Dollzone Discussion ~ 60 and 70cm ~ Part IX

@SteamWitch @Rabbit-moon Virgos unite! Or precisely organize the situation to uniting. Could go either way really.

I don't remember seeing him offered but I also have a mind like a steel sieve so.... I love his huge ears and the 3rd eye. I might have a bit of a thing for dolls with more than 2 eyes. I own 2 (5Star Dark and an OD Il vampire modded to have a 3rd eye). I don't remember the artist/company name but there was a sculpt within the last year or so called Shark that had 6 eyes that I quite liked. And a sculpt who's name I'm completely spacing on that had a LOT of eyes of various sizes on the forehead and one side of the face that came out years and years ago. I think I've only ever seen that head once 2nd hand (but couldn't buy at the time).

 

I'm totally stealing this.

 

@SteamWitch - he's gorgeous! you really did get him so fast! i can't wait to see your vision of him and how he fits in with your crew . i really love the tail on him

i've got just the fox's head in white skin in transit now, hopefully he's not too much longer now.

 

@Cloudedmind Steal away, lol.

@SteamWitch The short (?) order period might be why I don't remember it. Or my attention was distracted elsewhere.

 

LOL! That is so true!

Currently, short ordering periods seem to be a thing with Dollzone. The last two 70cm boys, Mr. Leung Vampire and Lucius, and the two 58cm bunny-girls were offered with limited-time ordering windows. I don't understand why they are doing this. It makes everything basically a "limited doll", and so much harder to get. I really don't see this as a winning sales strategy.

SteamWitch, aside from Kei Kou being gorgeous, what do you think of the Dollzone 68cm body?

 

I can see the "exclusive" kind of angle. Soom has been doing that forever and a day and it works for them. Unfortunately for my resin loving heart, it frequently doesn't work for me as I need to save for each purchase. I usually spend a ridiculous amount of time waffling back and forth over said purchase, too. Mostly because that's a LOT of money to be dropping on a non-essential item. Especially since I have to take the terrible US/Canadian exchange rate into consideration.

Like there's a doll I've seen that I really, really like (not a DZ) and he's at a very good price due to a sale/event (so its a limited time *sigh*). Doll+shipping= $417US which would be about $600CAN at today's rate with PP fees. That's literally 1/2 my rent. And it's 50/50 whether I'd get hit with Customs fees, which would be another $90CAN. So now I'm at almost $700CAN for a $417US doll *winces*. I shall not speak of Mortgage Boy whom I lust after but can't sanely hit the buy button on.

 

(I don't own any DZ dolls nor have bought from them, but I pop into this thread every so often and thought I'd share some thoughts... I hope that's OK!)

I follow the Chinese BJD community on Weibo social media and chat a bit to other EN-speaking owners who also follow Weibo. From what I observe, the BJD community in China is huge compared to the EN-speaking community, and if a maker becomes popular and gets hyped on social media, they can get overwhelmed with orders. So small preorder windows are par for course in the Chinese BJD community, partially to manage demand from local hobbyists and allow the creator (especially if they are single tailors/creators) to manage their own workflow.

Limited order windows can drive hype and exclusivity and end up in a self-reinforcing vicious cycle ... the limited preorder time means more buyers will choose to buy now instead of miss out, which means more orders come to the dollmaker and faster, which makes them shorten their preorder windows even more... and so the FOMO cycle reinforces itself. Some Korean companies such as Soom and Illusion Garden are extremely popular in China, so their limited doll preorders can and have closed early because they got flooded with Chinese orders - they met their manufacturing quotas, or they couldn't handle more demand. (I understand that Illusion Garden has struggled with this - a few months ago they held a preorder for a doll head, and there were so many orders that their website crashed and they sold out of this doll in something like minutes.) But I think some dollmakers exploit this trend in the Chinese BJD community to artificially drum up hype and prices for their dolls -- Soom seems to do this. I don't follow Dollzone too much on Weibo but their dolls seem to sell well in China. Though I don't know if they're trying to do something similar with small preorder times.

