Noble Dolls Discussion Part 1

As am I, and I already have a Raspberry. I have two more dolls from Asella on the way, too. Honestly I think I'm at the limit of BJDs I can handle period, but still ahh such a pretty doll. I'm hoping to at least get to see one in person. I'm sure it will be very lovely. The photos truly don't do this sculpt justice. If you don't already own a Raspberry, take the plunge.

 

Can anyone tell me what the neck opening size is on Raspberry? Or her neck circumference?

 

I would say very close to Minifee's!

 

I currently have a light purple resin raspberry and an OOAK Rivanone incoming

 

How many others nabbed the Gray Elf Raspberry from the latest preorder? :3

 

@RinSetsua Took every spare penny I had. I've been wanting a tan elf Raspberry forever, but a grey one was close enough. She's an incredible sculpt.

 

JPopdolls has the tan Raspberry for sale now

 

They also posted ready to ship fair skin raspberry. Just noticed today.

 

Hi so coffee Raspberry (MSD) is up for pre-order on Jpopdolls and I'm wondering what are the usual waiting times for their pre-orders? Thanks

 

I preordered a Grey Elf Raspberry in Feb, and it's going on almost 8 months now.

Not sure what the average wait is.

 

I pre ordered the raspberry fair skin in september 2019. They just said today it should get to them on the 30th and then shipped out. So in total a year.

 

Oooof well that's good to know. I'll have to pray that this time around I don't lose interest in something during the waiting period
And I asked and they don't have layaways which they honestly should cause that way I'd feel less guilty about dropping $600 on a doll that I might sell 1 year from now (I have zero confidence in me retaining a hobby in the long term lmao).

 

Yeah it's a shame Jpop don't do layaway. I also wish Asella had an EU stockist for preorders as the shipping and customs is crazy considering she's an EU artist so the dolls are effectively just going back and forth to EU customers.

Does she have an exclusive contract with Jpop?

 

I know that she does artist casts. I'm currently waiting for a Rivanone from her. If you message her on facebook (nobledolls) you can ask if she has slots open.

 

Haha oof, those wait times are not instilling confidence in me. I’ve sworn off bigger companies due to those kinds of waiting lengths.

Still insanely tempted though...

Coffee!Raspberry has been one of my lowkey grails for several years—almost had one a few years back, but the seller opted to go with a buyer that could pay in full rather than my layaway-needing butt (and they informed me after we’d figured out a payment plan, if I’m remembering correctly. Very Salty was I..). That whole experience turned me off of the doll for a good while...but now she’s just right there available to preorder...from a dealer I’ve never purchased anything from and has shaky feedback at best. OTL

I imagine I’ll be agonizing over this preorder all month.

 

Sadly she doesn't have the mould for Raspberry anymore (makes me wonder why Jpop can't send her one, maybe Raspberry has been made exclusive to them...? Bleh.) However Rivanone is exclusively artist cast by her, so I'm going to try and save up and get a dark tan Rivanone and also see what layaway plan I can work with her. There's not many out there, and I already own a Raspberry so I think getting a different sculpt from her would be wonderful. Won't be for awhile though.

 

Hey, just wondering if you got your Rivanone and if so about the waiting time from Asella? I just finished paying mine off this week!

 

Hi! I paid off my Rivanone Sep 2019 and still pending. She messaged me a month ago saying it's almost done and what face up I wanted. So hopefully not much longer.

But yeah, expect 12-18 month wait is what I've heard.

 

If anyone has been wanting a Rivanone, there is a pre-order on jpopdolls right now for light tan.

 

I'm seriously considering jumping in on the pre-order for darkest tan raspberry elf ! I've always admired these dolls and this might be just the perfect combination to finally get me to hit buy!

Does anyone happen to have any pictures of what raspberry looks like next to like an Iplehouse FID or a raccoon doll msd? I'm hoping she looks like a preteen next to them.

 

The Raspberry elves are so cute, I hope you end up grabbing one! I unfortunately don't have any photos, but Raspberry's 4.5-5.5 cm, or around 2 inches shorter than a female FID body, and is definitely a very slim MSD!

 

@Nikkirose did you ever receive your doll? Your post from Sept 2020 said you expected about 30 days more wait....just wondering if that was really true. Mostly hoping you really did receive your doll!

