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Volks has been making far fewer collaboration DDs

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foo

Something I've noticed for a while but I thought I'd try to quantify it. Volks really hasn't been making new collaboration dolls. You can see the history of their releases here,

https://www.dollfiedream.tokyo/dd_en/model/list_collabo/

In 2011-2012 there were a ton of licenses, Bandai (Xenosaga, Idolmaster), Fate, assorted visual novels (Key/Visual Arts, Aqua Plus). And Touhou.

2013: Sega, Bandai, Fate, Aqua Plus, Kadokawa, and Vocaloid. 9 dolls including Miku pre-order.

2014: Bandai, Sega, Touhou, and an Aqua Plus re-release. 10 dolls include a 2-doll preorder, although I don't think Prisma☆Illya counts as a release because they made like 5.

2015 Fate, Bandai, Kadokawa, and Vocaloid

2016 Fate, Sega, Bandai, Vocaloid

2017 Bandai, Fate, Kadokawa

2018 Bandai, Sega, Vocaloid, and Square-Enix

2019 Vocaloid Miku re-release & Sakura Miku. IT'S SIX MONTHS INTO THE YEAR ALREADY.


I am wondering where it's going from here. Even though it's only available in one location in Japan, they've opened up Dream Choice for DDs to match their resin business' Full Choice System (not nearly as customizable, but it's still a new outlet for sales). They've made a lot of (cute) new standard models. Before if you wanted to get a DD you either had to get one of the very few standard models, shell out for a high priced limited DD in the after market, or hope Volks announces something you want that you're able to get.

It seems they've given up with MDDs and expect people either go standard, Dream Choice, or you buy a body and get a head from Yahoo! Japan Auctions (that seems to be 99% of the MDDs out there).

Volks used to be in the business of making resin model kits which is where a lot of their licenses came from, but unfortunately that's a dead hobby. If you look at the list of kits they sell on their web site it's really dated, and it matches up with how DD licenses have dwindled. I also get the feeling that Sega is more interested in mobile games, they haven't made a new Shining game since 2014.

Getting Square Enix on with Nier was pretty amazing. But all we have this year is Miku... 

I do expect more Idolmaster and Sailor Moon, and eventually Rider from Fate/stay night, but the old way of anticipating exciting new releases every other month is gone. Their pre-orders have been really big though (Fate, Miku, Miku, Macross, Fate. Not sure how big Nier is though).

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cfx

I had noticed this too, at least in terms of how there have been fewer licensed dolls in number though I hadn't paid attention to the actual licenses for the past several years compared to the previous period. 2017 only had six DDs, and while 2018 had eight, Yuriko Nanao's weird release could be considered to not count really either.

Who knows what the preorder will be this year, but I think we can already guess the rest. Next up will be the DDS/DDdy and DDP/MDD rereleases from the voting, and December will be Sailor Moon dolls; at least that's what I'd bet on.

Another thing I notice now is officially we don't know of anything that's coming. Volks announced Kaede, Yuriko, Luka, Sakura Miku, and Nier way ahead of time with just a piece of art and basically "coming soon"; with Sakura Miku's release there are no further such announcements, at least that I am aware of.

In the late 1980s and through the next 10 years or so I used to buy Hobby Japan, and I remember well how back then Volks was mostly a garage kit company making resin kits, just as Kotobukiya, Wave, Max Factory, and Kaiyodo were at that time.

Edited by cfx

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Singer Yuna

The thing they're doing to limited MDD is shameful, ignoring them completely. About the Touhou license, people are complaining about Alice Margatroid not being chosen when she control dolls, but it's like Volks have no plans for Touhou dolls anymore. To think Marisa and Reimu were the first preorder dolls and now the franchise is totally ignored... 


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finnleo

Well, MDD's are a bit of a problem child in terms of what characters to make with them. if you really think about it, even some of the previous releases might have been more suited for DDP than MDD in terms of general height and size.

as for the dwindling licenses ... One thing to keep in mind is the "pure" direction volks has seemingly taken with the brand, which probably explains why the VN side of things has died down as it has, even though it used to be a firm basis of what they did for outfits and character models.

