Dollbot Review (with MDD comparison)

 

Hi all,

So been meaning to get this review up sooner but here you go. So I've had a bit more time with the Dollbot to have some more thoughts around and I just wanted to some some comparison shots to give you an idea on them.

https://www.dollbot.jp/ Here's a link to their website, note at the time of posting they have their fox girl "Kaya" up for pre-order in both "Platinum skin" (closer to standard volks colour) and "Black Diamond skin" (a lovely tan colour)

First up is the skin colours. Dollbot's platinum skin is like a mid point between Volks DD Semi-white and normal but with a hint more brightness. Maybe it matches Volks Normal a bit more but didn't seem too far off with semi-white either.

So the bodies are very nice in person and has an impressive range of motions. There are double jointed in the knee so you can have them kneeling down if you want. They have the same range of motions as a MDD f3 body except for 1) the knees can bend more due to the double joint, 2) the neck has more range as they expose the joint more, and 3) the joint below the torso gives more range. Like with Smartdoll the torso joint goes just below the bust for better motion and more flattering for some clothes that expose more skin like bikinis.

The body weights about the same as Volks MDD however the vinyl is a bit thinner and much softer than Volks. A softer vinyl will make it easier to stain so you will have to be that little more careful but I think they deliberately chose to do that so as to give the thighs a little more squish. Personally I think the softer vinyl feels very pleasant and I think it will be less likely to tear compared to harder vinyl that I have found in other vinyl dolls.

Changing hands is another area that Dollbot improved on I think. Taking the hands off the frame of MDD can be a bit of a chore and often I need a hairdryer to warm the vinyl so I can get them free or put them on. With Dollbot they just slide into place and while they come away easy enough I didn't feel like they would just fall off.

Overall Volks body does feel that little more sturdier maybe more stain resistant but I was really impressed with Dollbots range of motion and the ease that I could change hands. Both bodies have their own look so it will come down to individual tastes and what you want. I will say I did really like the fuller figure on the dollbot and it does look better than the mochi-ashi at least in that the thighs match the body. I wish Volks created a unique hip piece to blend the moch-ashi legs in.

In terms of clothing Dollbot's body will take most things a MDD would wear except around the hips which are closer to DD size. So DD sized panties or MDD sized dresses for example.

 

Dollbot heads are on the slightly larger side of DD heads but will generally wear the same sized wigs. I found that Volks heads fit very well on Dollbot bodies but Dollbot heads were a bit wobbly on Volks bodies and would probably need an elastic inside the head to hold it in place. You just screw this neck attachment piece into the hole in the head and then slide it on to the body. Does make it easier to remove the head from the body whereas with Volks it does sometimes feel like I might break the body or tear the head when trying to pull the head off. 

Dollbots DB01 comes with an open mouth mod. You can remove the mouth and the tongue. They also come pre-coloured so you don't need to paint them. Maybe they'll release alternative tongue pieces in the future?  Hopefully so along with more bust sizes. 

Eyes - Almost forgot this but I used 20mm eyes. They fit very well but you could use 22mm. You might need to use the 22mm eye tool from volks so the eyes sit better. I think 24mm might be a bit too large. 

Anyway hopefully that answers some questions. They're excellent dolls that should fit into any dollfie dream collection as another body type. I used a forwarding service to obtain mine as they don't ship directly outside Japan. I should warn that if you do have any issues you will need to communicate with them using Japanese or maybe through your proxy service.

Dollbot are a new start up/smaller operation so there may be flaws in the bodies or mistakes made. I found a few micro bubbles on one of the thigh pieces. Easy to miss really but not something you'd see on a Volks body. Also they made a mistake and forgot to send me an extra head I ordered. I contacted them directly with a polite email using Japanese and they were very nice and responded to me within 24hrs. They immediately said they'd send out the extra head shortly with no fuss there but if I wanted the thigh piece replaced I would need to send them the complete body for inspection. If I was living in Japan they would have covered the postage for this but it was a little more complicated with me living in Europe so I decided to just keep the body as it was. It was a very minor flaw so not too bothered really but I would encourage people using a proxy service to communicate if not too comfortable with Japanese. My order was among their first orders so hopefully cases like this would be quite rare.

 

Anyway hope that all helps!! Feel free to ask about anything I didn't cover, these are really lovely doll and I hope DollBot does very well in the future (^__^)y

I'll post more pictures later if people are interested  

Below Volks Arle head on a Dollbot body. 

 

EDIT: Just to add a bit I posted about the hands to the main post.

The dollbot (DBB) has a smaller wrist joint than MDD so if you were to put a MDD's hand on a DBB the hand would just fall off. You could try using a putty or blue tack maybe to keep the hand on? For the DBB hands they are a very tight fit on the MDD wrist joint and won't fit all the way.

However! I was interested to learn that both hand joints can fit on either body type. So you could have a DBB wrist joint on a MDD or other way around! 

 

Edited June 7, 2022 by archeotech
added photos, included eye size

I was looking forward to review on DollBot as I was seriously considering ordering from them, but hesitant due to the limited information on them. Thanks to your review however I now feel confident ordering from them, and making my next doll purchase with them. I adore their bodies and heads, so I cannot wait to bring one home.

