Figure modding

It’s been a long time coming. Today I’ll be briefly going through the process of modding a Konami Mecha Musume trading figure. In an earlier post I went into details on another Mecha Musume, the T-34, so for a more in depth tutorial, go there since this post is mainly just an overview.

So, let’s get started!

The goal of this modding? To turn this German Sturmgeschütz III Ausf.G Mecha Musume:

The original figure

To a Finnish “Sturmi”. The differences between the two are quite large so I had to see what could be done to the trading figure to give it the same look.

The Tools

Before we actually begin, we’ll take a look at the tools and materials which I used.

• Putty – Mulliput Standard
• Acrylic Paints – Tamiya Color
• Wooden Stick – approx 2-3mm thick
• Strip of brass/metal – approx 5-6mm wide
• Wire – approx 1mm thick
• Hand Drill
• Hobby Cement – Tamiya Cement
• Cutter – small
• Sandpaper – high grit
• Cotton buds
• Acrylic Paint Thinner – Tamiya

Milliput Standard

An assortment of Tamiya Color

An arm to show the scale

The wire and hand drill

Preparation

First thing to do was to take apart the figure. It was a little hard since some parts were glued together, but nothing a little tug would fix…

Looking like a garage kit

Next up, the individual parts would need clean up before we can start anything. Using a high grit sandpaper, I gently sanded off the paint off flat surfaces while using the cotton buds soaked with paint thinner to strip off the paint off more curved surfaces like the arms.

Legs

One of the main changes is the side skirt armour that the German StuGs have, the ones in Finnish service didn’t have any so they had to go.

Legs without the side skirt (left) and without the mounting pegs (right)

Basically, I used some cutters to snip off the skirt armour and the mounting pegs, then sand down the paint. Next is to prepare the logs and the holders before we paint and glue it.

Before painting

Cannon

The cannon is also another area where significant modding was needed. To make clean up and painting easier, the cannon was split into three parts.

Ready for modding

This is where the wire and drill come in handy. Use the drill to well, drill a hole into both sides of the connecting faces of the cannon. This will allow the wire to slip in and keep both pieces steady when glue is applied.

Ready for glue when needed

Putty

Now that we have got the parts ready, it’s time for putty! The Milliput putty comes in two sticks which are mixed together in equal parts before the colours completely blend. The result is:

Ball-o-putty!

Two areas of the figure which will get the treatment are the cannon and the legs. The cannon will try and mimic the turret cement re-enforcement and the legs will have zimmerited sides to closely replicate the Finnish Sturmi.

Puttied up areas

Paint

The final step before putting the parts together is painting! I tried to mix the paints to get as close as the green used for the Finnish Sturmi, but I have no idea on the exact formula.

Before painting

Painted legs with logs glued on

Before getting the logs attached and any weathering

Final painted and weathered Finnish Sturmi

So there you have it, a conversion of a Mecha Musume trading figure.
Sorry for the sloppy write up, but I hope you enjoyed looking at how it was done.
There are still areas which I left out such as decals, but I haven’t found any Finnish armour decals anywhere, perhaps I’ll need to print my own…

Any questions feel free to ask and I’ll do my best to fill in the details.

Volks

Doll’s Party 20

Long time no post!
Sorry about the lack of updates, I don’t really have an excuse other than having to grind at Uni >.<
Unfortunately my work isn’t too “moé” so I don’t think it’ll have a place on this blog, but maybe one day XD.

Today I’m showing you guys that haven’t heard the new Dollfie Dream lineup that Volks will be showcasing at Doll’s Party 20. The event is held at Tokyo Big Sight on the 7th December 2008, a tad earlier than the usual date of Christmas. So, without delay, here they are!

Before I continue, for those that have no idea what a Dollfie Dream, let alone a Dollfie or ABJD is, visit an earlier post for a very brief rundown: Dollfie Euphoria.

Dollfie Dream Dynamite

First up, Volks are releasing a new body line for Dollfie Dreams, dubbed Dollfie Dream Dynamite. Two anime series will be featured for this new body, Ikkitousen Great Guardians and Beat Angel Escalayer.

