The Facebook debacle & other issues

Sigh. So much bs lately. The boys in the garage sales upset me alot, one of them I really wanted. I think it was the guys Hiroshima jeans that he was feature wearing, but you could only really see the very bottom of his face.I wasn't even sure if he was real but I had planned to ask Danny about him if I ever got the chance to visit the Mirai store.(my thinking was of these kids ,who, their mom asked Danny about a cocoa boy and they ended up with one in the old skin tone. Take this with a grain of salt because this was like 3 years ago, and I could be forgetting something.) Its sucks because it seems like that was the only one in the Crimson/Eiji sculpt and I really like it alot... Also the ones with bigger eyes ( It looks like the Suzaku sculpt)  are so cute, there's so many of them we don't know about. Hopefully he releases more soon, but as he's making things for himself, I don't count on it. 

Edited October 4, 2020 by Mame
Spelling @-@

1 hour ago, Gabihime said:

I meant factoring in buying a smart doll to get the privilege of buying a he pebble.  For someone who doesn’t currently have a smart doll and wants to buy a boy smart doll as their first.  Unless I am completely misunderstanding my reading and you don’t have to currently have a smart doll to buy one of the Only the Brave.

Oh okay gotcha. Some wires got crossed on my end. Sorry about that.

In theory there might be a regular guy drop in uh... I think March or April? I think it was April because if the correlation to new beginnings. Assuming things go back to some semblance of normal next year, of course. Hopefully they can do the pre-order thing like they planned for this year before the post was shut down. 

7 hours ago, LuluChan said:

Sorry for the double post but I saw this Instagram post about the gatekeeping and I can't get over how he says he must do this because many people give a wrong email or adress. Does he think everyone who's not his client is dumb? Is he implying it? Does he think we're all dumb and we don't know it's just gatekeeping and elitism? I don't know how to feel about that. 

 

Sending confirmation emails when a new person signs up to an online store is normal. Little optional surveys like "How did you discover our product?" are normal. Forcing people to answer questions and banning them from the store if you don't personally like their responses is not normal.

7 hours ago, Gabihime said:

  Volks finally understood that by making DDB and DDSB, which you can build through DDC, but for more muscular dolls, our option is now only Vindoll, which isn’t a purely anime aesthetic.  I’m really happy that Vindoll exists because it fits my aesthetics perfectly, but I love ojisan, and not everyone does.  I asked Granado if they would consider crowd funding for vinyl doll bodies of some of their other resin doll bodies, and they said they were interested, it’s just difficult to do vinyl during COVID19.  I think the Zen, Adagio, Supermodel, and Lads bodies in vinyl would do a lot for women collectors, and I hope that once manufacturing becomes more normalized, we get a chance to have these.  

OMFG yes. Especially if they recreate some of the current 31cm boy sculpts in vinyl, and make one with a thinner neck that would look good with standard DD heads (probably Zen).

1 hour ago, Zippercore said:

Oh man, really? Because last time I looked, DDC boys were ¥61800 if you just happened to walk into Doll Point, and proxies charge at least ¥10000 more from my understanding? I'm not sure if that includes shipping. My He Pebble was ¥56000 before shipping. The biggest pain was having to sit and stalk the page all night for weeks. 

Honestly, I think having the option available year round, the amount of customization you get, and the fact that you don't have to jump through a bunch of hoops/buy something else you might not want to be able to have a chance of getting them in the first place makes the extra $ more than worth it.

26 minutes ago, monkeypizzasonic said:

Honestly, I think having the option available year round, the amount of customization you get, and the fact that you don't have to jump through a bunch of hoops/buy something else you might not want to be able to have a chance of getting them in the first place makes the extra $ more than worth it.

 

2 hours ago, Yumeiro said:

Nah. As far as I remember, two of each (shoes, pants, tops). Not counting the items that can be shared, like hoodies. So no real dedication toward the boys

Volks makes a lot of boy clothing for the SD line, but not a lot of stuff specific to their vinyl line. Some of the nicest boy outfits are specific to SD16B/SD17/SDGOU and are going to be way too big for DDB. Case in point is the double breasted  suit they are selling on Oct 10th, the jacket has a beautiful cut, but it’s too big even for my SD16G. 

Tempted to buy it anyways just in case they make Kristoff, he’s probably the only resin boy I would even consider buying. 

28 minutes ago, monkeypizzasonic said:

Honestly, I think having the option available year round, the amount of customization you get, and the fact that you don't have to jump through a bunch of hoops/buy something else you might not want to be able to have a chance of getting them in the first place makes the extra $ more than worth it.

That's fair.

