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TheGildedStrawb

Hello! Complete Noob in need of guidance...

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TheGildedStrawb
55 minutes ago, BeyondTime said:

I would search Mandarake or Yahoo Japan for her.

Mandarake can be searched in English, but for Yahoo Japan you will need to use Japanese. You can usually just copy the needed text directly from the Volks Japan website, but that's going to work better with collaboration dolls than standard dolls.

You probably will need to grab the text for Dollfie Dream and Aoi.

You may find her as a head, and then you will need to buy her a body, but you can get a headless body directly from Volks.

I do keep looking at the Smart Doll too that I have had my eye on.  I'll go and search on Madarake for Aoi - thanks for the advice

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Akane

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Edited by Silky
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BeyondTime

She is available through Volks USA, but you would need someone in North America to buy her for you and ship her to England. If you have a family member or a trusted friend here, that might be your best option if you want the fully assembled and completed doll.

I'm not sure if you can even look at the Volks USA website from England, but if this link doesn't work you should be able to use a proxy website that lets you fake an IP from within the US. That will work fine to view the page, but to buy her you're going to need a proxy of some sort.

https://volksusastore.com/webstores/dollfie/index.php?dispatch=products.view&product_id=4395

VAT on the doll is likely to be over 100 EU, and if she was shipped from the US to someone in Canada first there might be tax imposed on her when she enters Canada too. 

As far as getting the unpainted parts from Sakura Dreams that works. I would suggest checking out the Dollfie Dream Style Database thread on the old forums here to see what you can do with a custom faceup: http://www.dollfiedreams.com/viewforum.php?f=42&sid=1c6931684540e7136d375756c2788ceb

There is a thread specifically for Aoi V2, but it's only got 1 entry and the face-up is default. http://www.dollfiedreams.com/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=3419

Figure maybe around 100 EU to get a custom face done, but there are plenty of people in Europe who perform that service.

You can do a lot with customs, but I do think it's best to have a concept in mind, so I sugest browsing through the old database for ideas. It's fine if your concept is default, but whatever you get is going to be a faceup artists interpretation of the default using their own particular style.


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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Akane

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Edited by Silky
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Galvatim

Aoi is the best.  Aoi version 1 was my first DD, and I have version 2, as well.  Got a custom face-up for a blank 02 head, too, as Aoi's twin sister.  And that's another option you have, Aoi uses the readily available DDH-02 head, so you could do a custom.  

 

I did a quick search of Mandarake, and didn't find any Aois.  I think Volks USA still has some in stock, but they don't ship to the UK.

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TheGildedStrawb

@Silky, @BeyondTime and @Galvatim Thank you all so much!  I am thinking long and hard about which I girl I actually want before I completely fall down the rabbit hole.  The idea was to learn how to make clothes for whomever I choose, and as much as I love Aoi, I'm still drawn to Kanata for some reason.  I am very torn now...time for to think about things I think.  I also need to save the money, so it's not like I need to choose now, and maybe I'll see a DD I like that is available. Thank you all very, very much for all your help, I really do appreciate it.

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Miabird24

Smart doll has a new line called cortex where the body is made of asaflex plastic instead of vinyl. I ordered a cortex mirai that will arrive tomorrow, she'll be my first BJD of any sort. Maybe you could wait until kanata comes out in cortex? It's at least $100 cheaper.

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Akane
45 minutes ago, Miabird24 said:

Smart doll has a new line called cortex where the body is made of asaflex plastic instead of vinyl. I ordered a cortex mirai that will arrive tomorrow, she'll be my first BJD of any sort. Maybe you could wait until kanata comes out in cortex? It's at least $100 cheaper.

Miabird24, it is basically like volks Dollfie Dream. You can buy the parts separately for Dollfie Dreams and build your own custom doll which works out slightly cheaper than a fully made one. 

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cfx
3 hours ago, Silky said:

Aoi has the regular L bust, not the shapely one.

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Akane
5 minutes ago, cfx said:

Aoi has the regular L bust, not the shapely one.

Well they have that too. My mistake. Thanks for pointing it out. 

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Yami Usagi

OP, I think that you should go for whichever doll you truly want! True that there are a lot of little complications in the hobby. For a beginner that may be overwhelming since Danny does make things very accessible & streamlined with Smart Doll compared to Volks’ DD which can take a lot of investment in time & money.

