Soom Super Gem Discussion (Basic, Limited & Special Order) - Part 12

@Iron_Dog aaaah gotcha! Thanks for explaining!

Hmmm...well I think the normal flat feet SHOULD work. I have had generally good luck with shoes. Dollmore makes some nice boots for the flat feet. As for heel feet, I've had luck with Dollzone and Angel Studio.

 

Buying Vasyl flat feet is on my to-do list. I'm currently on a wig hunt for him as while the wig he's wearing is very nice (it's a Monique), he needs something with much stronger/brighter colours. And he's being wildly picky as I have a few with those qualities that nobody is using and he doesn't like them.

 

@Iron_Dog I understand that very well. Sometime this weekend I plan to pull out all my wigs and have the dolls pick their favorites so I have enough room to store them all. I bought some wigs from Leeke World and I am really impressed with the colors and feel. I enjoy the Monique ones I got as well. Etsy might be a good place too if your doll needs something VERY specific.

 

That's the pain of it. He's being rather coy about what he wants. He wants bangs (ugh, bangs. Like why?) and I have a couple of possible choices for him. There's wigs that I like but I know he wouldn't. Damn picky doll.

I need to get a new wig for Liroshan (Granado 53cm Lucifer) or make him one. I've made him 2 but he's not overly wowed by them *sigh*. I have mohair sitting on my kitchen table for yet another wig but I'm stalling because I'll need to be creative in my pattern placement for cutting and I'll need to sew the small pieces together first to make a big enough piece to use. I'm being a bit lazy about that but I'm also not wanting to make my asthma worse by messing with the mohair (I'm quite allergic) while we've got a pollen situation going on right now that is also playing fast and loose with my asthma.

I did make Vasyl a hard cap mohair wig but the colours weren't strong enough for him so he didn't like it *sigh*. I don't have enough strongly coloured mohair (fire engine red & hot pink) to make him an on-pelt wig and I don't have the materials I need to make another hard cap. I also don't see him as going with red/pink hair.

 

Where did you order her? And that dress? Wow that is amazing.

 

She was purchased directly through Soom. ^^ The dress I got from Ayu&Ana from their Etsy shop. It was just to perfect for Annalise to pass up.

Speaking of her, here's a quick pic of her today~ (please excuse the disaster of a room behind her, I'm in the chaotic process of tearing apart my studio room to purge, clean and reorganize my studio room )

 

It's totally reasonable to buy a doll just to use that Benmore stag horns on her, right ?
I just couldn't resist. I just hope I can deal with the grey resin.

 

If you can't, I bet the grey would dye really well to like, blues, purples and probably most dark colours...

Also totally reasonable-- I built a weird hybrid just for the sake of horns

 

My biggest concern is the seamlines. I usually remove them on every doll but as far as I know on darker dolls this could cause color differences. I will test is on an invisible spot first and figure it out from there.

I am not sure about dying. I lowkey want to try it someday but I am not sure if I want to use a soom doll for this

As I turned my Benmore into a unicorn I currently have no use for his antlers and I just thought about how nice Amber would look with them. Also with the stag horns and the flatter chest I might do something more androgynous with her.

 

That’s so fair! My first ever dye project was a very old, very yellow old supergem body, and she dyed really well, and I’ve dyed the new supergem f as well with a lot of success, so I know theoretically Soom resin takes it well—either way though, it’s a fairly expensive doll to mess around with stuff like that on!

that androgynous vibe sounds like it’s going to look awesome with amber too!

 

Hahaha! That's my summer project. I have two LMOD Beryls. I have waited years for a green one. So now I'm going to dye one. That and I have old Phonolus parts to try and match the new boy who is bigger.

I have new and old girls, but I honestly can't answer about the flat feet. I don't have any here so if I had them, they got left in their boxes. The older bodies that have resin shoes and feet are crappy at standing on their own. They do okay in heeled shoes from eBay and Dollheart. The new ones stand like rocks in their resin heels as well as others. Right now they all have a boot fetish. Oh, I usually buy them the sd16 shoes.

 

I'd love to see a green Beryl!! please spam us with her once you've done it!! Later today I'll be cleaning old grey die off a body off-topic to this thread (withdoll) to also try for a nice green, so I'd love to see how yours turns out/what mixture of dyes you use

 

Cant find it on the site, but where can I find good measurements for SOOM mega gem boys? Like for buying shoes and clothes.
Can only find eye sizes.

 

prev.dollsoom.com/eng/shop/content.php?co_id=measure_new

 

Yesssssss this is the best. Thanks so much for sharing!!

 

I can definitely relate to pandemic-induced ennui and subsequent/ongoing doll neglect, but I've recently resolved to get off my ass and get some styling done.

My Soom Onyx twins just got fresh face-ups, new clothes and new wigs.

