The Facebook debacle & other issues

6 hours ago, Fluffybuns said:

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--

Why can’t he have one standard guy doll alongside his main girl. 

He's stated that they makes dolls for themselfs, and offer others to partake in the creations, basically. So we shouldn't complain, we should feel honoured at the very least... 🙄🙄
And he doesn't care for boy dolls, yes. But danny is not the one designing/sculpting ALL of the dolls, right..? So ??

Edited November 8, 2021 by Yumeiro

7 hours ago, Yumeiro said:

He's stated that they makes dolls for themselves, and offer others to partake in the creations, basically. So we shouldn't complain, we should feel honoured at the very least... 🙄🙄
And he doesn't care for boy dolls, yes. But Danny is not the one designing/sculpting ALL of the dolls, right..? So ??

 

 

It does seem fair to make them for themselves, even though it may seem selfish, they still give them out. 
 

And no, DC does not sculpt all the dolls himself, (if he does do all of them, dear god that would break him) at least from my perspective some of them (I.E Mirai, Chitose, and Kizuna) are his sculpting work, I think (emphisis on I think) Eiji was mostly his first time working with a male body, at least from personal sculpting and the release dates point of view. 

13 minutes ago, SonataAvalon said:

It does seem fair to make them for themselves, even though it may seem selfish, they still give them out. 

Yeah, but the attitude could be better. It's our fault we like/want a doll of theirs that they are already bored of - we should have gotten it while it was available for those 4 minutes, or made sure we had enough saved up money for a random/sudden release.
Or just because people want more defined dolls - like less flat faces, or real-ish noses - doesn't mean he needs to continuously shit on his customer-base to justify their style. "No current plans for x" or "we might look into y" is a more mature way of communicating. But structure and communication is not great in the land of Smartdoll.

From his perspective I can understand that creating the same sculpt over and over again can be boring. 

But instead of being annoyed by the high demand of certain sculpts he should be proud that those sculpts have that high demand and succes. Dolls that are sold out and still have the high demand are simply popular in combination with a great idea with a much better outcome. I think that some of them have a timeless design, but that is more a personal opinion and that that timeless feature can be used smarter.

The demand and popularity of his own products is in fact a positive thing experienced in a negative way. I somehow feel bad that his succes has a big negative impact on him personal. 

What I do admire (if true) is his respect towards the people who work for him. 
 

I hope that he someday also can enjoy the popularity of his products and realise that he doesn’t has to justify his actions towards anybody. 
In the end it is his company/ hobby and there is not a better person who knows best than himself.
But mostly, that he can enjoy his succes, without hating towards buyers aka fans aka people with interest who wishes the best for him and his company. In almost every social media post he starts positive and ends with hating towards buyers. There are a lot of positive points online about both Danny and the Smartdolls. I hope someday he finds them too.

rant modus off: I hope that Chitose without multiverse comes available somewhere in the future. 😅 Yep, for someone who respects Danny’s choices, this a really controversial question indeed about a re-release. 😁 

Edited November 8, 2021 by Rajke

4 hours ago, SonataAvalon said:

 

 

It does seem fair to make them for themselves, even though it may seem selfish, they still give them out. 
 

And no, DC does not sculpt all the dolls himself, (if he does do all of them, dear god that would break him) at least from my perspective some of them (I.E Mirai, Chitose, and Kizuna) are his sculpting work, I think (emphisis on I think) Eiji was mostly his first time working with a male body, at least from personal sculpting and the release dates point of view. 

DC does not sculpt anything himself. The person who sculpted the heads you believed to be his work is user DigitrevX, who seems to have left the project in part because DC kept trying to pass off DigitrevX's work as his own, lol.

 

Edited November 8, 2021 by Elagabalus
accidentally a word

 

 

 

oooooohhh

 

 

I never knew that. 

Edited November 9, 2021 by SonataAvalon
E

21 hours ago, Elagabalus said:

DC does not sculpt anything himself. The person who sculpted the heads you believed to be his work is user DigitrevX, who seems to have left the project in part because DC kept trying to pass off DigitrevX's work as his own, lol.

 

That explains a lot. 

22 hours ago, Elagabalus said:

The person who sculpted the heads you believed to be his work is user DigitrevX, who seems to have left the project in part because DC kept trying to pass off DigitrevX's work as his own, lol.

If that is true, then it’s a grimy thing to do imo. Even when something is a team effort I always credit the team, use “we” and not “I”, and if we put forward an idea that came from one person, I always give them credit. If I screw up, then I use “I”. Those are like the basics of the basics for responsible behavior towards your co-workers. 
 