I personally went with a custom Dollfie Dream as my first doll & meticulously picked out the pieces I wanted to build her because she was my OC and I wanted something one of a kind. It was a lot to learn about though & gosh that was before Smart Doll even existed! I still prefer Dollfie Dream, but that’s because I like the customization & what Danny offers doesn’t appeal to me. Ultimately it depends on what you’re looking for. 

ALSO if you really wanna learn how to sew, you can TOTALLY do it. I started out sewing for dolls & im a cosplayer now building entire human sized outfits!!

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BeyondTime

I would second the idea of getting the doll you really like, and there is nothing that says you have to stop at one.

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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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Akane
15 hours ago, Galvatim said:

LOL! 8,000 yen! That is £63 pounds! She can buy Aoi head in Dollfie Dream UK store for £30 pounds.

Edited by Silky
Can't reccommend otherwise I may upset people

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Galvatim
6 minutes ago, Silky said:

LOL! 8,000 yen! That is £63 pounds! She can buy Aoi head in Dollfie Dream UK store for £30 pounds from Sakura Dreams: Dollfie Dream Friend Shop. 

Sure, you can get a cheaper blank DDH-02 head.  The Manda listing is for a prepainted Aoi 2nd head with eyes, not just a blank 02 head.  

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Akane
14 hours ago, Galvatim said:

Sure, you can get a cheaper blank DDH-02 head.  The Manda listing is for a prepainted Aoi 2nd head with eyes, not just a blank 02 head.  

Even pre painted that is way too expensive. You can get a face up for 20 pounds and brand new eyes for for much cheaper.  

Edited by Silky

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Monty

8000 yen is standard or even cheap for a prepainted head, especially with eyes. I have never seen faceups so cheap (if someone is seriously selling faceups for 20 pounds I’d hope they’d value their work a little more!)and even so, are they in the UK? What about the eyes? The total cost of a blank head, eyes and faceup plus shipping (for the faceup plus ‘cheap eyes’)is going to cost more than that head unless you are very very lucky and there are cheap faceup artists in your own town.

I know you like advertising SakuraDreams and all but strawb really seems to want Aoi. 

Edited by Monty

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Akane
12 hours ago, Monty said:

8000 yen is standard or even cheap for a prepainted head, especially with eyes. I have never seen faceups so cheap (if someone is seriously selling faceups for 20 pounds I’d hope they’d value their work a little more!)and even so, are they in the UK? What about the eyes? The total cost of a blank head, eyes and faceup plus shipping (for the faceup plus ‘cheap eyes’)is going to cost more than that head unless you are very very lucky and there are cheap faceup artists in your own town.

I know you like advertising SakuraDreams and all but strawb really seems to want Aoi. 

How is 8000yen cheap?  And yes there are professional face up artists that do it for 20 pounds in the UK and also in Japan. Also I am not advertising. She lives in the UK and it would cost her much cheaper to buy in the UK. And she saves on shipping.

And there are many faceup artists that charge 20 to 25 pounds look them up.

Recommending a shop is not Advertising! 

Seriously do some research before you post. 

Edited by Silky
member upset for reccomending

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Monty

First of all there is no need to be so rude, especially in a thread for somebody who just wants help in this hobby and is currently being overloaded with information that is likely going to confuse them. (At least, if it were me, I would definitely be confused). 

8000 isnt cheap in the way that this entire hobby isnt cheap. If you want 'research', then here. When you add up all the components for Aoi (head, wig, animetic eyes, DDIII body, minus the slip dress which isnt available separately anyway), you are left with 6304 yen, so we can assume that's the value of Aoi's faceup. Adding that to the cost of a head, that's actually 10408 yen. If you think the 6304 leftover should also include the slip dress, I'd probably place it around 2000 yen myself, which makes Aoi's head plus a faceup worth almost 8000 yen exactly.

Secondly, if these puzzlingly cheap faceup artists exist, why wont you link to them or say who they are?  Again, 20 pounds - thats 24 USD or 36 AUD - is extremely low to the extent that I would suggest any artist offering it to value their time and effort more. Saying 'look them up' doesn't do anyone any favours. Most artists I have seen charge around $50-$80 USD, with popular ones charging much more. (In Japan, the average faceup -starts- at 20,000 yen, or at least thats how it was when I was living there and gathering intel for my own purposes.)

