Volks Petition to do more preorders?

I've certainly also noticed our hobby trending towards "dollfie of the week" just like a magical girl show. All the interest that one doll generates evaporates as soon as the next issue of Volks News comes out and the new shiny is revealed. It's kinda weird to watch.

I noticed that too. For me it's really interesting to see the new DD releases and follow the event, but I also want to see what people do with those DDs. The aftermath is so much quieter, it's up to me to look around Flickr for those owner pics of those new sculpts.

Dollfie of the week is nothing new, sure its new but its up to you really if you could be with the hype or turn over the tide.

 

This is what I always ask "Is it worth it, to acquire the new doll everyone's talking about?, or does my (insert doll name here) can still do better" lol

 

That's why sometime's I try to avoid the forums on new dolpa's since there's a possibility I could jump as well.

 

It has really been interesting reading through this thread (although I'm surprised that I could focus that long. ) At first I thought the petition idea was interesting, even if it goes against Japanese logic. Reading through everyone's varying opinions allowed me to realize that I rather like how Volks does things at the moment, I just wish they would stabilize. The reason I say that is I've had the kinda strange luck to get into the hobby a few weeks before the Saber-induced body shortage was widely noticed and felt in Volks USA. Since that had such long lasting implications, I haven't really known what Volks availability is normally like, and the complaints about how the lottery girls are harder to get then they 'used to be' seems kinda funny to me. Getting my first DD was the easiest for me, I decided and simply ordered. Now all the ones that have come after that have been a unique struggle. Finances are always an issue, so it really boggles me that people can just enter the lottery on a whim, so even if I want a lottery or limited girl I'll find her on the after market or ignore her completely.

 

Much of this is why I get a bit frustrated at the new people who just assume that since I have more than one or two dolls that they happened to be super easy for me to obtain. For goodness sake, Rainie was a custom girl from a standard sculpt and she still took me nearly a year to finish! In the beginning I told myself that I wouldn't fall in love with limited girls because they were just too hard to get and expensive. Sometimes I lamented at how Volks should increase the number of girls that they make for a release, but even then I knew it wouldn't change a thing. I valiantly kept this ideal for more than 6 months, but eventually the Idolm@aster girls were released and Haruka instantly changed my opinion.

 

It is also very hard for me not to get caught up in all the hype over the newly released girls, but I've come to learn that if it is really true love (and not just a DD crush) the girl will still call out to me many months later, allowing me the chance to find mine. I'm a bit odd because I really enjoy the girls that have a bit of history before they get to me because it just adds to their character. Sure it hurts a lot when I instantly fall in love with a girl because she's so adorable, or just happens to be utterly perfect for a specific character I want to make. But in my own way, still being in love with a girl months or years after she originally caught my fancy simply adds to how much she is loved when she gets here.

 

Personally I don't think Volk's availability has much affect on my buying habits. Through spending time on the forums and finding some wonderful friends/enablers I've already been given the opportunity to get some of the limited girls I honestly thought would always be pipe dreams. The most recent girl is one I'm still stunned that I could get her full set for what I was expecting to pay for just her head and eyes. Things like this are what make the hobby so exciting to me because contrary to my obsessive-compulsive side, I'm learning how to just go with the flow of things, letting my DD choose when they want to be adopted. Often it is in a very different order than I expect because I tend to go after the harder to get/expensive girls first to make everything easier in the long run.

 

Kos-Mos and Momo an example of this. I could very easily get all of my unfinished DD completed and clothed for the cost of just these two. And yet I feel so very fortunate that Volks had a pre-order as well as a 'order now, pay later' option on girls that Raven and I really wanted. In some ways Kos-Mos is one of my grail dolls, simply because I never thought I'd have the chance to get a limited girl directly from Volks. Sure I'm nervous about QC issues, with second hand DD people normally state the issues so I know what to expect. Kos-Mos is really a wild card for me and what I'm used to. But even just today I ran across a pic of her, and was surprised how hard my heart thumped when I saw her. In the beginning I wasn't too sure if I'd be in love with a girl after so many months with no new pictures to look and see if I still wanted her.

 

Whenever people mention grail dolls (also subject to Volks production and availability), there is one girl that instantly pops in my mind but I never mention because people would think it was silly or not worth grail status. I hate the fact that simply calling a girl a personal grail, most people assume that it is a rarely available and old sculpt that they want. For me my ultimate grail is Yukino v.2 directly from Volks. If money had been a little more available when Raven and I made our first DD order, Yukino would have been my first DD (and much of the reason Tamayuki is an 03). The reason why she's my grail is because she is the only one I don't want secondhand, but at the same time I want her to be on a DDS body (like Naiomi), and I'm pretty sure I want a new wig for her (even though she is adorable as she is.) Just because something is easily available doesn't mean it's easily obtainable. I have tried to talk myself into just getting her head in the after market or get a blank head to do a similar faceup. Then I'd only have one body to buy, but for this specific DD it just wouldn't be the same for me. I am really very happy to get the limited girls I have so far, but at the same time it is really hard knowing that every time I do, Yukino gets pushed a step or two down the list, despite how much I long for her.

 

So my whole point is that availability is really a subjective thing. If you want something bad enough, it is possible to get it, even though it may not be the way you originally hoped. If the fancy passes before that opportunity comes, perhaps it wasn't meant to be. Or it could be that you need to wait for the old DD flame to rekindle at a later point. For me a girl is only impossible to get if every last one is destroyed or damaged beyond acceptability. Until that point occurs, the girls I love will go on my waiting list, and that is not subject to the whims of Volks.

 

~Sister Kyoya (Who was not trying to win the prize for the longest post... )