Volks hasn’t released any photos of the Escalayer to my knowledge, so we’ll just have to wait a lil more. For those who want to see the actual base body of a Dollfie Dream Dynamite and compare it to the others, visit Volks’ official base body page. I’m not really a fan of the new bodies, I think they’re a lil too much for my tastes, but it does look quite nice.

For more Ikkitousen love, visit the official page:

Saber Alter

OH MY GODDESS!…
No words can express the emotion I feel when I saw this. As most of my friends know, I’m quite the fan of Black Saber so it was quite a shock to see that Volks will be producing one. I shouldn’t be so surprised tho, after all, they did release the regular Saber >.>

But in any case, here’s a few photos from the Volks USA site. The link for the official Japanese site is below.

I’m… I’m actually going to try and grab myself one with the help of my friend in Japan (I love you buddy) so there goes my money… and I’m supposed to be saving up to go to Japan ^^;

Volks is also going to release a new dress set for Saber, her casual wear with a Dollfie Dream sized plushie lion >:3 Adorable!

For more, visit the offical page:

Time out!

So, let’s take a lil time to discuss the future of this lil blog. I’m aware that I haven’t updated for about THREE MONTHS, and it was a mixture of uni, work, games and good old laziness to blame. I’ll try to post more often now since I’m in my end of year holidays.

I thank those who come here regularly and apologise for the lack of updates ^^; I also noticed people want a higher photo shoot content, so I’ll try to fit that in as well, rather than random posts.

Volks

Dollfie Dreams

Okies! Time to revisit the Dollfie Dream scene!
Today I’ll be showing you some of the newer dollfies that I haven’t really talked about much.
We’ll be looking at the Fortune Arterial, Super Robot Wars and Fate/hollow ataraxia.
Please note, all these dollfies are limited editions, so… Good luck!

Some of you may remember reading about Dollpa, or known as Doll’s Party, an event held by Volks to showcase and sell their new products, and also a place where dollfie lovers can go and sell their own items. You could say it’s a dollfie version of Comiket. For more info you can either google it, or visit some of my earlier posts: Euphoric Temptations and Dollfie Euphoria

Fortune Arterial

First up is the Fortune Arterial dollfies!
Volks has decided to continue their eroge based dollfies with August Soft’s latest work, Fortune Arterial.
Two dollfies from the series has been released at the Hometown Dollpa Kyoto 5. Click on the images to go to their respective sites:

Here we have cheery Erika, I love this one and I’d buy it if I had the money at the time… The uniform looks gorgeous as well, I’d much prefer this than Yuki Nagato’s but oh well ^^;

And here we have Kiriha, her beautiful black hair is so appealing to me, along with her sexy black stockings compared to Erika’s socks.

This isn’t the first time Volks has done an August Soft game dollfie interpretation either, their earlier works can be seen at the 夜明け前より瑠璃色な -Brighter than dawning blue- official site.
Both images are from their official Volks site.

Super Robot Wars

Next up is the Super Robot Wars series!
For those who don’t know, the SRW series has been around for quite some time, featuring various mecha shows such as Getter Robo and Gundam separated into two distinct categories, Super types, and Real types. With the series, there are “original” characters not from an existing anime/game, and they’ve grown so popular that they’ve spawn their own game, Super Robot Wars Original Generations. The featured dollfies are two characters from the SRW original cast, both were sold at a special event on 3rd May 2008.

A mature looking dollfie, for those who like their women a lil more experienced~ This is one of the few Dollfie Dreams I’ve seen that has a fairly visible lip, making her look more like a Super Dollfie.

Latvnyç, or Latun, or Latune, or Latourni, I don’t know…
A new addition to the Volks MiniDD series. While I adore the character, I feel that the dollfie doesn’t quite feel right =/ But as always, the clothes are beautiful~

Fate/hollow ataraxia

And here we are, Saber, the bane of my dollfie hobby. Ever since she was announced I was killing myself at the thought of actually regretting that I bought Evelyn, the Yuki Nagato DD. The feeling has passed, though I still wish I had money for such a extravagant Dollfie. As far as I know, this Saber is the most expensive one yet, not to mention her box is also quite unique, putting aside the uniform look of the dollfie boxes for a more elegant and stronger box to carry all her gear, and believe me, she has quite a bit. Saber was first released only a month ago at the Dollpa 19 event on 27th April 2008. She was also released at the Dollpa 19 Afterparty event only a few days ago on 17-18th May 2008.

