DD Hatsune Miku NT

5 hours ago, That_Dollfie_Dude said:

She will almost certainly be preorder, and available at Volks USA too.  Miku sells.  They'd just be shorting themselves to limit her to lottery.

So far the online information says pre-order at Dolpa 50 only. They have no published detail info about the after events yet, but they do link to Volks USA on the Miku NT page. 
 

https://dollfie.volks.co.jp/dd/special/piapro/product/dd_mikunt.html

 

The word "scheduled" might indicate plans could change, but it's machine translated, so I'd plan on her being guaranteed only at Dolpa, and expect an international click war / Volks USA lottery. 

Miku has never been hard to get, but this is potentially a whole new licensing deal, so who knows. 

3 hours ago, BeyondTime said:

Miku has never been hard to get, but this is potentially a whole new licensing deal, so who knows. 

The licensing won’t have changed, it’s still Crypton Future Media. 

20 minutes ago, Monty said:

The licensing won’t have changed, it’s still Crypton Future Media. 

I was referring to Vocaloid vs Piapro(?).

Sorry, I don’t really follow the franchise, so I’m not up on all the details. It just seems to me like prior to this Miku has always been re-releases of a character they licensed years ago, and this new Miku might have different terms under a new agreement. 

23 minutes ago, BeyondTime said:

I was referring to Vocaloid vs Piapro(?).

Piapro (and Piapro Studio, their vocal synth software) is owned by Crypton! It’s also been associated with Miku for almost as long as she’s been around, so no changes there. The copyright was never tied specifically to the vocaloid engine from Yamaha, I don’t think for any of her merchandise.

Edited November 6, 2023 by Monty

Someone on Twitter has a "real" picture of NT Miku.

https://twitter.com/yuzuhasky_doll/status/1721556426580283654/photo/1

 

NGL, that wig is making me nervous. I have doubts about my ability to keep it from going bad instantly.

12 hours ago, Thespian said:

You say that, but the original Rin/Len release was restricted to lottery only in spite of the fact that the twins were highly anticipated and a lot of people were gunning for a pre-order. We also can't get tan skin dolls or DDBs without using a D'Coord/Dream Choice proxy or getting lucky on a limited lottery/pre-order. Volks clearly has no issue with shorting themselves for reasons known only to them.

I think a better comparison here would be Sakura Miku and Reboot Miku being clickwar. The twins weren’t actually that popular in their original release, almost everyone who entered the lottery won and the remainders were on sale on the online store for well over a year - meaning they were some of the few licensed DDs you could reliably find on the aftermarket for well below RRP (until about…2019? Then they suddenly got super sought-after to the extent the reboot happened). So I wouldn’t take them as an example of hard to get dolls, they were possibly the easiest of all of them to get for anyone who wanted one at the time(/a year after the time). But Reboot being as limited as she was was a bigger surprise for me.

The fact that there’s a preorder at Dolpa at all is promising though. Even if it is only at Dolpa it means there will be a lot more of her around.

edit: definitely here you on the tan skin thing, I’ve been spending the duration of the 20th anniversary 20 projects rollout hoping one of them will be standard tan parts or tawny joining Dream Choice but it’s looking less and less likely 😔

Edited November 7, 2023 by Monty

1 hour ago, Monty said:

The twins weren’t actually that popular in their original release, almost everyone who entered the lottery won and the remainders were on sale on the online store for well over a year

The twins' first release was the big lottery farm cancelling kerfuffle (after which the lottery system went more strict and ultimately extinct). I personally entered for both Rin and Len, lost both, took my money elsewhere as a result, and as the dolls came up for general purchase I did get Rin eventually, but it was a really disenchanted buy. Len I left in the store ... because Len.

So I wouldnt be surprised that some people didnt buy the dolls after the initial dissapointment the lottery stuff caused, adding to the availability

2 minutes ago, finnleo said:

(after which the lottery system went more strict and ultimately extinct).

I always assumed the mass cancellations were from people who wanted to resell to make a quick buck who then realised they weren’t exactly hard to get so it wasn’t worth it. My point was that they were very easy to obtain so it’s not that accurate to use them as an example of dolls that were too limited despite popularity, unlike Miku v2 who existed specifically because she won the Best Selection poll.

