Grant Me the Power to Revolutionize the World!

So… I bought another doll.

In fact, the dolls I currently own are not accurately reflected in these posts or on the profile pages. There are 3 Pure Neemos on my shelf amidst all the ponies, and although I decided to sell my Nagisa, Claire, when my F-12 arrived, she hasn’t actually sold so she’s still in the house. I was mulling over whether or not to put my Ms. Mariko Dollfie Dream Sister up for sale, but I never settled on doing it. (Every time I see her face I lose my nerve. XD) Despite all that, I still bought a new doll. I have no regret, not even a little bit. When I first saw the promotional photos for this doll, I knew I’d be pre-ordering her.

Her manufacture was delayed several months–she was originally slated for release in November 2013, but she did not ship until the very end of January 2014. She arrived at my workplace on Friday, February 7, 2014… and I am so incredibly happy that I bought her~! ♥

Jul 7

And Then There Were Two

I couldn’t resist this cute little face! There’s another Pure Neemo in town!

When I bought my first Pure Neemo, I didn’t think I’d buy any others. There weren’t any past or upcoming releases that caught my attention as much as that particular Chiika. This continued to be true even as Azone released the fantastic “Komorebi Mori no Doubutsu-tachi” dolls. Their mori-girl themed outfits and adorable forest animal ears, tails, and accessories were wonderful. There were quite a few that I wanted for the outfits, but not for the dolls themselves.

In fact, I split one of the releases (Miu) with a friend who was only interested in the doll. Katyusha looked adorable in the navy and green-plaid overdress and dark brown accessories, not to mention the bunny ears and bunny tail adorned bloomers.

I didn’t think I’d be able to find someone willing to split every “forest animals” doll, and it was too expensive to buy them all for the outfits, so I stopped paying much attention.

Then I started seeing pictures on other’s Flickr photostreams showing “neko-san Aika.” Aika’s face hadn’t really appealed to me before, but “neko-san” Aika was not the same as normal Aika. Aika typically has drooping eyes with heavy upper lids and a slightly smile; it gives her a somewhat sneaky expression–albeit a bit sleepy. This Aika did not have the little smile, however–instead, her mouth was a little “o” that seemed somewhat hesitant. Chiika’s mouth is more of a “D” with the flat part at the bottom, and that gives her face a frightened look. By comparison, this Aika’s mouth makes her face seem as though she’s yawning or has just thought of something to say. It’s like a visual pause. Continue reading »

Dec 11

A Witchy Little Christmas

There’s someone tiny sneaking in the presents!

One of the things I’m really enjoying about my Pure Neemo is her size~ When I was little most of my favourite toys were fairly tiny–I adored Polly Pocket back when they came in compacts and actually fit in a little girl’s pocket. I loved stories like The Borrowers about teeny-tiny people or creatures using “human-sized” things. The size of the Pure Neemo dolls makes me think back on all of those smaller creatures living in a big world.

I thought back on those memories when I was taking pictures of Katyusha. The background was dark red, and seeing her white outfit against the red immediately made me think of Christmastime–things like candy canes and snowflakes on Santa hats! I started thinking about how cute she would look with other holiday-themed props. I went through my box of decorations and set things up–and it all turned out basically exactly the way I was envisioning it. Now I wish I had decided to send out Christmas cards this year, because I’ve got a few pictures that I would have loved to print on postcards or cards. Oh well! Maybe next year~ Continue reading »

Dec 10

Naming the Little Witch

It’s time to celebrate–both the holiday and finally naming the littlest doll!

It’s been months, but the newest and smallest doll finally has a name. I’ve been trying to think of a name for her since she first arrived in early September. Naming dolls is always something I struggle with. I can think up plenty of potential names, but selecting one and actually sticking with it is hard. I realize that I could experiment and continually rename, but that tends to be too confusing for me to keep up with. If a doll’s name isn’t the “right” name, I simply forget it! Then I’m constantly struggling to remember what it was, if I can remember it at all. It just doesn’t stick.

I went through many options for the Pure Neemo doll–at first I considered lunar or celestial names. Her white hair and outfit reminded me of the moon…but I couldn’t come up with anything that seemed “right.” (I also have really strong associations with Sailor Moon, as that’s my favourite series ever, so anytime I tried to pick a lunar-inspired name that was what came to mind immediately, and the doll doesn’t really remind me of any characters from the series.)

I also considered a number of floral names, as that was a theme I used for quite a while prior to this doll. My Dollfie Dream is named Lily, and my Pullips also had floral names. There were numerous white flowers out there, and the Victorian ideas of “the language of flowers” can be useful when naming. However, none of the flowers or flower-inspired names that I read were what I was looking for. Continue reading »

Sep 6

A Little Witch Arrives

There’s a new doll in town–a very small new doll clad in white!

For a while it felt like the release date of the Pure Neemo that I preordered would never come! The site listed it as “Late August,” but when the final week of August came and went I started to feel worried. Luckily the invoice arrived on the 1st of September, and she shipped the next day! ♥

When she arrived at my office yesterday, I was so excited that I couldn’t wait until I got home to open her up~ I’ve never purchased a Pure Neemo before, so it was very thrilling to open the parcel! The box is made of a very thick plastic, and entirely clear–all the patterned cardboard is on the inside packaging. This is much different from the toy dolls sold in US stores, which are generally more cardboard on the outer package with a thin plastic window. (This is similar for Pullip boxes.) The Pure Neemo box is pretty sturdy!

The doll was sandwiched between several layers of plastic, so she couldn’t move in the box but wasn’t tied down to anything. After having spent a lot of time cutting dolls out of packaging in the past, trying not to tear or break anything, this was QUITE a relief! I wish it were a more widespread method of packaging for dolls. Her hair wasn’t sewn into anything or wrapped up in anything, although she had a little plastic headband keeping her bangs in place. It gave her some serious “hat hair,” haha!
Continue reading »

Jul 25

Darn You, Majokko Shop!

The original Pure Neemo Advance D Type body, posed for sitting Japanese-style, but with no joints!

Lily has a penpal–Pidge, another Dollfie Dream Ms. Mariko. Pidge’s household originally sent my household some lovely presents for Valentine’s Day when I participated in a gift swap on the Dollfie Dreams forums. (You can view the photo story here!) Pidge didn’t yet live in that household when the Valentine’s Day event happened, but neither did Lily live in mine~ Still, Littlebearries‘ Alna was such a wonderful secret Valentine that I couldn’t help but feel excited to reciprocate for White Day. (You can view her side of the story here!)

From reading Alna’s blog entry about her receipt of the White Day present, I was reminded of the existence of a certain type of 1/6-scale dolls–Pure Neemo! ♥ This wasn’t the first time I knew of or have seen these adorable dolls made by Azone, but I hadn’t thought of them in a little while. At some point during my earlier Pullip-collecting days I was tipped off to Pure Neemo. If I recall correctly, it started off with my looking at Blythes and reading about Blythe restoration, which moved to the types of bodies that Blythe collectors and enthusiasts like to choose–and the Pure Neemo body was one of those options. It’s an interesting little 1/6 body–originally the body (called “Pure Neemo Advance”) was non-jointed, put together with a peg system. The goal was to avoid unsightly joints for display or photography. They released these bodies in all sorts of poses, including a kneeling body for posing dolls sitting properly at Japanese low tables. Continue reading »

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