What's up with Male Dolls?

So I've seen this topic come up a few times in several other threads but I didn't want to derail, so I'm making my own thread about it!

I was a resin collector before ever collecting vinyl, and my resin collection consists primarily of boy dolls. Boy dolls are hugely popular in the resin community, especially among larger sizes. So my biggest disappointment getting into vinyl dolls was that boys are so much harder to get. I actually didn't even bother getting into Dollfie Dream until I managed to snag a kakuso torso to ensure that I could actually make a boy.

So what's going on here? I've seen the argument that vinyl boys just don't sell, but how do we know that if male base bodies have never (to my knowledge anyways) been sold through the volks website like all the others? It's seems like a self-fulfilling prophecy, like "Boys won't sell-->Don't sell boy bodies alongside girls, make them harder to buy-->Boys sell poorly"

Personally I'm leaning a little more towards artificial scarcity or exclusivity, but I can't fathom why only boys would be getting that treatment. The whole situation is just sort of funky, I feel like I'm missing a piece of the puzzle here. It can't really be just that Dollfie Dreams (and Smart Dolls, as they have this issue too) are clinging to their reputation as "waifu dolls" and selling male dolls would be unappealing/"gay" to the male fanbase, can it? I'm grasping at straws here.

I just figured it was maybe worth discussing, or maybe just moaning about 😆

 

Its mostly because resin dolls are easier to experiment with because they need to be created in small batches, whereas vinyl doll manufacturing basically requires a large batch at once, so new things have an inherent risk due to the possibility of ending up with large batches of unsold parts.
 

The main problem with making a boy though is that the types of boys people tend to want, in my experience (a vinyl version of something like SDGr/sd13 or bigger) would need a completely different frame to what the girls have. With resin dolls, you can make a body any size you want because all the pieces are strung together with elastic, but with vinyl, there’s a limitation by needing to all fit on the same frame. You could make a new frame, but the frame is the most expensive part of manufacturing and the hugest financial risk. Smartdoll and Volks had separate approaches to this issue - Smartdoll kind of awkwardly jammed the larger male parts onto the same frame as the girls, which (to me) resulted in a shoddily made doll that fell apart if you looked at it sideways. A male smartdoll was the first big doll I ever had but I ended up selling him because I just couldn’t deal with that construction. (For example, the broader shoulders meant the parts of the frame inside them were basically rattling around in there with only a tiny bit able to connect to the torso, so they would keep falling off) The guys also had kinda odd looking bodies to me whereas the girls, while still very stylised, felt more like they had the frames designed for them in contrast to the boys having to be designed around a frame never intended for them. I don’t doubt this contributed to their relative unpopularity, and I am kinda curious if this is being addressed with the new boys coming out.

Volks on the other hand kept the boys closer in design to the girls - on the plus side, the frame actually works with them, but on the downside as far as boys go they’re much scrawnier than the typical male bjd because of it, and are also very limited in clothing options. Most male bjd clothes are too big for them and most DD sized clothes are for girls - which is fine if very baggy/femme is what you want, but it’s frustrating when it’s not as obviously this isn’t going to fit every character. (Since Kaito came out they’ve been better about offering unisex clothes and been some made with boys in mind at least)

It’s a frustrating situation but I do understand it. DDP is in a similar position (oroboros of low popularity -> no support/clothes) although it at least is available separately (still no hands though).

The only way I can see it changing is if Volks made a new frame that could be used for larger boys and also taller girls (like a sd16 equivalent for DD) - although it might need differences in the shoulders still.

(For companies like Imomodoll, manufacturing being a lot cheaper in China does play a part, although I did notice that tinyfox seems to have moved to genderless 1/6 bodies instead of having both male and female after the redesign)

Edited July 10, 2024 by Monty

Danny Choo has historically said he's not interested in boys as characters, so even though there's a good demand, he has little interest in making boy dolls. Fair enough, SmD is an offshoot of his personal 'brand' Culture Japan and his customers are mostly just resigned to his whims.

Volks, on the other hand, I agree with you strongly. Part of that, I feel, is that most of the demand for boys (and tan skin dolls) come from outside of Japan, and Volks still very much prioritizes their Japanese target audience over their international one. It's kind of like how they claim that tan dolls don't sell well, but they also won't make those available outside of Dream Choice and D'Coord. Clearly there's a market, otherwise proxy services wouldn't make a killing on Dream Choice and D'Coord during tan season, but that market isn't "home grown" and requires upcharges that may be prohibitory.

