The Facebook debacle & other issues

22 hours ago, ebil said:

Double irony: I think much of his marketing strategy to loop in people who are otherwise unaware of large vinyl anime dolls existing  is an easily browsable English-language website. This makes the product seem less intimidating to learn about and acquire, compared to navigating machine-translated overseas sites like if you're after a DD, Obitsu, et cetera. Yet this clear-looking website obscures a great many tricky loops in buying a lot of SmD products.

One of the things that drew me to Smart Doll over Volks/DDs. Much easier to navigate. Also liked the "ready to buy" aspect opposed to pre-orders or lotteries etc. 

1 hour ago, ladyandlion said:

One of the things that drew me to Smart Doll over Volks/DDs. Much easier to navigate. Also liked the "ready to buy" aspect opposed to pre-orders or lotteries etc. 

I was drawn to smd  cause of 2017 Lelouch.   an then i saw Eiji an i went

 ga ga 

Edited October 26, 2021 by DollyDearest

It’s interesting how against preorders Danny is with regards to releases on SmD website, but preorders are clearly allowed via official dealers for certain dolls (not always in the open but asking is always a thing). 

Also going back in the convo a bit but boy he loves to go on an on about all the trips he takes his employees on. I just can’t imagine those as being relaxing for the employees???? I travel with my coworkers a lot on research trips and while I can enjoy a nice meal with them it’s not like being around friends. Especially if the boss is there I feel like ya always gotta be on best behavior to some degree.

I wonder if those trips are mandatory...

I wouldn't like to be on vacation with the same people I work with, even if I'm comfortable with them.

On 10/26/2021 at 7:45 AM, Testament said:

I wonder if those trips are mandatory...

I wouldn't like to be on vacation with the same people I work with, even if I'm comfortable with them.

I doubt it, since he mentions about how not all of them join. Now he still could have a mandatory team building vacation, but so far there hasn’t been any indication of that.

Let’s keep his kids out of it. They have no control over the stuff going on at Mirai Inc. 

I just meant that if something happened to his child/children it could explain why he has changed so drastically with his business, but I’ll stay off that topic then. No offense, just something I noticed.

On a different note, do you guys think DC will release more past Smartdoll pre-orders after Lelouch for his authorized resellers?

4 hours ago, Fluffybuns said:

I just meant that if something happened to his child/children it could explain why he has changed so drastically with his business, but I’ll stay off that topic then. No offense, just something I noticed.

It was the follow up comments that were getting a bit too close to personal attacks, but in fairness to the users whose posts were removed, I needed to remove the original text that opened the door on the topic.

It’s kind of like with politicians, we treat their children who aren’t involved in politics as off limits. 

No problem.

 

On a different note, do you guys think DC will release more past Smartdoll pre-orders after Lelouch for his authorized resellers?

 

I figured I’d add this at the end, so ppl can see it better.

oppies.   guess i got bit carried away.  my bad      sorry

 

Edited October 27, 2021 by DollyDearest

@Fluffybuns Since there is no rhyme or reason to his releases, it's hard to even guess...
I'd suspect that he might be ready to unveil C.C., so at the same time he'd open up for a Lelouch re-release. And Code Geass has it's anniversary in November, I think..?

4 hours ago, BeyondTime said:

It was the follow up comments that were getting a bit too close to personal attacks, but in fairness to the users whose posts were removed, I needed to remove the original text that opened the door on the topic.

It’s kind of like with politicians, we treat their children who aren’t involved in politics as off limits. 

sorry.   I got caught up in the moment.    won't happen again

7 hours ago, BeyondTime said:

It was the follow up comments that were getting a bit too close to personal attacks, but in fairness to the users whose posts were removed, I needed to remove the original text that opened the door on the topic.

It’s kind of like with politicians, we treat their children who aren’t involved in politics as off limits. 

Sorry, was making a small joke but I definitely agree to keep his children out of it. 

14 hours ago, sumdude said:

Sorry, was making a small joke but I definitely agree to keep his children out of it. 

same here.   oppies.    0 chibi's will be involved. 

On 10/27/2021 at 10:01 PM, Fluffybuns said:

 

 

On a different note, do you guys think DC will release more past Smartdoll pre-orders after Lelouch for his authorized resellers?

 

I figured I’d add this at the end, so ppl can see it better.

