2021 DD Pre-order Project - FFXIV Y'shtola

I really want her, but I can’t decide if I should buy her from Volks international Japan site or just wait and get her in 2023 on mandarake because if I get her from Volks I’m going to have to wait until December 2022. It’s so hard to decide haha, I started downloading Final Fantasy XIV but haven’t started playing it yet.

Sorry if this is a silly question but I'm not too familiar with pre-ordering dolls (Snow Miku was the only one I pre-ordered/bought new straight from Volks). I noticed Y'shtola says "first delivery". Does this mean there will be a second pre-order for her?

No, there are pre-order 'groups' depending on what time you actually made the purchase in the pre-order window. There are also different groups depending on where you ordered through, VolksUSA ships out later than Volks Int, for exame. If someone pre-ordered on Volks Int (do not know how they will schedule the Square Enix shop) the first few days, the will be in the first group, and get the doll the earliest. Me, being among the last in the window to order, will probably be one of the last to receive her. Depending on how many pre-orders they get will determine how many groups there are and when other ones are shipped out.

I decided to get her, bought her from the international site. I waited to get her because I was trying to decide if I wanted her or not, but ended up getting her or else I might regret it and it's hard to get a tan DD. I'm not familiar with FFXIV or her character, but I don't think that matters too much cause I might change her faceup, eyes, etc.

2 hours ago, marishade said:

No, there are pre-order 'groups' depending on what time you actually made the purchase in the pre-order window. There are also different groups depending on where you ordered through, VolksUSA ships out later than Volks Int, for exame. If someone pre-ordered on Volks Int (do not know how they will schedule the Square Enix shop) the first few days, the will be in the first group, and get the doll the earliest. Me, being among the last in the window to order, will probably be one of the last to receive her. Depending on how many pre-orders they get will determine how many groups there are and when other ones are shipped out.

That makes a lot of sense. Thanks for the detailed answer!

Ordered mine few days ago!! X) 

 

I don't want to regret her later so I put in a pre-order. 😔

Not going to be able to get Y'shtola in the end it seems. The past month has been real hard on me and I've ended eating into enough of my savings for her to be very much out of the picture. I've ended up buying myself a Snow Miku instead, as a treat. It'll be "fun" to get her off the second-hand market, but at least I have an entire year to save up now lol.

I'm looking forward to seeing owner pics from you guys though! 

After lots of debating, I officially pre-ordered her though Volks USA.

I'm surprised Volks has not released any videos, I was hoping to see a dress up or 360 video like they have been doing lately for their other dolls. I wonder if it's a licensing issue.

I am wondering if she will come with her neck tattoo's already applied. I know with the old Miku you had to do it yourself but when I got my Snow Miku Reboot she came with her tattoo already applied. I guess this is because a lot of people struggle with applying them just right and I agree it really is a very stressful task just to get it right, but for people who rather not have the tattoo's it could be a bummer.

On 11/21/2021 at 8:40 AM, mk13 said:

I'm surprised Volks has not released any videos, I was hoping to see a dress up or 360 video like they have been doing lately for their other dolls. I wonder if it's a licensing issue.

To be fair, the ones we have seen unboxing/dress up videos of are ones that were almost ready for release so they were probably done with the same product the customer receives. Yshtola isn’t out for another year and the only versions of her that exist are prototypes, not the final product - she may not even have her official box/packaging decided yet, so they can’t really do an unboxing video during the preorder period and I didn’t really expect to see that kind of thing for a preorder project doll (there’s always the chance they will do one when she is released though - which might be nice for DD newbies as I heard a lot of people complain that 2B’s outfit was hard to out on).

Although…that only explains why she might not have gotten a dress up video, not why she didn’t get a 360 video, as Reimu and Marisa got them. Since her sculpt is so interesting, I really wanted to see a 360 video myself.

That's true, I hadn't even thought of the packaging. A 360 video would still have been nice to see, as you say Reimu and Marisa got them so I wonder why Y'shtola did not. The marketing for Reimu and Marisa also felt more flexible. They showed lots of photos with different backgrounds and different poses, and there was the cute countdown near the end. I feel like their photos of Y'shtola have all had similar poses and backgrounds, unless I just didn't find the right ones.

Edited November 23, 2021 by mk13

I wish I had preordered her!  The timing didn't work out for me.  Hopefully I can pick one up sometime after release.  I'd love to have her remodeled as my FFXIV miqo'te, but wouldn't ever do it haha.

Reviving the thread since I've been thinking of her the last few days..
(I love all my DDs, and although she's not my favorite chara of the 4, she's my favorite DD and first one I've ever fallen for. Man did it suck having to just pay upfront and then so much for a first DD though, debated it for the 2 pre-order month period lol Interesting that she got me into the hobby regardless.)