Dollfie Dreams were historically designed for a male target audience, too. Many of the original collaboration models Back In The Day were of adult eroge girls intended to appeal to male consumers. Even though the market has become more diverse over the years, I think Volks still sometimes has difficulty getting away from the "waifu" thing when it's not an IP collaboration. I think with IP collabs, people who really aren't doll people will spring for an official release of their preferred blorbo even if Volks' usual target audience isn't interested (particularly for big IPs, like FFXIV and Vocaloid). Meanwhile, Volks needs the interest and revenue of their target audience to justify non-limited normal releases, so they test new things via Dream Choice and D'Coord to see if there's enough of a market to support it. If the Japanese market isn't into it, it's unlikely to make it to regular international availability.

TL;DR: I agree with you that it's a self-fulfilling prophecy. [X] won't sell well with our core audience --> make thing difficult to obtain outside of core audience --> [X] doesn't sell so we can't expand production for it.

From my stand point, male vinyl dolls sell rapidly. I'm not sure of the history of Volks or SmD, but anytime I have tried to purchase a male doll they have been sold out - unless it's a preorder. 

However, with Volks, if you look at most of their recent dolls, they have pleather outfits. People are much less likely to buy something that  will be trash in 2-4yrs. Even with really good care. 

I just bought a Len Kagamine for $650 and will be selling his outfit ASAP. Second hand markets uncharge most things. Most want 1k+ for Len, so I jumped to get him at 650. When at a little above retail and below, male dolls sell very quickly. 

IMO; male dolls sell fast af lol

1 hour ago, Thespian said:

blorbo

I was today years old when I learned of this word.

I think the self-fulfilling prophecy thing is very much correct, and would like to point out something else.

In my experience there's sort of two convergent camps who are interested in vinyl dolls. Came from figure collecting, mostly male, want a posable figure of their preferred waifu as camp A. This is the first fanbase Dollfie and Smart Doll had. The camp B are people who came from resin dolls and want a doll to customize/dress up and photograph. At least in Japan, this seems to be mooostly women. The main thing to note is for separate reasons both camps are interested in the "cute/sexy girl" aesthetic. So you can see why in theory male dolls would be undesired.

Of course, as far as I've seen the reality is very different. I'm a nonbinary man in camp B and would kill and die for the Dollfie male bodies to be released into the regular store, lol.

2 hours ago, ragnamuffin said:

I was today years old when I learned of this word.

I'm a big fan of the meme "blorbo from my shows."

1 hour ago, PlasticJester said:

I think the self-fulfilling prophecy thing is very much correct, and would like to point out something else.

In my experience there's sort of two convergent camps who are interested in vinyl dolls. Came from figure collecting, mostly male, want a posable figure of their preferred waifu as camp A. This is the first fanbase Dollfie and Smart Doll had. The camp B are people who came from resin dolls and want a doll to customize/dress up and photograph. At least in Japan, this seems to be mooostly women. The main thing to note is for separate reasons both camps are interested in the "cute/sexy girl" aesthetic. So you can see why in theory male dolls would be undesired.

Of course, as far as I've seen the reality is very different. I'm a nonbinary man in camp B and would kill and die for the Dollfie male bodies to be released into the regular store, lol.

Another thing that I also think is worth mentioning is that shoujo has been having difficulty maintaining its foothold in the anime consumer market the last several years. Yes, there are still good shoujo anime being produced (like the reboot for Fruits Basket) and hardcore shoujo fans exist, but they're much rarer and less popular than they used to be, especially when compared with the shounen slice-of-life romps that have risen to take shoujo's place. This limits the amount of desirable male characters to even attempt making IPs off of.

Take, for example, Komi Can't Communicate. It's a very sweet little ditty of a slice-of-life anime with some light romantic overtones. In the 2000s, a show like this would've undoubtedly centered Komi as the narrator and given her an ensemble cast of attractive bishounen men for tween and teen girls to fantasize about a la Ouran High School Host Club or Furuba. Today, it's a shounen, so we get the "everyman" archetype main character with Komi as the primary romantic interest. That's not bad or wrong, but the target audience is different and so the function of the ensemble cast is different. Add in that shoujo fans are generally happy to watch shounen if the writing is good, but the inverse cannot usually be said of shounen fans and watching shoujo, appealing to the shounen audience makes more sense from a financial standpoint.

