Dollshe Discussion - Part Five

Aramis' SA head was delayed, and didn't come with the OE head and body when it was originally shipped. On Sept. 30, I got an e-mail from Dollshe that said:

"We apologize for the shipment delay. As we made announcement before, due to structural change of our head, the delay was unavoidable. OE Aramis’s shipment is now complete, and we have SA Aramis to ship. For SA Aramis, we have to modify OE Aramis and because the material we used is composite material and it was difficult to produce because of cracks. The mold we expected to be completed by the next week, and shipment will be finished within three week."

Of course my SA head didn't come in 3 weeks... but, it did arrive the first of December! So at least before the end of the year.

And like $abbatha, I'm waiting for an order of hands that I placed on Oct. 21.

 

Id have to agree. a lot of you guys are talking about 2 -5 months worth of waiting, and i feel like thats normal. the only time i've ever waited less than that is with Island doll! the most i've waited is almost 6 months. waiting sucks... but it's worth it! not that i would want to wait that long again, but for anyone who's tried making a BJD (i'm making one right now) it's brutally time consuming!

 

It is not the sculpting that should cause the delay. That should all be done by the time the doll is revealed and put up for sale. All you need to wait on is for it to be cast. However, both of these seem to cause Mr Kim trouble. As has been said, he will put a doll up for sale and take money before he is finished with it. If he is doing this on the basis of customer feedback and treating the original sculpt as a prototype, that is good. But it seems he is changing things that his customers didn't need or want changed. He should have committed by the time he revealed the doll and took money for it. And casting seems to be delayed. Perhaps he is taking on more work without taking on any additional staff. Perhaps, being a perfectionist, he won't trust anyone else to do the casting and does it himself, hence it all goes to hell in a handbag.

I was caught in one of the discontinuations. The first, I think. It took me 18 months of hard searching to find a Bernard below $1000. I would like to think I still wouldn't have turned to the recasters in this situation, had they been around, but I could certainly see others doing it.

Unfortunately, he is his own worst enemy, at times.

 

I do not think the wait would be as big an issue if they were more accurate in predicting the time. When I ordered in Sept it said the wait was a month. I was naive to believe that but if it was going to take longer, it would have been nice to say that. Other companies say things like 45 to 50 "working days". I find the more honest predictions (like 60 to 90 days) are more confidence inspiring and if it comes sooner then it is extra bonus. I am new to this hobby and no other collector item I have been into has been this unpredictable including hand carved artwork.
And once the molds are made it really is just a matter of casting it. I was surprised recently when I asked for a Simply Divine Nkiru to be cast for me in their ebony color. She had it made and shipped in 2 days! Not saying that is at all what to expect but now I know it is physically possible to make these much faster. So when they announce a whole new line to be offered when they are so far behind on production of their current product line, it frustrates me.
His dolls are undeniably beautiful. His business acumen is not.

 

I have to admit that I am frustrated with Dollshe right now too. I really expect to wait 2-3 months and if it comes before that I am just delighted so never pay attention to his projected time schedule. But I am concerned about my last Ausley body with Amanda head that I ordered. Dollshe promised it would be shipped about a week ago and now when I question them this is their reply: Amanda Beauty’s master sculpt is being modified. We are making improvements on its maneuverability as well as increase details. Originally, your shipment was scheduled to be shipped within November, but expect the shipment to be made at the mid-January next year. We will work to send you better doll.
Now I am worried that I will not get the Ausley body and I do not care for the Amanda body. You certainly would not make maneuverability changes on the Amanda head?? My order shows Amanda because I wrote before I placed my order and asked if I could order that way - was told yes and when I placed the order noted that on my payment-BUT it is no where on my order. When Dollshe wrote me a few weeks ago and said it would ship last week they said it would ship earlier than the Amanda doll as I had the Ausley body. Geese! If Dollshe would just stick to what they tell you the first time then I would not be sending hundreds of emails asking what is going on. Do they need a better translator? Is that part of the problem?
I hope I get my Ausley body since he is discontinuing it after such a short time. Honestly, this is the most realistic and beautiful female "resin" body I have seen produced by any company - why he has decided to end it's production is beyond me.

 

:/ oh the sculpting is a whole different beast... but I mean the casting itself is difficult, in fact i just dont think it's worth it anymore! . well if he is indeed doing it all himself...then there's going to be a lot of delays. it's just not possible to meet deadlines with one person doing the work.
i'm very disappointed do see Saint go

 

I'm not really upset about a delay. I'm willing to wait a long time for a doll. Loongsoul sometimes takes 10 months to deliver and I'm okay with that. What I'm not happy with is that he is modifying the doll. When I originally put money down on her she was just going to get some lip wrinkles at most. Now he is modifying the body that I fell in love with? I'm sure she will be pretty no matter what - but it won't be the doll I put money down on.