And yes, even if they did partner up with the family friendly branch of the VN companies, all you had to do was search the main title and you would find naughty.

Also I dont know which is better the year in advance notices of "hey we have this cooking" which might sway people from getting the models that were announced basicly in the Volks news prior to the release dollpa.

But I doubt we have much to worry... yet.

 

 

Edited by finnleo

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Singer Yuna
2 hours ago, finnleo said:

One thing to keep in mind is the "pure" direction

Yes, in terms of VN that happened. 

I would love to see  DDP Louise or some MDD servants though. 


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Monty

I think people are forgetting that they are also making a lot more of each doll now. Looking at older lottery threads, you could often count the winners on each hand if even that. Now it seems the win-rate is much, much higher. And we even had a doll released at a random time outside of a Dolpa which was new (Nanako).

I think this year will probably be a slow one as I'm expecting some rereleases for Best Selection. It doesn't bother me because I don't have a lot of money anyway. But I do wish we had at least one other doll at May Dolpa - Sakura Miku was technically new, but she feels less new being another Miku (even if shes in a different skin tone). Considering they had 3 releases last May that were all completely different (even if Sheryl and Ranka were still rereleases), it does sting a bit.

I will agree MDDs being shafted so much is really sad although there's still more MDDs than there are SDCutes, so its not like its an MDD only thing. (And at least we actually have methods to get MDDs outside of limited dolls!) It seemed like there was a MDD release ever second year, which means we're overdue (I guess Liliru counted?) I guess there's as already said the problem that there arent as many characters that suit the body (DDP is better suited, which makes me wish they'd get on making proper option hands for it) but still - MDD Chen and Flandre when.

Edited by Monty
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Lyrajean

I don't really mind the lack of licensed dolls. I collect to create my own characters and dress them rather than feel obligated to keep a really limited release doll as she came collecting dust on a shelf. the d-coord dolls and doll choice excite me way more. Never really been into 40cm mini scale so that doesn't bother me either.

Edited by Lyrajean

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cfx
13 hours ago, Monty said:

I think people are forgetting that they are also making a lot more of each doll now. Looking at older lottery threads, you could often count the winners on each hand if even that. Now it seems the win-rate is much, much higher. And we even had a doll released at a random time outside of a Dolpa which was new (Nanako).

Whether that's the reason for fewer releases or a result of it is anyone's guess though.

I guess anyway you look at it, it's a tradeoff. With the fewer releases, there's more of a chance they don't make anything you like, as has been the case with me. OTOH, had I been in the hobby when I could've entered a lottery for Miki or Takane, I probably wouldn't have won them anyway based on what I read in old threads here.

For me personally, OCs do not work. I guess I just don't have that kind of imagination and in general it's one of those things I just don't "get" in the same way I don't understand fan fiction I suppose. I have one currently-floating head that isn't an existing character because I wanted a certain look, but she'll never have any personality and may never even have a name because giving her a name seems meaningless to me.

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foo
12 hours ago, Monty said:

I think people are forgetting that they are also making a lot more of each doll now.

I'm not concerned about their sales numbers, I'm concerned with the drop of unique sculpts, and hoping that your favourite character has a chance to get a DD.

It used to be exciting to look forward to fresh sculpts like Rise, Aoko, Alice, Alisa, Beatrice. Actually 3 of those are by Kousuke Kitahara, he hasn't sculpted anything new since Alisa who was released in 2014. I wonder if he retired because they're not making resin kits anymore either (ーー')

12 hours ago, Monty said:

I will agree MDDs being shafted so much is really sad

Oh! I didn't get to talk about this because the forum was down for migration. 

