Mystery DD Head Identification Help!

Hi! I'm posting this on behalf of my friend, who recently bought a $40 DD head off of eBay, with the seller clearly not really knowing what they had, given the price was for the head, wig and a maid headband. The listing referred to it as an option head (with no specific number), and unlike the other two listings, this one wasn't in a box (and thus not clearly labeled as DDH-01/02). They assumed it was a DDH-06, as it matched the features seemingly in photos, but when the head came, it was VERY clearly not the same as their other DDH-06. The head is hard and smells strongly when smelled up close (we both believe the cause to be the plasticizer leaked out, given the scent and hardness) but the oddest thing is that it has no markings on the back of the head, other than the notches to line up the head cap and head itself. Another odd detail is that the inside of the head is really messy, like the vinyl is raised in odd places, it seems bumpy from what I can tell from pictures, and the inside neckhole still seems to have a support connected to the back of the head. The neckhole lines up with how the DD neckholes usually look, which makes me lean towards just a very odd DD head? It sort of looks like a DD Candy to me and the yellowing would maybe make sense for an older DD but I could be wrong. The head also takes 22mm eyes, if that helps. I'd love any idea of what on earth this doll's sculpt is, because we're stumped! Or even if anyone has any idea what is going on inside the head. It almost looks like the casting was messed up but I have never seen this poor of quality control on a head like this.The head is compared next to a DDH-06, to make the differences more clear.

Is that vinyl or is it resin? My first thought was recast, but that's only if it's resin. 

32 minutes ago, BeyondTime said:

Is that vinyl or is it resin? My first thought was recast, but that's only if it's resin. 

This was my thought too. It would explain the firmness, yellowing and comparatively small size.

Edited July 23, 2024 by ragnamuffin
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27 minutes ago, BeyondTime said:

Is that vinyl or is it resin? My first thought was recast, but that's only if it's resin. 

 

13 minutes ago, ragnamuffin said:

This was my thought too. It would explain the firmness, yellowing and comparably small size.

That was my thought upon seeing the inside of the head, my friend is mostly convinced its vinyl though. I feel if it was a resin recast, the headcap would be connected via magnets or something similar to that, which is is not. As well the mold isn't one I recognize, which I feel recasters usually go for, but I'm not super familiar with the DD recast market, outside of Snow Miku being one they have? I'm not positive of really anything since I'm not seeing it in person but the size is a very good point that I didn't consider. I feel the smell and headcap are the main reasons I feel it is vinyl, but the head is apparently hard enough that they are struggling to tell. I figured the inside of the head was a modding incident gone wrong (I know some vinyl doll customizers will shrink the heads in acetone, which would explain the size and hardness) but the possibility of a recast is definitely there if it is resin. The fact that it is a mold that at least I don't think matches up with any of the main DD heads also makes me a little less convinced of a recast, because I haven't really seen a lot of modified sculpts for recasts (especially not one that matches the DD style, outside of Snow Miku but I may be ootl here).

If it is resin, I would have thought an older SQlabs head. They are, and were, messy on the inside and somewhat smaller than DD heads, (and they didn't close with magnets back in the day).
But not much else speaks for it. The nose being too wide is a major tell.

36 minutes ago, Yumeiro said:

If it is resin, I would have thought an older SQlabs head. They are, and were, messy on the inside and somewhat smaller than DD heads, (and they didn't close with magnets back in the day).
But not much else speaks for it. The nose being too wide is a major tell.

I was thinking SQ Labs as well as I was researching on my own but those are all really good points. Do you know if they wouldn't mark the outside like this? Or have the neckhole that DDs do? I'm not super knowledgeable on that company. And yeah, the face sort of reminded me of DD Miki but each feature is so unique that its just really hard to find an exact match (especially with the lack of information on the head itself).

@MagicalRozen is really good at identifying sculpts, so maybe she can help out here.

51 minutes ago, ragnamuffin said:

@MagicalRozen is really good at identifying sculpts, so maybe she can help out here.

Ask and you shall recieve. ☺️

DD Soryu Asuka Langley (Maid Dress Ver.) Would be my best guess.

(Photo credit PullipsandJunk)

Same mouth, same nose, same distance between the two. The eyes look a little wonky though on the mystery head.

14 minutes ago, MagicalRozen said:

Same mouth

The mouth on OP's head looks more puckered. Also the nose is wider. It is a pretty close match though. I don't think this is a DD head though. Or if it is a DD, it's probably a recast because a DD head would have the Volks writing on the back. 

