Welcoming Azone Black Raven Luluna Preface (〃´▽`)

That's some hair colour change between the front and the back of the box lol

In my introduction thread I mentioned how much I wanted this doll, and funnily enough, shortly after that someone put her up for sale. From their social media posts they got her in October, but by November there she was... All the better because now she's with me ☆ But it makes me curious as to how many doll collectors' hands she's passed through over the years.

She actually arrived November 26th, but the previous owner forgot to send her necklace with the doll. I knew she should have the necklace thanks to her social media posts so I waited until the necklace arrived today to post about Luluna.

Doll in underwear ahead 

Spoiler

 

Stinky!! This is my first sizable vinyl doll so I'm not sure how much of what I was smelling was to be expected but it permeated everything including her clothes. I ended up taking her apart and soaking her in some dawn soapy water, then in sitting in some baking soda, and I guess it helped but man is that smell stubborn. I had to wash her body anyway, since there was some mild staining (or was it dirt...) and my initial wiping and magic sponging created a lot of grey water. Bleehhh

So she needs some work to be in presentable shape. Luckily I'm already used to fixing up BJDs so I have what I need.

It wasn't until I took her apart that I saw her shoulders had been replaced with 3D printed parts. The originals must have broken at some point.

 

There were some other things to be done before she could be presentable:

The jumperskirt was covered in pet hair or something and that smell needed to come out of her clothes. Easy fix.

The blouse had several spots of yellowing throughout, the worst being on her collar. This is actually quite treatable. The ribbon lace also yellowed unevenly with age, but I've already learned from old Volks clothes that this kind can't of ribbon doesn't really deyellow. Maybe with harsher treatments but I'm not willing to risk the rest of the fabric to try. The buttons are beaten up but the buttons on her sleeves are pristine. I assume her blouse must have been buttoned and unbuttoned and fussed with many times over the years.

All of this came out except a faint trace left of the bottom stain, which would probably come out with more spot treatment. 

 

The OTKs had a couple tiny dot stains but otherwise the lace was just dull and brownish with age. This can be treated, although I didn't want to soak these for too long because of the black so I let it be with some milder whitening results. I do think it helped though and I can always do more. 

 

Her boots needed the most fixing up. When I first took them off, the bottom platforms of the shoe were almost totally separating from the soles.The glue had basically dried up everywhere, so even the sides of the boot were hanging off of the shoe at the bottom. I didn't take any before pictures so please bear with this closeup from her box opening. If you look you can also see some of the old glue at the top of the tongue of her boot, and at the toes. There's also fraying white thread everywhere from top to bottom wherever the boot was sewn together.

 

After regluing with Loctite, I touched up the boots over the old glue and white fraying threads with some Angelus shoe paint. The black is darker than the boots and I accidentally got visible marks while painting but slightly dark marks is much better than noticeable white.

I think they look great now! I wouldn't guess they were so old if I saw them without knowing.

Replaced a missing elastic in her twintail and touched up her hair with some Dollfie water wax. I didn't use heat tools so it isn't the most impressive job but much better than her state before. Here she is!

 

Her hair colour is hard to describe... It's not as yellow as the photos; my phone camera sucks. But in my opinion her hair has yellowed from its original colour to some degree. It's kind of grey in person, but.. It does have this ashen kind of blonde tone to it too. 

I guess if it bothers me enough some day there's always rerooting but this girl is not a job for someone who's rerooting for the first time. She's cute as she is. I won't take finding an old doll I loved so much for granted. d=(^o^)=b 

Thanks for reading!

Congrats on your new girl! I don’t have any dolls from the Black Raven series, but I like the way they look and have considered picking a few up before.

Not sure if you were aware of this since it’s a bit unclear from your post, but there were two versions of this doll—the Standard Sales version and the Azone Direct Store Sales version. The Standard Sales version is the one with gray hair. The one you got is the Azone Direct Store Sales version with blonde hair. Personally, I think yours looks better!

Congrats on a beautiful new addition! 🌙 She looks absolutely wonderful, and it was lovely to see the amount of care and gentle restoration you put into making her look new again. 

Thank you both! I like showing a bit more since people like to dig through archives for stuff like this - or at least I'm one of those people hahah 

I love seeing people's journeys with their dolls. 

 

@ragnamuffin I also prefer this version! This is the standard version, her hair plastic is just yellowed a bit from age like the rest of her. She has the set for standard and the box is also the standard version box labeled 通常販売 ver. I can't tell how much it's yellowed though, since in some promo pictures her hair is like a cold whitish silver, but in others her hair is a warmer more natural silver. What is the truth, Azone? 🧐 

I have managed to dig up owner photos of the direct store version though! Here are some for the curious:

source

source

You can find more on this user's Xiaohongshu page. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1 hour ago, dippingsauce said:

@ragnamuffin I also prefer this version! This is the standard version, her hair plastic is just yellowed a bit from age like the rest of her. She has the set for standard and the box is also the standard version box labeled 通常販売 ver. I can't tell how much it's yellowed though, since in some promo pictures her hair is like a cold whitish silver, but in others her hair is a warmer more natural silver. What is the truth, Azone? 🧐

Oh wow, it’s hard to believe she’s actually the standard sales version! Her hair yellowed so much they practically look identical. I wonder if Azone did that on purpose so they’d end up looking the same over time…

@ragnamuffin LOL I hope not, at the very least her hair is not at all the same yellow colour as the direct version, just the artificial lighting

 

17 hours ago, ragnamuffin said:

Oh wow, it’s hard to believe she’s actually the standard sales version! Her hair yellowed so much they practically look identical. I wonder if Azone did that on purpose so they’d end up looking the same over time…

In my experience, Azone's official pictures of their Black Raven dolls are not very trustworthy as to the doll's actual hair colour. The ones with the doll's hair neatly combed often look like they used a different doll head with hair that is lighter than the actual product. Either their lighting (bluish TL-tube?) is different than what most people have in their homes, or the dolls used are pre-production samples with some differences from the final product.

It could be the type of hair fibre used. If it’s the same or similar to what they use for pure neemos, my Clock Rabbit Yuta’s hair has yellowed over time in a similar way. Back when I got him in 2014 his hair was the same silver as advertised, but the colour now is very similar to what’s shown here.