Demand for faceups and custom outfits?

Hello! My name is Hiruma and I'm very new to the Dolfie community. In fact, I'm still trying to figure out if I should start with a standard model (DDdy Towa?) or keep waiting for special collaborations, After School Akihabara Girls, or keep saving to purchase a Hatsune Miku Dolfie from a reseller...

Anyway, I wanted to ask if there is high demand for faceup commissions and custom outfits, or do people usually order what is offered through Volks? If there are any resources that you can point me to, or if you don't mind sharing your opinion (if you have ever commissioned for faceups/custom outfits), please let me know! 

A bit of background: I used to create custom outfits for another popular toy series that I won't name as it's not relevant to this forum, and I did makeup (on people) for a while, so I've been interested in customizing dolls for a while. It's one of the main reasons why I'm interested in purchasing a Dolfie! The other is, well... I saw the Hatsune Miku Dolfie way back when it was first released in Japan and thought "I'd like to have that one day". 

Thanks in advance for your thoughts and opinions! 

49 minutes ago, Hiruma said:

In fact, I'm still trying to figure out if I should start with a standard model (DDdy Towa?) or keep waiting for special collaborations

Welcome to the forum. I have Towa, and she is super cute so I can recommend her. As a DDDy her clothing options will be a bit more limited because her body type doesn’t match well with existing Super Dollfie models, but it is a popular body so there is a lot of stuff out there. The easiest bodies to get clothes for are going to be DD M & L bust & MDD.

Collaborations are released every few months, and the current collaboration on schedule is Re:Zero Emilia and Fate Grand Order’s Skadi Caster. In another two months there will be a limited edition pre-order project, but we don’t know what the dolls are yet. 

Thanks for the welcome and the information, BeyondTime! I did notice that the clothing options for Towa on Volks was more limited than others, which made me wonder if I should just start making outfits myself. 

I saw the tweet about Emilia and FGO but probably won't be pursuing them, although Emilia does look fantastic. Curious about the upcoming pre-order project, though!

5 minutes ago, Hiruma said:

I did notice that the clothing options for Towa on Volks was more limited than others

One thing I have caught on the Volks Japan site. Their search returns options for DDDy that do not list DDDy in the fit section of the clothing details. If you do get Towa, be sure to check the details on outfits and make sure DDDy is really listed. 

10 minutes ago, BeyondTime said:

If you do get Towa, be sure to check the details on outfits and make sure DDDy is really listed. 

That's a great tip. I will be sure to check if I go forward with Towa. Thanks again! 

No reason you have to start with a standard girl unless you're attracted to them (what a sentence) Opening a full doll vs a standard model is quite different imo. Since you have doll/toy experience, maybe it won't be so jarring, but for your first doll this size I think going for the good good (Miku) is ideal. If you're looking more for a new size to make clothes for than a display/play doll tho, Towa could be just as fun. 😚

Settling has always lead to me reselling the doll fairly quickly because I'm not satisfied...
In my case, I wanted DD Emilia REALLY bad but kept putting off ordering her until Volks sold out of their overstock. Her secondhand price just kept going up, so eventually I decided I was fine admiring her from afar. Every doll I've bought until that point stayed with me for such little time though lol. I could have bought a secondhand Emilia with what I spent trying to fill that DD Emilia shaped hole in my heart!

Her rerelease announcement came like..a month after I decided I didn't need her. 😂

Luckily for you Miku has been rereleased a couple times and even updated to the newer body. So ig in your spot knowing what I do now, I'd keep saving for Miku. And besides, if you decide it's not for you, reselling DD Miku with her default faceup is probably one of the less difficult things to do out there.

34 minutes ago, rainglow said:

Her rerelease announcement came like..a month after I decided I didn't need her. 😂

Luckily for you Miku has been rereleased a couple times and even updated to the newer body. So ig in your spot knowing what I do now, I'd keep saving for Miku. And besides, if you decide it's not for you, reselling DD Miku with her default faceup is probably one of the less difficult things to do out there.

Lots of great advice there! Thank you, rainglow, and I'm sorry to hear about your experience with Emilia! I just wish I remembered DD earlier in the year since I would have preordered Snow Miku in a heartbeat... Now to hope they re-release Luka sometime soon?  

I think I will keep looking into faceup tutorials and also look for resources on making custom DD clothing to see how realistic customizing a DD might be. I appreciate your input! 

There might be people looking to just get what they spent back on Snow Miku, so there's still a chance she can come home once Volks starts shipping. 

Doing faceups on $50+ heads can be pretty intimidating, but there are other vinyl heads out there that you can practice on too! Parabox sells blank anime sculpts of different sizes in the 500-2000 JPY range. LUNA was popular in particular with Japanese faceup artists because it's a versatile head. I say was just because I haven't been keeping up with them as much latey.

10 hours ago, rainglow said:

Doing faceups on $50+ heads can be pretty intimidating, but there are other vinyl heads out there that you can practice on too! Parabox sells blank anime sculpts of different sizes in the 500-2000 JPY range.

I was just looking into this yesterday - thanks! I feel like I would be much more nervous working on a DD head than on a person so sculpts and other things to practice would be essential. Maybe I should just buy a few heads first and have a go at it. 

Everyone has different preferences. My very first doll was a DDH-06 custom faceup and I still have her today and she's by far my very favorite even from the two unicorn dolls I want. 

Imo just keep looking, some custom faces have crazy bid wars on yahoo Japan auction. I've actually stopped looking hard but there are some very nice faceup on yahoo auction Japan. 

Edited August 1, 2021 by mayaiincho

21 hours ago, Hiruma said:

I just wish I remembered DD earlier in the year since I would have preordered Snow Miku in a heartbeat...

There will probably be opportunities to get her from Volks in the future. One thing about Miku is that she is SS bust, and Volks makes very little clothing for SS bust outside of the annual Miku outfit releases. You can easily upgrade her bust, but stock SS she’s not going to have good clothing fits on most Volks outfits. 

M bust has a lot of outfit options from Volks and other makers in part because DD-M matches the very popular SD13/SDGr body size.

1 hour ago, BeyondTime said:

There will probably be opportunities to get her from Volks in the future. One thing about Miku is that she is SS bust, and Volks makes very little clothing for SS bust outside of the annual Miku outfit releases. You can easily upgrade her bust, but stock SS she’s not going to have good clothing fits on most Volks outfits. 

M bust has a lot of outfit options from Volks and other makers in part because DD-M matches the very popular SD13/SDGr body size.

Do true. If you want the most option stick to medium. This is the reason I most gave up on Dynamite size and I've stuck with large bust only. You can often sneak a large bust in medium size tops ^~^