CB's Smarties

I currently have an assortment of Smart Dolls and Chaos heads.  The Chaos heads are like seconds that until the pandemic hit, would only have been available by visiting the Smart Doll shop in Tokyo.  But since the shop is closed, they have been made available to current Smart Doll owners on the Smart Doll website.  Coco Mirai now has a Chaos cortex body.


This is Rikki who is a Summer and my first Smart Doll.


Then came Chitose, who I still haven't settled on a different name for.


Unity, I neglected to get her photo on Flickr and here.


The third girl to arrive was a Cortex Final Boss Kit Gaia.  I'm not a huge fan of the Mirai sculpt, but I really wanted to try assembling a doll.  I managed to break the peg on the wrist ball joint, which she is hiding in this photo. It was a fun experience, but I don't think I'd do it again.  Plus the Cortex kits and dolls are being phased out since they didn't prove to be profitable.  Gaia has a new wig and eyes and could use an updated photo.

And it looks like I never took any other photos of Unity, my fourth girl, other than of her in her underwear in the bag arrival shot.  I'll have to take one and update this post.

Then I got the 2 Chaos heads.  You only get to pick the skin color, not a specific character, so its a gamble on what you will receive.  Even though they are seconds, after examining them closely, the flaws are not very obvious.  Just some slight asymmetry in how something was painted on one side of the face vs the other.


I got a Trinity in the milk skin color.  She's the same head mold as Unity, but they are different enough to make me happy.


Gone - Cocoa Mirai is the other head. So far, I'm kind of meh on her.


Infinity, got one of the last ones in the Milk skin tone.


Smart Doll boy Gemini has joined the bunch.  He's a little short of clothes for the moment.

I picked up 3 custom painted Chaos heads from Doll Angel back in June at PUDDLE.

The first is this beauty, who really needs a photo in something under than her undies. She has a Chaos Cortex body.


Fox is the second, a COS head as a boy. He has a Cortex girl body with a Doll Angel custom Smart Doll COS boy head. He has a Chaos Cortex girl body with a 3D printed XS chest from Etsy seller LunasCrypt. This does give him an advantage in the clothing department, because he can share clothes with the girls.

The third Doll Angel custom, is also a boy.  He's been waiting all summer for a body, which I only recently got one from the Chaos outlet and assembled.  So I hope to get a photo of him soon, all put together.


I took another gamble on the Chaos painted heads earlier this summer, and got Reflection. She replaces Cocoa Miria, who I sold and inherited her Cortex body.


The most recent addition is Tea Challlenge.  She was only released as a head in The Grid.  Except, because I'm a cheapskate, I waited until she moved to the Chaos Painted heads and gambled that I would get her. Here, she's pretty much wearing a wig I already had that I thought look nice on her and about the last pair of eyes I have in this size.  So her look may evolve from here. She doesn't have her own body, so she has to share with either Summer or Gaia.

What a group of cuties! All "classic" style!

Meh on Cocoa Mirai?  Oh, but she's adorable, especially in that wig and outfit you've put her in!

Maybe try some different eye colors if you have any available. Cocoa Mirai, if purchased complete, ships with grey eyes, which are not my favorite, but they're all right. I put brown eyes in my cocoa Harmony and I think they look really nice, and very expressive. The eyes can make a big difference in how we perceive the characters. But you know all that, you've been doing the dolly thing for... well, for a while!

And yeah, I can see how it would be challenging to rename Chitose, because Chitose is a pretty cool name!

That's interesting news that Cortex is being phased out. Culture Japan made such a big deal about it, and Smart Doll fans on Instagram made an even bigger deal out of it. I think maybe people were thinking Cortex would be substantially less expensive than vinyl rather than merely somewhat less expensive. Plus, the seam lines aren't to everyone's taste. Nor is "serious" model kit construction.

Thanks for posting this thread, CornflowerBlue! Smart Dolls are SUCH a big thing right now.

No problem, TrueFan!

