9S (incomplete) Outfit set!

TLDR: I bought an incomplete outfit set from 9S on YJA. It arrived after ~3 months of waiting, I got needlessly emotional and now I want to share that joy with the forum! Also, please play Nier, it's a great game!

Nier:Automata had piqued my interest all the way back in 2017 when it was initially released. Just the aesthetic of the game really spoke to me and while I dodged any and all spoilers, I only ever heard great things about it. However, for one reason or another, I never actually got to play it. If you're into gaming, you probably know the feeling - and the seemingly endless backlog of games you want to play that piles up over the years!

Fast forward to the beginning of this year when I discovered Dollfie Dreams and began to dive straight into the wonderful world of soft plastic. It didn't take me long to stumble upon the 2B and 9S Dollfies - I wasn't even that surprised, Nier seems to have done a lot of crossovers all over the place - and, naturally, they looked stunning. I was especially taken by 9S, partially thanks to @Noxxbunny and the pictures she provided of hers. I also pretty quickly realized that I would like to have a male DD and 9S was one of the few limited ones Volks had ever released. 

Unfortunately, I had missed their release by a long shot. Both 2B and 9S are still very easy to find on the aftermarket, but especially 9S is.. just a little outside of what I would feel comfortable to pay for him. I'd pick him up for retail in a heartbeat, but the aftermarket price.. seemed unreasonable to me, especially considering that we already knew KAITO was on the way, another male DD + with a sculpt (at least as far as the pictures go) I really love!
So, when KAITO was revealed in August, I already knew where my money was going. However, I never quite forgot about 9S. 

I knew that a friend of mine owned Nier, so I asked him if I could play the game on his account and just as expected I absolutely loved it. I only put a couple hours into the game at that point, but I started watching YJA a little more closely, hoping to stumble across a good deal.. and that's when I saw that someone was selling an incomplete outfit set from 9S! I'm not exactly sure what I paid, but I think it was roughly ~$110 - a fraction of the price of the full doll. Knowing that I would definitely buy KAITO anyway, I thought this would be a good compromise! (There's another, also incomplete, set for sale on YJA, but apparently it has a strong cigarette smoke smell. The smell should be removable though.)

So, I bought the set and picked the cheapest shipping option - surface mail. I looked up shipping times beforehand and it said to expect the package to arrive in ~3 months, which was perfectly fine with me. It also gave me enough time to finally buy the game myself and play it through and my god, what a ride it was.

I don't want to say too much about it, but I very much fell in love with both 2B and 9S and their story. I'd like to think I'm not the most emotional person, but the ending brought tears to my eyes (although I managed not to bawl my eyes out, unlike that one time I watched Violet Evergarden). Really, if you haven't yet, please go and play the game, I promise it's worth it. For those who already played the game:

Spoiler

Yes I did.

It's been about three weeks since then and yesterday my package finally arrived (Thanking past-me profusely for her incredible foresight)! I opened it up, a little nervous, hoping that everything was in good condition and that there were no weird smells, but everything was just perfect! Seeing 9S's little coat, holding it in my hands, it kind of made me emotional again. 
I was just so incredibly happy!
I'll put a few pictures (and my gushing over the outfit) in the next spoiler, but beware of bad lightning + camera quality!
 

Spoiler

So here's everything I got! 
To put it in Volks's terms: Camouflage Goggles / Choker / Jacket / Pants / Socks / Synthetic Leather Undershorts / Messenger Bag

Which means that I am missing the wig, boots, gloves + hand parts and the pod.
I felt like the wig and boots should be easy enough to replace with something generic and while I would have liked to have the pod (especially in hindsight) it would have probably added to the shipping cost, so I wasn't too concerned about it. The missing gloves + hand parts are a bummer, but I have tried to think of/look for some sort of suitable replacement. I got a few ideas, but I also like the thought of KAITO showing off his painted nails even in uniform. 
Everything seems to be in really great shape though! No dirt, no flaking, not even wrinkles! I wonder if it had ever been used at all!



A little close-up of the bag - again, no damage whatsoever! It probably will deteriorate over time, but I think in this case a slightly more 'weathered' look might actually add to the aesthetic! 



I have to say, I really appreciate the way Volks made sure to line everything with white fabric. I'll still have KAITO wear a bodysuit underneath, but it's nice that they did it!



