"toxic Smart Doll community"?

You're all making me wanna get a MDD sooner than I planned! 😅 I'm sure if I knew someone who owned one irl then taking a look at one in person would tempt me even more! The flatness of Smart Doll faces doesn't bother me really. I promised myself I would try to complete my SmD mission first though before committing the ultimate SmD land sin and defecting to Volks.

55 minutes ago, Katsudon said:

You're all making me wanna get a MDD sooner than I planned!

MDD tend to multiply. Just ask @baldylox, although I suspect in his case Rei has a cloning machine. 

1 hour ago, Katsudon said:

You're all making me wanna get a MDD sooner than I planned! 😅 I'm sure if I knew someone who owned one irl then taking a look at one in person would tempt me even more!

hey now, Volks has Rena for preorders right there!! Just jump right on this bandwagon and git yourself a cute lil girl u can drown in plush friends & cupcakes

3 hours ago, BeyondTime said:

The new f3 body has some advantages there too. You can adjust the tension and parts rotate a lot more smoothly. You do need some strength for some of the tension adjustments though. Pulling parts out of the vinyl even part way can be a challenge.

That I'd believe. I had taken my SmD apart to install the Dolfun hip joints, and I had to enlist hubby to help.

18 minutes ago, Chise said:

hey now, Volks has Rena for preorders right there!! Just jump right on this bandwagon and git yourself a cute lil girl u can drown in plush friends & cupcakes

Not to be an enabler or anything, but gonna leave this right here… https://volksusastore.com/webstores/dollfie/index.php?dispatch=products.view&product_id=12778

She might end up hacking apart those cupcakes though. 😮

23 hours ago, BeyondTime said:

MDD tend to multiply. Just ask @baldylox, although I suspect in his case Rei has a cloning machine. 

They're like Gremlins!  They're constantly multiplying even if you follow the rules!  And they're like Lays potato chips.....You can't just have one! You MUST have pairs so they can share clothes and play together!  Those are the rules, I don't make them I just follow them.  😄 

Rei's cloning machine has been on the fritz for a while now, my influx of MDD girls is all my fault sadly.  😉 

 

 

Billy

On 4/27/2021 at 5:39 PM, Kotone said:

Would making rude gesture parts warrant a ban? I know Danny is trying to clean up his brand *somewhat* and make it kid friendly. If people are snitching each other out for Doll Privileges wouldn't it be something more private? I don't think he's banned anyone yet for mere criticisms, mostly "egregious" customer service complaints or product QC or partaking in something that could be construed as hateful (like the photoshop FB banner thing but then the whole lot was punished wrongly for one person's poor joke). So idk, maybe he was ratted out as having said something hateful in private (since a Discord server was brought up) or made some sort of QC complaint that rubbed someone the wrong way if we're to believe that Danny did have a reason.

I am actually banned from all of his social media and have never bought or even tried to buy anything on his website.  I only sent one message to him once when the whole Vooks Doolpa stuff came out and it was very, very nice. I told him how much I had respected him from way back in the early days of CJ...long before SmartDoll. I told him that seeing the  insults against Volks and the mistranslation made me sad because I knew he was a much bigger person than that.  It really was a nice message.  I never received a reply and my IG account was in no way connected to my FB account at the time.  However I later found that I could not look up SmartDoll or Danny Choo on my personal Facebook count and I had been blocked on Instagram as well.  So after that, I was like....whatever, dood.  Not interested.  He is overpriced, he has fallen too far from where he began and I feel he is a hypocrite.  I hate those who manipulate others or use a middle man for the manipulation.  It is classic bullying and I hate bullied.  I have two SmDs that fill out my vinyl collection and neither were purchased from his site. I would never give him a penny of my money.  But he will not stop me from loving my girls.  I think of it as rescuing them from a bad situation. XD

 

Honestly, reading through all of this just makes me even more determined to customise and stick a DD head on my Smart Doll Ebony's body... y'know, just to spite all the complainers 😆