Edit: I'm a little confused about the whole not selling through DDE because of recasters thing? His solution to ending recasting is to make his product more difficult to obtain legitimately?

 

Radish and jo1961, if I were in your shoes I'd write Dollshe and tell them that you didn't pay for the item he's saying he's sending, but for the unmodified original. He's not even offering you a choice of new version or old; he's just telling you that's what you're getting for you $$$$! If he pulled that one on the Rhythmos body I have on order I'd be furious!

 

My interpretation of the message about ending sales through DDE is that Dollshe feels they are not making sufficient profit right now to sell through dealers, who take a percentage of each sale as a commission.

That's worth it if the dealer sells dolls that wouldn't otherwise be sold, but Dollshe believes that the people buying through DDE simply would have bought direct from the Dollshe website if the dolls weren't available on DDE. So why sell through DDE? He already has a perfectly good sales website of his own.

If DDE isn't marketing the dolls to new customers and extending his customer base, it's not worth it to pay commission fees just to have the dolls on their website as well as his own.

 

Ikke777, My worry is that he is not sending the Ausley body. I have written him again asking that he confirm that what I am getting is the Ausley body and Amanda head in copper oriental. I used the Bing translator to duplicate the message in Korean. If that is confirmed and I still must wait until Jan. - nothing I can do about that.

 

I really like Ausley & her original body. I was so tempted to order her in peach honeyskin, but then 5th Motif said he was not going to make more of his big boys so I went all-out for my Honey-boy Goowha. I wish Mr K would just leave Ausley & her realistic proportions alone & continue to sell her as is.

For those who order the fashion dolls, I figure we'll like the final result, but it will be a painful, prolonged birthing process.

with the new website and its ease of ordering, I was surprised Dollshe wanted dealers at all.

*

 

Here's an update on my Saint, Desmond. I finally finished the tattoo on his arm today (after struggling with it for about a month) - both were done freehand and boy was that time consuming. But they're done now! I just have to wait for his faceplates to come back from getting their face ups.

IMG_3349 by Liz, on Flickr

 

Woah, they look really good, nice job!! Looking forward to seeing the finished look!

Really sorry (unless you did it intentionally), but as a fellow AC fan I feel like I have to tell you; Desmond's tattoo is actually on his left arm

 

jo196 and everybody, do NOT use a translator like Bing or Google to translate English to Korean (or Japanese)! 'Yes' will become 'no' and 'no'will become 'yes'. The structure of the Korean language is so different from Engligh (or any European language) and it makes generating translations very unreliable. This combined with the fact that in Korean it's not how you say say it that is different, also WHAT you say is different. Concepts like 'I want ...' look very differently in Korean.

jo196, send you message again in English. Dollshe has a translator on hand who reads all the mail. If you're worried that that may not be good enough, keep you message simple, some thing like:
Please confirm that my order is:
1 x Ausley body in copper
1x Amanda head in copper
(you should add whatever else you ordered to make it complete)
Add your order number as well.

 

Ikke777, I always email in both english and what ever language I think the person I am emailing needs. My Russian friends often say that some translations can be pretty funny, but sometimes it makes me feel better to send both as the only language I am fluent in is English and can stagger about with a few words of Spanish, French and Italian. So sad in our country that they do not emphasize being fluent in at least two languages. We are always amazed by our European friends who speak 4-5 languages & speak them all well. Your English is flawless.
Yes, I know the KISS rule in emailing abroad and of course I include the order number. I am older but not quite senile yet - maybe not quite.

Quiet and Insane: love your tattoos! Very good job.
Petiteballerine - Maybe Dollshe will bring the Ausley body back - one never knows lately just what Mr. Kim will do??

 

jo1961, the problem is that if they see a message in their own language, they may disregard the English duplicate all together because reading that would just be doubled effort.

Tx, for the compliment on my English! I'm working on Japanese and Korean at the moment, and let me tell you, Korean is unbelievably difficult; it's like learning Latin. It's also compact and if you mess up on a particle the whole thing can mean something opposite. At least I now get why Mr Dollshe's messages are always vague; the aren't really in the original Korean, it's just that concepts that are hard in Korean come out soft in translation (and sometimes inverted). (Just as our 'hard' concepts would come out much too direct and confrontational if you just translated them straight into Korean).