They did probably play a part in the lottery system eventually going away - because it wasn’t long after that they required upfront payment for them to deter flakers which they still do with SDs. Ultimately I wish they didn’t do away with the lottery system because it’s a preferable and fairer system to clickwar that doesn’t give any unfair advantage for time zones or internet speed (or people who don’t work on weekends) The site seems to be crashing more often, literally crashing every time a new blog post goes up now. Sure it would be nice if everything could be preorder, but it isn’t feasible and I think we’re seeing first hand the effects of two uncapped preorders in a year (Kaito and Rin/Len) with the low quality wigs going out… it’s starting to seem like the stuff with a lower or finite production quantity has better QC overall. Volks seems to have increased production a lot since I joined this hobby (the difference in Arle v1 and Rin/Len numbers alone is huge) and can definitely make a whole lot more dolls than they used to be able to, but they still don’t come out of thin air.

12 hours ago, That_Dollfie_Dude said:

Someone on Twitter has a "real" picture of NT Miku.

https://twitter.com/yuzuhasky_doll/status/1721556426580283654/photo/1

 

She is amazing. I love how this outfit has socks instead of high boots. Especially with how Volks continues to use the bad pleather stuff. If the shoes die, you can just get black loafers and her outfit would still seem fine.

I am super excited and just keeping my fingers crossed for a pre-order. With how much the site's been crashing I really do not want a clickwar... 

10 hours ago, Monty said:

I always assumed the mass cancellations were from people who wanted to resell to make a quick buck who then realised they weren’t exactly hard to get so it wasn’t worth it. My point was that they were very easy to obtain so it’s not that accurate to use them as an example of dolls that were too limited despite popularity, unlike Miku v2 who existed specifically because she won the Best Selection poll.

My viewpoint might be tainted because how it went for me, but there was some circuimstantial stuff towards lottery farms getting busted. I cant recall what the official statement from volks was other than there have been mass cancellations and as a result there will be dolls to be had.

However there was that one person casually coming to the forum to tell about their lottery farm of new bidders just before everything went boom, though that one could have been just trolling, but the timing matched if such a farm was spotted and busted by volks.

I also seem to recall more losses than wins on the forum when it happened (though, too lazy to check...) but again my viewpoint could be tainted.

But all in all, I only wanted to point out that as a datapoint the original release of the twins is not perhaps entirely trustworthy of actual popularity, because of what happened around it .... <s> except maybe for len. </s>

Also as a side note, as flawed as it was, I do prefer a lottery system over stalking the site, since for me its usually a 2-3am stake-out, and still all bets are off because of the site breaking.

1 hour ago, finnleo said:

I cant recall what the official statement from volks was other than there have been mass cancellations and as a result there will be dolls to be had.

Mio Honda had a second lottery draw from the original entrants because of cancellations, and she ended up super cheap on Yahoo! Japan. Think my NIB Mio was around $400 - $500

7 hours ago, finnleo said:

My viewpoint might be tainted because how it went for me, but there was some circuimstantial stuff towards lottery farms getting busted. I cant recall what the official statement from volks was other than there have been mass cancellations and as a result there will be dolls to be had.

However there was that one person casually coming to the forum to tell about their lottery farm of new bidders just before everything went boom, though that one could have been just trolling, but the timing matched if such a farm was spotted and busted by volks.

I also seem to recall more losses than wins on the forum when it happened (though, too lazy to check...) but again my viewpoint could be tainted.

This is getting off topic to Miku NT, but I have to admit I don’t know what you’re referring to here, especially the part about any statement from Volks.
But the win rate…I’m not saying I'm an expert on it by any means. But the Kagamine release was the first one I was here for because I had just joined the hobby, so I like to think I remember it clearly as it was the discussion thread I followed the most closely out of anything else. I was very invested in knowing who won/lost, firstly because it was my first experience of seeing that lottery system in real time, but secondly because I was one of the people who got the guaranteed preorder of Rin at Dolpa and dealt with an extremely nasty (jealous?) anon as a result, who didn’t want me to post about having her  because it was apparently ‘bragging’ to the people who had to rely on the lottery who were apparently expected to lose. (She was my first DD, I was very excited, a cringey and unhelpful newbie sure, but it still wasn’t a great ‘welcome’ from the community). But because of that anon, I felt extremely guilty at the prospect that there would be people missing out (emotions were extremely high surrounding this release)so I paid a lot of attention to the win rate and was pleasantly surprised that it seemed like basically everyone won. (I was especially surprised because the previous lottery was Arle, where it seemed nearly everyone in the thread said they lost, so that was my expectation for lotteries). Again, I’m just saying this because the whole thing was a formative experience for me as a newbie.

Back to Miku NT though….she’s been spotted modelling some new outfits in the latest Volks news, for those who want additional photos of her. If there’s no scans/leaks put up anywhere, those images will be on the site for those specific outfits before the event itself.

