Soom Idealian 75cm Discussion Part 10

Yeah, I think it's getting harder and expenssiver.
They had just sold Hwa-in , other purple Hyperon and Narmer limited take orders at the Idoll Tokyo.
[I♥Doll Tokyo Vol.71 Limited] ID75 – Hwa-In R (Peony White, LE Qty.) - IDEALIAN
[I♥Doll Tokyo Vol.71 Limited] ID75 – Hyperon V. (Light Violet, LE Qty.10) - IDEALIAN

 

@CloveR 4 LeafS Yeah, as someone trying to get into ID75, I'm wondering if I should even bother trying to stay up late to get one of Soom's dolls anymore. It's the same thing with their Little Gems too. It feels like their dolls are even more exclusive and limited than Volks, and that's saying something.

 

What a lot of people here fail to realise is the sheer market dominance and value that ID75s hold in the Chinese player base. It's a combination of huge demands that cannot be met and SOOM purposefully playing on it in a manipulative way that annoys the hell out of everyone.

For popular ID75 models in China (Hyun, Hwain, Zak, Edgar, Hyperon, etc.), the market price in some cases far exceeds the retail value, and profits can be turned immediately to those who aren't able to get the dolls they want on release. Since the popularity of Hugh, who sold over 1000 units and required an extended production time, SOOM seems to have gotten a high off purposefully limiting amounts or selling purposefully low quantities to further push the aspect of FOMO buying, making the community in China even more rampant when a popular doll is released. The releases of the blank event Hyun last year and BT Hyperon were reported to be sold at quantities of 200 and <600, which is absolutely not enough to service the demand that these dolls require.

SOOM has been getting more and more into releasing fantasy colours as of late as well, which is also something that the Chinese player base is not particularly fond of, with the most popular colours being normal, cream and Tawny. Since Edgar gained a lot of popularity since his first release, a lot of players wanted to buy him buy the previous release of Peony White is still considered a fantasy colour in CN, so when it was announced he'd be NS this time, everyone was basically scrambling to get one because no one has any idea what kind of limit that SOOM has decided to place on the quantity. Zak was the same deal, the previous releases had been fantasy colours, and players went crazy when there was finally a non fantasy colour.

For dolls who aren't so popular, it can be bought as normal without issue, but if it's something the Chinese player base has their eyes on, you'll have to fight at release time through website crashes.

If SOOM didn't play so much on FOMO and actually had any sort of proper release schedule without jerking everyone around with hidden quantity limits, this wouldn't be an issue. But they seem have gotten a high off the sales they can make off hiding this information.

 

@Setsura Thank you for the info! It seems like companies that have huge fanbase in China like SOOM and Illusion Garden all face the same type of problem. Ringdoll also used to have the same problem with insanely high demand for their collaboration with popular novel series. People have to wait like 1 year, some even close to 5 years for their orders. But last I heard they are managing the situation better now.

I do see reseller in China also play the part of causing this problem. The selling price in secondhand marketplace there is unbelievable. Like I would love to have Hwain so bad but it would be much cheaper to just book a ticket, fly to an event and try my luck there. I know an agent who visit China doll event frequently and they told me SOOM booth always pack with people and how she did not dare to get close to the booth.

 

The proxy situation and buying at events for Idealian is very intense indeed. There are lot of people out there who are there purely to make a profit only, and they don't have any shame about admitting it either. Hwain is crazy popular, demanding prices of 10,000RMB or more for a blank doll because of the stakes to get it. I attended Shanghai DSP earlier this year as a vendor with my own dolls on display, and my friend and I went to the venue the morning the day before to scout the situation, and there were already scalpers on site lining up over 24 hours before. They're bold, and they went up to my friend and asked if she wanted a spot - for the low low price of 5000RMB - so she wouldn't have to line up herself. She promptly told him to fuck off. The thing is, these scalpers aren't doll players for the most part - they're middle aged creepy looking dudes with nothing better to do, so they hire themselves out to stand in line for money. Players lined up in the cold rainy weather through the entire night to try to get in to DSP as quickly as possible because SOOM had announced the sales of their dolls would be first in best dressed. Late the night before the event, SOOM finally announced that they had changed everything to lottery system instead of first in best dressed, and players rejoiced through not having to fight these people.

Indeed, if you wanted an event doll, your best chance is likely to attend an event in Japan where it's harder for people to hire proxies and personally try to purchase it yourself. Although, since IDoll Japan is based on a ticketing system with lottery of numbers also, it will basically require you to buy x amount to tickets to get the lowest number possible for a chance to get in line at the SOOM booth. If you roll a high number, there's not a chance. My partner rolled a ticket number of 005X, out of thousands of numbers, and still, he was 13th in line at the SOOM booth. If it's an LE10 and the people in front of him all wanted it, he would have missed out (thankfully, it wasn't, and that's how he bought me my own Hwain).