Here are some scans I did from the Dengeki Hobby magazine… or was it Hobby Japan magazine?…I forgot OTL, was scanned a few weeks back for the Den of Angels forum (go here for lots of info!)

Volks have also released 2 clothes set for Saber, the holiday dress and the maid dress. For more info you can visit the official site at:

There is one owner that is a very happy and poor one now, you can visit their blog to see much more photos of Saber in her brand spanking new box, along with her clothes and accessories! Quick! Go to KitsuneSuki!! NOW!

The End

Well, there’s the lil post on the new Dollfie Dream releases, I’m not sure if any of you will be able to buy, or even find, the above dollfies, but I wanted to let you know what Volks have been up to :3

Moé Idolatry Article

T-34 Tutorial

In the three-ninth kingdom, there was a T-34 tank, of Soviet origin that stood at the ready for months on end, gathering dust that would only very occasionally be cleaned away. She stood patiently until a hand from the sky came and held her, and took her to the wide plains below.

Only to be striped and disassembled XD

Today I’ll be going through the first parts of weathering a Soviet T-34 (T-34/76 as the Germans knew it). For those interested, read on!

T-34 disassembled for repaint and modifications

So, that is what the T-34 would look like after taking it all apart. This is only because I’ll be modifying this T-34 a lil.

A clean T-34

A note before I go on, while I do show you how I go about weathering, most of the tips could be used on most other Mecha Musume (notably the tanks), and probably military tank models as well since the techniques are derived from it. Experiment with my techniques to see which suits you best :3

The aim of this weathering effect is to get a dry muddy look on the T-34, the idea is that it was fighting in the muddy battlefields on the German eastern fronts before moving to an urban area. This is a simple process, I won’t be going into more hardcore approaches such as using surfacers, pigments and synthetic grass. I’m trying to keep this easy for the average figure collector who might be interested in moving into the modelling scene.

Washing

This is a simple technique that can give depth to the figure. In the earlier volumes of Mecha Musume, they didn’t have any pre-weathered figures, which made it easier to wash. With Volume 3, I noticed they applied some simple weathering to them which causes me more trouble =/

What I’ll be doing is putting a brown muddy, greasy look as a base for the other effects.

So, this is what you’ll need:

• Ear cleaning buds
• Acrylic paints – Tamiya Acrylic Paint XF-10 (Flat Brown) and XF-1 (Flat Black) used
• Acrylic thinner – Mr.Color Thinner 110 used
• A pallet of some sort
• Paint brushes

Most of the tools, besides the paint

Because mud from rich soil is very dark, I’ll be mixing the flat brown with a only a hint of black to get a lil darker than normal.
You only need a little so when you do mix them, don’t overdo it! We’ll be diluting it in thinner so there’s no need for a lot of it.

Don’t have your palette as dirty as mine…

Mix in thinner to a runny consistency. The idea is that it’ll be watery and will cling to corners and such, and the thinner will evaporate once the wash starts to dry.
Grab your bud and wet it in the solution, then wipe it over the armour sections. Capillary action will take place on the nooks and crannies.
If you put too little thinner, don’t worry! You can still fix it by wetting a bud with more thinner and just wipe away the excess paint, sometimes I do this on purpose to get a grimier look.

If it looks messy, then we’re doing good!

This is the first step done and it’ll give a good base to work with for a muddy look :3

Mud Painting

Ok, now that we have a nice base we’ll start with the “wet” mud paint. We’ll basically paint on some mud splashes on the figure.

What you’ll need is:

• Acrylic paint – Tamiya Acrylic Paint XF-10 (Flat Brown) used
• Paint brushes

This is the fun part, paint on some brown where you think mud would splash onto. Try to remember which areas would most likely be affected, such as feet, knees, elbows, and the like. Ultimately it’s up to you, which is the fun aspect :3

Try to keep the splashes fairly large, as they’re the areas which mud is still moist and hasn’t dried up.