Quiet and Insane, love the forearm tattoo, gorgeous!!

 

My husband and I were have a discussion about the Amanda doll last night. It went from sort of joking to what we will find when we open the box: Surprise! It has a lion head and cubist body! To a sort of anger at the chance that this might not be the doll we spent all that money on. I'm trying to be positive and hope that she will be beautiful.

It seems pretty dishonest to post pictures of his doll. Here! This is what you are getting! Then go around and fiddle with it after he has taken people's money.

A couple years back a doll artist posted these beautiful pictures of a doll they were working on. At first I really wanted the doll. She was so cute and had these adorable apple round cheeks and big eyes. She looked like a real baby. Then when she was finished I couldn't even recognize it and didn't like it anymore. They then put this finished doll on the market and a lot of people loved it. I didn't end up buying that doll.

Now if the artist had put that doll on the market with how I originally wanted her - and the artist said they finished except for a little lip definition - took my money - then presented me with the doll I didn't want to buy I would have been furious.

It is so hard for me not to be afraid the exact same thing is going to happen when I open that box. What am I going to find?

I was very excited when DDE was selling Dollshe. It sort of gave me a buffer with someone who is fluent in English and will look out for me if the doll maker goes belly up or doesn't deliver on their promise. After Amanda I wanted to purchase a David and maybe a teen boy. That plan went out the window.

I think after I get Amanda (if she is indeed even the doll I purchased) I don't think I'll buy another doll from them. They are beautiful dolls but I don't really feel like I can trust this company with more than a mortgage payment's worth of money.

 

RE: Radish I think after I get Amanda (if she is indeed even the doll I purchased) I don't think I'll buy another doll from them. They are beautiful dolls but I don't really feel like I can trust this company with more than a mortgage payment's worth of money.

Actually, I have found when Dollshe makes changes in a doll they are usually for the better and so far it has only been changes to the body. The first Ausley body I got you had to restring to put heeled feet on - duh! So he did make an improvement with the hooks and I think he improved the body a bit as my 2nd, 3rd, 4th, & 5th bodies are not quite like my first and they pose better. (Almost all my Iplehouse girls now have dollshe bodies as they pose so much better than the IH ones.)
When you look at the Amanda body (although beautiful) it does not look as if she could cross her legs. I asked Dollshe about that. He promised to send a photo with crossed legs - nope, that did not happen. Perhaps it is only the pose-ability of the body that they are working on and I am sure they will improve that and the doll will be better for the changes. I doubt very much that they will change the face. That is why the first email I got from Dollshe told me that my girl would be shipping because I was not getting the Amanda body. Please do not worry as I have about 12 Dollshe dolls and I have found them all wonderful. Your Amanda will look like the one you ordered but will probably pose better.

 

Radish, I have also ordered many Dollshe dolls and have never been disappointed. They have always been well worth the expense and the long wait. I bought my Ausley before the leg improvement and they sent me new lower legs for her after a few months when they changed the design.

 

Dang Lin, I did not get that! Sometimes Surprises just arrive from Dollshe.

 

I ordered oriental skin, Chizzie. She would have been lovely in copper oriental or tan, but I ordered oriental skin because I didn't want to pay the premium for fancier tones.

 

Weird, Jo. I got an email out of the blue from them saying they were sending them and then they arrived sometime after that. I thought everyone who ordered her probably got them. I actually haven't put them on her yet as my wrist was in a cast when they came and I haven't gotten around to it. I am a full year behind painting dolls and restringing.

 

Oh dear heaven, Jo. If you don't stop showing us your magnificent Ausley/Bernard female, I am going to have to start haunting the marketplace for an Ausley body of my own!

 

I received a shipping notice on my two Saint heads that I got weeks before. Weird.

 

Ok, Dollshe must be having a difficult time, so perhaps we just give them some space and I am sure all will turn out OK. I did get an email tonight explaining why they don't wish to send the Ausley body as it seems that they would rather pour the head and body together and wish to hold up my doll until all the Amanda dolls are being poured, so it seems I will be waiting like everyone else.

Lin, Dollshe did something like that with me too but no notice - just had an extra set of hands show up with the paddles for putting on clothes. I had not gotten the paddles before but actually had gotten an extra pair of hands but I did thank them.

Julie, I apologize. I know everyone on this thread must be really sick of hearing me carrying on about how much I love this female body. But somehow, I find myself thinking of selling off lots of my other female bodies and just keeping my extra heads and my Dollshe (and 5th Motif) boys. It would be so much easier to have fewer sizes of bodies to fit and these are my favorite dolls. Oh, and Julie, the oriental resin is a great match for lots of other companies normal resin so there is a plus to the oriental resin color.