I HOPE so. An actual pre-order would be so much better than the random drops. At least for collaboration dolls.

I'm not actually counting on it though.

3 hours ago, Wasabi said:

I HOPE so. An actual pre-order would be so much better than the random drops. At least for collaboration dolls.

I'm not actually counting on it though.

amen

I actually low key wish I was into Code Geass, because the idea of buying a Lelouch and making a ton of prop pizza hut boxes is hilarious to me. XD

15 hours ago, Katsudon said:

I actually low key wish I was into Code Geass, because the idea of buying a Lelouch and making a ton of prop pizza hut boxes is hilarious to me. XD

brilliant!   💜   🍕

So I have been casually following DC's slow fall into...questionable business practices. Just to understand what was happening in the community and why people expressed more concerns about this company than any other. 

Finally, an insta post came along that I could not ignore. Took only about 1 hour for me to be blocked and the comment (I'm assuming) to be removed.

But I have many questions regarding this absolute level of hypocrisy. Small snippet of the portion of the post that caught my attention, and the comment that brought me the great honor of "hammertime" :

Edited November 4, 2021 by Ageha

Yep, you have to be extra careful around him. It’s like walking on eggshells with him. Especially if there’s a certain doll you are waiting to come out or just in case you ever feel like buying anything in the future from him. It’s basically a privilege to buy from him now. Most people would ignore such a comment, but he takes it personally and actively tries to take these people down. It’s funny he says there’s not enough time, yet maybe if he didn’t waste all his time banning ppl, maybe he could get something done. If you question him, all of a sudden it’s either an instant ban or his employees will be overworked. 

Well, in my case, I know his immature M.O entirely. So I actually kept count of how long it might take for me to receive the hammer. It was more of a social experiment than anything, and he played his role perfectly and as predicted. 

So, as it stands, DC wasted money, resources, and time on something certainly not worth the effort. Perhaps SmD should consider making those bracelets in human size. 

On 10/24/2021 at 10:42 PM, ebil said:

Maybe other people who used to browse figure.fm/doll.fm during the era when Danny had his customized Mirai DD can confirm my vague memories on this, but didn't Danny use to talk about how if/when he made his own doll line he'd do away with things like tricky or limited ordering?

Or perhaps I imagined this or am mixing it up with the comments people would leave on his posts.

But I thought that was something he disliked about DD collecting and would talk about being able to do better. In light of that, it seems ironic that Smartdoll sales and marketing has ended up like this -- if anything the rare and limited ones are much harder to get and require more FOMO-based action than LE or retired DDs >__< 

Double irony: I think much of his marketing strategy to loop in people who are otherwise unaware of large vinyl anime dolls existing  is an easily browsable English-language website. This makes the product seem less intimidating to learn about and acquire, compared to navigating machine-translated overseas sites like if you're after a DD, Obitsu, et cetera. Yet this clear-looking website obscures a great many tricky loops in buying a lot of SmD products.

You are correct. He absolutely said this and when he first started his business, he said he would do things differently than the ‘other’ company and make sure that his dolls would never be limited edition, would always be in stock or at least if you ordered they would be in a week to within a month.  But he started releasing more and more makeup variations on the few head molds and they all had new names/IDs. Things were growing too fast to keep the original promises.  Instead of slowing down to keep up with demand and come up with a workable business model, he tanked every idea he had in the works…from the robotic Mirai to Pocket Mirai to the Cortex that was going to make vinyl obsolete!!! 😂 Seriously though, putting aside all of his personal issues, I am so put off by all of the broken promises that he treats as if they never existed. Plus, he has made things so bad with the doll molds that no longer exist, no more of the original dolls, all of the chaos and garage crud, the super limited uber expensive stuff and more.

If he had stuck to his original gameplan, I think things would be very different perhaps even for him on a personal level. It is sad even though self-inflicted.

The worst is how he discontinues or products based on not true data. For example he wants to discontinue the large chest and push-up, because they don’t sell as well, but they are barely on sale so how could he say they do not sell as well when he barely sells them. Of course the medium is the most popular, because he always keeps them in stock. It’s the same with some of his dolls. I just don’t understand why he discontinues dolls that are popular. Also, many people want guy dolls, but DC obviously doesn’t care for them, so he punishes everyone by putting them in chaos and charging the same, if not more for people to put them together themselves. Why can’t he have one standard guy doll alongside his main girl.