Volks News 86

Im honestly starting to wonder if there are simply too many scalper bots hitting their site each time for regular load balancing to work. This issue is exceptionally common for big releases in Japan, not just with Volks. I saw the Pokémon Center go down for at least 10 hours for their lucky bags end of last year (basically the site didn’t recover until they changed the method of sale to lottery). I’ve also seen P-Bandai go down for 6+ hours during Gundam releases. 

Id like to think that if the solution were a simple one at least one of these big companies would have figured it out by now. But perhaps I should have less faith in JP tech. 

As it happens Tokyo is having its coldest day of the winter and I’m unwell myself so decided not to brave the Ranko/Arle hopefuls at the store this morning since I just want a couple of clothing items. With the website misbehaving too I guess I’ll just go to the store later in the day and hope what I want is still there. I’m guessing the ruffle skirts will be gone for sure by then though. 

Edited January 18, 2020 by Beani

4 minutes ago, la_ said:

It's up. Just completed my order.

I still can't get in, gosh

4 minutes ago, la_ said:

It's up.

Not up for me, so I think you are just lucky.

Just now, Kotone said:

I still can't get in, gosh

Yeah same here. Amazed la_ managed it. 

haaaaa, got my order for the herbalist flapped bag in.

I hope tomorrow pans out but I am really not holding my breath 😣

17 minutes ago, Beani said:

Im honestly starting to wonder if there are simply too many scalper bots hitting their site each time for regular load balancing to work.

Considering that it was dead an hour before the event started, I think it's probably bots. There wouldn't be that many humans desperate enough to crash the server then.

I just wanted to check what was going to be up for sale because I forgot. I still haven't seen products on the site yet (｡-_-｡) 

 

Edit: Haha, I'm in! The herbalist stuff is gone

Edited January 18, 2020 by foo

That's crazy, I thought it was up for good because I had time to browse a bit before checking out without getting any error pages after the initial overload ended for me.

Still just the error message for me. I'll continue to try off and on but am not going to stress out over it. I'm already mentally preparing for probable failure tomorrow because if it's this bad for this outfit release it's surely going to be far worse for the combined Arle and Ranko clickwar.

19 minutes ago, Beani said:

Im honestly starting to wonder if there are simply too many scalper bots hitting their site each time for regular load balancing to work. This issue is exceptionally common for big releases in Japan, not just with Volks. I saw the Pokémon Center go down for at least 10 hours for their lucky bags end of last year (basically the site didn’t recover until they changed the method of sale to lottery). I’ve also seen P-Bandai go down for 6+ hours during Gundam releases. 

Id like to think that if the solution were a simple one at least one of these big companies would have figured it out by now. But perhaps I should have less faith in JP tech.

For the dolls, the solution is to go back to lottery. I understand with the deposit thing why Volks may not want to do that.

4 minutes ago, foo said:

I just wanted to check what was going to be up for sale because I forgot. I still haven't seen products on the site yet (｡-_-｡) 

I'm irritated that it seems there is no longer a webpage with the collection of clothing for the event, outside of the webstore. That means as time goes on there won't be any real reference for stuff they've released, since items don't stay on the store after they sell out.

 

Edited January 18, 2020 by cfx

I've never ordered from one of these events before though, do they combine shipping after the chaos if you manage to snag more than one item?

I don't believe they combine shipping for multiple orders. You need to order everything at once for a single shipping charge.

1 minute ago, cfx said:

Still just the error message for me. I'll continue to try off and on but am not going to stress out over it. I'm already mentally preparing for probable failure tomorrow because if it's this bad for this outfit release it's surely going to be far worse for the combined Arle and Ranko clickwar.

So, I updated my post because I was suddenly allowed in and everything's currently working fine. Unfortunately there's nothing left that I want (herbalist jars things and pom pom skirts are gone), there are some boots but I'm not going to pay shipping just for those. 

The thing is I noticed the machine translation of the error message is:

Quote

The site is very crowded due to the concentration of access right now.
You will be able to browse them sequentially, so please try again after a while.

I think it's saying that you're in a queue. I clicked the red button below that text a few times and suddenly the site started working perfectly fine, so maybe that's how it works now 🤔

6 minutes ago, cfx said:

I'm irritated that it seems there is no longer a webpage with the collection of clothing for the event, outside of the webstore.

There's the Dolpa event page at least,

https://www.volks.co.jp/event/dolpa42/sumika.html#newoutfit

And probably the outfit collection pages still work. This is October, you can find the other ones by typing a different date in the URL (1910 is 2019 October),

https://www.volks.co.jp/dress/1910/en/

1 hour ago, foo said:

I think it's saying that you're in a queue. I clicked the red button below that text a few times and suddenly the site started working perfectly fine, so maybe that's how it works now 🤔

Thanks I'll try that. I've been doing page refresh instead. Queue or something makes sense because otherwise I don't see how anyone can check out even once something finally comes up. If the pom-pom skirts are gone there's no need for me to worry about it now though as I just wanted those and most of the socks, and I don't feel like paying shipping just for socks. Will try for the stuff on the USA lottery I guess. But at least I know what to do tomorrow in hopes of getting Ranko.