Getting there~

Dry Brushing and Splatter

Ok, so now that we have the “wet” muddy look, we’ll need to paint on a layer of “dry” mud. To do this, I’ll be using the dry brushing technique.

As the name implies, you brush on paint with a dry tip by wiping away most of the paint.

Tools needed:

• Disposable/old paint brush
• Acrylic paint – Tamiya Acrylic Paint XF-52 (Flat Earth) used
• Tissues
• Toothbrush

Earth aint flat issit?

Dry brushing is easy, all you need to do is dip your brush into the paint, then wipe away most of the paint with a piece of tissue. Make sure the brush is “dry” enough that it doesn’t leave any large streaks when you brush it on a piece of paper but rather specks of paint.

Test to see if it’s dry enough

Take the figure and brush on the paint, you’ll need to do quite a few strokes to get a good looking affect. This will hopefully look like dried mud.

Effects are subtle, which is good

Now for those minute mud splashes that dry quick detail. We’ll be using a toothbrush for this effect, and it’s also easy. Basically put some paint onto a toothbrush and using your thumb stroke it back so it’ll flick tiny drops of paint onto the figure, easy no?

Dried mud splatter on the side

Chipping Detailing

So, since this lil T-34 has been out of the mud and presumably been fighting in an urban area, scraping and chipping would be common. To do this we’ll be using one of man’s greatest tool, a pencil.

All that you’ll need is:

• Soft (B grade) graphite pencil – Derwent 9B pencil used

9B is the softest I have

This is straightforward, draw in the details on the edges of likely areas of abrasion, such as corners, knees and tip of the feet. Don’t forget the tracks on her legs, while they probably don’t actually touch the ground, real tanks would have wear and tear on them. Add as much as you want, generally a more realistic look is one of subtlety, the viewer would only see it if they are pointed out. A more stylish look is one of extremes, so basically use your judgement on what you want it too look like.

You don’t need to go overboard

Exhaust Detailing

And here we are on the last step! If you look closely, the T-34 has some exhaust vents on her thigh, and of course, her 76.2mm primary cannon. I’ll be using something that I hardly ever use for this purpose before I started weathering Mecha Musume, art pastels.

What you’ll need:

• Disposable/old paint brush
• Black pastel – Mungyo Pastel black used
• Piece of paper or sandpaper

Keep the wind away!

Ok, a fair warning, do this in a well ventilated area, or better yet, do it outside if it isn’t windy. Having dust particles is never a good thing so using a mask is a good idea if you can’t get good ventilation.

Now this is simple, grind up some of the black pastel on a piece of paper or sandpaper, the latter making it much easier. You’ll need only a lil bit of the grounded up “dust”, so grab your brush and try to pick up as much as you can. With the brush, rub the pastel dust on the exhaust vents and the tip of the cannon barrel.

Perhaps I overdid it? ^^;

The result is a nice effect, you could apply this to desert dust and the like. I actually got this technique from the old Mecha Musume online diary, and I’ve been using it on my collection of Mecha Musume ever since.

Finished

So there you have it, a regular T-34 turned into a seasoned fighter on the eastern front.

While I’m no expert modeler, I hope the tips help in some way or another, or at least give you some insight to how I weather my Mecha Musume figures. If you do have modeling experience and see that I could of done something easier or more efficient, by all means tell me, I’ll try to use it for the next tutorials :3

Sexy rough metal…o_O

I’m also pretty open to suggestions on how to improve these kind of articles if you have any problems with it such as being hard to understand or whatnot. I already noticed that I should of done a standard comparison shot for each step so you can clearly see the differences between them. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this, and if you do decide to try to paint your Mecha Musume, give me a yell! :D

Moé Idolatry Article

Hatsune Miku

Infatuation, something that happens to everyone, but with a virtual “identity” is something that doesn’t.
I’m not sure if this is relevant to any of you figure lovers but I’m in love with Crypton’s newest entry, Hatsune Miku.

