Volks SD13 Elizabeth - eye comparison and try-on

13th February 2024

I was lucky enough to win the recent lottery sale for Volks's SD13 Elizabeth. She's a really gorgeous doll with a very changeable sculpt and a lot of potential.

My Elizabeth arrived yesterday, and I had time to do a quick unboxing and dress-up.

These dolls are intended to be customised (if the owner wants to), and I always find that eye size and placement make a huge difference to the doll's expression. Elizabeth comes with 18mmHG glass eyes from Volks in the colour "Cadet Blue with Black line". For my taste, they're too big, and when I examined my doll I could see gaps at the sides of the eyes when you look from certain angles.

I removed the eyes and noticed that they do seem on the large size of 18mm (though eye size is not an exact science, especially with handmade glass eyes). The irises are 11-12mm which is larger than any other 18mm eyes I own. And also, they have very high domes - again, higher than others I own, which likely is the main cause of the gapping.

Below is a comparison with two other sets of glass eyes. From left to right: 18mm Zoukeimura eyes from the Full Choice System (colour "Thin green", circa 2004), 18mm HG Glass eyes from the SDGr Lucia Antique Stylist release (colour "Tea Rose with Black line"), and Elizabeth's eyes.

Eye comparisons

18mm Zoukeimura eyes from the Full Choice System (colour "Thin green", circa 2004):

18mm HG Glass eyes from the SDGr Lucia Antique Stylist release (colour "Tea Rose with Black line"):

16mm HG glass eyes from the SD17 Maximilian release (colour "Cadet Blue with Black line"):

16mm glass eyes (origin unknown):

18mm Zoukeimura glass eyes (colour unknown; circa 2021):

Conclusion

I thought the 16mm eyes would be the best fit, but there's a tiny bit of gapping on the sides. My low-profile, low-dome Zoukeimura eyes are definitely the best fit.

In general, I feel a small-iris 18mm, which I don't have here, would be the best choice, but 16mm would also work.

Froufrou Floris

11th February 2024

I tried to have productive doll time today, but what I ended up with were these two rushed photos. First my battery wasn't charged, then the SD card was full, and then I had to do battle with the limits of my old 2005-era camera body in very low light (and the limits of my photography skills). I'm definitely planning a camera upgrade later this year.

I did at least get to remove the hotglue from Floris's eyes and try this new pair, plus put him in this gorgeous floofy froufrou outfit from Volks, which was basically made for him. And the blurry paper flower is also evidence of a new hobby. (Do I need a new hobby? No. Can I resist the lure of new hobby? Also no.)

Floris's vibe is white/cream milk and honey romantic knight/soft boy with flowers. I've been thinking about making him a doublet and hose, but I've got about 10 projects to finish first, so do not watch this space...

Details

• Doll: Floris is a SD17 (Super Dollfie 17) Maximilian made by Volks
• Eyes: Resin, from a Taobao seller (not sure which one). 18mm with a small iris.
• Wig: from the SD17 Maximilian fullset
• Faceup: from the SD17 Maxmilian fullset
• Outfit: Ruffle Yoke Blouse set by Volks

Short review: joydoll Jakki on a Doll Family-h body with jointed hands

20th January 2024

Last year I ordered two joydoll Jakki (1/4 size) heads, one open-eyed and one sleeping. joydoll is an incredible sculptor and I love all her creations, but Jakki has an old-fashioned sweet look that really appealed to me. Jakki's also been released in 1/6 scale before, but the 1/4 version is slightly more mature.

One of the bodies that joydoll recommended for Jakki was a Doll Family-h slim 1/4 body, male or female. I ordered the slim 1/4 boy body and the head through New Clover Singing. The only thing I didn't like about the DF-h body was the size of the hands, which I thought looked too small, so I added a pair of 1/4 scale jointed hands by DF-h as well.

Short note on how to buy Doll Family-h: they sell through Taobao (here's their page), but Taobao has limited access unless you have an account. You can buy through Taobao with a proxy site or you can use a service like New Clover Singing or Alice's Collections.

Jakki was available in a few colours, including Mia white and pink. I chose Mia white and asked for the body and hands to be colour-matched, which is a service that DF-h was providing for this head - though I think they do colour-matching on request as a general service too.

The heads arrived first, then the body and hands a month or so later. They took 69 working days from order to sending (excluding weekends and Chinese holidays; Doll Family-h is based in China).

The order arrived in a sturdy cardboard box, inside of which was a doll carrier bag with some sturdy plastic packing material (no fabric cushions). I didn't know it would come packaged this way - but this is great, because I have too many doll boxes and no carriers!

The colour match is perfect and the body and hands are beautifully finished - no seam lines, perfectly smooth. The legs also arrived wired, with silicone rings in many joints. It hold poses really well. I'm very happy with the engineering of the body, which is very modern in all its jointing.

I wasn't sure how the jointed hands would perform, since jointed hands are notoriously fiddly to pose. However, I'm extremely glad I ordered them. They look great, are a better scale, and are slightly fiddly but not too hard to pose. (Changing hands is a breeze because there's a notch in the wrist to hold the S-hook in place while you swap hands.)

I'm super impressed with this body for the price and can't wait to play with it some more. And the Jakki heads are so sweet!

Here are some photos showing how it poses. In the background is a free calendar I got from joydoll for ordering both the open eyes and sleeping versions of the Jakki head, plus a look at the beautiful box each head came in. You can see a couple more photos in this Flickr album.