From what Danny Choo has posted on social media and I can't find it now that I want to reference it, the cortex body proved to be more expensive to produce than the vinyl. I think it was the time it took to trim all the pieces and assemble them, made them a money losing proposition. He has said that they may still be used for the licensed characters.

Wow! They are all so pretty. I really like your Cocoa Mirai.

Thanks!  I'm currently very annoyed with the USPS for holding my next doll hostage.  The tracking said she was arriving Friday and she made it to the Cleveland distribution site on Thursday.  But she's been listed as in transit for the last 2 days.

Very pretty. Are the heads easy to swap?
Being in transit for 2 days... I had a package "in transit" "moving through the system" for a MONTH, going from Anaheim to Vancouver. Then across Canada to Central Nowhere here in just 4 days. So... it could be worse.

Usually once a package reaches Cleveland, its at my door the next day.  At least she finally made it. Here she is in the standard, popping out of the bag pose.

She's adorable! Congratulations on adding another recruit to your Smart Doll contingent!

Alliecat wrote:Are the heads easy to swap?

Yes, the heads pop right off. In fact, it is usually necessary to remove the heads, and often the arms, to dress the Smart Dolls.

Well doesn't she look sassy.
I hope the heads & arms are sturdy if you have to pull them apart just to change an outfit... I hate having to take off fragile Pullip hands to get a problematic sleeve on. I assume Smart Dolls are much better put together.

I'm somewhat concerned that taking them apart every time I redress them, over time, will cause them to become loose to the point the heads spin and the arms fall out. I suppose I could break out the plumbers tape and wrap the pegs if that happens. But they are very similar to an Obitsu body, just a lot bigger and the outer shell is made out of vinyl, not a hard ABS type plastic.

It does annoy me that I have all these 1/6 size Re-ment and other minis and I don't have much in their size. Danny Choo has shown a 1/6 size version, but also said it would cost nearly the same price to make. So I don't know if they'll ever make it into production, but I would happily switch to that size, provided the price was more reasonable.

I took a few photos of Unity in a Code Noir outfit.

This was a couple of weeks ago, when my Christmas tree was still up.


The outfit is called Ms. Bear, hence the ears.


Sans cape.

Very pretty - the doll and the outfit.

The brown dress over the white blouse is lovely, and I particularly like her hairstyle!

Thanks! That's her standard wig.

She looks very... serious.
Cute dress.

$5 Wood tabletop Cornhole game from Target is a great doll size! I think it will work for Dal and Pullip, too.




My Froggy had shown a cardboard version from the Dollar Tree in a recent video, which I saw at my store.  But I like that this one, being wood, is sturdier and there's cloth bean bags.

While at the Dollar Tree, I did pick up these scrunchies, including the furry one in the middle, because I thought they would make good scarves for the Smarties.  They're also stretchy enough to pull over the head, so you don't have to take it off to get it on.


I also found these ponytail holders that make great headbands.


They came in a set of 3 colors.  This was the only color I found, but a different store might have some other colors.

You’d never know they weren’t intended to be doll scarves.
The game is a perfect size for dolls; are people supposed to be able to play something that small?

I love the pic of the girls playing the toss game!

The ponytail band headbands is a good idea! Might help to keep Janie and Triv's hair out of the power tools when they're working on projects!

I really like those ponytail holders - and those are in my favorite color, of course!

Some random photos:

Pizza!


I think this is Pullip Alte's hat.


Heart


Gaia has changed her wig and eyes. She's wearing a giraffe kigurumi I made from Requiem Art Designs' pattern.

Giraffe costume is adorbs! And YAY for pizza!

Thanks!

Willa (custom by Doll Angel) is brewing up something special for Halloween!

I got a tea Challenge awhile ago and she's the perfect fall girl. I took these photos earlier in November.

She has white hearts in her eyes, that's what looks like its glowing.  She ended up with a limited selection of eyes based on what was left.


Our Japanese Maple finally donned its fall red colors.


I thought we had lost our Burning Bush along the deck to heavy snow last winter.  But a part of it survived.