The Facebook debacle & other issues

9 hours ago, BeyondTime said:

I asked about that, and so far no one has reported getting a rock. The pebble idea may just be window dressing. 

It'd make a heck of an interesting paypal claim if he did mail someone a rock. And they wouldn't stand a chance.

oh man. Those pebbles went FAST.

Hopefully he'll release Gemini as normal now that he's gotten the whole Gatchapon thing out of the way but that was intense. They look like they released at about 5am California time and 8am Florida time. The roomie and I missed it because we where both sleeping. XD

It's a shame. We where up till like 6am. Guess we'll have to keep our eye on the re-sell market next.

Not to mention if its for kids why would you need a Chaos bundle or special portal. Talk about mixed messages on your demographic

He should sell things the normal way. As well as have everything be available to anybody.

 

 

Edited September 14, 2020 by BenjiTheSenpai

On 9/14/2020 at 1:56 PM, BenjiTheSenpai said:

He should sell things the normal way. As well as have everything be available to anybody.

While I do totally agree with you about selling things the normal way, I can also kinda see what he's doing from a business standpoint. 

As frustrating as it can be when we're the ones desperately trying to get to a specific product, people are still buying them so he knows he can sell them like this because they'll sell. It doesn't really matter what doll he puts into those Only The Brave kits. So long as he teases a rare doll or something he knows we're foaming at the mouth for, everyone's gonna jump on them. 

If the kits didn't sell well, he'd probably stop doing them. But they sell out within minutes, so he's being rewarded for his Gatchapon doll idea. 

2 hours ago, ButtonsMcGee said:

While I do totally agree with you about selling things the normal way, I can also kinda see what he's doing from a business standpoint. 

As frustrating as it can be when we're the ones desperately trying to get to a specific product, people are still buying them so he knows he can sell them like this because they'll sell. It doesn't really matter what doll he puts into those Only The Brave kits. So long as he teases a rare doll or something he knows we're foaming at the mouth for, everyone's gonna jump on them. 

If the kits didn't sell well, he'd probably stop doing them. But they sell out within minutes, so he's being rewarded for his Gatchapon doll idea. 

Well for Adult collectors I honestly have no problem with it for the most part.

I do have an issue though if he is stating this is for kids,  because that is all kinds of messed up.

While in Japan gatchapons are a thing, this comes off no better than lootboxes and encourages essentially gambling.  

Yes the parents may hold the purse strings in getting these imported but...man the audacity

I mean of course there are other funny shennanigans with being able to buy different bust sizes (yeah convince me that my offspring need to feel more comfortable with themselves by changing the bust size of a doll...) but yeah.

Business wise it's a good move to get rid of stock, and stage it in favor of high profile youtubers. Which @BeyondTime
I was more getting at, not to say Smart Dolls don't get favorable reviews in general but more getting those high profile Youtubers to subconsciously encourage gambling because they get good items.

 

 

 

56 minutes ago, Q_T said:

Business wise it's a good move to get rid of stock, and stage it in favor of high profile youtubers. Which @BeyondTime
I was more getting at, not to say Smart Dolls don't get favorable reviews in general but more getting those high profile Youtubers to subconsciously encourage gambling because they get good items.

Damn, I better get started on a YouTube channel then XD I'm sure the world would love my mix of leftie breadtube politics and doll stuff. Here's my video essay on the cultural legacy of Joey Tribbiani, and wow isn't this a cute doll. Oh god what is my life...

7 hours ago, Q_T said:

Business wise it's a good move to get rid of stock, and stage it in favor of high profile youtubers. Which @BeyondTime
I was more getting at, not to say Smart Dolls don't get favorable reviews in general but more getting those high profile Youtubers to subconsciously encourage gambling because they get good items.

Just for the record, I’m far more in agreement with you on all the things we’ve discussed here than in disagreement. Even the disagreements are more like nuances to the position rather than outright disagreement. That said, your point above about youtubers makes a lot of sense.

I’ve seen a lot of cases where businesses and personalities rely on youtubers to outright shill for them in order to make up for their well publicized deficits. (Not suggesting that Danny is using them as shills, it’s just an example of an extreme that I find within the YouTube community.)

 

7 hours ago, Q_T said:

I do have an issue though if he is stating this is for kids,  because that is all kinds of messed up.

The shift to a younger market is something that has been discussed here on the forum, and supposedly Danny is the source. I think it might have been earlier in this topic or it might be one of the topics on the News and Events side. 
 

9 hours ago, ButtonsMcGee said:

I can also kinda see what he's doing from a business standpoint. 

I think some of the things he’s doing may be tied up with recovering the financial investment from Cortex. At one point he told people it cost him as much as an office building in a pricy part of Tokyo. He may be looking for new revenue streams, and doing things like selling reject parts as Chaos Bundles, or selling prototypes for thousands, may be one way of making up the loss. That’s just my own speculation though. 