All the stuff he spouts about bettering himself, and being better than the “entitled” and bullies from his past, is turned into a great steaming pile of horse$#!^ if this is true. 

It is true, the story about his OG sculptor quitting come up in this thread before too. It’s always been one of the things that irks me about Choo the most. A company doesn’t necessarily have to credit their sculptors but I think there’s a huge difference between the sculpt being credited to an entire company than to one single guys name (Danny Choo). It’s also why I find his ‘inspirational’ messages about you can do anything you put your mind if you ~try~ rather hollow seeing as he likes to leave out the parts about having a lot of money and getting multiple people to do the work for you.

I also just have to touch on his recent post about his ‘I don’t give haters energy and that’s why I made an entire product about haters’ haters gonna hate bracelet because the message really, REALLY bothers me.

Basically the message is ‘Having haters means you’re doing it right, if you don’t have haters you must be doing something wrong’. What a terrible philosophy. I understand and agree with stuff like ‘no matter what you do, you can’t please everyone’ and even ‘don’t let haters get you down as they are inevitable’ but the way he words this just sounds like you can excuse any terrible behaviour you want with ‘well as long as people hate this that means it can’t be wrong’. Any awful thing you say or do can be excused as long as people are upset and ‘hating’. Don’t ever apologise! By the same logic, if no one hates something it IS wrong?

I mean I know the whole thing is just him finding a way to monetise him doing the equivalent of that ‘I’m not owned! I’m not owned!’ dril tweet and it’s not that deep because he probably didn’t think about it very long but I still keep thinking about the terrible messages he gives to kids now that he’s marketing to them. 

Edited November 10, 2021 by Monty

2 hours ago, Monty said:

Basically the message is ‘Having haters means you’re doing it right, if you don’t have haters you must be doing something wrong’.

The definition of haters from him must have gone way off from what it supposed to mean. 
It does looks like to me that he pissed on others and make them "hate" him back for doing so. That is how the haters gathering around him I guess?

I wonder what he'd answer if someone asked why Smartdoll has haters.

No doubt he'd harp on about how his work philosophy's not benefiting consumers. He didn't even start boasting about his "employees first" policy till just recently. So I don't think that's even close to why there would be haters. So what are they hating on, Danny?

On 11/9/2021 at 1:10 PM, BeyondTime said:

If that is true, then it’s a grimy thing to do imo. Even when something is a team effort I always credit the team, use “we” and not “I”, and if we put forward an idea that came from one person, I always give them credit. If I screw up, then I use “I”. Those are like the basics of the basics for responsible behavior towards your co-workers. 
 

All the stuff he spouts about bettering himself, and being better than the “entitled” and bullies from his past, is turned into a great steaming pile of horse$#!^ if this is true. 

I'm fairly certain it's true. While DigitrevX's resume website doesn't mention SMD credits, you can find numerous references to his sculpting credits if you google his name + SMD (like in a guest blurb for a convention, etc). His post also speaks for itself wrt Danny trying to pass his work off as his own. 

19 minutes ago, Elagabalus said:

I'm fairly certain it's true.

I’m not trying to doubt any forum members, I’m just cautious because rumors do happen. The act itself does fit the mental picture I have of Danny at this point. 

My partner isn't into dolls, so only knows the bit of drama that I pass on, and even they rolled their eyes hardcore at the 'Smart Doll by Danny Choo' that's plastered all over the boxes and everything. When it comes off as disingenuous to people outside the scene, it says something.

...possibly because "[thing] by [dude]" is a common marketing phrase used when [dude] hasn't actually made [thing] but is lending their image to it. To be fair, at least Danny is more hands on than most "[thing] by [dude]" projects, as he's doing the work of a producer/project manager. It's cool when he shouts out and credits his staff though. I wish he would do it more often.

On 11/10/2021 at 3:07 AM, Monty said:

A company doesn’t necessarily have to credit their sculptors but I think there’s a huge difference between the sculpt being credited to an entire company than to one single guys name

Well as I've been more and less involved into bjd community since 2008, there hardly has been companies who would specifically have been mentioning their sculptors, especially in this kind of OMG I CREATED THIS WHOLE DOLL LINE context. Especially not any mention at all if you actually DON'T do the sculpting. I seriously cannot even this whole company now.... I'm shocked and incredibly happy that I decided to sell my SmD after all. 

Only bjd sculptor (and company owner at the same time) that I remember by name is Rainman of Elfdoll. And now that I put it in that way, it sounds like some Lord of the rings stuff.

