Smartdoll X Kotobukiya

CxlxVCxXEAAMzi4 by Sam Eustace, on Flickr

 

Announced I believe it was yesterday on Twitter. I'm really excited about this! Smart Doll partnering with Kotobukiya will allow opportunities so many new and amazing doll characters.

 

Does anyone else have any information on this so far or any thoughts on who potential girls and boys from this collab may be?

I am terribly cynical and just think this will end up with another "bishoujo" line of same-face generic sexy girls.....

 

come on Danny, prove me super wrong!

That is something I thought of too, I really hope that there will be many good things to come from this.

Maybe this means some Kotobukiya sculptors doing Smart Doll heads??

 

. . . shut up, I can dream!

What licenses does Kotobukiya have? I only know them for their mecha plastic model kits

What licenses does Kotobukiya have? I only know them for their mecha plastic model kits

 

Kotobukiya figures exist for everything from Mass Effect to Poison Ivy

...its kinda like asking "what colors does Photoshop have" at this point

The most interesting thing out of this would be Kotobukiya making their own "line" of Smart Dolls. The least interesting thing would be Smart Doll being sold at Kotobukiya stores.

 

It's interesting that Volks & Kotobukiya started out making plastic model kits and garage kits with their own stores (actually, not sure if "starting out" applies to Kotobukiya, but that's what they did). When the PVC 'revolution' came in the mid-00s, Volks went into vinyl dolls (convenient timing for them, having just got into the doll business), and Kotobukiya went into PVC figures. Kotobukiya always had fantastic sculptors, their PVCs suffer mainly for not having the finishing quality of Alter and GSC.

 

If this is about working with Kotobukiya's creative side, that's a huge gain for Smart Doll.

What licenses does Kotobukiya have? I only know them for their mecha plastic model kits

 

Kotobukiya figures exist for everything from Mass Effect to Poison Ivy

...its kinda like asking "what colors does Photoshop have" at this point

 

Those are properties in which Kotobukiya had a license to produce specific sculptures and figures. I highly doubt that they had free reign to produce anything they wanted with those licenses, and even if they did, I am certain their contract wouldn't have made it an assignable right that they could pass to Smartdoll.

 

Edit: Reading my original post, it probably sounded like I was asking what licenses Kotobukiya has worked with before. Apologies if I was unclear; I meant what IP Kotobukiya owned and could license to Smartdoll.

ummn does kotobukiya own any anime? im afraid its gonna be based on tony taka illustration, i love his design but same face for every girls was boring, and sorry for koto fans im not really a fan for their scale figure line, but i'll wait until danny reveal the project and then the prototype.

 

ill keep my excitement UNTIL danny announce

 

SM X ALTER

SM X MAX FACTORY

SM X NATIVE

Edited November 22, 2016 by Guest

I reaaaally wanna be excited for this. Kotobukiya has really stepped up their game in the last few years, and while still not perfect (no figure company is) they do definitely pump out some amazing designs. But....

 

I am terribly cynical and just think this will end up with another "bishoujo" line of same-face generic sexy girls.....

 

....that's exactly how I feel. Exactly. Danny really hasn't given us another reason not to think that either. :/

Maybe this means some Kotobukiya sculptors doing Smart Doll heads??

 

. . . shut up, I can dream!

 

Yes this! I doubt it....but this would be phenomenal!

Somehow this hasnt been posted:

 

I not too bad but eh...

Man, I don't like being a downer, but that looks...not great. Hopefully it just wasn't a flattering shot, but I can't help but feel that Smart Doll's foray into licensed characters have been a bit of a bust so far

so it SM X Koto frame arms girls, interesting, but not so excited about the face sculpt, curious about how danny will design the armor to be attach to the body.

I think the face is lovely! Might just be what I am after!

I wanna see more angles but I kinda like her.

To be honest I always liked a few of the character designs on those Frame Arm girls but I thought their joints were really ugly, (uglier than figma, even) so a smartdoll version will at least get rid of that problem for me. Dunno if I'd ever get one but I'm a lot more optimistic about this than Miho, although it helps that the character design isnt as painfully generic as hers.

EDIT- Since it wasnt posted yet here's some official photos.

Something I noticed...are parts of her vinyl skin black or is that an external outfit? It does look like she will have black hands.

edit: The back view pic does make it look like its part of her vinyl shell.