I'm not saying its a bad idea for strawb to do as you're suggesting - buy the parts from Sakura Dreams and contact a faceup artist in the UK. I'm saying that its likely going to cost more than what you seem to think it will. If price isn't an issue to strawb, then the convience of Sakura Dreams would come first, but that wasnt my point. However, 'getting a faceup' isnt a simple quick process either. You can't just 'get a faceup' like its another simple item to buy(unless of course, you want to do it yourself, but thats a whole other thing I dont know if strawb wants to even get into as a newbie). First you need to find an artist, then you need to see if they're accepting slots, and then you need to -wait-. Some faceups can take months to get through their queue and then take months on the faceup itself - they're all different with different terms. If I was a newbie, I wouldnt want to wait around in uncertainty to have my doll all together, I'd want to go the easiest route - although unfortunately that's no longer possible because Aoi is discontinued. But if the parts and faceup method is all this is okay with strawb, then sure its a good idea. I just personally think - given that Aoi herself was the one that they wanted - that buying Aoi's head would be the way to go.

Lastly, I say 'advertising' because, no offense, you have gone out of your way to mention Sakura Dreams in complete name and URL in most of the recent posts you've made on this forum including the one you just did now, so its hard to not interpret that as advertising. I don't think its necessarily a bad thing because its probably not a well-known store and I know a lot of people in the UK have been wanting a dealer due to import fees. If anything, it -should- be advertised, but maybe you could put the link in your signature or something. Your post made it seem like you were trying to divert strawb (or others) from buying from Mandarake in favour of Sakura Dreams. Maybe that wasnt your intention but with your other posts it read that way to me.

 

Anyway, I have a question for guildedstrawb myself. What is it specifically you like about Kanata and Aoi? Is it their stern expressions? It's made me realise that basically all the newer standard DDs have smiling faces... However, if what you like is their darker eyes and hair, remember these dolls can have their wigs and eyes changed. If there are other basic models you do like you could also buy a different wig and eyes for her. But if Aoi is the one you have your heart set on, it looks like you will either have to buy her painted head from that Mandarake listing (plus a body, and you have a few options on where to buy that - you could buy one second hand also from mandarake or one new from sakura dreams), or do as Silky is suggesting (buy all separate parts and find a UK artist to paint her - but I would research this option quite a bit). It all depends on how soon you want your doll of course. The only other option would be hoping to find someone who is selling their complete Aoi doll second hand, or having someone proxy-buy one from VolksUSA (although I'm not sure how expensive that might be?)

Edited by Monty
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Akane
20 minutes ago, Monty said:

First of all there is no need to be so rude, especially in a thread for somebody who just wants help in this hobby and is currently being overloaded with information that is likely going to confuse them. (At least, if it were me, I would definitely be confused). 

8000 isnt cheap in the way that this entire hobby isnt cheap. If you want 'research', then here. When you add up all the components for Aoi (head, wig, animetic eyes, DDIII body, minus the slip dress which isnt available separately anyway), you are left with 6304 yen, so we can assume that's the value of Aoi's faceup. Adding that to the cost of a head, that's actually 1048 yen. If you think the 6304 leftover should also include the slip dress, I'd probably place it around 2000 yen myself, which makes Aoi's head plus a faceup worth almost 8000 yen exactly.

Secondly, if these puzzlingly cheap faceup artists exist, why wont you link to them or say who they are?  Again, 20 pounds - thats 24 USD or 36 AUD - is extremely low to the extent that I would suggest any artist offering it to value their time and effort more. Saying 'look them up' doesn't do anyone any favours. Most artists I have seen charge around $50-$80 USD, with popular ones charging much more. (In Japan, the average faceup -starts- at 20,000 yen, or at least thats how it was when I was living there and gathering intel for my own purposes.)

I'm not saying its a bad idea for strawb to do as you're suggesting - buy the parts from Sakura Dreams and contact a faceup artist in the UK. I'm saying that its likely going to cost more than what you seem to think it will. If price isn't an issue to strawb, then the convience of Sakura Dreams would come first, but that wasnt my point. However, 'getting a faceup' isnt a simple quick process either. You can't just 'get a faceup' like its another simple item to buy(unless of course, you want to do it yourself, but thats a whole other thing I dont know if strawb wants to even get into as a newbie). First you need to find an artist, then you need to see if they're accepting slots, and then you need to -wait-. Some faceups can take months to get through their queue and then take months on the faceup itself - they're all different with different terms. If I was a newbie, I wouldnt want to wait around in uncertainty to have my doll all together, I'd want to go the easiest route - although unfortunately that's no longer possible because Aoi is discontinued. But if the parts and faceup method is all this is okay with strawb, then sure its a good idea. I just personally think - given that Aoi herself was the one that they wanted - that buying Aoi's head would be the way to go.

