How to: Dream Choice custom DDs

Introduction

Finally, Volks now has a service for new and existing doll owners to build a customized Dollfie Dream of their own! Volks has been doing this for many years for resin owners through the Full Choice System (FCS) and often tout it as the way for you to customize and realize your very own angel. Going through the FCS process in-store is a very personal (almost spiritual?) experience as you flip through the catalog with a Volks staff member, picking all of the options for your own personalized Tenshi. When you take delivery, there is even an option for a delivery/dedication ceremony for all the people who are receiving angels that day.

 

I'm happy to report that the Dream Choice is very similar to that process and Volks is finally giving their vinyl line almost the same pomp and cirbleepstance as the resin dolls! On a recent trip to Japan, I decided to go through the Dream Choice process at the Akihabara Doll Point. Since I don't speak any Japanese, I was worried that there would be language issues with getting it done. Fortunately, the person I talked to spoke English and was able to guide me through the process!

 

Big disclaimer:Dream Choice is only available in person at the Volks Doll Point shop in Akihabara. It is not available online or any other Volks location at this time! Unlike FCS, Volks does not have a published catalog (online or in print) of all the options for DC, making remote proxy purchasing difficult.

 

Requirements

• Appointments are not necessary, but may be recommended for weekend/peak times
  
• 40 minute time limit for option selection process
  
• 10-20 minutes for assembly process once selection is complete

 

Costs

The cost for this service is fixed based on the body size you chose. As of this posting, pricing is as follows:

• MDD - 53,000JPY
  
• DD/DDS - 56,000JPY
  
• DDDy - 58,000JPY
  
• Prices do not include 8% consumption tax, see "Saving money" and "resources" sections for information on tax free options for international visitors
  
• Volks accepts cash and many major credit cards for purchases at Doll Point Akihabara

 

Process

When you sit down and start selecting options, you pick the following items (in this order) from the printed catalog. Each option is detailed with pictures, but you can always ask to see the real item. Just remember, until you commit and purchase, you should not touch the parts!

 

1. Body type

• MDD, DD, DDS, DDDy
  
• Only the base bust size for each body type is included with Dream Choice

2. Body color

• Normal or seasonal color
  
• Semi-White is available October-March, Brown/tan is available April-September
  
• At this time, Brown/tan is exclusive to Dream Choice.

3. Head mold

• DCH-01 through DCH-10 are the same molds as the standard DDH heads available through Volks
  
• DCH-12 is the DDH-01 head with the mouth mostly removed
  
• DCH-13 is the DDH-01 head with an open mouth
  
• DCH-14 is the Dream Choice exclusive head mold, it only has one face up option at this time
  
• All heads have 3 or 4 different options for faceups that you can choose from, many of which are unique to Dream Choice
  
• There is currently no DCH-11/DDH-11 available, which is a D'Coord exclusive mold
  
• Sample pictures are in the resources section

4. Eyes

• You pick the style, color, and size of eyes
  
• Several styles and colors are exclusive to Dream Choice
  
• The staff member can show you what each type of eye/size would look like in your selected head to help you make a selection.

5. Wig

• You can use any standard wig or one of exclusives
  
• Some wigs are D'Coord exclusive wigs, but have special Dream Choice exclusive colors (and not available for purchase outside of the process)
  
• All wigs and colors are represented on models at the counter, but not all combinations.

 

During each step, you can ask the staff member to show you examples of the options. You can ask to see samples of heads, faceups, eyes, and wigs. They can even show you what particular combinations look like prior to finalizing your choices. If you seem unsure, the staff member will also recommend combinations that will fit well and look good based on some of the options you've picked.

 

Finishing up, taking delivery, what you get

Once you finalize your selections, the staff member will gather all of the parts for you and present them to you in a very nice box lined with flowers and lace. Unfortunately, you do not get to take this home. Once you approve of all the parts, he or she will assemble the doll for you on back counter and bring her back for final inspection. Since all of the heads come pre-painted, you can take your new custom girl home with you! The exception is if any of your choices are currently out of stock, in which case you can either make another selection or wait for your desired selection to come back in stock for later pickup. Depending on the item, it may be a couple days before restock occurs. This is in contrast to a Volks FCS, which typically takes months to complete as all dolls are made to order.

 

The box has some nice details and lettering on it to distinguish it from a normal bog standard DD box. The box is one-size-fits-all, so they pack MDDs, DDs, and DDDys in the same size box. This leads to some significant empty space in the box if you get MDD.

 

The Dream Choice girls comes with some extra dobleepentation in the form of your order sheet and the options you chose. The form is dated, numbered, and signed by the purchaser.

 

English readers rejoice! There is a little handout explaining the process!

