Strawberry Milk Tea

Words just can not describe how much I enjoyed the Volks SD Workshopand Reception. The event was so full of surprises that I am in awe of Volks. I arrived early to the Doubletree Hotel to find the Volks staff manning a table near the entrance and a group of dolls on a round table in the lobby. I set Sebastian (my Williams) and Mai (my Toppi) on the table and took a few photos before I ate my bento from Mitsuwa (it wasyummy!) It was great to see Mikey again and to finally meet Cassiel, the original creater of the "walking guide to Volks" who is now the translator for Volks and still very, very enthusiastic about this hobby.

Dolls invade the lobby!

Finally, after socializing with everyone, we filed into the room and after a brief introduction to how the class would be run we began. Half of the class was instructed by Mr Ota, the head of the factory where all our Super Dollfie are born. The other half was taught by Mikey, daughter of company president Mr Shigeta and creator of the Tokyo Boys storyline. My group was assigned to Mikey, who had Volks USA doll advisor Bailey to help her with any difficult English or explanations. She was very patient and clear in her explanations. I have done several face ups and have a good, not great, handle on face ups. But I still learned so much from her.

Mikey explains

We all were concentrating so hard in our work, that my group was actually silent for once. Even Volks USA manager Kayo-san commented on our silence as my group tends to be very energetic inside Volks. Mikey even noticed that I like to do detailed work, which can be my downfall as I sometimes tend to focus on the details rather than the work as awhole.

And all too soon, the class portion was done and it was time for the reception. The room grew more crowded as the reception only attendees filed in. I felt bad as we were not able to reserve a spot on our table for Mr Postman but he was pre-occupied with photographing the event. The snacks provided were actually rather substantial-crackers, cheese,fruit, cookies, and brownies.

Mikey read a beautiful letter from her father (who was not able to attend because the Volks staff was busy with the opening of the newVolks headquarters in Japan). I loved how during the cooling fall months he often thinks of Los Angeles! Then she stated how amazed she was by the vast array of limited dolls we all had! Some of these dolls she had not seen since the event they were released at. And starting with each type of doll, asked people to raise their hands and would ask each one about their dolls.

I had the only standard in the room, my Volks Megu. She was astonishedthat her head was from 2002. I loved her insights into each of thedolls in the room:

Toki was sculpted by Mr Enku

Toppi is the mascot and writer of the Volks USA blog

Choumai really likes Cristal (she brought two Cristals)

The new SD17 Williams has improved knees

It was really humorous when Kayo-san commented that Mr Postman is knownas the "Dollfie Dream King" who has 20 Dollfie Dreams at home! Mikey added that he has a counterpart in Japan. I think they need to meet at some point!

The staff from Japan was introduced-Mikey, Cassiel, Mr Ota, and SD doctor Wake (pronounced waa-keh). It was announced that the SD doctor would be tending to injured dolls and soon he had a line of "patients"to tend to. I was in awe of the array of tools he had at his disposal. Volks USA manager Kayo-san enthusiastically gave a wonderful speech praising each of her employees. Then came the big surprise-Volks would be holding a lottery for several prizes! The prize list included:

A Komame's Little Lessons Book (which I own and recommend!)

An SD Girl Outfit

An SD13 Boy Outfit

Two Super Dollfie towels

Two sets of zoukei mura eyes

One rei tenshi

Two sei tenshi

We all laid our numbered tickets in front of us and held our breaths.The first 7 prize winning numbers were called and then it was time for the rei and sei tenshi. Cassiel called out a number in Japanese first then repeated it in English-number 34. I gasped loudly as my heart began to beat out of control. I was mumbling "Oh my god! Oh my god!"over and over as I got to the front. Cassiel enthusiastically replied,"Oh my god!" to me. My hands were shaking as the box was placed in themand I posed for the photo-I really hope I don't look like a dork! My hands were still shaking as Bailey had me write my name on some Volks form and gave me the One Off Certificate and Super Dollfie shopping bag you get when you buy a doll.

My prize!

My hands were still shaking as I got back to my table and began to openthe box and put the wig on my new little rei tenshi. I passed the little angel around the table as everyone was curious. After my little win, I was no longer paying attention to the remaining two winners. We were then given copies of Volks News 26, which had been mailed out the day before in Japan so we were likely the first people to get our handson this issue. And Mikey announced the date of the NY Dolpa (June19-20) We all flipped through our copies of Volks news as Mikey explained that Volks was completing their new headquarters in Kyoto, which will have a store on the first floor. It was then that Bailey reminded us that we needed to clear the room by 4:00pm so we had very little time left to use the photo spaces.

Mai and my new rei tenshi

Quickly, the entire room swarmed to the photo spaces and began to setour dolls down. What I enjoy about Volks owners are how courteouseveryone is. No one crowded the photo spaces and everyone watched outfor each other as we snapped photos of each others dolls. It was alsowonderful to meet so many of the doll owners I know online and to finally put a face to the name.

Later that evening, we prepared a thank you gift of fancy cookies and I drew a little Thank You picture that everyone signed. redrosin took that into the store today.

Our gift basket