Dollzone Discussion ~ 60 and 70cm ~ Part IX

Congrats on getting him successfully re-strung!

I find the SD's harder to do just because of the extra physical effort necessary to pull the elastic tight enough over what's needed for an MSD or tiny. We've had a lot of rain in my neck of the woods lately (although it's snow today) and the damp bothers my arthritis enough that doing something with hand strength is probably not a good idea.

 

Mmm, that's perfectly understandable!!
I work at a very physically demanding job, so I'm lucky that I have the strength to do it myself - often at meets I find myself being handed big floppy dolls in need of a little tightening. It's weirdly something I enjoy doing. I find pulling them apart and putting them back together to be quite meditative (when they're not trying to snap their joints on my fingers!)

 

Getting older is not as fun as advertised. I have a friend that sometimes handed dolls to tighten up at meets. She has a lot of hand strength. Some dolls just seem bitey. I had one of my boys get me good on the leg as I was pulling the elastic and S-hook up through his head hole. Left a huge, ugly bruise on my thigh roughly the size of a toonie from where his torso pieces caught me.

 

Has anyone successfully ordered a doll from DZ's taobao store? I want to order through taobao and do a deposit payment, but I'm afraid they will tell me to use the international site if I contact them.

 

Ouch! I do agree though, some dolls are definitely more bitey than others!

 

I have, but I did full payment and not deposit. I ordered their B68-001 body through them in 2019. The only issue, which was completely my fault was that TB's warehouses, at least back then, had size restrictions. So the body ended up being sent back to DZ. Thankfully, I was able to speak with a DZ rep and they shipped the body out to me personally.

Now, I just have all my TB orders shipped to a forwarding service regardless of size.

 

@Cloudedmind Oh shoot, I forgot about the size restrictions because I usually don't order something big but this time I want to get Silvan so that's definitely an issue. Thanks for mentioning that! Can I ask what forwarding service you've been using?

Also, I'm so glad DZ was able to work it out with you! That's a total nightmare scenario. Glad you got him okay.

 

@aestellica I've been using Bhiner's warehouse, and haven't had any problems. They did stop taking PayPal as a payment option a few months ago though, so it's pretty much card only. I've done some orders since then, and while having to input my card information each time I want to pay is less then ideal, I haven't had any problems so far. From what I understand they're using a third party processing system for all payments and your information isn't saved to their website.

If them not taking PayPal is an issue for you I've heard other people say they use Superbuy I think, but I don't know if Superbuy also acts like a forwarding service or if you have to buy your items through them.

 

@Cloudedmind @aestellica Superbuy has parcel forwarding, as well as being a shopping agent. They automatically provide a unique warehouse address for you, and you input that as your domestic shipping address for the seller, when buying direct off Taobao. You will have to submit a parcel forwarding order to Superbuy (including the domestic tracking number) for every item you buy, if it's off Taobao they will open up and check/take pics as they do for their own shopping service.

I've been using them as parcel forwarding for some time - I buy direct off Taobao and ship to their warehouse, including preorder BJDs (though not from DZ) and other non-resin stuff. The process is straightforward and I've had no issues.

 

@aihre Good to know! I might create an account on Superbuy and do a few test sends to see what the shipping quotes are like through them.

What happens if you forget to submit a forwarding ticket? Will Superbuy not contact you about an item unless you do?

 

Superbuy will not contact you, but will hold your item for a certain number of days (IIRC it's 30 days, the info is in their customer service FAQs), after which it's considered unclaimed. I have submitted my forwarding ticket a day or two late (ie. After it's marked as received by the warehouse - something got shipped while I wasn't paying attention to my TB account) and they've matched my shipments without issues.

(edited to add before I forget...) I apologise if this is a self evident statement.

You can definitely order direct from Taobao as an international customer with a domestic shipping address (warehouse). But if you do this, I would strongly recommend communicating to the seller in Chinese. You are accessing a domestic market after all, so I would use the domestic etiquette and write to sellers in their preferred language. Machine translation is pretty good these days, both translating to and back from CN, and if you are polite, make your requests/questions clear and generally behave like a respectful and polite buyer, sellers are quite happy to oblige and respond to machine translated CN. But if communicating in CN is not in your comfort zone, that's what the international website is for.

I know a bit of Chinese but I still do machine translation to CN, and I do say upfront that I'm an international buyer using a local warehouse as my address. (I also say that if I make any mistakes or if payment doesn't go through, please let me know and I will fix it ASAP - basically to take a respectful tone.) So far, sellers have been pretty communicative.

Again I apologise if language use is self evident but I feel like it needs to be said, since we're dealing with international commerce.

 

Hmm, good to know. Bhiner doesn't have a system like that. They just use the unique address they give you to track all incoming packages, and once your package arrives they usually contact you within a few days as long as they're not on holiday. And, as I'm a set and forget type person that's worked for me. But, if Superbuys shipping prices are better, it might be worth switching over.

 

I'm afraid I don't know if Superbuy will contact you if you don't submit a ticket, but the CS FAQs suggest they won't. I'm the opposite - I obsessively watch everything I buy - so I have not given them the chance to contact me first... nor do I want to take that risk.

 

Hey guys! Have you seen Dollzone's latest limited gorgeous boy?

Sylvan is for sale until 21 Jan 2024, per Alice's Collection.





Wow! I love those antlers!

 

He's beautiful. I haz no money though *sigh and no character for him. My wallet is thrilled about that. I'd also be hesitant to get a 75cm doll. That's a lot of doll for me.

 

Whoa, Sylvan is SO handsome!!! And I'm still madly in love with that body... wish it was just a few cms smaller though...

 

Oh yeah Sylvan/Silvan/Silwan (Thank google translate for those last two). I posted about him several days ago. If I didn't already have Lucius on layaway I would probably go for him. I love his ears.

Actually, if I wasn't planning on going for the upcoming Volks Williams I would probably go for him.

 

Iron_Dog, I haz no money either. *sigh* But, he is pretty spectacular. I agree, I'm reluctant, as well, to buy a boy that big. That much resin would be so heavy. That's one of the reasons I really don't play that much with my Iplehouse EID boys; those boys iz hefty!

I totally agree Overlordu. I wonder if his head would fit a 68cm body?

Cloudedmind, sorry I missed your earlier post on Sylvan. Yes, his ears are amazing.

But, lucky you! You have a Lucius coming! He's totally gorgeous.

 

Unfortunately, unless the 68cm body has a 12 or 13cm neck they'll be a lot of gapping. I think most 68cm bodies that I've seen their neck size tends to tap out at 11cm at the largest size. I think there are a few 70/71cm bodies that have 12cm necks though.

And, no problem! I didn't add any pictures, so it's easy to miss, so thank you for adding those so others could see.

 

Wow! Cloudedmind, I didn't realize how thick the neck was on that 75cm body. Thanks for the clarification. That head will never work on a 68cm body.

Since Dollzone does not keep a company archive of past sculpts, it's nice to post pictures here for everyone to see. Because, you know, once Sylvan's purchase date passes, all his pictures will disappear from their site.