The Kyoto Dolpa's typically been more SD focused; Tokyo definitely gets more anime influence. However this time in the attendee gallery thing, they were like 70% DDs rather than SDs, and about 40% of those were MDDs. 99% of those were modded DDH-01s. I wouldn't be surprised if Volks looks at their sales numbers of blank DDH-01 heads and MDD bodies and are like... what else can we do? They made variants of DDH-01 that are easier to mod and the super-cute DDH-10,

dreamchoice-ddh10.jpg

Seriously there were a lot of cute MDDs there. It played no small part in bring home my own MDD (ーー;)

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cfx
9 minutes ago, foo said:

I'm not concerned about their sales numbers, I'm concerned with the drop of unique sculpts, and hoping that your favourite character has a chance to get a DD.

It used to be exciting to look forward to fresh sculpts like Rise, Aoko, Alice, Alisa, Beatrice.

A more succinct version of what I was trying to say above. I don't know if it's just the fewer sculpts or certain trends in recent sculpts that I don't like i.e. flat faces but other than Sheryl's rerelease there hasn't been a single licensed doll I wanted lately.

9 minutes ago, foo said:

The Kyoto Dolpa's typically been more SD focused; Tokyo definitely gets more anime influence. However this time in the attendee gallery thing, they were like 70% DDs rather than SDs, and about 40% of those were MDDs. 99% of those were modded DDH-01s. I wouldn't be surprised if Volks looks at their sales numbers of blank DDH-01 heads and MDD bodies and are like... what else can we do? They made variants of DDH-01 that are easier to mod and the super-cute DDH-10,

My occasional browsing of Japanese doll blogs or twitter accounts surprised me in how many MDDs there were, mostly all DDH-01s. There are collectors with nothing but, and faceup artists that do nothing else or at least specialize in it.

Edited by cfx

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BeyondTime

I think Monty's point was that their production may be going to more dolls as opposed to more variety. I'd rather they did both, but I think between more variety or more people bringing the doll they want home, I go with more people bringing them home.

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The difference between Dollfie Dreams and Heroin? Heroin is illegal, Dollfie Dreams probably should be.

“Empty wallets, full hearts.” That’s probably an apt description for the effects of DD addiction

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freakie-oppa

Actually Monty's point is quite valid. In the sense that; VOLKS has a time slot to make and ship their dolls, and if there is ALOT more being made, then that is ALOT more time needed to get them prepared for shipment. Sure, Dollfie Dreams aren't like their resin cousins, they cast and set far quicker, but usually, they always come in a fullset. Meaning, there is so much work needed to finish the production of a plentiful release. I mean, have people even gotten their 9S' or 2Bs yet?

Yeah it sucks if you're waiting for new collaborations but it is also great for the people that are loving the current item. It doesn't feel like you're elbowing through a crowd for a chance at the golden ticket. It's fairer, and more widespread. And since they saw people were willing to wait for the unveiling of 2B and 9S, maybe they think that people don't mind waiting for something new.

After all, how can they take on several other projects when one or two of the previous ones aren't even finished? We don't even know what they're producing behind the scenes now.

 

They're smartly, not biting of more than they can chew. At the end of the day, Dollfie Dreams aren't really their main domain, a small team works on their projects and conceptualizing something new and exciting takes time. To be honest with how things are paving out, they definitely have something up their sleeves. With the recent wave of their off site MDD promotions, maybe it's a hopeful sign?

Edited by freakie-oppa
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Singer Yuna
On 6/5/2019 at 3:49 AM, foo said:

Actually 3 of those are by Kousuke Kitahara, he hasn't sculpted anything new since Alisa who was released in 2014.

I miss him too.

I really hope they have something up their sleeves @freakie-oppa but sadly I’m super dull on the rereleases for this year anniversary, considering who rereleased in the 15th.

And it’s also true they chose quantity of DD love over variety of limited sculpts. I wish the balance was even but production times doesn’t work this way.


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Tira
On 6/4/2019 at 3:25 AM, finnleo said:

as for the dwindling licenses ... One thing to keep in mind is the "pure" direction volks has seemingly taken with the brand, which probably explains why the VN side of things has died down as it has, even though it used to be a firm basis of what they did for outfits and character models.