 

Yes, I got her in October she is lovely.

 

@Nikkirose Yay!

I got anxious and sent jpop an email asking about approximate delivery times, if 6 months was still accurate or if it was a longer wait now. Layla (who must be Grace's daughter based on the context) explained the extraordinary circumstances leading to the long delays of some orders (which is COVID production delays at the factory combined with the sudden passing of her mother, the former person running Jpopdolls). She said current delivery was 4-6 months.

So, I guess I will let ya'll know if things appear are back to normal (I ordered in February, so maybe doll in June-August!)

 

@skyealloway Sure hope 6 months is the general max wait. That’s about where I am now for my coffee skin Raspberry. Been waiting longer than that since I ordered in October last year, but the dolls aren’t ordered until the preorder ends, which got extended to beginning of November, I believe. P: At least I finally got her eyes ordered ahahaha.

 

@Singull fingers crossed!!

 

Emailed Jpopdolls about the coffee!Raspberry order since there was still no news about my order. I was told that the factory got backed up so there’s been delays, but they are expecting the coffee skin girls “soon”. Since this is BJDs we’re talking here, soon could be a few weeks to another month lmao. OTL Trying not to get my hopes up too much ahaha. She said she’ll post on their Facebook page as soon as there *is* news though, so if you’re waiting for your doll, that’s the best place to check.

Kinda bums me out right now since the artist I wanna send my girl to will be opening up faceup slots tomorrow and won’t be open again until maybe August. Guess on the plus side, I should have the other doll I’m waiting for by then and I can send two heads at once to get painted lmao.

 

I mean, it's been a year since the Gray Raspberry Elf order closed, and that's still listed as 'in production', so I'm really losing hope it's coming any time soon. If they still aren't caught up from last year's orders, I can't imagine that any of the Raspberrys after that one aren't going to be affected as well.

Or, JPop is going to get all of them at once and that will cause its own chaos on their end, wading through them all.

 

@Singull I'm not sure I follow jpop on Facebook, so that's a good tip!

 

A month later and still no news! elmoonfire.jpeg

The coffee girls weren’t ordered until November, so I’m into 8 months now. OTL I know better by now than to fully trust any company/creator with their wait estimates, but it’s still such a bummer when they constantly give over-optimistic quotes (especially when they know for a fact that they got orders that either took longer or they are still waiting on). Like…just tell me I’ll be waiting a year or more so I don’t get to the 6 month point and end up getting miffed over the “it’s coming soon” messages. I’m willing to put up with a long wait for my grail, I just like to have realistic expectations, rather than be left to wonder for months on end. /rant

I guess on the plus side, the way wait times have been going all over the doll market (even before the pandemic), I just have more reason to put the brakes on with adding more dolls to my crew. There’s just one last preorder I plan to attempt to get in on in fall/winter this year from another artist and that’ll be that for the foreseeable future for me. It’ll be nice to focus on just clothes, accessories and props for my collection. Lawrd knows some of my dolls need the wardrobe additions.

…but ugh seriously i want my raspberry girl home so bad. ; A ; raspberry in a dark brown color has been my grail for years jfsdkalfas. i just want her home in all her glory!

How’s everyone else doing with their waits? Better than me, I hope.

 

I keep forgetting my gray elf is on order, it's been over a year. T_T

 

Oh my gosh @RinSetsua that is crazy! I thought I had seen some of those come in ..but maybe I'm thinking of a different one.

I got a fairly optimistic message too when I asked jpop about wait times, she still is saying 6 months.... I haven't reached the 6 month mark yet but with y'all still missing your dolls I don't have much hope

If this goes on for over a year I'll have wished I had held onto my dolly funds for something else Although, there was only one other time I waited well over a year for a doll...and she turned out to be well worth the wait so maybe this will work out too

 

@RinSetsua That sucks so much. I really hope you’ll hear about your order soon. Annoying that Layla is still giving out the 4-6 month estimates when she’s got orders like yours that have yet to be fulfilled. Hell, orders like both of ours. OTL

Really wish she’d actually update the Preorder Status page with more than just showing what is currently available to order and a vague production status (the more anal side of me also wishes she’d get rid of the long list of really old orders lmao). Something like adding an “arrived at shop” date or something would be nice. Just to get an idea of what has and hasn’t made it’s way to her so far. Cross-referencing with Facebook is a pain (especially because I just…really hate using FB now-a-days ). uuuuuggggghhh I might still just do that though. Figure out what preorders have actually made it to Jpop based off the FB postings. If you guys want me to post a screenshot of a table of it let me know and I’ll eventually post it once I figure things out.

