The milk has gone sour

And kits totally gel with the customization roots of the hobby.  I don’t really understand it either.  

It really doesn't make much sense with how Cortex went. There was a lot of potential with the kits if the price was right. And it's not like they didn't know about how kits are supposed to work.

I'm guessing that maybe it was a conflict between idea and control of the final product. The Smart Doll hobby overall doesn't seem to be much on board with the customization side of things to me.

So overall, Cortex was neither a significant price difference nor was it enough of a kit to be sold that way.

On 10/2/2020 at 1:33 AM, Katsudon said:

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

I get the impression from Danny that he thinks his customers are some kind of morons or something. Watching him explain how to put a wig on like it’s the most difficult task in the world is sad.

 

As for cortex it’s a real shame the product died. I was planning on doing a custom android doll, but not anymore.

9 hours ago, AliensOfGold said:

I get the impression from Danny that he thinks his customers are some kind of morons or something. Watching him explain how to put a wig on like it’s the most difficult task in the world is sad.

 

As for cortex it’s a real shame the product died. I was planning on doing a custom android doll, but not anymore.

I'm very sad about cortex too, I was actually hoping to modify the body. Add some sculpting to make it more "moe", maybe even sculpt my own 3d shells based on cortex. 

But I'm a 31 old female with a dremel lol I'm not demographic for SmD, I'm afraid. So it is actually understandable for me to make a video tutorial. When you will look at gallery... It's full of kids. Kids who are used to re rooted monster high and never put a wig on a doll. A bjd collector will put a wig on. A 11 year old girl... Won't. So I genuinely expect Danny to see many badly put on wigs and wanting his young client base to improve on it. 

On 9/29/2020 at 1:27 AM, Gabihime said:

With the doll shirts, and with many other issues, it seems like Danny is inventing drama before it even happens. 

10000x this. Seriously.

On 10/1/2020 at 10:33 AM, Katsudon said:

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).

And this, but having been a cortex owner myself, I can tell you that the engineering behind the shell was somewhat dubious. I can imagine that in five years or so, there won't be many cortex parts that don't have some sign of breakage. The default limb tension is just a little too high for those thin plastic parts. Hopefully by then it won't matter.

As a gundam builder I definitely wanted to try the kit. And I do think he should have just sold them on the runners. It's easier for everyone that way. But he made sure the kits would fail too! No instructions, unforgiving build process (those steps From Which You Cannot Return), & extremely high tension joints (rip to all the people out there who couldn't get those quite assembled). To top off the shoddy build process, no replacement parts if you mess up. It really was a mess.

That said, I think he gave up on it too soon. With a little more time (& money) for more R&D, cortex really could have been something quite special. With how quickly they were able to manufacture runners I would have loved to see limited color plastic runs with those. That would have been a blast. Interstellar blue as a cortex kit + blank head option would have been a lot of fun. It's a huge shame that we won't ever see it get there. Once his ego recovers I hope he does revisit the project.

33 minutes ago, sunlightandtea said:

That said, I think he gave up on it too soon. With a little more time (& money) for more R&D, cortex really could have been something quite special.

There is something called the “sunk funds fallacy” which a smart business owner needs to avoid falling into. It may just not have been sensible to continue to sink funds into development of an idea that didn’t work out the way he needed it to, so he cut his losses and moved on. 

I'm so bummed Milk is gone--I found out it was getting discontinued after all the Milk boy hands had already sold out.

And I agree with what some others have said in that there are a lot of characters where Milk skin is the only color that makes sense for them. My Milk skin boy is a blond Russian; he's supposed to be the kind of pale where you don't tan, you just burst into flame. Cinnamon just doesnt give that same vibe.

I feel like Danny is trying so hard to not be Volks. Which makes no sense because they've been around for like, 22 years at this point? He could have easily started cycling through skin tones seasonally how volks does for DD Choice. Or, just do pre order periods for a certain skin tone like many resin companies do. I personally subscribe to the idea that he just didn't want hybriding between the other doll brands. 

I managed to snag a Milk Push up Bust and bought a shirt along with it. In response, I got this email questioning me on if I had a Smartdoll or not because it was my first time purchasing from the store. It was extremely invasive and not professional at all. I typically always buy clothes and option parts before getting a body because I like my characters to be complete when the body arrives. On top of that, he added in that SmD clothes don't fit dolls from other brands (which I know is not entirely true). I had to tell a half truth and I shouldn't have to do that in order to buy things from a store. Had I told him the full truth, my order would have 100% been cancelled cause I was definitely making a hybrid and needed the bust before milk was discontinued. 

