It’s 2024, lockdown is well over, and it’s time once again for a Dolpa hosted in North America, organized by Volks USA.
The latest event felt somewhat low-key terms of marketing and the schedule was delivered almost last minute, but the enthusiasm of Volks fans didn’t appear to be diminished. Hosted in Torrance, CA near the Volks USA headquarters and 20 minutes from LAX, it was a convenient location for travel. Next door to the hosting hotel was a large mall and the Japanese grocery store Mitsuwa, as well as Book Off!, Kinokuniya, and other fun shops with Japanese origins.
I arrived Friday afternoon, wrangled a rideshare from LAX (discovering the joys of LAXit), and shortly after dumped my gear at my room in the convention hotel. My party decided to investigate the nearby mall since we knew the next few days would be pretty packed. We went down the road a bit to grab dinner at Izakaya Hachi, snagged snacks at Daiso and then turned in a bit early to get some rest in advance of the next days events.
Strawberry Glace from Izakaya Hachi
Dolpa Day 1: Saturday Panels and Tea Party
Saturday featured a couple of Volks Panels followed by the Tea Party. Badge pickup was available early in the day, so we did that and then walked over to Philz to snag coffee and breakfast before the show started.
I knew in advance that panel seating was limited so we ended up loitering around the panel room entrance close to start time, and that worked out fine for getting a seat in the room. The Dollfie Dream panel featured the sculptor of the new 2.0 body (Tsubaki?) talking about the features and demonstrating poses. The upcoming Chimikko body was also on display and we got to see a bit of posing for that one as well. No official word if Chimikko will be available beyond the Anya Forger release, but given the recent release of clothes and accessories for this body all signs point to ‘yes’. Attendees of the panel also expressed a keen interest in the Dollfie Dream Boy body and Dynamite body receiving the same 2.0 upgrade, though again no official commitment yet.
After the panel ended, Volks opened a small shop of customization/faceup supplies which was promptly swarmed. A few lucky attendees snagged the hard-to-get Volks DWC 06 head right away, which created some saltiness since many SD fans weren’t expecting the shop to open until after the second faceup panel. I think there were only 2-4 of those heads stocked anyway, hopefully Volks will make them more readily available in the future.
Panel two focused on SD faceup techniques, similar to the panel from the previous LA Dolpa. Volks faceup artists from Japan demoed their process on the DWC06 head, showing how to use the Volks pastel sets and accessories to add blush. Their painting process was pretty interesting – hold the brush still and move/rotate the head to apply the brush stroke. For shaky hands they recommended pressing your elbow against the table to stabilize the arm further. They used Volks Eco Remover to wipe up paint mistakes, as well as the magic eraser/melamine sponge. Eyelashes were cut into 3-4 segments and applied using tweezers and glue. They also demoed a technique to apply the eyelashes and secure them using the DD skin protection tape- pretty neat trick!
Following the second panel there was a break before the Tea Party started seating, so I ran up to my hotel room to refresh, get my doll ready for the show, and get a bite to eat. Staying at the convention hotel was a huge plus here because it felt like barely enough time to get ready anyway and I wasn’t even entering myself in the costume contest!
Once it was close to time for the Tea Party seating to begin, my Tea Party buddy and I started loitering around the entrance. Lineup to get in was a bit chaotic but fortunately everyone was proactive and cooperative and we were able to get in smoothly. I got my girl entered into the costume contest, checked out the one-off models, and grabbed some tea.
There weren’t any must-have one-off models for me, but my friend was pining for the tan Pearl so I entered on her behalf. Crazy enough I actually won! It was a bit of a blur after that so I didn’t find out until later that no one had entered for the white skin Pearl. Apparently she’s going back to Japan to be offered in another event later, perhaps. All the other one-offs found happy homes and it was exciting to see everyone get prizes from the raffle as well.
The final big event was a surprise reveal – two new sculpts that will be available for FCS, Topaz and Emerald. Volks USA also announced that their online FCS would be returning this fall, so I assume we’ll get another SD16 option with these new head sculpts in the mix.
After the Tea Party ended, I met up with my travel companions and we set out to find dinner. Honestly my brain was mush at that point and I have no memory of this. I was already pretty introverted before the pandemic lockdowns and now big events like this are even more exhausting so I tend to flee as soon as I can hahah. Anyway I somehow got food and got back to bed to recuperate and prepare for day 2.
Earlier in the day, in between all the panels and Tea Party there were loads of doll fans hanging around. I snapped a few pics of impromptu doll displays that popped up around the hotel, so many cool dolls to check out it was a bit overwhelming! There were also some unofficial meetups and plenty of opportunities to socialize if you missed out on the Tea Party. This update is already getting pretty long, so I’ll drop some more Saturday photos here, and continue my report later in part two.
