Dream of Doll DoT Sha Discussion

Aha, sorry that was my lame attempt at a joke. XD; There's no REAL virus, it's just what I said to try and figure out what it is that makes it hard to take decent photos of DODs. XD;

 

Okay, I'll make sure to show you some pictures of him when I get him. He's probably going to end up looking gay........(well...that's probably because I intend on making him gay...) but he's going to be based off a mixture of J-pop guys from Johnny's Entertainment. ^-^

 

I own neither a Kohya nor a Sha so this is mostly a body note.

SD13 boy - Locking joints help doll sit/stand nicely, though it's a bit of a pain sometimes to deal with and the doll doesn't relax against you as nicely as non-locking dolls do. Nice hand sculpt. You'll run into the problem with Kohya of not being able to get optional hands, though, as his resin is a different colour from the FCS white that Volks sells optional parts in at Tenshi no Sato. The SD13 boy sculpt is overall a nice body and doesn't have any joints that stand out in particular as being weird-looking or odd to deal with. The headcap for SD13 boys is held on with a rubber band that wraps around and goes over some protrusions on the headcap and then hooks over the S-hook in the head. It's workable but not that great - I have large hands and I have trouble with getting in there to hook the rubber band on. The band can also break. Easily enough fixed, but still kind of annoying as it's a pain to get the band threaded through. It's pretty much the main annoyance part of a SD13 boy, and not much of one at that. You can buy a tool from Volks to help with hooking the rubber band, from what I understand.

DoT - I got to play with a Camine today, so I have fresh impressions of it. It's actually a rather nice body overall. Around the same range of motion as SD13 boy. DoD resin is pale but not white-white like Kohya will be. Nice hands, though I've not checked into the availibility of option hands, and they don't have anything similar to the one-touch system Volks uses so switching them would be a pain. The ankles are somewhat odd-looking, and the knee joint has a rather sharp cutoff, though if you plan to keep the boy in pants and shoes that won't really be noticable. The chest joint... Hmm, I dunno if the one I played with was just loose, or if it's a problem all around, but it tends to slide around while posing it and it can be irksome to deal with... Sueding it might help that? The headcap is magnetic, which is a nice touch - I've got three dolls with magnetic headcaps and it's really great for eye changes.

Hmm, one thing I've noticed with DoDs in general, and especially in the photos I took of the Camine today - A lot of the photo problems are in their eyes and the way they get set. I understand that a lot of people like acrylics/don't see the point of something nicer, but it really makes a difference, especially with the type of eye that people tend to use... Also, they set the eye most of the time so that all of the pupil is visible, which in photos tends to give the doll a deer-in-headlights look - The Camine looks very doll-like and strange in the pictures that are more head-on and much more lifelike in the ones where the camera is positioned high enough to cut off the top of his pupils, which gets rid of the "*stare*" thing. Even a little bit of it cut off will work wonders for pictures. And glass/urethane eyes really do make a lot of difference - You'll notice that, besides the fancy photography and faceups, the model dolls used on the site all have urethane eyes, what looks from the colour and iris patterning to be Enchanted Doll. I'll freely admit to being an eye snob, but there's a reason for it. Even just with the acrylics, though, moving them to a position where it's not turning out strangely in a photo makes a world of difference.

Also proper lighting, background, composition, etc - I've seen some gorgeous owner photos of DoC/DoTs, and the owners did exactly those sorts of things. Even the default-faceup Sha I saw was just as gorgeous - High-quality eyes properly set to avoid the O_O look, taken at a good angle, properly lit and composed and the like. The custom faceup DoC... U, I think it was? was just stunning. Great faceup, nice eyes and positioning, etc.

So I wouldn't necessarily let the picture thing scare you. Hell, it can happen with any sort of doll - There are quite a lot of angles from which any BJD look awful, and certain dolls look best photographed from certain angles - My Arashi looks horrible in a low shot with him looking slightly up, but my Yukinojo looks great that way. And Remus can look iffy in a straight-on shot, but the Arashi looks great that way.

So with care put into eye positioning, posing, photography and the like, any doll can look fabulous in photos. If I throw my Yukinojo down on a desk and take a careless shot of him with flash with my messy desk in the background, it won't be a good picture.

Er, veered a bit off-topic there, but just pointing out that it can be *work* to photograph dolls well and you have to learn them, so owner pictures aren't even always the best indication. XD; (Although if you still like the doll in a badly lit up-nose shot it's a good bet you'll like it IRL!)

Some dolls just don't photograph well period - I hated Olivia until I saw her in person, for example. Still haven't seen a picture I like, but the actual doll is beautiful.

(But yes, don't forget the body issue. It can be extremely important, I've sold dolls before because while I liked the head quite a lot, it wasn't feasible to put it on a different body, and I hated the body it came with. >_< )

 

It's very good info. I paid for glass eyes for my Sha and they make a world of difference. I might try for a bigger iris and pupil maybe and play around with different types of eyes.

I have a better lighting area set up now so I may take more pics for you to look at.

