2021 DD Pre-order Project - FFXIV Y'shtola

33 minutes ago, Veravey said:

Have they ever done a Kyoani IP?

They did the Haruhi Suzumiya trio also in addition to the mentioned K-on twosome, but those were back in the DD2 days...

4 hours ago, Noxxbunny said:

It's Kaito's 15th anniversary at Magical Mirai this year, so I'm putting my bets down on Kaito. It would follow the same pattern as Meiko's release last year if he was revealed now, I think? I have a good feeling 🤩 lol

I’m 120% sure it’s not Kaito just because MagiMirai is in October and they -never- announce the Vocaloid (or ‘Piapro Virtual Singers’ as we call them now) dolls by showing the actual doll first like they do for PO projects. They only announce new DDs at MagiMirai with an image of the character. (Even miku was first announced only before finally being shown later) If he’s really being announced at this years MagiMirai he’s probably coming out in April or May next year (I am trying very hard not to expect him to be announced at Magimirai this year though, just so I don’t get let down when their ‘announcement we can’t reveal yet’ turns out to be a rerelease of the Miku glasses or the obvious confirmation that they’re making the 2022 snow miku outfit...) 

A Saturday reveal is extremely atypical for Volks - it’s usually Friday,  so that says to me it’s the IP holders decision and they’ll be the ones announcing it first.

17 minutes ago, Monty said:

 

A Saturday reveal is extremely atypical for Volks - it’s usually Friday,  so that says to me it’s the IP holders decision and they’ll be the ones announcing it first.

Okay hear me out: Legend of Zelda.

One, the date thing you just pointed out: there's a Nintendo Direct on the 17th, the day before Volks does theirs.

Two, preorders are often IPs that are likely to bring in new blood to the hobby that normally isn't into dolls, like Miku, Nier, and Type Moon. LoZ fits thst bill.

Three, this year is the franchise's 35th anniversary, if there's a time for big ticket LOZ merch, it's now.

And four, good God, with all the Link and Zelda variations, can you imagine what a cash cow this would be? I'm calling it now, if Volks picks up this license we'll eventually have as many Zelda variants as we do Sabers.

21 minutes ago, Poofiemus said:

with all the Link and Zelda variations

... gerudo link ... ?

naw... as amusing that is, that would be a bit much in every way or form I guess.

Evangelion.

 

 

 

Evangelion.

It's far too new an IP for it to have believable odds, but with the current success of Genshin Impact, I could see them pulling that out of left field for a surprise preorder project. MCs Aether and Lumine are blonde twins, after all, which is right up the Rin/Len alley in terms of aesthetics.

4 hours ago, Poofiemus said:

Okay hear me out: Legend of Zelda.

One, the date thing you just pointed out: there's a Nintendo Direct on the 17th, the day before Volks does theirs.

Two, preorders are often IPs that are likely to bring in new blood to the hobby that normally isn't into dolls, like Miku, Nier, and Type Moon. LoZ fits thst bill.

Three, this year is the franchise's 35th anniversary, if there's a time for big ticket LOZ merch, it's now.

And four, good God, with all the Link and Zelda variations, can you imagine what a cash cow this would be? I'm calling it now, if Volks picks up this license we'll eventually have as many Zelda variants as we do Sabers.

A DD Link or Princess Zelda would definitely be a blast.

But speaking of Nintendo, it'd be great if Monolith Soft would reactivate their old ties to Volks. We had Xenosaga DDs before, so how about some from Xenoblade now? The appearance of Pyra/Homura and Mythra/Hikari in Smash Bros. gave the series a nice boost. So Pyra would be the most likely candidate here (albeit they would need some new Extra Dynamite DDDy bust for her).

Actually, I'd prefer Melia from the original Xenoblade / Definitive Edition, but she seems less likely.

 

@finnleo Is there any precedent of a Gust / Koei-Tecmo character DD? There's definitely a fairly big pool of Gust characters that would be great as DDs.

5 hours ago, fishbuttz said:

It's far too new an IP for it to have believable odds, but with the current success of Genshin Impact, I could see them pulling that out of left field for a surprise preorder project. MCs Aether and Lumine are blonde twins, after all, which is right up the Rin/Len alley in terms of aesthetics.

I think the bigger issue for Genshin is that it's a Chinese IP. I don't think Volks has ever worked with a Chinese company before? In fact thr only non-Japanese collab I can think of off the top of my head is Disney for SDs.

That said, if they DID ever surprise me and do Genshin, I would probably lose my mind. I would be more likely to do a split for Lumine's clothes than get her, but if they did Jean, Hu Tao, Venti, Diona. . . Gawd there are so many characters they could make bank off of.

6 hours ago, Poofiemus said:

Okay hear me out: Legend of Zelda.

OMG. Breath of the Wild Zelda would be an instant buy.
But Nintendo tends to be pretty protective of its high profile IPs so I am a bit sceptical.