I'm going to outright say it. I don't care that you broke your elbow.

Danny has kept track of the link between online identities and addresses. It's how he black listed people in the very first place (the very incident which incited this thread). It's absolutely not a logical stretch to think he's doing the opposite with the gacha dolls; keeping tabs on prominent identities and subsequently rewarding them. Perhaps for marketing reasons, perhaps for other reasons, it's really not my place to speculate motive. Simply put though, I think your chances of getting a rare doll decreases as your online presence decreases.

To be exceptionally clear: I don't think these people (who I will leave unnamed) are in on this. I think this is all Danny's doing. The fact is I have yet to see a youtuber unboxing that has ended up being a duplicate or mainline doll. It could be that there isn't a large quantity of 'only the brave' dolls to begin with so there is a higher chance of them being rare. That's even more questionable though considering how much more lucrative it is for Danny to just put them in the prototype garage. Link is to the last prototype in the garage, a semi-real thick eyebrow candidate that sold for a whopping $1,986.32. The semi real Mirai listed before it sold for a similar price.

The reason I believe this is something important to point out on this thread is simply to warn potential smart doll owners of two things. One, your personal chances of getting a doll other than a mainline character in these loot boxes are extremely slim for reasons other than luck. Two, and most importantly, Danny does have motivation to connect your online identity (handles and usernames) to your purchases (address and real name) and has a history of doing so.

What I think is going to make or break my theory is finding out who gets the coveted blue dolls. Eyes peeled...

Oh, I see. I don't sell things, so I didn't really get it...

Thanks though!

1 hour ago, sunlightandtea said:

What I think is going to make or break my theory is finding out who gets the coveted blue dolls. Eyes peeled...

The 2 blue dolls that he announced would be in the pebbles both went to peeps who had the Smartdoll Plus.

IG handles are doramukan04 and loganscottage.

Not so much "only the brave" then as it is 'only the chosen' 😕

Just now, Katsudon said:

Not so much "only the brave" then as it is 'only the chosen' 😕

So he chooses people that can have that? If that's true, then it's a shame...

29 minutes ago, bbotss said:

The 2 blue dolls that he announced would be in the pebbles both went to peeps who had the Smartdoll Plus.

Have there been owner photos?

If he really is (somewhat) playing favorites as far was who's more likely to get the rare or sought-after dolls from the Only The Brave option, it wouldn't surprise me in a general sense -  I remember back when subscription boxes were the thing to buy, especially the nerdy/anime/gaming related ones, the boxes that [insert famous/popular YouTuber and or social media influencer here] would get always had the best possible items you could get, while nearly everyone else would get "junk" items by comparison. It was especially noticeable when the Youtuber or influencer would continue to get the same subscription box and would still somehow be "totally lucky enough" to get the best items available.

I really want to hope and believe Danny isn't (intentionally) doing that, but I do admit it is an odd coincidence if it's mainly popular, well known, and or high-spender customers that are getting the rare dolls.

 

22 minutes ago, BeyondTime said:

Have there been owner photos?

Of the blue dolls? I know I came across one of the two mentioned accounts a few days ago, and saw multiple pictures of the blue doll that certainly looked like they owned the doll.

Now that I think about it: Did Danny mention that only one of the blue doll(s) would be in Only The Brave (like literally only one _________ doll would be in it), or did he mention or imply there would be multiples of the same blue doll(s)? I was under the assumption that there'd be at least a small handful of each being added into the entire OTB possibility mix.

Edited September 16, 2020 by HanaLuka

 I noticed this too a while back on Facebook. The people getting the blue dolls were more prolific in the community, and I thought huh, that doesn't seem to....random. But I thought I was just overthinking things, nice to know other people noticed as well. If this is the case, thats just....gross. Then he goes out of the way to shame people who "complain" that they got the same doll when it turns out it was never random in the first place???? 

7 hours ago, Q_T said:

Well for Adult collectors I honestly have no problem with it for the most part.

I do have an issue though if he is stating this is for kids,  because that is all kinds of messed up.

While in Japan gatchapons are a thing, this comes off no better than lootboxes and encourages essentially gambling.  

Yeah, for Adult collectors it totally makes sense. And honestly I'm pretty sure that's what he's aiming this at. He keeps claiming his stuff is for kids, but his business practices don't reflect that. 

I do agree with you about the whole changing of the boobie size thing. That's not something for kids at all, nor was the original version of some of those busts having really present nips. I'm honestly pretty sure he had those there because this was more for adults to build their characters and their anime waifus than for children to enjoy. I'm not really sure why he went that way business-wise because honestly it's easier to make money off of adults who are willing to spend big bucks to have their pretty girl than a kid who has to beg mommy and daddy to buy it for them. 