Before I start, I’m going to explain a little bit about what all this about. So if you’re not into music then just look at the pretty pictures XD

Vocaloid is a technology developed by Yamaha systems, it produces a synthetic voice set that sounds pretty awesome in itself. Third party companies have used this technology to bring it to the consumer market and packaged them with their own voices. Crypton is one of these companies, they produce these packages for the Japanese market. They’ve developed a few for the Vocaloid 1 series but their popularity isn’t so prominent with the anime otaku, until of course they released the Vocaloid2 series, with Hatsune Miku as the first.

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Because they’re synthesized voices, you can tell it’s fake depending on effort of the producer, but for the most part Miku sings amazing (if you like Japanese pop). She’s so popular that apparently all the first prints of the Vocaloid2 Hatsune Miku package have sold out, and it has also made amazon’s #1 bestsellers software rank despite the 15,750 yen price (which I’m still wondering if I should buy…)

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Okok, so why am I posting about something that doesn’t seem to fit? Well, this site includes moé items and issues, as you can already see, Hatsune Miku is incredibly cute (ok, I admit I have a weird hair fetish) and there’s quite a few fanart of her already.

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The kanji for Hatsune apparently means The first voice or something according to a friend of mine, which makes sense I guess, she is the first of the Crypton Vocaloid2 series, a second is going to be announced in December and a third is going to be in 2008. The second seems to be a younger idol from the silhouette so expect more moé-ness.

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I’m in no way a musically creative person so actually owning Hatsune Miku (huhu, i like the way it sounds…) is somewhat a waste. I’ve tried the software and while it does seem like an easy thing to pick up, not knowing extensive Japanese is a hassle. *sigh* Sometimes I wish I was living in Japan lol

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Anyway, ever since Hatsune Miku appeared, niconico video (think youtube but for Japanese and it also allows rolling comments over the videos) has had it’s fair share of user created videos featuring Miku singing originals and also other songs such as you from Higurashi no Naku Koroni and even Ievan Polkka. There’s so much of a fan base that on November 3rd there’s going to be a Hatsune Miku Vocaloid only event!

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So, here’s a few of my favourite Miku videos from YouTube :3

Ievan Polkka

鳥の詩 – AIR

you – Higurashi no Naku Koroni

Beautiful World – Rebuild of Evangelion

Here’s some official sample songs from the official site, short and sweet songs.

Song 1
Song 2
Song 3

*sigh* I’m in love… so ronery~!!

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Details

Name
初音ミク – Hatsune Miku
Series
キャラクター ボーカル シリーズ – Character Vocal series
Maker
Crypton
Price
Open Price, but seen at 15,750 yen
Links
Crypton’s Official Vocaloid2 site JP
Hatsune Miku tumblr JP (Contains some NSFW material)
THE VOC@LOiD M@STER Event JP
Hobby Blog’s Hatsune Miku entry ENG
Canned Dogs’ Hatsune Miku entry ENG

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P.S. I’ve taken photos of most of the figures I intended to at Manifest over the weekend, I’ll post those photo shoots soonish, after I get some other work out of the way >.<
So expect Saber & Irisviel, Pachira, N@gi (GSC), Princess of Full Ani, and Fate (Alter) :3

Moé Idolatry Article

Moé Moé Series

MMMmmmmmmmoooooé~! Welcome to another long article of Moé Idolatry.

Today I’ll be showing you guys a series of books that just epitomises the word 萌え (moé).
These Moé Moé books have been going on since… 2005? Anyway, enough chatter, onto the main course~

The Whole

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So what are these books about? Well, they’re an informative/educational series that lure us with cute pictures that compliment the accompanying item of interest. At the back of the books are usually a more comprehensive showcase of the subject. The books are also usually split up into sections to make it more logical to read through. The earlier editions are a bit more on the intangible such as a proverb dictionary and how to make a good blog whereas the later books focus more on items of interest like firearms, melee weapons etc.

The First

萌え萌え就器事典 (moé moé jyuuki jiten) or Moé Moé Firearms Encyclopedia was the first one I purchased while I was in Japan in August 2006. My friend and I saw a shelf of military and firearms books at Asobit City H (Hobby) in Akiba, and I spotted a few books I wanted, one being the Moé Moé series.

