And I also finally painted my Ruka!

While neither wig nor faceup turned the way I wanted to (see reference), I'm still pretty happy with how she looks.

First I was hit with the feeling of joy! Because, here she is, beautiful and smiling!

And then I got the body out of the box and even before I had her all unwrapped, I saw something that made me falter.

That was a big... sanding mark? I guess? It looked like someone slipped with a dreml, but a really big one. The slash was 1cm wide, 1.5cm long, and about... idk, 2mm deep, judging from the curve? I was already on the verge of tears at this point, because I paid $600 for this doll in Nov 2023, waited a month for the finished doll to be shipped, and then this...

But it sadly wasn't done with that.

I had thought the head looked very pink when I unboxed it. I compared it with my Minifee Jiyu, which I had just gotten out of the box, and the colour was almost identical. I was a bit worried about that, because I had ordered "classic normal", which was supposed to be a bit on the yellowish side.

Which the body was.

So I put the head on the body, and, alas... not the same colour.

It doesn't show that well on the photos, but trust me, it is an IMMENSE difference irl!

Posted it on Instagram and a few people assumed the body was casted earlier and had yellowed already, but I don't think that's the case. On one hand because the body is way too evenly the same colour to be a product of yellowing. And on the other hand because I KNOW what "new normal" skin looks like. It looks like Fairyland NS, and so I was 100% sure he had sent me the head in the wrong colour (I checked the COA and both said Classic Skin).

So at this point I WAS crying. Because, see, the slashed leg, yeah, shitty and I hate it, but I could either fix that with some more sanding or filling it with apoxy sculpt or whatever, or I could ignore it, that doll wouldn't be wearing anything short/revealing enough to see it, so I was ready to ask Bimong for a little discount maybe and then just live with this.

But the colour was really upsetting me. And I wouldn't even have complained if it had been the other way around!! I ordered this doll to be split up, body and head are supposed to be hybrided with other dolls. But I NEEDED the head in classic skin! Because I HAD this head in New Skin, prior to selling it and ordering a new one in classic skin.

And why? Because the Minifee body I originally hybrided that head with was stolen by another head, and so I put the Narae on that head's body. Which is a DFH body in "normal yellow" and therefore the colour match was BAD. So when Bimong opened this last preorder, I jumped at that opportunity to get a yellow head that I could hybrid with that body!

So... yeah. If it had been the other way round, I wouldn't have minded. (I mean, I would have minded, as I wanted a more yellow body for the head I wanted to put on as well, BUT with some rosy blush, that probably wouldn't even have been that obvious...)

Either way, I messaged Bimong and he answered pretty quickly actually!

So I was sent a doll that was supposed to go back to the factory for the defect and I will get my originally ordered head and body. Now, I can't see on the photos he sent me of the finished doll, if that was the defect one. As I said, the mismatched colours are not that obvious in photos, so I can't really see if the head matches or not, and Instagram's horrible quality sadly makes it impossible to see if the sanding mark was there...

So for now I'll wait and see if there's any update next week, and if not, I'll ask him if MY doll has to be casted first or if it is done already and just waiting to ship...

Until then:

Ellie on the old limited body from Bimong next to the new 38cm one. She looks like a giant! And then Ellie on her new body. Aaah, she looks so cute like that!