First off, I can't believe she's the first DD I've bought or 1/3 scale doll, but she'll be the last one I get 
and now I have 3 others before her lol

Secondly, as much as I say I want G'raha and that both him and the twins are a possibility, re-reading this thread
I wondered if they'd even get made due to the reception from the fanbase being uneducated or ignorant comments mostly
(I guess it'll depend on sales? And I really hope that isn't a factor for making more!)
I wonder if SE already has a contract in place where they'll be making certain characters
or if there's some sort of clause for xyz amount sold = we make other charas. 

(I really hope no SE charas are in this year's pre-order becaaaaause I've now ordered/bought 4 DDs in 12 months and they ask you to pay upfront, that's just an SE thing too, they do it with their Prime1/Masterline statues as well)

Third, I saw talks about tan bodysuits and I'm hoping that like 9S and 2B (as I recently found out) she comes with a bodysuit that's unique for her.
When I bought 9S at AX and chatted with the staff saying I couldn't afford a bodysuit at the moment and asked if their 9S stained they told me
he came with his own bodysuit! Which I thought was pretty surprising, I knew it was true for 2B (and kinda forgot), and thought it made sense
due to the chest window. Was surprised to find out 9S has one too since at worst you would've seen a collar/turtleneck but that's true for several DDs.

So hopefully Y'shtola has one too since it's an SE collab and both 9S and 2B got one! 

33 minutes ago, Hazukami said:

I really hope no SE charas are in this year's pre-order

Probably no, I dont think Volks has ever done two preorders in a row from the same source/company. Grand/Order probably is up this year again, though they might surprise with a idolmaster girl .... just to keep teasing limited tan girls.

... but I guess the teasers are about to start.

44 minutes ago, Hazukami said:

I wondered if they'd even get made due to the reception from the fanbase being uneducated or ignorant comments mostly

the live letter reception probably wont affect decisions much, most likely sales volume and such. I do expect 'shtola to sell about as well as 2B did, maybe better, because she's also attracting the folks wanting a tan girl from the volks line. although the lack of actual ears on the head might be a thing.

 

1 hour ago, finnleo said:

the live letter reception probably wont affect decisions much, most likely sales volume and such. I do expect 'shtola to sell about as well as 2B did, maybe better, because she's also attracting the folks wanting a tan girl from the volks line. although the lack of actual ears on the head might be a thing.

 

Here's to hoping! When it comes to collecting or buying something that can be considered "limited" w/o release of numbers it's always fascinating and fun to me to try and figure out what these companies process is to deciding what gets made and seeing how well something sells (in general the logistics of it).
Like with how people expected Anthy to sell faster than Utena due to her tawny skin vs Utena being more "popular"/the title character.
So it was interesting to theorize on who would sell more/better and why not just for fun but to see who to go for first during the click war.

I went to myfigurecollection to look at some DD "ordered" and wished numbers since I wondered how many DDs are made of some characters, I know they don't represent EVERYONE buying DDs or any one specific DD but it at least gave me some info. So far 2B has more orders recorded than Y'shtola by at least double at 105, whereas 'Shtola has just 46 (with 9S being 51). I'm thinking that paying upfront+ high price tag might've hurt the sales a bit.. not sure if a popular DD or SDD released before her as well and the lack of ears as you mentioned.

For funsies I checked some of the more popular anime characters/charas in general with large fanbases and Sailor Moon sat at 52 and then Miku v2 had 460+ lol
I'm thinking some people might be confusing their v1 Miku for maybe the v2 since there's only 100+ v1 Miku owners.

This is of course not accounting Asian countries since they wouldn't use MFC generally.

Edited August 19, 2022 by Hazukami
mixed up some numbers on Miku's owned.

16 minutes ago, Hazukami said:

So far 2B has more orders recorded than Y'shtola by at least double at 105, whereas 'Shtola has just 46 (with 9S being 51). I'm thinking that paying upfront+ high price tag might've hurt the sales a bit.. not sure if a popular DD or SDD released before her as well and the lack of ears as you mentioned.

Lack of ears might be an issue for Shtola, but I'm thinking the DDDy body type played a significant role in 2B's popularity. 

I'm still holding out hope for Lady Yuna.

13 minutes ago, BeyondTime said:

Lack of ears might be an issue for Shtola, but I'm thinking the DDDy body type played a significant role in 2B's popularity. 

