Anime Revolution 2013 in Vancouver!

I’m totally showing my age when I say that a decade ago I attended Anime Evolution in Vancouver, Canada. It was my first time attending a con outside of my hometown, and my sister and I had awesome time. We actually cosplayed at that convention, entered a cosplay competition and won an awesome award and gift pack! Fast forward 10 years: Anime Evolution doesn’t exist anymore, but this year there was Anime REVOLUTION! I happened to be in Vancouver on a layover last Friday, and woke up bright and early to check out the convention – alas, no room in my tiny carry-on suitcase to pack a cosplay! (… at least not for me! Hehehe! ^__~” )

AlphaZ had wanted to come along with me and meet some of my Vancouver doll collecting friends, but the flights to Vancouver filled up and he wasn’t able to come along T__T” Ah, the risks of traveling on stand-by. . . For this same reason, I didn’t pre=register for my convention pass just in case I ended up somewhere else. Sadly, he had the DSLR camera packed with him, so once we got separated I only had my iPhone to take photos >__<” It turns out that the badge purchase line was shorter than the pre-registration line @__@” I arrived around 9:30 am, and was already in the dealers room shortly after the convention opened at 10am! It was actually very quiet for the first 30 minutes while I was walking around so I was able to shop and look around without hoards of people everywhere! ^__^”

What caught my eye right away were a couple of itasha (cars covered in full decals) decorated with the Anime Revolution character mascot Senkaku-mei on them –
Anime Revolution 2013

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“Strawberry Sugar Milk Cookie Lolita” & Desserts Appreciation Day!

Did you like my crazy post title? Last March, Volks released two adorable outfits called the Strawberry Milk Heart set, and the Sugar Milk Cookie set; and earlier this year they re-released them with a colour flip (called the Strawberry Milk Cookie and Sugar Milk Heart set)! Are we all utterly confused with the names yet?! I know I am! A few days ago I rounded up Machiko, PlasticFantastic and Sam on short notice to come to my house and celebrate these adorable outfits!

Lily, Yuki, Mashiro, Serena, Nia, Juliette, Maya and Cirno look so sugary sweet and adorable!
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In my title I did mention something about desserts, didn’t I? ^__~”
A magical box arrived from Snowfern Clover a few days ago containing some of her stunning miniature desserts. Sid was captivated by the raspberry-rose and lychee Ispahan.
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Here are Juliette and Lily showing off both flavours of the Ladurée Ispahans – the purple one is Cassis-Violet.
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Review: Volks Argyle Cardigan Set

To continue my review of the Tenshi-no-Koromo outfits that were released a few weeks ago at the Osaka 7 DP, today I’ll review the Argyle Cardigan Set (DDTK-180). This was a very popular item from the Osaka 7 DP because it is very feminine and made of light-colours and has virtually no risk of staining a Dollfie Dream. Here’s Aerie wearing this pretty outfit set –

Volks Argyle Cardigan set

The cardigan is a nice quality knit and I was surprised to see that the 2 buttons are functional! I was expecting them to be decorative only, with a hidden snap behind them. There is a reinforced edge and white lining on the inside of where the buttons and button-holes are. If you really don’t like dealing with buttons, it is possible to put the cardigan on without unbuttoning the front, but you’ll need to remove the hands from your DD in order to fit through the sleeves. The way that the cardigan is shaped lays very nicely over the back of the skirt without any bunching.

Volks Argyle Cardigan set
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Review: Volks Flower Tulle Skirt Set (MDD)

I don’t purchase many MDD outfits since I only have one 1:4 sized girl and also because I can usually borrow 1:4 sized clothing from my sister, however hubby fell in love with this sweet outfit set from Volks that was released at the Osaka 7 Dolpa a few weeks ago so I bought it for my little Médée! It’s called the Flower Tulle Skirt Set (DDTK-177) and here is my little cutie pie showing off her new clothes! Whee!

