September 7 – September 8, Los Angeles, CA
After a five-year break, Dolls Party has finally returned to the US! I entered the lottery for a tea party ticket sort of on a whim and won, and since I had the means to, I decided to attend my very first Dolpa. While this Dolpa was seemingly scaled quite back quite a bit from those in the past, and neither the one-offs nor theme were particularly exciting to me, attending a Dolpa was definitely a big bucket list item! The future holds no guarantees, so it's important to sieze opportunity whenever there's a chance. Now that the even it is over, while my Dolpa experience was a little plain, I can say for certain that I'm very glad I went! Unfortunately a lot of the photos I took ended up blurry. I must have been very nervous around so many gorgeous dolls! But I hope you can enjoy what I have.
Badge Pickup
I got in the night before, so I was up bright and early and buzzing with excitement for the event that Mother SD only permits few to attend. I picked up my badge promptly at 9:00 AM, and while there were other attendees dressed up and ready to socialize that early, I decided to save that for later and head to the mall across the street first instead.
Since it's pretty hot in LA, and just in case I ended up leaving with a second doll, I packed lightly and picked simple outfits. I was glad because the area of the hotel Dolpa was in either had no AC or very poor circulation.
There were a lot of people just kind of hanging out in the hallway. Groups of dolls would congregate on tables. Someone was handing out little American flags for your doll to hold. I probably should have recognized who she was but it's not like people on DoA usually use a photo of themselves as their profile image. Anyway there were lots of interesting groups! I set Haupia down for just a little while when my arm started to get sore.
How to do Dollfie Makeup Panel
I did not attend the DD Base Body 2.0 Lesson panel, but I did attend the How to do Dollfie Makeup panel. The panel was lead by Ciera, with Haru doing quick faceup demonstrations. DWC06 and perhaps DWC04 were sold in the morning without prior notice literally anywhere. You'd have had to stumble upon the sales table earlier, and they were all sold out before the panel began. A bummer for anyone who was hoping to snag a head!
Anyway the two did a fantastic job explaining the Volks process for faceups. It wasn't exactly beginner friendly, but they did share quite a few interesting tips. Volks artists do indeed use the same materials that they sell in their stores, paint and pastels made in Kyoto by Zoukei-mura. But for brushes, rather than the full selection that they have available, artists typically just use a #7. They also mentioned something about using pearl powder to even out the color but I didn't quite catch how it's used or what the purpose is. I wonder if it's to be mixed in with the pastels? I suppose I'll have to experiment on my own.
Volks artists do about 7 faceups a day, though I'm not sure if that's individual or collectively. The amount varies depending on planned sales of course. Haru's favorite sculpt to paint is Kanata. She also says the mouth is the hardest part to paint.
Also, because the panel served the purpose of advertising products, they shared some information that is pretty hard to find online about more mysterious items like sealant and remover. UV-cut MSC is indeed formulated to protect the surface on which it is sprayed, and not just itself, from yellowing. The eco paint remover is made with “natural materials,” which could honestly mean anything, but I've tried it in the past and it works pretty well against ZM paints. However the smell is very strong and unpleasant even if it might be nontoxic, so... do with that information what you will.
The Tea Party
After the panel there was just a little time before doors opened for the tea party. Lining up to get in was a little chaotic and I think there were far more people in attendence than the hotel was meant to accomodate, but some people came for the hopes of maybe getting a seat if someone didn't show. I had no problem getting in though, and I ended up picking a table at random. They served typical tea party food: finger sandwiches, scones and chocolate treaties. And of course tea. The food lines would fill up and thin out continuously throughout two hours, so I think there was plenty for everyone to eat until they were stuffed if they were so inclined.
The theme for the tea party was Retro Americana, so the tables were decorated with giant milkshakes. A while into the tea party, one of the hosts had to warn people that the milkshakes were filled with actual liquid. I'm not sure if it's because someone almost knocked one over trying to pose their doll with it, but maybe they could have thought the decorations through a little better... dolls aren't really known for their balance! Luckily, as far as I know, there were no major accidents.
The majority of the dolls entered in the contest also did their best to fit the theme despite the short notice, as it was announced only a few weeks beforehand. It's not really my taste but the dolls were very cute! It was hard to pick so I ended up voting for entry 29, who was dressed un a shirtless cowboy apron and holding a crochet apple pie.
I was really impressed with the handmade outfits!
For the best-dressed owner contest, some people stuck to the theme better than others, but it was hard to vote as you could only see who entered if you walked around and looked for people wearing a sticker to indicate they were in the running. I didn't care to do that, so I didn't vote.
The one-offs were dressed and styled beautifully but there were no sculpts I was particularly interested in other than F-101. If he had been wearing a dealer outfit, perhaps I would have enterted. But I ultimately and confidently decided against it, and I still don't think I missed out. It was wonderful enough to see them in person! I wish I had been able to spend much more time admiring all the details but all I could do was take a few quick photos and move along so the next person could see.
Lastly, the most important event of the tea party, the announcement of the contest winners, lotteries, and raffles! I didn't make a note of who won the dollfie and owner contests, but I'll update here when I find out. The dollfie contest winner was awarded a tiara and sash for her doll, and the owner contest winner got a matching set of wigs for her and her doll.
All of the one-offs went home to a very happy owner, with the exception of PS White Pearl with make-up by Yui and outfit by Lemulia. Mikey was genuinely very shocked the box for her lottery had 0 entries! Pearl will be going back to Japan.