Since grey resin is a fave of mine too, here is my Shadow Onyx.

I hadn't realized how much she had yellowed until I swapped her feet after...ten years. But I guess 2008 was a long time ago in doll years.

 

She's gorgeous But I'm rather biased, I've always loved Onyx

In all fairness, 2008 was kind of a long time ago in people years too - long enough to go from being a twinkle in someone's eyes to a snotty tween

 

@St. James Ooooh she is looking pretty!

I should take more pictures of my dolls...some of them got new wigs and clothes and I haven't done proper photos, just quick snaps on my phone to show one or two friends.

 

Ooof, if I waited until I had time to take good photos I would never post. My DSLR is dying, my desktop is in storage, and my glasses prescription is out of date. Everything happens on my phone, but at least my phone is not as old as my dolls. Or my eyes!

 

Oooh that wig is gorgeous!!
I got some new eyes coming in for my soom that I'm excited to do (it's a kit so I get to make my own). I also ordered some new shoes for him. I FINALLY found someone who makes boots for 9cm feet T_T
Cant wait to get all the new stuff in so I can take a photo of his new look.
Am in the market as well for new hands. I still only have the fantasy hands for Ender and I want normal hands lol

 

I'm another who's only been taking photos on my phone to show friends something. I keep meaning to take decent pics but something else always seems to pop up and needs doing instead.

 

@St. James She is gorgeous!

 

New feet and old feet are different, but if you can get a simple 3rd party foot it would fit as long as the ankle ball was compatible. I think you can order the old feet from Soom as well ("SGF basic feet") Just check that they ship the ankle balls as well. There will be a bit of a wait as they have to cast them.

 

@fishcake Thank you! It's not an urgent thing for him to have flat feet but I would like him to have them. His current feet have ankle balls so he should be okay, I think.

 

You still might need to tweak the balls a little (that sounds terrible) but I seem to remember you have no problem doing small mods on things.

 

Bawahahahahaha

*Ahem* Small stuff I can probably muddle my way through. If a tweak is possible it might be easiest to just purchase new ankle balls specifically to go with the flat feet and be done with it. I'm not opposed to doing that.

 

Hi! I just want to ask, which one is more posable and stable? The old soom super gem female body or the new?

 

I've noticed that Soom hasn't been releasing as many mega/supergem dolls as they did in the past and are mainly focusing on smaller dolls.
Is there a reason or am I looking at it wrong? I would love to buy another Soom doll but all their past sculpts are kinda...meh to me for what I need.

 

Mh, Yes and no. Megagems were always more of a rarity, and Sooms been releasing MG heads on ID bodies for a few years now, so they aren't really 'gone'. Supergems are released less frequent, yes, and even if there are new SGs, they're, in most cases, rereleases.
Did you know that 80% of Sooms releases are rereleases by now? Sooms currently at a point where exactly half of their dolls they ever released (since 2008) are rereleases (267/268). As for Supergems, since 2017 they released 4 (!) new sculpts - and rereleased 34 in the same time. That said, I'd honestly recommend looking at other doll companies too.

Here are some charts out of the Soom Datasheet - the focus on Idealians is pretty obvious here. Megagems, Minigems and ID51 are dying out, while Petitgem (O[ther]), Littlegem and Teeniegem are getting more important.

 

I think Soom listens to the requests on the Q&A board and they get lots of requests for the previous heads. I have gone to other companies because I have most of the heads I want. Oh, I am also out of space for large dolls!

 

I recall Soom stating years ago that due to the severe financial impact of recasting they wouldn't be able to invest in new sculpts and would have to rely on rereleases of whatever was requested most. So now we have the predicted downward spiral of fewer new dolls to lure repeat customers causing additional lack of revenue. :/

 

I can completely see where Soom is coming from on the recast issue. It's like playing wack-a-mole while blindfolded to try to stop the re-casters. It takes time and money to develop and sculpt a new head even if you're going to re-use a body style (like purely human or any of the existing fantasy ones). I can only imagine how frustrating it must be to make something new and within months, re-casters are pumping out their stolen goods like pez dispensers for a fraction of what the item cost to develop/make.

For my own selfish purposes I'd like to see them add some new ID51 sculpts. Or, in absolute honesty, I'd love to see some of the big boys scaled down into ID51 size. Wailing wallet be damned, I'd be all over an ID51 Sard (with fantasy parts) in a heartbeat. I'd probably jump all over a fantasy Heliot in ID51 size, too. I'd probably be in trouble if there was an Ender with the jackal head in the ID51 size as well.

I have a bit of a thing for ID51's in case that wasn't clear (I do own 3 of them...).

 

I'm with you on the 51 request @Iron_Dog .
but I wish they'd redo his joints. A friend reports that her latest Soom mini has a cheap plastic feel & look.
How do companies like Raccoon Doll & Iplehouse continue bringing out new sculpts? Soom is getting stuck in the past.

