The milk has gone sour

4 minutes ago, Gabihime said:

Yeah, I would love an Albino skin tone.  I love WS girls.  Although technically only one of my girls has semi albinism, several of them incredibly fair, probably because I am incredibly fair.  I legitimately look like the terror of the cemetery.  People are tempted to throw holy water on me.  I am probably actually a vampire.

So spooooky~

Yeah, my normal skin tone is closest to Tea. I say normal because I've been inside for the past 6 months due to the 'rona shutting everyone in, so I haven't been getting any sun. But I really like the pale skin on dolls because I feel like it makes some of the other features of them pop really well. Don't get me wrong, I love the darker dolls too, but I also love me some pale as death. XD

Yes!  I love darker dolls too!  I’m so glad there are so many options now.  My cast is all different colors, and I want to be able to accurately reflect that.  I think that directly ties into the comment about the lack of customizing really hurting the Japanese market.  I feel like I interact with my dolls a lot like a Japanese owner.  I want to make exactly what I want, using different parts and my own taste.  
 

For smart doll, it’s not just skin tones lacking, but also a lack of diversity in bodies.  I realize that Volks and obitsu have been making dolls for longer than Smart Doll, and different body shapes require more capital investment, but if you compare the body sizes and types available from Volks and Obitsu, you can get a real sense of how much control you have over a character’s height, bust, hips, and even thighs and arms.  That’s why I couldn’t make Gabriel from a smart doll even if I wanted to, because there is no body for her correct size and hybrids are so wildly discouraged.  Until I fell in love with the Angel Philia sculpts, I was planning on moving her to DDP because I feel like that might be more accurate for her, even though it would be WS head on SW body.  I’m always creeping close and closer to perfect for her.

And the number and quality of custom heads now is astonishing and amazing.  People love those heads, and they want to be able to put the doll they love on the body that they love, but they can’t if hybrids are so taboo.

I feel like this is high control of the SMD community.  You’re not supposed to want faceups other than what they provide as default, but it’s very difficult to deny that a delicately hand painted and modded head has an immense amount of charm, more than just about any standard head. (Mariko is an exception and should not have been counted lol)  That’s why people are willing to pay a grand for a custom head that began as a standard issue blank head.  In terms of body diversity they don’t offer the small option bust or the XL apart from plans so you can print your own.  I appreciate that the plans are there, but that makes it hard for me because again, I’m not represented.  I would have the small flattie bust if I were a doll, and I know there is a market for chests like this because basically all the major brands have the option.

And I don’t even have the option of putting another company’s flat bust on a smart doll because of color discontinuing.  It’s just frustrating in a hobby that encourages so much creativity.  I love seeing everyone’s wonderful, interesting dolls.  It makes me happy.  I feel like by seeing the dolls other people have, I understand more about them.

I am very into modding and customization of dolls.  I mean, ten years ago I was making custom animetic eyes.  This year I want to try doing that again, only with resin casting, because I love resin eyes.  I bought a brand new body to fit my Gabriel’s head on, even though I love her current body, because that one just called to me.  I want to have the option of putting a peach pai bust on her when I dress her in certain outfits.  That is a very customized doll lol.  I probably own nine different WS busts for her at this point.  I love that part of the hobby.  I want more of that, within reason, not less.

2 minutes ago, Gabihime said:

And I don’t even have the option of putting another company’s flat bust on a smart doll because of color discontinuing.  It’s just frustrating in a hobby that encourages so much creativity. 

 

Oh yeah I feel that one real hard. I had to buy 3 3D printed flat busts that I'm still waiting on at the moment, because I'm modding two of the girl bodies into slimmer, curvier boys, and the third is one that needs tiny booblets. But getting them 3D printed instead of in the Vinyl also effects the flexibility of your doll, which really sucks. 

