Your opinion on Volks?

There are some Volks doll that I like and some others which are not my taste. I have an SDGou boy and I really like that body- I like the details and also the quality and i really like that it has no seam lines Volks dolls have their own style just like any other company. Overpriced? Not sure. If you by a limitied full set doll for ex rom Iplehouse, or Soom (with really everything: face up, clothes, glass eyes, unique wig, shoes etc) you will end up the same price as a full set Volks has or even higher. The difference is that at Volks you have no options: you buy full set or you don't buy at all (in case of limited dolls) - and that can cause the feeling that they are more expenaive than other companies. And there'a no layaway. Personally what I do not like at all is that the interantional customers have a serious disadvantage compared to the
customers living in Japan or USA. That's not fair...

 

I just love those volks dolls! High quality! Especially those with a big round faces. I don't like dolls with sharp pointed faces.

 

I love Volks!! Their quality can hardly be rivalled by anything regardless of if we're talking about dolls or clothes and the aesthetic is so nice and simple and reminiscent of so many nice things to me... uvu

 

I wouldn't be in this hobby if it weren't for Volks. I started the hobby with what I afterwards learned would be regarded as a "Grail" doll because of the cost, relative rarity, and personal "affection" & value I have attached to it. The doll is Volks SD16 Ami Ayase. I've been in the hobby just three years, and a member here for about half that time. Our collection is split almost evenly between Volks resin BJDs & Dollfie Dreams. A Soom/Iplehouse hybrid is the first doll brand deviation, but won't be the last thanks primarily to this site.


I've only won their lotteries twice for an SD16 Megu and a DDdy Alna. The rest are used aftermarket resin or DDs put together from parts. Clothing is about 85% Volks which I bought second hand from a variety of sources around the web. A small growing percentage of our clothing collection is coming from Volks JP & Volks USA.

Sculpts have always been a matter of personal taste; I buy what I like & so does everyone else. I like the growing BJD brand diversity available & I appreciate the choices others make.

What I regard as my relatively short involvement in the hobby leads me to say that a Volks bjd is a good place to start for a beginner who wants a doll ready to go. The resin is tough (cringing from remembered experiences) and the yellowing that my older dolls are starting to show is difficult for non-hobbyists to detect.

Restringing is tedious, but straight forward. I appreciate the thought that went into the quick change design for hands that my Volks dolls have. The IH EID body we have could use improvement in that area. Volk clothing I have obtained is well made. They're becoming better at designing and using materialsto avoid staining. Fit is good & used prices are usually less than issue if you're a shrewd shopper.

All the pluses for the brand that others have mentioned already I'm pretty much in agreement with. Website navigation has never been a problem for me, but my job career experience surely gives me an advantage there. This site opened my eyes to the huge world of BJD choices that are now available. I'm going to be exploring those alternatives thanks to you folks.

 

Volks is the company that started it all, without it there would be no BJD hobby, so it deserves all our respect. I just love Volks. And their dolls are amazing! I have three of them (Yugiri, Ran, MSD F-06) and I adore them!

 

I don't particularly care for Volks. The faces are a little too anime, a little too round and child like for my taste. I prefer realistic sculpts, so they are NOT to my taste. They seem a bit overpriced to me as well, compared to most other BJD companies. Their clothes and shoes are gorgeous though.

 

I positively adore Volks. My first doll was a volks Kun and shes still in near perfect condition after being made in 2008. Their clothing quality is wonderful and the dolls themselves are extremely well made! By far my favorite doll company.

 

Foremost, I'm happy that Volks exists because they essentially brought about the hobby as it exists today -- BJDs/ABJDs, as distinct from antique dolls with similar jointing, first came about in 1999 when Volks released the first Super Dollfies. One of the next most prominent companies, Alchemic Labo, had its beginnings in a collaboration with Volks created by Gentaro Araki before he released the first Unoas (it was their sort-of progenitor, the Volks Unoss.) Afterwards, for a while, each widespread new size of BJD -- 43cm, 65cm 'tall/curvy adult', 25cm childlike -- was brought about by Volks first (well, except skinny 70cm boys, definitely a widespread size and I think they were brought about by Dollshe), though their limited-release tendencies have mostly caused other companies to be the developers and popularizes of the new sizes as they spread.

Still a huge fan of the dolls themselves, too! There's a huge range of sculpts, from certain retro-anime looks to sugary-cute to those quintessentially Volksy faces to more conventionally handsome or conventionally beautiful fashion-doll-sorta faces, which is why I'm always surprised when people think they all look bland or the same (it's possible that none of them might appeal to you, as there are looks they don't cover and certain recurring features that may be a turnoff, but they sure don't all look the same! Having so many sculptors contributing is probably what leads to this variety.)

