Whale Tower waiting room

I just came across Rafayeh on of BJD Divas yesterday, and I had never heard of Whale Tower before! That dragon is just gorgeous and he is so unique! I was tempted also by him. I have been waiting 5 1/2 months for my Dream Valley doll that I ordered so long ago. I would think that not many people will order your Rafayeh just because it is so expensive, so that's probably why you won't have to wait too long. Congratulations on your discovery and purchase of such an amazing doll!

 

I also didn’t order due to the eye-watering price, despite having followed her sculpting process since the start and wanting her so bad! It’d be a downright dangerous transaction for me though.

But I want to follow this waiting room and see owner photos when the dragons start to come in!

 

I ordered Rafayeh back when she first got released in January. Thankfully I had a nice chunk of paypal funds from prior sales, so I was able to buy her. I collect dragon dolls, this one will the biggest one I've bought along with DV Flo.

 

settling in after sending payment for Rafayeh, along with a pair of the purple eyes. I waffled over color, and decided on pink - which I might regret because it will undoubtedly fade whereas I don't think the green really will - but I love the idea of pink/gold/rose gold dragon. A brighter green would have 100% gotten me - bright green and copper - so hopefully WT re-releases Rafayeh some time in the future (when I can justify another huge doll expense) and I might get another in white to dye my ideal shade of green
what color did y'all order @middletails and @moonfind ?

 

I bought mine in white resin. I plan to paint her a shimmery purple with silver, gold and blue trimmings.

I hope I get mine quick as well! That would be sooo neat if you could walk around a con with a dragon BJD...will certainly be a conversation piece for sure (just hold onto her real close....so she doesn't get stolen).

Once I get DV Flo and Rafayeh, I will take a photo of my dragon family (though I can take a photo of my current family once I can round them up!) And I saw the Gucci dragon! Looks quite real....

 

@nattherat the price is really intense it's true. I'm lucky with a supportive partner who helped me make a plan to get them. I'll take lots of pictures for you! Do you want to help me name mine? I'm not very creative with names haha[/QUOTE]

Aw that's an extremely kind offer, thank you! I'm also fairly bad with names though! If I had been able to get one, I think I actually would have left it unnamed, and referred to it enigmatically as "the dragon" all the time, like the name was too powerful to be spoken or something. Or, maybe more realistically, I might have kept the sculpt name because it's very pretty as is.

I look forward to the pictures very much!

 

Not even going to pretend the pink/gold/rose gold dragon idea isn't 100% inspired by Lunarian, the Blue Wizard's dragon in The Flight of Dragons (the green dragon idea was also inspired by the same film). The design isn't an exact match, but I'm absolutely okay with that

 

Hello all, I ordered a Rafayeh, too!

She was just too good to pass and I guess I will some day in the future forget that hefty price tag... somehow...hopefully.

Was very tempted to get a white one as I think white means endless possibilities. Nearly missed the deadline as I could not make my mind up about the colour, but finally went with my current craze for coloured resin and ordered the gorgeous dark green. Can’ wait to see it in person!

 

I'm glad someone bit the bullet and ordered that gorgeous dark green! I'll want to see lots and lots of pictures when you get your green dragon

 

@Girrl
Will happily take photos of it when it comes and would love to share... embarrassingly I have to admit, that in 10+ years on DOA I have not managed to find out, how to post photos from my phone.
I can post the Flickr links though

And I would really like to see yours, too! ( I would really love to see every single one out there! Sure that would be amazing!) I was wondering how the pink colour will turn out to look in real life. Pink, gold, rose sounds just a super nice colour concept!

I was also a big fan of the paint job in the promo photos - I would have probably gone for a painted one if the company would have even offered that. Not like to think what that would have added to the bill though.

So, as we can’t busy ourselves with buying clothes for him or her while waiting.... anyone thinking of any accessories to get or make for their new resin pet?

 

I love your ideas! Especially the messenger bag and the books! A cool hoard will certainly be nice, too!

I was thinking of making her ( I guess mine will be a lady) a nice nest! I hope to find a big natural looking Easter nest to start with and make it cosy, and habitable. Maybe some soft feathers to line it, some bones sticking out from last nights meal and also some treasures.

 

Care to hazard a guess?

 

unless something radically changes, I'll probably name mine after the dragon that inspired the purchase, Lunarian, especially since I've already got another dragon named Bryagh (Cuartos Darkhorn, named for another dragon from the same movie)

 

I found something I had not seen before… I had desperately tried to find pictures of Rafayeh in any other colour before ordering - to no avail. A few days ago I went through some saved pics on Instagram, one being a dragon in process I had saved last August. I followed it to the artists page and to my surprise landed on the Instagram-account of BaiJing, artist of Whale Tower! So, if you haven’t been there yet & like some preview pictures of a green Rafayeh, the Instagram account is “baijingqili”
I must admit, the painted one is stunning, but not quite my cup of tea, but the blank one looks promising!

 

Instagram updated that Rafayeh is ready! I'm thinking they'll start shipping soon.

BaiJing on Instagram: "Rafayeh is ready to go home! #bjd"

 

@middletails : Oh, you beat me to it with the great news! :-)

I am feeling very antsy now… looking forward to everybody posting box opening or owner pics! Mine will do a detour via Christina /Clover-Singing, so will probably not be an early bird.

 

In case anyone else has ordered directly from Whaletower like me, I emailed end of last week to see when mine would be shipping -- they got back to me yesterday and said she ships in September, shipping cost direct to me (I'm US based) is going to be $135. I'm excited but anxious for her to get her lol. Also yay spending more money on shipping

 

I got the same response too. They are packing and will ship 'next month'. My shipping cost is $137 (from Canada). I figured it will take a while to get such large dolls packed up and shipped out.

 

Yay! Very happy to tell you that I got my shipping number from Christina and my dragon is on her way!

 

Never thought that she would be an early dragon, but she is here already. Parcel is downstairs, but I have to finish working first ( homeoffice)! Torture!!!

 

@kelpie oooh Congrats!! Pics when you get a chance!!

While I've paid my shipping and everything, I'm still waiting for Whaletower to ship mine, sad cheese over here lol. I'm like crossing my fingers they'll get her at least shipped this week *so impatient*

 

@karlyl : Thank you! I hope yours will come home soon, too!

She is out of the box now and just great! Well engeneered, she can stand on her two hind legs ( ok, also leaning on the tail, but still impressive). She can hold her wings well, even when extended!

I made box opening photos and put them on Flickr, also posted the link under “Box Openings”, but here ist the link directly for you all, please feel free to explore:
Rafayeh unboxing

I thought the long horn would probably be magnetic, but did not realise, the two small ones were too.

Only problem: I am no beginner, but I have no good idea how to put the eyes in…She is pretty tightly strung and has no headcap, there seems to be an S-hook inside, but I can not see it clearly through the gap.I guess I will have to figure out how to get the head off without disturbing anything else
If any of you get an ideas when yours come in, please let me know.

 

@kelpie ohh the green is super pretty!! I got her in white but the green definitely tempted me. Congrats on the arrival, she's lovely!!

 

Thank you! I am really happy with the green!

But white would have been my second preference! It means you can pick any colour for the shading! Have you already decided how to paint yours?

Edit for this: I am also super nosy to see a pink one! So exited for more owner pics to come!

 

Aww, congrats! Were you also so surprised, that the box looked like a normal doll box? For some reason I had thought it might be more quare. Did you make any photos yet?

Yeah, the eyes are a problem I did not anticipate, too. I will have a closer look on the weekend. Might be necessary to completely unstring her, but hey, she needs painting anyway…

I admit I am a bit afraid of it, as she is very well strung now and might not be afterwards and she has plenty of parts… which is why I had thought I might ge away with MSC-ing and painting her strung.

Please let me know if you get a photo tutorial!!!

 

Yay shipping notice! It's DHL for me so it should be pretty quick once it starts tracking. Hope everyone receives their dragons soon!

 

Demo video of how to remove the head is online on Instagram:
BaiJing on Instagram: "how to remove the head"

Yay, eyes can go in tonight!

 

did y'all order directly, or through a dealer? I'm getting antsy for mine!

 

@Girrl I ordered directly so I wouldn't have to wait extra time from my previous experience with another doll, ordering through the US dealer added like an extra 3 month wait that I definitely did not want to chance experiencing again if I could avoid it

 

Mine was a nightmare and not as nice and easy as the video. Removing the head was one thing, getting it back on another. Inbetween at some point the S-Hook popped out of its resting place and made off down the neck I had to use blunt force to pull it back up. It does scare me to take it off again to paint it… at the moment the weather here is not good enough anyway…

Aww, looking forward to see it painted and all geared up, hehe!

I had no luck with my nest hunt, did not like the look or the size of the ones I found and gave up in the end. But I have a nice set of metallic acrylic colours waiting for the right moment.

 

After a trip around the world (It was stuck in HK, then detoured to Taiwan and stayed in Japan for days for some reason) and after Fed ex told me at ETA of Sept 29th, I think my Rafayeh is here! I'll have to go downstairs to the reception to get it.

 

Yay, she's here! She was delivered on Monday this week, but I'm just now having a chance to play with her.



She's wearing the free Sugarmoon eyes that Whaletower provided. She's so cute!! I love her tail. Removing her head is not as intuitive as I think they'd hoped, but basically you pull the head out enough for the s hook to be visible and turn the head so that the bottom part of the s hook sits in the provided slot. Then just unhook the head from the s hook. They definitely should have sent instructions lol, but the instagram post helped. The eyes were a little difficult to position because of the stringing for the movable ears? but if you have a thin tool, that makes it easier with some eye putty.

I have no idea how I want her to look, lol. (I'll pick out eyes once I have a good idea), but I'm excited to have her sitting around with my other dragon dolls I hope everyone else gets their dolls soon!!

 

So… who’s up for the second round?
BaiJing on Instagram: "New color！ #bjd #bjddoll #bjddolls"

Not sure yet, but I guess I might go for red my poor bank account…

 

I saw this too! I'm not sure if I'll get another one.......depends on the re-release date. This was the most expensive doll I've ever bought!

 

Pre-order is now open, available until 10th January, details here. Same price as last time (a small boon!), but just less than a month to pony up the cash.

Whilst, just like last time, I think the doll is truly incredible and I'd love it, I think I just can't manage the sheer cost!

 

I just applied for a layaway through Jane's Dolland for Rafayeh in white (I figure that if I want a different color I'll just dye her). She'll be expensive but I'm suuuuuch a big sucker for dragons.

 

I've just made a layaway for Rafayeh in black skin!! Ordered even 2 extra horns and 2 extra eyes
He's the best looking dragon I've seen so far! I love the cartoon-like effect, suits well my bjds!

 

I'm so glad Whale Tower offered optional horns this time around, and that you could order them separately - my Verdi is getting the thick horns in green, the antlers in red, and the straight horns in black! I'm not the biggest fan of the unicorn look, and her horn keeps falling off in her bag because gravity pushes her face right up against the bag's window, so I'm very excited to get her some backwards-pointing horns that will (hopefully) not have that problem.

Not sure yet whether her primary horns will be the antlers, the thick ones, or no horns at all...Decisions, decisions...

Side note, I absolutely adored how the new promo dragons were styled! Suuuuper pretty. I wonder if the artist named them. I don't think I could have such beautiful creatures in my workshop without naming them!

 

I was able to change my BJDivas order to ship directly from Whale Tower, so Verdi got her horns today! I got a quick picture for my Instagram, but I plan on taking more when I haul her out of town with me this weekend.

I love the horn options. The thin, straight ones make her look like some kind of goat, the thicker ones are very "Western dragon", and the antlers make her look like a little deer to me! The red resin is gorgeous, too, it looks like coral in person. The black is, of course, a nice classic black. I mostly got a set of black horns for the forehead horn, bc gloss black is the base coat for most good metallic and colorshift paints, and Verdi REALLY needs a head jewel. But I might use the same paint on the bigger horns too, so I made sure to order my straight goat-y horns is black because the sculpt looks a little crystalline to me. I kinda regret not getting black antlers too, just to see if I'd like them more than the red I have, but I think these are fine.

Be warned that the antler horns are pretty top heavy. Verdi has some hair wefts glued into her horn holes, so I'm sure that didn't help either, but with the magnets they came with, my antlers kept falling off of her. If you're crafty, you can do what I did and swap the magnets on them to a larger pair. The magnets are cast into the resin, so you'll need to attack them carefully with a craft knife to get the resin out of the way, then use some boiling water and a different set of strong magnets to work the little magnets out. From there, it's an easy drill and swap job. Bigger magnets really helped make her horns sturdier, so I highly recommend it if you're having trouble keeping them on!

Also, if anyone else ordered from BJDivas, I found out that the next shipment of horns (and possibly Rafayehs?) to them is due in September along with the Abyssia re-release preorders. So if you want yours sooner, it's worth sending them a message to see if you can have the artist ship directly to you instead!

 

Whale Tower is my hero!
Mini Rafayeh is happening!

I'm really bad at remembering to post them to the forum, but I've been taking SO many pictures of my Rafayeh and my one complaint is that her size means I can't be quite as spontaneous with her pictures as I'd like. I want to take this dragon everywhere and whip her out for pictures whenever I want, and this size looks FANTASTIC for that. I'm so excited!

Fingers crossed that the smaller size means she'll be a bit more affordable for folks too!

 

The new dragon is up for preorder today! Don't let the preview images fool you, Raffi comes in all the colors the full size Rafayehs did! I've already sent my preorder email in. I'm getting a dark green one. Hopefully she arrives in time for Resin Rose!

It looks like this dragon comes with different facial expressions! In addition to the regular face, there's an open mouth one with little fangs, and one with a kissy face! When I saw the listing this morning the face options weren't there, but it looks like they're up now too! I'm probably going to order all 3. I've never had a doll with multiple face options, I'm looking forward to seeing what they add to my photos!

Is anyone else considering getting one?

 

I bought a Rafayeh and was planning on passing on the baby, but then I saw her little fangs and how she can balance on her tail. So I'm hoping to get one if funds allow lol.

 

I was also planning on passing on the baby but now I’m not so sure… my big Rafeyah still needs her faceup first I think.

 

I was planning on getting one as soon as the announcement went out, but the little fangy face was the clincher for me. SO adorable. Hopefully I can make it clear with styling that my Raffi's just a mini version of my Rafayeh, I'm already getting questions from my friends about Verdi having a baby...

Order's been confirmed and paid for, so all I have to do now is wait! (and weep at my credit card bill, which is a little cooked between this and holiday shopping...stay strong, budget...)

I was also able to get my burning question about the horns answered! They're NOT removable on Raffi! I'm going to have to up my milliput mojo to get Mini V's antlers looking right when she arrives. Apparently they're planning to release different faceplates with different horns in the future instead of making people keep track of magnetic horns.

 

Ordered one in black, he'll look lovely next to Rafayeh

 

I just sent my payment for my little Raffi in white! Just need them to confirm the payment and order!

Oh and that's interesting that the horns are not removable. Not a big deal..just a little more tricky to paint.

 

My rafayeh arrived, but he's so tightly strung that I cannot detach the head to put the eyes
How can I do? I can't stretch the rubber band far enough to get it off the hook, am I missing something?

 

Can I ask you if you still have the link to the post? The hook is so tiny and the rubber band so tight, I can't stretch it enough to do anything