For the raffle prizes, the lowest prize was a wig, followed by outfit sets of various sizes, then a komame plush, and lastly tenshis. There were multiple winners for each prize, and winning one prize took you out of the running for the rest.
In any case Volks doesn't let anyone leave empty handed! Everyone got to leave with a plastic fan for their doll, a shirokuma setsu-chan, and a preserved rose that came in various colors. They were given out blind-box style. Mine was light pink, which has the meaning charming dollfie. The flowers were given out at the end of the tea party, which was a good way to lift people's spirits if they didn't get Mother SD's blessing this time.
I overheard the next day that one of the tenshi winners accidentally left her certificate on the table after the tea party and it was thrown away, and Volks was unable to replace it. How disappointing! When I attend the next dolpa and win a tenshi of my own, I'll keep that in mind and not let the certificate out of my sight! Still, I hope she can cherish her special gift for a long time even without the certificate and that her experience wasn't too soured.
The last surprise of the tea party was the announcement of two new SD16s: Emerald and Topaz. They'll be available for the next online FCS in October! They're much prettier from a distance than up close but absolutely an improvement over current SD16s which are kind of uhhh not the cutest. I'm thinking Emerald would make a very cute boy though.
it was too crowded to get a good look so please look forward to the official photos!
I didn't want to disturb people while they were eating or in the middle of conversation so I only took a couple of pictures of other dolls
Dolls Party
This day had a lot more waiting than the first! I got to the Sumika Shop line right around 9:00 AM, when the line was supposed to form, and it was already wrapping around the corner. While I was waiting, Mikey was walking by and looking at everyone's dolls. She was fascinated with Haupia's ears, and I told her I did the faceup myself. She was so impressed! She went to go get Ciera to show her, but couldn't find her, so she said she'd get her later and told me Haupia was 本当にキュート before going on her way. I was beaming and the wait didn't seem so bad. Anyway, eventually they went and assigned everyone a number to mark their spot in line. I was #44, but because of the line lottery, #120 was picked as the start the line instead of #1, so by the time I got in I could see that a lot of the hot items had already been claimed. But I did get some good stuff, including dealers clothes and the last pair of bear slippers. This Dolpa also got the September outfit collection even before Japan, so that was pretty special.
Interestingly enough, while Volks items seemed to match the $1 = ¥100 exchange rate as on the online store, the dealer items were sold at the actual exchange rate. They didn't give out receipts so I can't provide a full breakdown, sorry!
After that, I set my stuff down at the tables and so I could look around properly. There was a games area, with 2 gacha and a shooting game. None were terribly popular, but they all did run out of prizes since if you went to them early enough, you were allowed to play multiple times. I only bothered to try the B-Grade glass eye gacha and left with the red pair. I didn't go to the Beauty Salon since you needed to apply beforehand, but I suppose you could have just as well watched the doctors work if you wanted to. People who bought basic maintenance services that didn't require that the doll be sent back to Japan seem to have been given a basket to carry their doll in when it was returned to them.
Then I went to go look at the dolls up for lottery. This is my only major complaint with how this Dolpa was run. Every entry badge grants three ticket slips, one for each lottery. There was one lottery for ICON, one for DSD, and one for Dollfie Best Selection and piapro Best Selection. That means, for example, you could only either enter for DD Miku or Lieselotte, not both, even though they are from two entirely different product lines. For the ICONs and DSDs, you could not enter for a sculpt, you had to enter for a particular numbered doll. So for example, ICON Serra might be #2, #6, and #12, and you'd put in an entry for doll #2. That means if you picked a particular number that most people also happened to pick, your odds would be lower. Well, I don't feel that this is a particularly fair way to do a lottery, though I'm not sure that the odds are mathematically any different. You basically have a 1/5 chance of picking a favorable doll, but it's not entirely clear how they pool or pulled winners since all of the dolls share the same box. I'm not even sure this is a good way of deterring scalpers since people were openly giving unused lottery entries to their friends to increase their chances and enter for multiple dolls. It kind of sucks but maybe I'd feel differently if I had actually won. I entered for DSD Nayu #19 and did not get a chance to bring her home!
Still, it was lovely to see them all. DSD really are too cute and such a huggable size. The ICONs were gorgeous but even seeing them in person, I did not feel compelled to enter for one. I'm just not into fashion dolls and these are definitely Volks's best attempt at that. Please make them just a little cuter!
After the lottery winners were announced, that was pretty much it aside from the auction and piapro group photo (which was actually just open to all DD and not just Vocaloid ones). I didn't stay for either of those, and I went home after that.
Overall it was a pretty good first Dolpa experience. It was very special getting to see the people that had some major role in the creation of not just your doll, but everyone in the venue's doll, in person. I don't think you can get that opporunity with the vast majority of items you own. In fact there's a pretty good chance that many of your posessions never even passed through human hands. You could tell that the Shigeta family loves their jobs, or at least wanted every attendee to feel special and enjoy their time there. Mikey gave an speech at the beginning of the tea party and started crying when she talked about how much they wanted to return to LA but couldn't because of the pandemic, and likely other compounding factors. Mikey probably can't even remember a time she didn't have some kind of active roll in the company, but still has a genuine appreciation for the love customers from all over the world have for their dolls. I think it's important to remember that Volks is a family-owned business, and a very small one at that, so them being able to hold overseas events at all is kind of a huge deal.
Anyway congrats to Beamlette for once again winning the auction model and giving a large some of money to Volks so that they can keep running just a little longer.
