Touhos re-release : Reimu & Marisa MDD-mochiashi

Glad to see so much Marisa love on the forum. She’s not to my taste but certainly has a very unique face. Outfit is to die for too. 

In person they had this slightly weird half finished quality to the faces which isn’t showing up in those other photos which makes me think these are not properly finished prototypes. Why you would show them if that’s true I’m not sure. I think you can see what I mean on Reimu’s face here a bit. There are some weird shadows and lines on the side of her face. 

Untitled by Beani F, on Flickr

Looking at my own photos and the ones on Twitter  I want Reimu again so guess I’ll have to go to the store again later in the preorder period to be sure she is a miss for me. 

Edited October 11, 2020 by Beani

31 minutes ago, foo said:

 

I went searching for images in Twitter, and I may be in more trouble than I thought (ｰｰ')

 

One or both?

1 minute ago, BeyondTime said:

One or both?

eheh. TBH getting both of them as a set is very appealing, but the first hurdle is deciding if I really want to get Marisa. 

10 hours ago, foo said:

but the first hurdle is deciding if I really want to get Marisa. 

Her sculpt is really unique for sure. I don’t think there is a wrong choice either way you choose to go. 

 

if i had money to throw around, i'd buy both of these, and carefully select some custom aftermarket heads for them.

i mean, these are my two favorite Touhou girls, and two of my favorite Anime-style girls in general.

their outfits are Adorable, and simply to die for, but their head sculpts however... Underwhelming for 2020,

and can easily be bettered today by a great deal of the many options available to the 1/3 doll customizer...

 

I really want Reimu's outfit, but now that I've seen closeups of her head it's a no go at all, it really puts me off.

Her head looks like it belongs on those dolls with a fabric body and hard plastic head, hands, and feet that comes with a bottle that you give to little girls to be their baby.  Not every Volks head is a win for me, but these are the 1st I can think of that really put me off.

Well snap, those Twitter pics make Marisa look way cuter. Still thinking that I won't get her just because I kind of splurged on doll stuff too much lately (and uh, kind of have several unfinished projects floating around to be honest), but we'll see how my resolve holds up. 

EDIT: OMG I JUST REALIZED MARISA HAS A BULBASAUR MOUTH

Edited October 11, 2020 by Poofiemus

Hnnn. The more I look at the pics, the more I think Marisa would benefit from a custom face up.... and then that a boy version would also suit her head mold... andthenthethoughtoftwins... 😅

Kinda conflicted. When I saw the Volks photo's I was like: meh. Than the twitter stuff came and they didn't do a lot for me except Marisa's outfit is just so cute. Now when I look at more pictures Marisa starts to get cuter suddenly? What is this trickery?!

Luckily there is enough time to think about it haha~

The unfinished look is troubling. I really hope those are just prototypes rather than the final product. However, Volks has yet to disappoint me with their dolls and I'm   always more pleasantly surprised they look better in person so maybe I'll give them the benefit of the doubt? Except the wigs. The wigs have become more and more horrifying with each release lol. orz

What say you, those more knowledgeable in Dollfie Dreams?

 

That aside, I want Marisa and I'm 90% sure I'm getting her. It'll be a break from my usual pattern of all smiley girls. I've always wanted a cute, cat mouth girl and I was seriously eyeing Shiki from CJ until I read through the issues with Danny so I don't think that'll happen. I don't want to stalk and hope only to get my order canceled because I hadn't bought a doll from them before. 😕 

So Marisa will (hopefully) be my first!

1 hour ago, hanasori said:

I've always wanted a cute, cat mouth girl and I was seriously eyeing Shiki from CJ until I read through the issues with Danny so I don't think that'll happen.

She is supposed to be out at the end of the year. No one is quite sure how the failure of cortex will impact this release, since she was supposed to be all cortex. If we don’t see her by Spring 2021, then I would start to wonder if it’s not a dead project. 

Oh, I didn't know she was suppose to be all cortex. I thought she was to be a vinyl head, cortex body hybrid like Mika was. 😅 Aw, bummer. If Shiki was to be all cortex then that would have been a hard no for me anyways.