Also also, it drives me nuts that Volks will do proper DD releases of girls/women from IPs, but only does SD releases of boys/men from those same IPs (looking at you, Fate series). It's obviously some level, even unconscious, of Super Dollfie being marketed to women and Dollfie Dreams being marketed to men.

34 minutes ago, Thespian said:

Add in that shoujo fans are generally happy to watch shounen if the writing is good, but the inverse cannot usually be said of shounen fans and watching shoujo, appealing to the shounen audience makes more sense from a financial standpoint.

Not knocking what you wrote, but I have a different take on this (speaking as someone who’s spent almost half my life in Japan). It’s more that (1) school-aged Japanese girls will watch and read whatever is popular with the boys in order to fit in with them, and (2) the shows that were marketed to girls also had a sizeable following of creepy older men, and over time more and more of these shows catered to them since they have the disposable income to support the franchise. Hence why you get shows like Prisma Illya, that you would think was for girls, but actually has some really revolting pedophilic vibes.

It's funny because I've always seen the market as very obviously there and for whatever reason Volks just doesn't want to take the risk. I'm on a part of the internet where wanting goods of favorite male characters seems to be bigger than ever. The fact that they won't branch out into "easy" sales like Ensemble Stars, Twisted Wonderland, Hypmic, Genshin/Honkai etc is fascinating to me. Because I would say most of those guys would still fit the skinny frame of DDB.

I have a lot of friends in those circles who see my 9S and very much want dolls of their favorites too. It's always disappointing when I have to tell them that even making a custom will be hard because they don't directly sell the male bodies in the first place. The "husbando" market to me feels larger than ever among fans of male characters in the last two years especially...

Maybe they are just set in their ways. I always groan at the fact that male DDs will almost ALWAYS release with a female character. Like they aren't confident in the sales of guys.

I'm really hoping that changed with Kaito. People snapped him UP and it's clear he was quite popular. Fingers crossed that maybe a success like that will convince them that male DDs are worth selling after all. It always felt like an unfair competition for sure. I'd probably sell all my girls for a hoard of boy dolls...if they'd sell them(and clothes for them) to me!! 😆

Oh jeez, it never even dawned on me that the reason why the DD boys are so twinky and skinny is, that they didn't want to put too many resources into a completely new frame, that suddenly makes so much sense.

But yeah, I think it is very sad that basically no vinyl doll comany is taking the plunge to actually do things with boys, esp the big scale ones. Because looking at the fans of male characters there is ... a lot of willingness to spend big money.

I still hope that we will soon at least get information on the Imomodoll 1/3 boy, it has been so quiet around that, I am scared they are canning the project.

On 7/10/2024 at 6:00 PM, Monty said:

Its mostly because resin dolls are easier to experiment with because they need to be created in small batches, whereas vinyl doll manufacturing basically requires a large batch at once, so new things have an inherent risk due to the possibility of ending up with large batches of unsold parts.
 

The main problem with making a boy though is that the types of boys people tend to want, in my experience (a vinyl version of something like SDGr/sd13 or bigger) would need a completely different frame to what the girls have. With resin dolls, you can make a body any size you want because all the pieces are strung together with elastic, but with vinyl, there’s a limitation by needing to all fit on the same frame. You could make a new frame, but the frame is the most expensive part of manufacturing and the hugest financial risk. Smartdoll and Volks had separate approaches to this issue - Smartdoll kind of awkwardly jammed the larger male parts onto the same frame as the girls, which (to me) resulted in a shoddily made doll that fell apart if you looked at it sideways. A male smartdoll was the first big doll I ever had but I ended up selling him because I just couldn’t deal with that construction. (For example, the broader shoulders meant the parts of the frame inside them were basically rattling around in there with only a tiny bit able to connect to the torso, so they would keep falling off) The guys also had kinda odd looking bodies to me whereas the girls, while still very stylised, felt more like they had the frames designed for them in contrast to the boys having to be designed around a frame never intended for them. I don’t doubt this contributed to their relative unpopularity, and I am kinda curious if this is being addressed with the new boys coming out.