I guess the main reason I don't have as much of an issue with the seasonal thing is that it gives me time to save up and plan, kind of like when resin companies have their seasonal releases. Gemini was a weird fluke that got messed up because of the pandemic (and as a result, my poor guy still doesn't have clothing really lol). If I know roughly that the guys typically drop in spring, it's easier to prepare.

I know Danny can change things on a whim, but considering I've watched resin companies randomly discontinue things with zero warning, it's kinda par for the course in the overall doll hobby for me lol

1 hour ago, monkeypizzasonic said:

Sending confirmation emails when a new person signs up to an online store is normal. Little optional surveys like "How did you discover our product?" are normal. Forcing people to answer questions and banning them from the store if you don't personally like their responses is not normal.

A confirmation email when signing up is normal, and optional surveys with that sort of question are normal, too. What he does are neither of those things... It's not normal to hold the order hostage unless the answers satisfy the CEO of the company personally. Also I have yet to see any other shop where a person confirms your order manually or else it doesn't ship (it probably exists but I haven't encountered it yet, that's why I'm so shocked). I don't think I've even seen bot emails asking you to click and confirm your order manually after paying, or else it doesn't ship.

If at least he was honest about the reason, I don't think it would bother me this much. But he pretends it's because people are dumb and can't spell their adress, when in reality he just cancels any order that's not made thinking Smartdoll is the absolute shit and the one and only, the best, doll brand (for example: the latest fiasco of someone ordering accessories for an MDD and he canceling it). 

On the topic of boys, didn't he once say he didn't like making boys because it doesn't cater to his personal taste? As in, he's not attracted to boys so he'd rather make pretty girls than have to ugh think about making attractive boys (#nohomo). Or was that something I read on this thread that was speculation?

47 minutes ago, LuluChan said:

On the topic of boys, didn't he once say he didn't like making boys because it doesn't cater to his personal taste? As in, he's not attracted to boys so he'd rather make pretty girls than have to ugh think about making attractive boys (#nohomo). Or was that something I read on this thread that was speculation?

No. That is what he said.
But, nah, apparently it is all because they don't sell well. 🙄
 

50 minutes ago, LuluChan said:

But he pretends it's because people are dumb

I feel this is the overall thing he reverts to. On the topic about the accessories order for MDD again, what if I'd want to purchase some and customize for another sized doll. No matter how much of a waste my attempts would be to do so, Danny shouldn't get to cancel the order, before I even get the chance to try, right?
If I complain about the item, it should reflect on me for thinking I'd be up to the task, or that the item would work out as planned, despite not supporting that doll size. Yeah, I'd be the dumb one!
Instead it's assumed people are dumb by default - and that reflect poorly on all of CJ.
 

1 hour ago, BeyondTime said:

Volks makes a lot of boy clothing for the SD line, but not a lot of stuff specific to their vinyl line.

Is there lots of complaints about how their boy vinyl line doesn't sell well enough to keep/persue?

32 minutes ago, Yumeiro said:

Is there lots of complaints about how their boy vinyl line doesn't sell well enough to keep/persue?

I don't believe so, but they don't make a lot of Limited edition Vinyl Boys. A very logical one to make would be Mamoru from Sailor Moon, he's one of the original team members after all, but there is a very good chance that they are done with Sailor Moon at this point.

2 hours ago, BeyondTime said:

I don't believe so, but they don't make a lot of Limited edition Vinyl Boys. A very logical one to make would be Mamoru from Sailor Moon, he's one of the original team members after all, but there is a very good chance that they are done with Sailor Moon at this point.

Did they do any SM stuff? If volks holds any license on SM dolls in vinyl, which wouldn't be that weird, then I wouldn't expect mamoru. 

 

He pebbles are being sold as fast as they are out. So probably gemini in cinnamon would sell anyway.i would expect more of a problem with meeting demand, so it's easier to release them as a drop than get out of stock label and questions when they will be back. 

54 minutes ago, forged_in_mess said:

Did they do any SM stuff?

https://dollfie.volks.co.jp/dd/special/sailormoon/?_ga=2.225565914.137568693.1601851785-1617893866.1591458710

Mamoru, Chibi-Usa and the Outer Senshi have always been seen as long shots. Maybe when Sailor Moon reaches it's 30th anniversary, but even that is debatable.

I was just pointing out that Mamoru would be a logical male doll to make, and so far he hasn't been made. They made Len & Kirito, and that's it.

59 minutes ago, BeyondTime said:

https://dollfie.volks.co.jp/dd/special/sailormoon/?_ga=2.225565914.137568693.1601851785-1617893866.1591458710

Mamoru, Chibi-Usa and the Outer Senshi have always been seen as long shots. Maybe when Sailor Moon reaches it's 30th anniversary, but even that is debatable.

