What's up with Male Dolls?

I would say that at the Dolpa, most of the women I saw there who brought resins, brought girl dolls. There were a few boy resins, but the ones I saw were paired with girls. 

I did not wander a lot, so others may have seen girls with boys in other places. 

just a quick comment on prev - funny enough to hottest BOY doll saw this weekend was actually a Lady Oscar head with a male resin body

 

I do wonder sometimes if its because there's so many more gorgeous dresses available for the dolls? if one was to bring a doll to an event, of course I'd dress it up in an absolute best outfit... and girl options seem to have way, waaaaaay more to chose from!

Edited September 9, 2024 by Anna-neko

46 minutes ago, Anna-neko said:

I do wonder sometimes if it’s because there's so many more gorgeous dresses available for the dolls? if one was to bring a doll to an event, of course I'd dress it up in an absolute best outfit... and girl options seem to have way, waaaaaay more to chose from!

You could say it’s a self-reinforcing cycle 😅

1 hour ago, ragnamuffin said:

You could say it’s a self-reinforcing cycle 😅

The curse of men's clothes, lol! Men are just not allowed to dress fun ever!

I've seen that fairly often on the resin side, people who would prefer to have a guy but the lack of interesting clothing compared to the girls puts them off.

I knew there wouldn't really be anything at Dolpa for the guys, so I kind of don't blame people when they basically only brought plain t-shirts, some button up shirts, and jeans as options LOL.

I ended up buying the Melancholic Pale Blue Tracksuit set for my boys. It felt unisex enough and it actually has a pop of color to it...I'd like to see more clothes like that. And if it hadn't been the longest version that goes all the way to the ankles...I would have frankly also bought a maid dress. 😆 I'm comfortable shoving my boys into whatever outfit if I like it...but I can see why not everyone would want to do that too.

I haven't had an issue finding masculine-enough doll clothes, though admittedly it's because I tend to browse clothing stores aimed at resin dolls. They definitely trend towards the more mundane and realistic and less fantastical, which I can see being disappointing. But honestly my taste in clothing tends to be very JRPG-fantasy and I don't mind putting my boys into bloomers or frilly tunics, so it doesn't bother me too much. I do think more stylish street fashion should be more available.

5 hours ago, Noxxbunny said:

I've seen that fairly often on the resin side, people who would prefer to have a guy but the lack of interesting clothing compared to the girls puts them off.

I knew there wouldn't really be anything at Dolpa for the guys, so I kind of don't blame people when they basically only brought plain t-shirts, some button up shirts, and jeans as options LOL.

I ended up buying the Melancholic Pale Blue Tracksuit set for my boys. It felt unisex enough and it actually has a pop of color to it...I'd like to see more clothes like that. And if it hadn't been the longest version that goes all the way to the ankles...I would have frankly also bought a maid dress. 😆 I'm comfortable shoving my boys into whatever outfit if I like it...but I can see why not everyone would want to do that too.

True story: I actually got tipped off to a second hand Dream of Doll Ducan on Yahoo Japan Auction! I didn't get him, but let's just say the character I wanted to shell was one I absolutely would have wanted to give a cute dress! After all, his charm points were his submissiveness, his breedability, and his twinkiness!

 

EDIT: Basically I saw Ducan's face and all I could think of was a certain blonde JRPG twink and his hair made entirely of cowlicks!

Edited September 9, 2024 by RozenGermain

3 hours ago, PlasticJester said:

I haven't had an issue finding masculine-enough doll clothes, though admittedly it's because I tend to browse clothing stores aimed at resin dolls. They definitely trend towards the more mundane and realistic and less fantastical, which I can see being disappointing. But honestly my taste in clothing tends to be very JRPG-fantasy and I don't mind putting my boys into bloomers or frilly tunics, so it doesn't bother me too much. I do think more stylish street fashion should be more available.

i ordered a super dollfie x h. naoto set recently! there's been a handful of sd13 outfits that give techwear/ jrpg/ casual vibes but not sure how well they fit on vinyl dolls. a lot of intentionally baggy layered pieces. might be worth checking out ^_^

On 9/9/2024 at 4:14 PM, amiamitchi said:

there's been a handful of sd13 outfits that give techwear/ jrpg/ casual vibes but not sure how well they fit on vinyl dolls.

