Shining Blade Dollfie Dream Sakuya’s Arrival

I have made no secret in the past that I have always been a fan of Tony Taka‘s work, so when I picked up the news back in March that Volks was getting ready to release Dollfie Dream Sakuya サクヤ (also known as Maxima Enfield in Shining Hearts and has also been referred to as マキシマ・サクヤ Maxima Sakuya according to official documentation) based on the PSP game Shining Blade as the 3rd Dollfie Dream based on the work of Tony Taka, I knew it in my heart that I have to pick her up even before the official photos were available!

Based on the information from my contact who attended Dolpa 27, Rise and Cirno were actually sold out a little bit ahead Sakuya and based on unofficial counting, Volks actually made more Dollfie Dream available at the event compared to HTDP Kyoto 9, although it is unclear if that will translate into more DDs available for the After Event lottery.  I knew I couldn’t wait or leave it up to chances (since Sakuya is a “must have” DD for me, so I went ahead with the Auction route).  Thanks to the lighting fast reaction from my deputy service, Sakuya has arrived from Japan within merely six days!  So, for the past couple of days, I have been wanting to get this introduction post ready as soon as possible, along with a grand plan that I have been scheming to bring Airy, Neris and Sakuya together for a photo shoot; however, if I were to go through with that, it will probably take me a few weeks before I can finish a photo set that I am truly happy with, so after thinking it through for a few days, I have decided to go through with the introduction post first for those of you who would like to see more reference photos before the DP27 After Event lottery on the 18th.  Ok, enough talks already, allow me to go through the unboxing and introduce my youngest Dollfie Dream daughter Sakuya from Shining Blade!

Sakuya comes in with a silver slider box instead of the traditional yellow box, most probably because of the addition of her Katana.

Here is a size comparison with Saber Lily’s slider box.

With a cutout Volks logo on the side, which from my understanding, is a design inspired by Super Dollfie Dream slider boxes.

Here is a quick peek into the box to make sure Sakuya is free from any obvious defect~

Here is a view of the content inside.

Here is a closer look at the dress set.

While Sakuya’s dress is not lined white but at least no black threads were used since most of the staining usually come from the threads, not necessarily the lining.  And I am happy to report that after 5 days, I have yet to observe any staining on Sakuya, although your situation might varies.

There are two pairs of gloves, one set for 06 gripping hands, another set for 01 regular hands (not included).

I’m not afraid to admit the panties caught my attention instantly…..

*nosebleed* & *speechless*

After I was done with the inspection, I moved onto one of my biggest concerns, and that is whether I have the proper tool to pierce Sakuya’s ears for her earrings since Volks has stated that we have to do this ourselves, so I am going to cover that in a little bit more details here.

Based on my measurement, the diameter of the earring stud is 0.75mm which is about 0.029″, so I was planning to use a 1/32 drill; however, after a more thorough inspection, I noticed the stud isn’t quite long enough to pierce through the ears for the clutch lock of the earring and therefore there is no real easy way to lock the earrings in place …. so I ended up using a drill that is slightly undersized 0.028″ diameter so the stud will always have a tight fit against the vinyl.  Since the vinyl is a very soft material, the actual drilling process doesn’t remove much material at all, it actually pushed the vinyl away so it creates a pathway for the stud to go through.

While you can do it pretty much anyway you wanted to but I recommend against using any sort of power tools, because it can do more harm than good before you know it.  The tool you want to use to pierce the vinyl is called a pin vise, which is basically a hand drill which you can buy from most hobby supply stores.  The red arrow is pointing to a dimple mark that’s already on the head so you can just aim for that without having to worry about making it symmetrical yourself.

It doesn’t take much force to drill thru the vinyl, so don’t try to turn too hard or fast, slow and steady and making sure it’s straight is the priority here.

Backing the drill out, the hole is barely visible from here since the drilling process mostly pushed the vinyl away rather than removing material.

After piercing both ears, push the stud through the holes you just drill and it will look like this~

In my last DD introduction post, I briefly talked about the proper ways to handle the knee joints of a DDIII, this time I want to talk about the techniques to apply a Dollfie headcap (for those of you who might be interested).

Since Sakuya’s wig cap is black inside so in order to prevent or minimize staining on her head, it is best to apply a Dollfie headcap which you can buy from Volks store.  First put the head cap on the head just above the ears like this.

Then lay the wig over the headcap, and you will notice the head cap appear to be oversized and doesn’t look like it fit perfectly but that’s ok.  The red arrow is pointing to the oversized headcap.

Since the oversized headcap is going to prevent the wig from sliding down smoothly, use a tool to feed the headcap underneath the wig cap.

After sliding the wig down as far as you can by grabbing/pull the edge of the wig cap (do not grab the ponytail or you might break it), you will notice the headcap is still bigger than the wig, apply the same technique to feed the head cap under the wig cap as before.

After feeding the headcap under the wigcap, it is barely visible from the outside.

Alright, enough with the talking, time for some photo sharing!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wolfheinrichsworld/7187132016/in/photostream/

Those of you who follows my twitter and flickr stream have probably seen this already from last week~ I’m at lost for words!  Sakuya has such an elegant and pretty face but at the same time carries a more serious expression than most of my other DD girls~

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wolfheinrichsworld/7214087202/in/photostream/

Having said that, it is even more difficult to resist her sexy charm…. especially in situation like this *nosebleed*

And BAM!  Sakuya is ready for battle~ as the female commander of Valeria Liberation Front!  Personally I think Volks did a fairly good job with expressing Sakuya’s character in her face sculpt, a significant improvement over their previous attempts on Airy and Neris, in my opinion.

Based on my own assessment so far, I think Sakuya is quite versatile and definitely in the front of the pack among my DD girls.

Here is a closer look at the Katana “Tempered Blade Keducayon”

Here are a couple other shots from different angles.

*nosebleed continues*

Initially, I was a little concerned on how the dress would look like; but I got to give it to Volks, they did a very fine job in recreating Sakuya’s Noir combat dress, excellent implementation….

As an after thought, the fact that Volks did not release Sakuya back in DP25 was probably a good move since it is obvious that Sakuya is better represented as a DDIII with the improved articulation and poseability.

While I would very much like to continue with the photo shoot but instead of rushing it through, I would rather spend more with it and make sure I am doing the best I can possibly do for Sakuya’s first solo photo shoot.  And on top of that, a group photo between Airy, Neris and Sakuya is also in the plan, please look forward to it!  Thank you for reading~

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