I’m really bad at keeping this blog active, and it’s probably best to follow my Instagram (torinomh) for more up to date stuff but I’m gonna slowly start putting photos back here - starting with some pics of glasses Luka when Fukuoka Volks has a restaurant for the photo space.
Luka’s glasses are from the gachapon series Eyewear Collection.
No.10 is DD Megurine Luka! I got her in May 2018 at the last Dolpa I got to attend, I wrote about what that was like on my old blog. Since then I’ve ended up changing her eyes and wig as I felt her default eyes were too dark blue for what I typically associate with Luka while her default wig isn’t the shade I associate with her either. I do want to get another wig as well as this one though.
As I said before, I will soon be the proud owner of DD Luka - tomorrow evening is when she should reach me. Before she arrives I thought I would write about how the actual experience went down as something separate from the event reports I like to do. After all, while I initially wasn’t going to get her for a while due to recently buying a new laptop, one of the main reasons I wanted to get Luka at Dolpa was because there’s a good chance that it will be my last Dolpa I can attend for a long time, and I thought it’d be a nice memory. There have been numerous different methods of doing the limited dolls at Dolpa over the years, and recently its changed slightly again. If the process interests you, read on.
First, we arrived at Tokyo Big Sight bright and early. There are two lines - the general line and the Sumika line. The people in the general line have immediate access to the event itself and the Dealer space, but the line for the Sumika store - the store for licensed Dollfie/Dollfie Dream items - is for people who wish to try for the limited dolls - like me. The Sumika store doesn’t open for everyone else until after everyone in the Sumika line has already gone through it, so you have to decide if you want to try for (but possibly fail) the limited dolls, or try for (and possibly miss out on) dealer items of limited quantity.
The Sumika line had us standing about five or six abreast. An amazing coincidence - the person I was standing next to turned out to be one of my twitter mutuals who has a custom Kaito! She was there with her friend who was super hyped for Luka, and she let me take a pic of her itabag.
I wasnt too far from the head of the line, but at this point, the position doesn’t actually matter as it’s not first-come first-serve.
Around 9:30am, the staff distributed numbered tickets to all of us - but vertically, rather than in the horiziontal snaking order we were queued in. (Meaning, my number was 217, the person in front of me had 216 and behind me 218, but the my twitter mutual next to me, who was technically the person in front of me in terms of the order we lined up in, had 139. So yes, the numbers were in some kind of order and not randomly distributed which is where I believe this method differs from one of the old methods I read about on the DD forums in the lottery guide, where the queue order was determined by the random number you received alone(correct me if I’m wrong on this as that info is gone now).
After everyone had their number, some Volks staff addressed us with a megaphone and told us that there were over 900 people in the Sumika line. (I cant remember the exact number, but it was a lot). Obviously, not all these people can get Luka - not even half of them I would guess (although many people in the line were aiming for the other limited dolls - the two new SDs Lucia and Mia, and the rerelease of DDs Sheryl and Ranka). The staff member then drew three numbers from a box - ping pong balls with numbers from 0-9 on them. The person with that number would be the head of the queue. I remember it very clearly - it was ticket number 885!
This meant that the queue order would be first 885, then all the people behind them, and then the rest of the queue from the very beginning. (885-->900andwhatever, then 1--->884. A moment of silence for the person who got 884.)
At this point I wasn’t sure if that was good news for me or not, and I started looking around to see other peoples reactions. Some were pretty pokerfaced and others had started smiling. I calculated in my head that, since I would be the number 217, with 216 people in front of me and the people from 285-900andwhatever, that put my position roughly in the early 300s. I had read from SakuraSylph on the DD forum that any line position under 400 was a sure thing, but I was too anxious to believe it, and didn’t want to get my hopes up just in case.
That wasn’t the only reason I was feeling a bit nervous - it was also because i was in line to get a doll I hadn’t seen in person before, which i’ve never done for any of my other DDs. (I had been hoping thered be a display Luka in Akihabara before the event but there wasnt). Even though I knew that almost every single DD ever released looks better in person than the official photos, and I already liked Luka’s official photos, I still had a nagging feeling that I might not like her when I saw her. And then finally the line was moving into the venue through a back door near where the Sumika store was (a different point of entry to the people in the regular line), and the first thing we saw was the dolls in cases, letting us get a really good look at them as we went past, and I saw her.
And that was the moment I decided I definitely wanted her, but I still had no idea if I was even getting her today at this point. The Sumika store was still up ahead - first we approached a counter with one Volks Staff member at it. On the counter were pictures of the limited dolls with numbers. There was no sold out sticker on any of them yet. When the guy asked me what doll I wanted, I was so nervous and so elated that I pretty much blurted MEGURINELUKA like a dumbass. When he asked for my numbered ticket, I accidentally thrust the ticket from Doll Show the previous day at him instead. I really hope I wasnt the only one that got like that, but I didn’t really care, because the next thing I knew I had this in my hand:
and then went back to stand in the queue still waiting to get into the Sumika store, and all I could do was stare at it. And then I thought ‘oh...I did get her’, and immediately messaged everybody who wanted to know. I didn’t know this at the time, but I found out later looking through tweets and time stamps exactly how close I was to missing out. According to those time stamps there were no more Lukas available not that long after I’d gotten my purchase ticket. I also found out just today that two people from the Fukuoka doll group I am in had also tried their luck and failed. So it was definitely a close call, and I feel even luckier about it.
The wait for the store was pretty long, but I didn’t care - I was holding that ticket so tightly because I was scared that I would drop it or something. I didn’t even want to put it in my pocket in case it fell out. But even though I didnt even have her yet, it felt very special. The Sumika store was even playing my favourite Luka song (Dreamin’ ChuChu by emon) so it felt extra special (and was also a relief, because although the song was only audible around the Sumika store area, the rest of the event space has the...extremely questionable playlist thats at every Dolpa, and needless to say I still have Dancing Queen stuck in my head)
Once I finally was able to go into the Sumika store I went right through it - I didnt even want to look at the other new items because I can get them from the Fukuoka store later anyway, and I’d rather save my money for the dealer stuff. At the cash register I paid for Luka, was instructed to come to the designated area to pick her up after 12, and then went off into the event hall to enjoy the event.
Some time after 12 I went to that designated area with my receipt. The staff member went out the back and came back with a huge box, and I’m thinking ‘oh shit! That’s my one!’ As I took the box another staff member took a photo, explaining that they were taking photos of ‘the moment the owner receives the new doll’. I have no idea what they do with these but he did at least tell me they dont put them online without permission.
Just like the other vocaloids, Luka’s box is huge...honestly annoyingly so. I don’t really know how I’d get her on my flight home without either paying extra or unboxing her now/throwing the box away (or maybe folding it up). Since I wanted to unbox her at home I decide I wouldn’t open her and would mail her back to my apartment. Luckily Dollpa has a booth just for this with various boxes of all sizes (including one big enough to fit four doll boxes in...) As I was going to be busy with a few things and didnt want distractions, I made the delivery request field be the night of Thursday 10th.... tomorrow after work, now.
It was pretty hard to resist the urge to just have a quick peek at her but quickly boxed her up and sent her off.
Many other people at the event were not so patient, and so after 12 there were quite a few Lukas around the event space. Some people had even already put her in different outfits and wigs. I might show some of those when I do a report post.
Anyway, that was my experience - I dont know if it was interesting to anyone other than me, but it was my first time experiencing getting a DD in this way. Among other things such as getting to hang out with some friends from the forum, it certainly made it a Dollpa to remember.