 

I very much doubt that it will happen, but Genshin Impact doll please.
(Or not, because it would absolutely bankrupt me).

2 hours ago, Tierparkzone said:

Is there any precedent of a Gust / Koei-Tecmo character DD?

Nope ... for reference here's the game companies that volks has done collabs with in no perticular order:

Bandai-Namco
Type Moon
Team Alice (Tohou)
Square Enix
SNK
Sega (including Atlus, or the SMT stuff if you wish)
Dingo

"Traditional" Visual novel companies:
Leaf / Aquaplus
August / Aria
AliceSoft
Nitroplus
Visual Arts Key
Circus
Palette
07'th Expansion
Age soft
Lump of Sugar

 

The closest you might get to a Gust model based on that list would be the Ar Tonelico series which was co-produced between Bandai... oddly enough gust is still making new merch for it, despite the main game property seems to be in a knot, and why they had to come up with Ciel No surge to keep that storyline rolling.

Actually been planning to make a Cloche custom for the longest time, but, eh ... effort.

I would absolutely lose my shit if they made link and zelda. Bye bye savings!

I would instantly pre-order if it was one of the Hololive girls. 

Edited September 17, 2021 by LynaLune

15 hours ago, Veravey said:

I see, is there a name for the lottery doll events, too? I'm guessing what makes this event unique is that non-lottery aspect.

The lottery doll events are usually associated with Dolpa releases.

I might try to swing one if there's a boy...

7 hours ago, LynaLune said:

I would instantly pre-order if it was one of the Hololive girls. 

Azone currently has this license so I have my doubts Volks will have it too so soon. Though they have shared licenses in the past. Azone did a pretty ok job with Sora but I wouldn’t mind seeing what Volks does with her or others. It’s nuts how much reach Hololive is getting. 
 

Im hoping and dreading that it’s Nadeshiko and Shimarin (which would also be a shared license). I kinda wish Volks would just make a Yurucamp fashion line cause I want all my girls dressed in stylish camping gear. One can dream. 

Edited September 17, 2021 by Beani

1 hour ago, Beani said:

I kinda wish Volks would just make a Yurucamp fashion line cause I want all my girls dressed in stylish camping gear. One can dream. 

As much as I love that anime, I wouldn’t be tempted by yurucamp DD.

DD sized camping gear would slay me though. 

Oh help. I just realised that FFXIV is having a live stream today and right now the small dream of getting FFXIV dollfies is starting to take place in my heart.

*quickly tunes in to the remainder of the live stream

5 hours ago, BeyondTime said:

As much as I love that anime, I wouldn’t be tempted by yurucamp DD.

DD sized camping gear would slay me though. 

Yeah, it’s hard enough avoiding buying all the doujin camping stuff. It’s all pretty pricey so hard to justify. Volks could probably get the cost of a camp chair and burner set down to a point I can’t resist anymore though. 
 

Surprised we haven’t heard anything yet from Volks regarding the preorder. It’s already 3pm!

Edited September 18, 2021 by Beani

https://store.jp.square-enix.com/item/MFF140015.html
 

guess what just showed up on Squenix’s website? I think we have our winner: Y’shtola

1 minute ago, whisski said:

https://store.jp.square-enix.com/item/MFF140015.html
 

guess what just showed up on Squenix’s website? I think we have our winner: Y’shtola

I went ahead and preordered lol.

 

here is the link to the NA store https://store.na.square-enix-games.com/en_US/product/684984/dollfie-dream-y-shtola

The Volks link. https://dollfie.volks.co.jp/dd/special/finalfantasyxiv/

As much as I am glad to see more SE collabs I would have preferred Yuna to Y'shtola.

It s only one doll this year? 

It’s wild to me that she literally is already available to preorder, that’s gotta be a first… but it wouldn’t be a Squeenix is collab if they didnt insist on doing it their way. (With Nier, they were so insistent on unveiling them at the orchestra event they didn’t even get to be in Volks News, so I’m glad she’ll get to be in it at least).

It’s also nice to finally have another tan skin collab doll. I don’t know much (or really anything) about FF14 for the most part, but she’s a -really- nice looking doll. Some of those product photos legitimately look like screen caps from the game to me. They did an incredible job with her!

Oh dang. . . . She is pretty. Like, wow, she would loke so nice standing next to 2b and 9s! I do not know anything about the character but I could see myself getting this doll anyway. . . I am a sucker for the tan skin and she is just beautiful.

Edited September 18, 2021 by marishade

…wait I just noticed she’s up-front cost instead of a deposit. That’s also a first. I really hope that’s part of the Squeenix arrangement and not how the PO Project is gonna be from now on, because having a year to save was one of the major appeals to me.

Sadly I think this could potentially not result in as much new blood as hoped because that’s a HUGE sticker shock for someone not in this hobby yet…