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Just looked through the thread, very interesting replies. I can't help but feel the poor DD body gets a bad rap! The default body's proportions aren't really any more exaggerated than say, a Delf girl, or most 65cm girls (see here) it's not the line's fault that people substitute third-party Giganto-Mega-Oppai-Boobs onto it :P And the posability is wonderful! I've used a DD body for a hybrid on another company's head, and plan to do so again, as it's such an enjoyable doll to have around in both appearance and posability (albeit in a different way than my resin Volks.)

 

I actually just ordered from both the Volks Japanese site and the Volks American site. I found at the upper right their is a word "English". I clicked on it and every page I looked at was translated into English. The only thing that I had to do was check the currency conversion rate on another site so that I knew what I was spending. The shipment from Japan took about 2 weeks and the shipment from the American site took about a week. I am very happy with everything. I will be ordering again from them. I go up on each site about 2 times a week to see what each is offering. Both sites have different items for sale.

Happy shopping everybody,

 

They are the biggest BJD company, with lots of sculpts, although some might not like those ( i get what evilhamster13 wrote : as there are looks they don't cover and certain features that may be a turnoff) ) but i love some of their sculpts such as Luna, or lorina or nono! But i have to say their quality is getting less impressive these days? I do have several sdgr bodies but the seamlines and the hands are not that delicate. I hope they improve that.

 

Volks International Web site is in English. However, the link is a little unstable.

 

i bought Volks Coco on august 4, will be a long wait with aesthetics, i hope they will turn out great and worth every penny

reading this thread makes me proud to get Volks Coco, she will be my first bnew BJD

 

I am currently trying to decide between Coco, Chiyo and Saki. All 3 of them are so adorable.

 

For me personally I own a few volks dolls and most of them have a 14mm-16mm eye socket so I think it really depends on the doll that u r getting.

I do agree with the fact that the face sometimes do not match the body but they do have a few sculpt that have the matching face and body of an adult such as volks yukinojo. But overall I do love volks dolls

 

When I first got into the hobby, I really didn't get all the fuss over Volks, and I spent most of my time looking at pics of other dolls. I found other dolls to look far more interesting and appealing, so I ended up ordering my first doll from Luts. When she arrived, I was very pleased with her since she was the first BJD that I was actually able to see in person.

But then somehow I fell in love with a Volks doll as well. It was love at first sight and an exception. When he arrived, I finally understood what all the fuss was about: the weight of the resin, how 3 dymensional their faces are, how softly they move and feel, the proportions...all of it somehow seemed just right and the difference in quality was obvious.

So I'd say that there's a valid reason why they're considered "status dolls" and why they're so pricey. But I wouldn't go as far to say that anyone who exclusively collects Volks is an elitist. I didn't originally intend to own a single Volks doll, far from it. But once I got one in my hands and recognised their quality, it was hard to go back to anything less. I can't imagine collecting anything other than Volks now, and I don't see why I should be shamed for it. We all collect what we do because we consider it to be the best option for us, and we enjoy it the most. So why would Volks be an exception?

 

There are some Super Dollfies sculpts that i like, but most of them aren't my style and they don't usually come in colors like tan or blue. I have a lot of respect for the company though. They started the trend of modern ABJDs and just resin bjds in general. When they created the 1999 Super Dollfies ( don't know their names) yet again not my style, but i have respect for the creators of them and I thank them. Not just that they are the most expensive at like 500 dollars for a yosd and up..

 

Actually I don't recommend to buy their eyes. However, some of their dolls are pretty. They usually are limited.

 

I personally don't have a deep interest in any of the Volks sculpts, they just look to generic in my opinion.

 

I do like Volks but only a select few of their sculpts because most of them have that generic looking face. Also, I can never catch them when they are selling a doll I want.

 

I think that I remember replying in here, Oh well.

I have several volks dolls and I love the feel and weight of their resin. The look of the sd13 boy bodies are childlike, and I would really like to upgrade my boys to the SD13gr bodies when I can. I like how sturdy they feel and handling one makes me feel more confidant that I'm not going to accidentally brake anything.

As for Face sculpts, I think that my doll collection is pretty much complete. While I do admire some of the sculpts that I don't have, most of them are limited and very hard to get.(Genji plus others.) If I had an opportunity to get them I would snatch them up.

Clothing is very high end and worth every penny getting clothing sets!


The only thing that I've noticed that turns me off of Volks is their new policy of only selling dollpa limiteds to volks members who have a Japanese address. Hell, I know that some Japanese businesses are extremely xenophobic but this new policy is just going to drive up the second-hand market as scalpers have to get creative.
Even with Volks watching it's member carefully, it is not going to stop their limiteds from being flipped for higher prices. With supply&demand being more tighter, the new policy is only going to become more profitable for the scalpers as they can set whatever price their greedy heart's desire knowing that someone overseas would be willing to pay that much for that Limited doll.

Yeah Volks, your new policy stops nothing, it just makes the scalpers richer.