So, once this mad Last Chance for 3DP bodies ordering Rush is over, how many of us are planning to order one of these new hybrid Makies?

I'm curious, so I'll probably try to order a girl and a boy when I get back from this Anime convention, if I don't run myself too deeply in debt while I'm there. Lol. ^_~

Hopefully it won't be like the last switch-over, and MakieLabs will be ready to make BOTH GIRL, AND BOY Makies available with the new IM bodies.

Hopefully, they will be able to devote a little more lovin' to the boys once they have things really up and rolling. Like some new outfits, or at least some better, more realistic looking pants, and some cute shirts that are made to actually fit boys first, rather than the girls.
Lol, not all of my boys are into wearing skintight t-shirts. ^_~

Heck, for that matter even my girls would prefer to have some real pants options, and some cute t-shirts that weren't quite so tight, and were just a tad bit longer through the body.

Plus maybe now they can focus on more neat accessories and cute pets for both the boys and the girls as well. ^_^

I can't speak for anyone else, but for me at least, it's all the clothes and accessories, especially the accessories, that really sells the doll!
It was that way when I was a child, that way when I was a tween, and it's still that way for me now as an adult.

Anyway, yeah I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's reviews and opinions, but I know I'm too curious to wait very long. I want to see for myself just what these new bodies are like, and how well they fit, or not, with the new 3DP heads.
<(^_^)>

I have plans of getting a boy and girl also, more to review them haha.

Great! I'm looking forward to your review, I hope you're planning on posting it here on the forum as well, or at least a link to wherever you do post it. ^_^

Also, I think purple_monkfish mentioned something about planning to order one and reviewing it too. So that will be 5 or 6 new IM hybrid Makies ordered.

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So, who else can't wait to get their hands on one?

Yes and it will also be a video review

I'll probably get one, but it won't be for a while given how much I splashed out for the end of 3Dp. But I won't be able to say no to sweet little Neré forever! I came very close to purchasing her in white last night, but I reigned it in!

I will - I have a gift card already in hand, I'm holding it as an incentive to myself. But I'm getting at least one.  (I say "at least" because I want to say "Oh, I'm only getting one more, then I'm done", but....)

I have to admit, it's a little bit sad looking on Facebook and that at all the people going "I'm never buying a Makie again!" or just giving a long list of everything they think Makie Labs "ought" to be doing for adult collectors - a lot of people seem to be taking the change really personally. And I do understand people don't like change, and that this is "taking away" something people loved, but a lot of people seem determined to hate the new Makies before they've even been seen. Me, I'm willing to give them a chance - I won't order until I've seen a review, but that's pretty typical for me.

Woah :/ some people are not taking this well at all.
As for me, I love makies and want more. I think my next Makie will be a boy. I don't find them nearly as cute as the girls and customizing them looks a lot scarier (easier to "mess up"). But for the new price, it's worth the risk of getting a lovely boy. Plus my birthday is in November so it can be my gift XD By then there should be reviews out for the new body and I can decide whether the quality is good enough for me to beging with.

Also, having the Makies be 75$ is really cool, but scary for my pockets :S these dolls are addictive and for that price I can see myself buying a new one every few months until I run out of characters that I want to makie.

From what Jen was saying,the boys might retain a 3dp torso for a bit but have im arms and legs, which will be odd.

I was planning to get a boy but I kinda feel I should order a girl to have the complete IM body till they get the boy torso  done.
That won't be till next month though, I overspent again this month and need to reign it in.

I'm anxious about the new bodies, it does upset me because I had grown to love the feel and look of the 3dp bodies, it made the dolls really really unique and special to me, but i'm going to give the im body a chance. Nobody likes change, but change is inevitable. I just hope this works out for the best for Makies Lab, and gets them those new customers they were hoping for. I'd sooner see Makies in a slightly different form than close down you know?

Yeah, you've always got the drama queens who love to take everything personally, and those people who tend to chuck the baby out along with the bath water over the least little thing.

Sure, I have some reservations about these new IM bodies, I suspect most of us do, but I'm going to keep an open mind and give them a chance as well.