11 minutes ago, MaKayla_Panda said:

I had to tell a half truth and I shouldn't have to do that in order to buy things from a store.

I'm sorry this happened to you; I hate being put in situations like this, makes me really uncomfortable.

And I'm with you on ordering parts before a doll comes home. I like everything to be ready so she's all settled in right away. I'm kind of in the same boat, only I'm saving up for the doll AND all the parts at once, making it an extremely big purchase, which makes me nervous. At least I'll qualify for free shipping, I suppose.

9 minutes ago, Veravey said:

I'm sorry this happened to you; I hate being put in situations like this, makes me really uncomfortable.

And I'm with you on ordering parts before a doll comes home. I like everything to be ready so she's all settled in right away. I'm kind of in the same boat, only I'm saving up for the doll AND all the parts at once, making it an extremely big purchase, which makes me nervous. At least I'll qualify for free shipping, I suppose.

Yeah it was definitely uncomfortable for a number of reasons. However, I had already acquired a Lower Torso in Milk and I knew I wouldn't be satisfied with my girl if she didn't look exactly how I wanted her to look, so in the end I have no regrets. I have a beautiful girl who has all of the aesthetics I would want. 

Also good luck with saving up for your girl! Based on what I've seen from other people, you shouldn't get any prying questions if there's a doll in your order so your purchasing experience should be non-problematic. 

A little late, but to quote from that Insta post, "Folks who step into Smart Doll Land need to be warned that this is the way (looking forward to the Mandalorian Season 2!) and that this is how it always will be. Employees come before you 😉 If you don't like the sound of that then tough sheep I guess 😉"???

That's not very Japanese of you, Danny, considering that your business is based in Japan and your business is called Culture Japan and you're constantly parading wabi-sabi like it's the ultimate philosophy of Japan. I can't speak for the Japanese people, but as somebody who grew up in a culture also greatly influenced by Buddhism, it's upsetting to see ideas with deep roots in this shared religion be used as an excuse for bad quality control, but then going the extra mile to use it to ridicule customers; very petty and not in the original spiritual mindset at all! That's downright apropriation!

HHHHHHHH

As a new doll owner and an artist who's hoping to diversify my collection, this, along with the lack of hybridisation and customisation, is pretty much the final nail in the coffin for buying any sort of Smart Doll. Not even second hand(will still admire the other girls that people have, though). Not even Gemini's sweet face. If I'm going to want my own buff boy I'll just grab some cosclay and sculpt one myself over a Dollfie Dream frame. I would really, really love a Smart Doll, but whatever sort of marketing tactic this is is really turning me away.

Edited October 7, 2020 by Friendlily

So if you already have a Milk doll in your order history, there is no way to get replacement parts in the same color? Would Cinnamon be the only option then or would there be a “grandfathered in” situation?

On 10/7/2020 at 11:42 AM, Friendlily said:

If I'm going to want my own buff boy I'll just grab some cosclay and sculpt one myself over a Dollfie Dream frame

If you aren’t adverse to resins an SDGou might be an option. It’s a buff version of the SD17, and Volks usually makes some beautiful clothing for them in every clothing release. 

Here is one example: http://www.tenshinokichi.com/2018/11/27/yukinojo-sawaragi/

I can’t recall if SDGou is only released as limited edition dolls, or if Volks USA has released them in their online FCS. 

Edit: Found a listing on Angel's Base, and it looks like Volks doesn't offer the SDGou through their FCS system in Japan or the USA.

Sad about milk...wish he would have kept a seasonal run of the colour for his older customers as there were hand packs I wanted but didn’t want the hassle of dealing with DHL for. I was hoping that shipping via EMS would return before he stopped production of them entirely.

I haven’t made any purchases since The Drama with the Boots, but the purity survey sounds horrifying. I agree that some of the characters really worked better in milk, there are orangey tones to cinnamon that I don’t quite like.

I guess thanks for increasing the resale value of my milk girls? I guess if he notices that the milk girls start selling for higher on the secondary market that may prompt another run of the colour so win-win! 

1 hour ago, Cthem said:

Sad about milk...wish he would have kept a seasonal run of the colour for his older customers as there were hand packs I wanted but didn’t want the hassle of dealing with DHL for. I was hoping that shipping via EMS would return before he stopped production of them entirely.

I haven’t made any purchases since The Drama with the Boots, but the purity survey sounds horrifying. I agree that some of the characters really worked better in milk, there are orangey tones to cinnamon that I don’t quite like.

