For the Same Cost as a Reasonably Priced Car, I Acquired Kagamine Rin

Dollfie collecting can be crazy at times. You wait months for a grail then two arrive in the same month.

Asuna (Titania) was quite a recent grail of mine. I spotted her in the summer because I'd just bought a MDD with elf ears and wondered how feasible it would be to acquire a regular DD elf. I did casually mention I wanted her in a DollDreaming Zoom meeting, and I remember somebody saying something along the lines of ...well good luck finding her!

Ironically she appeared on Mandarake the next week, and for what I considered to be a very good price (85,000). Not having seen one for sale before, I didn't know if this was an amazing price, but it wasn't much more than I paid for Uzuki and my other girls. Also it was the day after Thanksgiving, so I guess many potential buyers of her were sleeping off the 🦃. There's also a whole discussion to be had about the effectiveness of Mandarake email alerts. Mine was triggered for Asuna, but it wasn't triggered for Rin. I have a very kind forum member to thank for alerting me to her availability.

I had to pay A LOT more for Rin. She's not especially rare, but she is INSANELY POPULAR. I almost bought her in July, but I spent too much time thinking about whether I should buy her, and she was sold the next day.

So here is Rin. More photos to follow. What's the general opinion on the newer/older Dollfie boxes? I really like this style where you push up the sleeve and there's your girl (or boy).

You know this is going to be a major unboxing when Towa dresses in her ToHeart 2 uniform. This was the first item I bought from Mandarake in the modern era*.

I liked this outfit so much that I ended up buying a non-DDdy version of it before I'd even bought a second Dollfie. It took a unbelievable time to decide who Towa's first sister would be. Eventually of course we opted for Uzuki. In hindsight this was an excellent choice - Uzuki is absolutely awesome.

Kagamine Rin's box rapidly became a tourist attraction, but of course we needed to get on with the unboxing...

*The vintage era is from 2007-10 when I physically visited Japan.

It's a December evening as I write this, so the light is not great.

On first impressions, it appears all her outfit and accessories are complete. Everything looks in great condition and Rin still has that intoxicating new doll smell.

Actually the light is so bad it took me an hour to realise she's my first Dollfie with painted fingernails 💅. Her hands look great for gripping stuff, although I did notice her wrists were quite stiff.

And here she is. My Dollfie #8. For the non-Dollfie collectors DDdy Towa is on the left and DDS Rin is on the right.

My first impressions of Rin:

• Omg her faceup is very cute. Her blusher is much closer to her eyes than with my previous Dollfies.
• Her eyes are big and round and definitely have follow-me characteristics.
• I think if I posted this on Reddit I'd get downvoted into oblivion but she does look awfully like Miku. Especially as I put her in a Snow Miku wig hehehe. I don't have Miku and if I put them side by side I'd probably realise that she doesn't look anything like Miku.
• Of all my girls she looks most like Kizuna AI. Kizuna has puffy cheeks though, almost as if she's just had her wisdom teeth out.

So I highly recommend Rin if you absolutely must have the grail that so many other people are seeking (except for those who want a Miku).

Incidentally Asuna (Titania) is seriously awesome. She has an intense expression that just blows me away. She ought to be on many more peoples' grail list.

I think that is it for Dollfie acquisition for a while. I am going mad waiting for Iori Minase to appear though. She shouldn't be a fabulously rare grail but right now she is [I want to wait until a complete set becomes available].

For me 2023's Dollfie story will probably be all about trying to acquire Yor Forger. It would also be really cool if I collected up enough ToHeart 2 outfits to start our own Dollfie High 😂.

Edited December 7, 2022 by Xiongmao

I guess it would be interesting to have a discussion about whether expensive grails are worth the money. Rin *was* expensive and anyone who wants a Dollfie such as Miku is going to be in a similar situation.

I should just add that there are plenty of Rins and Mikus floating about but many have stains, limb issues or don't come with their original boxes or outfits. On a couple of times I've also been offered just the head of a particular grail worthy doll.

An alternative is to buy a much cheaper Dollfie and then acquire the grail's outfit. For example the photo below is of my "fake" Daughter of Evil...

I was lucky to find the outfit for sale on the Volks Japan website quite recently, so I just paid the retail price for it. "Rin" is actually Kizuna AI. She's widely available and pretty darned cute too.

Also grail doll outfits do come up for sale sometimes. I'm collecting ToHeart 2 outfits and I also have Haruhi Suzumiya's outfit. I have my eyes open for a few other outfits.

However, I can't recommend buying obviously fake outfits. Kizuna can pull off many looks, but AliExpress Rem is not one of them...

FWIW, "fake" daughter of evil is actually quite on-brand.

Can you really get a reasonably priced car for that in the UK, or did you pay super high? I feel like anything under $4000 around here you'd be lucky to keep it on the road for more than a year or two tops cuz it's probably old with high mileage and maybe some additional quirks like a broken window down button or door handle. My last car was 10 years old with about 180,000 miles on it when I traded it in. The frame was rusting out so badly that it was making creaking noises while driving, and it wouldn't have passed inspection in my state, but it still traded in for about $2000.

I can only speak for The Netherlands but...

You can buy a car for 2000 euro or less. But it will be at least ten to fifteen years old, and probably fudged all of its inspections so be prepared to shell out an equal amount or more in parts replacements and repair costs. When I friend of mine purchased one like that I didn't want to touch the thing with a ten foot pole.