 

Here is a handout (in Japanese) explaining the eye mounting system. It's different and probably makes it easier for the staff member to assemble, but I found it made the headcap slightly harder to put back.

 

Like all standard models, Dream Choice dolls also include the current version of the Dollfie Dream Concept Note and a slip/undies. Clothes, hand parts, and other bust sizes are optional extras.

 

Saving some money (duty free shopping in Japan)

Finally, foreigners purchasing at Volks have the option to request Duty Free payment! All you have to do is provide your passport to them and they will waive the 8% consumption tax for Japanese consumers. They will also attach some paperwork to your passport that you need to turn in prior to leaving the country. This goes directly at odds if you have a Volks Point Card and you'll only be allowed to do one or the other (Point Cards are only issued to people with addresses in Japan, Duty Free is only offered to those who are temporary visitors). Volks has a minimum purchase of 5,000 Yen to offer Duty Free, so if you buy a doll, you can also load up on various other items and have them count too! Certain items don't qualify for duty free, such as body stockings (no idea why) and some items not manufactured by Volks. The minimum is for a single purchase, so this would be a great opportunity to pick up those smaller things like wig spray, eye putty, option parts, wigs, outfits, Volks News magazines, etc.

 

Final Thoughts

Overall, it was very cool to go through this process. The staff member I had spoke some English and was able to get through the process easily. They have catalogs where you can pick each part, complete with pictures.

 

As for option parts, Volks keeps a stock of hands and busts in-store. The brown/tan parts are only available at DollPoint Akihabara! If you want to get option hands or busts for this skin tone, be sure to get them before you leave! They aren't available at any other Volks location or online! Of course, if you use a standard color, then you are good to go. ^^

 

Resources

• Volks page about Dream Choice, including samples of wigs, eyes, and heads (in Japanese): http://www.volks.co.jp/dolpo/dreamchoice/
  
• These are the heads that you can choose from for Dream Choice. Only one faceup is show for each, image is from Volks Newsletter 75.
  
  
• Japan Shopping Guide, including Tax Free information: https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2450_how.html
  
• Comparison between Volks Tan/Brown (DCH-14 head, DC exclusive eyes in gold, D'Coord wavy wig in DC exclusive color) and Volks Normal (MDD Illya)
  

Edited October 9, 2017 by Guest

Thanks for the write up. Still too bad that Volks hasn't released the options so we can have a proxy buy for us. I'm pretty sure I'd pick a DDDC only wig and eyes if I knew what they were.

Thanks so much for the information, asianed! I read your arrival thread for your girl too, but this is really nice and helpful.

 

Linda S.

galatia9

Thanks for the write up. Still too bad that Volks hasn't released the options so we can have a proxy buy for us. I'm pretty sure I'd pick a DDDC only wig and eyes if I knew what they were.

That's actually how my girl wound up being built... Tan MDD with DCH-14 head, Dream Choice exclusive eyes in gold, and D'Coord wig with Dream Choice exclusive color. XD

 

Thanks so much for the information, asianed! I read your arrival thread for your girl too, but this is really nice and helpful.

 

Linda S.

galatia9

 

You're welcome! I realized that the post in that thread would probably get lost, so I copied it out, made some tweaks, and gave it its own thread!

Maybe baldylox could sticky this thread? Quite a few people here visit Japan or will in future and it would be useful information to keep handy.

There are a couple extra references in the video for the choices you have.

 

: Sample pages for the DCH01 through 03 heads. You can also see the faceup styles that each of these heads are offered in, but the picture is small so making out the subtle differences may be difficult.

 

: These are all of the eyes and colors you can chose from! These are the exact pages from the order booklet in the store, nothing more, nothing less.

 

: Shows a couple wig styles available. Some of these wigs are D'Coord/Doll Point exclusive styles, the Dream Choice exclusive colors for each wig are denoted with a dot.

Then you can see the Ttype eyes? Are they cool?

But about the wigs, I get that it sucks if you'd want to see the selection so that you could place an order. In the shop tour video, at about

they show a view of the counter where they have Dream Choice heads on display. They have wigs on and some of them are the same style in different colours. I'd guess they're the exclusive wigs you can get through Dream Choice ('cause why else would they model them on the DC heads), so you at least get to see several of the wigs, if that isn't all of them. Would that help you at all?

 

The models on the counter represent at lesat one of each style of wig and one of each color. Some wigs are standard and can be bought anywhere, some wig styles are Akiba DollPoint Exclusive styles, and some colors are Dream Choice exclusive. For example, the wig that now comes on Towa was previously a D'Coord Doll Point exclusive style that you could only buy in the store.