Lastly, I say 'advertising' because, no offense, you have gone out of your way to mention Sakura Dreams in complete name and URL in almost every single post you've made on this forum including the one you just did now, so its hard to not interpret that as advertising. I don't think its necessarily a bad thing because its probably not a well-known store and I know a lot of people in the UK have been wanting a dealer due to import fees, but maybe you could put the link in your signature or something.

 

Anyway, I have a question for guildedstrawb myself. What is it specifically you like about Kanata and Aoi? Is it their stern expressions? It's made me realise that basically all the newer standard DDs have smiling faces... However, if what you like is their darker eyes and hair, remember these dolls can have their wigs and eyes changed. If there are other basic models you do like you could also buy a different wig and eyes for her. But if Aoi is the one you have your heart set on, it looks like you will either have to buy her painted head from that Mandarake listing (plus a body, and you have a few options on where to buy that - you could buy one second hand also from mandarake or one new from sakura dreams), or do as Silky is suggesting (buy all separate parts and find a UK artist to paint her - but I would research this option quite a bit). It all depends on how soon you want your doll of course. The only other option would be hoping to find someone who is selling their complete Aoi doll second hand, or having someone proxy-buy one from VolksUSA (although I'm not sure how expensive that might be?)

First of all I was not being rude.  And I was talking about head and eyes prices. Not full body, hair and wigs ect. 

And if you really want to find prices for face up it is simple. You can just google it. I won't link you any, because you might think that's Advertising again. 

Like I said before recommendation is not advertising.  Does that mean who ever links a website that they are advertising? 

I think you was, and are being rude. When you accused me of advising. That was the main reason I replied back to you.

Anyway I'm not here to argue. We all love this hobby so let's just have fun. I was just trying to save anyone that is into this hobby some money. 

 

Edited by Silky

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Monty

The entire point of my post was that you were suggesting something was cheaper when I didn't think that it was. If the issue is money, then I still think buying that Aoi head is going to be cheaper than buying a blank head and a faceup, even with UK import fees. Again, with a faceup as cheap as 20 pounds you either get what you pay for or someone is putting far too low a value on their skill and needs to raise their prices. Otherwise, to do it yourself, as a newbie, the cost of all the materials adds up. I dont know why you werent talking about head and eye prices for Aoi's head when thats literally the only method to determine how much its worth.

Otherwise, money aside, theres also the convenience factor. Buying a doll with a prepainted face and eyes at a reasonable price (and doing the maths, 8000 is reasonabe) would be more appealing and a lot less confusing/nerve-wracking to me as a newbie. That's it.

edit- Out of curiosity I did 'just google' UK faceup artists and the lowest I found was 40 pounds, FrostBitten BJD. These were for resin BJD faceups though, I have no idea if they do DD faceups and I couldn't actually find any DD-specific artists at all - on google at least. If there is a handy directory somewhere, by all means share it. I think a thread that lists faceup artists in different parts of the world would be extremely useful to have as a stickied thread because I see people asking about it a lot.

Edited by Monty

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Akane

I am just happy that more people are joining this fun hobby. It does not matter where you purchase from. ☺️

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Cauldroness
20 minutes ago, Silky said:

 

And if you really want to find prices for face up it is simple. You can just google it. I won't link you any, because you might think that's Advertising again. 

 

Can you help? I've been searching & searching and can't find any artists who do high-quality face-ups in the $20 to $30 range that you mentioned. Maybe your google search skills are better than mine? 

Can you please help out, provide names & links & contact info? 

I have custom face-ups on several of my folks and despite being in the hobby for a decade and searching all the time for new artists, I've never paid less than $50 and my most recent was $120 + international shipping costs both ways (will be close to $160 after shipping just for a face-up).

So if you know of professional artists who work at such great prices, it would be very mean indeed not to share at least their names!!!

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Akane
8 minutes ago, Cauldroness said:

Can you help? I've been searching & searching and can't find any artists who do high-quality face-ups in the $20 to $30 range that you mentioned. Maybe your google search skills are better than mine? 

Can you please help out, provide names & links & contact info? 

I have custom face-ups on several of my folks and despite being in the hobby for a decade and searching all the time for new artists, I've never paid less than $50 and my most recent was $120 + international shipping costs both ways (will be close to $160 after shipping just for a face-up).

So if you know of professional artists who work at such great prices, it would be very mean indeed not to share at least their names!!!

Message me nicely and I may concider it. Otherwise not for your sarcastic attitude.  You can actually get free face ups from some doll sellers if you purchase a doll.  You been doing this hobby for 10 years wow!  And you still don't know anything... 

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