And yes, even if they did partner up with the family friendly branch of the VN companies, all you had to do was search the main title and you would find naughty.

Jeanne and Artoria came out not too long ago, and while FGO is technically clean, it's not exactly what I'd call "pure" or "family friendly." 

Personally, though, I'm very surprised they haven't released any dolls as a tie-in with the Heaven's Feel movies; from what I've heard, they're making a ridiculous amount of money in the box office.  They could totally re-release Sakura and maybe Illya, and maybe even add Rider to the line-up.  It makes me wonder how well Sakura sold initially compared to the other Fate girls.  I know she's a less popular character than the other heroines, and I haven't seen nearly as many Sakuras as I have Rins (Saber can't really be used as a point of comparison).  On the other hand, Rin's (relatively) recent re-release has made her a lot more obtainable, and I generally have more of an eye out for her.

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kct
On 6/4/2019 at 3:25 PM, finnleo said:

as for the dwindling licenses ... One thing to keep in mind is the "pure" direction volks has seemingly taken with the brand, which probably explains why the VN side of things has died down as it has, even though it used to be a firm basis of what they did for outfits and character models.

Imo the problem with VNs is that they kind of... lost their impact in the last few years or so. Feels like they dropped off from their peak of around the mid-2000s, so my take on this is that Volks did not want to take a gamble on characters that probably won't sell incredibly well at the end of the day.

The other problem with licensed characters also goes down to ownership of the IP. While we can easily say "just make an FGO character and watch the cash roll", it is not as easy as that since Volks have to be dealing with T-M and Aniplex (and to an extent, Sony) at the same time.

The Yuriko Nanao situation is actually even weirder if you look beyond the random announcement, since she's... far from being the face of the IM@S Million Live/Theater Days sub-franchise. That is like picking someone that isn't Haruka/Chihaya/Miki or Uzuki/Rin/Mio to kickstart a sub-line.

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finnleo
22 hours ago, Tira said:

Jeanne and Artoria came out not too long ago, and while FGO is technically clean, it's not exactly what I'd call "pure" or "family friendly." 

 

The difference is that Type-moon hasn't done anything pornographic since the original Fate/stay night as far as I know (maybe also the second game? im not an expert, and not really interested in researching), whereas the other VN collaborators August, Leaf, and Key for instance did adult versions of the properties that volks had made dolls from. So yes, while technically Type Moon started out as a adult visual novel thing, I doubt that's what they want themselves to be known now, and I think the fanbase is also a bit touchy about the R-18 beginnings.

With the family friendly bit I mean the general outlook of the dollfie dream line. as it originally was more or less a spin-off of their Lost Angels story line of 1/6 scale dolls where there was quite a lot of peculiar stuff going on, and as a result the first Mirai's and Candy's were quite gothic in nature. Now the original characters are just basicly pastels and whatnot cheery outlooks.

 

1 hour ago, kct said:

Imo the problem with VNs is that they kind of... lost their impact in the last few years or so. Feels like they dropped off from their peak of around the mid-2000s, so my take on this is that Volks did not want to take a gamble on characters that probably won't sell incredibly well at the end of the day.

 

Well, it could be their more cautious of what characters they want to invest into, but as you've already mentioned they still are taking the weird choises, like Nanao, who might have just been a low-effort dip into seeing would it work or sell, but more recently Matoi was a bit more of a question mark for me as to what were they thinking of, since it didn't sell out after the first release.

But you'd still think Visual Arts / Key has some level of pull to do a collab with. I was sort of left wondering why they didnt try with Angel Beats since that was a bit of a different approach from key in the first place.

Edited by finnleo

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Tira
18 minutes ago, finnleo said:

The difference is that Type-moon hasn't done anything pornographic since the original Fate/stay night as far as I know (maybe also the second game? im not an expert, and not really interested in researching), whereas the other VN collaborators August, Leaf, and Key for instance did adult versions of the properties that volks had made dolls from. So yes, while technically Type Moon started out as a adult visual novel thing, I doubt that's what they want themselves to be known now, and I think the fanbase is also a bit touchy about the R-18 beginnings.

