Volks News #99

Volks News #99 Collection

https://dollfie.volks.co.jp/news/item/modeldollfie_vsn99.html

I think there's an error with your link, it just goes to this page. Here's the correct link for the model page.

https://dollfie.volks.co.jp/news/item/modeldollfie_vsn99.html

The Dolpa collection outfits are now online. I couldn’t find a link for a shop page collecting them all yet but you can see them on the Dolpa site here.

https://dollfie.volks.co.jp/event/dolpa49/sumika.html#newoutfit

Also featuring the new stands.

Aw man I'm gonna fighting for my life during this one. I need Plaid Culottes Set and the bunny ear beret at minimum.

Me looking through those outfits:

My MDD needs that rabbit bag, even though it's almost as big as she is 😁.

Also that tempura bag looks fun but I don't know if a DD would fit inside it 🍤.

I like a couple of pieces in this collection, but nothing is screaming at me that I must buy no matter what, which I'm thankful for. I already did a recent order for still in stock stuff, and took the risk that I wouldn't need anything from this new collection, so I'm glad that that risk paid off.

@Xiongmao The tempura bag is meant to fit a Yo-SD, so no it won't fit a DD or even an MDD. 

1 hour ago, Xiongmao said:

My MDD needs that rabbit bag, even though it's almost as big as she is 😁.

My Iori needs all things rabbit.

I may be wrong but has nobody here noticed the Dollfie Plus dolls listed in the above link?

Huh: I just realised they're not the new MDD (Anya) project but some older dolls they've found in the warehouse. I don't think they're as cute as Pureneemos anyway.

As for the new releases, I really adore Shin Sato but Ciel is just gorgeous and would be a great sidekick to Erica Fontaine.

5 hours ago, Xiongmao said:

I may be wrong but has nobody here noticed the Dollfie Plus dolls listed in the above link?

While they’re definitely not new, their resurgence (with the new ‘reiwa’ heads)is also not new. We had a thread for them in 2021 and the details look pretty much unchanged from what I can see. Edit: well ok the price went up a bit, but it’s still a decent deal considering what’s included, although also factoring in that the bodies are over 20 years old at this point and may not be in great condition.

 

Edited March 26, 2023 by Monty

I had a couple of Dollfie Pluses back in the day. They were still available on Volks USA when I was researching this hobby and I got them first to sort of dip my toes in. They are cute, but their posing sucks compared to like a modern Obitsu 1/6. They don't have magnet feet or anything and their ankles are floppy so they need a little stand for anything but sitting.

I didn't find anything about this on the page, but will you be able to purchase the After Event items together with other items from the shop? Or is it separate order only?

On 4/19/2023 at 1:18 AM, Collie said:

I didn't find anything about this on the page, but will you be able to purchase the After Event items together with other items from the shop? Or is it separate order only?

You can purchase them together. I recommend favouriting/wishlisting the items you want (both new and old) and adding the older in-stock items to your cart 40 minutes or so before the event starts, so you don’t have to worry about them in the rush to get the newer stuff. I’ve done that several times.

A few good products this round 😛 (Shorts & Long Skirt Set).

Their website is accessible, and the dolls are still in stock and not even showing low stock.

Ciel's outfit and Kiss the Girl are gone though. The Disney shoes are still up, but low stock.

I am extremely surprised that both dolls are still available at this point. I was expecting at least Ciel to go very fast, given how loved that franchise still is in Japan.

Her extra outfit did go very fast though! I guess that is to be expected. At the end of the day it can serve as just a regular school uniform as well, and since it comes with shoes and what not it is a tempting purchase. I bet a lot of people bought it just for the glasses too, since it's hard to find a decent pair.

I weirdly enough didn't see a lot of hype for this event for some reason either. Usually I see like plenty of stories on instagram about clickwars coming up and how nervous people are. I didn't see any this time personally. I actually had to check the date multiple times to make sure I had the right day, as it was really just too quiet in the community surrounding it (compared to the previous event at least). I had to stay up until 3 a.m. my time for this event, so I had to make sure I wasn't mistaken! 😂

Edited May 6, 2023 by Roxanne

5 minutes ago, Roxanne said:

I weirdly enough didn't see a lot of hype for this event for some reason either. Usually I see like plenty of stories on instagram about clickwars coming up and how nervous people are.

I was surprised at how functional their website was compared to the last three or four previous events. I sort of wonder if it wasn't Ariel that suppressed the amount of thirst there was for the other offerings. The Little Mermaid is kind of a big deal, she was preorder, and she wasn't exactly cheap. That meant an expensive purchase was desirable, accessible, and may have been prioritized over other things. 

I'd also observe that iM@S dolls seem to be waning in popularity in recent  times, so as cute as Shin Sato is, I wasn't expecting her to sell out quickly. 

43 minutes ago, Roxanne said:

I am extremely surprised that both dolls are still available at this point

Ciel would be probably for the die-hard type-moon collectors, she didnt even register with me at first, untill reading the IP logo.

Shin is a bit of a difficult one, Her personality seems to be very ... opportunistic (just based on her guest appearance in U149) which might be a limited appeal in the end, also not seemingly being top-5 character ranking material either. Then there is the way the eye makeup was done which was a hard pass for me.

Edited May 6, 2023 by finnleo

31 minutes ago, BeyondTime said:

I was surprised at how functional their website was compared to the last three or four previous events. I sort of wonder if it wasn't Ariel that suppressed the amount of thirst there was for the other offerings. The Little Mermaid is kind of a big deal, she was preorder, and she wasn't exactly cheap. That meant an expensive purchase was desirable, accessible, and may have been prioritized over other things. 

