work for the head you have as it's one of the larger Volks heads. Crobi's sizing is a bit on the small side, and you'll notice they list theirs as 8" (not 8-9") so with theirs you will want to buy the 9-10" size.

My pictures suck but I'll link this from the old forum where I show several wigs on DDH-07: http://www.dollfiedreams.com/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=17910

Both pink wigs are Mandarake Himekazura wigs, in the M size. The long twintail green is from Cotin Doll, and the wavy green is a Volks "Dream Wig" which are only sold in the Dollpoint store or aftermarket at places like Mandarake. I was really disappointed with the quality of that one and it isn't at all worth the 4000 yen or so it sells for.

Thanks for you reply cfx! I'm liking the white wig with the braid & the white with pink long hair on the second page on the Cotin Doll website. Your Miku / 07 looks cute - I especially like the pics with the light pink wig & the last one with the suit. I'll take a look at Mandarake's wigs too.

A source you might look at for eyes are the ones @Freya_21 makes: https://www.etsy.com/shop/FreyacchisStore

The white and pink Cotin Doll wig is out of stock, but you can fill out their request form. I did that for a wig from them and they got it for me fairly quickly, though I have no idea if that was typical.

I linked that specific Cotin Doll site for you since you mentioned you aren't in the US. For anyone else reading this who is in the US, we now have to use their English site here: Cotin Doll English site -- I dislike that they no longer let us order from the Japanese site as there are things in stock there that aren't on the US site, and I'm also not liking how the payment works on the English site.

I've also bought a wig from Lullaby Poem but they don't ever seem to have much in stock. Other wig sources often mentioned here, but that I haven't used, are For My Doll, Little Monica, Licht, and Leeke World.

I initially overlooked in your OP you mentioned you got a Romantic Wave wig with your doll. That means you have the same Volks Dream Wig like that green one I have. Those are the heat-resistant fiber like most of the 3rd party wigs, and unlike all other Volks wigs. Perhaps the one I got is just a bad sample, but mine is very hard to hide the wig cap on because the fibers are so sparse. You can see it where the bangs part in this picture of my Miku, and that's how the hair lays no matter what I do with it. The fibers on this wig also seem much thinner, and much shinier (which I really dislike) compared to the other wigs I've bought:

Thanks again for you recommendations & help. I have ordered a couple of 20 & 22mm eyes from Volks - as they seem to be the recommended sizes for the DDH-07 head, i'll try them out & see which size I like best. Ordered a couple of hands, a saddle stand & a schoolgirl outfit too (gotta have one of those right?).

20mm will be on the smaller side in your head, but if you like to see the entire iris of the eye that's the look you'll get, which can be fine depending on the eyes and what you want. That pic of my Miku above is using 22mm.

I don't have any schoolgirl outfits yet, but yeah that's pretty much a requirement I think.

Yeah, that's why I bought 2 sizes - to see which I like best. Better to do that with relatively cheap Volks eyes rather than buy more expensive eyes. I have another question if I can bother you some more...

Do you have any experience with silk clothes on dollfies? Would they stain if they are dark coloured like other materials? There's a seller (The website is Sakurahonya & it ships worldwide) that has some really nice Kimonos & Cheongsams made from silk.

I don't have experience with that; hopefully someone else can answer.

I see a lot of nice wigs on etsy, and even some people who make wigs

Etsy is riddled with beautiful eyes from many artist. One of my favorites is SaEyechip who has some affordable cute ones. ErsaFlora also has some gorgeous eyes that I've been looking at. Be sure to know which eye size range your doll fits, too! I can't think of any wigs that haven't been mentioned already.

Thanks for the suggestions, i'll check them out! - i'm still deciding whether I like 20mm or 22mm in the head I have.