Alright, so this is probably super stupid, but something about those little black socks made me so happy! I've been handling bodysuits and the like, but these are my first tiny 'wool socks' and just looking at them makes me unreasonably giddy! I guess sometimes it really is the simple things!



Trousers, aaaand..



The coat! I love it. It feels nice, it looks great - I can't wait to see it on KAITO! 



Here's an attempted close-up of the embroidery! It's so beautiful!

Now, two quick questions for those who own 9S! 
Have you ever experienced any staining with the blindfold camouflage goggles? Also, do you use the undershorts? I'm honestly not quite sure why they were included in the set to begin with or why they had to be made out of synthetic leather, but I'm curious about what others think of them!

Edited December 2, 2022 by RetroKanojo
Formatting

2 hours ago, RetroKanojo said:

TLDR: I bought an incomplete outfit set from 9S on YJA. It arrived after ~3 months of waiting, I got needlessly emotional and now I want to share that joy with the forum! Also, please play Nier, it's a great game!

 

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Now, two quick questions for those who own 9S! 
Have you ever experienced any staining with the blindfold camouflage goggles? Also, do you use the undershorts? I'm honestly not quite sure why they were included in the set to begin with or why they had to be made out of synthetic leather, but I'm curious about what others think of them!

I got my 9S recently from AX and I saran(?) wrapped mine lol
The DD comes with a bodysuit for him, so I put that on, then the saran wrap, THEN the shorts lol
Just wanted even more protection just in case. I also put some tape around the collar area.

I've heard that the stretch part of his mask stains, my Nines doesn't have it on though and is holding it
since I want to stare at his pretty eyes ; u ; and I don't want him to be "blind" to the truth.
I also put some tape as extra protection where the socks are over the saran wrap just in case.
So besides that and maybe the collar, I don't think he stains.

Edited December 2, 2022 by Hazukami

That's very thorough stain protection!

It makes sense that the stretchy part on the blindfold could be a potential stain risk, I'll keep that in mind! 

He truly is such a precious thing, I'm really happy even just having this little piece of him haha 

10 hours ago, RetroKanojo said:

That's very thorough stain protection!

It makes sense that the stretchy part on the blindfold could be a potential stain risk, I'll keep that in mind! 

He truly is such a precious thing, I'm really happy even just having this little piece of him haha 

I think you got some of the more important parts anyway, like the bag and his jacket.
The jacket is STUNNING. Also the choker!
It's a shame about the gloves, but for the money you paid and with how hard it is to find him at retail
that's a really good compromise! Kaito's face is really nice as well, and tbh you miss nothing with this 9S wig.
As for the pod, unless you have room.. he takes and absurd amount of space because he uses a Volks DD base to stand..

And thanks, I want to dress him up in other things potentially so I really didn't want him to stain
but after all that saran wrap, I'm not sure I want to take it off x'D

Maybe because I use the bodysuit that came with 9S, but I haven’t had any of his fullset stain…except for a dot on the back of his neck from his choker (the bodysuit doesn’t cover the neck). That doesn’t really bother me, because it’s on the back of his neck and also it’s covered by his choker anyway.

On another DD, I’d still use a bodysuit to be safe. I personally -hate- the way bodysuits look on DDs so this is one of the few times I ever use them - otherwise I never use them unless they aren’t visible anyway (like long sleeves/pants) and with 9S it’s only really visible between his socks and shorts which isn’t as much of an issue for me (I just gotta always make sure there’s no weird wrinkles for photos)

Luckily the newer body suits look somewhat better on the neck with the way they tuck in, so you could use one of those with Kaito if you wanted to be sure the choker didn’t stain him. 

Edited December 3, 2022 by Monty

😭 I'm glad I could be of influence here. I'm always so paranoid that I spam pictures of my Nines too much lol!! Congrats on getting the outfit!! I'm also in the camp that uses the bodysuit that came with my 9S. He has one tiny dot on his wrist but I'm not even 100% sure that came from his uniform. Haven't had any staining from the choker, and he literally always has it on for the 2 years I've had him now. The goggles DID stain him once, and it may have happened when I was putting it on because it never wants to stay on. Gave him a blue freckle on his cheek right before I had his faceup done.