Just need to work out the right dye mix to match the tea skin colour 🤔

Edited June 1, 2021 by Zaliayn

51 minutes ago, Zaliayn said:

Just need to work out the right dye mix to match the tea skin colour

Tell me if you do. I need a tea coloured girl in my life. 😄

 

Honestly, the whole Smart doll community just seems like a completely separate world where Danny's the god of everything. - and tbh, seeing how Danny is handling particular things, it really seems like that's what he wants. 
Personally, I don't really see SmD as a part of the Hobby anymore. Sure, they are there, they exist and they're cute, etc. but the people I've met when it comes to Smart dolls are just something else. tbh, the chaos bundles were basically the only thing that I am aware of that embraced customizing your Smart doll and not just having a product from him to display and photograph. Unfortunately, every time I saw a Smart doll with an own Face-up (before chaos bundles) there was always one person who commented something negative. It just seems like you can't win in "Smart doll land". You speak out your mind, you get bashed. You do something unique, you get bashed. You do not agree with something Danny did or stated, you get bashed. You buy something from him? Your wallet gets bashed. And if something is broken or a way it shouldn't be, there's a probability that it will cause a big drama and you get hated. It's a big clownery. It's funny when Danny is visibly annoyed by his mess he created on his own, but ofc he won't change a thing, either way, he's kind of the only one winning in situations like these, he gets money & his "fans" will blindly continue to buy stuff from him. 

However, it kinda seems like we aren't even the target of Smart dolls anymore, if we ever were. from what it seems, his "marketing" shifted towards kids and photographers anyways, with just having some licensed dolls in-between for the Japanese (if there even is any?) and his devotees' audience, even though it also seems to be targeted to a more western audience now. (Batgirl, Wonder woman, etc.)

I mean, the growth of just the Smart doll brand is pretty interesting. They started as robotic prototypes, moved on to just Vinyl dolls and combined them a little, and then somehow after a lot of bs we ended up here. 

however, this is all just my opinion 

On 6/1/2021 at 6:48 AM, Yuichan said:

Honestly, the whole Smart doll community just seems like a completely separate world where Danny's the god of everything. - and tbh, seeing how Danny is handling particular things, it really seems like that's what he wants. 
Personally, I don't really see SmD as a part of the Hobby anymore. Sure, they are there, they exist and they're cute, etc. but the people I've met when it comes to Smart dolls are just something else. tbh, the chaos bundles were basically the only thing that I am aware of that embraced customizing your Smart doll and not just having a product from him to display and photograph. Unfortunately, every time I saw a Smart doll with an own Face-up (before chaos bundles) there was always one person who commented something negative. It just seems like you can't win in "Smart doll land". You speak out your mind, you get bashed. You do something unique, you get bashed. You do not agree with something Danny did or stated, you get bashed. You buy something from him? Your wallet gets bashed. And if something is broken or a way it shouldn't be, there's a probability that it will cause a big drama and you get hated. It's a big clownery. It's funny when Danny is visibly annoyed by his mess he created on his own, but ofc he won't change a thing, either way, he's kind of the only one winning in situations like these, he gets money & his "fans" will blindly continue to buy stuff from him. 

However, it kinda seems like we aren't even the target of Smart dolls anymore, if we ever were. from what it seems, his "marketing" shifted towards kids and photographers anyways, with just having some licensed dolls in-between for the Japanese (if there even is any?) and his devotees' audience, even though it also seems to be targeted to a more western audience now. (Batgirl, Wonder woman, etc.)

I mean, the growth of just the Smart doll brand is pretty interesting. They started as robotic prototypes, moved on to just Vinyl dolls and combined them a little, and then somehow after a lot of bs we ended up here. 

however, this is all just my opinion 

I am deeply involved in the American Girl community, and a lot of AG collectors are starting to get into SmD. I think SmD has a similar structure like AG. Pretty dolls with interesting stories, which attracts a lot of the AG people. (Honestly it's what attracted me to SmD over DD at first, the plethora of dolls with beautiful face ups and interesting stories).