I was just pointing out that Mamoru would be a logical male doll to make, and so far he hasn't been made. They made Len & Kirito, and so far that's it.

They also made 9S, and proxy fees aside you can reliably get a boy via Dream choice without having to play weird games and miss out anyway.

The smartdoll boys are a sore spot for me specifically because they’re actually the reason I even got into this Big Doll hobby back in 2015. I was following that development thread really closely before Eiji was released and there was a lot of excitement about it, because Len hadn’t been released yet (only announced, and there was a lot of speculation as to whether he was truly going to come on a boy body or not). Danny talked a LOT about how customisable eiji was going to be, there was so much planned for his release that made me really excited. He was supposed to debut with a bunch of different coloured wigs in different styles, and various coloured eyes, so that people could customise him. I remember a lot of the prototype wigs that were shown and I even saw some of them in person. I think there were prototype outfits made too. 
But it kind of all fizzled out, almost none of that stuff was ever released (I think two wigs did make it, a red and blue, and they didn’t seem to hang around long).  He seemed to care less and less about them, but also seemed to blame the fans for his lack of popularity despite the fact that he would never advertise them, let them model stuff or take them out on his various travel photo trips (I think he did this with Eiji once....?) Literally it was like that one meme, Danny shooting Eiji and then turning to the audience and saying ‘why don’t boy dolls sell?’

I don’t necessarily think Danny owed me any of that stuff that was ‘promised’, but I was new to this then, and made the assumption that if a CEO teases a bunch of stuff and talks about how it will happen then it will happen. After a while I quickly realised that those kind of things are less ‘promises’ and more Danny thinking aloud and not actually confirming a product will come out at all. (Which is still confusing to me, but whatever). But I know I wasn’t the only one very let down by how the whole Eiji thing was handled. It’s a moot point to me now anyway given how suddenly and sharply I fell out of love with mine (and it really didn’t help that Danny suddenly redesigning him and cancelling the old one made it seem like he agreed with my growing suspicion that the sculpting on OG eiji’s face was...not good), but it really sucks for the people who looked forward to it.

Ironically the DD Dream Choice boys are almost like what Eiji was originally touted to be. Choose your eyes and wig and make the boy you want. And yes, it’s true that Volks don’t really spotlight the boys much either, which is also frustrating to me. They’re pretty slow and cautious about trying new things anyway, and their rolling out has been a slow journey since Lens release in 2016. I definitely do think they don’t sell as well, but they also need to put them out there more - the difference if Volks have actually been making steps at that - the boys tend to appear modelling unisex outfits in Volks News a lot more now and this year there’s even been some that seem to be more for them than the girls (like the tuxedo and street wear). Hopefully they do add the bodies as standard and able to be purchased separate, or even add a standard boy character, and then they’ll be even easier to get.

The slow pace and extra step necessary with Volks is frustrating but compared to getting passive aggressive jabs about how I must not care about the product, snarky warnings to not buy it because no I will not fix the known flaws and if you have a problem with that then I guess you don’t really want boys, having to be an existing customer to get even the opportunity to have a doll I can’t even choose which may or may not have product flaws but is non refundable and I still need to be online at the very minute it goes up with no warning, or the opportunity to pay $1000-2000 for...a doll with a head that isn’t even cast in cocoa vinyl, but 3D head painted brown...it feels like I’m at least given some respect as a fan of male dolls. 

Edited October 4, 2020 by Monty

21 minutes ago, Monty said:

They also made 9S

You're right, I forgot all about 9S.

 

23 minutes ago, Monty said:

the boys tend to appear modelling unisex outfits in Volks News a lot more now and this year there’s even been some that seem to be more for them than the girls (like the tuxedo and street wear).

They've never lacked for male outfits for the SD line, but Tenshi no Koromo seems to be much more about the girls. Of course with a lot more girl DDs out there, it makes a lot of sense that male outfits aren't going to be as prevalent.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CF6jaiphMVe/

Well, I figured out where some of the blind box/garage kit money is going to. IDK how much of a problem the old stands actually were, hopefully the new ones are worth the extra money?

I think the male outfits that Volks makes for boys are generally excellent.  I own a lot of them.  They’re not in the Koromo line, but that’s fine.  The aesthetics of each clothing line is different.  Sure, there are very cool outfits that come out for the SD17, because that’s the flagship male resin doll for Volks.  It’s not really possible to make things like regular suit jackets that fit the 17 and the 13/DD boy both, but basically every release of clothing, Volks habitually does make it for 17 and 13, just in slightly different styles, so that if you have a 13 and a 17, you can coordinate them without it looking like a doublemint ad.  I would love to see more clothes for boys in the Koromo line itself, but it’s okay if they don’t have the extra funds for it.  I would like to see more specifically DDP stuff though.