Edit: By clicking that button, I was finally able to get in. I went as far through ordering to see what shipping would be. Since the pom-pom skirts are long gone, all I was buying was 4 pair of socks. Shipping for that was 2000 yen, which I can't justify. I wish there was a non-EMS option at least for small orders like that. I made an order just yesterday for other items because I didn't want to try to order other stuff during the clickwar, but I guess I should have waited.

I consdidered buying the Nocturne Kimono Dress, but I only wanted that if I can use the black pom-pom skirt underneath it.

Most things were still in stock, and indeed once into the site performance was good, so they have done something since the previous clickwars. It'd really help if that error page showed up in English or was better worded though.

1 hour ago, foo said:

And probably the outfit collection pages still work. This is October, you can find the other ones by typing a different date in the URL (1910 is 2019 October),

https://www.volks.co.jp/dress/1910/en/

Those are still up though I think there are some very old ones I used to be able to look at that are now gone. But that's what I was referring to, is it doesn't seem there is a page like that anymore for new stuff. At least that Dolpa page is there for a reference. Previously those would've linked to the collection page and now just goes to the store.

It seems to me like the site overhaul has less information in various ways. The doll collaboration page is no longer divided by year for example.

Edited January 18, 2020 by cfx

Managed to get the herbalist bag and white turtleneck sweater set just now! The herbalist bag was still available, I can't believe my luck. The only other thing I would have want was the blue kimono, but that was gone already. And yes, the site is still having error messages here and there.

I ended up at the store and a few things were sold out. Ruffle skirts (cry), larger sized kimono, sailor outfits, herbalist belt and the Doll Point lollipop. I was amazed the little white handbag was still there but on inspection I ended up disliking the material so passed on it. 

I grabbed the green hooded coat which is what I wanted the most. To my surprise though I fell totally in love with Herbalist Girl in person. This outfit is just so detailed and has so many pieces it is breathtaking. I especially love the leaf epaulettes. I picked it up and then rather than try to find the herbalist flasks that were sold out from Volks I opted to pick up a doujin version of this I saw in Dollce several months back (well before Volks announced them). I think it’s far better value than the Volks one. It’s by Chiba Doll Koubou (they seem to currently be working on amazing 1/3 armory too). Swapped out the default herbalist belt for this one. 

The set I wanted was the pink yume kyun hoodie and the shoes. At around 6 in the morning Dutch time the site was behaving and the items were still in stock so ordered those. Currently though the site is giving that error code again. 

The herbalist outfit looks cute! 🤩

Got one of those Maiden Kimonos and the plateau shoes. Fell asleep tonight as I was too exhausted to stalk the webstore but that's all I really wanted anyway and I'm happy 😎

 

The herbalist girl outfit looks stunning indeed. 😮

The site finally isn't giving me errors. ~10 hours after the event started.

The herbalist colors seem darker and more subdued which certainly works better; the Volks pictures made the colors look a lot brighter and like they clash all together.

17 minutes ago, cfx said:

The site finally isn't giving me errors. ~10 hours after the event started.

The herbalist colors seem darker and more subdued which certainly works better; the Volks pictures made the colors look a lot brighter and like they clash all together.

To be honest my photos washed out the colours quite a lot, the skirt is a much lighter orange in real life for instance (the closeup shot is more accurate) and the cape looks blackish rather than dark green in my shot. I didn’t actually notice how off they were in the photo until your comment. But they certainly don’t clash (the blue is a little odd but as there is so little shown with the full garb it is ok).

Glad others agree on the Herbalist outfit. Volks’ pics just didn’t sell me on it (but that’s normal for them I guess..).

10 minutes ago, Beani said:

[...] the skirt is a much lighter orange in real life for instance [...]

The Volks pictures make it look like it is a bright mustard gold color!

Which is why from the beginning I thought these outfits were just a clash of gaudy colors that didn't work together.

1 hour ago, cfx said:

The Volks pictures make it look like it is a bright mustard gold color!

Which is why from the beginning I thought these outfits were just a clash of gaudy colors that didn't work together.

Yeah the original photos do look really bright now I look back at them. I found I took a picture of the outfit under the Volks store lights which is more accurate than my dark house lighting for sure. 

Also just shoving all the shots here in case people are interested!

The green is a lot darker there than the Volks pics too.

4 minutes ago, Beani said:

Also just shoving all the shots here in case people are interested!

I wanted the black kimono dress for Ranko, but I only wanted it with the black pom-pom skirt and since that was gone I didn't buy the dress. I'll have another chance for the skirt with Volks USA but counting on winning didn't seem wise.

@cfx Shame you missed out of the pompom skirt. Those things go way too fast. The black kimono would look great on Ranko but I think you are right, it really needs the big underskirt. 

The page for the dress shows it without the underskirt, and the black pom-pom skirt page shows the dress with it. While it looks nice either way, I think it looks a lot better with the pom-pom skirt and that gives it the kind of frill it needs to go with Ranko's gothic lolita style.

So annoyed. I wanted the yellow furisode for Rin but it sold out before I could even reach the site! The Miku wig is still available so at least I got that (now I have one for taking out, and one for staying nice).