Sion's new body | Volks SD17 Hijikata Toshizou 1st box opening

If you saw my previous post detailing my sudden rush of feelings about Sion and ordering him a Volks SD17 body on Mandarake on Monday, you won't be surprised at what this is -

A box opening!

Yes, Mandarake is really fast, and it definitely satisfies the urge to buy and get (almost immediately) rewarded. I'm typing this on a Saturday, but I ordered and paid for the doll on Monday, and the package came on Thursday. 4 days from order to arrival. :0

Anyway, I say I got Sion a SD17 body, but what I actually bought was a full doll - Volks SD17 Hijikata Toshizou (1st). I'll probably put the head on the marketplace after I'm done sorting things out. Along with Sion's old body. But let's move on to the box opening first, shall we?

This is how the box came! The yellow paper is for the GST (goods and service tax) I had to pay because I didn't dare ask Mandarake to underdeclare. ;-; Oh well, it's better to be safe right?

I opened the box from the bottom so that's why this is actually the back of the Hijikata box.

Took it out. Mandarake's shipping and packing is always secure and I'm always really happy when I get their stuff (plus the quick turnover between order to arrival helps).

Without the bubblewrap. The box is actually really nice. A pearly white, which is much nicer than my SDGr Tae Lovely Dress box. And for something from 2010, this is in pretty good condition!

I forgot what exactly was inside and was pleasantly surprised to find a wig! There's also the certificate, and the costume (minus shoes, belt and pocketwatch but that was written in the sales page so I was prepared for it). The bag is a zippered cushioned case which is convenient. I never realised Volks did this type of cushion so early? I got similar cushions from Switch for the Attractive Body. Anyway.

Hello~

He's such a cute doll even though I didn't buy him for the head but just for the body.

His default faceup is quite cute actually. And in like 80-90% good condition? The eyes are still hot-glued in lol. At this point I realise he's pretty unyellowed as well and so out came some other dolls for comparison.

Volks NS 2010 (Hijikata 1st) and 2008 (Olivia 2nd). My Olivia's definitely alot more yellow.

More resin comparisons. Sion (Migidoll Miho) is actually the yellowest here... yes, even compared to Freddie (Volks Olivia)... And I know Elly (Volks Tae) has yellowed slightly because her leg parts are a different colour. But the new SD17 body matches her which means it's pretty unyellowed for its age.

See? Sion is actually yellower lol. Also yea I drew sideburns for him for his wig and it looks dumb like this oops.

Sion's twin, Hew, on the left, is actually less yellow than Sion and would probably match the Volks SD17 body better but I feel weird snatching his brother's head to use for him so... I'll probably leave it as it is. 

Hew (left) on the Little Monica Harmony body vs Sion (right) on the new Volks SD17 body! I love the new proportions Sion has. He used to have a similar body to his twin (type A while Hew uses type B) but eh, the upgrade is wayyyyy better. I don't know what I'll do about Hew but he's staying on his current body for now because I spent too much on Sion...

Ah, so I've mostly been singing praises about the body (super happy with this purchase), but there's some minor flaws, of course. You can't really see it here but his finger tips are kind of dirty/grey. And his forearm is super smooth almost like he's been handled there alot? Which is weird because his forearm is still about the same colour as the rest of his body so I'm not sure why/how that happened but it's not a super big deal. There's also some minor scratches and stuff from handling I guess, which is normal and doesn't bother me now.

And here's Sion :D So cute. I want to redo his faceup so he can be the best version of himself possible but I'll do it when I have more feeling/energy.

Sion feels better now, and damn do I like the Volks SD17 body. Not just because it looks nice and gives Sion better proportions, but also because of it's heft. Like it's heavy, and that's something I like in my dolls like they feel more solid? I feel like I like bodies that are more heavy, and consequently all the dolls high on my list of favourite at home are those with solid feeling bodies... lol.

Lastly, here's a quick height comparison of Alfie (Switch Waseon on Attractive 65 body), Sion (Migidoll Miho on Volks SD17 body) and Gabby (CP dreaming lishe boy on Delf type 3 body).

