ap losing popularity?

hello, just curious if anyone else has noticed angel philia has dropped in popularity recently. while dollfie dreams, smart dolls, and newer companies seem to be exploding in popularity i've noticed ap collectors selling off their dolls and not many people getting into ap. anybody have any thoughts or explanations on the trend? or is it just me lol

I would like to get into Angelphilia, but it's hard when collecting the parts for the doll I want (An I-Type and an H-Type) are so hard. FaithZ kinda just drops parts at random.

37 minutes ago, PlasticJester said:

I would like to get into Angelphilia, but it's hard when collecting the parts for the doll I want (An I-Type and an H-Type) are so hard. FaithZ kinda just drops parts at random.

that's a good point! it seems like the dolls drop randomly and faithz is so expensive.. i haunt multiple secondhand markets and they seem to go fast even there. u_u

1 hour ago, PlasticJester said:

I would like to get into Angelphilia, but it's hard when collecting the parts for the doll I want (An I-Type and an H-Type) are so hard. FaithZ kinda just drops parts at random.

There is a japanese distributor called realartproject, their legit, you can find their link on the quarantotto.biz/. Their online shop however is block in my country, Canada, and probably for others too. But I use a free VPN extension to change my VPN to Japan and I can see their store. They have a lot of Angelphilia parts there. I also had to use a proxy service to get what I want though. 

Maybe you can find I and H types you're looking for on there? Hope this helps!

yeah...i really want to get into APs. I haven't because I have a strong preference for licensed Dolls. If they ever did collabs i'd fold. I don't think they've done one since Super Sonico? 

i think yea a big part is how barred off foreigners are from obtaining the dolls. we need more licensed dealers for them 😕 

33 minutes ago, luna_Lillie said:

yeah...i really want to get into APs. I haven't because I have a strong preference for licensed Dolls. If they ever did collabs i'd fold. I don't think they've done one since Super Sonico? 

i think sonico was the last one, i'd love for them to make more licensed girls!

 

18 minutes ago, miraclelovely said:

i think yea a big part is how barred off foreigners are from obtaining the dolls. we need more licensed dealers for them 😕 

oh 100%! the easiest way i was able to find them was secondhand through y!ja proxies and mandarake. as of this year mandarake's stock of dolls has been almost none... i wish i knew a new dealer would try to pick them up

Angelphilia was always kinda niche and mostly run by one person (Tommy), if I’m not mistaken. The main reason they don’t ship overseas (besides the language barrier, maybe) is because orders are sent COD (cash on delivery), which isn’t really feasible for international orders.

That said, I was under the impression AP was becoming more popular since Mandarake started stocking brand new AP bodies, but the sporadic releases and restocks combined with the Obitsu body that many people seem not to like probably doesn’t help things. The realistic faces with vulgar expressions are a turn off for a lot of people too (including me).

6 hours ago, ragnamuffin said:

Angelphilia was always kinda niche and mostly run by one person (Tommy), if I’m not mistaken. The main reason they don’t ship overseas (besides the language barrier, maybe) is because orders are sent COD (cash on delivery), which isn’t really feasible for international orders.

That said, I was under the impression AP was becoming more popular since Mandarake started stocking brand new AP bodies, but the sporadic releases and restocks combined with the Obitsu body that many people seem not to like probably doesn’t help things. The realistic faces with vulgar expressions are a turn off for a lot of people too (including me).

this all makes sense, and i totally understand being put off by some of the faces. i find the neutral expressions fit a style i don't see other brands doing and it's caused me to be a bit of a fanboy i guess haha.

can you explain what people don't like about the obitsu body? i've only handled obitsu and smartdoll so i don't have experience with dollfies if people prefer those for a specific reason.

47 minutes ago, snailbox said:

can you explain what people don't like about the obitsu body? i've only handled obitsu and smartdoll so i don't have experience with dollfies if people prefer those for a specific reason.

I'm going to hazard a guess that a fair amount of people probably don't like the Obitsu body for the visual aspect of it when compared to the other options - while the Obitsu body is superior imo for posing, it doesn't have the streamlined and graceful/smooth aesthetic that the others have; the joints are very visible and more 'bulbous' in shape, etc.   I personally find it super charming and I absolutely love the lil hubcap knees and elbows on my Chino (though it is kind of hilariously annoying how his calves freely spin around haha), but I can see how it would put off certain collectors.  I am definitely guilty of writing off certain companies solely for miniscule visual reasons, so I can't point fingers at anyone.