With the family friendly bit I mean the general outlook of the dollfie dream line. as it originally was more or less a spin-off of their Lost Angels story line of 1/6 scale dolls where there was quite a lot of peculiar stuff going on, and as a result the first Mirai's and Candy's were quite gothic in nature. Now the original characters are just basicly pastels and whatnot cheery outlooks.

 

They've actually announced that they're re-releasing the original PC version, though only in Japanese (and with no voice acting).  While Nasu has said that they wouldn't include H-scenes if they were releasing the game nowadays, I think it's more because he's not comfortable writing them than anything else.  Also, it's been my experience that the fanbase is largely very open about the adult origins; there are lots of jokes and memes about it.

Personally, I think the current DD aesthetic is more going for the "cutesy anime girl" look.  The Lost Angels stuff always reminded me of some of the older CLAMP series in terms of aesthetic, whereas the current one is more what you'd see in your average waifu anime.

Edited by Tira

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kct
9 hours ago, finnleo said:

Well, it could be their more cautious of what characters they want to invest into, but as you've already mentioned they still are taking the weird choises, like Nanao, who might have just been a low-effort dip into seeing would it work or sell, but more recently Matoi was a bit more of a question mark for me as to what were they thinking of, since it didn't sell out after the first release.

But you'd still think Visual Arts / Key has some level of pull to do a collab with. I was sort of left wondering why they didnt try with Angel Beats since that was a bit of a different approach from key in the first place.

Nanao is a relatively safe option in the to ease people into MLTD, since that's treated as an expansion to OGM@S (as opposed to Cinderella Girls, which took a life of it's own).

Matoi's situation is basically that even though she's a character from a popular game, said game has existed for a long time by now (since 2012). If she's announced few years ago the story might be different, but the game have reached a stage where a good chunk of the older players have left.

The momentum for Angel Beats kind of died after the anime ended AFAIK, and not long after Visual Arts/Key also later moved their efforts into Rewrite (which had zero adult content throughout it's existence).

9 hours ago, Tira said:

They've actually announced that they're re-releasing the original PC version, though only in Japanese (and with no voice acting).  While Nasu has said that they wouldn't include H-scenes if they were releasing the game nowadays, I think it's more because he's not comfortable writing them than anything else.  Also, it's been my experience that the fanbase is largely very open about the adult origins; there are lots of jokes and memes about it.

Personally, I think the current DD aesthetic is more going for the "cutesy anime girl" look.  The Lost Angels stuff always reminded me of some of the older CLAMP series in terms of aesthetic, whereas the current one is more what you'd see in your average waifu anime.

The funny part about the adult content of Type-Moon games is that the games could partially work without them per se; they're treated more like icing on the cake than being something too integral.

That and the way he writes those scenes is... funny in itself due to the metaphors used.

I'm not surprised about the aesthetics part, it's just that the market has been hard to read over the years with shenanigans of the mega-corporations acting as the rights owners. Working off successful franchises means there is a likelihood that the rights owners will likely demand a form of a higher cut.

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sinclair

Another thing to think about is that the fees Volks has to pay to get to use the collaboration characters.  It could be that they are getting to high and Volks has made a business choice to no longer pursue them for the betterment of their bottom line.

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BeyondTime

As far as the original premise of the thread, I’m not sure it’s entirely correct. At least in the context of fewer dolls.  In the context of fewer licensing relationships I think that is a trend.

2004: 4

2005: 8

2006: 2

2007: 8

2008: 15

2009: 10

2010: 12

2011: 8

2012: 12

2013: 9

2014: 10

2015: 8

2016: 9

2017: 6

2018: 8

Mid 2019: 4

 

For sure there were some years when they released more than 10 dolls, but the average seems to be 8.4 per year, and 11/16 years are less than 10 dolls per year.