Thank you again for such a lovely thorough review! 🥰

2 hours ago, archeotech said:

Dollbots DB01 comes with an open mouth mod. You can remove the mouth and the tongue.

I’m curious about this. How do you remove the mouth? What does it look like without the mouth? Is there a closed mouth mod you can attach?

7 hours ago, ragnamuffin said:

I’m curious about this. How do you remove the mouth? What does it look like without the mouth? Is there a closed mouth mod you can attach?

I found an image of what it looks like without the mouth on their website.

 

8 hours ago, ragnamuffin said:

I’m curious about this. How do you remove the mouth? What does it look like without the mouth? Is there a closed mouth mod you can attach?

I added some more pictures there of the mouth piece and a side view of the body as well.

That's the only head they have so far but it is called DB01 so I imagine there will be a DB02 in time or you could mod it to close the mouth with dollclay perhaps. DD heads work just fine so there's also them. 

11 hours ago, MagicalRozen said:

I was looking forward to review on DollBot as I was seriously considering ordering from them, but hesitant due to the limited information on them. Thanks to your review however I now feel confident ordering from them, and making my next doll purchase with them. I adore their bodies and heads, so I cannot wait to bring one home.

Thank you again for such a lovely thorough review! 🥰

Glad I could help! They're new and probably quite small but there'll probably be lots more information in time about them. 

I'm very happy with them and I don't see anyone going too wrong getting one. ^^

 

A great review and read! I wonder how their tan compares to DD tan though. Looks like an orange derived tan though so, probably not very well. 

14 minutes ago, Courtmom said:

A great review and read! I wonder how their tan compares to DD tan though. Looks like an orange derived tan though so, probably not very well. 

It's a much more heavier tan than the Volks DD tan. I keep visiting Dollpoint during winter so don't have an example to compare but they would be quite different.

EDIT: I found a comparison on twitter  

 

Edited May 1, 2022 by archeotech

17 minutes ago, archeotech said:

It's a much more heavier tan than the Volks DD tan. I keep visiting Dollpoint during winter so don't have an example to compare but they would be quite different.

EDIT: I found a comparison on twitter  

 

Oh bless! Thanks for the visual! 😄

I wanna see how it compares to tawny.

I'm now thinking that I'll have to look for a proxy service....

I'm thinking of getting the Tan Foxy, just for the mayhem/mischief she'll bring........ 

( @poofiemus and I have been looking at these cuties for a while, now) Nice to see someone put a review up.

Thanks for the info!

Heckin cute, but the fullset is a bit much for me right now (I think I've been spoiled by Tinyfox prices). Might wait a bit and grab the parts separately later. I really hope they stick to making tan.

Do you mind me asking what proxy service you used to purchase these cuties?

5 hours ago, Geck_O said:

Do you mind me asking what proxy service you used to purchase these cuties?

I used Big In Japan's forwarding service as it was the cheapest way.

https://www.biginjap.com/en/content/16-forwarding-terms 

But just bear in mind if you have any issues you'll have to contact Dollbot directly using Japanese. You can do it using google translate but keep messages very simple and very polite. They won't replace any parts unless you ship the body or defective part there. 

If you want to play it a bit safer then use a proxy service like From Japan. You can google "Japan Proxy Service" and you'll more than likely get a bunch of results. Usually you send them links to the items you want. They respond with a quote and then you pay them and they then order the items. Once they arrive at their warehouse they then contact you with a shipping quote. 

Was feeling down and used that as an excuse to buy a Dollbot Body in the Platinum skintone that I saw on Dollyteria for a little less than on the Dollbot site. Need more bodies for my MDD girls so I figured why not 😄 Looking forward to it arriving to me! I also really want to get a body and head in Black Diamond because I need all the tan dolls 🥰 Thanks so much for the review @archeotech and any chance I could request a photo of their hand joint with the hand off? Curious how it looks compared to the MDD hand peg.

Wow I love this skin tone and sculpt, thank you for sharing!~

On 5/27/2022 at 1:44 PM, Innocentsake said:

Was feeling down and used that as an excuse to buy a Dollbot Body in the Platinum skintone that I saw on Dollyteria for a little less than on the Dollbot site. Need more bodies for my MDD girls so I figured why not 😄 Looking forward to it arriving to me! I also really want to get a body and head in Black Diamond because I need all the tan dolls 🥰 Thanks so much for the review @archeotech and any chance I could request a photo of their hand joint with the hand off? Curious how it looks compared to the MDD hand peg.

Hi sorry for the delay in getting this picture uploaded but here you go.  The dollbot (DBB) has a smaller hand peg than MDD so if you were to put a MDD's hand on a DBB the hand would just fall off. You could try using a putty or blue tack maybe to keep the hand on? For the DBB hands they are a very tight fit on the MDD wrist joint and won't fit all the way.

However! I was interested to learn that both hand joints can fit on either body type. So you could have a DBB wrist joint on a MDD or other way around! 

If anyone is also on Den of Angels, there's a private individual who acts as a proxy as well - her real name is Sophia. She's pretty great to work with. She got into a little bit of drama with someone, but (in my personal opinion) that person was being an idiot, so...