I also think the lack of availability is a shame though, and it's discouraging for people trying to get in even though I get it from a small company aspect (you can only do so much with fewer resources).  I've always liked some of the AP heads even if they're kind of "out there", and I'm wanting an AP boy so badly since seeing your cuties!  But it feels like it's such a far-off thing since I can't get a head due to lack of availability.  People will inevitably go elsewhere to an available product (I would have loved to make Yuliy with an AP head, but it was multitudes easier to get an MDD head).  Still crossing my fingers for a stroke of luck with AP though!

38 minutes ago, snailbox said:

can you explain what people don't like about the obitsu body? i've only handled obitsu and smartdoll so i don't have experience with dollfies if people prefer those for a specific reason.

I think a lot of it is the knees—the knee joints are visible and not attractive, to put it mildly 😂

I also think the size is awkward for a lot of people since it was in this weird place between MDD and DDS before DDP was a thing (and DDP is a wildly unpopular size too).

Lastly, the joints on the Obitsu tend to break way more often than DD or SmD, so the frame feels a bit flimsy and possibly poorly engineered.

Don’t get me wrong—I really love my 1/3 Azone that uses the Obitsu body and I wish more people appreciated it for what it is, but DDs are kind of the gold standard of vinyl dolls, and it seems to me at least that many people ‘change teams’ so to speak after experiencing them.

Just wanted to toss in my two cents:

Angel Philia girls are super atypically sized. They're too big for most mature/slim MSD-sized clothes, but not tall enough for most SD sizes. Finding clothes and accessories, if you aren't someone who makes your own, is a massive game of trial and error that isn't cheap to play. DDs and SmDs, by contrast, have a way lower barrier to entry on the "doll isn't naked 24/7" front.

Second, the soft skin can be a bit of a turn off. It's a big part of why I sold mine, actually. Yes, it folds more gracefully for posing, but I hate having to stuff my expensive doll with polyfill just to get the legs to hold their shape. It also stains much easier than other vinyl dolls, in my experience. My soft skin AP stained from a tag on a TTYA cardigan within a week when I'd had that same cardigan on a DD for 3 months without a mark.

11 hours ago, Thespian said:

Just wanted to toss in my two cents:

Angel Philia girls are super atypically sized. They're too big for most mature/slim MSD-sized clothes, but not tall enough for most SD sizes. Finding clothes and accessories, if you aren't someone who makes your own, is a massive game of trial and error that isn't cheap to play. DDs and SmDs, by contrast, have a way lower barrier to entry on the "doll isn't naked 24/7" front.

Second, the soft skin can be a bit of a turn off. It's a big part of why I sold mine, actually. Yes, it folds more gracefully for posing, but I hate having to stuff my expensive doll with polyfill just to get the legs to hold their shape. It also stains much easier than other vinyl dolls, in my experience. My soft skin AP stained from a tag on a TTYA cardigan within a week when I'd had that same cardigan on a DD for 3 months without a mark.

this all makes sense too, definitely feel the frustration with clothing. i don't have a soft skin version but that sounds super frustrating, i'm guessing the thinner vinyl makes it easier to stain?

i honestly never had a problem with their bodies, but i started collecting way back in the day when bodies were all just kinda ok lol

The Obitsu body's unpopular because of the lack of clothing options relative to MDD and DD. Azone's clothing fits the best, but you're limited to their styles. And as of late, they've only been releasing clothes for AZO2 and their 45cm line. 

With the vanilla Obitsu going curvy, I don't see a future for the regular 48-50cm line.

In the past, Azone released a bunch of cute styles for that size, but they were one-and-done runs and haven't shown up again. MDD clothing on Obitsu is hit and miss. It takes a while to figure out what works.

DDP has similar shortcomings, but at least it's deliberately designed to share clothing with MDD in sleeve length and neck-to-waist length. But on the flip side, it doesn't fit as well into Azone clothing. Pick your poison.

 

On 7/2/2024 at 1:13 AM, ragnamuffin said:

The realistic faces with vulgar expressions are a turn off for a lot of people too (including me).

The vulgar faces are what I don't like about them for sure. There are one or two heads that aren't like that, and they are kind of cute, but it's never been worth the trouble of getting my hands on the specific parts I'd want to build one. 

3 hours ago, BeyondTime said:

The vulgar faces are what I don't like about them for sure. There are one or two heads that aren't like that, and they are kind of cute, but it's never been worth the trouble of getting my hands on the specific parts I'd want to build one. 

They look really nice in a pastel decora style, but most people don’t seem to style them like that, unfortunately.

