Time to introduce another new arrival!
This time it’s Smart Doll Destiny, who I acquired second hand from Dollyteria. I also picked up this blue/black wig which I think suits her very well.
The Destiny default eyes are lovely but feel too large for her narrower eyes. I tested out some smaller designs – these extra small round designs ended up being pretty fun for her, I love the sass!
I wasn’t sure about the Destiny faceup since it has such a strong expression, but the pouty look won me over immediately. The details are nice and sharp, without some of the flaws I’ve seen in recent Volks DD faceups.
My other Smart Doll is Mirai, who I picked up during her initial release and upgraded to M-bust. I’ve also swapped her hands to DD hands. Compared to the new SmD body, she’s pretty similar. The stand design has changed, and Destiny won’t fit as neatly on shallow shelves with the stand angled out further from the body and extending much further back. She’s also got some bright orange spine joints compared to Mira’s skin tone skeleton, but those parts are only visible when you’re swapping busts or otherwise taking the doll apart.
Compared to Mirai, the Destiny sculpt is almost the same. She’s got narrower eyes and some slightly different features, but the overall proportions are the same, and they can swap headcaps easily. Other doll companies have ‘dreaming’ or ‘romantic’ versions where a popular sculpt is modified to have narrower eyes, and I’d definitely say that Destiny is a ‘romantic Mirai’ in BJD terms. The nose, lips and ears feel a bit more built up and smooth compared to Mirai (note the sharper ear details on Mirai) but I’m inclined to attribute that to iteration and evolution of the production process, rather than an intentional design change from Mirai v1.
Don’t let the faceups fool you- apart from the eye shapes, they’re almost the same sculpt!
Compared to Volks DD tan, SmD ‘tea’ skin tone is a few shades darker and much more distinct from the ‘milk’ skin tone.
Swapping DD and SmD hands is possible, but the color match isn’t good. You’re better using dye on a NS hand than trying to acquire and dye tan DD hands, I think.
Overall, I’m pretty happy I was finally able to acquire a tea Smartdoll and the Destiny sculpt is very cute. Because of some problematic and unsettling actions by the SmartDoll CEO, I decided to avoid purchasing directly from the company and waited for a doll that I liked to appear on the secondary market. Things on Smart Doll social media took a nasty turn even while Destiny was in the mail, so I probably will hold off on any further Smart Doll purchases for a while. It’s a shame, because while I do have some small critiques the dolls themselves are nicely made and offer an good alternative to Volks and Azone vinyl dolls in 1/3 scale. It seems like Korean dollmaker Fairyland is also entering the vinyl market soon, so I’m curious to see what other options doll fans will have by the end of 2019.
