Dollfie Icon

5 hours ago, KanjiWest said:

I dont know how much I like this. She is very cute, but why use the normal dollfie white joints when they could use the ebony joints or even just make a skeleton that fits her shade? If they're going to be making blue/lilac dolls in the future, would that not be a worth it thing for them? It just looks a little strange to have light joints when naturally they're always depicted as slightly darker or the same color.

I'm sorry if this has already been answered in the thread but I just see it and my anxiety hits me. Such a beautiful blue baby and then.... BAM.  It's like she's wearing body paint and it's rubbing off all over the place. 

From a technic aspect, I can understand why the initial grouping of Icon dolls have mismatched joints. The vinyl is made with the color baked into it. For the pearly glow colors (pink, green, and purple) this means the glittery flakes and pearlescent effects are in the vinyl itself. It isn't a standard DD part painted with a color. It doesn't seem that Volks was quite ready (or able to) put the same R&D cost into figuring out how to appropriately color match the plastic used in the joints and make a separate batch of joints. At the scale that the Icons have been made, it was likely not financially feasible to modify the manufacturing process for the hard plastic components.

Smaller batches of a vinyl part are relatively easy to do and the production cost scales linearly. Hard plastic only makes sense to make at much larger batch sizes. Price per part decreases the more that are made, with smaller batches costing more per piece compared to large runs.

Hopefully if the Icon line takes off, then there'll be better economies of scale that will allow Volks to spend the money making multiple colors of plastic. 

Here is a copy of the announcement that discusses the joints. 

 

Thank you for the official statement for it. I still think it's a shame and probably wont be getting them in the future unless their skeletons match. In one of the pictures posted earlier I could even see it through the shirt, so it just throws me off. Beautiful doll otherwise. 

I suspect the practical reason is as @asianed says; very small production of unique injection-molded parts is infeasible and expensive. Officially that's not something any company is really going to ever say, so that official statement attempts to spin that negative as a positive thing.

If they become a larger production item the frame could change. It's likely there will be at least one difference, in that they'd probably become f3. Then there is the statement:

Quote

And it was chosen to distinguish them as event-limited Dollfies with a special purpose.

That implies if there ever is a non-event-limited version it could be different.

In terms of production realities, Kanu has a uniquely-colored frame, so it should only require a number similar to a limited doll to be practical.

37 minutes ago, cfx said:

Officially that's not something any company is really going to ever say, so that official statement attempts to spin that negative as a positive thing.

Yeah, I don't buy the published reason either. It's all PR spin.

38 minutes ago, cfx said:

That implies if there ever is a non-event-limited version it could be different.

The DollPa-limited Icons are called out on the product page to be differentiated by the belly button piercings. I guess maybe the unmatched joints could potentially be limited to the first production run. With the way the lottery at DollPa was run (and the way the After Event lottery is being run), I suspect that they're using it to gauge market popularity of the various colors and factor that into future production. For future releases, we might see only one color done at a time, with the most popular colors getting worked on first with color-matched f3 frames.

Someone has a Terra on eBay for $1900...

18 minutes ago, BeyondTime said:

Someone has a Terra on eBay for $1900...

Yea I saw that. Makes me sad, because it could have went to someone else who wanted Terra.

Edited October 6, 2019 by 20blackbags

3 hours ago, 20blackbags said:

Yea I saw that. Makes me sad, because it could have went to someone else who wanted Terra.

It still could.  They just have to want Terra $1900 worth.

(No, not genuinely defending the scalping, but it is what it is.)

1 hour ago, Gabriel said:

It still could.  They just have to want Terra $1900 worth.

(No, not genuinely defending the scalping, but it is what it is.)

So few of them exist at this point, and each one that does is somewhat unique. I can understand the high price from that perspective. It is still sad because a lot of people at the Dolpa did want one.

No one should even be thinking of paying that at this point, since the Volks USA lottery is still going on. If you win that, it's $750 vs. $1900.

I really hate scalping, and if someone got her at Dolpa with the intent of doing this I consider that despicable. However, if they got her because they wanted her but just decided the doll wasn't for them, or had an emergency need for cash, while that still sucks trying to get a scalper price, I also understand listing it like that to see if someone bites i.e. no one is being forced to pay as it's a luxury item not a necessity.

I'm not defending it, and I personally would not do it, but I understand it.

