Dollpa 29

Long time no post! As I recently got back from a rather long trip to Japan, I am still rather jet lagged unfortunately, been waking up at really odd hours… 3-4am?! And only copied a load of photos onto my computer just yesterday. I finally got to go to Dollpa and Doll show this trip and I am excited to share my experiences!

Picture of Tokyo Big Sight below was taken at the end of the day…

So first impression of Dollpa 29 is… queues… and lots of queuing! I was glad we – me, my husband and bluestarbaby did not join the first queue we saw when we just got to Tokyo Big Sight, as it was actually not for for Dollpa, but for a completely different event happening at the Tokyo Big Sight.

We woke quite early for it (not as early as some I know), but then again I woke pretty early most of the trip due to excitement and jet lag… ^^; When the Dollpa officially opened, there was some mascot kitties doing morning exercises! Unfortunately we were too far away to get any decent shots — the picture below is full zoomed in, selectively cropped lol!

This time round I wasn’t too interested in the limited dolls, so I decided to try to line up for the Volks limited outfits (dragging along my poor husband and friend :P) And we stood in line(s) for at least 3 hours ish =_= it was REALLY tiring ^^; I can see why people actually charge XXX amount of money to go do all that queuing!

By the time we were done queuing and buying, we were all super tired… Not sure if I am going to do that again I think LOL! By the time we got to the display table which Haku san kindly informed us about (Thank you thank you thank you!), I missed meeting some people due to being stuck in the queue and walking around afterwards…  ;_; Managed to meet Evilnecko, Syaorankun and his adorable waifu Mi-chan, DarluarWu Wolfheinrich, Wisefreeman tho! :) also got a picture of a name card of arab2489, owner of a super pretty Sakuya ^o^

So below are some photos I took around the display tables :D Aki also finally got to come out of the tote bag after queuing with me… ^^; A cute Melty came by and sat next to Aki ^o^

Haku san’s Aura’s (foreground) as sexy as always! behind is arab2489’s Sakya ^o^

Wolfheinrich’s Sakuya, all decked out ^^

Evilnecko’s Saber Alter ^o^

Syaorankun’s Nanoha (background) next to Aki ^o^/

And some other dollfies around on the display area, some on the seller’s booths ^^/

It’s so surreal to see in person this line up of little MDDs, had seen them in photos before XD

Fluffiness!

Some of the Volk’s official displays! ^o^ We get to see some as we queue up to buy stuff…

I really wanted the dress set in the foreground =_= Too bad it sold out before we could even get close :(

Picture below of the dreaded “sold out” signs being put up to crush our dreams :P

And apparently I missed seeing their “one off dolls” section =_=;;;;; I must had been blind x_x

We were randomly handed some random snacks in these little bags which was a life saver — famished after queuing for hours lol

Took part in the Bingo, not much luck tho :P

Luckily later that day, before the Dollpa ended, I managed to meet a few fantastic Japanese Dollfie Dream  photographers, cnvl san,  Azure san, Suzuhico san whom I have been admiring their works forever on Flickr! Also managed to finally meet the really kind Namo san and his lovely and talented friend Marimo san! Also managed to visit DDmmf‘s booth, and really lovely and super talented Momolita san’s booth. Those are the priceless things which I gotten! I only wish my Japanese is more fluent so I can speak to them more! Also I managed to miss a few people and booths (argh!)

Group photo ^o^!!! Feel soooo happy, I cannot describe my feelings!

Aki next to DarlaurWu’s Yuki ^o^

I want to mention… I did not take as many photos of the booths and display tables again! It’s a slight improvement from iDoll last time, (where I took close to zero pix :P) We queued up for so long that we were super super hungry, any photos taken before any food was taken = bad photos =_=;  I don’t know how people like taitan san of taitan-no.net does it every time! *salute!* ^^;

Taiga scored a MDDIII body finally! I bought one of the silicone head band (not sure what it’s called) — on hindsight I should have gotten more since they weren’t too expensive, Taiga is using it now, worked pretty well holding her wig in place, will definitely want to buy more later when they have it available as regular stock.

Spoilt little Taiga’s laptop tiger was a kind gift from namo san! Hotoni arigatou! ^o^!

Lastly, I would like to mention a particular blog post (reposted on my site with permission) by a late doll friend Anja, helped a great deal during this first Dollpa experience, and she is still very much missed by the people she touched.

13 replies
  1. Ling
    Ling says:

    LOL…long hours queuing turns me off too,especially travelling in Japan requires a lot of walking,it could be extremely tiring.

    I hope i could attend Volks Doll Party some day. I almost made it to one last year,however it was not held in Tokyo at that time,so i had to skip it. But i guess it’s going to be quite a tough trip since i could not understand nor speak Japanese.

    • chun
      chun says:

      I felt really bad for my husband as he was not even a collector and he had to bare with the long queuing :P I don’t blame him when he skipped the Doll show one week later LOL! But I would still recommend at least try to go there once for the experience of a life time :)

  2. Kuraikawai
    Kuraikawai says:

    Oh! how nice Chun! i wish I could go one day, but there is no way my hubby would tag along >_< not after reading about the long queues and starving :S
    it must have been great to meet all the people we have been following on flickr/twitter/figure! for such a long time :)

    • chun
      chun says:

      Aw! So what you might do is perhaps plan with a like minded friend perhaps to go together XD! We prepared some bread the night before to bring, (which I think we ate at some point in time) but were seriously not prepared enough for three hours of queuing. The next time if I even thnk about doing it, I probably won’t do it like this unless I’m super sure I can get the item(s) I want lol! Since it means I’ll have to get up and go even earlier to ensure success! o_o; As for meeting people, it was super awesome, I wish I met EVERYONE, but it was still good to meet who I could!

      • kuraikawai
        kuraikawai says:

        Hmm, then I hope my hubby’s best friend gets a girlfriend that loves DD! as we will go again next spring with him, but just the 3 of us for now….if not I’ll just go alone while they both visit somewhere else and meet ppl in the queue, xD

  3. Wolfheinrich (@Wolfheinrich)
    Wolfheinrich (@Wolfheinrich) says:

    It was a pleasure to finally meeting you in person, after like 5 years I think? Dolpa is definitely a very good experience for myself personally, having gone onto the limited line and eventually secured a pre-order for Asuna, it was an emotionally charged day for me (adding the tad bit about misplacing the receipt and running around like an idiot). I am definitely going to go back again, and better prepared for that matter since I spent a fair amount of time starving myself to death.

    • chun
      chun says:

      Gosh time flies o_o; felt longer than 5 years for some reason tho! Japan is addictive! I hope to attend a dollpa/doll show again in future too ^^ Will take a while to recover from this one and then save up ^^;

  4. Smithy
    Smithy says:

    Looks like you had a terrific (but tiring) experience at Dollpa. – Makes me wonder if it best wouldn’t be a 2 day event with equal stocks for both days so you can queue to buy stuff on one day and hang with doll friends the other?

    Nice photos though, as a fan of “Working!!” love Aki’s Wagnaria look. ^^

    • chun
      chun says:

      Ah it would be so cool if it were a two day thing, though I suspect it will probably be equally if not more tiring, since have to make trip back to base, then back to the sight again o_o;;; I think we’ll be dead lol! Glad you like the Wagnaria look ^o^!

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