That's very interesting with it being a potential dead project. I don't know how licensing works and didn't know the project could even die. I guess a contract would have ways to address that issue if it had potentially come up. Even though he's been saying she wouldn't be out til the end of this year I didn't expect her this year at all given how erratic the release schedules are in CJ. I see that C.C. has been up for a long time and was wondering if it was due it being purely because the panademic pushing back plans but now knowing that cortex is out of the picture it seems it was much more than that.

Well, the instability of it all means I have funds to put into a another doll instead. I'm pretty sure I'm getting Marisa but Reimu is awfully tempting me too. She looks so much cuter in the user pics. They look better as a pair and I'm already going through the same dilemma as I did when I got 9S but not 2B. Ugh.  

 

11 minutes ago, hanasori said:

If Shiki was to be all cortex then that would have been a hard no for me anyways

At this point it seems very likely that if she is released she will be all vinyl. 
 

12 minutes ago, hanasori said:

That's very interesting with it being a potential dead project. I don't know how licensing works and didn't know the project could even die.

No one really knows for sure. If cortex was part of the license agreement, then no cortex alters the terms. It’s up to the involved parties to figure out what comes next. 

Its also possible the deal had a clause of some sort in case cortex didn’t work out and they had to fall back on vinyl.

Your safest bet is probably Marisa, but you don’t have to decide right away. All preorders will be fulfilled, even those placed on the very last day. Just keep in mind that Japan’s clock is a day ahead of most of us. 

Volks has a fairly long history of using not-quite-perfected prototypes for pre-orders (cough, cough, Yuki and Rina, anyone???) but they always seem to nail them by the time they're released. I wouldn't worry if display models aren't quite perfect this far out.

That said, I want to want Marisa, but I also just... don't.

OG Marisa was my first DD love and the doll that turned me into a vinyl collector, so of course I want to want her babby version. But I just seriously... don't.

@Cauldroness I could understand people who have loved OG Marisa not liking this version. I would say she looks a lot different from the DDS Marisa. Volks definitely went out and made her err.. unique. 😂 I actually gravitate towards oddball dolls and while I thought she looked weird initially, she really grew on me. Only thing is I annihilated my doll limits this year and I really, really don't want to be liking a new doll now. The fact that DDs are more affordable when compared to resin BJDs really doesn't help. Agh. But like @BeyondTime said, I have time to decide. I'm pretty sure Volks has my paycheck this November

5 hours ago, Cauldroness said:

Volks has a fairly long history of using not-quite-perfected prototypes for pre-orders (cough, cough, Yuki and Rina, anyone???) but they always seem to nail them by the time they're released. I wouldn't worry if display models aren't quite perfect this far out.

 

Any chance for an unveiling of updated prototypes? I'm really not feeling either of the face sculpts 😖

 

5 hours ago, Cauldroness said:

That said, I want to want Marisa, but I also just... don't.

 

I feel you. I loved the characters way back when and MDD Reimu was going to be my first preorder, but now I'd much rather split off the head and keep the wig/costume/etc and go for a custom head instead. Not sure if I'll bite...

 

No shade to anyone who likes them; they're just not my style.

Edited October 13, 2020 by scorps

21 hours ago, Cauldroness said:

Volks has a fairly long history of using not-quite-perfected prototypes for pre-orders (cough, cough, Yuki and Rina, anyone???)

lol, they don't count. They revealed the prototype heads online two weeks after pre-orders opened. Nowadays they have the've already manufactured dolls for display at at Volks stores in Japan when the pre-order period opens, and have already published in Volks News.

Quote

Any chance for an unveiling of updated prototypes? I'm really not feeling either of the face sculpts 😖

The sculpts will be final. What may change are the faceups, because at this point might still be hand painting them. Often the hand painted ones will look better than the final mass produced ones, because the hand painted ones have better soft details. A good example is 2B; you can compare her pre-order faceup (direct link, might not work) and this I guess. Note the eyelashes in particular.