Besides, the heads are still going to be 3D printed, and with more and easier access to 3D printers, who's to say that some tech savvy Makie collector, who is unhappy with the IM bodies, won't come up with and make available his own version of a 3D printed jointed body that's Makie head compatible. I mean, look at the surprising number of BJD collectors and admirers who've actually started sculpting and casting their own BJD dolls.


Mind you, I do think MakieLabs is underestimating the buying power and potential of the adult collector market, and I think in setting their sights on capturing the tweenie market, the tween girl market in particular, they are starting to overlook the fact that they already have a well established and growing consumer base in the adult collector market. A consumer base that on the whole tends to be more long term, more stable, and more product and company loyal. The same consumer base that has supported them from the beginning and helped them achieve the business level they are at today.

Personally, I think in the long term they would have greater success by catering to and marketing to the adult collector rather than trying to market specifically to Tweens. If you market your product towards and make it popular with adults, particularly young adults, then practically every tween, for that matter every pre-tween child as well, is going to want one.

Just look at first cell phones, and now smart phones, Ipods, Ipads, laptops, and tablets...... All originally marketed to and for adults and young adults, but just look at how many Tweens and even pre-Tweens now own one or more of these items. Same with BJDs, they are marketed as being for the adult collector, but as soon as they started becoming popular with the adult collectors, more and more Tweens started wanting them. Most Tweens want to be grownup, so most of them want what they perceive as adult playthings or toys.

Lol, but it's not my company, they will succeed or fail based on the choices and decisions they make.
I can only offer my ideas and suggestions, and support them by being a loyal customer,

I really hope this turns out to be a step in the right direction, or better yet, a temporary step side ways just until 3DP bodies become more economically feasible and cost effective.

To be honest, if it all blows up in their face, it's not like they can't prettymuch overnight return to 3dp bodies. The advantage of 3dp is that you can meet a demand VERY quickly, just look at the TLM stuff which they could do almost overnight. You see a demand, you work up a prototype and instead of months and months in testing and such, it can be done in a matter of days because you just keep printing and tweaking. No waiting for the prototypes to be delivered and so on. Near instant gratification.

I'm not convinced kids are the correct market to be targeting but it was always the plan I think, kids love customisable stuff after all, but at the same time cost is a huge factor in the way of most parents buying a toy for their child.
then again, American Girl is hugely expensive and still massively popular. You aren't just selling the doll, you're selling the whole experience, the accessories and so on. Once you get them hooked with one doll, it's easy for it to spiral bwhahah.

But oo man i'd love to see some customised 3dp bodies. I wish I was better at 3d modelling (I have a degree in it, hated every moment of it) because I like the idea of printing my own doll designed by me. It is costy though, the material cost alone makes printing a full 3dp doll pretty pricey on a home printer. Makie labs use a big industrial one, which I think helps to get the cost down but at home printing? My uncle ran a prototyping business with his own 3dp, even to print teeny things it wasn't cheap. The technology is still pricey and just isn't coming down as rapidly as i think a lot of people and companies assumed it would. it's still rather "novelty" to have a home printer, there's not a huge number of general every day applications at the current cost of the filament and rate of printing.

But I think you're right JRyu, as a side step till 3dp becomes cheap enough to go back to, ok. I would love to one day have the cost low enough that they could introduce a few more tweaks and such to making completely unique dolls (like body options) because that would be SUPER cool. But I think we're a few years off from such things.

While I think it's an admiral goal, and I'd love to see Makies in the hands of children everywhere, I don't believe they are the correct target market either, p_m. At least not at this point and time, not until the technology becomes less expensive. Until then,I think the primary market is still going to be the adult collectors, technophiles, customising hobbyists, etc.

AG dolls are an interesting example, there were several other small companies that came out with similar doll concepts around the same time, none of those other companies were really successful. To some degree, neither was the original company that first produced AG dolls, since they ended up selling all the product rights and concepts to one of the large toy corporations.