 

:3 Glass eyes can fit Dream of Doll dolls just fine. It's the size of the eyes that you have to pay attention to. I believe DoTs like Sha can wear 16mm and 18mm size eyes, glass/urethane/acrylic/silicone or whatnot. :3 Someone correct me if I'm wrong on the sizes...>.>\

 

Kokoro Daisuke mentioned my Neil already (there's a link to my//his Lj in my signature).

but Let Me Tell You about the Sha.

These babies are White. I guess you could eliminate that with blushing but I like the dead look on Neil..

They're Tall -these babies Tower over the average SD//SD13//Delf mold. Seriously, the only thing i've found taller is a Hound.

They're feet are Massive - SD13 shoes are Tight. they fit, but it really depends on what kind of style it is, some won't fit. Hound shoes, on the other hand, are too large. Neil's feet slide in a Hound size pair of boots he has. even with socks.

They're THIN. slimmer than the Volks SD13 as far as i know. Said Hound boots from above won't strap tight enough to his legs. Meaning, even with socks, they don't strap to his legs.

They're Heads are smaller than a SD13 -which means wigs that aren't from D.O.D. Slide. They're an inbetween size as far as i can tell.

They're Hands are massive -but nice all the same. As far as i'm concerned though, they're head//hands//feet are all in prorpotion -like a person is in proportion.

Neil has acrylic eyes and there's nothing wrong with them. Perople just don't tend to fiddle with the default settings -_-;

The Sha has this wonderful magnetic head-cap that's super easy to snap on and off, it's a simple doll to take apart//put back together.

All in all, they're harder to buy for because they're slimmer than other dolls but they're hands and feet are larger which makes them Awkward. In every sense of the word.

They do look.. boyish, I guess, but not manly or masculine -in my opinion.. Neil looks cute. No matter how dirty or scruffed up I get him he still retains a certain ammount of cuteness. Which is probably why he'd make such a good fag. But it's harder to bring out the manlyness in him..

I constantly spend most of my time with Neil swearing at him but I wouldn't have it any other way!

If you want small ammounts of drama then I highly suggest this doll! XD
They're a good size and a comfortable weight. Much like a cat. If you do get one you'll become rather attached XD

 

nek - Hahaha, swearing at your doll!!! lol!! I'll probably do that once Kenshiro arrives....lol!!!

 

Just confirming~
Yes, they wear any kind of 16 or 18 mm eyes (glass, acrylic, even those squishy Soom eyes), which is smaller than a lot of other ~60cm BJDs. Larger than that makes them look... strange, and unrealistic. Much smaller, and they might look like they're on crack. Although actually, I think my Shall is wearing 15mm Souldoll eyes, and they seem fine~

 

My Sha looks like a girl, so I don't really have anything to add to in the boyish department. It really depends on the way the owner designs their doll I think, and wigs can do alot even with the default face up. The one thing that really did throw me (but I ended up loving) is just how pale the normal skin DODs are. They almost seem beauty white (especially with white wigs). A blonde wig actually does give the illusion of a darker skin tone. But they're a beautiful doll no matter what imo. It's just the whole foot size thing that drives me nuts, otherwise my Sha tends to fit into whatever else my Luts does--he has a great slinky body and lovely hips But I'm a fan of the girly-boy sorts--he was defintely worth it for me. My best friend who likes the more boyish types actually went for Camine rather than Sha & bought him a short boyish wig--he hasn't gotten here yet tho

 

heheh not quite beauty white, it's the pink in the skin i love. Not so much of the yellow orange brown in the skin tone as CP boys. But yes pale (he's as pale as me) but I wouldn't say deathly white....

Vo can look boyish if he wants, he just likes cute things...or rather I love cute things so he has to put up with the cute things on him....which makes him look more girly than some of the more masculine outfits and hair/faceup styles

 

16-18mm is basically what people go for, ther's alot of room behind the eye sockets though so you could get bigger ones if you really really wanted to. most of them wear 16mm's though.

haha, I'm not into current writers lately, but Neil is a bit of a crazy all on his own
He's not gothic though. Not in any sense of the word. He looks really, really awkward in black -which is strage, because you'd think dead people would look good in black, right?

 

I kind of fell in love with Sha two days ago when a friend directed me to the DOD webpage (before then, all I had seen were Volks products). But my question to the Sha owners (in the US) is this: Was shipping incredibly expensive, or not? DOD doesn't list their going rates on the page without putting the doll in your cart. Also, how was it at customs? Were there any duties you had to pay? This would be the first time I order a doll from overseas, so I'm completely clueless on this subject ^^

 

I believe shipping was about $86 (don't quote me on that, it could have been $60, but my friend just ordered Camine from DOD and I believe it was $86 for her.) In any event, DOD tends to mark the package as a $50 gift (toy) so it can get through customs without any additional fees.

 

I live on the East Coast of Canada and I just ordered a DoT from them, and my shipping was $68.00 US. So, it's not nearly as bad as I had feared, but it is still quite a large amount.

 

Hm mine was not that much.

I think total I paid for make up and shipping was $674 or so I believe. In comparison to any other dolls I've bought it's pretty close

 

Thank you for the information! Hopefully Sha will still be avalible 6 months down the line O_O