Even the biggest companies don't bring one person above anything else like this. Obviously he doesn't care a shit about the fact that people think he's created all the sculpts and again, considering how big issues there's been in bjd community over the years regarding idea theft, claimed direct copies between companies, whole illegal recast thing... Even though this is vinyl side of the doll hobby, this is still handcraft and his total ignorance of crediting and lack of appreciation of other peoples work is horrible. Without the person who's made the sculpts, there wouldn't be any dolls to sell.     

Independent sculptors/makers are whole different world in my opinion and then it's very understandable to use/go by your name and underlining the fact that this doll brand x is my personal creation.  

 

*edit: And if it really is the case that somebody else has done all the sculpting work.... I feel really bad for them as he's developed so intense and toxic community that I believe that anyone who would make big public statement for the facts, would be shredded into pieces by the fanatic fans as the whole doll brand is so integrated to Bigshot himself. 

Edited November 12, 2021 by Akito

I know LUTS has started writing who did the sculpt and who did the faceup-design, in recent years. But they are still a company - It's a doll by LUTS, or Volks, or Fairyland. Not a doll by x-person.
"Designed by Danny Choo", sure. But I'm sure there are others who are involved in the design and creation too. It's hard when a company bear the boss' name...

Volks usually credits its sculptors, and sometimes they credit the outfit designers. They credited the person who did the face-up design for the Dollfie Icons too.

They credit the “Doll Design Department” in a lot of product pages as opposed to crediting the company president’s daughter who heads up that department. It often seems to me as if whenever you see the name of someone in the family it’s associated with a business announcement as opposed to taking credit for design. Presumably they do participate in the design of some of the products though.

This is my first post on the forum and I wanted to say that I'm both glad and sad that I found this thread. It's kind of tamping down my Smart Doll obsession, which will be good for my wallet! I discovered Smart Dolls only earlier this year and have already done a number on my credit card because I HAD to have Beyond, then Strength, then...   

Anyway, I noticed a post on Instagram by someone who had a particular Smart Doll (older, long discontinued sculpt) she really loved despite the fact that she "despised" Smart Doll (or at least the creator of Smart Doll).  

That was the first time I'd seen anyone post something like that about SD and DC and his company. 

I DM'd her and asked if she would mind telling me why she "despised" DC.  She touched on a whole lot of what was said here in this thread, especially in the first several pages.  I was kind of floored, even though I'd been following a couple of YouTubers - one in particular who seemed to have gotten seriously lucky with an "Only the Brave" order (I mean, from their reaction they had gotten seriously lucky) - who seemed to do a little too much gushing over DC. 

Now it sort of makes sense, possibly.  One of the things the Instagramer told me was that they'd heard that certain people are paid in dolls to promote the company and DC. She claimed that that's why it's hard to get a blue girl and only a very few "select" people have the large SDs.  🤔  

It's been over a week now since DC tweeted that three blue girls were going to go online. 

I'm realizing how real FOMO is and thinking I should give up on getting a blue girl after reading through a lot of this thread. Is it really worth the time, money and effort?

Innocence lost. 

10 hours ago, Vickie386 said:

This is my first post on the forum and I wanted to say that I'm both glad and sad that I found this thread. It's kind of tamping down my Smart Doll obsession, which will be good for my wallet! I discovered Smart Dolls only earlier this year and have already done a number on my credit card because I HAD to have Beyond, then Strength, then...   

Anyway, I noticed a post on Instagram by someone who had a particular Smart Doll (older, long discontinued sculpt) she really loved despite the fact that she "despised" Smart Doll (or at least the creator of Smart Doll).  

That was the first time I'd seen anyone post something like that about SD and DC and his company. 

I DM'd her and asked if she would mind telling me why she "despised" DC.  She touched on a whole lot of what was said here in this thread, especially in the first several pages.  I was kind of floored, even though I'd been following a couple of YouTubers - one in particular who seemed to have gotten seriously lucky with an "Only the Brave" order (I mean, from their reaction they had gotten seriously lucky) - who seemed to do a little too much gushing over DC. 

Now it sort of makes sense, possibly.  One of the things the Instagramer told me was that they'd heard that certain people are paid in dolls to promote the company and DC. She claimed that that's why it's hard to get a blue girl and only a very few "select" people have the large SDs.  🤔  

It's been over a week now since DC tweeted that three blue girls were going to go online. 

I'm realizing how real FOMO is and thinking I should give up on getting a blue girl after reading through a lot of this thread. Is it really worth the time, money and effort?

Innocence lost. 

Before I got banned, I was thinking of getting a blue girl, but I hadn’t, anyway, if you want to get Chitose Multiverse in blue you can email fabric friends and dolls to put you on a wait list but you’ll have to email her every once in awhile to check in because Danny hasn’t announced when he’s going to drop her, if he even announces the drop.

