Are Volks Boys Worth the Higher Price?

I don't think you need to spend $1000. You just need to be patient. A lot of the FCS heads will sell for $350ish. You can get a school A for $250 these days, other more popular heads for less tan that. You don't generally see them dip below $200 for anything though. A body will run you $550, sometimes as low as $500, but you wouldn't have much trouble finding one for $550.

People will sell Volks SD13 boys complete for between $700-$800, so I really think you can find one you like, second-hand, in the same general range as any other company.

The standard size is very very nice. But, seeing as most companies are aware that people are drawn to that sort of thing, most other 60cm dolls will fit Volks clothing and shoes. Not all, and success may vary with how good it looks, but for the males at least this is pretty true. For girls, the variations make fitting more difficult.

 

Volks resin is gorgeous. I love my Volks dolls and I've heard plenty of folks new to their dolls become completely smitten once they have one in person. That said, I don't care for their basic boys at all either. Of course, some of this could be do to their lackluster default makeup and wigs...

Like Buff say, you certainly may find the doll you are looking for in the secondary market over time...but then, if you are going to use the items of the fullset in the doll you mentioned, then you are still making a good investment, I reckon, as you'd be paying for some clothing and wigs and things anyway? Best of luck in your pursuits!

 

I have a question for Volks owners-

How does their resin hold up in the sun? Is it okay to take them on trips and things like that, or is it best to leave them somewhere dark? I was hoping to be able to take mine lots of places, but I don't want him to turn yellow or anything.

I know everyone's talking about how wonderful the resin is, but I'm not sure if that just means look and feel wise or durablity. Thanks~

 

Well their resin is UV protected now, but I am not sure on the older molds from 2-3 years ago. I still won't chance taking Irvin out in the sun (or any of my dolls for that matter). I just took his default eyes out, but I will work on getting the hot glue out another day.

 

My Cecile is about two and a half years old now and I take him out a lot, also in the sun I havent noticed any yellowing. I also have a oldskin body without UV protection, from 2004 I believe and it actually doesn't match the Seimei head I bought it for because it's still so pristine and peachy in color, unlike the fairly yellowed Seimei xDD So I'd say they hold up pretty well. Though I don't know about the tans, like the above poster I will try to avoid taking my Irvin out in the sun, but I like handling my dolls ^^;;

 

I paid quite a lot for my volks boy and I take him everywhere...they're so worth the price. That's all I have to say.

 

So would a new body from the FCS be protected? That's the type I should be getting, if the seller gets back to me.

 

I currently have four Volks dolls and five on the way... so I guess, to me at least, they're absolutely worth the price I dished out for them. The resin quality is far better than any of my other dolls (especially my Delf boys. CP's resin quality seems to be degrading every year. Where as, I've handled a few older Volks dolls, and the resin of my new dolls still seems to be quite the same in quality, perhaps even a little nicer. (Ten years, I'd hope Volks has gotten a little better at what they do. )

On the flipside, another option if you're looking for boys in the SD13 size; take a look at Luts Senior Delfs. For whatever reason Luts "Real Skin" dolls are a higher quality resin, and much better posers than the Delf line. Their measurements are also nearly identical to SD13, so they can share clothes quite easily with Volks boys.

 

Yes, there is a definite difference in Resin quality. My Volks standard SD10 girl is heavier than my friend's Luts Senior Delf LE boy, and he's huge. There is also the matter of the feel and look of the resin. The Volks feels like finely polished ivory and has a luminescent glow even though it is a year old. And if any yellowing occurred, it seems more like a subtle tan, which makes it more lifelike if anything.

The Luts body is sexy, but feels like plastic and a bit on the gritty side even after esthetics by the company and washings by the owner. The color match is very similar, but it doesn't have that luminescence that the Volks has.

On a personal note, the Volks SD10 and SD13 boy bodies are not as "mature" as other companies like Luts boy bodies. And Volks SD16 and SD17 boy bodies are only available through winning a lottery for LE dolls or a lucky find elsewhere. If I could get over the resin quality differences (and allergic reaction to Luts resin), I would totally own a harem of Luts Senior Delfs for aesthetic reason.

Ah, this is longer than I wanted to make, but the point is, it is the quality you're paying for and the reliability of the product to be the way it is. That isn't to say you should buy Volks. You should buy whatever your sense of aesthetics takes you to, and if that's another company, go for it.

(Reads through entire thread)

Ah! Congratulations on your Yo! I hope you get your Eden, if not, will probably see you at the LA Volks then!

In regards to sun exposure, Marie gets her fair share of sun, and I think it improves her tone. Not like she sunbathes, but when she does get expose, it's not the end of the world. For me, it doesn't seem like yellowing as more a healthy glow/tan.

 

I love my Volks. I haven't had her long and haven't had the opportunity to compare her weight to others, but I can say, her weight makes it easy for her to handle her clothes, instead of getting controlled by the fabrics.

 

I'm going to step away from the resin issue and go in another direction - the face sculpts. What do you like or not like? More of an anime look or a more realistic look? Larger or smaller eyes, head, mouth, nose, etc.? How do they look face-on and in profile?

I look at faces first, then elbow joints, then knee joints. I want great posability as well as faces that fit specific characters. I like more realistic or impish face sculpts so I find the majority of the Volks heads uninteresting with vapid stares. A lot of them have some serious overbite issues.

Naturally, people go in and fix that vapid look with their personal touches and the dolls you see here look SO much better than the default photos. I've seen some incredible mods to fix overbites, nose bumps and other issues.

