Hello!

Hello all! I'm new here and it's been a while since I've been on any forums. I've had my eye on Dollfie Dreams for many years (anyone remember Haute Doll? Yes I'm old...), but I've yet to make myself an official vinyl owner.

Since then I've become familiar with other types and brands of vinyl dolls and I want to learn more about them, so this seemed like the best place for it. Hopefully I can get a sense for which dolls are a good fit for me and I can see everyone else's beautiful girls. I've only been familiar with resin BJDs (primarily Super Dollfies: A Standard Nana and an FCS Mika at one time) so vinyl is a new world that I want to delve into as well. I've been considering Smart Dolls for a few years, but I'd still like to try to acquaint myself more with Volks DDs, my original vinyl love.

Nice to meet you all! 

Greetings and welcome to the board. It's nice to meet you!

There's lots of information on this board on different vinyl dolls and the members are helpful if you got any questions. Hopefully you can find a doll which will steal your heart away. That may or may not come at the risk of stealing your wallet, too, though.

Welcome it’s nice to meet you. I hope you find what you are looking for.

Welcome! I'm currently thinking about getting a SD FCS right now! I have until June 10th to decide 🤑 Dollfie Dreams are lovely! I do hope you pick one up 💜

Welcome to the forum.
 

14 hours ago, ladyandlion said:

I've been considering Smart Dolls for a few years

Before getting a SmartDoll I’d recommend doing research on Culture Japan’s customer service history, and read all of the disclaimers / SmartDoll philosophy statements on their website. SmartDolls are nice dolls, but walk into the business relationship with open eyes.

 

1 hour ago, apag22 said:

Welcome! I'm currently thinking about getting a SD FCS right now! I have until June 10th to decide 🤑 Dollfie Dreams are lovely! I do hope you pick one up 💜

Volks USA does its online FCS a number of times throughout the year. Usually they rotate through SDM, SD, SD13G, SDGrB, and SD16G. 

There is more info here, but I don’t know how current it is: http://ningyobingo.com/NeoAngelDen/naonline.php

5 hours ago, Hymn said:

Greetings and welcome to the board. It's nice to meet you!

There's lots of information on this board on different vinyl dolls and the members are helpful if you got any questions. Hopefully you can find a doll which will steal your heart away. That may or may not come at the risk of stealing your wallet, too, though.

Dolls are like chips. You can't have just one. I'm actually rather picky so maybe I can avoid going overboard (plus I'm not exactly wealthy so I have to be choosey.) 

5 hours ago, Mars said:

Welcome it’s nice to meet you. I hope you find what you are looking for.

Thank you I hope so too!

3 hours ago, apag22 said:

Welcome! I'm currently thinking about getting a SD FCS right now! I have until June 10th to decide 🤑 Dollfie Dreams are lovely! I do hope you pick one up 💜

I hope all goes well for your FCS experience! Mine came all the way from Tenshi no Sato and I was glad when she finally arrived. I hope I can do it again some time in the future.

 

3 hours ago, BeyondTime said:

Welcome to the forum.
 

Before getting a SmartDoll I’d recommend doing research on Culture Japan’s customer service history, and read all of the disclaimers / SmartDoll philosophy statements on their website. SmartDolls are nice dolls, but walk into the business relationship with open eyes.

 

Volks USA does its online FCS a number of times throughout the year. Usually they rotate through SDM, SD, SD13G, SDGrB, and SD16G. 

There is more info here, but I don’t know how current it is: http://ningyobingo.com/NeoAngelDen/naonline.php

That's one of the reasons I decided to join this forum because I figured there'd be more information here too. Kind of hard to find any diversity in customer experience with Smart Doll. At this time I'm unsure of how Smart Dolls measure up purely on their own as a product (if they're sturdy enough or more resistant to staining than say a Dollfie Dream etc) but as far as Danny Choo's business practices go...I've recently become aware of how challenging he and the company have been. Bit of a mess really, I hate reading through everything on the site because there's just so much of it. But thank you so much for the heads up! Highly appreciated!

3 hours ago, ladyandlion said:

At this time I'm unsure of how Smart Dolls measure up purely on their own as a product (if they're sturdy enough or more resistant to staining than say a Dollfie Dream etc

Both of them can stain, but both respond well to stain treatments. SmartDoll clothes seem to be less likely to stain, but Volks has gotten much better about stain proofing their designs and I see fewer stains from modern outfits. 

