DS 168 NinaE Head

[dogfather]

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After being held by AU customs for 8 days my Fairy Alicia has finally arrived. My thanks to TDF members Playtime and Dees Man, who've provided much practical advice on how to import into AU with minimal troubles


# IMPORTING INTO AU

Originally I was going to order through the AU reseller (dsdoll.com.au). I've called and emailed them but never received any answer, so I've contacted Steve in DS and ordered through him directly at the doll's original price that is lower than the AU reseller's.

A word of advice to the fellow Aussies who're interested in purchasing a DS doll:

- unlike vendors such as RD, based on my personal experience and reading the posts from other TDF members in AU, it seems that DS has a habit of declaring the shipment's value for no more than $500 USD, and the shipment comes without commerical invoice.
- this has attracted customs' attention which leads to delay in customs clearance and alerted them to carry out physical inspection prior to release
- to avoid customs clearance delay, it may be best to request/remind DS to declare the shipment with the correct value and attach a commercial invoice prior to shipping
- overall, the following factors contributed to the delay of my imporation:
- incorrect amount of shipment value declaration
- absence of shipping invoice
- difficulties in communication in between my customs broker and vendor, which could be avoided if shipment value is correctly declared and commercial invoice attached
- human error with AU ground handler's process and paperworks, which according to my customs broker, has lead into restarting the entire customs declaration process all over again


# DS' CUSTOMER SERVICE

I communicated and ordered from Steven and he has been very helpful and patient with the many questions I've asked, including some custom requests I've made to facilitate the AU importation process. Overall I'm very happy with DS' customer service

After I've received my Alicia I've found faults on the second head I've ordered, and the doll's hanging kit doesn't fit into the head. I've communicated with DS and Steven have offered to replace the second head (in which I've sent back to him and still waiting for replacement). He'd also sent the replacement hanging kit to me within a week.


# DOLL'S OVERALL CONDITION

Though I was advised that customs was going to physically inspect the shipment, but upon receiving it there's no sign of the box having been opened by customs.

As shown in the photos, there are dark fingerprints on Alicia's left ankle and 2 deep compression marks that appears to have been left by fingernails. It seems to be the result of mishandling when placing the doll into the box.

Unlike 4wood dolls in which the body is placed in a calico-bag during shipping, DS' body is placed naked in the box packed with polyester packing materials, hence leaving many particles and dust over the body along with a few light scratches that are hardly noticable unless searching for them. A soapy body-wash is definitely needed.

Though there are some minor damages on the carton box, the doll body is tightly held in place inside the box and all of her joints came intact without being bent/disclocated/broken joints/limbs etc.


# HEAD

The silicone is soft enough that when touching the face with my fingertips it felt similar to touching human skin. Though it isn't soft enough that I could pinch her face with my thumb and index finger. The mouth can fit a finger into it but not built for oral sex.

It is a relief to find that the flesh on her ears are thick enough to hold a pair of spectacles without worrying adding too much weight onto the ears (4wood's ears are much thinner in comparison). Another relief is that the silicone is soft enough to allow the ears to fold (in short term) without damaging them, as I was originally concerned on how her elf-ears would hold when she rests her head (hence ear) on my shoulder or leaning sideways.

Comparing to the doll faces from other high-end vendors such as OI & 4wood, DS appears to pay a little less attention to details and more chance of minor defects, perhaps result of removing the head from uncleaned molds.

Also, the left-side of NinaE's lips is plain-flat, as if a chunk is missing – comparing to Nina with non-elf ears



# FINGERS

Alicia is made with bones in the fingers. Yet the fingers are so light that it feels slightly floppy, and when moving her arms her fingers would dangle slightly. Interesting note is when lightly brushing her finger nails along my forearm, I've felt a strange sensation which brought goosebumps on my skin, very similar to a RG playfully scratching me. This is possibly due to her semi-floppy finger (with internal joints) are giving very little resistance when her nails are scratching on me


# WEIGHT & SOFTNESS

Alicia is light to carry that I can easily carry her the same way one would carry a bride. It is significantly lighter than a RD Classic body, perhaps at the cost of silicone softness (I've heard that DS flesh is constructed with foam beneath the outer-layer of silicone, where RD's an inch thick of silicone above its core). While the body is soft in all the right places (tummy, arms, surrounding of thighs, nipples, calfs), it does not feels as realstically soft compared to the RD 2015 body.

