Vocaloid group grows

I’ll save your time by not making a huge deal about making a blog post after several years’ break, lol… but yeah, I did take some time away from the doll hobby, and now I have inspiration for dolls again, so that’s good! ー( ´ ▽ ` )ﾉ

ANYWAYS, to more important things: yesterday I got home my second Dollfie Dream boy, DD Kaito! o(≧∇≦o) Was quite hyped for him upon the announcement because a) BOY DOLL and b) VOCALOID, and then I liked him a lot more than I’d expected in Volks’ promo photos, so off I went and pre-ordered him. (｡’▽’｡)♡ I had trouble getting the payment go through at first, since Volks changed their webshop (the new one is a whole lot worse than the old one, imo) and they didn’t allow PayPal payments for Kaito. So, since I only have a debit card that has some online functionality, instead of an actual credit card, Volks’ site was really not wanting to accept my card. Well, my first issue was that I couldn’t access my account at all, because my nickname “Mizya” was deemed too short by the new website and I wasn’t able to change it. ∑(;°Д°) So, I had to contact Volks about that first, luckily they responded swiftly and helped me change my ID to a longer one so I could keep using their site. But yeah, I had some trouble with my card, but then eventually I managed to complete the deposit for Kaito, yay! (/^▽^)/ So then I had him secured and could have a few months to figure out what to do if their webshop refuses to accept my card for the final payment.

The wait went by rather fast for me personally ’cause I’ve been busy with real life stuff, and suddenly it was almost May and Volks sent an email about Kaito’s final payment and shipping schedule. Well, sadly this time their webshop refused to accept my card, no matter how many times I tried… but then luckily my boyfriend was a sweetheart and offered to help out, and his card got accepted, yaaay!（*´▽｀*） So, Kaito was officially mine~ (｡･ω･｡)ﾉ♡

I made a smaller order to Volks around the same time ’cause I wanted to get some hand parts for my MDD Arle, and also the Volks News issues with Kaito and Rin & Len reboot (since Vocaloid crazy). I also got a protective headcap and bodysuit for the Dollfie Dream Y’shtola I have staying with me. She belongs to my brother so I’m more careful about staining with her than I would be with my own dolls lol. Y’shtola is a really nice doll, I do have plans to have a photoshoot with her once I get to properly start my summer holiday.

Let’s not carried away for now, though, yes – I made a smaller order to Volks and was happy to see that at least for regular items you can use PayPal as a payment ’cause would be rather inconvenient when it seems like the odds of my card working on Volks’ site is… almost zero. And I wouldn’t want to bug my boyfriend every time I need to order something from Volks, lol. But yeeees – the smaller order shipped like a week before Kaito and I noticed it was sent by DHL. I don’t know why, but every time I have to deal with DHL I have an issue of some sort… or multiple. (´Д` ) Most common issue is that they don’t send me the correct info for me to be able to do the customs clearance on my own, and then I have to email/call them. With the small order I had that issue again and had to call them since their email service was apparently backlogged and I was impatient to get my stuff since there had been a few days’ delay already lol. (ᗒᗜᗕ)՛̵̖ The extremely positive person that I am, I was ready to dread for everything to go wrong with Kaito and despaired when he was also shipped by DHL. But for once, he arrived to Finland super fast and I was able to do the customs clearance stuff smoothly, and was also able to schedule his delivery for late afternoon and they did bring him to my door, like, an hour and a half after the scheduling. So that was a pleasant surprise! ヾ(*´∀｀*)ﾉ For once I’m pleased with DHL’s service, lol. Would be nice if you kept this up.

It amused me greatly that the DHL worker was driving a van that had a bakery’s logo, lol. (*≧▽≦)ﾉｼ)) I was thinking how weird it is that a bakery’s van would turn to our street, but then it turns out to be my doll. Sadly he didn’t have the scent of freshly baked goods, lol!

We’re finally nearing the end of this unintentionally long start for this post (I always start rambling even when I don’t mean to), but I’ll mention that I have moved apartments since the last time I was active posting here. And sadly my current apartment – while it’s very nice and big and I now have four showcases for all my dolls & figures so everyone is nicely on display, yay – isn’t quite as generous with natural light as my old one. ( ´△｀) Well, when you live in a shoebox that has one big window and a french balcony, it’s quite light. But I really needed the space (especially handy now that my boyfriend visits and we have two people here instead of just me) so had to make a sacrifice with the light. Not that my apartment doesn’t have windows at all, but they’re kinda small and positioned so that there isn’t really a good place to take photos near them… anyway, what I’m trying to get at here is; pretty much the only place where I get sunlight is my bedroom, so I decided to do the box opening on the bed because my computer and sewing table are full of stuff. Then I was too lazy to switch lenses for my camera, so the photos aren’t very great (took them with a macro lens, so you can imagine how well that worked out lol). But well, at least I got to make some kind of a box opening for this guy, which is the main thing! (*^ω^*)

Finally we get to the actual point, which is photos:

… containing another plain box! A bit of a matryoshka effect here.

