Yoko

Dollfie Dream Yoko. I've wanted her ever since the first time I saw her cute and lovely face. Those big soulful eyes, that cute pointy little nose, and that wonderful big smile of hers. She's such a cutie and a sweetie. I love her!

So, over the past few months, I'd camped out at Mandarake every few hours, minutes, seconds, what-have-you looking for her, and for other dolls and figures, too. Basically, every chance I got to be there, I was there. Then, I missed a complete, and unused DD Yoko by what seemed like just hours, or minutes. For only Y80,000, I could have had her. I know that's still expensive. But, compared to US$2500 to US$2900 on e(vil)bay, she was a steal! That bummed me out for a while. Although, I did manage to get a GSC Nendoroid Yoko at a fairly decent price recently.

Anyways, I started to troll YJA (Yahoo Japan Auctions) for her. And, she was there. At about Y89,000 the last time I looked, though. More trolling followed and I found her head, unused and at a GREAT price, too; Y25,000. Awesome! The next few days that followed were a bit nerve wracking as I had to find a good Japanese bidding service as well as hope that no one would bid up the price to some crazy level.

I had tried TokyoHunter, OtakuAgency and Goody-Japan. As a first time user to their service, only one of then went as far as to even reply to me; Goody-Japan. They got my business immediately and I sent them a lot of money (almost Y45,000) via PayPal. Goody-Japan has GREAT customer service as the communication was first rate. They kept me informed of everything every step of the way. There was no guess work involved. And, in the end, I won her (see here). All in all, she basically ended costing pretty much the same as she would have cost from Volks originally (including the new DDdy body). Now, that's a steal!

I did not do a box opening type shoot for Yoko's arrival as she did not arrive as a complete Dollfie. Her original parent(s) was just horrible; she was disembodied and all her parts, accessories and clothes, etc. were sold off in piece parts (as far as I could make out in the bad google translation). Her head was the only thing left by the time I saw her. But, that's the most important part in my opinion anyways. So, I had to buy a DDdy body for her from Volks Korea, which is only about an hour away from me by subway. I got that a few days after the winning auction. I also did not want my girls to see a headless body in the house to prevent traumatizing them. So, I hid the body away from their curious eyes. I told them about Yoko and they were excited to have her join them. Unfortunately, I did have a Puchi Nendoroid all in little pieces on my bed as I was cleaning her. They saw that, though. But, they were ok after I explained what I was doing. Duh!

And, then the long wait for her to actually arrive.

Now, she's finally here, in one piece again and as good as new. Well almost as good as new. For those who already have a DD Yoko, you know there are some anatomical differences between her original body and a DDdy body. So, she lost some bits and gained some bits! It all works out in the wash. LOL She's still getting used to her new body and feels a bit awkward and uncoordinated at times. But, for the most part, she's doing very well and loving her new sisters and family. She's whole and happy again. And, that's all that counts.

So, may I present to you my latest mesume; Yoko.