I would be tempted to 3D print the part and try slush casting it myself actually.  I want to try slush casting at some point soon, because I attended some really great workshops on it.  Still, most people are not going to attempt to do something like that.  And it super sucks for mobility issues.  I’d also be worried about fragility and cracking over time.  I know you have to be careful with 3D printed parts even on small fashion dolls.

The holy grail of a product company is the Gillette model: sell the razors cheap and keep the customers forever buying replacement blades. Inkjet printers are another form of this, those companies make all their money on the ink. It seems what Danny's doing is selling luxury printers?

To compare with Volks, they sell limited dolls at Dolpa (high interest products with short product runs, good for getting people interested), pre-order dolls (also high interest and brings in a lot of new & returning customers), and then highly customizable base bodies and standard models. For customers that have at least one doll, they also sell lots of option parts, relatively-affordable outfit sets, and hobby supplies to help customers make whatever they want. They can bring in a customer with one doll and then keep serving them for years.

CJ on the other hand sells everything at high prices, dolls & clothes. It feels like the only metric that's being looked at is profit margin. I guess Cortex was seen as a silver bullet for mass production, but what's really strange is not serving the existing customer base. If he made outfits that cost less & were easier to manufacture but still had his style, I'm sure his existing customers would eat it up.

And it’s funny because I’m certainly willing to pay a premium price for clothes when they’re well made (my own closet attests to this in addition to my dolls lol).  I love the suits and things from Freedom Teller for instance, and the many beautiful fullset outfits that can easily get into 200+

I hadn’t actually looked closely at the SMD outfits and the price points.  I just expected they were in line with Volks and was very surprised to see that they’re not.

Also, looking at the graphic T-shirts makes my heart sink.  Every single one of them seems to be a passive aggressive jab at his customer base.  Like, no cute shirts with mascots, or other designs, (apart from one mirai store shirt) only what seems to be mean spirited snark.  Maybe it’s honestly meant to be funny, but it really feels like it’s not nice. Either CJ is incredibly tone deaf (still possible) or they know exactly what they’re doing and hiding meanness in “ha ha what a funny joke! Positivity!  Don’t let the haters get you down!”  
 

There is an interesting concept circulating right now about the idea of toxic positivity.  Basically it’s being like “you can do it!  You can do anything!  If you’re not winning it’s your fault!  You’re not working hard enough.  You gotta be a go getter!  No one is really gonna understand your journey but you, so ignore people who question what you do!”  You can see it a lot in self help circles, and also unfortunately very prevalent in MLMs.  It wallpapers over problems in the background by implying that everyone is on an even playing field and if you’re not living your dream life, it’s your fault.  Self motivation is good.  Cheering people on is good.  
 

But there are also messages that seem innocuous on the surface but can really hide troubling ideas.  It’s just so bizarre to sell those to customers.  I wish there were just cute graphic T-shirts in nice colorways with cute things on them.

Edit: I just want things to be nice and people to be nice and everything not be such a horrible mess.  It honestly makes me really sad.  My friend and I were both planning to get Smart Dolls this autumn, but now, I just don’t know how to feel.  There just seems to be so much meanness.

Edited September 28, 2020 by Gabihime
Clarifying

11 minutes ago, Gabihime said:

But there are also messages that seem innocuous on the surface but can really hide troubling ideas.  It’s just so bizarre to sell those to customers.  I wish there were just cute graphic T-shirts in nice colorways with cute things on them.

The first graphic tshirt (I believe, don't quote me) was only sold as a limited combo. 1 human sized tshirt along with the doll shirt. Price was ¥9000. People were then buying just for the doll shirt and selling it for a huge mark up, because it was rare. And then the set gets discounted to ¥6000 and discontinued, but now you can buy the original  graphic tshirt for ¥5500. I always wanted that shirt because it was so cute, but I never could fork over just that for a doll tshirt. Next came the 'Haters gonna hate' and that just didn't sit right with me. They just got worse from there.

(On the combo shirt set it says that it was planned to eventually sell just the doll graphic tshirt, so I may be wrong on the limited part. But it's not the first time he's changed text on product descriptions).

