Soom June MD: 'Coquina- Eternal Destiny' discussion.

Oh my, I actually like her in NS. I thought I was totally safe, but now I'm not so sure. If she has hooves I might be in trouble...

 

I can't wait for her unveiling. I totally wanna see her skull cap (if it's like Breccia's), outfit, and lower half. The small breastests and tan skin look interesting, but her face sculpt is really not for me.

I love love most of Soom's face sculpts. However, I don't care for Galena-- and Coquina must be the same artist (and I suspect Chalco is, too). I initially didn't care for certain sculpts based on Soom's over-shopped photos, so there is a small chance I may change my mind. But those rounded features aren't for me.

 

i was thinking she was 'tan' everyone thinks she is 'NS' ?

 

Urghh NS noooooo! How I hate you normal skin, oh yes I do. ^_^;;
I'll admit she looks very pretty that way, but I could never bond with a NS doll. Every one I've seen in person just looks really orange to me. I think I only like that one picture because it's overexposed and so it seems WS.

The tan one still looks intriguing to me, but I'm a little disappointed overall.
I mean, when that skull came out with Chalco I thought it was amazing and wished I could have it. But now seeing it a second time it's very much leaving me with an, "AGAIN??", sort of feeling.
If she has hooves I'll probably be safe - not because I don't like hooves but because between Cuprit, Glot, Bygg, Afi and Ai, I am ALL HOOVED OUT OVER HERE xD

Monday is a while away too before we can find out!

 

I had to clear my browsing history to make the images appear.

 

I think one photo is tan, one is NS.

Normally, I would go for the tan. I wish they were doing WS -- I'd put my GirlyHeliot head on the body. I can put the GirlyChrom head on it, though. I'm in agreement with LuvPetDolls, though. Seeing more of that face is only telling me that my initial impressions of it were rock solid for me. I suspect it is the same artist, though Galena was a lot closer to their 'realistic' proportion. Chalco may have diverged a teensy bit further, but not too much. This one goes much further. She looks closer to the more cherubic facial proportions of Aphan than the more adult ones of, say, Dia or even Breccia.

Sadly, I think the sculptor(s) that seem(s) to have brought us beauties like the MA faces and early SG releases has probably moved on to the Idealian project, since that seems to be where the realistic sculpts are centered. (Though even the recent face is, to my eye, closer to Chalco than Brannon.) That's presently a male-only line. So, for girls that aren't in this style, I guess it's time to buy up Dias, any MD re-releases that come out, if this is going to be the new way of things.

I'd like to emphasize that while I really just do not like this face at all, it is obviously a quality sculpt. The symmetry is good, and while I dislike the style, it is NOT badly done.

For me personally, there are some anime styles I like. I love Amano, for instance. A lot of Soom's earlier sculpts remind me of his watercolors c.mid-1980s, which are my favorite of his works. That's the... graceful, smooth, flowing sort of anime style sculpt you'll never see me complain about. Then, there's another common style that is different, but is more cartoony/cute/exaggerated away from the realistic proportions of the face. That isn't inherently a bad thing at all and I am not trying to imply that it is, it's just something I dislike, and can't bring myself to like no matter how much I try. (I have tried for years. It doesn't work. Not with anime, not with dolls.) This sculpt, to me, hops from Group A clearly over the line into Group B.

What, to me, is bad about it is that plenty of companies already do that. A lot of people have said Soom's MDs are 'gimmicky' in that they had the creature parts, and must be selling based on that alone. It was much easier to say that, no, they weren't because the head sculpts were so distinctive and unique as well. It wasn't just the animal bits that were unique, it was the whole doll. When the head sculpts are like things a dozen other companies are selling, though, I really can't say that any more.

 

From what I know, pretty much everyone who was working on the MD line isn't anymore - they all left the company or perhaps moved onto other areas within Soom, like perhaps Idealian.
So it makes a lot of sense that everything is VERY different now.
I suspect they've just lost the sculptor who made the heads we all knew and loved.

I don't hate this new head, I think it's cute. If the concept were more amazing I'd probably love her.
But at present she looks very very neutral so I don't see me going for her in the end. We'll see though.
I always said though that my next super gem would be a strong powerful girl, which is why I ended up passing on Breccia mainly, and Coquina just isn't that.
Makes me regret not getting a Galena and swapping her head for an Onyx head even more now!!

 

Crap. I am utterly disappointed by the horns. I was really hoping for something totally off the wall and unique and it does indeed look like she's just Chalco's sister or something. *sigh* Oh well. Her face is still to die for. I wouldn't mind having human-her in tan skin.

 

The head sculptor is listed on the doll pages themselves (with the Gem, in any case), and with the exception of IO, Glot/Glati, Hati/Skoll, Iv/Eliv, Bygg/Beyla and Afi/Ai, they are all done by Jung Hye Eun, from Deneb - Aphan.

 

Horns? o.O I'm a little confused... since she isn't up yet, but she doesn't have any horns that I can see, unless she's hiding them under her scarf, and if it turns out she's a water theme like some of us are speculating then that would make her not like Chalco at all besides the obvious. For all we know right now, she could be a tan dolphin-girl... xD

 

if you go to page eight their is a picture of her with her horns.

 

Go one or two pages back in this thread, and all will become clear

 

Awesome, dankie!

 

Anyone notice the Faery legend link under the monthly doll link on the site. Thats new isn't it?

 

Yeah we were talking about this on the speculation thread!
It definitely just popped up today. I am personally very excited!!!!

 

Faery. LEGEND! FAERY!!!



.hlp

 

I'm thinking Tatiana would be very interesting as a doll.

 

That just about sums up what I did earlier today when I discovered that! xDD

Want to wave bye bye to our money together? ^_^;;

 

I asked Soom about that.. Oberon doll, *drool*
Will post when I know more *nods vehemently*
Soom is making me skittish with this new releases cluster bomb this month.. >.> *twitch*

 

I'm finding her quite elegant on the banner. The more I look at her, the less I see anime, the more I see anime-inspired stuff done in the west, but that might be excessively specific I can see both sides of the style-shift. To be honest, very few older Soom sculpts attracted me at all. Some really did, though (I think Chrom is one of the best head sculpts EVAR), and if that's what you fell in love with Soom for it'd be really sad to see the shift. However, I think this style will also appeal to a lot of people, too. Ideally they'd do what Iple does and put out both more stylized AND more realistic sculpts.

She's got a face I like for its individuality and I think you could make a really cool tomboy urban/urban fantasy girl out of her, too. Nobody to shell her as, but I'm already excited to see owner pics.