Weekly summary 04/2019

Hi,

it's now a couple of days before Chinese New Year holidays, and most factories are beginning to shut down. The last dolls are completed and shipped out, before logistics companies shut down, too. However, it was a week not without noticable events.

This is a summary of what was going in the doll world in the past 4th week of 2019, as far as we at Dollstudio & DS Doll Europe were concerned.

1) New arrivals.

One new doll has been introduced, YL Doll's YL-158/L. It's voluptuous body style with a weight which rings some alarm bells.

Also, a couple of new heads showed up. Most notably Doll Forever's charming Nikki and Doll Sweet's Sammi. The latter one was actually introduced for the first time by Artetokio under the alias name of Mirei (みれい).

Also there were a couple of heads from the backlog, including SY Doll's no. 168 and Sanhui's SH-008.

Jinsan is now close to 300 heads; no. 297 respectively no. 293 were released a while ago, as well as a new (vendor exclusive) "fishgirls" body style. Haven't seen it, don't know if it smells like fish :-?

As always, you can follow the latest updates in our Twitter feed: https://twitter.com/DollStudioEU

Also, we have the New products listing on all three Dollstudio websites. It is sorted in reverse chronological order, so the latest additions to our portfolio are on top of the listing:

• Dollstudio US - http://us.dollstudio.org/new-products (RSS)
• Dollstudio EU - http://eu.dollstudio.org/new-products (RSS)
• Dollstudio DE - http://de.dollstudio.org/new-products (RSS)

On Dollstudio EU, there is also the New arrivals timeline http://eu.dollstudio.org/timeline with a slightly different display style.

2) Latest blog posts.

Our daily blog posts feature mostly new photo sets, showcasing dolls and heads in various configurations.

Among some other things, we have posted these new picture series during the past week:

• Doll Forever - FIT-155/F body style and ›Nikki‹ head (D4E no. 54)
• Doll Forever - D4E-165/I body style and ›Christi‹ head
• Jarliet - JA-166 body style and ›Kristel‹ head
• Irontech Doll - IT-163/G body style and ›Cecelia‹ head
• SY Doll - SY-171 body style and head no. 168 (Shengyi no. 168)
• Sanhui - SH-168 body style and ›Marya‹ head (SH-008)
• Sanhui - SH-168 body style and SH-020 head
• YL Doll - YL-158/L body style and ›Aisha‹ head (Jinsan no. 271)
• OR Doll - OR-162/N body style and ›Miriam‹ head (OR-040)
• OR Doll - OR-167/G body style and ›Kaya‹ head (OR-031 / Jinsan no. 249)

These blog posts are mirrored on the Latest blog posts section all three Dollstudio websites. It is sorted in reverse chronological order, newest posts on top:

• Dollstudio US - http://us.dollstudio.org/blog
• Dollstudio EU - http://eu.dollstudio.org/blog
• Dollstudio DE - http://de.dollstudio.org/blog

(EU and US sites in English, DE site in German)

3) Business issues.

SY Doll (Shengyi) was removed from the list of TDF-liste manufacturers. Not much explanation was given, let alone details. I have no idea what the problem is. For us, SY Doll is an exceptionally reliable business partner. We never had issues with them. Our POC is responsive, dolls are created as ordered, and we never encountered shipping loss or shipping damages. Additionally, Indigo analyzed SY Doll's TPE blend and gave it an excellent rating - it is better than the blend used by the market leader. Whatever dollitics caused TDF to list SY Doll about a year ago and now kick them silently off is beyond me. So until something substantial surfaces, we will keep carrying this brand.

Regarding Jarliet, we changed the acronym to JA- as there would have been confusion with JL Doll. The latter one is a newly TDF-listed brand which has been silent so far. The dolls look like another Junying (JY/Aiersha) shop. We'll see if JL Doll will become active on TDF in the future.

4) Shipped dolls.

Shortly before CNY shutdown, a few more dolls than in the weeks before have been completed and shipped:

• Doll Forever - D4E-155 body style with ›Dora‹ and ›Liana‹ heads (to Europe)
• YL Doll - YL-168/B with ›Elsa‹ head (to Europe)
• Piper Fantasy - PI-140 aka ›Ariel‹ (to Germany)
• YL Doll - YL-146 with Manuella head (to North America)

As usual, confirmation pics are in our Twitter feed and on the respective product pages.

Also, a small Climax Doll should have been completed by now… but an accident happened in the factory and the mold cough fire. So this order will be delayed.

5) Indigo updated.

Technically, Indigo's cold-welding adhesive (CWA) is now more or less ready. If has passed domestic registrations, and now Indigo is working on documentation requirements. That's the steps Chinese factories just try to skip, resulting in customs authorities removing the unlabeled TPE "glue" bottles from shipments.

However, a clean alternative to the Chinese TPE "glues" is now in sight. After Indigo has shipped the order backlog and finished the documentation tasks, I will make an announcement with further details.

6) CNY Promotions.

The Chinese New Year holidays are only a time of leisure for Chinese factory workers; sales agents keep being available for orders. Some even run promotions during CNY.

Among these CNY promotions, Irontech offers an extra head for free. Available for every order during the spring fesitival respectively between Jan. 28th and Feb. 12th.

7) Factory closing schedules.

As mentioned in the beginning, CNY holidays are around the corner. Most manufacturers will process new orders after the holidays. Here are some factory closing schedules:

• Doll Forever: Jan 22nd - Feb 16th
• Irontech Doll: Jan 28th - Feb 12th (cutoff date for new orders was Jan 25th)
• YL Doll: Jan 30th - Feb 12th

I think the timeframe between Jan 30th til Feb 12th is also the time where most logistics companies are closed, so no dolls will be shipped during this time.

As always, most sales agents remain available to collect orders. Usually, the new orders during CNY holidays are queued and then processed by first com first served. So it is not wrong to place an order durcing CNY - after the holidays there will be a backlog which will usually take until March.

7) Other topics.

Strangely, still no explanation for the odd body height of YL Doll's YL-157 body style which showed up on UKLDF. User Tommo10 noticed that his YL-157 doll is actually of similar body height as his WM-166/C. Yet another Chinese mystery.

Sandro