4 hours ago, Gabihime said:

I just want things to be nice and people to be nice and everything not be such a horrible mess.  It honestly makes me really sad.  My friend and I were both planning to get Smart Dolls this autumn, but now, I just don’t know how to feel.  There just seems to be so much meanness.

I believe it's his special super secret super power. Make the customer feel bad for being a customer... Profit.

 

What really drives me mental with him is I really like the dolls and some of his clothing and shoes in the past have been great (I missed them all), but his attitude is absolutely vile and really makes you think three or four times about spending any amount of money on his products. I was thinking my next purchase (after new PC) would be Kanata in Cinnamon with her glasses, but now after his latest dummy spit I'm not sure I'll make another huge purchase like that with him.

 

Does his father still design (or ever did) shoes for the dolls or is that another thing he just scrapped at some point?

 

He also seems to be highly influenced by meme culture which also treats people like crap, but doesn't ask for large sums of money in return. I can't think of anyone else running a business who's taken a long dead meme and turned it into a $100 product.

 

No one actually buys the premium insults disguised as products do they?

 

 

Also milk option parts are now officially dead as the last large bust is gone from the web store.

I hope no one buys the insults dressed as products.  It’s just staggering how many of them there are.  It’s not just one or two, but like, five.  But having them makes it so people who want to dogpile on the meanness can buy them and show them off.  It’s like having a shirt for sale that’s like “those guys suck, right? Hahaha!” which is not really something you want to have as an official product at a major commercial enterprise.  You could sell something like that as an indie producer, or as a legit gag you made just for your friends, but otherwise it’s basically a T-shirt version of bullying.  It’s so us against them, but the us and the them are both just smart doll customers.

On the topic of toxic positivity, that seems to also go hand in hand with terrible or even criminally bad customer service.  Again, relating this to MLMs, which often have terrible products and always take advantage of their customers in all sorts of ways, when Lularoe was crashing and burning last year, one of the owners (who owns two different two million dollar cars) made this big long rant video about how “it’s your choice to be sad or angry.  Do you want to live your life that way?  Don’t waste your life being angry or depressed or upset!”  When he was addressing people who had thousands of dollars of defective products, many of which were moldy from sitting outside, uncovered in the sun and weather for weeks, because they didn’t have the warehouse space for all their product.  It’s a common theme in toxic positivity to lay the blame on the person themselves.  It’s like hanging a sign that says “Live. Laugh. Love.” and then telling people it’s their own fault if they suffer from clinical depression, anxiety disorders, or in my case, bipolar disorder.  “You could choose to be happy!”  “It’s your choice if you don’t want to be happy, but I choose to be happy!” And it’s like “yeah, but you put all your money in offshore bank accounts so it can’t be seized no matter what you do and own two two million dollar cars and a seventy million dollar ranch.  It’s easy to be positive in such circumstances.”

I’m not saying DC or CJ is a scam or criminal enterprise like an MLM, absolutely not, but some of his talking points about customer service sound eerily familiar.  The “wage slave” stuff and “our team is the center of our business!” “At normal companies, your life is horrible!  Not here!”  
 

But that simply isn’t true.  I do know that many companies still adhere to the old model of workers are disposable.  (My mother has a Ph D in Strategic Management and International Business, so I’ve been learning about these topics since I was the smollest Gabi.)  AT&T is a company like this.  Duriel worked for them for a while in their National Business Ordering wing, which handles exceptionally large or famous clients, and he said he really felt like if they could legally sell their employees organs, then they would.  It was the worst place he ever worked, including when he was a kid and cleaned bathrooms at a tractor dealership, or later when he expoed in a kitchen (and at one point suffered having ten gallons of hot enchilada sauce dumped on his head, like the Tex-Mex version of You Can’t Do That on Television).