It's an unpleasant dynamic and unfortunately this all has trickle down effects on the EN-speaking community - we get smaller preorder windows for dolls as well. But, in-demand dolls can sometimes be found on Xianyu Chinese secondhand market, where some owners have bought first "just to not miss out" and are now selling the doll brand new/unopened. (And you get your share of scalpers too.) Learning how to navigate Xianyu is a learning curve, but it can be a good way for buyers based overseas to get dolls they miss out on because the preorder window was too small.

This is mostly my theory from anecdotal observations of Weibo and chatting with other doll owners, so I'm not the definitive word on this... but I hope this helps explain a bit of why Chinese dollmakers are doing things the way they are.

 

Wow! Thanks for your insights Aihre! That explains a lot about what's going on with the short pre-order windows. Really appreciate you dropping in and sharing this information!

 

That does explain a lot. It might also be why the aesthetic of DZ has changed so much over the years. They're responding to what the larger market share wants. Considering that it's in China and more often than not a large part of the English speaking market won't poke around (or know how to poke around) on Chinese speaking sites we won't know what's driving the aesthetic. I heard somewhere recently that the preferred style of doll is different between the two markets.

Or I'm talking out of my hat and making things up to fit the situation.

 

@Rabbit-moon @Iron_Dog You're welcome - glad to help. I'm still learning a lot about the Chinese BJD community myself. It is a whole separate ecosystem ... I felt like Alice falling down the rabbit hole when I ventured into BJD Weibo. I've only been poking around there for a few months, but it has opened my eyes to how Chinese dollmakers and crafters promote their work and deal with preorders and deliveries.

China definitely has its own BJD trends - 68-70cm boys and 75cm+ boys are quite popular, as are slightly taller, more mature-bodied 1/4s (45-49cm tall). From what I see on Weibo, Chinese dollmakers do respond to hobbyist tastes. I think you can indirectly observe these trends by looking at the doll companies on Alice's Collections and see what new dolls/bodies are appearing. Like I won't be surprised if Dollzone is trying to capture a bit of that 75cm boy market with their release of Lucius.

 

He's so cute!! I can't wait to see how you blush him!

 

Trying to figure out how to style my Merlin....and then I see all the new stuff DZ is coming out with. I can't help but miss the old DZ (i used to have Shoyo and Tan LE yuu).

 

Yeah I totally feel you on that, I have a bunch of classic DZ dolls at home, a few newer ones, but all are discontinued or were limited to start with… the new sculpts just don’t really read as Dollzone anymore to me.

I have a Chen, April new (elf), Chinese Dragon Girl, Miss Kitty, Moon (Dragon Version), Shoyo, Stramonium, Daomiao, Mann, Sho, Po, Scorpio, Minas, and a Raymond-1 that just arrived yesterday. My wife has an original April, 2 Snow boys, and a Big Dipper.

Ley me just drop a real quick picture of my newly arrived Raymond (who is in need of a color matching and Faceup)


I already put a bae coat of sealant on him so I’m hoping to paint him today

 

Congrats Nearachan on having a DZ Merlin! Merlin is such a handsome sculpt.

I actually really liked his original style. (Love Merlin's pouty lips.)



Like you, I miss the old Dollzone, too. I totally love DZ's older sculpts. I still have my ancient Shoyo and Tan Yuu. I seriously think I could probably part with any of my other dolls before I ever let go of a DZ. I just have so much nostalgia for Old Dollzone sculpts; they really have a hold of my heart.

YAY! Congrats IzabethS on your Raymond's arrival! He's gorgeous even without a face-up!

What body do you have for him? I can't wait to see what you do with him!

 

Thank you! I managed to color match him this morning so far, but I'm not sure if I'll get him done today.
He's actually on Val's old body, the DZ B70-003, which is in the 2015 normal yellow skin. It looks tan honestly with how dark it is. Once I get him painted, I will take a pic of him next to current Val (3.0) and Kassandra (Val 1.0) as a comparison!

 

Eeeeee he's going to look so beautiful once you're finished with him!

 

Thank you for your faith in me! I just got him finished yesterday in the afternoon, and today I put him back on his body.


Here he is! I love how moody he turned out, he looks so different from his blank picture. I had a lot of fun doing the scars, at first I thought I'd added too many, but no, it's perfect for a flying and seafaring pirate ship's first mate that can turn into a bear!

Spoiler: Quick picture to show his color matching better compared to his untouched head back