 

The panning shot would give you a reference to some of the styles/color combinations. For example, at

, it shows you several wig styles from the catalog. All of the styles aren't listed, but you can see that they denote Dream Choice exclusive style/color combinations in the catalog. You also get a look at the T-type Dream Choice exclusive eyes (and their color combinations). From experience, the eye listing is exactly what you get to pick from in the store, so that's the one set that you can be confident and choosing just from the video.

 

They also only show you 3 of the heads, but the face up options for each head are present. It's pretty small, so it's a little difficult to make out all subtle the differences between them from the video...

i Wish I could go to Japan. This would be so much fun to do

Why didn't I see this post before! My life is so much fuller and better, now. ahah

I am planning to have a custom doll assembled in the near future, when the tan parts are available again.

But the real question, now, is... is there an online catalogue that is browsable to see the exclusive wigs/eyes/make up options for the heads?? This way I could send my middleman there, to get exactly what I want ^^ any help/tips will be much appreciated.

Thank you for posting the video and the timestamps! I love how different the 02 head can look with the different makeup choices!

 

It would be fantastic if Volks offered an online catalogue for overseas customers to look at, and doubly fantastic if some kind soul offered a proxy service!

Thank you so much for this!

 

Adding it to the list of things to plan / do when my family & I (or at least my daughter and I) finally make it over to Japan. Thank you! ♡ So many doll related plans ♡

Thank you for this!

 

I have a question: I've noticed on the video that M02 is missing for DC-H-01, have you an idea why?

I've tried to figure it out, and here is my conclusion. A DDH01 was available at an event with M02 make-up: http://www.volks.co.jp/htd_kyoto15/dcoord/

 

I think M02 is missing because it was exclusive to that event but I may be wrong. Some of the other make-up available at the event were from Dream Choice, like M01 for DC-H-02, or M03 for DC-H-03:

 

 

 

So I wonder if all the make-up seen at the event are available for Dream Choice except for DC-H-01 or not? Any ideas?

I never thought the video was supposed to be exhaustive, but its an interesting point. But I've never seen that pamphlet IRL so its difficult to say. I know they recently added a bunch of faceup styles it and they probably update the actual pamphlet as they do - but the numbering implies it isnt a new one (and its one I've seen on D'Coord before)

 

Unless there -are- faceups limited to D'Coords (which wouldnt surprise me if they plan to add a whole load of faceups because its just not feasible to keep all those in stock if they want to keep it as something one can do in 20-40 minutes), but...the D'Coord stuff unavailable in Dream Choice should just be heads 11 and 15 (and the uniforms, I guess, but DreamChoice DDs dont come with clothes anyway, only the slip dresses). Anyone going soon who gets a look at the actual pamphlet, let us know cos I'm curious about this now too.

I wish Volks would just release the pamphlet digitally so we can see all the options outside of Japan (It'd also make a proxy's job easier as we could tell them exactly what we want.). But I'm sure if we wait around long enough most of it will leak out. Someone should make a thread that has images of all the options that have leaked so far to give a better idea of what there is.

I wish Volks would just release the pamphlet digitally so we can see all the options outside of Japan (It'd also make a proxy's job easier as we could tell them exactly what we want.). But I'm sure if we wait around long enough most of it will leak out. Someone should make a thread that has images of all the options that have leaked so far to give a better idea of what there is.

 

Agreed on both counts, an official pamphlet or booklet would be brilliant but, if not, if someone was willing to go to the trouble of providing a thread with more detail for ordering via a proxy service that would be brilliant.

The problem is the pamphlet is updated every few months so even if there was one someone could photograph, it’d be out of date and missing a lot of options fairly soon. So I wish it was an online thing you could look at.

I suppose that the Dream Choice thing is meant to be a "fidelizing" reward for their in-store buyers, plus a way to promote they stuff on display for all the people that goes there: the moment they see in person the other merchandise their attention is cought to the point they will buy more.

In this perspective, an online catalog is pretty pointless.

On the other hand it would be VEEERY helpful for us, poor souls, on the other side of the world XD

The problem is the pamphlet is updated every few months so even if there was one someone could photograph, it’d be out of date and missing a lot of options fairly soon. So I wish it was an online thing you could look at.

 

Agreed, a regularly updated comprehensive guide to what is available/ possible would be brilliant, especially for planning ahead (aka. preparing the wallet)

Speaking of a guide. . . Tenshi-no-Mon is working on a Dream Choice Lookbook. It currently shows different makeup styles that have been released and the eye options available. Here's the link: https://tenshinomon.com/%e2%9c%a7the-dream-choice-look-book%e2%9c%a7/

Speaking of a guide. . . Tenshi-no-Mon is working on a Dream Choice Lookbook. It currently shows different makeup styles that have been released and the eye options available. Here's the link: https://tenshinomon.com/%e2%9c%a7the-dream-choice-look-book%e2%9c%a7/

It is actually pretty helpful, thanks for sharing