And before you ask, yes, I do own a single Volks doll - a YoSD Kuuta. I couldn't resist that adorable face.

Also, I love how easy it is to change out Volks hands - the system is so simple yet so ingenious!

As for resin, I find the Dollzone resin to be the toughest out there. And their tan resin is throughout the resin so it's much more stable and other tanned dolls.

 

My Volks dolls have come from all over the place; 2 from Yahoo! Japan, 1 from the Volks USA Lottery, 1 from the marketplace of another doll forum, 4 from my trip to Dolpa New York in June and shortly after Dolpa a good friend of mine took a trip to Japan and ordered me the Sunlight F16 I've been pining over a good long while from Sato.

Not a problem! I absolutely adored my SDF boys while they were here. One of these days I'm really hoping to take a break from the Volks kick and purchase myself an SDF Bliss or Abadon. I still adore both those molds greatly.

I make the comment about CP simply because I've owned approximately 10+ Delfs over the last couple years, and I can honestly say all I've seen is the quality of the Delf's resin fall. Between my 2006 Elf El and 2008 Breakaway there is a huge difference in resin quality. Even between the Lishe I purchased in late 2007 and my Breakaway, if memory serves, there was a noticable quality discrepancy. However, the last CP Delf I received was my Breakaways back in March. So if there's been an improvement in quality since then, I'm very happy to hear it.

Luts was the first company I ever purchased from, and even with the majority of my dolls currently being Volks, I would still say Luts one of if not my favourite companies. Between the resin quality, casting problems and customers service issues they were having for quite some time though, it was becoming increasingly frustrating to purchase from them. If these problems are beginning to be dealt with however, I'm very happy to hear it.

 

In my opinion, yes. I love Volks. Their sculpts are the ones I fall in love with the most often. I am also very confident in their quality. For these reasons I believe that Volks is worth every penny.

 

I have several Volks boys and I think they've all been more than worth it. My Link will be four years old this Christmas and his resin color hasn't really changed much at all compared to my newer UV cut boys. As others have said, the resin is wonderful. It is more translucent like french resin, but it doesn't have the yellowing issues that french resin is known for. It's also not as translucent, which makes it take blushing and faceups really well. (I find that some french resins look weird with faceups - like the faceup is sort of floating in front of the sculpt. The pureskin resin isn't like that.) It's also very easy to modify and is the same color all the way through... so if you sand, the areas where you sand won't be noticeably lighter. (If you sand CP resin, it will be lighter where you sanded). The oldskin resin is very sturdy and colorfast, moreso than the pureskin, but the posing on the old boy body isn't as good.

The range of motion isn't as extensive as other companies, but they are very solid posers and can pose very naturally.

The nicest thing about the Volks body sculpts is that they are very detailed. Some companies have limbs that are just like tubes with ball-joints. Volks sculpts have very nice, gentle curves and anatomical details. They have all the subtle muscle definition, the detail isn't as sharp or deeply cut as some of the more realistic bodies. The hands are very expressive.

A few people have commented that the Volks faces are blank and staring. That really depends on how you handle them! The fact that the faces aren't as expressive blank or default means that they can really be shaped by their faceups! It leads to a lot of versatility. You can make the expression very different if you want by how the head is painted... you can sometimes change the head so much just through paint that people wonder what head it is because it's so different looking. I absolutely LOVE my Delf El, but his sculpt is so expressive and defined on its own that almost no matter how he's painted, he's not too different or distinctive from any other El.

Whether it's worth it or not comes down to your personal preference, really! I love my Volks dolls, but I also really go for the bizarre artist sculpts. Go figure, y'know?

 

I like the Volks overbite, the bumpy nose on Cristal - so charming, and the slight pursed unevenness of the Lucai sculpt mouths. They all are incorporated into the designs and make the doll MORE a character to me than if they were fixed. I always feel very sad on the inside when I see someone sanding down Tohya's overbite, it's what make him look so bitchy and underamused and that's what I love about that sculpt.

I hate realistic head sculpts so I much much prefer Volks larger eyed, more anime inspired aesthetic and I love their melon heads. I don't want real human proportions on my dolls so I don't like the tiny pinheaded big dolls with the 10-12mm eyes. Absolutely no appeal to me.

I'm glad Volks really hasn't abandoned their look in favour of the recent trend of hyper realistic dolls.

 

I actually prefer more realistic sculpts myself, or at least something in between. A lot of the newer Volks dolls have been taking a much less "anime" turn than their predecessors, which has been a huge part of the draw for me. However, I do own a Four Sister Megu that I absolutely adore, and find myself more and more drawn to their Rozen Maiden Suiseiseki. That wishlist just gets worse and worse lol.

I do agree with you on some Volks dolls looking quite vapid, but I think Volks tends to be their own worst enemy when it comes to company photos and default sets/face-ups. The do their own dolls absolutely no justice.

Volks "one touch" system on their hands and feet is fabulous, I absolutely adore it. Which I admit, it a small part of the reason I was eager to get my hands on some Volks dolls. As well as their posing, especially int he smaller ones. YoSDs pose like it's nobody's business. [Side Note: Yay for Kuuta! :3 If you're going to have any Volks he was a good one to go for Onna. Kuuta was actually my first, and I'm absolutely in love with the little bugger. ;~; So cute.]

I don't know too much about tan resin, my only tan right now is a little tan french resin Narin. But I do have some tan optionals for my F16 and from what I can see Volks does have a rather nice tan. Though I admit, secretly my favourite tan resin is in fact Dollzone.