That could be a factor, since I don't think as a character 2B is more popular than 'Shtola.
Don't get me wrong, a lot of people in the PVC community that don't know the first thing about Nier will buy 2B scale figures
and she's more well know in general than 'Sthola, but in regards to fans willing to dish out that much money for a "doll"
I feel like 'Sthola would have more in that regard considering how strong of a fanbase FFXIV has.
Since I don't think the general public that buy pvc scales would prefer to buy a DD of 2B
than well, a pvc scale. (Not sure if I'm making sense on that lol In a sense 2B has a bigger fanbase but it's 'shallow')

58 minutes ago, Hazukami said:

myfigurecollection

MFC is a bit of interesting place to guage Dollfie dream numbers -- for instance:

Saber Lily is more or less regarded as a somewath rare and sought after model. yet there are less original Blue grumpy Saber owners than Lily one's at 109 for team white, and 55 for team blue. Oddly enough only 14 original Illya's in ownership, and im willing to bet they made as many of her as Blue Saber, (but probably less of her coat just to spite people)....

other saberfaces include nero at 199 owners, , and alter seconds at 222, which was another preorder

Gudako only has 18 owners (I wonder if Carnival Order would have flipped this one into the stratosphere if it had been around at the order period...), and Mash at 34, but mash wasnt available in her most desirable shielder getup.

Your miku numbers are probably backwards since I see original miku at 468 owners (this is undeniably the biggest seller volks ever had), versus the reboot at 33

there are 80 kosmos owners and 92 momo's

Anomalies would be Iori and Yayoi at 27 and 17 owners... there's got to be more people than that considering they were a launch model for a new body, though that could mean also mean lots became parted sets.

But at 46 MFC announced orders id say 'Shtola is doing ok-ish. since there are also the possible orders from sqeenix store that probly dont even know about MFC as you said.

36 minutes ago, Hazukami said:

I don't think as a character 2B is more popular than 'Shtola.

(sarcasm) Do not underestimate the power of onlyfans... oh -- yea ... different subject. *ahem* (/sarcasm)

Edited August 19, 2022 by finnleo

1 hour ago, Hazukami said:

That could be a factor, since I don't think as a character 2B is more popular than 'Shtola.

I base my opinion on the increasing market for clothing in L-bust+ sizes, and also on the popularity of fan art / pillow case art that takes popular female characters and hyper-sexualizes them by increasing the bust and hip size well above that of the character's actual design. 

The traditional clothing market for dolls was focused on ordinary day-to-day designs in the SD13/SDGr/DD-M sizes, and the modern market seems more focused on revealing outfits in DD-L/DDDy/SmD L-XL. 

Even cosplay outfits taken from characters with small to average chest size are often redone for L+ sizes. 

Frozen's Anna: https://dollgerie.com/collections/new/products/anna-dress-for-smd-dd

vs the reality of @TheRealAnna.

 

Sailor Mars: https://www.dollremi.store/item/【dollremi】Cos-美少女戰士-Princess-Mars-(DD063/4958353190158336

vs the reality of @TheRealReiHino.

Both girls are fierce and very cute, and neither resembles Jessica Rabbit imo...

You can see a modern trend towards making and marketing clothing aimed at a curvy reimagining of characters, and I tend to think this is driven party by the popularity of vinyls with men, and the inclusion of SmD fits in many of these outfits makes me think it's party driven by what the western market wants. The super curvy DDDy 2B was probably a hit with guys who like very voluptuous imaginings of 2B, and the DD-M Y'shtola doesn't key into that fantasy. 

32 minutes ago, BeyondTime said:

The super curvy DDDy 2B was probably a hit with guys who like very voluptuous imaginings of 2B

2B's character in terms of story is quite strong though, people who've played automata probably still remember "the long walk" with her for instance.

sure, she's on a DDY in terms of no other body delivering the derrier as defined by Yoko Taro, but thats not the only thing going for her in my oppinion.

edit, and there was that DLC included music video that drove up hype for the doll also.

EDIT-2, and now I am also reminded how the 2B outfit in FFXIV augments your characters butt ... even if you play a guy.

 

Those third party dresses are hilarity though, to quote Robin Williams, "God would look at them and go, I didnt create these."

 

32 minutes ago, BeyondTime said:

DD-M Y'shtola doesn't key into that fantasy. 

Oooooh but she got the whole spanking thing going in her favor though ...

 

Edited August 19, 2022 by finnleo

6 minutes ago, finnleo said:

Oooooh but she got the whole spanking thing going in her favor though ...

Spanking? o.O

 

6 minutes ago, finnleo said:

she's on a DDY in terms of no other body delivering the derrier as defined by Yoko Taro

I can get why Volks picked DDDy, but I am thinking that choice helped drive the sales numbers.

Just now, BeyondTime said:

Spanking? o.O

Shadowbringers main scenario thing, if you take the right dialogue choise ... if you know ... you know... its just threats, but still...

Interestingly Volks Japan lists the ship date as December, but Volks USA does as well. Normally there is 6 - 8 weeks of lead time for shipping from the USA store, so not sure if that means Feb 2023 or if the Squeenix deal made them make different arrangements.