 

As for the Gatchapon thing, gambling IS a big thing in Japanese culture. They like the thrill of it. That's why there are so many lotteries for items in Japan. The last time I went I kept finding myself being kinda disappointed when I'd go into stores like Animate or things like that because they'd have REALLY cool anime merch that you could only try to get through a lottery system instead of outright buying it. It almost seems like Danny's trying to emulate that. Again, I'm pretty sure this aspect is aimed at the adults rather than the children.

 

5 hours ago, BeyondTime said:

I think some of the things he’s doing may be tied up with recovering the financial investment from Cortex. At one point he told people it cost him as much as an office building in a pricy part of Tokyo. He may be looking for new revenue streams, and doing things like selling reject parts as Chaos Bundles, or selling prototypes for thousands, may be one way of making up the loss. That’s just my own speculation though. 

Yeah that would make sense. Kinda like he's also trying to sell the slush molds themselves. It might also be him trying to get his money back from Cortex, AND him trying to make the revenue that he normally would have made face-to-face. Corona shut down his storefront, after all. He did seem to make a pretty good amount of money from people who'd go into the store. While they can still buy online, some folks might be holding out on buying the dolls just yet (unless it's a special release they've been waiting for or something like that) until they can go to the store again so that they can save on the shipping. 

While the DHL has been really fast (I got my last doll in 2 days flat), it adds up if you're making a lot of purchases. If the locals want something like just a hand pack or a t-shirt, it makes no sense to buy just that and pay a flat $30 in shipping. 

So he's possibly tying to make up for that loss as well.

11 minutes ago, ButtonsMcGee said:

The last time I went I kept finding myself being kinda disappointed when I'd go into stores like Animate or things like that because they'd have REALLY cool anime merch that you could only try to get through a lottery system instead of outright buying it.

Some of the lottery stuff is the nature of product manufacturing in Japan. The country is 87% mountains, so most of the people live along the coastline. There isn’t a lot of space for big warehouses to hold piles of unsold merchandise, so they produce stuff below demand and then sell it by lottery. 

4 hours ago, BeyondTime said:

Have there been owner photos?

Yes, both posted on their IG.

3 hours ago, HanaLuka said:

Now that I think about it: Did Danny mention that only one of the blue doll(s) would be in Only The Brave (like literally only one _________ doll would be in it), or did he mention or imply there would be multiples of the same blue doll(s)? I was under the assumption that there'd be at least a small handful of each being added into the entire OTB possibility mix.

I think he mentioned 2 of the 3 prototypes he displayed would be in pebbles. I don't think there are multiples of blue dolls yet but I can't say for sure.

Edited September 16, 2020 by bbotss

 

10 hours ago, bbotss said:

The 2 blue dolls that he announced would be in the pebbles both went to peeps who had the Smartdoll Plus.

IG handles are doramukan04 and loganscottage.

 

Are you sure ? 

Nothing to add... 

 

 

Edited September 16, 2020 by Dollphoshots

46 minutes ago, Dollphoshots said:

 

 

Are you sure ? 

Nothing to add... 

 

 

Yes. They posted their blue girls on their IG. You can see their Plus girls on those accounts as well.

Danny Choo cancelled a girl's order after asking her in DMs for which Smartdoll it was, to which she answered "MDD", he said "Sorry, our articles are only for Smartdolls"

Her insta handle is Macar00ni (for the full story)

Edited September 16, 2020 by AtelierMoe

20 minutes ago, AtelierMoe said:

Danny Choo cancelled a girl's order after asking her in DMs for which Smartdoll it was, to which she answered "MDD", he said "Sorry, our articles are only for Smartdolls"

Her insta handle is Macar00ni (for the full story)

Should Smartdoll products be used on or hybridized with DDs, the creator's blood will turn to lava in his veins and he will be slowly consumed by flesh-eating bacteria until he expires in excruciating pain.

I wish someone would make a Smartdoll Lovers group where every photo MUST include BOTH a Smartdoll and a doll from another company.

I found her IG post:

My vague theory on the "trying to look more child-friendly" thing is that a lot of younger girls kept dragging their parents into the SmD store because they saw the pretty dollies and he figured out he could make a lot of money off of appealing to kids of rich parents/tourists who weren't thinking too much about shelling out $500+ on a doll. Doll Youtubers popular with the kids might also have helped, as would the diversity thing - parents of kids with skin conditions or black/dark skinned people living in Asian countries would probably be willing to spend extra on a doll that looks like their kid if they don't have other options.

3 minutes ago, bbotss said:

Should Smartdoll products be used on or hybridized with DDs, the creator's blood will turn to lava in his veins and he will be slowly consumed by flesh-eating bacteria until he expires in excruciating pain.

I wish someone would make a Smartdoll Lovers group where every photo MUST include BOTH a Smartdoll and a doll from another company.

 

I mean, we could probably make a "SmD + other dolls" thread somewhere on the forum.