 

This is what I'm wondering too. Dollchateau, Fairyland and all the others are regularly pumping out new sculpts (DC, DZ and DV even with new bodies all the time) and they're still in business, even though their dolls are recasted a LOT. Soom is reducing their costs a lot by rereleasing dolls all the time...
I think Sooms problem lies within their 'we're only releasing dolls for 2 to 4 weeks'-business they're doing since... 2008. That creates a demand once the sale period is over, which leads to recasts. Most companies nowadays are regularly selling their bestsellers a la carte (like iple or fairlyand).

 

I think the only joint that bugs me is the arm/shoulder socket one. I still don't really understand why it has that weird tube/peg design as that does hinder mobility of the arms with regards to raising them up above their heads.

I can't comment on the newer resin feel as my "newest/most recent" one is an ID51 Gluino from the 2016 Xmas kit event (I bought him direct from Soom). All my other Soom boys are earlier releases and were purchased 2nd hand. My other Sooms are a Vesuvia, Euclase, Auber Storm Sprite, Boehm Smoke Sprite and 2 ID51 Londons (different releases but same resin colour).

Does anyone here happen to have a Vesuvia on the Poison Kiss body? Can you make her stand unaided in flat feet (or heels, I'm not picky)? Vasyl will not stand unaided and I think it's because of the weight of his tail. He did go through a ftm mod so the substantial chest he had is no more and I don't know if that would affect his balance at all.

 

While I'm certainly not going to argue that recasts effect the hobby I do wonder if Soom isn't putting to much stock into their effects, and not taking into account other factors as well like increased competition, and people's changing tastes in the hobby. Doing things this way as @St. James pointed out just turns the situation into a self-fulfilling prophecy. Sometimes you have to invest in R&D if you eventually want to get ahead.

 

Some recasters, to my knowledge, don't even have their whole collection. If anything it's their standards. But yeah, recasters blow.
I've just been super interested in buying a new soom sculpt but I can see that rereleases may be the better route. I do like some of their older dolls. I looked at their other brands under the soom umbrella and the Neo one looks completely abandoned. I say look, because everything is sold out and the site still uses flash.

I also really want some of the outfits Soom makes but they sell out so fast T_T

 

with a bit of sueding, I was able to get mine to stay upright, though the chest mod could be altering the balance for yours a bit--I think it helps to weigh mine down in the opposite direction.

 

I sort of suspected that. The modder (Dr. Krow, who did an absolutely amazing job) said that there was a lot of material to remove to give Vasyl a male chest. They said it was the largest breast removal they'd done. I'm still super happy with the results and glad that I took the chance to buy him and have him modded.

 

That's so fair! I often end up doing the opposite kind of modding (I've sculpted and/or resculpted boobs thrice now) and I've found the only time I sculpted fairly large ones, they did nothing to the balance, because loongsouls stand like rocks, and adding a little apoxie to a 75cm Big Body Didn't make a huge difference. One of these days I want a flat-chested, more androgynous, but very curvy body like the old sg, and I can't wait to see what Doctor Krow, means, cause there is sure a lot of material there to work with ahah

 

Yeah, there was a LOT of boob happening *laughs*. I actually wrote that into the story along with the slight colour difference between his modded/unmodded parts. He has some utterly even mellowing of his resin as he was made in 2012 and the resin deep inside his body was a bit lighter than the untouched exterior resin.

Vasyl's species, Buthydana, are able to morph into the opposite sex (like wrasse or clown fish can) although it's generally a one and done deal. He was born a sterile female and due to some large scale disasters to the breeding population of his nest, he made the decision to morph to a male (that sort of morph always produces a fertile male) to help get his nest back on it's feet as far as members goes. He was quite amused that he used to be known as Vasyl-with-the-amazing-rack.

He's frequently mistaken for female and that doesn't bother him as even his own people will make the mistake. He still wears his hair in a more feminine style as he (rightly) believes it flatters his face. He also still wears heeled shoes/boots because he likes them and says they make his legs look gorgeous (he's not wrong about that either).

 

Like the opposite of clownfish (which default to male, and can shift female, but can't go back)! I sell them, and I'd actually planned to do something similar with dragons in a universe I'm playing with. I was also interested by the blue ribbon eels, whose biological sexes correspond to different colours/stages of life (I believe they go from no biological sex/white to male/blue to female/yellow).

He sounds gorgeous (especially in heels) with or without the amazing rack

 

Not only it creates demand, but it keeps some people from being able to buy from them. I know I can't afford to drop that kind of money on a doll without prior planning, and their calendar is only for the current month so if they release a doll you want early in the month, that's not always doable. If they had an a la carte system, I know I'd have a lot more of their sculpts.