What I do see as trends is a move away from one offs, and more focus on big franchises like Vocaloid, iM@S, Fate, SAO, Sailor Moon, Square Enix (so far small but potentially huge,) and Macros. They also seem to have moved away from h-games and series. Lastly they are definitely making fewer MDD collabs. They’ve gone from 1 - 3 MDD in a year to 1 in 5 years. There could be one this year, but high chance she is a rerelease rather than a new one. 

The trend we’re seeing might be more of a focus on bigger more prestigious partnerships rather than a move away from licensed dolls. It may also reflect practical realities like character demand, unsold dolls, and ROI.  

None of this factors in SD releases, which they may be focusing more on this year due to the 20th anniversary of Dollfie, and their resins really are the flagship line.  

 

Edited by BeyondTime

The difference between Dollfie Dreams and Heroin? Heroin is illegal, Dollfie Dreams probably should be.

“Empty wallets, full hearts.” That’s probably an apt description for the effects of DD addiction

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cfx

If the numbers you show there were plotted as a graph, there's certainly at least some kind of correlation of the premise, with peaks over the middle years. The first four years it's not surprising there weren't so many releases, but still there's sort of three groups there: 2004-2007 with 2-8 releases, 2008-2014 with 8-15, and 2015-2018 with 6-9, ignoring 2019 since it's not complete.

Or looked at another way, ignoring the beginning and even ignoring the outlier of 2008, for 2009-2014 8 and 9 were the low numbers of releases, while since then that's the high number.

Still it's probably all kind of a "prove whatever you want with statistics" thing and I think your point that there are fewer different licenses contributes to a feeling of fewer dolls. That also potentially leaves out customers, while making some others really happy, or maybe just broke. If someone doesn't like Idolmaster for instance, they wouldn't be happy with so many of those releases and might have felt underwhelmed in years when there were 3 or 4 of those released.

In terms of overall releases which would also take into account what Volks can manufacture, it might be interesting to include the Akihabara girls in these numbers. I'm unsure how to easily do that though, as the pages on those dolls don't say when they were released, and there were multiple releases for all but Ruri.

The cessation of DDs from H-games definitely appears to be a thing, assuming one considers Fate to no longer really be an ecchi property.

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BeyondTime

At this point I suspect that 2019 will be 6 DD, but given that this is a bit of an odd year for Volks events I’m not sure you can call it a trend (yet.). What I mean here is show me a few more years with 6 dolls before I say it’s a trend since there is a plausible reason for why this year is sparse. 

And for all we know they may be planning to release a ton of DD Best of the Best next year, and don’t have the production headroom for more collabs this year.

For example it’s possible that a franchise like Fate or iM@S got such a large number of votes overall they are planning a really big releases celebrate it. That just brainstorming reasons on my part, but the point is there could be a lot of stuff in the works due to Best of the Best, and Volks is making adjustments as a result. 

Thinking a bit more about this. As I understand it , and this is before my time in the hobby, a lot of those older releases were in much smaller quantities. Now you get more dolls with each release, but a max of 8 limiteds per year and not 10+. I think you would also have to factor in the start of the preorder projects to see if that corresponds to the reduction in numbers. 2016 for example had three pre-orders, two of whom were on a totally new body, and 2017 had 6 collabs. That lower number could be directly related to the effort needed for the preorder. Anya’s dress was pretty intricate too  

A complex preorder like Altria and Jeanne, both on new bodies that were also slated to replace all of the old bodies, might explain only 6 dolls that year. 

Honestly, I think one of the biggest factors may be MDD. Volks may have decided that MDD collabs weren’t selling enough, and shifted that production to more dolls in the remaining collabs. Up to 3 a year and now 1 in 5 years is the clearest change. If they were still producing those MDD you’d probably have on average 2 more collabs each year. 

I think they are mad not to have made a Sakura Kinomoto doll already. Fans would start hemorrhaging money, and if they did her right I could easily see her aftermarket price being astronomical. The outfit line would be almost endless too, and they would sell like hot cakes. 

I’m guessing their largest market lies with guys like you and I who have zero interest in an MDD, but by itself the near total elimination of MDD doesn’t fully explain it. They could make more licensed DD/DDS in the smaller quantities they made before, and they clearly decided to make more of each doll instead. 