@skyealloway I really hope you won’t be waiting as long as we have. I’m not too worried that I won’t love the doll once she arrives…only been drooling over her for years. I hope you’ll love what you ordered when it does eventually arrive. And if you don’t…well that’s what the secondhand market is for. :B

 

Checked in on the Jpopdolls FB page this morning and saw some Asella info in the comments of their recent post about shipping being postponed due to the current heatwave that. Someone asked about the ETA for Coffee Raspberry and Light Tan Rivanone and Jpop replied with late Sept for Raspberry, sometime in October for Rivanone. Crossing my fingers that that’ll be the reality. You hear anything yet about your elf girl, @RinSetsua ?

 

No, but I haven't asked lately... I hope it'll be soon, if Coffee girls are nearly ready.

 

I am glad she is posting something at least! Let's hope the coffees really do come home in September

 

Don’t know if it was you, Rin, but someone else did also ask abut the Elf girls and those are possibly set to arrive end of August/early September.

Nice to have more than a “soon” finally! I really hope the factory Jpop works with sticks with their estimated dates. I want to believe in that light at the end of the tunnel.

Tho, even if the coffee girls get to Jpop by the stated time, it probably will still take time for her to get things shipped out. ; ^ ; So I’ll likely have to miss out on the next slot opening with the faceup artist I have been planning to send my girl to. Don’t know if she’ll have another opening after October this year. I’m not too in love with the faceup that the girls should be arriving with, so it’ll be kind of a bummer to have to live with it until potentially next year. I guess it’s better than nothing though.

 

Yeah, that was me. I had forgotten about their FB page until you mentioned it.

 

Bahaha, well glad to help with the reminder. Crossing my fingers that your girl will be making it home in the near future! You’ll need to lay down some pic spam when she does.

 

Hello, so the longest wait here is about a year, that's the double of what Leyla says ?!!! did any one ordered high heels ?
First, Grace death, then, corona, then ... and now the heat ? no, really ? and by October it will be new corona ? wow and nothing can be done because PayPal only covers 6 months, am I right ? Not sure I will order one, too scary

 

I get it, I almost regret ordering one. I would have thought she would have perhaps paused having new preorders for a while to cope with Graces passing and get her feet under her... But who knows the real story. I'm just struggling to understand why she isn't more honest about the wait times. My fingers are crossed for all of us waiting that we will get our dolls soon!

 

Jezz! I'm sorry to hear that you're still waiting after all this time as well!I'd placed my order for the tan Raspberry in January & I was recently told by someone on Instagram that they had just only contacted JpopDolls & were told that Jpop had Raspberry dolls in stock & actually available & so I don't know what's going on? But everyone is still waiting? Not cool at all! Some kind of updates should have been made by now all things considering, right? My question at this point is, why is she still taking preorders if she knows that there's no clear knowledge of waiting times & if its true that she has dolls in stock??? It's just like Abell said, the PP date to make any claims is now over for most people & its quite disheartening. Wishing I'd gotten in contact with a clairvoyant before I'd placed my order

 

If the tan raspberries are SD size, I think I saw them in the in stock section of the website. It’s crazy to me that they’d do that without a word to the peeps who preordered tho

 

Those SD girls have been in stock for a while—the fair skin Raspberry has been up since I ordered last October if I’m remembering right. SD Radicelle has been up since last December judging from their FB posts (extras left from the preorder). The tan skin has probably been available since last year too I just can’t remember fully if it was up when I ordered or not.

But yeah, anyway…I ain’t too pleased with the lack of communication regarding the Asella dolls. Anytime we’ve managed to get an update, it’s always been from someone asking Layla about orders via email or on the FB page. I and others shouldn’t need to prompt you to give updates on a $500+ product that has been taking an excessively long time. She’d save herself a lot of time wasted on answering emails and FB comments if she actually used the preorder status page on the website to post preorder statuses.