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One of the “fetishes” I have is for girls with weapons, so naturally I had this on the “to buy” list. It goes through handguns, sniper rifles, shotguns, assault rifles, sub machine guns and others. The book is also filled with snippet articles of other guns such as Gatling Gun and Ammo types. There’s also a short story named “Loveroid Hunter” which I can’t understand XD

The images are drawn by a few artists, such as Points and SLeeVe and for the most part, they’re wonderfully drawn with the respective firearm.

The Batch

After the initial purchase way back in 2006, I accidentally (through an artist’s website which I was looking for ages with only a handful of images to go on) came across the Moé Moé series homepage… my wallet is now quivering in fear.

Moé Moé series, rollcall!
萌え萌え就器事典 (moé moé buki jiten) – Moé Moé Weapon Encyclopedia
萌え萌え武器事典II (moé moé buki jiten II) – Moé Moé Weapon Encyclopedia II
萌え萌え幻想武器事典 (moé moé genso buki jiten) – Moé Moé Fantasy Weapon Encyclopedia
萌え萌え女神事典 (moé moé megami jiten) – Moé Moé Goddess Encyclopedia

Let’s get started!

萌え萌え就器事典

The Moé Moé Weapon Encyclopedia is a fairly old book in release date in my collection, older than the Firearms book I got. As the title suggests, it’s all about weapons, specifically melee weapons. This book covers weapons of swords, knives, polearms/poleaxes, throwable/projectiles, blunts and miscellaneous. Examples of the weapons featured are Morning Star, Shotel, Claymore, Kukuri, Whip and BOOOOMERANG~!

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Artists include よし☆ヲ – yoshio (あずまや松風), あめい　すめる – Amei Sumeru (てんぶり), Maruto! and others. The illustrations are also great, but most have no background or very little if any, still awesome tho :3

萌え萌え就器事典II

This second book of melee weapons is the latest in the series. Sections of the book are modified and are much more clearer in showing the weapons with diagrams and a text heavy section at the back. The categories are fairly much the same from the first book, with new weapons such as the trusty club, cat-o-nine-tails, 仕込み傘 (shikomikasa, Umbrella sword), pike, bagh nakh and nunchucks.

Each of these weapons comes with the usual complimenting illustration, but now also with a diagram of the weapon. Each section of the book also has a little detail on the weapons in general, and at the back of the book it details more of Japanese troop tactics and also the making of Japanese swords from smithing of the ore to the shape of the tip.

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The artists featured in this book include Ushi (CWGP), Higuma (HIGUMAX) and Kantoku (5年目の放課後) among others.

萌え萌え幻想武器事典

Fantasy Weapons! This book focuses on the mythical weapons of legends from various countries. Since this book is also one of the newer ones, it features diagrams of each weapon and also a text heavy section at the back. Categories are listed as mythologies, which include Japanese, Chinese, Hindu and Norse among others. Some weapons featured are Excalibur, Mjolnir, 如意棒 (Rú Yì Bàng, Monkey King Bar) and 千鳥 (chidori, no, that that skill from Naruto >.>).

Since this is a book on fantasy weapons, most of the artists have taken on a very modified view on what the weapon should look like, so most of the weapons don’t even come close to their usual universally accepted appearance. The back of the book features various information about mythologies, which I can’t really understand ^^;

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Artist involved in this book include 日向恭介 (スタジオ☆ひまわり – Studio Himawari), 山根真人 – Masato Yamane (NURSERYTALE)

萌え萌え女神事典

Ah! My encyclopedia of Goddesses! All over the world there’s various goddess within the different mythologies. Japan, being Japan, have taken upon themselves to moefy the various goddesses, which is all fine in my opinion :3

Categories are all sectioned off by country, from India, Japan, China to Europe, and then some in between. Goddess featured are usually the more well known deities, such as Athena, 嫦娥 (Cháng’é), लक्ष्मी (Lakshmi) and Ometeotl. All of them are drawn very very nicely. Along with the goddess, the book has a text heavy section to the back like the other newer books, it details the goddesses influences and such (I think).