SteamWitch, Check the tracking number and see if it is the same as your previous tracking. The reason I say that is Dollshe also did that to me once but somehow they had not marked my order as shipped so sent me second notice after I had already received the items. But who knows??

At least Dollshe is making things interesting. Maybe too interesting....

 

Haha! I realised that when I was about halfway through drawing it! It doesn't really matter though as he's only loosely based off a mixture of Desmond, Ezio, and Altair.

Thank you!

Thank you very much, it was so frustrating to draw.

 

I hope you guys are right. I might be a bit more forgiving with edits to the body than the head. Still a touch worried but feel a little better. When I heard "modifying" I wanted to be sick.

I truly hope he takes his time making these dolls. Not for editing (he should have been done with that already) but for pouring and sanding and making sure they are perfect. I definitely wouldn't mind waiting until April or longer to get mine. I'm patient.

 

I am not even remotely sick of seeing your stunning Ausley/Bernard gal. I have both males and females, but probably more males ... and several Bernards, because I love the sculpt.

I just hadn't realized HOW magnificent she was until that nude photograph you most recently posted. I have this AWFUL feeling that I will be haunting the marketplace.

Julie

 

I'm happy to see he is keeping the Ausley head - she is so pretty. I thought he was getting rid of her completely. Not a big fan of the old body but it did look very natural and beautiful.

 

FWIW, when Dollshe makes changes, it's usually because he has started production, discovered a problem (like Venitu's original very deep lip crease tearing the silicone mold), and needs to make an edit in order to send out dolls that are finished to his standard of professionalism.

I would be considerably worried, with some less-experienced dollmakers, if a doll I was waiting for was being altered -- but I trust that Dollshe is doing their best to provide a beautiful, well-balanced, poseable doll, who you will wind up being very happy with.

-- A

P.S. My Saints and Venitu arrived -- my boyfriend is having surprise hernia surgery on Monday (ARGH!), so I've been working myself to a nub, trying to get the house ready . . . haven't even had a chance to open the box yet!! Maybe tonight, if I'm lucky!

 

Best of wishes for a successful surgery and a quick recovery for your boyfriend, Ashbet.

 

Ashbet - I'm so sorry your bf has a hernia. I'm glad he is having his surgery asap as I have seen that turn into a huge problem very quickly.
I'm glad your new boys' heads came in. It will be a treat to see them when you are ready to share!

I was messing around with my spare Saint head today and trying out all the headless eyes I have in my stash. It turns out I am okay with putting 11mm eyeco eyes in him as I had originally intended. Yes, there is a slight gap, but the too big iris was something that really bothered me. For some reason I do not understand, it only bothered me about my boy as others' always looks great with their eyes of a larger size. Hummmm.....

 

I hope your boyfriend has a successful operation and a quick recovery Ashbet, hernias certainly aren't fun.

 

Ashbet, congratulations on getting your new boys. Hope everything goes well with your boyfriend.

I bought a IM Hound head on the MP, he had me worried because he was sent priority and was in state but it took him 10 days to travel around 100 miles. I think, since he is going to become the grumpy/angry demon face for my incubus, he took a detour to hades to get in the mood.
Even now there is no record of his tracking number, . He worried both me and his former owner - bad demon. He is home with his body and other head now. His faceup will have to wait a while.

 

I got a pink postcard from the local post office saying I have a package from Korea. I never got any shipping notice from Dollshe but I am really hoping this means either one or both of my Aramis (Arami ?) have arrived. Will find out when I retrieve the parcel tomorrow.
If so, it could be that the notification emails are not keeping up with the shipping department. Odd, since I got the impression this was not a very large company.

 

It could be because it isn't a large company that the emails go out late, as everyone is busy making dolls and doing bookkeeping etc. The shipping information piles up until someone can take the time to email everyone. Just a guess.

I hope it is your doll(s)! Fingers crossed for your happy monday.

 

Found the tracking #s on the Dollshe Website where I should have been looking instead of waiting for an email. The parcel at my local PO is my blue sapphire Aramis, Kristhna, and the Carmel brown Aramis is in US customs. So, Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday to me! I go out of town for Christmas on Tuesday so will barely have time to see him before leaving for ten days. But happy nonetheless.

 

Yay! and Congratulations Therealwalter.
My IM Hound head finally arrived. Now he will have to wait for his faceup.