>Volks Flower Tulle Skirt set (MDD)

The adorable hoodie is sized for MSD, all bust ranges of MDD and I have a sneaking thought that I might be able to fit Gabi (DDS with S-bust) into it too ^__~” It features a functional zipper, and cute little bows as fake pockets.
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Review: Volks Lace-Up Top Set

Yesterday I shared my thoughts & observations on Volk’s newly released Sailor Tulle Skirt Set (and I just added a couple more pictures of the outfit to that post!), and today I’ll share my observations of the Lace-Up Top Set (DDTK-179). This was a very popular set and sold out very quickly at the Osaka 7 DP after-event online, and for good reason! It’s such a cool outfit – I would wear it myself! ^__^” Here’s Lily modelling it – she’s a DD3 with an L-bust. This outfit will fit M and L bust (although I imagine the black top would be loose) and also the DDdy.

Volks Lace-Up Top set

In my personal option this set was one of the best values of the sets released at the Osaka 7 DP (retail price is 6615 yen) since it came with so many components!

Volks Lace-Up Top set

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Review: Volks Sailor Tulle Skirt Set

A quick post today to review one of the newly released Volks outfits from the Osaka 7 Doll Party (Dolpa)! I managed to secure several of the outfits released at this event, and I’ll try to review them all promptly so that anyone who likes them can try to obtain them from Volks USA’s after-event in a few months time.

This is the Sailor Tulle Skirt set (DDTK-178) (which at the moment is still in stock on the Volks International web store!) and it features a zip-front blazer, a tank top, skirt and thigh-high socks.

This outfit is designed to fit Dollfie Dreams with either small or medium bust, and here is Sakura modelling it.
Volks Sailor Tulle Skirt Set

Here’s what the inside of the outfit components look like: (oops I left the stockings out! >__<“)
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Holiday Mini-Meets

Happy Holidays everyone! I’ve had a few small Christmas doll gatherings at my house in the past few weeks but I’ve been quite busy at work so everything will be lumped into one long post!

A few weeks ago PlasticFantastic brought Nia, Lily and Maya over to help decorate the Christmas Tree!

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Lily, Annalise & Médée on VolksUSA Blog!

It’s hard to believe that November has come and gone. It’s been an amazing month – I had the chance to meet lots of new friends in the Dollfie Dream community across oceans, I celebrated my birthday in London and before the the craziness of December and the holiday season comes upon us, I just wanted to look back at the beautiful autumn months with a few photos that were featured on the VolksUSA blog today. ^___^”

VolksUSA

Lily and Médée Out for a Stroll

In other news, the Volks Dollfie Dream Xenosaga pre-order project for KOS-MOS and M.O.M.O. has opened and will be running until January 20, 2013. I’ve already placed my order – and advise anyone else that’s interested to do so too, this is a good opportunity to get a beautiful Dollfie Dream without having to contend with lotteries!

– ♥ Archangeli

Review of Volks Dollfie Dream stand

I recently ordered the new plastic stand that Volks released specifically for Dollfie Dreams. There was an “all-in-one” box, and several optional components that could be ordered seperately (extra rods and gripping pieces, clear base without tripod mount, and the X-base). It looks very attractive because it’s all clear plastic. I bought the complete stand, an extra set of accessories and the X-base.

Volks plastic Dollfie Dream stand

I made a quick video to review it. This stand is designed to work as a saddle-stand, waist-hold type stand, thigh-support stand or arm-supporting stand depending on which plastic rods you interchange and how you pivot the claws. I only show the stand as a arm support and thigh stand.
(And at 5:06, I meant to say “a screw and a washer,” not a wingnut >__<” )

Since Dollfie Dreams are fairly stable and can stand quite well, I think these stands were designed to support them in “action” poses, but overall the plastic is very flimsy and wobbly and I wouldn’t recommend using these stands for displaying your doll day to day. My overall impression is that this is more of a “support” stand for taking photos, especially since the base has 2 extra spots to attach a couple sets of rod to support a sword or other type of weapon.

If you were interested in this stand purely because it has a tripod mount, I don’t recommend it simply because it is quite flimsy and the plastic rods can come apart if not pushed all the way into the joints. This could lead to a disaster during a photo session! >__<"

If you have any comments or questions about this new doll stand, send me a message or leave me a comment!