SD13 outfits seem to fit DD girls pretty well. 

I have to disagree a little with the statement that men's clothing is boring compared to the girls side.

Yes, of course that depends a bit on personal taste and preference, but I do dress my boys in fashion that is either techwear, a bit sporty or cyberpunk and in the case of Haruka at least also leaning on the gender non-conforming side with stuff inspired by tenshi kaiwai fashion and similar.

So there are certainly options out there to make your boys not look bland or boring, depending on your taste in fashion. Although you certainly do have to look outside of the selection that Volks has for that, because that is indeed pretty limited.

On 9/10/2024 at 1:14 AM, amiamitchi said:

i ordered a super dollfie x h. naoto set recently! there's been a handful of sd13 outfits that give techwear/ jrpg/ casual vibes but not sure how well they fit on vinyl dolls. a lot of intentionally baggy layered pieces. might be worth checking out ^_^

I can second that, SD13 also works pretty well on DDBs.

Speaking of male dolls, how many people would be interested in a male pear doll? I've seen a modded one and I'm honestly in love. I have an oc who is a chubby guy and I'd love to shell him, but beyond that it would add some great variety in body types.

1 hour ago, PlasticJester said:

Speaking of male dolls, how many people would be interested in a male pear doll? I've seen a modded one and I'm honestly in love. I have an oc who is a chubby guy and I'd love to shell him, but beyond that it would add some great variety in body types.

That would be super cute, but I think even in resin I've never seen an actual chubby adult male body.

For 1/6 and 1/4 there are plenty at least bottom-heavy cute boys, but that's kinda different.

La Dolpa did seem completely girl-doll oriented this year. Volks even brought about 50 girl dolls for lotteries, compared to the only 2 SD Boys and 2(?) boy DearSD. It was really disappointing as a boy doll collector. 

On that note and that of clothes, the theme for the Dolpa also left basically no options for boy dolls to dress up in any fully creative manner. It was definitely catered to female fashions. 

I did represent with my two boy SD though ;; though also admittedly brought my one DD gal since she's easy to transport and I didn't stress over breaking any doll fingers when packing my luggage. 

@RozenGermain if that was a recent auction, then I miiiiight've picked him up myself >_>;; 

2 hours ago, Ageha said:

if that was a recent auction, then I miiiiight've picked him up myself >_>;; 

I saw it last month lol! If it was you I definitely wanna see pics!

21 hours ago, PlasticJester said:

Speaking of male dolls, how many people would be interested in a male pear doll? I've seen a modded one and I'm honestly in love. I have an oc who is a chubby guy and I'd love to shell him, but beyond that it would add some great variety in body types.

Just out of curiosity, I put the male DD torso on the lower half of a Dynamite body and I actually liked it quite a bit 😂 Not quite pear, but I'd love to see see hourglass shaped guys in addition to pear shaped too. The more variety the better tbh!

20 minutes ago, Noxxbunny said:

Just out of curiosity, I put the male DD torso on the lower half of a Dynamite body and I actually liked it quite a bit 😂 Not quite pear, but I'd love to see see hourglass shaped guys in addition to pear shaped too. The more variety the better tbh!

Giving mature male dolls a bit of cake sounds like a very fun project actually, haha. I would be kind of interested how that hybrid looks, primarily clothed, if you would be up to taking pictures of that. 👀

1 hour ago, MoiBakaDesu said:

Giving mature male dolls a bit of cake sounds like a very fun project actually, haha. I would be kind of interested how that hybrid looks, primarily clothed, if you would be up to taking pictures of that. 👀

Unfortunately I have literally zero pants that fit Dynamite hips, so I don't have any pictures of him fully clothed that way. Just partially. 😭 I'd absolutely have kept the combo all the time, but it just narrows down my already slim clothing options, so I swapped him back to the default already.

