I haven’t really been in the mood to take doll photos for ages but I wanted to do an Easter shoot with these outfits at least (although I forgot to post them here)
These bunny suits actually shipped out from GSC the exact same day the ObeVort nendo did which means not only is wearing them his destiny, it means it got to be the first proper pics I took of him…
Some pics from last year I forgot to post, and am posting now to celebrate Oberon’s third ascension Harmonia doll going up for preorder today. He won’t be here for another year or so but these two are gonna bully him when he is.
I took some valentines pics of Oberon in his new white tux in the overgrown garden and then forgot to post them here.
Anyway, it took about half an hour to get him to pose his left arm like that, and his right arm cant whatsoever. My SDGrB-having friends assure me that the body isn’t supposed to be this useless at posing, so I think I need to restring him or something and I’m not looking forward to that.
I like getting comments and replies on my photos here, but I just wanted to put this out there…I don’t find it cute or funny when people I do not know comment on my photos that they are going to rob me. It’s quick and easy for me to delete comments I find weird and uncomfortable, so I’m not going to pretend this ruins my day or anything, but I really think some of you need to think about what you’re saying to total strangers online, especially if it’s a first impression and you don’t want them to think you’re an offputting weirdo. Putting a ‘jk’ at the end does not actually make it any less weird to say!
I haven’t posted Mel for ages and ages but I finally got his new eyes (from doll_Shiny_eyes on twitter/insta) to replace his old ones that had unfortunately yellowed quite a bit (and that I also personally always thought were a bit too big for him). I think these have a bit more character to them - they’re also matte, which photograph better imo.
He’s also trying out some things I picked up the last time I was in Japan a few months back - one of the new DD hand parts that lets them hold a book with one hand and a book to do so with - a 1/3 scale manga I found in a gacha machine. I really want to get more of these mini manga - this one is Switch Girl, which I haven’t read, but if I wanted to I could just read this because it’s literally volume 1 in miniature, complete with dust jacket (I might need a magnifying glass though)
After trying a million wigs on my Reisner I finally settled on this one! (Might scruff it up a bit more? I also might trim the bangs in front a bit). He’s currently got Dom’s spare eyes in, but I want to get him his own slightly different pair. His outfit is also kinda temporary while I figure it out. I recently had a lot of inspiration about both him and Lumi, as they’re in the same story.
(This is the current state of the bug infestation in my room, I decided I would take a photo of it every January. The 2024 pic had less than half this amount… I also have a bunch of other Oberon merch but I wanted to gather just the plushies/figures/dolls for this.)
Made a silly little unboxing video for the Summer Price Oberon nendoll that finally got here last week.
He’s so cute, I’m so happy there are Oberon fans in GSC’s doll department that keep pushing for cute dolls of him - I hope we get the grumpy summer version eventually too.
I had a lot of fun taking Christmas pics this year because I’ve been looking forward to the Oberons wearing these outfits since I found out Harmonia can wear Pure Neemo stuff (ie since these two were first announced)
I got these Re-ment sets back in February - My Tea Table Set (table/chairs) and My Secret Tea Time (food miniatures) but wanted to wait until I had both Oberons so they could have a tea party together. I was worried the scale would be too small but it worked pretty well!
The background is actually my iPad with a Violet Evergarden screenshot.
Well I certainly didn’t start 2024 expecting to be a Reisner-haver by the end of the year. He’s always been one of those pie in the sky wishlist dolls for me - his last proper release was 2011 after all. But since I won a ticket to the SD Cruise I had the chance to get the 2024 version, and couldn’t turn it down. I found out I could have him back in August and it felt like a long wait until late November when he shipped…and then an even longer wait while he took ages to get to me. I acrually opened him on the 14th, so this post is a little late.
Anyway welcome to Reisner - The Shadow of Captain II! My first SD17. Despite the name, the original Shadow of Captain Reisner has a completely different outfit to this, and this one is actually an updated version of the 2011 ‘Reisner: The Desire for Revenge’…horrible pleather outfit and all. (Seriously, if Reisner is supposed to be so obsessed with Cecile he wants to look like him, can’t he copy his drip as well..? I really like Captain Cecile’s fullset, but Reisner I will get off him as soon as I’ve taken enough photos in it.)
I do really like his new faceup, more than I expected to. But I was a bit surprised when I opened him because my image of Reisner had always been this really smug looking guy, and he seemed that way on the website too. But my guy doesn’t look smug to me at all…he actually looks kinda sad and moody! To be honest I might actually like that more - but it’s kinda funny to me that I somehow ended up with the smug looking Boyhood Cecile while all the others I see look angelic, and then the doll I expect to look smug doesn’t. Like Cygnus when I first got him I don’t have any idea what kind of character he’s going to be, but I’m looking forward to finding out.