If he's able to make new shell pieces like this with bits and bobs on them (those things on her shoulder blades) I hope its not too long till we actually get some new sizes... still hoping for a smartdoll equivalent to the MDD/40-45cm obitsu...

 

EDIT AGAIN: This probably has a lot to do with the fact that Frame Arm Girls just got an anime announced today! That makes the release a little less left-field.

Edited November 25, 2016 by Guest

Here are some more pictures.

While the head looks new and I think it looks pretty good too, I can't help but think it *might* be a redone Chitose head due to the mouth and cheek areas. Either way I like her look.

 

As for the body mods ( attachments built into the actual vinyl torso ) I love it. If Koto wants these dolls made and they live up to their typical attention to detail, that means the actual Arms Frames will be made as weapon attachments. THAT would be awesome to see in my opinion. I do hope it happens as I'd like to be able to add some to my Smartdolls and DD girls. It would make sense to have those add on parts use the Smart Socket too since that got saved in the process of making the girl shown in the pics.

 

To me, it would be really cool to see 60cm versions of what is basically a Buso Shinki girl.

 

 

Billy

I'm such a sucker for this kinda thing that I can't help but get slightly excited (I can't help but hold back cause face molds never get there for me) to see where the line will go if this is really their plans. Oh, I'm just imagining the future possibilities for weapons....o3o I'm just in love with mecha-like things, including the Frame Arm Girls.

 

As for her face, she's fine looking. I do think she looks a bit like Chitose, and I am just not really a fan of the small, almost non-existing mouth look so her mold isn't interesting. I would have much preferred had they done Gourai with more of an action-ready face then the one they chose:

 

 

Though to be fair that kinda face is really quite popular along the line of figures (I think they just reuse the faces? It surely looks that way). oTL;

 

Anyways, personally I just would like Baselard. Lots of cool colors and oh-my-god that armor is something I'd love, love, love to see in doll form. Just maybe with Stylet's face, because again that small mouth plagues their designs. She's got a nice smirk/smile.

 

References for who i'm talking about:

Stylet: http://myfigurecollection.net/item/361377

Baselard: http://myfigurecollection.net/item/393980

While I do like the Mecha-Musume genre I feel like smartdolls are a bit too leggy for this line, as they were with Miho, I was hoping Danny would release a shorter body for the smartdoll before getting more licenses, or even just optional shins.

While the head looks new and I think it looks pretty good too, I can't help but think it *might* be a redone Chitose head due to the mouth and cheek areas. Either way I like her look.

 

As for the body mods ( attachments built into the actual vinyl torso ) I love it. If Koto wants these dolls made and they live up to their typical attention to detail, that means the actual Arms Frames will be made as weapon attachments. THAT would be awesome to see in my opinion. I do hope it happens as I'd like to be able to add some to my Smartdolls and DD girls. It would make sense to have those add on parts use the Smart Socket too since that got saved in the process of making the girl shown in the pics.

 

To me, it would be really cool to see 60cm versions of what is basically a Buso Shinki girl.

 

 

Billy

 

Its definitely a Chitose sculpt. It looks like my girl with a different faceup. I'm disappointed about that but at this point it's not surprising. At least this time the sculpt seems to be a pretty good match for the base art unlike with Miho, where the mouth and all worked but the eyes were wrong. I hope this doesn't happen too often.

Alright, the official pictures look a hell lot better than the first pics that surfaced.

 

I'm not sure if I'd buy one, but I definitely like this girl a whole lot more than Miho

She looks nice and if one didn't have a Chitose then she'd be a good first sculpt to have especially if one is interested in mecha girls. It's awesome that Danny's developing these girls and it would be interesting to see what weapons he comes up with for her to make her as close to the original. It'd be like having multiple KosMos DDs almost. I'd love to see one of these fully armed girls side by side with a 1/60 scale mecha.

More mech part crossovers with DD-style dolls? Is this finally happening?

 

Frame Arms Girls anime begins airing on Japan’s stations from April 4

There is a trailer on YouTube in KOTOBUKIYA TV channel (link above).

As I see, it's about moving and fighting SmartDolls

I think that this may substantially increase the demand for Frame Art Smart Dolls later...

 

And if SmD x Kotobukiya were to produce fullsets for SmD, we may see something like that:

 

http://en.kotobukiya.co.jp/product/product-0000002217/

 

in the future (bigger, of course).