Sion. I'm having a lot of feels about him since putting him in his old wig yesterday and this might be all over the place but I'm just going to go ahead and write it all down first. Maybe I'll come back to add photos later because I'm typing on mobile.

It started from me watching alot of Peppertones music videos. They're a sort of k-indie band that's been around for 15 years and I only just got into them last week but it's pretty much being an obsessive spiral. The best (and worse) kind. Best because hey I feel something and god that's awesome when I've been irritated with work lately, but also worse because I get so engrossed in finding out everything I can about them that sleep becomes secondary. And that's something I don't want because I want to take care of my body so it'll take care of me you know. But sometimes my mind gets obsessed and things like this happen.

Anyway, it was looking at 2012 Jangwon (the bassist) and his sweepy longish emo hair that made me want to... do something. Either go out and get that haircut myself (bad idea, it's hard to maintain; been there, done that), rage/passion draw emo hair (im out of practice but i did try it later at night), or, hey, light bulb moment, didn't Sion used to have a similarly styled emo hair?? So I went to dig out his old wig, and glasses (because Jangwon wore thick glassed and damn am I obsessed with this dude at the moment) and dressed Sion up. I even took photos with my DSLR (mostly because my phone was charging and I couldn't resort to my usual quick phone camera shot) and then I edited the photo over dinner and then damn. It reminds me why I love this dude (Sion, not Jangwon lol) so much. Like over the years I've switched Sion over to a different wig because the emo one was annoying to style but this is giving me all the feels.

And then, night came and I was still listening to Peppertones while drawing Sion, and I had a NEED to find Sion a new body because I think part of the reason I don't play with him as much is because his current body doesn't cooperate with me. Also it's kind of too narrow now that my aesthetics have changed and just. HE NEEDS A NEW BODY, my mind screamed in my head at 11pm. I searched up doa and mandarake, had a long internal debate about whether to get a volks body for him, if sd17 or sdgou is better, and which I could afford because I only have enough to buy one. And then I decided to go to sleep because I wanted to be a responsible adult, sleep on time and not make rash purchases. But oh boy, that was not a well thought out idea because what happened was I spent an hour in bed thinking about this still and not sleeping and even in the middle of the night when I woke up I was Thinking about getting Sion a body. 

(^ the sketch of Sion playing bass here because ahem, of course right? Had to do it even though Sion doesn't play any instruments lol. Also my friend commented "thicc" which like, that's definitely my aesthetic so, it makes sense to buy him a volks body because those are thicc????)

So, come morning which is today, I got up, thought about it some more, and went on Mandarake to put the sd17 body into the cart and now I'm waiting to see if I got it? And I'm thinking also, damn, this is the doll that makes this hobby The Thing for me, you know? My dolly friends and I were talking about it some time back, and I couldn't name a doll that made me super into the hobby, but then I realise it's not cos I don't have this doll but cos I forgot. It's Sion, man.

The awkward thing about this is that Sion has a twin brother, Hew, and I have no idea what to do with the brother. Like I definitely love Sion more than Hew and also, hobby wise, do I need two mihos??????

I don't have an answer to that. All I know is that I'm reminded of why I love Sion and I'm just going to do what I can to get him right.

Also, another thing I've been thinking about is this. Whether I can have less dolls so I can do more for each of them. Like even sew for them, because I do enjoy that, it's just that I'm very slow at it, from making patterns to actual sewing but if I have less dolls it's probably more doable? Ah, I don't know. I ran through the crew yesterday in my head and there's very little potential dolls to cut down on...

I mean I know who are the dolls I'm less in love with but... does that mean they don't make the cut? Idk. For now imma just focus on Sion first.

FACEUP LOG 01: contrast / "instagram" faceup

I started a series called “Faceup Log” to share some of my observations and what I learnt during my own faceup journey. The first log is about contrast, or the “instagram” faceup vs “natural/in person/naked eye” faceup.

 TL;DR: I switched to a heavily blushing to make my faceups look better on camera ~

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I've been wanting to share some of my faceup learnings and I was deciding between a long blog post here, or via multiple youtube videos. I went with videos in the end because I feel like there is more opportunities for people to find it than if I put it on this blog, but if anyone thinks a blogpost would be better, do let me know?