Speaking of Cygnus, here they are together. Reisner makes him look tiny, but his head is still massive.
Bonus:
He’s technically the same height as Dom, but his giant boots give him a lot of extra height…
Time for me to write another ‘experience’ post, about a month later, because it’s something I like to do. So back when I posted about my Omukae Ceremony last year, I said (on Instagram) that I’d always wanted to go on one of the Volks cruises. I had no way of knowing that they would announce another one that December for the following year!
This post is pretty in-depth so it’s very long and rambly and more for my own memories than anything else, but I hope it’s a little informative to anyone who is vaguely interested in the cruises.
Some background info, the Volks Cruises (or Super Dollfie Owners Appreciation Fair in Tokyo (or Kobe) Bay Cruise have happened at irregular intervals from (I think?)2005, to 2017, so it’s been a good while since the last one. They are mini events taking place on a short bay cruise, and going on them allows you to order certain dolls related to Oath of Silver Coin, Volks original line about pirates and the navy that gets lore added to it with every release.
Oath is one of their most popular lines and has been going for a while (the 2024 cruise was actually announced as part of its 20th anniversary celebrations). It’s cool to look back on the history of the line and see the change in the house style! I won’t say much about the lore other than the fact that Captain Cecile is the main character of the pirate side (and also my favourite Volks sculpt family) and Williams is the main character of the navy side and their relationship seems to be these first and last Kate Beaton strips. There’s fanficfion. I own a printed copy of some.
Anyway the 2024 cruise just happened to be around the time I was planning to be in Japan anyway for Magical Mirai Osaka, so entering the lottery for it was a no-brainer. Since the boat has limited capacity, entry is lottery-based. I genuinely didn’t expect to win - it’s the first cruise in a long time, the two limited dolls are particularly stunning (a 2024 version of Reisner, Captain Cecile’s obsessive first-mate, and new character Abelia, the navigator), there was only one scheduled cruise for sunset whereas previous years had 2 (day and sunset), so I figured competition was going to be very steep, but then I got a nice surprise in my inbox in late August.
Fast forward to the day of the cruise (3rd of November)
I attended a pre-cruise lunch with a small handful of other participants organised by usagicamera/usakame, a mutual of mine (and also the person who wrote and made printed copies of the gay pirate fan fiction), and since we were all kinda nervous it was a nice icebreaker. After that we went to the waiting area at Hinode pier. Here’s Cygnus waiting with usakame’s Captain Cecile in a maid dress and Teddy’s(another lunch attender I met that day) Elizabeth (Williams’s younger sister.), unintentionally looking like two rich siblings and their maid.
After some amount of time checkin began. They gave the GL (global) members a separate checkin line to make things smoother. I think besides me there might have been around 15-20 GL members present, but it was hard to tell because people were arriving all the time, and I was near the front of the queue so couldn’t see who joined after I’d checked in. We received a clear pouch on lanyard that contained a map of the boat, a numbered ticket, a voting slip for the best dressed contest and another ticket that told us which floor (of 3) we were assigned.
Because of the limited space on board, we were advised not to bring too much luggage onto the boat, so there was a cloak room for that reason. It also meant most people checked in their bulky doll bags and carried their dolls in their arms while they waited, and it was fun sitting and waiting while looking around at all the dolls suddenly appearing. (most of which were Oath related, although that wasn’t compulsory).
This was particularly funny because the waiting room was actually divided in half down the middle, with the other chairs for a different cruise that was around the same time - a wedding cruise, to be precise. So half of the room is people in evening dress and tuxedos, looking over in bewildered confusion at all the people - half of which were dressed as pirates, lolita or lolita pirates - carrying giant dolls.
While waiting to board a lot of people were using the photo-op space for the ship, including me. (Although our was a Symphony too the ship directly behind this was the wedding cruise, not ours)
When it was time to board, our assigned groups went in one at a time, starting with the first floor which had included me. Walking towards the ship, I spotted Volks mascot Komame (pirate edition) and Reisner hanging over the deck to welcome us aboard. I completely non-ironically love the Oath kigu cosplay that appears at these events, and the Reisner was really hamming it up, waving and gesturing for people to hurry up and board. (He also did finger guns at one point, but I wasn’t able to get a pic)
We walked past a string quartet performance as we entered the ship, which felt very fancy. I don’t have a photo of them but you can see them in the official event report. I’m not sure if it was something Volks organised specifically or just something that comes with all the Symphony cruises.