As for the undershorts, I do use them occasionally just because I figure I might as well before they fall apart from being pleather and all. But I always figured they were using separately from his regular shorts. Since they're a reference to how he looks when he self-destructs in-game and all that. So I think it was if you wanted to have that form of his outfit. Similar to how you can remove 2B's skirt.

Also I totally feel you on how Nier can reduce someone to tears. I've actually been fairly inactive in the doll hobby because I've sort of just let 9S and Automata in general consume my life. Probably my favorite game of all time tbh.

10 hours ago, Hazukami said:

It's a shame about the gloves, but for the money you paid and with how hard it is to find him at retail
that's a really good compromise!

Yes, my thoughts exactly! With how rarely Volks seems to be doing 'special' gloves, I can kind of understand why the previous owner would want to keep them for themselves. It's a trade-off, but for the price I paid I'm more than happy! Also, very good point about the pod, because I actually don't have a whole lot of space to go around. Maybe I'll make one out of cardboard? 😂

9 hours ago, Monty said:

On another DD, I’d still use a bodysuit to be safe. I personally -hate- the way bodysuits look on DDs so this is one of the few times I ever use them - otherwise I never use them unless they aren’t visible anyway (like long sleeves/pants) and with 9S it’s only really visible between his socks and shorts which isn’t as much of an issue for me (I just gotta always make sure there’s no weird wrinkles for photos)

Luckily the newer body suits look somewhat better on the neck with the way they tuck in, so you could use one of those with Kaito if you wanted to be sure the choker didn’t stain him. 

I have to admit that I'm a scaredy-cat and I have my dolls in bodysuits 100% of the time. My DD is currently wearing the White Bunny Set, which really shouldn't have any risk of staining, except for perhaps the gold buttons on the front of the vest - still have her in the bodysuit. It is the newer version, so it goes up all the way on the neck and in that area specifically I think it looks very unobtrusive. I already bought a bodysuit for KAITO as well, so my biggest fear is the blindfold, which, as others have pointed out, can stain. I'll most likely put it on him anyway though - despite my fears, it just looks too badass to omit! 

6 hours ago, Noxxbunny said:

😭 I'm glad I could be of influence here. I'm always so paranoid that I spam pictures of my Nines too much lol!! Congrats on getting the outfit!! I'm also in the camp that uses the bodysuit that came with my 9S. He has one tiny dot on his wrist but I'm not even 100% sure that came from his uniform. Haven't had any staining from the choker, and he literally always has it on for the 2 years I've had him now. The goggles DID stain him once, and it may have happened when I was putting it on because it never wants to stay on. Gave him a blue freckle on his cheek right before I had his faceup done.

As for the undershorts, I do use them occasionally just because I figure I might as well before they fall apart from being pleather and all. But I always figured they were using separately from his regular shorts. Since they're a reference to how he looks when he self-destructs in-game and all that. So I think it was if you wanted to have that form of his outfit. Similar to how you can remove 2B's skirt.

Also I totally feel you on how Nier can reduce someone to tears. I've actually been fairly inactive in the doll hobby because I've sort of just let 9S and Automata in general consume my life. Probably my favorite game of all time tbh.

There can never be enough Nines!
I'll try to be careful with the blindfold then and you also make a good point about the undershorts! I thought it might be 'in reference' to the uhh.. exploded clothes, but I wasn't quite sure. I do feel like it's going to crumble to dust if I look at it too hard, but maybe I'll find a use for it.. Len Kagamine's 'punkish' module comes to mind. 😂

I can totally understand how the game can consume one's entire attention. As soon as I finished, I had to go through all the extra lore outside of the game as well. I kind of want to try and do a 100% run, but there are other games I want to finish first. Nothing wrong with enjoying what makes you happy though - just doing your own thing with your Nines sitting on your desk for company.. no, there's definitely worse ways to spend your time!

3 hours ago, RetroKanojo said:

so my biggest fear is the blindfold, which, as others have pointed out, can stain.

You could cover the parts that are likely to stain with Volks’ Skin Protect Tape. I’ve heard of people lining the inside of the Sailor Scouts’ tiaras with it, so the same thing could work here.

I read somewhere that a wig cap might help prevent the stains from the mask, so you can do wig cap+ tape on the stretchy bit.