I just got home from Tokyo a last night and it’s been pretty hectic unpacking and settling back in at home. I was there for 10 days with hubby, my sister and 3 friends and we had an awesome time! While I was there, Volks had the Dollfie Dream Gathering event and released lots of new DD clothing, option parts and also the renewal models of Aoi and Yukino with DDIII bodies. I couldn’t resist and adopted a Yukino doll. When I was shopping earlier in the week (and doing a bit of reconnaissance ^__~”) I saw one of the sales girls putting price tags and security stickers on some of the new outfits. I counted about 15 of each “batch” but there may have been multiple batches of each style that I didn’t see. I decided that my chances would be best at the Akihabara showroom since it’d likely have the most stock. When I passed by on Friday evening all of the new items had already been set up, but hidden behind a black curtain.

Saturday morning it was raining and gross. I had hurt my foot a couple of days before (I dropped a suitcase on my big toe…) so hubby went without me to line up at the Volks Akihabara showroom. Just to give a sense of how intense it was: the lineup began forming outside the “exit” of the shop and by the time hubby got there at 7:00am (3 hrs before the shop opened) there was already a huge line. He was about #40 in line and was lucky to be under the covered awning, but there were lots of people in the rain and by the time the shop opened the lineup went to the end of the block (where the McDonald’s is in the photo at the base of the Softmap building) and wrapped around the block. These are photos I took earlier in the week. The main entrance is on the right side of the shop, and the exit is under the red & white awning (near where the couple are walking by in the photo). People that came afterwards could be seen counting the length of the line and contemplating whether or not to join in the lineup or not.

Once the doors opened it was a first-come, first-serve mess and people were pushing, shoving and grabbing at the new items. Since it was an “event day”, the bottom 2 floors were closed off for the first hr or so, with employees standing guard in the stairwells and all the customers were ushered up to the 3rd floor where the Tenshi-no-Sumika doll showroom is located. Hubby managed to get all of the new optional DD hands, the Shapely L-Bust and a couple of the new 06 heads in addition to all of the new outfits that I wanted. By the time he left all of the clothes were already sold out, but a few of the option parts and heads were still available. When we went back later that afternoon everything was cleaned out except for some shoes and some restocked maxi dresses.

There was also a lottery event for some special One-Off Model dolls. I asked about the lottery rules and was told by the manager of the store that the lottery would be open the weekend of the event, and if they drew your name they would contact you and you’d have the opportunity to buy the doll. The doll would only be sent to a Japanese address – which meant that hubby and I didn’t even bother to enter since we’d be out of the country by then. Here’s a poster advertising the One-Off lottery.

I did manage to grab a few photos of the One-Off dolls.

Here are Akira, Moe & Natsuki in the showroom. They are so lovely!

Here’s Natsuki showing off the renewal models of Aoi and Yukino, now with DDIII bodies.

Here’s Alna showing off the spacious new showroom.

There’s a huge wall of doll wigs in this showroom and I picked up a few before my trip was over.

There are lots of showcases with Super Dollfie dolls and Dollfie Dreams scattered around the showroom. Here’s one with Tamaki, Sasara and the White Album girls in it.

Since the Tenshi-no-Sumika is on the third floor of the new Volks building, we had to go down a stairwell to exit the store. Imagine my surprise when I spotted the photo entry that Kev & I had sent in earlier for the “Akihabara” theme photo contest on display! Sugoi!

As I mentioned before, I adopted a Yukino v.2. Her welcome will be a bit unusual since I opened her up in the Volks Akihabara showroom, dressed her up in one of the new outfits (and some other stuff I brought from home) and made use of the photo spaces in the showroom – so she hasn’t had a proper welcome home & box opening yet – but she’s had more camera time than most of my girls.

Here’s a sneak peek at my new daughter, who I’ve named Mélisande d’Archangeli (but I’ll call her Mel or Melissa for short).