In contrast to that though, is the way a certain fruit company treats it’s employees.  Duriel has been with that fruit company for ten years, and not only do they provide stellar customer service to their customers (and data clearly indicates this based not only on interior customer surveys but also exterior awards) but they also provide incredible care for their employees.  On top of that, they’re one of the most successful companies in the world.  They make a large range of products, from premium to more budget friendly items, and everyone wants to own them.

Although the market for vinyl anime dolls will never be like the market for the fruit that the fruit company sells, it still indicates that you can provide amazing customer service and wonderful employee benefits at the same time while remaining a very profitable company.  Those two things are not standing in opposition to one another (and I do realize that this doesn’t take into account either contract workers or factory employees manufacturing fruit products who do not work directly for the fruit company and probably face some terrible conditions trying to hit demand targets.  This is not a simple problem to solve, and one of the major reasons Duriel is working on a PhD in economics.)

Japanese customer service is wonderful, particularly when the customer is kind and conscientious in return.  I know I feel mildly physically ill whenever I either experience first hand or hear about customers being ugly to Japanese shop staff for whatever reason.  Even when they’re treated really badly by customers, Japanese shop staff will generally not complain.  It’s a cultural thing.  They are concerned, in general, about the feelings of other people.  It’s another reason why japanese citizens generally listen to the warnings and wear masks for the safety of others, and American citizens are like “well, it won’t keep me from getting sick, so why bother.”

I have worked as event shop staff myself for Japanese fashion companies and it’s been a wonderful experience every time.  It’s not like I’m claiming that this is the experience that every person has at every company, but like SMD or Volks, these companies I have worked for are relatively small commercial entities (in the grand scheme of things) making specialized luxury products for a niche market (which even overlaps with high end japanese dolls, as they have done official collaborations with Volks).  They pay living wages to their staff, and also provide  a good customer centered shopping experience.  I love working for them as an event employee as well as buying from them as a customer.  As a result, I’ve spent thousands of dollars with them, and they’re my go-to when I want something.

Similarly, I enjoy the experience of buying from Volks, Obitsu, Parabox, and Azone.  I have never worked directly for any of these companies, but since I hung out at Kerbey Lane Doll Shop so much I did function as a sort of unofficial customer service rep to explain about Dollfie Dreams, since I not only was a part of moe culture, but I also was very knowledgeable about them (at the time.  I’m catching up now).  It doesn’t injure you as a person to be kind and understanding to other people when working as an official company rep.  It’s not like you can wave a magic wand and solve all problems, and sometimes customers are belligerent, mean, or just generally awful.  But reasonable companies have rules in place about abusive customers.  If those protections are not in place in Japan, then that may be another cultural difference.  They will be shown the door politely, unless they refuse, in which case security may get involved.

On the flip side, many nations have strong consumer protection laws to protect customers from being sold lemon or otherwise faulty products.  Australia is like this.  It really doesn’t matter what disclaimers CJ puts on pages, or what gigantically long contract you’re supposed to sign before buying SMD.  If they’re selling to AU then they have to honor consumer protection laws for AU customers.  Likewise for other nations provided the customer is buying directly from SMD and their laws cover international purchases.

Expecting basic service from a company is not entitled, nor is enquiring about defects, asking about price points, expecting warranties to be honored, or expressing concern when company behavior is erratic and contradictory.

With the doll shirts, and with many other issues, it seems like Danny is inventing drama before it even happens.  It’s like he thinks of an idea and then thinks “this is what the bad people will have to say about it” and then before anyone has said anything, he makes an aggressive post about stuff, answering “criticisms” that haven’t even been made yet.

That’s how it felt reading his post about the milk dolls.  I had already decided to buy the tea colored Athena, and then get a milk doll later, possibly from an assembly kit if they weren’t being offered as whole dolls any more.  I had read up on a bunch of the drama on the Facebook Debacle thread and was concerned, but also hoped that Danny had mellowed since then, despite all the confrontational language all over the SMD page.

So the post hit me blindside like a semi carrying a load of spiders dusted with anthrax. 