Also, I’d just like to say I really detest doll creators and dealers alike relying on social media so much when it comes to posting updates about preorder statuses. These people spend money on a website and then never utilize it for anything other than sales. Blows my mind. I shouldn’t be scrolling through dozens of Facebook page posts about what’s currently in stock on the site in order to dig out order updates because nothing current is crossposted to the website. Infuriating to say the least. Layla is hardly the only one guilty of this; a lot of small doll creators are being just as obnoxious about this crap too.

 

Yeah, the 'preorder status' page goes back years to the point of silliness... and is updated rarely. I believe the Gray Raspberries weren't updated to 'in production' until almost a year after the preorder -- because I was checking that useless page regularly for months after I ordered, and it wasn't updated for the longest time.

 

I just found out that Asella herself does not have much or anything to do with these dolls anymore. She only gets a small percentage of each sale & so that means she's basically only getting a certain cut from each doll sold from JpopDolls. Which means that the majority of the money made from these dolls goes directly to JpopDolls actually. I was also told that Asella does not even sign the COA's anymore & apparently its a JpopDolls COA that come with the dolls now. The only COA's that are actually signed by the artist herself (Asella) are the hand cast dolls that she made in her own studio & that she's not involved in these factory cast dolls anymore. So, if I'm wrong then please, I stand corrected! I did some in-depth research & that's what I found out so far. But If my information is wrong, then those in the know please tell us what is what & what's the ultimate truth or story exactly??? I heard that there are certain people that have been waiting for almost 2 years now, which is crazy if true. Those of us that are still waiting over 8 months ago, like myself, then we really need to know the truth of the situation. JpopDolls is giving mixed information from person to person & so what's going on exactly???

 

Jpop bought the molds for Raspberry, if I understand things correctly. So Asella gets royalties, basically, but has no direct action regarding them... I'm not sure about Radicelle or her other sculpts.

 

Ohhhh, thanks so much for your info! Now that makes a lot sense & correlates to the info that I'd received. Now I understand a little better. But the question that still remains is why are our orders taking so very long & why there are ppl that have supposably been waiting for their MSD Asella dolls for almost 2 years? OMG! & if it's true that there are ppl that have been waiting that long, does that mean that we too are going to be waiting for our dolls for 2 years? If that's the case then that's not fair fair at all bc if I knew this before hand, then I would have preferred to spend that money on another doll or waited on the secondhand market for an Asella doll. Sure I can understand that the pandemic has not helped, but still, why continue to accept orders when ppl have been waiting up to about 2 years for their dolls already? I'm now really upset & this is a complete disaster!

 

Yes, it's very discouraging. This is literally the first time I've had to deal with this sort of thing (I'm still pretty new to the hobby, but I've only had good experiences with artist dolls before now).

It's sad because Raspberry was the sculpt that got me seriously interested in BJDs to begin with.

 

Honestly @Delphi , we don’t have the answers. We’re stuck in the same spot you are. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ All I can say is take a deep breath, try not to get all twisted up about it, and then figure out what you’re going to do.

• You can try to (calmly) contact Layla at Jpop to get more concise information out of her about what is up with the delays and when to realistically expect dolls to arrive. Remember to be respectful, calm, and concise.
• You could demand a refund due to the excessive wait time, and if she doesn’t go for that willingly…
• …then you can attempt to see if Paypal will give you your money back via a claim (doubt it’ll happen, but never know unless you try).
• Then there’s getting your bank to do a chargeback if PP doesn’t want to work with you.
• And of course there is the “continue waiting” option with the bonus of venting on this thread every once in a while. :P

But yeah…last time I emailed Layla some months ago, she mentioned the factory they use got behind on orders, and I wouldn’t be surprised if that was due to resin shortages, which has been a problem all over the market. Manufacturing as a whole has gotten hit bad thanks to the pandemic; the worsening heat over the summers hasn’t helped either in regards to shipping products (particularly plastics).

Knowing all that doesn’t really make things any less frustrating though lmao. Especially when customers are completely in the dark. Wish I knew what caster Jpop currently uses…

In my case, I’m willing to wait a while longer yet since coffee skin!Raspberry is a doll I’ve wanted for years, but I certainly have zero plans to ever purchase from Jpop again and I won’t be suggesting them to anyone else. I just hope by the end of all this that I will have a doll in hand.

