月曜日, 7月 29 2019
Smart Doll Cortex Gaia kits went on sale two weeks ago first at Mirai Store Tokyo and online soon after that - response has been amazing. Cortex Mirai kits went on sale yesterday at Mirai Store Tokyo and we are preparing for her release online later this week. Gaia Cortex will take a bit longer before she’s back.
It’s been great seeing folks build their own Smart Doll Cortex at long last. If you have built one then don’t forget to share photos on the product detail page! Remember that the Cortex versions of Gaia and Mirai are different from vinyl so don’t post photos to the vinyl page.
But here is the problem - while we have managed to increase production in terms of injection molding - the workflow to get the product from the runner to the current packaging is in need of improvement. Smart Doll’s are large (60cm tall / 2 feet approx) and the molds are huge too. As you know by reading the extensive article on the Smart Doll site - Cortex was not developed for the consumer to put together which is why the runner is not designed for a consumer like a Gundam or Frame Arms runner for example.
Typical kits usually have more than one gate - this is to prevent the parts from falling off the runner. But because we wanted to minimize the amount of gates (we only have one gate for each part) - the parts easily fall off the runner after molding. And then there is the frame too. The amount of wigs that we can make / eyes we can polish and faceplates that we can paint is still limited to human handcrafting but I’m working on optimizing workflow without sacrificing quality - it all just takes time to implement new workflows/technology/machinery etc. But I guess huge demand is better than no demand which forces us to adapt quickly. We need El from Stranger Things to help out.
If you are considering Cortex - remember to read the lengthy post on the Smart Doll site - its not designed for everybody and I’m not going to convince you that you need one. I actually don’t recommend the kits unless you have the utmost confidence in your modeling skills.
#smartdoll #anime #manga #doll #bjd #fashion #3dprinting #fashiondoll #modelkit #diy