I attempted to put in an offer on it, just to see what would happen. My $700 offer was (unsurprisingly) rejected. I then tried to raise the offer to $806, which is the exact price of the Icons at DollPa, and this is what happened. 

I guess they don't like reasonably prices offers? 

Scalping to this extent is ridiculous. People should boycott these sellers and let them go broke. 

Just a reminder that tomorrow, October 10, is the last day to enter the Volks USA lottery for Dollfie Icon (and a bunch of outfits).

I wonder if it affects your chances to win things by how many items you put in for.  Like do you have more of a chance at winning a doll or outfit if you only put in for that one single item that you really want or are your chances better if you put in for several items in hopes that you get one or more?  I didn't put in for any clothing this time around but there's a couple of outfits I like.  I figured I'd rather not stretch myself thin and put in for those AND the Icons I entered for.

I guess what I mean is, if your name pops up there for more items, are you less likely to win more or not?  Statistics and chance would say the more chances the better but I have no clue how their lottery system actually works.  I'm hoping that by just putting in for 2 things, they'll see I'm not greedy and maybe hook me up?  LOL

 

 

Billy

On 10/10/2019 at 7:09 PM, baldylox said:

I wonder if it affects your chances to win things by how many items you put in for.  Like do you have more of a chance at winning a doll or outfit if you only put in for that one single item that you really want or are your chances better if you put in for several items in hopes that you get one or more?  I didn't put in for any clothing this time around but there's a couple of outfits I like.  I figured I'd rather not stretch myself thin and put in for those AND the Icons I entered for.

I guess what I mean is, if your name pops up there for more items, are you less likely to win more or not?  Statistics and chance would say the more chances the better but I have no clue how their lottery system actually works.  I'm hoping that by just putting in for 2 things, they'll see I'm not greedy and maybe hook me up?  LOL

 

 

Billy

I'm pretty sure they draw lots on a per item basis. entering for multiple items shouldn't affect your chances to win any specific item.

Darn I forgot to enter the lottery  I would have really loved one

 

OT EDIT - well I got the Faryland Valkyria MNF intead, I think I can consider myself happy either way lol

Edited October 13, 2019 by Bellatrix

On 9/30/2019 at 7:57 PM, asianed said:

Yeah, I don't buy the published reason either. It's all PR spin.

The idea that they are dumping parts doesn't really fit the development timeline though. Dollfie Icon began in 2014, well before F3 was available for sale. I'm sure they knew F3 was on it way at that point, but if they were really concerned about extra DDIII parts lying around on the release of F3 they could have adjusted production prior to release.

As far the economics of limited production, the pearlescent vinyl parts wouldn't really be any different in terms of economy of scale. They are apparently very hard to produce that way, so not using a different color plastic in the same old DDIII frame molds doesn't make sense to me as a cost cutting measure.

Lastly, and I have said this before, these really seem like people who are very conscientious about their product designs. That's not to say that there aren't flaws in products from time to time, but I don't believe they deliberately shortcut their designs. "We just can't be bothered to make this part" doesn't fit with any of their other doll designs, and they aren't exactly strangers to producing complex plastic components in specific colors.

Edited November 18, 2019 by BeyondTime

The Icon girls are visible on the Dolpa 42 banner of the new site: https://dollfie.ec.volks.co.jp/

So seems a new release may be soon. Should know more once scans of Volks News appear/I get home to my copy. 

Edited November 18, 2019 by Beani

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Edited August 25, 2023 by ParacosmDoll

I notice they still have the piercings, so the Japan release is still considered first run.

I've noticed that too, but not sure what it means... That would be great, because with 2B and 9S I can't afford a Dollfie Icon right now, I wasn't expecting them so soon! 😯 So I really hope that means there will be other releases later 🙇‍♀️

After an epic battle against vicious mountains of hot glue, I was finally able to yank out my Icon's eyes. I don't have any glass in 18mm, so I tried some cheap Obitsu 18mm acrylics...

 

Wow!!! She looks really cute with dark hair and blue eyes!

Volks USA posted a teaser on Facebook, Dollfie Icon are back and I'm SO GLAD 😍 Can't wait to have the details, I want Lilac so much!

【Dollfie® ICON 2020】
All eyes on Dollfie® ICON
Returning Summer 2020

I'm so glad they are bringing them back🤩!  Hope I can get one this time around. That butterfly tattoo is so cute.