– ♥ Archangeli

Dolls in this video: Rin Tohsaka, Annalise (Rise Kujikawa on DD2 body), Siobhán (Saber Alter on DD3 body) Gabrielle (Akira on DDS body), and Hinata (DD Shino on DDdy3 body) And if you're curious, Annalise and Akira are both on thigh-support stands made by CoolCat, and Siobhán is on a Volks metal-base saddle stand. The other doll stand that I show in this video is the Dollfie World tripod-mountable doll stand.

Mini meet-up at my house!

Today whitefrosty and Machiko came over for a little bit to hang out and play around with my dolls. Machiko’s yo-SD Sora was still at my place, but she also brought over the LUTS winter event head from last year to try out on Thaddeus’ body.

Thaddeus, Annalise and Sora look like a cute BJD family – except that Anna isn’t resin! ^__~”
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Doll Family: July 2012 Portrait

With the addition of three new dolls to my doll family last week I felt it was time to take an updated photo of my doll family. Here are my girls having a welcoming party for Thaddeus, Siobhán and Sidonie!

July Group shot

My goodness how my collection grown in the past year and a half!

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Assembling a Dollfie Dream Sister Body

Volks has been very slow in re-stocking the Dollfie Dream DDII base bodies for many months, so I went ahead and decided to piece together a Dollfie Dream Sister (DDS) body myself. The DDS is actually my favourite of the body types right now – I like the size, the posing ability and it’s not as tall and lanky as the new DDIII bodies. If you’re interested in doing this yourself, it’s not cheap since you have to purchase all the body pieces from Volks, and hopefully they will all be in stock >__<”

To build a complete body you will need:

  • a Dollfie Dream head (not pictured)
  • DDS-BF-01 / Upper Torso Internal Frame [usually out of stock, so be patient for this!]
  • DDS bust – DDS-B-01 / M Bust (although DDII bust pieces will bit too, which is why the Shapely-L bust is in this photo)
  • DDS-A-01 / Arms (sold as a pair)
  • DDS-W-01 / Waist & lower torso
  • DDS-HL-01 / Thighs (sold as a pair)
  • DDS-LL-01 / Shins (sold as a pair)
  • DDS-FO-01 / Feet (sold as a pair)
  • hands (many options shown, but you only need one pair to complete the body)

Assembling a Dollfie Dream Sister

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It’s a boy! It’s a boy! Welcome home Thaddeus d’Archangeli

It’s been a very busy week in the Archangeli household! A few months ago, I started a layaway purchase for one of my dream dolls – a Volks Yukinojo Sawaragi and he finally arrived today! Gabrielle was up early and noticed this big box sitting in the hallway. Angry Bunny wasn’t amused since it was in his way!
1 - Hey Angry Bunny! What's this big box doing here?

Gabi being a good little girl moved the big box into the room so that it was out of the way, and there was more space to open it.
2 - Let's move it over to the bigger part of the room

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Dollfie Dream Meetup in Toronto – February 18, 2012

This past weekend a few of the local Dollfie Dream owners got together to hang out, chat, swap items and eat cake! nkei recommended we meet at Café Princess up in North York, and it was a lovely venue for our meet! We had a nice, private room to ourselves and there was a great turn-out!

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Elle & Odette Come to Visit

It was a lovely day today and I invited PlasticFantastic, Sam, T-Rho and my sister, Machiko, to come over to hang out. PlasticFantastic brought her lovely Elle and Odette with her, and Machiko brought little Delilah. It turned into a fun gathering of dolly girls!

This is just a pre-cursor to a bigger doll meet-up of local DD owners tomorrow!

Here are Elle and Odette chilling out on the couch, with my little Médée hanging out. I’m not feeling these eyes for Médée at all, but hopefully she’ll get some nice new ones tomorrow!

Gabrielle and Aerie join in on the fun on the couch too!

Sam snapped this great profile shot of Gabrielle – I love her little ducky face!

Here are some rather amusing pictures of my cats, Charlie and Bubba, that Sam caught on camera.

We had fun chatting about dolls, work, lolita fashion, kitties, planning our Tokyo adventure and grabbed some sushi takeout for dinner. It was loads of fun – and there will be more DD action tomorrow!