My philosophy is, if you love something, it's totally ok and valid to be critical of it. I am like this with AG (so many white dolls with white girl stories.... lol). But, for some reason these people who are critical of AG have a hard time being critical of SmD! They bow down to DC and defend just about everything he says.

I love the look of SmD, I ADORE my two girls, and DC can be funny/charismatic, but lately I feel like he is punishing long time fans because of a vocal minority. It makes me sad. Taking away the count down timer was a blow for a lot of collectors. 

@apag22 Agree with regard to loving something and being critical of it! I think more and more nowadays people are willing to talk about the flaws/mistakes/problems in a thing, whether it's a toy or a film or a book. Hashtag there is no ethical consumption under capitalism etc. 🤑 

It might be that the AG collectors are being smart and gaming the system, if they read anything about the controversies before they got into the scene. Else, it's easy to be sucked along with the current? Anything new is shiny and great until one day... and then there's the realisation of how odd and painful things are.

I have a lot of sympathy for Danny because of personal reasons, which is why I wish things were better. I know they can be better! (I feel way too much empathy for basically almost everyone though, so it might just be me.)

Honestly, I just ignore all the drama. I buy Smart Dolls, Dollfie Dream, Obitsu, Azone, and Resin Dolls. I'm used to drama in the resin doll hobby, so I'm not surprised to see it in the vinyl doll hobby too. 

I haven't seen the person who was bashed for customizing a smart doll. In fact, lately, there's been lots of blank chaos heads in the smartdoll outlet. I've been tempted to buy one myself - but I suck at faceups. 

Faceups can greatly change how a doll looks.

In fact there's only a small handful of heads of smart dolls.

Like for example, Sana and Starlight are the same doll just different colored skin and different faceups and different default eyes/wigs.

I like the dolls, regardless of the internet nonsense. 

I don't know enough to "take sides" in the drama.

So if I see the drama, I just keep scrolling.

I just bought my 5th Smartdoll last month. I plan to probably buy more in the future.

The drama doesn't deter me from buying dolls. People can do what they want and say what they want online. That's their right, even if it's something we don't agree with.

58 minutes ago, Xenokitten said:

People can do what they want and say what they want online. That's their right, even if it's something we don't agree with.

The only issue with that is that you can get banned/blacklisted or semi-publicly shamed for any small bit of criticism towards the brand, not only by fans, but by the creator. While yes, people can do and say what they want, (and should expect to be held accountable/be able to face the consequences of their words/actions) when it comes to Smartdoll, it has just gone overboard...
 

Just now, Yumeiro said:

The only issue with that is that you can get banned/blacklisted or semi-publicly shamed for any small bit of criticism towards the brand, not only by fans, but by the creator. While yes, people can do and say what they want, (and should expect to be held accountable/be able to face the consequences of their words/actions) when it comes to Smartdoll, it has just gone overboard...
 

 

I've never been banned by Smart Doll - but I would imagine it's easy to get around that ban anyways.

For example:

Create a new email address if it's banned by email

Take the computer to a library or coffee shop if it's ban by IP address

Get a PO Box (if in the US) or ship the doll to a friend or family member if the ban is by physical address

Use a friend or family member's phone number if the ban is by phone number

 

So on and so forth.

 

I wouldn't worry about it too much.  I don't think there's really any way he could completely block anyone. Although it is his company and his choice if he does wish to ban and block people. Still there's always second hand markets. Always a way.

And never exposed your social media account, having Vooooks doll photo on your timeline, or accidentally told them you own any of Voooks doll

1 hour ago, Nines said:

And never exposed your social media account, having Vooooks doll photo on your timeline, or accidentally told them you own any of Voooks doll

Or provided a photo of the smoldering remains of your non-SmD dolls next to a monitor showing today’s SmartDoll website.

- Sorry, the snark side of the force is strong with me. 

26 minutes ago, Xenokitten said:

 

I've never been banned by Smart Doll - but I would imagine it's easy to get around that ban anyways.