Volks on the other hand kept the boys closer in design to the girls - on the plus side, the frame actually works with them, but on the downside as far as boys go they’re much scrawnier than the typical male bjd because of it, and are also very limited in clothing options. Most male bjd clothes are too big for them and most DD sized clothes are for girls - which is fine if very baggy/femme is what you want, but it’s frustrating when it’s not as obviously this isn’t going to fit every character. (Since Kaito came out they’ve been better about offering unisex clothes and been some made with boys in mind at least)

It’s a frustrating situation but I do understand it. DDP is in a similar position (oroboros of low popularity -> no support/clothes) although it at least is available separately (still no hands though).

The only way I can see it changing is if Volks made a new frame that could be used for larger boys and also taller girls (like a sd16 equivalent for DD) - although it might need differences in the shoulders still.

(For companies like Imomodoll, manufacturing being a lot cheaper in China does play a part, although I did notice that tinyfox seems to have moved to genderless 1/6 bodies instead of having both male and female after the redesign)

The only issue I have with this explanation is that (for DD) they don't have to make ANY new parts-- They already have 2 different boy bodies (3 if you count the asexual MDD body) not only made but currently being sold. If they had to make new parts I would definitely understand the financial risk, but they already have boy bodies designed and consistently available with no sign of discontinuation. If those parts aren't selling through dream choice and are just rotting in a warehouse, wouldn't the logical conclusion just be... to sell them normally? Or to try to phase them out altogether?

Also this might be controversial but I really don't think the skinny bodies are that much of an issue. These are anime dolls, and anime boys have a well-established history of being slim. At least I don't think it's such an issue that it would render the currently produced skinny male bodies a "lost cause" or something like that. I much prefer the look of the DDB to the half a million giant resin uncles currently being sold.

On 7/10/2024 at 6:02 PM, Thespian said:

Volks, on the other hand, I agree with you strongly. Part of that, I feel, is that most of the demand for boys (and tan skin dolls) come from outside of Japan, and Volks still very much prioritizes their Japanese target audience over their international one. It's kind of like how they claim that tan dolls don't sell well, but they also won't make those available outside of Dream Choice and D'Coord. Clearly there's a market, otherwise proxy services wouldn't make a killing on Dream Choice and D'Coord during tan season, but that market isn't "home grown" and requires upcharges that may be prohibitory.

That's a really good point, I had forgotten entirely that tan was in such a similar situation. I guess I just didn't expect Volks to be so disinterested in the international market, since they're one of the more international doll companies I know of. But I can definitely see it.

Edited July 12, 2024 by 0bsequi0us

1 hour ago, 0bsequi0us said:

That's a really good point, I had forgotten entirely that tan was in such a similar situation. I guess I just didn't expect Volks to be so disinterested in the international market, since they're one of the more international doll companies I know of. But I can definitely see it.

Thing is, there is no way Volks hasn't realized that proxies are making BANK off them not allowing Dream Choice to be online and only having certain dolls/colors available in Japan. They have to know. I was quoted $900 for a tan MDD on the older frame. Why allow a third party to make upwards of $200-400 on Volks items? It's not like the dolls are secondhand, we are specifically paying people to walk in there and get those options. 

Clearly, with all the people that have paid proxies, there is an international market for male dolls, tan dolls, dream choice, etc. They could at least put it on the Japan Volks website and allow us to purchase from there - they'd at least pocket the money. 

If they put the Chimikko body online before the DDB and DDSB I am not going to be surprised. I'm resigned to needing to get a proxy for Dream Choice boys someday. I honestly really like the Dollfie boy body type, I'm all about those slender twiggy bishounen type anime characters. Plus, it's a nice contrast to the more beefy Smartdoll boys, where even the slim ones are built pretty buff. Imomodoll is filling the void a bit for me, but their male doll body can absolutely be an angel body as well. I'm hoping their eventual 1/3 release is a tiny bit more overtly masculine so we can have some more diversity to fill that Smartdoll-shaped void.

On the topic of collab dolls...I wish that boy bodies weren't so sought after so those were less snatched up just for the bodies as well. Finding a decently-priced Len or Kaito secondhand is hard, with most listings at all being sold extremely quickly.