 

I'm still waiting for my order to be on shipping, or to get at least an answer to my question and i've asked TWO weeks ago. Now usually i would not care less about the long waiting if were a full doll, main matter is that i'm NOT waiting for a full doll but for two simple pair of hands
This time is the last time for me that i order from DollShe. Sorry people i cannot cope with no communication from company, nor i'm willing to wait ages for two pair of hands. Peace people.

 

I received my Goowha from Dollshe a couple weeks ago, but last Thursday they sent an "order complete" email. I've never seen one of those before. sort of hit-or-miss with their mails. I think I got the ship notice before the doll arrived. I was stalking my account anyway for those magic words ..."on shipping."

therealwalter: wow, what a great Christmas package fest! take some pics for us as soon as you're home again please.

 

Yay Therealwalter! Those are gorgeous colors-- I can't wait to see photos of your Aramis boys!

 

I think their "Order complete"-status is when the buyer has collected the package from their post office. At least that's something that Swedish post do if you have a tracking number

 

IMO, 'order complete' is when they get around to checking the order off their 'still open' list. So yeah, sometime after somebody at Dollshe has checked that the delivery has been completed, which could be weeks after the actual delivery.

 

I am sooooo happy!!!
I just got a shipping notice for my Hound! I can't wait for him to finally be home

 

Oh sweet, more dolls coming home! I can't wait to see photos from everyone! Here's hoping that my Saint's faceplates get back from the face up artist in time for Christmas...but she's been rather sick lately and I can't see that happening.

 

Oh wow, that is very strange that they have not replied to you. I've never had any communication problems with them as they've always responded to my inquiries within 24-48 business hours. Were your inquiries sent via email?

 

Oh good, that's better than to notice when it's done!
That makes for a good mix! My favorite of three has got to be Ezio

Congrats, I'm so looking forward to seeing more Aramises (Aramis'?)

I'm joining the incoming-club too since I just managed to snag an old Hound for a steal! I'd told myself no more dolls this year, but I just couldn't pass on that cute Hound smile!
I won't be getting him until early January, but still so excited!

 

Yeah Noltaire i found pretty strange too, to be honest. But at this point i'm so disappointed that their reply won't change my mood/vibe regading the waiting time.
Basicly DollShe changed completely the web site company, so now all you can do is file the on-line form and wiating for them to reply, there isn't anymore the regular public Q&A board.
Anyway i've sent another message and i got almost immediately a reply but their reply doesn't change my bad mood regarding my order, i would say the converse it annoys me even more. I will need to wait the end of January for shipping notice of my order that's what DollShe told me, the reasons why i shall wait so longer to me sound like a complete excuse so it's pretty useless to report it here.
Deffo i won't order again from DollShe.

 

Dollshe has struggled in the past with putting out orders in a timely manner. It is disappointing that the hands are taking so long but I wouldn't say it is surprising.... I am sorry you are disappointed about your experience with them. I am glad you finally got a reply, maybe your first email was lost?

 

An order for 1 pair of hands or and order of 7 complete dolls, I don't think Dollshe treats those any different. The manufacturing process for a pair of hands certainly is the same as for complete doll, so are the hardening times. And it's more than likely that, where possible, the work the orders in sequence. And when it's not possible (because a rarer color has been ordered) they work them in batches.

$abbatha, did you order pale or fresh or oriental skin? If not than it will take longer.

 

It will be until next year maybe March of 2015 before I see my Hound's new body. Right now I have my new Hound head on a older Hound body and it will do for now.

 

Animethemed well they just told me that my enquire of two weeks ago 29 NOV was merely omitted on purpose and then they completely forgot to send to translator..the fact that my enquire was ignored put me a very bad vibe, i've been thru the same with Iplehouse company two years ago and i never ordered from them again infact.
To me communication is the main point for a good company, i don't know what happens on the other side of the world in Korea in DollShe studio, if communication fails all i can do is thinking about it continuously and every surreal thoughts then start to grow in my mind making me annoyed and disappointed.
Thanks for the interest anyway

Ikke sincerely i've ordered pure colors: oriental and fresh. I don't think sincerely that is this big loss of time to cast two pair of hands, especially cause a lot of people are receving their order, or shipping notice for their order in last two weeks...
But even in case of special colors/honey colors well a lot of orders were made with that choice, so i don't see why my waiting is that long.
I could think that DollShe isn't merely interested in my small order, but prefers instead to cast big order/full doll.
My sister is having same issue with 5th Motiv order: some people are getting shipping notice after two weeks from final payment of layaway but she's waiting since two months like me and like me she paid in full.
I feel that DollShe doesn't give to me any value cause i'm a small customer, infact my decision is done not order from this company anymore.