 

My Onyx on the Scorpion body stands just fine, heels (any) or flat feet, no sueding required. I string all my dolls with hella thick shock cord, so that probably has something to do with it, and I also tend to pose her with one foot slightly forward so that she's leaning forward slightly. Once she's standing she's solid as a rock, even when holding props

 

@Chameleon Yes, his people are naturally more heavily female at birth with the majority of the females born sterile. The males born make up about 20% of the population. They're very social as a species and have an extremely strong instinct for protecting their nest or making sure it stays healthy/whole. Some people morph because they didn't feel right as female/male while others, like Vasyl, do it because the nest needs it of them. Vasyl's background story is called Divine Agony and tells of what happened to his nest, why he morphed and how he ends up meeting Wae-Lan, God of Pain & Sorrow. There's also a lead-in at the end to how Macian, a High Priest of Bao-Tein (Goddess of the Forge & Metalworking), is introduced to Vasyl and Wae-Lan (I haven't written that yet).

@Girrl Cool. Vasyl has whatever elastic he came to me with. I have no idea if it's original or not. I may have to fiddle with him a bit to see if I can get him to stand unaided. He's currently wearing a pair of Luts shoes I got him recently. He does have the special resin shoes and feet but I'd need to switch them out and I'm horribly lazy. I think his tail is strung a bit weird, too, but he came to me that way and I haven't messed with it.

I need to take a half-way decent pic of Vasyl now that he has a wig he's happy with.

 

I assume that I am not the only one with extra SG heads since the monthly dolls often come with second heads, and yet Soom doesn't make display busts. I wrote to inquire if they had plans and they said no, but they'd pass it on to the design team. If anyone else is in the same boat, might be a good time to post on their board and show some interest.

 

I'm sorry, unfortunately I could not find this topic in the forum so far.
But do you know whether Soom may also re-release special heads?
For example from the 'Midsummer Night's Dream Sard' release.

 

I might email the about that!! My best answer is “possibly” which is less-than-helpful, and emailing them would tell them there was interest!

 

@Chameleon
Thank you so much for your answer!
But you're right, I should do that.

 

No problem!! Seeing this reminded me that I wanted to ask them about a couple heads as well!

 

Dropping by to share my newly acquired Snow Blue Sard!! I was away from the hobby when they were released, so I didn't even know they existed until I saw him for sale. Dia/Sard is one of my favorite sculpts and blue is my favorite fantasy skin color. I still can't believe he's real and I love him so much!!!

I've just finished his faceup and already had the perfect wig to suit my vision for him. These eyes are just placeholders and he doesn't have any clothes of his own but he still looks amazing!

 

@overlordu He's stunning! I don't remember a blue Sard release.

 

he's so beautiful! I hope they bring the colour back--I don't think we've seen snow blue since 2019

 

who needs clothes when one looks like that (and also doesn't feel cold) He's gorgeous!

 

That's a gorgeous shade of blue and he looks stunning. I love the Sard sculpt. I don't own one but maybe someday....

 

Thanks guys! I think he is from that 2019 release, because he was casted in early 2020. Based on what I could dig up on DoA, Soom held a vote for what to release next but I guess the sculpt and colors were not linked together in the results. So the top voted sculpt was Sard, and the top color was Snow Blue, but people in the discussion were all saying they had wanted Sard in purple, or some other sculpt in blue. I think I only saw 3 people here who ordered him in this color. But in any case, he's the perfect combination for me! Though I'm confused by them naming this color Snow Blue, it's actually more like turquoise.

 

Soom has "ideas" about colours. Usually it varies from batch to batch, too.

A friend has 2 tawny resin boys (different years) and you'd swear they're not both tawny as they're not even close to each other. I have 3 Soom grey boys (all different years) and they're all different shades of grey (more than mellowing could account for). Oddly, my 2 ID51's in ebony are exactly the same shade although their from 2 different releases. Go figure.

 

Wow, @overlordu Sard's colour is amazing (the wig and faceup is perfect)

My little teenie dragon was never blue but green, would be interesting to see a Taco and a snow blue Sard side by side (would make Sard even bluer by contrast )

 

Thank you! This resin definitely has a lot of green... honestly I'm not sure I could say whether it was closer to green or blue, it's pretty much right in the middle! It's hard to photograph accurately, and it changes in different lighting too aaargh While I was waiting for him to arrive I was looking at other Snow Blue dolls and it does seem like the color varies a lot. Which is true for all of Soom's colors probably- I have a Sard in Tawny which is literally not tan at all and looks like Normal Skin.

 

Yeah... Their Tawny and Grey are way variable. I went through a couple of bodies looking for greys that would match Shaper's head. I never have found one that worked with my Tied version Chalco's second one. o_0