Due to their dominance in the market, the stakes for LE event dolls are super high for heaps of reasons, and SOOM very much values their 'coveted' status, so they won't change it, either, to the frustration of many players.

 

Somehow Hwa-in reminds me of the meca angel Vega or Deneb.

I've heard that Hwa-in in normal versions were quickly sold out and other full set versions were left at IDOLL, assuming Japanese Yen's weakness was also for that reason.

Just wondering how Chinese collectors are dealing with functionality of the ID75 body, do they change it to another maker's body?

Soom's 'coveted' marketing strategies are like Volks.
Oh, Luts and other makers offer special skin colors, too...so I'm not fussed.

 

People in CN dont want to pay for the full set price of the Hwains because the colours are fantasy and most of them only want the base doll and none of the rest of the set. Most people in China don't buy any sort of full set or default faceup unless it's some kind of super limited like the previous Garions, and there's usually a lot of people there who consider the full set or default faceups 'ugly' and/or 'not worth the money/a waste of money'. Because the faceups of the purple hwains were considered 'ugly' by most of the CN community, and also not wanting to pay for the rest of the full set they didn't want, they often didn't sell out at events. The blank versions of Hwain will always be the first to go, regardless of exchange rate prices.

As for the body itself, it is still by and large the most common size in CN for 75s. ID75s are such a standard in China that if dolls from other makers can't easily fit this size, it's usually a reason that people of the community rule it out of buying, and many companies will either make ID75 compatible bodies or at least have a version that is compatible with it or MOSTLY compatible with it. Since the standard size is ID75, with YC76 and YC77 following, anything that falls largely out of these sizes will fall out of favour for the aforementioned reasons, and it shows no sign of change. ID75 will always remain the standard for sizing for the foreseeable future for 75s.

Of course, there are always complaints about its mobility, but there's lots of tutorials for wiring and stringing and even parts to make him taller or shoulders wider. To be honest, it's far from the worst body I've had, and the reason I have about 25 of them at home - I simply like the way it looks, the fact that I can wear basically any 75 outfit on it and the fact I find 0 problem with the posing. Most people in China pose their dolls with the help of stands, so unless they have an aesthetic issue with the ID75 or really don't feel like fiddling with the stringing and wire (although there are services that do this for you in China and Korea), most people just stick with it because it really is the easiest to buy for with the widest range and highest compatibility.

 

Reading this discussion on the increasing difficulty to buy one of the Idealians has me feeling even more nervous as someone who wants to get one, Hyperon specifically

SOOM just announced V. Hyperon (after) event doll from Doll Tokyo and this is the second time within a year that they've made a Hyperon release an "event" doll with limited quantities. I hope this is not going to be their pattern with the Hyperon model, though it would not surprise me if that is how they decide to cap orders for one of their most popular models. Until then, I will simply wait for a non-event release since the odds of getting him will be at least a *little* better. Kinda mad about it though lol because they likely will not release any version of him again this year, but who knows...

 

So jumping in here, I wanted to ask if anyone had advice for a cracked shoulder.

My BT Garion has a cracked shoulder (on the thinner torso piece above the shoulder ball) from Soom's own mechanism. I don't handle my dolls roughly, I've dressed him only twice and I have NEVER in all my 10 years here had a doll crack. So I'm pretty upset. I have no idea how it happened because I know better than to lift his arms because of that stupid piece inside (that I'm about ready to sand off), but it's 100% from that. We wired him carefully and he has a nice stand he's on 98% of the time.

Does anyone have advice on how to fix it? Would a thin layer of epoxy make a difference or would it just crack again from the pressure? I'll be asking Soom for help as well, but I thought I'd ask here too. Additionally, if anyone has ever cut the piece in question off, let me know how it went lol

 

Vampire sculpts are generally not popular in China. If you want the VHyperon I don't think you'll have to fight. The coveted ones are OE Hyperon and S.Hyperon. People don't really care much about R or V Hyperon.

If you mean on the edge of the shoulder at the torso, that part there is just inherently thin. I've cracked it several times before wiring it so I've been careful since and I haven't had an issue with any movement since. I never bothered to repair it because it doesn't bother me, but if you were to repair it, you'd need to reinforce it with epoxy or something because it'll just crack off again otherwise imo. I'm not sure what soom can do for you other than offer to cast you a new torso piece for a cost (if they even offer you that), and if it's BT they probably can't make it match lol

 

Oh man! I’m still hoping for a regular V. hyperon release too. Maybe it’ll be a sign he’ll be released later this year. A few limiteds were released in a regular preorder in different colors later.