On 7/11/2024 at 7:46 AM, Noxxbunny said:

I'm on a part of the internet where wanting goods of favorite male characters seems to be bigger than ever. The fact that they won't branch out into "easy" sales like Ensemble Stars, Twisted Wonderland, Hypmic, Genshin/Honkai etc is fascinating to me. Because I would say most of those guys would still fit the skinny frame of DDB.

I have a lot of friends in those circles who see my 9S and very much want dolls of their favorites too.

I've been thinking about this a lot recently!

Source

These are the top ten Gacha Games of May 2024 ranked in order of mobile-only revenue. Honkai: Star Rail and Genshin Impact probably don't need much of an introduction and it's no secret that both games feature very appealing (male) character designs.

Ranked #6 is Love and Deepspace, which is an Otome game - aka a story-based romance game targeted towards straight women with a female (in this specific case, kind of self-insert but not really) protagonist and multiple male love interests. 

So, there is a game pandering very strongly to a largely presumed female audience that is ready and willing to drop money on 'the lads' (Admittedly, the largest market here is China and the game's art style leans more semi-realistic but I still see this as proof of a more or less global market that is being neglected in many types of media; The Barbie movie targeted a female/queer community and it's the 14th highest grossing movie of all time according to wikipedia).

If 'anime' is the problem -- what about the entire genre of Boy's Love? Lot's of people (in Japan and globally) who are very passionate about anime boys, so much so that they come together and produce fanart, doujinshi, etc. and regularly fill up convention centers in Japan. 

JUST GIVE US THE BOYS VOLKS. WE ARE HERE. WE WILL GIVE YOU OUR MONEY.

On 7/13/2024 at 12:16 AM, 0bsequi0us said:

Also this might be controversial but I really don't think the skinny bodies are that much of an issue. These are anime dolls, and anime boys have a well-established history of being slim. At least I don't think it's such an issue that it would render the currently produced skinny male bodies a "lost cause" or something like that. I much prefer the look of the DDB to the half a million giant resin uncles currently being sold.

I think for me it is less the fact that they are pretty skinny and twinky and more that the bodies are not very ... pretty? Something about the sculpting just doesn't give them a nice shape. So I think the boys look great when dressed in clothes that cover most of their bodies, but revealing stuff ... not so much.

I'm also absolutely not into the buff "uncle" look, my resin reditions of my boys are also twinks with not a defined muscle in sight (Vings68 my beloved), but they are a lot more aesthetically pleasing when skimpily dressed.

 

On 7/13/2024 at 7:28 PM, RetroKanojo said:

I've been thinking about this a lot recently!

Source

These are the top ten Gacha Games of May 2024 ranked in order of mobile-only revenue. Honkai: Star Rail and Genshin Impact probably don't need much of an introduction and it's no secret that both games feature very appealing (male) character designs.

Ranked #6 is Love and Deepspace, which is an Otome game - aka a story-based romance game targeted towards straight women with a female (in this specific case, kind of self-insert but not really) protagonist and multiple male love interests. 

So, there is a game pandering very strongly to a largely presumed female audience that is ready and willing to drop money on 'the lads' (Admittedly, the largest market here is China and the game's art style leans more semi-realistic but I still see this as proof of a more or less global market that is being neglected in many types of media; The Barbie movie targeted a female/queer community and it's the 14th highest grossing movie of all time according to wikipedia).

If 'anime' is the problem -- what about the entire genre of Boy's Love? Lot's of people (in Japan and globally) who are very passionate about anime boys, so much so that they come together and produce fanart, doujinshi, etc. and regularly fill up convention centers in Japan. 

JUST GIVE US THE BOYS VOLKS. WE ARE HERE. WE WILL GIVE YOU OUR MONEY.

I do agree very much, I think they could make some good money if they would dip their nose into the genshin and Star Rail boys.

They do have very suitable faces for dollmaking and such nice outfits and well ... 99% of them are very skinny.

9 hours ago, MoiBakaDesu said:

I think for me it is less the fact that they are pretty skinny and twinky and more that the bodies are not very ... pretty? Something about the sculpting just doesn't give them a nice shape. So I think the boys look great when dressed in clothes that cover most of their bodies, but revealing stuff ... not so much.