I had done absolutely nothing to provoke his ire, and while I am a grownup and didn’t see it as a personal attack, his messaging was very clear: if you want a milk skin smart doll then you are a bad person who is callous and selfish and self centered.  I am a sensitive person who is deeply empathetic, so that statement was extremely hurtful.  It also lacked nuance and made sweeping negative generalizations.

The truth is, I don’t want to buy a blue doll.  I want to buy a milk doll and a tea doll.  I eventually also want(ed) both original cocoa and the new cocoa as well, because I love the chance of having so many different skin tones.  It’s great if other people want to buy blue dolls (although I feel like we’re far enough away from Avatar that I don’t understand the impetus.  Other (resin) companies were making blue resin dolls ten years ago, when the demand was much more intense.  I don’t know of that many blue anime characters either.  I’d say you could make a zentradi, but the color is wrong for that too.)  

I just wish he had a system in place the way other companies do, where if you get enough interest, they’ll cast the dolls again in whatever skin tone you want.  Granado does crowd funding to offer their bodies at different scales.  Other companies do this with custom head molds or skin tones.  It’s a system that guarantees that this many products will be sold, so it’s safe for a smaller company to do.  Volks can produce at such scale that they generally don’t have to do this, they just restock parts periodically, and then sometimes open special orders up (but I still want that WS DDDy.  Come to me White Christmas Alna.  Come to me WS MDD Etheldreda).

I get that everything is a mess in the time of COVID, but either the custom order system, or just a simple statement that milk will be available at some point in the future would be comforting.  I am interested in Shiki, after all.

But worse than knowing milk isn’t available is the unkind tone of the announcement post.  That’s what made me seriously not want to buy SMD.  I am a patient, understanding, and amiable customer.  I don’t mind waiting.  I don’t mind getting stuff in parts and assembling myself.  I don’t mind doing special orders.  I don’t mind that everything in the world is not made to my personal tastes.  Everyone should be able to have their own likes and dislikes.

What I do mind is unsolicited belligerence.

 

Edited September 29, 2020 by Gabihime
Added tragic enchilada sauce story.

Not trying to defend or anything. . . But Danny giving warning in May is more than some resin bjd companies have given me. One of my favorite dolls comes from a company that literally posted "as of today, we are no longer selling this color. Thanks." I had a head in that color and had to hope to find a body in aftermarket (which I did). 

Dolls are not the only place this has happened either. While this kind of thing does bite (guess no option hands for Mirai) and makes me disappointed I am not mad about it. Could Danny have given notice? Yes, but he never does, closest he gives to notices is "Soooon". 

As far as his attitude about how he acts like he is fighting the world, yea, that just does not make sense. He acts like a teenager sometimes. "No one understands me!" 

I can see how he thinks some of the things he says are positive, I actually think he really tries. . . But he has a passive aggressive tone in almost anything that is longer than 3-4 sentences. 

22 hours ago, marishade said:

As far as his attitude about how he acts like he is fighting the world, yea, that just does not make sense. He acts like a teenager sometimes. "No one understands me!" 

mmm, well if you look at it from a somewath objective standpoint it does sort of make sense.

The company was founded on the rejection of his mascot by bigger players, so he decided to become a player himself -- Not really understanding that the way he did it could be considered industrial espionage in the crudest of sense. (you dont tour production facilities months before announcing your own product in the same field, and expect no-one to be a bit irked).

The dream product didnt really come to be, and a "In the meantime" measure was put into production, that ultimately became the only option ... so one might have the feeling of delivering a product, without really realizing that he didnt actually deliver. -- especially since certain structural details hailed as revolutionary had been around as third party upgrades for other dolls already.... (I will give them the charge port stand idea though... thats pretty cool)

Having a stance for certain design decisions that might not be selling as well as initially thought, can add to the things already piling on one's mind.

having a great production idea whittle down to a write-down, and ... well... I can sort of see some reason for certain levels of animosity.

