Last fall I pre-ordered 2 beautiful new dolls from Volks – Saber Extra and Saber Alter (v.2) It’s been a long wait for these girls to arrive, with production and shipping delays from Volks adding hiccups along the way. Folks who pre-ordered from Volks Japan have been receiving their Sabers since February but since I ordered from VolksUSA I had to be patient.

After many months, I’m delighted to introduce these girls as part of my growing Dollfie Dream family! I have decided that having 3 “Sabers” in the family would just get very confusing, so I’ve decided to rename Saber Alter to Siobhán and Saber Extra to Sidonie. Siobhán is pronounced “Shi-VAWn” and I’ll be calling her “Shiv” for short. It’s a beautiful Gaelic name that means “White Fairy,” which I only found out after I had chosen the name so I think it’s rather serendipitous. Sidonie (“See-don-EE”) is a lovely French name, but I’ll refer to her as Sid for short – Sid & Shiv ^__^”

Here is the box opening for these 2 lovely girls! Let me warn you now – there will be lots of pictures! 😀

Look at the size of this shipping box – it’s huge!! Here’s Moe with the shipping box just to show the size of this thing!

Inside the shipping box is . . . another box! Haha! This was actually a smart idea after seeing my mailman give the box a gentle kick >__>” Who knows what else kind of abuse the box underwent on it’s way to me.

Through the second shipping box are the actual boxes for my new dolls.

The boxes for the new Saber dolls is really big, compared to a standard Dollfie Dream box. I also noticed that both of the dolls came with a diagram showing how to handle the wig. They are very tight-fitting so I think some people may have damaged their wigs already. I didn’t seem to have too much difficulty getting the wigs on. There isn’t any room for a wig cap under these wigs, so it’s a good thing they are blonde.

Let’s open up Saber Alter’s box first! She will be the first white-skin Dollfie Dream to join my family!

She has a right foot and a left foot! We are off to a good start! 😛 (If you don’t get the joke, read what happened when I opened my Moe v.2 doll)

Well hello there! Look at that beautiful porcelain complexion! Lily is the first to welcome this new girl out of her box.

Underneath the doll there are lots of goodies in the box: her wig, her dress and accessories, the box with her sword, instruction manual and an instruction sheet on how to handle the DDIII body.

Surprise #1: The dress and boots are dark purple! From the promo images I had always thought that they were black.
Surprise #2: As I was going to dress Saber Alter up, I noticed that her dress is unlined! The whole thing is dark fabric and even her panties, stockings and garter are black! >__

I’m not impressed by this at all, and given Volks’ track record for producing horribly staining outfits I’m not taking any chances. I put a full bodystocking onto Saber Alter, but the collar of the dress is too tight to fasten around the bodystocking – so until I sew some “eyes” onto it, she won’t be wearing her default dress. In the meantime she is wearing a beautiful black (fully lined!) outfit that I bought for her at DP27.

Next let’s open up Saber Extra’s box! Lareine popped by to visit, and just in time too! She and Lily are going to open this big box up!

When I opened up the slider box, I was surprised to see that Saber Extra was already looking at me! (Angry Bunny says “No nudity!” LOL)

Here’s a close-up of her beautifully sculpted face. She looks so sweet and beautiful!

Here are all the goodies that were inside the box: her dress, wig, sword, optional armor feet, and instruction booklet. Make sure to read the booklet on how to put on her outfit because it’s a bit unusual.

A few comments about the outfit for the benefit of other owners:
– It’s hard to see in photos, but the dress has a velvet-like finish and will easily attract dust (and pet fur!)
– The way that the white bandeau bra attaches is so silly. I wish Volks had come up with a better design for it – or at least used a CLEAR snap and not the metal one >__<”
– The clear elastic on the “sleeves” is meant to sit behind the shoulder. Don’t try to stretch it over the neck or you might break it.
– Handle the “corset” gently. The back “latch” does undo, and the button has a bit of stretch but don’t put too much force or they might come off.
– If you plan on getting a bodystocking, get one that has the feet exposed (like this one) so that you can put the armor on. or look for some nude or white leggings.
– Even with a turtleneck-style bodystocking, the red fabric of the collar can still touch the neck, so if you’re going to leave it on your doll for a long time you might want to wrap the neck in plastic cling film to prevent it from staining.

Here’s Saber Extra all dresed up in her beautiful dress.

Here are Siobhán, Lily, Lareine, Moe and Sidonie after this nice welcoming party! (Notice the red shoes on Sid? They are not part of her default outfit – but since I had a bodystocking on her I couldn’t put her armor on – LOL

Thanks for joining me in welcoming home these 2 special girls. I’m very happy to have them join my doll family!

– ♥ Archangeli