About the cost of DDC, after my husband’s trip to Japan this January we came to a startling conclusion, and that was that it was much more worth it to just go to Japan to buy all of our goods than doing the con circuit in the U.S.  I’m just planning to do a DDC (or two?) whenever the world returns to some kind of normal and there is (safe) travel again.  I have very delicate health so who knows when that will be unfortunately.

I hope DC does eventually do reasonable preorders for male dolls, but I’m just extremely cautious given how he has been pivoting resources toward the semi real products, and the western licenses made with cortex — especially since I’m interested in a male vinyl doll in tea.

8 hours ago, LuluChan said:

 Also I have yet to see any other shop where a person confirms your order manually or else it doesn't ship (it probably exists but I haven't encountered it yet, that's why I'm so shocked).

Correct me if I'm wrong but to my understanding Mandarake does with stores that aren't SAHRA as it can take them up to 3 days to confirm the contents of your order are in-stock before paying. However, that's the only reason or occasion they do it. What Danny is pulling is absolutely uncalled for as not only imo is it invading consumer privacy, but won't help his mental state as having the CEO manually accept/decline every new order and read the reasons why the order should be accepted... Probably gets draining rather quickly. Not to mention, more of a hassle if he has to return the money paid for the order if it is declined... 

56 minutes ago, monkeypizzasonic said:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CF6jaiphMVe/

Well, I figured out where some of the blind box/garage kit money is going to. IDK how much of a problem the old stands actually were, hopefully the new ones are worth the extra money?

I don't recall hearing complaints about the old stands? I would say mine was fine but I've only used it once or twice thus far as Infinity does a decent job of standing on her own. Hoping the extra stands are worth the extra money as well, but I'm not too sure on how necessary the update was in comparison to other complaints that have been posted. 

9 hours ago, BeyondTime said:

https://dollfie.volks.co.jp/dd/special/sailormoon/?_ga=2.225565914.137568693.1601851785-1617893866.1591458710

Mamoru, Chibi-Usa and the Outer Senshi have always been seen as long shots. Maybe when Sailor Moon reaches it's 30th anniversary, but even that is debatable.

I was just pointing out that Mamoru would be a logical male doll to make, and so far he hasn't been made. They made Len & Kirito, and that's it.

I meant SmD didn't do any sailor moon stuff. So I'm afraid that when volks holds licence, they probably hold it for mamoru too. Unlikely any company would leave characters to be done by competing brand. So I don't expect any SM smart dolls to be honest. 

 

Seeing that Kurenai (milk Moonlight) in the garage made me remember when Danny used to show photos of his Twilight (tea Moonlight) out with him. It's like you can feel the affection he has for his dolls when you see Twilight posing with the groceries or next to his meals. Now his photos are just new doll after new doll that look almost exactly the same, and almost always accompanied by rants of "I made Doll A because of customers who hated on me" or "Here is Product B which tells haters to deal with it" or "People who ask for release dates are basically asking me to abuse my employees" and it's all just so bitter and toxic.

2 hours ago, forged_in_mess said:

So I'm afraid that when volks holds licence, they probably hold it for mamoru too. Unlikely any company would leave characters to be done by competing brand.

Not necessarily true ... at least was not in the Ye olden days when Volks was doing VN titles. Azone and Volks would both have dolls from Dawning blue for instance at the same time, and also they shared the Fate franchise with at least a saber and rin out from azone.

Edit, also If you also look at character figurines there are lots of different companies doing same franchise characters.

Though there are a few exclusives I think, that might relate to the parent companies (like if im not totally wrong, Racing MIku, when GSC has a sponsorship with the actual racing teams.)

Edited October 5, 2020 by finnleo

They both did Nanoha and Fate too, although Volks did adult Nanoha and Fate from Strikers, and Azone did Nanoha and Fate from the first movie as kidlets.  I really want to collect the two from the movie.

And Volks and SMD both seem to have Cinderella Girls licenses right now, just for different characters.  But I don’t think he’s interested in making boy dolls for women honestly.  He’s doing Naruto, and while he may make a couple of licensed male dolls that interest women from that line (my best friend loves Kakashi and Gaara for instance) I’m not holding my breath on it.  Likewise with the western licenses.  The superheroes and naruto are both angling hard for the action figure collector (in the western market, who is used to paying a lot for, shall we say, less than excellent quality control).

