We can do better ... Before the spell runs out.

This time its a bit of a re-do of a default photo set from five years ago, of which state I was reminded with Ranko's re-release being announced.

So before the old girl turns into a bit of a more mundane pumpkin, I though Id have another go at redoing her then optional, and now to be default outfit... or so I thought before everything started to go sour quite fast.

her ribbons made a disappearing act while dressing her up, so those were hastly replaced by items from a different set. Also the choker finished off ruining the already slightly stained bust by fuming blue color all over it, and also putting the head in danger, so that was swapped for a choker from one of the volks designers oriental sets.

(and yes, I was using nitrile gloves as I now do per standard with darker clothing items)

as a quick backstory, originally I did choose Ranko over Rin because I liked the slightly out of her element chuunibyo character a whole lot better than than the lead-by default Shibuya.

Ranko also amusingly shares her voice actress with Rikka Takanashi who also suffers from the same Chuunibyo syndrome and struggles with what is the real her, and which do people actually want to interact with.

 

but anyways.. here's the photos, and I hope you like, despite maybe being a tad over-exposed... but it was either that, or the dress just being a black blob...

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As an after thought, I did not remember the outfit looking this rough on the inside ... so if the upgrades include making it feel nicer overall, I shall be a bit annoyed they didnt make a better effort the first time...

Id love to keep her in this outfit, but unfortunately in my climate after the two hours the rest of the dress was starting to do unwanted stuff. most likely due to the satin ribbons.

But, thanks for looking...

Nice pictures.

Looking at Volks' pictures of this outfit, I noticed it came with those nasty "invisible" clear plastic straps to hold up the bodice. I've also seen a Mandarake picture of a used outfit where those have turned a very non-invisible brown, and I know those straps like to disintigrate as someone lamented here recently about on some Volks geta.

They're missing in your pictures, as well as in your older ones I believe, so I'm guessing you removed them?

Your experience with the choker still staining badly, now, answers something I've wondered about which was if outfits might become safer as they age; the answer is obviously "no."

 

As it's all we have to go on until Volks puts a new page up, I was staring at the largest version of the twitter picture which I'll just link to not clutter up the thread:

Mega-big Ranko picture

It could be Volks' lighting or something else about the picture, but the black material seems to look different, shinier somehow, though in some of your pictures here it looks like it has more sheen than others too. The other thing I see in that Volks picture is whatever strap is there doesn't look like those plastic ones.

Unfortunately we'll never be able to tell if the outfit quality has changed from Volks pictures, but at least once the page is up with the picture of the pieces it should be able to see if the lining is any different. It's not going to be possible to protect against the fringe on the bolero touching though no matter what they do.

I hope something is changed with it because if not then I won't be able to leave her in it, and I don't really find outfits that can only be worn long enough to take pictures to be of much real use. And since gothic lolita clothing is what Ranko is really all about, just dressing her in something else (and not black) just feels wrong.

Buying her anyway; nothing can spoil my happiness over her.

I've been using the blue nitrile gloves when handling my DDs as well. I tried the cotton gloves like Volks employees use but I found I was too fumble-fingered with those probably because I couldn't find the ones that don't have seams in the fingertips.

Edited November 17, 2019 by cfx

The straps are there, just tucked away thoroughly... I actually had forgotten it has them, but as you can see it does not really need them.

In my experience the older they get, the more dangerous they become. for instance I had a new old stock full black MDD outfit of some vintage that did near instant fuming stains when I put it on a doll.

Also Nagato's evil witch cape was weird, since I had my nagato in it for quite some time from new, and the only thing that happened over a extensive period was faint lines to the back of her thighs where she had been sitting over it. Put in the bag for a few years, and when my Youmu came, and put it on her since I wanted a quick Voldemort type set, and it left streaks wherever it touched.

... annoyingly some of the stains actually became evident after some time, and the head has some faint streaks at the bottom of its chin and back of the cheeks .. but not too worried since my youmu's recovered from a similar thing over time, and also the DDH01 head that got nuked by said black MDD outfit.

Could be that if the items are let to air out, they wouldn't be this aggressive with the stains... also could be my climate, since people say the first edition Saber maid outfit supposedly does not stain, and for me its always been a matter of tens of minutes when a bust will go black from it.

The volks picture could be just HDR'd or otherwise used a selective high contrast photo editing to bring out the sheen. The outfit I have is a type of dull satin, and it does have a even shine to it when light hits it. So it could be photo editing... I just post whatever the camera picks up.. heh.

But it wouldn't be the first time that volks hasn't been able to get the same exact fabric from one outfit generation to another, as it was with the Pink bunnyear bondage outfits versus the pink cat ear bondage one's where the older outfits were this lush deep metallic pink, and the new one's just a boring pale pink... hence why they probably only did the latest versions only in white.

42 minutes ago, finnleo said:

The volks picture could be just HDR'd or otherwise used a selective high contrast photo editing to bring out the sheen. The outfit I have is a type of dull satin, and it does have a even shine to it when light hits it. So it could be photo editing... I just post whatever the camera picks up.. heh.

Volks pictures are certainly not very good indicators of anything, really. Hopefully @Beani can get a pic of her from Dollpoint which will probably tell me a lot more about it.

44 minutes ago, finnleo said:

But it wouldn't be the first time that volks hasn't been able to get the same exact fabric from one outfit generation to another, as it was with the Pink bunnyear bondage outfits versus the pink cat ear bondage one's where the older outfits were this lush deep metallic pink, and the new one's just a boring pale pink... hence why they probably only did the latest versions only in white.

Good point. It's been pointed out to me that those pink outfits that the original Idolmaster girls came with aren't the same color for all of the dolls and I assume that is the same issue.

I had thought there would be a possibility that dyes in clothing could further dry over time making staining less likely; I guess it's the opposite situation; the dyes are not completely chemically stable and can break down over time, making them more of a risk. Now I wonder if storing the outfits in some kind of containers with at least a bit of ventilation rather than completely sealed might help.