[TowaChan]'s House Of Dolls And Otaku Goings On

[TowaChan]

I'll start this journal because I love writing and also blogging and generally getting sidetracked from what I'm really supposed to be doing (that's my ADHD kicking in).

Name: TowaChan
Age: Gen Z'er. If anyone calls me a boomer they'll be insta-banned from my journal.
Location: South Coast. Before that I worked in China and before that I lived in London.
Hobbies: Gaming (mostly Call of Duty on PS4).
Interests: Coding, cooking, cats, exotic plants, otaku goods, Lego, anime, photography, crossplay.
Occupation: My careers to date are of scientist, coder, entrepreneur, english teacher, coder.
Favorite Things: My Dollfie Dream DDdy girl Towa, whom I adore.

If anyone is interested in Dollfies, Smart Dolls or other Japanese ball jointed dolls (BJD's) then drop your comments and questions below. Probably most people here will have heard about Dollfies due to their ever popular licensed Miku Hatsune dolls. Originally I wanted a Miku but I settled for a basic doll I could dress up (she does now have Miku long hair though).

Smart Dolls are probably better known these days. I was a regular commenter on Danny Choo's blog when he was really just a blogger and not the owner of a whole business empire. I'll gladly do a Dollfie/Smart Doll comparison one day but tldr; Dollfies tend to have more licensed characters but Smart Dolls are more model-like and Danny has really worked the current vogue for inclusivity and diversity. Uh, Dollfies are more squishy apparently, which I reckon is a good thing.

I do also have a couple of figures I bought in Mandarake in 2008. I've now graduated to dolls because what a genius idea somebody had to make figures you could dress in different outfits and pose in different poses.

[TowaChan]

What's been happening in January?

I want a second Dollfie doll so I went on Mandarake and bought 4 Azone dolls. Did I tell you I have ADHD traits and am easily sidetracked?

Anyway, they arrived from Japan in record time and better still all the UK customs staff must have been self isolating because for the first time ever my haul breezed through customs without excess charges.

I am now the proud owner of Azone Pureneemo Rem, Ram and also an Ex Cute girl called Flora Louise Miu. Finally there's a 'vintage' Haruhi Obitsu. I'll call her vintage because most forum members probably reckon the anime is very old school these days. I'm not sure I'm even a huge fan of the anime but I feel it's very iconic in my life because it was the biggest anime when I was in Japan in 2007-10 and Haruhi cosplayers/crossplayers were everywhere. I still think the theme tune is Akihabara's official theme.

I am still looking for a second Dollfie but after a boozy evening last weekend I entered the Volk's Japan lottery to see if I can win a new Dollfie. I should just add that even if you 'win' the lottery, you still have to pay for the doll. As I'm lead to understand Japanese companies tend to run lotteries for anything popular, rather than use the Western first-come-first-served system.

Why do I want a second Dollfie? Well mostly because Towa chan doesn't seem very good at stopping these two sneaking out of the house for a secret photoshoot on the beach...

[GraceMellody]

Welcome Towa! Lovely to meet you
And if you like gaming, you're more than welcome to come post in the VG section

I have heard of dollfies but never really met anyone with an interest so I don't know much about it. What was it about them that interested you?

Japanese lotteries for goods have always interested me, we have to use them for idol signings a lot

[TowaChan]

Oh well as long as we are on the subject are they a bit different from other lotteries?

I'm not an expert but I think the Japanese use lotteries to decide who gets in demand stuff (e.g. rare dolls, BTS concert seats, etc. etc.). Of course the difference with our lotteries is you do actually have to pay some money if you win them!

It's not been much of an eventful day but my footrest arrived from Wayfair via Hermes. I kind of think it's a bit small for putting my feet up, but Towa reckons it's a pretty decent Dollfie sized beanbag:



I think somebody above or in my intro thread asked me why I bought a Dollfie. While I've collected figures for many years (actually I only have 3), the cool thing about dolls is that you can (a) change their outfits (b) change their body parts [hands, eyes, wigs] (c) change their poses.

Dollfies are very cool - Dollfies are employed as fashion designer assistants, stop-motion movie actresses, anime convention attendees and of course as emotional support dolls. Incidentally Towa is 63cm tall in her heels and her Miku hair twin tails are 45cm long.

My sister in law runs an etsy store and has a Blythe, but she was absolutely stunned at how gorgeous Towa is in real life. I think her face is adorable and her eyes look amazing when the light catches them.

Dollfies can be super expensive but Towa is a basic model. The licensed characters (Miku, Re:Zero etc) are highly collectible and second hand prices can be astronomical. Also Dollfies are generally quite niche - it's generally much more difficult to acquire them and their accessories compared to Blythes and other collectibles.

[Ivory]

Hi TowaChan and welcome to AL Journals! ^-^/

What sort of coding do you do? Is it usually for work or more of a hobby/fun thing?

When do you find out if you've won anything from the Japan lottery?