Edited November 13, 2021 by Guest

I emailed Danny and now he knows I have a Smart Doll, I told him I got her secondhand and posted a picture of her, I was trying to pretend to be someone else  and asked him a question, but he found out it was me. I’m kind of addicted to Smart Doll. I feel annoyed because I want to start collecting more Dollfie Dreams instead of Smart Doll. He knew it was me because I got sent a text from a number from Smart Doll or something, it was weird. I think I’ll sell all my smart dolls I got secondhand and use the money on Dollfie Dreams at least Volks is less strict. Danny scares me lol.

Edited November 13, 2021 by Guest

Sorry, I don't undestand how he found you out, can you be more clear?

2 hours ago, QueenAnna said:

I think I’ll sell all my smart dolls I got secondhand and use the money on Dollfie Dreams at least Volks is less strict..

Volks is a proper, professional run business, and they make a great product.  Nobody at Volks is going to get offended by a Twitter post that you make and then shadow ban you from making purchases.  There is a bit of an up front learning curve in getting started with Dollfie Dreams, but in the long run Volks a much better company to deal with than Culture Japan.  I mean, it's not even comparable. 

That said, you don't necessarily need to sell all your Smart Dolls.  I have one, and I keep her simply to have one in the collection.  While I'm not interesting in buying more, I'm keeping the one I have. 

12 minutes ago, That_Dollfie_Dude said:

That said, you don't necessarily need to sell all your Smart Dolls.  I have one, and I keep her simply to have one in the collection.  While I'm not interesting in buying more, I'm keeping the one I have. 

Like some have said here, and I wholeheartedly agree with them, It's not the doll's fault. 

If you like them, please continue to enjoy them! You mentioned getting yours second-hand? Then, "Shoe-San" didn't make much off of you then, did he? 

(Consider it "bonus points" then!!) 

4 hours ago, Testament said:

Sorry, I don't undestand how he found you out, can you be more clear?

I tried to buy a bracelet and put my new credit card info, but I put a fake name when I was trying to fill out the address when I was trying to buy the item and  I got the automated email asking if I got a doll then I sent a picture of one of the dolls I had gotten. I ended up getting a text from a phone number that said the order from the Smart Doll store was canceled. I only did it what I did because my friend said to try it, it was a stupid idea.

Edited November 13, 2021 by Guest

15 hours ago, Vickie386 said:

This is my first post on the forum and I wanted to say that I'm both glad and sad that I found this thread. It's kind of tamping down my Smart Doll obsession, which will be good for my wallet! I discovered Smart Dolls only earlier this year and have already done a number on my credit card because I HAD to have <redacted>, then <redacted>, then...   

<snip>

I'm realizing how real FOMO is and thinking I should give up on getting a blue girl after reading through a lot of this thread. Is it really worth the time, money and effort?

Innocence lost. 

No - if you want the dolls, plenty of people are selling them secondhand online. There's always going to be someone who buys one and decides they don't like it or needs money later. There are Facebook groups that include (but don't exclusively sell) SmDs secondhand, and those are great places to find a used SmD. I've already seen blue SmDs for sale there. You should also look into local doll clubs. You will likely meet people who spend little to no time online and therefore aren't aware of or a part of the online drama. Mandarake is also a good place to find SmDs. You can sign up for email alerts when they sell one secondhand - but be quick. They tend to sell out quickly, but I don't think Mandarake cares about Mr. $hoe's shadowban policy.

I believe there are at least two people who appeared on this thread mentioning what dolls they purchased (or intended to purchase) from SmD and were immediately banned by SmD. I suspect that someone (either Mr. $hoe himself or a fan) is watching this thread and banning people who appear here. Make sure whatever username or email address you use here isn't the one you use for ordering your dolls - even secondhand. Someone who loves to collect SmDs who sells to a banned person also risks getting banned - and that's policy direct from Mr. $hoe.

I know this probably all sounds a little ridiculous, but as others have pointed out - it's not the doll's fault (or the fault of all of the employees who make the dolls). It's only the company owner. While we rag on Mr. $hoe's business practices (but not his personal life or his kids - hands off on those), I don't think you're going to meet anyone here who tells you not to buy the doll.

People (including me) in this thread also suspect that Fabric Friends and Dolls has to follow the SmD shadowban list in order to remain as a SmD dealer. There's a past post of someone who tried to order a doll from FF&D and was asked about other email addresses. Another person tried to order a SmD from FF&D and was ignored completely. 

So - since you're here, you probably want to avoid mentioning when you bought the dolls you already own (in this thread) or any identifying info that might allow Mr. $hoe to ban you.