 

Back to Rin, grats on getting her!
She's on my grail list too, along with Ren. Because clearly I have to make it impossible for myself.

I don't own a car, but I do generally tell non-doll enthusiasts that your average Dollfie costs the same as a car. Maybe cars cost more these days, but dolls generally last a lot longer, with the exception of course being my late uncle's 1930's Talbot, which is still motoring along somewhere.

As to Rin, I thought I'd confuse the hell out of Google's image searching algorithms with my Rin Tamaki Miku mashup below...

Is Len more difficult to find than Rin? I don't know if I'd actually want Len. I'm not a fan of his songs (or their duets).

I don't know the relative rarity of Rin or Asuna but I guess the main thing is that so many people want Rin. Sword Art is incredibly popular though so I thought Asuna would be very hot property too. My Asuna and Rin came from the same Mandarake at near enough the same time, so I like to think they were housemates in Japan. I only hope their owner also decides to sell an Iori!

I'm not sure what outfit to put Rin into next, but her bodysuit arrived today. If anyone knows anywhere that sells a Rin-like wig then let me know as I'm very apprehensive to put her actual wig on her.

More Rin-servations:

• I don't know if her head is big but I found it quite difficult to fit the Miku wig. Usually it goes on so easily.
• I realise Rin has a very prominent lower lip. I think some people find this very desirable in their Dollfies, kind of like a double eyelid thing.
• Her eyes are biiiiiig.
• Asuna and Rin both have much stiffer wrists compared to my DD-f3's. I don't know if this is always the case.
• I had a nightmare last night when I thought her rabbit ears were missing, but I do indeed have them.

Rin was feeling a little delicate earlier. Maybe the long flight didn't agree with her.

Luckily big sister Towa was on hand to reassure her.

If I can acquire enough ToHeart 2 outfits I'll dress everyone up at the same time and do some kind of guess-the-Dollfie quiz.

congrats on your grail doll! and Rin is adorable!! you were lucky to find her new with all her things  I also have a rin but i purchased mine with some stains and no box. i plan to order some dream rescue to attempt to fix the staining. i still love her anyway! i agree her face up is adorable, but yes seeing her in the miku wig she does look very similar 😮

Congrats on your grail!! Rin is very cute, I hadn't realize she was such a popular Vocaloid until the official release and after-- she seems really hard to get! I do really like her songs (Meltdown is still my fave "older" Vocaloid song) and her voice, but I don't think I could feel reasonable about getting her without her twin- and THAT would be a big investment, far too big for my budget to get both. I do like her lower lip though, it makes her look very cute and young! I wonder how she'd look on a MDD body, or a DDP. If you ever happen upon either of those bodies and are willing to do a head swap for photos, I'd love to see. From another thread it seems like DD and DDS heads can be kind of hit or miss on the "younger" sizes, proportion wise. Anyway, congrats again and I look forward to seeing more of her- and Asuna too!

Edited December 9, 2022 by Starwaia
clarity

Congrats on getting Rin! She's a cutie.

I don't think she and Miku look that similar; they have very different eye shapes. There's a degree of similarity, but it makes sense, since they were designed by the same artist. Actually, Len looks a little more like Miku to me. But she looks good as Miku.

 

sure do wish i could find a TH2 Sailor Suit in 1/6 made to something like the standards of those 1/3 scale ones you have.

i mean, i've tried all i can with the MegaHouse one, -bummed off of their old M.H./ALTER Lucy Maria Misora- but it just ain't remotely the same;

 

 

 

2 hours ago, Tasuke said:

sure do wish i could find a TH2 Sailor Suit in 1/6 made to something like the standards of those 1/3 scale ones you have.

i mean, i've tried all i can with the MegaHouse one, -bummed off of their old M.H./ALTER Lucy Maria Misora- but it just ain't remotely the same;

I think there was a ToHeart 2 Pureneemo but this is a grail doll now.

I do have a couple of Azone sailor outfits but I've not redressed any of my smaller girls yet.

As for Rin, here's a photo of her transitioning into Evil Rin!

I'm definitely struck by how similar to Kizuna she looks. At some point I'll make them To Heart 2 sisters, but right now Asuna is wearing it. I don't know if I'll post any photos of ToHeart Asuna - the outfit doesn't suit her at all.

Also this outfit's wig is a major hassle to fit. It's a very tight fit and in my struggle to fit it quite a few hairs at the back have come loose. Incidentally it's equally tight on both Kizuna and Rin's heads.

As to the Miku/Rin similarity thing, maybe I won't solve this until I acquire a Miku or we go to visit an owner of a Miku 😂.

I'll try head swapping my girls some time although it's kind of considered taboo in our household. I definitely think Yayoi's head looks too old for her body although wigs and outfits can make a big difference. I've also seen that MDD Rena's school outfit looks great when she's on a DDP.

Our Rin went all evil on us. Now she's going round saying stuff like do you know how much I cost? I'm worth at least 3 of the rest of you peasants.

I told the other girls that she's just in character, but they're not so sure...

 

Seeing Miku-chan♥ in a TH2 Sailor Suit would be Adorable~

- EDIT -

Oh!! you're already there!! -after a fashion, anyway-

 

Edited December 10, 2022 by Tasuke