Thursday, February 26, 2015

Pure Neemo Ichimatsu Kohina up for preorder

Pure Neemo Ichimatsu Kohina is currently up for preorder!
She is on an XS body.

©Azone
©Azone

HLJ:

amiami:

HobbySearch:

She's from the series Gugure! Kokkuri-san
of which, I know nooooothing about XD

She's pretty cute though,
I like her serious little face and interesting hair cut!
It will be interesting to see how these dolls arrive to customers,
and how closely the haircut looks tot he promo pics XD

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Azone Clothing Review: Knit Cap & Off-Shoulder Knit One-Piece Sets

Time for an Azone clothing review!

This time around, we'll review these cute little sweater/hat sets!




They are called the
Knit Cap & Off-Shoulder Knit One-Piece Sets

It's not easy to tell, but the middle one is actually cream with a white pompom.

Ok, so, let's start off with the good!

These are INCREDIBLY cute little knit pieces.
I always love when Azone does delicate knits!

These particular sweaters are lined on the inside with a more sturdy fabric as well,
so they are not as delicate as they look!

The colors are lovely, and the fit is cute!
They do fit some bodies better than others though, let's take a look:

First let's take a look at Mio, the gal with the Large Bust!
(I have put my Mio torso on an L body)

I really like the fit of this sweater on her...
it works with the curves XD


Next up is Mia, on an M body!
Still a cute fit!


 Now for Miu on the S body!
Even on the S body, where it starts to bunch up a little,
it's still awfully cute looking... although none of them really were able to pull off the "Off the Shoulder" claim... the sweater would just pop back up again.


Now for the bad.
If you look at the pics above, you'll notice that the hats sit high on the head, and the hems on them are unrolled a bit... that's because of this:



The inside gathering of the hat fabric is not the most well done. It's lumpy and bulky, and pushes the hats up higher on their heads. If I didn't unfurl the hat hems a little, the hats would pop off all the time... which is a little disappointing.

I have other winter pompom hats that were made in earlier years from Azone, and they do not have this problem, so I'm wondering if it was just too rushed of a production schedule? Or maybe just the difference in fabric types? I don't know.

All-in-all though, not a huge deal, and the outfits still look super cute in pictures!

 

 

Thursday, February 19, 2015

Happy Chinese New Year!

Is it the year of the goat, the sheep, the ram?

I've seen sheep getting a lot of play (cuz they're cute and fluffy XD)
so I'm giving the goat some props! 


Wednesday, February 18, 2015

What doll do you regret passing up?

Not too long ago,
I asked "What doll do you regret selling?"

And a few of the responses have prompted me to wonder:

What doll do you regret passing up?

You know, that doll that you *could* have gotten...
it was available, right there in front of you,
be it for preorder, or from another collector, etc...

but for whatever reason you passed on it.

For me, it's Volks' Jun Tachibana.


I had *JUST* discovered BJDs when Haute Doll magazine had their exclusive Jun and Isao release, and I looked at the prices on those dolls and almost fainted dead-away.

I *could* have ordered her.
I didn't, because of sticker shock.

I have kicked myself for forever and a day since.
I would call her my "Grail Doll" if I were to name a doll that...
and she'd have to be fully default too (except maybe the faceup, I might forgive a changed faceup if her new one was awesome).

I even sought out and bought little YoSD Jun Tachibana as a consolation...
but every time I see that Haute Doll Exclusive Jun,
I really, really, really wish I'd bitten the bullet and ordered her!

How about you?
Who is your "missed opportunity"?

(On a side note, I'd love the SD Graffiti Jun as well... I think it would be so cute to have the SD, SD Graffiti and YoSD Jun collection XD)


Friday, February 13, 2015

Regrets?

There are no really amazing Azone updates for this week,
so instead, let's talk about...

REGRETS

Have you ever sold a doll and then deeply regretted it?

I've sold a lot of dolls in my day,
and 99.9% of them, I'm ok with...

but there was one doll I sold that I regretted,
I regretted selling her before I did it, 
as I did it,
and after I did it.

That would be my Dollfie Dream Alna


I sold her to get what I thought was a "Grail" resin doll,
and I was very wrong.
Turns out Alna was my "Grail" doll all along,
and it took selling her, and constantly lamenting it,
to figure that out.

I lucked out *BIG* time,
and had a friend who was selling her Alna,
and sold it to me at retail... no crazy markup.

So the Alna you see now when I take pictures is actually
my second Alna.
What became of my first, I'll never truly know...
but I was incredibly fortunate to find another.

So how about you guys?
Have you ever sold a doll and deeply regretted it?
Were you able to get that doll back?
What happened?

Thursday, February 12, 2015

Foreign Doll Magazines?

Do any of you ever buy foreign doll magazines?

You know... the kind you can't read because they're in another language.

Every now and then I buy one of the Japanese ones,
because they always have great pictures,
and they'll always have some great patterns in them too.