I'd also observe that iM@S dolls seem to be waning in popularity in recent  times, so as cute as Shin Sato is, I wasn't expecting her to sell out quickly. 

That makes a lot of sense. Wasn't Ariel only for Japanese customers though? That's what I understood from the "Limited sale in Japan" on her page. I also wanted her, but it's the reason I did not go for her. I also assumed there would have been more people on the vinyl dolls for that reason as well, seeing as those were available for everyone.

Though I'm sure people who really wanted Ariel probably got her through an agent or Yahoo actions. If they ever make Belle (which I'm sure they will, especially with those shoes now. If those aren't a hint then I don't know what is!) I will do anything in my power to obtain her! 😂

That's definitely true about im@s. I'm still a really big fan personally, but the days where idols were really popular seem to have waned indeed.

 

31 minutes ago, finnleo said:

Then there is the way the eye makeup was done which was a hard pass for me.

I personally love her eye makeup a lot, but I can definitely see where you're coming from! If you put her next to the other im@s girls she is quite different looking than the others for sure. So I can definitely understand she won't appeal to everyone for that reason.

 

4 hours ago, Roxanne said:

I personally love her eye makeup a lot, but I can definitely see where you're coming from! If you put her next to the other im@s girls she is quite different looking than the others for sure. So I can definitely understand she won't appeal to everyone for that reason.

Its a bit difficult to explain, but detail oriented people will probably not like a hard line going through what is supposed to be the actual eye, I did that photoshop in the character thread taking out the fake bits and she still more or less looked the part, which is frustrating since otherwise I might have gotten one.

I can imagine it being a real pain in the butt to deal with when doing photography with the doll (one of the volks photo's is really bad about it for instance), and I wouldnt be surprised if people started to photoshop out the eye-hole line.

So im not critisizing the look in general which I was all in for of, im just critisizing the execution.

Edited May 6, 2023 by finnleo

5 hours ago, Roxanne said:

That makes a lot of sense. Wasn't Ariel only for Japanese customers though?

Yes, although I'd expect that western buyers account for a much smaller fraction of their site traffic than Japanese buyers. Scalpers from China are probably a significant traffic issue too, but I'd bet their traffic comes from Japanese IP addresses so it's probably hard to filter.

That said, @finnleo makes a valid point, I do notice that Ciel & Shin are only wishlisted by about 40 people. Yor has about 220, and Kaito & Rin about 150. The eternally unpopular Freya Won is only wishlisted by 16. Per the wayback machine, back in January Arc was in 254 people's wishlist. While it's an imperfect gauge, that is some indication of relative popularity. 
 

5 hours ago, Roxanne said:

If they ever make Belle (which I'm sure they will, especially with those shoes now. If those aren't a hint then I don't know what is!) I will do anything in my power to obtain her! 😂

I'm already on a proxy's list for her. XD

I'm really curious to see Jasmine. No real connection to the character, but I seem to recall the brown SD skin tone being really beautiful. 
 

59 minutes ago, finnleo said:

Its a bit difficult to explain, but detail oriented people will probably not like a hard line going through what is supposed to be the actual eye

Which line do you mean? The lines that seem to go into the eyehole edges?

21 minutes ago, BeyondTime said:

Which line do you mean?

Green line is the head eye hole as I percieve it. red outline is the added paint to "reshape the eye", but because you cant remove the physical eyehole edge it ends up as a  line in "whats supposed to be the whole eye". for the lack of a better description. if it were something minute like with Yor or Emilia V2, it might be tolerable, but this is a bit much for me.

 

5 minutes ago, finnleo said:

Green line is the head eye hole as I percieve it. red outline is the added paint to "reshape the eye", but because you cant remove the physical eyehole edge it ends up as a  line in "whats supposed to be the whole eye".

Ok, I see what you mean. To me it just looked like eye make-up, but I'll be curious to see her in person to see how it comes off. From her character art, I can see how they would want to reshape her eye. You'd think they would do that by shaping her eyehole like they did with Yayoi, but maybe the overall sculpt didn't allow for that. 
 

If you look at @Xiongmao's side by side with Uzuki V2, you can see a similar design. 

In Shin's case it's wider, and on Uzuki V1 it's there but almost non-existent. 

I don't really notice that line on my Uzuki V2, but for sure the presence of that effect affects my perception of the eye shape.

1 hour ago, BeyondTime said:

I don't really notice that line on my Uzuki V2, but for sure the presence of that effect affects my perception of the eye shape

its an old cosplay trick, and like I mentioned its used also on Yor (which wonderfully added to my existing annoyance about the mouth), and Emilia V2.

When done right, you dont really notice it, but in shin's case it was the first thing that cought my eye, and probably many others as well.

 

7 hours ago, finnleo said:

Green line is the head eye hole as I percieve it. red outline is the added paint to "reshape the eye", but because you cant remove the physical eyehole edge it ends up as a  line in "whats supposed to be the whole eye". for the lack of a better description. if it were something minute like with Yor or Emilia V2, it might be tolerable, but this is a bit much for me.

 

Yes! This has been a trend lately across multiple companies and independent faceup artists, and I for one don't like it. If you want the eye hole to be bigger, mod the eye hole, don't just draw it bigger. It's not like a real person's eye where you have to do a trick because the shape can't be changed short of surgery. It particularly bugs me when the mouth is modded but not the eye holes. You took the effort for the one, why not the other? Or like in this case, where Volks could have just done the sculpt differently.