For example:

Create a new email address if it's banned by email

Take the computer to a library or coffee shop if it's ban by IP address

Get a PO Box (if in the US) or ship the doll to a friend or family member if the ban is by physical address

Use a friend or family member's phone number if the ban is by phone number

 

So on and so forth.

 

I wouldn't worry about it too much.  I don't think there's really any way he could completely block anyone. Although it is his company and his choice if he does wish to ban and block people. Still there's always second hand markets. Always a way.

I’ve not been banned (At least, I think so. I did ask about the busts with nipples a while ago and never got a reply, so who knows).

But either way, banning me from your shop (over something petty or otherwise) would be sending me a message that you don’t want my business, so I’ll gladly take it elsewhere. I’m simply not willing to jump through hoops to buy something from someone who’s decided I’m not worthy of owning their product.

3 hours ago, Xenokitten said:

 

I've never been banned by Smart Doll - but I would imagine it's easy to get around that ban anyways.

For example:

Create a new email address if it's banned by email

Take the computer to a library or coffee shop if it's ban by IP address

Get a PO Box (if in the US) or ship the doll to a friend or family member if the ban is by physical address

Use a friend or family member's phone number if the ban is by phone number

 

So on and so forth.

 

I wouldn't worry about it too much.  I don't think there's really any way he could completely block anyone. Although it is his company and his choice if he does wish to ban and block people. Still there's always second hand markets. Always a way.

There are so many alternatives to smd that for me personally, I don't see how it's worth it to go to so much trouble to get them just because the company ceo banned me for petty reasons. Even if I'm not banned, all that staying up late to wait for drops and longwinded purchase process would put me off.

It's especially ironic considering that he started the company with the intention of having his dolls being always in stock, ready to ship and never discontinued, with none of the clickwars that Volks lotteries are famous for. Yet his current fanbase is being kept on their toes and waking up at all hours to check his store in case there's a sudden release. That can't be healthy in the long run, but I suppose his fans aren't as important as his employees, who would probably keel over from overwork if a customer asked about shipping times.

I can't even tell the latest dolls apart anymore because they all look the same. I do enjoy watching the shoe child's shenanigans though.

That’s why I’m just gonna get a dollfie dream and do or pay someone to give her a faceup simlair to smart doll that I like.

Yeah, that’s a lot of extra time and work, and potentially money for things like a PO Box.  Not to mention the ban could also be looking at payment info - so then you’re left relying on relatives and friends paying for you... it’s too much.  If someone bans you from their store I think it’s best to take it as a sign they aren’t interested in your money and you should take it elsewhere even if the products are nice.  (Note, for those who already have dolls and get banned I can see why you’d start trying to find loopholes in order to get replacement parts etc.)

If a company doesn't want my business, I won't jump through hoops just to try to purchase their product. I'm not against anyone purchasing from Danny even though I have zero respect for the man. Ultimately, you do you, but just ask yourself is it really worth all the extra work just to be able to buy an item from someone who doesn't want your money and thinks you are scum to boot? I mean, this isn't exactly like driving an extra hour to purchase your favorite snack because it is finally in stock. Having a friend or someone else buy a doll for you is one thing, but his dolls have reputation for breaking. If you are banned, it's going to take a lot more work in order to get a replacement part especially if he is keeping tabs on who originally bought the doll, the email address, and the address it is attached to. (How does he have so much time and sheeps to give to gatekeeping, seriously?)

1 hour ago, Mars said:

That’s why I’m just gonna get a dollfie dream and do or pay someone to give her a faceup simlair to smart doll that I like.

To be honest, your doll will probably look better.  I know they share sculpts, but the vast majority of his company face-ups have major same-face.

Danny Choo really needs to listen to some of his own advice and stop giving a sheep.

2 hours ago, bbotss said:

That can't be healthy in the long run, but I suppose his fans aren't as important as his employees, who would probably keel over from overwork if a customer asked about shipping times.

Not until you see how he trashed/harassed his least favourite employees.. 

from an ex-employee view