Edited November 7, 2023 by Monty

Jpcn_doll_purchase on Insta has scans up.

5 hours ago, Monty said:

but secondly because I was one of the people who got the guaranteed preorder of Rin at Dolpa and dealt with an extremely nasty (jealous?) anon as a result, who didn’t want me to post about having her  because it was apparently ‘bragging’ to the people who had to rely on the lottery who were apparently expected to lose.

My experience of folks like that is that they can often be the worst sorts of people. They have to be pretty narcissistic to expect you to not talk about your successes, unless of course they have their own success to match yours. It's even more asinine, because you earned it by finding a place for yourself in Japan and then earning the money to go to the event and buy Rin. It's not like someone handed you something you didn't deserve because some kind of special privilege. 

5 hours ago, Monty said:

but I have to admit I don’t know what you’re referring to here, especially the part about any statement from Volks.

I just recall some kind of heads up from some direction that there would be dolls available after the cancellations, but its possible im mixing up the normal practice volks had with after event lotterys and general chatter on the topic, or later events like beyondtime brought up.

 

1 hour ago, marishade said:

Jpcn_doll_purchase on Insta has scans up.

MikuNT in the princess pannier is quite stunning, but the presence of Kaito in that white prince outfit is giving me Cendrillon vibes.

Just now, Monty said:

MikuNT in the princess pannier is quite stunning, but the presence of Kaito in that white prince outfit is giving me Cendrillon vibes.

That outfit is a must have. 

17 hours ago, Monty said:

MikuNT in the princess pannier is quite stunning, but the presence of Kaito in that white prince outfit is giving me Cendrillon vibes.

That was my first thought, too! When I got Kaito, I had thought about getting Cendrillion-esque outfits for the two at some point, but DDB outfits are a bit of a struggle, so I'll gladly take those 🥰

On 11/7/2023 at 9:37 PM, marishade said:

Jpcn_doll_purchase on Insta has scans up.

Ngl, I'll probably end up getting that white outfit for Miku.  I can add some underskirts and other things to make it so its a white dress vs a wedding dress. 

Its a wedding dress, right?

 

Ryu

On info page, it does list the online store as one of the locations where you can order Miku NT at the Dolls Party 50 After Event.  However, it also has this disclaimer:

※「ドールズ パーティー50 アフターイベント」での注文販売は予定しておりません。

Translation (mine):  "We have no plans to take orders (i.e. for later delivery) for this item at the Dolls Party 50 After Event."

This seems to imply that they will only have a set amount to sell, and therefore that the online store option must be either lottery or clickwar.

Am I understanding this correctly?

5 hours ago, That_Dollfie_Dude said:

On info page, it does list the online store as one of the locations where you can order Miku NT at the Dolls Party 50 After Event.  However, it also has this disclaimer:

※「ドールズ パーティー50 アフターイベント」での注文販売は予定しておりません。

Translation (mine):  "We have no plans to take orders (i.e. for later delivery) for this item at the Dolls Party 50 After Event."

This seems to imply that they will only have a set amount to sell, and therefore that the online store option must be either lottery or clickwar.

Am I understanding this correctly?

Yeah, that info looks new too. There’s a similar red disclaimer on the Dolls Party info the clarify that the preorder is only for there. That may be one reason why the guidebook tickets sold out way earlier than they normally do (tbh I don’t even remember them selling out in the past) - although the white skin Williams/Elizabeth double threat on the SD side would have helped that too.

Hopefully there’s still a lot of her available though, good luck to those who want her. Still wish they’d jut go back to lotteries and do away with clickwars…

15 hours ago, Monty said:

Yeah, that info looks new too. There’s a similar red disclaimer on the Dolls Party info the clarify that the preorder is only for there. That may be one reason why the guidebook tickets sold out way earlier than they normally do

Hmm... That makes me nervous.  Limited quantity and no preorder means high likelihood of missing out.  It may be time to have my proxy shopper hit up the After Event in person to secure her for me.  I don't have an original Miku, (just a Snow Miku), and I'm not missing this one.

2 hours ago, That_Dollfie_Dude said:

Hmm... That makes me nervous.  Limited quantity and no preorder means high likelihood of missing out.

Hatsune Miku tends to be pretty easy to get. The only hard to get one seems to be Sakura Miku.

That said, new release so a lot of people will want her. If she's treated like OG Miku, she'll probably get re-released repeatedly.

She is cute. I am tempted to get her but still not sure as I am looking to get another SD or a Peakswoods doll😞😊