This time I bought this issue of Dolly*Dolly:


It's got such cute stuff inside,
and one of the things is a Pure Neemo outfit!
How cute is this?!


The patterns are all in the back,
I just have to figure out how to make them XD
There are lots of other cute patterns in there too.

 

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Her reroot is done...

but I dunno, I'm just not feelin' it...

I'll have to see what I can do, restyling-wise.

 

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Read about the Azone Akihabara Store on The Thompson Family Blog!

Danielle Thompson,
of The Thompson Family Blog,
has been sharing images from her trip to Japan,
and today she shared her trip to the Akihabara Azone Store!
(Can we just stop and dwell on how jealous I am, LOL!)

Anyways, she has taken some fantastic pictures,
and made a really great post about her experience...
and I thought you guys might like to check it out!

Here's a little teaser pic,
but to experience the whole article
(which includes a lot of great photos!)
go here:

©DanielleThompson

Monday, February 9, 2015

Cousin It!

The rerooting is done,
but the styling has yet to begin!

Thus, the "Cousin It" stage! XD


Friday, February 6, 2015

Azone Update!

 Strike now while the iron is hot!
Most of these clothing items are up for preorder!

©Azone
©Azone

(and of course on amiami and hobbysearch too... lol, I just always buy from hlj, for the most part,
I've never ordered from hobbysearch, but I have ordered a few times from amiami (when the items were unavailable on HLJ, and I've had an awesome experience with amiami, so I recommend them too!)

_________________________________________________________________
 
The next Lil' Fairy will be coming out soon for preorder,
(the blond in the blue)
 
February 19th, to be exact (Japanese time)

She'll be 8,300 yen, which at the current exchange rate is about $70 USD.


Thursday, February 5, 2015

Product Review: QMagic Doll

Not too long ago I decided to take a chance and order some
super cute shoes and tights from QMagic Doll on etsy.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/QMagicDoll
Click the QMagic banner to go to their etsy shop!

All of their clothing says it's Blythe size...
but a lot of Blythe stuff will fit Azone Pure Neemos,
so I thought I'd give it a try.

I could not have been happier with the result!

I know a lot of you had seen these shoes in one of my past posts,
and asked about them...
so I figured I'd do a full review, with links to the store!

I had actually ordered two pairs of tights and the shoes...
but in the move, the tights have gone MIA!
So you'll just have to take my word for it when I say the tights fit Azone Pure Neemos
wonderfully, and are SUPER cute!

Now, on to the shoes!


A good pair of red shoes can go a long way,
and QMagic Doll shoes are no exception.

They are exceptionally well crafted.
The tiny design work is adorable!
The stitching is clean, the laces are easy to use and they fit nicely over socks
(even two layers of socks!)


The soles are also lovely... something that is often overlooked, or lackluster when it comes to
such tiny shoes (even Azone will have very plain, foam bottomed shoes)


They are adorable from all angles,
and the dolls can stand in them easily enough!


Seriously, how cute are these???
Shipping was also pretty fast, considering they came from China and weren't shipped EMS.
I will definitely be buying more shoes from them!

If you're interested in picking up a pair of your own,
this particular pair comes in a few different colors:


Buy them here!

These are the tights I bought, as well as some bear tights,
and I love them!



Buy them here:

And... here, just for the heck of it,
is the tip of the iceburg on other products I'd love to buy from them!!!


Buy them here:


Buy them here:

They have quite a lot more when it comes to cute stuff,
though... so go check them out!!





 

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

KIKIPOP! Preorder open to International Customers!

Ok, so I'm a little late to the party on this one,
(again, thank you, snow storm!)

Azone has opened up the preorder for their latest collaboration with Kinoko Juice,
KIKIPOP!

The resin versions of these dolls are highly coveted little creatures,
selling for between $900 and $1200...
so the chance to snap one up for considerably less 
has a lot of people really excited!

Now, I keep seeing folks saying that this preorder is running from Feb 2nd - Feb 27th...
but the date I saw on Azone's site was Feb 22nd... 
so I have no idea which one is right.

If I was on the fence and pondering things, I'd make sure to have my preorder in
by the 22nd (Japan time) just to be safe!

They have a cute little honey-pink haired gal, and a cute little marmalade-red haired gal available!

Here are their links on HLJ,
but they have them on AmiAmi and HobbySearch too!

 Marmalade:

Honey Pink:
©Azone

©Azone
©Azone
The above detail shows the eye is inset!




Tuesday, February 3, 2015

February Adventurers Club!

Sorry for the delay, guys!

A huge weekend blizzard knocked out my internet!
Yay?

 Anyways... here is February's Theme!

True... Love?


Have you ever had an adventure in love?
Perhaps it was a perfect, true love...
or perhaps it was not!

Show us what kind of adventures you've been having!
(erm... if you're going to show something intimate,
keep it no more than PG-13 in rating though, LOL)