March 14th in Japan is White Day - it is also the birthday of our Chitose Shirasawa. This year's White Day is rather special though - it's the day we release Smart Doll 006 - Chitose Shirasawa. We will be taking orders for her at 10AM JST on March 14th at shop.smartdoll.jp.
Use this website to work out what time that is in your zone.
Chitose Shirasawa Smart Doll
Folks who can make it to Mirai Store Tokyo in Gotanda can get their hands on Chitose straight away in the morning from 10AM.
The Essential Edition is a Smart Doll character with the essentials to cover up their shy bits - for the girls that would be a camisole top and panties - for the guys that would be a pair of boxer shorts. They also come with the Telescopic Stand too.
These photos are of the final product. Folks who are quick on getting through the cart will get their Chitose shipped Tuesday. Folks who are not so ninja quick may have to wait 4 weeks and if we get more orders than expected then the waiting time for shipping could be 8 weeks+. In this case I will update the shipping times on the product detail page.
Folks who want to order Chitose should pop along to shop.smartdoll.jp now and add the other items that they want for Chitose - this will save you time and hopefully mean that you are quicker than others in the queue.
Do note that all Smart Doll girls come with S bust. We do have other bust sizes (sold separately) ranging from SS to XL which can be found here.
2016/03/14 12:35 Update: Shipping time is now 4 weeks.
Chitose is the same height as all the other Smart Doll girls which is roughly 60cm tall. There are no solid plans for a smaller body in the near future.
And this is what you get with the Essential Edition - the Telescopic Stand is packed with the body.
After nearly 2 years, I have decided to change the default apparel set to an earthly brown color.
In the very near future, all Smart Doll girls will eventually be sold with this Apparel Set which consists of Culture Japan Frill T-Shirt, Corduroy Pants, Panties, Socks, Loafers and the Telescopic Stand.
Guys will get a new T-shirt and trouser design too.
Guys will get a new T-shirt and trouser design too.
Chitose looks different depending on how you place her wig and hang her hair. The wig design was challenging and went through numerous iterations before I approved the final look - for this reason you would have seen her in similar but different styles over the past few months.
The faceup (makeup) for Chitose was also challenging and went through various designs based on illustrations of her - the final one is based on work by DMYO-sensei.
We was told by the folks that make the paint masks for the face that we were the only ones who demanded tweaks and that all their other clients (my competitors) are apparently pleased with what the vendors submit.
For this reason it's important to remember that vendor quality is dictated largely by their other clients requirements which are based on either cost reductions - or low quality standards...
Rather than going for a strategy to solely aim for the current doll market, I have been making efforts to cultivate a new market for our products - so far this has been successful - I have managed to convince folks that they need a Smart Doll as part of their lifestyle and as a result 80% of our customers are first time doll owners.
However, because most of our customers are not used to dressing up dolls, the default jeans was not exactly first-time-user friendly. They look great but as they are made of denim, they are a bit thick which restricts movement - you really need to wriggle the jeans up the thighs to enable the girls to sit properly - this fixes itself over time though as the jeans start to wear down.
This is the main reason I designed these Corduroy Pants which are made of a much thinner material enabling the girls to be dressed up and sit more easier - at the same time maintaining the bell bottom look and feel that I created with the jeans.
And this is what the packaging looks like for the Apparel Set. The Essential Set will also come with that Chitose Character Card.
Default Apparel set - not sure if we can sell the T-shirt or Corduroy Pants separately any time soon.
Chitose Shirasawa illustrated by Koizumi Amane.
Chitose Shirasawa illustrated by DMYO-sensei.
If you are wondering about Chitose's Lab Coat - that should be out sometime this year but only fit SS bust. Chitose's hairclips will initially be released with the Lab Coat.
If you are wondering about Chitose's Lab Coat - that should be out sometime this year but only fit SS bust. Chitose's hairclips will initially be released with the Lab Coat.
A lot of work went into the sculpt for Chitose - working with vendors from the 3D modelling, Wax duplication and final mold was challenging. This photo shows just some of the iterations that we had to go through for each tweak made.
It takes the patience of a saint and the will of Frodo to continue to request tweaks to vendors after they submitted something they considered "done."
But the important thing is to stick to our beliefs of wanting to make excellent stuff - never give into anybody who tells you that it's good enough when you know very well that it isn't.
But the important thing is to stick to our beliefs of wanting to make excellent stuff - never give into anybody who tells you that it's good enough when you know very well that it isn't.
Chitose is kinda popular. Mirai is popular too but Chitose is always the one to sell out first - here are some folks at Culture Japan Night with their Chitose Tees.
And if you want more of Chitose - you can enjoy her as LINE stickers too.