Mini-fun

As some of you may know, I haven’t been posting much ^^;
Had a bunch of things happen so I’ve been kinda busy, sorry!

This prolly means I can’t post large photoshoots as often as I would like to, so that means downsizing!
I’ll try and post some pics of random (but relevant) subjects every now and then.
This means the blog may have to change a little to properly showcase the photoshoots while still facilitating small posts.
Anyway, today’s post is just an update, and a small offering of a wallpaper of an item I really cherish.

Au au au~

Upcoming stuff

Okie dokie. This is a post about stuff that I’m getting, might get, and decided not to get. Reason for this was because I needed to evaluate my monetary standing and the possibility of the Japan trip at the end of 2008.

This is a basically my shopping list of such in terms of figures and possibly dolls, so if you don’t want to pry into this, just ignore the post ^^;

But if you like to see some new upcoming stuff that you may be interested in, go on ahead and continue.

Possible Purchases

Yes, first thing on the “maybe” list is a Dollfie. It’s been a long time since I first saw Dollfies, and it’s always been on my mind about bringing one home. Recently it’s been really tempting to get one, since I have a friend in Japan who could help. For those not versed in asian ball-joint dolls, check the previous post: Dollfie Euphoria

Dolpa 18, or known as Doll’s Party 18 will be happening this Christmas like clockwork. For those who don’t know what Dolpa is, it’s an event much like Comiket, held twice a year in May and December. Volks, a major Japanese doll maker, basically hold the show. They sell their limited edition dolls at these events which require a lottery system for the order of the purchasing line ^^; Other shops also sell custom made clothes, accessories and parts.

New additions to the SOS Dollfie Dream line! Haruhi was release a while back and two new additions will be coming to Dolpa 18 and Comiket 73. Yuki and Mikuru look great, and for some reason the Yuki is really warming up to me. Now, I’m not a huge Yuki fan, but this Dollfie Dream is really uh, calling for me…o_O

I’m seriously considering Yuki as my first Dollfie, but it does depend on a number of things. Most important of which is availability, my friend may be able to get her at Comiket, but she could be all sold out by the time he gets to her >.< Not to mention she’s over 50,000 yen, which is about $500 AU…

Yuki and Mikuru are based on the Dollfie Dream II (DDII) base body with normal skin tone, only difference with the two bodies is that Yuki uses M sized erm, bust and Mikuru uses L size.

The next two is the Suigintou and Hinaichigo & Kunkun nano~! Oh GOD I want Suigintou, unfortunately she costs over 100,000 yen, which is well over my budget in a sane state of mind. These two will also be available at Dolpa 18, but I don’t see anything about Comiket 73 =/

Links

Dollfie Dream
Yuki Nagato — 50,400 yen (with tax), and the idea of grabbing her is still in the air.
Mikuru Asahina — 50,400 yen (with tax)
Super Dollfie
Suigintou — 102,900 yen (with tax)
Hinaichigo & Kunkun — 60,900 yen (with tax)

Definite Purchases

Image from Akibablog.net

During the recent Revoltech Expo where all the new and exciting developments of the Revoltech series are shown, they showcased their Fraulein series, the latest addition to the Revoltech family. What makes teh Fraulein different from the others is that it features an extremely feminine figure that has both the asthetics of bishoujo and poseability of the Revoltech line. Rei Ayanami was their first, with Rin Tousaka their second. Haruka Amami and Ami Futami…or was it Mami? No, I think it was Ami…I think…

Anyway, I’ll be grabbing at least one of the iDOLM@STER girls (can you guess which one?) when they are announced. Right now I’ve pre-ordered the Rin tho, she has this mind blowing flexible skirt, or at least is to me.

Links

Revoltech
Official Fraulein site
Akibablog’s review of the Expo
Lyrical Spark’s iM@S Revoltech entry

Image from Hobbystock.jp

Miku <3
I’ll be grabbing this Nendoroid as well. I’m not a huge fan of nendoroids, the only one I have is the limited edition Black Saber. I’ve made a few exceptions to this, one being Miku, for the sole reason of being a Vocaloid, and the Nekomimi version of Konata, which is currently being ordered by the friend of mine in Japan. It was a little difficult for him to order since it was only available through a magazine order.

Both of these will come with extra parts such as different faces and accessories, prolly my fav is Konata’s （＝ω＝） face and Miku’s (´ﾟДﾟ`) face with the leek.

Links

Nendoroid
Official Site

Now here’s the killer, my wallet’s worst nightmare, in no particular order:

The list of financial doom

Alice — POP Wonderland: Alice in Wonderland by Alter
Yuki Nagato Swimsuit Ver. — The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi by Alter
Reinforce Zwei — Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS by Alter
Death Teacher — Peace@Pieces by Alter
Tsuruya Cafe Ver. — The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi by Alter (On it’s way)
THE iDOLM@STER Trading Figure pt2 — THE iDOLM@STER by Alter
C.C. — Code Geass by alpha x omega (Alter collaboration)
Rin Tousaka Revoltech Fraulein — Fate/Stay Night by Kaiyodo
Tsuruya Cafe Ver. — The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi by Max Factory
Black Saber — Fate/Stay Night by Solid Theatre
Rin Kokonoe Snowglobe — Kodomo no Jikan by Pinkco
Moetan — Moetan by Goodsmile Company
Konata Nekomimi Nendoroid — Lucky Star by Goodsmile Company
Miku Hatsune Nendoroid — Crypton’s Vocaloid2 family by Goodsmile Company
Liu MeiFeng — Shuraki series figures by Goodsmile Company (On it’s way….hopefully)

I do NOT want to think about how much that all costs at the moment, but it’ll prolly be enough to support a girlfriend if I had one (hah hah, bad joke…)

But look! I’m no addict boy, no addict! I actually cancelled some items since I realised that I needed to spend less, here’s that list, perhaps it’ll suit your fancy?

Cancelled Items

Kagamine Rin/Len — Crypton’s Vocaloid2 CV series 02
I had a hard time cancelling this, I LOVE the idolisation of a piece of software but for the cost of it, I had to pass as my musical skills aren’t up for the challenge =/
T-Elos — Xenosaga III by Alter
Ikuno Komaki — ToHeart2 by Kotobukiya
The last two figures I had to let go, not because of any inferiority, but because my friend is also purchasing them, and with my constraints, I had to make the decision.
Kureha — Shining Wind by Kotobukiya
Another Kureha figure that lives up to the other recent release. As beautiful as she is, I had to resist her on the basis that I already have another Kureha Figure. You might be thinking, “But Aya, you’re already buying TWO Tsuruyas” and my explination is that it’s Tsuruya…’nuff said

I’ll be constantly reassessing the value of each figure to see if I can cut any from the list since I am trying to save, as hard as that seems…
Anyway, hoped you like seeing some things that interest me, and that some of it may interest you as well :3
Oh, for the Miki picture up the top, I have no idea who drew it, but whoever it is, it’s a lovely pic :3

Hmm, this post is prolly too text heavy?
Anyone else have that mountain of pre-orders that they’re looking forward to?

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?