I'm also absolutely not into the buff "uncle" look, my resin reditions of my boys are also twinks with not a defined muscle in sight (Vings68 my beloved), but they are a lot more aesthetically pleasing when skimpily dressed.

I definitely agree on that, the muscle definition doesn’t really look natural for how skinny the body is. It wouldn’t be enough to keep me from buying one if they were sold normally, but it is definitely something I’ve noticed 😅

But that’s why I’m looking forward to when Imomodoll’s 68 boy eventually comes out, it seems like they might have achieved a more beautiful aesthetic.

Kakuso torsos are similarly odd looking to me, though similarly not enough for me to not want one. That said, DDB and DDSB are probably my favorite vinyl boys aesthetically since I don't tend to go for muscular dolls unless I have a specific character in mind.

I'm so hype for Imomodoll 68, because then my boy Westley can have an actual body! I wonder if that'll be weird to see. I'm definitely keeping his handmade body too, but if the 68 is cute then I might end up buying another Canis head...

1 hour ago, PlasticJester said:

Kakuso torsos are similarly odd looking to me, though similarly not enough for me to not want one. That said, DDB and DDSB are probably my favorite vinyl boys aesthetically since I don't tend to go for muscular dolls unless I have a specific character in mind.

I'm so hype for Imomodoll 68, because then my boy Westley can have an actual body! I wonder if that'll be weird to see. I'm definitely keeping his handmade body too, but if the 68 is cute then I might end up buying another Canis head...

Can't he just parasitise that body? He looks like the kind of character that would commandeer a headless body just because he can. Build a little platform on top of the neck with gear levers so he can ride around that way.

12 hours ago, 0bsequi0us said:

I definitely agree on that, the muscle definition doesn’t really look natural for how skinny the body is. It wouldn’t be enough to keep me from buying one if they were sold normally, but it is definitely something I’ve noticed 😅

But that’s why I’m looking forward to when Imomodoll’s 68 boy eventually comes out, it seems like they might have achieved a more beautiful aesthetic.

I think my biggest main gripe is that the way the chest and waist go together just looks so ... janky. Disjointed even. I get why they are build like that from a mechanical point of view, the girls are no different there after all, but the body line would be a lot nicer if the parts would be separated directly under the pecs, the way it is for most resin boys.

But likewise, I hope we will soon get more tangible info on the 68 Imomo boy, from the material they had before the sculpting looked so nice, and was still hitting the sweet spot of not being too muscular. That is honestly a thing that makes me like Imomodoll so much despite the not so stellar inner frames, the way they sculpt bodies is just very pleasing to me.

I found this odd too, especially since I'm in a lot of fandoms that would probably go nuts for dolls of male characters. But it seems to be the same way with anime figures too? Yeah there are some very good male ones but the amount pales to female ones. Don't even get started on fanservice ones. And like someone mentioned above me, gacha games struggle with male characters as well.

There are some anime-esque male resin dolls, but they aren't the majority either as far as I can tell. Semi realism is. Is this an anime style issue, since vinyl dolls have a heavy start there? I have no idea it's baffling.

When I was new to the hobby way back in 2009, I remember trying to MacGyver male DDs by taking the most "masculine" head I could find and ordering third party pieces to connect them to Obitsu male bodies. So I definitely love that Volks has the option for male dolls these days, but definitely don't love how hard it is to get one. I'm fortunate enough to live in Tokyo so it's not difficult for me to get a Dream Choice boy, but I'd really love more option heads and the ability to get just the body. Having that issue right now, actually. 😅 There's definitely demand as far as I can see. Seems like whenever a second hand DDB body is up for sale, they sell immediately - and for almost as much as a Dream Choice, at that!

I used to have SmD Eiji and Crimson, and while the body sculpts were nice, I wasn't happy with the build quality. I'd love to see them improved on someday, but....you know how that's going.

I do know an independent dealer here, Fiorista, makes more muscular torsos for DDB in resin. I missed out on them twice at the most recent iDoll and their webshop preorder (which ended like two days early). I hadn't heard of them before stumbling on them accidentally, but they seem really popular and look pretty nice. I have two kakuso MDD boys and I think they're nice considering that other options are pretty slim.

Really hoping for more options in the future!