One of the original company's goals was to produce beautifully crafted and historically accurate scale furniture, clothing, and accessories for the dolls, to create in essence heirloom toys which could be passed down from generation to generation. Sort of a "girl" equivalent of the "boy's" scale model railroads. I suspect, as was the case with a lot of model railroads, the parents who invested the most money in AG dolls and accessories for their girls, were buying them as much for themselves as they were for their daughters. Lol, sort of adult collectors-by-proxy. ^_~

Interestingly, since the AG product line was taken over by the large toy corporation, the biggest complaint I'm seeing from adult collectors as well as collector-by-proxy parents is that the quality of some of the furniture and the accessories has gone down, while the consumer price really hasn't.

I buy a lot of the AG furniture and accessories that work, scale wise, for my main BJD Lue. Lol, I mean a lot! The boy has like three different AG beds alone!

That's a big difference between adult collectors and parents who buy expensive toys for children. Most parents will buy their daughter one, maybe two AG dolls, one or two pieces of furniture, an outfit or two, and some of the small accessory sets. They may continue to buy the odd piece of furniture, a new outfit or accessory set, as long as the child continues to play with and show an interest in the doll(s), but at some point most parents will stop buying. Either because the child seems to have lost interest, or the parent has decided the child is now too old for such things.

The adult collector may have anywhere from from one to all of the AG dolls, possibly enough AG furniture to completely furnish an AG scale house or two, and every outfit and accessory that was made for the AG doll or dolls they collect. Most importantly, they continue to buy! Release a new AG doll, new furniture, or accessory sets and if it appeals to them they will buy it.

I don't even have an AG doll, and I buy AG stuff. I'd probably buy even more, if more of it worked for Lue scale wise. Lol, I'm going to Georgia for an Anime convention, but I'll definitely be making a side trip to the Atlanta AG store while I'm there, and I'm sure I'll find several things that Lue just has to have! ;D

Wow p_m, I envy you, I wish I had more knowledge and understanding of 3D printing technology. Shoot, for that matter, I wish I had more knowledge and a better understanding of computer technology! Lol! I'd love to have the know how to design and print more androgynous 3DP bodies for my Makies.

I'm actually on the fence about buying a Makie with the IM body. One of the main points that had me drooling over these dolls for almost a year until I could afford one is the fact that the heads and bodies are made of the same material and in the same way. I really love the "grain lines" that they have.

I understand that they feel that they need to lower the price point so the parents will buy Makies for their kids. I can't argue with that. I'm trying to keep an open mind about the IM bodies but after my splurge this month it will be quite a while before I'm able to even consider buying any other doll.

I'm the same Forest, I think they've lost a certain special element this way but maybe the IM bodies won't be too strange. If they're ABS they might even feel mostly ok in comparison (my abs doll feels like he's made of bisque to my hand, it just isn't cold) I hope they feel a bit deluxey rather than like cheap generic barbie bodies.
I'm eager to test this supposed new articulation though, the 3dp bodies don't bend certain ways and will break if you try as there's no give in the nylon.
I hope they can still stand on their own, love makies for their balance.

I agree 100% with both. When I first got silva I loved that woody graininess she had even now it is very soothing to touch haha.

I'll definitely be getting some with the new body once they're out and I have cash amassed. I like the idea that I can make some lovely silky dresses and net tights for some really girly-girl or mori-girl style characters and they'll be easy to dress.
I'm a bit sad I won't be able to get any more white one's, but I'll have two white one's anyway, and the milk skintone is actually fairly pale anyway, I can paint those just fine ^.^

My mum is going to kill me, but I probably will. I tried getting all my strawberry girls before the change, and now I can have separate body accessories for my boys and girls of different colours.

I have promised myself a birthday Makie, so yes I will be getting a hybrid one. But which one I should get is to real problem! Lol. 

DollYay wrote:I have promised myself a birthday Makie, so yes I will be getting a hybrid one. But which one I should get is to real problem! Lol. 

Yeah - I have a specific character planned, buuuut... I'd like to do curly/natural hair and glasses, and the character has straightened hair and perfect eyesight. Oh, and I think it would be cool to do Tip from Home because the dolls of her are weird and not good. Oh, and I'd like a purple wig, and.... yeah. It's a problem.

I have one already chosen to be the test subject haha I just need to make a scarf and wheelchair for the darling...

I'm with JRyu. I really want a boy with better options.