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The awesome artists in this book include 大場　陽炎 – Ooba Kagerou (Dadacha), Yomogi (よもぎがそまβ) and Shikorusukii (グググググ), along with a LOT of other delicious artists :3~

The crystal ball

Those are only some of the books! I’m planning to get some more of the series, such as the 萌え萌え天使事典 (Angel Encyclopedia) and 萌え萌え悪魔事典 (Devil Encyclopedia) which also have a nice list of artists. I’m especially looking forward to the devil version >:3

It will hurt my wallet quite a bit as well… which moves onto:

Details

Names
萌え萌え就器事典 (moé moé jyuuki jiten) – Moé Moé Firearms Encyclopedia
萌え萌え就器事典 (moé moé buki jiten) – Moé Moé Weapon Encyclopedia
萌え萌え武器事典II (moé moé buki jiten II) – Moé Moé Weapon Encyclopedia II
萌え萌え幻想武器事典 (moé moé genso buki jiten) – Moé Moé Fantasy Weapon Encyclopedia
萌え萌え女神事典 (moé moé megami jiten) – Moé Moé Goddess Encyclopedia
Series
萌え萌え (moé moé)
Publisher
Eagle Publishing/Turning Points
Place of purchase
萌え萌え就器事典 (moé moé jyuuki jiten) – Asobit City H, Akihabara, Japan
The rest – KangaKanga, Melbourne, Australia
Retail price
1,470 to 1,575 yen
Bought it for
萌え萌え就器事典 (moé moé jyuuki jiten) – $17.50 AU
The rest – $31.45 – $33.30 AU
Availability (at time of writing)
Should be easy to order from your local Japanese bookshop! :3

Moé Idolatry Article

Dolls

Dolls, yes, it’s one of those things where most adults would go “You’re such a child” or “you’re a boy…”
Fair enough, I am a male but I also have fairly weird hobbies and likes compared to the norm of a western world society.

Today, I’m going to discuss a lil on dolls, specifically on how I found out, and why I’m interested. If you’re already here I assume you like anime figures, if you like anime figures I assume you’ll be open minded on dolls as well :3

The Beginnings

The year was 2001, Angelic Layer was showing and I was curious about CLAMP’s latest release. At first I thought it was some sort of girly version of Pokemon, and didn’t think too much of it.

So I saw the first episode and I was already hooked ^^; So much so that I had a small fansite running for it. Perhaps you ran across it? It was called Angelic Vision. Never heard of it? That’s fine I guess~ ;_;

The main premise was an owner, or Deus, that would buy and customise their doll, or Angels. The purpose was for sporting combat via a BCI, or brain-computer interface on a specially equipped table, the Layer.

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Angelic Layer

This got me all hyper about dolls, so I did some research and found out that there are dolls out there that aren’t just for little girls. I always knew about those porcelain dolls and such, but now I have just discovered the world of ABJD, asian ball jointed dolls. At first I was somewhat hesitant to delve further since the ones I saw wasn’t appealing to me. It would be a few more years till my interest rekindled.

The Return

The year was 2004, Rozen Maiden was showing and I was ecstatic. Remembering the good old days of the futuristic setting of Angelic Layer, I had finally found a series that had dolls as it’s central plot, but this time they’re more closer to the dolls you’d find in stores and, dare I say, museums.

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Rozen Maiden

This was possibly the trigger, I was learning as much as I can about ABJD. Obsessed with them I came close to purchasing one, but opted for a PC upgrade as my logical mind decided. ^^;

The Methods

How did I start researching? Google my friend, it has the answers, and if it doesn’t, it has links that links to others for the answers. I read about them from site to site, and one of my friends also purchased a doll so I asked her quite a few questions about them.