1 hour ago, AveragePigeon said:

Do you know if they wouldn't mark the outside like this? Or have the neckhole that DDs do?

To my knowledge they never marked the outside. They have a goldplate on the inside.
The neckhole is like in the picture - same as Dollfie Dream.

Another thing I came to think of is that SQlab resin is quite thin...
But I'm ready to believe that it is indeed Asuka.

The lips are definitely thinner than Asuka's. I wonder if this is an original sculpt someone made independently? There's no Volks engraving on the back of the head. On the other hand the ears look like Asuka's ears, maybe it's just been modded/modded then recast to hell. I'm curious how the headcap attaches/looks on the inside.

Definitely not DD or SQ Lab. If it's vinyl then it might be an old Obitsu or Azone head, possibly from a character model or one with painted eyes that was modded. A Chinese knockoff/recast like Shuga Fairy is another option, they have done some recasts in vinyl that were frankensteined from several different dolls and modified head sculpts. If it's resin then it could be an indie artist head like Out of Base.

7 hours ago, MagicalRozen said:

Ask and you shall recieve. ☺️

DD Soryu Asuka Langley (Maid Dress Ver.) Would be my best guess.

(Photo credit PullipsandJunk)

Same mouth, same nose, same distance between the two. The eyes look a little wonky though on the mystery head.

I can definitely see it!! Good eye, very impressed at how well you can identify sculpts!

7 hours ago, mukyuu said:

The mouth on OP's head looks more puckered. Also the nose is wider. It is a pretty close match though. I don't think this is a DD head though. Or if it is a DD, it's probably a recast because a DD head would have the Volks writing on the back. 

The thing that makes me unsure of a recast is that (afaik) Asuka hasn't been recasted? From what I know, its been Miku, 04 and 06 that have been, but I may be out of the loop here, as I haven't looked deep into which vinyl dolls were recasted recently.

7 hours ago, Yumeiro said:

To my knowledge they never marked the outside. They have a goldplate on the inside.
The neckhole is like in the picture - same as Dollfie Dream.

Another thing I came to think of is that SQlab resin is quite thin...
But I'm ready to believe that it is indeed Asuka.

Some of the older ones seem to not have the goldplate, which this head does not. I'm pretty positive its resin, friend sanded a small spot on the head and the dust/way it sanded seems like its resin. I really feel it has to be SQ Labs if so, given how some photos Jadepixel uploaded on Flickr a while ago of their Kaoru look pretty close to the inside of this head (minus the mess of course).

2 hours ago, jadepixel said:

Definitely not DD or SQ Lab. If it's vinyl then it might be an old Obitsu or Azone head, possibly from a character model or one with painted eyes that was modded. A Chinese knockoff/recast like Shuga Fairy is another option, they have done some recasts in vinyl that were frankensteined from several different dolls and modified head sculpts. If it's resin then it could be an indie artist head like Out of Base.

Don't Obitsu/Azone neck holes have a different shape than DD? Not that it couldn't be modded to fit or the older ones having a different shape from the elongated oval shape that I've always seen for Obitsu, but I feel it would be very hard to do on vinyl. I went through pretty much every Shuga Fairy listing (since from what I remember, they had the widest selection of recasts, thus the most likely to find something there), and no luck. They had mostly 1/6 dolls and even the 1/4 ones just did not match in the slightest facially. Of course, there could be a recast that was taken down/one I missed but I just feel it doesn't make sense for it to be one? As well, the doll is pretty yellowed and I feel more leaning towards an older sculpt than a newer recast.

We are both a bit more leaning toward it being resin now, and my personal guess is SQ Labs. I feel she looks pretty close to Iris (SQ-10), 4-6 and 8 are also ones I feel are likely. They also sent me a video of opening the head and to me at least, it sounds closer to a resin head being opened? There is also a little ridge inside the headcap which I feel also would be a choice made when doing a resin doll. The headcap to me at least looks a lot deeper than any Obitsu headcap I've seen (grain of salt, as I have more knowledge with resin dolls but wanted to include pretty much all information here) but a little more shallow than a DD headcap. Unsure if seeing the inside of the headcap/size of it may help but some of the marks I'm seeing on the edge of the headcap look kind of like what a resin headcap with a bit of damage looks like.