The current SmartDoll frame is known to have issues breaking, but the DDIII had issues cracking at the shoulders and hips. The big difference is that Volks sells parts for their current doll bodies, and the DDIII had years worth of part sales making for a pretty robust market for parts even though the DDIII is no longer made. With SmartDoll you have to go to Danny with your hat in your hand and pray he hasn’t banned you for some small offense. 

Volks has the advantage of making a large line of resin dolls and their MSD & SD13/SDGr lines match DD in size. So many places make clothes in those sizes it makes for a huge aftermarket for clothing for DD. More and more places do make SmD sized clothes, but I doubt that will ever catch up to Volks. Diversity of product just gives them a huge advantage. 

1 hour ago, BeyondTime said:

Both of them can stain, but both respond well to stain treatments. SmartDoll clothes seem to be less likely to stain, but Volks has gotten much better about stain proofing their designs and I see fewer stains from modern outfits. 

The current SmartDoll frame is known to have issues breaking, but the DDIII had issues cracking at the shoulders and hips. The big difference is that Volks sells parts for their current doll bodies, and the DDIII had years worth of part sales making for a pretty robust market for parts even though the DDIII is no longer made. With SmartDoll you have to go to Danny with your hat in your hand and pray he hasn’t banned you for some small offense. 

Volks has the advantage of making a large line of resin dolls and their MSD & SD13/SDGr lines match DD in size. So many places make clothes in those sizes it makes for a huge aftermarket for clothing for DD. More and more places do make SmD sized clothes, but I doubt that will ever catch up to Volks. Diversity of product just gives them a huge advantage. 

Good to hear Volks has taken the time to treat their clothes so that's a bit more comforting. Of course, lighter colors would help with that. I haven't done a thorough comparison (not that I have to choose one over the other.) Staining was something that kept me away from vinyl for a little while. 

When it comes to DDs, I like that they have a little more girth in comparison to Smart Doll's model-like body (especially the thighs), as well as more articulation in the knees than Smart Doll. But I can also appreciate the more natural mainstream vibe of Smart Dolls (natural colored hair and clothing style ala' Calvin Klein.) At times I felt like Volks clothes were too "anime": very frilly and Idol-girl style (some outfits are appealing though!) 

It is also encouraging that Volks sells extra parts. Even when I had resin dolls I was afraid to restring them so I never took them apart. My interest in vinyl dolls has come on (especially after discovering Smart dolls) because I thought they were easier to assemble and to handle (though I still love resin dolls and I'd like to recollect them once I get a good sense of what I want.) Danny Choo's videos on YT seemed rather easy to follow where you just pop things into place. 

...but... bans people for wanting parts...? I've been reading one of the threads about him on this forum and I heard he doesn't want people to like...customize his dolls (which I think is silly considering this hobby)...from what I recall he was selling optional parts on the website, like eyes, busts and hands...and heeled feet if I remember right. But I guess you mean the internal parts and spine. I can't recall if those were ever sold as optional parts and I've been following Smart Doll for a while now. I've noticed a lot of changes I don't like. 

9 minutes ago, ladyandlion said:

I've been reading one of the threads about him on this forum and I heard he doesn't want people to like...customize his dolls (which I think is silly considering this hobby

That’s speculation. So far the only people objecting to customization are a subset of Danny‘s fans. 
 

10 minutes ago, ladyandlion said:

but... bans people for wanting parts...?

It’s not bans for wanting parts. People get banned for social media posts critical of the products, and once you are banned you can’t buy parts.

 

1 minute ago, BeyondTime said:

That’s speculation. So far the only people objecting to customization are a subset of Danny‘s fans. 
 

It’s not bans for wanting parts. People get banned for social media posts critical of the products, and once you are banned you can’t buy parts.

 

I see.  I admit I think Smart Dolls do appeal to many people who don't want to change their look. I'm one of them. At this time I haven't really had any designs on changing them. For me the appeal is mainly the diversity in skintone. I'd like at least one tea and one cocoa (Liberty has been the cocoa doll I've gravitated to most.) But I think Mirai is very nice looking as well as Starlight and the new Kizuna/Athena. Recently I've also liked the semi-real dolls too since they got a revamp. Otherwise, if it weren't for that diversity, I'd consider DD more heavily. But then with what I've been reading recently about Danny Choo I'm starting to find it difficult. 

I think at the time I was looking for a "ready made" doll, ready to go and dress up. Smart Doll seemed like a good starter vinyl doll. For me a DD would take a little more work. I've tried looking at their standard models but I think I'd have to opt to assemble one the way I want, which is more than a bit intimidating. When it comes to DD heads I have to take more time to find what appeals to me. I think one of the limited dolls called Momo was very pretty.