Okay now we’re getting somewhere, box with an illustration of Kaito~

The pretty box freed! I think this is my new favourite VOCALOID box, the art is soooo good! ♥（ﾉ´∀`）Especially happy after being disappointed with Luka’s dakimakura art.

Lifted the box upright to get a better photo of his handsome face. Such nice art yeeeeees….. (ෆˊ͈ ु꒳ ूˋ͈ෆ)

And now turning our attention to the doll, even though the art is very, very nice… we’re still here for the doll, yes.

Finally a proper photo of his face. I was quite surprised that they send him with a permanent side glance. I’d get it if they’d used that Dream Fitter system to make it easy to change his eyes’ position, but they were hotglued, so… an odd choice imo. ｢(ﾟﾍﾟ)

Close up, a bit of a painting flaw on his right eye’s top eyelashes but luckily that’s not an issue for me since I always repaint my dolls anyway.

3/4 profile, sadly he’s got more of an overbite than I was expecting based on his promo photos, but hopefully I can do something to distract myself from that when I repaint him. (´Д｀)

And profile. Sadly he’s got the “new Dollfie Dream” syndrome of not having as much curve to his forehead/brow area and lacks a proper nose bridge. Volks has started to make DDs more flat faced similar to Sm*rtd*lls and I’m not a fan of that. ( ｰ̀εｰ́ )

I took a close up of his eyes, ’cause they’re quite nice with the multicolour gradient… however acrylic eyes just don’t look good to me (especially dislike the round iris circle that these kind of acrylic eye bases have, can’t get over how distracting that is) after being in this hobby for soon 18 years (!!!), glass and urethane are much nicer quality so I can never use acrylic eyes for my dolls again… not even the tiny ones with like 6mm and 8mm eyes, nope, gotta be glass!

Then I went to get my Len because I wanted to compare the bodies… and yeap, DD Boy is basically the same body as DDS Boy, just with veeery long legs. (･∀･；) I really hope they’ll eventually make a DD Dynamite equivalent boy that is more manly… Kaito’s head and face are quite big, so he looks bobbleheaded on this scrawny body. Don’t mind it for Len because he’s like 14, but Kaito is supposed to be in his twenties, so… (-∀-`; )

Here you can hopefully see what I mean about there being less shape to Kaito’s forehead/brow area and nose bridge… Len’s nose curves upwards so that makes him look younger, but he’s got a better nose bridge than Kaito. Len also doesn’t have an overbite, his lips are quite balanced.

I realised I’d forgotten to uncover the contents of the white box, and I also found a pair of peace hands under the leaflet, lol.

Unpacked his outfit, boots and wig. Those little boxers are so adorable to me, lol! (๑°꒵°๑)･*♡ Len got boxer-shaped underpants but his are this cotton fabric that has gotten super wrinkled over the years. Stretchy boxers like this would’ve been much nicer to get!

A bit more modest now, yay! But his wig… is atrocious. Σ(`･Д･ﾉ)ﾉ Like I don’t even expect much from Volks wigs, but this is seriously the worst one I’ve ever handled. (´д｀ι)

I had to pull it lower because the bangs were cut so short there was no way to style them as they were in the previous photo. I’d also popped his head to the freezer while I dressed him, so I made his eyes face forward… side glance was getting too repetitive to my taste lol.

I mean… what? (,,꒪꒫꒪,,) Who the heck hacked the wig this sloppily and thought it was fine to include with a limited doll?!

And on this side you can see his ear, probably so that you can use his earpiece without issues, but… too little fiber to work with! Also why is the back sticking out like that, I can’t… (; ･`д･´)

At this point it was already getting rather dark, and I spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out how to make his wig work with both Volks’s wig mist and water wax, and I also tried to cut it in the poofiest spots but then the fibers just stuck out more lol… so eventually I went to bed frustrated.

Today I took a couple of quick photos, I still hate this damn wig though…（；¬＿¬) I really need to figure out where to get a replacement ’cause I want to chuck this one out of the window.

I switched some old Lizanna urethane eyes on him ’cause I haven’t received his actual eyes yet and I couldn’t live with the acrylic ones, lol.

Fullbody ’cause I love his platform heeled boots, lol. His coat is a pain and all the fibers shedding from his wig get stuck to it like glue….

For now I’m feeling a bit mixed about him. ヾ(´･･｀｡)ノ” The terrible wig has left me very frustrated and I’m also not a fan of the scrawny body for him… and the overbite is a bit of a disappointment. But hopefully once I get a chance to repaint him, I get eyes with a smaller iris for him and a nicer wig, I’ll like him better. (｡･ω･｡) But I’ll definitely keep hoping for a Dynamite boy body, ’cause I’m afraid to put him next to my Luka and Sheryl who are Dynamite girls, lol. (*≧▽≦)ﾉｼ))

EDIT on the 1st of June:

I took a group shot and tried a pair of Tenshi eyes in Kaito today: