Princess Mononoke...?

Mostly left out by her brother and her brother's friend, Aysel has come up with many imaginary playmates. However... is Ven just part of her imagination, or is he actually real? Has she finally found a friend to call her own at last?

Here are some sample photos. Enjoy!

Sincerely,

Nobody

Ps. Doven is created by Wood Splitter Lee Cross. He's a one of kind wolf guardian, and will be appearing in future posts. If you're interested in Ven, please look up Lee's work on Deviantart and Facebook! I promise you won't be disappointed.

A Wishful Nozomi

Happy New Year!

Well, the new solar year has been around for a while, but this weekend IS the lunar new year. So. Hope you had a happy new, NEW year!

Here is the result of my procrastination. I'm finally getting around to uploading the box opening of Nozomi, my much anticipated tiny version of Tsukasa Konoe. I wasn't so neglectful as to leave him in his box for five months. I actually took these photos right after I returned from Taiwan four months ago. So really, Nozomi was only stewing in his box for about a month before I got to him!

Rui tells me she has no idea how Rowan and Aysel are still around when I'm such a horrible babysitter. And that she feels badly for the new kid.

Without further ado, I present my Volks Yo-SD (tiny extraordinaire) Tsukasa Konoe, and Thackery's newest nemesis, Nozomi.

 

A month long in a box, within a box is bound to drive anybody stir-crazy. I'm almost nervous.

Konoe, Tsukasa. 

...@$*&$#*&K(#*$!!!

You have no idea how much I wanted to throw the lid off an go straight for the gold, but peace. Tranquility. I'm mature. 

I'm a mature adult who's afraid of dolls, but also spends money on dolls I'm not afraid of. 

...Sometimes I suspect my brain must be strangely wired.

Wish I could've gotten BOTH Tsukasa and Shiro, but... no money. 

*pokes finger through threadbare wallet* 

This plastic headgear.

And his face! He's here! This FACE.

That beautiful hand-painted, air-brushed face-up.

To be honest, his uniform really wasn't up to par with what I know of Volks' standards. A little let down by the quality, but still looks good on.

Those blazer cuffs are way too small... Luckily, Volks new BJD bodies have been updated for a while with easily removable hands. Otherwise, Rowan would have to share what few clothes he has with this kid.

Big Tsukasa, meet Lil Tsukasa.

Mi casa es su casa. 

 Yeah, right.

Don't worry, little man. Thack gets better with age. 

Like cheese. Thack mellows and yellows with age.

I seriously need to take more photos of the three stooges together. More like the two stooges though, since Aysel often gets left out when chilling with the boys. 

But she'll soon have her own friend to play with. Stay tuned, and thanks for looking! (Hint: if her brother Rowan gets to have a tiny-size cat, Komame...)

Sincerely,

Nobody

So This Happened...

Hey again. Nobody here.

Despite the upbeat tone in my previous post, I actually tried REALLY HARD not to hold out hope for Volks' YoSD Tsukasa... especially after participating in the Dolpa 33 Lottery for YoSD Tsukasa Konoe, and totally flunking out. Even when some winners withdrew their applications, thus opening a first-come-first-serve window to purchase the smiley bugger at the end of June - I completely failed to notice. I was too busy wallowing, and was too let down to keep checking the company site for news. I really shouldn't have expected anything. I never win anything via lottery anyway.

The only times I seem to come up successful in some way or another is through hard work, persistence, and sheer (pigheaded) stubbornness.

Hence the reason I somehow found my chance by religiously stalking the secondhand market - visiting Y!J shrines and praying to eBay gods - before biting down hard on the (proverbial) bullet when I found something promising.

And now I wait.

Thackery will be thrilled. He will be. Shun will be a pest, and probably hide the new kid's shoes. As always. Rui will roll her eyes when I'm not looking. She wonders why I keep bringing home boys. And Aysel has yet to express how she feels. About anything. I should hug her more.

As for Rowan - he is still jet lagged from being dragged around the planet with me. So he probably will not notice another kid in the house until well after the newbie is well acquainted with everyone else. I wonder if he's pouting about something again, as I haven't seen Komame around recently. Granted, Taiwan is smaller than Japan, so here's to hoping Komame hasn't staggered off again in pursuit of another farfetched dream.

Next time then, Somebody!


Sincerely,

Nobody

This Will Happen

Well, my wallet is already flinching again... But I'm still crying happy tears. It's been so long since Volks even mentioned Tsukasa Konoe! All the other Tokyo Boys' Story Arc members (both immediate and extended) have been released more than once, except the Konoe boys. As popular as Ryoya was though, Tsukasa is the one that started it all for me.

Photos are courtesy of Natalie from Dollfie World, it's revealed in Volks' News Vol. 63 that these two handsome little buggers may be available soon! I looked at Volks' website regarding the Kyoto 11 After Event and Dolpa 33 news, but I can't seem to glean much info from them just yet. However, I will be keeping a look out for a way to bring chibi-Tsukasa home.

Rest assured that if there is a mini-Tsuka-pyon up for grabs in the near future, I will either try to participate in the lottery for him or try to stake out the secondhand market for his fullset. This is gonna happen. I will get a Yo-SD Tsukasa Konoe, who will sort of be my portable Thackery... who will probably be pissed that this is happening.

Now, if Volks would also release an official SD17 Tsukasa Konoe set like they did for SD17 Shirou Tachibana, I will go bankrupt. Not really, but I'll be pretty close to it and will be prepared to eat cabbage and oatmeal for the next five years.

Sincerely,

Nobody

Cyborg 003 Saves the Day!

This post should've been due almost two months ago, as my newest girl arrived in the beginning of December. Aside from Shun, my MSD Hewitt 2, all the other kids also arrived in December... I hope this doesn't become a pattern. I'd hate to be broke every beginning of a new year.

Anyhow, I finally got around to reposting Aysel's arrival/box-opening thread from DoA onto this blog. Hope you all had a wonderful holiday season, and started off the new year on a good note. Cheers, and enjoy!

____

I never thought I'd get Rowan, my Yo-SD Kakeru a twin. But a few months ago, I stumbled back into the BJD hobby after a few years of hiatus, and fell in love with a Dolpa 30 photo of Chika's 2nd release as Cyborg 003. I thought I was too late to place an order for her, but she was still available! After almost two months of waiting, she's finally home.

And she arrived in the nick of time... One of my college friends just passed away from cancer earlier this week, and her arrival gave me something to look forward to. While Aysel can't close the void, she has helped make things a little easier to bear. So in a way, she remains a little super hero in my eyes.

I actually opened her box after work, so the lighting was horrible. No nekkid photos or bubble-wrapped mummy unfortunately (or fortunately in her opinion). So instead of posting the initial box-opening photos, I'll just include the daytime photos - most of which I took this weekend :)

Just got home from picking her up from the USPS in downtown Honolulu

Green Yo-Box

Papers and instruction book.

The goodies!

Cyborg uni.

Superhero boots!

*squuuueeeeeee*

Swooping in, billowing cape/scarf and all!

New shoes and socks!

Cute little bag ^^

Default wig fits under the hat, which has no give but is better than any hat I've ever worn on my person...

Dollheart - the detail blows me away!

Now time for the outfit that inspired this shopping spree... I was done for when I saw her in this outfit on Volks' website. Just had to buy the ponytail wig and yellow sneakers to match!

Replacing the default 14mm HG green glass eyes with a pair of 15mm Hitomiya gray glass eyes... Hate removing the hot glue that Volks is so notorious for using. ><;;

Not too sure which kid will get to wear these eyes (Aysel, or her big brother Rowan)... I have another pair Hitomiya eyes in green that I'm waiting for, so we'll just have to wait and see :)

Wearing an infinity scarf, fashioned from a hairband that my grandma knit for me a long time ago.

Just wanna hug her all the time :D

And finally, here's Toothless in a box. I have no cat, so a dragon will have to do!

____

And that concludes the box opening. However, there are many more photos to come. After Aysel arrived, we traveled to Taiwan for a short vacation and met up with Rowan, whom my dad carried with him in his carry on from Philly to Taipei - just so I could bring the twins back with me to Honolulu. Needless to say, many pictures (of food, scenery, and resin siblings) were taken during our too-short family reunion in Taiwan. 

Giving the rough 2014 year some closure, here's a cute photo of the twins watching the fireworks light up Taipei 101 on New Year's. Till next time!

Sincerely,

Nobody

Feeling the Moe Charm

My dear blog,

It's been over a year since I last wrote in here... After a while of not understanding why I couldn't log into to my blog and see my dashboard despite knowing my email, I had to wait a few days until the password reset email was sent. Ridiculous. But I'm just glad I haven't lost access to this blog as that would be quite a disappointment, to say the least.

So much has happened since the last post! I graduated college, was employed as a waitress for a few short months as I job hunted. Each day seemed so bleak as I waited to hear back from different places. Sometimes I heard back, had an interview, and either got rejected or I rejected the offer due to certain terms. Just when my confidence was flagging, I got a job in Hawaii and moved all the way out here. I'm glad to have the opportunity to work in my field, but I know I'm going back to grad school in the near future. I want to explore CADCAM more, but from a different angle (say, CAE).

College life in Philly seems like a lifetime away now, despite only graduating a little over a year ago. It's been a real struggle living on my own, but for what it's worth, I think I've learned a lot and grown a lot in this short time. Perhaps that's why this year has felt longer than any other year.

Anyway, I haven't really been back in the BJD hobby for a while, seeing as Rowan was the last member to join my little family... And that was 2010, 4 years ago. Aside from doing a little shopping in Japan at the Volks stores, I really didn't have much time to focus on taking photoshoots. And then when I moved to Hawaii, I didn't want to bring any of them as I hunted for an apartment during the first two weeks I was here. Just didn't want to take any risks.

But now I'm back, and recently was just browsing DoA and Volks' website when I was struck in the heart by one of cupid's moe arrows. I tried to veer away from photos, thinking, "No more! My wallet can't take it! Living expenses on Oahu are too extravagant! It's already hard enough saving up for grad school, but... okay, well, she costs less than my monthly rent... Just this once."

Before I knew it, I had spent 50,000+ Y.

As I paid for the Sato-gaeri services, it may take up to 2 months to ship her. Which means she could probably end up shipping at the end of December for all I know. In preparation for her, I also bought her clothes. So spoiled, and she's not even here yet!

Here're the Volks photos of her that K.O.ed me in one shot:

Of course, that's only an outfit set from DP 30. Her actual Limited Edition fullset is this:

And even if you're familiar with Rowan, a YOSD Kakeru, you might not have noticed that this is his twin mold, a YOSD Chika. A different faceup does wonders. But it's no wonder I found her so adorable, and just had to have her. That's right, there will be twins in the house. Thack is going to have kittens, Rui will just smile, and I can already see Shun snickering in the corner.

Just when I thought I could cry over my dying wallet, I was on Dollheart and ran across this outfit:

Needless to say, I'm just going to survive off of oatmeal, cereal, and cabbage for the next few months. I've already received the Dollheart Lauren outfit set, the sneakers, and the ponytail wig. Just waiting on the YOSD White Hoodie set, and of course the new girl.

I've a name in mind, but I'll reveal that in the blog when she arrives. Feeling pretty excited! Don't let my red-rimmed eyes and tear tracks on my face fool you.


Sincerely,

Nobody