On 7/10/2024 at 5:53 PM, ragnamuffin said:

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

Me, too. I looked it up, from the Urban dictionary: 

Originating on Tumblr, the term 'blorbo' refers to a person's favorite or beloved character from any piece of fandom media. Can be synonymous with scrunkly, scrimblo, or eeby deeby.

Nope, not falling down the rabbit hole of more words I have no plans to use. 

On 9/12/2024 at 2:22 PM, RozenGermain said:

I saw it last month lol! If it was you I definitely wanna see pics!

Lol, yep, that's the one! The price was too good to pass up, especially as a big DOD fan. I've only posted one set of photos so far on insta.

3 hours ago, Ageha said:

Lol, yep, that's the one! The price was too good to pass up, especially as a big DOD fan. I've only posted one set of photos so far on insta.

Just saw the photos! I don't blame ya for getting your hands on him! DOD was huge before they went under!

On 9/13/2024 at 8:32 PM, Tenukihandcrafts said:

Me, too. I looked it up, from the Urban dictionary: 

Originating on Tumblr, the term 'blorbo' refers to a person's favorite or beloved character from any piece of fandom media. Can be synonymous with scrunkly, scrimblo, or eeby deeby.

Nope, not falling down the rabbit hole of more words I have no plans to use. 

I have been on that hellsite (affectionate) since 2012 and I'll be there until they turn the lights off for good. Personally, I love calling my favorite characters my "blorbos" from my shows.

I was pretty disappointed in this year's LA Dollpa lineup, personally. I was hoping for more fantasy colors, but they failed to make an appearance. I hope we haven't seen the last of the lilac and minty Icon girls!

Edited September 15, 2024 by Thespian

3 hours ago, Thespian said:

I have been on that hellsite (affectionate) since 2012 and I'll be there until they turn the lights off for good. Personally, I love calling my favorite characters my "blorbos" from my shows.

I know Tumblr slang pretty well too, I can vouch blorbo was a thing there for a while!

It still doesn’t help people outside easy Doll Point access but it seems like the boys did take a small step in the latest Volks News - the boys and asexual MDD bodies will be used for DCoords from now on too. (I…actually thought they already were all this time lol but maybe I misinterpreted a photo of a tomboy girl or clothing model in the store or something). They did directly refer to them as ‘base bodies popular in Dream Choice’ on that page which is interesting - maybe marketing speak that doesn’t mean anything, but with the amount of times they’ve been modelling clothes in Volks News lately, it does really seem like they’ve been gradually getting more attention and even if they're not ‘popular’ comparatively they’re not completely ‘un’popular I think? (They do get more attention in Volks News now than the SD10 boys, which a lot of those clothes are actually made for, and certainly far more than DDP…not that that’s a difficult feat though…)

But still, I keep wondering if the bodies won’t be sold separate until after they decide if they’re getting 2.0 upgrades or not… 

Perhaps the old bodies will be sold separately once the 2.0 versions are announced? To get rid of old stock...

On 9/5/2024 at 8:27 PM, Giragira said:

A good example of this is the recent cartoon executive claiming that girls just "graduate out" of cartoons, and that was why cartoon network (among others) simply don't make things for them. This executive was a woman to be fair, but it started a whole uproar because it wasn't true. But it's treated that way by people, because that's just the way things are. It's the same song and dance that's been said about video games as well. Even if a show or game isn't enjoyed JUST by women if it is perceived to be so it is sometimes not treated as well.

With the release of the new open world Love Nikki game being as popular as I've seen it, maybe they'll make bigger strides to take women more seriously as an untapped market? Though the game is admittedly still in relatively early development, everyone I've seen playing it (men included) have expressed plenty of satisfaction in the fact that the game is actually modeled toward a feminine audience that has been stuck somewhat similar playing games with excessive jiggle physics and hyper-sexualization. It may not reach the popularity levels of Genshin of Honkai, but it's gearing up to be pretty damned popular.

Anyway, I kind of wanna throw my two cents into the chat?