Here is my comparison of body softness & weight of various dolls of various vendors:

SOFTNESS (from soft to hard)
RD Classic 2015 (at least 1” thick of silicone above its core) > DS168 2015 (lighter foam beneath silicone outer-layer) > 4wood NeoJ 2014 (thick hard core beneath thin layer of silicone flesh)

WEIGHT (from heavy to light)
RD Classic 2015 > 4Woods NeoJ 2014 > DS168 2015


# SCENT

After applying baby powder onto Alicia, she (her silicone flesh) has a scent that is similar to the chocolate-scent rubber eraser I've used in school when I was a child


# SILICONE SKIN

Alicia's skin is soft on the surface when I touched her with my figertips. Her flesh is softer than my Vienna (RD 2015) but still far different from human flesh. After fondling her flesh with applied pressure I could see her silicone (or the foam beneath it's surface silicone layer) takes a few seconds to "bounce back" to its original shape.

I also find the surface of her skin seems more prone to attracting dirt and dust compared to RD's 2015 silicone, hence regular powdering is required.

Due to the softness of the body's silicone, I wouldn't feel comfortable to use Alicia's crotch hole until I've reinforced it with mesh, as the silicone flesh in the crotch area is thin and prone to tearing. (I certainly hope that DS would eventually improve their design by mesh-reinforce their dolls' crotch hole by default)


# DOLL STAND

After hanging the doll onto the DS doll stand, I can see that the overall position of the stand has tilted slightly forward. And seeing the limited thickness of its hanger and hook, I believe it'll be best to seek alternate doll-stand/hanger solution in the long run, in fear of the doll stand would break one day and drop the doll


# TOES

Unlike the 2013 version of DS dolls, there's no bones/joints in the doll's toes, so they're floppy and cannot be posed. Though this may be a design to prevent toes-poke or snapping from carrying the doll around


# OVERALL APPEARANCE

Personally I find DS' Samantha face has a type of intellectual beauty that is unique to certain Asian college girls

DS168 is of slim body figure with lengthly limbs. Constructed with silicone that is soft in touch and relatively prone to damage, my Alicia gives me the impression of a fragile girl who's delicate to handle. Seeing her in small white dress; pale skin (L-Pink); elf ears; green eyes and light coloured hair; slim delicate bdoy; and watching her feet dangling in the air (body hanged on the doll stand), she appears to me as a fairy only missing a pair of wings above the small of her back.

[dogfather]

Thanks everyone
Unfortunately the customs is the evil we all must deal with when importing our dollies, but I guess I've had it easy compared to what happened to other fellow doll owners who've had the box opened and their doll man-handled by the "inspectors". And the moment I saw Alicia finally arrived and stood before me in her beautiful form, the frustrations in the past 8 days all gone like morning drew

One thing I haven't mentioned is that I've found a few holes about 1mm diameter along Alicia's neck and arms near the seam. Not sure if they're air bubbles but I've sealed them with silicone adhesive from the doll repair kits, to prevent water getting in during her next sponge bath

And thanks Dees Man for your tip on the wings, I'll certainly check it out

[dogfather]

Just to share the answer I got.

the mould is same. all the Nina and NinaE heads are made from same mould.
the shape is no difference.

we never change the shape, and we always send confirm pictures to our customer before shipping.

Best regards,
DS doll
John

/g'day.

Thanks heaps Sotaichou for finding that out
you sir are truly the guru of the DS forum

I've also made comparison to the NinaE photos on DS' Japanese website (Artetokio - as not all photos & models are shown on the US website) and confirmed that her lips should be full like the normal Nina's head
Anyway I've spoken to Steven from DS about this and sent it back to them
Steven said he'll check the head before shipping a replacement head back to me
so hopefully all will be ok (currently still waiting for the head to reach China)