But that should be the point when you take a step back, and good hard look around and see whats what.

Edited September 30, 2020 by finnleo

4 hours ago, finnleo said:

The dream product didnt really come to be, and a "In the meantime" measure was put into production, that ultimately became the only option

What was his original dream product? I always thought it was meant to be a cheaper alternative "fashion doll" to other brands using Mirai.

7 minutes ago, AliensOfGold said:

What was his original dream product? I always thought it was meant to be a cheaper alternative "fashion doll" to other brands using Mirai.

Its been brought up in the FB debacle thread a few times, although, because of reasons it can get lost rather quickly... but...

The "Smart" in Smart doll was originally justified due to the plans of having a smart phone controlled animatronic inner frame.

Some development was made, videos posted of the arms moving, and such -- but it never happened, the plastic inner frame was brought in originally as a temporary measure - but became standard as the project was realized to be a bit too ambitious (again its been awhile, but im not sure did they even claim that it would also walk by itself, but dont quote me on that)

If I recall correct (again, it has been some time), the first batch of Mirai's that was produced were made with the extremely shiny sales pitch to further fund this animatronic frame, and customers of these initial dolls would get a rebate on the animatronic frame when it would be complete. The third leg stand charge port is a remnant of this original idea.

So because of this, people like me consider the product a failed kickstarter/indiegogo project.

 

Yep.  That would be it.  I want to say the idea of walking was something that was desired, yes.  The idea was to be able to have the doll turn and look at you, move her arms, wave, and then maybe play some prerecorded voice files.  That was definitely the idea behind this doll.

I remember seeing some video updates he posted years ago showing off moving parts and then nothing. I didn't realise the doll was meant for that though, I just thought it was another one of his overly ambitious projects that ultimately results in failure and I guess it did. Much like 1/2 scale Smart Doll Plus, not sure who that was marketed for.

 

I wonder if the high cost of the dolls and his apparel is to recoup the costs sunk into that animatronic frame.

 The whole premise of Smart Doll started in failure, so anything that hasn't worked after that, must be a slap in the face. I wonder if this is the reason why he's so hostile now a days. 

Oops to stay on topic, I really need a boy body in milk, seeing as the current prices are way beyond reasonable, I doubt I'll ever get one. : /

Edited September 30, 2020 by Mame

52 minutes ago, Mame said:

I really need a boy body in milk, seeing as the current prices are way beyond reasonable, I doubt I'll ever get one

At least you know where to look for Smart Doll goods. I've been looking for two milk push up busts and a pair of high heeled feet since the axe came down with no luck.

So both milk vinyls and cortex will be discontinued for good. He's really cutting a lot of production from the manufacturers...

Overall, I get why he decided this discontinuation had to happen, but I also agree with not liking the tone of his post or the suggestions it makes of his customers.

I was lucky in that I was able to grab my first, and possibly last and only, Milk girl in June after he announced the potential for the chopping block in May. But it's concerning if something were to happen, my only recourse would be to look for parts on the second hand market. I already see the price gouging starting in some places and I doubt it's going to get better. It really makes me wonder what's going to happen to the licenses too (C.C?).

6 hours ago, Mame said:

The whole premise of Smart Doll started in failure, so anything that hasn't worked after that, must be a slap in the face.

The irony is SmartDoll was legit a huge success story. If it’s failing now, it’s not because of the products; the products are great. 

7 hours ago, AliensOfGold said:

At least you know where to look for Smart Doll goods. I've been looking for two milk push up busts and a pair of high heeled feet since the axe came down with no luck.

I was mainly referring to the prices on ebay mentioned early in the thread and how people are already scalping the prices. On Facebook, ( when a body rarely pops up), they suprisingly sell for a decent price. But I can't say much cause I've been on Facebook for less then a year.

If you want places to look I recommend Facebook, its the best place for second hand Smart Doll goods. Although you'll have to join groups and sometimes witness some unsavory behavior lol. Its pretty much the only place I know were to look for what I want besides this fourm ( and  now eBay but I dont really trust it haha).