While I definitely prefer the non-lewd looking ones, to briefly defend the wack faces of AP: sometimes people style them in really creative ways! I've seen ones with lollipops stuck in their mouths, or vampire mods to make the open mouth more sinister. Even just a tongue out face on its own can look cute and innocent if styled well, IMO. It's more the context surrounding the dolls that can make it uncomfortable, esp with their realistic chests and stylized proportions.

3 hours ago, PlasticJester said:

While I definitely prefer the non-lewd looking ones, to briefly defend the wack faces of AP: sometimes people style them in really creative ways! I've seen ones with lollipops stuck in their mouths, or vampire mods to make the open mouth more sinister. Even just a tongue out face on its own can look cute and innocent if styled well, IMO. It's more the context surrounding the dolls that can make it uncomfortable, esp with their realistic chests and stylized proportions.

Even with the ones that don't look like they're from an eroge climax scene I find the clothing used in the official pictures too fetishistic. There's a few dolls that have faces that would be great for schoolgirl-age characters, but then they stick them in extremely skimpy lingerie or otherwise exhibitionistic clothing. Sure, there probably is a male audience that is interested in that kind of thing, but to me it's merely off-putting at best and pandering to pedophiles at worst.

And don't get me started on the bodies that have one breast going up and the other one down...it just looks stupid.

Now if it were possible to buy just the heads, I would do so and then stick them on a Obitsu or Parabox body.

8 hours ago, Kemonomimicry said:

Now if it were possible to buy just the heads, I would do so and then stick them on a Obitsu or Parabox body.

Very very occasionally they offer unpainted heads. There’s a seller on YJA that has a few for sale.

Massive honkers and large, erect nipples are fine if you plan to put your doll in fetish wear and stretchy lingerie, but it will strain normal doll clothing.

Soft skin stains easily... but that's not a problem if your doll barely wears clothes, it feels realistically squishy... and it lets your doll pose in sex positions too.

Anatomically correct genitalia & detailed body blushing are included to make the doll attractive in nude form. 

I admire the craft work and artistry involved in making APs, but they are clearly designed for a specific purpose - to be displayed naked or near-naked as erotic toys. It's just not for me.

17 hours ago, Kemonomimicry said:

And don't get me started on the bodies that have one breast going up and the other one down...it just looks stupid.

It reminds me of that one scene from High School of the Dead, where the girl's boobs had to be flopping at a gazillion miles per hour for the bullet to pass between them like it does.

They do, in fact, look hilariously stupid. IIRC, back when I had mine, it was also a major pain to track down a smaller bust part because they're released irregularly and sell out quickly. The demand for less overtly sexual parts is there, but the supply is not.

I looked into angel philia before but had the same issues others have already pointed out.

This girl always spoke to me but even if I managed to pick her up second-hand somewhere the pain of finding clothes that fit her would probably drive me crazy. Then there's all the different body parts you could theoretically get but I think that not everything fits with just anything so you have to figure out if your desired 'set up' works as well? It's definitely a higher 'barrier of entry'. Still, I think there is something charming about them, even the more.. imaginative ones LOL I'll be sticking with DD for the foreseeable future though! Sorry, Reika!

I think for me it was either the Type-L, Type-G, or Type J that I liked; probably J.
 

https://denofangels.com/threads/angel-philia.781436/page-4#post-12704922

 

I think I especially like Eri, but if I were to put one together she would definitely have a smaller bust and the least stylized torso and thighs I could get. 
 

https://denofangels.com/threads/angel-philia.781436/page-4#post-12709683

Now that I look at them more, I think the too sexualised heads might also work on delinquent-style girls, that is, if you like a doll that looks like she's continuously badmouthing other people in a haughty, condescending, aggressively offensive manner while readying the baseball bat/metal bar for knee-cap-cracking in one hand and making rude or thumbs-down gestures with the other.

I'm somewhat tempted to try making such a psycho delinquent gyaru of hell girl...

8 hours ago, Kemonomimicry said:

Now that I look at them more, I think the too sexualised heads might also work on delinquent-style girls, that is, if you like a doll that looks like she's continuously badmouthing other people in a haughty, condescending, aggressively offensive manner while readying the baseball bat/metal bar for knee-cap-cracking in one hand and making rude or thumbs-down gestures with the other.

I'm somewhat tempted to try making such a psycho delinquent gyaru of hell girl...

Oh I love that. A sukeban style girl, or a rokku gyaru? You're giving me ideas!