Edited by BeyondTime

The difference between Dollfie Dreams and Heroin? Heroin is illegal, Dollfie Dreams probably should be.

“Empty wallets, full hearts.” That’s probably an apt description for the effects of DD addiction

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cfx

In terms of what Volks can actually manufacture there are certainly a lot of things going on lately. The switch to new bodies, Jeanne and Saber being more complex dolls for preorder, 2B and 9S being the same as while they don't have armor, they have the pods, and resin eyes, and perhaps a different procedure for their faceups. There was the different ways Luka and Matoi were handled, and while they were 2018 dolls Volks was pretty clearly manufacturing them this year.

3 hours ago, BeyondTime said:

I’m guessing their largest market lies with guys like you and I who have zero interest in an MDD, but by itself the near total elimination of MDD doesn’t fully explain it. They could make more licensed DD/DDS in the smaller quantities they made before, and they clearly decided to make more of each doll instead. 

I think that's a real possibility as well. When I go looking for pictures of dolls on instagram or twitter, there are MDDs, and there are collectors in Japan and Asia that seem to only have them and lots of customs and faceup artists that specialize in them, but they're also probably about 99% DDH-01s, often modified. The other 1% is Arle; I practically never see any other licensed MDD.

The higher production numbers for each doll for sure appears to be a thing. On this forum, in the recent lotteries the majority of people who want a doll seem to win it. I lament I wasn't in the hobby to get Takane or Miki upon their original release, but then I read their old threads here and realize it's incredibly unlikely I'd have won them anyway. I haven't entered a doll lottery yet as there hasn't been one I wanted since I entered the hobby, but I know if I enter for one now there's a pretty good chance of winning, unlike years ago.

Volks may have made the decision that leads to more happy customers and not so unhappy ones. I might not like that they haven't made <character X> into a DD yet, but that's a different kind of disappointment than the one from entering the lottery for various dolls and never winning. In addition, fewer licenses but more dolls is probably financially better for Volks. Lotteries may be exciting and I've read as a cultural thing the Japanese like them, but one also needs to have a feeling that there's an actual reasonable chance of winning, which didn't seem to be the case some years ago with DD.

Edit: You know that Volks could quite possibly get both of our attention with MDD Anzu.

Edit 2: Rereading the rest of this thread I see I'm repeating myself a lot; apparently old age is making me forget what I've already written. @onion16@

Edited by cfx

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cfx
On 6/30/2019 at 7:08 PM, BeyondTime said:

At this point I suspect that 2019 will be 6 DD, but given that this is a bit of an odd year for Volks events I’m not sure you can call it a trend (yet.). What I mean here is show me a few more years with 6 dolls before I say it’s a trend since there is a plausible reason for why this year is sparse. 

Shouldn't we get at least 8?

  1. Sakura Miku
  2. Miku Reboot
  3. Rem
  4. Ram
  5. Preorder DD #1
  6. Preorder DD #2
  7. December Dolpa DD #1
  8. December Dolpa DD #2

On rare occasions they've had three dolls at once, like the preorder with Anastasia, Yayoi and Iori, but two seems to be the norm. I still don't think the preorders will be rereleases, so either we get those in December or it won't be until 2020. As I said earlier, I had by default thought December would be more Sailor Moon dolls since that's how it was the past two years, but they could very well do that differently this year.

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BeyondTime
36 minutes ago, cfx said:

Shouldn't we get at least 8?

  1. Sakura Miku
  2. Miku Reboot
  3. Rem
  4. Ram
  5. Preorder DD #1
  6. Preorder DD #2
  7. December Dolpa DD #1
  8. December Dolpa DD #2

You’re right, I didn’t include the preorders in my thinking. 


The difference between Dollfie Dreams and Heroin? Heroin is illegal, Dollfie Dreams probably should be.

“Empty wallets, full hearts.” That’s probably an apt description for the effects of DD addiction

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