Dollbot

I bought a Dollbot body and the L-bust. Due to the body not including a head and the head being unavailable separately, I had to use a non-Dollbot head to pair with the body. I decided to use the Dollce C-type head.

Emily (custom doll)

Some time ago, I came across info concerning the existence of the Obitsu "Rosalie" doll. I of course missed the pre-order and order periods. The doll did subsequently become available secondhand through Mandarake but both the doll and outfit were in poor condition. I then came across the Obitsu semi-custom doll using the same head butt this wasn't good enough for me. Not that it mattered because I couldn't order it anyway. I then came across Obitsu shop's page for the specific blank head I would need for my custom.

DD Kitagawa Marin

I previously posted these photos but later ended up with broken images. I deleted that post. Re-posting the images plus I'll actually have some explanation text here. I only posted the photos last time.

DD Sailor Neptune

 

Halloween 2023

Same girl from a few Halloweens ago.

Mermaid Dress + Gloves

The dress is the Volks Mermaid Dress. The gloves were purchased from an Etsy seller. The doll is my Kissshot cosplayer.

DD Sailor Uranus

 The head is Volks DDH-05. The outfit was purchased from Dollremi.

Five Sailor Senshi

Sailor Jupiter by Dollremi

Without a doubt, I'm "all in" on assembling the entire cast.

Now to worry about when I'll be able to assemble them.

DDH-16 Continued

 I still don't have a name for her.

At least she now has some temporary clothes until I can buy her outfits.

DDH-16 Faceup

 I don't have a name for her yet. I also need to buy her some clothes.

Sailor Venus by Dollremi

Sailor Venus outfit and tights were made by Dollremi.

Tripod Bag, Part 2

 

I previously mentioned how there are low quality internal straps inside the tripod bag. I decided to do something with them by buying a 10-pack of plastic buckles.

Tripod Bag

So I bought a tripod bag.

Doll bags (a.k.a. "cases") are generally expensive. If you live outside of Asia, you can expect to pay through the nose for one. I decided to run an experiment with a tripod bag to see if it would actually work as a doll bag.

2B Head Repair | 2B頭の修理

Please click on the "Read more" link below or the permalink to see my repair guide.

Dollce "C" Head + Dollfie Dream f3

While I didn't call this post "Part 2", Part 1 of this rambling is actually the previous post.

I should say something about why I put all kinds of different wigs on this Dollce head. I'll need to measure it again at some point but I can say the Dollce-C head is about 9.25 inches in circumference. This makes the head slightly larger than DD heads, which are usually around 8.5 inches. Over the course of my doll faceup and collecting hobby, I purchased a number of wigs which were too large for DD heads. Most of the wigs I purchased were secondhand and inexpensive but when they didn't work on various DD heads, buying them still felt like a waste of money. With the Dollce-C head being larger than a DD head, I finally had uses for the oversized wigs.

Now a photo dump of additional wigs on her + heterochromia:

I decided to name her Rie (りえ).

The reason Rie has heterochromia is a long story in itself but I'll try to keep it as short as possible. Mandarake made available a pair of glass eyes of different colors and I bought them. I originally intended to use them for another doll but the colors weren't quite right for the doll I wanted to create. The colors looked correct in the photos Mandarake uploaded but they were slightly off in real life. I didn't use these eyes in that doll and they stayed in storage for a while. After I finished the faceup on the Dollce-C head, I decided to use the heterochromic glass eyes just as an experiment. As it turned out, I liked what I saw more than I expected. Rie isn't based on an existing character, nor is she cosplaying a specific character. There is no "wrong" eye color for her so the eyes you see in these photos work well for her.

While I don't know if this is the case with all Dollce heads, at least with the "C" head, the eyes need to be spheres or hemispheres. The way the eye sockets are shaped inside the head, the eyes need to be round/convex enough to sit in the sockets. Various resin eyes, as well as Smart Doll eyes, don't work with the Dollce-C head at all because they're not fully half of a sphere. If the eyes are not spheres or full hemispheres, a huge gap is created due to the shape of the vinyl around the eye sockets lifting the non-sphere / non-hemisphere eye.

Rie's faceup was very difficult. Her lips have nearly no definition so giving her any kind of lipstick color either ended up being too little or too much. Her forehead is also physically uneven so trying to make her eyebrows symmetrical ended in a bigger failure than my usual failures at drawing anything symmetrical. I couldn't make anything perfect so I just tried to botch as little of her faceup as possible.

I purchased a DD-f³ body for Rie and it finally arrived in the mail. I proceeded to dress her up.

The bunny outfit below has an interesting history. The leotard, sleeveless coat, collar, bunny ears, and cuffs were made by Volks. (I did not buy the Volks-made parts of the bunny outfit as a complete set. I bought various bits and pieces of the outfit secondhand so it took a while to "complete".) The gloves were made by Parabox. I purchased the boots from MoMo's booth during a doll convention.

This is the first f³ body I ever purchased. I'm impressed with and like the improved movement range of the doll. I don't have to FrankenDollfie the f³ body to get the poses I want out from Rie.

The purple dress below was purchased from the Volks store in Fukuoka. It was a consignment item and a one-off. It was intended for an SDGr to wear but a DD-M body fits just fine in it.

I am very happy with the way Rie turned out. :D

Now I hope I'll eventually be able to say the same with the Parabox Gretel head.

Kissshot from Dollremi

Outfit purchased from Dollremi.

Simple Smart Doll Wrist to Dollfie Dream Wrist Mod

While what I show here isn't a high risk procedure...

DISCLAIMER: PERFORM THIS MOD AT YOUR OWN RISK!

Trader Joe's Brand Insulated Shopping Bag

So I heard there's a recent bit of drama in the doll collecting community. Some thin-skinned president of a certain doll company got all kinds of online grief after pricing a doll bag at around 413 USD (based on current exchange rates). That price is ridiculous. I'm going to use the above Trader Joe's insulated shopping bag instead. This bag has a lot of padding and seems to be strong enough to take all kinds of abuse.

Faceup Guide From Someone With Unsteady Hands

I don't take faceup commissions. I'm also not under the delusion people are willing to pay me hundreds of dollars to paint their dolls' faces. I don't claim to be an expert. My hands shake quite a bit so it's difficult for me to draw a straight or even a consistent curved line. Let's just say my hands shake enough so no reputable medical school would consider me as a potential future brain surgeon.

However, I think I've done enough of these faceups to at least be able to give competent advice to people who have less experience than I do.

Let's start with a blank DDH-07.