Firstly, I actually kinda like the way the DDb/DDSb bodies are sculpted. It does look a little strange, but I like that they're stylized a bit as opposed to not. They definitely fit the skinny twink aesthetic, though, and from what I've seen on Instagram, that seems to be The Thing a lot of collectors of DDb like most. I myself am in that court. I've kind of become a Fujoshi in my Old Age (I'm 26, but I stopped liking anime when I was like 14, so I *jokingly* consider myself an Old... and with the chronic joint issues I have, I think you could convince me I'm actually in my mid-40s), so I've taken a liking to the way some BL draws their MLs. I also just like the tall, lanky, twinkish gay boy characters in general because when I was an Egg, that's what I was. And boy oh boy was I ruthlessly bullied for it lmao (I'm a much happier, slightly chubbier girl now, though, so all's well). In fact, Luts' Muse bodies are hands down my favorite resin doll bodies I've ever seen and have actually finally forced me to consider buying a resin doll just to own one. So I suppose I'm saying all this as the obvious demographic that the DDb bodies are marketed toward.

However, I'm inclined to agree with a lot of you on multiple aspects. The boy bodies definitely have a demand, but the demand is outpaced by the girl bodies by MILES. I don't necessarily think DDs in general are being marketed toward male otaku, though: I think they may have been originally, but the fact that the sexual overtones of the initial releases has been significantly lessened over the years tells me that they've turned away from the male otaku market at least to a pretty large degree in order to be more broadly appealing. So I don't know if that's the only and entire reason that the boy bodies are allegedly seeing 'less demand'. I think the issue is simply that vinyl dolls in general are a niche in the hobby, and while plenty of US want vinyl boys, a lot of people want the pretty anime girls more. I do think that would change if Volks released a more masculine looking DDb body, but since they're making rhe decision to not put money into designing and producing an entirely different skeleton for a broader male body, I just don't see that happening, as sad as it is to say. I also just don't know if Imomodoll will ever release the 68cm body. Last I heard, it was still in production... and I remember it first being advertised over a year ago now. I wanted a Canis head and the 68cm body, but the wait time just seems to drag on and I'm doubting it'll ever be released. And if it is, it'll probably be a very limited run, since all the vinyl dolls on the market (even Volks) prefers to cater toward 1/4 size.

As for the body being put on the website, I think that's probably not gonna happen. I predict they may even remove the DDP body from the internet since it's so unpopular and doesn't even have dedicated hand sizes. I think the fact that their character doll releases on the DDB body being so lackluster erroneously leads them to believe that the boys just aren't a worthwhile item worth pushing. And they learned the hard way with the DDP body that people won't gravitate toward something unpopular, regardless of availability to the general public. If they dipped their toes into Genshin or Honkai and started releasing character dolls of each IPs boys, I guarantee they'd see a lot of success (as many of you have stated).

I do think, though, that character dolls in general just... aren't as popular? Like, I got Meiko because I love her, but I can fully admit that I mainly just wanted her for her head sculpt because it's unique. I don't really care about her fullset. In fact, I actually kinda hate it. It doesn't fit well, the skirt rides up and doesn't stay down, the boots are extremely tight and hard to get on and off, and the plastic pieces just feel kind of cheap. I kind of have the same issue with my Uzuki's fullset. I think it's much cuter, but I'm worried about how many little parts are on it, and the hair bow refuses to stay on (the headband, too), and her shoe heels are wobbly as hell. Again, I like her sculpt more than her character (I don't even KNOW her character, I just thought she was really pretty). Even with my GRAIL, I got rid of her fullset (to be fair, the pleather on her bag and shoes was shredding) and even sold her DD2 body, because her HEAD was the thing I was in love with.

I also agree that the designated boy sculpts are just kinda lame. They aren't as well detailed as the MANY femme sculpts, and even the one that has slightly more detail just looks weird at certain angles. I know they'd probably look better in the hands of professional artists (not knocking the artists at Volks ofc), but the sculpts themselves just have nothing to really grab my attention. I'm planning on shelling Angel Dust (cringe, I know, idc), and my head of choice is going to be DCH-16. It's androgynous enough, but it still leans heavily femme. I'm lucky that Angel Dust is supposed to be read as a pretty femme androgynous person.

Okay, anyway, that's my two cents. Sorry for the wall.