When Volks abruptly announced the discontinuation of the MDD f3 body, it caused quite a stir in the doll community. They promised that a new and improved body would replace it soon, but for months we were left wondering what, exactly, that would look like. Volks finally revealed a new and improved MDD body in their blog, and shortly after made a limited pre-order run of new MDD bodies available for members. I wasn’t feeling so eager that I would wake up in the middle of the night and pre-order just to be the first to receive the new body, but since they hadn’t sold out of Flesh bodies the next morning I eventually gave in and ordered one.
Volks has really outdone themselves with a confusing name this time – MDD 2.0 DD-f3 body. That’s not to be confused with the original MDD body, known colloquially as MDD 2 since it used the DD 2 era frame design, or the MDD III which followed, or the MDD f3 which was the most recent iteration. MDD 2.0 f3 is a redesigned body and frame which ditches compatibility with previous MDD bust parts and most of the frame parts as well.
Because of the pre-order event, my body included a ‘V’ hand as a bonus. She also came with some o-rings to help secure heads to the new neck post, as well as a plain cloth bag and an updated 8.1 concept note booklet.
It’s hard to tell in this photo, but fresh out of the box and seated next to the previous MDD f-3 body, improvements in posability are immediately noticeable. The upgraded hip joint lets her sit firmly and easily in this pose, and the torso has a much greater range of motion. You can also see the tapered neck post which replicates features of many popular third-party parts to increase range of motion.
This pose with a very strong curve to the neck and back would be impossible on a stock MDD f3 body. You can see the ankle has a pretty nice profile when fully flexed as well.
Many cute sitting poses are now possible! My first impression is that this body is quite fun to play with. Volks has increased in the range of motion, in exchange allowing for some broken poses. It’s possible they avoided these extremes in the past to keep the dolls more newbie-friendly and to avoid unflattering depictions of their products, but that’s just speculation on my part. More speculation- Volks saw the popularity of third-party replacement parts and cheap but highly posable competitors like Imomo and Dollbot and decided to act. In any case, I don’t have those parts or competitor bodies to compare with.
There’s a notch in the back of the bust that allows for greater backwards head tilt. It’s visible from the back when the head is tilted down.
Without the o-ring to secure the head, it’s possible to make some truly cursed poses. The heads I tested stayed securely on the post without an o-ring, and I liked having a bit more range of motion, but you may want to use it to prevent these type of atrocities or when traveling.
The neck joint, torso twist and hip tilt allow for much more dynamic poses! Volks has a bunch of comparisons of posing so I won’t spend time repeating it.
One noticeable difference is that the bust part feels ‘gappy’, floating over the abdomen even in neutral poses. It does tend to ride up after posing and can get pushed down a bit further than this, but it’s not as neat a fit as the previous body even in the best circumstances. The hips similarly have a bit loose seating, to allow more movement.
I call this the ‘sunbathing sea lion’ pose! It was shortly after this photo that I managed to dislocate the legs from the hip joint. Fortunately it’s not too hard to fix – similar to fixing mochi-ashi legs in the f3 frame – but I bet other folks will run into it soon. Because the frame is floating loosely in the upper leg, I had to grip the knee to stabilize the frame and line up the leg post into the hip joint. Then a really good smoosh to make sure the legs were well seated in the joint, and we’re back in business.
And another cute sitting pose for the road:
I’ve been meaning to upgrade my MDD III bodies, and I think this new body is finally enough of an improvement to get me to swap out my old collection.
I’m curious to see what option parts Volks will release, and if they’ll bring these frame upgrades to the larger dolls as well. This also leaves the fate of the mochi-ashi body up in the air- since it wasn’t too popular in Japan, I can see it being neglected and forgotten like DDP without any further updates. There are still some more surprises in store for the Volks 20th anniversary celebrations, so we’ll have to wait and see what they reveal next!