 

What really shows me Marisa's sculpt is this tweet that I linked before. The person put the camera right up to the face so there's a huge amount of perspective distortion that looks weird but emphasizes depth. They also somehow got magically soft shadows in the photo which helps see all the curves on her face, like between her nose and top lip. She seems really cute :3

Actually, I think you just proved my point. Look how oddly shiny Yuki and Rina are in those photos. The finished Yuki doesn't actually look like that; there were tweaks made to her blush, lips and her eyeliner in the final released version. I remember a lot of people being shocked at how sweet she looked when the final product delivered, because she ended up so much sweeter than the prototypes. Then Rina got even more drastic changes, with her blush moving to a new location (less directly beneath her eyes and more toward the outer corner of her eyes), her eyeliner becoming less sharp, etc., which also really softened her final look.

So yes, the molds are the molds. Those won't change. But the face-up may be tweaked between now and the final product.

(Of course, it could also go the route of 2B, and the tweaks may not be improvements.)

2 minutes ago, Cauldroness said:

Actually, I think you just proved my point. Look how oddly shiny Yuki and Rina are in those photos.

I didn't say you were wrong 🤔 That pre-order is a bad example because they were even showing the clothes on other dolls before they got the heads ready. The first pic they released was just "look! WE HAVE HEADS! And the first pre-order period closes in 4 days."

7 minutes ago, Cauldroness said:

Of course, it could also go the route of 2B, and the tweaks may not be improvements.

That's how it is now. They're the final designs they'll be using to make the paint masks for mass production, but when masks are used, fine lines become thicker and darker and things like glossed lips end up kinda not.

I would love to have Reimu! I love her outfit! The only problem is she'd be delivered in Fall 2021 which is year from now...

2 hours ago, BenjiTheSenpai said:

The only problem is she'd be delivered in Fall 2021 which is year from now...

True, but that’s normal for the unlimited pre-order projects. Each order can include up to 2 dolls, and there is no limit to the number of orders you can place during the pre-order period. All orders will be fulfilled, but it takes a year - sometimes a bit more if they get a lot of orders.

Year long waits are pretty normal between product teases and product release. The Nier folks waited something like 2.5 to 3 years from teaser to shipment, but that was really unusual. Volks is normally very punctual. 

The more I look at Marisa, the more I think her mouth sculpt is great, but it's actually her eyelash makeup I dislike--it hardly contacts the actual eye hole at all, which, wtf? Volks if you knew you wanted that kind of eye shape, why didn't you just sculpt it that way, instead of adding pointy eyelashes to a round eyehole?

I'm not against the idea of doing a new face up on her with eyelashes that match the eye holes, or even modding the eyes a bit. . . but that's a rather dangerous conclusion to come to lol

@foo Those are the photos that finalized my decision to get Marisa! That mouth with those cheeks, she reminds me of a pouty hamster. 

[edit] Normally I'm of the opinion that upshots make a doll look odd but I'm glad that Twitter user did. A lot of effort went into her sculpt and I can appreciate that. 

Edited October 14, 2020 by hanasori

On 10/11/2020 at 6:48 PM, Ayuuya said:

Hnnn. The more I look at the pics, the more I think Marisa would benefit from a custom face up.... and then that a boy version would also suit her head mold... andthenthethoughtoftwins... 😅

Oh you just had to say it, I can totally see her as a cute boy with a re-faceup. Now I have even more to ponder.

On 10/14/2020 at 2:45 PM, Poofiemus said:

The more I look at Marisa, the more I think her mouth sculpt is great, but it's actually her eyelash makeup I dislike--it hardly contacts the actual eye hole at all, which, wtf? Volks if you knew you wanted that kind of eye shape, why didn't you just sculpt it that way, instead of adding pointy eyelashes to a round eyehole?

———

I had the same feelings about the faceup when I saw close ups. It’s more the eye makeup style with the colour highlight that throws me off... it can look good, but I don’t think it went that well in this case (￣▽￣;)

 

On 10/14/2020 at 8:07 PM, Jezrah said:

Oh you just had to say it, I can totally see her as a cute boy with a re-faceup. Now I have even more to ponder.

Haha sorry!   ♪(´ε｀ )

I mean... we need more boy dolls on here... (´∀｀*)