We were guided into the area with the main stage, which is also where the buffet was. I later learned that the 2nd and 3rd floor buffets had a giant screen that showed what was happening on the 1st floor stage, so I’m kinda glad I got to see the actual stage. Once everyone was on the ship, there was a welcome and a toast as we set sail - and then we were all allowed to move freely around the boat.
Me and my friends went straight to the Oneoff display (photos not allowed but they’re also on the official report), and it’s probably a good thing we did, because it meant we were among the first in and this didn’t have to spend a huge chunk of the cruise waiting in line like a lot of others did. They would only let a few in at a time and handed us a clipboard and pen with the entry form. After looking at the models in filling in the form, we put it in the treasure chest shaped entry box. On one hand, it was a good method to stop the area becoming too crowded, but the drawback was that it took longer and I later saw that the line was so long it snaked down the stairs and into another room.
The box was out on deck, so after coming out of the oneoff room I got to enjoy the deck with my friends right as sunset was beginning. There were some convenient places (drink rests?) to sit dolls on the railings which I was thankful for because I had so many visions of dolls falling overboard lol.
I was on deck for a while because it was fun, and because it was such a clear day you could even see Mt Fuji in the distance.
I then went downstairs a floor to see what the photo spaces were like, figuring I probably wouldn’t use them as there might be too many people, and I could see a huuuge line…but it turned out to be for the one-offs, and there weren’t too many people at the photo area at all. It was cool because they had combined the photo area with the Oath dolls display, so you could actually pose your own dolls amongst them.
Here is Cygnus standing awkwardly between Captain Cecile and Abelia. As for Reisner, he was on the other side of the display by himself. It was my first time seeing him in person. Actually now that I think of it, it was probably okay to sit a doll next to him on the seat, so I wish I’d done that. But there will be plenty of time for photos of Cygnus with a Reisner later.
I realised i hadn’t touched the buffet at all, so went to get my moneys worth at the closest one, which is when I saw the big screen - it was currently showing the tail end of the Best Dresser contest happening on the 1st floor which I had completely forgotten about until then. It seemed like the people who had registered for it were on stage explaining their outfits, but I’d missed most of it and was also too preoccupied with eating, so didn’t end up using my voting slip.
After wandering a little more and meeting some friends here and there, I went back to the first floor for the big treasure raffle, which is what the ticket we were given when we checked in was for. There were a lot of prizes up for grabs and the winners were decided by the numbers randomly drawn out of the treasure chest. There were small accessories, doll outfits and a bunch of special Tenshi (the tiniest Volks dolls only ever available as raffle/bingo prizes.) As usual, I didn’t win anything (I have never won anything at Dolpa Bingos either), but it was still fun seeing how excited the winners got.
The boat was coming back to the dock now, so it was time for the closing speech - which included a surprise announcement for the next Volks release. Everyone did the countdown together and then the Volks staff lifted up the giant placards to reveal the new Macha and Yumepi, a collab with Baby, the Stars Shine Bright! The dolls look spectacular and it’s been many years since a Baby collab, so there was a lot of hype and cheering. It was exciting to be among the first people anywhere to see these new dolls! And one lucky person won a Dolpa priority pass.
It was time to leave now, so everyone had to return to their assigned floors and wait until their group could leave, in reverse order to how we got on, so I was in the last group to leave. Volks staff on the docks were handing out goody bags for us as we left - they contained the newest issue of Volks News - 2 days before it would come out officially for everyone else, a letter of thanks from the Shigetas (the Volks owners, who unfortunately couldn’t come on the cruise this time) and some cute little trinkets in a $ bag.
I guess I’ll let my Reisner play with them later (Even though I’d paid for him at the time I won my cruise ticket, the dolls themselves weren’t sent until nearly a month after the cruise, and mine was stuck in postal limbo for a bit and only got to me the other day). Some people were disappointed they couldn’t collect and take home the dolls from the cruise but I’m personally glad I didn’t have to manage to get another giant doll back with me, seeing as Cygnus was taking up a lot of luggage space as it was.)
So that was my first Volks cruise! I had no idea what to expect, but I had a ton of fun. The Volks staff were fantastic / they brought a lot of fun energy and were often mingling with the crowd - I even got to briefly talk to Ciera (one of the faceup artists). I got to hang out with some of my friends from Instagram and take photos with their dolls, and also meet some (although unfortunately not all) of my Twitter mutuals. The food was pretty good too, even if I didn’t get to eat that much of it.
