So what happened with Volks 1/6 Dollfie line?

[claws]

Remember when they said that they were clearing out all their old 1/6 bodies to make way for this new line way back? Well, I never really saw anything new from them, but the good news is that they seem to have gotten some of their "discontinued" bodies and heads back in stock. (I'm tempted to go and buy a bunch of Go guys, because they're my favorite, and for fear that they'll disappear completely)
So does anyone know what happened with this? Not that I'm complaining, but how can they restock things that are supposed to be discontinued? I even e-mailed them about it a long time ago, and they told me the GO bodies and heads weren't going to be stocked anymore.

[MitisFeles]

It's true, they restocked a lot of items, even on the Japanese site (I live in Europe and the American site doesn't ship oversea, so I search only in the Japanese one). But I surely cannot help understanding that strange Volks behaviour

[Greyhaunt]

Volks moves in mysterious ways....

[Geektopian]

Another interesting aside is that "The Tribe" aka Zoukei Mura has gotten back in to producing limited run scale models in a major way. They are even selling them under Zoukei Mura label rather than Volks. Hmmm.... It is mystery!

-BTW, I'm not trying to suggest a parting of the ways since The Tribe is simply Volks design studio. They obviously feel that the ZM brand name has enough strength to stand on its own. I guess also that there's a whole younger generation of Asian model makers who don't even remember the days before Volks was primarily known for dolls.

I have no inside information but to be honest, I just don't think there's much demand for their 1/6 scale dolls anymore. Most of the major ABJD boards don't allow them to be posted, they aren't a prominent brand in the 1/6 scale action figure market (Unlike say, Hot Toys, Dragon and DiD) and worst of all, they have a bad reputation for poor quality control and engineering. Once the SD and MSD lines came along, you could see the interest in the Dollfie line slip considerably, even though IT was the original and either directly or indirectly influenced so many other female doll lines. It's a shame too since they had a great "one stop shop" concept but they neglected the line and ignored customer concerns until it quietly just faded away with maybe a small whimper from the true fans.

When they finally announced the discontinuation and supposed overhaul of the Dollfie line a couple years ago, did you notice how many voices in the doll hobby community were like "Aw, that's too bad... but hey, look at these neat new dolls over here"? I would love to believe we might see a new 1/6 scale line from them some day (a 1/6 DD would be too cool!) but for now, they seem to have conceded the game to Obitsu, Azone, Tokyo Doll, Phicen, Hot Toys and others.

[Geektopian]

I'm really happy to see a lot of their heads restocked. Even though I'm more of an Obitsu fan, the Volks heads work great and provide some much-needed variety.

[claws]

@Dee Dee Steele: It is weird, isn't it? I can't figure out what they're up to...but I hope they keep it going for a little while longer. At least until all of us who like the 1/6 dolls can afford to buy them all up! XD

@Greyhaunt: Tell me about it...even their "news" section is vague sometimes. :/

@Mlatch221: That's...kind of an odd business move. I think you're right though; there really isn't a huge demand for their 1/6 dolls now. Most people seem to prefer Obitsu; which I can understand, since they're pretty much unrivaled when it comes to posing. I've noticed that there are a few other doll companies that don't pay much attention to what their customers want, as well. I don't know if it's because of the culture/language barrier (I don't know how, say, people in Japan feel about Volks' customer service and all) or what, but it's a little frustrating sometimes. I was not happy when I heard they were discontinuing the line - while I have quite a few Obitsus, I prefer my boys to be Volks...as you said, the variety is pretty good. Also, I wanted to get at least one female doll from them, just to see if I'd like it any better. They're not as great as Obitsu as far as holding a pose goes, but they do okay.
A 1/6 version of DD would be awesome. I usually avoid anime-type dolls, but those are really nice. I bet Volks would make us pay big for one, though. Barbarians. XD

[MitisFeles]

@ Claws: I'm starting to feel worried because I like more Volks boys too, and I planned to buy some (and the Neo Guy head 01 to make some experiments), but now my entire budget will go away for the two dolls already scheduled and the books for my university studies, so I will need at least two or three months to save enough for a Volks order T_T I hope they will not fade away in this amount of time...

[claws]

Hopefully, Volks will keep them around for a while. When they "discontinued" them the first time, I sort of panicked and started checking Ebay for them; the few that were there were ridiculously expensive. >_< And since Volks is pretty expensive and charge a lot for shipping, it's already hard to get these guys. Let's just hope they'll be there later on! (Or, if they aren't, someone here might be tired of theirs and willing to sell them to us! )

[Llwynog]

Perhaps they found they had more in stock than they thought. Kind of like what Tonner call "Warehouse Finds."

[Indigo]

After they had made their announcement about their new stuff, I would check practically every single day just in case. I figured that I might have a chance to get something before it all got grabbed up. But it never showed
Anyway, I later kept trying to to order heads and such but everything was always out of stock. I did manage to get a couple of head not long ago, but I am still wondering what happened with the new line. It is rather disappointing...