Leya, a “Dream of Children” doll from Dream of Doll

I also looked at major doll companies to get the feel of each brand. I realised that people tend to like different dolls for many reasons, size being one of the main reasons.
A few sites I checked quite frequently in the day were:
Den of Angels, they have knowledgeable people who are also friendly. The information you can find there is priceless, from how to shop for a doll, how to care for one, customisations, new releases, opinions and discussions, photos and even services for hire.
Volks, one of the major doll companies, they’re the creators of SD (Super Dollfies) that have become wildly popular across the globe. The series of dolls I like are from their Dollfie Dream section, I’ll go more into it later.
Dream of Doll is a Korean based company, unlike Volks which is Japanese. They’re dolls are simply gorgeous, their photography is also top notch, so even if you just want to see dolls then the site will suffice. The friend I was talking about has bought a doll from DoD.

The Attraction

Ok, I’m still a lil confused on exactly why I like dolls, perhaps it’s their innocent nature, maybe their representation of artificial beauty, or perhaps all I really need is a hug ;_; whatever the reason is, I like them. But which dolls out of the many do I like~?

Kotori of Da Capo, a “Dollfie Dream” doll from Volks

The doll I came close to buying was Shirakawa Kotori, from D.C. ～Da Capo～. She’s a DDII doll, from the Dollfie Dream line of Volks. Dollfie Dreams IIs aren’t actually real ABJD as they’re not strung up like the conventional doll, instead they work on an inner frame. They’re closer to action figures than dolls in terms of mechanics. They’re also made from vinyl, a lighter material and have better retention of posability. They’re three body types in the Dollfie Dream series, DDI – the original which is strung, DDII – an improved version with the inner frame and MDD (or something) which is the new Mini Dollfie Dreams. The character Dollfie Dreams such as Kotori, or the recent Suzumiya Haruhi are limited editions and are only available through the Volks hosted Dolpa, or Dolls Party. If you want one, either get your butt to the convention, or suck it up and buy them over auction sites such as Yahoo Japan.

Shall, a “Dream of Teenager” doll from Dream of Doll

Another doll I liked was Shall, and generally most of the dolls that Dream of Doll have. Like other dolls, Dream of Doll produces strung resin dolls, their main two lines of dolls are DoT and DoC, Dream of Teenager and Dream of Children respectively. DoD tend to have a very good photo shoot with each doll that is made, it’s another goal of mine one day to take such beautiful photos of dolls (as well as my figures too!).

The Dream

At the moment I’m still planning to get a doll eventually, possibly within the next 2-3 years. Which doll to get will most likely change a lot, and will prolly depend mostly on availability and cost. Oh, I havn’t mentioned the cost have I? Last I said was either a doll, or upgrading my PC. The cost of upgrading my PC was $1400AU. The cost of getting a doll would prolly reach that in the first purchase (doll, clothes, accessories, maintenance tools) so it can be fairly expensive. Don’t think that getting a doll is a one off purchase, you’ll be wanting lots of clothes and items for the doll. Dolls will easily reach a few hundred AU dollars, possibly into $1,000+AU, unless you get those 1/1 scale dolls which are usually fully equipped if you get what I mean ~_^ The posable Al Azif (which isn’t fully equipped) from Papermoon below, will cost 330,000 yen, or about $3,175AU at the time of writing…

Al Azif of Demonbane, a 1/1 doll from Papermoon

Another aspect I might want to do is completely customise a doll to resemble a Rozen Maiden. There are a few around, one of the more popular ones are Dridoller and Sakura Color. Both have galleries of their dolls, and specifics on the parts and customisations of their loved dolls. So if you ever wanted to try to build one, all the parts are listed, though some may require customisations. Just look at the dolls!

Suigintou of Rozen Maiden, a custom doll by Sakura Color

Kirakishou of Rozen Maiden, a custom doll by Dridoller

The Reality

Right now, no dolls in my collection.
It’s all PVC love at the moment, but I do plan to get a doll, I will get a doll, in the future, just deciding which one is the hard part…

If you’ve read this far, or even bothered to skip to the bottom, I congratulate you, my writing is prolly boring people to death, but I have no idea since they’d prolly leave before telling me XD
This is the first “article” post I’ve had here, they’re basically a rant ab- I mean, a section about items of my interest. As you might know, this blog is about things that are moé to me, or things I just worship for unknown reasons, but an article post is a more comprehensive look at why I like them. Do I write too much? ^^;

Anyone like to share their doll experiences? Perhaps even own one?