Anyway, emailed Layla this morning about the coffee skin girls. Probably won’t get an answer until Monday at the earliest.

 

Thank you Singull for your suggestions which I appreciate very much you're a sweetie you know that? JpopDolls (Layla) has been a little slippery with forwarding much information & I've been told a few different & conflicting things from her. I know PayPal are only able to step in before 6 months from the purchase date & so that option is not a possibility. So, I'll just have to follow your lead & wait patiantly as the rest of you guys are doing until we all get our dolls. I've got enough on my plate at the moment & I really don't have the emotional energy to be dealing with Layla's contradictions, which I've experienced so far & she's also ignored a couple of my emails. Yeah, I'd heard of the resin shortage last year but I assumed it was sorted out by now, but maybe not hey?
Well, thanks once again for your kindness & fingers crossed that we don't have to wait years for our dolls.
Best wishes!

You're very lucky that you've not had many bad experiences up till now & I don't wan't to put you off, but the hobby can be a little daunting at times to say the least. Just keep in mind that ultimitly it's a great hobby to be a part of, but from time to time there are going to be some hiccups along the way. It's just the "nature of the beast" as cliché as that sounds. Though that said, overall its very full-filling & so much fun once you get your doll/dolls & so best wishes to you too!

 

I asked for a refund on the 22nd, and no reply yet after 5 working days.
I'm not adamant about getting one, but it'll be nice if I do.

I'd rather just wait for secondhand Raspberry or an in-stock doll in the future, at this point.

 

Good luck on the refund, Rin. Hope you’re able to get it. I still haven’t gotten a response about the email I sent back on Saturday and looks like there hasn’t been any new posts in several days on the Jpop FB page.

 

I've got a bad feeling about all of this! Its so unprofessional of her to ignore us like this & I've lost faith actually at this point. If she's already got ppl waiting from 2019 up till now & those ppl haven't received their preorders, then their's no way we are going to get our dolls any time to soon. The worst thing is that Layla doesn't even have the common curtsy to simply reply to our emails, or at least post something on her websites FD page. That's all it takes to give us some kind of responce!
I now smell a rotten fish here & I again asked someone on IG if she had heard from Layla & I was told NO. This particular person has been waiting about 21 months or so for her Raspberry & she too has not had any of of her emails replied to since last year & she told me that she's just given it up at this point.
This situation is a complete nightmare & I'm actually starting to believe that we may all have been scammed! I don't want to sound the alarm, but it this really stinks to high heaven. If she had any kind of decency she would have done something to put everyone mind at ease by now. And especially those who've been waiting over a year now. Even those of us that had placed our preorders at the start of the year need some kind of reassurance all things considering. I'm so heartbroken, I'm now without my money & no doll !

 

I really think she may be overwhelmed; Jpop doesn't have a bad reputation but the past few years have been rough on the business. Covid just added even more troubles for her. It's unfortunate.
It's just a lot of money to have tied up for so long with no product or timeframe; that's my complaint.
I'm going to send her a FB message now, and maybe that will work better.


EDIT: She replied that they don't refund pre-orders, but could put the payment toward an in-stock doll.
She says she has some in-stock MSD Raspberries, and will tell me the colors tomorrow... I will let you all know what was offered. Depending on the color choices I may take one instead of waiting longer.

She said the gray elf dolls should arrive in November -- there had been multiple casting problems and they had to be remade several times on top of other production delays. We'll see how it goes... If the wait is nearly over I may as well stick it out, if the stock offerings don't work for me.

I'd recommend asking via FB message if emails aren't getting responded to -- I got a reply nearly immediately.

 

@RinSetsua Glad to hear you got a response. I emailed her last weekend and haven’t heard anything back still ahaha. I can’t really be bothered to attempt FB messenger right now, especially hearing about the grey elf girls. If they’re delayed again, then I imagine the coffee girls have been too. Coffee!Raspberry is the only version I’m interested in and I doubt she’ll have any of those conveniently in stock, but let us know what she tells you is available anyway!

 

Thanks for letting us know.

 

@RinSetsua I'm glad to hear she replied to you. I sent her a Facebook message last month asking for a status update on the February preorder Raspberry dolls and I never got a reply.