Adding to this- side profile may be of help. I've been digging through Azone, Obitsu, SQ, any company I can think of but I feel getting to see the chin and nose from the side made it very distinct compared to the slender noses and barely any chin on a lot of DD/other vinyl dolls typically. The seperation between the nose and rest of the face also makes it maybe a bit more narrowed down?

6 hours ago, AveragePigeon said:

From what I know, its been Miku, 04 and 06 that have been

Not sure about 04 and 06, but Miku and Saber have been recasted in vinyl. It’s possible others have been recasted in resin in small batches and just never gained notoriety. I’m leaning towards that since it does indeed look like the Asuka sculpt, but the material seems to be resin.

It’s the weird lumpy appearance of the inside of the head throwing me off more than anything else. The eyes also look like they might have been modded, cos of how the edge looks, but it’s hard to say.
I am interested in sculpt mysteries like this so I showed the thread to some friends and they brought up that it could actually be vinyl that was given acetone shrinkage treatment. That would explain the size, the hardness and the weird yellowing if so, but not a lot else.

On 7/23/2024 at 8:55 PM, ragnamuffin said:

Not sure about 04 and 06, but Miku and Saber have been recasted in vinyl. It’s possible others have been recasted in resin in small batches and just never gained notoriety. I’m leaning towards that since it does indeed look like the Asuka sculpt, but the material seems to be resin.

That may be true? Honestly the material is such a mystery because there is kind of evidence for both. I feel the chin is a lot smaller for Asuka than it is for this sculpt, but I'm not sure.

23 hours ago, Monty said:

It’s the weird lumpy appearance of the inside of the head throwing me off more than anything else. The eyes also look like they might have been modded, cos of how the edge looks, but it’s hard to say.
I am interested in sculpt mysteries like this so I showed the thread to some friends and they brought up that it could actually be vinyl that was given acetone shrinkage treatment. That would explain the size, the hardness and the weird yellowing if so, but not a lot else.

Yeah exactly. I feel it has to be modding with resin or maybe acetone shrinking to explain the inside of the head's condition. The main theories right now are inexplicably a recast of DD Asuka or another DD limited sculpt (that is somehow old enough to be this yellowed and all the plasticizer leached out), resin head that has not yet been identified, modded DDH-09 that has been shrunk in acetone (suggested over on DOA) (I think this one is plausible honestly for the face shape).

On 7/24/2024 at 6:40 AM, Monty said:

It’s the weird lumpy appearance of the inside of the head throwing me off more than anything else. The eyes also look like they might have been modded, cos of how the edge looks, but it’s hard to say.
I am interested in sculpt mysteries like this so I showed the thread to some friends and they brought up that it could actually be vinyl that was given acetone shrinkage treatment. That would explain the size, the hardness and the weird yellowing if so, but not a lot else.

The yellowing and that makes me think it is definitely resin. I've been looking at the older SQlab heads and as @AveragePigeon mentioned it could definitely be Kaoru. But considering the quality of the cast (it looks lumpy inside and out) I really think it's a recast. 

10 hours ago, AveragePigeon said:

That may be true? Honestly the material is such a mystery because there is kind of evidence for both. I feel the chin is a lot smaller for Asuka than it is for this sculpt, but I'm not sure.

The head cap makes it unlikely to be resin. I'm guessing from the shape that it's squishy, and you have to squish it to get it into the head? A resin head cap would have a hook and a magnet to keep it held in place. 

16 minutes ago, BeyondTime said:

 

The head cap makes it unlikely to be resin. I'm guessing from the shape that it's squishy, and you have to squish it to get it into the head? A resin head cap would have a hook and a magnet to keep it held in place. 

It can still be a recast of a vinyl doll into resin. I would not be surprised if the headcap is sanded down to just slot in place (it can be held together by tape or a silicon cap - wasn't that what SQlabs did initially?).

I don't have any experience with vinyl that's been acetone-shrunk, but the sound in the video of the headcap coming off definitely sounds more like resin or a hard plastic, and it doesn't appear to have any kind of flex to it.  It seems like it's friction fit.  My Tinyfox dolls are ABS and getting the 1/4 size headcaps off is definitely a similar mechanic and sound.

I am kind of concerned about the mention of the head smelling.  Even my oldest resin doll at 20 years old does not have any kind of scent, which make me lean away from resin as a possibility unless it was cast using some kind of unstable formula. 