I guess thanks for increasing the resale value of my milk girls? I guess if he notices that the milk girls start selling for higher on the secondary market that may prompt another run of the colour so win-win! 

Do you think doll makers pay attention to the secondhand market? Would Danny bother? It could make Milk parts and such more expensive possibly...

28 minutes ago, Ai Priestess said:

Do you think doll makers pay attention to the secondhand market?

I think a smart business owner watches all the markets that impact their business. 
 

28 minutes ago, Ai Priestess said:

Would Danny bother?

Whether Danny does that or not is unknown. A large business would have analysts on staff whose job it is to study relevant market data and report on it. 

1 hour ago, Ai Priestess said:

Do you think doll makers pay attention to the secondhand market?

I think based on DCs previous comments about how SmDs shouldn't be resold, he definitely keeps an eye on second-hand markets. Also the fact that he creates exclusivity by limiting customers to what they can purchase (chaos, etc.) unless they've purchased a doll directly from him makes me think so even more.

3 minutes ago, Veravey said:

I think based on DCs previous comments about how SmDs shouldn't be resold, he definitely keeps an eye on second-hand markets. Also the fact that he creates exclusivity by limiting customers to what they can purchase (chaos, etc.) unless they've purchased a doll directly from him makes me think so even more.

Ah, true. I didn’t think of it that way. Could he be directly/indirectly fluctuating  the prices of the secondhand market that way? I would think so...

Just now, Ai Priestess said:

Ah, true. I didn’t think of it that way. Could he be directly/indirectly fluctuating  the prices of the secondhand market that way? I would think so...

Mmm, I'd guess not really, but I'm not so well versed in business politics and practices.

I don't know if there are regulations around that kind of market manipulation. Although, I have trouble seeing a large company like Mandrake taking the time to regulate one product brand out of millions.

It's probably due to popularity/demand; that will often control prices. That and supply, and it's clear he limits the production of many of his products (not all, I know some stuff has been available for a long time.)

If I had to guess, it's moreso if Mandrake or any shop lists second-hand dolls for 40,000+ yen and they sell, they have no reason to drop prices.

8 hours ago, Ai Priestess said:

Do you think doll makers pay attention to the secondhand market? Would Danny bother? It could make Milk parts and such more expensive possibly...

He'll probably keep back a bunch of milk dolls/parts and then sell them in the garage for a higher price himself if he sees milk stuff selling well secondhand.

9 hours ago, Ai Priestess said:

Do you think doll makers pay attention to the secondhand market? Would Danny bother? It could make Milk parts and such more expensive possibly...

I can’t remember which doll it was, possibly Lelouch, where he called out the scalpers by saying he was going to re-release the doll, so don’t bother scalping. So he’s aware. 
 

At this point I guess those of us needing option parts have to just hope some license holder demands a doll be in milk skin. . . and that Danny has the foresight to also make things like hands available alongside such a release. Bleh.

Did Danny ever do that second run of Lelouch or is that a nay? 

A majority of anime characters fit the milk skin tone so it can't go completely go away if Danny wants to continue doing the licensed characters. I still wanted a chitose in milk but I guess I missed out 

1 hour ago, Melrose said:

Did Danny ever do that second run of Lelouch or is that a nay? 

Yes.
First release was in October 2017. Second in September 2019.

On 9/29/2020 at 2:27 AM, Gabihime said:

 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.)  

 

Just popping in about the skin tones real quick.

I'm pretty sure the blue has nothing to do with Avatar. 

Danny's a huge sci-fi nerd, and the reason for the blue skin is in the name itself. Interstellar Blue is a direct reference to the Daft Punk Anime music videos - Interstellar 5555. This has been around even longer than Avatar, but it's the reason for the blue skin. It might have been something he wanted to do for a long time and only just got around to. Or the person who theorized that he did it to show that his dolls where better than Volks because he managed to get the skeletal system the same color as the skin tone could be a thing. (I'm not really gonna say yay or nay either way on this, since technically that's just a rumor.)

So yeah, not really a commentary on the rest of your post, but just an explanation as to what the blue skin is inspired by. 

Even if Resin companies have been making blue dolls for a while, not everyone here likes both kinds of dolls like I personally do. I have both Resin and Vinyl, but some people like one more than the other, and for some people this is something they've been waiting for for a while.

Do I think he should have replaced milk with Blue? Nah. Not at all. But I do see the excitement around the community so I can understand why the blue is becoming a thing in the first place.