@rudebuster found an extra-muscular male torso for sale on Mercari once, and we kinda wanted one for one of our characters because he had a bit of a bigger build than our others. It took a while, but I finally managed to trace it to Fiorista. I think it was out of pure luck too, because I was actually trying to use another keyword, but it led me to a shop that was using the bodies on a model and they mentioned where the parts came from in their listing.

I remember the SmD Eiji and Crimson. Everybody knows about Danny's using the female frame for his male dolls, so I'm not going to go into that. Their limbs kept falling of and it was annoying as hell; thank God for Volks and the fact they've started making male dolls.

I wish Obitsu still manufactured their Obitsu 65 male body, even if it was a little weird, because we have a character that could really use it. I mean, he looks all right, but he's supposed to be a big, hulking man he wishes and really needs a slightly larger body. We were thinking maybe the Granado Vindoll, but now that I think about it, I think that may have been a bit too much for him. Gyomei Himejima, on the other hand... sorry, Tengen, you don't quite measure up.

On 7/17/2024 at 6:51 AM, rudebuster said:

When I was new to the hobby way back in 2009, I remember trying to MacGyver male DDs by taking the most "masculine" head I could find and ordering third party pieces to connect them to Obitsu male bodies. So I definitely love that Volks has the option for male dolls these days, but definitely don't love how hard it is to get one. I'm fortunate enough to live in Tokyo so it's not difficult for me to get a Dream Choice boy, but I'd really love more option heads and the ability to get just the body. Having that issue right now, actually. 😅 There's definitely demand as far as I can see. Seems like whenever a second hand DDB body is up for sale, they sell immediately - and for almost as much as a Dream Choice, at that!

 

Personally I have to say I am not even that much of a fan of the "designated" more masculine head sculpts from Volks. Or at least I almost never have seen them painted in a way that I find appealing.

I can understand why the most popular head for boys is DDH-09, one of my boys is one as well after all and it works fantastic. In general I think pretty much every head can make a good boy, honestly. My other one is a DDH-03, which is a far more uncommon choice, but the droopy eyes were a selling argument there.

And hearing that the bodies are getting sold so quickly second hand is not surprising, makes me appreciate even more that I got so lucky and got my first boy for around 400$ I think with his only flaw being a little spot on his lower leg that was stain treated quickly.

I'm not surprised with how cowardly Volks tends to be with boy dolls. I mentioned this in the Facebook Smartdoll thread too, as to how they pander to the male otaku fanbase in regards to DD. I have no idea why they see no potential in yumejoshi communities when they would make a killing if they tried to cater to them, especially considering how many Genshin boys are customized into DDs by their fans (I mostly saw the shotas as MDDs, but there was at least one Zhongli I saw too). With regards to the DDB bodies, I'm not a huge fan of the big uncle bodies either, but having at least some muscle for a DDB body would be nice as an option, granted that does have to do with a character I wanna make into a DD but still....

4 hours ago, RozenGermain said:

I'm not surprised with how cowardly Volks tends to be with boy dolls. I mentioned this in the Facebook Smartdoll thread too, as to how they pander to the male otaku fanbase in regards to DD. I have no idea why they see no potential in yumejoshi communities when they would make a killing if they tried to cater to them, especially considering how many Genshin boys are customized into DDs by their fans (I mostly saw the shotas as MDDs, but there was at least one Zhongli I saw too). With regards to the DDB bodies, I'm not a huge fan of the big uncle bodies either, but having at least some muscle for a DDB body would be nice as an option, granted that does have to do with a character I wanna make into a DD but still....

Agreed...I didn't mention it by name earlier, but I'm mainly in the yumejoshi side of things these days and a fair chunk of my friends(and myself) are the "we have dedicated character shrines" types. There is money here and I don't know why Volks doesn't seem into it...I just happened to get very lucky that the two characters I yumeship with got DDs 😭 what are the odds lol...

They really do still cater first and foremost to the male otaku audience. I remember when I visited the store in Akihabara, the employee there seemed very surprised when she asked me what kind of doll I brought with me for the photo sets area and I said an MDD and not the resin equivalent.

If they ever make a muscular guy, I'd like to see it as the male DD equivalent to the Dynamite body or something. I like the skinnier look of the current male DDs, but something about the torso sculpt could be better IMHO...