2 hours ago, Yumeiro said:

It can still be a recast of a vinyl doll into resin. I would not be surprised if the headcap is sanded down to just slot in place (it can be held together by tape or a silicon cap - wasn't that what SQlabs did initially?).

But is it squishy?

On 7/25/2024 at 4:53 PM, mmmuguet said:

I don't have any experience with vinyl that's been acetone-shrunk, but the sound in the video of the headcap coming off definitely sounds more like resin or a hard plastic, and it doesn't appear to have any kind of flex to it.  It seems like it's friction fit.  My Tinyfox dolls are ABS and getting the 1/4 size headcaps off is definitely a similar mechanic and sound.

I am kind of concerned about the mention of the head smelling.  Even my oldest resin doll at 20 years old does not have any kind of scent, which make me lean away from resin as a possibility unless it was cast using some kind of unstable formula. 

Certain types of resin have a strong chemical smell. Sometimes that's because the resin was mixed badly, but not always.

On 7/25/2024 at 6:32 AM, mukyuu said:

The yellowing and that makes me think it is definitely resin. I've been looking at the older SQlab heads and as @AveragePigeon mentioned it could definitely be Kaoru. But considering the quality of the cast (it looks lumpy inside and out) I really think it's a recast. 

It doesn't match any recast though, I went through quite literally every doll on Oueniefs page, and unless there is another big recaster that I should be looking through to try and get a more complete list (as from what I know, Oueniefs is the biggest one around/most complete catalogue), I feel it kind of is unlikely to be one for sure? And especially since it doesn't really match just one sculpt. I think honestly, it doesn't really 100% match Kaoru, especially with the nose? We've been studying a ton of sculpts the last few days and the very closest match (and these are still not exact) are DDH-07 and 09 (especially if viewed from the side). The dead give away for if a sculpt does or doesn't match was really the nose, ears and chin, as they're pretty distinct (and even if they were modded, which I believe the nose and chin were), the nose is more broad to the front than Kaoru, the lips and nose are different than Asuka, etc.

On 7/25/2024 at 9:32 AM, BeyondTime said:

 

The head cap makes it unlikely to be resin. I'm guessing from the shape that it's squishy, and you have to squish it to get it into the head? A resin head cap would have a hook and a magnet to keep it held in place. 

It is not squishy, I think earlier in the thread, I posted a video of my friend twisting it loose and it sounds very hard like resin. They cannot squish it, it is more of a twist it into place vs squish kind of head cap. The headcap is what is stumping me a lot too because it resembles a vinyl headcap but is way too hard to be removed like a vinyl headcap usually would be.

On 7/25/2024 at 9:57 AM, Yumeiro said:

It can still be a recast of a vinyl doll into resin. I would not be surprised if the headcap is sanded down to just slot in place (it can be held together by tape or a silicon cap - wasn't that what SQlabs did initially?).

It definitely could be, but I just don't know what sculpt it would match. I've looked through pretty much every recast and none match this head. It twists in and out of place, and it stays snug (but does get about a 1-2 cm gap between the headcap and head when held upside down, although does not come loose). It seems to stay completely in place when sitting up straight though with nothing holding it together.

On 7/25/2024 at 10:53 AM, mmmuguet said:

I don't have any experience with vinyl that's been acetone-shrunk, but the sound in the video of the headcap coming off definitely sounds more like resin or a hard plastic, and it doesn't appear to have any kind of flex to it.  It seems like it's friction fit.  My Tinyfox dolls are ABS and getting the 1/4 size headcaps off is definitely a similar mechanic and sound.

I am kind of concerned about the mention of the head smelling.  Even my oldest resin doll at 20 years old does not have any kind of scent, which make me lean away from resin as a possibility unless it was cast using some kind of unstable formula. 

That is really an interesting point, I did not consider ABS. That could also maybe account for the messiness inside the head, right? It is not a super strong smell from what they have told me but does smell up close.

On 7/25/2024 at 12:32 PM, BeyondTime said:

But is it squishy?

Not at all. It feels similar squishiness to resin, as in not at all squishy.

2 hours ago, Kemonomimicry said:

Certain types of resin have a strong chemical smell. Sometimes that's because the resin was mixed badly, but not always.

The smell isn't super strong, my friend said it smells vaguely like their garage kits when up close.

4 minutes ago, AveragePigeon said:

Not at all. It feels similar squishiness to resin, as in not at all squishy.

I'm really think recast, or maybe SQ Labs head. I have zero experience with SQ Labs, so I don't know what the inside looks like.