 

Yes that place. Yeah that's what I'm worried about too is their terribly inconsistent resin (and their lack of help most of the time in my personal experience). I'm wondering if it's likely to just crack the epoxy if I put some on, so if I should bother trying epoxy or just dealing with it. I'm trying to accept the fact it cracked at all, but as long as it doesn't crack OFF I can just leave it alone. I've got like 90 dolls and they're all immaculate minus one nose bump on one of my other boys and now this shoulder crack, so I'm losing my mind a little .

 

Ironically, I have little interest in S. Hyperon and prefer R or V lol. I just don't know if I like the vampire version enough to have it permanently, I would absolutely *leap* at this chance if they did V and R or V and OE heads with this release. I know that if I wait I can probably get my hands on the romantic version, but who knows when SOOM will release R, or even V, again. Beggars cannot be choosers though, so I have to decide quickly because this sale goes live in like...9 hours lol. Why, SOOM. WHY.

Also, yeah, I hope SOOM will release him later this year as a normal release too if I decide to stay out of this one.

 

Luckily my taste is different from popular doll collectors in China...I could order a V one.

I've been thinking about to make some automated doll body (at least jointed hands) using arduino, since not keen to make stop motion animation lol.

 

Regardless of how you decide to fix it, you should most definitely complain to SOOM about it, with pictures. If there's a thin part in the body that's prone to cracking, they should be made aware that it happens and fixing the sculpt itself so that future dolls don't suffer from that. I did this with the suuper thin neck area of the headback of theirs. It got hit by the brain during unstringing due to extremely tight stringing on their part and a piece broke off. Not sure if they've actually fixed the sculpt since then, but at least they know it happens. From the sound of it, nobody had brought it up to them, which I can't imagine wouldn't have happened to anyone else before, as the piece is truly thin for being in a place with a lot of pressure.
It was during the pandemic and they sent me a whole new head (headback and faceplate) without asking for the original piece back (wouldn't have sent it anyway cause I didn't want to have a headless doll for months), though I fixed the piece myself. My doll is bronze and obviously the new head isn't a perfect match, but a faceup can hide a lot. A torso piece would likely be a bit more noticeable in a different color.

It's always worth at least letting them know even if you fix it yourself or not.

 

Hello all! I just got my ID72 Photon from a purchase off the MP on here and OMG. He is HUGE. I mean, I have an IH E.I.D. so I wasn't expecting to be so surprised, but here I am! I'll be making him some clothes really soon. I'd love to work on some for him tonight, but I'm not feeling quite like getting involved in a big project right now. I might at least start measuring him, we will see! I need to decide on what style of clothing suits him, though I'll probably just make him basic jeans and a tee to start with.

Does anyone have any owner pics of Photon, Angel of Death to share? I know he's an older release, but that's who I got and I'd love to see what other's have done with theirs. I'm thinking of sticking with the whole Death things, and maybe do his clothing from through out history. Just an undeveloped thought ATM.

 

@pepperonipizza - Congratulations on your Photon! I have one from when he was originally released. I still love him, though, I haven't taken new photos of him in a long while.

This is one of my favorite looks for him. His name is Noe.

Noe by luluna33, on Flickr

 

Oh, he's gorgeous! He's very sohpisticated. I can't wait to see how mine will look with a wig and in something besides Build a Bear clothing. Thank you for sharing!!

 

Okay, I'm up for playing Devils advocate. My Mom got an Albany from the original release. She had wanted one for years because she had another idea and no other girls really fit. I'd tried it before and it worked so I tried it again. Every release that they did, I commented about Albany. One of the last full choice events they did was girls, and Albany was in there. It only took me 6 months. The first one was for a boy, that one took me three, but he was a more popular sculpt, they just hadn't done a release on him in almost a year. It's all timing. But it's worth a shot. They do read comments.

 

Unsure if this is the right place but thought I'd throw a question out there to some folk familiar with these guys- after some yellowing and another head accidentally stealing my Garion's body, I'm looking for another body but I'd kinda like one less... Muscular? Bulky? But all 75 bodies I've found also seem very muscular/bulky or won't suit Idealian heads [neck too small], I'd like something more slim/elegant... anyone have any ideas? Or should I just look into getting another Idealian body and shift my plans slightly?