But, there were some drawbacks that I hope will be addressed on future events. Mainly, it was very short - only about 2 hours - and that seemed to pass extremely quickly. With the amount of things to do, I really wish it had been at the very least an extra hour long. And I was one of the lucky people who didn’t spend most of it on the oneoff queue! Now, I didn’t win a oneoff, although it doesn’t bother me much as I didn’t expect to - I just knew I’d regret it if I never entered and I will take any chance at a Captain Cecile for RRP that I can. But I also was only in the line very briefly. I imagine it must be extremely frustrating to have been the people stuck in line for ages and ages, sacrificing so much of the time they could have spent enjoying the cruise, only to win nothing anyway - with only 10 one-offs total it was way more likely than not that you wouldn’t win.
The length also affected the Best Dresser contest - I was kinda interested in it, but like I said, was too preoccupied with trying to do other stuff that I missed pretty much all of it and so didn’t get to vote, and I imagine that lots of other people didn’t either (like the ones stuck in the oneoff line or out on deck). Some of the people who watched the whole contest may also have missed out on the oneoff line.
Otherwise, I noticed that Volks did multilingual announcements - Japanese, Chinese and Korean, but not English. I’m not sure how many English-only GL members were even present so I can’t say whether it was truly necessary, but it may have been confronting for someone if they didn’t know what was going on during some of the announcements. (However during the raffle when numbers were being called out they did call them out on English too, which they also do during Bingo at Dolpa)
But something I was a little more personally disappointed in was that I genuinely was looking forward to seeing the silly kigurumi cosplayers on board at some point, but Reisner was only visible when we boarded (and only from a distance). Looking at the event reports of past cruises, the cosplayers mingled with the participants and had photos taken with them. But this also could have been a time constraint thing.
The last cruise also had a giant cake with Williams and his midshipman Cain on it that looked like a wedding cake, so I was really hoping for something like that, but I didn’t see any large cake like that (there were lots of smaller cakes though, and they were very tasty - as well as a mystery plate of macarons somewhere that I only know about from other people’s photos - but I really wanted a pirate wedding cake 😔)
The time constraints would have made more sense had there been two cruises in the day like in the past, but this time only had the one, so there didn’t seem to be much reason to keep it so short (unless of course the time restriction was imposed by Symphony Cruises, which is likely)
But in all, it made for a great and unique memory. If I’m ever lucky enough for them to do another one during a time that works for me I’d gladly do it again.
I forgot to post about my Cygnus nendoll here. He got his first proper photo shoot while I was in Japan at a mini doll/nui meet by Okadaya (big sewing/craft store) - they had a bunch of photo spaces there and the 1:12 scale Okadaya store was by far the cutest.
He’s not perfect - even approaching 3000 nendoroid releases there still hasn’t been a single one with the right silver blunt bob, so I used the closest thing, which is Jiu Yue’s hair pieces - although she’s a fox, so the back piece has fox ears he has to cover with a hat (which also hides how the hair is shorter at the back. And of course it’s also stark white and not silver. But it still makes a pretty cute temporary Cygnus while I wait for a silver blunt bob character to finally get a nendoroid. (Putting all my hopes on Danberu Nankiro getting a second season and Gina getting a nendo to celebrate - they already made one of Sakura…)
Using Jiu Yue’s hair pieces is something I’d considered doing for a while but didn’t want to buy the entire nendo for given that i only wanted to do that with something perfect, but luckily chibi chop shop had it so I grabbed it. His faces are from the nendo face maker like Dom’s, and, annoyingly, right after I ordered them they added eyelashes as a separate layer (cos previously wanting specific types of eyelashes limited the eye shapes I could pick). They’re also going to start making faces with sculpted noses soon too, so I’ll make more faces for both Cyg and Dom them. Although im also wondering if Cream is closer to how I draw him than Almond Milk 🤔
My second Oberon finally got here the other day. First his release date was delayed by a week or so, then amiami took ages to actually ship him, then he got stuck in postal limbo and terrified me into thinking the package got lost, then I finally got to open him to find out that my one shipped without tights 😭 I contacted amiami about that but in the mean time he’s wearing the Harmonia body stocking I picked up earlier, which looks similar enough. (Thanks to his big fluffy boots though, the tights aren’t really visible anyway, but no one wants a part missing from a doll’s fullset)
Harmonia Oberon gets my Halloween pics this year! I wasn’t sure what to do for them at first, but the Geestore in Sendai had this really cute photo space which took care of it. He’s also wearing most of the pure neemo magical boy Yuta’s outfit, and his Halloween marshmallow kebab came out of a gacha machine.
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