I feel like he took a stab at it with Lelouch and Suzaku like “fujos love this right?  It will sell, right?” But then the dolls didn’t have immediate presence when you look at them.  I’m not saying they looked bad, they just didn’t look amazing, which is ultimately why I didn’t buy Lelouch (at the time when he was first teased, I actually started a fund for him, but then I ended up buying a different doll instead.)

I am less personally interested in the really baby faced boy sculpts and more interested in the narrow eyed or “mean” ones lol.  But I also recognize it’s really good to make both available, especially when both can actually do double duty for girl heads too (in anime style, it works.  Heck, it even works in the semi real style of bjds).

7 hours ago, forged_in_mess said:

I meant SmD didn't do any sailor moon stuff. So I'm afraid that when volks holds licence, they probably hold it for mamoru too. Unlikely any company would leave characters to be done by competing brand. So I don't expect any SM smart dolls to be honest.

Oh, sorry, my bad on the misunderstanding. 
 

What @finnleo said is something we discussed about doll licenses in one of the other threads a few years back. It’s possible but unlikely that Volks has an exclusive license for Sailor Moon dolls.

9 hours ago, bbotss said:

Seeing that Kurenai (milk Moonlight) in the garage made me remember when Danny used to show photos of his Twilight (tea Moonlight) out with him. It's like you can feel the affection he has for his dolls when you see Twilight posing with the groceries or next to his meals. Now his photos are just new doll after new doll that look almost exactly the same, and almost always accompanied by rants of "I made Doll A because of customers who hated on me" or "Here is Product B which tells haters to deal with it" or "People who ask for release dates are basically asking me to abuse my employees" and it's all just so bitter and toxic.

 

I think that is what saddens me the most about Smart Doll: Danny used to be so happy an enthusiastic about Smart Doll and now, it feels like it's nothing but rants. 

I actually liked SmD because they looked more anime like than dolls, more sleek. But then I saw angelphilia and their lovely shapes and I like it even more. I shared some bodies with a friend, and he said that those aren't really for girls. And I was thinking who can be the actual demographic for angelphilia or SmD. AP have very hentai style and it's obviously more adult than a child toy. Those are really dolls targeted at man who likes it or for collectors who are into this kind of style.

When SmD i feel like, they are targeted at... Spoiled kids. 

They are coming as much of a ready product as can be with wigs and eyes. Wardrobe isnt targeted at Japanese style lovers, but for a Instagram style teenage American girls. I would say that age 6-16 girls would be main demographic if I would dare to guess. Girls that age mainly play with female dolls, male dolls are mostly seen by more mature woman, who want to shell characters or just like boy dolls. So I'm just afraid that it explains a lot about having mainly female cast of characters or not including plenty of items that require diy. I would love to see SmD being more customisable, but if that's the direction - easy to access, anime like, stylish looking pre-made characters, it would fit into younger girls too. Kids do less diy and they are less careful so it's obvious to give them pre-made option. And it isn't the common thing in Europe to buy a child a 500euro doll, even in wealthy houses. 

Edited October 5, 2020 by forged_in_mess
Addition

I wouldn’t say it’s common in the US either.  Based on YouTube visibility, I’d say you’re right.  It seems like he’s currently aiming smartdoll at high profile YouTube targets in the Barbie/fashion doll space, including customizers.  Which is funny, given that there is not an easy way for people to customize smart doll, currently.  I guess he wants to aim at tweens who can justifiably point at their brothers and say “well, his PS5 costs X$!”  Kids in that age group are highly influenced by the youtubers they watch, so it could become the new fashionable trend.  If you’re used to buying only toy line fashion dolls, Smartdoll must seem astounding, even with some minor imperfections.  It would also explain why he’s pushing so hard on semi real sculpts.  He wants that sweet sweet L.O.L. Money.

And I personally take umbrage at the idea that Angel Philia isn’t made for girls.  It’s definitely made for girls who like looking at pretty girls 😉  My friend and I currently can’t stop talking about them lol.

 

17 hours ago, monkeypizzasonic said:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CF6jaiphMVe/

Well, I figured out where some of the blind box/garage kit money is going to. IDK how much of a problem the old stands actually were, hopefully the new ones are worth the extra money?

Oh no, they are going to be orange? That is going to be a huge eyesore if you accidentally catch one in your snapshot... seems like they really want to use up that orange vinyl, geez.

Changing the stands is a bit of an odd decision imo. I think the old one was absolutely fine and great for purpose. A new one which costs 9x as much is just... why? For that much I'd want something really special - or something like the stands which can hold the dolls in the air.

Sorry, it's just a confusing business decision 😕