2 hours ago, BeyondTime said:

The irony is SmartDoll was legit a huge success story. If it’s failing now, it’s not because of the products; the products are great. 

What I ment to say was that I belive Danny's increasing temper is due to, but not limited to, the failures that were the robot dolls( the premise the dolls were based on) and cortext (the most recent "faliure"). I just worded it weirdly, im sorry if I came off as blaming the products itself.Other then that Smartdoll has been really successful and I really wish Danny could just own up to his actions. I love these dolls alot and would hate to see the company fail. @_@

22 minutes ago, Mame said:

I just worded it weirdly, im sorry if I came off as blaming the products itself.

You didn't. I was pointing out the irony of taking the failures so hard when the product has been so successful. If the company fails it won't be because people don't love what the company created.

Yeah.  It’s such a shame.  I was all ready to plunk down some cash for Athena (even I had bought into the FOMO because the original doll I intended for her was discontinued, and I worried she would be too.  But then after a little digging I realized that the first sculpt I had looked at for her was the same sculpt as Athena anyway.  I’m an experienced collector and I was almost carried away by it).

But with all of this, I honestly don’t want to.  I’ve decided to shell her as a muscly VMF/Angel Philia girl instead, and customize her tone darker if I feel like I need too (I love that Tea brown too).  I also had a boy in tea on my list, but with the way things are going now, I don’t think boys will be regularly released again anyway.

I wanted to buy the product.  I liked the product.  My friend was also going to buy because she’s a black girl and she really wants black anime dolls, but we’ve been talking about this and she honestly doesn’t want to any more.  She would also rather go the full custom route to get what she wants.

I’m just too afraid of things being discontinued and then parts going for crazy prices in the aftermarket, especially repair or option parts.  Everything is so erratic.  You can’t count on when dolls will be released.  You can’t count on when dolls will be discontinued.  This is not just all COVID19 stuff, as it’s been going on for a long time now.

I can’t imagine how the loss of cortex has affected him.  I know I would be crushed to know that they thing that I spent a lot of time and money and mental energy on was just not workable.

Edit: I should add that I also wanted to buy cortex heads and milk parts, but since I don’t already own a smart doll, I could not do this.  I had no chance at the He Pebbles either for a similar reason.  Again, I wanted to buy the product, but I was disallowed from doing so.

Edited October 1, 2020 by Gabihime

5 hours ago, Gabihime said:

I’m just too afraid of things being discontinued and then parts going for crazy prices in the aftermarket, especially repair or option parts.  Everything is so erratic.  You can’t count on when dolls will be released.  You can’t count on when dolls will be discontinued.  This is not just all COVID19 stuff, as it’s been going on for a long time now.

Big reason why I jumped ship and sold my SmDs. Not to mention the difficulty you'd have to procure parts if Danny banned you from ever buying from his shop again.

Re. Cortex though, it sounds like the reason for its failure is kinda their own fault. If they had sold them as DIY kits for the public as intended, there would be no worry about assembly time, because there would be no assembly time! I also don't know why they aren't sold still on the sprue - it's easier to package and people who do kits are used to that. (If anything, being on the sprue is more newbie friendly, because it's more obvious which parts need to be cut).

I mean there's a reason that Games Workshop*, and some doll makers, have moved to that style of production with success, and that's because they let the consumer do the work, and don't do it themselves. For god's sake, that's the point of a kit! >_<

Sorry for the rant. It just frustrates me to see a good product go down the drain. And cortex is/was a good idea! Just done wrong. Basically shot himself in the foot for the (small**) price of a printed instruction manual.

(*I know Games Workshop probably had other reasons too, like the rising price of metals, and how annoying trying to glue metal is. gdi my pterodactyl thingy just won't stay together! Whereas plastic sticks and stays in seconds)

(**even litho printing costs less than 2 Smart Dolls!)